Should You Be Writing Right Now? And What About the Kids? And What About a Conference This Summer?

Last updated on: June 19, 2015 at 6:53 pm By Jennifer Fitz

Kathy Schiffer reminds you that if, “I’d like to be a writer someday” applies to you, consider attending the Catholic Writers Conference this summer. It’s in metro-Chicago this year, and the location varies from year to year, so if you’re in the upper-midwest or central Canada come July 30-August 1, this is your year. Promises to be an excellent event. From the press release: Speakers at this year’s conference include authors Lisa Hendey (BOOK OF SAINTS FOR CATHOLIC MOMS), award-winning... Read more

Evangelization & Parish Time Management

Last updated on: June 19, 2015 at 6:55 pm By Jennifer Fitz

At New Evangelizers today, I take a look at how the way we manage our communal time affects our ability to evangelize. I wasn’t entirely satisfied with this post, for two reasons: Reason #1: I don’t get explicitly into evangelization. People are going to be upset about that. I start with the 101’s – if you can’t get to Mass, if confession times are impossible, if attending faith formation requires NASA-like devotion to getting the minivan launched . . .... Read more

Modesty as the Language of Mutual Respect

Last updated on: June 19, 2015 at 6:58 pm By Jennifer Fitz

“I just hate it when people tell me what to wear.” That’s the open admission of a number of women joining in the backlash against the clothing police this summer. Between my native hard-headedness and the reports of egregious abuses committed in the name of “modesty”, I’m sympathetic. As much as we try to patiently forebear and ignore when the control freaks circle, eventually one reaches a limit. One more comment about the evils of elbows and I’m going to... Read more

Three Reasons Not to Own a Gun, and a Fourth I’ll Concede

Last updated on: June 19, 2015 at 6:59 pm By Jennifer Fitz

Please recall that prudential decisions involving firearms are a matter on which Catholics are free to disagree. If I write here, in this adult-swim corner of the Catholic internet that is Patheos, on the gunlandian cultural perspective, trust me I have no illusions that I’m proclaiming the indisputable truth on faith and morals. Speculation has its time and place, and that’s what any of us writing on these topics are doing: Speculating. Today, though, I speculate very firmly on the... Read more

Did You ‘n Jesus Take a Walk Together this Weekend?

Last updated on: June 19, 2015 at 7:01 pm By Jennifer Fitz

I’ve been attending the St. Suburbans of the world for a lot of years, and one of the characteristics of sprawl-bound parishes is a lack of neighborhood in which to process. Our pastors have gamely processed around the parking lot, or around the aisles of the nave in the event of rain. This year I succumbed to temptation, having listened to the spouse practice Panis Angelicus all week, and forsook my own parish in order to do some more spiritual tourism... Read more

Religion, Reality, and What Happens in Your Brain

Last updated on: June 19, 2015 at 7:02 pm By Jennifer Fitz

Fr. Longenecker writes here on the brain research relating to religious experiences. When I first came across this line of scientific inquiry some years ago, it was a great help to me. I’m prone to doubt about all kinds of things, and this sort of research affirms the reality of the existence of God. Why? Because all our other senses correspond to real things. I’d never propose that because brain damage can alter what we see that therefore “vision” is... Read more

Quick Links – Corrections on Guns & Tuam

Last updated on: June 19, 2015 at 7:02 pm By Jennifer Fitz

Two links, unrelated, that deserve your attention: 1. The Associated Press issued a correction on its shoddy reporting on the scandal at Tuam. I will forebear from making comments about reputable journalists vs. upstart bloggers, and say only that America magazine deserves what credit it’s earned. 2. Rebecca Frech tells her gun story. Since Rebecca goes head to head with he-who-must-not-be-named, I should say right now that I’m on the record as a certified Mark P. Shea fangirl. I don’t... Read more

Fortnight for Freedom Begins Tomorrow – What Have You Been Writing?

Last updated on: June 19, 2015 at 7:03 pm By Jennifer Fitz

Over at the Catholic Writers Guild, there’s an open thread for posting your existing body of work on the topic of religious liberty: The Fortnight for Freedom begins tomorrow! We’ll be hosting several columns on that theme over the next several weeks. If you’ve written on religious liberty, please post a link here so everyone can enjoy your work! Feel free to head over to CWG and share your links. Doesn’t need to be Catholic, by the way, this is a... Read more

The Protection of the Innocent and the Decision to Kill

Last updated on: June 19, 2015 at 7:04 pm By Jennifer Fitz

Follow-up to yesterday’s post, in which I did not really answer Frank Weather’s argument against priests packing heat. His case is a strong one, and I didn’t think I had a firm opinion about it. All I thought I had to bring to the table was a set of cultural biases. On further reflection, let those cultural biases form themselves into an argument. (Whatever the Church says, that’s what I accept. But for the moment I believe this question is... Read more

Dead Priests, Dead Babies, Guns, Cars, Accidents, Guilt & Absolution

Last updated on: June 19, 2015 at 7:04 pm By Jennifer Fitz

The death of Fr. Kenneth Walker has opened back up the discussion about whether priests ought to carry firearms for self-defense. Fr. Z addressed the question back in 2013 with a firm, “I don’t have a formed opinion on this,” observing only that canon law does not prohibit and civil law ought to permit. As a resident of gunlandia, I plead inability to think objectively about these things. If I lived in a time and place where the prevailing form... Read more