There have been some fun illustrations in the past using TV characters such as the cast of Gilligan’s Island. Well here is a new one using the characters of Sponge Bob Squarepants.
Since the subject of conscience has come up a lot here is an excellent series on the subject. Fr. Denis Lemieux at the blog “Life With a German Shepherd” is doing a series on conscience as viewed via the writings of Pope Benedict XVI.
Plus you know any blog with the motto “Combatting the dictatorship of relativism, one woof at a time.” is got to be good.
Bishop Thomas J. Tobin via Rhode Island Catholic.
It seems that there’s been a resurgence of atheism recently, across the nation, and certainly here in Rhode Island. The epicenter of this godless movement, at least for the moment, is in Cranston, Rhode Island, where a fierce battle over a public high school prayer banner has pitted believers against non-believers.
With that backdrop I’ve been thinking about atheism recently, and the toll it takes on the human person, and my reflections are well-summarized in the quotation, from an anonymous source, referenced above: “Atheism is the death of hope, the suicide of the soul.”
In the title I refer to an “everyday atheist,” for here I’m thinking not so much about philosophers or scientists who adopt atheism as a hypothetical construct, although they too have a problem explaining the ultimate mysteries of life. But I’m thinking more about the person who claims to be an atheist and then tries to live without any reference to God. This is the “practical and existential atheism” which Blessed John Paul II described so well in his writings.
The life of the everyday atheist must indeed be a very sad, sterile and hopeless experience.
If you don’t believe in God, how do you explain the reason for your existence? After all, you can’t refer to a Creator, or a divine plan. If you’re not created in the image and likeness of God, as the Bible tells us, from what source do you derive your human dignity? Or are you nothing more than an accident of arbitrary biological forces? Does your life have any more value or meaning than other living creatures – even the simplest life forms that crawl in the mud or swim in the seas?
…
He goes on with some questions for atheists as to what flows from their philosophy.
I covered the subject myself with an article on Atheism and Joy.
.
At the end of Peggy Noonan’s latest column is:
An update on the furor surrounding ObamaCare and the Catholic Church. The Obama White House was surprised by the pushback but hopes it will blow over. Their thinking: The Catholics had their little eruption, letters were read from pulpits, the pundits came out, and then the pols. But life goes on, new issues arise, we’ll hunker down, it’ll go away. Meanwhile, play for time. Send David Axelod out to purr about possible new negotiations.
That would be a trap for the church. Any new talks would no doubt go past Election Day, at which time, if the president wins, he’ll be able to give the church the back of his hand.
The short-term White House strategy is to confuse and obfuscate, to spread a thick web of untruths about the decision and let opponents exhaust themselves trying to fight from under the web.
The church must be resolute and press harder. Now is the time to keep pounding—from the pulpit, in all Catholic publications and media, in statements and meetings. For how long? As long as it takes. The president and the more radical part of his base clearly thought the church was a paper tiger, a hollow shell, an entity demoralized and finished by the scandals of the past 20 years.
Now is the time for the church to show it’s alive. How?
• Educate. Unconfuse the issues. Take a different aspect of the ruling and its deeper meanings every week, and pound away.
• Reach out. This is bigger than the Catholic Church. Go to the mainline Protestant churches, evangelicals, synagogues and mosques. Plead for vocal, public and immediate support: “If the church is forced to go against its conscience, religious liberty in America is not safe. If religious liberty is not safe, you are not safe.”
• Know your people. Mr. Obama carried secular Catholics overwhelmingly in 2008. But churchgoing Catholics were evenly split, 51% to 49% for John McCain. These are the voters the president could lose by huge margins over the ruling. And he will, if they fully understand it. Such a loss could determine the 2012 outcome. He knows it, you know it. Have faith in the people in the pews. Give it to them straight, week after week, and they’ll back the church overwhelmingly. The White House is watching. Pound away.
• Call for Democratic support. Religious liberty should not be a partisan issue. Republicans have come to the fore, but it’s better for the church if Democrats do too. They’re starting to come over. Make clear from the pulpit that members of both parties are absolutely essential in this fight. “All hands on deck.”
You can win. Keep the faith. Literally: Keep it
Jennifer Fulwiler posts a list of book recommendations from many Catholic bloggers including myself. The recommendations look quite excellent having read most of them and adding to my wish list the others.
