In the News 7-27-23

Welcome to In The News Show. I am your host, Judy Dozik-Ottes, and I'm here with my faithful co-host, Father Bill Weary. Hello, Father Bill and our listeners. Hello, Judy. Hello, everybody out there. How are you doing? I hope you're having a great day. Yes, I hope everyone's having a great day. Thank you to Joe Nobustynski for our technical assistance and for David Hillowitz for our theme music. So, Father, are you going to enlighten us about your Curseo weekend? You just got back from Curseo? Can you share with us how that was and a little bit about what Curseo is for our listeners that might not be up on what that program is, that ministry? Yes. It is the National Curseo Encounter, as we call it, the annual conference that was in Omaha, Nebraska, and I'm very involved in the Curseo movement. And it was founded, it's a Catholic spirituality movement founded in Mallorca, Spain, in 1944 and has spread throughout the whole world. It's very strong here in the Diocese of Harrisburg, and I highly recommend a Curseo weekend for people to make. You should approach a parishioner who is involved in the Curseo movement. That's the way, that's how we register, basically. It's one-on-one. In any case, it is a weekend, Thursday through Sunday, that features a series of talks by lay people, lay leaders, and also one or two priests on the weekend. And it's general spirituality, and people come off of the weekend oftentimes very pumped up and they're very excited, and they're supposed to springboard into a once-a-week prayer and share group, and that goes on basically for the rest of their lives, and in which they share their spiritual lives of the previous week, what they're doing in terms of prayer and piety, what they're doing in terms of spiritual reading, whether it's the Bible or other resources, and what they're doing in terms of evangelization and action, charity. And really, that accountability is so important in the small group. I do a once-a-week small group myself here in the parish. I really like it, and it keeps the ball rolling from the high of the weekend, which is a very good experience for many people. So it was about 400 people in Omaha, Nebraska, Creighton University. We have them at different locations around the nation. Last year was Orange, California. I did not make that one, but it's been at Villanova University, University of Scranton, and various places, locations. And people from all over the United States come, and we actually had some representatives from Mallorca, Spain, also, that keep the plane burning on the founder, who was a native of Mallorca, Eduardo Bonin, one of the preeminent founders, as one of the manuals says. And so it's just a really great experience, and it really helps people in their Catholic faith and in their relationship with Jesus Christ and with others, and it emphasizes the encounter with self, encounter with Christ, and encounter with others. So it's a package deal, which is basic Christianity. Cursilo is a C-U-R-S-I-L-L-O. That means short course in Christianity. So basically that's what it is, and very, very much to be recommended. How do we get in touch if our listeners would like to become part of the Cursilo movement in the diocese? What is a way to get in touch with someone to do that? Well, like I said, the best way is to approach somebody in the parish who is a – because you have to be sponsored. You're sponsored over the weekend. So approach somebody in the parish. If you know that there is a Cursilo group there, and you know one of the parishioners, approach that person, or call me. You can definitely call me through Holy Family Radio or get in touch with me. I'm Sacred Heart, Lewistown, St. Jude, Mifflintown, and I can set you up with a sponsor. Okay, that sounds good. If anyone's interested in that, please contact Father or to approach someone at your local parish. I know that there's probably many Cursolistas that are in our diocese. I know many of them have been on pilgrimages with them. And our own station manager, Joe Nebustinsky, is a Cursolista, so – And his wife as well. That's right. So you could just call here at the station, and he can fill you in as well. Okay, so we'll move along. I wanted to mention that our new bishop, Bishop Timothy Senior, is now going around to all the deaneries and celebrating Masses at the different churches in the various deaneries, and he'll be doing that through the summer. And I had the privilege to experience one of his Masses last Tuesday, at least from when we're recording this, Holy Name of Jesus in the Harrisburg Deanery, the Dauphin Deanery. And it was very well – it was well-attended, and a lot of priests – Father, I think you were there. Yes. It was very special to experience our new bishop in saying a Mass, and his emphasis was on service and how we can serve and being open to what Christ is asking us to do in our lives and the different ways and the