Rome, Italy, Aug 21, 2019 / 05:02 pm (CNA).- With migrant and refugee numbers at a crisis level in Europe and other parts of the world, the international community must act to alleviate the suffering of those forced to leave their homes, a priest said this week.

Fr. Mussie Zerai is an Eritrean priest based in Rome, serving as European Coordinator for the Catholics of Eritrea.

Norwich, England, Aug 20, 2019 / 03:00 pm (CNA).- A controversial amusement park ride erected in Norwich Cathedral has come down after an 11-day installation. 

Rt. Revd. Johnathan Meyrick, the bishop of the Church of England’s Diocese of Lynn, delivered a sermon midway down the helter-skelter slide during the final liturgy held in the cathedral with the ride present. 

Warsaw, Poland, Aug 19, 2019 / 10:00 am (CNA).- The leader of Poland’s ruling party praised the Archbishop of Krakow on Sunday for his opposition to the redefinition of marriage and gender ideology in the country.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) Party, said at a campaign event in Southeast Poland on Aug. 18 that he was “grateful” to Archbishop Marek Jędraszewski for his statement earlier this month that attempts to redefine marriage and impose gender ideology in Poland were part of a “rainbow plague.”

I’m not here to dispute these lies by listing all the reasons why this perspective is false and destructive (you can find information on the harmful effects of porn right here), but I would eagerly like to offer you another perspective.

Personal Brands and Muddled Identities The pressure is real: to look, be, and act a certain way… It can be exhausting. We create brands so others perceive us the way we want them to. Where is the line between our authentic identity and the personal “brands” we create? On one […]

I didn’t want to lie and act like I had everything figured out because I really didn’t. So instead, I would tell them exactly what I was feeling at the time and would say, “I don’t have anything figured out and I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.” And even though I was being honest, it was challenging to indirectly tell them that my life wasn’t like the rest.

“In the end, a life that radiates His truth, His love, and His glory is going to do far more to spread the kingdom than an argument on Twitter.” A friend emailed me recently, after finding out that his friend had left the Church. I look forward to his emails – they’re strikingly perceptive and usually make me either laugh [...]

The post Remembering What’s Important appeared first on Integrated Catholic Life™.

Editor’s Note: Dr. Kreeft’s classic essay on successfully winning the culture wars is timeless. For more information, see his book, How to Win the Culture War. To win any war, the three most necessary things to know are: (1) that you are at war, (2) who your enemy is, and (3) what weapons or strategies can defeat him. You cannot [...]

The post The Winning Strategy appeared first on Integrated Catholic Life™.

Strive to Enter by the Narrow Door Jesus’ call to enter through the narrow door seems to conflict with the idea that God wants all to be saved, that the universal, Catholic Church means “here comes everybody.”  But a deeper look resolves the inconsistency. The Mass readings for the Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) are Isaiah 66:18-21; Psalms 117:1, 2; [...]

The post Sunday Reflection—The Narrow Door appeared first on Integrated Catholic Life™.

“In the end, a life that radiates His truth, His love, and His glory is going to do far more to spread the kingdom than an argument on Twitter.” A friend emailed me recently, after finding out that his friend had left the Church. I look forward to his emails – they’re strikingly perceptive and usually make me either laugh [...]

The post Remembering What’s Important appeared first on Integrated Catholic Life™.

Editor’s Note: Dr. Kreeft’s classic essay on successfully winning the culture wars is timeless. For more information, see his book, How to Win the Culture War. To win any war, the three most necessary things to know are: (1) that you are at war, (2) who your enemy is, and (3) what weapons or strategies can defeat him. You cannot [...]

The post The Winning Strategy appeared first on Integrated Catholic Life™.

Strive to Enter by the Narrow Door Jesus’ call to enter through the narrow door seems to conflict with the idea that God wants all to be saved, that the universal, Catholic Church means “here comes everybody.”  But a deeper look resolves the inconsistency. The Mass readings for the Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) are Isaiah 66:18-21; Psalms 117:1, 2; [...]

The post Sunday Reflection—The Narrow Door appeared first on Integrated Catholic Life™.

We’re excited to announce the brand new quarterly Journal of the Word on Fire Institute, Evangelization & Culture! It seeks to be the most beautiful, most substantive Catholic journal ever created. We wanted to establish a smart, sublime, and practical journal that was reflective of the Word on Fire ethos. However, Evangelization & Culture is not designed to be primarily academic, artistic, or pastoral. Instead, the purpose of our journal is, as Cardinal George said, to evangelize the culture—and to train individuals to become evangelizers themselves. Issues will be sent to members of the Word on Fire Institute four times throughout the year. If you haven’t already, we invite you to join the Word on Fire Institute to be formed as an evangelist and to lead the culture to Christ with beauty, goodness, and truth. When you become a…

Toward the end of the 1989 film Parenthood, a cheerful grandmother, dismissed throughout the movie as being a bit ditzy, tells her harried children: “You know, when I was nineteen, Grandpa took me on a roller coaster. Up, down, up, down. Oh, what a ride! I always wanted to go again. You know, it was just so interesting to me that a ride could make me so frightened, so scared, so sick, so excited, and so thrilled all together! Some didn’t like it. They went on the merry-go-round. That just goes around. Nothing. I like the roller coaster. You get more out of it.” In the practice of my faith, pondering that scene has sometimes brought me a measure of reassurance, and some spiritual relief, too, because even with all the devotions and feast days I love—all the ways the Church infuses my day-to-day with instruction…

A young white teenager from Michigan, using his initials as a stage name, emerges on the hip-hop scene; his rapid-fire lyrics reflect the wounds of a broken home; and his music quickly becomes a cultural phenomenon, earning a Billboard-topping album, triple-platinum single, and millions of fans around the world. If you grew up in the nineties, you know this story well. It’s the story of Marshall Mathers, or Eminem (originally “M&M”), who captured the world’s attention with his Slim Shady and Marshall Mathers LPs. But it’s also the story of Nathan Feuerstein, or NF, a 28-year-old rapper who just released his fourth studio album, The Search—which, like his last album Perception, has quickly topped the Billboard charts. Like Eminem’s, NF’s story is far from idyllic. After his parents divorced, he was physically abused by his mother’s boyfriend. In 2009, his mother, who was…

The name of the Apostle St. Bartholomew is included among the lists of the Twelve Apostles, but aside from this, there’s no mention of him in the New Testament. Many scholars feel he is the same man as Nathaniel, whom St. John’s Gospel has Jesus describing as “an Israelite in whom there is no guile” […]

Paul VI Audience Hall Wednesday, 21 August 2019 Dear Brothers and Sisters: In our continuing catechesis on the Acts of the Apostles, we now consider how the Christian community is born of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and grows through the mutual sharing of life among the Lord’s disciples. Solidarity between Christians is essential […]

In the rich history of Catholic saints, there are some that seem so easy to love, so sweet or merry or innocent that devotion to them is easy.  St. Philip Neri was dubbed “the merriest man alive”. St. John Bosco, whose care for children is reflected in a childlike love of God. St. Nicholas, with […]