I just returned from New York where I was the guest on Fr. Benedict Groeschel’s Sunday Night Live show on EWTN. I took my oldest daughter Anna with me and we had a great time. While I was there I was also able to visit one of the convents of the Sister of Life and as well as meet up with the priest who celebrated my wedding, Fr. Conrad Osterhaut, CFR. Below are a couple of pictures from the trip.

When the show is posted on YouTube I’ll put up a link.

Over at Catholic Exchange I have a two-part article on Verbum Domini, the pope’s recent letter on the Scriptures:

Catholics and the Bible: Reading Verbum Domini, Part 1 — Background

Catholics and the Bible: Reading Verbum Domini, Part 2 — Overview

Check it out!

…that is how one member of my favorite religious order, the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, describes his vows of poverty, chastity and obedience:

Brothers from the Bronx take on a tough Irish town

This Christmas will be a tough one for many people living in Ireland. The economic crisis there isn’t helping to lift what is a gloomy holiday season. It’s even more challenging in Limerick, the city that featured in Frank McCourt’s memoir “Angela’s Ashes”.

The poverty, unemployment and deprivation portrayed in the book are still features of daily life in the suburb of Moyross. And that’s exactly why a group of men from New York have moved in. Not just any men though – they are Franciscan friars from the Bronx.

People riding in an open air carriage pulled by a horse might be considered quaint if it wasn’t an indication of the troubles that beset the suburb of Moyross. Horses are sometimes used for transport, but they are often abandoned and left to wander through the gritty neighbourhood or a nearby field.

That is also where the drug deals go down.

Burnt out and boarded up houses are easy to find and so is poverty. It is just the kind of place the Franciscan friars of the Renewal were looking for.

“And we were shown this area Moyross and it seemed like a perfect place: there were burnt out houses there was graffiti on walls there dogs and horses wandering around aimlessly sometimes kids wandering around,” said Brother Shawn O’Connor. “So I said this is a good place for us to be.”

O’Connor and four other monks opened their friary here in 2007 by converting three abandoned houses into a simple residence and chapel. Shortly before they moved in, they got a reminder of how tough the neighbourhood was.

Two children were nearly burned to death when three teenagers firebombed the car they were sitting in. But O’Connor and the others saw a need and over the last three years they have worked hard to get to know the community…

The friary’s statue of the Virgin Mary is missing her hands. One of the other boys living near here cut them off a few months back.

“Many of the young people here just have no real proper guidance that’s one thing we found,” admits O’Connor. “They’re very wild. They’re great and they’re wonderful kids but they don’t have any discipline, they don’t have any sense of right or wrong.”

The monks persist with the kids, not shying away from a bit of soccer, or football or some good old fashioned roughhousing. They do it all wearing their grey hooded robes and beards and shaved heads…

Amidst tales of scandal and sexual abuse by priests, the friars are finding both popularity and celebrity.

In 2008, they appeared on a national late night talk show that also featured U2. The monk’s American street cred seemed to charm the audience. The host asked them to describe their vows. Poverty, chastity and obedience, came the reply. Then one friar offered another version.

“Or like we say in the Bronx, no money, no honey and a boss,” and another, the former rap artist, gave his own slant, “no bling bling, no sweet thing and I gotta serve my king.”

These days, Moyross residents like Lorraine Fitzgerald seem comfortable with the monks in their midst, but she admits she couldn’t take them seriously at first.

“I was laughing I have to say it, I was roaring laughing,” Fitzgerald said. “It’s strange looking at men coming in with long dresses and big beards you know, but I mean they are great sports they are.”

17-year-old Nicole said she’s grateful for their presence too. Young people her age are dropping out and drinking, she said, but the monks share their own experiences in order to warn her of the pitfalls.

“You know like it’s not good but you just try your best to stay away from it,” said Nicole. “That’s what the brothers do. They teach us stuff like all that stuff is bad.”

Read full article…

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past decade, you are aware of the meteoric rise in homeschooling during that time. What was formally the reserve of a few fundamentalists and hippies has now gone mainstream. Just this week it was reported that over 2 million children are homeschooled, which constitutes approximately one in every 25 children currently in school today.