different talents he asks us to use. So I would encourage – I know on the Catholic Witness, there is a listing of the other Masses that Bishop Senior is going to be doing. So if you have the opportunity there during the week, usually at 7 o'clock, a Tuesday or Wednesday or a Thursday, please take advantage of that. It certainly was well worth it. And he took the time at the end of Mass to make sure that he greeted everyone properly and took time with everyone and asked them their name and what parish they were from, and he was very, very gracious. So the Mass was beautiful, and he was very gracious, and so please – just encouraging everybody to do that. He precedes each Mass and each deanery with a meeting with the priests of the deanery. Okay. We all benefited from that, and once again, he made clear that he was available to us as priests. He considers us, as every bishop should, collaborators and consultants. We are, you know, his mainstay, the priests, we're the backbone of the diocese, of course, priests in the parish, and he made it very clear that he wanted to be of service to us, to support us, and we will certainly support him. It was a very good deanery meeting, and we're expecting great things from Bishop Senior. Yes, we are, and we welcome him again to the diocese. So going on to the next topic, I saw this – actually, I think it was via the Catholic News Agency, but it's from the Washington Stand, and this is something that certainly has been in the news in the last couple of weeks, that the SBA has now made a decision to sell birth control pills over-the-counter for women, and it is a low-dose, over-the-counter birth control pill, low-dose, it's called O-Pill, and it just has one of the hormones in it, a progestin-only pill, but still, it's causing quite a stir because it's talking a lot about what the side effects are. As Catholics, of course, we don't believe in artificial contraception, but we are also always concerned about the health of individuals, and certainly with this being of a cause to women, and it can cause a lot of problems, not only while they're taking it, but after lifetime effects. It can cause cancer, it can cause depression, ectopic pregnancy, if a woman should get pregnant on this birth control pill, blood clots, heart attacks, strokes. It can also be, and a lot of women may not know this, that birth control pills generally are a potential abortifacient. It can actually cause an abortion. If there was a child forming in the womb at the time while they're taking the pill, it could actually expel the child or the cells that are forming, if it hasn't formed into a child yet, the actual cells. So diabetes, religious liberty is at stake. You know, Father, how can we reach out to women and educate them about how dangerous this is? That's a good question, and this weighs on my heart very much. I'm reviving my, I never gave it up, but I'm re-strengthening my interest in natural family planning and how healthy that is, and it revived my interest, just re-listening to a CD by Jason Ebert, very prominent, Jason and Kristalina Ebert, very prominent authors and speakers in this area, and the CD is called Green Sex, kind of a funny name. Green Sex, green meaning environmentally sound, both for, you know, the woman's body, that the birth control pill, especially, maybe not marrying meth, but the pill, as you just made the point, Judy, is toxic. The side effects are, and you'd also, there's another side effect you didn't mention, which is, it can happen, all these are, you know, don't happen to every woman, all these side effects, but one is a lower libido, which is kind of counterintuitive, it's kind of funny because people take the pill in order to, you know, enjoy sex more, but the effect of the chemical, the chemical sometimes is lower sex drive on the part of the woman. I'm going to be meeting with one of the new employees of the diocese in the family life office, a young woman who has just been hired, she's a mother, and she's wife and mother, and she's working under Deacon Amarante, and I'm going to be meeting with her on this very subject in a few weeks, and she's an expert in this area, and I do also, I want to get the word out, I want to, I think I'm going to buy copies of that CD, and it's a fabulous CD about natural family planning and chastity and how poison the pill is. And she's speaking to a group of women, a large group of women, I think it might have been college women, I'm not, college-age women, and he was very well-received, and his emphasis was how NFP preserves the dignity of the woman, of womanhood. And that was, you know, it's another way of looking at it, some people think it's the old rhythm, calendar rhythm method, but it's not, it's much more accurate than that, and there, and the technology keeps improving in terms of digital thermometers and where the, you know, women can be more accurate in terms of their fertile periods and