OCTOBER 1, 2012 — Patrick Novecosky, editor of this blog, was a guest on KWKY Radio in Des Moines, Iowa, this morning.
He was the first guest of the day on the Catholic Radio Iowa Morning Show with Jon Leonetti, Jeanne Wellsand Dowling Catholic Hall of Famer Mark Amadeo. Jon Leonetti interviewed Patrick about changing the culture and Respect Life Month, which begins today.
SEPTEMBER 13, 2012 — Patrick Novecosky, editor of this blog and of Legatus Magazine, was a live in-studio guest on Diocese Live with host Leo Brown on Real Life Radio in Lexington, Kentucky, this afternoon.
Novecosky was in Lexington to speak to the local Legatus chapter, so Leo asked him about Legatus and its founder Tom Monaghan. They discussed how Legatus got started, and how Tom started Domino’s Pizza and Ave Maria University.
Navigating a new college environment is difficult enough for Catholic freshmen without having to combat each secular philosophy and “ism” that lurks around every corner. Unless you’re fortunate enough to attend a faithful Catholic college or university, you need to discern the agenda of each and every professor. Chances are, it’s not compatible with the Catholic faith.However, there is good news for students trying to crack the code of these “isms.” John Zmirak, author of The Bad Catholic’s Guide to the Seven Deadly Sins and Choosing the Right Catholic College, has asked more than a dozen professors, priests, journalists, philosophers and theologians to help budding scholars navigate the tumultuous waters of college life. Catholic thinkers like Peter Kreeft, Jimmy Akin, Mark Shea, Robert Spencer, Father Dwight Longenecker, Elizabeth Scalia and Father George Rutler help readers sort out everything from hedonism, multiculturalism, relativism and modernism to Marxism, Americanism and feminism.
Spencer, known for his scholarship on radical Islam, tackles the nice-sounding idea of multiculturalism. The concept of cultural diversity might sound pleasant in the abstract, “but its partisans almost never take notice of the human dignity or cultural achievements of Christian, and particularly Catholic, Americans and Europeans,” he writes. “Multiculturalism in practice maintains that all cultures are equal, but some are more equal than others.”
Although the Cold War ended two decades ago, it may surprise some people to hear that leftist ideologies are alive and well on U.S. campuses. Jeffery Tucker, the editorial vice president at the Mises Institute, picks apart this ideology, which is based on conflict and has “deep roots embedded in issues of class, race, sex, religion, educational opportunity and many other inequalities.” He notes that many Catholics who claim the mantle of Catholic social teaching have in fact claimed the basic tenets of Marxism — “class struggle, the labor theory of value, and group consciousness.” He concludes by explaining that not only has Marxism been authoritatively condemned by the Church, but also that history has shown Marxist economic policies to be an utter failure — a grave warning for our nation today.
Equally surprising is the chapter on Americanism, penned by popular author and NCRegister.com blogger Mark Shea. Shea contends that when loving America replaces loving God, things start to go terribly wrong. He reminds us that Americanism, condemned by Pope Leo XIII, “is the tendency to put conformity with American culture and politics before the teachings of the universal Church.”
Disorientation is a quick, relatively easy read with intellectual ammunition with which every college student and parent should be equipped. Its writers break down the history of the various “isms,” scrutinize their appeal, and expose the empty promises of their popular errors.
This review was published in the September 11, 2011 issue of the National Catholic Register.
DISORIENTATION: How to Go to College Without Losing Your Mind
Edited by John Zmirak
Ascension Press, 2010
188 pages, $12.99
To order: ascensionpress.com
(800) 376-0520
Have you ever noticed that many adults these days seem to be confused about a lot of things? Even people of faith seem confused about the direction our country is going, about our culture, and even about our faith.
Certain elements in our culture are working hard to feed that confusion by turning things we used to take for granted upside down. What was once right is now wrong. What was once acceptable is now taboo. What was once taboo is now in vogue. Not least among the things our culture has twisted are marriage and the family.
The modern understanding of the family as the “domestic church” developed during the Second Vatican Council. The council concluded that the smallest articulation of the church is not the parish, but the family. This is where the essential teachings in catechesis, prayer and morality should be lived out in order to impart the faith to our children.