Catholics have not missed this bandwagon, as many Catholic families (including my own) have decided that homeschooling is the best way to educate their children. But what does the Church have to say in her magisterial documents about homeschooling? Is it allowed or prohibited? If no definitive word has been pronounced, is it encouraged or discouraged?

The first place to look to answer this question is Gravissimum Educationis (GE), Vatican II’s “Declaration on Christian Education.” In this document the Council Fathers address the importance of education and the need for every child to be educated. At first glance, it appears that homeschooling is clearly approved:

Parents who have the primary and inalienable right and duty to educate their children must enjoy true liberty in their choice of schools (GE 6).

If parents have the “primary and inalienable right and duty to education their children” and they must “enjoy true liberty in their choice of schools,” then surely they should be able to educate their own children in the home, correct? However, another passage should be examined as well:

The Council also reminds Catholic parents of the duty of entrusting their children to Catholic schools wherever and whenever it is possible and of supporting these schools to the best of their ability and of cooperating with them for the education of their children (GE 8 emphasis added).

In the context of GE and other contemporary Church documents related to education, it is clear the Council is thinking of traditional Catholic schools here; in other words, it is not thinking of a Catholic family homeschooling as a “Catholic school.” So what does this mean? Are homeschoolers violating Vatican II by not “entrusting their children to Catholic schools wherever and whenever it is possible” and not “supporting these schools to the best of their ability and of cooperating with them for the education of their children”? Should all Catholics send their children to Catholic schools if they are available to them?

To answer this question we must first consider what the Church considers proper education. According to GE,

a true education aims at the formation of the human person in the pursuit of his ultimate end and of the good of the societies of which, as man, he is a member, and in whose obligations, as an adult, he will share (GE 1).

But this is not the only objective of education. All the baptized also have the right to a Christian education, which

does not merely strive for the maturing of a human person as just now described, but has as its principal purpose this goal: that the baptized, while they are gradually introduced the knowledge of the mystery of salvation, become ever more aware of the gift of Faith they have received, and that they learn in addition how to worship God the Father in spirit and truth (cf. John 4:23) (GE 2)

So parents, who have a “primary and inalienable right and duty to education their children,” must take into consideration both of these aspects when determining their choice of schools – they must both consider a child’s formation as a human person as well as his formation as a Christian. But this also means that Catholic schools need to fulfill these two aspects of a Christian education – if they do not, then they are not truly “Catholic schools,” thus making it impossible for parents in their area to send their child to an outside Catholic school, as GE hopes every parent will do.

But I think we can go a step further than just saying that homeschooling is an option when the local Catholic schools are failing in their mission to offer a Christian education. To do this, we must consider the context in which Vatican II occurred. At that time, there was, for all intents and purposes, no such thing as Catholic homeschoolers as we would define them today. Homeschooling as a movement didn’t really start until the 1970’s and it didn’t become “mainstream” until this century. So the Council Fathers had no way to consider homeschooling as even an option. It should be remembered that ecumenical councils are protected by the Holy Spirit from error, but they are not given the gift of precognition. Faced between the choice of public, government schools and Catholic schools, it is no surprise that they urged that Catholic parents send their children to Catholic schools “wherever and whenever it is possible.” That was the only possible way for a child to receive a true Christian education as the Council Fathers envisioned it.

However, since the time of Vatican II, it has become clear that Catholic homeschooling has become a viable type of “Catholic school”, offering a fully Christian education as defined by the Council Fathers. Thus, I would argue that homeschooling can be a legitimate response to Vatican II’s call that Catholics entrust their children to “Catholic schools wherever and whenever it is possible” – even if there are good Catholic schools in the area. In today’s world, this fulfills the Council’s wishes that children receive a Christian education and that parents enjoy “true liberty” when choosing a school for their children.

It should be clear that I am not saying that all Catholics should homeschool their children. Each family is different and every child unique – what works for one situation might not work for others. But I do believe that Catholics who choose to homeschool their children – even if there is a good Catholic school available – are not violating the intention of the Council Fathers behind their desire that parents entrust their children “to Catholic schools wherever and whenever it is possible.”

Update: Esteemed Catholic canon lawyer Dr. Edward Peters alerts us to an informative article he wrote about 10 years ago addressing this issue from a canon law perspective.

