Tag: parenting

Ignatius of Loyola, Soldier – Sinner – Saint

I had the great pleasure of watching this film on EWTN last weekend.  An excellent film!

A modern and very human take on the story of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, often called ‘The Saint of Second Chances.’ As a brash, hot-headed soldier in a time of political upheaval in Spain, the young Iñigo went from living a life of brutal violence and debauchery, to becoming one of the greatest saints in the history of the Church. This film chronicles Iñigo’s torturous struggle to turn from darkness to light—a struggle that nearly destroyed him, but also gave him the key to a spiritual weapon that continues to save lives to this very day.

Produced by Jesuit Communications Philippines (JesCom), Ignatius of Loyola was shot on location over two months in Spain. It is an incisive and thrilling look at the life of the real man behind the legend. In his lifelong quest to become the heroic Knight of his fantasies, Ignatius stares death in the face again and again, having his leg shattered by a cannonball in battle; driven to near suicide by his inner demons; finding himself imprisoned, accused of being a member of the Illuminati; and finally finding his life in the hands of the Inquisition. Through it all, he would come to see the hand of God working in his life, shaping the self-obsessed sinner into the loyal and passionate soldier-saint.

The film also shows how Ignacio wove the trials, errors, and lessons of his eventful life into the fabric of his masterpiece, the Spiritual Exercises. Combining clarity of thought with Ignacio’s own love of fantasy and imagination, the Exercises form a rigorous method of making one’s life decisions, and have guided and influenced countless seekers throughout history.  Available on DVD.

It’s About (Space) Time Google Did Something About This!

EinsteinArchbold-LEMAITRE-BigBangIt’s About (Space) Time Google Did Something Like This!

Fr. Georges Lemaître’s calculations were correct. So were his physics and his faith.

Angelo Stagnaro

I don’t ask for everyone in the world to love Catholics and the Catholic Church. That would be a great Christmas present, I’d admit, but hardly something I’m going to write Santa about. Christ warned us that people would hate us (John 15:18-25) and I’ve steeled myself against that eventuality. Lord knows I’ve had enough practice dealing with the unrepentantly ignorant thus far.

What I ask for, or rather, what I demand, is the truth.

If you’ve got a gripe against the Catholic Church―and it’s legitimate―take a number and stand in line. Today’s not the day we’ll be dealing with your issues. And tomorrow doesn’t look good either.

If someone in their self-inflicted ignorance insists that the Catholic Church is somehow “anti-science,” they prove beyond a shadow of a doubt they’ve never read a book on the history of science. I know this for a fact as on several occasions, I’ve literally handed such books to fundamentalist atheists who’ve literally dropped them to the ground without even bothering to look at their covers, let alone peruse their contents.

And for this reason, I’m extend my warmest thanks and gratitude to Google for finally pointing out a pro-Catholic truth rather than ignoring or actively offending us. Admittedly, on Dec. 17, 2015, Google published one of their Doodles (a temporary interactive logo replacing the normally logo on their home screen) honoring the 245th anniversary of Beethoven’s baptism―yes, he was Catholic. Is anyone truly surprised?

Apparently, a few days ago, on July 17, Google honored Fr. Georges Lemaître with yet another Doodle. Fr. Lemaître was the Belgian physicist who came up with the Big Bang Theory without which, we would never have had a fun, interesting title for one of CBS’ best, recent comedies.

July 17 was the 124th anniversary of Fr. Lemaître’s birth.

As Google wrote on their home page:

Most people have heard of the Big Bang theory, but fewer recognize the name Georges Lemaître, the man who came up with the hypothesis that transformed our understanding of astrophysics. Born on this day in 1894, Lemaître was a Belgian Catholic priest who proposed that the universe began as a single primordial atom, which he referred to as the ‘Cosmic Egg.’

Google further correctly pointed out that:

Although [Fr. Lemaître’s] thesis was based on calculations derived from Einstein’s theory of general relativity, Einstein initially dismissed Lemaître’s work, remarking, ‘Your calculations are correct, but your physics is atrocious.’ [“Vos calculs sont corrects, mais votre physique est abominable”] Two years later Einstein changed his mind.

Fr. Lemaître proposed a currently expanding universe, which explains the redshift of galaxies. From this, he extrapolated an initial “creation-like” event must have occurred. In the 1980s, Alan Guth and Andrei Linde modified this theory by including their Theory of Inflation. Unlike Fr. Lemaître’s theory, inflation is no longer considered a serious scientific theory and has been relegated to the dustbins of intellectual history.

In 1931, Fr. Lemaître published an article in Nature describing his theory of the “primeval atom.”

