Pro-life flash mob takes demonstrators by surprise

We've all seen the classical music and opera "flash mobs" popping up in mall food courts around the country in recent months. Well, here's a new, pro-life take on the trend.

Over at Father Z's Blog today, we learn that this Chicago demonstration countered a "Walk for Choice" rally being held February 26:

As a response to the “Walk for Choice,” anonymous teens and young
adults organized a “Pro-Life Flash Mob” over the span of a few
days. The goal of the event was not to counter-protest, but to give a
positive message of joy and life to Chicago.

The youth assembled inconspicuously around the plaza before the rally
hiding their giant yellow balloons in black trash bags. When the
“Walk for Choice” had assembled, the youth prompted by music
coming from a backpack sound system then proceeded to unveil the helium balloons imprinted with the word “LIFE.”

These exclusive videos shows the “Pro-Life Flash Mob” taking the
“pro-choicers” by surprise with Life, Spirit, and Truth!

To receive, or not to receive

By Mary DeTurris Poust

We often hear about people who shouldn’t receive Communion – because of actual or perceived sins or public opposition to Church teaching. But it’s less common to hear about people who don’t receive when they should, or could.

I’m one of those people. Although it doesn’t happen often, there are days when I go to Mass but opt to stay on my kneeler when the rest of my family gets on the Communion line. On those days, I’m not skipping Communion because of terrible secret mortal sin I harbor but rather because I just don’t feel in right relationship with God at that moment. It could be any number of things that cause it – a disagreement, a rough day with the kids, a work issue that has caused spiritual turmoil.

My husband, Dennis, and I will often go back and forth on this one. I say that if I don’t feel I’m in the proper prayerful place when Communion time comes, I should skip it. He says that’s when I most need to go to Communion, to receive the nourishment and spiritual support that will get me through the rough patch to a more peaceful place.

This Communion debate has been in the news a lot this week. On the one hand, some are sticking to the usual argument about who should be denied Communion. But one news story took the opposite tact, looking at those who – like me – sometimes feel they’re just not ready or worthy to receive. And it seems that at least one priest in that story sides with my husband on this issue.

From a CNS story, via The Evangelist, newspaper of my home Diocese of Albany:

Father Adam Forno occasionally notices parishioners skipping the Eucharist at St. John the Evangelist and St. Joseph parish in Rensselaer, where he is pastor.

Sometimes, a Massgoer doesn't receive Communion because he or she has remarried without having a first marriage annulled. Other times, it is because of personal shame.

"We've got some people who just feel they're not worthy," Father Forno explained. "People have a strong sense of not being in right relationship with God, and so they honor that by not going to Communion as they were taught. But my sense is that you need Communion more than ever then."

A man in one of Father Forno's former parishes attended daily Mass, but he never received Communion. Father Forno approached him and said: "You come to supper with the Lord, but you don't eat." The priest asked if the man needed to reconcile anything with God and offered to help.

Father Peter Sullivan, assistant judicial vicar to Albany Bishop Howard J. Hubbard, also quoted in the story, had this to say:

"I tell people Communion is not a reward for having been good, but the spiritual food necessary to continue the journey," Father Sullivan said, recalling the Gospel story of the vine and the branches: "(Jesus is) saying, 'If you do not receive my body and blood, you do not have my life in you.'

"You need to go to Communion, and you can do so very humbly. You're not doing this with pride; you're doing this out of a need and out of a command."

Let’s hear how OSV Daily Take readers weigh in on this. Are there times when you refrain from going to Communion not out of mortal sin but due to a spiritual restlessness that makes you feel unprepared to receive Jesus?

An awesome video about an inspiring man.

This is what it means to live the Gospel. A big h/t to The Deacon's Bench for sharing this today. Take a minute to watch it. Have a tissue handy. It's beautiful, heartbreaking, heartwarming, humbling.

Bono on grace, Jesus, and the power of the cross

By Mary DeTurris Poust

My spiritual reading this morning was taken from none other than U2 frontman Bono. I wanted to pull one great quote for you to ponder, but, to be honest, the whole interview was one great quote -- about God, about grace, about Jesus as Messiah. I sat at my kitchen table and read it aloud to my 14-year-old son. It was that good.

Don't believe me? Here are a few select quotes from Bono: In Conversation With Michka Assayas, which is being excerpted over on a Christian apologetics site called The Poached Egg.

Bono on Scripture, and God as love personified:

Bono: My understanding of the Scriptures has been made simple by the person of Christ. Christ teaches that God is love. What does that mean? What it means for me: a study of the life of Christ. Love here describes itself as a child born in straw poverty, the most vulnerable situation of all, without honor. I don't let my religious world get too complicated. I just kind of go: Well, I think I know what God is. God is love, and as much as I respond [sighs] in allowing myself to be transformed by that love and acting in that love, that's my religion. Where things get complicated for me, is when I try to live this love. Now that's not so easy.

Bono on grace over karma:

Bono: You see, at the center of all religions is the idea of Karma. You know, what you put out comes back to you: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, or in physics; in physical laws every action is met by an equal or an opposite one. It's clear to me that Karma is at the very heart of the universe. I'm absolutely sure of it. And yet, along comes this idea called Grace to upend all that "as you reap, so you will sow" stuff. Grace defies reason and logic. Love interrupts, if you like, the consequences of your actions, which in my case is very good news indeed, because I've done a lot of stupid stuff.

Assayas: I'd be interested to hear that.

Bono: That's between me and God. But I'd be in big trouble if Karma was going to finally be my judge. I'd be in deep s---. It doesn't excuse my mistakes, but I'm holding out for Grace. I'm holding out that Jesus took my sins onto the Cross, because I know who I am, and I hope I don't have to depend on my own religiosity.

