BIG C CATHOLICS

May 13th is the optional memorial of Our Lady of Fatima, the title given to the Most Blessed Virgin Mary in the apparitions which occurred between May 13th and October 13th, 1917, at Cova da Iria, near the town of Fatima, Portugal, to three poor shepherd children. Lucia de Jesus Santos and Francisco and Jacinta Marto. Our Lady told the children that she had been sent by God with an urgent message for humanity. At that time, World War I was raging, and Europe was being torn apart by violence and bloodshed. Our Lady promised that God would grant peace the world over should her call for prayer, reparation and consecration to her Immaculate Heart be honored. The Blessed Virgin emphasized to the seers and to the world at large, "If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace." However, if it were ignored and people did not cease offending God, a far worse war would befall mankind, during which innumerable souls would be lost. That conflict, World

Joseph De Veuster, the future Father Damien, was born at Tremelo in Belgium, January 3rd, 1840. His was a large family and his father was a farmer-merchant. When his oldest brother entered the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts (called 'Picpus' after the street in Paris where its Generalate was located), his father planned that Joseph should take charge of the family business. Joseph, however, decided to become a religious. At the beginning of 1859 he entered the novitiate at Louvain, in the same house as his brother. There he took the name of Damien. In 1863, his brother who was to leave for the mission in the Hawaiian Islands, became ill. Since preparations for the voyage had already been made, Damien obtained permission from the Superior General to take his brother's place. He arrived in Honolulu on March 19th, 1864, where he was ordained to the priesthood the following May 21st. He immediately devoted himself, body and soul, to the difficult service of a "count

April 29th, is the memorial of Saint Catherine of Siena (1347 – 1380), the 14th century virgin, visionary and Doctor of the Church. Catherine di Benincasa was born the twenty-fifth child of Giacomo and Lapa di Benincasa in Siena, Italy. At the age of 6, she began to experience mystical visions including seeing angels. She consecrated her virginity to Christ when she was just 7 years old. Catherine defied her family’s plans to give her away in marriage by cutting her hair short and repulsing her future husband. Catherine's mother would eventually relent. With her family’s blessing, she became a Dominican tertiary at 16, where her visions of Christ, Our Lady and the saints continued. Two years later, she would join the Dominican third order, spending her days in seclusion and prayer. By the time Catherine was 23, Christ answered her prayer to take her heart and give her His own. The Lord Jesus appeared to her holding in his hands a human heart, bright red and shining. He opened

April 8th is the optional memorial of Saint Julie Billiart. For the little girl who loved to play “school” as a child, founding a religious order dedicated to the education of the young was something that God apparently had in mind for her all along. Although her own formal education was very rudimentary, St. Julie Billiart was very well versed in the teachings of the Catholic faith, and she dedicated her life to passing them on to the generations that came after her. Marie Rose Julie Billiart was born into a family of relatively prosperous farmers in Cuvilly, France in 1751. She was the sixth of seven children and showed a great interest in things religious. By the age of 7, she had virtually memorized the catechism; one story recounts how she used to gather her playmates around her to hear their recitations, after which she would explain to them what the lessons meant. She was so gifted with spiritual understanding that her parish priest allowed her to receive her First Communio

March 11th, is the feast of Saint John Ogilvie (1579 – 1615), born in 1579, at Drum, Scotland. Walter Ogilvie was a Scottish noble who raised his son John in the state religion of Scotland, Calvinism. The Ogilvie family was partly Catholic and partly Presbyterian. John eventually converted to Catholicism at the age of 17 in Louvain, Belgium. He initially studied with the Benedictines, but joined the Jesuits in 1597, and was ordained in Paris in 1610. He was then sent to Rouen. Two French Jesuit missionaries returning from Scotland told him of the blatant persecution of Catholics there. He repeatedly requested assignment to Scotland where wholesale massacres of Catholics had taken place, but by this point the oppressors were searching more for priests than for those who attended Mass. The Jesuits were determined to minister to the oppressed Catholic laity. When captured, they were tortured for information, then hanged, drawn, and brutally quartered. Any cleric caught attending to

Clockwise from L to R: Pope Pius XI, Pope Paul VI, Pope St. John XXIII and Pope St. Pius X. The Eucharist is the Real Presence of Jesus Christ, His Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity. If not for the Incarnation, there could be no Eucharist. In the words of Servant of God Father John Hardon: "We are to believe that the Eucharist is Jesus Christ - simply, without qualification. It is God become man in the fullness of His divine nature, in the fullness of His human nature, in the fullness of His body and soul, in the fullness of everything that makes Jesus Jesus. He is in the Eucharist with His human mind and will united with the Divinity… That is what our Catholic Faith demands of us… If we believe this, we are Catholic. If we do not, we are not, no matter what people may think we are." Below are quotes on the Most Holy Eucharist, the source and summit of our Faith, from 20th century pontiffs. The faith of the Church is this: That one and identical is the Word of God an

Marriage properly understood, is the conjugal union of a man and woman for life, of exclusive and mutual fidelity, for the procreation and education of children. The dual purpose of sexual union is unitive: the bonding of spouses in greater love and intimacy, and, procreative: to collaborate freely and responsibly with God in the transmission of human life so as to be open to the blessing of children. Pope Paul VI’s seventh and last encyclical, Humanae Vitae affirms the Church’s long held prohibition against artificial contraception. Therefore, "any action which, either in anticipation of the conjugal act or in its accomplishment, or in the development of its natural consequences, proposes, whether as an end or as a means, to render procreation impossible" ( Humanae Vitae 14) is a sin against "the wise institution of the Creator to realize in mankind His design of love." Here is an excellent explanation of the Church's teaching on Contraception. Annie D

