Feature

Communicators hear how blogging is another way for church to evangelize

July 2, 2012

INDIANAPOLIS - Blogging offers the Catholic Church one more way to evangelize for the faith while reaching new audiences, especially young people, a panel of Catholic bloggers told a packed room during the Catholic Media Conference in Indianapolis. The panelists, which included Bishop Christopher J. Coyne, apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, a frequent user of Twitter, agreed that while not all bloggers are official church representatives, the relatively new but quickly growing form of communication has influenced how the church spreads its message.

"Green" designation for historic Quebec church

July 2, 2012

St. Joachim’s, a small, historic parish in Châteauguay, Que., is going environmentally friendly in a big way. The parish has joined “Green Church,” a national program developed by the Centre for Ecumenism that assists churches in adopting environmental practices, like becoming more energy and water efficient and buying local or organic. St. Joachim is the first parish in the Valleyfield diocese to be recognized as eco-friendly, adopting the Green Church slogan, “For the love of God, let’s take care of the Earth.”

Missionary orders try to maintain their relevance in the modern age

July 1, 2012

TORONTO - English Canada’s missionary orders will not go gentle into that good night without first issuing a warning. “The missionary groups, are they the canaries of the Church? If they die out, do we cease to be Church?” asks Fr. Brian Swords, newly elected moderator of the Scarboro Missions. “If we cease to be, does that not suggest there’s something wrong?” The majority of Scarboro priests are now past retirement age. The youngest ordained member is 53. There are two men in formation, with one just recently ordained a deacon and the other studying theology. The Scarboros also include a dozen lay missionaries.

Protestant interest in Shroud of Turin grows

June 28, 2012

BURLINGTON, ONT. - It can be dangerous to say so, but there is no real proof that the Shroud of Turin is authentic. Even the Vatican has never pronounced itself on the authenticity of the world’s most famous piece of linen. There’s no historical record of it before 1390. Skeptics ask what are the odds that for more than 1,000 years Christians ignored the existence of an image that accurately records Jesus’ likeness at the time of His crucifixion? In the 14th century there was an enormous industry which produced, bought and sold relics. There were, of course, genuine relics. But the real thing could never possibly satisfy demand for ever more, and ever more dramatic, remembrances of holiness. A shroud somehow recovered from the empty tomb of Jesus — like all the vials of precious blood, and the many, many nails from Jesus’ cross — would surely have been a money maker.

'E-giving' making a positive difference in some parishes' offertories

June 24, 2012

WASHINGTON - For generations of Catholics, "E" has stood for envelope -- the Sunday offertory envelope. In today's digital age, though, that "E" may be shifting to "e-giving," an electronic and automatic deduction from your bank account to help pay for the costs of running and maintaining the parish. One company, Faith Direct, has said its client parishes are seeing revenue increases as high as 30 percent. Our Sunday Visitor's Offertory Solutions subsidiary likewise estimates that parishioners who use its "Online Giving" option contribute up to 30 percent more than they would had they stuck with the envelope system.

Space School: Vatican Observatory supports rising stars in astronomy

June 22, 2012

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy - It looked like a mini-United Nations, but the attendees were wearing shorts and T-shirts and, over coffee, they talked about the birth of star clusters rather than a ban on cluster bombs. Also, the location wasn't Manhattan or Geneva, but a refurbished monastery immersed in the papal gardens behind the pope's summer villa south of Rome. The 25 young men and women from 23 different countries were future astronomers and astrophysicists brought together by the Vatican Observatory to spend the month of June discussing "The Formation and Evolution of Stellar Clusters," which are groups of stars populating the galaxies.

Vatican plans for Year of Faith include hymn, Mass, packed calendar

June 21, 2012

VATICAN CITY - With a hymn and a prayer, Italian Archbishop Rino Fisichella presented the Vatican's initial calendar of events for the Year of Faith, which begins with a Mass Oct. 11 in St. Peter's Square. Archbishop Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization, said the Pope has invited as concelebrants bishops and theologians who, like the pontiff, served as members or experts at the 1962-65 Second Vatican Council.

Summer institute for teachers aims to bring catechism out of the shadows

June 16, 2012

Paul Coates attended the first annual Wojtyla Summer Institute for Catholic teachers last summer at Our Lady Seat of Wisdom in Barry’s Bay, Ont., and he wasn’t disappointed by the experience. “The speakers were interesting, the material … highly learned, and inspired by faith,” Coates, a philosophy teacher and chair of the religion department at Father Leo J. Austin Catholic Secondary School in Whitby, Ont., said of the institute, which last year was based on the theology of the body.

Mass confusion: Misunderstanding at root of 'liturgy wars'

June 15, 2012

VATICAN CITY - Half a century after the start of the Second Vatican Council, the reform of the liturgy initiated there has not lost its power to stoke controversy. On June 13, after years of on-again-off-again talks with the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X, which effectively broke from Rome almost 25 years ago to protest the teachings of Vatican II and subsequent changes to the Mass, the Vatican announced that the traditionalists had been formally offered terms of reconciliation.

Young people at eucharistic congress bring legacy of World Youth Day

June 15, 2012

DUBLIN - As the plainchant of "Tantum Ergo" drew the eucharistic procession to a close, the presiding prelates began to filter away. That's when some trip hop music erupted at the back of the massive assembly of pilgrims, which moments before had been on its knees in prayer and adoration.