Bono on Jesus as Messiah:

Assayas: The Son of God who takes away the sins of the world. I wish I could believe in that.

Bono: But I love the idea of the Sacrificial Lamb. I love the idea that God says: Look, you cretins, there are certain results to the way we are, to selfishness, and there's a mortality as part of your very sinful nature, and, let's face it, you're not living a very good life, are you? There are consequences to actions. The point of the death of Christ is that Christ took on the sins of the world, so that what we put out did not come back to us, and that our sinful nature does not reap the obvious death. That's the point. It should keep us humbled . It's not our own good works that get us through the gates of heaven.

Assayas: That's a great idea, no denying it. Such great hope is wonderful, even though it's close to lunacy, in my view. Christ has his rank among the world's great thinkers. But Son of God, isn't that farfetched?

Bono: No, it's not farfetched to me. Look, the secular response to the Christ story always goes like this: he was a great prophet, obviously a very interesting guy, had a lot to say along the lines of other great prophets, be they Elijah, Muhammad, Buddha, or Confucius. But actually Christ doesn't allow you that. He doesn't let you off that hook. Christ says: No. I'm not saying I'm a teacher, don't call me teacher. I'm not saying I'm a prophet. I'm saying: "I'm the Messiah." I'm saying: "I am God incarnate." And people say: No, no, please, just be a prophet. A prophet, we can take. You're a bit eccentric. We've had John the Baptist eating locusts and wild honey, we can handle that. But don't mention the "M" word! Because, you know, we're gonna have to crucify you. And he goes: No, no. I know you're expecting me to come back with an army, and set you free from these creeps, but actually I am the Messiah. At this point, everyone starts staring at their shoes, and says: Oh, my God, he's gonna keep saying this. So what you're left with is: either Christ was who He said He was the Messiah or a complete nutcase. I mean, we're talking nutcase on the level of Charles Manson. This man was like some of the people we've been talking about earlier. This man was strapping himself to a bomb, and had "King of the Jews" on his head, and, as they were putting him up on the Cross, was going: OK, martyrdom, here we go. Bring on the pain! I can take it. I'm not joking here. The idea that the entire course of civilization for over half of the globe could have its fate changed and turned upside-down by a nutcase, for me, that's farfetched.

Go read more excerpts (including his comments about meeting Pope John Paul II) HERE. To have a rock star of this caliber talking about his relationship with Jesus Christ is so powerful. It's certainly not the first time he's done it, and it's not new (the book was published in 2005). But I think it's the most honest and detailed and significant of his comments on his Christian faith. Regardless of whether you like his music or his specific take on Christianity, this is huge. And definitely good spiritual reading.

Dr. Bernard Nathanson, abortionist-turned-pro-life activist, dies at 84

Dr. Bernard Nathanson, who presided over more than 60,000 abortions before having a change of heart and becoming a vocal opponent of abortion, died of cancer today at his home in Manhattan. He was 84.

From the New York Times obituary:

Dr. Nathanson, an obstetrician-gynecologist practicing in Manhattan, helped found the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws (now NARAL Pro-Choice America) in 1969 and served as its medical adviser.

After abortion was legalized in New York in 1970, he became the director of the Center for Reproductive and Sexual Health, which, in his talks as an abortion opponent, he often called “the largest abortion clinic in the Western world.”

In a widely reported 1974 article in The New England Journal of Medicine, “Deeper into Abortion,” Dr. Nathanson described his growing moral and medical qualms about abortion. “I am deeply troubled by my own increasing certainty that I had in fact presided over 60,000 deaths.”

His unease was intensified by the images made available by the new technologies of fetoscopy and ultrasound.

“For the first time, we could really see the human fetus, measure it, observe it, watch it, and indeed bond with it and love it,” he later wrote in “The Hand of God: A Journey from Death to Life by the Abortion Doctor Who Changed His Mind” (Regnery Publishing, 1996). “I began to do that.”

Despite his misgivings, and his conviction that abortion on demand was wrong, he continued to perform abortions for reasons he deemed medically necessary.

“On a gut, emotional level, I still favored abortion,” he told New York magazine in 1987. “It represented all the things we had fought for and won. It seemed eminently more civilized than the carnage that had gone on before.”

But, he added, “it was making less and less sense to me intellectually.”

In addition to the 60,000 abortions performed at the clinic, which he ran from 1970 to 1972, he took responsibility for 5,000 abortions he performed himself, and 10,000 abortions performed by residents under his supervision when he was the chief of obstetrical services at St. Luke’s Hospital in Manhattan from 1972 to 1978.

He did his last procedure in late 1978 or early 1979 on a longtime patient suffering from cancer and soon embarked on a new career lecturing and writing against abortion.

“The Silent Scream,” a 28-minute film produced by Crusade for Life, was released in early 1985. In it, Dr. Nathanson described the stages of fetal development and offered commentary as a sonogram showed, in graphic detail, the abortion of a 12-week-old fetus by the suction method.

“We see the child’s mouth open in a silent scream,” he said, as the ultrasound image, slowed for dramatic impact, showed a fetus seeming to shrink from surgical instruments. “This is the silent scream of a child threatened imminently with extinction.”

Rest in peace, Dr. Nathanson. To read the full obituary, click HERE.

Joe Mantegna's answered prayers

Actor Joe Mantegna of "Criminal Minds" gives us a glimpse into a dark moment in his life and the prayer that was answered -- with "stipulations."

Mantenga recalls how his daughter, Mia, was born three months early and weighed less than two pounds when she was taken by emergency c-section 22 years ago. That night, before he knew his daughter's fate, he went to a chapel and prayed.

