Posted: September 16th, 2010 | Author: Don | Filed under: Religion | Tags: Alan Schreck, book, book review, catholic church, christian books, Dr Alan Schreck, reading, rebuild, renewal, Schreck | No Comments »
If you are a long time reader of my blog, you will know that I have been going through a religion conversion process and a process of renewal in my faith base. During this time, as I have grown in the Catholic Church, I have felt the need to express my renewal with the rest of the Church, which I feel is lacking in many aspects of growing, as I see the Church shrink each year.
This book, Rebuild My Church, written by Dr. Alan Schreck, does a good job of describing past renewal processes as well as new processes and how the Church has accepted and rejected them. He goes into great detail on what the Church expects and accepts as a valid renewal and rebuilding process, as well as what is not to be accepted by the Church.
I was, however, NOT happy with Chapter 6, as it felt like a triad against Msgr. Ronald Knox’s book Enthusiasm, and I fee it left little good context to the rest of the book.
That aside, this book is a good read, and well worth the reading, and I hope and pray when you read it, that you get renewed in faith and help build His Church!
This review was written as part of the Catholic book reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on Rebuild My Church and be sure to check out their great selection of Mary statues while you are there.
Posted: February 9th, 2010 | Author: Don | Filed under: Religion | Tags: book, book review, booze, catholic, catholic church, conversion, corruption, Doctor of the Church, drugs, Mary, Mother of God, Priest, reading, rehabilitation, Religous Order, Saint Augustine, sex, Tehologian, women | No Comments »
Saint Augustine lead a life of sin and “corruption” for many years back in the early 400ADs, including living with a lady for many years. His mother, a Catholic, prayed for him to find the Lord daily, and with tears and pain. It took many years, but Saint Augustine finally accepted the Lord into his life and he changed his ways, becoming a leader in the Church, a Doctor of the Church, and a great Theologian.
The book “No Turning Back, A Witness to Mercy“, written by Rev. Donald H. Calloway, MIC, chronicles the Author’s life, which closely mimics Saint Augustine’s life.
He starts out with excitement of his arrest at 15 in Japan, and subsequent deportment back to the US, with a stamp on his passport stating he can’t come back.. He then jumps back in time and begins telling his story from roughly 10 years of age on up to around 20, and the trails and tribulations he creates for his family and himself. He tells about the drugs he took, the people he hung out with, and the problems he caused. He goes into detail about the deportation and his going to rehab for the first time, and then his immediate return to drugs, booze, and women.
During this time, his Mother finds the Catholic Church and the rest of his family converts to the Catholic faith, which he declines and continues on his way. His mother begins to pray for him daily, and frequently to find peace in the Lord, placing prayer cards in his cloths when he is home, under his pillow, etc. He ignores these attempts to convert himself, and continues on in his ways.
As he nears 20 years of age, he throws a BIG drug/booze/women party at his parents house and begins to feel like things are not right. After kicking everyone out of the house, and attempting to clean up the house, he begins to see things differently.
One night, several months later he picks up a book on Divine Mercy, about Mother Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and starts feeling that he must change his ways. He reads the book all night, and when his mother gets up he wants to know more, and runs off to the post Chapel to begin his “official” conversion, which had already happened internally. As time progresses he ends up becoming an Ordained Priest in a Religious Order dedicated to Mary, the Mother of God.
This is a VERY compelling book, that I HIGHLY recommend to everyone and anyone interested in learning more about the good Graces of God!
This review was written as part of the Catholic book Reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on No Turning Back (book). I was provided with a free copy of the book in exchange for my honest opinion of the book.
Posted: October 3rd, 2009 | Author: Don | Filed under: Religion | Tags: apparition, apparitions, catholic, catholic church, Christ, christian, church, cult, Ever Virgin, faith, God, Immaculate Conception, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Mary, Mother, Mother Mary, Mother of God, Protestant, Religion, roman catholic, Roman Catholic Church, sect, Virgin | No Comments »
The Bible that is used by Christians tells us that Jesus was born of Mary. I do not think anyone in the Christian faiths disagrees with this.
All of the main line Christian faiths appear to state that the Trinity, God/Jesus/Holy Spirit, are one.
The Catholic Church, based on Mary being the Mother of Jesus, and God/Jesus/Holy Spirit being one entity, calls Mother Mary, the Mother of God. (Mainly in the Hail Mary/Rosary.) Is that a far stretch? I hear many Protestants complain that Mary is NOT the Mother of God. Do they believe that the Trinity of God/Jesus/Holy Spirit is one entity as their faith professes (in most cases)? If so, how far of a stretch is it to say that Mary is the Mother of God? At least in His human form?
Mary, in an effort to bring the people of God BACK to God, has been reported to appear before many people over the years. In each of these apparitions, she has requested that people come back to the beliefs of the Church created by her Son, Jesus Christ. In each case her message was about Jesus and coming back to him. She would often have the person(s) she was talking to do something to help improve and grow the Church in the name of her Son. (At least those apparitions that have been approved by the Catholic Church.) Many of these apparitions and the messages associated with them brought healing to the recipients.