This also means that the family is not just a sociological unit. Rather, God created the family to play a specific role in his plan of salvation — and to model Christ’s relationship with the Church. The family isn’t simply two adult persons who raise children in their own particular set of values (as our confused society would have you believe). God established marriage as the exclusive and permanent bonding of a man and a woman, the two becoming “one flesh” (Gen 2:22-24).
Similarly, Christ is made “one body” with his bride, the Church (Eph 5:21-32). In doing so, God makes us his own. His love for the Church is fruitful, just as he established marriage to be fruitful.
Blessed John Paul II
Blessed John Paul II knew this very well. His parents modeled the Holy Family for him and his brother. In his 1960 book Love and Responsibility, he wrote: “Marriage is an act of will that signifies and involves a mutual gift, which unites the spouses and binds them to their eventual souls, with whom they make up a sole family — a domestic church.”
John Paul also understood that the devil, in his jealousy, seeks to obliterate anything that calls people to holiness —especially the family. “At a moment of history in which the family is the object of numerous forces that seek to destroy it,” he wrote in his 1981 apostolic exhortation Familiaris Consortio, “and aware that the well-being of society and her own good are intimately tied to the good of the family, the Church perceives in a more urgent and compelling way her mission of proclaiming to all people the plan of God for marriage and the family” (#3).
And what is the Church’s plan for marriage and the family? We are called to model the self-giving, sacrificial love that Christ has for his Church. If we do that well, the confusion that plagues our society will evaporate as quickly as the sun dispels the morning fog.
Patrick Novecosky is the founder and editor of The Praetorium. This article first appeared in the June issue of Legatus Magazine. Reprinted with permission.
JUNE 1, 2011 — Actual (or purportedly actual) headlines where proofreading was lacking and/or non-existent:
Man Kills Self Before Shooting Wife and Daughter
This ran in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune. Someone called the Editorial office and asked who wrote the headline. It took two or three readings before the editor realized that what he was reading was impossible! They put in a correction the next day.
Something Went Wrong in Jet Crash, Expert Says
No kidding! Ya think?
Police Begin Campaign to Run Down Jaywalkers
Now that’s taking things a bit far!
Panda Mating Fails; Veterinarian Takes Over
Such dedication!
Miners Refuse to Work after Death
No-good-for-nothing, lazy so-and-so’s!
Juvenile Court to Try Shooting Defendant
See if that works any better than a fair trial!
War Dims Hope for Peace
I can see where it might have that effect!
If Strike Isn’t Settled Quickly, It May Last Awhile
Ya think?!
Cold Wave Linked to Temperatures
Who would have thought!
Enfield (London) Couple Slain; Police Suspect Homicide
They may be on to something!
Red Tape Holds Up New Bridges
You mean there’s something stronger than duct tape?
Man Struck By Lightning: Faces Battery Charge
He probably IS the battery charge!
New Study of Obesity Looks for Larger Test Group
Weren’t they fat enough?!
Astronaut Takes Blame for Gas in Spacecraft
That’s what he gets for eating those beans!
Kids Make Nutritious Snacks
Do they taste like chicken?
Local High School Dropouts Cut in Half
Chainsaw Massacre all over again!
Hospitals are Sued by 7 Foot Doctors
Boy, are they tall!
And the winner is…
Typhoon Rips Through Cemetery; Hundreds Dead
Did I read that right?
Now that you’ve smiled at least once (I hope), it’s your turn to spread the hilarity and send this to someone you want to bring a smile to (maybe even a chuckle). We all need a good laugh, at least once a day! Copy this URL: http://wp.me/pxQoE-4c then copy & paste into an e-mail or Facebook.
Patrick Novecosky is the founder and editor of The Praetorium.
MY FAITH & FAMILY: Immaculée Ilibagiza shares the power of prayer — even in the darkest of places
by Patrick Novecosky
The cultural distance between rural Rwanda and Midtown Manhattan is almost as wide as the Grand Canyon. But Immaculée Ilibagiza has walked the line between her African roots and her new life in America with grace and passion, sustained by her devotion to the Mother of God.
“My faith was everything,” she says, recalling her miraculous survival during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. “I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for my Catholic faith.”
A sought-after public speaker and New York Times best-selling author, Immaculée spent more than three months crammed into a small bathroom with seven other women during the genocide that claimed the lives of nearly 1 million people, including her parents and two brothers. She credits her parents’ faith and prayers not only for her survival, but also for her own faith, which sustained her during the ordeal.
