Carl E. Olson's Blog, page 322

The miracle and meaning of Fatima

Some passages from the chapter, "Fatima, 1917", in Fr. Paul Glynn's book, Healing Fire of Christ: Reflections on Modern Miracles—Lourdes, Knock, Fatima (Ignatius, 2003):

The Fatima events were now being discussed all over Portugal. The nation's biggest daily newspaper, the Rationalist leaning O Seculo, ran an article attacking the "psychosis, epilepsy and collective suggestion" at the root of the "medieval reactionism". Jose do Vale, editor of another Rationalist newspaper, O Mundo, went to the expense of printing pamphlets denouncing this "Jesuits and priests" ploy, calling on "friends of progress and enlightenment" to put a stop to it. In point of fact most priests, barely tolerated by the government in what had now become a cold war, were fearful the Fatima events could worsen the fragile situation. They told parishioners who asked them that in all probability it was yet another case of hallucination and to put no credence in the whole affair. One Lisbon priest, Father Cruz, decided to go to Fatima to interview the children. He remembered Lucia very well from having given her First Communion some years before. The pastor had refused her, saying that at age seven she was too young. She had come tearfully to Father Cruz, who was giving a mission to the Fatima parish. She told him she knew all her catechism, and he found this was very true when he examined her. Impressed by her mature answers, he persuaded the parish priest to allow her to receive Communion. Though quite unwell, he now made the difficult trip to Fatima and questioned her and the two other seers at length. He returned to Lisbon, where he was highly regarded as a saintly spiritual director, and told people he believed the apparitions were genuine.  ….

The miracle [at Fatima] was obviously worked in the senses of the people who watched the phenomenon. Had the sun really performed like that for ten or twelve minutes, the solar system would have been thrown into chaos! Worldwide observations would have recorded it. Furthermore, had the phenomenon occurred because of some strange play of light, all would have seen the same things, but they didn't. Some did not see all the colored lights, for instance. The Jesuit scientist Pio Sciatizzi worked at unearthing some possible natural explanation. There was none, he said. He concluded that the solar phenomenon foretold on a number of occasions from three months beforehand, with the date and the noontime hour specified, was "the most obvious and colossal miracle in history". He meant observed miracles, of course. Scripture's miracles, such as the Ressurrection, were not observed while happening. …

For me and for millions, including John Paul II, the Fatima apparitions are facts. They mean this: God is real; he loves us and is deeply concerned about our salvation. Through Mary he repeats his Son's message: Death will usher us into heavenly life with him if we have lived lovingly and tried hard to avoid evil. Fatima says life is "for keeps"—as boys playing marbles used to put it. When life is almost over, we cannot grab our marbles from the ring and go home. We never really had a home that was ours, or marbles!

Fr. Glynn's book is also available in electronic book format and as an audio book on CD, read by William Fike.

Author Joseph Pearce to Deliver Thomas More College Commencement Address

Just in from Thomas More College (Merrimack, New Hampshire):

(Merrimack, New Hampshire)—On Saturday, May 14 at 2:00pm, author Joseph Pearce will appear as the keynote speaker at the Commencement exercises of the Thomas More College of the Liberal Arts in Merrimack, New Hampshire.
He will speak to the graduating seniors and the entire College community on importance of an integrated liberal arts education.

Joseph Pearce is the author of a number of critically acclaimed, best-selling biographies of great 19th and 20th-century Christian authors. He is also the co-founder and co-editor of the St. Austin Review, an international magazine dedicated to reclaiming Catholic culture.  He is also Series Editor of the Ignatius Critical Editions and Editor-In-Chief of Sapientia Press.

Pearce has hosted two 13-part television series about Shakespeare on EWTN, the largest religious TV network in the world. He also wrote and presented a documentary on EWTN on the Catholicism of The Lord of the Rings. 

The internationally acclaimed author of many books, which include bestsellers such as The Quest for Shakespeare, Tolkien: Man and Myth, The Unmasking of Oscar Wilde, C. S. Lewis and The Catholic Church, Literary Converts, Wisdom and Innocence: A Life of G.K. Chesterton, and Old Thunder:  A Life of Hilaire Belloc, Joseph Pearce is a world-recognized biographer of modern Christian literary figures.  Pearce's books have been published and translated into Spanish, Portuguese, French, Dutch and Polish.

