BIG C CATHOLICS

Last Friday, Pope Francis held an historic "virtual audience" organized by ABC News. In the course of proceedings, his Holiness congratulated a young, single mother of two, Rosemary Farfan for not aborting her children. After listening to her testimony, Pope Francis thanked her and acknowledged, "it’s not easy" to be a single mother. Using stark language, he described abortion as killing. Apparently, Time magazine felt the need to censor the Pontiff's words; deleting his references to killing — abortion's tragic result. These are Pope Francis' original remarks to Ms. Farfan (censored text in red): I know that people can sometimes look askance at you. But I’ll tell you one thing. You’re a brave woman because you were capable of bringing these two daughters into the world. You could have killed them inside your womb and you respected life, you respected the life you were carrying inside you and God will reward you for that and He does reward you for th

For those interested in answering charges that the Catholic Church did little or nothing in response to child sex abuse scandals involving priests,  Pope Benedict XVI and the Sexual Abuse Crisis by Gregory Erlandson and Matthew Bunson, is essential reading. Erlandson and Bunson take an unbiased look at the problem and objectively portray the Church's efforts to reform and to heal during the papacy of Pope Benedict XVI. The book makes seven essential points: The Church has always been confronted by the problem of sexual sin and failings among its clergy, and while the number of abusers has never been large, the Church has labored over the centuries to curb such abuses. Although modern Church leaders have made grievous mistakes, and the criminal acts of certain clergy have been overlooked or unaddressed in the past in too many dioceses, the Church is dedicated to redressing these wrongs and making sure that every safeguard is in place to protect children and families. Cardi

Fr. René J. Butler, M.S. Director, La Salette Shrine Enfield, NH "He has done all things well. He makes  the deaf hear and [the] mute speak." ( Click here for today’s readings ) When it comes to stories about what Jesus did, Mark’s Gospel is usually the most interesting because he gives the most detail, not leaving a lot of room to the imagination. Today’s passage is something of an exception. This has the advantage of allowing us to do some creative listening, to embroider on the text. We might embellish various parts of the story. What else did Jesus say to the man as he led him away from the crowd? Who was allowed to accompany him? Why did the evangelist record the word of healing in the original Aramaic language? Why didn’t Jesus want anyone to know what he had done? But let’s take just one example. Put yourself in the place of the man whose hearing and speech has just been restored by Jesus. Now that you can say something, do you have anything to say? Wh

True holiness does not mean a flight from the world; rather, it lies in the effort to incarnate the Gospel in everyday life, in the family, at school and at work, and in social and political involvement.  — St. John Paul II St. John Paul II: How to live Holiness 

St. Thomas, in his Summa Theologica , gives five separate proofs for the existence of God. Unlike St. Anselm's proof, which deals with concepts, Aquinas' proofs rely on empirical facts - what we can observe. In these proofs we can see the influence of Aristotle and his doctrine of the Four Causes . l. The Proof from Motion We observe motion all around us. Whatever is in motion now was at rest until moved by something else, and that by something else, and so on. But if there were an infinite series of movers, all waiting to be moved by something else, then actual motion could never have started, and there would be no motion now. But there is motion now. So there must be a First Mover which is itself unmoved. This First Mover we call God. 2. The Proof from Efficient Cause Everything in the world has its efficient cause--its maker--and that maker has its maker, and so on. The coffee table was made by the carpenter, the carpenter by his or her parents, and on and on. But

The Divine Mercy Image The Hour of Great Mercy Just as the (Divine Mercy) Image can serve as a reminder of the ocean of Divine Mercy, as well as its price, so can the daily remembrance of the Divine Mercy at the hour of Christ's death. Jesus asked Saint Faustina, and through her us, to celebrate this Hour of Great Mercy, promising tremendous graces to those who would, both for themselves and on behalf of others. At three o'clock, implore My mercy, especially for sinners; and, if only for a brief moment, immerse yourself in My Passion, particularly in My abandonment at the moment of agony. This is the hour of great mercy ... In this hour I will refuse nothing to the soul that makes a request of Me in virtue of My Passion. ( Diary, Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, Divine Mercy in My Soul (c) 1987, 1320). As often as you hear the clock strike the third hour immerse yourself completely in My mercy, adoring and glorifying it, invoke it's omnipotence for the whole world,

St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body discusses three states of man. Man before the first sin (Original Man), man after the Fall (Historical Man), our current state, and our life with God in heaven following Christ's Second Coming (Eschatological Man). Original Man  The state of original man concerns two human beings – Adam and Eve. They viewed each other with, "all the peace of the interior gaze." God walked in their midst, suggesting an intimacy with the creator we can only imagine. Adam and Eve’s lives were untouched by sin. Vice, depravity, and despair were foreign to their experience. The boundary between the state of original man and historical man is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Man was the only person in the garden. The animals were not persons. They could not till the ground or tend to the garden much less choose, contemplate, and love as human beings were called to do. Before the first sin, the entire world was a temple in which human

Plato & Aristotle the fathers of metaphysics Metaphysics Metaphysics is a traditional branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world that encompasses it... On the Transcendentals of Being  We are not just material beings, but spiritual persons with a need for meaning, purpose, and fulfillment that transcends the visible confines of this world. This longing for transcendence is a longing for truth, goodness, and beauty. Truth, goodness, and beauty are called the transcendentals of being, because they are aspects of being. Everything in existence has these transcendentals to some extent. God, of course, as the source of all truth, goodness, and beauty, has these transcendentals to an infinite degree. Oftentimes, he draws us to himself primarily through one of these transcendentals. St. Augustine, who was drawn to beauty in all its creaturely forms, found the ultimate beauty he was seeking in God, his creator, the beauty "

This is Pope Francis' prayer for next year's extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy. For more visit the Vatican's official Jubilee of Mercy website : Lord Jesus Christ, you have taught us to be merciful like the heavenly Father, and have told us that whoever sees you sees Him. Show us your face and we will be saved. Your loving gaze freed Zacchaeus and Matthew from being enslaved by money; the adulteress and Magdalene from seeking happiness only in created things; made Peter weep after his betrayal, and assured Paradise to the repentant thief. Let us hear, as if addressed to each one of us, the words that you spoke to the Samaritan woman: "If you knew the gift of God!" You are the visible face of the invisible Father, of the God who manifests his power above all by forgiveness and mercy: let the Church be your visible face in the world, its Lord risen and glorified. You willed that your ministers would also be clothed in weakne

From EWTN: In a new set of pastoral guidelines for the upcoming Holy Year of Mercy Pope Francis has made some significant moves, allowing all priests to forgive the sin of abortion and granting SSPX priests the faculty to forgive sins. "One of the serious problems of our time is clearly the changed relationship with respect to life," the Pope said in a Sept. 1 letter addressed to Archbishop Rino Fisichela, President of the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization, charged with organizing the Jubilee. In today’s society "a widespread and insensitive mentality" has become an obstacle to welcoming new life, with many who don’t fully understand the deep harm done by the "tragedy of abortion," he said. However, Francis also noted that there are many women who, despite thinking abortion is wrong, feel that they have no other choice. "I am well aware of the pressure that has led them to this decision. I know that it is an existential and