Podcasts about archbishop charles chaput

We would love YOUR feedback--Send us a Text MessageCan religious freedom withstand the pressures of modern society? Join us on the Theory to Action podcast special of the Catholic Corner as we examine this urgent question through the lens of Archbishop Charles Chaput's impactful book "A Heart on Fire." This episode sheds light on the increasingly precarious state of religious liberty in the United States over the past decade. Tune in to hear how we can collectively fight to keep our faith at the center of our lives!Key Points from the Episode:We'll explore Archbishop Chaput's vital contributions to the Catholic Church and his passionate defense of religious freedom. Together, we'll reflect on the ultimate meaning of true liberty as taught by Jesus Christ—rooted in the pursuit of truth and love for God—and consider the implications of the current administration's stance on this fundamental right. Additionally, we address the alarming global crisis of religious persecution and the critical need for Catholics to publicly and actively witness their faith.In a powerful call to action, we draw upon the timeless teachings of Hillel the Elder, encapsulated in his poignant question, "If not us, who? And if not now, when?" This episode underscores the necessity for Christians and Catholics to vigorously defend their religious rights and to live out their faith authentically in the public arena. By embracing these principles, we pave the way for a flourishing life grounded in our beliefs and values. Other resources: Want to leave a review? Click here, and if we earned a five-star review from you **high five and knuckle bumps**, we appreciate it greatly, thank you so much!Because we care what you think about what we think and our website, please email David@teammojoacademy.com, or if you want to leave us a quick FREE, painless voicemail, we would appreciate it.

Ralph briefly updates the current state of confusion concerning same-sex blessings and shares the amazingly clear and courageous insights of Archbishop Charles Chaput on the distressing situation. "Papal Power and the Obedience of the Faithful" | https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2023/10/91409/ "The Cost of 'Making a Mess" | https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2023/12/the-cost-of-making-a-mess

Lauretta and Mary are joined by Francis X. Maier, author of True Confessions: Voices of Faith in the Church, published by Ignatius Press. They discuss Fran's 27-year career working for Archbishop Charles Chaput, first in Denver and later in Philadelphia. Fran's terrific book includes interviews with bishops, priests, deacons and dozens of lay people. Link to Ignatius Press is below.      Ignatius Press   St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish

Francis X. Maier has been immersed in the life of the Church at different levels for decades. As senior aide to Archbishop Charles Chaput for more than twenty years, and as editor-in-chief of the National Catholic Register for many years before that, he got to know the leaders and major players in the American Church in both professional and personal settings. When he sat down to write a book offering a snapshot of Catholic life in the U.S., he had many contacts in high places to whom he could reach out. But they wouldn't be able to tell the whole story. In writing his new book True Confessions: Voices of Faith from a Life in the Church, Maier conducted more than one hundred candid interviews with individuals living and working in the Church. These included bishops and priests as well as laymen and women serving in various leadership roles. But they also included husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, parish priests and religious sisters living their vocations in low-profile ways: faithfully carrying out their professional duties, loving their families, and building up their local communities. In this episode, host Andrew Petiprin speaks with Maier about what he learned about the American Church while conducting these interviews, and about how our current situation—colored as it is by scandals, political division, and secularism—contains many sources of profound hope. Find True Confessions by Francis X. Maier at Ignatius.com.  

There is a great deal of confusion and controversy in the Church right now concerning the issue of same sex blessings. Whole bishops' conferences have said they will not implement them. Ralph offers some thoughts on how we got here and how we can keep clear in the midst of the confusion. Mentioned documents and articles: Declaration Fiducia Supplicans | On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings: https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_ddf_doc_20231218_fiducia-supplicans_en.html Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith Press Release Concerning the Reception of Fiducia Supplicans: https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_ddf_doc_20240104_comunicato-fiducia-supplicans_en.html 'Fiducia supplicans' is ‘self-contradictory' by Cardinal Gerhard Müller: https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/muller-fiducia-supplicans-is-self Declaration of the Bishops of Cameroon on Homosexuality and the Blessing of "Homosexual Couples": https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ln6i9lwTCMIv5VBmBD6N1UxEUYlmP8Pn/view Email to parishioners from Monsignor Charles Pope: https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/msgr-pope-informs-dc-parishioners-he-will-not-bless-couples-in-same-sex-or-irregular-unions/ Papal Power and the Obedience of the Faithful by Archbishop Charles Chaput: https://whatweneednow.substack.com/p/papal-power-and-the-obedience-of

The Catholic Family as the Domestic Church- Part IX - This week, Peter and Leslie continue their series on rebuilding the Catholic Family. In previous broadcasts, we discussed the writings of Pope St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI, which laid the foundations to rebuild the Catholic Family as the domestic church. In this week's broadcast, we examine the relationship between husband and wife. There is a clear path for married couples to be prepared to build a domestic church in their homes. It starts with each spouse pursuing their relationship with Jesus Christ. Archbishop Charles Chaput, the retired Archbishop of Philadelphia, offered a roadmap for Catholic couples to draw closer to the Lord Jesus and therefore draw close to one another! The Doanes, this week, help married couples, either newly married or "veterans," find the secret to a lasting and blessed marriage founded in the Lord Jesus Christ! The Lord's purpose is to rebuild and renew our families!  

QUESTION: With 90-year-old Joseph Cardinal Zen on trail this week for defying the Chinese Communist Government, where's the Vatican? Why is pope Francis not speaking out in Zen's defense? In this episode of The Remnant Underground, Michael takes a look at this question, as well as the ramifications of two recent developments: 1) Elon Musk takes control of Twitter and the revival of free speech is underway 2) New York Supreme Court rules that the jab does not stop the spread of Covid Both of these developments come as a threat to the globalists, including Team Francis inside the Vatican, especially where Number 2 is concerned.  If Tony Fauci needs to be help responsible for crimes against humanity, certainly so too should Pope Francis.  And now the woke pope's alliance with Globalism and the radical Left is throwing the Catholic Church into civil war. In his bid to become chaplain of the New World Order, Francis has alienated powerful members of the hierarchy, including the former head of the Holy Office. Let's review: Archbishop Charles Chaput blasted any priest who would dare give communion to Joe Biden – a “Catholic” who, according to Chaput, is not in communion with the Catholic Church. Cardinal Zen, who  is now in prison, for standing up to Communist China -- a government with which Francis has signed a secret deal -- called the Vatican Secretary of State a "betrayer".  Bishop Schneider didn't pull any punches where the Vatican is concerned when he appeared in person on Steve Bannon's War Room. Cardinal Muller on EWTN accused Team Francis of engaging in a "hostile takeover of the Catholic Church." Archbishop Vigano, in a recent interview, levelled the Vatican's sellout to Davos. And there're much more. Whether you're Catholic or not, this is big!  Pope Francis -- who provided the moral authority for the global lockdown and climate change revolution -- is facing massive pushback from within his own Church, which is why the Vatican Secretary of State said THIS to the top brass at EWTN in Rome last week.  Finally, the civil war is on. Which side are you on? Plus! Introducing Flores Cardinal Crayola, Prefect of the Congregation for Whole Body Listening… Please support RTV: https://remnantnewspaper.com/web/index.php/donate-today Listen to Michael Matt's podcasts:SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/1AdkCDFfR736CqcGw2Uvd0APPLE: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-michael-j-matt-show/id1563298989 Stay Connected to RTV: Subscribe to The Remnant Newspaper, print and/or digital versions available: https://remnantnewspaper.com/web/index.php/subscribe-today Subscribe to Remnant TV's independent platform: https://remnant-tv.com/user Sign up for Michael Matt's Weekly E-Letter: https://remnantnewspaper.com/web/index.php/subscribe-today/free-remnant-updates  

Archbishop Charles Chaput, OFM Cap., retired in January 2020 as Archbishop of Philadelphia. He sat down with The Pillar Podcast this week to talk about the future of the Church, a Jay-Z song he likes, and his new book, “Things Worth Dying For.”

www.cafeteriacatholicscomehome.comhttps://archphila.org/category/homily/

www.cafeteriacatholicscomehome.comhttps://archphila.org/category/homily/

www.cafeteriacatholicscomehome.comhttps://archphila.org/category/homily/

www.cafeteriacatholicscomehome.comhttps://archphila.org/category/homily/

www.cafeteriacatholicscomehome.comhttps://archphila.org/category/homily/

www.cafeteriacatholicscomehome.comhttps://archphila.org/category/homily/

www.cafeteri acatholicscomehome.comhttps://archphila.org/category/homily/page/3/

www.cafeteri acatholicscomehome.comhttps://archphila.org/category/homily/page/3/

www.cafeteri acatholicscomehome.comhttps://archphila.org/category/homily/page/3/

www.cafeteri acatholicscomehome.comhttps://archphila.org/category/homily/page/3/

On this week's episode, Bishop Burbidge offers: Unity with the Holy Father on the Vatican warning to Germany's "Synodal Way" Congratulations to Ann Augherton, managing editor of the Arlington Catholic Herald, for winning the 2022 St. Francis de Sales Award from the Catholic Media Association Perspective on why we should celebrate the annual World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly with the universal Church this weekend Context the two vocations summer camps for teens — Quo Vadisand FIAT— held at Mount Saint Mary's Seminary this month Commentary on the new apostolic letter from Pope Francis: “On the Liturgical Formation of the People of God” Preview of the upcoming Eucharistic Symposium with Archbishop Charles Chaput held at the Cathedral of Saint Thomas More this fall Thoughts on pro-life efforts since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, along with pregnancy resources despite the current status of abortion access in Virginia  A recap of his A Catechesis on the Human Personamong transgender ideology in the news Bishop Burbidge also answers the following question from the faithful: What is your guidance to the Catholics in the diocese regarding whether or not we should be giving our patronage to companies publicly declaring their support for abortion rights? Do you have any suggestions for my first year of teaching CCD and religious education? In the aftermath of the Roe v. Wade overturning, what is the strategy of the bishops' conference and of our diocese as the pro-life effort continues in the States? What can be done to harden the target of every school and homeschool co-op throughout the diocese to keep children and teachers safe from harm?

In today's episode we explore a powerful insight from retired Archbishop Charles Chaput. He reminds us that if the Catholic Church just becomes one more mouthpiece of ethical pieties and 'I Stand With..." hashtags then we really don't have anything to offer the world they can't get from turning on Oprah or watching The View. We have to be bold and confident in our proclamation of the eternal truths that change the trajectory of every human life. We have to be radical and courageous if we want to live up to the great significance of both our baptism and also our vocational mission as Catholic educators. Grab your free access to my awesome resource for Catholic teachers right here: https://cf.onecatholicteacher.com/oct-opt-in (https://cf.onecatholicteacher.com/oct-opt-in) Find out about booking Jonathan to come and speak at your school or event https://cf.onecatholicteacher.com/catholic-speaking (https://cf.onecatholicteacher.com/catholic-speaking)

The post The Things Worth Dying For: A Conversation with Archbishop Charles Chaput appeared first on AlbertMohler.com.

A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts. www.catholicnewsagency.com - Pope Francis has called for prayers and solidarity after a 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti on Aug. 14. The pope prayed for the people of Haiti from the window overlooking St. Peter's Square at the end of his Sunday Angelus prayer, asking the crowd to offer a Hail Mary. The death toll of the most recent earthquake has reached nearly 1,300. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/248694/pope-francis-urges-solidarity-with-haiti-after-devastating-earthquake Several Latin American Catholic groups asked for help for the thousands of migrants on their way to the US who are stranded in the Darien Gap, a jungle region at the Panama-Colombia border. According to data from the Panamanian authorities, more than 10,000 migrants are in transit in the Colombian-Panamanian border area through the Darien jungle. So far this year more than 40,000 migrants have crossed the border. The archbishops of the area said that it is necessary to establish temporary reception centers for migrants and refugees, in order to guarantee their basic rights. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/248682/latin-american-bishops-ask-help-for-migrants-stranded-in-jungle-on-panama-colombia-border The first annual Mother Angelica Award has been bestowed on Archbishop Charles Chaput, the former archbishop of Philadelphia. The award was created to recognize the foundress of EWTN, Mother Angelica, as well as to honor people who have devoted their lives to service to the Church. In his remarks, Archbishop Chaput said all people who are involved in the New Evangelization should rise above discouragement and despair and maintain a sense of adventure. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/248692/archbishop-chaput-honored-with-first-annual-mother-angelica-award Today, the Church honors St. Stephen of Hungary, an 11th-century king who led his country to embrace the Catholic faith. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-stephen-of-hungary-565

April 20 Hour 2: Archbishop Charles Chaput discusses his new book “Things Worth Dying For”, and Bishop Brendan Cahill talks about the Consecration of one of his own Diocesan priests as an Auxiliary Bishop for Houston. All show notes at Things Worth Dying for/A Bishop’s Ordination - This podcast produced by Relevant Radio

What makes life worth living, and death worth dying? Whom do we love more than ourselves, and why does it matter? Archbishop Charles Chaput sits down with CatholicPhilly.com editor Matt Gambino and producer Gina Christian to share insights from his new book, "Things Worth Dying For: Thoughts on a Life Worth Living." Tune in to find out why the church is and isn't a democracy, what cancel culture really says about our society, and what's on Archbishop Chaput's to-do list once COVID restrictions are eased.

US church membership falls below majority for first time; Archbishop Charles Chaput warns of demise of religious freedom in US; So we do need an appendix; Woke church asserts Mohammed as a prophet; Photosynthesis could be as old as life itself; Radical feminists protest World Down Syndrome Day with horrific chants outside Australia cathedral; Cephalopods are older than was thought . . . and other stories reviewed during this April 7, 2021, broadcast of Answers News. - - - - - - - - - - - “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb.” - - - - - - - - - - - Psalm 139:13 Articles: Taiwanese official begs people to stop changing their name to 'salmon' for free sushi https://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/taiwanese-official-begs-people-stop-changing-name-salmon U.S. Church Membership Falls Below Majority for First Time https://news.gallup.com/poll/341963/church-membership-falls-below-majority-first-time.aspx Archbishop Charles Chaput warns of demise of religious freedom in US https://www.breitbart.com/faith/2021/03/27/archbishop-chaput-warns-demise-religious-freedom-u-s/ What if humans didn't have an appendix https://www.livescience.com/what-if-no-appendix.html Woke church of Sweden theologian: Christians can view Mohammed as a prophet https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/03/23/church-sweden-theologian-christians-can-view-mohammed-prophet/ Photosynthesis could be as old as life itself https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/03/210324142839.htm Watch: Radical feminists protest World Down Syndrome Day with horrific chants outside Australia cathedral https://disrn.com/news/watch-radical-feminists-protest-world-down-syndrome-day-with-horrific-chants-outside-australia-cathedral Cephalopods: Older than was thought? https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/03/210323131233.htm --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/answerstv/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/answerstv/support

In this episode of The Interview, Hugh is joined by Archbishop Charles Chaput.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hugh Hewitt speaks with, Philadelphia Archbishop, Charles Chaput, author of "Things Worth Dying For" about his ancestry, defending our faith, and other faith-based books. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

www.catholiticking.com

www.catholiticking.com

www.catholiticking.com

Archbishop Charles Chaput, Archbishop Emeritus of Philadelphia Mr. Biden and the Matter of Scandal Things Worth Dying For: Thoughts on a Life Worth Living

Don Johnson and Carl Olson discuss various aspects of of our cultural moment, including the fact that even our religious leaders don't seem willing to offer God's perspective on our predicament. Along they way, they reference a recent New York Times article by Pope Francis as well as "Mr Biden and the Matter of Scandal," a First Things piece by Archbishop Charles Chaput. Carl Olson is the editor of Catholic World Report and the author of several books, including Will Catholic be Left Behind? A Catholic Critique of the Rapture and Today's Prophecy Preachers.

Episode 77The USCCB and the vast majority of the bishops who make up this abomination to God are corrupt to the core. I don't like having to call out bishops for the evil things they do, but this show will nonetheless always draw attention to to bad bishops. We can't do anything about removing them, but we Catholic laity can make it painful enough for them to motivate them to possible change—or at least make them start acting more like bishops. Remember: change only happens when a person has suffered enough. In this episode, we're going to see if we can make Bishop John Stowe suffer a little. ResourcesIn an effort to provide you with the best, most helpful experience we can, any resource mentioned in The Cantankerous Catholic podcast will always be listed in this section. Catholic News Notes#5 https://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/doj-tells-maryland-county-churches-have-the-same-rights-as-protests (DOJ Tells Maryland County: Churches Have the Same Rights as Protests) #4 https://www.ncregister.com/blog/matthew-archbold/in-memory-of-don-shula-1930-2020 (Don Shula (1930-2020) Sought True Perfection in Jesus Christ) #3 https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/05/coronavirus-nursing-home-deaths/611053/ (Nuns vs. the Coronavirus) #2 https://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/nhl-all-star-mvp-joins-catholic-roster (NHL All-Star MVP Joins Catholic Roster) #1 https://www.theblaze.com/news/harvard-professor-homeschool-ban-christianity?utm_source=theblaze-dailyPM&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily-Newsletter__PM%202020-05-19&utm_term=TheBlaze%20Daily%20PM%20-%20last%20270%20days (Harvard professor who wants to ban homeschooling says it is used to indoctrinate children with 'extreme' ideologies, like Christianity) Catholicism 101This week Joe Sixpack—The Every Catholic Guy's Catholicism 101 is titled Not One Among Many, But the Only One. Catholic QuotesThis week's quote is from Archbishop Charles Chaput. Catholic StoriesThis episode features a story about a treasure hunt. Joe Sixpack's Stuffhttps://www.etsy.com/shop/EveryCatholicGuy?ref=l2-shop-header-avatar (The Every Catholic Guy Store) This is where you can find a variety of Joe Sixpack—The Every Catholic Guy's coffee mugs and teeshirts with quotes from saints and spiffy Catholic sayings. You might even see a quote or two from Joe Sixpack himself! https://www.joesixpackanswers.com/ (JoeSixpackAnswers.com) https://cantankerouscatholic.com/product/secrets-of-the-catholic-faith/ (Secrets of the Catholic Faith) by Joe Sixpack—The Every Catholic Guy https://cantankerouscatholic.com/product/the-lay-evangelists-handbook-how-any-catholic-can-evangelize-anyone/ (The Lay Evangelist's Handbook) by Joe Sixpack—The Every Catholic Guy https://cantankerouscatholic.com/product/the-best-of-what-we-believe-why-we-believe-it-volume-one/ (The Best of What We Believe... Why We Believe It)https://cantankerouscatholic.com/product/the-best-of-what-we-believe-why-we-believe-it-volume-one/ (—Volume One) by Joe Sixpack—The Every Catholic Guy https://cantankerouscatholic.com/product/the-best-of-what-we-believe-why-we-believe-it-volume-two/ (The Best of What We Believe... Why We Believe It)https://cantankerouscatholic.com/product/the-best-of-what-we-believe-why-we-believe-it-volume-two/ (—Volume Two) by Joe Sixpack—The Every Catholic Guy https://cantankerouscatholic.com/product/the-best-of-what-we-believe-why-we-believe-it-volume-three/ (The Best of What We Believe... Why We Believe It)https://cantankerouscatholic.com/product/the-best-of-what-we-believe-why-we-believe-it-volume-three/ (—Volume Three) by Joe Sixpack—The Every Catholic Guy https://cantankerouscatholic.com/product/the-best-of-what-we-believe-why-we-believe-it-volume-four/ (The Best of What We Believe... Why We Believe It—Volume Four) by Joe Sixpack—The Every Catholic Guy https://amzn.to/2TVYekc (Catechism Of The Catholic Church) FOR PASTORS:"The greatest tragedy in the Catholic Church is the... Support this podcast

Archbishop Nelson Perez was all set to bring new leadership to the Philadelphia Archdiocese - until all of his plans changed. The coronavirus pandemic has eliminated gatherings and kept 1.4 million Catholics in our region at home. Archbishop Perez talks about his very strange and unexpected start in his new job with the church. Our conversation also veers off the COVID-19 course to get his views on God, heaven, leadership and Pope Francis. Recorded at the rectory at Archdiocesan headquarters in Center City, Philadelphia on March 30th, 2020. In this podcast: How the Archbishop is coping during the coronavirus pandemic (1:10), Going back to the day in January 2020 when the church announced his appointment in Philadelphia (3:05), what he says to people whose faith is being tested by the pandemic (3:50), using religion to try to understand horrible events (4:55), using this time to reorganize our priorities (5:25), how he found out he was leaving Cleveland as Archbishop and going back to Philadelphia (5:55), the phone call he received during Martin Luther King weekend and the "are you alone?" question (6:40), his background and how it lead him to Philadelphia twice (8:35), how he used to visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame while serving in Cleveland and his favorite rock bands (9:50), if he considers himself a "Philly guy" and what that even means to him (10:45), what it means to be Philadelphia's first Hispanic Archbishop (11:50), how he apologized for the priest sex abuse scandal within the Catholic Church during his introductory news conference (13:30), what Pope Francis is like (15:10), the different views between himself and his predecessor, Archbishop Charles Chaput (17:05), how he supports the teachings of the church and if he believes women should ever be priests (19:00), his leadership style (19:50), what his vision of God looks like (21:45), if he ever has moments where he wishes he would be able to marry and have children (23:45), how he views the concepts of heaven, hell and purgatory (25:05), what he plans to address during his homily on Easter (26:35), what changes we might see at the other side of this pandemic (29:25), if social distancing might create new, less-desired habits (31:20), what he would say to someone with the simple question: "Will I be okay?" (32:15).

JD and Ed discuss and debate the week’s Catholic news. This time, by popular demand, Ed is the host. Topics discussed, timestamps, and links to learn more: (8:10) Pope’s Council of Cardinal advisors meet to reorganize the Roman Curia: http://bit.ly/38X8EaE; http://bit.ly/2vSyRbO (21:26) The McCarrick Report: http://bit.ly/3bYxjxQ (25:00) Former Cardinal McCarrick’s donations to a religious order: http://bit.ly/3bXtgS7 (30:26) Vatican financial scandal update: http://bit.ly/2PcQ2vB; http://bit.ly/2Pc8HYv (42:52) Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia retires: http://bit.ly/37JYj0r (59:09) Cardinal Zen’s continued outspokenness about the Vatican-China deal: http://bit.ly/2ugR4Q5 (1:10:55) Game 1: “Yes or No” (1:14:47) Game 2: “Name That 90s Church Tune”

▶️ Support this podcast here. We are 100% listener supported. ▶️ For more shows, join our premium community: Coffin Nation Doors open December 1st. ▶️ YouTube: Click Subscribe and "Like" my videos. ************************************************************** The U.S. Bishops met this past week in Baltimore and it was two days of fairly procedural discussions and long speeches and talk of preparing documents that very few people outside that that ballroom will read. But a few things struck me watching the footage of the proceedings and from the transcript of what was said. The first thing I noticed was how many of the interventions expressed viewpoints that are not in fact the teachings of the Catholic Church. To take one example, the bishop of Venice Florida, Bishop Frank Dewane—apparently speaking to previous USCCB statements—supported the idea that civilians should have virtually no access to handguns. Erm, what? The Second Amendment should go? The question of violence in our society is an important one but taking guns away from EVERYONE is worse than putting a Band-Aid on a broken leg, because it ignores the root problems: …the breakdown of the family, the fallout of failed sexual revolution, the skyrocketing divorce rate, the epidemic of depression and suicide. …the exodus out of the Church and away from Jesus Christ. …the secularist media machine hell-bent on selling fear, relativism, and despair. But the real clash of happened on the second day between Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego and Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia. Bishop McElroy does not like the idea of non-negotiables for Catholic voters, Including please sing abortion and euthanasia as more important than the urgent them things like the environment and care for the poor. Full stop. In his address to the Bishops, the Bishop of San Diego expressed displeasure with the phrase “preeminent concern given to the weakest members of society,” a reference to the killing of innocent unborn human beings through abortion. This line appears in a 2015 USCCB document that very few people read called “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship.” The Bishop’s at this week’s meeting are set to publish another letter that contained the line, “the threat of abortion remains our preeminent priority because it directly attacks life itself.” Well, Bishop McElroy objected to the line as being “at least discordant” with the pope’s teachings. He didn’t say why this is, since Pope Francis has referred to abortionists as “hitmen.” Among other things, McElroy said: “It is not Catholic that abortion is the preeminent issue that we face as a world in Catholic social teaching. It is not. For us to say that, particularly when we omit the pope’s articulation of this question, I think is a grave disservice of our people…so either we shouldn’t have “preeminent” in there, or we should have the pope’s full paragraph where he lays out his vision of this same question, delicately balancing all of it in the words he does,” Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler Texas said that he thought preeminent should stay. Next up was Archbishop Chaput wasn’t having any of the reasoning proffered by is brother Bishop McElroy. Archbishop Chaput replied: “I am against anyone stating that our saying [abortion] is ‘preeminent’ is contrary to the teaching of the pope. Because that isn’t true. It sets an artificial battle between the bishops’ conference of the United States and the Holy Father which isn’t true. So I don’t like the argument Bishop McElroy used. It isn’t true. In an unusual break with protocol, the bishop’s broke into applause. This clash right here is a microcosm of the civil war going on right now inside the Catholic Church between those who go along with the word salad and the weaponized ambiguities of Pope Francis, and those who want continuity with the previous 265 popes and sacred Tradition especially in the area of moral theology. First, is this disagreement imaginable under John Paul II or really any previous Pope? Second, many people are beginning to ask why the bishops have to meet in lavish hotels in big cities? Wouldn’t any of the unused or abandoned retreat houses or monasteries across the country provide a more fitting setting? Third, then Cardinal Ratzinger has explained that National Bishops conferences do not have magisterial authority and their pronouncements per se—especially in matters political or prudential—are not binding on the faithful. Not including retirees, there are 433 Bishops in the United States. The airfare alone comes to over $130,000 for this 48 hour event, not including the army of staffers, not including hotel, Ubers, meals ,and other costs. The annual budget of the USCCB is 180 million dollars, and not all of it is funded by donations. For the Catholic Relief Services alone, federal monies accounted for 64.70 percent of its total annual budget. It’s getting harder to know where the Church ends and where the State begins. Somehow the Church in America managed to preach the gospel, celebrate the sacraments, and teach the Faith before then for over 300 years, before the US Conference of Catholic Bishops began in 1966. All things considered, with six adults leaving the Catholic Church for every convert who joins, maybe it’s time to streamline and get back to basics, and seriously consider putting the USCCB out of its misery. Yes? No? Let me know in the comments.