From a column by Tony Rossi, producer of the USCCB-sponsored radio show "Personally Speaking," over at Patheos.com:

"I went to the chapel. There was nobody else in there. I knelt and—I haven't been the most devout Catholic in my life, I'll be the first to admit, but we all tap into that which we know. And that is my spiritual connection to God, that's the channel it runs through—Catholicism. But I went in there and said, 'Look, I know I'm not on the A Team. I'm not one of the starters; I've been on the bench for a while. But please, if there's something that can be done for this child to live, I'm prepared to do whatever I must do.'"

Mia survived, but three years later Mantegna and his wife realized something was wrong. Mia was diagnosed with autism.

More from Tony's column on Mantegna:

Recalling that period, Joe says, "I think everybody goes through shock and anger—it's human nature to go through that, but the trick is you have to move past it because you're not doing anybody any good by staying in a state of anger. There's nothing productive about that. So rather than yell at the wind, you try to use the wind you have to fill a sail . . . [my] prayer was granted, but there were obviously some stipulations that came with it. And you know what—it's okay. I look around me and I look at the world and at the suffering that goes on, and I think, 'Why not me?' If this is that thing that we as a family have to deal with, we'll do it. I still feel blessed that we're able to deal with it as best as we can. So I think back on that moment of prayer and I'm convinced that it worked."

Read the full story HERE.

Statement from Lila Rose on ethics of undercover investigation of Planned Parenthood

Lila Rose, president of Live Action, has given us a statement following the Catholic blogosphere's recent parsing of the ethics of lying to Planned Parenthood to uncover illegal and immoral activity (which could help the campaign to cut its U.S. taxpayer funding). Her group has released videos from recent sting operations in New Jersey, Virgina and New York. They're here.

Live Action is a small, pro-life grassroots organization, and one of our primary goals is to unmask the lies of the abortion industry and lobby. We are not about deception; we are about the truth.

Some Catholic intellectuals have a problem with Live Action's practicing of established methods of investigative work. We in no way mean to dismiss their opinions, but we are in profound disagreement with them. At this time, our team's energies and attentions must be focused on advancing the opportunities our investigative research has provided the pro-life movement.

We invite you to join us to work together with all our hearts to defend the lives of the millions at stake. 

We'll have a story on this topic in our OSV Newsweekly issue available online on Wednesday. Stay tuned.

Shaw: Why hasn't this 'ancient, demanding faith' left any mark on Catholic voters?

By Russell Shaw

Writing recently about Rick Santorum’s quest to become the Republican presidential nominee in 2012, George Will remarked that Santorum’s chances depend on social conservatives who currently feel ignored and would be naturally sympathetic to someone like the former GOP senator from Pennsylvania.

I venture no opinion on Santorum’s prospects. But about the present condition of social conservatives — for whom abortion and the defense of traditional marriage are issues of paramount priority — Will is entirely correct.

Pro-lifers in the Republican-controlled House have lately been making a push for abortion-related legislation that social conservatives happily support. Unfortunately, there is little chance that the legislation can get through the Democratic-controlled Senate and virtually none that President Obama would sign it.

And with this exception, there just isn’t much on the horizon for social conservatives to cheer about. Congress rolled over and played dead a while back on the issue of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” and it’s scary to think what the Senate might do if Obama gets a chance to nominate another pro-abortion justice to the Supreme Court.

Still, the social conservatives’ sense of frustration is hardly new. The Democratic party gave them a cold shoulder nearly four decades ago. As for the Republicans, whenever I write on these matters I can count on hearing from people who wish to remind me that, despite its official conservatism on social issues, the GOP has often been more talk than action, and Republican presidents have sent more than their share of pro-choice justices to the Supreme Court.

No wonder social conservatives are out of sorts. Like other Americans advocating various other causes, they want change. Who will give it to them, and when, are the great imponderables.
Catholic voters over the years have contributed a lot to bringing about this present state of affairs. Another conservative columnist, Michael Gerson, cut to the heart of the matter with words that deserve to be taken to heart.

Remarking on the fact that the number of Catholic Republicans in the House had risen to 64 (as against 68 Democrats), Gerson asked what difference that would make. His answer: “Judging from the broader behavior of Catholics in American politics, not much.”

“A century ago,” he wrote, “many Catholics voted Democratic out of ethnic solidarity. Today, most Catholics vote exactly like their suburban neighbors. Catholics are often swing voters in elections because they are so typical. ... There is something vaguely disturbing about the precise symmetry of any religious group with other voters of their same class and background. One would hope that an ancient, demanding faith would leave some distinctive mark.”

But even though Catholics as a body share the values and voting patterns of everybody else in their neighborhood, their Church, as Gerson notes, marches to a different drummer.

Quite simply, the Catholic Church in its teaching is neither simplistically “conservative” nor stereotypically “liberal” by contemporary secular standards. Rather, it’s distinctively itself. More than most groups, and certainly more than either of our political parties, the Church, proceeding from moral principle, combines “conservative” and “liberal” stands on issues in a coherent body of policy views that it brings to the political debate.

Obviously, not all individual Catholics also fit this profile, but some do. Typically, such people are strongly prolife and committed to traditional marriage, and also strongly supportive of comprehensive immigration reform and of economic policies based on social justice. Even more than generic “social conservatives,” these Catholics seek a party and candidates to support in 2012.

I hope they find them.

Russell Shaw is an OSV contributing editor.

Boy without cerebellum defies the odds

You'll want to take a look at this story and the accompanying video about a little boy who has no cerebellum -- the part of the brain that controls motor skills, balance, and emotions -- but is mystifying doctors and defying the odds.

Here's what Chase's mom has to say about her son's amazing development and determination:

"We're throwing as much at him as possible to make sure he's as stimulated as possible," she explained.

Her message, she said, is simple: "Don't give up on your kids."

