The Catholic Monitor

Thursday-Sunday through Oct. 21 – Quo Vadis Theatre Company presents “Viva Cristo Rey” – This original play by Cal Gallagher and Fred Martinez is about the story of Father Miguel Pro in the 1930s Mexico. Co-directed by Estelle Piper and Gary Laidlaw.. 8 p.m., Thursday-Saturday, 8 p.m. and 2 p.m., Sunday. Historic Hoover Theatre, 1635 Park Ave. $12-$15, 252-3530 or quovadistheatre.org Viva Cristo Rey! The Story of Fr. Miguel Pro will be staged in October by the Quo Vadis Theatre Company in San Jose, CA. Quo Vadis is a Catholic theater company that puts on plays with Catholic themes and content and contemporary plays that explore issues of faith, morality, and humanity. The company is comprised of a group of Catholic men and women who have all been involved in drama in one capacity or another – Their avowed mission is to enlighten, edify, educate, and enrich the viewing audience, and to provide Catholic playwrights, actors, and other theatre-oriented persons a friendly platform for th...

The Holy Father is under attack by radical Muslims and secular media Pray the Rosary for him and Catholics around the world The reaction to Pope Benedict XVI’s lecture at the University of Regenburg seems to be spinning out of control. The Pope and the Church are under attack. Prayer is needed for both the Holy Father and Catholics around the world. Please turn to the Holy Rosary and appeal for the intercession of our Blessed Mother, someone who is revered by Catholics and Muslims alike. It is also important for you to know what the Holy Father actually said. Knowing this will help you support the real meaning of his message with friends and neighbors, on radio talk shows and through letters to the editor. As you will see below, the lecture was given with respect for all people and faiths and defended what is sacred to both Muslims and Christians, respect for the divine. Ironically, his whole lecture was focused the need for reason for effective dialogue between cultures and religio...

Why did Pope Benedict Fire-up the Muslims? With Muslims firebombing and shooting bullet holes through Christian churches in West Bank,An Italian nun also was gunned down in a Somali, and an Iraqi insurgent group threatening to bomb the Vatican with a suicide attack, why isn’t the Pope Benedict backing down? The Pope is being pressured by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, spiritual leader of the world's 200 million Orthodox Christians, to back down. But on Saturday Sept.16, the Associated Press said: “Pope Benedict XVI ‘sincerely regrets’ offending Muslims with his reference to an obscure medieval text that characterizes some of the teachings of Islam's founder as ‘evil and inhuman,’The Vatican said Saturday. But the statement stopped short of the apology demanded by Islamic leaders around the globe, and anger among Muslims remained intense.” On Sunday Sept. 17, AP reported that the Pope said "he was 'deeply sorry' about the angry reaction to his recent remarks ...

The Values War Dear Dan, Thanks again for the email. I don’t think there is a secret meaning to the word values. Professor Allan Bloom, translator and editor of Plato’s Republic and author of Shakespeare’s Politics said, “ The term “value, “ meaning the radical subjectivity of all belief about good and evil...was announced by Nietzsche just over a century ago when he said, “God is dead.” Good and evil now for the first time appeared as values, of which there have been a thousand and one, none rationally or objectively preferable to any other.” Historian Gertrude Himmelfarb said,” It was not until the present century that morality became so thoroughly relativized and subjectified that virtues ceased to be virtues and became “values”...Values as we understand that word, do not have to be virtues; they can be beliefs, opinions, attitudes, feelings, habits, conventions, preferences, prejudices, even idiosyncrasies.” Professor Cameron Lee at Fuller Seminary said, “ ‘family value’ itself se...

Freddy Krueger the Abortionist? Dr. Theresa Burke’s book on post abortion therapy, Forbidden Grief: The Unspoken Pain of Abortion is endorsed by the great enemy of the feminist agenda- Dr. Laura Schessinger. Burkes concurs that the Feminist movement brought us many psychological problems and the trauma culture. She applies psychology to cure this trauma, but says that abortion-trauma can only be completely healed if one asks for and receives God’s mercy. Her work shows that if the grief of abortion is not healed then the world can become a Freddy Krueger-like nightmare. Q. What effect did the Feminist movement have in bringing about the trauma culture? A. If you examine the women's movement you can see that many of the women who laid the groundwork were women traumatized by their own abortions. They believed that legalizing abortion would take away the trauma. But even offered in the most pristine and legal hospitals - abortion can only destroy. Q. What happens to a culture when mi...

