Twenty Catholic Church Workers Gave Their Lives in 2007

Let us remember them, pray for them, honor them: Via Catholic News Service:

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- From the war-torn lands of Iraq and Sri Lanka to violence-ridden neighborhoods around the world, at least 20 Catholic Church workers were murdered or sacrificed their lives for others in 2007, the Vatican's Fides agency said.

Each year, Fides, the news agency of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, publishes a list of pastoral workers who died violently. The 2007 list was released Dec. 29. The Fides report included a priest whose death was found most likely to be self-induced and accidental.

While Fides does not refer to the missionaries as martyrs -- technically a term reserved for those the church formally recognizes as having given their lives for the faith -- it said it was important to remember their sacrifices and to recognize that "each one of them, in a different way, contributed to the growth of the church in various parts of the world."

The list included Father Ragheed Aziz Ganni and three subdeacons who were shot outside a church in Mosul, Iraq, in June; and Father Nicholaspillai Packiyaranjith, a diocesan priest who worked with the Jesuit Refugee Service in Mannar, Sri Lanka, and was killed in September when a roadside bomb exploded as he was driving to a refugee camp.

Fides also highlighted the case of Sister Anne Thole, a member of the Franciscan Sisters of the Holy Family, who died in April trying to rescue three patients trapped in a fire in an AIDS clinic in Ratschitz, South Africa.

The Fides' list included 14 priests, the three Iraqi subdeacons, a Marist brother, Sister Thole and a seminarian from the Society of St. Paul.

Besides the four killed in Iraq, two died in Mexico, three died in the Philippines, two died in Colombia, two in Spain, two in South Africa and one each in Brazil, Guatemala, Kenya, Rwanda and Sri Lanka.

A New Year's Tradition of a Completely Colorado Kind

It is exceptionally cold in Colorado on this New Year's Eve. I-70 is still closed across the mountains (and 2,000 travelers are stranded) and Leadville is expecting -15 F temps tonight. Alamosa is expecting a low of -31 F.

I'm back in the lowlands (6700 ft) where it is only supposed to drop to -3. Weather like this creates the proper mindset to contemplate the heroic efforts of the AdAmAn Club.

Every New Year's Eve since 1922, this dauntless group has spent two days climbing Pike's Peak in the dead of winter in order to set off fireworks from the peak (14,110 feet) at midnight New Year's Eve. Moonglow, snow or 50 below. Whether those of us living at the mountain's foot can see the fireworks or not. On a clear night, the fireworks can be seen for 125 miles. Every year, they "add a man" or woman to the original "frozen five" below.



There are 88 members now although I don't know if they all will make the climb this year. Here is a detailed description of the process from a member of the AdAmAn club.

Enjoy this picture of the fireworks from 2004. And be grateful that you will be at that party or curled up by the fire with a nice Irish coffee.

Religion Stories of the Year

Apparently it all depends . . .

Time magazine's list of the top ten religion stories:

1) Mother Teresa's darkness
2) Democrats Embrace Religion
3) Death of Jerry Falwell
4) The Pope's Moto Proprio
5) The Episcopal Church at Odds Over Homosexuality (Again!)
6) The "Greening" of Evangelicalism
7) The Road of Atheist Books
8) The Trials of our local meg-church, New Life
9) The Creation Museum opens (boy, did I miss this one!)
10) South Korean Missionaries Kidnapped in Afghanistan


From the annual poll of US Catholic editors conducted by Catholic News Service, the three top stories were:

1) The debate over immigration
2) The war in Iraq
3) Developments in stem cell research

From Jim Wallis' God's Politics blog:

1) Faith & Politics: "how the conversation on faith and politics has changed in the U.S"
2) Region in Crisis: Iraq, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan
3) Israel-Palestine
4) Democratic Congress in 2008
5) Global Warming
6) Darfur
7) the Death Penalty
8) Immigration
9) Guns
10) Muslim-Christian dialog

What stories do you think should have made the list and didn't?

Why Dick Clark Owes Pope Gregory

We take for granted the TV and internet images of New Year's celebrations around the world but January 1 wasn't a truly global celebration until well into the 20th century.

The celebration of January 1 as the first day of the New Year was a Catholic innovation. January 1 became New Year's Day as a result of the adaption of the Gregorian calendar in 1582. The change had been mandated by the Council of Trent. The goal was to ensure that the Church celebrated Easter on the day that the Council of Nicea in 325 had celebrated Easter.

There is a very detailed Wikipedia article on the Gregorian reform.

Only 4 Catholic countries adopted the new calendar in 1582: Spain, Portugal, the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth, and most of Italy. "Most non-Catholic countries initially objected to adopting a Catholic invention, especially during the Counter-Reformation (of which Gregory was a leading proponent); some Protestants feared the new calendar was part of a plot to return them to the Catholic fold. In the Czech lands, Protestants resisted the calendar imposed by the Hapsburg Monarchy. In parts of Ireland, Catholic rebels until their defeat in the Nine Years' War kept the "new" Easter in defiance of the English-loyal authorities; later, Catholics practising in secret petitioned the Propaganda Fide for dispensation from observing the new calendar, as it signalled their disloyalty. [6]

Denmark, Norway and the Protestant states of Germany adopted the solar portion of the new calendar on Monday, 1 March 1700, [7] . . They finally adopted the lunar portion of the Gregorian calendar in 1776. The remaining provinces of the Dutch Republic also adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1700.