In 1933, at the California Institute of Technology, after Lemaître explained his theory, Einstein stood and applauded and is reported to have said, “This is the most beautiful and satisfactory explanation of creation to which I have ever listened.”

The title in the scientific journals that day read, “Atheist Einstein Eats Crow Catholic Priest Serves Up!”

Fr. Lemaître studied at the Collège du Sacré-Coeur, in Charleroi, a Jesuit school (not a surprise) and then at the prestigious Catholic University of Leuven then joined the diocesan seminary. He served a stint as an artillery officer in the Belgian army during World War I. He won a scholarship to Cambridge University and, upon graduating, studied at Harvard and earned his doctorate in physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In 1946, he published his book entitled L’Hypothèse de l’Atome Primitif (The Primeval Atom Hypothesis).

In 1951, Pope Pius XII’s exuberance for Fr. Lemaître discovery led the pontiff to the conclusion that the priest had discovered scientific proof of the Genesis creation account and for Catholicism in general. Fr. Lemaître, on his part, demurred, saying, “As far as I see, such a theory remains entirely outside any metaphysical or religious question. It leaves the materialist free to deny any transcendental Being,”

This enigmatic rebuttal is often bandied about to belittle Fr. Lemaître’s universe-shaking (literally) paradigm. However, it’s often misinterpreted. If a “Big Bang” could not be pointed out in the history of the universe, it could be said that this would refute the Genesis account. As Fr. Lemaître correctly identified the universe’s origin, though the materialist is free to deny any transcendental Being, he would be foolish to do so.

However, even the most careful examination of the relevant passage shows the Big Bang is referred to in Scriptures:

In the beginning, when God created the universe, the earth was formless and desolate. The raging ocean that covered everything was engulfed in total darkness, and the Spirit of God was moving over the water. Then God commanded, ‘Let there be light’—and light appeared. (Genesis 1:1-3)

Fr. Lemaître was hardly the first Catholic cleric scientist and he wasn’t the last. But he, of all of our scientific minds remains the biggest fly in the atheist’s chardonnay. They can only insist that the Catholic Church is “anti-science” only if they ignore all history and science books which, unsurprisingly, they do with a great eagerness and fear.

Tellingly, the term “Big Bang” was first used during a 1949 BBC radio broadcast in which atheist astronomer Fred Hoyle dismissed Lemaître theory. Hoyle remained a proponent of the junk science “Steady-State Theory” of the universe and remained so until his death in 2001.

Fr. Lemaître died on June 20, 1966, two years after having learned of the discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation. This must have warmed the cockles of his Catholic heart as this was crucial evidence for his Big Bang theory.

His theory was further confirmed in the 1990s through observations of distant Type IA supernova with the Hubble Space Telescope.

And for all his troubles, Fr. Lemaître now has a lunar crater named after him―not too shabby considering they just don’t just give those out willy-nilly. In addition, minor planet 1565 Lemaître was named after him. (Take that, Pluto and Neil DeGrasse-Tyson!)

Fr. Lemaître was always a proponent of both science and the Catholic Church which he said offered the same truth but from different, and complimentary, perspectives. After all, if it is true, then it must be God’s Truth.

God bless, Fr. Lemaître. If I get to Heaven, I’d like to shake your hand.

National Catholic Register, July 20, 2018

Why a Masculine Example of Holiness is Vital for Children

Feature for Father’s Day – National Catholic Register

Joseph Pronechen

The father knelt in the dark of night, deep in prayer.

Sometimes his young son would wake up and witness his devotion.

Such witness made a deep impression on the son.

Who were this father and son?

A young Karol Wojtyla — the future Pope St. John Paul II — and his father.

Karol Wojtyla Sr. well recognized that a father’s primary duty is to get himself and his family — wife and children — to heaven.

Others have been likewise impacted by a father’s faith.

“My dad was very much the spiritual leader of our family,” recalled Father Richard Heilman, pastor of St. Mary’s of Pine Bluff Church in Cross Plains, Wisconsin, and founder of the website RomanCatholicMan.com. What dad Walter “represented for us kids — I’m third of seven children — is all of us got to Mass every Sunday and holy day of obligation, and we were active in our parishes helping out. That was instilled in us early on.”

Today, all his brothers (one is deceased) and sisters are joyful Catholics. “They all love their faith,” the priest said, “and Dad did it with such great joy, too. He loved living out his faith, primarily at the local church.”

It’s essential for fathers to take the lead with their children. Father Heilman and others point to the findings of a study conducted by the Swiss government in 1994 and published in 2000, which revealed that the religious practice of the father of the family “determines the future attendance at or absence from church of the children.”

