An apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Africa? Or … something else?

Kindly watch this video all the way to the end. Something striking happened here, and I admit that (assuming the video isn’t a hoax, along the lines of the countless bogus UFO videos out there) whatever it is resembles in some ways the traditional Catholic image of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It appears to have been recorded with a smartphone. There is no descriptive information associated with the video except for that it is purported to have been taken in April of 2011 somewhere in “Africa.” Not much to go on.

Whoever posted this on Youtube asks whether it’s really Our Lady appearing or a technology-driven light show courtesy of “Project Bluebeam” — something that I’d never known anything about till I Googled it just now. It’s possible, too, if this isn’t a hoax, that a demonic spirit could be masquerading as the Blessed Virgin Mary (see Galatians 1:8).

The people in this video are obviously quite agitated by whatever it is they are seeing in the sky. Occasionally, their excitement spikes with startled cries and what sound to me like prayers being shouted. What do you think it is? Do any of you have any info on where and when this happened? This could very well be a hoax. Although it could be possibly an actual apparition recorded on a smart phone in a way similar to how images of the Miracle of the Sun during Our Lady’s apparition in Fatima, Portugal, in October, 1917, were photographed.

The last part of the video shows what appears to be a hologram a cross in the sky somewhere over Russia. Whatever is going on here, it’s remarkable.

Vatican Reminder: SSPX ordinations are illegitimate

This tidbit was posted on the Vatican Radio website in early May, but I did not see it till recently:

The recent priestly ordinations celebrated by the Fraternity of Saint Pius X are to be considered “illegitimate”, confirmed Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican Press Office Director, responding to journalists’ questions on Tuesday.  Father Lombardi repeated what was affirmed by Pope Benedict XVI in his Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church of March 10, 2009:

“As long as the Society [of Saint Pius X] does not have a canonical status in the Church, its ministers do not exercise legitimate ministries in the Church (…). Until the doctrinal questions are clarified, the Society has no canonical status in the Church, and its ministers (…) do not legitimately exercise any ministry in the Church.”

A timely reminder: calumny in the blogosphere

In a 2008 edition of Homiletic and Pastoral review Fr. Michael P. Orsi pinpoints one of the serious sins that is, sadly, rampant these days: Calumny. He reminds us point-blank that “Calumnious blogging is a serious offense against God’s law. Those who engage in it are jeopardizing their immortal souls and the souls of others.” As an (intermittent) blogger myself, I know I need to take these words to heart. I think we all do, don’t you?

I sincerely hope that I have not been personally guilty of this sin in anything I have written on my blog (or anywhere else, for that matter). If I have been, I ask forgiveness from God and for anyone whom I may have wounded. As St. Paul said, “I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me” (1 Cor. 4:4).

Let’s consider Fr. Orsi’s admonishment, especially given the tumult of today’s new announcement about Fr. Corapi . . .

Calumny and its close relative detraction (derogatory comments that reveal the hidden faults or sins of another without reason) have been part of life since the dawn of time. But opportunities for breaking the Eighth Commandment have proliferated with the advent of the Internet, especially since the rise of the phenomenon known as “blogging.”

“Blog” is one of those punchy little contractions we live with today, an example of the technological shorthand so beloved in our culture of email and text messaging. A blog (short for “weblog”) is a personal website or online journal. Blogs perform a variety of communication functions, combining elements of both private conversation and broadcasting, usually incorporating a forum for interactive discussion.

Blogs are vehicles of global self-expression, something unprecedented in the history of human discourse. They are a means by which the average person—with creativity, initiative and the investment of time—can reach limitless numbers of readers anywhere in the world. They elevate the marketing presence of entrepreneurs and small companies to levels that used to be attainable only by major corporations. And they have transformed journalism, breaking the monopolies of resource and licensure that once restricted entry into the world of mass communications.

There are tens of thousands of blogs today: personal, educational, commercial, political, philosophical, religious—you name it. In fact, the presence of Catholics in what has come to be called the “blogosphere” is one of the great untold stories of modern evangelism and religious communication.

An especially compelling element of blogging is the ability to project one’s ideas, observations and opinions with near-complete anonymity. It is common blogger practice to adopt an online persona—usually some cute name or title with relevance to the main focus of the blog. Likewise, readers who comment on blog postings or participate in discussions can set their views before the world without revealing themselves. Service providers that host blogs routinely permit such anonymity, and the law has upheld the practice (in only a handful of court cases have providers been forced to unmask their blogging clients).

