And then Consolmagno, for two decades the curator of the Vatican's meteorite collection, plans to head to metro Detroit where he grew up. He has a bittersweet assignment here: to retrieve and return to the Vatican three meteorites he loaned the Cranbrook Institute of Science in 2002.
Vatican astronomer, Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno wins Carl Sagan Medal
Michigan-bred Vatican astronomer and Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno will become the first clergyman awarded one of planetary science's most prestigious awards, when on Thursday in Arizona he receives the Carl Sagan Medal.
And then Consolmagno, for two decades the curator of the Vatican's meteorite collection, plans to head to metro Detroit where he grew up. He has a bittersweet assignment here: to retrieve and return to the Vatican three meteorites he loaned the Cranbrook Institute of Science in 2002.
And then Consolmagno, for two decades the curator of the Vatican's meteorite collection, plans to head to metro Detroit where he grew up. He has a bittersweet assignment here: to retrieve and return to the Vatican three meteorites he loaned the Cranbrook Institute of Science in 2002.
Pope Francis Hails John Paul II Role in Fall of Berlin Wall
VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis has hailed St. Pope John Paul II's role in the fall of the Berlin Wall and urged people to build bridges by opening hearts.
Francis marked the 25th anniversary Sunday of the destruction of the wall symbolizing the Cold War by appealing to all those of good will to foster a "culture of coming together" to bring down all barriers still dividing the world.
Greeting people in St. Peter's Square, he paid tribute to those who worked for the Berlin Wall's end, including those paying with their lives. John Paul II's championing of the Solidarity union in his native Poland is credited with helping bring the demise of Soviet bloc communism.
Pope Francis Hails John Paul II Role in Fall of Berlin Wall
Francis marked the 25th anniversary Sunday of the destruction of the wall symbolizing the Cold War by appealing to all those of good will to foster a "culture of coming together" to bring down all barriers still dividing the world.
Greeting people in St. Peter's Square, he paid tribute to those who worked for the Berlin Wall's end, including those paying with their lives. John Paul II's championing of the Solidarity union in his native Poland is credited with helping bring the demise of Soviet bloc communism.
Pope Francis Hails John Paul II Role in Fall of Berlin Wall
Pope mulls removing Catholic church charges for marriage annulments | CTV News
VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis on Wednesday denounced the hardships Catholics can face when seeking marriage annulments, revealing he once fired an official who tried to charge thousands of dollars for one.
Francis told participants at a Vatican course for officials dealing with annulments that as bishop of Buenos Aires, he was dismayed to learn that some faithful needed to travel hundreds of kilometres (miles) and lose days of work to reach church tribunals.
Read more: http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/pope-mulls-removing-catholic-church-charges-for-marriage-annulments-1.2088123#ixzz3IUQYL2qF
Raleigh seminarian’s letter to Brittany Maynard
Last week I came across the heartbreaking story of Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old woman who was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer one year after her wedding. When doctors suggested that she might only have six months to live, she and her family moved from California to Oregon in order to obtain the prescriptions necessary for doctor-assisted euthanasia. She is devoting her last days to fundraising and lobbying for an organization dedicated to expanding the legality of assisted suicide to other States.
Brittany’s story really hit home, as I was diagnosed with a very similar incurable brain cancer in 2008 at the age of twenty-four. After years of terrible headaches and misdiagnosis, my Grade III brain cancer (Anaplastic Astrocytoma) proved to be inoperable due to its location. Most studies state that the median survival time for this type of cancer is eighteen months, even with aggressive radiation and chemotherapy. I was beginning an exciting career as a naval officer with my entire life ahead of me. I had so many hopes and dreams, and in an instant they all seemed to be crushed. As Brittany said in her online video, “being told you have that kind of timeline still feels like you’re going to die tomorrow.”
I was diagnosed during my second Navy deployment to the Northern Arabian Gulf. After many seizures, the ship’s doctor sent me to the naval hospital on the Persian Gulf island nation of Bahrain, where my brain tumor was discovered. I remember the moment I saw the computer images of the brain scans – I went to the Catholic chapel on base and fell to the floor in tears. I asked God, “why me?” The next day, I flew home to the United States to begin urgent treatment. A few months after radiation and chemotherapy, I was discharged from the Navy and began formation for the Roman Catholic priesthood, a vocation to which I have felt called since I was nineteen years old. Despite all of the hardships and delays in my training and formation over the past six years, I hope to be ordained to the transitional diaconate this Spring and to the priesthood one year later.
Read more.
Brittany’s story really hit home, as I was diagnosed with a very similar incurable brain cancer in 2008 at the age of twenty-four. After years of terrible headaches and misdiagnosis, my Grade III brain cancer (Anaplastic Astrocytoma) proved to be inoperable due to its location. Most studies state that the median survival time for this type of cancer is eighteen months, even with aggressive radiation and chemotherapy. I was beginning an exciting career as a naval officer with my entire life ahead of me. I had so many hopes and dreams, and in an instant they all seemed to be crushed. As Brittany said in her online video, “being told you have that kind of timeline still feels like you’re going to die tomorrow.”
I was diagnosed during my second Navy deployment to the Northern Arabian Gulf. After many seizures, the ship’s doctor sent me to the naval hospital on the Persian Gulf island nation of Bahrain, where my brain tumor was discovered. I remember the moment I saw the computer images of the brain scans – I went to the Catholic chapel on base and fell to the floor in tears. I asked God, “why me?” The next day, I flew home to the United States to begin urgent treatment. A few months after radiation and chemotherapy, I was discharged from the Navy and began formation for the Roman Catholic priesthood, a vocation to which I have felt called since I was nineteen years old. Despite all of the hardships and delays in my training and formation over the past six years, I hope to be ordained to the transitional diaconate this Spring and to the priesthood one year later.
Read more.
How Would Bilbo Vote?
The midterm elections and the final installment of The Hobbit film trilogy are just around the corner. It's past time somebody asked the burning question: How would Bilbo Baggins vote? For the uninitiated, Bilbo is the title character of the J.R.R. Tolkien novel behind the films, and most people's introduction to The Lord of the Rings, the grand sequel to The Hobbit.
To understand Bilbo, we need look no further than his creator, J.R.R. Tolkien. The clues are not only in Tolkien's collected letters, but also in the novels themselves.
Bilbo's nephew, Frodo, is a proponent of nonviolence near the end of The Lord of the Rings. Plus, Tolkien loved trees and detested the ugly side of industrialism. Surely if the Oxford don were alive today, the thinking goes, he would be a Prius-driving, organic smoothie-drinking, COEXIST bumper sticker-sporting liberal. Wouldn't he?
But wait. What of all the stuff in his work about honor, chivalry, family, battlefield courage and moral absolutes? Focusing on this, some on the left have concluded that, no, Tolkien must have been an old-fashioned dead white male conservative.
Both views can't be right. Is the truth somewhere in the middle? Was Tolkien a soft-edged moderate? Tolkien was a moderate beer drinker. He was a moderately good rugby player as a boy. But there was nothing moderate about his political views.
In the recently released The Hobbit Party: The Vision of Freedom That Tolkien Got, and the West Forgot
coauthors Dr. Jay Richards, a Catholic, and Dr. Jonathan Witt, an Evangelical Christian, show how Tolkien's Middle-Earth novels championed liberty, trade and limited government, key issues in the upcoming midterm elections. They believe Tolkien's novels of Middle-Earth draw us a map to freedom and liberty, and that perhaps brushing up on our Tolkien lore can help us prepare for this midterm election vote.
For more information, contact CarmelCommunications.com.
To understand Bilbo, we need look no further than his creator, J.R.R. Tolkien. The clues are not only in Tolkien's collected letters, but also in the novels themselves.
Bilbo's nephew, Frodo, is a proponent of nonviolence near the end of The Lord of the Rings. Plus, Tolkien loved trees and detested the ugly side of industrialism. Surely if the Oxford don were alive today, the thinking goes, he would be a Prius-driving, organic smoothie-drinking, COEXIST bumper sticker-sporting liberal. Wouldn't he?
But wait. What of all the stuff in his work about honor, chivalry, family, battlefield courage and moral absolutes? Focusing on this, some on the left have concluded that, no, Tolkien must have been an old-fashioned dead white male conservative.
Both views can't be right. Is the truth somewhere in the middle? Was Tolkien a soft-edged moderate? Tolkien was a moderate beer drinker. He was a moderately good rugby player as a boy. But there was nothing moderate about his political views.
In the recently released The Hobbit Party: The Vision of Freedom That Tolkien Got, and the West Forgot
coauthors Dr. Jay Richards, a Catholic, and Dr. Jonathan Witt, an Evangelical Christian, show how Tolkien's Middle-Earth novels championed liberty, trade and limited government, key issues in the upcoming midterm elections. They believe Tolkien's novels of Middle-Earth draw us a map to freedom and liberty, and that perhaps brushing up on our Tolkien lore can help us prepare for this midterm election vote. For more information, contact CarmelCommunications.com.
The Tectonic Plates of World Catholicism Shift
By Massimo Faggioli, University of St. Thomas
An extraordinary two weeks in Rome ended Saturday with a standing ovation. Pope Francis had invited 191 bishops and clergy to the Synod on the family to speak their minds on issues such as divorce, premarital cohabitation and homosexuality and they did.
Pope Francis’s invitation to bishops was to “speak clearly. No one must say, ‘this can’t be done.’” This was a big gamble. But the result is a victory for him. True, the final report is markedly less open to the aforementioned “irregular” situations that many had hoped for. But it is also clear that a stable majority of the bishops in Rome is on his side if we look at the vote tally of October 18.
Bishops are aware of the challenges to the so-called traditional model of the Catholic family and acutely aware that these challenges are not going to disappear. In this sense, the Catholic church of 2014 seems very far from that of Francis’s predecessors. What we are witnessing is an acceleration of Church history – something similar to the Second Vatican Council 50 years ago.
What took place over the two weeks of the Synod was a genuine debate between competing ideas of what the church’s relationship ought to be with modern culture, the sexual revolution, and gender identity. But above all what these two weeks have revealed, for the first time, is a tectonic shift – a movement in the plates that make up the map of the Catholic world.
These are new alliances. Until the Second Vatican Council – the most important church reform since the 16th century – it was the European churches and their theological traditions that had the leading role. The churches built by missionaries may have been important participants but they were not able to build a strong opposition to the Europeans. Not anymore.
This October the strongest objections to the German bishops' proposed welcome to gay and divorced Catholics came from the representatives of English-speaking Catholics from the United States, Africa, and Australia. Their opposition was carefully planned even before the Synod as one can see from the long paper trail of interviews, op-eds and books laid down by Cardinal Raymond Burke (USA) and Cardinal George Pell (Australia). Once in Rome they argued with the Europeans in a way that has created a new sense of self-awareness in their churches back home.
Until Vatican II, American Catholicism was on the progressive side of history, in a church still filled with cultural optimism. The church and Christianity were then part of mainstream culture. Then came the 60s, the new legislation on abortion, divorce, and more recently same-sex marriage. The Catholic church felt pushed to take a countercultural stance. The legacy of the Second Vatican Council became a contested narrative and captive of the “cultural wars” of these past 30 years.
All this is part of a much bigger change in what can be called the neo-conservative turn of a number of prominent lay leaders of English-speaking Catholicism. Taking part in the public debate through such publications as First Things (founded in 1990), they have voiced growing criticism of the welfare state in domestic politics; have endorsed the 2003 war in Iraq; and have been fiercely opposed to legislation regulating abortion and same-sex marriage.
The election to the papacy of a Latin-American bishop like Jorge Mario Bergoglio who does not adhere to any one political ideology has set different experiences of Catholicism in different parts of the world on a collision course.
When the Pope speaks about economic and social justice and the international financial system, Africa and America are on opposite sides of the argument. But on the issue of family values, Africa and America have built an alliance, and there is no doubt that, in the contemporary role of churches in the social and political debate, marriage and family play a particular role.
Unlike their neighbors to the north, Latin American Catholics have left behind the dream of building a “Christian nation” and have become convinced, like European Catholics, that it is time to adapt to changed social conditions.
It is interesting to see how a deeply traditional Catholic such as Pope Francis has unsettled the culture of important sectors of Anglo-Saxon Catholicism – in the US in particular. After 35 years of pro-American popes such as John Paul II and Benedict XVI, the Vatican and the US need to rebuild a lost harmony.
This now is the “American problem” of Pope Francis: the first pope after World War II with virtually no contact with the USA and its cultural empire, partly because of the difficult relationship between the US and its Latin American backyard and partly because of the personal background of Jorge Mario Bergoglio. Francis has never been to the US. His English is not as fluent as that of his predecessors. This is going to be a crucial challenge for Francis and the future of Christianity.
America and the so-called global south are placed at the intersection of two worlds. In one corner there is the Christian West, where there has been a loss of faith in God and loss of trust in the power of human reason or what the Italian philosopher Gianni Vattimo calls “weak thought.” In the rest of the world there is a resurgence of religious belief or as French political scientist Gilles Kepel has dubbed it, “the revenge of God.” In this sense, the 2014 Synod is the dawn of a new era in the history of the Catholic church.
