Plain and Simple
One of my favorite websites to follow is RealCatholicTV.com. Michael Voris does an incredible job of saying things as they are, in plain and simple language. He is unafraid of conflict, disagreement and nay-sayers. Michael stands for the Truth. May blessings and grace abound for him.
I wanted to post today’s video because I believe exactly what Michael has to say. He is a strong witness for the faith. A TrueMan, unafraid to speak the truth and stand up for it.
I recommend you check out other videos from Michael, there are lots to choose from. For today’s video, click HERE.
New Bishop, Great Example
I just became aware of a new bishop for the Diocese of Springfield, Illinois. His name is Bishop Thomas John Paprocki. At the Illinois Catholic Prayer Breakfast last Friday, Bishop Paprocki addressed the crowd with the words found below. I firmly believe that we need more bishops like Bishop Paprocki, who will stand for the truth and will, if needed, give his life for the faith.
As you may know, Pope Benedict XVI has appointed me to serve as the ninth Bishop of Springfield in Illinois. As the date of my Installation Mass, I have chosen June 22nd, the Feast of the English martyrs, Saints Thomas More and John Fisher. This day is appropriate because St. John Fisher was a Bishop, while St. Thomas More is a special patron saint for me not only because I am named Thomas and I served as Chancellor, as Thomas More did, but also because Thomas More is the patron saint of lawyers and politicians. I think his intercession will be vitally needed in my pastoral ministry as shepherd of our state capital.
My favorite movie of all time is “A Man For All Seasons,” about the life of St. Thomas More. In the screenplay written by Robert Bolt, there is a very poignant scene towards the end of the story of the trial of Thomas More, who was charged for High Treason for his refusal to sign the Act of Supremacy, making King Henry VIII the head of the Church of England. Sir Richard Rich has just perjured himself on the witness stand by giving false testimony by which More would surely be convicted. Before Sir Richard leaves the witness stand, More says, “I have one question to ask the witness. That’s a chain of office you are wearing. May I see it?” Rich allows More to examine the medallion, whereupon More says, “The red dragon.” More then asks Cromwell, who is conducting the interrogation, “What’s this?” Cromwell answers, “Sir Richard is appointed Attorney-General of Wales.” More we are told, looks into Rich’s face with pain and amusement and asks, “For Wales? Why Richard, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world . . . But, for Wales!”
Unfortunately we live in a time when many other politicians are quite willing to give their souls for even less than Wales! As we gather for this Holy Sacrifice of the Mass preceding the Illinois Catholic Prayer Breakfast, we pray for the intercession of Saints Thomas More and Bishop John Fisher, that politicians and all government officials may follow their courageous example of faithful adherence to the teachings of the Catholic Church.
Today’s Mass is celebrated as a Memorial of Pope St. Pius V, who lived during the time of Saints Thomas More and Bishop John Fisher. The pontificate of Pope Pius V was one of the most glorious of the 16th century. He enforced the decrees of the Council of Trent, published the Roman Catechism and revised the Missal and Breviary. We pray for his intercession as well. Our liturgy today also continues the celebration of the Easter season. Our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles tells us of the life of the early Christian community. Then, as now, courtroom trials depended on the testimony of courtroom witnesses. Conviction or acquittal can depend on what a person has experienced and how credibly the person expresses that experience to a judge or jury. If we expect people to believe in the resurrection of Jesus, there have to be credible witnesses. St. Paul cites the companions of Jesus as witnesses to the resurrection. He passes on their testimony as well as their own. We are called to bear witness to Jesus as the way, the truth and the life. Jesus shows us how to live by His example of selfless sacrifice. He teaches us the truth
about God, about ourselves, and about the world. He gives us eternal life through faith and the living of our sacramental life. Everything we say and do should convince people of the Gospel message. The Eucharist we are about to receive fills us with the presence of Christ so that we may be credible witnesses to the good news of eternal life with our Risen Lord.
May God give us this grace.
The Holy Father’s Week
This week marked Pope Benedict XVI’s 83rd birthday. Happy Birthday to him, and may he have many more! Recently, in the news, the Holy Father has been under siege by the secular media. I’ve been debating with myself whether or not to join the discussion, and have decided to say only a few words.
First, Pope Benedict XVI is the successor of St. Peter and with that comes both a great deal of responsibility and [should also come with] a great deal of respect. Secondly, the media has been everything but respectful, and honestly, they have been downright scandalous in regards to their comments, attacks and accusations. (I expect nothing less from the media; they are anti-Catholic and despicable.) Thirdly, Pope Benedict has not, nor does he, nor will he, condone abuse of children, whether it comes in the form of pedophilia, ephebophilia, homosexual acts by priests or other. He has never, nor will ever, cover up sex-abuse scandal and simply does not operate that way. The secular media paints a picture of Pope Benedict as the responsible party in the sex-abuse cases over the past 50+ years, and simply put, PB16 does not deserve to be treated this way.
If the faithful take time to realize what’s going on, each of us will see that the salacious claims against PB16 are another ploy by the culture to discredit, undermine and attempt to destroy the Catholic Church. Pope Benedict is a great shepherd and is leading the Church well.
Knights of Columbus, and others, all around the world have united to pray for protection, strength and clarity for Pope Benedict XVI. I recommend you join the cause.
TrueMan up!
A Fireside "Discussion"
Last night I was up in the mountains with a great group of young Catholics. We had a great little (easy) hike into a waterfall, played some horseshoes (in the dark) and had a nice meal cooked by our priest. Somehow [I’m still not certain how exactly] we began discussing the topic of women as altar servers. I have some pretty firm beliefs on the subject, and stemming from those beliefs, we began to discuss the current state of the Church – all from an opinion/experience standpoint.
