About the least fashionable thing one can do these days is utter a kind word about the Catholic Church. The idea that the church has been an obstacle to human progress has been elevated to the level of something everybody thinks he knows. But to the contrary, it is to the Catholic Church more than to any other institution that we owe so many of the treasures of Western civilization. Knowingly or not, scholars operated for two centuries under an Enlightenment prejudice that assumes all progress to come from religious skeptics, and that whatever the church touches is backward, superstitious, even barbaric.

Since the mid-20th century, this unscholarly prejudice has thankfully begun to melt away, and professors of a variety of religious backgrounds, or none at all, increasingly acknowledge the church’s contributions.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/12/25/3337374/the-catholic-church-built-western.html#.Tvlr82SLQp4.facebook#storylink=cpy

Fr. Matthew Muñoz

Rome, Italy, Oct 1, 2011 / 12:29 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- John Wayne, for many, was a Hollywood legend who symbolized true masculinity and American values. To Fr. Matthew Muñoz, though, he was simply “granddaddy.”

“When we were little we’d go to his house and we’d simply hang out with granddaddy and we’d play and we’d have fun: a very different image from what most people have of him,”  Fr. Muñoz told CNA on a recent visit to Rome.

Fr. Muñoz was 14 years old when his grandfather died of cancer in 1979. In his lifetime, “The Duke” won three Oscars, the Congressional Gold Medal and was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Of all those achievements, though, Fr. Muñoz is most proud of just one – his grandfather’s conversion to the Catholic faith.

“My grandmother, Josephine Wayne Saenz, had a wonderful influence on his life and introduced him to the Catholic world,” said 46-year-old Fr. Muñoz, a priest of the Diocese of Orange in California.

Read about John Wayne’s journey to the Church here: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/my-granddaddy-john-wayne-actor-and-catholic-convert/

Feminists flip over this book

Phyllis Schlafly, niece take on the old-girl’s network

Posted: March 17, 2011
12:50 am Eastern

By Anita Crane
© 2011 WND

WASHINGTON – Following a lengthy and reverential introduction by John Hilboldt, director of lectures and seminars at the Heritage Foundation, Phyllis Schlafly, the grande dame of the conservative movement, strode to the microphone and addressed an intimate gathering in the think tank’s auditorium as well as cameras from C-SPAN’s BookTV.

“Yes, I’ve had a very interesting and fun life, and I don’t owe any of it to the feminists,” the sprightly 86-year-old activist said in promoting her newest book, “The Flipside of Feminism,” written with her niece, Suzanne Venker. “Feminism has become a very hot topic. I suppose the reason is Sarah Palin. Feminists cannot resist attacking Sarah Palin. It’s not just because she’s a successful woman. She has a cool husband, a lot of kids, a great career, making lots of money. … And the acid in their wounds is that she’s pretty too.”

Legends are made of such stuff – and Schlafly is a living legend among conservatives.

She almost single-handedly defeated the Equal Rights Amendment a generation ago – and now she’s back trying to finish off feminism with her feisty niece and collaborator.

Read more: Feminists flip over this book http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=276193#ixzz1QOSOzX1O

By Anita Crane
© 2011 WorldNetDaily

“The truth is that feminism is the single worst thing that happened to American women.”

So wrote Suzanne Venker and her aunt, Phyllis Schlafly, in “The Flipside of Feminism: What Conservative Women Know – and Men Can’t Say.”

And if that doesn’t elicit feminist fury or bewilderment, what will? But it’s more reason for feminists and non-feminists to read this new title published by WND Books. After all, you’ll see people you know, people you love – maybe even yourself – in “The Flipside of Feminism,” the authors say.

“My hope is that any person between the ages of 18 and 50, male or female, who feels as though they’ve absorbed feminist ideology, will read this book,” said Venker, who describes herself first and foremost as a wife and mom, even though she’s authored a previous book and numerous articles.

Schlafly, author or editor of 20 books, founder of the Eagle Forum, and Supreme Court attorney most famous for leading the Equal Rights Amendment defeat, hopes that the young will read “Flipside” before they make “too many mistakes.”

