catholicism

Saints 101: What is the Canonization Process?

by Stephen Beale October 31, 2012

Every so often a news headline announces to the world that a holy man or woman has been declared a Servant of God or Venerable or Blessed—and are close to being a recognized as a saint. So which comes first?…

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Saints 101: How Many Saints Are There?

by Stephen Beale October 30, 2012

Let’s first begin by re-phrasing the question: How many holy men and woman are recognized by the Catholic Church as saints? Because the answer to the first cannot really be known—the Catholic Church makes no claims that its list of…

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Ten Essential Saints for the Year of Faith

by Stephen Beale October 29, 2012

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has just put out a list of ten saints for the Year of Faith.
All ten saints are being held up as great evangelizers by the USCCB. Most of the saints are both great…

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The Future of American Catholicism

by Russell Shaw October 5, 2012

Two new books by thoughtful Catholic authors take deeply different views of the future of American Catholicism. Both deserve serious pondering.
One of them is called Why Catholicism Matters. The subtitle tells it all: “How Catholic Virtues Can Reshape Society…

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Who Is Your ‘Companion Saint’?

by Stephen Beale October 3, 2012

In a general audience a few years ago, Pope Benedict XIV described our relationship with the saints in some particularly moving terms:
There are very dear people in the life of each one of us to whom we feel particularly…

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Guardian Angels Do More than Just ‘Guard’ Us

by Stephen Beale October 2, 2012

Most of us grow up believing as children that we each have a guardian angel. But what exactly is the angel guarding us from—Demons? Our own sinful inclinations?
Yes, yes—and so much more. It turns out that guardian angels not…

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The Genius of John Chrysostom

by Stephen Beale September 13, 2012

Among the firmament of early Church Fathers, the star of John Chrysostom (347-407) shines especially bright. He’s best known for his homilies and the Divine Liturgy of John Chrysostom, still celebrated in Eastern churches.
As his biography in the Catholic…

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Are You Living ‘Superficially’?

by Stephen Beale September 12, 2012

This observation Pope Benedict XVI made in a homily a few years ago about St. Augustine really stuck with me—here’s the full comment:
Pope Benedict—St. Augustine was a man who never lived superficially; his thirst, his restless and constant thirst…

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Who Was St. Paphnutius?

by Stephen Beale September 11, 2012

A famous American jurist once said that a man must share in the action and passion of his time, at peril of being judged not to have lived.
Saint Paphnutius, the Egyptian monk and bishop whom the Catholic Church honors…

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Augustine: A Secret Weapon for Catholic Apologists

by Stephen Beale August 29, 2012

Here’s a golden rule to ecumenical dialogue with evangelical Protestants: If you want to prove a certain point of Catholic teaching, go directly to Scripture.
That isn’t to say that we should give up on discussions about the value of…

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