I firmly believe that the modern, American Catholic Church is, as I’ve put it before, “by women, for women”. Yes, the “leaders” are Bishops, Priests and Deacons, but my point is that the lay-portion of the Church is the “for women” part. This caught some of the young women off guard and immediately put them on the defensive. This was NOT my intention. I intended to explain that the problem is not what the women are doing, or their involvement or their faithfulness or anything of the sort… I intended to explain that in order to fix the problem, men must step up and fulfill the call from God to be protectors, defenders, leaders and TrueMen!
Allow me to explain the statement “by women, for women”. If you look at a typical Catholic parish in America, 80%+ participation and involvement is middle-aged and older women, as well as children. The liturgies are filled with female volunteers, the events are orchestrated and attended by females and the typical style of worship is geared toward female spirituality – rightly so, since 80%+ in attendance are female. The problem with this is multi-faceted: First (and FOREMOST) MEN ARE NOT PRESENT. Men are slacking on their responsibilities and are failing to fulfill their calling as men. Secondly, when men fail to fulfill their role, women tend to step in and attempt to fulfill the men’s role for them. This doesn’t work because the male role(s) are meant to be fulfilled by men, and women simply can’t fulfill (rightly) a man’s role. In the same way, a man cannot successfully fulfill a woman’s role. If this occurs, the relationships and the fulfillment of the responsibilities are skewed, or disordered.
Another part to the problem is the idea of, an oxymoron, “The Fatherless Family”. If men are non-existent in the Church, the Church (which is similar to a family unit) will suffer greatly. This, in my opinion, is the current state of affairs. The solution to these problems is men stepping up, leading and fulfilling their responsibilities. As God commanded Adam in the garden, modern men must “shamar” the garden – they must protect, defend and cultivate their world. My hope is that men begin to learn what it means to live a truly manly lifestyle, within the context of the Life of Faith, as fathers, husbands, sons and friends and that the Church can return to a well-ordered way of operating. More to come on this.
Disclaimer: This is a generalization. There are many men, in many parishes, in many dioceses, that are fulfilling their responsibilities and are living well-ordered lives. There, the Church is strong. There, the Church is thriving.
Man up!
How Does a Man Live Love?
Recently, I was having a conversation with some friends about various topics. As we got into the conversation, somehow we got onto the topic of love. I said something to the effect of “… a husband needs to love his wife. He needs to live love.” One of my friends asked me, “How does a man live love?” He said, “We hear that all the time, but how does a guy actually do that? What does he have to do to live love?” It’s a valid question. Actually, it’s more than valid, it’s essential.
We’ve talked previously about love being the greatest of all the virtues. We’ve talked about love being a verb. Let’s put these together. If we possess the virtue of love (also referred to as charity), that means that we perform love 1. with ease 2. with joy 3. at every opportunity and 4. promptly. Once we possess the virtue of love, it’s second nature for us to perform. Notice that there is an action taking place – love is performed. Okay, so we’ve said that love is a virtue and that it requires an action. What is that action?
The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains it very clearly in paragraph 1822: “Charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for His own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God.” Love isn’t something intangible that happens to come along every once and awhile, love is for God and others.
As a husband, I can live out love by first loving God and then by loving my wife (for love of God). That means that I strive to do as God has done. This isn’t a sentence full of meaningless words. This means that all I do, everything I think and say, is geared towards and focused on God. The greatest example of how a man can live love is by looking to Christ on the cross. Self-sacrifice, service, humility, obedience. Do these things for your wife and you’ll be loving her.
Practical application: how can I sacrifice for my wife as a sign of love? The greatest gift, of laying your life down for a friend, isn’t necessarily what I’m hoping will happen here, but that’s the ultimate. Sacrifice can be as simple as letting her choose the restaurant you eat at, or what TV show to watch or which song to listen to on the radio. Putting your preferences last.
It’s possible, that for each guy, love means something just a little bit different. In the end, it comes down to loving God and loving others.
Man up!
Pontius Pilate, What You Did Was NOT Manly
I thought several times throughout Holy Week, as well as when I watched “The Passion of the Christ” on Friday night, that Pontius Pilate (pronounced pon-chus pi-lot) was not manly in his decisions to condemn Jesus to death. He tried, yes, at first, to tell the people that Jesus had done nothing wrong. Where he went wrong was when he worried about what sort of uprising the Jewish high priests would start and what the people would do. He let self-preservation win out over justice.
He’s infamously remembered by Catholics in our Creed (our profession of faith) “…He (Jesus) suffered under Pontius Pilate…“. This is because Pilate had the power to prevent Christ’s horrible torture, scourging, carrying of His cross and His death, but failed to act; all out of fear. He was a coward. Even the movie “The Passion of the Christ” (picture above from a scene with Pilate and Jesus) shows Pilate’s wife as a hero and a servant, with compassion and deep sorrow while Pilate simply looks on, worried about himself. Pilate leaves us with a good example of what not to do.
Christ tells us that we’ll be persecuted because of Him, because we follow Him and because we love Him. We should be ready and prepared to persevere. We prepare for this by training (prayer and fasting, mostly). When it comes down to it, who will you side with? Will you take the easy way out and deny Christ or will you stand firm in your beliefs, in your faith and in HIS love and witness for Jesus? Only time will tell.
Again, society tells men that we must look out for ourselves and self-preservation. Christ, the Church and TrueManhood.com say something different. We all say “defend Christ, defend Mother Church, defend Truth” – God will provide for us and will raise us up on the last day. A True Man does this. A man like Pontius Pilate doesn’t. What kind of man are you?
Man up!