But the power to reach a wide audience while remaining in the shadows has proven a source of great temptation. All too many online commentators have been dazzled by this technology that magnifies personal identity and stokes the ego while providing a shield from the consequences of their words. Whole new avenues of calumny have been the result.

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All who are distressed & unsettled by the Fr. Corapi situation should ponder these words …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let nothing disturb you.
Let nothing dismay you.
All thing are passing.
God never changes.
Patience attains all that it strives for.
He who has God finds he lacks nothing.
God alone suffices.

— St. Teresa of Avila

The sound of a dial-up modem like you’ve never heard it before

Back in 1996, you were hot stuff if you logged on to the Internet using 56K dial-up modem. It was, for a time, the fastest “onramp” to the World Wide Interwebs. We’re all familiar with the quaint, old-fashioned sound of a dial-up modem.
Hearing that old familiar electronic melody again now, in the era of Broadband, may trigger in some of you a Pavlovian drool response that coincides with a subconscious expectation of hearing “You’ve got mail!” bleated at the end of it.

Anyway, you might find this audio clip interesting. It’s a recording of the sounds produced by a dial-up modem, sounds you’ve heard countless times before in your life, though never like this. It’s been slowed wayyyyy down and sounds both dreamily futuristic, fascinating, and darkly ominous as it progresses. You know, kind of like the Internet.

The Pontifical College Josephinum: Forming Renaissance Priests for the 21st Century

I’m happy and grateful to say that this is where I did my studies in philosophy (B.Phil.) and theology (M.A.). The Pontifical College Josephinum is a great school, and it’s getting even better, as you’ll see from this video. Any of you young men who are contemplating the diocesan priesthood should ask your bishop if he’d consider sending you to the Josephinum for your seminary formation. You (and he) won’t regret it.

Turning the table on atheists

 

 

 

 

 

 
Here’s the text of my recent interview with the Catholic news service ZENIT on the question: What would happen if Christians turned the tables on atheists and challenged them on their belief that God doesn’t exist?

This is the premise of the book The Godless Delusion: A Catholic Challenge to Modern Atheism, written by Patrick Madrid and Kenneth Hensley (Our Sunday Visitor), in which the internal contradictions of a non-belief in God, as well as the various incoherencies in the atheistic worldview, are exposed.

According to Madrid, “atheists are not accustomed to Christians subjecting atheism to a rigorous critique on its own merits. This is why our primary goal was to take a different approach by providing a philosophical critique of atheism itself.”

Madrid is the author or editor of 16 books, the director of the Envoy Institute of Belmont Abbey College, the publisher of Envoy Magazine, and host of the Thursday edition of EWTN Radio’s “Open Line” broadcast (3-5 p.m. ET). In this 2-part interview … Madrid discusses the primary goals of writing The Godless Delusion, as well as the precarious foundations of the naturalistic morality of atheism.

ZENIT: As you state in your book, atheists have been around for years, but there have also been various Catholic and Protestant responses to atheism. What is unique about your approach to atheism and your understanding of atheists?

MADRID: Given that other Catholic books have already decisively refuted atheism’s major arguments against God, when Kenneth Hensley and I began outlining chapters for The Godless Delusion, we knew it wasn’t necessary for us to write the same sort of book (three superb examples of which are: The Last Superstition: A Refutation of the New Atheism, by Edward Feser, Handbook of Catholic Apologetics, by Jesuit Father Ronald Tacelli and Peter Kreeft, and Theology and Sanity, by Frank Sheed).

Atheists are accustomed to being the aggressor when engaging Christians. They attack and Christians defend. But atheists are not accustomed to having the tables turned, and to defend atheist principles. They are not accustomed to Christians subjecting atheism to a rigorous critique on its own merits.

This is why our primary goal was to take a different approach by providing a philosophical critique of atheism itself — one that would highlight its internal contradictions and incoherencies and demonstrate what we believe to be the atheist worldview’s abject inability to account for various immaterial realities we all know and experience, e.g., love, knowledge, goodness, evil, self-awareness, memory, human rights, etc.

