April 15, 2023
/We are pleased to bring you another edition of CATH-Links, an initiative born from the CC@S Synodal process and developed by the Education Team of the Intra Community Council (ICC). We hope this initiative will encourage reflection, engender discussion, and help members better understand and engage with the Church and the modern world.
If you are interested in submitting reflections, meditations, articles, book reviews, etc., see Submit Resources for Publication for submission guidelines and a link to a submission form. We look forward to your participation!
EASTER REFLECTION
Pope Francis’ Easter Vigil Homily [catholicnewsagency.com]
St. Patrick and the Easter Flame [wordonfire.org] by Fr. Billy Swan, a priest of the Diocese of Ferns, Ireland, who holds a degree in chemistry, and worked for a number of years for a pharmaceutical company before entering seminary. He served for four years as an associate pastor before further studies in Rome where he was awarded a Licentiate and Doctorate in Systematic Theology from the Gregorian University.
THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
Is Beauty Worth It? Doesn’t It Cost Too Much? [scalafoundation.org] by Professor David Clayton, a graduate of Oxford University who has an international reputation as a painter, with major commissions in the UK and the US. He is the Provost of the Pontifex University and a Visiting Fellow at the Thomas More College of Liberal Arts. He has published two books about the connection between sacred art, culture, and their connection to the Liturgy. To help people understand the Way of Beauty, Professor Clayton created thewayofbeauty.org to help illuminate the faithful through its articles, media and courses which focus on inspiring devotion to and guidance on the Way of Beauty.
BOOK OF INTEREST
To Sanctify the World: The Vital Legacy of Vatican II by George Weigel. Meticulously documented, yet eminently readable. To Sanctify the World is a matchless guide to the meaning and import of the Second Vatican Council.” – Mary Ann Glendon, the Learned Hand Professor of Law, Emerita, at Harvard Law School, a former U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See.
[more below]
RECENT NEWS
Understanding Pope Francis from the Inside [ncregister.com] a commentary that provides insight into the pope’s understanding of mercy. By Fr. Roger Landry, a Harvard classmate of one of our community members, Oriana Li Halevy, this is a recent profile of Pope Francis whose motto is Miserando atque Eligendo. Fr. Landry currently serves as the Catholic chaplain at Columbia University.
More on To Sanctify the World: The Vital Legacy of Vatican II
From Mary Ann Glendon, the Learned Hand Professor of Law, Emerita, Harvard Law School, former U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See, and a former President of the Pontifical Academy of Social Science:
“In explaining why Vatican II was necessary and what it taught, George Weigel has given us a rich history of the Catholic Church’s efforts to meet the challenges of modernity. Viewed in their intellectual, social, and political context, the personalities, debates, and documents of that momentous event emerge with new clarity in this remarkable book. Meticulously documented, yet eminently readable. To Santify the World is a matchless guide to the meaning and import of the Second Vatican Council.”
From Kirkus Review:
The history and legacy of the Second Vatican council.
In his latest, Catholic scholar Weigel, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and author of Letters to a Young Catholic, examines the ecumenical council that took place between 1962 and 1965. The author begins with a detailed yet concise exploration of the many global changes that led to the council. Though Pope John XXIII, “an essentially conservative and traditional pope” shocked the church by calling for a council, which hadn’t taken place since 1870, it should have been clear that modern society – punctuated by world wars, the rise of communism, decolonization, and countless other factors – had changed the landscape so thoroughly that a fresh approach was vital for Catholic survival. Weigel writes that the ultimate purpose of the council was to “empower a revitalized Church to offer the modern world a path beyond incoherence – or worse, self-destruction – through an encounter with Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God.” Once it began, institutionalists lost their bid to steer the council’s work toward less important matters of rules and administration. Instead, the council took a decidedly theological turn in order to answer the pressing question of “how God made his purposes known to humanity in a binding way that was authoritative for the Church over time.” The council would be thoroughly Christocentric in nature and explore the church’s role in a modern world through a Christian viewpoint. Weigel thoroughly analyzes the major documents that resulted from the council’s decisions. He then discusses its lasting legacy, especially through the lens of two of its particpants: popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI. Finally, he notes that a 1985 synod most clearly affirmed the meaning of Vatican II as a great gift of grace until “the Church lived fully the truth about itself as a communion of disciples in mission.”
A readable traditionalist appraisal.
