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CERC WEEKLY UPDATE - December 12, 2012 NEW RESOURCES EDITORIALS OF INTEREST EDUCATION MATTERS Note from the Managing Editor:
We're pleased to be able to send the CERC Update to over 14,000 subscribers each week. As one of those subscribers, your help is needed to make this apostolate viable for another year. Please send a donation to CERC this Advent. Kindly go here to donate. And God Bless you for your support. You may have heard that the faith is dying in Europe. Those rumors are premature. There are stories and signs of extraordinary renewal coming out of Europe. One of those stories, "Michel-Marie, a Cassock in Deep Marseille," is our feature article this week. That article is reprinted from the Italian newspaper Avvenire and is the first in a series that promises to introduce readers to ". . . witnesses of the faith, known and less well-known, capable of generating evangelical astonishment in those who meet them." (By the way, that's Father Michel-Marie singing in the video at the end of the article). Archbishop Chaput has a sharp knife when it comes to getting at the truth. It's my experience that the challenging truths he tells so well are somehow always liberating; the hard things he has to say invariably generate hope. "Holy Impatience" by Archbishop Chaput is below. Then there's "The Awkwardness of Advent" by Father George Rutler, which I think you'll find to be both an education and a delightful diversion. Father James Schall, S.J. delivered "A Final Gladness," his last lecture at Georgetown University last Friday evening in Gaston Hall, which was packed with former and current students, the papal nuncio, and various other luminaries. "On Philosophical Eros" is Father Schall's latest bit of brilliance from The Catholic Thing. And please don't forget to help us with a donation. You can donate here. - J. Fraser Field This CERC Weekly Update is also available on our web site here.
Quote of the Week: "Put love where there is no love, and you will find love." - Saint John of the Cross
• Pope's head-on response to critics of Church teachings - VIS • Censorship on Campus - Wall Street Journal • Abolish Social Studies - City Journal • Can Digital Learning Transform Education? - Education Next • An Unexpected Journey: Hobbits in the Heartland - New York Times • I, Pencil: The Movie - Youtube • Religion in public schools: America is religious, but also illiterate of religion - Desert News • The Case for Educational Pluralism - First Things • One-on-one time with parents is crucial - Family Edge • Miller makes the case for theology on campus - Catholic Register • Catholic School in Quebec loses religious freedom case - Vatican Radio The Repentance Possible in Mary - Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman - from Discourses Addressed to Mixed Congregations She began where others end, whether in knowledge or in love.
The life, works, and miracles of a priest in a city of France. Who has made the faith blossom again where it had withered.
Holy Impatience - The Most Reverend Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap - a talk delivered to the leaders of Sodalitium Christianae Vitae in Lima, Peru Some years before he was elected pope, Joseph Ratzinger was asked what he thought about the health of the Churc
The Awkwardness of Advent - Father George Rutler - Crisis Magazine The star that Jean-Paul Sartre once was, doyen of his day's incompletely educated intellectuals, has not quietly faded the way splashy names often do in the generation after they die.
. . . in the Associated Press Stylebook, anyway.
In book seven of the Republic, Socrates asks: “What then, Glaucon, would be a study to draw the soul from becoming to being?” (521d).
Exciting news for the new evangelization being called for by Pope Benedict XVI are the recent discoveries in "space-time geometry," prompting eminent physicists to assert the cosmos had to have a beginning and thus had to have a creator.
The Key That Fits the Lock, Part Ten - Anthony Esolen - The Catholic Thing There are two things to remember about Abraham, as he stands upon Mount Moriah, knife in hand. Abraham is a receiver of gifts. And Abraham is obedient.
Rise up then in the morning with the purpose that (please God) the day shall not pass without its self-denial.
2nd Sunday of Advent - Father John Horgan - CERC The liturgy proposes the figure of St. John the Baptist to us twice each year during the great seasons of preparation.
Pope's head-on response to critics of Church teachings - VIS Pope Benedict XVI provided direct answers to critics of Catholic teaching, both inside and outside the Church, in a December 7 address to members of the International Theological Commission.
Pope says truth, not relativism, is source of non-violence - CNA On Friday, Benedict XVI told a group of theologians: "When you deny the opportunity for people to refer to an objective truth, dialogue is rendered impossible and violence, whether declared or hidden, becomes the rule of law of human relationships."  God's benevolent plan for humanity - VIS Pope Benedict XVI devoted his weekly public audience on December 5 to the opening of St. Paul's epistle to the Ephesians, saying that the Apostle’s words serve as an appropriate introduction to "living in the time of Advent, in the context of the Year of Faith.
Supreme Knight Addresses “Ecclesia in America” Conference at the Vatican - K of C Supreme Knight Carl Anderson addressed the international conference on “Ecclesia in America” at the Vatican on December 10.
The appeal of St. Dorothy - Washington Post The recent vote by America’s Catholic bishops to move Dorothy Day toward canonization was controversial, but mainly among those who manufacture controversy for a living.