“I want them to understand that everything the feminists are telling us is really a lie,” said the widow, and proud mother and grandmother. “Feminism teaches young women to think of themselves as victims of the patriarchy. That’s so unfortunate because American women are the most fortunate who have ever lived – we can make anything we want of our lives.”

What, then, is this thing that Venker and Schlafly call the “F word”?

Read more: Feminism’s legacy: ‘Heartache, STDs, abortion’ http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=272353#ixzz1GJydyAXt

Award-winning movie reveals Christian love

‘When you have a Muslim population asking for monks, it’s just so different’

Posted: February 26, 2011
1:00 am Eastern

By Anita Crane
© 2011 WorldNetDaily

“Should it ever befall me, and it could happen today, to fall victim to the terrorism which seems to now want to engulf all the foreigners living here, I would like my community, my church and my family to remember that my life was GIVEN to God and to this country.

“May they accept that the Unique Master of all life could not be a stranger to this brutal departure. May they be able to associate this death to so many other violent ones, consigned to the apathy of anonymity.”

When Father Christian de Chergé, the French prior of the Cistercian household in Tibhirine, Algeria, wrote that testament, he didn’t expect to inspire France’s top-grossing movie in 2010 or a Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, among numerous other accolades.

But opening this weekend in New York and Los Angeles is Xavier Beauvois’ film “Of Gods and Men,” and it will be in other cities soon.

In March 1996, Father Christian and six of his brother monks were kidnapped by the Armed Islamic Group or GIA, whose members sought to overthrow Algeria’s government and demanded that France release Islamists from its custody. Two months later, the monks’ heads were found near Médéa.

Read more: Award-winning movie reveals Christian love http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=268233#ixzz1F4rFWDRK

Find a movie theater near you: http://www.sonyclassics.com/ofgodsandmen/dates.html

By Anita Crane
© 2011 WorldNetDaily

In the wake of the latest video sting by Live Action showing a Planned Parenthood employee apparently willing to aid supposed sex traffickers in procuring abortions for minors, Planned Parenthood claimed to be “profoundly shocked” and fired the director of a New Jersey clinic who was caught advising a supposed pimp to circumvent the law.

But Alveda King, the niece of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and a staunch activist for protections for the unborn, is questioning the genuineness of those actions.

“If you look at all the evidence in several projects, you will see that Planned Parenthood is not helping people to plan families, they’re helping people to kill babies and hurt women,” Alveda King told WND.

As part of her work on behalf of the unborn, she has narrated the new documentary, “Blood Money,” which chronicles the tactics of the abortion industry’s multi-billion dollar business in the United States. The project features interviews with former abortion providers, in-depth investigators, and numerous post-abortive women from young to mature.

“The videos by Live Action confirm all the information that is readily available in the film ‘Blood Money,’” said King. “There is too much evidence from people who actually practiced abortion: Abby Johnson, Carol Everett and then the work of Live Action films.”

Read more: <I>Insiders</i> expose abortion industry in 'Blood Money' http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=264177#ixzz1EhaBK0zz

MATTERS OF LIFE AND DEATH

Congressmen by dozens promise to protect unborn

Read more: Congressmen by dozens promise to protect unborn http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=255437#ixzz1C4L4w1rs

Since his inauguration in 2009, Barack Obama has recognized many crowds who gather for one cause or another – many except the March for Life.

Nevertheless, numerous leaders, including celebrities and a former Planned Parenthood director, join March for Life President Nellie Gray in calling Americans to the front lines of the battle against abortion.

See more here: http://40daysforlife.com/blog/?p=975

My shoddy shot of Father Hardon and Mother Teresa. Still, I like the way it emphasizes a beautiful Christian paradox: Two physically frail people who were spiritual giants. ©1992 all rights reserved by Anita Crane

Father John Hardon lived a glorious earthly life from 1914-2000. Because Father practiced what he preached, His Grace, Archbishop Raymond Burke, now Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, initiated Father Hardon’s cause for canonization and the Catholic Church has declared Father a Servant of God. For more about the cause, visit  HardonSJ.org. This interview was published by Crisis magazine in December 1997 and it’s online with a treasury of Father Hardon’s work at TheRealPresence.org.

