For the past several days, I’ve been with my Word on Fire team, filming for the Flannery O’Connor and Fulton Sheen episodes of our Pivotal Players series. Our journey has taken us from Chicago to New York to Washington, D.C., and finally to Savannah and Millidgeville, Ga.
Category: Columns
The benefits of Catholic schools
This is the second article in a series leading up to Catholic School Informational Sunday on August 9.
I often meet people who have questions about Catholic schools: What do Catholic schools do? How are they different than any other school? What difference do they make? Why should we consider sending our children when we have good public schools? Why do Catholic schools matter?
Jurassic World: Gets it right, and gets it wrong
Spoiler Alert! This column reveals details of a newly released film.
The original Jurassic Park film from 25 years ago rather inventively explored a theme that has been prominent in Western culture from the time of the Romantic reaction to the Enlightenment — namely, the dangers of an aggressive and arrogant rationalism.
Beginning in the late 18th century, poets and philosophers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Wolfgang von Goethe, Johann Herder, William Blake, and John Keats warned that the lust to understand and control nature would result in disaster for both the human soul and for the physical world.
Why do Catholic schools exist?
Next to the public schools, Catholic schools form the largest school system in America, enrolling over 1.8 million students in over 6,300 schools nationwide.
In the Diocese of Madison, 40 percent of our parishes sponsor a Catholic grade school. Catholic schools are an apostolate of the Church and have had a significant impact on our nation, our diocese, and our parishes, yet I often hear people wonder why we have Catholic schools. Why do Catholic schools exist?
Defeating pride by embracing humility
In my not-so-distant past, four tired children hung on all sides of my overflowing shopping cart as the checkout line inched along.
Creed of the People of God, Part 5
John Joy |
After speaking of the Holy Spirit and the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Creed of the People of God next professes our faith in the reality of original sin and the mystery of our redemption in Christ through Baptism.
This creed of Pope Paul VI is based on the Nicene Creed we say at Mass, but it goes into greater detail about what Catholics are required to believe in order to be “practicing Catholics” and (more importantly) in order have that faith without which we cannot be saved.
The smoke over medical marijuana
A comprehensive 2015 scientific review found medical marijuana to be useful only for a small number of medical conditions. Writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association, an international team of researchers found scant evidence to support broad claims for the drug’s effectiveness.
Independence Day reminds us we are a nation of immigrants
Independence Day on July 4 is a federal holiday when we celebrate the anniversary of the day when the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence.
Four days after the signing, the Liberty Bell rang to summon the people to the first public reading of the document. As the words were read, there were great shouts of affirmation and celebration.
God’s love and the glowing heart of mercy
Fr. Steve Grunow |
Hanging on the wall of one of the confessionals at my parish is an image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The unknown artist has opted, as many have, for a soft Jesus, whose features are as bland and inoffensive as possible and whose heart is more of a glowing orb than anything remotely resembling flesh and blood.