CNA Editors Ed Condon, JD Flynn, and Carl Bunderson are your hosts for this discussion of the week’s most compelling news. On this episode of CNA Editor’s Desk, they discuss the appeal process for an Indiana high school that refused to fire a same-sex married employee; the bishops of Germany continuing to make plans to influence the Amazonian synod; and Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia turning 75 and submitting his resignation. Stick around because the editors play “Who am I in the New Testament?” and “Yes or No.” Links: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/analysis-does-a-vatican-decision-on-brebeuf-jesuit-undermine-archbishop-thompson-73303 https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/analysis-the-pastoral-approach-of-archbishop-charles-chaput-72360 https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/german-synod-plans-to-be-vetted-by-controversial-lay-group-not-vatican-72631

The 1960s southern Democrats "party switch" myth. Excerpts from a great speech by Archbishop Charles Chaput in Philadelphia. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There’s a lot of in-fighting in the Catholic world, among traditional Catholics, among conservative Catholics, and particularly between traditional and conservative Catholics. In this episode, I go full Rodney King and ask, “Can we all just get along?” Topics covered: A desire to “Unite the Clans” “He that is not against us is for us.” […]

During the last half hour of this special broadcast from the University of Mary's Vocations Jamboree, host Fr. Craig Vasek and RPR Executive Director Steve Splonskowski had the pleasure of visiting with Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia and Msgr. James Shea, U-Mary President. Our hosts were also joined by Msgr. Gregory Schlesselmann of the Diocese of Fargo to offer his thoughts and reflections on the Jamboree.

During the last half hour of this special broadcast from the University of Mary's Vocations Jamboree, host Fr. Craig Vasek and RPR Executive Director Steve Splonskowski had the pleasure of visiting with Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia and Msgr. James Shea, U-Mary President. Our hosts were also joined by Msgr. Gregory Schlesselmann of the Diocese of Fargo to offer his thoughts and reflections on the Jamboree.

Joe Towalski talks with Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia about faith in the public square.

Pornography has become a multi-billion dollar industry, harming individuals and families by degrading human dignity and the God-given gift of sexuality. Archbishop Charles Chaput of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia discusses a new initiative to protect families from pornography, and shares the Catholic faith's call to mercy and healing for those struggling with sexual addiction.

Heart to Heart with Mother Miriam *Archbishop Charles Chaput on family *Priest recommendations from Mother *Pope Francis; How should we act towards him?

Archbishop Charles Chaput We had the opportunity to interview Archbishop Charles Chaput at the Into the Breach Phoenix Men’s conference back in February. The first minute did not get recorded so we pick up in the middle of the first question. Hope you enjoy it! Support this podcast

Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia speaks with the same direct, guile-free way he writes. As a pastor of a large American city, he knows his audience: They are largely post-Christian, cynical about “organized religion,” and don’t abide clichés and easy grace. Archbishop Chaput (pronounced SHAP-you) is also a member of the Prairie Band Potawatomi tribe, the second Native American to be consecrated a bishop in the United States and the first Native American archbishop. You might say he comes from a non-immigrant family. I spoke with him about his latest book, Strangers in a Stranger Land: Living the Catholic Faith In a Post-Christian World, a sort of follow-up to the thesis he laid out seven years ago in First Things journal essay, “Catholics and the Next America.” That America is here. Ignited Catholics eager to spread the gospel…not so much. Chaput has been called “alarmist” by the usual suspects in the lamescream media. Christian realist is more accurate. As Christian leaders go, His Excellency is hard-headed and soft-hearted, not the other way around. You’ll find this a conversation worth sharing after you enjoy it yourself.   Don’t forget to subscribe to the show, to get the very latest. Also, please leave an honest review of the show in iTunes. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated!

The Feast of the Conversion of Saint Augustine on April 24, marked the official decree of the opening of the diocesan Cause for the beatification and canonization of the Servant of God, Father Bill Atkinson, O.S.A. Archbishop Charles Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., was the presider at the Eucharist celebrated at Saint Thomas of Villanova (campus) Church, which preceded.

The Feast of the Conversion of Saint Augustine on April 24, marked the official decree of the opening of the diocesan Cause for the beatification and canonization of the Servant of God, Father Bill Atkinson, O.S.A. Archbishop Charles Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., was the presider at the Eucharist celebrated at Saint Thomas of Villanova (campus) Church, which preceded.

The Feast of the Conversion of Saint Augustine on April 24, marked the official decree of the opening of the diocesan Cause for the beatification and canonization of the Servant of God, Father Bill Atkinson, O.S.A. Archbishop Charles Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., was the presider at the Eucharist celebrated at Saint Thomas of Villanova (campus) Church, which preceded.

The Feast of the Conversion of Saint Augustine on April 24, marked the official decree of the opening of the diocesan Cause for the beatification and canonization of the Servant of God, Father Bill Atkinson, O.S.A. Archbishop Charles Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., was the presider at the Eucharist celebrated at Saint Thomas of Villanova (campus) Church, which preceded.

Summary of today's show: Who is Pope Francis? Scot Landry and Fr. Roger Landry talk about the former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, now Pope Francis, who he is, how he was elected, what he was like as a Jesuit priest and archbishop in Argentina, and what we can expect from him in the future. Plus, how to address all the supposed controversies that will be dragged up to try to throw doubt on him. Listen to the show: Watch the show via live video streaming or a recording later: Today's host(s): Scot Landry Today's guest(s): Fr. Roger Landry Links from today's show: Today's topics: LIVE from Rome: Who is Pope Francis? 1st segment: Scot welcomed everyone to the show. Last night we heard the announcement of Pope Francis and he said it was a great honor to be in the crowd. He thinks the Church is going to love Pope Francis. He has lived a simple life as archbishop of Buenos Aires. HE thinks he will be a pope of signs and gestures. He welcomed Fr. Roger to the show. Fr. Roger said he was on live with Fox News and while Megyn Kelly was hesitant to say it was white smoke, he said it was clearly white compared to the previous black smoke. As soon as he was done, he ran down the stairs to the street and ran the blocks to the St. Peter's Square so he could do a live video on his iPhone so his parishioners back home could experience it. Fr. Roger said he'd originally thought after five ballots, the odds were high it was Cardinal Scola or maybe it was Cardinal Dolan. He said when Cardinal Tauran came out and said “Georgium”, he quickly ran through the handful of Georges among the cardinals and then was stunned to hear “Bergoglio”. Scot said he and George Martell were up front among young people and young sisters. They couldn't hear clearly and so when he heard Franciscum, he thought maybe he'd misheard earlier and it might be Cardinal Seán. There was a long wait for the Holy Father to come out and they saw the new Pope Francis. Scot said he was very quiet and he paused for a long time looking out on St. Peter's Square. He might have been reflecting on his awesome new responsibility. Fr. Roger said he has a beautiful smile but his reputation is that he doesn't let it erupt very often. Fr. Roger said his Italian is beautiful because his parents were Italian immigrants to Argentina. His first words were simple and humble. He addressed everyone as brothers and sisters. He immediately said, “Rome has her bishop.” He was making a connection to one of his principal duties. Today, he went over to St. Mary Major to pray before an image of Our Lady. There was a fire in the 6th century that would have destroyed a major part of the city and Pope St. George carried the image in procession through the fire and extinguished it. It was made famous again in 1940 when Pope Pius XII processed with the image all night to pray that Rome would be spared from Nazi carpetbombing. Huge cloud cover came over and instead the bombs dropped on a huge cemetery outside the city. Scot said two things stood out to him. The first was that he kept calling himself Bishop of Rome, not Supreme Pontiff or Pope. Something else that stood out to him was that he asked everyone to pray over him before he blessed the crowd. Fr. Roger said it shows that he's first a man of prayer. He suffered in the Church in Argentina as the Jesuit order there had been taken over by those who believed in a Marxist Gospel. He was or less banished to be a simple chaplain, but he ended up becoming a great confessor and spiritual director. So his first act as pope was to lead everyone in prayer for Benedict XVI. Fr. Roger made the distinction that he asked us to pray for God to bless him. What moved Fr. Roger was how profoundly he bowed during the prayer to receive the strength to do what he's been asked to do. Fr. Roger gave him his priestly blessing just like newly ordained priests give their bishop a blessing during their ordination Mass. Scot asked the significance of the name Francis. He's very popular in Italy and one of the two patron saints of Italy with St. Catherine of Siena. Fr. Roger said St. Francis was praying in the dilapidated church of San Damiano and heard Christ speak from the crucifix to rebuild his church. At first he thought it meant rebuild that chapel, but then the Lord made it clear to rebuild the church of men, women, and children, the living stones. When St. Francis came to Rome, on the eve of his appearance, Pope Innocent had a dream of a man in a burlap sack holding up the corner of St. John Lateran Church, the pope's cathedral. The next day he saw this friar from his dream came in. He had been there to ask to start a religious order, which wasn't being done any more because they thought there were too many already. Pope Francis knows that the reform begins with each of us living our faith, living stone by living stone, this is how Christ's whole Church will proclaim that is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. Scot asked the significance of a Jesuit taking the name of St. Francis. Fr. Roger said he shares St. Francis' love for the poor and his personal simplicity. He thinks it's a unifier in that St. Francis is the one human being, no matter what religion or no religion, consider the one saint. There is universal reverence for St. Francis of Assisi. Pope Francis, if he lives up to the standard, will unite the Church in prayer and simple, humble service. Scot said he's likely to be a pope of symbols. As archbishop, he gave up his mansion and moved into an apartment, gave up his limo and rode public transportation, and gave up his cook to make his own meals. Even last night, he eschewed the papal limo and took the cardinals' bus back to the Casa S. Martae. He preached that he didn't need any of the fancy things of his office. Fr. Roger said there's a distinction between symbols and signs. Symbols are arbitrary, like a stop sign. Smoke is a sign of a fire which points naturally to what it's related. So his actions are signs pointing to a real connection. It was far more symbolic, but signs of who he is and who we as Christians ought to be. When he invited the ailing emeritus archbishop to live with him in that apartment and cooked meals for both of them, he invited in a very poor community to use the episcopal residence. He's trying to live as Jesus would live. You can't preach the Gospel to the poor arriving in a Mercedes-Benz. In the 2005 conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI, information came out that Cardinal Bergoglio was runner up and had 40 votes in the second to last ballot. It's also reported he stood and asked his supporters to vote for Ratzinger. It shows he's had strong support from his brother cardinals and he wasn't gunning for the job. Fr. Roger said for all the cardinals all who participated in 2005, about half of those still in this years' conclave, Pope Francis wouldn't have lost any of those qualities. He is a teacher who teaches by his lips and life; he's a reformer who reformed the Jesuits in Argentina and the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires. That means he's a man who could clean up the Roman Curia. Scot said he's the first pope from the Americas, first Francis, and first Jesuit. Scot said Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia said Pope Francis comes from the new heartland of the Catholic Church. Forty-two percent of Catholics come from Latin America. Fr. Roger said he's thrilled to have the first American pope. We've been formed by the European missionaries and now Europe needs to be re-evangelized. Italians noted how well Pope Francis spoke Italian, a native son who brought back real gifts from abroad. Scot said in the US we call ourselves Americans, but everyone in North, South and Central America are Americans. In the eyes of the Church, America includes all three. He said if you measure from the tip of Alaska to the tip of Chile, Mexico City where our Lady of Guadalupe appeared is dead center. We should be proud of him as a native son. Scot said he's pleased to see that Pope Francis asked someone to send out a tweet at the @Pontifex Twitter handle with the simple Habemus Papam Franciscum. Fr. Roger thinks he will continue to use media. Pope Francis knows the importance of using every pulpit possible to reach the people where they are. We'll see the continuation of this path in new media as a priority. Scot noted the Holy Father's sense of humor in toasting the cardinals and saying, “May God forgive you” for electing him. Fr. Roger talked about the Holy Father's emphasis in his ministry on God's forgiveness and merciful love. They noted his episcopal motto translates as “Needing mercy and being chosen”. Scot and Fr. Roger discussed the controversies the media will latch onto. First, there is the claim of complicity with the military junta in Argentina. Second, supporting the Church's teaching on contraception, and Third, supporting the church's teaching on the family. On the first, two of his Jesuit priests wanted to advocate violence to overturn the military junta. When they were arrested, they asked him, as provincial minister, to lie to protect them and he refused. Later he also stood up for them and put his life on the line to ask for them to be released. But he didn't lie. On the teaching on contraception and condoms, it's said he advocated the use of condoms for the prevention of disease. Most Catholics don't know the Church's teaching with regard to contraception. Pope Paul VI said it's immoral for a married couple to use it to prevent conception. But in regards to acts of violence, like marital rape by a husband with AIDS, that's different. Scot said some of the media have talked about how the new Holy Father could change the doctrine of the Church, which isn't possible. On the third element, he taught what the Church has always taught about the family and the rights of children to be raised in the context of mother and father. Fr. Roger said Pope Francis defies categorization as a moderate, conservative or liberal. Catholics are to be 100% faithful to the Good News and 100% faithful to the Lord's command to love one another. He's 100% orthodox and 100% charitable. He has said that same-sex activity is sinful, but those with those attractions are to be loved and afforded all their human rights, which don't include the right to marry another of the same sex or to adopt children along with someone of the same sex. Pope Francis said children have a right to be raised by a mother and father, and children raised by two men or two women often report as adults that they have suffered as a result. It's child abuse when we say a child doesn't need both a mother and father, which is different from saying that if circumstances require they can be raised by one or another of their parents. It's about saying a child doesn't need a mother and a father. Fr. Roger said the evil of sexual abuse of minors is horrible and disgusting. When Jesus was talking about the worst imaginable sin, he said one who hears what I says and teaches other to fail to live it is fit to be tied to a millstone and thrown in the sea. As evil as sexual abuse of minors is, this type of poison of false teaching that leads people away from heaven is even worse, if we can imagine it. Our culture can't pretend that there isn't real truth or that all paths lead to heaven. Pope Francis has fought that and the Church has fought it. We need to understand the importance of communicating the Good News even when we are signs of contradiction. Scot said we look forward to Pope Francis' first few days. He's going to meet with Benedict XVI, meet with journalists, and on Sunday give a blessing at the Angelus, and on Tuesday morning there will be the Mass of inauguration and installation. Fr. Roger talked of what he thinks we'll see from Pope Francis soon. He believes the Roman Curia reform will begin soon through his preaching and actions. He will lay the foundations over the next few days.

Summary of today's show: As we close in on Election Day, we celebrate our 400th episode by beginning in earnest our formation as Catholics in the public square. Scot Landry and Fr. Chris O'Connor continue looking at the 1998 document from the US bishops called “Living the Gospel of Life”, which Archbishop Charles Chaput calls “the best tool anywhere for understanding the American Catholic political vocation”. Scot and Fr. Chris consider the second part of the document, which includes calls to specific groups of Catholics to recognize the hierarchy of rights that puts the right to life and the dignity of all human life first and foremost. Listen to the show: Watch the show via live video streaming or a recording later: Today's host(s): Scot Landry and Fr. Chris O'Connor Today's topics: Living the Gospel of Life: Part 2 1st segment: Scot Landry and Fr. Chris O'Connor talked about their weekend. Fr. Chris said he was called out to perform an anointing for a man who was dying of cancer. He was struck by the fact that this was dying with dignity, to be surrounded by loved ones and cared for by medical professionals who also cared for the family. Fr. Chris said he preached on the subject of dying with dignity and Question 2. He said it's a tough subject to talk about in the presence of so many children, but he though that the more culture turns in on itself and gets twisted. He doesn't want to offend the sensibility of the little ones while edifying the adults. Many people said they hadn't heard of the assisted suicide question or misunderstood it. He pointed out that it's not physician-assisted suicide because the physician doesn't provide any assistance except to write a prescription. Scot said the doctor is not present when the fatal prescription is ingested. In many ways, it's dying alone. He said yesterday the Boston Herald, Worcester Telegram and Gazette joined The New Bedford Standard-Times in opposing Question 2. Fr. Chris said it makes sense to him why even doctors and nurses oppose this bill after seeing the doctors and nurses caring for the dying over the weekend. Today's topic is the second part of a two-part series discussing the US bishops' 1998 document “Living the Gospel of Life.” Scot reminded listeners he'd never heard of this document until reading Archbishop Chaput's book “Render Unto Caesar” over the weekend. We start with Section 3, Paragraph 16. This does not make America sectarian. It does, however, underline the crucial role God's sovereignty has played in the architecture of American politics. While the founders were a blend of Enlightenment rationalists and traditional Christians, generations of Jews, Muslims, other religious groups and non-believers have all found a home in the United States. This is so because the tolerance of our system is rooted in the Jewish-Christian principle that even those who differ from one another in culture, appearance and faith still share the same rights. We believe that this principle still possesses the power to enlighten our national will. The Second Vatican Council, in its Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes), praises those women and men who have a vocation to public office. It encourages active citizenship. It also reminds us that, “The political community … exists for the common good: This is its full justification and meaning, and the source of its specific and basic right to exist. The common good embraces all those conditions of social life which enable individuals, families and organizations to achieve complete and efficacious fulfillment” (74). In pursuing the common good, citizens should “cultivate a generous and loyal spirit of patriotism, but without narrow-mindedness … [they must also] be conscious of their specific and proper role in the political community: They should be a shining example by their sense of responsibility and their dedication to the common good …” (75). As to the role of the Church in this process: “… The political community and the Church are autonomous and independent of each other in their own fields. Nevertheless, both are devoted to the personal vocation of man, though under different titles … [yet] at all times and in all places, the Church should have the true freedom to teach the faith, to proclaim its teaching about society, to carry out its task among men without hindrance, and to pass moral judgment even in matters relating to politics, whenever the fundamental rights of man or the salvation of souls requires it” (76; emphasis added). Pope John Paul II elaborates on this responsibility in his 1988 apostolic exhortation, The Vocation and the Mission of the Lay Faithful in the Church and in the World (Christifideles Laici): “The inviolability of the person, which is a reflection of the absolute inviolability of God, finds its primary and fundamental expression in the inviolability of human life. Above all, the common outcry, which is justly made on behalf of human rights — for example, the right to health, to home, to work, to family, to culture — is false and illusory if the right to life, the most basic and fundamental right and the condition of all other personal rights, is not defended with maximum determination … The human being is entitled to such rights in every phase of development, from conception until natural death, whether healthy or sick, whole or handicapped, rich or poor … [Moreover, if,] indeed, everyone has the mission and responsibility of acknowledging the personal dignity of every human being and of defending the right to life, some lay faithful are given particular title to this task: such as parents, teachers, healthworkers and the many who hold economic and political power” (38). We believe that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a “Gospel of life.” It invites all persons and societies to a new life lived abundantly in respect for human dignity. We believe that this Gospel is not only a complement to American political principles, but also the cure for the spiritual sickness now infecting our society. As Scripture says, no house can stand divided against itself (Lk 11:17). We cannot simultaneously commit ourselves to human rights and progress while eliminating or marginalizing the weakest among us. Nor can we practice the Gospel of life only as a private piety. American Catholics must live it vigorously and publicly, as a matter of national leadership and witness, or we will not live it at all. Scot said it is the role of the Church to speak up when the rights of man require it. The Church isn't asking for theocracy, but we have a right to be heard and contribute to social discourse on various issues. If we make ourselves silent, then a huge voice for good is silenced. Fr. Chris said the Church is one of the only prophetic voices left in our society. The Church serves every man, women, and child and the common good. The Church has a right to speak and to invite men and women of good conscience who wants to join the cause. The Church teaches the truth and when people hear the truth, they are attracted to it. Scot said #19 is one of the best in the document. It talks about the call of everyone and that of particular people who have a particular task in proclaiming the right to life, especially anyone who leads other people. Fr. Chris said if you want to know the health of a culture, see how it takes care of its marginalized. There's a hierarchy of rights that the right to life presumes the other rights. I have to have a right o life in order to be free, to pursue liberty and happiness. When we go into the voting booth we have to take that into consideration. Scot said in #20, we can't live the Gospel of life privately. We can't say our faith is only meant for our home or in church. We have to live it in the public square. Fr. Chris said this counters the formulation “I'm personally opposed but I can't impose my beliefs on others.” Abortion is intrinsically evil and we are called to protect the unborn, the weak, the suicidal and sick when we enter the voting booth. “It is impossible to further the common good without acknowledging and defending the right to life, upon which all the other inalienable rights of individuals are founded and from which they develop.” Pope John Paul II, The Gospel of Life Bringing a respect for human dignity to practical politics can be a daunting task. There is such a wide spectrum of issues involving the protection of human life and the promotion of human dignity. Good people frequently disagree on which problems to address, which policies to adopt and how best to apply them. But for citizens and elected officials alike, the basic principle is simple: We must begin with a commitment never to intentionally kill, or collude in the killing, of any innocent human life, no matter how broken, unformed, disabled or desperate that life may seem. In other words, the choice of certain ways of acting is always and radically incompatible with the love of God and the dignity of the human person created in His image. Direct abortion is never a morally tolerable option. It is always a grave act of violence against a woman and her unborn child. This is so even when a woman does not see the truth because of the pressures she may be subjected to, often by the child's father, her parents or friends. Similarly, euthanasia and assisted suicide are never acceptable acts of mercy. They always gravely exploit the suffering and desperate, extinguishing life in the name of the “quality of life” itself. This same teaching against direct killing of the innocent condemns all direct attacks on innocent civilians in time of war. Pope John Paul II has reminded us that we must respect every life, even that of criminals and unjust aggressors. It is increasingly clear in modern society that capital punishment is unnecessary to protect people's safety and the public order, so that cases where it may be justified are “very rare, if not practically non-existent.” No matter how serious the crime, punishment that does not take life is “more in conformity with the dignity of the human person” (Evangelium Vitae, 56-7). Our witness to respect for life shines most brightly when we demand respect for each and every human life, including the lives of those who fail to show that respect for others. The antidote to violence is love, not more violence. As we stressed in our 1995 statement Political Responsibility: “The application of Gospel values to real situations is an essential work of the Christian community.” Adopting a consistent ethic of life, the Catholic Church promotes a broad spectrum of issues “seeking to protect human life and promote human dignity from the inception of life to its final moment.”9 Opposition to abortion and euthanasia does not excuse indifference to those who suffer from poverty, violence and injustice. Any politics of human life must work to resist the violence of war and the scandal of capital punishment. Any politics of human dignity must seriously address issues of racism, poverty, hunger, employment, education, housing, and health care. Therefore, Catholics should eagerly involve themselves as advocates for the weak and marginalized in all these areas. Catholic public officials are obliged to address each of these issues as they seek to build consistent policies which promote respect for the human person at all stages of life. But being ‘right' in such matters can never excuse a wrong choice regarding direct attacks on innocent human life. Indeed, the failure to protect and defend life in its most vulnerable stages renders suspect any claims to the ‘rightness' of positions in other matters affecting the poorest and least powerful of the human community. If we understand the human person as the “temple of the Holy Spirit” — the living house of God — then these latter issues fall logically into place as the crossbeams and walls of that house. All direct attacks on innocent human life, such as abortion and euthanasia, strike at the house's foundation. These directly and immediately violate the human person's most fundamental right — the right to life. Neglect of these issues is the equivalent of building our house on sand. Such attacks cannot help but lull the social conscience in ways ultimately destructive of other human rights. As Pope John Paul II reminds us, the command never to kill establishes a minimum which we must respect and from which we must start out “in order to say ‘yes' over and over again, a ‘yes' which will gradually embrace the entire horizon of the good” (Evangelium Vitae, 75). Since the entry of Catholics into the U.S. political mainstream, believers have struggled to balance their faith with the perceived demands of democratic pluralism. As a result, some Catholic elected officials have adopted the argument that, while they personally oppose evils like abortion, they cannot force their religious views onto the wider society. This is seriously mistaken on several key counts. First, regarding abortion, the point when human life begins is not a religious belief but a scientific fact — a fact on which there is clear agreement even among leading abortion advocates. Second, the sanctity of human life is not merely Catholic doctrine but part of humanity's global ethical heritage, and our nation's founding principle. Finally, democracy is not served by silence. Most Americans would recognize the contradiction in the statement, “While I am personally opposed to slavery or racism or sexism I cannot force my personal view on the rest of society.” Real pluralism depends on people of conviction struggling vigorously to advance their beliefs by every ethical and legal means at their disposal. Today, Catholics risk cooperating in a false pluralism. Secular society will allow believers to have whatever moral convictions they please — as long as they keep them on the private preserves of their consciences, in their homes and churches, and out of the public arena. Democracy is not a substitute for morality, nor a panacea for immorality. Its value stands — or falls — with the values which it embodies and promotes. Only tireless promotion of the truth about the human person can infuse democracy with the right values. This is what Jesus meant when He asked us to be leaven in society. American Catholics have long sought to assimilate into U.S. cultural life. But in assimilating, we have too often been digested. We have been changed by our culture too much, and we have changed it not enough. If we are leaven, we must bring to our culture the whole Gospel, which is a Gospel of life and joy. That is our vocation as believers. And there is no better place to start than promoting the beauty and sanctity of human life. Those who would claim to promote the cause of life through violence or the threat of violence contradict this Gospel at its core. Scripture calls us to “be doers of the word and not hearers only … [for] faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead” (Jas 1:22, 2:17). Jesus Himself directs us to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations … teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you …” (Mt 28:19-20). Life in Christ is a life of active witness. It demands moral leadership. Each and every person baptized in the truth of the Catholic faith is a member of the “people of life” sent by God to evangelize the world. God is always ready to answer our prayers for help with the virtues we need to do His will. First and foremost we need the courage and the honesty to speak the truth about human life, no matter how high the cost to ourselves. The great lie of our age is that we are powerless in the face of the compromises, structures and temptations of mass culture. But we are not powerless. We can make a difference. We belong to the Lord, in Him is our strength, and through His grace, we can change the world. We also need the humility to listen well to both friend and opponent on the abortion issue, learning from each and forgetting ourselves. We need the perseverance to continue the struggle for the protection of human life, no matter what the setbacks, trusting in God and in the ultimate fruitfulness of the task He has called us to. We need the prudence to know when and how to act in the public arena — and also to recognize and dismiss that fear of acting which postures as prudence itself. And finally we need the great foundation of every apostolic life: faith, hope and charity. Faith not in moral or political abstractions, but in the personal presence of God; hope not in our own ingenuity, but in His goodness and mercy; and love for others, including those who oppose us, rooted in the love God showers down on us. These virtues, like the Gospel of Life which they help animate, have serious implications for every Christian involved in any way in the public life of the nation. Scot said in #23, as they listed various forms of standing up for life and violations of human rights, they said being in right in many areas can never excuse being wrong about direct attacks on human life. Advocating against direct attacks comes first if we want to advocate against indirect attacks. Fr. Chris said it's the false premise of proportionalism. We can't say that we will save 99 lives and let one die. Every life is so sacred and valuable that we can't directly cause the taking of a life. The bishops say it's seriously mistaken to say it's not a human life and that the sanctity of human life is not just a Catholic idea. Also, democracy isn't served by silence. We can't mute ourselves on this. Scot said abortion continues in this country because too many of us have not stood up to defend life in the womb. Scot said people deserve to hear why we believe what we believe. Everybody needs to hear us in the public square, whether we are successful or not. If God moves their hearts, all the better; if not, we're better for sharing our faith. Fr. Chris said our Constitution provides for us to speak about religiously defined beliefs in the public square. Scot said we only hear about separation of church and state, it's only from people who disagree with us. When we talk about serving the poor, no one tries to shout us down. Fr. Chris said these discussions should not become vicious and brutal, but rather should be based on mutuality and respect for the other, in the hopes that truth will surface. In #25, the bishops discuss the long battle to be assimilated into American life, but that desire for assimilation has often resulted in Catholics being changed too much by the culture than vice versa. Fr. Chris said we are called to based our decisions on our faith and one science and reason. They discussed recent formulations of the opposing approaches by Catholic politicians. The bishops in #27 talk about the virtues we need. Scot and Fr. Chris skipped over #29 and #30 which address bishops, priests, religious, catechists, teachers, and theologians. As bishops, we have the responsibility to call Americans to conversion, including political leaders, and especially those publicly identified as Catholic. As the Holy Father reminds us in The Splendor of the Truth (Veritatis Splendor): “… [It] is part of our pastoral ministry to see to it that [the Church's] moral teaching is faithfully handed down, and to have recourse to appropriate measures to ensure that the faithful are guarded from every doctrine and theory contrary to it” (116). As chief teachers in the Church, we must therefore explain, persuade, correct and admonish those in leadership positions who contradict the Gospel of life through their actions and policies. Catholic public officials who disregard Church teaching on the inviolability of the human person indirectly collude in the taking of innocent life. A private call to conversion should always be the first step in dealing with these leaders. Through prayer, through patiently speaking the truth in love, and by the witness of our lives, we must strive always to open their hearts to the God-given dignity of the unborn and of all vulnerable persons. So also we must remind these leaders of their duty to exercise genuine moral leadership in society. They do this not by unthinking adherence to public opinion polls or by repeating empty pro-choice slogans, but by educating and sensitizing themselves and their constituents to the humanity of the unborn child. At the same time we need to redouble our efforts to evangelize and catechize our people on the dignity of life and the wrongness of abortion. Nonetheless, some Catholic officials may exclude themselves from the truth by refusing to open their minds to the Church's witness. In all cases, bishops have the duty and pastoral responsibility to continue to challenge those officials on the issue in question and persistently call them to a change of heart. As bishops we reflect particularly on the words of the Office of Readings: Let us be neither dogs that do not bark nor silent onlookers nor paid servants who run away before the wolf. Instead, let us be careful shepherds watching over Christ's flock. Let us preach the whole of God's plan to the powerful and the humble, to rich and to poor, to men of every rank and age, as far as God gives us the strength, in season and out of season, as St. Gregory writes in his book of Pastoral Instruction.10 Priests, religious, catechists, Catholic school teachers, family life ministers and theologians all share, each in their appropriate way, in the Church's task of forming the Catholic faithful in a reverence for the sanctity of life. We call them to a renewed commitment to that task. In their words and example, they should witness loyally and joyfully to the truth that every human life, at every stage of development, is a gift from God. Physicians, nurses and healthcare workers can touch the lives of women and girls who may be considering abortion with practical assistance, counseling and adoption alternatives. Equally important, they should be conscious evangelizers of their own professions, witnessing by word and example that God is the Lord of life. Catholics who are privileged to serve in public leadership positions have an obligation to place their faith at the heart of their public service, particularly on issues regarding the sanctity and dignity of human life. Thomas More, the former chancellor of England who preferred to give his life rather than betray his Catholic convictions, went to his execution with the words, “I die the king's good servant, but God's first.” In the United States in the late 1990s, elected officials safely keep their heads. But some will face a political penalty for living their public office in accord with their pro-life convictions. To those who choose this path, we assure them that their course is just, they save lives through their witness, and God and history will not forget them. Moreover, the risk of witness should not be exaggerated, and the power of witness should not be underestimated. In an age of artifice, many voters are hungry for substance. They admire and support political figures who speak out sincerely for their moral convictions. For our part we commend Catholic and other public officials who, with courage and determination, use their positions of leadership to promote respect for all human life. We urge those Catholic officials who choose to depart from Church teaching on the inviolability of human life in their public life to consider the consequences for their own spiritual well being, as well as the scandal they risk by leading others into serious sin. We call on them to reflect on the grave contradiction of assuming public roles and presenting themselves as credible Catholics when their actions on fundamental issues of human life are not in agreement with Church teaching. No public official, especially one claiming to be a faithful and serious Catholic, can responsibly advocate for or actively support direct attacks on innocent human life. Certainly there are times when it may be impossible to overturn or prevent passage of a law which allows or promotes a moral evil — such as a law allowing the destruction of nascent human life. In such cases, an elected official, whose position in favor of life is known, could seek legitimately to limit the harm done by the law. However, no appeal to policy, procedure, majority will or pluralism ever excuses a public official from defending life to the greatest extent possible. As is true of leaders in all walks of life, no political leader can evade accountability for his or her exercise of power (Evangelium Vitae, 73-4). Those who justify their inaction on the grounds that abortion is the law of the land need to recognize that there is a higher law, the law of God. No human law can validly contradict the Commandment: “Thou shalt not kill.” The Gospel of Life must be proclaimed, and human life defended, in all places and all times. The arena for moral responsibility includes not only the halls of government, but the voting booth as well. Laws that permit abortion, euthanasia and assisted suicide are profoundly unjust, and we should work peacefully and tirelessly to oppose and change them. Because they are unjust they cannot bind citizens in conscience, be supported, acquiesced in, or recognized as valid. Our nation cannot countenance the continued existence in our society of such fundamental violations of human rights. We encourage all citizens, particularly Catholics, to embrace their citizenship not merely as a duty and privilege, but as an opportunity meaningfully to participate in building the culture of life. Every voice matters in the public forum. Every vote counts. Every act of responsible citizenship is an exercise of significant individual power. We must exercise that power in ways that defend human life, especially those of God's children who are unborn, disabled or otherwise vulnerable. We get the public officials we deserve. Their virtue — or lack thereof — is a judgment not only on them, but on us. Because of this, we urge our fellow citizens to see beyond party politics, to analyze campaign rhetoric critically, and to choose their political leaders according to principle, not party affiliation or mere self-interest. We urge parents to recall the words of the Second Vatican Council and our Holy Father in On the Family (Familiaris Consortio), that the family is “the first and vital cell of society” (42).11 As the family goes, so goes our culture. Parents are the primary educators of their children, especially in the important areas of human sexuality and the transmission of human life. They shape society toward a respect for human life by first being open to new life themselves; then by forming their children — through personal example — with a reverence for the poor, the elderly and developing life in the womb. Families which live the Gospel of life are important agents of evangelization through their witness. But additionally, they should organize “to see that the laws and institutions of the state not only do not offend, but support and actively defend the rights and duties of the family,” for the purpose of transforming society and advancing the sanctity of life (44). Women have a unique role in the transmission and nurturing of human life. They can best understand the bitter trauma of abortion and the hollowness and sterility at the heart of the vocabulary of “choice.” Therefore, we ask women to assume a special role in promoting the Gospel of life with a new pro-life feminism. Women are uniquely qualified to counsel and support other women facing unexpected pregnancies, and they have been in the vanguard of establishing and staffing the more than 3000 pregnancy aid centers in the United States. They, in a way more fruitful than any others, can help elected officials to understand that any political agenda which hopes to uphold equal rights for all, must affirm the equal rights of every child, born and unborn. They can remind us that our nation's declaration of God-given rights, coupled with the command “Thou shalt not kill,” are the starting points of true freedom. To choose any other path is to contradict our own identity as a nation dedicated to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Scot said sometimes Catholics in political life say if they vote their faith they won't be re-elected and they won't be able to do the good they want to do in Washington. But the bishops say the power of witness should not be underestimated. He said the bishops are telling them to first consider their eternal life. Fr. Chris said the bishops are calling politicians to grow a backbone and stand up for what's right and true. Someday, the future will look at us today and call us a barbaric culture. We're immune and not cognizant to how destructive this culture is. Scot noted that before the Civil War, many northerners didn't think about the evil of slavery and only when they were confronted with its immorality did they stand up against it. Fr. Chris said when we think of the abolitionists or Martin Luther King standing up for religious rights, these were public leaders bringing their faith into the public square. Scot said the bishops tell us that we get the public officials we deserve if we don't hold them to a standard of virtue and defense of life. When we do get them, we need to give them support. Scot says he reflects on how he has to send checks to those who he sees running for office and standing up for life.Our faith informs every part of our life, including financially helping some of these candidates. In #36, we see a special message to women. Scot said it seems that women in our culture today are considered the swing votes appealed to by candidates at every level. We have a society in which women can turn the tide against abortion if they speak up. Scot said some groups like NOW say that the only issue that women care about is abortion and access to free contraception and many women feel insulted that they are boiled down to these two issues, rather than jobs, a stable society, and many of the issues that motivate men. Fr. Chris said the abortion rate wreaks disastrous effects on women. In China we see where sex-selection abortion results in girls being aborted at a high rate. Similar effects are in place in the US. Scot noted that Planned Parenthood and NOW have been the biggest opponents of laws to criminalize sex-selection abortion. Scot and Fr. Chris said this is a great document for all Americans to hear or read ahead of the election. We commend all who proclaim and serve the Gospel of Life. By their peaceful activism, education and prayer, they witness to God's truth and embody our Lord's command to love one another as He loved us. By their service to women who have experienced abortion, they bring His peace and consolation. We urge them to persevere in this difficult work, and not to be discouraged. Like the Cross of our Lord, faithful dedication to the Gospel of Life is a “sign of contradiction” in our times. As Pope John Paul II has said: “It is a tribute to the Church and to the openness of American society that so many Catholics in the United States are involved in political life.” He reminds us that “democracy is … a moral adventure, a continuing test of a people's capacity to govern themselves in ways that serve the common good and the good of individual citizens. The survival of a particular democracy depends not only on its institutions, but to an even greater extent on the spirit which inspires and permeates its procedures for legislating, administering and judging. The future of democracy in fact depends on a culture capable of forming men and women who are prepared to defend certain truths and values.”12 As we conclude the American century and approach a new era for our own nation and the world, we believe that the purpose of the United States remains hopeful and worthy. In the words of Robert Frost, our vocation is to take “the road less traveled,” the road of human freedom rooted in law; law which is rooted, in turn, in the truth about the sanctity of the human person. But the future of a nation is decided by every new generation. Freedom always implies the ability to choose between two roads: one which leads to life; the other, death (Dt 30:19). It is now our turn to choose. We appeal to all people of the United States, especially those in authority, and among them most especially Catholics, to understand this critical choice before us. We urge all persons of good will to work earnestly to bring about the cultural transformation we need, a true renewal in our public life and institutions based on the sanctity of all human life. And finally, as God entrusted His Son to Mary nearly 2,000 years ago for the redemption of the world, we close this letter today by entrusting to Mary all our people's efforts to witness the Gospel of life effectively in the public square. Mary, patroness of America, renew in us a love for the beauty and sanctity of the human person from conception to natural death; and as your Son gave His life for us, help us to live our lives serving others. Mother of the Church, Mother of our Savior, open our hearts to the Gospel of life, protect our nation, and make us witnesses to the truth.