The study found if a father doesn’t attend church, “no matter how faithful his wife’s devotions — only one child in 50 will become a regular worshipper. If a father does go regularly, 75% of the children will continue as churchgoers.

“This confirms the essential role of father as spiritual leader, which I would argue is true fatherhood,” said Father Heilman.

Such masculine example is increasingly important. In January, a Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University national study of young millennials who left the Church found that 74% decided to leave as young as 10 years old, and only 17% replied that when they were Catholic, they went to Mass weekly.

And in 2015, the Pew Research Center found that, among Catholics, 73% of those who say “religion was very important to their family while they were growing up describe themselves as Catholics today, compared with just 38% among those who say religion was ‘not too’ or ‘not at all’ important to their families.” Matthew James Christoff is helping men turn the tide through the “New Emangelization Project” (NewEmangelization.com).

“A Catholic man’s greatest duty is to lead his spouse and children to meet Christ in the Mass,” said Christoff, on Sundays and holy days of obligation, as the Church dictates. Men leading their families to Sunday Mass “will have a lasting impact.”

He cites dire findings that Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix referred to in his apostolic exhortation to Catholic men called “Into the Breach” in 2015. The statistics include: Only 29% of Catholic men believe attendance at weekly Mass is “very important”; merely 34% strongly agree Catholicism is among the “most important parts of life”; only 26% think of themselves as “practicing Catholics”; only 33% say they attend Mass weekly; only one-third pray daily; and less than a third believe confession is important.

In “Into the Breach,” Bishop Olmsted noted, “[T]he truth is that large numbers of Catholic men are failing to keep the promises they made at their children’s baptisms — promises to bring them to Christ and to raise them in the faith of the Church.”

“Fathers who lead their children to Mass are helping in a very real way to ensure their eternal salvation,” emphasized Bishop Olmsted.

“The Mass is a refuge in the Spiritual Battle, where Catholic men meet their King, hear his commands, and become strengthened with the Bread of Life.”

Fathers need to take the lead, Christoff agrees.

“As a man, the father needs to build unity at the top,” said Christoff. “The father plays a very significant role.”

The fatherly witness of prayer, participation at church and actively teaching children the faith “has a huge impact on children” as part of the “domestic church militant.”

Father Heilman said his father’s faithful witness “instilled … that we take our faith seriously. It’s not a matter of fulfilling our obligations, but putting it into practice. That’s the key,” adding: “If you take your faith seriously — more than just fulfilling an obligation and looking at your watch, but you understand that faith is a daily matter — when duty calls, you’re first in line to say, ‘Send me.’ Children are watching. That was the way in which faith has been anchored in each one of us. It wasn’t just an obligation of worship, but actually doing everything the Church asked us to do, and doing it with joy.”

In growing in faith, dads should look to faithful examples of the saints, including Jesus’ earthly father, St. Joseph.

“Our ultimate goal as men is to be spiritual fathers,” said Christoff, and for fathers who do so, “their children will see how the faith has made their father better. As the father grows in holiness, the family realizes and naturally follows.” Christoff is also a co-founder of CatholicManNight.com, “a website dedicated to help men meet, get to know and build a friendship with Jesus Christ.”

Another program helping men fulfill their faith-focused mission is Fraternus.net.

As a parish youth director, co-founder Jason Craig wanted to support men in faith formation.

Fraternus, which has several chapters around the country, has become a place where fathers pass on their faith to future men, whether they be their own sons or fatherless boys or those who are fatherless spiritually.

“Every faithful Catholic man can point to a mentor or a man that really taught him to be a Catholic man,” Craig emphasized.

“If as young adolescent men they don’t have fathers or fatherly mentors, they will not practice the faith without a man’s intervention. The Son reveals the Father. If you don’t have an image of fatherhood, it’s hard to understand the faith.”

“In Fraternus, we look the man in the eye and say, ‘You are the example.’” Craig explained it as foremost a training for men, who then bring young men to maturity via solid faith formation, conversations and catechesis about the virtues, in addition to Mass attendance and other prayer practices.

As fathers become leaders in faith formation, Father Heilman agrees that there should be a sense of integrity.

“If you want children to grow up and take their faith seriously [you must guide] by the example you’re setting.”

Father Heilman also strongly recommends fathers exhibit Christian joy. He well remembers, “Dad was joyful in the faith.”