"Don't believe everything the doctors say. Don't get me wrong. I love doctors. But they can be wrong. ... Chase is extremely healthy. And he's extremely smart -- his motor skills just haven't caught up," she told AOL News.

"People could view this as a tragic story. But that depends on how you look at life. You can be angry or you can appreciate what you have been given," she said.

"Chase was meant to be with us."

Read the full story and watch the video by clicking HERE. (h/t to Elizabeth Scalia/The Anchoress)

A look at married love on Valentine's Day

By Mary DeTurris Poust

A while back, my husband, Dennis, and I did a question-and-answer Valentine's Day interview about marriage for Fathers For Good, an initiative of the Knights of Columbus. It was a little like a Catholic version of the Newlywed Game. We had to answer a series of questions about our marriage without discussing it beforehand or looking at each other's answers after the fact. Blind trust was required. We could come off smelling like roses, or we could end up looking very silly. We like a good challenge, so we said yes.

I went back today and re-read our answers and thought I'd share them with you for Valentine's Day. Here's our interview with Brian Caulfield, editor of Fathers For Good. See how you and your spouse would answer these same questions.

When it comes to Valentine’s Day, Dennis and Mary DeTurris Poust stick to the practical aspects of their married love. It helps that she is “not a big fan” of Valentine’s Day and that they are both closely connected to their Catholic faith...

In this Fathers for Good e-mail interview, Dennis and Mary answered the questions separately, without sharing ideas or input, yet their responses were remarkably similar.

Fathers for Good: Men often agonize over what to get their wives. What’s your approach? Is it all hype or is it a day for true love?

Dennis: I would come down on the side of “hype,” but at least it keeps the greeting card companies and florists in business. We traditionally have a very low-key Valentine’s Day. An exchange of cards, maybe a special dinner. With restaurants booked solid on that day and often with jacked-up prices, our preference is to go to dinner on a day near the actual date.The reality, though, is we don’t go out by ourselves nearly enough at any time of the year. So Valentine’s Day is usually spent at home with the kids.

As for flowers, Mary is like all women in this way: She loves to get them. That said, she would probably hit me over the head with them if I brought them home on Valentine’s Day, because they are so expensive. She’s very practical that way. She would much prefer to get flowers for no reason on any other day of the year. I try to do that from time to time, but I’m certain she would appreciate it if I would remember to do it more often.

Mary: I’m not a big fan of Valentine’s Day and don’t like all the hype that surrounds it. I don’t need or want expensive jewelry or overpriced roses or even dinner out. To me the focus on one day of super-romantic love takes away from the deep and abiding love that husbands and wives express toward each other in less exciting but more practical and powerful ways day in and day out.

FFG: An encyclical may not be the most romantic lines to quote, but how do you view Pope Benedict’s observation in Deus Caritas Est that the person must be present in the gift?

Dennis: I always knew Benedict was a hopeless romantic. Seriously, though, while the Holy Father was not specifically speaking of the kind of gift you give your spouse on Valentine’s Day, his observation is very much consistent with his style of writing -- very profound while at the same time very simple to grasp.In some ways, it is like saying, “It’s the thought that counts.”

I know Mary would much rather have something inexpensive but from the heart and filled with personal sentiment than the largest diamond or most precious pearls. That works well for me financially, but it also challenges me because it is much simpler to throw money at a gift than to give it serious thought and truly figure out a way to give a part of yourself.

Mary: I could easily see Deus Caritas Est as verging on romantic in places. Then again, I feel the same way about the Catechism of the Catholic Church’s language on marriage and love, so what can I say? Seriously, I view the idea of being present in the gifts we give as essential in marriage and family life, where the gifts often don't feel like gifts -- the washing of laundry and mowing of lawns, the disciplining of children and planning of budgets. And yet, if we are not present in these gifts, these vital parts of our vocations, they will become nothing more than meaningless chores, like business transactions between two shop owners and their customers.

I can’t say that I’m always successful in seeing those little actions as a way to sainthood as a couple, but I try to keep going back to what Blessed Mother Teresa said: “In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love.”To me, that sums up what Pope Benedict said in his encyclical. Everything we do has to start with love in order to be authentic.

Continue reading HERE.

An Albany priest's perspective on sex abuse

By Mary DeTurris Poust

After following the trial of an Albany priest who was convicted this week of raping two altar boys in the 1980s, I felt angry, saddened, disgusted by what I read. Gary Mercure will face up to life in prison when he is sentenced, and while that provides some sense of justice -- even if it is justice delayed -- it doesn't do much to take away the sense of horror over what happened to those children, now men, who were forever changed and harmed by his actions. That Mercure did what he did as a priest makes his crimes that much worse.

So when I opened my local daily this morning, I was heartened to see an honest and moving opinion piece on this very subject by Father Kenneth Doyle, chancellor for public information for the Diocese of Albany and pastor of Mater Christi parish here. His words reminded me that it is not only lay people who feel betrayed and battered by the sexual abuse crisis but priests as well, maybe more so.

From Father Doyle's piece, entitled "A Test of Faith":

I want to tell you how I feel about this. I am saddened, ashamed -- and, above all, I am angry.

A woman on our parish staff told me the other day that she was praying for Gary Mercure. I told her that she was much kinder than I and that my own instincts toward him were more aggressive.

But reason took hold and I realized that her response was the more noble and the more Christian one. That night, I did pray for Mercure --- prayed that he would grasp the horror of what he has done, find his peace with God and spend his remaining days praying for the children whose lives he has destroyed.

Why am I ashamed, since nothing I did myself led to this tragedy?

I am ashamed because someone in my own family of faith -- a brother priest, no less -- would commit these acts of cruelty. And I am deeply saddened because this whole sordid saga has damaged that family of faith, the Catholic Church that I love.

