It’s hard to escape Southern Culture, even when attending an otherwise-formal Anglican Church wedding reception (see photo). I don’t think this is standard-issue from Canterbury, for some reason.

Vanessa Barnes of the Houston Examiner has an interesting article about 10 Episcopal nuns converting to become Catholic nuns this past Thursday, Sept. 3. The sisters cited “orthodoxy and unity” as the reasons for their conversion, and the report explains that these nuns “became the latest in a long line of defectors leaving the Episcopal denomination divided over the approval of women’s ordination and the ordination of a gay bishop.”

Get the full article here: “Episcopal nuns become Catholic nuns“

File this one in the “That’s Just Plain Wrong” category: votive candles featuring Obama as a saint.

Today is known as Reformation Day among Lutherans because October 31, 1517 was the date Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses — a date that historians consider to be the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.

When I was a Lutheran (from my early 20s until my late 30s), I read the Augsburg Confession, which is the primary confession of faith for Lutherans, as well as the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, written in response to Catholic objections to the Augsburg Confession. I must admit that in reading these two documents, I did not understand why the Catholic Church objected to them. I had to deduce what the Catholic position was through the arguments made in the Apology.

Fortunately, I eventually was able to find the “missing link” — the Catholic rebuttal to the Augsburg Confession which prompted the writing of the Apology of the Augsburg Confession. This document is known as The Roman Confutation against the Augsburg Confession and is available from the Lutheran Project Wittenberg. If you are curious why the Church said “No” to many of the Lutheran positions back in the 16th Century, I encourage you to read this document (available as a free PDF). It’s only 24 pages, and it proved to be a powerful influence on me becoming a Catholic. If you’d like to study it alongside the Lutheran documents, both the Augsburg Confession and the Apology are part of the Book of Concord, also available as a free PDF online.

Before attending some Olympic events, President Bush began his Sunday in China attending a worship service at Beijing’s Kuanjie church, which is an officially recognized Protestant congregation. He remarked:

Laura and I just had the great joy and privilege of worshipping here in Beijing, China. You know, it just goes to show that God is universal and God is love. And no state, man or woman should fear the influence of loving religion.

(Watch the YouTube clip)

That last remark was apparently an allusion to the millions of Chinese who brave harassment and arrest to worship at unregistered “house” churches.

This raises an important question for us comfortable Americans: if you were threatened with serious social ostracism or government arrest for going to church, would you still go?

Today’s Musings from a Catholic Bookstore shows the relationship between the writer’s Big Bell Box Meal from Taco Bell, his Aunt Gloria’s homemade Mexican cooking, and the Pope’s reaffirmation that there is no salvation outside the Church. A fine blend of hysterical and insightful. Read “Salvation Outside the Burrito” >

It’s no surprise that Protestants outnumber Catholics here in the Deep South. But I suspect that this is due in part to some tactical errors in Catholic evangelistic strategy. As a native Georgian and a former Protestant, I think I have a unique perspective and can offer some fresh thinking on Catholic evangelistic outreach in these parts.

Not to offend any of my fellow Southerners, but one must admit that many stereotypes are at least in part rooted in reality. Let’s take the prototypical Southern male, who for the sake of this example we will name Billy Bob.

If Billy Bob starts to feel drawn by the Lord into a deeper spiritual life, he might briefly survey the various congregations in his town. And of all the prospects, the last on his list will be some church with a traditionally Catholic name, like, oh let’s say Saint Francis of Assisi Catholic Church. No disrespect toward the founder of the Franciscan Order is intended either by me or our imaginary friend, but Billy Bob’s initial reaction upon seeing a painting or statue might be something like, “A guy named Francis? Well, he sure looks like a-sissy to me in that dress!”

My point is that the name of the local parish can have an influence on whether or not Billy Bob ever sets foot there.

Based on a quick Google search, I found that two Southern parishes have done a fine job in selecting their names, whether intentionally or not. I’m talking about Saint Cletus Catholic Church in Gretna, Louisiana and Saint Clement parish in Calhoun, Georgia. Cletus and Clem sound like good ol’ boys. The kinda fellas you might want to go fishin’ with. Name the parish after either of these men, or even both – Saints Cletus and Clem Catholic Church, for example – and we Southern boys will feel right at home, or at least feel much more welcomed. (If you don’t know, Sts. Cletus and Clement were the third and fourth Bishops of Rome, respectively – early Popes that sound like they’d fit right in here in the South.)

It would also be quite easy to further serve the needs of your local community by making mass times a bit flexible – check the local fishing forecast to make sure mass doesn’t overlap prime fishin’ times. These times will vary each day, of course (see the following):

This makes sure the avid fisherman will have time to fulfill his Sunday obligation without conflict. Employing this variable-schedule technique can improve mass attendance significantly.

If you have a hunting-and-fishing apostolate affiliated with your parish – call it something like “Fishin’ at Cletus and Clem’s” and maybe hold it in conjunction with the Lenten fish fries – you can probably anticipate an annual membership recruitment rate well into the double digits.

I just bought and watched a great DVD called Common Ground: What Protestants and Catholics Can Learn from Each Other. I found this to be a helpful, charitable dialogue between a Protestant minister and a Catholic priest.

Pastor Steve Andrews is the founding pastor of Kensington Community Church in Troy, Michigan. Kensington is a large, non-denominational, evangelical-Protestant church modeled after the successful Willow Creek Church near Chicago. Several years ago, some Kensington members who had left the Catholic Church to become Protestants were giving Catholicism a bad rap. Pastor Andrews thought there was a need to set the record straight, since he and other leaders considered Catholicism to be a significant part of Christianity.

This DVD presents Pastor Andrews’ interview of Father John Riccardo, pastor of nearby Saint Anastasia Catholic Church. The interview took place at St. Anastasia’s sanctuary, just in front of the tabernacle containing the Blessed Sacrament. Father Riccardo does an excellent job explaining Catholic beliefs and practices in a way that non-Catholics can understand.

If you’re looking for a video that you can share with non-Catholic friends who might be interested in learning what Catholics believe, this is an excellent resource.

A sample video clip is available from publisher Nineveh’s Crossing. Also available is a free study guide to the DVD, prepared by Catholic apologist and writer Dave Armstrong.