“I grew up praying all the time,” she says. “My family prayed in front of the cross on our knees every night before we went to sleep. I remember the first step that brought me closer to God. It was in the fourth grade. My teacher read us the story of Our Lady of Fatima. I was struggling with whether faith was real and questioning so many things, but when she read that, it was like something convinced me that our faith is real.”
Immaculée’s father had a profound influence on her and their entire village. A Protestant convert to Catholicism, she says his sacrificial love and ardent prayer life helped form her love for the Church.
“My dad was the director of Catholic schools, and he gave all he had. That was his way. There was not one night that my family didn’t pray together. We prayed the Rosary and a number of other prayers — the Act of Faith, St. Michael, Hail Mary, Our Father. We went to church together and fasted together during Lent.
“Sunday was a day to dress up and go to church,” she explains. “No more work. It was a time to invite people to have dinner together. It was almost like a holy day every Sunday, and we always wore our best clothes, our best shoes.”
When Immaculée was finishing primary school, she nearly missed the opportunity to go to high school, which was only possible through a government scholarship. She was a good student, but because she was a Tutsi, the ruling Hutus kept her from advancement.
“It was a great sadness for my whole family for me not to have a scholarship,” she says. “My parents had to send me to a private school, and it was really expensive. They had to sell cows and land to get me there.”
Two years into high school, she had to take another exam to get into a better high school with government sponsorship. When she passed, her father threw a huge party, leaving Immaculée mystified.
“I said to him, ‘What is this? I know school is my future, but it’s not that important.’ He said, ‘You don’t understand. For two years I said the Rosary every single day for this intention — all the mysteries.’ So, not only did I get the scholarship, but I got into the exact school that my father had begged God to send me to.
“It was a shock for me. I wondered how God could answer such specific prayers. From that moment, I started saying the Rosary every morning. I went to bed with rosary beads in my hand. I woke up saying the Rosary, I slept saying it, asking God to help me pass my exams, to help me be good, to have a future.”
But while she was home from college on Easter break in 1994, life took an unexpected turn for Immaculée and her family. The assassination of Rwanda’s president ignited tensions between Tutsis and Hutus, sparking the genocide.
Just before Immaculée was rushed off to hide in a pastor’s bathroom, her father pulled out his rosary. “When we were separated during the genocide, he gave me a rosary,” she says. “That was the last gift he ever gave me. Even in his last moments, he asked people to pray. He said if this is from the government, we cannot stop it. It’s a chance to prepare ourselves to meet God and go to heaven.”
After tensions cooled, Immaculée was able to leave the country. She eventually found work with the United Nations, which brought her to the U.S. where she penned her first book, Left to Tell; Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust. It has since been published in 15 languages. A full-length Hollywood film about her experience is also in the works.
In 2008, Immaculée wrote a follow-up book, Led by Faith: Rising from the Ashes of the Rwandan Genocide, and a book about Our Lady of Kibeho, the first Vatican-approved Marian apparition in Africa. Her Left to Tell Charitable Fund provides support for orphans in Rwanda.
Now, Immaculée and her family, including her daughter Nikki (11) and son Bryan (8), live in the heart of New York City.
“I used to feel like I would not get married and have children because I didn’t want to suffer if something bad should happen to them. I used to be worried all the time like my mother,” she explains. “Slowly, I have grown to understand that they are God’s children and he put them in my hands, to love them and not be scared about what could happen.
“Having children of my own has made me realize the purity of God’s love. If he loves me better than I love my own children, how can that be!? Jesus said you don’t give your children stones when they ask for bread. How much more does God love us! He gives us so much more.”
Despite the cultural chasm between her upbringing in Africa and the challenge of raising children in New York, Immaculée says her children already grasp the fundamentals of the Catholic faith.
“Many times they play Our Lady and Juan Diego. I’ll find my daughter standing on the table and she’ll have something on her head and she’s opening her arms and saying, ‘My son, Juan Diego!’ He had something he wrapped around his shoulders, and he says, ‘My Lady! My Queen!’”
Immaculée Ilibagiza
Immaculée says she’s big on incorporating the Catholic faith into all aspects of their daily lives. She says she has the kids on a “program” that includes books, prayer and even children’s videos on the lives of the saints.