Pearce converted to the Catholic faith in 1989 as a result of "becoming friends" with several 20th-century literary figures he researched who had been Christians, and ultimately converts to Catholicism – particularly G.K. Chesterton.  As a younger "extremely anti-Catholic" man, Pearce had opposed Pope John Paul II's visit to England.  His earlier viewpoint gradually shifted as he learned more about the writings and beliefs of the literary converts he would eventually profile.

A native of England, Pearce relocated to the United States in 2001 to serve at Ave Maria University.  He is also contributing writer to a number of newspapers and magazines in the United Kingdom, France, the U.S.A, Canada and South America.

An accomplished tutor, teacher and speaker, Pearce has participated and lectured at a wide variety of international and literary events at major colleges and universities in the U.S., Canada, Britain, Europe, Africa and South America.  He is also a regular guest on national and international television and radio programs, and has served as consultant for film documentaries on J.R.R. Tolkien and Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

The Thomas More College of Liberal Arts provides a four-year undergraduate education which develops young people intellectually, ethically, and spiritually in the Catholic tradition and in faithfulness to the Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church.  Thomas More College introduces its students to the central questions of Western Civilization—and to the Church's response.  It teaches students how to reason, engage in academic discourse, and to write.  Students from Thomas More College are shaped into becoming faithful leaders who will be able to pursue the individual vocations which God has given each of them.

Congratulations to Joseph and to the 2011 graduating class of Thomas More College! Joseph's most recent book from Ignatius Press is an expanded and revised edition of Solzhenitsyn: A Soul in Exile (also available in e-book format). Read more about Joseph and his many books on his Ignatius Insight author page.

"Rerum Novarum" and Seven Principles of Catholic Social Doctrine

Rerum Novarum and Seven Principles of Catholic Social Doctrine | Barbara Lanari | Ignatius Insight

Editor's note: This essay originally appeared in the December 2009 issue of Homiletic & Pastoral Review. It is published here in recognition of the 120th anniversary of Pope Leo XIII's encyclical, Rerum Novarum, which was promulgated on May 15, 1891.

All Catholic social doctrine is based on the dignity of the human person. Man derives both his dignity and his social nature from the fact that he is made in the image and likeness of God. God is a community of loving relationships between the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity. Man similarly seeks out loving relationships in his life on earth. As man by his very nature desires to live in loving community with others and with God, Catholic social doctrine seeks to support all that facilitates this endeavor, and seeks to eliminate all that hampers this endeavor. While the Catholic Church is primarily concerned with the salvation of souls and with one's eternal destiny, it is also genuinely concerned with man's earthly existence and his temporal welfare during his pilgrimage to his eternal home.

In 1891, in response to a growing disparity of wealth in many areas of the world, Pope Leo XIII wrote an encyclical letter that addressed the rights and duties of those with capital who employed laborers and the rights and duties of laborers toward those with greater wealth who employed them. This encyclical, called Rerum Novarum (hereafter RN), laid out fundamental principles for the relationship between "capital" and "labor," and also responded to both negative and positive methods that were being employed to deal with this problem. The negative methods were stirring up revolution and hatred toward the wealthier in society with an interest in redistributing their personal property, while the positive methods encouraged the wealthy to practice generosity and compassion through setting up private organizations to assist workers and their families in times of need. Pope Leo XIII believed that human society could only be saved and healed by a Christian life and Christian institutions, because they are ordered to man's true end and true good. Following are seven principles of Catholic social doctrine that were laid out in this encyclical. They are as applicable today as they were over a hundred years ago.

Read the entire essay on Ignatius Insight...

The May 2011 issue of "Homiletic & Pastoral Review"

The  May 2011 issue of Homiletic & Pastoral Review has something for everyone serious about Catholic theology, practice, spirituality, and devotion:

Apostleship of Prayer

Letters from our readers

On the beatification of John Paul II
By Fr. Matthew J. Albright
The pontificate of John Paul II was a gift from God to the faithful entering the third millennium.

