Category: Pop Culture

…Tim Drake has a new blog to celebrate his new book of the same name. It’s a great book, which I recommend to anyone wondering where the Church is headed or anyone tempted to despair over the Church in America. You can visit Tim’s new blog at www.youngandcatholic.com and find out more about Tim’s new book, and about what young Catholics are up to and even submit your own profile as a young Catholic.

This is one of the many reasons why I love writing for the Wanderer — Al Matt, Jr. is pretty open about me sharing my submissions on Catholic Light beforehand. That being said, here`s a rough draft of my September submission for Of Canons and Culture:
Of Canons and Culture…
X and Y stand for OrthodoXY
Pete Vere
Where are all the young Catholics? Admittedly, I feel a little sheepish asking this question. I just turned thirty. If I recall correctly, this puts me somewhere near the end of Generation-X and the beginning of Generation-Y. According to various pollsters, my participation each Sunday at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is somewhat of a statistical anomaly.
Yet I hardly feel alone as one who is both young and Catholic. Nor should I according to a forthcoming title from Sophia Institute Press. As a quick aside, most of our readers at the Wanderer should already be familiar with this publisher of orthodox Catholic books.
The title of the book is Young and Catholic: The Face of Tomorrow’s Church. This past weekend saw me blessed with the opportunity to review an advanced copy of the manuscript. Timothy Drake, the author, is a regular correspondent for the National Catholic Register. “In preparation for writing this book,” Tim states in the introduction, “I spoke to more than 300 young people from across the U.S. and elsewhere.” What becomes apparent in reading the book is that each of these young people takes an orthodox stance towards the Catholic faith. Thus orthodoxy is on the rise among Catholics who fall within Generations X and Y.
Undoubtedly, Tim’s analysis seems optimistic. Yet his book proves that such optimism is well-founded. Reflecting upon my own experience as a young Catholic, I agree with the author. For instance, I attend a parish across town where the FSSP administers the sacraments according to the old Latin liturgy. Many envision our parish as a refuge for both the elderly and the nostalgic. However, this stereotype of the traditionalist movement is probably as outdated as the membership of Call-to-Action and the editorial positions espoused by the National Catholic Reporter. Our pew count on any given Sunday easily shows young families outnumbering both the Boomers and the World War II generation Catholics.
Moreover, this phenomena is hardly restricted to the traditionalist movement. Our local (Novus Ordo) parish is administered by the Companions of the Cross – an orthodox society of priests that grew out of the Catholic Charismatic renewal. The Companions have never shied away from preaching Humanae Vitae to young families. Thus parish functions are bursting with children.
Earlier this evening, our family attended the local parish’s family soccer night. Everyone who attended was under the age of forty. While the men and children played soccer, the moms sat on the sidelines and chatted among themselves. A baby and carrier accompanied each mom. The only exception was my friend’s wife who carried their baby in utero. And with only two children in tow – Sonya and I would like to have more, but we’re waiting for God to do His part – we happened to be the smallest family in attendance.
In reviewing Young and Catholic, I discovered these experiences have become common across North America. Whether the purpose is prayer, catechesis or socialization among young Catholics, Tim documents several examples of young orthodox Catholics banding together. “Teens gather by the hundreds to attend special youth Masses in parishes around the country,” he shares, “often on Saturday or Sunday evenings… Young adults get together to discuss theology on a Saturday night in Newark, Ohio, and to study the Holy Father’s encyclicals in New York, Minneapolis, and Kansas City. Young Catholic leaders gather annually in Chicago and in Canada to network and collaborate with one another…
“They are converting to the Faith in large numbers on both secular and Catholic college campuses in California, Texas, and Illinois. They are swelling the ranks of religious orders in Tennessee, Ohio, Michigan, and New York — to such an extent that some orders don’t have space for all of the new members. They are also being ordained priests in dioceses such as Denver, Baltimore, and Lincoln, Nebraska.”
In what will no doubt give Andrew Greeley ulcers, Tim spends the rest of the book documenting and supporting the above claims. Thus I cannot recommend Tim’s book highly enough. Young and Catholic gives hope to Catholics who have spent the last couple years suffering from the scandal caused by sexual misconduct among the clergy. It also provides the perfect rebuttal to Fr. Greeley’s nostalgic jeremiads against “Young Fogeys”, which have become as predictable as the plot to his novels.

I, for one, am shocked.

Here’s a stinker in the offing: “Constantine,” a movie about supernatural stuff.
Rachel Weisz (who my wife thinks I like because she’s beautiful but I also enjoy her acting) is the skeptical naif who “doesn’t believe in the devil.” She’ll look like the Thespian Queen next to Keanu Reeves, her co-star, who will someday have the anti-Oscar for worst male actor named after him. (The female award will be named after Melanie Griffith.)
I gather from the trailer that Keanu is some kind of exorcist guy who battles supernatural devil things and all that. In his best grown-up voice, he says “God and the devil made a wager for the souls of all mankind.” Evidently, Warner Brothers has wagered tens of millions of dollars that people will want to see a movie with that bird-dropping of a premise.
Lot of movies in the last few years that have combined special effects, action, and pseudo-religious mumbo-jumbo: “Stigmata,” “End of Days,” and others I can’t remember because I didn’t see them. Most of them have been flops.
Since Hollywood is one of the most relentlessly secular places on Earth outside of Scandinavia, movie bigwigs want to exploit that religion thing they keep hearing rumors about, but they don’t want to treat it seriously. They know it’s a mess of lies and moral extremism, and anyone with more than half a brain knows it’s a bunch of hooey; proceeding on that premise, they then make movies for people with half a brain.
I thought this would be a movie about Emperor Constantine. Maybe it’s better that it isn’t, because Hollywood would screw up the story just like they screwed up the real story of God and the devil, which is infinitely more interesting. Not to mention deadly important.

Maybe the Pop Tart needs to meet the Tattoo-Removal Nun.
Alleged singer Britney Spears recently took her devotion to trendy Kabbalah spirituality a bit too far, and got herself inked on the neck with some Hebrew letters. However, due to an unexpected error in the editing process, the resulting tattoo meant… well, nothing. Ya gotta watch out with those right-to-left languages, they’ll get ya every time.
Anyway, it’s just as well, because Kabbalah forbids tattooing, and now you’ll be able to count your visits to the dermatologist as an act of piety. Mazel tov, honey.