Green Bay, Wis., Aug 18, 2016 / 06:08 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In 1859, a young Belgian woman saw a bright vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary appear between two trees in one of the most unlikely places in eastern Wisconsin. This week, the Marian site has been designated a National Shrine, and is also known as the first Marian apparition site in the United States. “I am overjoyed to now share with all of you today, that the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help has received the National designation as a National Shrine from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops,” Bishop David Ricken of Green Bay stated during an Aug. 15 homily. “I am deeply thankful for the faith, devotion and unwavering commitment to all those who have been stewards and caretakers of the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help for the past several generations,” he continued. Our Lady of Good Help Shrine is fewer than 20 miles from Green Bay in Champion. It commemorates the place where the young peasant woman Adele Brise saw a vision of the Blessed Virgin and was instructed to “gather the children in this wild country and teach them what they should know for salvation.” The Virgin Mary told Brise to evangelize children through catechism and the sacraments, saying to “go and fear nothing.” By 1868, a chapel and a school were built on the apparition site. After investigations were opened to confirm the validity of the site, Bishop Ricken approved the Marian apparition in 2010, making it the first in the United States. He also announced the grounds as a diocesan shrine, where thousands of pilgrims from over 90 countries have visited over the years. “Today’s announcement is a testament and a honor to all those who have come before us. Their generous Christian spirit of warmth, hospitality, reverence and simplicity is alive in this holy place,” Bishop Ricken stated. “Each of them simply follows the deep whispers of their own faith, and in doing so, preserve and advance the shrine.” When the U.S. Bishops' conference announced that it had approved Our Lady of Good Help as a national shrine Aug. 15, Bishop Ricken celebrated Mass at the shrine with more than 1,500 people in attendance. Other celebrants included Archbishop Jerome Listecki of Milwaukee, Bishop James Powers of Superior, and priests of the Green Bay diocese. During the homily, Bishop Ricken explained the meaning of a national designation, saying national shrines must meet the specific requirements of the USCCB. There are more than 70 national shrines within the United States. To be considered a national shrine, sites are required to “nourish the spiritual lives of their pilgrims” and be easily accessible to visitors. In addition, they must also have served as diocesan shrines, operating with the approval of the diocesan bishop and in accordance with Church teachings. Bishop Ricken expressed his hopes for the future of the shrine, and was grateful for those who have showed support for the mission of Our Lady of Good Help over the years. “It is my belief that this national designation will enhance the significance of the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help, and assist in the evangelization of all those pilgrims who visit this holy site,” Bishop Ricken stated. “Praise the Lord for all the good works that are happening here at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help. I thank all of you for joining me today.” Read more

