Surprising Stories

Most news stories today are hardly news. By this I mean that they really don't surprise, but instead only confirm what one already knows or suspects to be true. For example, let me share a few of this morning's news stories. Here are the headlines...

Security draft would force agencies to share cyber-threat information. If you've ever worked for or with the federal government, the fact that US intelligence agencies haven't been sharing such information with likely targets 11 years after the 911 attack won't surprise you. Government entities -- Congress included -- tend to be reactive, unwilling to anticipate problems. Rather than take what might be the politically unsafe path, they prefer instead to wait until they are forced to act in the midst of a full-blown crisis. This executive order from the White House will, of course, fall far short of what's needed.

Gun industry going gangbusters. Again, no surprise here. Whenever he lets his guard down, the president clearly shows he is no friend of the Second Amendment. Many Americans, concerned about possible restrictions should the president win a second term, have been visiting their local gun shops to buy handguns, shotguns, rifles and ammunition. Those of you who prefer not to own a gun, can always buy stock in the industry. The stocks of many gun manufacturers have more than doubled in value over the past four years. 

Gun Sales Booming under Obama

Unemployment drops in seven swing states. Oooh...surprise, surprise. The administration's Bureau of Labor Statistics, three weeks before the election, has suddenly presented us with the lowest unemployment rate -- 7.8% -- since the president was elected. Not addressed was the fact that the vast majority of all these "new" jobs were part-time jobs held by people still looking for full-time work. 

TSA workers at Newark face firing or suspension. This is one of those stories that generates a yawn tempered by some mild surprise. The surprise is that TSA finally got around to firing anyone. At this one airport (Newark) TSA fired 25 of its employees and suspended 19 others. That's a rather large number, don't you think? They were fired because of "improper screening of checked luggage." Let me translate this little snippet of bureaucratic speak: they were stealing items from passengers' luggage. No surprise there.

Swapping real freedom for perceived safety

Occasionally, however, I come across news items that really do surprise. How about this one:

Hunting buddies hug

Justice Kagan says Scalia is game hunting partner. In a recent interview Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, one of the most liberal members of the court, stated she was taught how to hunt birds by none other than Justice Antonin Scalia, one of the court's most conservative members. The two now plan a hunting trip to Wyoming in search of larger game. Justice Kagan said she hopes to bag an antelope. This is not a story I ever expected to read.

Vocations Boom. This is another headline one doesn't see too often these days. But it's true, and it relates to an order of Cistercian nuns near Madison, Wisconsin, the only community of Cistercian nuns in the English-speaking world. Over the past ten years this community of cloistered contemplatives has doubled in size to 20 women and they expect this growth to continue. They are building a new monastery designed to house 35 nuns. This story shouldn't have surprised me since the "boom" in religious vocations is occurring only in those orders in close communion with the Church and its magisterium. The photo below is an artist's rendering of the proposed monastery, a design based on traditional Cistercian architecture. To help defray the costs, click here.

Pope believes Christianity will rekindle in Europe. Again, this headline surprised me, although it shouldn't  have. On many occasions, and in several of his books, Pope Benedict XVI has addressed the sad state of Christianity in once-Christian Europe. And my own experience, including five trips to Europe during the past 12 years, has left me less than optimistic regarding a rekindling of Christian faith among Europeans. But Pope Benedict understands, far better than most, that ideologies always leave a void. They never fulfill. They never satisfy the deepest longing of the human heart, the desire for God. In his words, “The Gospel…is true and can therefore never wear out. In each period of history it reveals new dimensions…as it responds to the needs of the heart and mind of human beings, who can walk in this truth and so discover themselves...It is for this reason, therefore, that I am convinced there will also be a new springtime for Christianity.” We can only hope and pray he is correct. Read more here.

Joe Biden on Ash Wednesday

Bishop to Biden: No Communion in Colorado Springs Diocese. Another surprise: a bishop who teaches what the Church teaches and acts on it. Bishop Michael Sheridan of Colorado Springs has instructed Vice President Biden (a Catholic) not to present himself for Holy Communion in the Diocese of Colorado Springs when he campaigns in Colorado. As the bishop stated: "There must be no confusion in these matters...Any Catholic politicians who advocate for abortion, for illicit stem cell research or for any form of euthanasia ipso facto place themselves outside full communion with the Church and so jeopardize their salvation. Any Catholics who vote for candidates who stand for abortion, illicit stem cell research or euthanasia suffer the same fateful consequences. It is for this reason that these Catholics, whether candidates for office or those who would vote for them, may not receive Holy Communion until they have recanted their positions and been reconciled with God and the Church in the Sacrament of Penance." Read more here.

