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DCR - Jul. 2, 2014

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4 I OPINION JULY 2, 2014 I DENVER CATHOLIC REGISTER OFFICIAL APPOINTMENTS Rev. Thomas Coyte, appointment as pastor, St. Bernadette Parish, Lakewood, Colo., effective June 18, 2014, for a period of six years. Rev. Felicien I. Mbala, incardinated into the Archdiocese of Denver effective April 2, 2014. His ministry con- tinues as parochial vicar at St. Michael the Archangel Parish, Aurora, Colo. Rev. Jose Saenz, appointment as parochial vicar at Immaculate Conception Parish in Lafayette, Colo., for a three-year period effective July 1, 2014. Rev. Enrique Salazar Muñoz, appointment as parochial vicar at St. John the Evangelist Parish, Loveland, Colo., effective June 18, 2014 for a period of three years. THE CATHOLIC DIFFERENCE GEORGE WEIGEL Real readers read books all year round. But the conven- tion of the "summer reading list" has become so thoroughly engrained in our culture that it seems appropriate to suggest four books-for-summer that will deepen any thoughtful Cath- olic's faith—and any thoughtful Catholic's perception of the challenges Catholics face today. So... "Rekindling the Christic Imagination: Theological Med- itations on the New Evangelization" by Robert P. Imbelli (Liturgical Press): For those who've watched (as every sen- tient Catholic should have watched) Father Robert Barron's Catholicism series, here's the next step—a theologically rich, entirely accessible walk through the great themes of Evangel- ical Catholicism, keyed to four masterpieces of Christian art. Father Imbelli, a priest of the Archdiocese of New York, distills a half-century of theological scholarship and teaching into a hundred beautifully crafted pages of reflection on Christ, the desire of our hearts and the motive for Christian mission. "Divided Friends: Portraits of the Roman Catholic Modernist Crisis in the United States" by William L. Portier (Catholic University of America Press): The "Modernist" crisis, which roiled European Catholicism during the pontificate of Pius X, missed the United States—or so it was long argued by the canonical historians of American Catholicism. Not so, writes Dayton's Bill Portier, in a careful study of four men, now largely forgotten, who loomed large in the affairs of the Church in America in the first half of the early 20th century. Portier's sympathetic treatment of the struggles of Denis J. O'Connell, John R. Slattery, William L. Sullivan, and Joseph McSorley to find a path for Catholicism in modernity illu- minate a lot of history that has been in the shadows—and which, brought to light, teaches important lessons for today. "Adam and Eve After the Pill: Paradoxes of the Sexual Revo- lution" by Mary Eberstadt (Ignatius Press): The Catholic Church is going to spend a lot of the next 18 months wrestling with the crisis of marriage culture throughout the world, given the two synods on the subject that Pope Francis has called for October 2014 and October 2015. No book better dissects the issues-be- neath-the-issues at these synods than this brilliant analysis of the sexual revolution, i.e., "the destigmatization and demystifi- cation of nonmarital sex and the reduction of sexual relations in general to a kind of hygienic recreation in which anything goes so long as those involved are consenting adults." This is abso- lutely essential reading for any Catholic interested in bringing sense into the debate over the increasingly aggressive nonsense on display in a culture that has become a sexual free-fire zone. "A Catechism for Business: Tough Ethical Questions and Insights from Catholic Teaching" edited by Andrew V. Abela and Joseph E. Capizzi (Catholic University of America Press): Catholic social teaching remains a mystery to many Catholics (and an ideological plaything for others). All the more reason, then, to be grateful to two Catholic University professors for having assembled a florilegium of brief texts from a century of Catholic social doctrine, and then artfully arranging them as answers to the real-world questions asked by business people trying to live their professional lives vocationally. That Abela and Capizzi have made their book an enjoyable read is further icing on a richly nourishing cake. And then, for sheer fun, a fifth book: "A Nice Little Place on the North Side: Wrigley Field at One Hundred" by George F. Will (Crown Archetype): America's pre- mier political columnist begins his latest reflection on the Na- tional Pastime with some charming, autobiographically-de- rived advice for Catholicism: after recalling that he became a Chicago Cub fan at age 7, "when I was still not as discerning as one should be when making life-shaping decisions," the el- egant Dr. Will notes that "The Catholic Church thinks 7-year- olds have reached an age of reasoning" and remarks, "The Church might want to rethink that." More insight and wit follow, not in another exercise in Wrigley Romanticism, but in a rollicking, penetrating look at (among other things) the history of beer and the reasons why a splendid ballpark has contributed to the notorious ineptitude of the home team. Books for summer reading DENVER CATHOLIC REGISTER CIRCULATION CUSTOMER SERVICE: 