Massimo Faggioli does not work for, consult to, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has no relevant affiliations.
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
An extraordinary two weeks in Rome ended Saturday with a standing ovation. Pope Francis had invited 191 bishops and clergy to the Synod on the family to speak their minds on issues such as divorce, premarital cohabitation and homosexuality and they did.
Bishops are aware of the challenges to the so-called traditional model of the Catholic family and acutely aware that these challenges are not going to disappear. In this sense, the Catholic church of 2014 seems very far from that of Francis’s predecessors. What we are witnessing is an acceleration of Church history – something similar to the Second Vatican Council 50 years ago.
What took place over the two weeks of the Synod was a genuine debate between competing ideas of what the church’s relationship ought to be with modern culture, the sexual revolution, and gender identity. But above all what these two weeks have revealed, for the first time, is a tectonic shift – a movement in the plates that make up the map of the Catholic world.
A new map of the Catholic world
In this new map Europe and Latin America are at the forefront of the new openness. On the other hand, North America, Africa, and in general English-speaking Catholics are more inclined to hone to a firm countercultural line, refusing to evolve the doctrine and pastoral practice of the church with regard to marriage and family. Asia presents a more complex picture, although the Cardinal from Manila, Luis Antonio Tagle, for example, was one of the leaders of Francis’s majority.These are new alliances. Until the Second Vatican Council – the most important church reform since the 16th century – it was the European churches and their theological traditions that had the leading role. The churches built by missionaries may have been important participants but they were not able to build a strong opposition to the Europeans. Not anymore.
This October the strongest objections to the German bishops' proposed welcome to gay and divorced Catholics came from the representatives of English-speaking Catholics from the United States, Africa, and Australia. Their opposition was carefully planned even before the Synod as one can see from the long paper trail of interviews, op-eds and books laid down by Cardinal Raymond Burke (USA) and Cardinal George Pell (Australia). Once in Rome they argued with the Europeans in a way that has created a new sense of self-awareness in their churches back home.
The ‘exceptional’ American church
There are different reasons for the creation of these new alliances. In Africa opposition to a post-modern understanding of sexuality is rooted in deep cultural differences with Europe. For the US in particular, marriage and family have an iconic role shaped by the history of the American frontier.Until Vatican II, American Catholicism was on the progressive side of history, in a church still filled with cultural optimism. The church and Christianity were then part of mainstream culture. Then came the 60s, the new legislation on abortion, divorce, and more recently same-sex marriage. The Catholic church felt pushed to take a countercultural stance. The legacy of the Second Vatican Council became a contested narrative and captive of the “cultural wars” of these past 30 years.
All this is part of a much bigger change in what can be called the neo-conservative turn of a number of prominent lay leaders of English-speaking Catholicism. Taking part in the public debate through such publications as First Things (founded in 1990), they have voiced growing criticism of the welfare state in domestic politics; have endorsed the 2003 war in Iraq; and have been fiercely opposed to legislation regulating abortion and same-sex marriage.
The election to the papacy of a Latin-American bishop like Jorge Mario Bergoglio who does not adhere to any one political ideology has set different experiences of Catholicism in different parts of the world on a collision course.
When the Pope speaks about economic and social justice and the international financial system, Africa and America are on opposite sides of the argument. But on the issue of family values, Africa and America have built an alliance, and there is no doubt that, in the contemporary role of churches in the social and political debate, marriage and family play a particular role.
Unlike their neighbors to the north, Latin American Catholics have left behind the dream of building a “Christian nation” and have become convinced, like European Catholics, that it is time to adapt to changed social conditions.
It is interesting to see how a deeply traditional Catholic such as Pope Francis has unsettled the culture of important sectors of Anglo-Saxon Catholicism – in the US in particular. After 35 years of pro-American popes such as John Paul II and Benedict XVI, the Vatican and the US need to rebuild a lost harmony.
This now is the “American problem” of Pope Francis: the first pope after World War II with virtually no contact with the USA and its cultural empire, partly because of the difficult relationship between the US and its Latin American backyard and partly because of the personal background of Jorge Mario Bergoglio. Francis has never been to the US. His English is not as fluent as that of his predecessors. This is going to be a crucial challenge for Francis and the future of Christianity.
America and the so-called global south are placed at the intersection of two worlds. In one corner there is the Christian West, where there has been a loss of faith in God and loss of trust in the power of human reason or what the Italian philosopher Gianni Vattimo calls “weak thought.” In the rest of the world there is a resurgence of religious belief or as French political scientist Gilles Kepel has dubbed it, “the revenge of God.” In this sense, the 2014 Synod is the dawn of a new era in the history of the Catholic church.
Massimo Faggioli does not work for, consult to, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has no relevant affiliations.
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
Lessons from the Charterhouse
Due to the kindness of a benefactor, the Brothers recently came into possession of the book, The Prayer of Love and Silence [1], which Father David Phillipson had recommended from our pulpit some weeks previously. Its author is “A Carthusian,” so named due to a custom of the Carthusian Order1 [2] that guards the monks’ hiddenness and silence.
It would be difficult to do such a work justice in a review. My intention herein is to give the reader a taste of a work at once so simple and so deep that it defies summary.
With the exception of the section entitled “The Blessed Trinity and the Spiritual Life,” which is the last one third of the book, reading it was easy. It was like drinking good water: nothing to prevent the effortless imbibing of the material — and refreshing! After a few draughts, though, I realized that I was drinking strong stuff, so I had to slow down and read sections over again — even though the words and the syntax were quite simple. The thought occurred to me that the life of the Carthusians is productive of such an experience. In their slow, silent, hidden existence, they distill the complexities of the ancient liturgy, the great spiritual writers they read, and the manual labor they carry out, all into a life of great simplicity.
This makes their writing itself highly distilled, rather like the liquor they make [4]. Yes, this strong stuff is spiritual Chartreuse!
Read more
The volume is a translation of two works that originally appeared in 1951 and 1948 respectively. Its subjects are varied, but all pertain to the interior life. Two parts of the book, “An Introduction to the Interior Life” and “The Blessed Trinity and the Spiritual Life,”are systematic in their approach. A third section — in the middle of the work — is a series of “Sermons in Chapter” given by the Abbot to his monks in their chapter meeting [3] on feast days.
It would be difficult to do such a work justice in a review. My intention herein is to give the reader a taste of a work at once so simple and so deep that it defies summary.
With the exception of the section entitled “The Blessed Trinity and the Spiritual Life,” which is the last one third of the book, reading it was easy. It was like drinking good water: nothing to prevent the effortless imbibing of the material — and refreshing! After a few draughts, though, I realized that I was drinking strong stuff, so I had to slow down and read sections over again — even though the words and the syntax were quite simple. The thought occurred to me that the life of the Carthusians is productive of such an experience. In their slow, silent, hidden existence, they distill the complexities of the ancient liturgy, the great spiritual writers they read, and the manual labor they carry out, all into a life of great simplicity.
This makes their writing itself highly distilled, rather like the liquor they make [4]. Yes, this strong stuff is spiritual Chartreuse!
. . .
Read more
An Appreciation for Church History
Brother Francis has a tremendous appreciation for the history of the Church. He likes to call Church history “the laboratory of wisdom.” Why? Because the history of the Church is the history of human salvation, and choosing the best means to save one’s soul is the highest prudence. And prudence, says St. Thomas Aquinas, is wisdom in action.
History is the laboratory of wisdom, but the application today of the lessons learned from history is prudence.
How, for example, are we to understand what St. Pius X meant when he said that “modernism is the synthesis of all heresies,” if we are ignorant of the history of the Church’s battles against heresy? How are we to evaluate the causes of what Pope Benedict referred to a “crisis of Faith,” if we unfamiliar with any of the twenty ecumenical councils that preceded Vatican II?
There are twenty-two books of the Bible that are history books: the first nineteen of the Old Testament, the two books of Machabees, which end the Old Testament, and the Acts of the Apostles in the New.
A knowledge of Church History is a knowledge of the life of the Body of Christ extended in time throughout the past twenty centuries. It is a glorious history, with its martyrs, confessors, saints of the desert, great doctors and popes, apostles of nations, proliferation of contemplative orders, active orders, teaching orders, advances in science, medicine, the arts, missionary life, and victories over the enemies of true religion, who engaged her by pen and sword.
Without a knowledge of history, of its facts, dates, and events, a Catholic is ill-prepared to defend the Church against those who would gainsay her by misrepresentation, misinformation, or deliberate disinformation. Nor can we forget that we all have an obligation to instruct the ignorant who have been misled by error and who, in their hearts, nurture an affinity for the truth.
source: catholicism.org
History is the laboratory of wisdom, but the application today of the lessons learned from history is prudence.
How, for example, are we to understand what St. Pius X meant when he said that “modernism is the synthesis of all heresies,” if we are ignorant of the history of the Church’s battles against heresy? How are we to evaluate the causes of what Pope Benedict referred to a “crisis of Faith,” if we unfamiliar with any of the twenty ecumenical councils that preceded Vatican II?
There are twenty-two books of the Bible that are history books: the first nineteen of the Old Testament, the two books of Machabees, which end the Old Testament, and the Acts of the Apostles in the New.
A knowledge of Church History is a knowledge of the life of the Body of Christ extended in time throughout the past twenty centuries. It is a glorious history, with its martyrs, confessors, saints of the desert, great doctors and popes, apostles of nations, proliferation of contemplative orders, active orders, teaching orders, advances in science, medicine, the arts, missionary life, and victories over the enemies of true religion, who engaged her by pen and sword.
Without a knowledge of history, of its facts, dates, and events, a Catholic is ill-prepared to defend the Church against those who would gainsay her by misrepresentation, misinformation, or deliberate disinformation. Nor can we forget that we all have an obligation to instruct the ignorant who have been misled by error and who, in their hearts, nurture an affinity for the truth.
source: catholicism.org
The Underrated Virtue of Forgiveness (via wordonfire.org)
In the recently released film Calvary, we witness the transformative
power of the virtue of forgiveness, especially the Christlike
forgiveness that calls for self-sacrifice in love.
from wordonfire.org
from wordonfire.org
Pre-papal Writings of Pope John Paul I
A year after its first release, the collection of the pre-papal writings of Pope John Paul I, A Passionate Adventure: Living the Catholic Faith Today, edited and translated by Lori Pieper, is about to be reissued in a new edition with a preface by Justin Cardinal Rigali, Archbishop of Philadelphia.
Dr. Pieper, writes: These works show the many sides of Pope John Paul I. He was known as the smiling Pope and with his warmth he was as appealing to people as Pope Francis is. He showed how it was possible to live the faith as an adventure, out of a passionate love of God. But more than that, as a bishop, Albino Luciani was really a prophet for our time in regard to many areas of present concern in the Church, including the importance of the universal call to holiness and the apostolate of the laity, the hermeneutic of reform in continuity, bioethics and in-vitro fertilization, and above all the New Evangelization which he anticipated and put into practice in his pastoral work as a bishop.
The book contains, along with a short biography of the Pope, 38 sermons, articles, essays, synod interventions, talks and interviews, dating from 1959 to 1978, when Luciani was Bishop of Vittorio Veneto and Patriarch of Venice. Dr. Pieper did the translations over the course of many years as part of the team publishing the English-language edition of Humilitas, the quarterly publication on John Paul I.
Dr. Pieper says, "I'm happy that the publication of the book will concide with the consigment of the last part of the Positio for the cause of John Paul I's canonization to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in October, during the Synod of Bishops on the Family and around the time of the beatification of Pope Paul VI. This is fitting, because Luciani was a great proponent of Catholic teaching on the family and the transmission of life. The book includes his pastoral letter in 1968 supporting Paul VI on Humane Vitae. He was prophetic in regard to IVH as Paul was to contraception. He foresaw the dehumanization of the 'baby-manufacturing' industry that IVH has brought into being. What he wrote about this has been misunderstood and distorted because the interview he gave on the first 'test-tube baby' in July 1978 has not been available in its entirety. That complete interview too is included in the book."
As a bishop, Luciani took on the challenges that secularism presented to the faith of Catholics in the period immediately before, during and after the Second Vatican Council; most of them are still with us today. In a vivid and original style, he offers his reflections on the first Year of Faith in 1967-68, and the mysteries of Catholic belief such as the Incarnation and Redemption, the Eucharist, the Cross, death and eternal life. He also speaks of evangelization and catechesis, birth control and abortion, faith and science, the meaning of the Church, the papal Magisterium, pluralism, ecumenism, prayer, devotion to Our Lady, and above all, becoming saints.
The book is available in paperback and ebook formats from Tau Cross Books and Media and will go on sale September 28. It will be available at taucrossbooks.com, on Amazon and other outlets.