This is the same church that opened the first orphanages and medical clinics in history, that kept learning alive during the Dark Ages and founded the first universities; the same church that today sponsors one-sixth of all the hospital beds in America, has (in Catholic Charities) an operation that serves more of the poor that any other private agency in our land, has annually resettled nearly a third of all the refugees who come to our shores. But when people read a story like Mercure's, all of that good fades into the background. The primary image is of abusive priests.

Most of all, I am angry -- angry at what has been done to children. I am well aware that darkness is part of the psyche of us all, that temptation surrounds us, that our resolve is frail and we easily can fall. This awareness has made me, for 50 years, say three Hail Marys each night that Our Lady will help me to be faithful to my vocation, because I know that I can't do it without help from above.

But abusing a child is a different thing entirely. How can a priest -- or any adult -- ever rationalize doing that, wrecking a child's life for selfish and momentary pleasure, taking away forever any trust in grown-ups or in religion, leaving a person 30 years later to rehearse that graphic violence in an open courtroom and be traumatized all over again?

The matter of Mercure, this whole gruesome story, leaves me very sad, as does each and every case of sexual abuse of a minor.

Read the full column HERE.

Vote for us, and get a chance at $10 million!

Stop what you're doing and go here to vote for OUR SUNDAY VISITOR in the About.com Reader's Choice Awards for Catholic newspaper, and get a chance to win $10 million*!!

Our Sunday Visitor's OSV Newsweekly is the largest independent Catholic newspaper in the United States, and the only national Catholic newspaper to publish 52 weeks a year!

Thanks for helping make us No. 1!

* For your chance to win the cash prize, vote for us first, and then head to buy a lottery ticket at the closest convenient location.

More on high-tech confession help

By Mary DeTurris Poust

It seems everybody is talking about that confession app we mentioned here last month (Confession: There's an app for that). It even made the local news last night, somewhere between a story on a fire and the weather report. So I thought I'd give you an update on what some columnists and bloggers have to say about this app and whether it might help you.

Mike Hayes over at Googling God bought the app and gives the Examination of Conscience a spin.

From Mike's post:

Here’s my review by going through the app step by step. To start this is supposed to be an app to help people go to confession–something you can bring into the confessional with you. Believe it or not. Now that’s not a completely bad idea. The app asks for a Name, Sex, Birthday, Vocation (e.g. married, priesthood, etc), Date of last confession and a password.

Then it takes you through a “Custom Examination of Conscience.” I played around with this creating several different usernames and found that if there’s a child they only list two things to examine: “Responsibilities to God” and “Responsibilities to Others”. I find it interesting that they think that not praying daily is a sin. And Not asking the Holy Spirit to help you when temptation comes is also a sin. (I personally ask Mary for help during those times, so I guess I have to check that one off). On the responsibilities to others they list “Not being helpful and affectionate to my family” as a sin. Um, I know lots of well behaved children that aren’t all that affectionate towards most people. Sinners! All y’all!

If you head to Mike's post HERE, you can see the specifics about how the app walks you through the Ten Commandments to check for sins.

Here's Mike's overall assessment:

All in all, it’s a app that I think is fair for those who haven’t been to confession in some time. But I fear that people might use it as a way to just go through the motions of a checklist without thinking about their past month or so (or longer) since their last confession. I also think it might lead many to scrupulosity. Thinking that we can never be any good. “There it is in black and white–I’m horrible.”

It also seems very heavy handed and while I’m the guy who always claims that the internet isn’t as impersonal as most think, I found this experience left me quite cold and didn’t thrust me into deep contemplation about my sinfulness but rather, just kept me checking off boxes.

Somewhere in this app there needs to be a more encouraging tone. Especially for those who haven’t been to confession in ages. If someone saw a large list of sins without a bit of encouragement and welcoming language I doubt that this app would be enough to get them to come back to the sacrament.

Lastly, how many people will abuse this? And just use the app to provide a vertical experience of the sacrament (between them and God) but not a horizontal one (reconciling with the community through the church’s representative).

So overall, I would rate this 2 out of 5 and certainly not worth paying the money for. Wait for another version that’s free and in the meantime you can use Fr Dave and I’s You Tube video and our How to Go To Confession PDF

In today's New York Times, columnist Maureen Dowd gives her own take on this new app, which has an imprimatur.

From Dowd's column:

Nothing is sacred anymore, even the sacred. And even that most secret ritual of the Roman Catholic faith, the veiled black confessional box.

Once funeral homes began live-streaming funerals, it was probably inevitable. But now confessions are not only about touching the soul, but touching the screen.

With the help of two priests, three young Catholic men from South Bend, Ind., have developed an iPhone app to guide Catholics through — and if they are lapsed, back to — confession.

It shot to global success, ranking No. 42 on the best-selling app list, according to iTunes.

Dowd also puts the Examination of Conscience to the test, signing herself into the program with different ages, backgrounds in order to see what it serves up. Here's some of what she found:

Children are asked if they pout or use bad language. Teenagers are asked if they are a tattletale or bully. Women are asked if they’ve had an abortion or encouraged anyone to have an abortion and if they’re chaste. Men are asked about the latter two, as well.

The app also tailors the questions if you sign in as a priest or a “religious.” For instance, if you say you’re a female and try to select “priest” as your vocation, a dialogue box appears that says “sex and vocation are incompatible.” So much for modernity.

Under the Sixth Commandment, men and women are asked: “Have I been guilty of any homosexual activity?” Priests, however, are not. They are asked if they flirt.

So what do you think of this modern-day cheat sheet for confession? Have you downloaded the app yet? If so, give us your take. And when did pouting become a sin? App or no app, I could be in trouble.