St. Paul, Ephesians 5 and same-sex marriage
By Dr. Mary Healy
Clarity on the nature of marriage can be gained by an examination of Paul's letter to the Ephesians.

Pope Benedict XVI and the ecumenical imperative
By Fr. Timothy E. Byerley
Pope Benedict brings questions of Christian unity to the forefront in his ecumenical vision.

True priestly identity: Fidelity, conformity and Graham Greene
By Msgr. Stephen DiGiovanni
At the root of the clerical abuse scandals is a rejection of the true priestly identity.

Homilies for Sunday liturgies and feasts
By Fr. Stephen Bartlett Reynolds

The depths of Christ's love
By Eric Sammons
Only through an understanding of Christ's two natures can we begin to appreciate his saving love.

Why priests need profound filial devotion to Mary
By Brother Anthony Josemaria
Pope Paul VI taught that "we cannot be Christians if we are not Marian."

Does belief in the Christian God make a moral difference?
By Glenn Siniscalchi
Some atheists defend the claim that belief in Christianity isn't necessary to live Christian virtues.

The problem of being perfect
By Fr. William Clark, O.M.I.
There is an important distinction between Christ's calling us to perfection and perfectionism.

Rediscovering the "plot" of sacred Scripture
By Msgr. Charles Pope
Our preaching and catechesis lose their force when we lose sight of the plot of Scripture.

What can we learn from moths?
By Dr. Donald DeMarco
Our innate religious impulses should not be ignored, but should be united with reason and virtue.

Questions Answered

In Processu—"Feed my sheep"

Book reviews

Editorial—The will of God

Learn about subscriptions to HPR.

Fr. Andrew Apostoli, author of "Fatima for Today": "We are in an enormous spiritual battle."

From the May 8-21, 2011, edition of National Catholic Register, an interview with Father Apostoli, author of Fatima For Today: The Urgent Marian Message of Hope (Ignatius Press, 2010; also available as an Electronic Book Download and a Downloadable Audio File):

Father Andrew Apostoli, of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, is a prolific author, preacher, frequent EWTN host and vice postulator for the cause of the canonization for Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen.

In his latest book, Fatima for Today (see book pick, page B5), Father Apostoli takes a definitive look at Our Lady's apparitions and her messages — and their importance for today.

Shortly after its publication, he spoke from his friary office with Register staff writer Joseph Pronechen.

When Ignatius Press asked you to write Fatima for Today, was there anything you especially wanted to focus on?

They told me to "put everything in it," so I concentrated on four things: presenting the historical facts of the apparitions; explaining the spiritual messages of Our Lady of Fatima, particularly the Five First Saturdays devotion; showing the importance of Fatima for our times because of our great spiritual struggle today with secularism, a remnant of communism; and answering objections regarding the consecration of Russia and the revelation of the Third Secret.

Yet many see communism as non-threatening and having little or no connection any longer with Fatima. Why is the Fatima warning still very relevant?

Actually, we are in a dead-heat battle with the basic message of communism, which is now seen as secularism in the Western countries of the world. Secularism aims to remove all signs and influence of religion from public life; to take religious rights away; to undermine the sanctity of human life by promoting abortion and attacking principles of Christian morality, especially marriage and family life. For example, pornography was not allowed in Russia, but the communists did a great job of exporting it to the West.

We are in an enormous spiritual battle. The communists were masters of deceit, and many of our Catholic people have been deceived. Interestingly, we cannot teach about God in our public schools, but the present Russian president is promoting the teaching of Orthodoxy in Russian schools.

You point out that Pope John Paul II insisted, "Fatima is more important now than in 1917," and in Portugal in May 2010, Pope Benedict XVI said it's a mistake to think the prophetic message of Fatima is over. Why is Our Lady's message of such critical importance today?