One was for a book I read last month:
Marc Barnes on Love In The Ruins, The Adventures of a Bad Catholic at a Time Near the End of the World by Walker Percy:
Because Walker Percy is the man and perhaps the most undervalued Catholic writer of our time. Because everyone needs a little existential crisis. Because Catholics need to balance every book on a Saint with a book on wonderfully pathetic sinner. Because this book will make you laugh.
I certainly agree. While I really love Walker Percy, I found this book especially hysterical.
They call themselves the Boston College Students for Dental Health (BCSDH), according to BC’s student newspaper The Heights,but openly admit they don’t care all that much about dental health.
You see, the BCSDH is made up primarily of members of other groups such as The Sons of St. Patrick, the St. Thomas More Society, and the Pro-Life club. Their group is a parody of Boston College Students for Sexual Health (BCSSH), which caused a lot of trouble last academic year (see here and here) and apparently has not quit.
According to The Heights, Michael Villafranca, founder of BCSDH and A&S ’14, said that he and other members of BCSDH were “encouraging students to throw away the condoms and take floss instead.”
Needless to say, the group of students distributing condoms was unamused.
During the distribution, Marion Halftermeyer, a member of BCSSH and A&S ’13, approached Villafranca. At that time, Halftermeyer introduced herself and asked who Villafranca was and what he and the BCSDH were doing.
The message of BCSDH, according to Villafranca, was to tell students, “Make a better decision this weekend, take some floss instead and skip the condoms.”
According to Jessika Parry, president of BCSSH and A&S ’14, the members of BCSDH were “screaming very inappropriate and disrespectful things” during their floss distribution.
“We had just gone over to introduce ourselves and to say that we felt that the way they were expressing their point of view was inappropriate and they weren’t being very respectful to us,” Parry said.
On his response to Halftermeyer, Villafranca said, “I basically told her I didn’t have time for a conversation right then because I was handing out floss, but I’d like to have the conversation at a different time.”
After the brief discussion, both groups continued to distribute their respective items.
The report said some students actually traded in their condoms for floss. Villafranca told also commented on his organization’s goals.
“The reality of BCSDH is that it’s not a group of kids that are pro-dental health. We are just honest and dedicated Catholic kids trying to live the right way and trying to encourage other kids to live that way,” Villafranca said. “We’re not teens, we’re not children anymore, we’re grown men and women, and, at a certain point, we need to make decisions about what’s right and what’s wrong.” Villafranca also explained the origins of BCSDH, saying the organization originated in September when he and his fellow members were upset that BCSSH had distributed condoms on Parent’s Weekend.
He said that he hoped distributing floss would be a funny and ironic way of beginning conversations “not just between [BCSDH] and BCSSH, but between students who walk through both groups.”
Catholic Courses is offering a free MP3 Audio Course Download at their site. You can select from any of their courses that are also available as an MP3 Download and use the coupon code “FirstCourse”.
It is quite easy to despair at the state of parish websites. They almost always seem to be an afterthought and so often seem to be stuck a decade behind in web design. As fond of tradition as we Catholics are, this does not apply to outdated web design with a geo cities look. In my own diocese I haven’t found one parish website that is even close to acceptable and actually seeing a current bulletin is very hit and miss.
We can appreciate those dear souls who are usually the ones that volunteered their time to create and update a parish site in the first place. Parishes have so many demands on them that actually paying for someone to design/maintain a parish website is understandably low on the list. Though unless somebody with some degree of web design professionalism volunteers your pretty much get what you pay for when it comes to free.
Diocesan websites are normally much better, but like all things can range in quality/functionality.
This is why I love to see things like this initiative front the Archdiocese of Boston on creating “Creating Excellent Parish Websites.”
They have a 2 hour discussion on this topic along with links to the handouts they used. The Archdiocese of Boston is a positive example of a diocese that has focused on using media including new media to communicate.
One of my favorite Catholic podcasts is the one put out by St. Irenaeus Ministries that concentrates on scripture and theology.
Today they had a bonus in their feed.
In this recording from the 2011 Rochester NY Chesterton Conference, Hilaire Belloc (played by Kevin O’Brien) takes a sweeping overview of Christian history with a look at what he conceptualized as the five major heresies.
There is also an introduction by Joseph Pearce in this episode and Kevin O’Brien as Belloc is simply great and this performance makes up most of this audio.