Will the “New Ideology of Evil” beget an American Totalitarianism? Before he died, Pope John Paul II said homosexual marriage and the gay agenda are part of "a new ideology of evil perhaps more insidious and hidden, which attempts to pit human rights against the family and against man." The majority of the Supreme Court stands for the "new ideology of evil”, which will lead America in stages to become a new Sodom and Gomorrah. As Justice Scalia said against Lawrence v. Texas, the so-called Texas sodomy case: “[It] effectively decrees the end of all moral legislation.” The Supreme Court’s ideology is in direct opposition to the Judeo-Christian God and His Ten Commandments. The other world religions, even the straightforward atheists or sinners are not part of the "new ideology of evil.” Deceptive anti-moral terrorists who are at enmity with God and His moral law are the ideologues. These fakes whose advertising jingle is “tolerance“, will not tolerate the Ten Command...

Reign of Relativism Why Are Catholic High School Students No Different? A poll conducted by Zogby International of 1,003 high school students found that 80% of Catholic seniors believe homosexuals should have the right to marry while only two-thirds of the total of all demographic high school senior groups in the survey claimed gay marriages should be legal. Dennis Gilbert of Hamilton College, in Clinton, N.Y., did the survey. In an interview in the September 6 Wanderer, Gilbert said, "Large majorities of seniors take pro-gay positions on relevant gay issues. And virtually every definable demographic group took these positions," apart from evangelical or 'born-again' Christians." According to Father X -- a priest in the San Jose Diocese who asked to remain anonymous, the document Pastoral Guidelines for Ministry to Homosexuals in the Diocese of San Jose contributes to the ethical confusion on homosexuality among Catholic high school students because it has no mor...

Involved in a Miracle of Mother Teresa Q. How and why did you become a priest? A. Since I was four years old I wanted to be a priest. The vocation grew with me as I grew older. However, many difficulties came to me. A week before entering the seminary in Managua, Nicaragua, my homeland, I had to leave the country with my family because the Sandanistas took over the government. I went to the U.S., then to Rome where I studied theology and philosophy. In 1987, I developed many different illnesses. The ordination couldn't take place because my condition wouldn't allow any stable responsibility. So, in 1997 Archbishop Jose La Boa, who was the apostolic nuncio to Malta and Libya, called me and told me, 'You have a vocation, and a vocation can never be wasted. When I go to Rome, I will present your case to the Holy Father to request a pontifical indult for you to be ordained.' [Archbishop La Boa did this, and] the Holy Father only required that I have a bishop. So, the Archbi...

The Scandal is "about Homosexuality, not Pedophilia" says Former Catholic School Superintendent Monsignor Edgar McCarren is a former superintendent of schools from dioceses in New York and Arizona. He served at Our Lady of Peace in Santa Clara for over a decade. Q. How and why did you decide to become a priest? A. Well, I was in the 6th or 7th grade, and I started thinking about becoming a priest. One reason was because there was a priest that I admired as a priest. I started to think about going to the preparatory seminary, but I was afraid to mention it to anyone, including my parents. Then in the eight grade a Josephite nun called me to the front of the class. She asked what school I was going to go to next. I said St. James. She said, "No your not. You are going to the preparatory seminary." And that was what I wanted, but I was afraid to mention it. This was in the middle of the depression in the 30s. When I told my parents, they didn't bat an eye, even tho...