In all my years of pro-life work, one of the most common canards I have heard is “No matter where you stand on legalized abortion, we can all agree that we should increase access to contraception in order to lower the abortion rate.” Pro-abortion advocates trying to appear reconciliatory will promote this idea, and sadly, many pro-life advocates will agree with it. But it is simply nonsense, and common sense should tell anyone that. If you encourage people who don’t want to have kids to have sex, then what happens when their “protection” doesn’t work or is not immediately available? It doesn’t take an Einstein or Plato to know: abortion.

And now a study confirms this:

Study Authors Puzzled Why Abortions Rise with Contraceptive Use

The results of a new study just published in the journal Contraception on contraception use and abortion rates in Spain have researchers puzzled.

The study, conducted over ten years, was meant to “acquire information about the use of contraceptive methods in order to reduce the number of elective abortions.” From 1997-2007, researchers recorded the various contraceptive methods being used by a representative group of Spanish women, as well as their abortion rates.

What they discovered has them completely baffled—but is exactly what we at the Pro-Life Action League might have predicted: as contraception use increased, so did the abortion rate.

Researchers Puzzled by Results

In fact, while contraceptive use among these women went up significantly over that period—from 49.1% to 79.9%—the abortion rate rose even more dramatically—from 5.52 to 11.49 per 1000 women.

In other words, a 63% increase in contraception use was accompanied by a 108% increase in abortions.

The Spanish researchers are completely at a loss to explain these results, concluding that “The factors responsible for the increased rate of elective abortion need further investigation.”

Their puzzlement is understandable: they set out with the assumption that contraception can be used to reduce abortion, hoping to fine-tune that basic approach. Instead, they found abortions only increased with more contraception.

More Contraception Means More Abortion—But Why?

The Spanish research team may be at a loss to explain these results, but they make perfect sense to pro-life advocates who have been saying for years that contraception is not the answer to abortion. (In fact, the Pro-Life Action League explored this topic at a 2006 conference entitled “Contraception Is Not the Answer”.)

The impact that contraceptive use has on people’s sexual behavior is profound. Contraception does not merely mitigate the effects of people’s risky sexual behavior—it radically alters their sexual behavior.

Seemingly free of the most significant and concerning consequence of sex—pregnancy—people behave differently, just as one would expect. They’re more willing to take sexual risks—more sexual partners, more casual sex, more “cheating” etc.—and the end result is more unplanned pregnancy, not less; more abortion, not less.

Continue reading…

As Mark Shea would say, “sin makes you stupid” and only sin could make someone stupid enough to think that more contraception would lead to less abortions. But for over forty years our culture has wanted sex without consequences, and no amount of common sense will prevent us from continuing to push for it.

Here is the one method of contraception that is sure to NOT lead to more abortions:

This Sunday, January 9th, I’ll be on Fr. Benedict Groeschel’s Sunday Night Live TV show on EWTN. We’ll be discussing my book as well as the topic “Who is Jesus Christ?”

The show airs live at 7pm and then is repeated a few times later in the week. Check it out!

If you want to be an informed Catholic (and why would you not?), then there are two books that must be read and understood: the Bible and the Catechism. However, neither of these books is an “easy read” – both total hundreds of pages and touch on difficult and complex subjects. Because of this intimidation factor, many people don’t know where to start and so don’t start.

Fortunately, the Coming Home Network has devised a plan to read both the Bible and the Catechism in a year. It can be found here:

Read the Bible and the Catechism in a Year

As the Plan states:

The Catholic Church has always venerated the divine Scriptures, and teaches that “Sacred Scripture is the speech of God as it is put down in writing under the breath of the Holy Spirit.” She also, “forcefully and specifically exhorts all the Christian faithful to learn ‘the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ’ (Phil. 3.8) by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures. ‘Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.’” (From the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, nos. 9, 21, and 25)

Many of us today do not know our faith well. But thanks to the loving initiative of Pope John Paul II and the Bishops of our Church, we now have a universal Catechism which explains what Catholics are to believe in a format that is easy to read and addresses current issues.

By making a commitment of only twenty to thirty minutes a day, you can prayerfully read through the entire Bible and/or Catechism in one year! Use whatever Bible translation you like that contains the entire Canon of Scripture. This guide is divided by month, but you can start at any time.

H/t: Charles