Britain and the British Empire (including the eastern part of what is now the United States) adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752 (see the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750) by which time it was necessary to correct by 11 days. After 1753, the British tax year in Britain continued to operate on the Julian calendar and began on 5 April, which was the "Old Style" new tax year of 25 March. A 12th skipped Julian leap day in 1800 changed its start to 6 April. It was not changed when a 13th Julian leap day was skipped in 1900, so the tax year in the United Kingdom still begins on 6 April.

In Alaska, the change took place when Friday, October 6, 1867 was followed again by Friday, October 18 after the US purchase of Alaska from Russia, which was still on the Julian calendar. Instead of 12 days, only 11 were skipped, and the day of the week was repeated on successive days, because the International Date Line was shifted from Alaska's eastern to western boundary along with the change to the Gregorian calendar.

In Russia the Gregorian calendar was accepted after the October Revolution (so named because it took place in October 1917 in the Julian calendar). On 24 January 1918 the Council of People's Commissars issued a Decree that Wednesday, 31 January 1918 was to be followed by Thursday, 14 February 1918.

The last country of Eastern Orthodox Europe to adopt the Gregorian calendar was Greece on Thursday, 1 March 1923, following Wednesday, 15 February 1923.

Just in time to witness that glittering ball descending in Times Square.

Christmas In Japan

This fascinating seasonal vignette from Japan comes via Asia News. Christmas has been nearly universally adopted as a national holiday in Japan as a result of US influence during the occupation after World War II. But it is an almost totally secular celebration. The three words used of Christmas are "illumination", "Santa", "presents"

But the church that is an example of a flowering oasis lies 25 kilometres from Fuchu, almost within the heart of the capital- It is the Church of St. Ignatius, run by the Jesuit fathers. For six months now the parish priest is a 70 Italian Fr. Domenico Vitali, who has spent the last 43 years in Japan. He entered the Jesuits after having read the biography of his compatriot: Fr. Matteo Ricci.

I knew that the Church of St. Ignatius is more or less the heart of Catholicism in Tokyo, but after meeting with Vitali I came to learn details that positively shocked me.

The Yotsuya quarter, where the Church lies, isn’t a residential area, but an office district. Even on working days, besides the morning masses there is midday mass and an evening mass at 6 pm: both are assiduously attended by employees from the local offices.

On the afternoon and evening of Christmas Eve, 6 masses are celebrating in order to cope with attendance.

“This year, Vitali told me; over 10.500 people took part in the celebrations: three quarters of them weren’t even Christians”. What lies behind this non-Christian affluence? Curiosity? No… All of those people were willing to withstand hours of queuing in the cold because they felt, instinctively, that Christmas is celebrated in the Church and not in restaurants or hotels.

Madonna & Child

On the 7th day of Christmas, enjoy this Nativity image from Asia News:

Cuddle Corps to the Rescue

Here's a great story from Catholic News Service about Anchorage Catholic Hospital's "cuddle core" - the group of volunteers whose job is to hold sick infants for two hours at a stretch. Parents of children hospitalized for weeks or months usually an't be at the hospital 24/7 for that long and nurses have too many other duties to supply that much attention.

"Dr. Lily Lou, medical director of the unit, is unequivocal in her praise of the Kuddle Korps.

"For any baby that can't be home with their families, it's a lifesaver," the doctor said.

Occupational therapist Carol Matthews agrees.

"There's a huge difference in the way babies act and look when they're regularly touched and held," she said, adding that studies show that being touched is necessary for the proper development and even survival of infants.

Anchorage Catholic isn't the only hospital to do this. We had a similar group of volunteers at the NICU at the hospital where I worked while finishing grad school and creating the Called & Gifted workshop. And I'm sure that there are many such corps around the country.

But If you are asking yourself where you could volunteer or make a difference in 2008, consider becoming a baby cuddler. Being pro-life doesn't get much sweeter than this

35 Million Move In and Out of the Christian faith in 2008?

Some fascinating realities to contemplate on the verge of a New Year:

First of all, religious identity is remarkably fluid: for good or ill. This is contrary to what most Catholics have assumed and has helped fuel our "don't ask, don't tell" culture. As I wrote in part 10 of my series "The Challenge of Independent Christianity"

"We tend to regard the three basic “types” of Christianity - Catholicism, Protestantism, and Orthodoxy - as essentially stable and fixed. Given the long histories and long memories of these faiths, it is only natural to think of religious affiliation as a deeply-rooted identity that changes only with difficulty and very slowly. We don’t expect to wake up tomorrow and find that Protestants have decided en masse that the Reformation was not a good idea or that the Orthodox have jettisoned their icons in favor of store-front missions. Our ecumenical dialogue is founded upon this presumed stability.

David Barrett, however, has a fascinating sidebar in his World Christian Encyclopedia indicating that a surprising amount of religious change is, in fact, the norm. As Barrett puts it, “Every year, millions of people are changing their religious profession or their Christian affiliation. Mass defections are occurring from stagnant majority religions to newer religions” (World Christian Encyclopedia, p. 5). It is imperative for us to understand that a significant part of this change is the result of personal choices, and not just natural birth and death. Evangelicals have a saying: “God has no grandchildren”.


(You can read the whole 10,000 word article on Independent Christianity beginning here)

This has been especially so in times and places where certain factors converge :ready access to new religious ideas (sometimes through evangelizers who come to you and sometimes through locals who are exposed to new ideas elsewhere and bring them home like the lay scholars who brought Christianity to Korea from China in the last 18th century) and circumstances that have prepared local people to be open.