December 1st, is the feast of Saint Edmund Campion, S.J., (1540-1581) the 16th century English priest and martyr, also called "the Pope's Champion", who was one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. The most renowned of the English martyrs, Campion abandoned a promising career at Oxford, and an invitation to serve in the court of Queen Elizabeth, to enter the Catholic priesthood. He displayed heroic virtue in ministering to his fellow Catholics, despite great personal danger and widespread oppression. During the reigns of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, the Catholic Church was displaced by the Church of England. English monasteries were dissolved and Catholics were brutally persecuted and killed. Campion was born in London, the son of a bookseller near St Paul's Cathedral. He was first educated at Christ's Hospital school. In August 1553, at age 13, he was selected to make the complimentary speech for the visit of Queen Mary. He attended St John's College

October 15th, is the memorial of Saint Teresa of Ávila, (1515-1582) also called St. Teresa of Jesus, celebrating the heroic virtue of the 16th century Spanish mystic, foundress, and Doctor of the Church. Baptized Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada, she was born into a wealthy family at Ávila, Spain, the third of nine children. In her youth she was described as beautiful, precocious and marked by a spiritual acuity beyond her years. Of her initial formation and temperament, she observed: "The possession of virtuous parents who lived in the fear of God, together with those favors which I received from his Divine Majesty, might have made me good, if I had not been so very wicked." Teresa was 14 when her mother died. Overcome with grief, she asked the Virgin Mary to be her spiritual mother. Despite her pious upbringing and Godly inclination; Teresa’s interest was briefly given to superficial pursuits. Enamored with tales of chivalry, the future saint deigned to write the same

On February 20, 1971, three years after the death of Padre Pio, Pope Paul VI, speaking to the Superiors of the Capuchin Order, said of him: Look what fame he had, what a worldwide following gathered around him! But why? Perhaps because he was a philosopher? Because he was wise? Because he had resources at his disposal? Because he said Mass humbly, heard confessions from dawn to dusk and was – it is not easy to say it – one who bore the wounds of our Lord. He was a man of prayer and suffering.

July 25th marks the 48 year anniversary of the publication of Pope Paul VI's landmark encyclical Humanae vitae (Of Human Life: On the Regulation of Birth). It reaffirmed the Church's teaching on the immorality of artificial birth control, the meaning/purpose of conjugal love between husband and wife and the sanctity of marriage. The encyclical was greeted with criticism in many circles, but was applauded by others, including St. Padre Pio, who days before his death conveyed his support in a letter to Paul VI . Pope Paul VI’s seventh and last encyclical, in addition to affirming the Church’s long held prohibition against artificial contraception, articulates a vision of marriage and responsible parenthood that underscores the immense dignity and divine calling of husband and wife. Paul VI spoke of marriage as "the wise institution of the Creator to realize in mankind His design of love" (HV 8). Marriage properly understood, is the conjugal union of a man and wo

This article by Kathryn Jean Lopez, " How Birth Control Changed America for the Worse ", appeared in Crisis Magazine on March 1, 2001. The cultural references are dated, but the negative consequences of artificial birth control predicted in Pope Paul VI's Humanae Vitae have without exception come tragically true. The women featured underscore the enormous damage the pill has wrought on men, women, marriage and society. An excerpt: "Not only has birth control torn apart traditional notions of family life, but it has taken a personal toll on young women like Amanda, who learn the hard way that when sex is readily available, people have a hard time making romantic commitments. The philosopher Allan Bloom noted this phenomenon more than a decade ago in his book Love and Friendship . 'There is an appalling matter-of-factness in public speech about sex today,' he wrote. 'On television schoolchildren tell us about how they will now use condoms in their co

Each generation is converted by the saint who contradicts it most. — G.K. Chersteron Thirty-five years after Chesterton wrote these words, Pope Paul VI in the encyclical Humanae Vitae said the following:  It is to be anticipated that perhaps not everyone will easily accept this particular teaching. There is too much clamorous outcry against the voice of the Church, and this is intensified by modern means of communication. But it comes as no surprise to the Church that she, no less than her divine Founder, is destined to be a "sign of contradiction." She does not, because of this, evade the duty imposed on her of proclaiming humbly but firmly the entire moral law, both natural and evangelical. Just as our divine Founder, Jesus Christ is a "sign of contradiction" to mankind, His Church, in proclaiming the Good News to every generation, finds herself contradicting the prevailing view of the age. May we, as members of Christ's mystical Body, convert by

The following are remarks delivered by Blessed Pope Paul VI during a General Audience on November 15, 1972 . We come face to face with sin which is a perversion of human freedom and the profound cause of death because it involves detachment from God, the source of life. And then sin in its turn becomes the occasion and the effect of interference in us and our work by a dark, hostile agent, the Devil. Evil is not merely an absence of something but an active force, a living, spiritual being that is perverted and that perverts others. It is a terrible reality, mysterious and frightening.

Days before his death, Padre Pio, thinking of the Audience which the Chapter Members of his Order would have during their General Chapter, wrote a letter to Pope Paul. In it, he expressed his adherence to the Magisterium's teachings, particularly mentioning the recent encyclical, Humanae Vitae . Padre Pio expressed his obedience, devotedness and filial sharing in the anxieties of His Holiness. The full text is as follows: Your Holiness: Availing myself of Your Holiness' meeting with the Capitular Fathers, I unite myself in spirit with my Brothers, and in a spirit of faith, love and obedience to the greatness of Him whom you represent on earth, offer my respectful homage to Your August Person, humbly kneeling at Your feet. The Capuchin Order has always been among the first in their love, fidelity and reverence for the Holy See. I pray the Lord that its members remain ever thus, continuing their tradition of seriousness and religious asceticism evangelical poverty, faithf