Catholic Colleges Outnumbered by Other Christian Colleges Suing HHS. This headline took me by surprise, because I truly expected more Catholic colleges to follow the University of Notre Dame's lead and join in the lawsuits challenging the HHS mandate. (See my post, Who's Suing the Obama Administration?) This hasn't happened. Instead a growing number of Protestant colleges have come aboard, to the extent that these non-Catholic Christian schools now outnumber the Catholic schools involved in the lawsuits -- a bittersweet turn of events. It's good because it destroys the administration's claim that this is strictly a Catholic issue derived from the Church's so-called anti-women teachings on contraception. And not so good because it makes one wonder why so many Catholic colleges in the country have chosen to ignore this serious threat to religious freedom. Read more here.

Peace...

New Vocations - Women Religious

We hear so much these days about the lack of vocations, particularly among women, that one might think all religious orders will soon be only a memory. For some orders this is no doubt true. But what we don't hear about very much is the remarkable growth of vocations among so many of the new religious communities.

Elizabeth Scalia, who writes occasionally for my favorite monthly, First Things, also has a blog, The Anchoress, on the FT website. In yesterday's post she provides us with a "vocation round-up" and lists one order after another, describing their growth in vocations -- orders like the Nashville Dominicans who expect 30 new postulants later this summer. Among my favorites are the Sisters of Life (Bronx, NY), who just had ten of their number profess their vows at the Basilica of St. John the Baptist in Stamford, CT. Six novices of the Sisters of Life also recently accepted the habit. The Dominican Sisters of Mary (Ann Arbor), also blessed with vocations, recently witnessed eight of their sisters make their first profession of vows. The wonderful thing about these orders, and the many others listed, is that so many of these new sisters are young women. They all deserve your prayers and your financial support.

New novices of the Sisters of Life

Although Scalia focuses on the women, she doesn't completely ignore the men and refers to the 21 men novices of the Dominican Province of St. Joseph (New York) as well as the recent ordinations of new Norbertine priests. The Norbertine Sisters (California) are also experiencing real growth in vocations.

How refreshing it is to realize that so many young Catholic women are accepting their vocations to the religious life. Oh, how we need them! Keep them all in your prayers.

Ordination of Priests and Deacons in Iraq

Despite all the violence and persecution directed toward Christians in this still unstable country, God is blessing Iraq with vocations. For example, the Chaldean Archbishop of Kirkuk ordained two priests and four permanent deacons on July 16. Just a week earlier another Chaldean priest was ordained in a northern province and a fourth will be ordained on July 23 in Mosul. This might not sound like large numbers, but when one considers the number of Chaldean Catholics in the population, these ordinations are quite significant. Indeed, when compared with some American dioceses who will have no ordinations this year, the numbers are even more impressive. And the Chaldean Catholics aren't the only ones ordaining priests in Iraq. The Syro-Catholics have also ordained several new priests in recent weeks. What a blessing for these courageous Christians who continue to suffer for God's glory. Click here to read more.

Some Other New U.S. Bishops' Websites

Every week or so I try to take a few moments to browse the primary website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) not only to keep informed about our bishops' activities and pastoral teachings, but also to check out any new initiatives. One thing that's been evident in recent years is the USCCB's increased and accelerated use of the Internet. This, of course, is in keeping with the urgings of the Holy Father to make use of all forms modern technology in support of the Church's primary mission of evangelization. Today, during my visit to their site, I noticed that the bishops (and their team of web geeks) have been particularly busy in this area, developing several new websites that are certainly worth mentioning.

Campus Ministry: Developed by the bishops' Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development, this new website is aimed at college students and campus ministers and has the specific goal of promoting Catholic social teaching on campus. After browsing the site briefly, I suspect the materials would also be applicable for use by a parish's adult education efforts and even for older high school students. It contain lots of excellent resources. The site may be found at: www.usccb.org/campus.