We live in one of those times. The advent of the internet and globalization combined with the world-wide spread of new, intensely evangelizing forms of Christianity and post-modern ideas and assumptions has rendered clear, this-not-that, "steady state" religious identity a thing of the past-especially in the west but increasingly in large parts of the developing world as well. There has been some discussion around St. Blog's in the past year about the idea that a first generation, personally "chosen" faith is not as culturally rich as an inherited, historic faith that one simply absorbs from one's serenely homogenous, practicing family and community.

No doubt but that isn't the choice before us. Not in 2008.

Every serious Anglo Catholic (on the left or right) that I've ever met in this country has a sense of going against the flow of the culture - and often against the feelings of significant parts of his/her family and friends as well. The situation is not as grave among recent immigrants from strongly Catholic backgrounds but it will be for their children.

Our situation both demands and is tailor-made for the New Evangelization. Spend a few minutes at this year's end contemplating the following global statistics in light of our Lord's call to make disciples of all nations and the recent CDF Note on evangelization:

19 million people convert to Christianity every year around the world. (Conversions to all other faiths combined: about 2.5 million/year)

122,000 new Christians are baptized every 24 hours around the world.

37,000 new Catholics are added to the Church every 24 hours around the world.

This fluidity of belief and practice cuts both ways:

16.5 million Christians leave the faith every year.

In the historically Christian west, we naturally been acutely aware of those leaving.

Christianity has experienced massive losses in the Western world over the last 60 years...every year, some 2,7655,100 church attenders in Europe and North America cease to be practicing Christians within the 12-month period, an average loss of 7,500 every day.

But the global result is still a gain:

David Barrett, in his World Christian Encyclopedia, estimates a yearly global "net gain" of 2.5 million Christians or 69,000 new Christians per day.

If (as is most unlikely) 19 million non-Christians became Christian and a entirely different 16.5 million Christians left the faith in the new year, it would mean that over 35 million people moved in and out of the Christian faith in 2008 (more than the entire population of Canada!) Whatever the actual numbers are, this is clearly anything but "steady state", if-it-was-good-enough-for-mama, it's-good-enough-for-me faith.

At the beginning of the 21st century and at the end of 2007, huge numbers of people on this planet are searching, are open to something new, are spiritually hungry. Not a few exceptional souls but tens of millions.

And a few of them are living or working or hanging out around you and me.

In 2008, how can we reach out and present Christ in the midst of his Church to those who are seeking him - perhaps without knowing it, without the words to articulate what they are seeking - around us?

Christmas Season in the Rockies

Saturday's sunrise over St. Catherine of Siena's chapel at the Archdiocese of Denver's retreat center, St. Malo's. By a enthusiastic local photographer via weatherunderground.

Colorado's beauty breeds photographers like it breeds extreme outdoor enthusiasts.

Christmas Evangelization in China

A great evangelization story from China to end 2007. Via Indian Catholic:

Non-Catholic neighbors joined Catholics in Lingbi county for Christmas Eve festivities despite freezing temperatures in the poverty-stricken lowland area in eastern China.

At 8:30 p.m. on Christmas Eve, about 1,000 Catholics of Bengbu diocese and 200 guests braved a temperature of minus-seven degrees Celsius to watch a fireworks display that kicked off an almost-four-hour entertainment program ahead of midnight Mass.

Many of the guests had received help from Catholics when storms and floods affected their livelihood this year.

Snip.

During the program, Catholics gave cultural performances, sang hymns and acted in dramas portraying the story of Christ. They also staged comedies, danced and chanted. Some middle-aged Catholic men also acted as Santa Claus, provoking laughter from the crowd.

Before the program ended, the parish priest, who gave his name as Father Paul, handed each performer a souvenir. The priest also sang a song, titled Give me hope in English translation, for the audience.

The non-Catholic guests left before the start of the Christmas Vigil Mass.

Around midnight, amid music from bands, a statue of the Infant Jesus was carried into the church and placed in a manger beside the Marian grotto. The Mass ended two hours later, after which participants enjoyed a light meal of hot rice porridge with beans and cereal.

One lay Catholic told UCA News that many non-Catholic residents of the area joined the program because the Church helped them when natural disasters struck during the year. "Local villagers affected by floods were moved by the Church's concern for them," he said.

After incessant rain and floodwaters destroyed most of their crops, Catholics helped the villagers by selling them 58,000 kilograms of corn, peanuts and wheat at low prices for consumption and cultivation.

Father Paul told UCA News some of the villagers initially were suspicious of the Catholics' gesture but later expressed appreciation and even attended the Christmas celebration.

"Some even volunteered to perform in the program, and some expressed their desire to know God," he added.

"Our Church is located in an area which has very poor people," the priest noted. "Instead of using words to preach, which may not help them to understand what the Church or faith is, we did something practical for them."

The power of the corporate and spiritual works of mercy together: the Great Commandment lived in light of the Great Commission. Not either or. Both and.

The Year That Was and the Year That Will Be

2007 has been quite a year for the Catherine of Siena Institute: 78 live events in total - including 46 Called & Gifted workshops, 5 parish missions, 9 one-of-a-kind presentations; 12 gifts-related training events, and 2 Making Disciples seminars.

December 31 will mark the end of our first year of blogging here at ID. You have paid us over 90,000 visits this year. While that is nothing compared to the big boys and girls (before she cut back to spend more time writing, Amy Welborn probably had that many visitors in a month!), we're happy.

