Meet Me In Minnesota: Saturday, January 9, 2010

December 15, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog

I’m grateful to have been invited to speak at the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’s 7th annual apologetics conference, next month on January 9th, 2010. I hope many of you will be able to join us there. Please help me spread the word by sharing this blog post with your friends and family who might be able to make it to the conference. More details and a downloadable conference flyer are available here.

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An 82 Year Old Woman Blasts Me For Warning Against Centering Prayer

December 15, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
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Last Thursday, while I was taking questions on the “Catholic Answers Live” radio program, a lady called in to ask my opinion on what’s commonly called “centering prayer” in some Catholic circles. I gave my opinion and, as you will hear in this clip, she did not like it, not one little bit.

I’m glad she called in, though, not just because I hope that maybe someday, upon further reflection, what I said about the dangers of centering prayer and how many of its practitioners are just factory-repping Hindu mysticism to gullible Catholics under the guise of “contemplative prayer” will sink in and lead to a change of heart for this woman. I am also glad she called because she’s not unlike many Catholics who dabble in this dangerous “spirituality,” opening the door to the serpent who wants so very, very much to find its way into and uncoil itself within as many unsuspecting souls as it can find.

The workshop on centering prayer which I (unwittingly) attended back in the mid-80s was loaded with rubbish about chakras and “awakening the dormant serpent within,” all under the carefully presented disguise of “Catholic contemplative prayer.” Check out the links below for more on that.

For those who wonder about what I say in this audio clip about “chakras,” the difference between centering prayer and authentic Catholic contemplative prayer, etc., you can see more about what I mean here, here, and especially here.

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Share This Funeral Sermon With Your Parish Priest

December 15, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
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I had not been familiar with Msgr. Charles Pope (of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C.) until recently, when some of his trenchant blog posts began popping up on the New Advent blog aggregator page. The one I saw there this morning is well worth bringing to your attention. It’s the Monsignor’s reflection on why priests must preach about the four last things — death, judgment, heaven, and hell — rather than merely deliver a comfortably bland message about how God loves us all.

Would that every Catholic priest was preaching funeral sermons that included, in addition to words of comfort and consolation for the grieving family, a clear and compelling call to conversion to each one who attends the funeral Mass.

“Because too many people are not [ready to meet God]. They’re just goofing off, laughing their way through life, like everything’s a big joke. They don’t pray, they don’t trust God, they’re not in Church on Sunday, they’re in serious mortal sin, and they think they’re going to be ready to meet God, and it does not work that way.”

Take a listen . . .

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Interesting Comments From a Protestant Who Listens to Catholic Radio

December 10, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
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25 Comments

I ran across this post today from an Evangelical Protestant commentator named Michael Spencer. He described how he spent the better part of a day recently listening to and thinking about Catholic radio and the greater and lesser degrees of effectiveness of the men and women who host shows on Catholic radio networks like EWTN.

Though I don’t agree with all his observations (in response to one particular remark, for example, I’d assert that Scott Hahn is every bit the “intellectual heavy-weight Protestants make him out to be”), I found myself agreeing with some and, on a few points, agreeing wholeheartedly.

But even in the areas where I do not agree with Mr. Spencer, I can surely sympathize with his situation as a Protestant who admits to being “very open to what Catholicism has to say,” and I can see how he might come to some of the conclusions he reaches, even if I, a Catholic, might disagree with those conclusions.

One reason for my sympathy is that so much of the radio medium is really predicated on the Latin maxim: de gustibus non disputandum est, which could be somewhat loosely translated as “there is no use in arguing in matters of taste.” Another way to say it: “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”

His comments interested me in part because I myself host a Catholic radio call-in show called “Open Line” (Thursdays at 3:00 pm ET on EWTN Radio), so, I’m naturally curious to know what listeners think about such programming, especially my non-Catholic listeners. I was also fascinated by the fact that some of Mr. Spencer’s Catholic friends actually discouraged him from listening to Catholic radio, saying it presented a “distorted” picture of the Catholic Church. I find that tidbit very telling indeed. It’s not anything new, of course, but it says a lot about just how widely divergent some Catholics are when it comes to what they think constitutes an accurate portrayal of “The Catholic Church.”