“People ask me how I teach the faith to my children. You get them where they can understand. I have cartoons of Fatima and Lourdes and they show their friends,” she says. “One time I told Nikki to be nice, and she said, ‘Mommy do you want me to be nice like St. Faustina? In the Divine Mercy video she always acts so lovingly.’ God is working through them.
“Of course they say their prayers, and I remind them that when they go to school and I’m not there, and somebody does something mean, call upon your Mother who is with you everywhere. I want to make her as real to them as my parents made her real to me.”
That kind of solid faith formation is vital to raising children in wealthy nation where materialism has become the norm, Immaculée says.
“The biggest difference could be not that America is so wealthy, but it’s that there are so many things available that are attractive to them and you can’t be there every second,” she explains. “The worst thing is TV and the Internet. You don’t know what a child can see on TV when you’re changing channels. Children are so exposed to things that are really for mature people.
“Pain and poverty has a way of teaching people to be more mature and appreciative. We don’t have what you call depression or stress in Rwanda. When I was there, I never felt stress like I do here. In Rwanda, you don’t have 20 things — including things that are good, fun things — pulling you in 20 directions. When you go home there are no movie theaters or TV. You meet your uncle or friends and have a conversation. You learn to appreciate people more for who they are rather than for what they have.”
Immaculée still has strong ties to Rwanda. In fact, she and her brother just finished rebuilding their parents’ home in Mataba, Rwanda. Ever since she published her first book, tourists from around the world have visited the place where she hid during the genocide. She says her parents’ home will now welcome those visitors and teach the importance of faith and family.
“I think it’s something that would have made my father proud,” she says. “We dedicated it to Our Lady of Kibeho, so it’s going to be like a museum to tell good news.
“Donations will help the village. My father wanted the village to have progress. This way, maybe his dream can come true. He wanted to help the sick, take them to the hospital, and build homes for those who didn’t have one.
“The whole village came out for the dedication, so I spoke to them. I said, ‘I have forgiven you, and I hope this home will be a symbol of love and forgiveness, a symbol of victory over hatred. In the end love will conquer. I hope this home will be a place where people can talk to each other.’”
Patrick Novecosky is the editor and founder of The Praetorium. This article was published in the Spring 2011 issue of Faith and Family magazine.
Patrick Novecosky with Immaculée Ilibagiza
FEBRUARY 1, 2011 — I haven’t gone on a retreat in a while, but I think this is my year. There’s a lot of wisdom in stepping out of our fast-paced world where instant communication — and gratification — are part of our everyday experience.
Don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with instant communication. It helps make life in the 21st century one of the most exciting times in human history. It enables us to spread the Good News around the world in a microsecond. Nor is there anything wrong with most kinds of instant gratification. My handy microwave allows me to have a hot lunch in less than a minute.
However, the instantaneousness of our culture can be all-consuming. It can also be a distraction from the things that matter most. Many of us — I dare say, most of us — don’t take enough time alone with God. My hand is raised because I’m in that camp. I’m quick to ask God for the things I need and to say “thank you” for prayers answered — but the truth is, my prayer time is inadequate.
One thing that taking quiet time for prayer does — especially on retreat — is help us recognize who we are in relation to God. With every year that goes by — or even with every nanosecond, for that matter — we are each closer to our final destination. The Church teaches very clearly that we have two options: heaven or hell. (Purgatory is just a pit stop along the way to heaven.) The choice is ours. We either choose Christ and his Church to the best of our ability or we walk away from it and do our own thing.
That might seem a little black and white, but Christ taught in pretty clear terms. He didn’t say, “I am one of the ways.” He said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, then you will also know my Father” (Jn 14:6-7). I love this passage because Jesus is very clear in his final discourse to the disciples before his passion and death. His mission was to make God the Father known and open heaven to a fallen human race. How do we achieve the end for which we all were created? By knowing Jesus. Knowing Jesus means more than knowing about him. It means taking the time (prayer) to cultivate a relationship with the One who knows us best.
I’m looking forward my retreat later this year. I’m not sure where or when, but I know that God will provide the opportunity. One of my other resolutions for 2011 is to take more time away from my laptop, desktop and iPhone. If I unplug from my electronics a little more, I’ll have more time to plug in to the One who is my ultimate destination.
Patrick Novecosky is the founder and editor of The Praetorium. This article appeared in the February issue of Legatus Magazine. Reprinted with permission.
thepraetorium.com 