Catholic Church

By Brad Miner, The Catholic Thing - Particularly offensive scenes open Father Stu, the new film about Stuart Long, a boxer of apparently questionable morals who became a Catholic priest. Mark Wahlberg plays our hero. In those early scenes, Mel Gibson, as Stu’s father, Bill, taunts the boy Stu (Tenz McCall) with a monologue about excretion, which transitions into scenes from the grown Stu’s amateur boxing career.

By Janet E. Smith, Crisis Magazine - Those who have become familiar with the fate of persons sexually abused by priests know that victims experience the indifference (or worse) of Church authorities to their abuse as a tremendous betrayal—something that does more harm than the abuse itself. They experience the Church more as Judas than the Bride of Christ. Indifference, dismissal, cover-up, and protection of the predator are common. 

By Fr. Jerry Pokorsky, Catholic Culture - There is a tension between real and imagined fears. Imaginary fears—or those only partially based on reality—are irrational. Jesus feared the Cross in the Garden, and His fears were realistic. In His anguish at the prospect of the Crucifixion, He prayed, “Father, if thou art willing, remove this cup from me.” We need not deny fears anchored in reality, but we must place our anxieties in service of God’s positive or permissive will. So Jesus concludes, “…nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.”

By Msgr. Charles Pope - When I gave a talk recently at the Institute of Catholic Culture on the subject of the Second Coming, I was I asked to describe what our resurrected bodies will be like. Here is an article I wrote a few years back that details some aspects of our resurrected bodies: St Paul writes to the Philippians of the glory that our currently lowly bodies will one day enjoy: He will change our lowly body to conform with his glorified Body by the power that enables him also to bring all things into subjection to himself (Phil 3:19).