Denver, Colo., Nov 10, 2016 / 12:02 am (CNA).- He hates the way things are done these days, and church sure ain’t what it used to be. Church Curmudgeon may be one of the most cantankerous guys on Twitter, but he’s also one of the most hilarious. His complaints range from sinful dancing to boring homilies to music that’s too loud to shenanigans from the “youths” at church. While the character himself is actually Southern Baptist, it turns out grumpy old men who complain about things in church are not just reserved to one denomination. His nearly 90 thousand followers on Twitter come from all walks of life - Catholic, Evangelical, and even some atheists. First day of VBS, and I got 3 kids to rededicate themselves to staying off the lawn. — Church Curmudgeon (@ChrchCurmudgeon) June 6, 2016 We tracked down the guy behind the wisecracking angry old man staring back at you from the Twitter handle @ChrchCurmudgeon. Here’s the story behind the sass:What was the inspiration for Church Curmudgeon? Back when I was first getting on Twitter, there were a few anonymous accounts that would be parody pastors or worship leaders. And I thought why shouldn’t there be somebody like the grumpy old guy at the back of the church who complains about everything? And so I decided to be that guy. I am a music minister so I had a lot of experience with the older folks in the congregation and people who would...complain about the music and this that and the other thing, and how things used to be done, and how they aren’t done that way anymore. I thought I could add a humorous side to that.What is the value of the Church Curmudgeon in the church community in real life? Early on in my ministry, I was encouraged to get to know the seniors group at my church. I was encouraged to go to their potlucks and bible studies and get to know them as people, because they are people who have a lot more life experience and a lot more life wisdom than I did. They’ve been through wars, they’ve been through depression, children and grandchildren and building businesses and working their whole lives - they’ve had a lot of life experiences and they’ve been through much, and I can learn a lot from them. So essentially with the Church Curmudgeon, what I wanted to do was humanize them.#4picswhereiwasthehappiest pic.twitter.com/zNDo4pfdOU — Church Curmudgeon (@ChrchCurmudgeon) August 14, 2016 What made you take to Twitter? I’ve always had a wisecracking sense of humor where I like to put in my two cents. It’s gotten me in trouble in staff meetings and things, but I love to have a little wisecrack here and there, I love puns, I love wordplay and all of that, and Twitter was kind of just a really good way to scratch that itch. I could say something useful or just something funny or that brought a different light to a situation, or just kind of crack wise, and I’d get a positive response from it.What is the value of humor and satire? I like to poke fun at myself a lot through the Church Curmudgeon, because the target of his ridicule is often the music guy, and that’s me. So I get to poke fun at the way I do things. It's one thing to be at a loss for words in worship. It's another to write a song called "Jesus, I'm All, Like, Dude". — Church Curmudgeon (@ChrchCurmudgeon) February 8, 2013 I am a Baptist and I like to poke fun at Baptists. A lot of people think I’m being mean spirited at times, especially on Facebook - some people take things so seriously. But I’ve always believed that you do have to take yourself lightly. There are matters that we need to treat with a great deal of gravity, and I try to do that appropriately, but at the same time, I think that sometimes you laugh the hardest at a funeral, because you’re remembering what’s important, and you realize that there is so much joy and mirth and life that we do need to have that brought out to us, and it reminds us of great truths.Church Curmudgeon is a Southern Baptist, but much of what he says applies to Christians across the board. Why is that? I have been in lots of different evangelical churches, and so I have some broad church knowledge. I grew up Mennonite, I’ve been in Presbyterian churches, independent churches, non-denominational churches, megachurches, mini churches, I’ve experienced all kinds of church life here and there. And I’ve realized from my friendships but also from my church audience, there’s a lot of these things that apply very broadly, so it resonates. The main reason he’s Southern Baptist is because as a character - he needed something that he really was, you know? It helps to settle your character a little bit. I don’t think that limits him to speaking only to Southern Baptists, I think it just helps him be a developed character.What are some of the Curmudgeon music complaints that you hear as a music minister? It’s too loud, too many new songs, they’re too repetitive, you played that too fast or you played that too slow. There have been days when I have gotten equal and opposite complaints. But I really must say i’ve been blessed to have congregations that really love me as a person and who respond to what I do. I have had relatively little complaint in my life. I know that sometimes among worship leaders there is a tendency not to listen to people and to think that they’re there for their own artistic expression, they think that they’re there to be a rock star, and that’s not it. Their goal is to assist people in the worship of God,Is there a Church Curmudgeon complaint that you most identify with? That the music reflects the reverence of God in the congregation. It’s not just self-expression when we worship together. Worship leader's at a songwriting conference to learn how to rearrange the same seven words louder & with fewer chords. — Church Curmudgeon (@ChrchCurmudgeon) August 16, 2016 Because I think a lot of the art has gone out of musical expression.What posts have been the most popular with your followers? There have been a couple that were specifically towards Baptists. Baptists are notoriously against dancing, at least in most people’s memories. If you were a Southern Baptist, you didn’t dance, it wasn’t allowed. But probably the most popular post of all time was: “Do you know why God doesn’t let Baptists dance? Have you ever watched a Baptist dance?”#NationalDanceDay pic.twitter.com/QQKliy3dJC — Church Curmudgeon (@ChrchCurmudgeon) July 31, 2016 That and some things about how Baptists are generally very stoic in their worship, like: “The reason that Baptists have to hire a pentecostal to change the lightbulbs in the sanctuary is because otherwise they’d have to raise their hands in church.” One of my first break-out popular tweets was in the fall, when we were changing the clocks back. I made a post saying it’s Benny Hinn day, everyone fall back. He’s a Pentecostal preacher who slays everybody in the spirit and everyone in the auditorium falls over when he moves his arms around. That was one of the big days when my inbox blew up from all of the responses. I had to turn off notifications after that.Do you have a wide following across denominations? It’s interesting because there are priests and nuns who follow me, I’ve been retweeted by Rick Warren and Andy Stanley and other big name pastors. I have Methodists and Pentecostals and Presbyterians, and there’s some atheists out there who think I’m genuinely anti-Church. I’m always kind of mystified by that, because my hope is that people see that I have a genuine love for the body of Christ and for the people of the Church. I can count on two hands the number of Sundays that I have not been in church in my adult life, and I’m pushing 50, so it’s the fabric of who I am.  You’re a one-man team - do you accept contributions? I have some people who have sent me some ideas, but if they do I rewrite them in my own voice. That’s only happened a handful of times, I really have strived to do it on my own and to keep it original.When you’re not running Church Curmudgeon, what do you do? I’m a music minister, dad, and freelance musician.  Are you willing to out yourself? I’ve remained somewhat mysterious and that’s worked out well for me so far. But if people really want to do their research they can figure out who I am. I’m also working on a book about the Church Curmudgeon, so my name will be on there.  This article originally ran on CNA Aug. 18, 2016. Read more

