The Reason for Our Hope Foundation

I recently viewed a video of a talk entitled The Truth by Fr. Larry Richards, a Catholic priest from the Diocese of Erie, Pennsylvania. I had recently heard Fr. Richards speak at this summer's Steubenville St. Louis Mid-America, and was interested in seeing this video because of how well Fr. Richards seems to relate to his audience and get across a solid Catholic message. The video's a bit long, but it's worth every minute:

In a very short amount of time, Fr. Richards holds talks about many aspects of our faith, leading us to an understanding of 'the truth' about our faith—Jesus Christ. His 'truth talk,' some of his homilies, and a lot more information (including information on parish missions, teen retreats, etc.) can be found on the website for the Reason for Our Hope Foundation (Fr. Richards is the Foundation's president and founder).

This group's website is easy to navigate and contains a lot of good information; just make sure your computer speakers aren't turned way up! (There's a sound clip that plays on the home page).

In a similar vein, there are tons of great Catholic Apologetics articles on Catholic Answers Online that I go to quite often when I need to explain a part of our doctrine to non-Catholics.

Vote NO on 2!

In Missouri, we will be having one of the most important elections in recent years because of our vote on Amendment 2. This amendment is very dangerous, and it seems that there are many forces working to try to get the amendment passed.

Without getting into the details, I'll just say that it's a scary amendment because it not only allows 'therapeutic' cloning (it only bans 'reproductive' cloning...), but it's also bad law. For a detailed analysis of the issue, check out www.nocloning.org.

There is a lot of controversy about a recent television ad aired on FOX with Michael J. Fox lying about certain things having to do with Amendment 2. He said Jim Talent (running for the U.S. senate against Claire McCaskill in our state) is opposed to stem cell research. This, in fact, is a complete lie. Jim Talent, and most other people I know of who are informed on this issue, are very much in support of stem cell research—as long as the scientists don't use human embryos to harvest their stem cells.

You can see an ad that was produced to counter the Michael J. Fox ad on YouTube.

There are many other issues that make this amendment dangerous to our society, including violations of women's rights (women could be compensated financially—i.e. paid—for egg harvesting), the fact that it would alter our state constitution (which can't easily be changed again), and it has very ambiguous wording.

Blog Break

I am going to take a break from the blogging community for a small while (at least a month). Please continue to pray for vocations to the priesthood and religious life, and keep me and all seminarians in your prayers!

(In the meanwhile, please check out Dawn Eden's blog, The Dawn Patrol, and Jeff Miller's 'The Curt Jester' - they're two of my favorite blogs!).

KGB Lions Soccer - 1-1-1 for the Season

The KGB Lions started the season well, with a 1-1 tie against St. Meinrad's Seminary, a 1-6 loss to a great team in our CYC league, and a recent 2-1 victory against another CYC team this past Sunday. We will be playing every Sunday from now until early December at 2:45 p.m., for anyone interested in attending a game.