I’ve fallen off the internet lately, and that’s because I’ve been sleeping. More on that in a bit, but I thought you might be curious. Way back when the SuperHusband first started working in junior-level management, the company sent him to a training day for junior managers. There was one of these professional presenters whose job was to tell the fresh-faced victims all the bad news about their new life, and how to get through it all without being fired... Read more
This Saturday (Sept 5th) I’ll be on Outside the Walls with Timothy Putnam talking about parish community-building, the part discipleship plays in that, and how you can go about making it happen. We’ll also be giving away a copy of Sherry Weddell’s book Forming Intentional Disciples, so listen in to find out how to put your name in the hat. So you want to be on the radio one day, too? Let me tell you the number one thing you need to do... Read more
In light of the recent Planned Parenthood videos, I’ve been thinking about a group of pro-life friends who don’t fit the Catholic categories. These are staunchly pro-life Christians who believe sex should be saved for marriage, that marriage is a lifelong, exclusive union between one man and one woman, but who take contraception as the ‘default mode’ for marital relations, and sterilization as an acceptable way to avoid pregnancy indefinitely. There are variations within that broad definition, but that’s the... Read more
CORRECTED: Kathy Schiffer graciously reminds me that Bishop Finn has asked NCR to stop calling itself Catholic. So on to the next step, then. My original post below. *** Remember when “Real Catholic TV” was told to drop the word “Catholic” from its name? Quick refresher from CNA: During its time as “Real Catholic TV,” the apostolate was told by the Archdiocese of Detroit that it did not have permission to describe itself as “Catholic.” The Roman Catholic Church’s current... Read more
KNOXVILLE – Outside of the University of Tennessee’s student center, demonstrators have gathered to stand in solidarity with a minority group facing a hostile reception from school administrators: English majors. Sophmore Laura Branson takes the megaphone and leads protesters in chanting, “A Loving Pronoun NEEDN’T / Disagree With Its ANTECEDENT!” Senior Tom Jackson holds a sign saying No Time for Panic We’ll Defeat the Lexiphanic! while he explains, “This is about inclusion. This is about genuine diversity. The administration has taken... Read more
Worth noting from the review pile: For the Union and the Catholic Church: Four Converts in the Civil War by Max Longley, McFarland & Company, 2015. So far so good. It’s a look at the civil war through the eyes of four notable Union-side Catholic converts – the first black American priest; a general and his brother a bishop; and the editor of a Catholic newspaper. Already the fight is getting good here: Nor was Rosecrans hesitant to mingle religion with antislavery... Read more
The topic of loneliness and exclusion from parish life came up recently, and I threw down the gauntlet: I don’t think most of us have a real community at our parishes. Even those who seem so busy or involved or catered to don’t necessarily have much going on in terms of genuine social and spiritual relationships. To which I propose the following quiz, to see if your parish really is your community. Not counting close family members: Do the people... Read more
The courts are back and forth on whether the current HHS rules violate the religious freedom of non-church religious employers. (You, for example, have some kind of religion or philosophical system. If you were an employer, wouldn’t you want to follow your principles, even if it was just a public car wash or a daycare you were running? You are the kind of people these cases are talking about.) Kathy Schiffer writes on the latest in the ping-pong: A federal... Read more
Thank you for keeping your clothes on. One can only take the St. Francis thing so far. Sincerely, Everyone You’ve Ever Known. St. Francis Facepalm by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (known as Guercino or Il Guercino), [Public Domain] courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Read more
The boy is headed out to spend the weekend with some family friends (adults, not teenagers). His dad, not much of a reader so if he says a book is entertaining it probably is, hands him a recent work of adventure-sci-fi to fill the downtime. What the boy digs out of the new school books box instead: The boy does not have perfect grades. He is a normal teenager with the usual spread of strengths and weaknesses. But if he’s... Read more
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