Joseph Pronechen

 is a National Catholic Register

staff writer

 

Marital Friendship and the Raising of Children

Marital Friendship Pic

Marital Friendship and the Procreation of Children

COMMENTARY: The connection between the flourishing of parents and the difficulties of raising children is found in friendship. By Christopher Kaczor – Posted 5/27/18 at 9:29 AM

William Faulkner once said, “Writing a novel is like a one-armed man trying to hammer together a chicken coop in a hurricane.”
Raising children is something like that. No experienced parent can deny the challenges of being a mom or dad. Yet the Second Vatican Council taught, “Marriage and conjugal love are by their nature ordained toward the procreation and education of children. Children are really the supreme gift of marriage and contribute in the highest degree to their parents’ welfare.”
Blessed Paul VI emphasized this teaching explicitly in his 1968 encyclical, Humanae Vitae. The goodness of the procreation of children is not just Catholic teaching, but has biblical roots going all the way back to God’s words to Adam and Eve in the Garden, “Be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28).
Can the same thing be both challenging and a gift? The connection between the difficulties of raising children and the flourishing of parents is found in friendship.  In his best-selling book The Seven Principles of Making Marriage Work, the psychologist John Gottman wrote that the determining factor in whether a wife or husband feels satisfied with the sex, romance and passion of their relationship is the quality of the couple’s friendship.
Friendship could be defined in terms of mutual goodwill, shared activity and shared emotional life. Having children together fosters marital friendship because shared children give the parents an extra reason to have goodwill for each other: This person is not just my wife; she is also the mother of my children.
In virtue of loving the children, I have an extra reason for loving her. When difficulties arise, as they inevitably do, children provide an extra motivation to make things work. Couples who know that the children will suffer if a marriage falls apart have an extra reason to seek reconciliation.
The activity of raising children, as well as accompanying them as adults, gives the couple a shared emotional life. Mother and father are united in joy at first Holy Communion, graduation from high school, celebration of a wedding or the birth of a grandchild.
Mother and father are united in sorrow at schoolyard bullying, high-school hazing, an arrest of a child for drunken driving or the unemployment of an adult son or daughter. A child inevitably brings to his or her parents times of frustration and desolation and at other times elation and exhilaration.
The rollercoaster ride of parenthood goes from panic, rage and stress to serenity, tranquility and exhilaration and then back again. Whatever their emotional ups and downs, children benefit parents by providing them resources for a shared emotional life, enhancing their friendship.
Aristotle famously distinguished between friendships of pleasure, utility and virtue. We love in friends what is pleasurable, useful or excellent, and so, from a focus on these three things, different kinds of friendships arise. Children do not aid a friendship of pleasure, that which is based on having fun and hedonistic experiences; friendships of pleasure, however, tend not to last anyway. Children also do not much aid a friendship of utility, since children usually need our help rather than offer it.
Our spouse, moreover, is less likely to be useful to us if he or she is focused on helping the children. But a friendship of utility is, by its nature, a second-rate kind of friendship.
In a friendship of utility, I don’t really care about my friend as much as the benefits that friend gives to me. But what about a friendship of virtue? In this friendship, friends care about each other not simply because they give one another pleasure or utility, but because of the excellence of the other person.
How do we gain virtue? At least for the acquired virtues, we gain an excellent character by repeatedly doing excellent acts. When a couple has a child, that vulnerable baby needs round-the-clock help. In performing caring, gentle, kind and loving acts for
their baby, their toddler, their grade-schooler, their teenager and their young-adult child, parents grow into more caring, gentle, kind and loving people. Inasmuch as the couple have more children, they have further opportunity for growth in virtue. Inasmuch as they grow in virtue, they establish or strengthen the basis for a friendship of virtue.
Of course, raising children does not automatically make a person virtuous. To become virtuous requires a difficult task, but not one that completely overwhelms. For this reason, the Church encourages responsible parenthood rather than maximal reproduction.
Responsible parenthood involves practical wisdom about the strengths and weaknesses of the couple, their economic situation and all the relevant circumstances. To have children contrary to what practical wisdom would warrant is not conducive to virtue.
All people are called to be generous to the poor in giving donations, but it would, for most people, be contrary to practical wisdom to give away 90% of the family’s income. So, too, married couples are called to be generous in giving life, but it would be contrary to practical wisdom, for most people, to have as many children as biologically possible — this is where the Church’s teaching on natural family planning comes into play.
So, where does that leave us? The most rewarding and meaningful things in life are also the most difficult. To become a black belt in judo, to graduate with honors, to write a novel or to raise a family fall in this category. When we look back on our lives, the black belt, the honor roll and the novel will pale in comparison to raising a family. Even if we become president of the United States, we would almost certainly say to our children, as one president did, “Of all that I’ve done in my life, I’m most proud to be your dad.”
To be a mom or to be a dad is to participate, however imperfectly, in the action of the Divine, the friendship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Christopher Kaczor is a professor of philosophy at Loyola Marymount University
and the author of The Seven Big Myths About the Catholic Church.
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