When an article opens with the story of the Baltimore Orioles defeating my beloved Cincinnati Reds in the 1970 World Series, I have to admit, I’m unlikely to be very interested in what it has to say.

But I’ll make an exception for this article, which details the Catholic faith of Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson, who, like me, is a convert from Methodism to Catholicism:

When Lee May cracked a two-bouncer inside the third-base line in game one of the 1970 World Series, Brooks Robinson’s response was nothing short of legendary.

Wheeling three paces to his right, Baltimore’s third baseman fielded the ball in foul territory, took two more steps and threw against his momentum. The throw bounced once on its way to first baseman Boog Powell and beat May.

It was one of many in a spectacular defensive performance by Robinson that helped the Orioles defeat the Cincinnati Reds in five games, as the World Series MVP lived up to his nickname of the “Human Vacuum Cleaner”…

He remains…the only non-pitcher to win 16 Gold Gloves, given in recognition of defensive play. No one ever spent more consecutive seasons with a big league club than the 23 he logged with the Orioles from 1955-77.

Equally enduring is the Hall of Famer’s character.

One of Baltimore’s favorite adopted sons, he stands out as a class act from a bygone era, one whose life seems to embody the all-American values portrayed in a Norman Rockwell painting of the third baseman signing autographs at Memorial Stadium.

“A lot of times we have a Tiger Woods who’s not really who we thought he was,” said Jim Palmer, a Hall of Famer pitcher who played with Robinson. “Well, that’s not the case with Brooks.”

As Baltimore fans reminisce about 1970 and the star at the hot corner, Robinson remains humble and unassuming. The 72-year-old grandfather is committed to his family and his community, his Catholic faith sustaining him in the face of health concerns.

Raised a Methodist in Little Rock, Ark., Robinson never figured he would become a Catholic. But, after marrying Connie, his Catholic wife of nearly 50 years, the baseball standout was drawn to the church. With three sons and a daughter, Robinson thought it important for the entire family to attend church together.

“When the kids got older, they were inquisitive and wanted to know, ‘How come dad doesn’t go to church with us?’ “ Robinson said. “It made a lot of sense to join the Catholic Church.”

He began studying the faith with Monsignor Martin A. Schwalenberg Jr., the Orioles’ chaplain and one of Robinson’s tennis partners. He was received into the Catholic faith in the late 1960s at the Church of the Nativity in Timonium.

“I couldn’t be happier being a Catholic,” he said. “It’s worked out well for me and it’s been a good impression on my kids.”

Mary Lou LaMartina, a parishioner of St. Agnes in Catonsville and an administrative assistant at The Cardinal Gibbons School in Baltimore, organized the first Brooks Robinson fan club with friends as an 8th grader at St. Agnes School. Ronald LaMartina, her brother, was Robinson’s confirmation sponsor.

“He’s a very devout man,” said LaMartina, who refers to Robinson as a “big brother.”

Imagine this scene: Jesus is with his disciples at the Last Supper, and he begins to teach them:

“I am God the Son, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God. I am eternally begotten and of one substance with the Father. God is actually three persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – but only one divine nature. I am one divine person, but I have both a human nature and a divine nature.”

At this point I can just see Peter scratching his head, looking over at John, and going “huh?”

Of course, Jesus didn’t say the above, even though all of it is true, and is actually the bedrock of Christian belief about the Godhead and Jesus Christ. In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus states quite plainly why he didn’t give such a speech: “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now”, but then he follows this disappointing statement with a promise: “But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth.” (John 16:12-13).

This is the foundation for the concept of development of doctrine. The mysteries of God are infinite, but the human mind is quite finite. Thus God simply cannot reveal all truth about Himself and His work immediately, but instead must do so incrementally. We see this clearly in the Old Testament, as God slowly leads His children to a deeper understanding of His nature as a loving and merciful God, and also prepares them for the coming of His Son. After the Revelation of Jesus Christ, there is no need for further revelation, but there is a need for a deeper understanding of that revelation. And that quest for deeper understanding can be a long, drawn-out process. As Jaroslav Pelikan, author of The Christian Tradition, a five-volume work on the development of Christian doctrine, once said,

For those who believe that you don’t need tradition because you have the Bible, the Christian Tradition has sought to say, “You are not entitled to the beliefs you cherish about such things as the Holy Trinity without a sense of what you owe to those who worked this out for you.” To circumvent Saint Athanasius on the assumption that if you put me alone in a room with the New Testament, I will come up with the doctrine of the Trinity, is naive. So for these readers I have tried to provide a degree of historical sophistication, which is, I believe, compatible with an affirmation of the central doctrines of Christian faith.