Shaw: U.S. bishops' new efforts on Catholic identity 'mighty late'

By Russell Shaw

Recent, apparently unrelated developments point to a stepped-up effort by the bishops to bolster the Catholic identity of Catholic higher education and Catholic health care in America. Along with many other people, I wish the bishops well in this enterprise, but I can’t help noticing that the new initiatives come mighty late.

Expressing concern about “the ability of our institutions to carry out their mission in conformity with our faith,” Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York cited “increasing political and social pressures that are trying to force the Church to compromise her principles.” Archbishop Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, was speaking specifically of Catholic hospitals, but the much the same concerns apply are relevant to Catholic colleges and universities.

Start with them. Last month USCCB announced plans for a 10-year review of the bishops’ policy document on the Catholic identity of Church-related institutions of higher learning. Worked out in collaboration with university representatives, the scheme calls for bishops to meet one-on-one in the months ahead with the presidents of Catholic colleges and universities in their dioceses.

The bishops will discuss the results at their general meeting next November, and the findings will then be presented to Archbishop Dolan for whatever action he may care to take.

It would be hard to quarrel with sitting down and talking. “Dialogue between bishop and president provides an important means to foster a mutually beneficial relationship,” says Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry of Los Angeles, chairman of the USCCB education committee. No doubt.

But recall that it was in 1990 — 21 years ago, that is — that Pope John Paul II issued guidelines on the Catholic identity of colleges and universities in a document called Ex Corde Ecclesiae (From the Heart of the Church). It took a full 10 years for the American bishops to come up with an acceptable document on applying the pope’s principles in the United States. Meanwhile the Catholic identity of many of these schools — though not all — continued its long decline. Can that process be reversed now?

And then there are the hospitals. USCCB on Jan. 31 released an exchange of letters between Archbishop Dolan and Daughter of Charity Sister Carol Keehan, president of the Catholic Health Association. The centerpiece was Sister Keehan’s affirmation that “an individual bishop in his diocese is the authoritative interpreter” of Catholic health care ethics.

Good for Sister Keehan. But the real news may be that her statement was considered news.

In part, the background here concerns an ugly controversy in Phoenix pitting a Catholic hospital against the local bishop over whether a procedure the hospital approved was or wasn’t a direct abortion forbidden by Catholic moral teaching. The upshot was the excommunication of the hospital’s top nun-administrator and a decision by the bishop that the hospital itself was no longer a truly Catholic institution.

Note, too, that months earlier the Catholic Health Association split with the bishops over the issue of abortion in President Obama’s health care plan. It was credited with an important role in getting the legislation passed.

Although they differ in many ways, the basic situations of Catholic hospitals and Catholic colleges and universities are much the same. The factors at work to push these institutions ever farther from the Church include money, ideology, and pressure to conform to secular standards of performance that are more or less in conflict with the Church’s values.

If new efforts are now envisaged to address these problems, that’s all to the good. But as I said — it’s late, mighty late.

Russell Shaw is an OSV contributing editor.

Secession is official for southern Sudan

By Mary DeTurris Poust

In a landslide vote that promises to create a new and different kind of turmoil for the region, the people of southern Sudan voted to secede from the north. A whopping 98.83 percent of voters from the south voted to secede, in official results released today.

This from Reuters:

Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir earlier said he accepted the result, allaying fears that the split could reignite conflict over the control of the south's oil reserves.

"Today we received these results and we accept and welcome these results because they represent the will of the southern people," he said in an address on state TV.

Southern officials say the question of a name for the new state is unresolved but it could become just "South Sudan."

South Sudan's leader Salva Kiir added to the conciliatory mood by promising he would help Khartoum campaign for the forgiveness of the country's crippling debts and the easing of international trade sanctions in coming months.

Both sides did avoid major outbreaks of violence over the past five years. But they failed to overcome decades of deep mutual distrust to persuade southerners to embrace unity.

"Southern Sudanese are a new people now. We have a new identity. We have respect from everyone at last. Our country has come today," said Rebecca Maluk, a war widow and mother-of-three in the crowd in Juba.

Several months ago OSV Daily Take urged Catholics to get involved in this issue (HERE) because of fears of civil war, tribal clashes or outright genocide in Sudan. Although the situation following the referendum vote is still precarious, there are hopes that the vote will end years of oppression and violence for the people of the oil-rich south.

The result of the vote, however, could cause turmoil for the Church. Already there are reports that parishes will be closing as Catholics from the north return to the south.

From the website Ekklesia:

"This is the trend. There are some centres in the parishes that are far apart and the populations have decreased drastically. These are closing," Roman Catholic Bishop Daniel Adwok, the Auxiliary Bishop of the Khartoum Archdiocese, told ENInews on 3 February.

...Adwok said the closures were occurring after people who had settled in a northern area during the conflict travelled voluntarily and en masse to the south. He said more movement was expected during the interim period between February and July this year. "We expect more to leave within this period ... But we do not expect a big change in the main towns, especially in the main cathedral in Khartoum," he said.

The Rev Ramadan Chan Liol, the general secretary of the Sudan Council of Churches (SCC), a grouping of Roman Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox Churches, confirmed that some of these parishes were mainly of southern people. "With the mass movement of the southerners and people from the Nuba Mountains, some of the churches have been left empty," he said. "Individual denominations are considering what to do with the properties of such parishes."

The Catholic Church is planning to restructure and merge some parishes in the north, according to the Rev. George Jangara Modi, the Khartoum diocesan education secretary. "We are updating records. We want to see who will remain in the parishes," he said.

Jangara explained the churches, parishes and schools most affected were in the camps of the displaced people or areas where displaced people had settled. He said some schools which had nearly 500 or 400 pupils recorded numbers as lows 70 or 60.