Dr. Pieper, writes: These works show the many sides of Pope John Paul I. He was known as the smiling Pope and with his warmth he was as appealing to people as Pope Francis is. He showed how it was possible to live the faith as an adventure, out of a passionate love of God. But more than that, as a bishop, Albino Luciani was really a prophet for our time in regard to many areas of present concern in the Church, including the importance of the universal call to holiness and the apostolate of the laity, the hermeneutic of reform in continuity, bioethics and in-vitro fertilization, and above all the New Evangelization which he anticipated and put into practice in his pastoral work as a bishop.
The book contains, along with a short biography of the Pope, 38 sermons, articles, essays, synod interventions, talks and interviews, dating from 1959 to 1978, when Luciani was Bishop of Vittorio Veneto and Patriarch of Venice. Dr. Pieper did the translations over the course of many years as part of the team publishing the English-language edition of Humilitas, the quarterly publication on John Paul I.
Dr. Pieper says, "I'm happy that the publication of the book will concide with the consigment of the last part of the Positio for the cause of John Paul I's canonization to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in October, during the Synod of Bishops on the Family and around the time of the beatification of Pope Paul VI. This is fitting, because Luciani was a great proponent of Catholic teaching on the family and the transmission of life. The book includes his pastoral letter in 1968 supporting Paul VI on Humane Vitae. He was prophetic in regard to IVH as Paul was to contraception. He foresaw the dehumanization of the 'baby-manufacturing' industry that IVH has brought into being. What he wrote about this has been misunderstood and distorted because the interview he gave on the first 'test-tube baby' in July 1978 has not been available in its entirety. That complete interview too is included in the book."
As a bishop, Luciani took on the challenges that secularism presented to the faith of Catholics in the period immediately before, during and after the Second Vatican Council; most of them are still with us today. In a vivid and original style, he offers his reflections on the first Year of Faith in 1967-68, and the mysteries of Catholic belief such as the Incarnation and Redemption, the Eucharist, the Cross, death and eternal life. He also speaks of evangelization and catechesis, birth control and abortion, faith and science, the meaning of the Church, the papal Magisterium, pluralism, ecumenism, prayer, devotion to Our Lady, and above all, becoming saints.
The book is available in paperback and ebook formats from Tau Cross Books and Media and will go on sale September 28. It will be available at taucrossbooks.com, on Amazon and other outlets.
A Fresh Look at Fatima
Saint Augustine once said that an event must not be considered miraculous if a natural explanation is available. A new book by author Bernard F. Kohout takes this challenge to heart. “Fatima the Spectacular: A New and Very Different Version of the Sun Dance at Fatima in 1917” critically examines the events of October 13, 1917, on which date tens of thousands of eyewitnesses in Fatima, Portugal, saw the sun dance in the sky.
The event was also the climax of what three children reported to be visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Using science and logic, author Kohout provides a brief overview of the events and then an insightful analysis. Result: the events were truly spectacular. The author avoids drawing spiritual or prophetic conclusions to his findings, leaving that to others. “Fatima the Spectacular” is a critical new look at an almost century-old phenomenon that dramatically changed the Church and is very much affecting it today.
Due to a special grant, bookstores, libraries, and colleges may acquire a copy of this important new book completely free, postage-paid, with no future obligation. Simply contact the publisher at info@leoninepublishers.com to reserve your copy. “Fatima the Spectacular” is available from Leonine Publishers and is priced at $6.95 US. Softcover, 98 pages, ISBN 978-0-9860552-8-7. Orders may be placed at leoninepublishers.com or by telephone at 602-795-3539.
The event was also the climax of what three children reported to be visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Using science and logic, author Kohout provides a brief overview of the events and then an insightful analysis. Result: the events were truly spectacular. The author avoids drawing spiritual or prophetic conclusions to his findings, leaving that to others. “Fatima the Spectacular” is a critical new look at an almost century-old phenomenon that dramatically changed the Church and is very much affecting it today.
Due to a special grant, bookstores, libraries, and colleges may acquire a copy of this important new book completely free, postage-paid, with no future obligation. Simply contact the publisher at info@leoninepublishers.com to reserve your copy. “Fatima the Spectacular” is available from Leonine Publishers and is priced at $6.95 US. Softcover, 98 pages, ISBN 978-0-9860552-8-7. Orders may be placed at leoninepublishers.com or by telephone at 602-795-3539.
SON OF GOD Movie: Recommended for Lent and Easter by Catholic Leaders
Catholic cardinals and archbishops across the country are recommending that Catholics use the hit movie about Jesus’ life called SON OF GOD and its free Catholic catechetical companion study guide and video series as tools for reflection during the Lenten Season in preparation for Holy Week and Easter Sunday.
“Personally, I would recommend to individuals, but particularly to families, this wonderful story of the Son of God, in order to be inspired all over again with the story of God’s love for us,” said Cardinal Donald Wuerl and Archbishop of Washington DC, an early supporter of SON OF GOD.
“In SON OF GOD, through a cinematic recreation of events, we get to witness the sacrifices Jesus endured for our sins. The scenes of the movie, particularly of Our Lord’s Passion, bear a striking resemblance to the Stations of the Cross, and can be used as a way to meditate and reflect on His self-giving loving sacrifice for us during this season of Lent,” Archbishop Louis Kurtz from the Archdiocese of Louisville, KY and President of the US Catholic Conference of Bishops (USCCB).
“The movie SON OF GOD is a very important film, because it gives us the opportunity, especially now as Lent begins – to realize God’s daily presence in our own lives, just as the apostles experienced it in the person of Jesus,” said Archbishop Jose Gomez from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, CA.
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More Catholic bishop endorsements, resources and the companion study guide and video series can be found on www.seesonofgod.com, SON OF GOD’s official Catholic website.
Monsignor J. Brian Bransfield, Associate General Secretary of the USCCB and the Archdiocese of Washington DC worked together in creating the guide and video series, in order to help deepen Catholics’ faith and for further meditation on important truths the film conveys.
According to Bransfield, himself an accomplished Catholic author, it’s helpful if one uses the tools after viewing the entire SON OF GOD movie. This is crucial, since it can serve as a type of meditation on the identified and highlighted Scriptural verse.
Available in English and Spanish, SON OF GOD’s study guide and video series (Spanish one contains sub-titles and uses the film’s Spanish-language version, with For Greater Glory and Bella actor Eduardo Verastegui as the voice of Jesus), draws on sacred scripture to discuss six movie scenes – creation of the world, the Incarnation, call of Saint Peter, walking on water, the Last Supper and the confrontation between Jesus and Pilate.
Released by Twentieth Century Fox on February 28, 2014 – five days before Ash Wednesday, SON OF GOD claimed that weekend’s number two box office spot with $25 million worth of tickets sold and total revenues to date of $51 million. Included in that number, and for the first time, were multi-city theater buyouts in Los Angeles, Miami, Philadelphia and Washington DC, thanks to generous Catholic benefactors who purchased and then donated tickets to various Catholic dioceses in those cities.
SON OF GOD also made Hollywood history, representing the second-biggest opening ever at the box office for a Jesus movie, the first being the Passion of The Christ. Clearly, movie-goers were impressed, receiving it with great warmth, affection and enthusiasm, according to two industry standard movie-pollster companies, CinemaScore and PostTrak, and the popular fan-rated website Fandango.
On opening weekend, audiences gave SON OF GOD a 90% positive response and a 5-star rating for likability, tying it with 3D-animated Lego on PostTrak. Their movie “grade” was equally high, with CinemaScore reporting an A-, compared to an A for this year’s Academy-Award Best Picture film 12 Years a Slave. Fandango fans rated it as number one.
SON OF GOD was produced by actress Roma Downey, a Catholic, known for her work in the TV series “Touched by an Angel” Downey also appears in SON OF GOD as Mary, the mother of Jesus. Her husband and SON OF GOD co-producer is Mark Burnett, the reality-TV mega producer of shows “Survivor,” “The Voice,” “Shark Tank” and “The Bible.”
Told with the scope and scale of an action-packed epic, the film features excellent performances, exotic locales, dazzling visual effects and a rich orchestral score from Oscar®-winner Hans Zimmer. Portuguese actor Diogo Morgado beautifully portrays the role of Jesus as the film spans from His humble birth through his teachings, crucifixion, resurrection and ascension into heaven.
SON OF GOD can be seen in theaters throughout the US. Check www.sonofgodmovie.com for movie times and locations.
Here is the full list of Catholic religious leaders who endorsed SON OF GOD – Cardinal and Archbishop of Washington DC, Donald Wuerl; Archbishop Louis Kurtz from the Archdiocese of Louisville, KY and President of the USCCB; Archbishop Jose Gomez from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, CA; Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller, Diocese of San Antonio, TX; Archbishop Jerome Listecki, Archdiocese of Milwaukee, WI; Bishop William F. Murphy, Diocese of Rockville Centre, NY; Bishop Kevin Vann, Diocese of Orange County, CA; Bishop David Zubik Diocese of Pittsburgh and Bishop David Ricken, Diocese of Green Bay, WI.
http://www.sonofgodmovie.com/
“Personally, I would recommend to individuals, but particularly to families, this wonderful story of the Son of God, in order to be inspired all over again with the story of God’s love for us,” said Cardinal Donald Wuerl and Archbishop of Washington DC, an early supporter of SON OF GOD.
“In SON OF GOD, through a cinematic recreation of events, we get to witness the sacrifices Jesus endured for our sins. The scenes of the movie, particularly of Our Lord’s Passion, bear a striking resemblance to the Stations of the Cross, and can be used as a way to meditate and reflect on His self-giving loving sacrifice for us during this season of Lent,” Archbishop Louis Kurtz from the Archdiocese of Louisville, KY and President of the US Catholic Conference of Bishops (USCCB).
“The movie SON OF GOD is a very important film, because it gives us the opportunity, especially now as Lent begins – to realize God’s daily presence in our own lives, just as the apostles experienced it in the person of Jesus,” said Archbishop Jose Gomez from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, CA.
More Catholic bishop endorsements, resources and the companion study guide and video series can be found on www.seesonofgod.com, SON OF GOD’s official Catholic website.
Monsignor J. Brian Bransfield, Associate General Secretary of the USCCB and the Archdiocese of Washington DC worked together in creating the guide and video series, in order to help deepen Catholics’ faith and for further meditation on important truths the film conveys.
According to Bransfield, himself an accomplished Catholic author, it’s helpful if one uses the tools after viewing the entire SON OF GOD movie. This is crucial, since it can serve as a type of meditation on the identified and highlighted Scriptural verse.
Available in English and Spanish, SON OF GOD’s study guide and video series (Spanish one contains sub-titles and uses the film’s Spanish-language version, with For Greater Glory and Bella actor Eduardo Verastegui as the voice of Jesus), draws on sacred scripture to discuss six movie scenes – creation of the world, the Incarnation, call of Saint Peter, walking on water, the Last Supper and the confrontation between Jesus and Pilate.
Released by Twentieth Century Fox on February 28, 2014 – five days before Ash Wednesday, SON OF GOD claimed that weekend’s number two box office spot with $25 million worth of tickets sold and total revenues to date of $51 million. Included in that number, and for the first time, were multi-city theater buyouts in Los Angeles, Miami, Philadelphia and Washington DC, thanks to generous Catholic benefactors who purchased and then donated tickets to various Catholic dioceses in those cities.
SON OF GOD also made Hollywood history, representing the second-biggest opening ever at the box office for a Jesus movie, the first being the Passion of The Christ. Clearly, movie-goers were impressed, receiving it with great warmth, affection and enthusiasm, according to two industry standard movie-pollster companies, CinemaScore and PostTrak, and the popular fan-rated website Fandango.
On opening weekend, audiences gave SON OF GOD a 90% positive response and a 5-star rating for likability, tying it with 3D-animated Lego on PostTrak. Their movie “grade” was equally high, with CinemaScore reporting an A-, compared to an A for this year’s Academy-Award Best Picture film 12 Years a Slave. Fandango fans rated it as number one.
SON OF GOD was produced by actress Roma Downey, a Catholic, known for her work in the TV series “Touched by an Angel” Downey also appears in SON OF GOD as Mary, the mother of Jesus. Her husband and SON OF GOD co-producer is Mark Burnett, the reality-TV mega producer of shows “Survivor,” “The Voice,” “Shark Tank” and “The Bible.”
Told with the scope and scale of an action-packed epic, the film features excellent performances, exotic locales, dazzling visual effects and a rich orchestral score from Oscar®-winner Hans Zimmer. Portuguese actor Diogo Morgado beautifully portrays the role of Jesus as the film spans from His humble birth through his teachings, crucifixion, resurrection and ascension into heaven.
SON OF GOD can be seen in theaters throughout the US. Check www.sonofgodmovie.com for movie times and locations.
Here is the full list of Catholic religious leaders who endorsed SON OF GOD – Cardinal and Archbishop of Washington DC, Donald Wuerl; Archbishop Louis Kurtz from the Archdiocese of Louisville, KY and President of the USCCB; Archbishop Jose Gomez from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, CA; Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller, Diocese of San Antonio, TX; Archbishop Jerome Listecki, Archdiocese of Milwaukee, WI; Bishop William F. Murphy, Diocese of Rockville Centre, NY; Bishop Kevin Vann, Diocese of Orange County, CA; Bishop David Zubik Diocese of Pittsburgh and Bishop David Ricken, Diocese of Green Bay, WI.
http://www.sonofgodmovie.com/
CatholicTV Network to Air Lenten Retreat Guides
The CatholicTV Network will air Retreat Guides from Regnum Christi Spirituality Center with Father John Bartunek.