Summary of today's show: As we close in on Election Day, we celebrate our 400th episode by beginning in earnest our formation as Catholics in the public square. Scot Landry and Michael Lavigne start by tackling the 1998 document from the US bishops called “Living the Gospel of Life”, which Archbishop Charles Chaput calls “the best tool anywhere for understanding the American Catholic political vocation”. Scot and Michael look at the first half of the document today and Scot will continue on Tuesday with Fr. Chris O'Connor. Listen to the show: Watch the show via live video streaming or a recording later: Today's host(s): Scot Landry Today's guest(s): Michael Lavigne Links from today's show: Today's topics: Living the Gospel of Life 1st segment: Scot Landry noted that today is the 400th episode of The Good Catholic Life and he congratulated and thanked everyone involved with the show, including the listeners. Today is also the official feast day of Blessed John Paul II and our studio is named in his honor. He read the prayer from Mass for this feast. The reason it's his feast day is because it was the inauguration of his papacy in 1978. Scot said we also welcome two newspaper editorials today from the Boston Herald and the Worcester Telegram & Gazette opposing Question Two on assisted suicide. Scot said there was also a great StandUp for Religious Freedom rally in West Roxbury over the weekend. He said he also spoke at St. Mary's in Dedham on a panel to discuss the topic of religious freedom and the intersection of faith and public life. On today's show, we begin in earnest our formation as we prepare for the election on November 6. In preparing over the weekend, Scot said he was reading Archbishop Charles Chaput's book , which recommended the US bishops' document “Living the Gospel of Life” as a blueprint. Scot quoted from the introduction to the book: A very good guide to Catholic citizenship and public leadership already exists . The pastoral statement Living the Gospel of Life, issued in 1998 by the U.S. Catholic bishops—though it had to survive a great deal of internal friction and wrangling first—remains, in my view, the best tool anywhere for understanding the American Catholic political vocation. “Catholics already know that politics exists to serve the common good. But what is the common good? It's a thorny question. Some problems are more complicated than others. Some issues have more gravity than others. Some methods to achieve a good end are wrong in themselves. We can never choose them without coarsening the society we inhabit. Public officials have a special responsibility in sorting these things out. This is why the health of our public life requires men and women of strong moral character in political service. No community understands this better than the Catholic Church, from centuries of both good and ugly experience. The genius of Pope John Paul II's great 1995 encyclical, Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life), is not that it gives us a specific, sectarian blueprint for building a moral society. It doesn't. Rather, it offers a common architecture for humane political thought and boundaries for government action that cannot be crossed without brutalizing human dignity. When the U.S. bishops issued Living the Gospel of Life, they applied the best of John Paul's encyclical to the American experience. Not surprisingly, no other document ever issued by the American bishops on political responsibility has the clarity, coherence, and force of Living the Gospel of Life. The only sadness is that so few Catholics seem to know about it. In fact, if this book does nothing more than lead more people to read and act on Living the Gospel of Life, it will have partly served its purpose. Scot welcomed Michael Lavigne and they discussed how they were surprised by this document from the bishops that they'd never heard of before reading the Archbishop's book. Today and tomorrow on TGCL they will discuss this document to help form us how to balance the things we hear from our faith and from the public square and prioritize what's most important. Michael said part of our responsibility as Catholics is to be educated and informed and use whatever we can get our hands on to help us as we vote on Election Tuesday. 2nd segment: Scot moved right to the first part of the document: “Your country stands upon the world scene as a model of a democratic society at an advanced stage of development. Your power of example carries with it heavy responsibilities. Use it well, America!” Pope John Paul II, Newark, 1995 When Henry Luce published his appeal for an “American century” in 1941, he could not have known how the coming reality would dwarf his dream. Luce hoped that the “engineers, scientists, doctors … builders of roads [and] teachers” of the United States would spread across the globe to promote economic success and American ideals: “a love of freedom, a feeling for the quality of opportunity, a tradition of self-reliance and independence and also cooperation.”1 Exactly this, and much more, has happened in the decades since. U.S. economic success has reshaped the world. But the nobility of the American experiment flows from its founding principles, not from its commercial power. In this century alone, hundreds of thousands of Americans have died defending those principles. Hundreds of thousands more have lived lives of service to those principles — both at home and on other continents — teaching, advising and providing humanitarian assistance to people in need. As Pope John Paul has observed, “At the center of the moral vision of [the American] founding documents is the recognition of the rights of the human person …” The greatness of the United States lies “especially [in its] respect for the dignity and sanctity of human life in all conditions and at all stages of development.” This nobility of the American spirit endures today in those who struggle for social justice and equal opportunity for the disadvantaged. The United States has thrived because, at its best, it embodies a commitment to human freedom, human rights and human dignity. This is why the Holy Father tells us: “… [As] Americans, you are rightly proud of your country's great achievements.”3 But success often bears the seeds of failure. U.S. economic and military power has sometimes led to grave injustices abroad. At home, it has fueled self-absorption, indifference and consumerist excess. Overconfidence in our power, made even more pronounced by advances in science and technology, has created the illusion of a life without natural boundaries and actions without consequences. The standards of the marketplace, instead of being guided by sound morality, threaten to displace it. We are now witnessing the gradual restructuring of American culture according to ideals of utility, productivity and cost-effectiveness. It is a culture where moral questions are submerged by a river of goods and services and where the misuse of marketing and public relations subverts public life. The losers in this ethical sea change will be those who are elderly, poor, disabled and politically marginalized. None of these pass the utility test; and yet, they at least have a presence. They at least have the possibility of organizing to be heard. Those who are unborn, infirm and terminally ill have no such advantage. They have no “utility,” and worse, they have no voice. As we tinker with the beginning, the end and even the intimate cell structure of life, we tinker with our own identity as a free nation dedicated to the dignity of the human person. When American political life becomes an experiment on people rather than for and by them, it will no longer be worth conducting. We are arguably moving closer to that day. Today, when the inviolable rights of the human person are proclaimed and the value of life publicly affirmed, the most basic human right, “the right to life, is being denied or trampled upon, especially at the more significant moments of existence: the moment of birth and the moment of death” (Pope John Paul II, The Gospel of Life [Evangelium Vitae], 18). Scot said the document refers to the book by Henry Luce on “The American century”. So much happened in the US after World War II, but not everything was good. The con was a growth of American cultural that was tied to utilitarianism and the decline of individual rights in the face of productivity and cost effectiveness. Scot said we are human beings, not human doings, and what we can do has no bearing on our value. We are loved by God just for being. Michael Lavigne said Aquinas said we love the good in the other. Scot said the document could not have been blunter about who are the losers in this ethical sea change. This group has no voice of their own and we have to be their voice, not just Catholics, but all Catholics of good will. Michael said he and his wife do that in a small way by giving a name to their unborn children to talk about them as living persons even before birth. How can we be the voice of all these people in whatever of life we are in at this time? Scot said we talk a lot about human rights in our society, but we have to include the right of the unborn and the right of those with terminal illness. Michael said no other rights matter if we don't protect the right to life from conception to natural death. He said he used to use Evangelium Vitae when he taught high school students. It tells us that the world should be a place where the gift of life is defended at all moments. The nature and urgency of this threat should not be misunderstood. Respect for the dignity of the human person demands a commitment to human rights across a broad spectrum: “Both as Americans and as followers of Christ, American Catholics must be committed to the defense of life in all its stages and in every condition.”4 The culture of death extends beyond our shores: famine and starvation, denial of health care and development around the world, the deadly violence of armed conflict and the scandalous arms trade that spawns such conflict. Our nation is witness to domestic violence, the spread of drugs, sexual activity which poses a threat to lives, and a reckless tampering with the world's ecological balance. Respect for human life calls us to defend life from these and other threats. It calls us as well to enhance the conditions for human living by helping to provide food, shelter and meaningful employment, beginning with those who are most in need. We live the Gospel of Life when we live in solidarity with the poor of the world, standing up for their lives and dignity. Yet abortion and euthanasia have become preeminent threats to human dignity because they directly attack life itself, the most fundamental human good and the condition for all others. They are committed against those who are weakest and most defenseless, those who are genuinely “the poorest of the poor.” They are endorsed increasingly without the veil of euphemism, as supporters of abortion and euthanasia freely concede these are killing even as they promote them. Sadly, they are practiced in those communities which ordinarily provide a safe haven for the weak — the family and the healing professions. Such direct attacks on human life, once crimes, are today legitimized by governments sworn to protect the weak and marginalized. It needn't be so. God, the Father of all nations, has blessed the American people with a tremendous reservoir of goodness. He has also graced our founders with the wisdom to establish political structures enabling all citizens to participate in promoting the inalienable rights of all. As Americans, as Catholics and as pastors of our people, we write therefore today to call our fellow citizens back to our country's founding principles, and most especially to renew our national respect for the rights of those who are unborn, weak, disabled and terminally ill. Real freedom rests on the inviolability of every person as a child of God. The inherent value of human life, at every stage and in every circumstance, is not a sectarian issue any more than the Declaration of Independence is a sectarian creed. Scot said in paragraph 5 the bishops outline the many ways that today we tamper with the inviolability of the dignity of human life, but they outline abortion and euthanasia as the worst because they go after the weakest of them all. He thinks the bishops are talking to self-proclaimed social justice Catholics who aren't opposed to abortion or euthanasia. Michael said they outline all the areas of social teaching, but the queen of all of them is dignity of human life. The rest are meaningless if you don't stand for life. Scot said the bishops aren't asking us to choose between them, but to be for all of them. But there are Catholics over the past four decades who've said they are personally opposed to abortion but don't want to stand for them in public life. Michael said they remind us that these actions which were once crimes and are now legal are opposed to the divine law. Scot said many Catholics say that it's what the priests or religious in their parishes or schools told them. The document isn't pointing fingers, but calling us to change and to find our way again. Michael said the bishops are acknowledging how bad formation has been in recent decades and calling us anew. In a special way, we call on U.S. Catholics, especially those in positions of leadership — whether cultural, economic or political — to recover their identity as followers of Jesus Christ and to be leaders in the renewal of American respect for the sanctity of life. “Citizenship” in the work of the Gospel is also a sure guarantee of responsible citizenship in American civic affairs. Every Catholic, without exception, should remember that he or she is called by our Lord to proclaim His message. Some proclaim it by word, some by action and all by example. But every believer shares responsibility for the Gospel. Every Catholic is a missionary of the Good News of human dignity redeemed through the cross. While our personal vocation may determine the form and style of our witness, Jesus calls each of us to be a leaven in society, and we will be judged by our actions. No one, least of all someone who exercises leadership in society, can rightfully claim to share fully and practically the Catholic faith and yet act publicly in a way contrary to that faith. Our attitude toward the sanctity of life in these closing years of the “American century” will say volumes about our true character as a nation. It will also shape the discourse about the sanctity of human life in the next century, because what happens here, in our nation, will have global consequences. It is primarily U.S. technology, U.S. microchips, U.S. fiber-optics, U.S. satellites, U.S. habits of thought and entertainment, which are building the neural network of the new global mentality. What America has indelibly imprinted on the emerging global culture is its spirit. And the ambiguity of that spirit is why the Pope appealed so passionately to the American people in 1995. “It is vital for the human family,” he said, “that in continuing to seek advancement in many different fields — science, business, education and art, and wherever else your creativity leads you — America keeps compassion, generosity and concern for others at the very heart of its efforts.”5 That will be no easy task. Scot said section 7 is one of his favorites. It states clearly that every Catholic is called by the Lord to proclaim his message, some by word, some by action, but all by example. We're all, as Catholics, at times the spokesman for the Catholic Church as people ask us about the Church's teachings. We're called to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, not our own beliefs. Michael related how he ran for school committee in his town at 23 years old and how he worked to make sure his Catholic faith added to his work as a school committeeman whatever the topic, whether on the subject of busing or the distribution of birth control to students. Scot said in section 8, we hear how the US influences the world. He said many pro-life groups point out how the US exports abortion around the world. He mentioned the example of the Philippines which is very Catholic and has very low levels of adultery, sexually transmitted disease, and unwed pregnancy, yet the US is trying to get into that country to bring birth control there. He said that in the US, 51% of the population is pro-life, and he argues it's because of the increase of scientific data and efforts, like better ultrasounds. “In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible.” George Orwell, Politics and the English Language Nations are not machines or equations. They are like ecosystems. A people's habits, beliefs, values and institutions intertwine like a root system. Poisoning one part will eventually poison it all. As a result, bad laws and bad court decisions produce degraded political thought and behavior, and vice versa. So it is with the legacy of Roe vs. Wade. Roe effectively legalized abortion throughout pregnancy for virtually any reason, or none at all. It is responsible for the grief of millions of women and men, and the killing of millions of unborn children in the past quarter century. Yet the weaknesses of the Supreme Court's 1973 reasoning are well known. They were acknowledged by the Supreme Court itself in the subsequent 1992 Casey decision, which could find no better reason to uphold Roe than the habits Roe itself created by surviving for 20 years.6 The feebleness and confusion of the Casey decision flow directly out of Roe's own confusion. They are part of the same root system. Taking a distorted “right to privacy” to new heights, and developing a new moral calculus to justify it, Roe has spread through the American political ecology with toxic results. Roe effectively rendered the definition of human personhood flexible and negotiable. It also implicitly excluded unborn children from human status. In doing so, Roe helped create an environment in which infanticide — a predictable next step along the continuum of killing — is now open to serious examination. Thanks ultimately to Roe, some today speculate publicly and sympathetically why a number of young American women kill their newborn babies or leave them to die. Even the word “infanticide” is being replaced by new and less emotionally charged words like “neonaticide” (killing a newborn on the day of his or her birth) and “filicide” (killing the baby at some later point). Revising the name given to the killing reduces its perceived gravity. This is the ecology of law, moral reasoning and language in action. Bad law and defective moral reasoning produce the evasive language to justify evil. Nothing else can explain the verbal and ethical gymnastics required by elected officials to justify their support for partial-birth abortion, a procedure in which infants are brutally killed during the process of delivery. The same sanitized marketing is now deployed on behalf of physician-assisted suicide, fetal experimentation and human cloning. Each reduces the human person to a problem or an object. Each can trace its lineage in no small part to Roe. Obviously Roe is only one of several social watersheds which have shaped the America of the late 1990s. But it is a uniquely destructive one. In the 25 years since Roe, our society's confusion about the relationship of law, moral reasoning and language has created more and more cynicism in the electorate. As words become unmoored from their meaning (as in “choice” or “terminating a pregnancy”), and as the ideas and ideals which bind us together erode, democratic participation inevitably declines. So too does a healthy and appropriate patriotism. At Baltimore's Camden Yards, Pope John Paul spoke prophetically when he said: “Today the challenge facing America is to find freedom's fulfillment in truth; the truth that is intrinsic to human life created in God's image and likeness, the truth that is written on the human heart, the truth that can be known by reason and can therefore form the basis of a profound and universal dialogue among people about the direction they must give to their lives and their activities.”7 Scot said the idea o a nation as an ecosystem is new to him and that there's a relationship between law, language, and moral reasoning that affects how the ecosystem works. That has a lot of upstream and downstream consequences. Roe v. Wade had a lot of effects on our ecosystem. Michael said it's a very prophetic statement by the bishops in the late 90s that as we continued to erode the foundation of our country, then nothing else will matter. The destruction we see in families is an example. As we devalue life in the womb, we see child abuse, broken families, divorce, teen pregnancy and all that has gone up after we legalized abortion. Scot said he took a great class in college from a survivor of the Holocaust whose aim in life was to teach everyone he could the strategies the Nazis employed. What he took most from the class was the use of language by the Nazis to dehumanize the Jews, to scapegoat them for problems. They devalued a whole group of people by the use of language. Some of things we see in the abortion debate or in assisted suicide do the same. When we call it a fetus or a clump of cells rather than a baby, we dehumanize that baby. Proponents of assisted suicide don't call it suicide, but death with dignity. As it was described on the ballot, it's described with the euphemisms. Michael said when you use euphemisms you're usually covering up for something that was morally wrong. “For the power of Man to make himself what he pleases means, as we have seen, the power of some men to make other men what they please.” C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man We believe that universal understandings of freedom and truth are “written on the human heart.” America's founders also believed this to be true. In 1776 John Dickinson, one of the framers of our Constitution, affirmed: “Our liberties do not come from charters; for these are only the declaration of pre-existing rights. They do not depend on parchments or seals, but come from the king of kings and the Lord of all the earth.”8 The words of the Declaration of Independence speak of the “Laws of Nature and of Nature's God,” and proceed to make the historic assertion: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness …” Today, more than two centuries of the American experiment have passed. We tend to take these words for granted. But for the founders, writing on the brink of armed revolution, these phrases were invested not just with their philosophy but with their lives. This is why they closed with a “firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence.” The words of the Declaration of Independence illuminate the founding principles of the American Republic, principles explicitly grounded in unchanging truths about the human person. The principles of the Declaration were not fully reflected in the social or political structures of its own day. Then human slavery and other social injustices stood in tension to the high ideals the Founders articulated. Only after much time and effort have these contradictions been reduced. In a striking way, we see today a heightening of the tension between our nation's founding principles and political reality. We see this in diminishing respect for the inalienable right to life and in the elimination of legal protections for those who are most vulnerable. There can be no genuine justice in our society until the truths on which our nation was founded are more perfectly realized in our culture and law. One of those truths is our own essential creatureliness. Virtual reality and genetic science may give us the illusion of power, but we are not gods. We are not our own, or anyone else's, creator. Nor, for our own safety, should we ever seek to be. Even parents, entrusted with a special guardianship over new life, do not “own” their children any more than one adult can own another. And therein lies our only security. No one but the Creator is the sovereign of basic human rights — beginning with the right to life. We are daughters and sons of the one God who, outside and above us all, grants us the freedom, dignity and rights of personhood which no one else can take away. Only in this context, the context of a Creator who authors our human dignity, do words like “truths” and “self-evident” find their ultimate meaning. Without the assumption that a Creator exists who has ordained certain irrevocable truths about the human person, no rights are “unalienable,” and nothing about human dignity is axiomatic. This does not make America sectarian. It does, however, underline the crucial role God's sovereignty has played in the architecture of American politics. While the founders were a blend of Enlightenment rationalists and traditional Christians, generations of Jews, Muslims, other religious groups and non-believers have all found a home in the United States. This is so because the tolerance of our system is rooted in the Jewish-Christian principle that even those who differ from one another in culture, appearance and faith still share the same rights. We believe that this principle still possesses the power to enlighten our national will. Scot said the Michael that learning the history of an organization forms the culture that helps you to work together without having the reinvent the wheel. These founding documents help us to fight for the principles on which our country was founded. Michael said the Declaration of Independence was based on nature's law, what we can know with just our human brains, that is the value of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Scot noted that the HHS mandate violates our first freedom in the Bill of Rights, our right to live our religion in the public square in our social service agencies, our hospitals, and our ministries. The right to define what our religion requires of us comes from God, not the state. Michael noted that Blessed John Paul lived under the threat to religious freedom.