Read more HERE.

The 'lost generation' everyone seems to miss

By Mary DeTurris Poust

About three years ago, I started giving workshops entitled: "The Lost Generation: Reaching Out to Adult Catholics Disconnected from the Faith." The workshop grew out of emails, letters and in-person pleas I received in response to my book The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Catholic Catechism. People kept coming up to me, telling me they'd never learned what was in my book, and sharing the stories of why and how they fell away from the faith of their birth.

And so I began to explore what I labeled the "lost generation," those Catholics -- like myself -- who came of age immediately after Vatican II and missed out on some of the basic teachings of the Church. (HERE is a story I did on this subject in the July 6, 2008 issue of OSV.)

As I say in my workshop, I was raised in the "era of the collage." The intentions were good but the lessons weren't always solid. Fortunately, I had a mom who was determined to make sure I got a good grounding in my faith no matter what was -- or was not -- being taught in CCD class. Not everyone was so lucky.

So, it was with great interest that I read stories about a recent conference at Fordham University that was focusing on a "lost generation," only the generation in question is the 20-something generation of today. The follow-up stories shared the good news that this generation isn't really lost at all.

Here's a quote from CNS:

"Catholic young adults aren’t as attached to the church as their counterparts from the 1940s and 1950s, but they are hardly a lost generation and have not abandoned the faith, according to speakers at a two-day forum at Jesuit-run Fordham University."

Notice who they're looking at: Catholic young adults and their "counterparts" from the 1940s and 50s. What about their counterparts from the 1960s and 70s? Their parents? That is the original lost generation, my generation, the folks who were lost along the way as the Church changed the methods and content of catechesis.

I have heard from these people. They are hungry for a closer connection to their Church. They are pained by their inability to get the basics they need so they can re-enter in a meaningful way. They feel lost, abandoned, let down. And now we can see why. They are completely missing from the discussions on how to reach adult Catholics, still lost between their own parents and their children.

As I have said in workshops from the Archdiocese of Denver to the Archdiocese of Newark, if we do not recognize this truly lost generation of Catholics, we will not be able to recapture the not-lost, but drifting generation that's coming along behind them. And the generations after that.

I see it in my own parish. I hear about every time I go out and speak on this topic. Here's a snippet from a post I wrote on this subject two years ago after giving a two-hour workshop in the Diocese of Albany:

How do we reach out to adult Catholics who feel cut off from their faith? How do we coax them back into the fold in unintimidating ways that will make them feel part of a faith community? There are no easy answers, but it absolutely has to begin with community first and catechesis second.

We can't expect people to show up for classes or meetings if they don't feel like they are part of something, if they have no stake in their parish or church. We have to give them ownership, welcome them, talk to them, answer their questions, and drop our preconceived notions about why they may or may not attend Mass, why they send their kids to faith formation but don't practice the faith at home. As I say in my talk, if they have any connection to the church at all -- no matter how tenuous -- it's a sign that they are within our grasp and may be hungry for something more.

...We need to reach the parents through the kids, educate the parents by involving them in the faith education of their children, connect with the parents not through mandatory meetings but through acts of solidarity and subtle, even hidden, catechesis. In other words, by making our faith real to them through our words and actions.

...We need to show people that their spiritual community can be a refuge in the midst of the chaos. But that means that parishes need to be truly welcoming, truly community-minded, truly open to new people and new ideas...We cannot demand discipleship. Instead we must extend an invitation that is so meaningful and so enticing that it simply cannot be refused.

There is a lost generation, a group of middle-aged Catholics who were left behind in the 1960s and 70s and remain so completely lost to us that no one even seems to notice they're gone. If we don't find a way to bring them back into the fold, we are in danger of losing the generations that follow. Then there won't be a lost generation but two or three lost generations.

Throat blessings anyone?

By Mary DeTurris Poust

Are you getting your throat blessed today? Do you even have that option? This traditional Catholic blessing used to mark the Feast of St. Blaise, Bishop and Martyr, is going by the wayside in some places.

I'm not one to let such things go so easily, so I've been known to hold candles up to the throats of my own kids or my faith formation students to give them the blessing they won't get otherwise. Don't worry. It's allowed.

Lay people may use the following prayer from the Book of Blessings (Roman Ritual):

1634. A lay minister, touching the throat of each person with the crossed candles and, without making the sign of the cross, says the prayer of blessing.

Through the intercession of Saint Blaise, bishop and
martyr,
may God deliver you from every disease of the throat
and from every other illness:
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Each person responds:
R. Amen.

The Book of Blessings states clearly that "other laymen and laywomen, in the virtue of the universal priesthood, a dignity they possess because of their baptism and confirmation," may perform certain blessings, including this one. The book specifically cites parents acting on behalf of their children, so I'm in the clear.

So if you, like me, cannot get a blessing at your parish church today, celebrate the feast with a parent-led blessing in your domestic church.

Rite movie, wrong message?

By Mary DeTurris Poust

I can't bring myself to see The Rite, the new exorcism film starring Anthony Hopkins. I'm not a horror flick person to begin with, but as a Catholic blogger and author I kind of felt as though I had an obligation to see this one and report back to you. But there is something about this movie that just stops me in my tracks and makes me look for the closest romantic comedy, and that something is pure Evil.

Just last week I was in my local public library and the book version of The Rite, by Matt Baglio, was sitting on the shelf. I was surprised it was there, given the popularity of the topic and the title right now, so I took it off the shelf and went to put it in my bag of books for checkout. Then I stopped. I thumbed through it, and the little I saw made me put the book back on the shelf. I just don't want to get that close to the devil. In any fashion.