Second, we wanted to subject atheism to a strictly rational, philosophical critique that would not rely on evidence for the existence of God found in divine revelation: Christ, Scripture, the Church, miracles, etc. Those things are, of course, rejected out of hand by atheists as wholly irrelevant and inadmissible, so we felt it would be useful for our readers to understand how to critique and refute atheism without ever having to engage in directly proving the existence of God.

At the outset of the book, we specify a premise with which all atheists would agree: Either God exists or he does not exist. There is no possibility of a third option. Thus, if it can be conclusively proven that God does not exist, then atheism is true and we should all become atheists. The corollary is equally true: If atheism itself is false, then by default, God must exist. In The Godless Delusion, our fundamental goal is to demonstrate that God must exist, but only indirectly, by showing that atheism is false. (continue reading)

Watch Sam Klemke go 35 years back in time

This is clever and very far sighted. You’ll see an interesting transformation of this man as he regresses from the present day back to 1976. Actually, in some ways he changes quite a bit. In other ways, hardly at all. In any case, this is an interesting way of looking at the last 35 years. P.S. I found it noteworthy that one of the folks who commented on this video at Youtube told the author that watching this video brought home to him the fact that “my life was flying by” and it was enough of an encouragement/inspiration to him that he quit doing drugs. If nothing else, the video can at least remind us that “Tempus fugit. Memento mori.” I mean that in a good way 😉
 

2 Franciscan brothers, who are also twin brothers, die on same day at age 92

Brother Julian Reister and his twin brother, Brother Adrian Reister died of old age on Wednesday at a hospital in St. Petersberg, Florida. They both were professed friars in the Franciscan order for over 65 years. “They became known as accomplished artisans who expressed their talents as gardeners and woodworkers, turning out tables and cabinets from their workshop in the garage of St. Bonaventure’s Franciscan Friary,” one news source says of them.

May perpetual light shine upon them, O Lord, and may their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed, through Your mercy, rest in peace. Amen.

From the moment of their birth in Buffalo 92 years ago, twin brothers Julian and Adrian Riester rarely left each other’s side.

They played together, went to school together, as young men traveled cross-country together — and, in their 20s, joined the Franciscan order together.

And on Wednesday, after 65 years as identical twins wearing the identical brown robes of the Franciscans — mostly at St. Bonaventure University — Brother Julian Riester and Brother Adrian Riester died together at St. Anthony Hospital in St. Petersburg, Fla. Julian died Wednesday morning, followed by Adrian in the evening. Those who knew the Riesters best say they are not surprised at all.

“If ever there is a confirmation that God favored them, this is it,” said their cousin and close friend Michael Riester of Buffalo. “They weren’t even separated for 12 hours.”

The biological brothers were also religious brothers, committed to the monastic life of Franciscan friars, not as priests but in roles as physical laborers.

During two stints at St. Bonaventure, from 1951 to 1956 and from 1973 to 2009, “the twins” were a common sight strolling in lockstep across campus — or, in later years after a few “incidents” resulted in loss of their driver’s licenses, on identical bicycles wearing identical helmets. . . .

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My EWTN “Book Mark” interview about “150 Bible Verses Every Catholic Should Know”

Here’s a discussion I had with Doug Keck a couple of years ago regarding my book 150 Bible Verses Every Catholic Should Know. As time permits, I’ll try to post all the other “Book Marks” interviews I’ve done.

Here’s a new cause you can, uh . . . get behind

Amazon carries everything under the sun! Even things that pertain to where the sun don’t shine — like, for an example, these new ribbons dedicated to promoting the cause of raising “Diarrhea Awareness.”  My guess is that, if you yourself are living with this challenging condition, you’re probably already well enough aware of its presence that you don’t need a ribbon to remind you of it.

A brief biblical primer on divorce and remarriage

It’s no secret that an immense number of people today have been divorced and remarried. Given that many of them are at best only vaguely familiar (if at all) with Scripture’s teaching on this issue, it’s important for us to remind ourselves and those we know and care about of what the biblical foundation is for the Catholic Church’s teaching  on divorce and remarriage.

Here’s a little primer I wrote that highlights the major biblical passages and pertinent paragraphs from the Catechism that pertain to this subject. [N.B., It does not address the question of those Catholics who, after a divorce, have petitioned for and received a declaration of nullity (i.e., an “annulment”), but rather, focuses on those who, simply divorce their husbands and wives and attempt to remarry or who “live in sin” with another man or woman.] I hope you find it helpful. Please feel free to share it with others.

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