The Regnum Christi Spirituality Center creates and produces life changing Catholic formation materials in many different media formats. The RC Spirituality Center serves clergy and laity, individuals, groups, and parishes. More information can be found at www.rcspirituality.org.
Fr. John Bartunek, LC, S.Th.D, received his BA in History from Stanford University in 1990. He comes from an evangelical Christian background and became a member of the Catholic Church in 1991. After college he worked as a high school history teacher, drama director, and baseball coach. He then spent a year as a professional actor in Chicago before entering the religious Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ in 1993. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 2003 and earned his doctorate in moral theology in 2010. He provided spiritual support on the set of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ while researching the 2005 Catholic best seller, Inside the Passion, the only authorized, behind-the-scene explanation of the film.
The RC Spirituality Center Retreat Guides with Father John Bartunek will air during Lent on Mondays at 10:30PM ET and Thursdays at 5PM ET on CatholicTV and CatholicTV.com.
The Regnum Christi Spirituality Center creates and produces life changing Catholic formation materials in many different media formats. The RC Spirituality Center serves clergy and laity, individuals, groups, and parishes. More information can be found at www.rcspirituality.org.
Fr. John Bartunek, LC, S.Th.D, received his BA in History from Stanford University in 1990. He comes from an evangelical Christian background and became a member of the Catholic Church in 1991. After college he worked as a high school history teacher, drama director, and baseball coach. He then spent a year as a professional actor in Chicago before entering the religious Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ in 1993. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 2003 and earned his doctorate in moral theology in 2010. He provided spiritual support on the set of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ while researching the 2005 Catholic best seller, Inside the Passion, the only authorized, behind-the-scene explanation of the film.
The RC Spirituality Center Retreat Guides with Father John Bartunek will air during Lent on Mondays at 10:30PM ET and Thursdays at 5PM ET on CatholicTV and CatholicTV.com.
Lenten Scripture Challenge by EWTN
EWTN is launching a brand new app to help you prepare for Lent –
and it’s available now! If you download our free app and take our “Daily Lenten
Scripture Reading Challenge,” at the end of Lent, you will able to say that you
read all four Gospels! It’s easier than you think!
You can download EWTN’s free app at www.ewtnapps.com/challenge
or get it directly from iTunes, Google Play or Amazon apps for Kindle
Fire. If you already have the EWTN app, the Scripture Challenge is included with
the update.
To access the Challenge, simply open the app and click on the Bible
icon, which will take you to your free RSV-CE Bible. From inside the Bible,
click or tap on the menu (the three white bars on the top left hand corner of
the screen), and from the resulting drop down menu, choose “Playlists” and then
“The Four Gospels During Lent” to begin your Challenge.
In addition to the daily reading challenge, we’ve included a free
audio version of the Gospel of Mark, which is read by world-renowned actors and
contains realistic sound effects! (To find it, go to the menu, as above, click
on “contents,” then “New Testament,” and then “Mark”, where you will be able to
click on “download.") If you choose, you can purchase audio for the entire Bible
for $19.99. This will not only enhance your experience, but help support your
favorite Network!
Note: If this is your first time inside the EWTN app, don’t miss
all the other great features. With this one app, you will be able to watch
what’s on EWTN anywhere in the world, view all our program schedules,
enjoy video or audio on demand, and stay up-to-date with EWTN
News.
Insider secret! By the way, look for another new app featuring
Cardinal Timothy Dolan, coming soon! EWTN traveled to the New York office of
Cardinal Dolan to tape a series of one-minute reflections, which will air on the
Network every day during Lent. You do not want to miss these fabulous bits of
inspiration and encouragement – and, with our soon-to-be-released app – “EWTN
Daily Lenten Reflections with Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan” – you will be able to
get them directly on your iOS or Android device! You’ll even get a reminder to
watch them! Keep checking EWTN’s home page, www.ewtn.com, for the
announcement!
These are just two more (free!) ways EWTN is planning to help make
2014 your best Lent ever! Please spread the word!
EWTN Global Catholic Network, in its 33rd year, is
available in over 230 million television households in more
than 140 countries and territories. With its direct broadcast satellite
television and radio services, AM & FM radio networks, worldwide short-wave
radio station, Internet website www.ewtn.com, electronic and print news
services, and publishing arm, EWTN is the largest religious media network in the
world.
Lent at Ephesus: No. 1 on Billboard’s Classical Overall Music Chart
Lent at Ephesus
from the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles debuted at No. 1 on Billboard magazine’s Classical Overall Music Chart and Classical Traditional Music Chart this week. The album also earned the No. 49 spot on Billboard’s Top 200 Chart, the No. 2 spot on the Contemporary Christian Chart and the No. 3 spot on the Christian Gospel and Internet charts.
The Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles bested albums from prominent classical music articles such as Andrea Bocelli, the Piano Guys and Il Divo, among others.
The Sisters’ second album, ANGELS AND SAINTS AT EPHESUS, skyrocketed back up the Billboard charts, earning the No. 4 spot on the Classical Overall Chart, the No. 23 spot on the Contemporary Christian and Christian Gospel charts, and the No. 35 spot on the Internet chart.
“We are amazed and humbled by the undeniable role of Divine Providence in the success story behind the ethereal music from the monastic Benedictines of Mary,” said Monica Fitzgibbons, co-founder of De Montfort Music. “Even more remarkable is the sentiment which resounds throughout their faithful life which is this: It is wonderful to do great things for God but even more wonderful to be something great for God. We congratulate the Sisters on their collective FIAT and extend our gratitude to all who have made possible this uplifting chart-topping success!”
LENT AT EPHESUS is a stunning compilation of poignant chants, elaborate harmonies and inspiring hymns of glory and redemption produced by Grammy Award-winning classical producer Blanton Alspaugh.
Founded in 1995, The Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles are a young, monastic order of Sisters. The Sisters sing together eight times a day as they chant the Divine Office in Latin.
‘Heaven is for Real’ Comes to Film Soon
Many Catholics have long wondered, “What is Heaven like? Is it peaceful? Whom will I see?” Now Catholics have an opportunity to see a captivating story from someone who has claimed they have experienced heaven. From the international bestseller, and with an impressive Hollywood creative team and cast, HEAVEN IS FOR REAL — the spellbinding story of 4-year-old Colton Burpo’s trip to Heaven . . . and back — comes to theaters April 16, 2014.
Based on the No. 1 New York Times bestselling book of the same name, HEAVEN IS FOR REAL brings to the screen the true story of a small-town father who must find the courage and conviction to share his son’s extraordinary, life-changing experience with the world.
Kathie Lee Gifford, co-host of the Today Show, says HEAVEN IS FOR REAL is “a perfect family movie.”
Watch the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-ewaCVARtM.
Academy Award® nominee and Emmy® winner Greg Kinnear (AS GOOD AS IT
GETS, LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE, WE WERE SOLDIERS) stars as Todd Burpo.
“What appealed to me most at the end of the day is that Randy (director and co-writer Randall Wallace) had tackled this very human story and the eternal question everyone has about what comes after,” said Kinnear. “Whatever your feelings on the afterlife—even in your current life, right here, right now — there is this beauty all around you that’s been nicely captured for this film through the eyes of a little boy. If you don’t have any personal inspiration, HEAVEN IS FOR REAL will give you some.”
“What do you do when your 4-year-old son looks at you and says, ‘I went to Heaven and this is what it’s like,’ . . . and you’re a pastor? That, for me, is the stuff of drama,” said Director/Co-writer Randall Wallace. Alongside producers Joe Roth and T.D. Jakes, Wallace considers heaven from a boy’s-eye view, and from the here and now.
“Todd grounds the story in day-to-day reality, the way it really unfolded,” Wallace said. “Colton doesn’t just blurt it all out. It comes out in little bits and pieces in the course of everyday life.”
Wallace and Christopher Parker adapted their screenplay from HEAVEN IS FOR REAL, written by Colton’s father, Todd Burpo, with Lynn Vincent, which spent 64 weeks at No. 1 on the New York Times best sellers list. The book remains on the Times’ best-seller list after more than three years, with nearly 8 million copies sold, and has been translated into 25 languages.
Wallace is the Academy Award®-nominated screenwriter of BRAVEHEART; among others, he directed WE WERE SOLDIERS and SECRETARIAT. Roth is a TV and film veteran whose 60 movies and television programs include MALEFICENT, Anger Management, ALICE IN WONDERLAND, OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL and SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN. Jakes–pastor, author, entrepreneur, producer–is known to movie audiences for WOMAN, THOU ART LOOSED, SPARKLE, JUMPING THE BROOM, and BLACK NATIVITY.
In addition to Kinnear, HEAVEN IS FOR REAL’s top cast includes Kelly Reilly (SHERLOCK HOLMES, FLIGHT) as Colton’s mom, Sonja and newcomer Connor Corum as Colton Burpo. The film also features Emmy® winner Margo Martindale (Justified) and Academy Award® nominee Thomas Haden Church (SIDEWAYS, Wings).
“A lot of things in this story appealed to me, and one was Todd’s conflict. Should he stir up the townspeople with his son’s story or put it aside?” Roth said. “And he did the unsafe thing. He backed his son’s vision, though it could cost him his job and make him quite unpopular in town.”
“The great gift of HEAVEN IS FOR REAL is the possibility of the impossible, the touchability of the abstract — so powerful that we feel as if we are one with something we just can't touch,” Jakes said. “That’s what faith is.”
“But the faith in this film is far from simplistic,” Jakes adds. “It's no quick solution, nothing magical. It's a struggling, stumbling, groping, grasping faith, reaching through dark fear and confusion to solidify the abstractions of life. And it's appropriate that a little child teaches adults how to believe again, how to trust again.”
HEAVEN IS FOR REAL is directed by Randall Wallace. The screenplay is by Randall Wallace and Christopher Parker based on the book by Todd Burpo with Lynn Vincent. The movie is produced by Joe Roth and T.D. Jakes.
HEAVEN IS FOR REAL was filmed in Winnipeg, Canada, and is being released and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing.
Based on the No. 1 New York Times bestselling book of the same name, HEAVEN IS FOR REAL brings to the screen the true story of a small-town father who must find the courage and conviction to share his son’s extraordinary, life-changing experience with the world.
Kathie Lee Gifford, co-host of the Today Show, says HEAVEN IS FOR REAL is “a perfect family movie.”
Watch the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-ewaCVARtM.
Academy Award® nominee and Emmy® winner Greg Kinnear (AS GOOD AS IT
GETS, LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE, WE WERE SOLDIERS) stars as Todd Burpo.
“What appealed to me most at the end of the day is that Randy (director and co-writer Randall Wallace) had tackled this very human story and the eternal question everyone has about what comes after,” said Kinnear. “Whatever your feelings on the afterlife—even in your current life, right here, right now — there is this beauty all around you that’s been nicely captured for this film through the eyes of a little boy. If you don’t have any personal inspiration, HEAVEN IS FOR REAL will give you some.”
“What do you do when your 4-year-old son looks at you and says, ‘I went to Heaven and this is what it’s like,’ . . . and you’re a pastor? That, for me, is the stuff of drama,” said Director/Co-writer Randall Wallace. Alongside producers Joe Roth and T.D. Jakes, Wallace considers heaven from a boy’s-eye view, and from the here and now.
“Todd grounds the story in day-to-day reality, the way it really unfolded,” Wallace said. “Colton doesn’t just blurt it all out. It comes out in little bits and pieces in the course of everyday life.”
Wallace and Christopher Parker adapted their screenplay from HEAVEN IS FOR REAL, written by Colton’s father, Todd Burpo, with Lynn Vincent, which spent 64 weeks at No. 1 on the New York Times best sellers list. The book remains on the Times’ best-seller list after more than three years, with nearly 8 million copies sold, and has been translated into 25 languages.
Wallace is the Academy Award®-nominated screenwriter of BRAVEHEART; among others, he directed WE WERE SOLDIERS and SECRETARIAT. Roth is a TV and film veteran whose 60 movies and television programs include MALEFICENT, Anger Management, ALICE IN WONDERLAND, OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL and SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN. Jakes–pastor, author, entrepreneur, producer–is known to movie audiences for WOMAN, THOU ART LOOSED, SPARKLE, JUMPING THE BROOM, and BLACK NATIVITY.
In addition to Kinnear, HEAVEN IS FOR REAL’s top cast includes Kelly Reilly (SHERLOCK HOLMES, FLIGHT) as Colton’s mom, Sonja and newcomer Connor Corum as Colton Burpo. The film also features Emmy® winner Margo Martindale (Justified) and Academy Award® nominee Thomas Haden Church (SIDEWAYS, Wings).
