Not long ago, a friend and I were talking about children and holidays. "What am I going to do about Hallowe'en?" she asked. "My kids love planning costumes, figuring out jokes and riddles for trick-or-treating, and then there's the big night when dozens of neighbor children come to our door for handouts. But now I wonder if it's right for Christians to let our kids participate in pagan holidays like this at all."
Her concern was real — and considering some of the adult Hallowe'en street celebrations in recent years, anyone would think this is a deeply pagan festivity. (The same might be said of Mardi Gras celebrations!) Add to that the fact that some people today actually claim to be witches. They have claimed "ownership" of Hallowe'en. They claim it is really an ancient pagan harvest festival. (Read more)
Qiji is 4 years old and comes from a village in rural China. She is smart. Tell her what a particular animal is called and after only a single listen she can gleefully point out a “bird” whenever a magpie swoops by.
Qiji has no official right to an education. It is quite possible that she will never see the inside of even the most basic rural classroom. (Read more)
Editor's Note: Fr. George Rutler, a convert from Anglicanism, was asked by CNA what his reaction is to the Vatican's new Anglican provision. Fr. Rutler's reply follows.
It is a dramatic slap-down of liberal Anglicanism and a total repudiation of the ordination of women, homosexual marriage and the general neglect of doctrine in Anglicanism. Indeed, it is a final rejection of Anglicanism. It basically interprets Anglicanism as a spiritual patrimony based on ethnic tradition rather than substantial doctrine and makes clear that it is not a historic "church" but rather an "ecclesial community” that strayed and now is invited to return to communion with the Pope as Successor of Peter. (Read more)
As a kid in Catholic School, I learned all about the epic tales of Abraham, Jonah and the Whale, Joseph, John the Baptist and the Blessed Mother. They all seemed so fantastic and out of this world…tell me one person YOU know whose been swallowed by a whale. To follow God these people had serious trust…they had epic trust.
As a 25-year old woman in the Los Angeles area, I’m not expecting to be swallowed by ocean life anytime soon, but I am still called to the radical, unwavering and epic trust of those I read and learned about as a kid. (Read more)
It was not by accident that we walked through the front arch of the Nantang (Southern Cathedral) a full two hours early for the six o’clock Christmas Eve Mass. The four of us had been living in Beijing for four months by the time the Advent Season had begun. We knew, from first-hand experience, just how exhausting and time consuming it could be to travel from our apartment in Beijing’s northwest corner to one of the city’s downtown Roman Catholic cathedrals. We also were well-aware of the tendency for Chinese cathedrals, of which there are relatively few in a country of perhaps 13 million Catholics, to fill up rather early. Just how early? On Christmas Eve, we quickly discovered that we had indeed entered the cathedral just in the nick of time, as there was only one pew left that had enough room for four people and an unobstructed view of the altar.
As Desi (my wife), Julie (our 13-year-old daughter), Zoli (our 11-year-old son), and I prepared for a year of living in China, we had a sense that being Catholic in a predominantly non-Christian country would present us with some serious challenges and, we hoped, some lasting joys. We had only been on the ground for about 48 hours when both of these intuitions were resoundingly confirmed. Sitting in the Northern Cathedral (Xishiku), we found ourselves overwhelmed by the prospect of following the Mass as it was celebrated in Mandarin. Although we had been studying Mandarin for three years prior to our arrival in China, language specific to the Order of the Mass had not been part of our lessons. Any discomfort we were feeling, though, evaporated the moment the opening hymn began. The cathedral’s high vaults were filled with the voices of the gathered worshippers, all of who it seemed were singing joyfully and without reservation as the priest and ministers processed in and venerated the altar. From that day on, the four of us were committed to fighting through the difficulties and attending services celebrated in Mandarin, despite the availability in Beijing of English-language Masses. This was a choice we rarely regretted, as what followed was a year of experiencing our Catholic faith as it is practiced with “Chinese characteristics.” (Read more)
These days, images of large families have lost the luster once afforded to famous clans. Benjamin Franklin was the 15th of 17 children. Queen Anne and Queen Victoria had at least 25 children between them. Remember the Osmonds and the Jacksons? Putting aside Michael’s adult descent into the bizarre, these families were admired for being close and of course, driven. The recent death of Sen. Ted Kennedy was a nostalgic reminder of a time when that clan was just a wealthier, more glamorous version of a very common occurrence in Catholic families all over America – large, often double digit broods.