The world is so divided between the atheistic communist world and the post-Christian Western world that we need this message as our greatest hope to save a Christian culture that has taken 2,000 years to establish. John Paul II said we are in the greatest spiritual battle of the Church's 2,000-year history and that most Catholics are unaware of it. Secularism is threatening to destroy the Christian foundation of culture in the West.

Many have the notion that we don't need God, but we do. The threat of a total war is very real. Our Lady promised an era of peace. That's why we must do what she told us in numbers great enough to bring about the conversion of the hearts of those who hate God. This will lead to the promised triumph of Mary's Immaculate Heart. At Fatima Mary was particularly concerned with the salvation of souls. She told the visionaries that many souls are lost from God because there is no one to pray and offer sacrifices for them.

Read the entire interview on the National Catholic Register website. Read an excerpt from Fr. Apostoli's book on Ignatius Insight:

Pope reflects on prayer, "the expression of humanity's desire for God"

From Vatican Information Service, this report on the start of the Holy Father's new series of general audiences focused on prayer:

VATICAN CITY, 11 MAY 2011 (VIS) - In this Wednesday's general audience celebrated in St. Peter's Square, the Pope continued with the reflection on "how prayer and religious feeling are a part of humans throughout their lives".

  The Holy Father said that our age is "marked by ... an apparent eclipse of God" but that, at the same time, there are "signs of a renewed religious sense".

Looking at recent history, the predictions of those who, from the age of Enlightenment, foretold the disappearance of religions and exalted absolute reason, separated from faith, have failed".

  While highlighting that "there has never been a great civilization, from time immemorial to our age, that has not been religious", Benedict XVI emphasized that "the human being is religious by nature. ... The image of the Creator is engraved on human beings, who feel the need to find a light to answer the questions regarding the profound meaning of reality; an answer that we cannot find in ourselves, in progress, or in empirical science".

  "We know that we cannot respond alone to our basic need to understand. For however much we think we are self-sufficient, we experience that we do not suffice. We need to open ourselves to something else, something or someone, that can give us what is missing. We must go out of ourselves and go toward the One who is capable of satisfying the width and breadth of our desire".

  The Pope explained that "humanity bears within it a thirst for the infinite, a yearning for eternity, a search for beauty, a desire for love, a need for light and truth, which impel us toward the Absolute. We carry within us the desire for God.  In some way, we know that we can turn to God, that we can pray to Him. St. Thomas Aquinas, one of the greatest theologians of history, defined prayer as 'the expression of humanity's desire for God'".

  Referring to prayer, the Holy Father noted that "it is an inner attitude before being a series of practices or formulas; it is a manner of being in God's presence before the carrying out of acts of worship or speaking words. Prayer has its center and sinks it roots in the depth of the person. That is why it is not easily decipherable and, for the same reason, why it can be the object of misunderstanding and manipulation. ... The experience of prayer is a challenge for all, a 'grace' that must be invoked, a gift of the One to whom we address ourselves".

  "In prayer, ... human beings experience themselves as creatures in need of help, incapable of attaining the fulfillment of their existence or their hopes alone. ... In the experience of prayer we orient our very souls to that Mystery from which we look for the fulfillment of our deepest desires and help to overcome the poverty of our lives. In looking to the Other, in directing ourselves 'beyond', is found the essence of prayer, the experience of a reality that goes beyond the apparent and the contingent".

  Benedict XVI affirmed that "even though human beings are forgetful of their Creator, the true and living God never stops calling humanity first to the mysterious encounter of prayer".

 "We must learn to spend more time in front of God, before the God who has revealed himself in Jesus Christ; we must learn to recognize in silence, within our very selves, his voice that calls us and leads us to the depth of our existence, to the fount of life and the source of salvation, so that we might overcome the limit of our lives and open ourselves to the measure of God, the relationship with He who is Infinite Love".