The Catholic Church believes that Mary was of Immaculate Conception, meaning that she was born without sin, and that she lived a life without sin. This declaration was proclaimed in 1854, and in 1858, St. Bernadette, an uneducated little girl at the time, who had not heard those words before, received the words, “I am the Immaculate Conception” from an apparition of Mary who gave her various instructions to follow. These instructions again tried to point people to the Church and to help grow the Church.
The Catholic Church believes that Mary was ever Virgin. That she had no children after Jesus. Records, such as Protoevangelium of James, that were created in early times (in the case of Protoevangelium of James, it is estimated to have been completed within 60 years of the death of Mary), indicate that Mary was dedicated by her Mother Anna to the Church of God, and that she lived and worked in the Church as a virgin until she was of age and then was to be married to Joseph as her protector, who was an older male with offspring of his own already (wife was deceased). The original Greek word of “Brethren” used in the Bible transcripts meant includes half brothers/sisters, cousins and other close relatives, as was the custom in that time. While the Bible states that Jesus’ brethren were out side, it could well include His half brothers/sisters through Joseph, His cousins, etc. It is curious to me that there is never, in any of the transcripts from that time, that I have read or heard of, telling of Mary ever being pregnant again, and of her having any other child. The early Protestant Reformers, Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Ulrich Zwingli, all believed in the Ever Virgin status of Mary, the Mother of Jesus. It was their followers that sought to distance themselves even further from their Parent Church for various reasons that removed that doctrine from their faith.
In conclusion, many people of the Catholic faith, put a lot of faith and trust in Mother Mary, talk to her (pray) often and ask her for her intercession with Christ for a better life, or help in life. Who better to ask for intercessory pray that the Mother of Jesus?
Posted: March 10th, 2009 | Author: Don | Filed under: Politics, Religion, Wonder | Tags: archbishop, Bishop, catholic, catholic church, church, Constitution, Constitutional law, Doctrinal differences, Faith Connecticut, First Admendment, Freedom, government, Knights, Knights of Columbus, Legislature, Priest, Religion, Religious Freedom | No Comments »
I received an email from the Knights of Columbus Supreme Chapter of which I am a Knight that reads in it’s entirety here, my comments below:
Religious freedom under attack in Connecticut
(March 10, 2009) – A First Amendment storm is brewing in the Constitution State.
Without any consultation with its bishops, a bill under consideration in Connecticut’s Judiciary Committee threatens to forcefully reorganize the Catholic Church, taking authority away from pastors and bishops and placing governing decisions in the hands of boards of directors from which clergy would be excluded.
The Judiciary Committee, co-chaired by State Senator Andrew McDonald and Assemblyman Michael Lawlor, will hear evidence on Raised Bill No. 1098 on Wednesday. The bill would revise current governance provisions applicable to the Catholic Church in Connecticut. If passed, it would strip a bishop of control of his diocese.
“I think that (this bill) would be very problematic under the First Amendment,” Erwin Chemerinsky told Headline Bistro. Chemerinksy is one of the nation’s foremost authorities on First Amendment law and dean of the Law School at University of California Irvine.
Chemerinsky said the law is problematic “partly because it targets one religion and partly because it enmeshes the legislature in the workings of a particular religion.”
Catholic reaction to the bill has been swift as well.
In the Archdiocese of Hartford and the Diocese of Bridgeport, statements were read from every pulpit last Sunday by Archbishop Henry Mansell and Bishop William Lori respectively.
Calling the bill “irrational, unlawful and bigoted” and a blatant violation of the First Amendment, Bishop Lori’s statement hit back hard.
“This bill, moreover, is a thinly-veiled attempt to silence the Catholic Church on the important issues of the day,” Lori said, pointing out that no other religious organization is targeted by the measure. “The State has no right to interfere in the internal affairs and structure of the Catholic Church.”
Mansell called on each parish in his diocese to send a delegation to the bill’s public hearing in Hartford on Wednesday.
The laity has been equally appalled.
Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, founded and headquartered in New Haven, Conn., called the bill a throwback to the extreme anti-Catholicism that pervaded America’s early history.
“Whatever their reasons for introducing this bill, there is no doubt that these Connecticut politicians find themselves not only on the wrong side of the First Amendment, but on the wrong side of history, as well,” Anderson wrote in an op-ed in the Stamford Advocate Tuesday.
Background for the bill
The New Haven Register quoted Assemblyman and Judiciary Committee co-chair Mike Lawlor as saying he was approached by “very devout Catholic” constituents asking for greater transparency in terms of diocesan funds.
Misappropriation of parish funds is rare. But in 2007 a priest from the Diocese of Bridgeport pleaded guilty to defrauding his parish of over $1 million. That same year, a Greenwich priest resigned after an audit found $500,000 in unaccounted for spending.
The diocese responded by implementing safeguards and launching thorough investigations and financial audits.
“The pastors of our diocese are doing an exemplary job of sound stewardship and financial accountability, in full cooperation with their parishioners,” Bridgeport Bishop Lori said in his statement. “For the State Legislature – which has not reversed a $1 billion deficit in this fiscal year – to try to manage the Catholic Church makes no sense.”
