Guest blogger Norman Anderson is married to Marjorie and is a Catholic father of high schoolers Kevin, Marybelle and Hazel. He works as a claims adjuster at Skinner’s Insurance Incorporated. He attends St Martha’s Catholic Church in Adam’s Falls, North Carolina. Norman is a suburban hermit. Jeannine at the office said yesterday that I had the death wish, and I haven’t really been able to get it out of my mind since. Strange that she should say that since I... Read more
Someone has joked, “In Central America it’s not really a valid Mass unless there is a dog present.” I was therefore amused to see that at one of the Pope’s liturgies in Brazil a stray dog wandered onto the stage. For five years I took some American high school kids to El Salvador on a mission trip. The Catholicism I experienced there helps me admire and understand Pope Francis. Sometimes there were dogs at the liturgy. Sometimes there were madmen and... Read more
Some years ago I watched an amazing reality TV show. The producers took five men to the Gulf coast of Central America and they had to trek across the jungle to the Pacific coast. What made it interesting is that all five suffered from a disability. A big African American fellow was in a wheelchair–having lost the use of his legs through polio. One man was blind. Another was deaf. The fourth suffered from chronic depression. The last had learning... Read more
…or call me Catholic. One of my life slogans is the dictum by F.D.Maurce that “A man is most often right in what he affirms and wrong in what he denies.” I realize that my own prejudices and background incline me towards what seems to be a more conservative viewpoint, but I reject the title and kick against the walls of any box I’m put into. So here is what I affirm: I am an Evangelical because I believe the... Read more
In working out some theory with our new parish Director of Religious Education we’ve been looking at the various resources for catechesis and it seems that they fall into two extremes which might be called Doggies and Dogma. By “Doggies” I mean puppies and kittens. Sugar and spice and everything nice. The books are full of charming pictures. They are well laid out and attractive. They have great activities and the emphasis seems to be on the encounter with Christ,... Read more
Brandon Vogt has posted this neat video which explains the cosmological proof for God’s existence. Remember his very excellent website Strange Notions has lots of resources, info, papers and arguments against atheism. You can also visit William Lane Craig’s excellent site Reasonable Faith Visit and learn! Read more
The new dean of Washington’s National Cathedral identifies himself here as a “non theistic Christian.” I came across some of these agnostic or atheist priests while I was an Anglican. I remember one of them preaching this long winded sermon comparing his own agnosticism to the dark night of the soul. The problem I have is that I can see their point. If religion is no more than being good, why have a God? Why is God necessary? If you’ve... Read more
Those who complain that the mainstream media doesn’t report on church matters should stop complaining….or should they? CBS, CNN, the BBC and the Daily Telegraph all report on the Pope’s conversation with reporters on his flight back to Rome. All have the screaming headline, “Pope Francis: Who Am I to Judge Gays?” One of the articles has the subtitle, “Pope answers questions on the possibilities of gay and women priests”….as if there were such possibilities. In fact Pope Francis spoke... Read more
In my own journey from Protestant fundamentalism to the Catholic Church the dogma of the Immaculate Conception was a stumbling block. I understood the doctrine–that the Blessed Virgin Mary was conceived in the natural way, but by direct action of God was preserved from the stain of original sin. I also understood the reasoning for it and the dogma’s fittingness, but I didn’t see the necessity and didn’t much like the seemingly arbitrary nature of God’s intervention in the world.... Read more
Back in April I began a series on What’s Killing American Catholicism. The first post was on Cultural Catholicism and I argued that this was countered by Comprehensive Catholicism–a Catholic faith that is truly universal and transcends all cultures and ethnicities. The second installment was on Complacent Catholicism which is countered by Compassionate Catholicism. The third post focused on Cafeteria Catholicismversus Complete Catholicism while the fourth installment was on Cut Off Catholicismwhich is countered by Continuous Catholicism. This was followed by a post on Coca Cola... Read more
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Fr. Dwight Longenecker
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