When you Read the Book you'll get the Inspiration Father Ray Devlin wrote a book about his brother, CHA: A Biography of Father "Joe" Devlin, S. J., which was published late last year by Nenagh Books. Q. How and why did you become a priest? A. My brother was a great priest and I was imitating him. I recognized what he was doing. The key of vocations is others follow Christ and you follow them. Q. Can you give us an example? A. I don't have one example. It was his whole life. You don't do anything for one example. You do it for a life that's truly dedicated. You saw that he was a happy person. That's the key. People have vocations when they see young Jesuits and older Jesuits who are happy warriors. My brother said always be a happy warrior. Q. What was your toughest experience in the priesthood? A. That you serve God, save your soul, and help others. A priest didn't join to become a star golf player or a great coach. He comes to help people save their s...

The Spiritual Life is a Love Affair Father Edward Warren was an assistant dean for 25 years at Santa Clara University. Since retiring in 1988, he does volunteer work at parishes throughout the Bay Area. I met Father Warren in the mid 1970s. He picked me up while I was hitchhiking in San Jose. This encounter with Father is one of the factors in God's mysterious providence that helped bring me back to the faith. Q. How and why did you decide to become a priest? A. You have not chosen me. I have chosen you, Our Lord said. I thank Our Lord for choosing me for his love. He uses parents and friends for his mysterious choices. I had good religious parents. Also, I went to U. C. Berkeley and belonged to the Newman club. There I got in contact with those who went to Mass everyday for Lent. They wanted me to go every day with them for Lent. This was a new idea for me. I survived. I didn't die. So, I kept going every day after Lent. This encounter got me going to daily Mass. That's wh...

A 1960'S TRADITIONAL DOMINICAN Father Dominic De Domenico is a child of the 1960's and a traditional Dominican. He helped out at Our Lady of Peace in Santa Clara when Fr. John Sweeny was the pastor. He teaches classes on the rosary and devotion to the Virgin Mary. Q. How and why did you become a priest? A. I was attending Fresno State College and involved with football, and track and field. I wasn't thinking about being a priest. A sister at grade school said I had a vocation, but I didn't think I wanted to do that. I went to Catholic high school and wasn't especially religious. I went to Mass on Sundays and prayed, but when I went college I met those who didn't have the faith. So I started sharing my faith. After three years in college, I began to consider becoming a priest. I went to a principal at the high school around 1960. I was older -- 21 years old. So the principal said it would be better to try the religious order. I had a friend who was a baseball ca...

Rosary Evangelist His dark shades below a dropped cap with ponytail- J fits the guise of a war veteran. Then, he smiles-takes off his sunglasses showing his smiling eyes-and you feel at home. Since 1984, J has been involved in a threefold ministry of reaching out to help, bringing God into everyday conversation, and introducing persons to the gospel rosary. His real name is James Wallace, but everyone in the streets and veterans hospital call him J. Veteran Marcia Nagles- outpatient at Menlo Park Veterans Hospital- says,” J make you feel like part of the family.” She was sitting in a hospital corner in 1990 when he said, “You don’t look like your doing well, do you want to talk?” Marcia said, “He shopped, picked things up, walked me home, got me to daily mass and rosary. He made me a better Catholic and I’m a convert. James said “I consider Marcia and many like her to be my family, now.“Nagles connected with him because when she converted to Catholicism in 1964 her family kicked her ...

A Saint Dancing in Heaven A Three Act Play about Blessed Miguel Pro By Fred Martinez Prologue The child, Miguel, is in a bed coughing. His Dad is silent, his Mom (Josefa) is crying and an arrogant doctor is standing by her. There is a big picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the room. Josefa (Crying)-His burning up! Miguel is going to die! Don Miguel-He will not die, yet! Josefa-Are you crazy! Look at him! Doctor Mateo-She’s right. His death is imminent. Get a priest, now! Josefa- (Crying again)-Get a priest! Don Miguel (Goes to his wife and hugs her)-Not yet! Doctor Mateo-Are you crazy! Don Miguel (Moving away from his wife he goes to his son and picks him up.) Doctor Mateo-Put him down, now! Don Miguel (Ignoring the doctor, he carries his son to the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe and cries out)-My Mother give me back my son! Miguel (Silence for three to six seconds, then, the boy shudders and vomits a bloody mass of phlegm.) Don Miguel- He will not die, yet. Doctor Mateo (The doctor m...