{"id":2848,"date":"2007-02-22T10:46:39","date_gmt":"2007-02-22T10:46:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2007\/02\/yes-i-will-blog-again.html"},"modified":"2007-02-22T10:46:39","modified_gmt":"2007-02-22T10:46:39","slug":"yes-i-will-blog-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/02\/yes-i-will-blog-again.html","title":{"rendered":"Yes, I will blog again"},"content":{"rendered":"

…this is the first day in about 10 days that I’ve been alone in this house and able to work, what with snow days, fog days and sick days (and judging from Joseph’s demeanor when I left him off at school this morning, today might turn into an another sick day after all..he was viewing his classmates with the same wariness that he looked at them for the first week of school.I’m just waiting for that phone call). <\/p>\n

Which means I’m now a week behind in my schedule of Stuff I’m Doing. Look for an entry or two later today.<\/p>\n

I’ll just leave you with a couple of notes:<\/p>\n

John Allen reports on a talk given last night at Seton Hall by Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, the Preacher of the Papal Household<\/a> (interesting info on Cantalamessa’s background in the Charismatic movement, which for him began there, in New Jersey, decades ago).<\/p>\n

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When Capuchin Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, the Preacher of the Papal Household, finished speaking to an overflow crowd at Seton Hall University last night, the applause was loud and sustained. It continued to build until hundreds of people were on their feet delivering a standing ovation. Cantalamessa sat for a moment, clearly uncomfortable, and then stood. He turned to face a large crucifix suspended behind the lectern and began to clap in its direction, gradually leading his audience to direct its thanks to God rather than to him.<\/p>\n

Though Cantalamessa had preached for almost an hour, this simple gesture may have been his most eloquent statement of the night \u2013 not only about his theological convictions, but also his deep Franciscan humility.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Vatican says no to Call to Action:<\/a><\/p>\n

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The Vatican’s highest court said it has no jurisdiction over a decision by Bishop Fabian W. Bruskewitz of Lincoln that Catholics in his diocese who are members of a dozen organizations were automatically excommunicated.<\/p>\n

In the wake of the ruling, Bishop Bruskewitz renewed his invitation to Call to Action Nebraska members to leave that organization and return to full communion with the church.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Fr. Z has a tidbit:<\/a><\/p>\n

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The Pope seems to have announced the imminent <\/strong>release of the Post-Synodal Exhortation during a meeting with the priests of the Diocese of Rome, this morning, in the Hall of Blessings in the Apostolic Palace.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The Washington Post has an article on the Archdiocesan effort to revitalize the Sacrament of Reconciliation. <\/a><\/p>\n

(In case you’ve missed it, the text of Archbishop Wuerl’s pastorl letter (pdf) <\/a><\/p>\n

And don’t forget Archbishop Gomez’ letter on Mercy and Reconciliation, linked in the post below)<\/p>\n

John Farrell shares reflections on a writer who influenced him greatly – and sounds worth a rediscovery:<\/a><\/p>\n

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What I do know is that his words were the first to arouse my sense of religious honor. There\u2019s no other way to put it. There is an undilutable strain of masculinity that runs through Judaism and Christianity–and it was meant to summon men to a sense of themselves, to a sense of the masculinity of the law, and the masculinity of fulfilling it. Baeck\u2019s writing brought that home to me in a way that \u2013up till that time\u2014no Christian writer had. (Chesterton and Knox were still in my future.)<\/p>\n

That is what happened to me when I opened the cover of Baeck\u2019s book. I heard someone remind me what my long-neglected duty was. The fact that I was a Christian made his words even more impressive, for I was full of doubts at the time. In retrospect I would say that I was intellectually unexercised, untested. A flabby cradle-Catholic whose deepest acquaintance with theology up to that time was C.S. Lewis\u2019 Screwtape Letters<\/span>. Much as I like Lewis, that doesn\u2019t say much for my spiritual formation.<\/p>\n

The words of Leo Baeck tested me. And they still do. He had sharp, critical words for the dangerous tendency of religion\u2014particularly Christian religion\u2014to lapse into romantic passivity in the face of the world\u2019s challenge. He didn\u2019t have to add that just one of those dangerous times of passivity was during the Holocaust.<\/p>\n

In his prime, Baeck became known for a single book, Das Wesens des Judentums<\/span>, The Essence of Judaism. It was written in answer to a trendy book (trendy at the end of the 19th century anyway) called The Essence of Christianity<\/span> by Adolph Harnack, translated into English as What is Christianity?, and at the risk of sounding flip, I must say that one is tempted to retort, Not much, if Harnack\u2019s interpretation is to be taken seriously.<\/p>\n

Baeck did take it seriously, and he answered for Judaism with his book, which first appeared in 1922. I still have that and copies of his other books on my shelves, which I enjoy re-reading when I feel the spiritual well running a bit dry in my soul.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Oh…and maybe real human beings can make a difference against the juggernaut of corporate culture and what it peddles:<\/a><\/p>\n

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Telus Corp., Canada’s second-biggest phone company, reversed its decision to sell pornography on mobile phones after customers including the Catholic Church threatened to cancel their service. <\/p>\n

“It would appear customers are more comfortable receiving their adult content over television sets rather than on cell phones at this time,” Telus spokesman Jim Johannsson said in an interview. The decision takes effect immediately, he said. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I have to say, even aside from the controversy, the spokesman’s statement strikes me as pretty funny. In a weird, pathetic kind of way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

…this is the first day in about 10 days that I’ve been alone in this house and able to work, what with snow days, fog days and sick days (and judging from Joseph’s demeanor when I left him off at school this morning, today might turn into an another sick day after all..he was viewing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nYes, I will blog again - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/02\/yes-i-will-blog-again.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Yes, I will blog again - 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2848\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}