An understanding of the Christian mysteries entails hard work, especially for those who first received them. We do not live in a Matrix-style world, in which God simply dumps information into our minds; instead we are made to learn by meditating over information over a period of time. And in the case of the doctrine of the Trinity, it took over 300 years – with the guidance of the Spirit of Truth – to finally come to even a basic understanding of that mystery that could be put into human language.

The greatest expositor of the concept of the development of doctrine is of course John Henry Cardinal Newman. It was in fact his recognition of the development of doctrine that led him into the Catholic Church. He studied the early Church and realized that it was the earlier form of the modern Catholic Church – not identical, but instead a younger version of itself. Just like in his middle age he was not identical to his youthful self, so too the Church grows and develops over time.

But this growth is not haphazard and completely dependent upon sinful, finite man. No, Jesus promises us a guide: the Spirit of Truth. He will make sure that the Church comes to the correct understanding of the divine mysteries. He does not promise that it will not be a long, difficult journey at times, or that some people will not attempt to lead the Church down the wrong path, but he does promise that we will eventually be led to “all truth”.

For those interested in studying more about the development of doctrine, I recommend two works:

An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine – John Henry Cardinal Newman

The Christian Tradition – Jaroslav Pelikan (a five-volume series; link is to the first volume)

Every year we Catholics get a welcome jolt in the thousands upon thousands of new converts that enter the Church during Easter Vigil. In recent years approximately 100,000-150,000 people have become Catholic each year in this country. This is cause for great rejoicing and as one of those people I am very appreciative of my fellow converts. I can’t think of anything more joyous than being received into the fullness of the Catholic Church.

But there is a lesser-known and less-joyous aspect of all these conversions. I have heard from a variety of sources that almost half of all new converts are no longer regularly attending Mass just a year after their reception into the Church. Many who swim the Tiber are making a return trip out of Rome. For example, the former Episcopal bishop of Albany, who became Catholic in 2007 to much fanfare, has recently returned to the Episcopal church. This is a serious issue and I would even say a crisis.

Most Catholic parishes pray for those to be received into the Church at every Mass leading up to the Easter vigil. But after the vigil, those prayers mostly dry up. We need to continue to pray for new converts that they maintain their relationship with Christ through the Church. We also need to work hard to make new converts feel welcome and do all we can to help them live their Catholic faith.

Next Sunday, if you see a recently-received Catholic at your parish, go up to them and strike up a conversion with them. You may very well be helping to stem a tide of swimmers going the wrong way across the Tiber.

Great news for DC-area Catholics: we are getting a Catholic radio station!

The Guadalupe Radio Network is bringing Catholic Radio to Washington D.C.

With great thanks and praise to almighty God as we want to announce that the nation’s capitol will soon be the home of another Guadalupe Radio Network station. On May 5th WMET 1160 AM will begin broadcasting Catholic Radio 24 hours a day. And what an amazing impact this station will have in bringing souls closer to our Lord and the holy Saints, an impact that has the potential to reach far beyond the immediate listening area.

WMET is a powerful 50,000 watt AM radio station which will blanket all of Washington D.C. and the surrounding area with the beautiful message of Christ’s Good News through His One, Holy Catholic Church. In fact, the signal covers Washington DC and stretches on into Baltimore, Anapolis and beyond Arlington VA, along with dozens other cities across the metroplex. Over five million people will soon have the opportunity to tune into Catholic radio on the Guadalupe Radio Network.

We need your help. We’ll be busy raising funds to ensure the long life of Catholic Radio in the nation’s capital and preparing for the official kickoff and blessing of the studio. We are very thankful to everyone who has prayed and worked tirelessly to make this vision a reality. We will need a local staff, many volunteers and countless ‘prayer warriors’ over these next few months. Please download the project plan, “Into the Deep” and about how you can help be a part of this incredible moment in the history of our nation’s capital and the local Catholic Church.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, please pray for us.

I have tremendous sympathy for victims of sexual abuse, and I can’t imagine how abuse by a cleric affects a victim’s view of the Church. I also think the Church needs to look long and hard at the causes of the Scandal and should work to reform in every way possible to ensure that it doesn’t happen again. But I am nonetheless quite uncomfortable with any event that calls for “reformation” in the Church but is being held on October 31st, the date of Martin Luther’s 95 theses and the date that Protestants mark as “Reformation Day”:

Two survivors of clergy sexual abuse who met with Pope Benedict XVI during his 2008 visit to Washington are planning to take their pleas for greater recognition of the spiritual, pastoral and mental health needs of abuse victims to the doorstep of the Vatican Oct. 31.