Related on Ignatius Insight:

• Lord, Teach Us To Pray | Fr. Jerome Bertram | From Jesus, Teach Us To Pray
• Contemplation and the Liturgy | Hans Urs von Balthasar
• Thirsting and Quenching | Fr. Thomas Dubay, S.M.
• The Seminary as Nazareth: Formation in a School of Prayer | Deacon James Keating, Ph.D.
• St. John of the Cross | Fr. Thomas Dubay, S.M.
• Seeking Deep Conversion | Fr. Thomas Dubay, S.M.
• There's More to Prayer Than "Saying Our Prayers" | Mary Beth Bonacci
• The Confession of the Saints | Adrienne von Speyr
• Catholic Spirituality | Thomas Howard
• The Scriptural Roots of St. Augustine's Spirituality | Stephen N. Filippo
• The Eucharist: Source and Summit of Christian Spirituality | Mark Brumley
• Two Notions of Worship: Catholic vs. Fundamentalist | Karl Keating

Sister Helena Burns: "I learned a ton from 'Finding Fatima'."

Here is the trailer for the film, Finding Fatima, available on DVD from Ignatius Press:









More information about the film:

Produced by the award-winning filmmakers of the highly acclaimed feature film The 13th Day, this is a powerful and in-depth documentary that combines archival footage, dramatic reenactments, original interviews with Fatima experts and stunning visuals to tell the whole story of the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima. With high production values and a beautiful look, artists and filmmakers Ian and Dominic Higgins present a compelling docu-drama on all the crucial details about the appearances and messages of Our Lady in Fatima in 1917, a message of prayer, penance and conversion that is desperately needed in our modern world. From the initial apparitions of the Angel who prepared the children for Our Lady's coming, to the Miracle of the Sun, including moving film footage from The 13th Day, this illuminating and inspiring film will impact all those who see it to personally take heed of the critical messages of Our Lady of Fatima.

This DVD contains the following language tracks: English with English or Spanish subtitles

This DVD can only be sold in the US and Canada.

Sister Helena Burns writes this of Finding Fatima:

Great new DVD from the makers of "The 13th Day"! "Finding Fatima" is shot in the same Bresson-esque and super-stylized way as "The 13th Day." While hearkening to and honoring filmmaking's past, the Brothers Higgins are simultaneously bringing the story and message of Fatima to a new generation.

As much as I love watching documentaries, I was just going to give this a quick perusal, but I got hooked and couldn't stop watching.

I thought I knew a lot about Fatima--it's my favorite Marian apparation, and I've been reading books and watching films about Fatima since I was a teenager--but I learned a ton from "Finding Fatima." "Finding Fatima" could be called "Fatima Then and Now," because it brings us up to speed on the Fatima story as it continues to unfold in our present day.

The Higgins Brothers use clips from their "13th Day" for the re-enactments, as we get to know the personalities of the three visionary children in depth. This documentary is chock-full of fascinating, down-to-earth interviews and historical footage, all presented in a spritely way. There's not a dull moment in this life- and joy-filled documentary, even with its more sombre sepia-toned visual edges! Innovative without being novel or gimmicky, "Finding Fatima" has a 21st-century feel to it.

Read her entire review.

Plumbing the Sacramental Depths of Prog Rock

Plumbing the Sacramental Depths of Prog Rock | Bradley J. Birzer | May 11, 2011 | Ignatius Insight

Let us speak/speak of love,
Of home and hope loving and leaving
Of laughter and forgetting and letting go. . . .

So let us speak of love/love and generosity.
And if we only have love/it's more than enough.
— Big Big Train, "Wide Open Sea," (2010).

Moves
I generally judge music by how it moves me. By "moves," I'm not suggesting dance moves or being moved in the manner in which Elvis Presley brought condemnation upon the entire genre of rock over a half century ago.

Frankly, you wouldn't want to see me move in such a fashion. Pacing the room as I lecture is probably about as much movement as my students can stand.

By moved, I mean being moved at the deepest levels of my soul and my mind. I want full immersion, no sprinkling. I want my art to reflect all that comes before and all that might be, a moment speaking to timeless truths, Platonic and Divine.

Yes, I realize this sounds (or reads, actually) somewhat pretentious. But, it is true none the less, pretense of pretense or even in the absence of pretense.