Doctrinal differences also seem to have a role in the current controversy as well. Reports from newspapers and blogs link the bill’s origins to a lay group with a history of challenging the Church’s structure.
The New Haven Register credits Connecticut attorney Thomas Gallagher as spearheading the bill, and an article by an officer of the dissident Catholic group Voice of the Faithful in the Diocese of Bridgeport stated that Gallagher had been in dialogue with legislators on this issue since 2007.
The article’s author, James O’Callaghan, encouraged the group’s members early on to “lend their support” to this effort of overhauling current regulations on religious corporations.
Among the stated purposes of Voice of the Faithful is to “shape structural change within the Catholic Church.”
In 2002, the same year the group was formed, Bishop Lori banned Voice of the Faithful from meeting on Church property in his diocese. While he has “consistently supported greater involvement of the laity in the activities of the Church,” the bishop said he could not condone a movement that rejected core Catholic teachings on issues such as sexual morality, celibacy “and a view of conscience contrary to the traditions of the Church.”
First Amendment scholars take exception
In addition to Chemerinksy, many other Constitutional law experts have expressed shock at the proposed law.
In a letter to Connecticut’s Judiciary Committee, Philip Lacovara, who has taught law at Columbia and Georgetown and is now senior counsel at the law firm of Mayer Brown, wrote that even his first year law students would have “little difficulty seeing why the bill goes well beyond the powers that the Constitution allows the States to exercise in dealing with organized churches.”
Kevin Hasson, president of the interfaith Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, likewise issued a stinging statement against the bill, which he called “truly a monstrosity.”
“It would be unconstitutional under the First Amendment even if it applied to all churches,” he said. “But the fact that it applies to only one church – the Catholic Church – makes it unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment besides.”
Legislators have also expressed shock at the bill.
Republican State Senator Michael McLachlan was outspoken in his blog.
“I pray fervently that we can dispense with this brutal attack on the Roman Catholic Church very quickly,” he wrote. “Catholics don’t deserve this attack and the proponents of this bill will hopefully hear this message loud and clear.”
Trusteeism
The Church has been the target of such laws before – albeit over 150 years ago.
The concept of lay “trusteeism” was a persistent problem for the Church in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, as some American Catholics – influenced by Protestant congregationalism and aided by groups like the “Know-Nothings” – tried to take control of Church structure.
The Know-Nothing party specifically tried to lessen the influence of the Church using “trusteeism.” They actually succeeded at times – passing the Putnam Bill in New York, for example, in 1855. Overtly anti-Catholic in its purpose, that bill – similar in content to the bill being considered in Connecticut – remained on the books until the need for Union Army recruits from the Catholic population forced New York legislators to think better of it in 1863.
At its worst, trusteeism caused riots and sent some parishes into schism, as trustees asserted their authority over a parish’s temporal matters – often with implications for spiritual matters as well.
Experts warn the religious consequences would be profound today as well.
“Make no mistake, the effect of such a law – if enforced – would be the balkanization of the Catholic Church. Our one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church would no longer be apostolic, with bishops losing the say in the administration of their dioceses,” Anderson wrote in his op-ed.
“Rather than ‘one’ and ‘catholic’ our Church could become many and inconsistent as trustees forced their version of theology on a parish under the very real threat of confiscation if their ideology were resisted,” he added.
Msgr. Francis Weber holds a PhD in Church History and serves as archivist for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
He told Headline Bistro that the trusteeism being proposed in Connecticut is “even worse than the normal kind” because it totally excludes priests and bishops from even voting. Historically, Weber said, “the Church has had all kinds of trouble” with the trustee system.
In terms of the current law under consideration, Weber was clear: “This is a takeover,” he said.
Both Bishop Lori and Archbishop Mansell noted in their statements that the bill is “contrary to the Apostolic nature” of the Church by disconnecting parishes from their priests and bishop. Bishops provide the unifying charter of an apostolic church, and assure doctrinal consistency.
Unlike some Protestant denominations where congregations influence doctrine, “Ours is a doctrinal Church,” Weber said. “We don’t have doctrine up for grabs.”
It is my understanding that the Government, of any level, be it Town, City, State, or Federal does not have any control or say in Church actions and management!? How can something like this make it through today’s system, and how can the Church listen to it if it does happen? If the people of a Church, any Church or denomination don’t like what happens in that Church, move on and find one that meets your needs. Don’t go about trying to change the one you are in.
The Catholic Church has it’s share of problems. Because it is as big as it is, and has the wealth that it has in Real Estate, art, money and other items, it gets talked about a lot more than other denominations and groups, but those other groups have the same problems. And proportionally just as big.
There is no way that the State Government should be allowed to even attempt to take this to the next level and attempt to make this happen.
I can’t believe where the US is taking itself these days! I still love this country, and will not leave it, nor do I have the desire to, but I’m not happy with were I see it going!
Over the past 10+ years, and more so over the past 7ish years, I have been an avid reader of the Catholic Theology and Philosophies. I am striving to “grow into” my faith in a more profound way than I have to date, and I am always looking for a good book t read on the subject. Through The Catholic Company, I have found a great resource of books to choose from, and I get some free by reviewing them, as I am this one.