John A. Hardon, S.J. has fought the good fight for some time. He has published more than 25 books (some translated into Japanese, German, and Spanish), written innumerable articles, founded several Catholic organizations, and contributed to six encyclopedias. Recently, he spoke at the Call to Holiness Conference in Michigan. He has been a leader in Catholic media and a shining light for faithful Catholics in the U.S. and around the world – all of this with great humility and generosity of spirit. In this interview with Crisis, Fr. Hardon speaks on Catholics in the media, millennial suffering, his spiritual regimen and the Catholic call to live, faithfully and courageously, the Gospel.

First of all Father, thank you for interviewing with Crisis and congratulations on the 50th anniversary of your ordination. You mentioned in your homily today that suffering was a great part of the priesthood and that your fidelity to the Magisterium and to the Holy Father had provoked persecution. Would you tell us something about that?

I would say that I define suffering as the rational experience of pain. Notice rational experience of pain. Animals, strictly speaking, don’t suffer. They have pain but they don’t have minds to reflect on the pain that they experience. We define pain as whatever is contrary to the created will. And of course that can be physical pain, it can be emotional pain, or it can be a spiritual pain. The deepest kind of pain is, needless to say, spiritual pain. I said that suffering is the rational experience of pain. Consequently, it is important not just to experience pain, but I even dare to say enjoy – enjoy – suffering. Behind that strange statement is the deepest mystery of our faith: namely, that God, as St. Paul tells us, became man having joy set before him and He chose the Cross. That’s the deepest mystery of our existence. Clearly, when the Second Person of the Holy Trinity became man, He resigned Himself to pain. He chose it. He chose to experience what is contrary to the human will so that He might teach us the most difficult mystery of life. And we ought to accept it – accept what is contrary to our wills in order to experience the satisfaction of doing the will of God.

You also said that this is the century of the most martyrs, but that the Holy Father predicts that the next century will be the greatest so far for the Church.

Yes, and there is a logic behind that for the Holy Father. As I said during my homily, I don’t think that anyone should question that the 20th century has been the most sin-laden in human history. There have been more abortions since 1900 than there were in all the previous centuries put together.

And you consider abortion part of the martyrdom?

Yes, of course. Martyrdom is witnessing to the truth and paying for the witness. In other words, we’re living in the age of martyrs in two senses. First, on the level of suffering and pain. For many, suffering due to physical pain has been reduced by advances in science; thus, the deepest pain is not in the body, but in the soul. In the souls of the just, there has been an ocean of suffering. One sees so much evil in the world and often it is very close to home. It is a deep suffering. When we see evil perpetrated, committed by people whom we dearly love, it causes us deep suffering. And so that’s martyrdom you might say. But when we accept such suffering as a witness to our love for Jesus Christ, we are practicing martyrdom and, with His grace, we can even enjoy the experience.

The Holy Father’s prediction that the 21st century will bring the greatest spiritual renaissance in human history follows on the suffering of the believing people who will be rewarded for their witness. The more they adhere to Christ’s teachings, the more they will pay for it.

Suffering is, for many of us, a living or white martyrdom. The other martyrdom is the red, for bloodshed. From the first century, from the beginning of Christianity, Christ and his followers have been opposed. What a mild verb, opposed. Christ and his followers have been opposed, persecuted, hated and crucified. The event on Calvary has been going on now for almost 2000 years. When I was doing my studies in Rome for my doctorate in theology, I often took visitors, tourists, to the ruins in Pompeii. I’ll never forget it. Etched in the soft stone of one of the buildings which survived the volcano was written in Latin, Christiani delendi sunt: “Christians must be eradicated.” For the first 300 years the Church was the church of red martyrs and that inscription has been there for almost 2000 years. But there is another saying, Sanguis martyrum, semen Christianum: “The blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians.” Christianity was born on the Cross. Christianity flourishes in and through the Cross. In other words, the Church grows in numbers, in her love of Christ and in her loyalty to Him because she is living a martyr’s life and because she is ready to die a martyr’s death. Because Christians have suffered so much in this century, we are sowing the seeds of phenomenal growth, both in numbers and in sanctity, for the Catholic Church of the 21st century.