infertile periods, and natural family planning is, I think as everybody knows, is what I call strategic abstinence, strategic abstinence, where if a couple wants to avoid another birth, which you can do, you can plan your family's size prudently, and a couple might say, you know, this is not a good time for a baby right now. Could be a number of reasons, I've been sick, and you're, you've been laid off from your job, and we already have a number of children, and you can exercise strategic abstinence where you don't violate the marital act, artificial contraception, either the pill or the barrier method, the condom, violates the sacred marital embrace of the couple, which is the act of the covenant between the two of them, which is an act of babies and an act of bonding. Everybody's okay with the bonding part, that's the fun part, and that's fine, but it's got to be integral, it's got to be integrated with the procreative, every act, according to Catholic teaching, has to be open to new life. But you can strategize the size of the family and limit the marital embrace, intercourse, to the times that the woman is naturally infertile, and what a wonderful thing, God provides that, and we can target it, we can target that, the couple can target that particular space, if you will, in the month and reserve the marital embrace for that time. And it's 98% correctly done, and the couple really does need instruction on this. Many parishes have couples, instructing couples, we have one such couple as well. On the masthead of the bulletin, there are names and their phone numbers. They don't get a lot of calls, they don't get a lot of take-ups on this, nevertheless, that you really need to be instructed, and it is a sacrifice, because there can be, at times, long periods of abstinence. But take up your cross and follow me, and Jason Ebert made that point in the CD. He said, my wife and I, Kristalina and I, practice it, and it is difficult. It is tough at times. There are times that I really don't want to exercise this method very much, but we do, and there are blessings to it, and it really is green sex. It is healthy, spiritually, but physically as well. So I hope you get some ideas from Melissa, the diocese employee just hired on, and get some ideas on how we can get the word out on this. Okay, Father, that will take us to our break, and we'll be right back. If you please stay with us, we're at 720 WHYF, Holy Family Radio, and we'll be right back. Thank you. Sorry, Father, we went way over on that. Oh, okay. And I didn't want to interrupt you, because it's all good information. Okay, what am I going to do with the time? Well, it's not saying, but... We'll just keep going, and then we'll just... And then just keep going, okay. We'll get through the time, but it's not saying we've got to go. Okay. When is this going to air? Thursday. Thursday, right? Yeah, Thursday, this coming Thursday. It's Monday, okay. So I'm going to keep going, but we're going to be... I can't hear you. Well, we're going to run short, so at some point, it's just going to end, unfortunately. I don't get it. I don't understand this. Because we have a Zoom, a free account for a half hour, and it took us a while to get started. So that's what happens. It only records for 30 minutes. I've never experienced this before on the show. Well, that's because, well, yeah, well, because we didn't have different channels. Well, that's because, well, yeah, well, because we didn't have difficulty, and I didn't... It doesn't matter. Let's just keep going. Okay. All right. So I'll just start back with... Do you have anything that you want to talk about, Father, that popped in your head? No, I appreciate the feast days that come up and why... What about St. John Biondi? We could talk about him. Yeah, that would be a good thing. I just lost video, but that's okay. I don't know what I did. You lost video? Okay. Doesn't matter. You still hear me. Yeah. Okay. Let me go back. We'll go to the second half of the show, and if we get cut off, we'll just make it work somehow. Okay. Okay. Welcome back to In the News Show. We're going to get right started on our next topic. And on August 4th is the Feast of St. John Biondi, who is the patron saint for priests. And I know, Father, you probably have some good information about him. Oh, just a wonderful saint that is the patron saint, as you said, patron saint of priests. August 4th, that is coming up. And he's a true role model for all of us. And he was a very simple farm boy in the mid-1800s. Died, I believe, in 1859 at 73 years of age. And they reluctantly ordained him because he had missed out on a lot of schooling. I know he had to be privately tutored in Latin. And he was playing catch-up for a lot of his educational years. And at first, he did not seem suitable for the priesthood. They reluctantly ordained him because he was so good, such a pious, fervent fellow. They put him out in the