Catholic Fire

Pia de Solenni is an ethicist and cultural analyst based in Seattle. Visiting Rome to participate in the plenary assembly of the Pontifical Council for Culture, she spoke to CNS about feminism and gender roles.

This week's Catholic Carnival is being hosted by Joe and is up at Ho Kai Paulos . What a fabulous job he has done of organizing the posts there! A few of my favorite posts there include: the Political Housewyf's post "Why I can't not be pro-life" , Marcel's at Aggie Catholics post Abstinence Education vs "Comprehensive" Sex Ed , Elena's part 6 of her series on How to Have a Domestic Church , in which she discusses the "contraceptive attitude" compared to the view of life as a gift (and challege) given us. Be sure to check out all the great posts at Ho Kai Paulos !

This week's Catholic Carnival is up at Organ-ic Chemist and she did a great job of organizing the many posts there. This week has been a crazy one for me so I neglected to enter. Here are a few of my favorites: Marcel's post entitled Humanae Vitae and The Catholic Church , is an extensive discussion on Mary Eberstadt's article The Vindication of Humanae Vitae . He presents a very interesting and extensive discussion in his well-researched post. Heidi at the Extraordinary Moms Network gave a list of posts she made on her other blog, Mommy Monsters Inc. which reflects what she considers to be the highlights of Humanae Vitae. Heidi also posted a beautiful reflection at Behold Your Mother on St. Joseph and the sacrifices he may have made being the husband of Mary. Elena at My Domestic Church reflects on the trials and tribulations of pregnancy and childbirth . Jane at Building the Ark writes on how she managed to find God in the garbage . There are many more great p...

By Donald DeMarco In 1986, Brother Don Fleischhacker of the University of Notre Dame wrote a letter to Playboy protesting that magazine's fragmented view of human sexuality. Citing "Humanae Vitae," this intrepid Holy Cross religious reasoned that once "the contraceptive mentality is accepted, there can be no coherent objective ground for opposition to homosexual activity." If the unitive aspect of sex becomes an end in itself, he went on to explain, "There is no essential reason why sex should be restricted to couples of different sexes." Recent events have proven that Brother Don was as prophetic as was Pope Paul VI when he penned "Humane Vitae" back in 1968. For Playboy, however, the letter was treated as an object of ridicule and its content irreverently dismissed: "Brother, you sound like St. Thomas' lawyer," wrote the Playboy editor, who went on to bless "both kinds" of sexual relations. This holier-than-thou post...

is now up and ready for your reading pleasure! Joe at Ho Kai Paulos has created a beautiful theme, so please join me on my trek there. Here are just a few of my favorite posts: Worship in the Shadowlands by Heidi at Mommy Monsters, in which she discusses Humanae Vita and the meaning of true love. She makes a profound discovery about conjugal love when she watches Shadowlands, the love story of C.S. Lewis and his wife. In How to Be a Man, Jane at Building the Ark, reminds us that we can all strive to be heroes . At Behold Your Mother, Heidi introduces us to Christine Trollinger and an example of divinely answered prayer - When the Lost is Found . When Things Turn Out...Differently by Sarah at Another Day of Catholic Pondering reminds us that God has every hair on our heads counted and keeps our best interests in mind, even when they aren't how WE planned things. Don't stop at reading these inspirational and well-written posts, but be sure to check out all the great posts ther...

A man of the cloth and his family got the shock of their lives Monday morning after finding a four-month-old fetus hidden in a basket of fruits. Monsignor Gerry Santos had just celebrated Mass at the Quiapo Church in Manila around 9 a.m. when he received a basket of fruits from an unknown donor. "After the mass... I brought the fruits to my parents' home because it was our regular lunch and my parents' house helper showed it to me. It was inside a bottle of Cheez Whiz. Maybe it's four months old," Santos said in an interview Monday over the Church-run radio station, Radio Veritas. Santos said the aborted baby's hand and feet were already formed. He said a rosary was also placed inside the cheese spread bottle, which was hidden in a pile of apple and bananas. He said his family wasn’t able to continue eating lunch after the shocking discovery. His parents were "very disturbed" and "traumatized" by the experience. After recovering from the tr...

Cardinal Ouellet Praises Humanae Vitae - Abortion the Consequence of the 'Culture of Contraception' Says controversial encyclical "was not taught enough" and because "we have not followed it, we have seen the consequences." QUEBEC CITY, June 19, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Quebec City Cardinal Marc Ouellet, the Primate of Canada, is in the midst of hosting a massive international gathering of Catholics that was five years in the making - the International Eucharistic Congress. The Cardinal nevertheless took time to sit down with LifeSiteNews.com for an interview. In keeping with the theme of the Congress, Ouellet spoke of the link he sees between the Eucharist and respect for human life, noting the fact that the Eucharistic Congress occurs just a month before the 40th anniversary of Pope Paul VI's encyclical "Humane Vitae" ("On Human Life"). The controversial 1968 document was a restatement of the Church's official opposition to co...