So the Church is growing more than we know?

Yes.

But you wouldn’t know it from the media. A person would not know that from the way that the media cover things.

Let us pick up on the word “media,” a force so prevalent in our society today. In 1971, Ugo Modotti, a Camaldolese abbot, was sent to America by Pope Paul VI to summon a group of ten, both clergy and laity, including myself, to establish a Catholic media organization. We all met with the abbot three times in the next year. We spent two or three days in meetings. And the Holy Father’s mission was very clear: American Catholics must get some control of the media of social communication; otherwise, the pope feared for the survival of the Church in our country.

About a year later, Abbot Modotti and I were having dinner at the residence of the Little Sisters of the Poor in Palatine, Illinois. Toward the end of the meal he said, “Father, I have a strange request to make of you. Would you take over my mission from the Holy Father?” I said, “Thanks for the compliment,” (for I knew that the pope trusted the abbot), “but I am no Modotti, the pope doesn’t know me.” He said, “Too late, I already told the Holy Father to appoint you to the Holy See and if anything should happen to me, then you should take over my mission.” Two weeks later he was found dead in bed. Since his death I have done everything I possibly can to encourage Catholics to evangelize and catechize through the use of the media in teaching the one, true faith.

Tell us more about your commission from the Holy See. You want more good Catholics in media. You want media reform as the Holy Father, as the Vatican, has said. That’s a very difficult thing to achieve.

Most zealous Catholics are not as well organized or cooperative as those in the world. One of the hardest things is to get orthodox Catholics to cooperate. For their own projects, God will bless them, but they are no match for the organized efforts of those on the other side. This is a weakness. Catholics must enter the media on all levels, they must provide sound doctrine and authentic Catholics must cooperate with each other. Catholics must evangelize through print, film, radio, television, and now the internet. The first medium is print. It is not necessarily the most influential, but it is the most lasting, and so it has the most lasting influence.

Crisis. The word “crisis” is Greek for choice, decision. It is a good name for your magazine, because we are called to choose truth, we are called to decide for Christ. I read Crisis because it is authentic. These can be days of great grace. These are days when the media have great control of our culture. Let me tell you something that I will never forget. For six winters I taught at the University of Ottawa in Canada. My confessor there was an Oblate priest named John Mole. I was with him there in 1972 on the happy anniversary of his ordination. On that day, he had received a letter from Marshall McLuhan, whom Father Mole had received into the Church. Does that name ring a bell?

Absolutely. He wrote the famous phrase, “The medium is the message.”

Well, on that day when my confessor and I were in conversation, Father Mole showed me the letter which he had just received from McLuhan and in the postscript of that letter McLuhan wrote this statement, “The modern media are engaged in a Luciferian conspiracy against the truth.” Certain statements you never forget. And that was prophetic. Since I’ve been with the Holy See, from Pope Paul VI to the present pope, John Paul II, the popes have wanted Catholics to change that. Imagine the alternative: “The modern media are engaged in a Christlike, shall I use the word, conspiracy, for the truth.”

As you well know, dissident movements are getting bolder and bolder. In addition to reforming the media so that the public has a truer knowledge of the Church, what is the best thing that Catholics can do to combat heresy and dissidence?