We have written our 1300 posts this year in and around those 78 events and the 500 plane flights required to get our many wonderful teachers to those events, between answering the thousands of phone calls and e-mails from all over the world, publishing and shipping out thousands of formation books and cds, and responding to hundreds of donors whose continual generosity enables us to do all the rest. Oh yeah, and then there's the continuous research and writing necessary to keep producing new lay formation resources. God has blessed and sustained us in the midst of the never ending demands.

It makes for erratic but interesting blogging and I wanted to say "thank you, thank you!" to all who have dropped by this year and especially to those of you who have commented and added to the richness of the conversation. And thanks to Fr. Mike, Kathleen, the other Sherry, Keith, Br. Matthew, Bernadette, JACK and all who have posted on ID this year.

2008 is shaping up to be even busier: so far we have 50 events on the Institute calendar and the year hasn't begun: 30 Called & Gifted workshops, 9 parish missions (Fr. Mike is the mission king!), 4 special events (including some very exceptional gigs like World Youth Day!) and 5 Making Disciples seminars.

But we are also looking forward to another year of blogging on Intentional Disciples. A Happy and Blessed New Year to you all!

The Life and Times of Benazir Bhutto

A interesting video biography of Benazir Bhutto via Al Jazeera's English language news division.



And Sir David Frost's interview with her last month about the terrible bombing which killed 158 people (and in which she herself nearly died) that marred her first day back in Pakistan in October.

Glory to God in the Highest

Back from the high country where when the sun shines, it is magnificent beyond words, (Glory to God in the HIghest, indeed) and when the sun does not shine, it's very, very cold.

But the cold and the snow have followed us "down" to 6,700 feet - the whole Front Range is expected a major winter storm today and its has begun to snow already.

Meanwhile, Benazir Bhutto has been assassinated (please pray for that extremely dangerous situation in Pakistan and the whole region) and Armenian and Orthodox priests were engaged in a brawl at the Shrine of the Nativity in Bethlehem, The same thing happened the year I spent Thanksgiving in the Holy Land. It's old news. Sigh.

The world didn't look noticeably brighter two days after Jesus' birth 2000 years ago either. But God had entered the world in a wholly new way and the work of redemption had begun in history. And we are, all of us, caught up in that great, cosmic work today - however unlikely it may seem. How can we offer ourselves today, to be used as an instrument of Christ's love?

O come, let us adore him.

There will be more blogging today as I wade through e-mails, etc.

900 Volunteers "Monitor" Santa in Colorado Springs

This is obviously not a Christian tradition but a strong local tradition in Colorado Springs on Christmas Eve.

NORAD (headquartered in Colorado Springs) has been "tracking" Santa Claus every Christmas Eve since 1955. This year 900 local volunteers will be answering phone calls and e-mails from children (as of this moment, they say that 46,000 children have contacted this this evening) and offering "updates" as to Santa's location.

Here are tonight's updates - if you or someone in your family just has to know. Word is that Santa Claus is over Caribou, Maine at this every moment. There are many "videos" of Santa over the Great Wall of China, India, Iraq, etc.

See Here where Santa meets up with the International Space Station.

Which raises the obvious question - how do we proclaim Christ when this charming, deeply embedded tradition is so dominant for so many?

Christmas Goes Global

The BBC has pictures of Christmas all over the world. Enjoy.

Snow in Bethlehem

This was posted amid fields and high mountains and great alpine valleys covered with snow in Leadville, Colorado. Few things are more stunning or awe-inspiring than a great alpine valley surrounded by towering mountains in mid-winter.

But this was written by G. K. Chesterton from my treasured "The Spirit of Christmas"

This was written amid fields of snow within a few days of Christmas. And when I last saw snow it was within a few miles of Bethlehem. The coincidence will serve as a symbol of something I have noticed all my life, although it is not very easy to sum up. It is generally the romantic thing that turns out to be the real thing under the extreme test of realism. It is the skeptical and even rational legend that turns out to be entirely legendary.

Everything I had been taught or told let me to regard snow in Bethlehem as a paradox, like snow in Egypt. Every rumour of realism, every indirect form of rationalism, every scientific opinion taken on authority and at third hand, had led me to regard the country where Christ was born solely as a semi-tropical place with nothing but palm tree and parasols.

It was only when I actually looked at it that it looked exactly like a Christmas card.

.

The House of Christmas

G. K. Chesterton, of course.

There fared a mother drive forth
Out of an inn to roam;
In the place where she was homeless
All men are at home.
The crazy stable close at hand,
With shaking timber and shifting sand,
Grew a stronger thing to abide and stand
Than the square stones of Rome.

For men are homesick in their homes,
And strangers under the sun,
And they lay their heads in a foreign land
Whenever the day is done.
Here we have battle and blazing eyes,
And chance and honour and high surprise,
But our homes are under miraculous skies
Where the yule tale was begun.

A Child in a foul stable,
Where the beasts feed and foam;
Only where He was homeless
Are you and I at home;
We have hands that fashion and heads that know,
But our hearts we lost - how long ago@
In a place no chart nor ship can show
Under the sky's dome.

This world is wild as a old wive's tale,
And strange the plain things are,
The earth is enough and the air is enough
For our wonder and our war;
But our rest is as fare as the fire-drack swings
And our peace is put in impossible things
Where clashed and thundered unthinkable wings
"Round an incredible star.