Not knowing exactly what his Catholic friends may have meant by that warning, I can only conjecture. But I’ve heard that same claim before about EWTN-esque Catholic radio being “distorted,” and I personally don’t buy it. True, I play a very minor role in the larger Catholic radio enterprise, so I am biased, but I really believe that networks like EWTN are, far from distorting Catholicism, actually projecting the Catholic Church, at least in its American, Latin American, and European experience, as it really is, and has been, and should be, and could be. Of course, it goes without saying that there is far, far more to the Catholic Church culturally than its expression within an American or European context, but theologically, I would argue, what EWTN strives to purvey is historic, orthodox Catholicism. I know that for a fact.

The problem, as I see it, is that there has bee
n so much genuine distortion within the American Catholic experience over the past 50 years or so, with plenty of obscuring and redefining and outright denying of orthodox Catholic teaching and piety, that now, after looking through badly scratched lenses (or listening through ears badly clogged with the earwax of dissent and confusion), many today who are finally coming into contact with real Catholicism find, at least at first perhaps, that their eyes and ears hurt a bit from the experience.

But then, that’s just me. I’d be curious to know what you think, especially those of you who listen to Catholic radio.

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Weird Lights Over Norway — What the Heck Is This?

December 9, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
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One news site carries this breathless headline: “Mysterious light appears over Norway before Obama Peace Prize speech.”

I don’t know about all that, but I do know that this is a very odd light in the sky. As a born-&-raised native of Southern California, I have seen with my own eyes several of those spectacular missile launches from Vandenberg AFB and the amazing lightshows they can give off in the night sky. But this doesn’t look anything like those. I’m not sure what to make of this. What do you think?

A mysterious light display appearing over Norway last night has left thousands of residents in the north of the country baffled.

Witnesses from Trøndelag to Finnmark compared the amazing sight to anything from a Russian rocket to a meteor or a shock wave – although no one appears to have mentioned UFOs yet.

The phenomenon began when what appeared to be a blue light seemed to soar up from behind a mountain. It stopped mid-air, then began to circulate. . . . (read more)

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Senator Feinstein says it's "morally correct" to force tax-payers to fund abortion

December 9, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
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Cardinal George of Chicago on "The Difference God Makes"

December 8, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
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More Proof That More U.S. Catholic Bishops Are Leading the Charge in the Abortion Battle

December 8, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
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After the dreary wilderness years of the 70s, 80s, and 90s, when many Catholic bishops in the United States practiced a kind of know-nothingism in their silence and lack of real, out-front leadership on life issues, such as abortion, things are quickly changing. Individually and corporately, the American bishops are starting to lead the Church in the right direction: the battlefront.

Everyone knows that abortion is the white-hot center of this generation’s pitched battle against evil. Abortion is this generation’s equivalent of slavery, which was the primary social evil 19th-century America. Good triumphed over evil when the horror of legalized slavery was abolished and eradicated. And today, the evil of legalized abortion is an even more wide-spread, more urgent menace to a truly free society.

Catholic bishops are no longer silent in the face of this national tragedy. They are throwing off the shackles of silence and timidity. In increasing numbers, stalwart bishops are leading from the front, showing the way forward and, by their own example of fearless engagement of today’s pro-abortion extremists, they are sounding a clear trumpet note for Catholics to rally. “For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?” (1 Cor. 14:8).

The pro-abortion extremists know this, and their consternation is palpable and rising. A good example of this is the most recent attack on the U.S. Catholic bishops, this time by Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, of Kennedy Clan fame (she is RFK’s eldest child).