The Catholic method has three parts. Everything in imitation of the Holy Trinity! And this is what I’ve been told by the Holy See for 28 years. Part one: find the believing Catholics. Part two: train them. Part three: organize them. There are all kinds of training, but this is my own sacred responsibility. After finding the believers, I have trained them, again in three parts. They are the Marian Catechists, who have been required first to make the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius for 30 days. That discipline prepares them to consult God in making decisions, to learn the Catechism and to teach it. Then they are trained in doctrine by taking a home study course based on the Catechism. Years ago, the Marian Catechesis was based on the forthcoming Catechism, before it was published, because I was on the commission and I knew what was going to be in it. The third part of the catechists’ training is a certain structured life, including prayer and worship. Most people do not live an organized life. The only structure in their lives is what they have to do to show up on time for work. Or, if they have a family, they might say what the family duties require. Finally, the organization of these catechists must involve the Church hierarchy; which means that they should be organized under the authority of their bishops united with the Vicar of Christ, the Bishop of Rome.

A rough calculation indicates that your own personal prayer regimen takes three hours a day. To most people that would seem insurmountable. What do you recommend for the beginner?

The latest statistics show that the average American watches 28 hours of television a week – four hours a day. What I recommend for the beginner is based, in part, on what I require of the Marian Catechists. Daily Mass and Holy Communion, daily rosary, daily spiritual reading and daily examination of conscience. The daily examination has, of course, three parts. First, thanksgiving for everything which has happened throughout the day, including pain, because some of the most choice blessings that we receive from God are painful. Second, examination of conscience for failure in doing His will and telling Him, “Lord, I’m sorry for my laziness or my pride or for controlling not my sinful thoughts.” Thirdly, and this is the most important part, is anticipation of the next day; ask the Lord what to do next and how to do it. Don’t ask Him if He wants you to do something, of course He does, ask Him what. Our natural tendency is to do that which is pleasant first, that which is useful second and that which is necessary last. Remember that in Latin, agenda means “things that must be done.” And so we should ask for the light to do what He wants us to do and do it generously.

©1992 all rights reserved by Anita Crane

Now this is where Mother Teresa’s sisters come in. Fourteen years ago Pope John Paul II called Mother Teresa to the Vatican and said what she was shocked to hear. He said, “Mother,” (he called her “Mother”), “I want your nuns to become catechists.” She said that her sisters were not trained for that. The pope said, “I knew you’d say that. I’m telling you to train them.” Then Mother asked, “Where do we start?” And the pope answered, “I told Cardinal Ratzinger to expect you after our meeting here.” She met with the cardinal and I got a call. Cardinal Ratzinger said, “We’ve got a job for you.” And so the Marian Catechists were commissioned to train Mother Teresa’s nuns, which are now 4000 Missionaries of Charity. Today there are 265 Marian Catechists in this country and more in 100 countries throughout the world. We could not have done it unless the Marian Catechists lived the structured life.

So it came back to you. It makes me think of your saying “There’s no rest until eternal rest.”

No, and there shouldn’t be. Otherwise we should confess it as laziness!

Father, many people contact us at Crisis because they are frustrated. They witness violations of doctrine and liturgy in their parishes and when they bring it to their pastor’s attention and then to their bishop’s, nothing is done. To whom shall they go? To whom in the Holy See shall they present evidence of aberration?

That’s an important question because so often people write to the Holy Father, which is wonderful. But He’s flooded with mail. A Vatican official told me that He doesn’t even have enough secretaries to open the mail, let alone answer it. So be judicious.

For any aberration, there is an official. The officials head up congregations. For example, there is the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, headed by Cardinal Ratzinger. There is the Congregation of Bishops, the Congregation of the Clergy, of the Apostolate, of the Family, and so on. There are councils too. All are commissions which the Holy Father uses. To know whom to contact, Americans can acquire the Official Catholic Directory, which lists the data of the U.S. dioceses, but also has a listing of the congregation officials, etc., under the section of the Church hierarchy. For more details, one could acquire the Annuario Pontificio, the annual pontifical directory, which is in Italian.

What would you like to say in closing, Father?

I strongly recommend that the faithful are trained to understand and share their faith with others: mothers with their children, grandparents with their grandchildren, husbands with their in-laws, wives too. In other words, there’s not a single believing Catholic who does not have wide-open apostolic potential. However, let me make it very clear. We cannot be ordinary followers of Christ. Only those who are holy and heroic Catholics will even survive, not to say thrive, in today’s society.