These days having four kids is considered a lot and anything over five is worthy of an "extreme parenting" reality show. In fact, the portrayal of large families in reality television is the most incisive sign-of-the-time for a culture so ambiguous about the personal, economic, and environmental costs of large families. The LA-based offices of TLC and Discovery Network, the cable channels dedicated to large family docu-dramas such as "Jon and Kate plus Eight", and "Meet the Duggars", has decided that America’s enduring fascination with large families needs a "twist." Family television dramas about large families, like the WB’s wholesome and entertaining "7th Heaven", Tvland classics like the "Brady Bunch", and glossy black and white coffee table books of the Kennedys are so passé. Viewers, they’ve decided, want to see the intimate world of stressed out parents of sextuplets divorcing or they want to witness the sheltered and perennially cheerful Duggars, whose Christian household of 20 runs with a system of order envied by the U.S. Army. (Read more)
May 31 was the 200th anniversary of Franz Joseph Haydn's death in 1809 at the age of 77. He was so revered that an honor guard was posted outside of his Vienna residence during his last days. The great good news is that this commemoration has generated a flood of Haydn releases and re-releases of his music that leaves us now with more than 90 percent of his work available on CD.
I love Haydn. If I had to be left with only one composer in my life, it would be he -- not because he is the greatest, although he is great, but because of the measured quality of humanity in his music. He is the most companionable composer. Haydn's is not the preternatural world of Mozart, nor is it the one of ever-present yearning for the prelapsarian that is Schubert's. There is a steadiness in Haydn's music, a sense of normalcy. At the same time, it is filled with wonder at what is -- at its goodness. In other words, there is something regular about Haydn that makes his music accessible in an almost daily way, without overwhelming us. It is easier to live with than, say, Beethoven, who so often storms the heavens. The whole panoply of life is there but in scale, humanely so, without grotesque exaggeration -- which is exactly what was lost with Romanticism. (Read more)
Late-term abortionist George Tiller has been buried. His clinic has been permanently closed. It is being reported that candlelight vigils were held across America for him and that another late-term abortionist has compared him to the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. “Pro-choice” Christian ministers called him a “martyr in the classical sense.” One even called him a “saint.” That he was killed in a church certainly contributed to the hagiography.
Anyone who claims to value all human life should condemn his murder, but that does not mean we should refrain from telling the truth about this alleged saint. (Read more)
This month's column is more of a list than a series of reviews. I mean to arm you with unassailable enjoyment for the lazy, sunny season. If only I can control my logorrhea!
Faithful readers may recall that I was somewhat put off by Charles Mackerras's unrelenting breakneck speeds in his traversal of the Mozart symphonies on Telarc. I find the new Ambroisie two-CD release of Symphonies Nos. 31, 39, 40, and 41 (AM 182) from the Naïve label much more to my liking. These are very lively performances from conductor John Nelson and the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, but they are not frenetic, and Nelson uses the essential element of flexibility to gain maximum expressivity. (It's selling new on Amazon from some merchants for less than $13 -- a great bargain.) (Read more)
Every mature, seasoned pro-lifer knows that our opponents will grasp at any straw to bring accusation against us. I believe this is because of a deep down disturbance in the conscience of abortion promoters and the childish tendency to excuse one’s own bad behavior by pointing to someone else’s. Not to psychoanalyze our opponents, but we do know the law of God is written on every human heart, and to repress the voice of conscience can lead to dysfunction, denial and further moral turpitude. This is a profound spiritual pandemic in our time requiring urgent soaking prayer for our opponents. (Human Life International has an ongoing prayer campaign for the conversion of abortionists.)
For example, the repression of conscience can be as simple as this: every child of the age of reason tempted to steal a candy bar knows the flush of anxiety at the temptation. If the temptation is acted upon there is a flush of exhilaration on getting away with it. The next time it is easier, and so on, and if not caught by good attentive parents, can lead to disaster for the child sooner or later in life. Teens often go through the same process with sexual activity. (Read more)