Vocations: The U.S. Bishops’ Secretariat of Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations initiated a new website on April 25 as a resource for the promotion of vocations to the priesthood and the consecrated life. Long overdue and aimed at both laity and clergy, the new site has two key goals:

1. To help individuals hear and respond to the call by God to the priesthood or consecrated life; and 
2. To educate all Catholics on the importance of encouraging others through prayer and activities to promote vocations. 

The site can be found at: www.ForYourVocation.org. Later this year -- probably in the fall -- a Spanish-language version of the site will be available at: www.PorTuVocacion.org.

While I haven't yet had time to do more than glance at the site, the bishops' press release claims the "Site elements include discernment resources for men and women, respectively, aids for promoting a vocation culture within the home, and a range of tools for educators, youth leaders and vocation directors including prayers, videos, best practices, lesson plans and vocation awareness programs."

It sounds like a wonderful site, especially for Catholic schools, youth programs, and other parish-based ministries that support vocations.

Marriage. While this website (For Your Marriage) has been around for a while, it has recently undergone some major changes. Not only has it been given a face-lift, with a whole new "look and feel," but it's content has also been greatly expanded. This is a wonderful site designed to support the U.S. bishops goal of strengthening marriage. Since it was first launched in 2007, it has attracted over 850,000 visitors (a lot more than this blog gets), an excellent indication of the quality of the resources it provides.

According the the bishops' press release, the revised site includes the following new features:

• Daily inspirational quotes about marriage drawn from Church documents
• A blog by Portland, Oregon, couple Josh and Stacey Noem. The Noems, who are campus ministers at the University of Portland, discuss balancing home and work and handing on the Catholic faith to their three small children. The widely-read “Sarah’s Blog” will continue as Sarah and her husband prepare for the birth of their first child.
• The Marital Virtue of the Month reflects on a particular virtue that is necessary for a holy and happy marriage.

The site is available at: www.foryourmarriage.org. And earlier this year the bishops launched a Spanish-language version of the site: www.portumatrimonio.org.

USCCB Priorities. Back in my consulting days, I made a point of telling CEOs that the folks they manage really do want to know the boss' priorities. I was always amazed at how many managers kept their true  priorities secret, as if sharing them would somehow diminish their power or authority. Fortunately, the U.S. bishops are very willing to share their priorities with their flock. Indeed, they have created a website that does just that: http://www.usccb.org/priorities/.


The site not only lists their five key priorities:

• Strengthening marriage
• Faith formation focused on sacramental practice
• Priestly and religious vocations
• Life and dignity of the human person
• Recognition of cultural diversity

...but also includes a discussion of the goals and objectives necessary to support these priorities, a timeline that addresses specific initiatives under each priority, and a video that provides a good overview.

And so...it's evident that our bishops are making all kinds of good information and useful resources available to us through the medium of the Internet. Take advantage of it and do your part in carrying out our Lord's command to proclaim, "The Kingdom of heaven is at hand."

God's peace...

The New Seminarian

My, how things have changed. When I was a mere youth back in the 50s and 60s, most of the seminarians I knew had attended special high schools (aka, "minor seminaries") prior to going on to a college seminary and then to theological studies. By the time they were ordained, they had, therefore, been in a seminary of one form or another for 12 or more years -- and even longer for those in some religious orders. It seemed to be expected that the discernment of a priestly vocation came early in life.

I can recall chatting with a Maryknoll priest when he spent a day at my Catholic high school in suburban New York on what must have been a recruiting visit, and coming away from this brief interaction with an appointment to meet with him and his superior in Manhattan the following week. I really hadn't thought much about a religious vocation, but those Maryknollers were a persuasive bunch. And, as I recall, there might have been a few freebies involved, maybe even one of those big Maryknoll daily missals. As it happened, our subsequent meeting didn't last very long, maybe an hour. Once they had a chance to dig a bit deeper into my thoughts and expectations and slightly bent pysche, they realized I was an unlikely candidate for both the priesthood and the missions. I came, they saw, and we decided to go our separate ways. Thus ended my brief testing of the priestly vocational waters. It makes you wonder, though.  Would they have been so dismissive today, or would there have been follow-up meetings, discernment weekends, mini-retreats, etc.?