To an open house in the evening
Home shall men come,
To an older place than Eden
And a taller town than Rome.
To the end of the way of the wandering star,
To the things that cannot be and that are,k
To the place where God was homeless
And all men are at home.

Good Christian Men (and Women) Rejoice!

My pastor reported to us at Mass this morning that several very remarkable - apparently miraculous - healings have occurred in our congregation in the past few days. Without identifying anyone involved, he reported that someone with 4th stage cancer had the disease suddenly vanish and another man, who was expected to die at any moment of heart disease, suddenly got better and walked out of the hospital with his family to celebrate Christmas at home.

Dickens didn't have a corner on dramatic Christmas turn-arounds. Sometimes we get a glimpse of the great river of redeeming grace flowing through this world - often through the prayers, penance, self-offering, charisms, vocations, and sacrifice of millions of ordinary people around the world - who offer themselves to God to be used as instruments of his amazing love for others.

I know that this is a very tough time of year for many of us. Our struggles, suffering, loneliness or personal and spiritual darkness seems to be in vivid contrast to the endless jolliness that our culture insists upon. And I suspect that most of us will go through at least one experience of sadness or darkness at Christmas in our earthly lives.

But how many of us have also experienced great blessing, healing, renewal, restoration, or forgiveness at Christmas? Those moments are just as real as our sad times and more real - because they point to - are the first fruits of - our ultimate destiny in Christ, that for which God created us, became man for us, died for us, rose and ascended for us.

As John Henry Newman wrote:

God intends, unless I interfere with his plan,
that I should reach that which will be my greatest happiness
He looks upon me individually,
He calls me by my name,
He knows what I can do ,
what I can best be
What is my greatest happiness
and he means to give it to me.

Sometimes in life, we progress toward that happiness like Frodo and Sam trudging, obediently in darkness through the darkness, and sometimes we are refreshed with stays in Rivendell or Lothlorien. But all the while, a relentless work of redemption is taking place in us, through us, around us, for us - and sometimes we are given glimpses of the joy and endless life in Love that lies before us.

Anyone else have a hopeful Advent or Christmas story to share?

Please Don't Shoot the Pianist

I'll be spending a bit of my Christmas time off on the spine of North America, in historic Leadville, Colorado at 10,200 feet high. I have blogged before about Leadville in the summer and in the spring but I've never been there in the dead of winter before. Snow. Lots of snow. And very, very cold. I will never be able to complain that I don't know what a true white Christmas is like again.

Since Leadville was the quintessential silver mining town, it has quite a past and lots of characters. Here is Oscar Wild's inimitable impression of the city at its silver boom height:

From Salt Lake City one travels over great plains of Colorado and up the Rocky Mountains, on the top of which is Leadville, the richest city in the world. . . They are miners—men working in metals, so I lectured them on the Ethics of Art. I read them passages from the autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini
and they seemed much delighted. I was reproved by my hearers for not having brought
him with me. I explained that he had been dead for some little time which elicited the enquiry ‘Who shot him?’

They afterwards took me to a dancing saloon where I saw the only rational method of art criticism I have ever come across. Over the piano was printed a notice: ‘Please do not shoot the pianist. He is doing his best.’

Impressions of America
Oscar Wilde, 1882

Tony Blair Swims the Tiber

Tony Blair has done it. He was received into the Church Friday night by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor in London.

Whispers in the Loggia covers the story:

BBC correspondent David Willey said it had been no secret in Rome that Mr Blair had been taking instruction from a Catholic priest as a prelude to conversion.

He added that the Pope was informed of Mr Blair's intentions prior to his visit to the Vatican in June 2007, shortly before he left office.

snip.

Mr Blair's ex-spokesman, Alastair Campbell, once famously told reporters "We don't do God". But reacting to news of Mr Blair's conversion, Mr Campbell said: "I can't say it surprises me at all. His faith does matter an awful lot to him.

"It's something I suspect he probably felt he couldn't do when he was prime minister and he's done it now."

According to the BBC:

A spokesman said such an "authoritative personality" choosing to join the Catholic Church "could only give rise to joy and respect".

It comes as research shows Catholic churchgoers now outnumber Anglicans for the first time since the Reformation in the UK.

(Sherry's note: That was the buzz on the Catholic street 20 years ago when i lived in Britain. Guess its official. I wonder how the influx of Polish immigrants in the UK has affected this.)

Opps. Should have read to the end of the BBC piece before posting:

The numbers have swelled due to the large number of EU nationals from Eastern Europe who have immigrated to the UK in recent years, it says.

Estimates for church attendances in 2006, based on previous years' figures, reveal 861,800 Catholics attended services every Sunday compared with 852,500 Anglican worshippers.

To compare, there are about 18 million US Catholics in Mass on a given Sunday and about 750,000 Australians (out of 5 million) attend Mass once a month.

Anne Widdecomb, a convert herself, raises the obvious question which will be swirling about St. Blog's in no time:

"If you look at Tony Blair's voting record in the House of Commons, he's gone against Church teaching on more than one occasion. On things, for example, like abortion," she said.

"My question would be, 'has he changed his mind on that?'"

But as someone who knows what it feels like to enter the Church just before Christmas, I can't think of a better Christmas gift. Welcome home, Mr. Blair.

O Emmanuel!

The Great Antiphon for December 23 sung by the Dominicans of Blackfriars, Oxford

O Rex Gentium

The Great Antiphon for December 22, sung by the Dominican friars of Blackfriars, Oxford.

Taking Jesus for a Ride

Here's a heartwarming little story.