middle of nowhere in a farm village called Ars, where he just turned France upside down with his sanctity, his fervor, his confessions. People would come. He would be in the confessional booth for hours every day, 12, 14 hours a day. And people would go to confession to him. What a change from today, where I get people saying, you know, I get Catholics, not a lot, some say, confession is just not my thing, Father. This is really tough for me. But they flocked to him. And he was, he could read souls. You know, if you left out a sin or something like that, you know, God would whisper in his ear or something and inform you of the sin that you had either forgotten or tried to avoid. And he really turned that place into a powerhouse of prayer and fervor. That little parish, of course, there is a big shrine there now. I've never been there. I would like to go. And he is just a wonderful example for all of us priests and for the laity as well. And a reminder, I remember when there was a one-man play, Leonardo de Philippus, I think his name was. Oh, yes, yeah. He's a Catholic actor that does a lot of plays and would circulate. He's on video a little bit. I don't know if he's circulating now much at all in these days. But he did a one-man play on St. John DeAnne. He was traveling the country doing that. It was fabulous. I saw it at Trinity High School in Charlestown. And it was just, it was just wonderful. And he did it really good. You wonder what one man can do with this subject matter, but he pulled it off very well. Yes, he's produced some other movies like Therese. That was out several years ago. That was a very good movie. You're right, Father. I haven't heard from him lately. So hopefully he's still in the business or working kind of backstage, I guess you could say. Another feast day that we have coming up is actually during the time that you'll be listening to this broadcast is the Feast of St. James, the Apostle. And I know that he has been connected a lot of times with the pilgrimage, the Camino. And I don't think, Father, you haven't done the Camino and neither have I, but certainly have heard about it and encourage people if they are interested in that. But do you have some words of wisdom to tell us about St. James? The Apostle, the brother of one of the sons of Zebedee, brother of St. John. And yes, his tomb is at Compostela, a wonderful pilgrimage site. There's a legend about him that I really like called Our Lady of the Pillar, whereby he was sitting on the banks of a river. And I kind of like this because he was discouraged. He apparently, his evangelizing, his preaching was not being very successful. Maybe he was thinking back to Pentecost Day when there were 3,000 baptisms on that first day of the church, and he's not getting those kind of results. And Our Lady appeared to him standing on a pillar. I don't know why, but standing on a pillar on the banks of the river to inspire him to boost up his spirit. And in ministry, sometimes we can grow discouraged and parish work. It can be an occupational hazard. We're not supposed to get discouraged, but it's a human thing where we're not getting the results. The collection's down. Maybe the attendance is down. So that helps me. St. James, one of the Twelve Apostles got discouraged after Our Lady appeared to him. And that's not at the Compostela site. It was another site. But it's a wonderful thing. I have three parishioners who have made that pilgrimage, and there's different lengths you can go. The full one is hundreds of miles, but there are other routes you can take as well. And, of course, there's a very prominent movie made by Martin Sheen and his son, Emilio Estevez, called The Way. And it's a wonderful movie, fiction, of a father who makes the pilgrimage, walks the way after his son dies in the middle of his pilgrimage attempt. He dies, and so the father takes up the slack, carries his son's ashes in the movie, and makes the entire pilgrimage. It's a great movie, The Way. And it's a reminder that we're all on pilgrimage anyway, on our way to heavenly glory, we hope, and life is the pilgrimage. Yes, amen to that. I've actually been to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela and have seen the bust of St. James and also his grave, and have seen the Church of Our Lady of the Pillar, and they are fascinating sites. As I said, I've not walked the Camino, but if anyone is interested in even just going to Spain, those are beautiful pilgrimage sites, those beautiful churches. And inside the church at Santiago de Compostela, it actually has a big incenser, and it goes back and forth. You have to pay to have it done, right? But the pilgrims used to end there years ago. This pilgrimage has been done for thousands of years, and so they would have that incenser going back and forth. I think it's quite huge. And it spans the entire length of the cathedral, like back and forth. And I thought to myself, well, what