303-722-4687 OR CIRCULATION@ARCHDEN.ORG Published by the Archdiocese of Denver, 1300 S. Steele St., Denver, CO 80210 Denver Catholic Register (USPS 557-020) is published weekly except the last week of December and the first week of January, and in June, July and August when it goes bi-weekly. The Register is printed by Signature Offset in Denver. Periodical postage paid in Denver, CO. Subscriptions: $35 a year in Colorado; $42 per year out of state. Foreign countries: $42 surface, all countries, 6-8 weeks for delivery; $135 air, all other countries (average). Mexico, $48 air; Canada, $55 air. Postmaster: Send address changes to: Denver Catholic Register, Circulation Dept., 1300 S. Steele St., Denver, CO 80210 or e-mail circulation@archden.org. Editorial: 303-715-3215 or editor@archden.org Advertising: 303-715-3253 or dcrads@archden.org Circulation: 303-715-3211 or circulation@archden.org Online: www.DenverCatholicRegister.org General Manager Karna Swanson Editor Roxanne King Business Manager Michael O'Neill GUEST COLUMN BY ABRAHAM MORALES A Congolese priest listens to the second reading proclaimed by a Korean lector. To the right of the priest stands a Filipino deacon, to his left, a Latino altar server. Around me in the pews, there are Indian families with the women wearing their traditional sari, and African families wear- ing customary garments for men and women, the latter includ- ing those beautiful headpieces. Among the rest of the congrega- tion, I see people of different rac- es and ethnicities, including oth- er Hispanic families like mine. That is a picture of a typical Sunday Mass at my parish, St. Michael the Archangel in Auro- ra. A Mass attended by people of different backgrounds, traditions and languages but that are unit- ed by one same faith under one same name, Catholic. What grabs my attention the most from this picture, is the English with many accents that we hear on any given Sunday at Mass. For the priest, the dea- con and the lector mentioned, English is their second, third or fourth language. The different accents reminded me of another picture from a few years ago; it was a bilingual Mass at St. Pius X Parish in Aurora, where a Cau- casian deacon proclaimed, with an accent, the Gospel in Spanish. Prior to him, one of the readings was proclaimed in English by a Spanish-speaker (yours truly) with his own accent as well. These different accents, these different pictures of people from different cultures and traditions interacting at church are a beau- tiful reminder of what the word "catholic" means: universal. Ever since I learned that meaning when I was a teen, for the mission of the Church is to go forth to "make disciples of all nations" (Matt 28:11), it has been clear to me that my Church is bigger than my par- ish, than my diocese, than my country, and my own native tongue. Just think about this: at the very moment you are at Sunday Mass, millions of people around the country—and hundreds of millions more around the word—are celebrating the same sacrament, reading the same readings, reflecting on the same passage from the Gospel and called to the same mission after Mass. That is quite astonishing! Or maybe not, since the Church has been always about reaching out, about going forth to take God's message of love throughout the world. So it is very impressive, but in a way, is also business as usual for the Church. It is us who sometimes forget how big our name "Cath- olic" is. A simple definition of the word "universal" means that it is for all humankind. That is why the Church is mission- ary by her nature (consult Church with an accent Chilling future I just read Father (and Dr.) Pacholczyk's excellent article in the May 28 Denver Catho- lic Register ("Editing our own genes?"). There was an arti- cle on the CNN news webpage about medical advances, list- ing 10 innovations in cancer treatment, antibiotics advance- ments and prosthetics. One of the articles was about gene therapy, and the last paragraph was chilling. The general drift was that single-gene manipu- lation in humans is just around the corner, but the more com- plex diseases such as depres- sion or schizophrenia was not far behind. The article stated that all the complexities need not be known or understood to begin embryonic gene correc- tions, but that "we just need to clean up the genetic code." Did they not see the movie "Gattaca" (about a future eu- genics-driven society)? Thanks for the article. God bless you all. Jim Richard Louisville LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters should be no more than 250 words and should include the writer's name, address and telephone number. We rely on our readers to recognize that the opinions expressed in letters to the editor are those of the author and are not necessarily those of the Archdiocese of Denver. Letters containing plainly misstated facts, misinformation or libelous statements will not be printed. Unsigned letters will not be printed. Letters may be edited. Send letters to: Editor, Denver Catholic Register, 1300 S. Steele St., Denver, CO 80210 or fax to 303-715-2045. E-mail us at: editor@archden.org. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ABRAHAM MORALES See Morales, Page 7

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