“A lot of things in this story appealed to me, and one was Todd’s conflict. Should he stir up the townspeople with his son’s story or put it aside?” Roth said. “And he did the unsafe thing. He backed his son’s vision, though it could cost him his job and make him quite unpopular in town.”
“The great gift of HEAVEN IS FOR REAL is the possibility of the impossible, the touchability of the abstract — so powerful that we feel as if we are one with something we just can't touch,” Jakes said. “That’s what faith is.”
“But the faith in this film is far from simplistic,” Jakes adds. “It's no quick solution, nothing magical. It's a struggling, stumbling, groping, grasping faith, reaching through dark fear and confusion to solidify the abstractions of life. And it's appropriate that a little child teaches adults how to believe again, how to trust again.”
HEAVEN IS FOR REAL is directed by Randall Wallace. The screenplay is by Randall Wallace and Christopher Parker based on the book by Todd Burpo with Lynn Vincent. The movie is produced by Joe Roth and T.D. Jakes.
HEAVEN IS FOR REAL was filmed in Winnipeg, Canada, and is being released and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing.
New Film 'Son of God': Behind the Scenes
“Son of God” will explode on
screens nationwide February 27. EWTN viewers have two exclusive opportunities to
get a behind-the-scenes look at the making of this extraordinary film.
First, tune in to “The World Over” with Host Raymond Arroyo for an
exclusive interview at the Malibu home of Roma Downey and Mark Burnett, the
couple behind the film. (Airs 8 p.m. ET, Thursday, Feb. 20 on EWTN, www.ewtn.com/channelfinder.)
Then, tune in to “Faithful Reflections on Son of God,” a half-hour
documentary, which is also hosted by Arroyo. (Airs 9 p.m. ET, Sunday, Feb. 23; 2
a.m. ET, Tuesday, Feb. 25; and 2:30 p.m. ET, Wednesday, Feb. 26 on EWTN.)
This exclusive program features interviews with Rwandan Genocide
Survivor Immaculee Llibagiza, Father Barron’s “Word on Fire Ministries” (which
produced the wildly popular series “Catholicism,” which aired on EWTN and PBS),
Washington Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Los Angeles Archbishop José Gómez, Pittsburgh
Bishop David Zubik, Catholic Bloggers Lisa Hendey and Brandon Vogt, and many
others who reflect on how they were personally moved by scenes from the film,
which are included in the documentary. (Click here, bit.ly/1m75Qtq,
for a video preview of this documentary.)
“Son of God” brings the story of Jesus’ life to audiences through
compelling cinematic storytelling. It is told with the scope and scale of an
action epic and features powerful performances, exotic locales, dazzling visual
effects, and a rich orchestral score. Some Christian leaders are already saying
they plan to rent out every screen in numerous cities for the film’s
long-awaited premiere.
You won’t want to miss this behind-the-scenes look at the first
major release on the life of Jesus in a decade!
EWTN Global Catholic Network, in its 33rd year, is available
in over 230 million television households in more than 140
countries and territories. With its direct broadcast satellite television and
radio services, AM & FM radio networks, worldwide short-wave radio station,
Internet website www.ewtn.com, electronic and print news
services, and publishing arm, EWTN is the largest religious media network in the
world.
Tree of Healing "a compelling tale"
A spiritual work of Catholic fiction, filled with quotes from Scripture, color illustrations, and poetry, has been released by Diana Gonzalez Tabbaa. It is the author’s hope that the work will help young people especially to develop a closer relationship to Jesus Christ, to have a better understanding of the Catholic faith, and to increase their appreciation of Scripture.
Rose spends much of her time dwelling on her troubles. She lives in a state of worry and loneliness as her mother has been harsh and distant since the death of her father when she was an infant. One golden summer, as she leaves her childhood years, her grandmother and a heaven-sent friend teach her to bring everything in her life to God in prayer and to bring His Life into her own. She comes to know and trust Him deeply, especially when she discovers a carving made by her father in a great tree that forms the crucifix of a Rosary Garden. Hidden in its depths and unfolding in layers of mystery and beauty, signs of God's Love are continuously revealed to her. A Mary’s Garden that she plants reflects her own growth in a living faith that brings a garden of souls with her to God, including her mother.
Suitable for all ages, this timeless story of forgiveness and hope shows how suffering is transformed through union with Christ. Enriched with spiritual art, poetry, and quotes from Scripture, The Tree of Healing tells of the healing of one young girl and of all wounded humanity by the Sacrifice of Jesus on a new Tree of Life.
The print version is available from CreateSpace: www.createspace.com/3727662
Ebook versions:
Kindle Edition: http://www.amazon.com/Tree-Healing-Diana-Gonzalez-Tabbaa-ebook/dp/B00I9BT76U/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=8-1&qid=1392556193
Smashwords Edition for Apple iOS devices, Nook and Kobo: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/406571
PDF file: http://www.lulu.com/shop/diana-tabbaa/the-tree-of-healing/ebook/product-21383645.html
New Lenten Book by Father Paul Jerome Keller
Popular Dominican priest Paul Jerome Keller offers a new book to guide readers through Lent: A Lenten Journey with Jesus Christ and St. Thomas Aquinas.
Father Keller gives a short biography of St. Thomas Aquinas, a brief history of the Order of Preachers and St. Thomas Aquinas’s wisdom on prayer and Lent, in addition to the daily Gospel readings, reflections and prayers to guide the reader through this special season.
“The invitation to contemplate God comes to each one of us daily, in a multiplicity of ways. Yet, Lent is set aside by the Church as a privileged season. It is a time to open ourselves to the deeper workings of divine grace. God awaits our answer to his invitation, our assent, as we pour over these passage from St. Thomas Aquinas.” -- from A Lenten Journey with Jesus Christ and St. Thomas Aquinas
Father Keller was ordained to the priesthood in 1993. He acquired a Bachelor and Licentiate in Sacred Theology at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., and a Doctorate with a specialization in sacramental theology at Sant’ Anselmo in Rome. He is currently an assistant professor of sacramental theology at Mount St. Mary’s of the West Seminary in Cincinnati. Father Keller has made appearances on Relevant Radio, Sirius Radio’s Catholic Channel, Vatican Radio, and Catholic Answers Live. He is also the author of 101 Questions & Answers on the Sacraments of Healing: Penance and Anointing.
Father Keller gives a short biography of St. Thomas Aquinas, a brief history of the Order of Preachers and St. Thomas Aquinas’s wisdom on prayer and Lent, in addition to the daily Gospel readings, reflections and prayers to guide the reader through this special season.
“The invitation to contemplate God comes to each one of us daily, in a multiplicity of ways. Yet, Lent is set aside by the Church as a privileged season. It is a time to open ourselves to the deeper workings of divine grace. God awaits our answer to his invitation, our assent, as we pour over these passage from St. Thomas Aquinas.” -- from A Lenten Journey with Jesus Christ and St. Thomas Aquinas
Father Keller was ordained to the priesthood in 1993. He acquired a Bachelor and Licentiate in Sacred Theology at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., and a Doctorate with a specialization in sacramental theology at Sant’ Anselmo in Rome. He is currently an assistant professor of sacramental theology at Mount St. Mary’s of the West Seminary in Cincinnati. Father Keller has made appearances on Relevant Radio, Sirius Radio’s Catholic Channel, Vatican Radio, and Catholic Answers Live. He is also the author of 101 Questions & Answers on the Sacraments of Healing: Penance and Anointing.
Taking Over Twitter with the Little Way of St. Therese
On Feb. 4, Catholics everywhere are invited to join an unprecedented movement on Twitter and Vine called the Day of the Little Way. Keeping in mind the message of St. Therese of Lisieux, the Day of the Little Way asks Catholics to embrace the New Evangelization by living out the faith in 140 little - but powerful - characters all day long.
The Day of the Little Way was inspired by the late Bishop Patrick Ahern’s forthcoming and, final book, Three Gifts of Therese of Lisieux (Image Books, Feb. 4, 2014). In his book, Bishop Ahern says that St. Therese left the world with three invaluable gifts: her Universal Appeal, her Conviction, and of course, her Little Way. In celebration of the release of his book, the Day of the Little Way is meant to encourage Catholics everywhere to embrace these three gifts in their own lives – starting with their social media accounts.
The Day of the Little Way encourages Catholics to use the hashtag #LittleWay all day long on Twitter and Vine as a way to share their small stories of faith, prayers, quotes, inspiration and encouragement online. By uniting under one hashtag, Catholics not only demonstrate solidarity in their faith, they also open the door for dialog with people online in a new way.
Want to join the movement?
• Visit the Little Way Resources Page and pin/post/tweet any (or all!) of the promotional images you find there (http://www.imagecatholicbooks.com/LittleWay/)
• Post this video of Fr. Barron’s invitation to the #LittleWay movement on your blog or Facebook (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aV4aCglFfHE&list=UUUo-BnCAkN5rgUpGwT8RmTQ&feature=c4-overview)
• Tweet this video of Lisa Hendey of CatholicMom.com inviting people to join the movement (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOsvLoNLeG0&list=UUUo-BnCAkN5rgUpGwT8RmTQ&feature=c4-overview)
• Share this article from the Catholic News Agency that offers details about the Day of the Little Way with your friends and family (http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/st-therese-devotees-to-launch-little-way-social-media-campaign/)
• Start tweeting now! Follow @ImageCatholic on Twitter and start tweeting about the Day of the Little Way between now and Tuesday, Feb. 4!
For more information visit www.ImageCatholicBooks.com/littleway
The Day of the Little Way was inspired by the late Bishop Patrick Ahern’s forthcoming and, final book, Three Gifts of Therese of Lisieux (Image Books, Feb. 4, 2014). In his book, Bishop Ahern says that St. Therese left the world with three invaluable gifts: her Universal Appeal, her Conviction, and of course, her Little Way. In celebration of the release of his book, the Day of the Little Way is meant to encourage Catholics everywhere to embrace these three gifts in their own lives – starting with their social media accounts.
The Day of the Little Way encourages Catholics to use the hashtag #LittleWay all day long on Twitter and Vine as a way to share their small stories of faith, prayers, quotes, inspiration and encouragement online. By uniting under one hashtag, Catholics not only demonstrate solidarity in their faith, they also open the door for dialog with people online in a new way.
Want to join the movement?
• Visit the Little Way Resources Page and pin/post/tweet any (or all!) of the promotional images you find there (http://www.imagecatholicbooks.com/LittleWay/)
• Post this video of Fr. Barron’s invitation to the #LittleWay movement on your blog or Facebook (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aV4aCglFfHE&list=UUUo-BnCAkN5rgUpGwT8RmTQ&feature=c4-overview)
• Tweet this video of Lisa Hendey of CatholicMom.com inviting people to join the movement (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOsvLoNLeG0&list=UUUo-BnCAkN5rgUpGwT8RmTQ&feature=c4-overview)
• Share this article from the Catholic News Agency that offers details about the Day of the Little Way with your friends and family (http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/st-therese-devotees-to-launch-little-way-social-media-campaign/)
• Start tweeting now! Follow @ImageCatholic on Twitter and start tweeting about the Day of the Little Way between now and Tuesday, Feb. 4!
For more information visit www.ImageCatholicBooks.com/littleway
Gimme Shelter Now in Theaters
Pro-life champion Kathy DiFiore has had a remarkable life filled with redemption and hope. A suburban wife and mother, she escaped an abusive marriage only to find herself homeless and on the street. She focused on saying the prayer of St. Francis and eventually was able to reclaim her life. DiFiore went on to found Several Sources Shelters, which provides a home and safety net for pregnant women, who are often desperate, alone and homeless, and worked hand-in-hand with Mother Teresa to change shelter laws in New Jersey. Her compelling life is the inspiration behind the gritty pro-life movie GIMME SHELTER, which comes out tomorrow.
The film has been endorsed by an impressive group of prominent Catholics, including His Excellency, Bishop Ignacio Carrasco de Paula, president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life; Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York; Kevin Ryan, president and CEO of Covenant House; and Fr. Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life.
“The remarkable narrative of GIMME SHELTER expresses a powerful reality and the heroic love of a mother for her unborn child,” said His Excellency, Bishop Ignacio Carrasco de Paula. “Exploring the hard questions regarding the meaning of life, family, love and suffering, our heroine, ‘Apple,’ fights against all odds and finds hope in the kindness of some key people, including a hospital chaplain who expresses the true nature of a priestly soul of service, guidance, and the deep Love of God for every single man, woman and child from the moment of conception. Out of rejection shines the courageous beauty of a mother’s love, and out of tragedy, shines hope!”
Forced to flee her abusive mother (Rosario Dawson), and turned away by her Wall Street father (Brendan Fraser), “Apple Bailey” (Vanessa Hudgens) finds herself on a desperate and isolated journey of survival. In the depths of despair, she meets a compassionate priest (James Earl Jones), who ultimately leads her to redemption and unprecedented support in a suburban shelter for homeless teenagers. With gained confidence, and the warmth of her new home, Apple breaks from her inhibiting past, embracing the future with clarity and hope.