Washington D.C., Aug 18, 2016 / 03:02 am (CNA).- As the world's eyes are on Rio de Janeiro for last days of the 2016 Summer Olympics, the topic of performance-enhancing drugs has also jumped back into the spotlight amid several high-profile controversies.   Along with the increased publicity surrounding the prevalence of drug use among athletes come questions about why “doping” or the use of such substances is wrong, and how to address a problem whose roots are almost as old as sport itself. Fr. Tad Pacholczyk, Director of Education at the National Catholic Bioethics Center, told CNA that athletes in a competition come to the starting line with a kind of equality, “in the sense that they arrive with whatever they were endowed with at birth, and whatever they may have managed to become endowed with through practice, hard work, and discipline.” “Cheating through doping involves an attempt to step outside these rules and suppositions, and play a different game,” he said. When athletes come to the starting line, they come with the supposition that they are playing on a level playing field, that no one has an unfair advantage over anyone else. Doping lets athletes pretend this is the cases, even if performance-enhancing drugs or procedures gives an unnatural athlete an edge other competitors. “In this sense, cheating through doping is wrong because it is a form of lying,” Fr. Pacholczyk added. In a competitive athletic situation, the setup and supposition is that competitors are on a par with each other, which means that no one has an “unfair” or “unjust” advantage over another going into the competition. Doping's history at the Olympic Games reaches back thousands of years, as ancient competitors would eat strange meats and body parts to gain an edge over their opponents. (Some of these practices, such as the consumption of raw animal testicles before races may not have been completely scientifically unfounded, though certainly less effective than modern doping methods.)   Artificial enhancement followed the Olympics to the reinstatement of the Modern Olympic games. Famously, in 1904, American marathon winner Thomas Hicks was given shots of strychnine – a stimulant and common rat poison – along with sips of brandy by his coach during the race. The use of performance enhancing drugs proliferated throughout the mid-Twentieth Century, as the lengths athletes took to gain an advantage became more extreme and ubiquitous. In the 1990's, after the fall of the Soviet Union, documents emerged detailing the extent of anabolic steroid and other performance-enhancing drug use by some of the the East German sports teams. Former athletes attested that they were given what they were told were “vitamins” at ages as young as eleven, with no option to refuse the substances. The use of artificial enhancements has come under increasing scrutiny since 1962, when the International Olympic Commission, or IOC, began developing a list of prohibited substances and, later, tests. In 1999, the IOC formed the World Anti-Doping Agency, a foundation dedicated to the monitoring of the use of drugs in sports and coordinate efforts to end the practice among competitors. Now, athletes are subject to routine blood and urine testing for a wide array of substances.   Some of the substances banned by WADA pose serious risks to athletes. Anabolic steroids can cause liver damage, dangerous structural changes to the heart, and abnormal physical characteristics such as breast growth in men and and hair growth in women. Stimulants, like amphetamines and ephedrine, can cause rapid muscle breakdown, high blood pressure and rapid heart rates, and are the cause of the only drug-related Olympic death, when Danish Cyclist Knud Enemark Jensen collapsed during the 1960 Games in Rome. Blood doping, or the alteration of the blood’s capacity to carry oxygen, either through drugs or blood transfusions, also carries with it significant risks. The increased blood volume thickens the blood, which in turn increases the risk of life-threatening blood clots, strokes and heart attacks. However, while these drugs can be dangerous, some of the substances banned or restricted by WADA also have legitimate therapeutic uses. Common drugs such as asthma rescue inhalers, heart medications and common over-the-counter cold medicines are all found on the list of prohibited substances for athletes at the 2016 Olympics. While some of the substances are only banned over certain limits or for certain sports, the inclusion of these substances with legitimate therapeutic uses introduces not only a plausible excuse for athletes such as Yulia Effimova – who was allowed to swim at in Rio after testing positive for the heart medication meldonium*, banned earlier this year –  but clouds the moral waters as well, says Fr. Pacholczyk. “The fact that some of the banned substances used among Olympic athletes may have legitimate therapeutic uses complicates the determination of whether steroids are being used for illegitimate purposes,” he told CNA. “In some cases, it may not be possible to distinguish such differences via standardized testing protocols,” Fr. Pacholczyk continued, adding that it may be necessary and appropriate for sport authorities to set detection levels for a drug’s use at a given limit. If an athlete passes that limit, whether or not a drug’s use was for an injury or treatment of health issue, the athlete should sit out the next competition, he suggested. “Injuries, obviously, must be properly attended to through standard treatments, even though one consequence may be that competitive athletic activities may need to cease, at least for a period.”*In July 2016, the world swimming association, FINA, ruled to allow Efimova to compete in the 2016 Rio Games despite testing positive for the heart medication, noting that it is currently unclear how long meldonium stays in a patient’s body, even after stopping its use. Read more

New York City, N.Y., Nov 10, 2016 / 06:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- It’s a bit of church news you’re not likely to have forgotten. Four years ago in the little town of Borja, Spain, there was a case of thought-to-be vandalism that turned out to... Read more

Washington D.C., Aug 17, 2016 / 05:43 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has claimed to be a defender of religious freedom. But does it match the facts? Georgetown University professor Thomas Farr has his doubts. “Anyon... Read more

Milwaukee, Wis., Aug 17, 2016 / 04:44 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- After riots last weekend in Milwaukee brought long-standing social tensions to the surface, Catholic leaders are calling for prayer first and foremost, but also action to promote justice. A pr... Read more