It was the day AFTER Christmas at a church in San Francisco . The pastor of the church was looking at the manger scene, when he noticed that the baby Jesus figure was missing from the cradle. He immediately turned and went outside and saw a little boy with a red wagon walking down the street. And in the wagon, was the figure of the infant Jesus.

So the priest walked up to the boy and said, "Son, where did you get that little baby Jesus that's in your wagon?"

The little boy replied, "I got him from the church."

"And why did you take him?"asked the cleric.

The little boy replied, "Well, about a week before Christmas, I prayed to the little Lord Jesus. I told him if he would bring me a red wagon for Christmas, I would give him a ride around the block in it."

hat tip: Judy Kenney

The Gift of Faith

Often in our prayers of thanksgiving, we offer to God our gratitude for the gift of faith. During this Christmas season, many of us might refer to our faith as "the greatest gift of all."

While faith is a gift from God, it is often modeled for us by others. My parents never missed Mass, unless they were sick. I remember driving for an hour with them to church one Sunday when we were vacationing in Arkansas (Catholic churches weren't all that common). My mom would pray often before starting the car.

I prayed fervently at times when she was driving.

I'll never forget getting up one night to get a drink of water when I was about seven years old and glimpsing my dad on his knees at the foot of my parents' bed as he said his night time prayers.

I knew my parents were people of faith not only from their prayer, but from the way they lived.

But I have a question for you, dear readers.

How would you describe your faith? What does this great gift look like in your life? What are its characteristics and qualities? How does it impact your daily life? How would you describe the faith you hope your children have? If you aren't quite living your faith as you'd like, what is your goal? Describe how you'd like your faith to be.

One caveat: if you use the phrase, "practicing Catholic" or "active Catholic," please describe what you mean by that.

I promise to share my own response to those questions in a few days.

Hallelujah Nuns

Here's a quirky take on Handel's Hallelujah chorus from The Messiah. It's complex.



P.S. They aren't really nuns.

Called & Gifted at World Youth Day

Encouraging news for the end of this Advent day.

Clara, the Institute's Australian lay Co-Director (with Fr. Anthony Walsh, OP), e-mailed me this evening to tell us that the Institute's proposal to offer a 90 minute introduction to the Called & Gifted discernment process at World Youth Day 2008 has been approved. We don't know the specifics yet - like when or where or exactly how it will be configured but it is still exciting.

Thanks be to God, who continues to open new doors and kudos to Clara who wrote the proposal and will lead the team!

O Oriens

The Great Antiphon for December 21 sung by the Dominican friars of Blackfriars, Oxford.

Roman Colosseum Lights Up to Mark New Jersey's Decision to Abolish Death Penalty

The Roman Colosseum was lit up with gold light tonight to celebrate New Jersey's decision to abolish the death penalty and to celebrate a United Nations vote to establish a moratorium on the death penalty. The lay movement, The Community of Sant'Egidio, is one of the prime movers behind this gesture.

The Colosseum, a site of executions and gladiator contests during the Roman Empire, has emerged as a symbol in organized campaigns against capital punishment. It has received the golden treatment -- its regular lighting is white -- about 20 times since 1999.

The Advent of the Three Miracles

Tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of my entrance into the Church, as I have mentioned before on this blog. Mark Shea & I were received in front of a small group of family and friends (Catholic and Protestant) and two convert friends of our were confirmed and then five minutes later, turned around and served as our sponsors.

I have sometimes referred to that December as the "Advent of the Three MIracles". One was the miracle of getting in - without finishing RCIA, on 10 days notice - and at Christmas time. Another was the miracle of Anna.. I've told the story many times at workshops since and told it in the recording of my conversion story.

The word going around the regional trauma center where I then worked, was that an 18 month old baby girl was in our burn unit, dying from third degree burns over 90% of her body. She had been immersed in scalding water from the neck on down. Since no one was clear how it had happened, Child Protective Services had been called in and her family was not allowed to have contact.

It was one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences. I knew that death was not God's will for this little girl - and I couldn't tell you why I knew. But Mark and I scattered around town spreading the word and soon hundreds of people were praying for her.

Because of my job, I was the only one who had access to her, so every day I would enter her room for a brief visit. I was intimidated by the nurse always at her side, so I didn't have the nerve to obviously pray for her, so I just rubbed her forehead for a couple seconds with my finger. It was as though I was the little finger of the wider Body of Christ who were praying for her. I was the witness.

On my last day on the job (I was a temp) and two days before I entered the Church, I went up to visit her and her bed was empty. My first thought was "She's dead". But I had to find out what had happened. So I found the nurse on call and asked what had happened. Her response?

"Oh, she's off her morphine and IV's and she's downstairs playing."

Wow, I thought. What do I say now? "That's great! When do her skin grafts begin? "

"Oh, she won't need any skin grafts." replied the nurse.

"Not even on her legs?" I questioned - because her legs had been really bad.

"Not even on her legs." she responded firmly.

I thought frantically. Third degree burns, by definition, do not heal. The skin has been destroyed and must be replaced by grafts. No skin grafts meant that either she had been misdiagnosed originally or her skin had somehow regenerated. I thought I put my next question with considerable delicacy under the circumstances

"Isn't this a little unusual?"

"Oh yes, we're surprised, the nurse said. "Of course, we could have misdiagnosed her, but, boy, she looked charred when she came in".

I went downstairs to the department where I had been working and told my supervisor what they had told me upstairs. She was a lapsed Catholic who knew the story of this little girl and that we had been praying for her and that I was entering the Church that weekend.