Summary of today's show: Our Thursday panel of Scot Landry, Susan Abbott, Fr. Roger Landry, and Antonio Enrique look at the news headlines of the week, including Cardinal Dolan's declaration of the US as a mission territory; a survey that shows falling confidence in the Church and all organized religion; a slew of new priest assignments; a ministry that cares for ailing priests; new leadership for the Sisters of St. Joseph; and vocations retreats and pro-life boot camps in the Fall River diocese. Listen to the show: Today's host(s): Scot Landry and Susan Abbott Today's guest(s): Antonio Enrique, editor of the Pilot, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Boston, and Fr. Roger Landry, pastor of St. Bernadette Parish in Fall River Links from today's show: Some of the stories discussed on this show will be available on The Pilot's and The Anchor's websites on Friday morning. Please check those sites for the latest links. Today's topics: US mission territory; low confidence in religion; ministry to priests; pro-life boot camp 1st segment: Scot Landry and Susan Abbott caught up on their week. Scot noted that his young sons, Christian and Dominic, are in the studio today. Dominic is six years old today. The Pilot has returned from its two-week hiatus and there's a lot of news to catch up on plus a provocative piece by Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York. 2nd segment: Scot and Susan welcomed Fr. Roger and Antonio to the show. Scot said Cardinal Dolan wrote a column that called the Archdiocese of New York and all of the United States is a mission territory. “I was raised – as were most of you – to think of the missions as ‘way far away' – and, to be sure, we can never forget our sacred duty to the foreign missions,” the New York archbishop wrote on his “Gospel in the Digital Age” blog. “But, we are a mission territory, too. Every diocese is. And every committed Catholic is a missionary. This is at the heart of what Blessed John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI call the New Evangelization.” Susan said she was reminded of a conversation with an Irish Holy Ghost Father 15 years ago who had just come from Africa. He told her that the US is a mission country needing a second evangelization, which is harder than the first. Susan noted how Cardinal Dolan spoke from the heart and warned that we've taken our Catholic faith for granted. He said we all need the Year of Faith. Cardinal Dolan was referencing a speech by Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia that his archdiocese is a mission territory. Antonio said many Catholics live their faith as if they just happen to be Catholic. He said the religious understanding of life doesn't go very deep anymore and hopefully we renew our focus on passing the faith onto the next generation. Scot quoted from the Cardinal's blog: Because, guess where we're at: We're with the apostles on Pentecost Sunday as we embrace the New Evangelization. No more taking our Catholic faith for granted! No more relaxing in the great things the church has accomplished in the past! Cynicism is replaced by confidence … Hand-wringing by hand-folding … Dullness by dare … Waiting for people to come back replaced by going out to get them … Presuming that people know the richness of their Catholic faith replaced by a realistic admission that they do not … From taking the Church for granted as a “big corporation,” to a tender care for a Church as small and fragile as a tiny mustard seed Jesus spoke about… Keeping our faith to ourselves to letting it shine to others! This is the New Evangelization! The Archdiocese of New York is a mission territory! The whole Church is! Our parishes are! Culture is! The world is! You and I are missionaries! No longer can we coast on the former fame, clout, buildings, numbers, size, money, and accomplishments of the past. As a matter of fact, all of this may have dulled us into taking our faith for granted. No more! We are missionaries. And, it starts inside. Fr. Roger said at the same time as there will be a Synod of Bishops from around the world on the new evangelization in the Vatican in October we'll be launching the Year of Faith for us to re-examine our own faith and re-found it in Christ in our daily life. He said he often talks about the New Evangelization in retreats and talks about the methods of the New Evangelization. Pope Benedict said in a Jubilee Year address that the first method of the New Evangelization is prayer. We need to be praying far more for people to come and experience the fullness of the Lord's love as we have in our own lives. Then we need to be docile to the Holy Spirit, who makes the converts to the faith. We must become more and more united to God. Pope Benedict is asking us to reflect more on our faith. Scot said the Holy Father has called the Year of Faith because of a crisis of faith in the West, as seen in a recent Gallup survey that shows a low in confidence in the Church by Catholics and in organized religion in general. Forty-six percent of Catholics express “a great deal or quite a lot of confidence” in the church and organized religion, compared to 56 percent of Protestants. Overall, 44 percent of Americans expressed that same level of confidence in church/organized religion. The percentage is slightly lower than what Gallup has found in recent years; in 2002, it was 45 percent and in 2007, 46 percent. “This follows a long-term decline in Americans' confidence in religion since the 1970s,” Gallup said. In 1973, 66 percent said they had a high level of confidence in religion. Antonio said it's not very surprising, given all the social unrest in the Sixties and movements to separate people from organized religion. He said maybe it's time to start the New Evangelization because we can see the effects of the last four decades which haven't been fulfilling to people. All the societal decline goes together with this decline in religion and so we can go out and announce the beauty of Christianity and the fulfillment found in God. Scot said a related finding is that American's confidence in other important societal institutions is also at an all-time low, so it's not just the church, but all institutions. Susan said it seems the whole country is in a funk. She said Scripture tells us we must always be ready to give reasons for our hope. (1 Peter 3:15) If we have no hope, where do we go? How do we more forward? The whole spiritual/not religious dichotomy shows the emptiness and loneliness when their is faith without community. She said we see it in our own Archdiocese when the pastoral planning proposal was made and was met by fear and suspicion. Scot said Cardinal Dolan said that cynicism needs to be replaced by confidence. Scot said when he sees that 46% of American Catholics have great confidence in the Church, he would have expected it to be a lot less. Fr. Roger said that number is about double weekly Mass attendance, so we have great reason to hope that there are a lot of people who could be ready to be invited back to Mass. He also noted that many institutions are much lower than the Church (like Congress which was in single digits), even though we really do want 100% to have total confidence in the Church. We are living in an anti-institutional, anti-authoritarian age. Confidence from top to bottom: military, small business, police, church/organized religion, banks, US Supreme Court, public schools, medical system, presidency, television news, newspapers, criminal justice system, organized labor, big business, HMOs, and Congress at the bottom. 3rd segment: This week's benefactor card raffle winner is Fr. Thomas Bouton of Dorchester, MA He wins a “Praying for our Priests” 3 Pack: “Praying for Our Priests” - A Book of prayers for the priesthood An audio CD of the Stations of the Cross and Divine Mercy Chaplet with meditations on the priesthood An audio CD of the Rosary with meditations on the priesthood If you would like to be eligible to win in an upcoming week, please visit . For a one-time $30 donation, you'll receive the Station of the Cross benefactor card and key tag, making you eligible for WQOM's weekly raffle of books, DVDs, CDs and religious items. We'll be announcing the winner each Wednesday during “The Good Catholic Life” program. 4th segment: Scot announced all the recent priestly assignments made in recent weeks: Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley, OFM Cap., has announced the appointment of Father Rodney J. Copp from pastor at St. Charles Borromeo Parish in Waltham, to pastor at St. Gerard Majella Parish in Canton. The effective date of this action is Aug. 28, 2012. Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley, OFM Cap., has accepted the request of Father Robert R. Kennedy to resign as pastor at St. Monica-St. Augustine Parish in South Boston. The cardinal has also granted Father Kennedy senior pries/retirement status. The effective date of these actions is July 31,2012. Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley, OFM Cap., has announced the appointment of Father Thomas J. Powers as pastor at Our Lady of the Assumption Parish in Lynnfield. This appointment is in addition to Father Powers' assignment as pastor at St. Maria Goretti Parish in Lynnfield. The effective date of this action is Aug. 1,2012. Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley, OFM Cap., has announced the appointment of Father George C. Hines from pastor at St. Mary Parish in Wrentham and from pastor at St. Martha Parish in Plainville, to pastor at St. Joseph Parish in Medford. The effective date of this action is Aug. 1, 2012. Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley, OFM Cap., has announced the appointment of Father Frank J. Silva from pastor at Corpus Christi-St. Bernard Parish in Newton, to pastor at St. Margaret Parish in Burlington. The effective date of this action is Sept. 4, 2012. Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley, OFM Cap., has announced the appointment of Father Robert J. Carr from pastor at St. Benedict Parish in Somerville, to pastor at Holy Trinity Parish in Quincy. The effective date of this action is Oct. 1,2012. Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley, OFM Cap., has announced the appointment of Very Reverend Thomas F. Nestor, V.F., from pastor at St. Eulalia Parish in Winchester, to pastor at St. Paul Parish in Hingham. The effective date of this action is Aug. 26, 2012. Scot, Susan, and Antonio discussed the priests they know and the affect it will have. Fr. Roger said anytime there's a change in pastors, it's a time for people in those parishes to bond themselves even more to Christ who sends the priests to serve in His name. Scot noted an article in the Pilot this week profiling Fr. Jim Flavin, a priest of the Archdiocese, who has been sent by Cardinal Seán to work at the St. John Vianney Center in Pennsylvania that provides pastoral care to priests and others in religious ministry who require spiritual and psychological care. He said the work he undertakes can restore a priest or a nun to ministry serving thousands of others in some cases. “If I get a priest healthy, that's a thousand people that get a priest, get the Eucharist, and get God in their lives. So, it's good work,” he said. Antonio liked Fr. Flavin's quote on the foolishness of youth which is also the gift of youth, that is that they think they can change the world. Scot thinks another quote relates to pastoral planning in the archdiocese: “We are getting to a point where we just give priests more work. Where there was one parish with four or five priests, now we are giving one priest four or five parishes,” he said. Scot mentioned Fr. Flavin's relationship with Dorchester native and movie actor Mark Wahlberg. Fr. Roger said the work of the Vianney Center is important because of the work they do for clergy who receive unique stresses in their work. How can a priest deal with the stress of hearing upsetting things in confession when they can't reveal it. So having a talented priest can minister to his brother priests, he can understand better than anyone else who isn't a priest. Fr. Roger said there are several centers like St. John Vianney Center around the country. Also in the Pilot is the 20th anniversary of the Archdiocese of Boston Black Catholic Choir. They had a Mass and gala dinner on June 30 at Boston College High School. Susan said it was pointed out in the article that their work is really a ministry of prayer. Scot said it can be difficult to start ministries but it's even harder to keep them going year after year. He said the choir does more than just sing in some churches, but travel all over to sing at conferences and other events as well. The Diocese of Fall River had its Quo Vadis high school vocation retreats days for young men to consider the call to the priesthood or to just be better formed as Catholic men whatever their vocation. They've had one of their largest gatherings this year and already some of the men entering the seminary now have been on previous Quo Vadis Days. Scot referred to another local story about the Sisters of St. Joseph, a local religious order, who have elected a new leadership team. Susan said Sr. Margaret Sullivan, one of the new leaders, used to work in the Pastoral Center and misses her terribly but wishes her well. In her reflections at the end of the liturgy, Sister Rosemary Brennan said, “Each transition of leadership dares us to dream we can co-create a future which ‘moves always towards profound love of God and love of neighbor without distinction.' The passion and enthusiasm we have for being Sisters of St. Joseph and Associates is what impels us to live - knowing that relationship is always at the heart of who we are; and when we find ourselves in situations which test our relationships we will always seek to live in and through our charism - a charism that is our unique gift to our Church and our world.” Also in the Anchor this week is a story about the pro-life boot camp taking place on the campus of Stonehill College in Easton. Fr. Roger said it was founded last year to help young pro-life Catholics to receive real training to be effective agents in the culture of life. Several years ago some members of the youth group wanted to set up a training program for them so they could then train others. The diocesan pro-life apostolate took on the program, sent a couple of young people to a boot camp in Texas, and then set up the first sold-out boot camp in Easton last year. Fr. Roger said he will be participating and a number of other pro-life leaders will be coming from around the country to help. Scot said Jaymie Wolfe has a great column on what she learned from her time serving three months on a grand jury, especially 16 particular findings.

Summary of today's show: Scot Landry, Gregory Tracy, and Fr. Roger Landry discuss the news headlines of the week, and despite the holiday and the Pilot being on hiatus, it's been a busy week. This week the Fortnight for Freedom ended with a Mass in Washington, DC, in which Archbishop Charles Chaput gave a remarkable homily; bishops reacted to the Supreme Court's decision on the healthcare reform law; a significant appointment at the Vatican; an expression of papal confidence; and the Vatican gets media savvy. Listen to the show: Today's host(s): Scot Landry Today's guest(s): Gregory Tracy, managing editor of the Pilot, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Boston, and Fr. Roger Landry, pastor of St. Bernadette Parish in Fall River Links from today's show: Some of the stories discussed on this show will be available on The Pilot's and The Anchor's websites on Friday morning. Please check those sites for the latest links. Today's topics: Fortnight4Freedom ends; Healthcare lawsuits; Vatican news 1st segment: Scot Landry noted that Susan Abbott is out on vacation. He offered Gregory Tracy a happy end of Fortnight for Freedom. Scot and Fr. Roger Landry wished their parents a happy 43rd wedding anniversary Scot said the Fortnight for Freedom ended yesterday and the big closing event was a Mass in DC at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia delivered the homily. Greg said Chaput focused in on “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and render unto God what is God's”. In the end it's not about trying to strike a balance between the two worlds. We belong entirely to God and that is where our allegiance belongs and from which we get our freedom. Scot said a lot of people focus in that reading on rendering to Caesar, but the real focus is we should render ourselves in our entirety to God. Fr. Roger Landry said Chaput went far beyond his book on the same subject. Because we are made body and soul in God's likeness and image, and because we owe the icon to the original, we owe ourselves to God. He said freedom is not just independence, but also a dependence. We have both freedom from, but also freedom for. We have to use our real freedom for God's cause. Fr. Roger thought it was a theological tour de force. He was calling Catholic Americans to use their freedom for good in such a way as to revolutionize our country anew and return us to what made us great in the first place. Scot quoted from the CNA/EWTN story: While religious liberty “is a foundational right” and “necessary for a good society,” it is not “an end in itself.” Rather, it must be used to find and live out the truth in order to attain to holiness, the highest form of freedom. This higher form of freedom, found through God's grace, “isn't something Caesar can give or take away,” Archbishop Chaput taught. “In the end, we defend religious liberty in order to live the deeper freedom that is discipleship in Jesus Christ,” he reflected. The right to religious freedom only finds its fulfillment when believers “use that freedom to seek God with our whole mind and soul and strength.” Scot's favorite part was from the end of the homily: We live in a time that calls for sentinels and public witness. Every Christian in every era faces the same task. But you and I are responsible for this moment. Today. Now. We need to “speak out,” not only for religious liberty and the ideals of the nation we love, but for the sacredness of life and the dignity of the human person – in other words, for the truth of what it means to be made in the image and likeness of God. We need to be witnesses of that truth not only in word, but also in deed. In the end, we're missionaries of Jesus Christ, or we're nothing at all. And we can't share with others what we don't live faithfully and joyfully ourselves. When we leave this Mass today, we need to render unto Caesar those things that bear his image. But we need to render ourselves unto God – generously, zealously, holding nothing back. To the extent we let God transform us into his own image, we will – by the example of our lives – fulfill our duty as citizens of the United States, but much more importantly, as disciples of Jesus Christ. Scot said every generation needs public witnesses who alert people. We need to speak out. Greg said he was struck that beyond speaking out, we need to draw ourselves closer to Christ and thus be an example to others. There was a way in which Mother Teresa's way of being Christ-like changed the minds of people she encountered without speaking a word. Scot clarified said “render” means to return or to give back. For all the blessings we've been given by God, we need to give it all back to God 100%. Scot asked Fr. Roger about “Either we're missionaries of Christ or we're nothing at all.” Fr. Roger said if we're a true disciple then we're trying to bring Christ and his kingdom to others. Fr. Roger said “surrender” is an intensified “rendering”. The biggest aspect of the Fortnight for Freedom is that if we're going to be defending religious liberty, we need to be a religious people. Turning to the next story, Scot said last Thursday the Supreme Court decision about the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, came down, and some commentators thought the bishops' response should have been stronger. The bishops' statement said they support universal healthcare and asked for modifications to the law. Greg said the bishops' have been consistent in their message; it just hasn't been well understood. The bishops have urged for an expansion of healthcare without dictating how it should happen. But they said it should be done in a way consistent with respecting conscience and freedom of religion. The reason they've been speaking out so much is that this lack of exemption for religious conscience is sour of character of every other law that's been passed. The way the narrow exemption has been written in such a way that the only major institution affected by this is the Catholic Church. Fr. Roger said when you look back over the whole debate, the bishops have always been in favor of most of the provisions of the law, so when they came out against it, it was for the specific lack of exemption. That's why they hadn't joined the lawsuits that resulted in last week's decision. The other lawsuits from Catholic organizations over the HHS mandate continue on. Fr. Roger said there are many issues in play and the US bishops have always been clear in what parts they favor or oppose, but that doesn't always show up in newspaper articles. 3rd segment: This week's benefactor card raffle winner is Charles Ford of East Walpole, Mass. He wins the book by Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York. If you would like to be eligible to win in an upcoming week, please visit . For a one-time $30 donation, you'll receive the Station of the Cross benefactor card and key tag, making you eligible for WQOM's weekly raffle of books, DVDs, CDs and religious items. We'll be announcing the winner each Wednesday during “The Good Catholic Life” program. 4th segment: Scot said there were some big appointments in the Vatican recently. One of the biggest was the appointment of a new prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Bishop Gerhard Mueller of Regensburg, Germany. Fr. Roger said Mueller had been mentioned for the past year as a candidate. He's brilliant and written 500 books on theology. He's a very clear writer, just like Pope Benedict is. Recently, he's been editing the complete works of Pope Benedict's articles and books into a definitive edition that will be read by scholars for centuries. He's also been controversial for his friendship with on the leading liberation theologies in South America. Liberation theology has been criticized for preaching political revolution, especially of the Marxist variety, for spiritual salvation. Cardinal Ratzinger had been very influential on suppressing the bad liberation theology. Fr. Roger thinks it will help Bishop Mueller engage liberation theology and other theologies that are outside orthodoxy. Pope Benedict's last proferrship was in Regensburg and his brother served in that diocese. Cardinal Levada, who was head of the CDF from 2005 to now, had been brought in for expertise in dealing with abuse cases. Fr. Roger said Bishop Mueller will be able to take on a lot of the theology work that Pope Benedict has been continuing and now he will be able to move on to a new agenda for himself. Scot noted that this is someone who will know Pope Benedict's writings better than anyone else. Greg also said it was notable that a German pope has picked a German bishop to head the CDF. He said ultimately we want to see someone who acts as Pope Benedict would act. We don't want a curia full of people working toward their own goals with their own agenda. Scot said most people would say this CDF is the number 3 position in the worldwide Church, after Pope and Secretary of State. Fr. Roger said the Secretary of State has influence throughout the world through the foreign ministry, as well as all the Vatican administrative staff. He said the work of the CDF will have the most influence in the future over the centuries. Scot said before going on Vacation Pope Benedict released an unusual letter affirming the work of Cardinal Bertone. On the eve of my departure for a period of summer rest at Castel Gandolfo, I would like to express my deep gratitude for your discreet closeness and enlightened advice, which I have found particularly helpful in recent months,” said the Pope in a brief letter dated July 2 and released to the media July 4. “Noting with regret the widespread and unjust criticism against your person, I intend to renew my statements of personal confidence in you.” This is in response to the Vatican leaks scandals and accusations of mismanagement or other incompetence of Cardinal Bertone. Greg said Americans generally don't appreciate the doggedness of the European tabloid press. Fr. Roger said it was unprecedented, especially in that Pope Benedict has never released a personal letter he'd written to anyone else expressing personal confidence in them. Cardinal Bertone is very Italian and there is within the curia, a lot of Italian prelates with an old boys' network and some have said the scandals have attacked this network. Fr. Roger said he thinks there needs to be a personal defense of Cardinal Bertone if the press would focus not on the person, but on the principles being questioned in the Vatican leaks. Fr. Roger said Bertone has been well regarded in the past. He was Cardinal Ratzinger's righthand on the CDF. He was talented enough to do color commentary on Italian TV about professional soccer. Fr. Roger said the story has been shifted away from the leaks themselves to the person of the cardinal. Scot said the Secretary of State has created a new position of media adviser and hired Fox News reporter Greg Burke. Scot said he's surprised that the Vatican has recognized the need for this; that they're hiring an American; and that the position is placed within the Secretariat of State. Greg said it's understandable they hired an American with the leadership role that America takes in communications principles and that English is the common language of the world. He sees the need for this because the Church can become insulated from the world and not savvy enough to know how something outside of its context can be misunderstood. Fr. Roger said the Vatican press spokesman said the Press Office reports to the Secretary of State already so that's why the media adviser is in that dicastery. Fr. Roger said he knows Greg Burke and recently ran into him in an airport a few weeks ago. Greg didn't say anything at the time. Fr. Roger said Burke will help with crisis communications and will help with breaking news, for example, helping members of the media can get the embargoed documents in advance so the breaking news stories are less shallow. Fr. Roger also said Americans think differently about crisis news. We acknowledge that reporters will eventually get the story so we need to be able to frame the narrative in advance. Scot noted Greg Burke said No to the job at least once. “I had a great job at Fox, just the right mix of time in Rome and travel; I was in my comfort zone,” he said. It took him some time to “get the courage up” and take the chance rather than risk living with the nagging feeling he could have been able to make a difference, he said. In the Anchor this week, the Fall River diocese offered its third annual Quo Vadis retreat for teen boys. Fr. Roger said it's a help to the young men to be formed in order to have the inner strength to listen to the Lord's call for their lives. That last few years they had good numbers and they're expecting to exceed the numbers this year. There have been 30 or 40 ordinations in other dioceses from these days. In Harrisburg, they have 150 young men at their retreats. Quo Vadis comes from early Christian tradition about St. Peter escaping from persecution in Rome. Peter encountered Jesus on the road and asked him, “Lord, where are you going?” (Quo vadis, in Latin). Jesus said he was going to Rome to be crucified again. Peter knew that Jesus was to be crucified in him. The Quo Vadis retreat helps the men ask the question of where the Lord is going in their lives. Scot and Greg talked about the Pilot being on hiatus this week and the next and what they've been up to. The Pilot's website is being updated with current news during the hiatus.