Olan Horne of Westfield, Mass., and Bernie McDaid of Peabody, Mass., told Catholic News Service they are planning a gathering that they hope will bring thousands of abuse victims to St. Peter’s Square for a “Reformation Day.”

Both men said the effort stems from a building frustration in dealing with church officials on the needs of abuse victims.

The date is significant because, they said, the day is observed as a day of reformation in some cultures.

Perhaps these men don’t realize the reason October 31st is a “day of reformation in some cultures” (and evidently, the reporter of this article doesn’t either, because he doesn’t mention it). But calling for “reformation” and aligning it with Luther’s “Reformation” is not a way to true reformation. By its very definition, reformation means helping an institution to become more like it was originally intended to be. It does not mean leaving the institution and founding another one, like Luther did.

I hope and pray that true reformation comes to the Church and that all victims of sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic clerics will find reconciliation within the Church. But please change the date of this event so that it doesn’t have any attachment to those who left the Church in the 16th century when it was going through a scandalous time.

Since 2002 Catholics have been living in the midst of The Scandal. The Catechism tells us that scandal is “an attitude or behavior which leads another to do evil. The person who gives scandal becomes his neighbor’s tempter. He damages virtue and integrity; he may even draw his brother into spiritual death. Scandal is a grave offense if by deed or omission another is deliberately led into a grave offense” (CCC 2284). Jesus is more direct: “if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea” (Matthew 18:6). It is clear that scandal is a spiritual killer, both to those it leads to sin and those who cause it.

But there is a flip side to scandal: sometimes it allows us to recognize the gravity of serious sin. Recently I heard of a youth pastor at a nondenominational church who left his wife and took up with a former member of his youth group, whom he plans to marry soon. What was shocking to me was that he faced no negative consequences in his church. Divorce and remarriage have become so common that even one as horrible as this one barely caused a ripple in the church. In other words, it caused no scandal. Yet perhaps if it had caused scandal, it would have been a warning to those who might be tempted to leave their wives in the future.

Someone causing scandal is always a bad thing. But even worse is when scandalous actions cause no scandal. Let us pray that The Scandal that we Catholics have faced over the past eight years might lead many to repentance and keep others from the destructive path that those before us have followed.

I want to recommend a number of interesting articles I have come across recently:

Jesus, Yahweh: The Name Above Every Name – An article by Dave Brown addressing the Jehoveh’s Witnesses’ rejection of the divinity of Christ.

The Anatomy of Conversion – The conversion story of David Mills, a Catholic author.

Doing Penance for Others – Mark Shea looks at the (often misunderstood) practice of doing penance for other people.

The Silence of the Monks – An article on the monks of Norcia written by Robert Moynihan. I have a good friend who is a member of that order.

Enjoy!

A Long Island woman fulfilled her dream of becoming a nun recently. Nothing too exceptional about that, except the fact that she is 92 years old!

Greek-born Chrystalla Petropoulou, of Long Island, NY has fulfilled a lifelong dream. At the age of 92, the Mattituck resident has become a nun in the Greek Orthodox Church…

Petropoulou, seated in her wheelchair, officially became a nun on April 17, 2010 at the new All Saints Greek Orthodox Monastery in Calverton, Long Island. Along with Elizabeth Brandenburg, aged 28, and Maria Kallis, aged 27, Petropoulou received a new religious name and a new black habit. The three women each had hair in the shape of a cross ceremonially snipped from their heads.

Petropoulou, aided by her relatives and the Greek Orthdox population in Calverton, was one of the leaders in the community effort to build this monastery. In 1997, Petropoulou herself deposited $13.00 in a special bank account. This $13.00 became the basis of the fund-raising effort to get the monastery built….

In 2005, when the monastery was completed, Sunday services began. But the monastery lacked nuns. Unfortunately Petropoulou, who had dreamt of this since childhood, was now too sick and frail to do it alone. All of that changed when Brandenburg (of St. Louis) and Kallis (of Detroit) agreed to move into the Calverton monastery last August. Petropoulou followed on their heels in September. In all, five women currently live at the Calverton Monastery, and two others are expected soon…

Born in Cyprus, Petropoulou never married and has no children. Although she’d wanted to become a nun “since the day I was born,” life stood in the way. Her family moved first to England, then to the United States, where there was no monastery available in which she could have studied. When she grew older, she stayed at home to care for her elderly parents.