She listened carefully and then said "I think we know that more than mere medicine has been at work here." Then she added wrying "Maybe we should just hire you and let you wander the halls."

She thought - and I hoped - that this was a sign that I had been given the charism of healing. I now know (after considerable discernment) that is not the case. I do believe that I was given the immense privilege of being a witness to what God will do when his people together, offer themselves and their charisms on the behalf of God's redeeming purposes for a specific person or situation. I got to witness the power of corporate intercession. And two days later, on the 4th Sunday of Advent, I become Catholic.

Today, Anna is 21 years old. I often think of her and pray for her. Where is she? Does she still suffer physically or psychologically from her ordeal? Who raised her? Does she know how God intervened in her life? What is his purpose for her life? I presume that I will never know the answer to those questions in this life - but it is enough that God knows.

You will understand why I felt a glowing sense of almost giddy joy and exultation that Christmas. Nothing comes closer to expressing how I felt on that Advent Sunday 20 years ago than the inspired scene from the 1951 Alastair Sims Christmas Carol when Ebenezer Scrooge wakes up on Christmas morning. " I'm as light as a feather, I'm as happy as an angel, I'm as merry as a school boy, as giddy as a drunken man."

Relish again Alastair Sim's portrayal of what redemption experienced feels like. A tiny foretaste of the happiness for we have all been created.

O Clavis

The Great Antiphon for December 20, sung by the Dominican brothers of Blackfriars, Oxford.

A Nun's Life

The Dominican nuns, the first branch of the Dominican family founded by St. Dominic, celebrate their 800th anniversary this year. NPR interviewed Sr. Mary Dominic, OP, and she tells a bit about her vocation - her call from God that led her to enter the cloistered Dominican community of the Monastery of the Angels, overlooking Hollywood. There, 22 nuns pray for the world, especially for Hollywood. Listen to the interview here. She has a wonderful comment or two about the importance of prayer which we in the world need to hear in this busy, busy season.

December Delights

Drove from Boulder to Colorado Springs along the foothills (avoiding I-25) yesterday. Gorgeous day, lots of snow, sunshine, and the mountains beautifully visible even from Denver (which does not always happen).

It seems most of the country is having a white Christmas. Love this weatherunderground.com picture from West Virginia:

How Are They to Believe In Him of Whom They Have Never Heard?

My time to blog is limited these days: trying to respond to e-mails and phone calls, prepare for events in January, try to organize a birthday gathering for one of my sisters next month, cards and gifts, Christmas preparations, etc. is starting to overwhelm.

But in trying to respond to one e-mail this morning, I had occasion to review Fr. Cantalemessa's first homily of Advent, 2005 for Pope Benedict and the Roman Curia - (part 1 and part 2) It is very long so I can only quote snippets.

But the whole makes a wonderful meditation for the last week of Advent and seems especially appropriate in light of the recent CDF Note on evangelization. His theme: "How Are They to Believe In Him of Whom They Have Never Heard?"

Cantalemessa starts with a great question:

A certain theological current maintains that Christ did not come for the salvation of Jews (for whom it would be enough to remain faithful to the Old Covenant), but only for the Gentiles. Another current maintains that he is not necessary either for the salvation of the Gentiles, the latter having, thanks to their religion, a direct relationship with the eternal logos, without needing to go through the incarnate word and his paschal mystery. We must ask, for whom is Christ still necessary?

And a bracing observation:

In what, in fact, do those in Europe and other places believe who define themselves "believers?" In the majority of cases, they believe in a supreme being, a creator; they believe in "the beyond."

But this is a deist faith, not yet a Christian faith. Taking into account Karl Barth's well-known distinction, the latter is religion, not yet faith. . . . In practice, Jesus Christ is absent in this type of religiosity. . . .

Suffice it to glance at the New Testament to understand how far away we are, in this case, from the original meaning of the word "faith" in the New Testament. For Paul, the faith that justifies sinners and bestows the Holy Spirit (Galatians 3:2), in other words, salvific faith, is faith in Jesus Christ, in his paschal mystery of death and resurrection. Also for John, the faith that "overcomes the world" is faith in Jesus Christ. He writes: "Who is it that overcomes the world but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?" (1 John 5:4-5).

His conclusion:

To re-evangelize the post-Christian world it is indispensable, I believe, to know the path followed by the Apostles to evangelize the pre-Christian world! The two situations have much in common. And this is what I would now like to bring to light: How was the first evangelization carried out? What way did faith in Christ follow to conquer the world?

This tradition presents two aspects, or two components: a component called "preaching," or announcement (kerygma) which proclaims what God has wrought in Jesus of Nazareth, and a component called "teaching" (didache) which presents ethical norms for correct conduct on the part of believers. . . faith as such flowers only in the presence of the kerygma, or the announcement. "How are they to believe -- writes the Apostle speaking of faith in Christ -- in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher?" Literally, "without some one who proclaims the kerygma" (choris keryssontos). And he concludes: "So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ" (Romans 10:17), where by "preaching" the same thing is understood, that is, the "gospel" or kerygma.

This more concrete nucleus is the exclamation: "Jesus is the Lord!" pronounced and accepted in the wonder of a "statu nascenti" faith, namely, in the very act of being born. The mystery of this word is such that it cannot be pronounced "except by the Holy Spirit" (1 Corinthians 12:3). It alone can bring one to salvation who believes in his resurrection: "because, if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved" (Romans 10:9).