Simple pop music—be it the ranting of some London or New York toughs or some sugary and bubblegum airheads—does nothing for me, and it never has. Like most things in my life, I consider music appreciation a serious business, and I've never had time or money to waste on the likes of the Commodores from the 1970s or Madonna (the fake one from Detroit; not Our Lady) from the 1980s or Lady Gaga of our present age.

Music, to be sure, serves as an escape for me, and it has been such since I was a small boy growing up next to a wheat field in central Kansas. Whether I was starting to listen to Yes in the 1970s (grade school), Rush in the early 1980s (junior high), Talk Talk in the mid 1980s (college), Kate Bush in the early 1990s (graduate school), or Radiohead in the late 1990s, I have always wanted my music to have depth and breadth and width. The lyrics have mattered as much to me as has the music. I can certainly handle politics or theology with which I disagree, but I want the lyrics to make me think or behold or treasure.

But, importantly, I don't merely want to escape from a thing when I listen to music; I want to escape into a thing. I want full immersion into an artistic realm. I'm either very snobbish or very particular (or most likely, both, as my friends will recognize).

Read the entire article on Ignatius Insight....

The Will of God

The Will of God | Fr. Kenneth Baker, S.J. | Editorial | Homiletic & Pastoral Review | May 2011

Over the years, in reading the lives of the saints, I have noted that they have tried to find God's will in their lives. When they found it, they did all they could to follow it. There are many different paths to holiness—to which we are all called, clergy, laity and religious. St. Paul stated this clearly in 1 Thes 4:3: "This is the will of God, your sanctification." In his providence God deals with each one of us differently.

Man, in imitation of God, has two spiritual powers—intellect and will. That is why the Bible says we are made in the image of God. Intellect and will always go together. The object of the intellect is being as true, while the object of the will is being as good. Will affirms and desires what the intellect understands and presents to it. Since God is infinite intelligence, it follows that he is also infinite will. But since God is absolutely simple and absolute goodness, his will is identified with his goodness. So the act of willing in God is one of affirmation of himself, love of himself as supreme goodness. In confirmation of this, St. Thomas Aquinas says: "In every intellectual being there is will, just as in every sensible being there is animal appetite. And so there must be will in God, since there is intellect in him. And as his intellect is his own existence, so is his will" (Summa Theologica, I, 19, 1). Also in God there is no real distinction between his will and the activity of his will, as there is in us, since he is absolutely simple, having no composition of any kind. As St. Thomas says, his will is his existence.

Since the object of God's will is his own infinite goodness, he is absolutely free with regard to all limited, created beings. Each one of them imitates his own being in some limited way, and so is a particular good. God necessarily wills and loves himself, but he is under no necessity to create finite beings such as we find in the material universe because they are all particular goods. God loves all of the things which he has made, but he loves them freely. In Genesis 1 we read that God saw each thing he made "and behold, it was very good" (Gn 1:31).

Read the entire editorial at HPRweb.com...

 

An interesting peek behind the scenes...

... of the prolonged (ten years and counting) and often contentious conflict between Bishop William Morris of Australia and Vatican leadership (including Pope Benedict XVI):

The removal of a dissident Australian bishop, announced by the Vatican on May 2, came after more than a decade of conflict between the bishop and the Vatican, and almost four years after he was originally asked to resign.

Bishop William Morris reluctantly surrendered his authority in the Toowoomba diocese as of May 2. The Australian bishop—who was only 67 years old when he stepped down, 8 years short of normal retirement age—has stressed that he did not resign.

Bishop Morris, who has complained bitterly about the manner of his departure, claims the support of most of the priests in the Toowoomba diocese, including all of the members of the diocesan College of Consultors. In addition to protesting the bishops' removal, the College of Consultors has provided a detailed report of the bishop's long history of conflict with the Vatican. CWN has obtained copies of that report, as have several Australian media outlets.

Friction between Bishop Morris and the Vatican became evident soon after he was installed in the Toowoomba diocese in 1993. "Bishop Morris, immediately, proved to have a very different style of leadership from previous bishops," the Consultors report. The new bishop eschewed the Roman collar, preferring to wear a necktie emblazoned with his episcopal coat of arms.

Read the entire (and exclusive) report on CatholicCulture.org