Some conservative Roman Catholics have displayed quite some anger and frustration over the use of some indigenous statues of a highly pregnant naked woman in some quasi-religious ceremonies and a display in a church, in the context of the Synod of the Amazon in Rome; (more…)
I’ll admit it right at the outset: the title of this note is not original with me; it is borrowed from a book I read sometime in the 1980s and which massively influenced my thinking on this subject.
I am fascinated by the discussion in the United States concerning the so-called “Billy Graham Rule” or “Pence Rule”. This rule, named after the late evangelist Billy Graham is the commitment by some married men, mostly in the public eye, not to be alone with woman other than their respective wives, in order to avoid a number of problems:
Recently I was drawn into two similar, strange discussions in one day.
First, in a conversation about taking pictures and filming in public church services someone said that being photographed or filmed during worship was irritating, since worship was such an intimate thing that it was almost like being photographed or filmed during sex.
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A Ukrainian-Catholic friend posted the below hymn for the Feast of All Saints.
I am afraid this hymn, and the feast of All Saints (or more specifically, the distinction between All Saints and All Souls) demonstrates a couple of reasons why, despite the very welcome increasing reconciliation between the churches as well as individual Christians, I will not “swim the Tiber” (or the Bosporus, for that matter) any time soon. (more…)
When I grew up so called chain letters circulated at our school, which one was supposed to copy and forward to five or ten other people; if one complied one was promised good luck and riches, but if one failed to comply and thus broke the chain one was threatened with bad luck and all sorts of disasters and mishaps.
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Interesting insight from Stuart Dauermann:
The Great Commission is not,
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to know all that I have commanded you.” (more…)
This is a “Tribute of Affection” to Abbé Jacques Hamel, written yesterday morning as the news of his martyrdom became public. It was written by Fleur Nabert, a sculptress specializing in sacred art who knew Abbé Hamel personally. It appeared on the French Aleteia site; I found it very moving and thought it worth translating for my English-speaking friends.
Later this year we (Wolf & Geraldine Paul) will be moving from Vienna to our new home in Gross-Schweinbarth in the “Weinviertel” region of Lower Austria, about 30 km northeast of Vienna. Here is a map which shows the area: (more…)
I recently had a conversation with a friend who is doing some recruiting for support positions (accountants, secretaries, building maintenance) for various “fields” of a Christian mission organization. Apparently many leaders of this organization have bought into the idea that people need to be passionate about what they are doing, and so candidates have been rejected for not having a passion for accounting, or maintenance, or office work, etc … while essential positions have remained unfilled, sometimes for years.
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