Summary of today's show: Earlier in June, Msgr. Robert Deeley and Msgr. William Fay traveled from Boston to Ugandan in Africa for the feast of St. Charles Lwanga and Companions, martyrs for the faith who are highly revered in that country. Scot Landry and Fr. Mark O'Connell talk with Msgr. Deeley about the trip, how it came about, the story of the martyrs, and the remarkable faith of the Ugandans today, where one parish has 100,000 people and a Mass will typically last three hours. Listen to the show: Today's host(s): Scot Landry and Fr. Mark O'Connell Today's guest(s): Msgr. Robert Deeley, Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Boston Links from today's show: Today's topics: The Ugandan Martyrs and Catholicism in Uganda Today 1st segment: Scot welcomed Fr. Mark to the show and noted that the end of June marks the end of the fiscal year for the Archdiocese, which means goodbyes to people leaving and hellos to new people. Fr. Mark said they said goodbye to Sr. Peggy who was working as a judge in the Metropolitan Tribunal. Also, Mary Ryan, who worked in the finance department, is retiring after 20 years in service. Scot recalls that Mary was at the 8:15am Mass at the Pastoral Center every day. He said she worked in the Revolving Loan Fund, which functions like the Archdiocesan bank for parishes. Fr. Tom Foley's farewell Mass was yesterday. He leaves the post of Secretary for Parish Life and Leadership and is going to become an Air Force chaplain. Also, Bishop Arthur Kennedy is leaving as rector of St. John Seminary to take up a new office as vicar for the New Evangelization. Also today, Scot asked listeners to pray for Cardinal Seán on his 68th birthday. He celebrated the noon Mass at the Pastoral Center and was joined representatives of the Orthodox Church to celebrate the feast of Saints Peter and Paul. Today, Msgr. Robert Deeley is joining us to talk about a recent trip he took to Uganda to talk about the Ugandan martyrs. 2nd segment: Scot and Fr. Mark welcomed Msgr. Deeley to the show. Scot said June 29 makes him think of the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul and how it's a big holiday in Rome. Msgr. Deeley spent many years in Rome and said it marks the two great apostles upon whom the Church was founded. It's also traditional for the Pope to give the pallium, the symbol of the metropolitan archbishop's office, to new archbishops from around the world. It reminds us of the unity of the Church and its expanse around the world. There were four Americans this year, three from the Roman rite: Archbishop Charles Chaput of Piladelphia; Archbishop Samuel Aquila of Denver; and Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore. They note that the Archbishop wears it only in his own diocese and the diocese's of his province. Moving to another topic, Msgr. Robert Deeley recently traveled to Uganda along with Msgr. William Fay at the beginning of June for the feast of the Ugandan martyrs. Msgr. Deeley went to Uganda because so many priests from Uganda come to Boston, especially to study at Boston College and other local colleges. While here, they live in our rectories and help out in our parishes. One Ugandan priest lived with Msgr. Fay for two years before returning to Uganda. Fr. Paul is rector of the cathedral in Lugazi, Uganda, and he invited Msgr. Fay and Msgr. Deeley to come and be there for the great feast of the Ugandan martyrs. Msgr. Deeley said they didn't go on safari so they saw no animals. It's a beautiful country. They visited Lake Victoria and saw the source of the Nile, which travels 4,000 miles through Africa. Scot said he was surprised that as little as 200 years ago there were practically no Christians in Uganda, but it was the martyrdom of St. Charles Lwanga and his companions in the 1880s led to the great growth of Catholicism. Msgr. Deeley said he wanted to go back a few steps. The king around 1850 wrote and asked Queen Victoria to send missionaries to impart values and morals they had. The first were Anglican and then Catholics followed. The king who succeeded the first about 6 or 7 years after the Catholic missionaries arrived was a selfish and immoral man. He murdered a group of young men who wouldn't acquiesce to his immoral demands. The youngest of them was 13 or 14 years of age. Charles Lwanga was their leader. They were burned to death. There 13 Catholics and 11 Anglicans and shrines maintained by both Catholics and Anglicans are maintained at the site of the martyrdom. The missionaries were expelled from Uganda, but the Catholic laity continue to teach and preach and catechize one another. Scot said the king gave all the martyrs the chance to renounce their Christian faith, including a few who were only baptized at the last minute, but all chose to keep their faith even though they knew they would die in a horrible way. At the time of the martyrdom, there were only about 200 Christians in the country and now there are millions, which shows how the blood of the martyrs become the seed and fertilizer for faith. Msgr. Deeley said one of the eyewitnesses recalled how the martyrs pointed to the sky as they went to their death to signal that they were going to Paradise for their faith. The celebration of this feast is a spectacular representation of the culture and faith and music and more. He said there were 1 million people at the celebration. Meanwhile, one of the bishops was here in Waltham to celebrate with a Ugandan community here as well as another in Germany doing likewise. Otherwise, every bishop in the country was there at the celebration. The Mass is celebrated on an artificial island in the middle of the lake and the people surround. People were singing in Swahili, Buganda, and Gregorian chant. The full representation of the whole Church, all ages, all vocations, was a spectacular view. Fr. Mark asked for Msgr. Deeley's experience. Msgr. Deeley said the Mass was five hours long, three hours for the Mass itself and two hours for the speeches at the end. This is the longest Mass he'd ever attended, including Easter vigil at St. Peter's. The next day he went to the funeral of a local priest and that was three hours. People love to celebrate their faith and they do it with great joy and solemnity. He said they were blessed because Maureen Heil of the Propagation of the Faith in Boston had contacted the head of the episcopal conference in Uganda who got excellent seats at the Mass on the island and they were announced as honored guests. Msgr. Deeley said the country is very poor and it's still very young at only 50 years of independence. But their hospitality is tremendous. Scot asked about the Church's role in society in Uganda. Msgr. Deeley said in the cathedral parish they have 26 outstations or parishes in villages. They visited one parish where they met the pastor and his two associates. They had a parish school and a high school, built by people from Canada and the United States. He also had 30 more outstations with 12 schools and 100,000 people all in one parish. They had tea with Bishop Matthias Ssekamaanya of Lugazi one night, and he told him that they believe that every parish needs a school and that as the outstations grow they will also become parishes with schools. The government funds some of the education. He said the vicar general of the diocese is also in charge of schools. The government's funds are limited, and they also control what you can do. The government doesn't allow the Church to take any fees whatsoever, including having children pay for lunches during the day in order to make it appear the education is completely free. There are also private schools, which aren't run by the government or the Church. Scot asked what Msgr. Deeley's sense is of the freedom of the people to live their faith as Catholics, in light of the Fortnight for Freedom. He said the Church plays an important role as the voice of the poor, the needy and families. The country is 87% Christian, 13% Muslim; 40% Catholic, 30% Anglican. The Church is a very important force for the betterment of people and building of systems that are just and honest. Fr. Mark asked how modern the area is. Msgr. Deeley said many buildings are indeed modern. They are building a new center for the episcopal conference, which the Archdiocese of Boston contributed to. He noted that they don't use metal frameworks, but wood, and then add concrete and brick and the like. He said it's a tropical climate so most places don't have windows. He said bananas are an important part of their diet, several different varieties they eat in many different ways. Back to schools, he noted the dedication of teachers in the schools. They visited a school where one classroom had 75 students. They are trying their hardest to make education and opportunity available to the children of their communities. Many of the teachers are catechists. In each of the outstations, there is a catechist who is often a teacher or other professional. When they can't have Mass with a priest, they gather for prayer and study. They try to get a priest to the outstations at least once per month. Scot said there are several thousand Ugandans living just in Waltham. He asked how his experience helps Msgr. Deeley appreciate and welcome Catholics who come to our Archdiocese from all over the world. He said he saw how the faith is central to their lives. It's not just something they do on Sunday, but their whole lives. Scot said most people living in this area wouldn't be able to say they personally someone who died for their faith, except perhaps people who've come here from other places around the world. He said he's been moved by the stories from Vietnamese priests who tell of how the martyrdom of someone they knew inspired them. Msgr. Deeley said he met a priest from Kenya who'd only been ordained a few days who was walking with his parish and they'd been walking 21 days to go to the shrine of the Martyrs. He told a story of being beaten and left by the side of a road because he'd been preaching about morality and faith. He only survived because another priest found him in time. The pilgrimage to the shrine was his way to thank God a year later. He was filled with joy and faith and was excited to go on this pilgrimage with the people of his parish. Now as we do every week at this time, we will consider the Mass readings for this Sunday, specifically the Gospel reading. God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living. For he fashioned all things that they might have being; and the creatures of the world are wholesome, and there is not a destructive drug among them nor any domain of the netherworld on earth, for justice is undying. For God formed man to be imperishable; the image of his own nature he made him. But by the envy of the devil, death entered the world, and they who belong to his company experience it. Gospel for the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 1, 2012 (Mark 5:21–43) When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around him, and he stayed close to the sea. One of the synagogue officials, named Jairus, came forward. Seeing him he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with him, saying, “My daughter is at the point of death. Please, come lay your hands on her that she may get well and live.” He went off with him, and a large crowd followed him and pressed upon him. There was a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years. She had suffered greatly at the hands of many doctors and had spent all that she had. Yet she was not helped but only grew worse. She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak. She said, “If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured.” Immediately her flow of blood dried up. She felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him, turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who has touched my clothes?” But his disciples said to Jesus, “You see how the crowd is pressing upon you, and yet you ask, ‘Who touched me?'” And he looked around to see who had done it. The woman, realizing what had happened to her, approached in fear and trembling. She fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your affliction.” While he was still speaking, people from the synagogue official's house arrived and said, “Your daughter has died; why trouble the teacher any longer?” Disregarding the message that was reported, Jesus said to the synagogue official, “Do not be afraid; just have faith.” He did not allow anyone to accompany him inside except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. When they arrived at the house of the synagogue official, he caught sight of a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. So he went in and said to them, “Why this commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but asleep.” And they ridiculed him. Then he put them all out. He took along the child's father and mother and those who were with him and entered the room where the child was. He took the child by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise!” The girl, a child of twelve, arose immediately and walked around. At that they were utterly astounded. He gave strict orders that no one should know this and said that she should be given something to eat. Scot said he was struck by the long interruption in the story of Jairus and his daughter with the afflicted woman. The message was that our faith can heal us. Msgr. Deeley said it's a good opportunity to remind us to avail ourselves of the opportunity to receive the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick before we go to the hospital. It is a healing sacrament. It can be difficult because of privacy laws to find out who is in the hospital and to visit them. He said it's not Extreme Unction anymore and it's not just the Last Rites. Fr. Mark noted Jesus' kindness, noticing the one woman in the crowd. He reached out to her with kindness and love. He also made sure the crowd knew the girl was not dead, but he told them she was just sleeping so people wouldn't treat her like a zombie. St. Mark also puts in the Aramaic words that show Jesus' gentleness in awakening the girl from death. Scot said Jesus wants us all to arise in our faith and that was the name of our program of renewal. Jesus then asked the people to give her something to eat to prove that she is alive and not a ghost. Msgr. Deeley said it's so important for us to have the freedom to work with the sick and feed the hungry because we are following the example of Christ.

Eric Metaxas is the author of the New York Times #1 bestseller, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, which was recently named "Book of the Year" by the ECPA. Bonhoeffer also won the 2011 John C. Pollock Award for Biography awarded by Beeson Divinity School and a 2011 Christopher Award in the Non-fiction category. Called a "biography of uncommon power," Bonhoeffer appeared on numerous 2010 "Best of the Year" lists and was featured in the Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, The New Republic, Harper's, Kirkus (starred review), NPR, FoxNews, C-SPAN's Book TV, Christianity Today, The Weekly Standard, and First Things. Metaxas is the 2011 recipient of the Canterbury Medal awarded by the Becket Fund for Religious Freedom. Previous medalists include Archbishop Charles Chaput and Elie Wiesel.

Today's host(s): Scot Landry and Susan Abbott Today's guest(s): Fr. Roger Landry, executive editor of The Anchor, the newspaper of the Fall River diocese; and Gregory Tracy, managing editor of The Pilot, the newspaper of the Boston archdiocese Links from today's show: Some of the stories discussed on this show will be available on The Pilot's and The Anchor's websites on Friday morning. Please check those sites for the latest links. Today's topics: Transitional deacons; Archdiocese's annual report; Catholic schools; March for Life roundup Summary of today's show: Scot Landry and Susan Abbott review this week's headlines with Gregory Tracy and Fr. Roger Landry, including the ordination of transitional deacons; the release of the Archdiocese's annual financial report; Fr. Roger's editorial on how all Americans should realize the value of Catholic schools to our nation; and a roundup from this week's March for Life. 1st segment: Scot welcomed Susan to the show and said they were recording Thursday morning. After the show, Susan was heading to an afternoon meeting with religious educators to discuss the topic of pastoral planning in the archdiocese. Scot said we will have a show coming up on the second round of pastoral planning. He said listeners can go to and see the current list of proposed grouping of parishes throughout the Archdiocese. The idea is to expose the thinking of the pastoral planning commission to receive many responses and thus incorporate all the feedback into further recommendations to Cardinal Seán. Susan emphasized that nothing is carved in stone and that they are looking for constructive criticism. Susan also said she is counting down the days until her newest grandchild is born. Her daughter, the youngest of her children, is due to have her first baby at any time. 2nd segment: Scot and Susan welcomed Gregory Tracy and Fr. Roger Landry to the show. On the front page of the Pilot this week is the ordination of seven men as transitional deacons by Cardinal Seán last Saturday. Eric F. Cadin, Felipe de Jesus Gonzales, John J. Healy, Adrian A. Milik, and Brother Michael F. Sheehan, FPO, were ordained for Boston. Matthew Skal Peter Guidi was ordained for the Diocese of Springfield and Brother John M. Luong was ordained for the Oblates of the Virgin Mary. Greg recounted his experience covering the story. He recalled that it was snowing, but the Cathedral was still two-thirds full and it's a testimony that people came out on this horrible day to see this ordination. “Of course in the Church's way of preparing men for priestly ministry part of the itinerary is to be deacons. So, this celebration today puts them on that journey to priesthood, even closer, and underscores the fact that ministry is about service, about answering a call to serve the Lord, and the poor at the altar, and to be at the service of the word of God,” Cardinal O'Malley said. Scot said last week, Fr. Roger said that these men will always be deacons. Susan said it struck her too that the diaconate will always be part of their priesthood. Fr. Roger said the ordination of Jason Brilliante in Fall River was thinly attended unfortunately because they had about 11 inches of snow. Scot said the priestly ordination in Boston will be in late June this year. Scot said the Archdiocese has released its latest annual report. Back in 2006, when the archdiocese released its first report, it made national news because never before had a diocese released so much information. Now it's a non-story. This is for fiscal year 2011 which ended last June. It covers the Corporation SOle, which includes parishes and central ministries. The budget was balanced and net assets increased by $31 million because of investment performance and net contributions in parishes grew 3%. Enrollment in Catholic schools increased for the first time in 20 years. Parishes involved in the first phase of the financial relationship model also got a very successful start with an overall net increase in operating funds of $1.2 million. Greg recalled the initial financial report media coverage and noted that over time it has become commonplace. Cardinal Seán had seen alack of trust of the Church, especially in finances and he felt it was important to have a full accounting to the people. He has kept that commitment every year, even if it takes more or less time to finish the report. They do release vast amounts of information every year and it doesn't make the news because there's no remarkable in the figures. The money is used the way they say it is. Scot said the report has been released in January this year and previously it had been at least April before it got out. It takes a lot of work to combine all the parishes and other institutions into one financial report. Scot and Susan discussed the difficult cuts that had to be made to get to a balanced budget. Susan appreciated the comment from the article that the Pastoral Center ensures a culture of service. Scot said there's a budget report on the diocesan website that shows how the budget gets allocated to the central ministries. Scot said the Church has a responsibility to be good stewards of the generosity of the people. 3rd segment: Scot said Catholic Schools Week starts next week and the Pilot has a 32-page special edition next week. Greg said they run stories from many students from as many schools as they can. It gives people an insight into what's happening in schools across the archdiocese. Scot said this is the time that many parents think about what they're going to do for their kids next fall. Catholic schools give good whole-person formation and it's an environment that welcomes the mention of Jesus. Susan said many schools are having open houses next week to get to know the local schools. Fr. Roger's editorial this week discusses the benefit of Catholic schools to our entire country because it has been engine of assimilation for millions of immigrant children, forming them into good citizens, especially in our urban neighborhoods, helping them excel. They do this not because the Church has a secret teaching method, but because of the selfless dedication of so many teaching religious brothers and sisters and now laity. Catholic schools made the American dream achievable for millions. The ranks of policemen, firefighters, the military, and our political class are filled with graduates of Catholic schools. There shouldn't be competition between government and Catholic schools. Scot said Catholic schools face financial trouble, not other kinds of trouble. Many of the teaching orders have had their ranks thinned and they have been replaced by lay teachers, but they need more pay and benefits to support their lives and families. As a result, tuitions have risen from a nominal amount to somewhere around $4000 per year. Many families can't afford the cost. Fr. Roger's editorial quoted Archbishop Charles Chaput's comments when he had to close about 25% of the schools in Philadelphia about where the anger should be directed. Many parents and others are angry at the blue ribbon commission that recommended the closings, but he said they should instead be angry at the legislatures who voted down a school vouchers bill that came before them last year and at the teachers' union that lobbied against it. If the bill had passed, many of these schools would not have to close. The voucher bill would have redirected the local property tax of parents sending their kids to private schools to the schools where their kids are going. Fr. Roger said this would also create a system of competition because now parents have a choice and schools will have to succeed. Scot said the Catholic school system gets better results than public schools and everyone should want to support that. He also noted the anti-Catholic laws on the books that forbid any state funds from going to Catholic schools specifically. 4th segment: It's time to announce this week's winner of the WQOM Benefactor Raffle. Our prizes this week are the book by Dr. Eugene Gan and two audio CDs by Fr. Larry Richards, “The Mass Explained” and “Confession”. This week's benefactor card raffle winner is Mark DiMarzo from Stoneham, MA. Congratulation, Mark! If you would like to be eligible to win in an upcoming week, please visit . For a one-time $30 donation, you'll receive the Station of the Cross benefactor card and key tag, making you eligible for WQOM's weekly raffle of books, DVDs, CDs and religious items. We'll be announcing the winner each Wednesday during “The Good Catholic Life” program. 5th segment: Scot said there are two stories on the March for Life pilgrimage from Boston this past weekend. Greg and reporter Chris Pineo accompanied the pilgrims. Greg said they do a tag team approach to covering the March because it is so big. Greg stays with the cardinal and Chris stays with a group of pilgrims on the buses. The Cardinal often attends different events so they want to cover his activities. He did join the pilgrims on several occasions for the liturgies and the March itself. Greg said it was a rainy walk, but there was a palpable sense of joy, especially among the young people. Scot commented on Chris' story on the reactions of pilgrims visiting the historic sites in DC, including the Lincoln Memorial. “This place makes me feel inspired and it's very big. It shows what this country has come through and what we have been through and how we have overcome challenges,” Savannah Bynum, freshman at Central Catholic, said. Bynham said she hopes someone will step forward to lead the United States away from the tragedy of abortion, like the Great Emancipator led the country away from the tragedy of slavery. “It makes me think that one person, one inspiring person, can make a difference,” Bynham said. As Brother Rene D. Roy read Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address tears rolled down his face. “After those very heart-felt thoughts about who we are, and what our destiny is on this planet, it just seems like it is falling apart,” he said, descending the steps where Martin Luther King Jr. spoke in 1963. “But with the firm resolve and the dedication of those who have gone before us we shall overcome that,” Brother Rene said. He looked around at the students with whom he came to the capital to stand against abortion. “There is a lot of hope in these young people, but there are times when it just seems so degenerated, but it will be rejuvenated like the park will be rebuilt,” he said. Crews worked at the $31.6 million repairs to the reflecting pool, as Brother Rene walked back toward the bus. “I think this just gives us a great challenge to face. We are not facing Roman persecution, but we are facing a kind of more subtle dissolution of the established message of Jesus, the established ways of the past,” Brother Rene said. “But there is always hope that is why we're here, as long as we are alive there is hope,” Brother Rene said. Scot noted a story in the Anchor this week about an increase in the number of babies saved from abortion last year in the Boston area. Fr. Roger said he felt it important to not that these 117 children saved could grow up to save so many more in their lives. If you save one person, you can save a whole nation, according to an old Jewish saying. Greg said also in the Pilot this week is a column from Fr. Roger on physician-assisted suicide and the Pilot will be covering this issue in the coming weeks and months to help people get the full story. Fr. Roger said in the Anchor this week is a story about an appeals court that overturned a lower court ruling that was going to force her to have an abortion against her will because she has a mental illness.

Today's host(s): Scot Landry and Susan Abbott Today's guest(s): Fr. Roger Landry, executive editor of The Anchor, the newspaper of the Fall River diocese; and Antonio Enrique, editor of The Pilot, the newspaper of the Boston archdiocese. Some of the stories discussed on this show will be available on The Pilot's and The Anchor's websites on Friday morning. Please check those sites for the latest links. Today's topics: US bishops' meeting; Ordinariate for Anglicans; Cardinal Seán's pastoral letter Summary of today's show: Scot Landry and Susan Abbott were joined by Fr. Roger Landry and Antonio Enrique to discuss the news of the week, including Cardinal Seán has issued a pastoral letter asking for more participation in Sunday Mass; the US bishops met this week and religious freedom was a major topic; big developments for Anglicans and Episcopalians wishing to enter the Church en masse; a clarion call from Archbishop Dolan for bishops to model passionate love for Christ; the Marian Medal awards in Fall River; and other local stories 1st segment: Scot welcomed Susan back to the show. She said last night she was in Brighton for a workshop at the catechetical certificate course with parish catechists. She also did a workshop at Sacred Heart in Kingston this morning with catechists on the South Shore. 2nd segment: Scot and Susan welcome Antonio Enrique and Fr. Roger Landry back to the show. Scot said the US bishops have two annual gatherings, one in June and a second in November and the latter is in Baltimore. One of the main addresses this year was by Bishop Lori who is the chair of a new ad-hoc committee on religious liberty. Fr. Roger said the US bishops have prioritized religious freedom. Bishop Lori gave a clarion call for why this is important to everything Catholic. There is a notion among secularists is that they're doing us a favor by allowing us to practice our faith in our churches on Sunday and object to us when we want to live our faith in public. Not only have they worked in the courts to force us to take up their notion of marriage, for instance, and then force Catholic adoption agencies to give children to same-sex couples and force Catholic public clerks to give out marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Bishop Lori put it all in one document why this is important. It all happens through the courts and legislatures and executive offices of our government and we all have to understand duty to object to this curtailing of our religious freedom. Secularists are saying freedom of religion is freedom to worship as opposed to freedom to live your faith in the public square. What they want to allow is a militant secularism. Bishop Lori named 10 bishops to his ad-hoc committee and ten others as well, including John Garvey, president of Catholic University of America, and Mary Ann Glendon of Harvard Law and former US ambassador to the Vatican. Scot said one-third of committee chairs of the USCCB are elected each year and Cardinal Seán was elected to be chairman of the bishops; Pro-Life Committee, one of the most important committees. Antonio said the pro-life cause is very near and dear to Cardinal Seán. It is great news for Boston and great news for him. The new chairmen-elect will become chairs of those committee next year and will spend this year preparing for leadership. The bishop elected to head this committee is usually one of the American cardinals, which gives greater prominence to the office and the work they're doing. Cardinals will also get more headlines in the secular media. Fr. Roger is excited about this appointment because Cardinal Seán is a great homilist and will be the celebrant at the annual Mass at the March for Life in Washington, DC, each year. Also this coincides with the push for legalizing euthanasia in Massachusetts. Also announced was a new Ordinariate, which is essentially a national diocese for Anglicans who want to become Catholic as complete communities. The only other ordinariate in the US is the Archdiocese for Military Services. There is a an Ordinariate for Anglicans in the United Kingdom which just began. Susan said her own parish has a priest who is a former Episcopal priest who came into the Church as an individual. Fr. Roger said it shows Pope Benedict's desire for Christian unity and creating a bridge for reunification who separated along with Henry VIII in the 16th century. Many Anglicans recognize that as the Anglican Communion has gotten further from Scripture and orthodox Christianity, they recognize that there was no longer any hope of bringing the Anglican structure back to the Church, so they are coming back on their own. Anglican faithful, priests, and bishops desire unity and recognize that the whole Anglican communion won't be coming back. Cardinal Wuerl said we will welcome Episcopalian and Anglican brothers and sisters back into the Church with open arms. The Ordinariate will be erected on January 12. Whoever is named to lead the Ordinariate will be named at that point as well as the see or central city where it will be located. Antonio said in the case of this ordinariate does not have to be a bishop. It can be a priest, either one who is already Catholic or who came from the Anglican Communion several years ago. He said many Catholics look at this development with joy and hope because it helps to fulfill Christ's prayer that all will be one. Scot said there were three keynote addresses at the bishops' meeting, that by Bishop Lori, another by Bishop Rhoades on defending marriage, and by Archbishop Timothy Dolan as the new leader of the bishops' conference. Archbishop Dolan gave a clarion call to renew our evangelization and be passionately in love with Christ. Susan said the archbishop said we need prophets, not programs. Jesus prefers saints, not solutions. This is similar to what Pope John Paul II said in . Susan said the opening of the article was impressive where the Archbishop said the Church has wounds like Christ did from the scandals of the past few years. Scot said the archbishop was blunt about an effort from within the Church from Catholics who want to separate Christ from the Church. That's people who want to be spiritual, not religious. They want faith on their terms, not those from Jesus. Dolan talks about the chilling statistics from the people in the Church who prefer a Christ without the Church, the King without the kingdom, the Father with children as long as I am the only child. Dolan said if this doesn't causes bishops to shudder, he doesn't know what will. Antonio said the Church is trying to address this by trying to recreate the way we pass the faith on to the next generation. How do we educate our children? How do families live their faith? It will take more than one generation to reverse the situation we're in today. Antonio's own experience readying parents for the baptism of their children finds their knowledge of their faith to be abysmal. He challenged his brother bishops whether people would say that they themselves are passionately in love with Christ. Bishops are under a microscope with regard to the condition of the Church and the bishops need to model the behaviors they want to see in their people. He gave a talk to energize the bishops and through them all of us in the Church. Squabbles and fighting can be a negative influence on people thinking about coming into the Church. 3rd segment: , a pastoral letter from Cardinal Sean Scot said this isa compelling title because Jesus is eager to see us there. The primary Jesus asked us to praise and worship him is to come together in the Eucharist. Fr. Roger said the expression “eager desire” comes from St. Luke's account of the Last Supper where he said he eagerly desired that moment for them to be together. Fr. Roger said many can say they love God, but love means sacrificing for the one we love. It's Jesus who asks us to come to Mass, not just the Church or our mothers. He wants us at Mass more than all the mothers in the world want their children to be with them at Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. That's the overall theme of the pastoral letter. Scot said it's a 9,300 word letter and very comprehensive. Susan said the beginning of the letter where the Cardinal relates it to Thanksgiving touched her. There are also practical suggestions about families bringing children to Mass. Susan said the US bishops have a website with similar suggestions at . Susan said the whole topic of attending Mass came up at her workshop last night and people were saying there's nothing wrong with having an obligation to come to Mass. Scot said the Cardinal shares an anecdote: Imagine if a wife, celebrating an anniversary dinner with her husband, told him that she accepted the dinner invitation only to “fulfill an obligation.” How would you feel to be on the receiving end of that message? In the same way, Christ loves us and wants us to come not just out of obligation, but also out of love. Better to come out of obligation than not come at all, but it's best to come out of love. Antonio said he was very happy to see the flow of the letter, which is very pastoral. It's not a theological treatise. He was also touched by the section which talks about passing on the faith to children. Recently I attended a dinner at which the principal of one of our local Catholic high schools was being honored. In his remarks he said: “I grew up in a family where going to Mass on Sunday was about as optional as breathing.” Many of us in the audience could identify with those words — it was not a matter of authoritarian parents or social pressure, but rather a sense of how important the Sunday Eucharist was for our family identity and survival. To miss Mass is to stop breathing; it is the sure path to a spiritual asphyxiation. Antonio said if we don't have this experience of the love of God creates a vacuum in our lives. Mass helps us to live our life in its fullness. Fr. Roger said the letter is broken into two parts. The first is our desire to meet with the Lord's own desire to meet us. The cardinal is trying to fire up our love for the Lord to meet his great love. The section has nine different ways we can respond to the Lord's letter. The second part has practical ways that all of us can take this eager desire of Jesus and try to bring us all back together. The practical insights in this part will be read by the faithful throughout the world. Compared to Pope Benedict's , which is very theological, this is full of practical ways to spread the gift of the Eucharist. He particularly liked the call to priests to have more explanatory Masses that explain how and why we do what we do at Mass. 4th segment: In the Anchor this week is an article about the 43rd annual Marian Medal awards in the Diocese of Fall River. One of the people who was to receive the award and was interviewed for an article in the newspaper later died. He will still receive the medal, but Fr. Roger said his comments were a great summation of those who receive these awards which honor and reward those who are devoted to service of the Church. Scot said the Cheverus awards for the Archdiocese of Boston to be given out this coming Sunday at the cathedral were inspired the Marian Medals. Another story is that the Vatican has upheld the sale of St. Jeremiah Church in Framingham to the Syro-Malabar Catholic Diocese in the US, which effectively ends the vigil by members of the former parish. The people who had been fighting to keep the parish have decided to give up their fight after the final Vatican appeal. Scot said Immaculate Conception Parish in Weymouth has been producing a TV show on local cable access for 19 years. Susan said she will appear on the show very soon. In the Anchor, there is an explanation of the funeral rite. Janet Benestad writes a column in this week's Pilot about how people are being misled to sign a petition which is in favor of physician-assisted suicide. Scot called to the attention listeners the death of Fr. Kenneth McAskill who was a pastor for 18 years in Somerville and then 18 years in Medford in addition to a number of other priests. There's also a profile in the Pilot continuing to look at the bishops of Boston and this week it's on Cardinal Humberto Medeiros. Fr. Roger summarized his editorial in this week's Anchor on Archbishop Charles Chaput's address in Worcester last week, which looks at how religious freedom has eroded in our country mainly because Christians have been lukewarm in their faith and not living it to the fullest. The response to it needs to be a new flame of faith in love. He wanted Church leaders to help the young to get to know their faith by people who are on fire in their parishes and families and form them to take the fire of their love out into the public square.