Hudgens immersed herself in the character and delivers a transformative and stunning performance. To prepare for her role, she lived for weeks in the Several Sources pregnancy shelter, interacting with the young, homeless mothers who also appear in the film, completely altering her appearance unrecognizable.
Watch the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE42YdC70E8.
Download resources for churches and ministries: http://gimmeshelter.ministryresources.org.
The film has been endorsed by an impressive group of prominent Catholics, including His Excellency, Bishop Ignacio Carrasco de Paula, president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life; Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York; Kevin Ryan, president and CEO of Covenant House; and Fr. Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life.
“The remarkable narrative of GIMME SHELTER expresses a powerful reality and the heroic love of a mother for her unborn child,” said His Excellency, Bishop Ignacio Carrasco de Paula. “Exploring the hard questions regarding the meaning of life, family, love and suffering, our heroine, ‘Apple,’ fights against all odds and finds hope in the kindness of some key people, including a hospital chaplain who expresses the true nature of a priestly soul of service, guidance, and the deep Love of God for every single man, woman and child from the moment of conception. Out of rejection shines the courageous beauty of a mother’s love, and out of tragedy, shines hope!”
Forced to flee her abusive mother (Rosario Dawson), and turned away by her Wall Street father (Brendan Fraser), “Apple Bailey” (Vanessa Hudgens) finds herself on a desperate and isolated journey of survival. In the depths of despair, she meets a compassionate priest (James Earl Jones), who ultimately leads her to redemption and unprecedented support in a suburban shelter for homeless teenagers. With gained confidence, and the warmth of her new home, Apple breaks from her inhibiting past, embracing the future with clarity and hope.
Hudgens immersed herself in the character and delivers a transformative and stunning performance. To prepare for her role, she lived for weeks in the Several Sources pregnancy shelter, interacting with the young, homeless mothers who also appear in the film, completely altering her appearance unrecognizable.
Watch the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE42YdC70E8.
Download resources for churches and ministries: http://gimmeshelter.ministryresources.org.
EWTN’s Coverage of the March For Life
EWTN, the first and only television network to air
complete live coverage of the March for Life, announces
dramatically expanded coverage.
This year, thanks to a new wireless camera unit, EWTN will be able to walk alongside the crowd from the National Mall, all the way down Constitution Avenue, and right up the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court itself. You will see the March as only those who actually walk the route will see it!
Plus, the EWTN 360 technology that was introduced during World Youth Day is back - and this time we are "live." The app allows you, the viewer, to click on an event and to get a 360 degree view of the venue just by moving your cursor! (If you missed WYD360, click here: http://www.ewtn.com/rio2013/wyd360.asp.) This means that you will be able to see MFL events on our website and Facebook page (www.facebook.com/ewtnonline) just as if you were at the Prayer Vigil, standing in the crowd listening to the speakers, or marching down Constitution Avenue.
EWTN's coverage will be anchored in the studio by EWTN President Doug Keck and EWTN Chaplain Fr. Joseph Mary, and in the field by EWTN TV and Radio Anchors Teresa Tomeo ("Catholic Connection," "Catholic View for Women"), Mike Romano and Elena Rodriguez. Also, look for special in-studio coverage of your Facebook posts, tweets (www.twitter.com/ewtn) and videos (send to marchforlife@ewtn.com) by the EWTN Communications Department.
Then, in the evening, don't miss a special one-hour "EWTN News Nightly with Colleen Carroll Campbell," which will feature a great lineup of pro-life leaders and speakers who will discuss the past, present and future of the pro-life movement as well as the fight against abortion.
Here's the lineup:
- Opening Mass of the National Prayer Vigil for Life airs live at 6:30 p.m. ET, Tuesday, Jan. 21 from the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC.
- Closing Mass of the National Prayer Vigil for Life airs live at 7:30 a.m. ET, Wednesday, Jan. 22, also from the Basilica.
- Coverage of the 2014 March for Life begins at 9 a.m. ET, Wednesday, Jan. 22, with encores at 10 p.m. ET, Wednesday night, and 9:30 a.m. ET, Sunday, Jan. 26.
- Coverage of the Youth Mass for Life from the Verizon Center will air at 4 p.m. ET, Wednesday, Jan. 22.
- "EWTN News Nightly With Colleen Carroll Campbell:" One-hour special begins at 6 p.m. ET, Wednesday, Jan. 22.
If you can't be at the March itself, please join us for our Virtual March for Life on EWTN's Facebook page, www.facebook.com/ewtnonline, and Twitter page, www.twitter.com/ewtn, as well as on TV, Radio, our Mobile app, and streaming live on the Internet! As we always say, "EWTN is Everywhere!"
EWTN Global Catholic Network, in its 33rd year, is available in over 230 million television households in more than 140 countries and territories. With its direct broadcast satellite television and radio services, AM & FM radio networks, worldwide short-wave radio station, Internet website www.ewtn.com, electronic and print news services, and publishing arm, EWTN is the largest religious media network in the world.
###
For Information, Please Contact: Michelle Johnson Director of Communications EWTN Global Catholic Network 5817 Old Leeds Road Irondale, Alabama 35210-2198 USA (205) 795-5769 - Office (205) 441-6248 !- Cell (205) 795-5781 - Fax
The CatholicTV Network Launches New Website
The CatholicTV Network launches its new website, on January 15, 2014. The website has been designed using the latest technology with the user experience in mind.
The CatholicTV Network invites viewers to explore the new enhanced website with improved functionality, offering viewers worldwide a broad range of faith based programming available online as well as a 24/7 live stream.
“After two years of thought and work, the new web presence for The CatholicTV Network is live, said the network President, Father Robert Reed. “The site has been designed to target our growing viewership online and projects a clean and professional appearance which is dynamically elegant. Our focus is on image and video, telling the story of individual Catholics and the Church Universal.”
CatholicTV.com is designed to become the premier destination for Catholics, keeping viewers up-to-date with Vatican events and programming from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and parishes nationwide. The CatholicTV Network broadcasts programming relevant to Catholic viewers, including live religious services, talk shows, devotional programs, educational programming, entertainment, and children's programs.
New content is added to CatholicTV.com daily. The CatholicTV Network is also available on all mobile devices for iOS and Android.
The CatholicTV Network invites viewers to explore the new enhanced website with improved functionality, offering viewers worldwide a broad range of faith based programming available online as well as a 24/7 live stream.
“After two years of thought and work, the new web presence for The CatholicTV Network is live, said the network President, Father Robert Reed. “The site has been designed to target our growing viewership online and projects a clean and professional appearance which is dynamically elegant. Our focus is on image and video, telling the story of individual Catholics and the Church Universal.”
CatholicTV.com is designed to become the premier destination for Catholics, keeping viewers up-to-date with Vatican events and programming from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and parishes nationwide. The CatholicTV Network broadcasts programming relevant to Catholic viewers, including live religious services, talk shows, devotional programs, educational programming, entertainment, and children's programs.
New content is added to CatholicTV.com daily. The CatholicTV Network is also available on all mobile devices for iOS and Android.
Listen to “Children of the Sun” at fscc-calledtobe.org
Sean Michael Showalter’s “Children of The Sun” is the discerning Song of the Month, a free download at www.fscc-calledtobe.org.
Austin based Singer – Songwriter Sean Michael Showalter wrote “Children of the Sun” “….to promote brotherly love and to look beyond the walls our egos have built up. Even I, a reborn Christian, admit that my beliefs are a result of my collective life experience and my perception of reality. I hope my song will help us look beyond the differences in religions and ideologies that separate us; that it can help us practice love and tolerance for one another in-spite of our disagreements; that we are all God’s children, brothers and sisters, or Children of the Sun.”
Showalter was born with a gift of singing and was creating songs on the playground as early as he can remember. Earliest influences include the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughn and Stevie Wonder. Currently he also plays with Red Street, a mix of Gospel, Blues, Funk, Soul, Rock & Jazz. The band exists to promote the Gospel of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, and to help heal the world through music.
In his recent Gospel of Joy, Pope Francis also invites “all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ. No one should think that this invitation is not meant for him or her, since ‘no one is excluded from the joy brought by the Lord’. The Lord does not disappoint those who take this risk; whenever we take a step towards Jesus, we come to realize that he is already there, waiting for us with open arms.”
Established in 1869, the Roman Catholic Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity serve in Catholic Health Care, Education and Parish-Community Service in the Midwest, Central and Southwest United States.
http://www.fscc-calledtobe.org
The World needs you. God Calls You. We Invite You. Catholic vocations.
 |
| Sean Michael Showalter |
Showalter was born with a gift of singing and was creating songs on the playground as early as he can remember. Earliest influences include the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughn and Stevie Wonder. Currently he also plays with Red Street, a mix of Gospel, Blues, Funk, Soul, Rock & Jazz. The band exists to promote the Gospel of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, and to help heal the world through music.
In his recent Gospel of Joy, Pope Francis also invites “all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ. No one should think that this invitation is not meant for him or her, since ‘no one is excluded from the joy brought by the Lord’. The Lord does not disappoint those who take this risk; whenever we take a step towards Jesus, we come to realize that he is already there, waiting for us with open arms.”
Established in 1869, the Roman Catholic Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity serve in Catholic Health Care, Education and Parish-Community Service in the Midwest, Central and Southwest United States.
http://www.fscc-calledtobe.org
The World needs you. God Calls You. We Invite You. Catholic vocations.
Vatican Official Endorses Film: Gimme Shelter
His Excellency Bishop Ignacio Carrasco de Paula, president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life, provided his glowing endorsement of GIMME SHELTER, a forthcoming movie with a distinctly pro-life message.
Here is his full endorsement:
“The remarkable narrative of GIMME SHELTER expresses a powerful reality and the heroic love of a mother for her unborn child. Exploring the hard questions regarding the meaning of life, family, love and suffering, our heroine, “Apple,” fights against all odds and finds hope in the kindness of some key people, including a hospital chaplain who expresses the true nature of a priestly soul of service, guidance, and the deep Love of God for every single man, woman and child from the moment of conception. Out of rejection shines the courageous beauty of a mother’s love, and out of tragedy, shines hope!”
Based on the inspiring true events, GIMME SHELTER centers on the courageous story of Agnes “Apple” Bailey (Vanessa Hudgens) and her incredible path to motherhood as a pregnant, homeless teenager. Forced to flee her abusive mother (Rosario Dawson), and turned away by her Wall Street father (Brendan Fraser), Apple finds herself on a desperate and isolated journey of survival. In the depths of despair, she meets a compassionate stranger (James Earl Jones), who ultimately leads her to salvation and unprecedented support in a suburban shelter for homeless teenagers. With gained confidence, and the warmth of her new home, Apple breaks from her inhibiting past, embracing the future with clarity and hope.
The film is inspired by the David and Goliath true story of devout Catholic Kathy DiFiore and her founding of Several Sources Shelters – a maternity home for unwed mothers that has changed lives all across New Jersey. DiFiore has been lauded by presidents and worked hand-in hand with Mother Teresa to change shelter laws in New Jersey.
Check out the trailer: http://youtu.be/pE42YdC70E8.
Hudgens immersed herself in the character and delivers a transformative and stunning performance. To prepare, she lived for weeks in pregnancy shelters, interacting with the young, homeless mothers who also appear in the film, completely altering her appearance unrecognizable.
Written and directed by Ronald Krauss, GIMME SHELTER opens in theaters across the country on January 24, 2014.
Saint Kateri Tekakwitha: New Cartoon for Kids
In an effort to help fill the void in quality media for Catholic children, GenOneArt.com launched a campaign to produce a saint inspired, Catholic cartoon utilizing Kickstarter.com to fund the production.
Up to 40% Off the Best Books of 2013
The production will focus on the virtue of courage in the life of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, and her devotion to Jesus on the Cross as her source of strength in times of persecution.
Kickstarter.com is a crowd-funding platform where anyone can help support a project in exchange for incentives also known as “backer rewards.” The rewards for supporting the project include everything from a DVD of the finished cartoon, to original artwork from the development of the project. The goal is to raise at least $60,000 to finish production and to help launch a marketing campaign for the film.
Here is a link to the project page: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/464375548/saint-kateri-tekakwitha-catholic-cartoon?ref=live
Up to 40% Off the Best Books of 2013
The production will focus on the virtue of courage in the life of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, and her devotion to Jesus on the Cross as her source of strength in times of persecution.
Kickstarter.com is a crowd-funding platform where anyone can help support a project in exchange for incentives also known as “backer rewards.” The rewards for supporting the project include everything from a DVD of the finished cartoon, to original artwork from the development of the project. The goal is to raise at least $60,000 to finish production and to help launch a marketing campaign for the film.
Here is a link to the project page: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/464375548/saint-kateri-tekakwitha-catholic-cartoon?ref=live
CRS Calls on Congress to Back Funding for Central African Republic
Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is asking Congress to ensure robust funding to meet the staggering humanitarian needs in the Central African Republic (CAR), where a violent conflict has forced hundreds of thousands from their homes. The request was made in a statement submitted to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations which held a hearing yesterday on how to address the crisis that has played out in CAR since a coup overthrew the government in March.
