In 1958, a congenial old man, Angelo Roncalli, was elected to the chair of Peter. He was to be a caretaker pope, someone to keep the ship steady while the cardinals identified a more long-term leader. That smiling old man…
John XXIII: Saint in the Age of Television
God Has Plans for Us
That the blessed and only ruler will make manifest at the proper time, the King of kings and Lord of lords. (1 Timothy 6:15) Recently I saw a post on Facebook basically asking, “If God has plans for us, why…
What is faith?
Last week, on October 11, we began the Year of Faith. Each time the Pope declares a “Year of…” I find it very interesting and exciting. It seems as if the declaration, this letter of whatever the year is, has…
The Tale of Two Men
Readings for October 14, 2012: 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B He was curious. He had already fulfilled all the elementary requirements. He was a decent person who hadn’t killed anybody, had honored his parents, and would never think…
Communio
When Hans Urs von Balthasar was taking graduate courses in theology during the last century, he was said to have lamented after one class, “They’ve taken all the eros out of theology!” If you’ve read the first encyclical that our…
Is There Any Good News Anymore?
Editor’s note: Today we welcome Mark Menegatti to the New Evangelizers blogging team! Can there be any good news in a culture of consumers and materialists bored with everything obsessing over replacing their currently obsolete new smart phone? Can there…
Highlighting New Evangelizers: Catholic Vitamins
I can’t use the word “blessings” without thinking of a deacon who lives in Arizona. It all started back in the days when Lisa Hendey was podcasting (remember that?) and one of her contributors shared a “Deacon Moment.” Deacon Tom…
Beauty on the Outside
Among the many criticisms Evangelical Christians often make against the Catholic Church is that its older church buildings can be overly ornate and filled with ritualistic pomp and circumstance. The presumption is that such churches focus on the beauty of worldly…
The New Evangephobia
Are you afraid to share your Catholic faith with others? When the opportunity presents itself, do you fail to be open about your beliefs? If so, you may have evangephobia. Once in a while, as a writer, you come up…
Love IS All You Need
Readings for October 7, 2012: Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time The Beatles wrote a song that was the sensation of 1967, “All You Need Is Love.” This the same point made a few years earlier by an ecumenical council of…