In any event, vocations directly out of high school are no longer the norm and, as a result, today's seminarian is very different from his predecessor in the 1950s. If you want to see how different, you can check out the U.S. Bishops' latest report on the current class of seminarians (2010). You can download the entire report (a PDF file) by clicking here. Here are some interesting facts gleaned from the report about those being ordained to the priesthood this year:

• 92% had a full-time job at some point prior to entering the seminary
• 60% completed college and 20% had a graduate degree before pursuing the priesthood
• One-third entered the seminary while still in college
• On average they were 18 when they first considered the priesthood
• The median age is 33 (the youngest is 25, and eleven men will be 65 or older when ordained) 
• 80% come from families where both parents are Catholic
• 80% were encouraged to consider the priesthood by a priest
• 37% had a relative who is a priest or a religious
• 67% regularly prayed the Rosary and 65% participated in Eucharistic adoration before entering the seminary
• 55% have more than two siblings; 24% have five or more siblings; 38% are the eldest child in their family
• 30% were born outside the US
• 70% are Caucasian; 13% are Hispanic/Latino; 10% Asian/Pacific Islanders

There's a lot more good information in the report and it should be required reading for all parish vocation committees.

Pray for vocations to the priesthood and religious life.

Good News...and Only Good News

I thought it might be worthwhile to spread some good news and let you know that all is not bad in the world. Indeed, despite all the religious, ethnic and ideological hatred that seems to motivate so many folks these days, there are lots of good things happening. Here are a few...

Thomas Aquinas College. Our elder daughter graduated from TAC in 1993, so it's a school about which I am personally familiar. Located in beautiful Santa Paula, California, TAC is truly one of the most remarkable institutions of higher education in the country. Unlike so many nominally Catholic colleges and universities that have pretty much abandoned the Faith, TAC is unashamedly and wholeheartedly Catholic. If you want your child to receive a true liberal education and graduate as a civilized human being who understands the world and the Catholic Faith, you should consider TAC. The demanding curriculum is based on the world's "great books" so the students read, study and discuss the originals and not the watered-down pablum served up by most textbooks. I can guarantee you one thing: you won't find any over-the-hill Marxist ideologues among the faculty. I include this among my good news reports because TAC is growing and thriving and its graduates are doing remarkable things in the world and the Church.

US News & World Report in its annual college guide, America's Best Colleges 2010, ranked TAC among the best liberal arts colleges in the country. Click here to read more. And if you'd like to read a recent article (in a secular newspaper) about TAC, click here. I expect you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Thomas Aquinas College, Santa Paula, CA

ELCA Lutherans not of one mind...not by a long shot. As I mentioned in this blog a few weeks ago, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), at its main meeting in Minneapolis last month, voted to approve actively homosexual clergy and the blessing of gay marriages. As a result, a significant number of ELCA Lutherans who disagree with the vote have decided to get together to address their response. So many Lutherans registered to attend the conference that the group (Lutheran CORE) had to move it to a larger venue, a Catholic church! In the words of the group's director, "It is wonderfully ironic that Lutherans who started 500 years ago as a movement to reform the Roman Catholic Church would now return to a Catholic Church to re-form themselves." This is all good news because it shows that many of our Lutheran brothers and sisters have kept their sanity and their faith. To read an article in the Washington Times about the conference, click here. For more information on the ELCA opposition group, Lutheran CORE, click here.

We are all Evangelists... we are all missionaries. Pope Benedict, in his message for World Mission Day, affirms that all Catholics are duty bound to assist the mission ad gentes (the mission to the nations). This is especially good news because too many Catholics don't seem to believe they have a responsibility to evangelize, to spread the faith throughout their little slice of the world. Jesus, right before His Ascension, commanded His disciples to "Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." [Mt 28:19-20] This was a command aimed not only at the apostles, but at all of us. To read the Holy Father's entire message, click here.

Irish Seminarians on the Rise. Good news out of Ireland. Despite all the problems that the Church in Ireland has experienced in recent years, there has been a noticeable increase in the number of Irish seminarians. It's been a sad thing to watch the sufferings of the Church in this country that has been so strongly Catholic for so long. How wonderful that an increasing number of men are recognizing and accepting their vocations to the priesthood. Pray for the Church in Ireland. You can read more about this by clicking here.

Enough for now, I will make an effort to spread a bit of good news every week or so. I think we all need to hear it.

Blessings...