In the statement, CRS commends the United States for providing $100 million to support French and African Union peacekeeping troops who are working to quell the violence and atrocities carried out by Muslim rebels and Christian self-defense groups, but stresses the critical need for humanitarian funding as well.
“A scaled-up humanitarian response in CAR requires improved security and immediate stability,” says Bill O’Keefe, Vice President for Government Relations and Advocacy. “And it must be funded at similar levels as the support to African Union troops.”
This echoes a statement released by the Religious Leaders’ Platform in CAR, stressing that reconciliation and unity are possible among all Central African women and men. The leaders include Bishop Dieudonné Nzapalainga, Archbishop of Bangui and President of the Episcopal Conference of Central Africa; Pastor Nicolas Guerkekoyame-Gbangou, President of the Alliance of Evangelicals in Central Africa (AEC); and Em Oumar Kobine Layama, President of the Central African Islamic Community (CICA).
“We reiterate that the violence and abuses have stripped people of all their resources. A message of reconciliation that is not supported by technical and logistical support for humanitarian relief and reconstruction may not have the desired effects,” they state.
While the increased presence of French and African Union peacekeeping troops has improved the security in parts of CAR, the humanitarian situation remains dire and appears to be worsening. Hundreds of thousands of people, Christians and Muslims who have fled their homes in fear of being attacked, are now in makeshift camps throughout the country, and staying with host families. They are in desperate need of food, water, shelter and health services. Living in cramped and unsanitary conditions, many have already died of preventable diseases or malnutrition.
CRS has worked to meet some of the most immediate needs by providing food vouchers as well as emergency food rations. In Lobaye District, CRS distributed food vouchers to more than 10,800 people. In the capital of Bangui and in other parts of the country, CRS has begun emergency food deliveries to thousands of people seeking refuge on church grounds.
CRS is also urging support for activities to restore the traditional peace that existed among CAR’s religious communities before this conflict spawned divisions along faith lines. CRS’ work with CAR’s religious leaders and inter-religious youth groups is focused on community-based solutions to dispel distrust between Christians and Muslims, as well as strategies to prevent people from taking on arms, and fueling the conflict.
“Civil society, media and religious entities in CAR are essential for supporting violence prevention initiatives, and they must be supported in the same way as the humanitarian needs are,” the CRS statement reads. “CRS urges the State Department to assess the viability and adequate funding of essential peacebuilding activities to prevent further escalation of the conflict.”
CRS is seeking support for people like Reisa, a Catholic who attended a recent meeting of Christian and Muslim youth in Bangui, CAR’s capital. She pointed out that lack of security is behind the religious divide. “Sometimes people are willing to do the right thing,” she said, “but when confronted with hunger, rape and roving gangs attacking them, people will respond with violence just to survive, not necessarily out of hate.”
# # #
Catholic Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. The agency alleviates suffering and provides assistance to people in need in nearly 100 countries, without regard to race, religion or nationality. For more information, please visit crs.org or crsespanol.org.
God and Necessity: Book Review
Brian Leftow, God and Necessity, Oxford University Press, 2012, 560pp., $110.00
Like their medieval scholastic predecessors, the best known Continental Rationalist philosophers of the seventeenth century (Descartes, Spinoza, Malebranche, and Leibniz) held that God exists necessarily, and that all possibilities along with all necessary truths about anything actual or possible are grounded in God. They were not all in agreement, however, as to how those possibilities and necessities are grounded in God. The contrast between the views of Descartes (1596-1650) and Leibniz (1646-1716) may serve as background for approaching what I take to be the most thoroughly articulated and argued study of the relation between God and necessity (and possibility) that our own time has produced.
Among Descartes’s early modern opponents on this point was Leibniz. In his view, possibilities and necessities are grounded not in God’s will but in God’s understanding. Moreover, the main question about possibilities and necessities to which Leibniz offers a theological answer is not what makes them true but what grounds their being. He holds that “if there is a reality in the Essences or possibilities, or indeed in the eternal truths, that reality must be founded in something existing and Actual.” So how can there be truths so absolutely necessary that they could and would be true even if no contingent being existed? Leibniz’s answer is that the reality of possibilities and of the eternal truths “must be founded … in the Existence of the necessary Being, in which being possible is sufficient for being Actual.” Specifically, he holds that “the Understanding of God is the region of eternal truths, or of the ideas on which they depend” — that they have ontological standing, or being, insofar as they are understood by God and represented in the divine understanding. This is for Leibniz the basis of an argument for the existence of God “from the reality of eternal truths” — that is, from the assumption that there are truths so necessary that they could and would be true no matter what, even if nothing contingent existed (Monadology, §§43-45). He treats this, in effect, as an inference to the best explanation of the reality of facts of possibility and necessity, where the explanation is metaphysical, and turns on a constitutive rather than a causal relationship.
Fifty years ago, such arguments were easily dismissed as of merely antiquarian interest, since almost all philosophers and many philosophical theologians were convinced that the existence of God could not be absolutely necessary. Since the 1960s, such certainties have been dissolving in the analytical mainstream of Anglophone philosophy, as assumptions about what necessity must or could be have come to seem problematic. In this philosophical context there is more room for theories which involve, as Brian Leftow’s does, the hypothesis of a necessarily existing deity.
In his magnum opus, God and Necessity, Leftow stakes out a position that is intermediate between those of Descartes and Leibniz, having points of agreement with each of them. It is the voluntarist aspect of the position, however, that gets the most emphasis and the most vigorous argument in the book — perhaps because Leftow realistically expects it to be the target of the most opposition. The tightrope on which he seeks to balance his position is a distinction between what he calls “secular” and “non-secular” truths and possibilities. There is not room here to present a full account of Leftow’s developed distinction; but, roughly speaking, a secular sentence is one that if true would state no truth about God, or about divine attributes or events, though it might imply one. Secular sentences are about actual or possible creatures of God, or their (secular) attributes and interactions. Leftow’s position is theologically voluntarist about possibilities and necessities expressed by secular sentences — almost all of them — but not in general about those expressed by non-secular sentences, which he sees as determined by God’s nature (Leftow, 248-50, 275-76).
As regards God’s existence, in particular, Leftow holds that “His nature makes Him necessary — His choice cannot alter this. Thus … God exists necessarily.” Similarly, as regards pure logic and pure mathematics, Leftow agrees with Leibniz that their ontological grounds are to be found in God’s thought — God’s actual thinking. And in these cases “God’s nature dictated the result. He would have so thought no matter what.”
Leftow has relatively little to say about logic and mathematics and their ontological grounding. His “main concern,” he writes, “is a theory of secular truths” — a theological theory about them and the status they may have as possible or even necessary (Leftow, 251). Secular possibilities and necessities, Leftow insists, do not follow from, and are not determined or guaranteed by, God’s nature. Thus he opposes what he calls “deity theories,” which view “secular” possibilities and necessities as grounded in deity, where by “deity” is meant the nature or individual essence of God. Leibniz’s theory of the reality of eternal truths is a prime example of the “deity theories” that Leftow opposes. Contrary to them he holds that secular attributes enter logical space by God’s thinking them up — though the divine essence allowed God not to think them up and thus to omit them from logical space. Since God thought up secular attributes, on Leftow’s view, almost all propositions involving them acquire their status as necessary, contingent, or impossible by a voluntary divine decision that was not predetermined by the divine essence.
The following is a simplified (but I hope not weakened) form of Leftow’s “main argument against deity theories” (Leftow, 209 ff.). The “necessary truth about creatures alone” that he proposes as an example is “water = H2O.” Analytical metaphysicians of possibility and necessity have in fact discussed this example, and most regard it as a necessary truth. Issues could be raised about the role of the word “water” in the example, however, which would lead us away from our theological topic. We can avoid those issues by substituting the closely related identity “H2O = H2O.” That will not seriously affect character of Leftow’s argument. He will not claim that a negation of “H2O = H2O” could be true; but he argues that “H2O = H2O” would be untrue “were H2O not possible nor so much as impossible, but instead just not a denizen of logical space.”
How could that be? Well, on Leftow’s theory, nothing in God’s nature requires that God think about H2O, and if God had never thought up H2O and therefore had never created it, H2O would not be a denizen of logical space, and the proposition “H2O = H2O” would not exist and therefore would not be true. On a deity theory such as Leibniz’s, however, it follows from the nature of God, and is therefore necessary, that if God exists, God does think of H2O and H2O is a denizen of logical space, as an object of God’s thought, and of course “H2O = H2O” (or “If H2O exists, then H2O = H2O”) is a necessary truth. And this is just what Leftow objects to, for in implying that necessarily, if God exists, then H2O is a denizen of logical space, the deity theory also implies that necessarily, if H2O were not a denizen of logical space, then God would not exist. “Surely,” Leftow protests, “deleting a chemical property from logical space should not affect whether God exists.” It would be better, he concludes, to avoid “deity theories” of the grounding of “secular” possibilities and necessities (by which of course he does not mean avoiding all theological theories on the topic).
One may respond, of course (as Leftow recognizes), that according to a deity theory these implications really pose no threat at all to God’s existence. For if the deity theory is right, both God’s existence and God’s understanding of H2O, and the truth of “H2O = H2O” as represented in God’s understanding, are absolutely necessary, as reasons included in God’s essence ensure that there is no possible alternative to them. Leftow grants, in effect, that the conditional proposition “necessarily, if H2O were not a denizen of logical space, then God would not exist” is not just counter-factual but counter-possible (having an antecedent clause that could not possibly be true), if a deity theory is right. He claims, however, that it would be wrong to dismiss it as not worth worrying about, because it is also counterintuitive. He argues that “deity is the property having which makes God divine. Intuitively, facts about water do not help make God divine,” and are thus “irrelevant to the job the property deity does.” For what is relevant to God’s possession of such intuitively divine attributes as omniscience and omnipotence is not what secular possibilities there are in logical space, but what God knows, and can do, about whatever secular possibilities are there (Leftow, 240).
The deity theorist’s best response to this argument, perhaps, is that “making God divine” is too narrowly religious a description of “the job” belonging to deity as a property, if we understand deity (as Leftow does) as the essence of God. More comprehensively, one might think, “the job” that God’s essence does includes, metaphysically, being the nature by reason of which God necessarily exists as the ground of being, the being on which all facts of every sort depend. If the job of God’s essence is as large as that, is it really counterintuitive to suppose that secular possibilities such as that of H2O are too petty or too profane to be provided for in the divine essence? Moreover, a deity theory like Leibniz’s account of “the reality of eternal truths” may be appealing precisely to philosophers who find it unintuitive to suppose that there is any way in which being such a thing as H2O actually is could have failed to be at least possible.
Harder to shrug off for Leibnizian deity theorists may be Leftow’s efforts to problematize their assumption that the divine essence could contain all the materials needed for representing or thinking of all the secular possibilities. How, Leftow asks, could those possibilities be represented in the divine mind? He focuses on a view, found in Thomas Aquinas and other medieval theologians, according to which the properties that possible creatures would have are imitations (imperfect, of course) of the divine nature, so that God is able to know those creaturely properties by knowing how his own essence is capable of being imitated (Summa Theologiae, Part I, qu. 15, article 2.). The imitation relation of creatures to God is part of Leibniz’s philosophy also, though not part of his account of possibilities as ontologically grounded in God’s understanding. Leftow argues that while the imitability of the divine nature might in this way give God very general concepts of created substance or created mind as such, it does not offer a promising way for God to conceive of such creatures in complete detail, nor to conceive of material creatures at all (Leftow, 153 ff.). Leftow, rightly, does not treat this as a decisive objection to deity theories. The great obstacle to accepting it as a decisive objection is the assumption of most theists that God’s cognitive powers are infinitely greater than ours. That assumption suggests that the divine nature might indeed enable God to have certain ideas that we have, even if we have not managed to see how that would be possible. Nevertheless, if (as I agree) deity theorists (including Aquinas and Leibniz) have not provided a convincing development of an imitability theory, or any other theory, of how the divine essence might enable God to understand all possible creatures, that is a weakness in their theories.
Can Leftow do better? He does offer a theory of how God has concepts of possible and actual creatures. It is “a causal theory of divine content” — a reductive theory, according to which concepts in God’s mind are reducible to God’s possession of certain powers. He holds that “the ontology of God’s mental content need invoke only powers of and causings by God and divine mental events.” For example, “God’s thinking that Fido is a dog is that part of His life that would in conjunction with certain other divine mental events bring it about that Fido is a dog” (Leftow, 312-15). Both the appeal and the implausibility of this striking view, I think, are rooted in the same point: that the divine concept of the producible object is to get its content from God’s knowledge of possible divine mental events that would produce the object in actual existence, rather than the other way around. The attraction of the view is that it promises a way of avoiding problems that have been found in other accounts, including resemblance accounts, of mental representation. The implausibility is that the view does not clearly provide for God to know more about what it is for Fido to be a dog than that it is whatever certain divine powers and mental events would cause.
