Is it right for the Catholic Church to be involved in helping create immigration policy? Is it right for a Catholic business owner to give work to an illegal immigrant? These are some questions we deal with on this week’s edition of Perspectives Weekly with our guest, Most Rev. John Wester, Bishop of Salt Lake City. Bishop Wester is the former Chair of the Committee on Migration and Refugee Services of the USCCB. Tune in to watch our conversation and to learn more about how the Church has a part to play in immigration issues.
The Hound of Heaven
February 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment
This post comes to us courtesy of Fr. James Phalan, CSC and Holy Cross Family Ministries
You might recognize this as a photo of the Cristo Branco, the ¨White Christ¨ that presides high over Rio de Janeiro. However I took this photo on a very well travelled corridor of Terminal 3 of Heathrow Airport in London. I usually find myself passing by and stopping to pray by it when I am returning home from a mission trip to Europe, Africa or Asia, as I did this morning.
At first glance maybe it seems like simply a tourist pitch for Rio… But I see that something else is going on. Heathrow may be about as secular and ¨modern¨ a place as there is in the World but there HE is.
As hard as the secularist world might like to try to get rid of HIM, they can´t. More so, Jesus isn´t letting go of the world: of you and me who want to follow Him and especially of the lost sheep who don´t seem to want to.
I´ve been on the road two months now and maybe only the Lord and Our Lady know how many miles I´ve travelled. Yet, as always, this image with outstretched arms and open heart helps to open my heart to His and to renew my longing to help him find His lost sheep.
Photo courtesy Fr. James Phalan, CSC
Perspectives Daily – Thursday, Feb. 2
February 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Tonight on Perspectives: the Holy Father names two new bishops – we tell you who, and we celebrate the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord and the World Day for Consecrated Life.
Honouring the consecrated life on the Feast of the Presentation
February 2, 2012 By 2 Comments
Today the Universal Church celebrates the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord — a day when we all consider our own consecration to God. In particular, the feast is associated with the religious life, and so this day also marks the 16th World Day of Consecrated Life.
The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops explains why Blessed John Paul II established the World Day for Consecrated Life in 1997:
The purpose of the day is to help the entire Church to esteem ever more greatly the witness of those persons who have chosen to follow Christ by means of the practice of the evangelical counsels. [...]
Based on the latest statistics of the Canadian Religious Conference, there are more than 200 religious institutes and societies of apostolic life in Canada, with a total number of 19,235 women and men as members, while 350 women in Canada are members of women’s secular institutes.
Pope Benedict will be honouring the religious life by presiding over Vespers and Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament at St. Peter’s Basilica. Consecrated men and women from various communities will be present. S+L will air the liturgy live on S+L TV and streaming online at 11:30am ET / 8:30am PT. You can pray along with vespers with the online booklet for the celebration, which includes an English translation of the prayers.
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Credit: CNS photo/Paul Haring
What can the Church do for migrants?
February 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment
There are a lot of reasons to leave the land where one was born. Today the economic crisis is probably the main reason, but there are many others: war, natural catastrophes, or just the search for a new lifestyle. How do Catholic communities deal with this new reality of ministering to migrants in places where the faith is lived in a different way from what they’re used to.
For Catholics, migration implies two main challenges: the first challenge is that the newly arrived needs to understand and adapt to a new form of living the faith. The second challenge is that the new community needs to make the newcomer feel welcomed and at home.
Having been through this, I think living in a new community implies adapting to the new reality while trying to help revitalize your new community by sharing your way of living the faith.
For the entire community involved, the whole experience of migration can be a lesson in the mercy of God. For the migrant, the new reality is so different from what they’re used to that being able to feel like part of a community is more important than ever. Making someone in that position feel welcomed is a form of living out what Jesus meant when he said if you help one of my little brothers, it is me you help.
While the receiving communities help migrants adapt, they too receive a gift in the process. In coming migrants need to be aware of how they can help renew and revitalize the faith life of their new community. Integrating Catholic traditions of newly arrived immigrants is the most obvious example of this. The Our Lady of Guadalupe procession in Los Angeles along with many Guadalupe celebration across North America show how new immigrants can inject life into a community that perhaps hasn’t seen that type of joy in faith in a long time.
Because migrants enter the country in many different ways, there are some new questions to deal with: Is it right for a Catholic help a illegal immigrant? Is right give for a Catholic business man give work to a illegal immigrant? Those are some questions we’ll deal with on this week’s edition of Perspectives Weekly with our guest, Most Rev. John Wester Bishop of Salt Lake City and former Chair on Committee on Migration and Refugee Services of the USCCB.
Join us for this discussion, Friday on Perspectives Weekly at 7 and 11pm ET / 8pm PT. In the meantime, take part in the discussion on Facebook.