In the end, the dream of her childhood has become a reality. Speaking through an interpreter, Petropoulou told Newsday reporters, “I don’t care about doctors. I don’t care about medicine. I just want to die at the monastery.”

It is encouraging to know that women like Petropoulou are praying for the Church and the world. May God grant her many (more) years!

I have a new article posted over at Catholic Exchange called Better than Bitter — Even in the Face of Scandal. In it, I apply the principles I outlined in my blog post To be deep in history is to cease to be angry to the current scandals facing the Church.

Check it out!

With all the troubles that are afflicting the Church right now, many self-inflicted, faithful Catholics are asking themselves, what can I do? What can I do to help the Church, to overcome the evil that seems to be both inside and right outside the doors of the Church?

The answer is simple: become a saint.

I don’t say that flippantly. I really mean it. There is one way, and one way only, for each of us to help the Church. Become a saint. One of my favorite all-time quotes is from St. Josemaría Escrivá: “These world crises are crises of saints”. All crises that occur in the world are due to a lack of saints, and the only person we can make a saint is ourselves. And the great thing is that the Almighty God wants nothing more than for each of us to be saints, so we have Him on our side in our battle for sanctity.

So what are you waiting for? If you want to help the Church, become a saint. Today.

In today’s first reading, Luke tells us about the unique community that the first Christians formed:

The community of believers was of one heart and mind,
and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own,
but they had everything in common.
With great power the Apostles bore witness
to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus,
and great favor was accorded them all.
There was no needy person among them,
for those who owned property or houses would sell them,
bring the proceeds of the sale,
and put them at the feet of the Apostles,
and they were distributed to each according to need. (Acts 4:32-35)

This is not exactly a passage that we capitalistic Americans like to promote; it appears to come dangerously close to promoting socialism or communism. Many people over the ages have in fact made exactly that claim. So does the practice of the first Christians promote a socialistic economic plan?

I think there are a few things we need to recognize as we read this passage and try to apply it to government economical plans.

1) The Christians’ sharing of all property was voluntary. There is no indication that the first Christians were forced to share all their belongings with the Church; they did so on a voluntary basis. This is obviously much different from a government forcing “sharing” upon its people.

2) This setup was short-lived. There is no historical evidence that this type of communal living lasted very long, and attempts to replicate it over the centuries have all ended in failure. The closest any group has come to replicating it has been monastic communities, but there is a big difference between a group of celibates living together and families living separately but with a common fund.

3) All involved contributed to the best of their ability. In St. Paul’s 2nd letter to the Thessalonians, Paul reminds the Christians there that “we instructed you that if anyone was unwilling to work, neither should that one eat.” (2 Thessalonians 3:10). In other words, if someone tried to get taken care of by the community without pitching in himself, he should not be included in the distribution of food. Clearly this is different from a socialistic system where everyone receives from the government regardless of their own contribution to society.

4) The early Church was a small and closed community. There is no indication that Luke is advocating that entire nations or empires should emulate the early Church in this regard. In fact, the point of this passage is to show the unique and powerful way the Holy Spirit was working in the early Church. It is not a “normal” way of living.

So this passage is not advocating a socialistic or communist governmental system. But I should also hasten to add that neither does it promote capitalism either. In fact, the Bible is pretty agnostic when it comes to advocating economic models for governments. The truth is that no model is perfect and all will be practiced by people afflicted by Original Sin and therefore all will be unjust. Some might be better than others but none are perfect. In fact, I would argue that if we were all without sin, just about any economic model – capitalism, socialism, etc. – would work fine because we would all be putting others first in our lives.

And that is the other lesson we need to take away from this passage: we are obligated as Christians to care for others. For “conservative” Christians living in America, it is sometimes too easy to focus on the obligation of everyone to work to the best of their ability and “pull their own weight”. But as followers of Christ we need to be more focused on our own obligations to care for those less fortunate than ourselves, as Christ makes abundantly clear in the parable of the sheep and the goats. It would be better to help someone who we felt was “lazy” than to not help someone who was deserving of assistance.

Personally, I don’t feel that encouraged to hear that Catholic priests are the same as everyone else. After all, they are called to be alter Christus, not alter homos.

Pray for our priests!

It appears that they are swimming in money.

But, unfortunately, none of it has gone to keep Southern Catholic College afloat, not even until the end of the semester.

The problems that will caused by fraud Maciel will be legion, it seems.

Nearly 1,200 people were baptized last weekend in the Archdiocese of Washington alone. If the angels in heaven rejoice over one person’s conversion (Luke 15:7), then that was quite some party in heaven last Saturday night.

Archbishop Wuerl prays with sex abuse protesters