To put more pressure on Leftow’s view, consider the thought that a responsible creator of the actual world had better have known more about what it is like for Fido to feel pain than just how that occurrence would be causally related to powers and mental events in the creator. Leftow does not disagree. Such considerations lead him to entertain the view that “God can have some quality of experience whence … He can fully conceive of pain.” But how is that consistent with his apparently sweeping claim that “the divine mental event which is God’s thinking that P is simply that part of the divine life that has or would have effects suitable to that content”? He does suggest that God might be able to have the full conception of pain “merely from His understanding of His power to have” a relevant quality of divine experience. Where the question is how God can know what it is like to feel pain, however, no appeal to supposed knowledge of divine powers to cause or to have an experience (as distinct from actually having a relevant experience) has to my mind much more explanatory force than the simple “somehow or other” which is as available to the deity theorist as to Leftow (Leftow, cf. 286, 314).
God and Necessity is a monumental work on its topic, rich in theoretical alternatives critically discussed — many more of them than could be discussed here. I found it extremely stimulating and rewarding. Its likeliest readers are professional philosophers. It presents an intricate tissue of analytical arguments, some of them formulated partly in the symbolism of modern formal logic. It is hard reading, perhaps harder than it needed to be. But it is definitely a book to be reckoned with.
ISSN 2325-8357. The Marginalia Review of Books. Protected by Creative Commons.
Descartes’s main question about possibilities and necessities is what makes the “eternal truths,” as he calls them, true. His answer is voluntarist to an extent that is unusual in Western philosophical and theological thought. He held that the eternal truths are voluntarily caused or legislated by God. He claimed that though they are in fact necessary, God could have made them false, declaring in The Philosophical Writings of Descartes (vol. III (1991), 358-9):
I do not think that we should ever say of anything that it cannot be brought about by God. For since every basis of truth and goodness depends on his omnipotence, I would not dare to say that God cannot bring it about that … 1 and 2 are not 3. I merely say that he has given me such a mind that I cannot conceive … a sum of 1 and 2 which is not 3.Descartes’s view on this subject found some support in the seventeenth century but has never been prevalent in modern philosophical theology. It is worth noting, however, that in the twentieth century a voluntarism that looks similar in some ways, and comparably extreme, was asserted (without reference to Descartes) by the great (and self-consciously not philosophical) theologian Karl Barth in his Church Dogmatics (vol. II, 533-42).
Among Descartes’s early modern opponents on this point was Leibniz. In his view, possibilities and necessities are grounded not in God’s will but in God’s understanding. Moreover, the main question about possibilities and necessities to which Leibniz offers a theological answer is not what makes them true but what grounds their being. He holds that “if there is a reality in the Essences or possibilities, or indeed in the eternal truths, that reality must be founded in something existing and Actual.” So how can there be truths so absolutely necessary that they could and would be true even if no contingent being existed? Leibniz’s answer is that the reality of possibilities and of the eternal truths “must be founded … in the Existence of the necessary Being, in which being possible is sufficient for being Actual.” Specifically, he holds that “the Understanding of God is the region of eternal truths, or of the ideas on which they depend” — that they have ontological standing, or being, insofar as they are understood by God and represented in the divine understanding. This is for Leibniz the basis of an argument for the existence of God “from the reality of eternal truths” — that is, from the assumption that there are truths so necessary that they could and would be true no matter what, even if nothing contingent existed (Monadology, §§43-45). He treats this, in effect, as an inference to the best explanation of the reality of facts of possibility and necessity, where the explanation is metaphysical, and turns on a constitutive rather than a causal relationship.
Fifty years ago, such arguments were easily dismissed as of merely antiquarian interest, since almost all philosophers and many philosophical theologians were convinced that the existence of God could not be absolutely necessary. Since the 1960s, such certainties have been dissolving in the analytical mainstream of Anglophone philosophy, as assumptions about what necessity must or could be have come to seem problematic. In this philosophical context there is more room for theories which involve, as Brian Leftow’s does, the hypothesis of a necessarily existing deity.
In his magnum opus, God and Necessity, Leftow stakes out a position that is intermediate between those of Descartes and Leibniz, having points of agreement with each of them. It is the voluntarist aspect of the position, however, that gets the most emphasis and the most vigorous argument in the book — perhaps because Leftow realistically expects it to be the target of the most opposition. The tightrope on which he seeks to balance his position is a distinction between what he calls “secular” and “non-secular” truths and possibilities. There is not room here to present a full account of Leftow’s developed distinction; but, roughly speaking, a secular sentence is one that if true would state no truth about God, or about divine attributes or events, though it might imply one. Secular sentences are about actual or possible creatures of God, or their (secular) attributes and interactions. Leftow’s position is theologically voluntarist about possibilities and necessities expressed by secular sentences — almost all of them — but not in general about those expressed by non-secular sentences, which he sees as determined by God’s nature (Leftow, 248-50, 275-76).
As regards God’s existence, in particular, Leftow holds that “His nature makes Him necessary — His choice cannot alter this. Thus … God exists necessarily.” Similarly, as regards pure logic and pure mathematics, Leftow agrees with Leibniz that their ontological grounds are to be found in God’s thought — God’s actual thinking. And in these cases “God’s nature dictated the result. He would have so thought no matter what.”
Leftow has relatively little to say about logic and mathematics and their ontological grounding. His “main concern,” he writes, “is a theory of secular truths” — a theological theory about them and the status they may have as possible or even necessary (Leftow, 251). Secular possibilities and necessities, Leftow insists, do not follow from, and are not determined or guaranteed by, God’s nature. Thus he opposes what he calls “deity theories,” which view “secular” possibilities and necessities as grounded in deity, where by “deity” is meant the nature or individual essence of God. Leibniz’s theory of the reality of eternal truths is a prime example of the “deity theories” that Leftow opposes. Contrary to them he holds that secular attributes enter logical space by God’s thinking them up — though the divine essence allowed God not to think them up and thus to omit them from logical space. Since God thought up secular attributes, on Leftow’s view, almost all propositions involving them acquire their status as necessary, contingent, or impossible by a voluntary divine decision that was not predetermined by the divine essence.
The following is a simplified (but I hope not weakened) form of Leftow’s “main argument against deity theories” (Leftow, 209 ff.). The “necessary truth about creatures alone” that he proposes as an example is “water = H2O.” Analytical metaphysicians of possibility and necessity have in fact discussed this example, and most regard it as a necessary truth. Issues could be raised about the role of the word “water” in the example, however, which would lead us away from our theological topic. We can avoid those issues by substituting the closely related identity “H2O = H2O.” That will not seriously affect character of Leftow’s argument. He will not claim that a negation of “H2O = H2O” could be true; but he argues that “H2O = H2O” would be untrue “were H2O not possible nor so much as impossible, but instead just not a denizen of logical space.”
How could that be? Well, on Leftow’s theory, nothing in God’s nature requires that God think about H2O, and if God had never thought up H2O and therefore had never created it, H2O would not be a denizen of logical space, and the proposition “H2O = H2O” would not exist and therefore would not be true. On a deity theory such as Leibniz’s, however, it follows from the nature of God, and is therefore necessary, that if God exists, God does think of H2O and H2O is a denizen of logical space, as an object of God’s thought, and of course “H2O = H2O” (or “If H2O exists, then H2O = H2O”) is a necessary truth. And this is just what Leftow objects to, for in implying that necessarily, if God exists, then H2O is a denizen of logical space, the deity theory also implies that necessarily, if H2O were not a denizen of logical space, then God would not exist. “Surely,” Leftow protests, “deleting a chemical property from logical space should not affect whether God exists.” It would be better, he concludes, to avoid “deity theories” of the grounding of “secular” possibilities and necessities (by which of course he does not mean avoiding all theological theories on the topic).
One may respond, of course (as Leftow recognizes), that according to a deity theory these implications really pose no threat at all to God’s existence. For if the deity theory is right, both God’s existence and God’s understanding of H2O, and the truth of “H2O = H2O” as represented in God’s understanding, are absolutely necessary, as reasons included in God’s essence ensure that there is no possible alternative to them. Leftow grants, in effect, that the conditional proposition “necessarily, if H2O were not a denizen of logical space, then God would not exist” is not just counter-factual but counter-possible (having an antecedent clause that could not possibly be true), if a deity theory is right. He claims, however, that it would be wrong to dismiss it as not worth worrying about, because it is also counterintuitive. He argues that “deity is the property having which makes God divine. Intuitively, facts about water do not help make God divine,” and are thus “irrelevant to the job the property deity does.” For what is relevant to God’s possession of such intuitively divine attributes as omniscience and omnipotence is not what secular possibilities there are in logical space, but what God knows, and can do, about whatever secular possibilities are there (Leftow, 240).
The deity theorist’s best response to this argument, perhaps, is that “making God divine” is too narrowly religious a description of “the job” belonging to deity as a property, if we understand deity (as Leftow does) as the essence of God. More comprehensively, one might think, “the job” that God’s essence does includes, metaphysically, being the nature by reason of which God necessarily exists as the ground of being, the being on which all facts of every sort depend. If the job of God’s essence is as large as that, is it really counterintuitive to suppose that secular possibilities such as that of H2O are too petty or too profane to be provided for in the divine essence? Moreover, a deity theory like Leibniz’s account of “the reality of eternal truths” may be appealing precisely to philosophers who find it unintuitive to suppose that there is any way in which being such a thing as H2O actually is could have failed to be at least possible.
Harder to shrug off for Leibnizian deity theorists may be Leftow’s efforts to problematize their assumption that the divine essence could contain all the materials needed for representing or thinking of all the secular possibilities. How, Leftow asks, could those possibilities be represented in the divine mind? He focuses on a view, found in Thomas Aquinas and other medieval theologians, according to which the properties that possible creatures would have are imitations (imperfect, of course) of the divine nature, so that God is able to know those creaturely properties by knowing how his own essence is capable of being imitated (Summa Theologiae, Part I, qu. 15, article 2.). The imitation relation of creatures to God is part of Leibniz’s philosophy also, though not part of his account of possibilities as ontologically grounded in God’s understanding. Leftow argues that while the imitability of the divine nature might in this way give God very general concepts of created substance or created mind as such, it does not offer a promising way for God to conceive of such creatures in complete detail, nor to conceive of material creatures at all (Leftow, 153 ff.). Leftow, rightly, does not treat this as a decisive objection to deity theories. The great obstacle to accepting it as a decisive objection is the assumption of most theists that God’s cognitive powers are infinitely greater than ours. That assumption suggests that the divine nature might indeed enable God to have certain ideas that we have, even if we have not managed to see how that would be possible. Nevertheless, if (as I agree) deity theorists (including Aquinas and Leibniz) have not provided a convincing development of an imitability theory, or any other theory, of how the divine essence might enable God to understand all possible creatures, that is a weakness in their theories.
Can Leftow do better? He does offer a theory of how God has concepts of possible and actual creatures. It is “a causal theory of divine content” — a reductive theory, according to which concepts in God’s mind are reducible to God’s possession of certain powers. He holds that “the ontology of God’s mental content need invoke only powers of and causings by God and divine mental events.” For example, “God’s thinking that Fido is a dog is that part of His life that would in conjunction with certain other divine mental events bring it about that Fido is a dog” (Leftow, 312-15). Both the appeal and the implausibility of this striking view, I think, are rooted in the same point: that the divine concept of the producible object is to get its content from God’s knowledge of possible divine mental events that would produce the object in actual existence, rather than the other way around. The attraction of the view is that it promises a way of avoiding problems that have been found in other accounts, including resemblance accounts, of mental representation. The implausibility is that the view does not clearly provide for God to know more about what it is for Fido to be a dog than that it is whatever certain divine powers and mental events would cause.
To put more pressure on Leftow’s view, consider the thought that a responsible creator of the actual world had better have known more about what it is like for Fido to feel pain than just how that occurrence would be causally related to powers and mental events in the creator. Leftow does not disagree. Such considerations lead him to entertain the view that “God can have some quality of experience whence … He can fully conceive of pain.” But how is that consistent with his apparently sweeping claim that “the divine mental event which is God’s thinking that P is simply that part of the divine life that has or would have effects suitable to that content”? He does suggest that God might be able to have the full conception of pain “merely from His understanding of His power to have” a relevant quality of divine experience. Where the question is how God can know what it is like to feel pain, however, no appeal to supposed knowledge of divine powers to cause or to have an experience (as distinct from actually having a relevant experience) has to my mind much more explanatory force than the simple “somehow or other” which is as available to the deity theorist as to Leftow (Leftow, cf. 286, 314).
God and Necessity is a monumental work on its topic, rich in theoretical alternatives critically discussed — many more of them than could be discussed here. I found it extremely stimulating and rewarding. Its likeliest readers are professional philosophers. It presents an intricate tissue of analytical arguments, some of them formulated partly in the symbolism of modern formal logic. It is hard reading, perhaps harder than it needed to be. But it is definitely a book to be reckoned with.
ISSN 2325-8357. The Marginalia Review of Books. Protected by Creative Commons.
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