Today I came across a review of The Rite that really got to the heart of this matter. Father Leo Patalinghug over at Grace Before Meals takes an in-depth look at the positives and negatives of Hollywood's latest attempt at translating Catholic rituals and beliefs for the big screen.

From Father Leo's post:

Let’s say a few things about what movie did get right. First, this movie affirmed two truths: (1) That the devil is real! and (2) Hollywood doesn’t really understand the Catholic Faith and the interior workings of the Church!

Both of these “frighten” me in a way, because the devil sometimes uses Hollywood’s arrogance, ignorance, and even atheistic agendas to “hide” and go unseen. The influence of Hollywood is sometimes greater than the Gospel, especially for younger generations who will watch this movie and think it’s either all true or either all false. Both extremes are the devil’s temptations!

That’s why I’m blogging about this movie. From a pastoral perspective I offer these thought for our Grace Before Meals families.

Ultimately I have to say (from a personal opinion) that I liked the movie enough because of the genuine message that highlighted the struggle and championship of good over evil. It highlights the reality that even priests, and other people of faith can be “tempted” by the devil. Yes, people of faith can even experience doubt. It realistically showed some of the inherent properties concerning the ancient Rite of Exorcism, such as the devil’s knowledge of hidden things, the ability to manifest supernatural powers, and the craftiness and lies that devil incarnates in people who are possessed. It rightly describes some of the prayers of the Rite, as well as authentic “confusion” that people have regarding the spiritual life. There were some redeeming qualities in the movie. For me, the best image of the exorcist’s power came in the final scene when the young priest exercised his real authority of evil in the Sacrament of Confession.

However, there were some other things that annoyed me when watching this film. For example: the fact that the movie shows a “seminarian” dressed like a deacon and offering absolution and a final blessing (something reserved for a priest); the fact that this same “seminarian” - despite his doubts - is the “golden child” sent to Rome to study the ritual after one “5 minute” conversation with his superior; the fact that this “seminarian” performed an exorcism without any authority given to him by his Bishop. All of that is hogwash and not how things happens!

Father Leo recommends having a conversation about evil and the devil over family dinner. Doesn't sound like something you want to try? Here's why it's important and what he suggests:

If we do not voice our fears to the right people - namely our guardians, our pastors, and to God in prayer - we may be “limiting” the grace to help us overcome our fears. Parents ought to realize that young people are the biggest targets for the devil. But unlike this movie, the temptations and possessions are much more “attractive” and less frightening. A dinner discussion about the different ways evil manifests itself in the world can help a young person make distinctions and good life decisions; having a conversation about good versus evil can give young people courage through a “healthy” and “humble” fear of the supernatural.

Ultimately, your dinner discussion should end with messages of hope, as it did in this movie: Good will always conquer evil! Faith is needed at all times! The Sacrament of Confession is one of the greatest forms of “exorcism” as it releases the penitent from the burden of the sins provoked by the temptation of the devil!

Read Father Leo's full review HERE.

In the middle of the school vs. religious ed divide

By Mary DeTurris Poust

Catholic schools versus religious education programs? I've looked at that life from both sides now. I've got one child in Catholic school, one child in faith formation, and one child waiting to enter our parish's religious education program next year. Oh, and I teach fifth-grade faith formation as well. I am very much smack dab in the middle of a not-so-pleasant relationship.

Unfortunately, it seems there's always been a deep and dark chasm between Catholic schools and religious education programs (as noted in this editorial from the January 30 edition of OSV.) I remember it from when I was a kid in CCD class, always feeling like a second-class citizen compared to the kids who went to the Catholic school. And I've felt it in more dramatic ways as an adult.

It's tough on both sides. Kids in the school feel as if their stuff is always at risk because hundreds, if not thousands of kids move through their classrooms during a week and something is bound to get touched, broken, moved, or taken now and then. The kids in faith formation feel as if they have no home. They are always visitors in their home parish, never really welcome in the space reserved for them.

Teachers certainly feel it in the fact that we have to cram a year's worth of religious education into one hour a week, with too many classes off for holidays, breaks, or snow days. When we put on a Nativity pageant, our kids do it with 15 minutes of practice time, some sad looking pieces of fabric for tunics and and a little piece of cardboard for a creche. Nothing like the school performance, where the kids can practice for days on end and the costumes and set aren't stuffed in brown paper bags in a little supply closet that serves as a central office. There are just some simple, basic realities that are inevitable, I guess. Religion class once a week simply can't "compete" with religion class every day, but therein lies the problem. This shouldn't be a competition.

The tension that often exists between these programs isn't necessary or inevitable. Rather than working together toward a common goal, schools and programs, teachers and students are often set against each other, vying for funds, space, supplies, attention. For the good of our kids and our parishes, we need to find ways to see each other as allies in a struggle to transmit the Gospel to kids who may or may not get much religious instruction at home.

I look out at my class of fifth-graders and, as much as I'd like to think that these kids will all be church-going Catholics 10 years down the road, I guess that at least half of them will be lost along the way. Are the children in Catholic school immune to that? I don't think so. We, as a Church, need to look at our young Catholics (and their parents) and do whatever it takes to keep them in the pews -- or get them there in the first place. And that's going to mean forging a new cooperation between Catholic schools and religious education programs, one where we use every resource at our disposal -- no matter who "owns" it -- to give our children the foundation they need to build a life grounded in the Gospel.

I see a little light in this dark tunnel in my own world since my new pastor has started shaking things up in our parish program and is reaching out to families. He has begun a limited program for the parents of children in the First Communion year -- both in the school and in religious education -- and is teaching the classes himself. Still, a lot of these tensions between school and religious education have nothing to do with the pastor and everything to do with years and years of built-in expectations and prejudices.

I'm on both sides. But for the life of me I can't understand why there have to be any sides at all.