Not only can the Catholic bishops who are leading from the front and taking a courageous stand on this issue take satisfaction in Ms. Kennedy Townsend’s shrill hectoring here, they can take hope in the fact that, as their efforts prove more and more effective in turning the tide of this long-standing struggle for human rights for unborn children (human rights which Ms. Kennedy Townsend and the other pro-abortion extremists she is inveigled by and beholden to), this rising clamor of agitated “Catholic” voices, like Kennedy-Townsend’s, is clear evidence that they — the pro-abortion extremists — are deeply worried that they will not carry the day, now that the Catholic bishops have stepped into the fray.

Watch this battle scene from the superb movie “Glory.” Starting at the 4:00 minute mark, you will see depicted in that Civil War battle what we are beginning to see now from an increasing number of good bishops, men who are valiantly leading the charge in our generation’s equivalent of the War Against Slavery — the War Against Abortion.

Onward, Christian soldiers. You are fighting the good fight.

On health care, the bishops have lost their way

By KATHLEEN KENNEDY TOWNSEND | 12/8/09 4:56 AM EST

The Roman Catholic bishops need more time. That is the recent word from Sen. Ben Nelson — news reports noted that before he introduces his amendment to restrict women’s access to coverage under health care reform, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops needs more time to review it.

Why is it that the bishops are more concerned with restricting millions of American women from making health care decisions that are best for them and their families than they are with ensuring that millions of Americans — women, men, children, immigrants, the poor, the middle class — get much-needed health insurance?

As a Catholic, I dare say it’s because the Conference of Catholic Bishops has lost its way. For example, in Missouri, the Catholic Conference issued an e-mail alert urging “those who are opposed to health care reform but are also pro-life” to “stay focused on the abortion issue and get the Stupak-like amendment adopted in the Senate.”

Really? As Catholics, are we so laser focused on the issue of abortion that we are willing to join tea partiers and the like to bring down the health care reform bill? And at the enormous expense of millions of Americans who suffer every day because they can’t afford to get checkups, because they must choose bankruptcy in order to save the life of their loved one?

Not this Catholic. As someone who was raised by a family absolutely committed to public service and to making sure that our nation provides health care to the least among us, I am devastated that the bishops are using their influence to try not to increase access to health care for the millions of people who don’t have insurance. Where is their passion for the families who need health care?

I hope that members of the U.S. Senate will defeat Nelson’s amendment when it’s introduced and keep the health care reform efforts moving forward. There is already a carefully crafted, reasonable and abortion-neutral compromise in the Senate health care reform bill. It is neither pro-abortion rights nor anti-abortion. It is simply pro-health care. . . . (etc., etc., etc.)

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The 6 Weirdest, Scariest Processed Foods

December 7, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
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Okay, I have to admit that, at one time or another, over the years, I’ve managed to consume all but one of the things on this list, the exception being avocado-free guacamole. (That reminds of the once-popular I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter “breakfast spread product.”) Luckily, it’s been ages since any of these items passed my lips. In this, I’m probably like most contemporary Americans, because most of us have eating this stuff for years, at least until we read the labels and figure out what kind of weird stuff is in them and then stop eating them.

I shudder to image what foods we routinely eat today will end up on some “scariest foods” list 10 years down the road.

Once upon a time, some brave scientists had a noble dream of ridding our food of the plague of nutrients.

Today, at the start of the 21st century, the miracle of food processing has brought that dream closer to reality than ever before. From vitamin-free “blueberry bits” to spray-can cheese to avocado-free guacamole, food scientists have worked tirelessly to bring us new and exciting foods that contain as little nutrition as possible. Even apparently “healthy” foods such as soups have been ingeniously overloaded with so much salt you feel as if you’re eating French fries.

In this article, we’ll provide a handy guide to six uniquely unnatural processed foods that will hopefully serve as a blueprint for humanity’s eventual triumph over the tyrannical fist of Mother Nature. . . . (continue reading)