The Church should not be ashamed of its missionary past - Catholic Herald In the 1950s, choosing to become a priest or religious and then spending your entire life working in conditions of great hardship to bring the Good News of salvation to those trapped by witchcraft, paganism and superstition, was seen as self-sacrificing, a noble thing to do. It still should be.
Wake Up and Smell the Catastrophe - Patheos The biggest problem with American Catholics is that the majority of them are asleep. Lulled by materialism, the good life and the cares of the world, they’re blind to the real crisis facing America and blind to the real crisis facing the Catholic Church.
The Abuse Plague Is Universal - On the Square The sexual assault on the young is a universal plague, not a disorder peculiar to any profession or institution.
The Plight of the Alpha Female - City Journal Women remain scarce in the most elite positions. And it’s by choice.
Beyond Twitter: The Vatican’s other communications revolution - RNS Former FOX News reporter Greg Burke has been running communications for a while now. Much work remains to be done, but things are improving.
Vatican office to launch Pope smartphone app - CNA The president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, announced that his office is designing a new app on Pope Benedict for smartphones.
In Ireland, the case for legal abortion is built on fraud - Catholic Culture Legal abortion is coming soon to Ireland, it now seems likely, arriving the same way it arrived in the US 40 years ago: by fraud.
Pope appoints Gäenswein Prefect of Pontifical Household and archbishop - Vatican Insider The Pope has nominated Georg Gänswein as new Prefect of the Papal Household.
Will same-sex-marriage debate revive Catholic influence in France? - L'Espresso Its public opposition to the law on homosexual marriages is finding agreement even among non-Catholics and nonbelievers.
The mainstream media has it in for the Catholic Church - The Telegraph People wonder why conservatives moan endlessly about what they label “the mainstream media”.
The Royal Baby - Mercatornet The press are in a swoon over the Duchess of Cambridge's pregnancy, and there's no talk of abortion or even of a fetus: that's a child in her womb.
How December 25 Became Christmas - Bible History Daily On December 25, Christians around the world will gather to celebrate Jesus’ birth.
How Changing What I Wear Changed My Approach to Mass - NCRegister There's a new link-up that's getting a ton of traction in the Catholic blog world: It's called What I Wore Sunday, and participants link to posts on their own blogs with pictures of what they wear to Mass.
Let's Give Chivalry Another Chance - The Atlantic It's been unfairly maligned as sexist, but women and men alike would benefit from bringing it back.
Hurts and Hopes Regarding the Recent Debates on Hell - Msgr. Charles Pope As most of you know, there has been a rather vivid discussion recently in the blogosphere on the subject of hell.
The real causes of the decline of Christianity in Britain... - Standing on my Head There are two essential reasons why Christianity is dying in the West.
Video: New Guinea's spectacular birds-of-paradise are unlike any creatures on Earth... - Cornell Education This fall, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Geographic are bringing the Birds-of-Paradise Project to the public.
Seek 2012 - Focus SEEK is a gathering of college students on a journey. It’s a place where we can come together to take on some of life’s BIGGER questions and, like guides along the way, learn from one another where wisdom and experience lead.
Censorship on Campus - Wall Street Journal Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, on the battle for free speech on college campuses.
Abolish Social Studies - City Journal Born a century ago, the pseudo-discipline has outlived its uselessness.
Can Digital Learning Transform Education? - Education Next The enthusiasm for digital learning is contagious. More than 2 million K–12 students are enrolled in online courses today, and research firm Ambient Insight projects that figure will hit 10 million by 2014.
An Unexpected Journey: Hobbits in the Heartland - New York Times The beating heart of Tolkien scholarship, the archive of all his manuscripts is where? Milwaukee.
I, Pencil: The Movie - Youtube A film from the Competitive Enterprise Institute, adapted from the 1958 essay by Leonard E. Read.
Religion in public schools: America is religious, but also illiterate of religion - Desert News It was a teacher's dream. One day while shopping, Sherry McIntyre, who teaches world religions at Johansen High School in Modesto, Calif., was approached by a former student who not only recognized her, but said her class had made a difference in his life.
The Case for Educational Pluralism - First Things Alternatives to the state-funded educational monopoly.
One-on-one time with parents is crucial - Family Edge Our research shows that, well into the adolescent years, teens continue to spend time with their parents and that this shared time, especially shared time with fathers, has important implications for adolescents’ psychological and social adjustment.
Miller makes the case for theology on campus - Catholic Register Theology should be at the heart of Catholic universities, Vancouver Archbishop J. Michael Miller recently told an audience at the University of St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto.
Catholic School in Quebec loses religious freedom case - Vatican Radio A Catholic private school is considering petitioning the Supreme Court of Canada, after the Quebec Court of Appeal issued a decision obliging it to teach a state-imposed Ethics and Religious Culture course (ERC) at odds with Catholic teaching. Subscribe/Unsubscribe |
