Yesterday, I spotted this nice outdoor advertisement from the Archdiocese of Atlanta:

The billboard was seen on the I-75/I-85 connector north bound near 14th street.

The Archdiocese’s web site (www.archatl.com) has a Flash animation on its home page which uses this ad, along with several others which I assume are part of the same billboard campaign.

Pretty cool!

On the local front, the Archdiocese of Atlanta will be getting a new auxiliary bishop soon. According to the archdiocesan web site, Monsignor Luis Rafael Zarama, currently vicar general of the Archdiocese of Atlanta, was named by Pope Benedict XVI to be auxiliary bishop of Atlanta. More information, including an audio recording of the July 27 press conference, is available at www.archatl.com. The Georgia Bulletin also has a detailed article about Bishop-Elect Zamara.

The site reports that the Episcopal Ordination of Bishop-Elect Zarama will take place on Tuesday, September 29, 2009.

If you don’t have a local Catholic radio station, here’s one way to listen to EWTN Radio for free on your iPhone. Download the free iPhone app called TimeShift Radio Lite. Once installed, you can listen to KJMA or KVDG, both part of the Guadalupe Radio Network. Enjoy!

Today is the 500th anniversary of John Calvin’s birth. And to mark the occassion, you may want to study a few Catholic works refuting Calvinism. For a brief treatment, try Jimmy Akin’s article titled A Tiptoe Through TULIP from the September 1993 issue of This Rock magazine. Another great resource is St. Francis de Sales’ The Catholic Controversy, a book that collects many leaflets or tracts he wrote in the late 16th Century while evangelizing a Calvinist region (see my post Sold on de Sales for a bit more info). Happy reading!

Pope Benedict XVI’s new encyclical, titled “Caritas in Veritate” (in English, “Love in Truth” or “Charity in Truth”), is now available on the Vatican’s web site. Enjoy!

Happy Independence Day, fellow Americans! Today is a great day to re-read the Declaration of Independence and proudly fly your American Flag.

The National Archives has a nice online version of the Declaration of Independence including both a transcript and high resolution image of the document.

Proper etiquette on the display of the nation’s flag can be found at USHistory.org. This page not only shows proper use of the flag, but highlights some shameful violations reported in the news. Another resource is a PDF brochure on the flag prepared by my dad a few years ago.

Okay, so it’s official — we can hold our breath — Pope Benedict XVI’s third encyclical Caritas in Veritate (Love in Truth) is coming out. According to the Vatican Information Service, it will be officially presented at a July 7 press conference.

At 10:45 am today, President Obama is to meet with eight reporters and editors from Catholic media, according to this National Catholic Register blog entry. Apparently, all those invited are from print media, including National Catholic Register publisher Father Owen Kearns, who explained that the meeting is unprecedented. The article states that Kearns “has not previously met a sitting U.S. president, nor has he been previously invited by the president to a White House gathering for members of the Catholic press.” The meeting’s purpose is to discuss Obama’s upcoming meeting with Pope Benedict XVI, slated for July 10.