Make a Donation
September 6, 2017

Note from the Managing Editor:

I don't know if I believe the line that there are story tellers and then there are born story tellers. But if it's true, Anthony Esolen surely belongs in the more elevated and organic sounding category. 

Every month, under the listing "How the Church Changed the World," Tony Esolen tells an affecting story of a saint or of an obscure man or woman of faith in the pages of Magnificat.  We are honoured to offer those articles on CERC.  Find Esolen's story about Saint Peter Claver, "Slave of the Ethiopian Slaves", below.

Michael Ward was once described by N.T. Wright as "The foremost living C.S. Lewis scholar."  A few years ago Ward was a highly respected Anglican priest serving in an Oxford college with a bright and comfortable life ahead of him.  The story of how he came to give it up to become Catholic is reminiscent of Cardinal Newman's own journey under similar circumstances. 

Michael Ward puts it like this, "Newman rather similarly had to conclude about the snapdragon outside his window at Trinity College, it may be lovely, but there are other, more important considerations."  In "C.S. Lewis, Catholicism, and the Narnian Code" Ward discusses his decision to become Catholic, his book on the secret symbolism Lewis hid within his Chronicles of Narnia, and whether Lewis would have become Catholic as well had he been alive today.

And then, Father George Rutler crafts a colourful tour of the history of iconoclasm and why we are at a low point even of that low practice today.  See "The Mindless Iconoclasm of Our Age." - J. Fraser Field



Web version of this CERC Weekly Update here
Previous CERC Weekly Update here
Subscribe/unsubscribe here
Visit the CERC website at www.catholiceducation.org

"Good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered." -C.S. Lewis



New Resources


 
Do Not Be Afraid - Ronda Chervin - Church of Love

Christ gives himself to his people gradually.


 
Slave of the Ethiopian Slaves - Anthony Esolen - Magnificat

"This book was owned by the happiest man in the world."


 
C.S. Lewis, Catholicism, and the Narnian Code: An Interview with Michael Ward - Brandon Vogt - brandonvogt.com

Some people might be excited to receive an email from the President or their favorite entertainer, but for a C.S. Lewis fan like myself, few thrills match opening your inbox and finding an unexpected email from Dr. Michael Ward.


 
The Mindless Iconoclasm of Our Age - Father George Rutler - Crisis

These days the latest hysteria is the toppling of statues by immoderate and ignorant people.


  The Shroud of Turin and the Facts - Father Dwight Longenecker - National Catholic Register

Here are some of the basic points shroud doubters have to answer.


 
Everyday Snowflakes - Theodore Dalrymple -Taki's Magazine

Most men, observed Thoreau, live lives of quiet desperation; or perhaps one should say, once lived lives of quiet desperation.


 
Was the "Miracle of Dunkirk" really a miracle? - Paul Asay - Aleteia

Director Christopher Nolan is considered one of the best, most innovative directors today.


 
Understand Relativism With Mercy - Edward Sri - National Catholic Register

I'll never forget the first time I heard the words "moral relativism."

Editorials of Interest:

Make Hell Hot Again - First Things
Reaping What We've Sown - The Catholic Thing
Dying of Despair - First Things

Editorials of Interest


Pope Francis: It's terrible children taught they can choose gender - Catholic Herald

"We are living at a time when humankind as the image of God is being annihilated."


The Recent Popes on Work and Workers - The Catholic Thing

Work is a form of civil love: it is not romantic love nor always an intentional love, but it is a true, authentic love that enables us to live and moves the world forward.


Vatican Cardinal Chides Pro-LGBT Jesuit Priest James Martin - Breitbart

In a Thursday op-ed, Vatican Cardinal Robert Sarah criticizes a Jesuit priest involved in pro-LGBT outreach for his failure to preach the Church's message on the immorality of homosexual relations.


St. Augustine's Wisdom: Adam, Eve, Christ, and the Church - Catholic World Report

Adam thinks only of blame, on the one hand, or collaboration, on the other. What doesn't even enter his mind is the thought of sacrifice.


Fr. Dwight Longenecker: How Do You Love a Terrorist? - Patheos

You don't start with the terrorist. You start with yourself.


"In Heaven, There Is Only Singing": An Interview with Fr George Rutler - New Liturgical Movement

Whether hymns should be sung, or not sung, at Mass, and which hymns are acceptable, is a fraught topic.


Make Hell Hot Again - First Things

Doesn't the presence of everlasting torment put a damper on the success story? Is God really so victorious if, at the end of the day, his order must endure this perpetual disturbance.


Thousands of Iraqi Christians Returning Home - Catholic Herald

Aid to the Church in Need says 3,000 families will likely return this month to Qaraqosh on the Nineveh Plains, which suffered some of the worst violence committed by Islamic State.


If you suffer from anxiety, you need to know the most repeated advice in the Bible - Aleteia

It comes at us 365 times. God really, really wants us to be at peace.


Beyond Machismo to Manhood: The Challenge of Real Masculinity - The Imaginative Conservative

Machismo is the rant of one demanding his rights because he does not have the courage to face his responsibilities. It is the "manliness" of one who is not really a man.


Most 'sex workers' are modern-day slaves - The Spectator

Prostitution is rarely, if ever, a choice.


Reaping What We've Sown - The Catholic Thing

Recent research reveals that sperm counts for men living in the West have plunged by 60 percent since 1971.


The long shadow of parental divorce - Mercatornet

Divorce inflicts damage on children that may last well into adulthood.


This woman is allergic to her husband, but it doesn't stop their love - Aleteia

"We prayed that we would learn what it means to be still and trust God with our lives." And it is this very trust in God that will hopefully enable Johanna and Scott to continue being strong when so much is unknown.


Why are lesbian teens having 2-7 times as many babies as their heterosexual peers? - The Federalist

The surprising statistic suggests that for many, LGBTQ sexual orientation is not a fixed identity, but rather something that fluctuates.


Dying of Despair - First Things

Suicide is now the second leading cause of death among adolescents and young adults, and the tenth leading cause of death overall in the United States.


When darkness falls, how shall we pray? - Aleteia

Good prayer is when you show up and actually pray — whether you feel like it or not.


Anthony Burgess: On Being a Lapsed Catholic - First Things

Perhaps some of the prayers that go for the souls in purgatory might occasionally be used for us. Those souls at least know where they are. We don't. I don't.


Holy tattoo! A 700-year old Christian tradition thrives in Jerusalem - Catholic World Report

Christian pilgrims have come to the tattoo artists of the Razzouk family since the Crusades to receive ancient signs of Christian identity and pilgrimage.


College Kids Say the Darndest Things: On Identity - YouTube

Family Policy Institute of Washington visited the campus of the University of Washington to see if students would affirm or reject Joseph Backholm's new chosen identity: a 6'5" Chinese woman.


Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman and
St. Justin Martyr, pray for us

Subscribe / Unsubscribe
Copyright © 2017 Catholic Education Resource Center