My Catholic Life

the woman who willingly demeans the nurturing instinct and tries instead to deny, or to cancel, or to destroy her own unique biological capability, creates a new model, a female being, one who hasn't changed into a man, somehow never quite grows into a woman and becomes, in a metaphysical sense, a little less than human - Dr. Mildred Jefferson Originally, I had considered writing a totally different piece than this one. This brouhaha over the Hobby Lobby decision with its subsequent talk of a "war on women" had me all stirred up. I was going to write something smart, witty and satirical using the very anthem of the feminist movement "I Am Woman", as sung by Helen Reddy, to show women the we, ourselves, have been the perpetrators of our own war on women. I would have made comparisons between the stereotypical 50's housewife and our current pearl clutching fear. I would have done a clever play on the word ewe to demonstrate how mindlessly we have followed ce...

I wrote another guest blog for the Vericast Network. http://www.vericast.net/blog/2014/07/05/jesus-just-alright/

Got to pay your dues if you want to sing the blues and you know it don’t come easy. You don’t have to shout or leap about you can even play them easy. You know being Catholic don’t come easy. Sometimes the hardest part of it is being Catholic among other Catholics.   I’ve got to give it to the Catholic bloggers and podcasters. Me, I'm kind of chump change next to a lot of the others. My blog is a little quirky so I think I only draw a handful of people who get me and dig the song lyric shtick. I have yet to set off a firestorm of controversy or com box hostility. There was that one time when someone on twitter linked to my blog trying to get their friends to chase me down with torches. Nobody bit on the invitation though so all was well. Twitter trolls are a rather cowardly lot. Maybe I have just been too mild mannered and need to pump up the jam just a little. But then like the song says, you don’t have to shout or leap about you can even play them easy. I have...

The Church has released a couple on interesting documents this month that coincide with each other. The first was a document by the International Theological Commission clarifying  Sensus Fidei in the Life of the Church. The second was the working document for the Synod of the family this October. Although the documents are interesting in and of themselves, their relationship to each other is what is of most interest. (Personal sidebar: Both documents are rather long, by the way, which the Vatican is wont to do) Last year Pope Francis called for an Extraordinary General Assembly, or Synod, of Bishops to meet in October of 2014 for the purposes of addressing the challenges the Church faces concerning the family. This Synod would bring together the presidents of national bishop’s conferences, the heads of Eastern Catholic churches and Vatican officials. This is to be followed up by the Ordinary General Assembly, or world Synod of Bishops, in October of 2015. This Synod ...