catholic

I would like to extend a very heartfelt congratulations to now-Bishop-designate Edward M. Rice, who will be ordained as the new Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of St. Louis on January 13!

Bishop-designate Rice is a very cheerful, fun, and friendly priest who is faithful, prayerful, and loving of all the people entrusted to his spiritual/pastoral leadership. I have had the honor of working with him from time to time as he has helped at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary and in his role as the Vocations Director for the Archdiocese of St. Louis, and I'm glad that I'll be able to work with him as the soon-to-be Auxiliary Bishop!

Here's a photo I shot of him for a Vocational Discernment pamphlet last year (it's on Flickr - click to view larger sizes):

Congratulations to Raymond Cardinal Burke (or Cardinal Burke for short), as he and 23 other men have been elevated to the rank of Cardinal in Rome this morning. We are very happy to see such a wonderful, loving, and holy man become a Cardinal!

Cardinal Sean O'Malley, archbishop of Boston, gave new cardinal Raymond L. Burke
the kiss of peace during the consistory of cardinals Nov. 20 at St. Peter's Basilica
in Vatican City. (Teak Phillips/St. Louis Review)

Some coverage from around the web:

The Archdiocese of St. Louis, and it's official publication, the St. Louis Review, have begun their comprehensive coverage of this year's Consistory of Cardinals, during which Cardinal-designates Burke and Wuerl (Archbishop-emeritus of St. Louis and Archbishop of Washington, respectively) will become Cardinals.

Check out the St. Louis Review's coverage of the Consistory, which also includes a ton of background information, such as the following articles, slideshows, and galleries:

During his Wednesday General Audience this morning, Pope Benedict XVI announced that then-Archbishop Raymond L. Burke, among others including then-Archbishop Wuerl of Washington, D.C., was going to be elevated to the rank of Cardinal in the Catholic Church in November!

Read more about the elevation of Cardinal-designate Burke and the 2010 Consistory of Cardinals... also, follow events from the 2010 Consistory of Cardinals live on the St. Louis Review website.

Congratulations to this amazing prelate in the Catholic Church, who is truly humble and loving in all that he does (regardless of how the press sees things ;-).

...I'll be a married man!

In the next few months, my beloved fiancée and I will be writing a few stories about our engagement and marriage preparation, as well as some of the awesome highlights of our preparation for our actual wedding and reception.

We might have a 'special section' on this site for marriage-related topics (you can already read through some marriage-related posts here), or we might set up shop on a different site... whatever the case, we would both appreciate any prayers you can spare for our marriage, and we will be sure to keep all of you in our prayers as well!

The text below appeared in a recent issue of The Chart, a newsletter published by the Archdiocese of St. Louis' Office of Natural Family Planning. I co-wrote the article with my beautiful fiancée, Natalie (she'll be my wife in two weeks!):

Using Natural Family Planning has helped my fiancée and I to understand her body in a new light, and has helped us grow in love. The method helps us to communicate and appreciate her signs of fertility. It has alerted us to some potential fertility issues that we can account for and discuss with her doctor before we begin our married sexual relationship. We have also been privileged to form new friendships with other couples practicing NFP.

Derrick Flannigan, a good friend and relatively new blogger, has posted a link to a trailer for Segregation, a movie discussing youth ministry in Protestant Churches in the U.S. The gist of the movie is that by segregating youth from other parts of the church, individual churches are unable to retain young people after they enter college.

This is a trend that I have seen happen in many a young person's life... and these days, without proper catechesis of the youth (many don't even know basic tenets of the faith—Protestant or Catholic), many leave the Church and never look back. Even after they become older/wiser.

From Derrick's post:

According to the NCFIC, "65% and 85% of Christian youth leave the church when they enter college" (www.ncfic.org). Such numbers are shocking, to say the least! I would only hope that the Catholic Church could boast of having fewer numbers.

The Archdiocese of St. Louis is celebrating the feast of its patron saint today, St. Louis IX. Saint Louis was a very generous man, always giving to the poor, helping charitable organizations and religious orders, and generally being the kind of king who tries to please God rather than man.

You can read more about the feast of St. Louis IX (and about the man himself) on the Archdiocese of St. Louis' website.