Comments for A Remarkable Renewal at http://www.thecatholicthing.org , comment 1 to 7 out of 7 comments http://www.thecatholicthing.org Sun, 19 May 2013 22:13:57 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2010/a-remarkable-renewal.html#comment-4368 As a sister of 2 priests & the mother of another ordained 4 yrs ago, I think you're right about encouraging vocations in the family...with a big caveat: Encourage doesn't mean push. It means just basically live your Faith with Joy & keep the door open for questions etc. Since my son's ordination, I've had several mothers come up to me & say (2 within earshot of their sons!): He was supposed to be our priest. My heart just broke for their sons being put in that position. And, while I'm at it, I have to agree with the commentor who mentioned women religious too. Our God-daughter has been a Nashville Dominican for the last 3 yrs. The Church in the west has basically been gutted due to lack of Reliable Religious who formed the infrastructure of hospitals, schools etc. In writing an article re: the last 25 yrs, it should be mentioned that our daughters & granddaughters need to see & experience joyfilled women religious because most kids today have never seen one. - gb Sun, 20 Jun 2010 11:27:48 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2010/a-remarkable-renewal.html#comment-4362 "Catholic parents and grandparents need to put that question again now..." When Catholic parents STOP pumping mainstream mass media into their homes, START catechizing their own children (with the Baltimore catechism, preferably), START reading to them from the the gospels and the lives of the saints, we will have more priests and religious than we know what to do with. Far more. As it is, by our negligence we Catholic parents are EFFECTIVELY deciding that we no longer want the Sacraments. We want Monday Night football instead. And no one is challenging us about this. No one. Our Catholic leadership is too preoccupied with adult concerns such abortion, stem cell research, euthenasia etc. to have the time or energy to notice that our Catholic children are not only growing up uncatechised, they are being carried away by oceans of demonically charged electrons. They are being systemmatically catechized to abandon the faith utterly. Overstated? I don't think so. We don't have a vocations crisis. We have a stupidity crisis. A negligence crisis. A self-indulgence crisis. A crisis of willful blindness. - Lee Gilbert Thu, 17 Jun 2010 13:31:45 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2010/a-remarkable-renewal.html#comment-4361 It is of course the world that encourages us to believe that reality consists of what is happening right now - this minute. As children of God we know that reality exists outside of time and in that vast expanse our current problems will be all but forgotten. Even here and now, if we look back through the long history of the Church, many of the terrible scandals of the Middle Ages (which make today's difficulties look like a parking ticket) are obscurities known only to scholars. There is an old saying that I find very comforting: "The dogs bark but the caravan moves on." The dogs have been barking very loudly lately and it can be very disturbing. But as it was pointed out, the dogs are getting older and are starting to die out. Meanwhile our caravan grows stronger. Our enemies try to frighten us and confuse us into focusing too much on the present time but it turns out that time is actually the Church's secret weapon. The Church exists outside of time so time cannot harm us. Our detractors are creatures of the moment so time will destroy them. Time is on our side, yesterday, today and tomorrow. - Margaret Thu, 17 Jun 2010 10:05:56 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2010/a-remarkable-renewal.html#comment-4360 You say:Because we can’t say how many very good potential priests were and are missing for lack of encouragement, good men who were needed not only to help avoid the crisis, but to fight the never-ending good fight. All good. But also nuns, we need more women religious. - Roger Thu, 17 Jun 2010 09:55:13 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2010/a-remarkable-renewal.html#comment-4356 Things are getting better than they were in the last twenty years or so. I am still struck by the arrogance of the cafeteria Catholic and the irreverence with which some priests give Holy Communion. In a secular contemporary culture, such as ours, the gates of hell will not prevail, but how large will the Church be in the end? Where will the faithful be at that final sound of the trumpet? - Willie Thu, 17 Jun 2010 07:22:11 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2010/a-remarkable-renewal.html#comment-4357 Robert Royal's column reminds me of my own experience last month at a conference on the role of philosophy in priestly education, hosted by Mount St. Mary's Seminary in Maryland. (I do not myself teach in a seminary but rather in a typical Catholic university--although not one of the three referenced by the author. I was invited to the conference because some work I am doing may prove useful in the seminary context.) My experience was this: Several seminary professors of philosophy mentioned that, in order to reach today's priest-candidates, they must assure them that the philosophy they are presenting is in line with the mind of the Church. It occurred to me that the situation in typical Catholic universities is very different. The philosophy I present indeed IS in line with the mind of the Church, but if I were to announce this to my students, it would be a kiss of death! This difference in educational contexts reflects, I believe, two points mentioned in today's column: 1)the influence of John Paul II and now Benedict XVI on this generation of seminarians; and 2) the concurrent shift in much of the surrounding intellectual culture--according to which, if ideas bear a resemblance to ones propounded by a religious institution, they can't at the same time be grounded in rational reflection. - Jack Carlson Thu, 17 Jun 2010 05:07:49 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2010/a-remarkable-renewal.html#comment-4355 Yes, there a good signs that the Gates of Hell are not prevailing. They cannot, in the long run. But let us not ingore that there are still those preaching outright heresy from pulpits with impunity and that "Catholic" universities continue to allow "theologians" to undeermine students' faith. Long Live Pope Benedict XVI! Praise the Lord and pass out the Rosaries and Catechisms! The enemy is still at the gates, whispering through the walls to those with itching ears that there is no Truth. In many quarters,the pious are still mocked as "fundamentalists." The faithful can only infer from bishops' refusal to deny Communion to open pro-aborts that the Church is not serious about Life. Meanwhile prioitynis given to denyingn that ourn country has a right to defend its borders against an invasion by innocents whom anyone can see are be used to form a voting bloc that will be used to unwittingly support Marxism. Would anyone care to add this list? It's hardly a challege. - Thomas C. Coleman, Jr. Thu, 17 Jun 2010 02:16:29 +0100