Today's host(s): Scot Landry and Susan Abbott Today's guest(s): Fr. Roger Landry, executive editor of The Anchor, the newspaper of the Fall River diocese; and Gregory Tracy, managing editor of The Pilot, the newspaper of the Boston archdiocese Some of the stories discussed on this show will be available on The Pilot's and The Anchor's websites on Friday morning. Please check those sites for the latest links. Today's topics: Ad limina visit; Assisi prayer; US: beacon of hope; Cheverus awards Summary of today's show: In this week's roundup of the news, Scot Landry and Susan Abbott are joined once again by Fr. Roger Landry and Gregory Tracy to discuss the New England bishops' ad limina visit to Rome; the gathering for peace by the world's religious leaders in Assisi, Italy; the papal nuncio's admiration for the US as a beacon of hope; the Cheverus Awards for unsung heroes in the pews of the Archdiocese of Boston; new pastors and priests who who've died; a collection for retired religious sisters; the Pope on nihilism; and the 100th anniversary of Boston's first cardinal. 1st segment: Susan started the week with a meeting in Worcester with the Catholic school superintendents of New England and religious education leaders to discuss the upcoming National Catholic Education Association in Boston in Spring. She also met with her religious education counterparts for New England to discuss their collaborative work. 2nd segment: Scot welcomed Fr. Roger and Greg to the show. Fr. Roger wished his goddaughter Ally, who happens to be Scot's daughter, a happy eighth birthday. The big story is that the bishops of the US region 1, which includes all of New England, have been meeting with the Holy Father. Usually there is a lot of news and releases related to these kinds of meetings and there hasn't been much this time. Greg said the ad limina is usually about every 5 years, but these bishops haven't been in 7 years and it's the first time meeting with Pope Benedict. They report on the status of their diocese, meet with the Pope, and meet with various Vatican officials. They receive the Holy Father's concerns and encouragement for their dioceses and to share their own concerns. This is the first group of US bishops for this round of ad limina visits by the American bishops. One of the public events chronicled in the Pilot is how they kicked off the visit with Mass at the tomb of St. Peter in the Vatican. Susan said the excerpts of Cardinal Seán's homily say he spoke about how Jesus didn't select Peter for his intellectual capacity or organizational skills or fundraising capacity, but only asked if he loved the Lord. Fr. Roger said he was surprised there wasn't a papal address during the ad limina. John Paul gave an address for each of the regions as they visited. Normally that's what drives the news cycle, when he responds to what he has received from the bishops. We'll have to wait until our bishops return to find out the results. 3rd segment: Fr. Roger dedicated his editorial this week “path to peace” on the topic of Pope Benedict's remarks at the Assisi interfaith meeting on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the first such meeting. Pope Benedict contextualized what the religious leaders were doing 25 years ago, by noting the fall of the Berlin Wall a few years later and he said that interreligious prayer for peace brought peace to that part of the world. He also talked of the threats to peace that threaten the world today: terrorism, especially that which is religiously motivated—not just Muslims either—as well as the violence that is done through the absence of God in places with a lack of religious freedom. Pope Benedict said we also see it in the scourge of drug use, which is an expression of the degeneration of the desire for human happiness into a craving that is exploited. Pope Benedict brought these up so that all religious people could combat these problems throughout the world. Susan said one of the hungers in the human heart is for peace. She remembers the 1986 Assisi gathering and a discussion that we weren't coming together to pray for peace, but we were coming together to pray for peace in our own traditions. Greg said the absence of religion can be the greatest barrier to peace. Fr. Roger said it's often agreed that St. Francis of Assisi is universally considered a saint. He's also known as a reconciler, even going to Egypt to meet the Saladin to ask for peace. 4th segment: The new nuncio to the US is Archbishop Vigano who called the youth of this country a beacon of hope to the world. He arrives here on Saturday. “Europe has become an ‘old continent,' but the United States has a youth that is brilliant and enthusiastic. I hope to be able to work with them in my new position,” he said.” Susan said it's wonderful that he sees us as a young country that is also setting the trend in ways that he hopes will spread through the world. Scot said the Archbishop said it's wonderful how in the US there are many communities that come together to form one country. We can take the melting pot of the US for granted, but Greg said we need to remember how in European countries that there is less diversity of culture and community. The Archbishop loves science and is interested in the intersection of science and faith. Fr. Roger said the archbishop sees in science the fingerprints of God. Fr. Roger recalled his own work in biotechnology before entering seminary and how often he saw the order of creation that points to God. The US is the real cutting edge of bioethical discussion because we have so much scientific research and someone so interested in that intersection would find the US a fascinating bioethical laboratory. The archbishop hinted that he will concentrate on religious freedom issues, especially conscience freedoms for people of faith working in science-related areas. Fr. Roger said the US bishops have formed a new committee on religious freedom to counter the recent attacks on human dignity and religious freedom. Susan asked if there's a term for nuncios, and Fr. Roger said it's indefinite. It's also traditional for bishops to offer their resignation on their 75th birthday although the Pope could ask him to continue on. 5th segment: An article in the Pilot this week lists the 97 Cheverus award recipients. The Cheverus award was implemented by Cardinal Seán in 2008 to recognize parishioners who give service to their parish and the archdiocese over a long period of time. Susan noted that she knows many of this year's recipients, including her brother-in-law, Arthur Abbott. One third of the parishes nominate a parishioner each year. The awards are given on November 20 during a service at Holy Cross cathedral at 3pm. Greg said pastors of the recipients are unanimous in their effusive appreciation of the people who serve quietly in parishes. The Cheverus award is modeled on the Marian award that Cardinal Seán gave out when he was bishop of Fall River. Fr. Roger said the recipients are often people who don't often get many thanks or much credit for what they do. It's very moving. It's tough for the pastor to single out one person to be awarded each year. Fr. Roger implemented a yearly award in his own parish in which parishioners nominate from among their fellow congregants those who should be recognized for their service. Also on November 20, there will be a collection taken up for the retired religious sisters. Because so many of the current sisters entered religious life in the 40s and 50s, but they weren't able to enter the Social Security system until the 1970s and so they have meager means to support themselves, especially as there a fewer younger sisters to continue supporting them. 6th segment: Sister Susan Frederick who has been president of Presentation of Mary Academy in Methuen for the past eight years has recently been appointed a member of the Sisters of the Presentation of Mary General Council. Susan said it was very touching in the article to read the comments sister's students. The sadness of her leaving is tempered by the excitement of the new chapter in her life. She is Methuen native and has been a religious sister for 30 years. Also announced this week, Fr. Thomas Mahoney who was Catholic Chaplain at Mass. General has been named Pastor of St. Joseph, Belmont, as of December 8. Also in Salem, St. Thomas the Apostle had been pastored by Fr. John Sheridan, who is also the Pastor of St. James in Salem, but will now be pastored by Fr. John MacInnis, who remains Pastor of St. John the Baptist in Peabody. Scot mentioned three obituaries in the Pilot this week for Fr. Arthur DiPietro, Fr. Charles Weber, and Fr. Francis Regan. 7th segment: Scot said on Sunday the Holy Father spoke during the Angelus how the removal of Christ from our lives will cause us to fall backward to darkness. The world is plagued by nihilism which affects so many young people. Fr. Roger said nihilism means an attitude that nothing matters, that there is nothing beyond what we see and the world doesn't have any meaning. Many people have a practical nihilism in which they act is if there is no meaning beyond the gratification of the immediate moment. Fr. Roger said tonight he is heading out to hear an address from Archbishop Charles Chaput speak on the future of the Church in the United States. He will be speaking at Assumption College in Worcester at 7pm in Hagan Hall. It is open to the public. Greg noted that tomorrow is the 100th anniversary of the elevation of Boston's first cardinal, Cardinal William O'Connell to the College of Cardinals.

Today's host(s): Scot Landry and Susan Abbott Today's guest(s): Gregory Tracy, managing editor of The Pilot, the newspaper of the Boston archdiocese Some of the stories discussed on this show will be available on The Pilot's and The Anchor's websites on Friday morning. Please check those sites for the latest links. Today's topics: 9/11 anniversary; Msgr. Robert Deeley; assisted suicide petition; Catholic school year starts; Archbishop Chaput's installation Summary of today's show: Gregory Tracy and Susan Abbott discuss the news of the week with Scot, including this week's anniversary of 9/11 and Catholic reflections on the events and their aftermath; an extensive Pilot interview with Msgr. RObert Deeley, the new vicar general; an assisted suicide ballot initiative; the always promising beginning of the Catholic school year; and the homily of Archbishop Charles Chaput at his installation Mass in Philadelphia. 1st segment: Scot noted that today is the birthday of the Blessed Mother. Fr. Sean Carey, the only priest of the archdiocese who is deaf, celebrated the 12:05 pm Mass at the Pastoral Center for this feast. Susan Abbott said she had a workshop today for a total of more than 100 people on the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults. 2nd segment: Scot noted that Fr. Roger Landry is traveling, but welcomed Greg Tracy to the show. He said that there's an article in the Pilot this week which excerpts remarks from in which the Cardinal reflects on the events and aftermath of 9/11. He starts by describing where he was when he heard about the attacks, at a meeting of the US bishops' conference. They went immediately across the street to the National Shrine of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception for a Mass for the victims. Then he told the story of how he tried to get back to Fall River from Washington, DC. He eventually rented a car with some others. Scot said Cardinal Sean reflects that 9/11 reflected the best and worst of who we are as humanity and also that we all came together to pray. Susan said in her parish they put a notice on the parish website for a prayer service that evening and people began coming back every night to pray. Susan said they had people come to RCIA and other adult formation because of their experience of 9/11. Fr. Roger in his editorial reflected on the lessons of 9/11. The events reawakened most Americans to four fundamental realities in the world: of evil in the world; that death comes for us all; the heroism of first responders and others who risked their lives; and the reality of God. He refers to the Imitation of Christ and its advice: “In every deed and every thought, act as if you die this day.” It helps to bring us back to our roots and our purpose in this life. Susan quoted a famous line that the Devil's biggest trick is to convince us that he or evil doesn't exist. But she also went to the Prologue of the Gospel of John that the Light shines in the darkness and darkness has not overcome it. Fr. Roger's ends with: Some, succumbing to the perennial temptation about why God doesn't stop all evil, asked where God was on 9/11. Fr. James Martin, SJ, responded that on 9/11 God was offering us a parable. As he was ministering to the wounded at a Manhattan hospital, Fr. Martin looked around at the rescue workers and realized, “God is like the firefighter who rushes into a burning building to save someone. That's how much God loves us. And I saw this love expressed in the great charity of all the rescue workers who gathered at the American Golgotha.” Fr. Roger said that the Ground Zero Cross is a sign that evil doesn't have the last word. He ends by suggesting the most fitting way to mark the anniversary is to pray: “… prayer for our country, that we may be strong, courageous and persevering in our opposition to terrorism and other evils; for all our civil leaders and those who are on the front lines in protecting us in the military, police departments, intelligence services and homeland security; for all those who lost loved ones ten years ago; for the salvation of all those who had died; and for the conversion of the terrorists and the cultures that spawn them. And we should make this prayer silently as individuals, as we will at 1 pm on Sunday with Church bells tolling throughout the land. We should make it with our families at home, in living rooms and perhaps exceptionally before television sets. And we should make it in our Churches where we enter into the mystery both of the Cross and of the Resurrection for which the Cross is the prelude.” The Pilot this week reprints the editorial from the newspaper on September 14, 2001, written by Msgr. Peter Conley, who was the editor-in-chief at the time. The current editor, Antonio Enrique, started with the Pilot that very day, 9/11. They reprinted the editorial because it captures the fear and outrage, but also prophetically outlined the issues that our country would have to grapple with from that time. Scot quoted the editorial which noted that Americans were too complacent in their security before these attacks. But Msgr. Conley also ended by saying, “Evil must be named and confronted for what it is — the opposite of a God Who is love.” 3rd segment: Scot said on September 1, Msgr. Robert Deeley began his service to the Archdiocese as vicar general. In this week's Pilot, Msgr. Deeley gives a lengthy interview on his background, his early assignments in the Archdiocese, and then his work in Rome. He also spoke of his hopes and vision for his service and assessed the situation of the Archdiocese today. Greg said he was most interested by Msgr. Deeley's background and upbringing because it gave him a sense of him as a person beyond his curriculum vitae as a priest from the early 1990s on. Greg said he felt he was immensely grounded with a wide breadth of experience in parishes, in the chancery, and working in the Curia in Rome. He also was struck by how much he spoke about evangelization and how he sees that as a central part of his mission. Scot said Msgr. Deeley has had three different stints in Rome: as a seminarian; studying canon law; and then for eight years working for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Susan said she was struck by his sense of the universality of the Church, especially from his time in Rome. He later said Boston is not unique and the issues we're dealing with are shared by other people. She was also touched by his sense of obedience and fidelity. When he was aksed by Cardinal Sean, there was no other answer but to say Yes, out of fidelity to his promise. Scot said no young priest seeks to be a vicar general. Some priests may aspire to become a bishop, but a vicar general deals with every problem in the diocese before it lands on the bishop's desk. He said he has been moved by Msgr. Deeley's faith in the one week since he's been in the Pastoral Center. Susan said we haven't changed our goals as a Church, to bring the faith to those who do not know it and to encourage and form those who do. Scot also noted that one question asked him whether he was thinking of significant changes. Msgr. Deeley said he will meet with those work for the Church and priests, but it's really Cardinal Sean who sets the direction. On Pastoral Planning, he said one of the problems of Reconfiguration in 2004 was the swiftness with which it was done. He said the current committee working on pastoral planning is very good and while these things can be painful, he believes people need to be heard and have the ability to enter into the process. Greg said one of his favorites quotes of the whole interview was that now he'd accepted the position, he told the Lord, “Now it's up to you to give me the strength.” Greg said there will be even more content in the online version that will be available on PilotCatholicNews.com on Friday. 4th segment: Scot said that yesterday Attorney General Martha Coakley certified a ballot initiative in support of the so-called Massachusetts Death with Dignity Act. The Mass. bishops want to form and inform about the inherent evil in assisted suicide as well as worse results. The bishops say in a statement: “We cannot allow for the possibility that government agencies or insurance companies will have an influence on the decision as to whether or not a person's life is worthy of being sustained.” Greg said this petition is not unexpected and both the Anchor and the Pilot have been writing about this in recent weeks. He thinks the bishops will come out very strongly on this issue because of the slippery slope. He said the bishops quote their 1995 statement: “For once a society allows one individual to take the life of another based on their private standards of what constitutes a life worth living, even when there is mutual agreement, there can be no safe or sure way to contain its possible consequences.” Greg said evil is always presented as a good by its proponents. They phrase this as the need to “help” someone to die. But once you don't have a right to life, you don't have a right to anything. Scot said polls show that across the US, whatever their political affiliation or ideology, people don't trust government, but laws like this would give the power of life and death to third parties. Proponents have used euphemisms to put a little bit of frosting on an evil cake. Susan said you just have to look at other countries that have preceded us down the slippery slope to see where we are going and to see how basic rights have been lost. She encouraged listeners to see the US bishops' website for more resources. Scot encouraged all to inform their representatives of their views on this issue. Moving on to other topics, the Pilot has an article on the beginning of the school year for Catholic years. The Archdiocese's school has 42,000+ students, making it the second-largest school system in the Commonwealth after Boston. Superintendent Mary Grassa-O'Neill talks in the article that they have been working with school principals and to help schools develop their Catholicity, academic achievement, and fiscal strength. In addition, Boston College is working with the Archdiocese to help develop a technology strategy for Catholic schools. Just concluded moments ago was the installation Mass of Archbishop Charles Chaput as archbishop of Philadelphia. Scot said it is the most significant appointment of a bishop in recent years because of the problems in Philadelphia right now. He quoted the archbishop's homily: A married friend told me last week that getting together for today reminded him of planning for a very, very, very big wedding. He was being humorous, but he was actually more accurate than he knew. The relationship of a bishop and his local Church — his diocese — is very close to a marriage. The ring I wear is a symbol of every bishop's love for his Church. And a bishop's marriage to the local Church reminds me, and all of us who serve you as bishops, that a bishop is called to love his Church with all his heart, just as Christ loved her and gave his life for her. Of course, my appointment to Philadelphia is an arranged marriage, and the Holy Father is the matchmaker. … In the Church, we believe that the Holy Spirit guides the decisions of the Holy Father. And the results are always joyful if we commit our wills to cooperating with God's plan. For any marriage to work, two things need to happen. People need to fall in love, and together they need to be fruitful. That's what we need to dedicate ourselves to today – to love one another and be fruitful together for the new evangelization. Greg noted that the archbishop said the good news is that arranged marriages are statistically as likely to last as other marriages. He also said that in arranged marriages the couple come to know each other and then love each other. This is a response to any question asking why the Holy Father would send Archbishop Chaput to Philadelphia despite having no previous connection to eastern Pennsylvania. Scot also quoted the homily: My dear brother bishops, it's crucial for those of us who are bishops not simply to look like bishops but to truly be bishops. He ended the homily thus: This Church in Philadelphia faces very serious challenges these days. There's no quick fix to problems that are so difficult, and none of us here today, except the Lord Himself, is a miracle worker. But it's important to remember and to believe the Church is not defined by her failures. And you and I are not defined by our critics or by those who dislike us. What we do in the coming months and years to respond to these challenges – that will define who we really are. And in engaging that work, we need to be Catholics first, and always. Jesus Christ is the center of our lives, and the Church is our mother and teacher. Everything we do should flow from that. … Whatever my weaknesses (and they're many) and whatever my lacks (and they're many too), no bishop will give more of himself than I will to renewing this great Church. No bishop will try harder to help persons who have been hurt by the sins of the past. And no bishop will work harder to strengthen and encourage our priests, and restore the hearts of our people. And everything I've learned in my 24 years as a bishop and 41 years as a priest, and everything I have, I will give to this ministry, because all of you — the people of God entrusted to my care — deserve it, and I love you. Scot said this is why he has so many fans across the country who look to him for guidance and clarity even though he's never been their bishop. He noted that Cardinal Sean and Archbishop Chaput were seminary classmates as well. 5th segment:

**Today's host(s):** Scot Landry and Susan Abbott **Today's guest(s):** Fr. Roger Landry, executive editor of The Anchor, the newspaper of the Fall River diocese; and Gregory Tracy, managing editor of The Pilot, the newspaper of the Boston archdiocese * [The Anchor](http://www.anchornews.org) * [The Pilot](http://www.pilotcatholicnews.com) * Some of the stories discussed on this show will be available on The Pilot's and The Anchor's websites on Friday morning. Please check those sites for the latest links. **Today's topics:** Archbishop Charles Chaput; Transitional deacon ordained; Chinese cardinal in Boston; study of Catholic parishes **Summary of today's show:** Our usual Thursday panel discussed the appointment of Archbishop Charles Chaput to Philadelphia, with Fr. Roger Landry's personal recollection of time spent with the archbishop recently; the unusual timing of the ordination of a transitional deacon for Boston; the visit of a Chinese cardinal to Boston as tensions between the Vatican and China reach an all-time high; and a study of parish life in the United States with some surprising results. **1st segment:** Scot welcomed Susan back to the show. The Pilot is back from summer hiatus and The Anchor is now on hiatus this week. The big non-Church news is the weather and specifically the heat. **2nd segment:** Scot and Susan welcome Gregory and Fr. Roger back to the show. The appointment of Archbishop Charles Chaput to Philadelphia is significant. Scot said it is traditionally seen as a cardinalatial see and one of the largest in the US. It's also significant because the archdiocese is in the midst of a major scandal due to revelations concerning clergy priest abuse. Audio excerpt from the press conference: >"Press conferences like this have a formula of humility and gratitude that can sometimes seem like theater. I'm a poor actor. What you see is pretty much what you get. Philadelphia is one of America's truly great cities, rich in history and achievement, with an extraordinary community of Catholic faith that goes back to saints like John Neumann and Katharine Drexel. Many of you will ask me this question, so I will answer it in advance. I don't know why the Holy Father sent me here. But I do trust his heart, and I do believe in his judgment. I know other bishops would have been smarter than I am, or more talented, or more connected to Philadelphia's past. I know that Cardinal Rigali is one of the great churchmen of my lifetime. He has served the Church in Rome, in St. Louis, and here with enormous dedication and in ways I will never be able to duplicate. > >"But I do promise that no bishop will love the people and priests of this local Church more than I will. No bishop will give more of himself than I will. And no bishop will try harder to help persons who have been hurt by the sins of the past, or work harder to strengthen and encourage our priests and renew the hearts of our people. > >There's a lot I *don't* know how to do. But over the years, a great many good people have shown me how to love and how to lead by the generosity of their witness. And everything I've learned, everything I know and have, I will give to this ministry, because all of you -- the people of God -- deserve at least that much." * ["Archbishop Chaput succeeds Cardinal Rigali; Savannah bishop retires", CNS, 7/19/11](http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1102854.htm) * [Cardinal Seán's statement on Archbishop Chaput's appointment](http://www.bostoncatholic.org/Utility/News-And-Press/Content.aspx?id=21004) * [Archdiocese of Philadelphia](http://archphila.org/home.php) * [Archdiocese of Denver](http://www.archden.org) Susan said his words were very moving. He reinforces his honesty and sincerity and passion with his words about how he will love and work for the people. If she were in Philadelphia, she would be thrilled. Scot said there's no hyperbole in this man, he is what he is. Gregory said the Archbishop is know for being a straight shooter. He was formed in the West: South Dakota and Colorado. So he's got that Western straight-talking manner. Fr. Roger spent some time in Denver recently when Archbishop Chaput invited him to lead a retreat for the priests of Denver. Fr. Roger said he's always been impressed by the archbishop publishing his email address and giving quick responses to people who would email him. Of the past 10 years, Fr. Roger has continued to receive emails from the Archbishop commenting on articles he'd written and encouraging him. At this retreat, he experienced a camaraderie he'd never seen before. Some of the priests told him that every priest knows where he stands with the archbishop. The archbishop is very responsive to requests by his priests, which is hugely important for priestly morale. He does that for anyone who emails him. He spends 10 minutes of every hour answering email. One of Archbishop Chaput's fears in going to Philadelphia is that he won't have the same amount of time for responding to people. Fr. Roger said the priests of Philadelphia are very excited, having heard him preach a clergy day in 2005 and having taught at the seminary in Philadelphia before becoming a bishop. * ["Rise of the Evangelical Catholic Bishops", George Weigel, National Review, 7/20/11](http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/272258/rise-evangelical-catholic-bishops-george-weigel) Scot said George Weigel called the appointment is extremely significant for examining the Holy Father's heart for appointments in the US. Weigel said it is rumored that the Holy Father picked Archbishop Chaput himself rather than relying on the Congregation for Bishops' recommendations and sent the best bishop available to the very troubled Philadelphia archdiocese. Gregory said Chaput has a reputation as a great communicator with very strong leadership skills and who formulates the teachings of the Church in an accessible way. He has a similar charisma to that of Pope John Paul II. That charisma comes from speaking the truth in love. Weigel said: >With the appointment of Charles J. Chaput as archbishop of Philadelphia, the deep reform of the Catholic Church in the United States — the reform that is giving birth to Evangelical Catholicism even as it leaves the old post–Vatican II arguments fading into the rear-view mirror — has been accelerated. Susan said she is in favor of bishops standing up to preach the Gospel, which it seems is what Weigel means. Fr. Roger said John Paul II recognized that every part of the truth is part of the Good News and that the answer to every question is Jesus Christ. Chaput has a similar outlook. That type of boldness comes from a deep prayer life. During that retreat, he got together with Archbishop Chaput for breakfast and he asked him how his usual workday would go. Chaput gets up at 4:30 and prays, then works on various talks he needs to give. About 10am, he goes to his office and starts his meetings and other work for the archdiocese. He begins with prayer and that fuels all his other work. * [Archbishop Chaput talks to the "Denver Catholic Register" about his new appointment](http://www.archden.org/index.cfm/ID/6469) **3rd segment:** This week, the Pilot has a story on the ordination of transitional deacon Eric Bennett at his home parish, St. Patrick, Natick. He is planning to be ordained to the priesthood next summer. Gregory said traditionally transitional deacons are traditionally ordained in January, about 4 months before priestly ordination. But Bennett is studying at the North American College in Rome, and it's normal for them to be ordained when they're home for the summer. He will be ordained with the rest of his classmates in 2012. He was recently featured in the Knights of Columbus magazine, "Columbia". He comes from a large, Catholic family. Susan said Deacon Bennett received a personalized homily from Cardinal Seán. He called Eric to be a "master of prayer, sharing the fruits of your contemplation with those entrusted to your pastoral care." She also noted a quote from his mother, who recalled during the moment when he lay prostrate before the altar that he used to lay on the floor as a toddler in a temper tantrum and how far he has come.  Fr. Roger was also a transitional deacon at the North American College in Rome. An advantage is that he could be a deacon for a papal Mass or other bishops in Rome. A disadvantage is that they don't get to serve in parishes every weekend like those in the seminary in the US. Fr. Roger knew Deacon Bennett his first few years in seminary. He admires his love for the priesthood and his docility. When Fr. Roger was at St. John's, he saw young men visiting the chapel in the mornings before their regular prayer time with everyone at the seminary and Bennett was among them. Scot noted that Fr. Kiely, Eric's pastor, said: "When I was watching the cardinal impose hands on Eric, I was thinking this is a great moment for him, but's also  terrific moment for the future of the Church in Boston." Eric also said he's receive wonderful support while in seminary. **4th segment:** Scot said earlier this week, Cardinal Joseph Zen visited the Pastoral Center and celebrated Mass. Gregory said he is the retired archbishop of Hong Kong. He's been touring the United States to visit Chinese Catholic communities. He also spread the word about the Church in China. On Monday, he gave an interview to the Pilot as well. He spoke at length about the situation of the Church in China. Gregory talked about the situation of the Catholic Church in Hong Kong and Macau as he experienced it after World Youth Day in Australia. The cardinal spoke about the illicit ordination of three bishops. The Communist Chinese government requires Christians to worship only in state-controlled associations, including the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, which eschews any connections to the Vatican or the Pope. Many Catholics worship in illegal, underground churches, following only bishops appointed by the Pope, although the divisions are not hard and fast. Many priests and laypeople, and even bishops, are members of the patriotic association in public, and of the underground Church, in secret.  Recently, the association appointed three bishops without the Holy Father's approval. They were validly ordained by other bishops, but it was illicit because it was done without communion with the Pope. So the new bishops are successors of the apostles, but the Vatican said they are not leaders in the Catholic Church because of the illicit nature of the ordinations. * ["Vatican: Latest illicitly ordained Chinese bishop is excommunicated", CNS, 7/18/11](http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1102833.htm) It's almost unprecedented for the Chinese to take this step. In the past, the association would choose candidates for bishop and the Vatican would approve, but this time they did not ask the Vatican to approve. Fr. Roger said part of the Good Catholic Life is that every day is a day to pray for the Church in China. In other news, Scot said the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate did a study that found a decline of about 1,900 parishes in the past 15-20 years, resulting in larger parishes, more Masses, fewer priests, more languages at each parish, and more. Susan said the good news is that Catholic population is up, relying upon immigrants entering the Church in the US. * ["Report finds fewer priests celebrating more Masses at fewer parishes", CNS, 7/18/11](http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1102844.htm) * [The CARA study's website](http://emergingmodels.org/) * [CARA study press release and summary](http://cara.georgetown.edu/NewsandPress/PressReleases/PR071511.pdf) * ["The Changing Face of US Catholic PArishes"](http://www.emergingmodels.org/article.cfm?id=75) In the Archdiocese of Boston, about 40 percent of parishes don't have enough revenue to meet expenses, but that number across the US is about 30 percent. Gregory said he was interested to see that as a general trend Mass attendance has been declining since the 1960s, over the past decade that percentage has held steady. And as the population increases in the next decade, they see the total number of Catholics grow. Also the number of parishes in the US now is about equal to how many there were in 1968. Fr. Roger said he was happy to see this report done to help us with our pastoral planning. He said we have to confront the reality in the northeast that we don't have as much of a priest shortage as a parish surplus. He said a century ago, we thought ethnicity was more important than catholicity. We built parishes for every language group. Now, because of fewer priestly numbers, we need to consolidate those buildings. In the 1960s we had a baby boom of priests as well and we could build parishes for them to serve in, but now we need to consolidate those resources. He's compared his parish of St. Anthony in New Bedford to these average numbers in the report and he finds northeastern parishes fall very far short of the national numbers on realities such as parish revenues, weekly offertory, and parish staffs.