"Like the wake of a ship," Charles Péguy would say, "it enlarges until it disappears and is lost, but it begins with a point that is the point of the ship itself," so -- I add -- the preaching of the Church goes enlarging itself, until it is an immense doctrinal edifice, but it begins with a point and that point is the kerygma: "Jesus is the Lord!"

Therefore that which in Jesus' preaching was the exclamation "the Kingdom of God has come!" in the preaching of the apostles is the exclamation: "Jesus is the Lord!" And yet there is no opposition, but perfect continuity between the Jesus that preaches and the Christ preached, because to say: "Jesus is the Lord!" is as if to say that in Jesus, crucified and risen, the kingdom and sovereignty of God over the world has at last been realized.

We must understand each other well so as not to fall into an unreal reconstruction of the apostolic preaching. After Pentecost, the apostles did not go around the world repeating always and only: "Jesus is the Lord!" What they did when they found themselves announcing the faith for the first time in a specific environment was, rather, to go directly to the heart of the Gospel, proclaiming two events: Jesus died -- Jesus rose, and the motive for these two events: he died "for our sins," he rose "for our justification" (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:4; Romans 4:25). Dramatizing the issue, in the Acts of the Apostles Peter does no more than repeat to those who listened to him: "You killed Jesus of Nazareth; God has resurrected him, making him Lord and Christ."[6]

The proclamation: "Jesus is the Lord!" is nothing other therefore than the conclusion -- now implicit, now explicit -- of this brief history, recounted in an always living and new way, though substantially identical, and is at the same time that in which this history is summarized and becomes operative for the one who hears it. "Christ Jesus ... emptied himself ... and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him ... that at the name of Jesus ... every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord" (Philippians 2:6-11).

We have seen that, in the beginning, the kerygma was distinguished from the teaching (didache) as well as from the catechesis. The last things tend to form the faith, or to preserve its purity, while the kerygma tends to awaken it. It has, so to speak, an explosive or germinating character; it is more like the seed that gives origin to the tree than to the ripe fruit that is at the top of the tree and that, in Christianity, is constituted rather by charity. The kerygma is not obtained at all by concentration, or by summary, as if it was the core of the tradition; but it is apart, or better, at the beginning of everything. From it all the rest is developed, including the four Gospels.

On this point an evolution was interrupted due to the general situation of the Church. In the measure that one moves to a regime of Christianity, in which everything around one is Christian, or considers itself as such, one is less aware of the importance of the initial choice by which one becomes a Christian, so much so that baptism is normally administered to children, who do not have the capacity to make it their own choice. What is most accentuated of faith is not so much the initial moment, the miracle of coming to faith, but rather the fullness and orthodoxy of the contents of faith itself.

3. Rediscover the Kerygma

This situation greatly affects evangelization today. The Churches with a strong dogmatic and theological tradition (as the Catholic Church is par excellence), run the risk of finding themselves at a disadvantage if underneath the immense patrimony of doctrine, laws and institutions, they do not find that primordial nucleus capable of awakening faith by itself.

To present oneself to the man of today, often lacking any knowledge of Christ, with the whole range of this doctrine is like putting one of those heavy brocade capes all of a sudden on the back of a child. We are more prepared by our past to be "shepherds" than to be "fishers" of men; that is, better prepared to nourish people that come to the Church then to bring new people to the Church, or to catch again those who have fallen away and live outside of her. . .

In many people, everything continues to turn, from the beginning to the end, around the first conversion, the so-called new birth, whereas for us, Catholics, this is only the beginning of Christian life. After that must come catechesis and spiritual progress, which implies self-denial, the night of faith, the cross, until the resurrection. The Catholic Church has a very rich spirituality, innumerable saints, the magisterium and, above all, the sacraments.

It is necessary, therefore, to propose the fundamental announcement clearly and sparely at least once among us, not only to the catechumens, but to all, given that the majority of today's believers have not gone through the catechumenate. The grace that some of the new ecclesial movements constitute at present for the Church consists precisely in this. They are the place where adult persons at last have the occasion to hear the kerygma, renew their own baptism, consciously choose Christ as their own personal Lord and Savior and commit themselves actively in the life of their Church.

. To Choose Jesus as Lord

We began with the question: "What place does Christ have in present-day society?" But we cannot end without asking ourselves the most important question in a context such as this: "What place does Christ occupy in my life?" Let's call to mind Jesus' dialogue with the apostles in Caesarea Philippi: "Who do men say the Son of man is? ... But who do you say I am?" (Matthew 16:13-15). The most important thing for Jesus does not seem to be what the people think of him, but what his closest disciples think of him.

I referred earlier to the objective reason that explains the importance of the proclamation of Christ as Lord in the New Testament: It makes present and operative in the one who pronounces it the salvific events that it recalls. But there is also a subjective and existential reason. To say "Jesus is the Lord!" means, in fact, to make a decision. It is as though saying: Jesus Christ is "my" Lord; I recognize his full right over me, I hand the reins of my life over to him; I do not want to live any more "for myself," but "for him who died and rose for me" (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:15).

To proclaim Jesus as one's Lord means to subject to him all the region of our being, to make the Gospel penetrate everything we do. It means, to recall a phrase of the venerated John Paul II, "to open, more than that, to open wide the doors to Christ."

For whom do we work and why do we do so? For ourselves or for Christ, for our glory or for Christ's? It is the best way this Advent to prepare a welcoming crib for Christ who comes at Christmas.

O Come, let us adore him.