Talk Show Host AL KRESTA will be speaking this Monday 11/9 night at St. John the Baptist at 7:30 pm. 

Kresta will be speaking on “the 4 clubs” used most often  to beat up on the Catholic Church—and he will give you four “killer questions”  to put to anyone swingin’ those clubs. 

Kresta, a former Protestant Pastor turned Catholic Media Missionary and Founder of the Ave Maria Radio Network, will also broadcast LIVE from the Redeemer Radio studio on Monday, November 9 between 4 and 6 pm on Redeemer Radio, Catholic Radio, AM 1450 .

In the Fall issue of the Notre Dame Magazine former ND President Fr. Ted Hesburgh praises Obama’s visit:

This year’s commencement was indeed “a defining moment” for Notre Dame because we didn’t duck the big issue of our times and the horrendous fact of so many millions of unborn children being coldly killed that brought this to a head. I trust that all of this will have an effect on the national debate and, hopefully, we will see greater efforts to, at least for now, lower the number of abortions and come up with positive programs to help unfortunate women who find themselves in this difficult situation and are persuaded to take the easy way out. Thanks for delineating the issue front and center.

Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, CSC
Notre Dame, Indiana

Is this 1989 or 2009? Back then JP2 and Reagan oversaw the rapid disintegration of the Soviet Union. Are Benedict and Obama catalysts for a return to Rome?

Zenit and Typika report:

A Bulgarian Orthodox prelate told Benedict XVI of his desire for unity, and his commitment to accelerate communion with the Catholic Church.

At the end of Wednesday’s general audience, Bishop Tichon, head of the diocese for Central and Western Europe of the Patriarchate of Bulgaria, stated to the Pope, “We must find unity as soon as possible and finally celebrate together,” L’Osservatore Romano reported.

“People don’t understand our divisions and our discussions,” the bishop stated. He affirmed that he will “not spare any efforts” to work for the quick restoration of “communion between Catholics and Orthodox.”

Bishop Tichon said that “the theological dialogue that is going forward in these days in Cyprus is certainly important, but we should not be afraid to say that we must find as soon as possible the way to celebrate together.”

“A Catholic will not become an Orthodox and vice versa, but we must approach the altar together,” he added.

www.SouthernCatholicChicks.com… Great blog from two former Episcopalian southern “chicks” who started wondering what they were “protesting” as Protestants!

SouthernCatholicChicks.com

The priest as Hero! Amazing film by Grassroot Films and USCCB

Did you attend the Catholic Radio Conference in Alabama this past week sponsored by the Catholic Radio Association and EWTN? If so leave a comment and give us a report. I’d expect the Spirit was moving in Birmingham!

CatholicCulture.org reported comments from  Msgr. Anthony R. Frontiero. Msgr Frontiero is a priest of the Diocese of Manchester (New Hampshire) who began to work in the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace in 2006:

“[N]eutrality toward world views cannot be truly tolerant and respectful. Likewise, an absence of convictions does not define tolerance; and in the absence of some compelling notion of the truth that requires us to be tolerant of those who have a different understanding of the truth of things, there is only skepticism and relativism.”He continued:

An authentic notion of tolerance in pluralistic societies demands that in their dealings with unbelievers and those of different faiths, believers should grasp that they must reasonably expect that the dissent they encounter will go on existing. At the same time, however, secular political cultures must encourage unbelievers to grasp the same point in their dealings with believers. When secularized citizens act in their role as citizens, they must [not] deny in principle that religious images of the world have the potential to express truth. Nor must they refuse their believing fellow citizens the right to make contributions in a religions language to public debates.

Rachel Campos-Duffy star of the ground-breaking MTV Real World show spoke with Sean Herriot on Relevant Radio’s Morning Air today – about her new book “Stay Home, Stay Happy:  10 Secrets to Loving At-Home Motherhome“  as well as her recent appearance on The View TV show.

Article by Michael Coren at CatholicEducation.org discusses Catholic Bashing – the Last Acceptable Prejudice

Today secularism is the ideology of fashion but Catholicbashing, the last acceptable prejudice in polite society, is the toxin the runs through the contemporary bloodstream of Western liberal society.