**Today's host(s):** Scot Landry **Today's guest(s):** Brian Benestad, professor of theology at the University of Scranton and author of the book "Church, State, and Society"; and Janet Benestad, Secretary for Faith Formation and Evangelization for the Archdiocese of Boston * [University of Scranton](http://www.scranton.edu) * ["Church, State, and Society: An Introduction to Catholic Social Doctrine (Catholic Moral Thought)"](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0813218012/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=pilo0e-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=0813218012) **Today's topics:** Catholic social doctrine **Summary of today's show:** Brian and Janet Benestad discuss with Scot Catholic social doctrine, being a Catholic in the public square, and how to establish a hierarchy among the various elements of Catholic social teaching. **1st segment:** Scot began by asking what the Church asks of us in the public square, how do we form our consciences, and how do we apply Church teaching to the public square? This will be addressed today by our guests, Brian and Janet Benestad. Scot began by noting today's news that Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver has been appointed to become archbishop of Philadelphia. Janet said this is big news. He has been recognized nationally for his leadership in Denver. Scot said Archbishop Chaput has written two books on applying our faith to public life. Brian said Chaput is not afraid to teach the counter-cultural aspects of the Catholic faith today.  * ["Render Unto Caesar," Archbishop Charles Chaput](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385522290/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=pilo0e-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=0385522290) * ["Living the Catholic Faith," Archbishop Charles Chaput](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/156955191X/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=pilo0e-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=156955191X) Chaput was a classmate of Cardinal Seán in seminary. They are both Capuchins, studied together, and were ordained on the same day. They were both appointed as bishops at a young age. People have been drawing comparisons between the two. Cardinal Seán was appointed to Boston in its darkest days and Philadelphia is going through similar difficulties today.  * [John Allen's interview with Archbishop Chaput in the National Catholic Reporter](http://ncronline.org/news/people/exclusive-interview-archbishop-charles-chaput) The archbishop's installation will be on September 8, 2011 in Philadelphia. **2nd segment:** Janet said she and Brian will celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary on September 11. Of course, their 30th anniversary was 9/11/2001 and they were traveling in Europe at the time. They have four children, 3 of them in New England. Two of them are married. They have 4 grandchildren ranging in age from 1 to 7. Their unmarried daughter lives in Rhode Island and teaches at Portsmouth Abbey. Their unmarried son is an Air Force lawyer who recently returned from Iraq. Brian has been a professor of theology at University of Scranton since 1976. In addition to "Church, State, and Society," he's written extensively on Catholic social teaching and bioethics. When they lived in Scranton, Janet started as a parish CCD teacher. In the 1980s, she taught political science, philosophy and history as an adjunct professor. Later, she was hired by the Diocese of Scranton and worked there for 10 years in the area of parish life, which is similar to her work in Boston in faith formation and evangelization. She's been in Boston for a little more than two years. Boston is a much bigger place and very challenging, while very rewarding. Her areas of coverage are much larger as well: healthcare, cultural diversity, and more.  Brian and Janet have also taught together at the Master of Arts in Ministry program at St. John Seminary, teaching the Catechetical Certificate. They began when they were first married teaching catechetics at St. Theresa in West Roxbury and after they moved to Scranton, Brian still had Janet's assistance and input on his work. Brian said it's a great gift to teach theology at the university. He would continue to do it even if he were financially independent. Practically all of his work is with undergraduates. He's been on sabbatical this year, finishing up the work for the book. Scot said he was surprised that there weren't many books on the totality of Catholic social doctrine outside of the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church. He wanted to help people understand what the Church means by justice. For example, social justice is a new term in the 20th century. People are still trying to figure out what it means. Scot asked the difference between Catholic social doctrine and what is commonly referred to as social justice. Brian said social justice is commonly understood as a set of structures that enable society to pursue the common good. It's not understood as a personal virtue. That's very different from Catholic social tradition which sees justice as a virtue. Social justice is meant to in the same way that St. Thomas Aquinas called communicative justice, which is the virtue that directs all the other virtues. Social justice is all those things that contribute to the common good and meeting people's needs. Catholic social doctrine is based on the dignity of the human person. All else is understood in relation to that. Common good is the sum of all the conditions that enable people or groups to achieve perfection, to achieve your dignity. Dignity is acquired by the way you live. People can act beneath their dignity or in accord with their dignity. If society really supports a marriage and family life, then it helps people realize they need to live a certain way to achieve their dignity. **3rd segment:** Scot said the USCCB lists [seven themes of Catholic social teaching](http://www.usccb.org/sdwp/projects/socialteaching/excerpt.shtml): 1. Life and Dignity of the Human Person 2. Call to Family, Community, and Participation 3. Rights and Responsibilities 4. Option for the Poor and Vulnerable 5. The Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers 6. Solidarity 7. Care for God's Creation Scot said the lists seems to be prioritized. Sacredness of life and dignity of the human person is most important. Some Catholics would advocate that they're all equal so if someone is not supporting the dignity of the human person but supporting the rest, you're doing well, but Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI would disagree. Brian said you can never act against the dignity of the human person. Janet said if we don't recognize the dignity of the human person and their life, then all the rest is irrelevant. The common good depends on all seven, but there might be some play in how to achieve them, but the protection of life can only be achieved in certain narrow ways and violation of that is always wrong. Brian said since 1973, and the Roe v. Wade decision, Catholic politicians have been saying that all of these are equal and if you get 5 out of 7 then you're doing okay. The USCCB says about Life and Dignity of the Human Person: >The Catholic Church proclaims that human life is sacred and that the dignity of the human person is the foundation of a moral vision for society. This belief is the foundation of all the principles of our social teaching. In our society, human life is under direct attack from abortion and euthanasia. The value of human life is being threatened by cloning, embryonic stem cell research, and the use of the death penalty. The intentional targeting of civilians in war or terrorist attacks is always wrong. Catholic teaching also calls on us to work to avoid war. Nations must protect the right to life by finding increasingly effective ways to prevent conflicts and resolve them by peaceful means. We believe that every person is precious, that people are more important than things, and that the measure of every institution is whether it threatens or enhances the life and dignity of the human person. Scot surmised that the paragraph itself is written in a prioritized order as well: abortion, euthanasia, cloning, embryonic stem cell research, and then the death penalty. Janet said the bishops have been clear that abortion is preeminent. The bishops have said that if a politician takes a position contrary to the Church's teaching, the bishop will approach him, talk with him, ask him to be in conformity with the Church, and if they still refuse, to refrain from receiving Communion. Pope Benedict XVI, when he was Cardinal Ratzinger, [laid out how a Catholic should approach a political candidate](http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0403722.htm) who supports abortion. The voter could only vote for a pro-abortion candidate if there was a proportionate reason, but nowhere have the bishops laid out what such a proportionate reason is. Voting for a politician *because* of his pro-abortion stance would be material cooperation with evil, while voting for a pro-abortion politician *in spite of* his stance on abortion because he had another stance that would prevent evil, would be *remote* material cooperation, which means it doesn't take away all the evil of the situation, but reduces some of the culpability for it.  Janet said we become responsible when the politician begins to pass laws that will affect society.  **4th segment:** Scot said Catholic social teaching is not based on bishops deciding on the Church's political positions in the public square. Brian said the commitment to the Catholic social teaching is rooted in and strengthened by our spiritual lives. It is based on the Deposit of the Faith received from Christ and the Apostles. Scot said we're called to know our faiths and not just listen to various pundits who say one thing or another. We're also facing an increasing demand that the public square should only be influenced by non-faith-related values. We're called to live as practical atheists, not letting our consciences formed by our faith influence us. Brian said this is a country that has always protected religious freedom and we can apply our faith to public issues. We don't impose our views on others. We propose an idea. We make an argument and people don't have to accept it. Janet said we should never be afraid of being excluded from public life for expressing our views. Nobody tells us we can't express our religious views when we say we should take care of the poor. So we have to say that protecting life isn't just our religious belief; it's the truth. Part of our responsibility for being good citizens is being good parents and good teachers and to share the love of Christ. Brian also recommends reading the papal social encyclicals, the documents of Vatican II, and the writings of Aquinas and Augustine on justice.

**Today's host(s):** Scot Landry **Today's guest(s):** Michael Coren, columnist, television host, and Catholic author * [Michael Coren's website](http://michaelcoren.com/) * "Why Catholics Are Right" * On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of this week, WQOM and the Station of the Cross network are holding their [2011 Spring Fund Drive](https://www.thestationofthecross.com/wqom-spring-fund-drive-2011.html). All donors over $30 will receive a Station of the Cross "Benefactor Card" and are eligible to win great daily and hourly prizes. Consequently, the recorded shows for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday as heard on this site and downloaded through iTunes will not include the Spring Fund Drive segments as heard live as they aired. **Today's topics:** Canadian author Michael Coren and his new book "Why Catholics Are Right" **A summary of today's show:** Michael Coren talks with Scot about the unique claims of the Catholic Church and why the Church is right about every major topic of morality facing our culture today, including contraception, marriage, abortion. Also, why much of what is said about the clergy sex abuse crisis goes beyond what really happened to advance an anti-Catholic agenda. **1st segment:** Scot welcomes Michael Coren to the show. He is the host of the "Michael Coren Show" on CTS in Canada and a syndicated columnist in many newspapers and bestselling author of 12 books, including his latest book, "Why Catholics Are Right". Michael said Random House is the publisher, it's available in most good bookstores, a few bad ones, and on Amazon.com. Scot said it's a provocative book, in which Michael takes on almost every attack that's leveled against the Church. Why did he decided to write it? Michael said he could have written the book years ago, because the Church has been the main target for public criticism for some years. He has four children and has seen what they've had to put up with and what he's had to put up with, the things said about the Church that would never be said about other denominations, other organizations.  It's fine to criticize the Church for what it does. It's when people know nothing about Catholicism, what we believe and teach, and yet go after us on a daily basis. This ranges from what we hear on the street to alleged educated and informed civilized media, from comedy shows to PBS in-depth news shows. It's unfair. Rather than just running away and pretending, he decided to give it the title and give substance and explain for ordinary people--he's not a theologian--what the Church believes and respond to the attacks, which are always the same attacks over and over again. Intellectual and metaphorical information to attack back with. Scot quoted from the introduction: "I've seldom met someone who dislikes me because of my views on the saints and the papacy, but I've lost jobs in media because of my Catholic belief that, for example, life begins at conception and that marriage can only be between one man and one woman." Does that indicate that Catholic defense on those issues, particularly marriage, artificial contraception, abortion, and the life issues, is really what Catholics need to know to defend in the public square and at the dinner table and at the ball game. Michael said he think so, although one doesn't have to become boring about this. If you're watching a baseball game and suddenly bring up abortion, you're going to lose a lot of friends. What he's saying is that when it does come up, he doesn't people to just feel uncomfortable and change the subject.  We do need to come back with a ready defense. What he meant in that passage is that because there are those who have no religious belief that think because we believe in the sanctity of unborn life and that marriage is one man and one woman it makes us fascists and unacceptable, so we need to know some of the arguments, which incidentally aren't really religious. The Catholic Church is the vehicle that represents natural law and logic and rational thought. Arguing for the unborn and that life begins at conception are scientific arguments. We just need to articulate them. Scot notes that Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver has an endorsement of the book on the cover. Why did Michael choose the title, "Why Catholics Are Right"? Is that tied to his adult conversion to Catholicism or because it's more provocative? He could have given it a softer title, but we've passed that now. It's not called "Why Catholics Are Right and Everyone Else Should Be Beaten Up." Michael's parents were not Catholic and most of his best friends are not Catholic, but if he believes something to be exclusively true, then obviously other alternatives must be wrong. Some of the kindest words said about the book have been from Jewish and Protestant readers. He had an email from someone who said, "I don't like you and the title of this book is absolutely wrong." Michael responded, "Yes, exactly. You think I'm wrong. I think I'm right. But why is it you think you're entitled to say this and I'm not." What he says in the book is that believes the Church was founded by Christ 2,000 years ago and is the most guaranteed way of us finding salvation and spending eternity with God. If he doesn't share that, it's like a man who's found a cure for cancer, but keeps it to himself.  It is indeed a provocative title and it will grab people's attention, but we need to grab people's attention. We need people to realize that we're not this dark force that's always been on the wrong side throughout history. Scot responded that we certainly shouldn't be shy about the truth. We just launched the Catholics Come Home campaign in the Archdiocese of Boston and they have a tremendous commercial called "Epic", which talks about the Catholic Church's contributions to the world over its 2,000 years. Some folks criticized us for being too proud for showing all the things we've done and it's just conveying the facts.  **2nd segment:** Scot asked Michael why he chose to have his first chapter address the clergy abuse crisis. Michael said because it's the elephant in the room. If he'd written chapters on history of the Church and other issues, he believes readers would have been waiting the whole time to get to that chapter and while they may have been influenced by other chapters, they could be turned back by this one. So he wanted to get it out of the way right off the bat.  He took it head on. He didn't sugar coat it. Michael is the father of four children and non-Catholics think that as Catholics we're trying to hide things. It appalls him and rips away at his very being. But he's showing what *actually* happened, not what people like to think happened. He's not saying that because other people do it that it excuses this, but 2 percent of clergy at most were involved; the average victim was a 14-year-old boy so it's not really pedophilia (the vast majority of victims were boys from 12 to 16); the Church responded generally by saying we're going to move the priest, give him counseling and tell him he mustn't do it again. That seems severely inadequate, but this is what school boards were told at the time, what sports teams were told, what other churches were told. They're not criticized, but the Church is today. The Church is now the safest place for a young person to be today. The numbers now show there are 7 or 8 new cases per year across millions of people. Just look at school boards, just look at the New York City schools just last year. And often because of union influence, these teachers are keeping their jobs. It was horrible, but it says nothing about the Church. It says everything about human nature and why we need a Church. It has nothing to do with celibacy. A normal man who is deprived of a sexual relationship with a woman does not suddenly lust after a 14-year-old boy, he lusts after a grown woman. That is common sense and logic. If it was about celibacy in the priesthood, why would the numbers be higher in the Episcopalian church or in education. The family is still the most dangerous place for sexual abuse of children.  Discuss it, criticize, condemn, but at the same time don't pretend the Church is this oasis. Anywhere there is a power dynamic between an adult and a young person, tragically, abuse will occur. Scot said we were touched by the abuse crisis particularly in the Archdiocese of Boston and the chapter helped him to understand what the abuse scandal is *not* about. Michael has already talked about the fact that it is not about pedophilia. It isn't about celibacy. It's also not about the all-male priesthood. Michael said that if a man feels he can no longer be celibate, it's not very difficult for him to dress in street clothes and go find the services of woman and pay for it. Michael said he's not trying to rude or crass, but that's what people do. For a priest to deny everything he ever believed and swore to stand for and abuse a young boy means he already has that perversion in his mind. Nor is he obviously a priest of any sort of standing because even if a man has that perversion as a temptation, to in no way try to resist it. As a married man, Michael is married to a very attractive woman, but it doesn't mean he doesn't notice other attractive women. But he's faithful to his wife because he's taken a vow to be faithful to one woman for the rest of his life. A priest swears to be celibate. It's a difference one or none. You don't have to be a priest, but if you are this is what's required of you. Those churches who have married clergy or ordain women have higher abuse rates. What happened here is that anti-Catholics and very liberal Catholics who were using this to try to change Church teaching. They seemed almost more interested in hurting the Church than in helping the victims. Michael met a victim of abuse who almost brought him to tears. He said to Michael: "If I leave the Church over this, I'm allowing this man to abuse me again. I would be leaving the Church because this evil man acted contrary to all that it teaches. I'm not going to let him do that." He thought it was a beautiful statement. Scot said he also debunks another myth related to the sex abuse crisis, that saying it's just because some homosexual men became priests is also a sweeping generalization. He says, "We should appreciate that sexuality and crime have no rigid connection. Those who abuse, lie, and exploit do so because of their immorality and not because of their sexual preference." Michael said they have gay marriage in Canada and he has taken a lot of shots because marriage is one man and one woman, but he said the vast majority of gay men are appalled at the idea of someone abusing a young boy. We've all probably met priests who are gay, but they are celibate.  While the abusers were homosexual, they were homosexual criminals and perverts. It wasn't just homosexuality. We shouldn't alienate people unnecessarily. He wants to state the truth, but wants to make sure that we do it carefully because it's a nuanced position. **3rd segment:** Scot said Michael's book has a quote from former New York Mayor Ed Koch, in which he says the Left is using the abuse crisis to hammer the Church. Michael said fair-minded people outside the Church say the same, particularly in the Jewish community because many Jewish commentators have seen this directed against them. It's liberal Catholics often who are trying to us this to change Church teaching. Many attacks were against Pope Jon Paul. They weren't really about what's going on in the Church, but about bashing the Church and advancing their agenda like ordaining women. The Church can't ordain women; we're here to follow Scripture. In answer to those who say if there were women clergy there would be no abuse, Michael says look at the Episcopalians, look at school, look at the family. It has nothing to do with whether there are women around or not. These horrible abusers looked for the children they were going to abuse, vulnerable kids, unstable families.  What Scot liked about the Koch quote was he said: "The reason, I believe, there are constant assaults is that there are many in the media--some Catholics as well as many in the public who object to and are incensed by positions the Church holds," including abortion, marriage, retention of celibacy rules, exclusion of women from the clergy, opposition to birth control measures, and opposition to civil divorce. Michael said we are the one institution standing up to these attacks of decadence and materialism. We're like a mirror held up for them to see their own reflection and they don't like so we have to be smashed. They don't attack some liberal, Protestant denomination. They attack the Roman Catholic Church because we're the people who don't change with the times. Why should we? Truth is truth and not mutable. We say some things are wrong and saying things are wrong in contemporary North America is abhorrent to people.  Scot said Michael dedicated an entire chapter to Catholics and life and to the attacks against the Church on abortion. He debunks the myths that outlawing abortion would result in back-alley abortions and the notion that only women can comment on this issue.  Michael said Planned Parenthood was founded by a racists who believed in eugenics and social engineering and racial superiority. He speaks on pro-life issues in Canada very often and he has the same arguments constantly. People say, "I wouldn't have an abortion myself but I'm not going to stop someone else." When you push them to answer why they wouldn't, eventually they say it's because it's a life. So then you say, so you won't kill an unborn child, but you won't stop someone else from doing it. Then they just scream and walk away. It's not a religious argument, it's a moral and scientific one. Life begins at conception with unique DNA. There's no other viable alternative to when life begins. A child cannot survive outside the womb, but even a fully born child would be dead if left to himself. Someone hit by a car would die if someone didn't help. An unborn child doesn't look completely like an adult, but a 5-year-old doesn't look like a 30-year-old. It's an irrelevant argument. It's a separate life. A woman has a right to choose all sorts of things, but she doesn't have the right to take an innocent life. Scot said the book takes the word "choice" and says that when there's a choice it's supposed to be a choice between two positive outcomes. In this case, there's really only one.  When a rape occurs, we don't say he "chose" to rape. It's not a choice issue, it's a crime. We confuse a crime with a choice. To take a life is wrong. It also assumes there's just the woman involved. There are also three people: the woman, the father, and the unborn child. To choose to kill a child is not a choice at all.  It's not the semantics that worry Michael so much, but the notion that choice is involved--and choice is everything in North America--is loaded political language. **4th segment:** In his chapter on Catholics and life, Michael talks about a lot of the practical decisions that are happening when women and the fathers of these babies choose to abort these children that through the ultrasound and other testing seem to have disabilities. As a Church and proponents of life, we need to stand for those babies and Scot knows of 5 friends of his who were encouraged to abort their kids because of the supposed disabilities that they could identify in the womb, and when the babies were born, they were fine. Michael said that even if they're not fine, if they don't live up to the standards of 21st-century expectations, they have a right to live. We live in a society where if you don't a hit album by the time you're 14 you're a failure and your movie career is finished by the time you're 16. We have to change the culture, not kill people. The man who discovered the likely gene for Down Syndrome--because we generally find Down Syndrome during pregnancy-- was someone who believed in life, who thought this was a good thing to prepare the way for them. Now it's used to abort Down Syndrome babies. We could have a world in which we could never see a Down Syndrome person ever again. Imagine how that makes people feel who are Down Syndrome people, their parents.  A lot of children are aborted because of gender, race, and disability--black and brown, female, and handicapped. Those people who call themselves left-wing and progressive are obsessed with giving people the ability to kill the handicapped, the black, the brown, the female. That doesn't sound very progressive to Michael. Scot said Michael also takes issue with some of the points of view on population control, particularly in places like Africa for similar reasons. Michael said you often hear people say the world is overpopulated, but it's actually true that entire world's population could fit into Texas with room to spare. Africa is underpopulated, he said. He added that he lives in Canada where there are 30 million people in a vast country which could hold many more. The reason Africa has a problem of food and so on is because we maintain vicious dictators, we sell them arms, we engineer wars there. Communism has destroyed so much when it has a conquered in Africa.  Asia has a large population, but if we look at India, it's economic growth rate is 12%. If only North America could have that rate. They have produced the largest middle class in the history of humanity and can feed their population several times over. That isn't an issue. In addition, most European countries are underpopulated. This is not a valid argument. It's a way to give moral substance to abortion. We're greedy in the West. We over-consume. We could easily feed the world's population. It amazes Michael that people who will weep over a puppy or kitten, will blithely support the killing of unborn babies. Scot said he liked how he indicated how the marriage of one man and one woman was deconstructed. Michael said that the four core qualifications for marriage have been: 1. Number (between two people) 2. Gender (between a man and a woman) 3. Age of consent  4. Not too close in terms of bloodlines That's been completely blurred in recent years. Michael says in the chapter, "Anyone who speaks of uncles, aunts, communities and villages raising children have no real understanding of family life. Single-parent families exist and sometimes it is excellent and obvious that the case that not every mother/father family is a success, but to consciously create unbalanced families in which children never enjoy the profound difference between man and woman, mother and father is dangerous social engineering." The social engineering is now underway in Canada and in many places in the United States, including Massachusetts.  Michael said that in Canada, if you want to adopt a child and you're a Christian, your chances are very limited because one of the questions asked of you, generally is what would you teach your children about homosexuality. And if you say, to love everyone equally, but also to be aware of sin, there's no way you'll get a child. Michael said there are couples who adopt a child as a fashion statement. He's heard this from gay friends who condemn it because they know some of the people are adopting as a fashion statement. Meanwhile wonderful Christian people are being told they can't have a child because their beliefs are hateful. Catholic adoption agencies in Britain have closed down because they refuse to give children to gay couples. In Canada there are prosecutions under human rights legislation of people who speak out about this. It may not be the former Soviet Union, but it can be very delicate. Last week, they had a commentator on a major sports network in Canada who was fired because he opposed a hockey player who supported same-sex marriage. The company said it wasn't because of that, but all the evidence says that he was fired because he dared to say he disagreed with an athlete.  It's not just same-sex marriage, it's the consequences. Now they say, We're not going to let you oppose it. We're going to punish you if you speak out. Scot said one of the major challenges to Catholics and non-Catholics who believe that marriage should be between one man and one woman is we're attacked with the label that we're homophobic and that the Church itself is homophobic. Michael said the term is meaningless because it literally means "disliking someone because they're like yourself." Anyone who hates another person because of their race or gender or sexuality is speaking against Catholic teaching. We do not believe that. There are gay Catholics who are heroes of the Church because they realized that this is not God's teaching. Though they may have this inclination but they accept that they will have to be celibate. He's not downplaying this. He's met those who have left that lifestyle and they can do it. He believes we can be more subtle than the Evangelical approach which is that you can change. Sometimes people can't change, but they can stop acting in a certain way. The Church is complex on this issue. It says that your loved and made in the image of God, but you're more than just your sexuality.  For someone to have a relationship based on lust and against the natural law is wrong. It goes against the status quo. It's not about gay people so much. We're told whatever you want to do, its okay. You're fulfilled if you have fun.  Go to any university and you'll find most of the perversity doesn't involved gay people. It's hypersexualized kids who because of the use of contraceptives and modern pressures society have turned young women into 19-year-old boys. **5th segment:** Contraception was the life issue where the avalanche of all these other life issues really started. Michael talks about that in his chapter on Catholics and life. He wrote: "It's hardly a surprise that subjects such as contraception and abortion lead to such anger and frustration because they are directly personal and they involve the most intimate and immediate forms of gratification and pleasure. ... The sexual fanatics are those who obsess about sex and believe it to be morally neutral and have no inherent value. The Catholic Church believes that sex is so wonderful that it contains values as well as virtues." Michael said what we call "The Pill" (which is a misnomer because pills make you better; the contraceptive pill alters the body chemistry with unknown consequences for women who starting taking it at 14 and 15 for their entire lives) has links to cancer and depression. Taking something that will stop the body from behaving naturally and normally, how can that be good for anyone?  Until 1930 every major Protestant church disagreed with contraception as well and when these churches allowed this to happen it really signaled their decline. We do not believe as Catholics that every act of sex has to lead to a child. We believe that to aggressively prevent the possibility of life occurring is anti-Godly. The Catholic Church teaches a form of family planning that is extremely successful and that empowers the woman. Some women talk about women's liberation, but artificial contraception is really about guys who want something and can use contraception to get it more easily.  Since we've had the complete availability of the Pill and the condom, if the argument is that people are happier now, it still wouldn't be right. But look at the statistics: Every year since the Pill and condoms have been easily available we've had increased numbers of STDs, so-called unwanted pregnancies, abortion, sex-linked depression and worse and worse. It was meant to be the dawn of a great new age, a new heaven, but it's become a new hell. Near the end of his book, Scot said Michael saved some of his concluding remarks for hypocrites. He wrote: "To give hypocrites their most descriptive titles--politicians, powerful people, and even ordinary men and women who claim to be Roman Catholic, but behave as if they weren't--being Catholic does have a culture context and while many people struggle and evolve in their Catholic faith, the mere fact of being born of Catholic parents in a Catholic country is not enough. Being Catholic is not the same as being Jewish, for example, in that Judaism has a secular aspect and there are Jewish people who describe themselves as atheists who are still to a large degree accepted within the Jewish community." It's very important to distinguish between Catholics who live their faith from those who claim they're Catholic but they're willing to run from Catholic values and beliefs when it's convenient for them. Michael joked that in Boston we've never had any politicians who've been hypocrites or anything. Michael said you don't have to be a Catholic, but if you're a Catholic, you have to be Catholic. These politicians who claim they are Catholic, but when it comes to politics they have to represent everyone, well they don't apply that to all sorts of issues. They speak from their own opinion over and over again. They're being dishonest. They think that if they're pro-life or speak up in favor of marriage, they careers won't advance. It's so often about sex. They don't say, "I can't represent Catholic teaching on the poor," but when it comes to sexuality they feel they can't offend people. Particularly on the abortion issue, they sellout. It's politicians, but it's other people as well. It's even more true in Canada than in the United States. Most of their prime ministers since the Second World War have been Roman Catholic and yet  they have such an anti-Catholic political culture in that country. But in the US, when President Obama was asked about abortion, he said it's above my pay grade and he wasn't pushed on that. What he said was horrible. What he was really saying was that he didn't want to address the issue because it might lose him some votes.  When Catholic politicians contradict Catholic teaching on fundamental Catholic issues should be denied the Eucharist, not as a punishment, but because their souls are in danger. If they are receiving the sacraments and they're not in full standing with the Church, if they're denying Catholic teaching, they're in real trouble. There are consequences to this. Any good pastor--a bishop or priest--would say, "I can't do this. You're welcome at Mass but it's something we need to talk about." But people are frightened, particularly in places with a large Catholic population, like Boston. "If I do that, he's a very popular figure, and I could be in trouble." The Roman Catholic hierarchy has some wonderful men in positions of influence, but for some time we've had those who want to be comfortable. Catholics haven't always been accepted in the US, but they want to be comfortable within the American culture. Well, Catholic truth is far more important than being accepted for a while in any culture.  Scot said it seems like one of the purposes of the book was to start the conversation on a lot of these issues. Michael ends the book: "Catholicism is as important now as it every was and perhaps even more necessary in a world that appears to prefer confusion to clarity, and to long for feelings instead of facts. All sorts of people have interesting and valuable ideas and deserve to be heard. Catholics particularly so, because Catholics are right."  Scot said he thinks that the Catholic perspective in the public square does need to be heard. Michael said there's so little alternative. We face enormous threats outside North America with jihadist Islam and inside with decadence. There is no other institution, no other ideology to save us. Secular humanism won't save us. Liberal ideology won't save us. The Roman Catholic Church has always had the answers, but we do need to articulate them in a way that people can understand and appreciate. He hopes he's done that in this book.