would you have for a need of an incenser like that? And they said, well, a lot of the pilgrims, once they ended the Camino, they would hang out and even sleep in the church. And actually, the body odor was a little bit hard to take. So they made sure that they had their own, quote unquote, air freshener for that, which was that big incenser. I think it costs like 300 euros if you get a group together and actually run it. I did not see it run, but the thing is huge. And certainly worth a look-see if you're ever in Spain to go and see that beautiful church. There are so many beautiful churches on pilgrimages, but that was definitely one of the whole stories behind the way. Everyone has a reason for doing the Camino. And as you said, it's depicted in that movie. If you haven't seen it, The Way, certainly I'm sure it's available on Netflix. So moving right along, yesterday we had the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly. So Pope Francis talked about the importance of bridging the gap between the young people and the elderly. And we know that we have different ways of thinking, but he was striving and also talking about how important it is to build that bridge between the two different generations. So being somewhat of an elderly person myself, I think there's probably a lot I could learn from young people, and there's probably some things they could learn from me. I don't know. So we're going to try to bridge that gap. Yeah, we're definitely in a youth culture today. Yes, we are. That was not, it's a flip of the last, well, since the 1960s. Anyway, before that, the elderly were really, the young would look to the elderly. It's almost the opposite now. We're seeking wisdom from youth, but in the past, the wisdom of senior citizens was highly, from the 1960s all the way back to the beginning of human history, the elderly were truly sought out for their wisdom and for their experience, and you just don't have that now. But wherever you do see it, it's a wonderful thing. And on occasion, you do see that love between grandchildren and grandparents. And it's very touching and moving to see in the parish and at the home. Yes, there were many times that I would get wisdom from my grandmother, and in some families, the grandparents actually lived with the extended family, had the grandparents living with them, so they could impart their wisdom all the time. Right. Okay. Okay. Keep going. Okay. I don't know how much time. This thing keeps going. All right. So, let's go on to the next. Oh, August 5th, we also have the dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary Major, and we know that's another major basilica. I've been there several times. Also called Our Lady of the Snows. The Snows, that's right. Based on a legend that's not really well-founded, there's not much evidence for it, that a couple in the Roman period, well, the early centuries of the church, were blessed by a mysterious snowfall on that hill, Escaline Hill in Rome, that was a sign that they were to build a church there. And what they do, I think, I don't know if they still do it, on this feast day, they drop white flower petals from the upper balconies. Down onto the congregation, to commemorate that legend. But it is, in fact, one of the five major basilicas of the city of Rome, and dedicated to Our Lady. They claim to have a piece of the crib from the manger that's up on the wall. And also, St. John Lateran, which is the cathedral church of the Pope, not St. Peter's, but St. John Lateran, a couple miles away, all claims to have a piece of the Last Supper table. And in any case, the St. Mary Major is a beautiful church, one of the largest Marian churches in the world, and just gorgeous. Another pilgrimage site for those who might want to go on to pilgrimage. Okay, so one other thing I just wanted to mention, we only have about a minute and a half to go, is Sound of Freedom is still making history at the box office. So if you haven't seen it and it's still out there in the theaters, please go to see that movie. It's a very, very good movie. It's very successful. Some of the mainstream media isn't spinning it as successful and necessary, but I would suggest going to see that. So I'm just putting that out there. And so we're getting near to the end of the show, Father. If you could leave us with a prayer, that would be great. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen. Lord God, Heavenly Father, continue blessing us this summer. Lord, just walk us through the wonderful sunlight and sunshine, and yes, the heat, Lord, and bring us on pilgrimage as we are all on the way to the heavenly glory that awaits through Christ our Lord. And may Almighty God bless you. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen. All right, I'm going to hit stop recording, but we can still, I don't know why it's letting me do it, but we can still do it. I don't know why it's letting me do it, but...