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Photo courtesy of CNS/J.D. Long-Garcia, Catholic Sun
Perspectives Daily – Wednesday, Feb. 1
February 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Tonight on Perspectives: a look at Pope Benedict’s weekly general audience, we remember Cardinal Anthony Bevilaqua of Philadelphia who passed away last night and give you a sneak peak at our latest film “Across the Divide” about Bethlehem University.
S+L unveils trailer for new Holy Land documentary
February 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment
A close friend recently gave birth to her first child. The newborn arrived ten days later than expected, having decided to make his debut on Christmas Day. Though my friend (and all mothers) might disagree, today I feel like I can somewhat relate.
S+L’s upcoming documentary Across the Divide also required an extended gestation. Across the Divide takes viewers to Bethlehem University, a Catholic university that, since its founding in 1973, has served the Christian and Muslim students who live in the Palestinian West Bank. The dramatic history of the university—along with the lives of its over 12,000 graduates—has been shaped by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The documentary was conceived in 2009 when S+L traveled to the Holy Land to film Within Your Gates. While in Bethlehem, we met the extraordinary students and De La Salle Christian Brothers at the university. Our visit began just days after one such student, Berlanty Azzam, was deported from Bethlehem to the Gaza Strip. Her battle to return to her studies was captured in our documentary.
In the process of creating Across the Divide, we took great care to be faithful to Berlanty’s story, and also to the complex and often contradictory narratives of the ongoing conflict. And finally, the production is complete. Today we debut the trailer on S+L. The full documentary will premiere this spring.
Holy Father’s prayer intentions for February
February 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment
In a tradition that is centuries old, the Apostleship of Prayer publishes the Pope’s monthly prayer intentions. We will now be posting these on our blog with the hope that you will unite with us in prayer for the intentions entrusted to us by Pope Benedict XVI.
For February 2012, we join the Holy Father in praying for:
- Access to Water. That all peoples may have access to water and other resources needed for daily life.
- Health Workers. That the Lord may sustain the efforts of health workers assisting the sick and elderly in the world’s poorest regions.
Daily Offering Prayer
God, our Father, I offer You my day. I offer You my prayers, thoughts, words, actions, joys, and sufferings in union with the Heart of Jesus, who continues to offer Himself in the Eucharist for the salvation of the world. May the Holy Spirit, Who guided Jesus, be my guide and my strength today so that I may witness to your love. With Mary, the mother of our Lord and the Church, I pray for all Apostles of Prayer and for the prayer intentions proposed by the Holy Father this month. Amen.
Traditional Daily Offering of the Apostleship of Prayer
O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer You my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world. I offer them for all the intentions of Your Sacred Heart: the salvation of souls, reparation for sin, and the reunion of all Christians. I offer them for the intentions of our bishops and of all Apostles of Prayer, and in particular for those recommended by our Holy Father this month.
The Apostles of Prayer offer themselves to God each day for the good of the world, the Church, one another, and the Holy Father’s intentions. Thank you for praying with us!
To become a member of the Apostleship of Prayer, you need only to offer yourself to God for his purposes each day. When you give God all the “prayers, works, joys and sufferings” of your day, you turn your entire day into a prayer for others. You are joining your will to God’s will.
If you feel called to this simple, profound way of life, find out more at Apostleship of Prayer.
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Photo credit: Vatican Pool/Getty Images
Perspectives Daily – Tuesday, Jan. 31
January 31, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Tonight on Perspectives Alicia talks to Bishop John Wester of Salt Lake City and Tim Reidy, online editor of America Magazine.
Healing the fevers of life
January 31, 2012 By 1 Comment
Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time – February 5, 2012
The readings for this Sunday are: Job 7:1-4, 6-7; I Corinthians 9:16-19, 22-23; Mark 1:29-39
The centrepiece of the stone ruins of the village of Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee’s northwest shore is the black octagonal church of the Panis Vitae (Bread of Life), built directly above what is believed to be Simon Peter’s house, the setting for today’s Gospel story (Mark 1:29-39). One of my mentors and teachers, the late Passionist Father Carroll Stuhlmueller, once told me that the real centrepiece of Capernaum should be a huge memorial statue dedicated to the mothers-in-law of the world!
Try for a moment just to imagine the setting of this day in the life of Jesus. The newly constituted group of disciples who had left their nets, boats, hired servants, and even their father, to follow the Lord (1:16-20) are delighted in his presence. Jesus’ words and actions completely overpower evil. His personality is so compelling and attractive. Leaving the synagogue where an evil spirit has been overcome, Jesus and his disciples walk only a few feet before encountering further evils of human sickness, prejudice and taboo. We read: “And the whole city was gathered around the door” (1:33-34). What a commotion!
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