**Today's host(s):** Scot Landry **Today's guest(s):** Rocco Palmo of the [Whispers in the Loggia](http://whispersintheloggia.blogpost.com) blog.* [Vatican Blog Meeting on Twitter](http://twitter.com/#!/vbm_11)* [Rocco Palmo on Twitter](http://twitter.com/#!/roccopalmo)* [Pontifical Council for Social Communications](http://www.pccs.va)* [Pontifical Council for Culture](http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/cultr/)* [Information on the Vatican meeting for bloggers](http://www.pccs.va/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=381%3Ainformation-on-vatican-meeting-for-bloggers&catid=1%3Aultime&Itemid=50&lang=en)**Today's topics:** Catholic blogger and journalist Rocco Palmo on his blog, an upcoming Vatican meeting of bloggers, and his memories of Pope John Paul II.**1st segment:** Scot said he hopes everyone had a wonderful celebration of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter. It was a truly wonderful Triduum and a wonderfully bright Easter Day yesterday. One personal moment meant a lot to him. His 9-year old son and 7-year old daughter heard The Good Catholic Life last Wednesday when we discussed the beauty of the Easter Vigil. They asked him to go, saying they would take a nap if necessary to stay up late so they could see it for the first time. It was wonderful to share it with them!The Blog “Whispers in the Loggia” first was published in December of 2004 by Rocco Palmo, a then-recent graduate of the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in Political Science. Whispers was partly a response to the aftermath of the Clergy Abuse Crisis as one way to shed light on the true nature of the Church, instead of what Catholics and non-Catholics were reading in the secular press.  Soon it was picking up thousands, then tens-of-thousands of readers. Now millions of people have read this blog about the life of the Catholic Church.  On today's show, we'll discuss this Blog, the upcoming Vatican conference for Bloggers, which happens a week from today, and as he prepares to travel to Rome for the Beatification of Pope John Paul II, we'll discuss with Rocco the impact Pope John Paul II had on him and his views on his lasting impact in the Church and the world. Scot welcomes Rocco Palmo. Scot asked him about the number of readers on the blog. He's had a total of about 17 million readers over the past 7 years. He gets 5 to 6 million per year now.Who reads the blog? There are a lot of laypeople, priests, and even some bishops. He gets emails from secular journalists as well. He runs on a shoestring budget, but he won't go to subscription because he doesn't want to put up barriers to people just coming to the site. He also doesn't take ads. He said the Church in the US is polarized and any advertiser would be difficult to reach all. He prefer the purity of the content. He also likes that donations give readers the opportunity to contribute and show their appreciation.That bishops and priests read his blog is significant. Growing up in Philadelphia, he had a reverence for bishops, priests, and religious, for the wrk of lifelong commitment they made. That he can give something back to them is very humbling.Scot first began a fan in late 2005. He felt that it was a good aggregation of all current news about the Church. Scot knows many pastors who feel the same way. Rocco said he's had a great formation in the Church and he's also had a great formation in the media from his father who's worked for a Philadelphia newspaper for 30 years. He wants to cover the news that isn't just the most sensational.In 2004, after graduation, he started the blog. Scot asked Rocco why he decided to start this. Rocco said he studied Vatican politics in college and found people were fascinated by the Church. He found people were responsive when he explained how the Church really works behind the scenes. The blog started as a catharsis for himself and friends. At the time, he saw little creativity in Church communications at the time.  It started with 3 friends and it grew by word of mouth.The first time he knew it was getting bigger was about six months later, after the death of Pope John Paul II and the election of Pope Benedict. When he published a rumor that Cardinal Levada was going to be named Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, people saw he got it right and he got lots of attention from it.He's known for speculating on the appointment of bishops, but there's not a lot of appointments out there right now. So he spends his time on more "fun" stuff.Scot asked why insiders share information with Rocco. First, he said it's important to figure out why someone is sharing that information, especially if they are having an axe to grind against someone else. Early on, he heard from people who were in a minority in Church leadership, were frustrated that the Church was too conservative with its communications. Now he's seeing more people who are more tech-savvy and he's seeing the Church becoming more media savvy.He's found that where he used to be able to sit on a story for eight or ten hours in the past, now the turnaround has to be quicker and quicker.**2nd segment:** When Rocco was 8 years old he had a significant encounter with Cardinal Bevilacqua in Philadelphia. He was fascinated when the Cardinal was elevated to the office in a consistory and he had many questions about the Church that no one could answer. So he went to a Mass with the cardinal and got to meet him. For over a decade, the cardinal became a mentor and a second father in his life. He always said yes to Rocco and to anybody he met. He would maintain relationships with people he would encounter randomly in life.Scot said people must ask Rocco all the time about whether he has a vocation to the priesthood, but he has discerned he does not now. Rocco said there is something unique that laypeople can bring to speaking publicly about the Church. 10 years after he met Cardinal Bevilacqua, he got to meet Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver. It was an ecclesial culture shock in Denver, so different from his experience in Philadelphia. He saw thousands of kids at a youth event on fire for their faith, and he'd never seen anything like it. He'd spent most of his formative time around people much older than him. He realized that he couldn't be who he is as a priest.Scot asked Rocco how the blog has helped him grow. Rocco said it's shown him how much growth he still needs. He came to it as a cocky college kid and now knows how much has to learn. He realizes he doesn't have all the answers. He feels God's presence in many of the stories that come his way and the people he encounters. He's got a sense of horizontal communion in the Church, which hasn't always been the case everywhere in the Church.What are his favorite blog posts? None of them have anything to do with the appointments of bishops. In August 2007, he wrote about a Philadelphia man named [Danny Parrillo](http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2007/08/story-of-soul.html), a Catholic school teacher and a friend of his. At the age of 55, he told Rocco that he felt a calling to the priesthood. He entered seminary in the Diocese of Camden, and in his second year at the seminary he died in a car accident. Rocco felt that if there was a story he was born to write, this was it. He got 5,000 responses to that post. There were 5 bishops at the funeral and 2,000 total people.**3rd segment:** The Vatican is gathering 150 Catholic bloggers from around the world next Monday, May 2, the day after the beatification of Pope John Paul II. Rocco said as much as the Catholic blogosphere reflects the totality of the Church's life, Rome wants to have a long view of the Church, but also to bring everyone together. It is also a listening exercise and they are coming at it with very good faith. It's an acknowledgement that they need to listen and learn how this works, and to work with those who are doing it.Pope Benedict on each World Communication Day has talked about the power of new media and has reached out to young people to use it to evangelize the "digital continent." One of the primary means going forward for evangelization will be people sharing their faith through their networks. Rocco said the rise of the Internet has changed everything and traditional media in general is struggling. We have a much more segmented audience: reaching out to the wider, but also energizing the base of the Church. It's not just blogs, but also Facebook and Twitter and smartphone apps. It reaches out to connect to people where they are. For an institution used to speaking with one message, this is a pioneering step. Rocco said that while 150 slots were available, the Holy See got 800 requests to attend. These are people who had a shot at being in Rome for the beatification. He was impressed that there are people representing six language groups going to be present. Everyone will learn a lot from each other; the bloggers from the Holy See; and the Holy See from the bloggers. There are now 20 blogging bishops in the US. He hopes to say to the two councils putting on the conference, "Let us help you." Much Church communications today works as if they have all the answers. But they often don't understand the digital continent. **4th segment:** Rocco will be present at the beatification of Pope John Paul II on Sunday. It will be beyond emotional for him to be present for the event. For so many young people, he was a father to us and a great model of fearlessness and of following Christ. He's seen John Paul II four times. The first time was at Giant Stadium in 1995. There were 90,000 people getting soaked in a torrential downpour and no one wanted to be anywhere else.  Threats had been made on the Pope's life, but he refused to be carried in an armored car to the altar.Another favorite story, in 1985, in Los Angeles, when Tony Melendez, who was born without legs, played guitar for him at a public event, the Pope jumped from the stage and ran to embrace him. One of his great gifts to the Church in the US was an evangelical boldness, a fearlessness and confidence. He showed the way to bring everyone to the heart of Christ by going out to them.From Rome, he will be blogging whatever happens and in Rome with two million pilgrims, anything can happen.

**Today's host(s):** Scot Landry and Fr. Chris O'Connor **Today's guest(s):** Carl A. Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, Karen Walters from the Catholic Leadership Institute, and Linda DeCristoforo, Pastoral Associate at Our Lady of Grace Parish in Chelsea  * [The Knights of Columbus](http://www.kofc.org) * [Boston Leadership Forum](http://www.bostonleadershipforum.com) * [John F. Kennedy's inaugural address](http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/jfkinaugural.htm) * [Catholic Leadership Institute](http://www.catholicleaders.org/) * [Tending the Talents](http://www.catholicleaders.org/programs_pdld.aspx) * [Good Leaders, Good Shepherds](http://www.catholicleaders.org/programs_GLGS.aspx) * [James F. Driscoll named Executive Director of the Mass. Catholic Conference](http://www.bostoncatholic.org/Utility/News-And-Press/Content.aspx?id=19944) * [Massachusetts Catholic Conference](http://www.macathconf.org/) **Today's topics:** Catholic Leadership Institute's Tending the Talents program launched nationally in the Archdiocese of Boston 18 months ago; Carl Anderson's speech this Thursday at Fanueil Hall on John F. Kennedy's inaugural address **A summary of today's show:** On today's show, Supreme Knight Carl Anderson calls John F. Kennedy's inaugural address is one of the most eloquent expressions of human rights and dignity in history and reconciles it with his famous "Houston" speech on his Catholic faith. Also, the Catholic Leadership Institute is preparing a generation of laity to assist their pastors in leadership in the Church and the Massachusetts Catholic Conference has a new executive director. **1st segment:** Scot and Fr. Chris welcome Carl A. Anderson via phone. On Thursday, 5:30pm at Fanueil Hall, he will be delivering an address called “Making God's Work our Own: The Continued Importance of President John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address 50 Years Later.” Carl said the address was so inspiring for so many Americans, that "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country," became a byword. The Knights have always been proud that JFK was a 4th degree Knight of Columbus. They were surprised that so little was being done in general to mark the 50th anniversary of the speech and so they set out to properly mark the event. (To RSVP for the address on Thursday please email [jfk@kofc.org](mailto:jfk@kofc.org) or call 203-752-4483. The event is co-sponsored by the Boston Leadership Forum, which brings speakers to downtown Boston.) Scot said one of the more powerful lines is "the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God." Carl said this is the main statement he will address in the speech he will deliver on Thursday. The Knights led the movement to have the words "under God" added to the Pledge of Allegiance because they hold to the truth that the rights and human dignity we possess is a gift not from the State, with discretion to give and take, but is ingrained in the human person by God, that it is intrinsic to us. These rights are superior and precede the State. There is a standard which government must measure itself by, not political power, but a moral standard. This is key to Kennedy's thinking, to his address, and to America. Fr. Chris said much of the inaugural address sounds so much like [Gaudium et Spes](http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_cons_19651207_gaudium-et-spes_en.html), the pastoral constitution on the modern world from Vatican II. You can see the relationship between the speech and Vatican II. Carl said it's not a coincidence that the speech opens with a recognition of God's authority and closes with a recognition of the duty of to provide for our fellow man under the authority of God. It's known that then-Cardinal Montini, who later became Pope Paul VI, heard and then studied the address and it may have informed his encyclicals on social justice including [Populurum Progressio](http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_26031967_populorum_en.html). In the address, Kennedy said: >We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans -- born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage, and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world. Carl said that while JFK famously said he would not let his Catholic faith impose itself on the government of the US, his inaugural also shows that he would let his Catholic faith and its fundamental principles about the nature of Man inform how he governed. A nation is a living organism, an expression of a people with a culture and history and roots. Kennedy's address is one of the most eloquent addresses in history because of the kind of human rights it articulated. Carl feels strongly that heritage is important to pass on to our children because the lesson of the last century is that freedom is only one generation from passing away. Fr. Chris was struck by the hopefulness of the speech: "If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich." He sees a masterful use of words to display optimism and hope. Carl said this is the fourth pillar of his own speech this Thursday. Catholics reading JFK's speech can see a resonance with their own worldview. Scot asked how Catholics can reconcile this speech with the speech JFK gave weeks earlier in Houston in which some, including Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver, say he privatized the religious faith of public officials. Carl said in the context of the vicious anti-Catholic presidential campaign, JFK was addressing a different kind of audience before his election than those he was addressing after his election when he'd broken through that barrier. He also said both speeches should be read together to see JFK was not abandoning these fundamental issues. After all in Houston, JFK said he would not impose his religious belief on the country, but if there comes a time when his religious faith comes in conflict with the duties of his office, he would resign his office, not his Catholicism. Too many Catholics in public office today opt to resign their Catholicism. On the subject of the Knights of Columbus, in 1981 they had 1.3 million members, and now Carl noted that today they have 1.8 million members with 40 years of consecutive annual membership growth and $80 billion of life insurance in force for KofC families. Last year, local councils gave $150 million to charity. The growth continues to produce more works of charity to make our parishes and communities better. Fr. Chris said as a priest and as a seminary vice-rector he knows of the works of the Knights to support both parishes and seminarians. Carl said they are proud to support seminarians in so many countries. He said they are also proud that a fellow Knight, Sargent Shriver, started [Special Olympics](http://www.specialolympics.org/) and they continue that support. They support the [Wheelchair Foundation](http://www.wheelchairfoundation.org/) to provide wheelchairs to the poor worldwide. After the Haiti earthquake, they decided that every amputee child in Haiti would receive a prosthetic arm or leg. They are partnering with [Project MediShare](http://www.projectmedishare.org/) in Haiti. They provide food and flood assistance in Mexico and the Philippines. At the local level, they are doing what people need. If a family is struck with tragedy they are there to help. They provided $11 million after Katrina to help the Gulf Coast. There are also 70 million volunteer-hours of Knights of Columbus in parishes and communities. Men who aren't Knights already will become a better Catholic man, husband, father, citizen, and parishioner as Knights. It's a place they can increase their own spiritual life and devotional life, but also help their family and their community. Get involved and do yourself and your family a world of good. **2nd segment:** Scot and Fr. Chris discuss their interview with Carl Anderson. Scot noted that the Kennedy family in recent years have been criticized for not putting Catholic teaching into practice in their public service, but the JFK inaugural speech is obviously Catholic faith being put into action. Fr. Chris said it shows that faith is not something we hide or keep in a back room, but use to bring us closer to the Lord and to our neighbor. Carl Anderson's book ["A Civilization of Love"](http://www.acivilizationoflove.com/cl/index.html) ([Link to purchase on Amazon.com](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003GAN3GE/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=catholicnetrevie&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B003GAN3GE)) articulated a lot of Catholic social teaching as a very easy read. He was clear in stressing that human dignity is a gift from God, not a gift of the State. Fr. Chris was happy to see that he wasn't afraid to take on politicians today who would compartmentalize their faith. Carl is often called the leading Catholic layman today. He has been appointed to many Vatican and Church organizations as a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life (1998) and the Pontifical Council for the Laity (2002), and as a consultor to the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace (2003). Pope Benedict XVI has appointed him as a consultor to the Pontifical Council for Social Communications (2007) and as a member of the Pontifical Council for the Family (2008). He is a member of the Board of Superintendence of the (I.O.R.) (Institute for the Works of Religion - Vatican Bank) (2009) and has served as a consultant to the Pro-Life Committee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) since 2002. Fr. Chris recalled how one local Knights council in one of his parishes built a handicapped ramp at the home of a young man in a wheelchair. Scot also noted that the Knights of Columbus also gives to the Church on the macro level, giving a loan to the Archdiocese of Boston when Cardinal Seán first came to Boston to help the archdiocese stay on a steady financial footing. They also paid to restore the Bernini colonnade around St. Peter's Square. (Actually it was the façade of St. Peter's Basilica that the Knights [funded the restoration](http://www.kofc.org/un/en/news/releases/detail/60212.html).) The Knights offer monetary support to seminarians so the seminarians can stay focused on their formation and studies. Fr. Chris said we often see the Knights outside supermarkets selling Tootsie Rolls to raise funds to help the vulnerable, poor, and marginalized. They are also very active in pro-life work. Scot said he plans to be at the speech on Thursday and Fr. Chris said St. John seminary is bringing its seminarians as well, not just to show support for the Knights, but also to educate and inform them on the intersection of faith and politics in the public square. **3rd segment:** Fr. Chris and Scot welcome Karen Walters from the Catholic Leadership Institute and Linda DeCristoforo, Pastoral Associate at Our Lady of Grace Parish in Chelsea. Linda and her 16 classmates are graduating today from the Tending the Talents program. Karen said the group has been learning to lead how to lead in five contexts: self, one-to-one, team, organization, and the overall Church.  Growing in self-knowledge is the first step. Linda said they used a [DISC profile inventory](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DISC_assessment) to look at their own personality types and to see the variety of personality types of the people they work with, and to learn the tools to improve relationships with others. Karen said the curriculum is based on the leadership in context model. We use certain practices when we lead and we use them differently depending on the context. We need to be aware of how we're leading and what context we're in. Fr. Chris asked about conflict resolution in the training. Linda said they learned how to look at conflict pastorally, to be compassionate, and to be able to speak on what the Church teaches on whatever the conflict is about. Sometimes it means to move on. Fr. Chris asked about the time commitment. Linda said they had two full days every other month and online homework in between those gatherings. Leadership in the Church context is different from corporate leadership. The main difference is that CLI follows the model of Jesus' leadership of the apostles and that of the apostles leading the Church, plus they incorporate the teachings of saints. But they also include best practices from the corporate world. It's also not just about the outcome, but the process for how they get there, including caring for the dignity of all those involved. Linda said her favorite topic was studying her key responsibility areas for her personal life and then within her ministry. From that they were able to set goals, which gave her a better sense of her ministry and in the context of leadership. She said it was helpful for her own self to be self-reflective and then to articulate to her co-workers so that everyone is on the same page. Fr Chris said many of his brother priests rave about the Good Leaders Good Shepherds program for priests. Karen said it is the same model of leadership in context. The key difference is that in Tending the Talents there is more that takes place away from the classroom and instead takes place online. In the GLGS program there is more content about building fraternity among the priests. Tending the Talents is now in 8 dioceses with about 200 people participating. This program in Boston was the first in the country. Boston is also the first diocese to take part in all the programs of the Catholic Leadership Institute. Linda's pastor went through Good Leaders Good Shepherds and hearing him talk about it made her curious, and now that they've both been through the same process they are on the same page with the same vision for their parish. Karen said they found it important for priests and lay leaders to have this sort of formation because the unfortunate reality in the Church is we're losing more priests than we're gaining every year. The average pastor becomes pastor with less experience and has a larger parish than ever. He also needs to rely more often on the laity to help him lead. Scot said his sense is that in the old days, the seminary formation assumed many years of apprenticeship with experienced pastors. Karen said priests are formed to teach, sanctify, and govern. The first two happen very well in seminaries, but governing was often neglected. They work to cover that gap for priests and to give the skills to lay people to help them. **4th segment:** Scot and Fr. Chris discuss the appointment of James F. Driscoll as executive director of the Massachusetts Catholic Conference. He succeeds Gerry D'Avolio, who came back as interim director after the sudden passing of Ed Saunders last year. From the press release announcing his appointment, the Massachusetts bishops said: >"We are pleased to welcome Jim Driscoll as Executive Director. He is an experienced professional and dedicated Catholic who shares our common belief regarding the important role and mission of the Church. The Catholic Church in Massachusetts plays a pivotal role across a wide landscape that intersects secular society and the ministry of the Church. We seek to reach common ground on many issues, while working to advance the important positions of the Church in the areas of life, human dignity and social justice.” Scot said the Mass. Catholic Conference is the organized voice of the Catholic Church in Massachusetts on Beacon Hill. It applies Church teaching to the common good in public policy and speaks with one voice on behalf of all Catholics in the public square. Catholics look to the bishops for leadership on these social issues, including life issues, family issues, and more. They provide moral leadership and a definition of complex issues from a Catholic point of view. The four dioceses of Massachusetts are Boston, Worcester, Fall River, and Springfield. The Conference has existed since 1969. Each state has a conference of its own. Fr. Chris said Catholic social teaching is not just for Catholics but serves the common human good and respects  human dignity. It challenges the State and us as Catholics to recognize the common good. Scot also wanted to mention Dan Avila, the associate director for policy and research, and Catherine Davis and Kathy Magno who also work at the Mass. Catholic Conference. They have continued all of the work of the conference during the change in leadership in the past year. Fr. Chris said they have a strong moral theology program at St. John's to help the seminarians articulate the Church's teaching. They also bring in bioethics experts from around the country to help them articulate these very complex matters. The field changes so quickly that it's a constant work of learning.

On Monday evening, 1 March 2010, Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver gave a speech at Houston Baptist University called “The Vocation of Christians in American Public Life”. The lecture was presented in coordination with the Pope John Paul II Forum … Continue reading →

In today's episode, we profile a Saint known for his works of charity. He shares a common love for living the Gospel and his love for the poor, with another important Saint whose Feast Day we celebrate this week. We'll hear bits of a old time radio drama from the 1940's on M. Vincennes. We learn of an alternative group of Saints for Horse lovers, and answer the last St. Jeopardy. . . Who is the patron Saint of Ravello, Italy? The calendar of Saints for the coming week, and more on this week's SaintCast! Stay tuned for an interview with a pre-eminent voice in the American Catholic Church, Archbishop Charles Chaput, OFM, Cap., in honor of the Feast of St. Francis. . .