And he continues:

Christ didn’t leave a bible but a guide and a guard: the pope, the Church, all shaping the faith long before the New Testament was written and available. So it’s not a question of choosing what to believe but choosing to believe. Protestants broke the direct tradition leading from God on Earth and many of their 22,000 denominations ordain women, married men and active homosexuals. And the more liberal of the variety — Anglican, United and their American and European cousins — are hemorrhaging members to such a degree that they’re likely to effectively disappear within a generation. But the inclusion of almost everybody as a minister is as much as symptom as a cause

CNA reports that Benedict XVI held up twelfth-century Abbot of Cluny Peter the Venerable as an example for all Christians:

he explained to the 20,000 pilgrims, “constituted the ideal of a monk, but also of every Christian who wants to become a true disciple of Christ” in today’s fast-paced world.

Born in 1094 in Auvergne, France, Peter the Venerable was elected as Abbot of Cluny in 1122. Peter,  the Pope said, “found himself having to guide Cluny in years that were far from peaceful for internal and external reasons.”

Despite his pressing responsibilities and frequent travels in the service of the Church, Peter maintained a contemplative spirit, deep inner tranquility, rigorous asceticism and a capacity for warm friendships.

“Those who knew him exalted his righteousness, loyalty, elegance and special ability to mediate,” the Holy Father recalled. The abbot was “ascetic and strict with himself and understanding with others.”

Pope Benedict also recounted some of the monk’s sayings, such as, “more can be obtained from man through tolerance than complaint” and “With those who hate we should always be peaceful.”

FreeTheND88.com – the site sponsored by the Thomas More Law Society posts comments from Prof. Rice’s recent open letter to Fr. Jenkins. The Society which won the landmark NOW vs Scheidler Supreme Court cases – is now taking on Jenkins and Notre Dame in defense of the 88 Pro-Life protesters arrested on the ND campus prior to Obama’s visit.

Professor Emeritus Charles E. Rice of Notre Dame Law School is circulating an Open Letter to Notre Dame President Father John M. Jenkins in which he highlights the “deficiencies” in Jenkins recent “pro-life” announcement. We will get to that in a moment but let’s skip right to the best part — a scathing passage which comes at the end of what is an absolutely relentless, methodical 2,500-word annihilation of the flimsy and now-teetering justifications put forward by the University for sitting on their hands while the criminal justice systems grinds down on the 88 people arrested last May now facing trial for criminal trespass.

Benedict XVI canonized five new saints

The Church has five new Saints. A French woman who dedicated her life to care of the elderly and abandoned, a tireless Dominican preacher, a Trappist Cistercian Oblate monk and mystic, a Polish bishop and defender of the faith and a Belgian missionary who gave himself to the lepers on the margins of 19^th century society. Sunday was a day of celebration here at the Vatican, for these five people, who in Pope Benedict XVI’s own words show us that in gifting ourselves totally to Christ, in going against the trend we can reach perfection.

Thousands converged on St Peters basilica for the ceremony, from Spain, Poland, Belgium and Hawaii, the overspill filling St Peter’s Square waving their flags, holding aloft their banners. They watched closely as, Archbishop Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Angelo Amato read the names of those to be inscribed on the role of saints.

EWTN and the Catholic Radio Association are sponsoring this year’s Catholic Radio Conference October 14-17 in Alabama. Speakers include Most Reverand Robert J. Baker, S.T.D., Bishop of Birmingham, Alabama, Most Rev. Michael J. Sheehan, Archbishop of Santa Fe, New Mexico, Fr. Mitch Pacwa, S.J, Host of EWTN Open Line, EWTN Live & Threshold of Hope and Kelly Donahue, FCC Audio Division Attorney, Media Bureau.

RomeReports.com reports:

Miles away from home Cardinal Francis George took the mic at University of Lateranense, ready to discuss his latest book: The Difference God Makes.

A book, the President of the U.S Conference of Catholic Bishops says is about relationships and the role religion plays in peoples lives.

But aside from his written message, others are also interested in the relationship between U.S bishops and the White House.

Card. Francis George
President U.S Conference of Catholic Bishops
I think our country can be proud from having slavery in our constitution in the beginning to now having an African-American president, and we are proud of that”.

But bishops in the U.S are not proud of all the policies set by President Barack Obama, he calls some divisive.