NETwork Against Malaria

The pastor of my parish, who is from Uganda, recently sent me this video, which shows the good work done in Uganda by a charitable organization called NETwork Against Malaria. NETwork Against Malaria provides insecticide-treated bednets to protect children from mosquitos which transmit malaria, thus helping the children to avoid this terrible disease.



If you would like to donate to help this worthy cause, please visit the NETwork Against Malaria website.

CNN profiles exorcist Fr. Gary Thomas

Before I say anything else, let me warn you that this video contains scary and disturbing scenes from the films The Rite and The Exorcist. If you have young children around, please do not click on this video.

Having said that, this video is a segment from CNN, featuring Fr. Gary Thomas. Fr. Thomas is an exorcist whose life story served as the basis for the movie The Rite. It's a good interview, and it was good to see a sober, non-sensationalized account of exorcism in the mainstream media.



(I found this video via the Catholic Trailers blog.)

Anti-Planned Parenthood TV Ad Featuring Abby Johnson

The following TV ad is making the rounds of the Catholic blogs today. It was produced by the Susan B. Anthony List as part of an effort to end federal funding for Planned Parenthood. The video features Abby Johnson, who was the director of a Planned Parenthood clinic until she had a radical pro-life conversion, which she recounts in her book Unplanned. (I just started reading that book, by the way, and it is very good so far.)



Also, I posted an interview with Abby Johnson a few weeks ago; you can find it here.

Two More Quick Takes from Archbishop Dolan

Here are two more quick outtakes from Archbishop Dolan's 60 Minutes interview.

On anti-Catholicism:



On the abuse scandal:

Archbishop Dolan on Same-Sex Unions and Female Priests

Following up from an earlier post containing video of Archbishop Timothy Dolan on 60 Minutes, here is an "outtake" video from CBS's web site, with some additional interview footage with Archbishop Dolan. I didn't like the fact that Morley Safer made a few criticisms of Catholic doctrine that the archbishop didn't get a chance to reply to, but overall it is a good video:

Sisters: In Their Own Words

Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration answer questions about their vocations to religious life:

The Didache

In today's video, Jimmy Akin talks about one of the oldest Christian documents outside the Bible, the Didache:

Sonitus Sanctus blog

I would like to say a quick "thank you" to the owner of the Sonitus Sanctus Catholic audio blog for mentioning my blog in a recent post.

If you're not familiar with the Sonitus Sanctus blog, do check it out. I first found it a few years ago, and I have found it to be a great resource for links to free Catholic audio files on all kinds of topics. Just browse the list of topics there to find something that interests you, or check out this recent post that links to several good talks.

More on the Canon of Scripture

In this excerpt from the Catholic Answers Live radio program, Jimmy Akin answers a caller's question about how the early Christians determined the canon of Scripture (i.e., which books belong in the Bible).

What books did the Church Fathers exclude from the Bible and why?

Yesterday, we looked at the Old Testament canon. Today, we look at the New Testament canon:

Archbishop Timothy Dolan on CBS's 60 Minutes

New York's Archbishop Timothy Dolan was profiled on 60 Minutes on CBS TV last night. I have to say that it was a decent interview, and not unfairly negative. Here is the video:



(Thanks to some folks at Steve Ray's Defenders of the Catholic Faith message board for alerting me to this video.)

How did the Old Testament canon develop?

A few weeks ago, I posted some videos from Jimmy Akin about the church fathers and early church history. I would like to continue that this week, but this time focusing more on the Bible and other early Christian writings.

In today's video, Jimmy Akin examines the question of how the early Christians decided which books belonged in the Old Testament of the Bible.



In the video, Jimmy touches on the issue of the deuterocanonical books which are included in the Old Testament in Catholic Bibles, but which are excluded from Protestant Bibles. If you would like to read more on why Catholics include these books in the Old Testament canon, here are a couple of good articles:

CUF Faith Facts: The Complete Bible: Why Catholics Have Seven More Books
Catholic Answers: The Old Testament Canon

A religious brother shares his story

A religious brother shares the story of his vocation to the religious life:

Pope Benedict to give TV interview

This sounds interesting:



Once this interview happens, I will try to post it here if I can find video of it in English.

Fr. Robert Barron on Christopher Hitchens' Book

Following up on yesterday's video about the "new atheists," in today's video Fr. Barron comments on Christopher Hitchens' book of atheist apologetics, called God is not Great.

Fr. Robert Barron on the New Atheists

Pope Benedict's Second Volume of "Jesus of Nazareth"

I read Pope Benedict's original Jesus of Nazareth book a couple of years ago, and it was excellent. It was part meditation on Jesus's life and part essay on Biblical scholarship, and it was also surprisingly easy to understand. Now Pope Benedict has written a second volume, covering the events of Holy Week, including the Passion and Resurrection:





Here is the official web site of the U.S. edition of the book.

Pope Benedict explains Lent

Fishers of Men

Here is a two-part video called Fishers of Men, which was commissioned by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to promote vocations to the priesthood:

Fr. Barron on Confession

As we are now beginning the season of Lent, I thought that a video about the sacrament of Penance (also known as Confession or Reconciliation) would be appropriate. In this video, Fr. Robert Barron comments on the importance of this sacrament, and he also discusses the popular "Confession" iPhone app. (Click here for a detailed review of this app.)

Archbishop Dolan on Ash Wednesday

Here is a video that I found, via American Papist, of New York's Archbishop Timothy Dolan giving a brief summary of Lent and Ash Wednesday. I'm not crazy about the "constantly switching camera angles for no apparent reason" style of filmmaking that was used here, but nevertheless, here is the video:

Ash Wednesday Humor

Here is a video to lighten the mood a bit on this Ash Wednesday:

Lent is Coming!

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, the first day of the season of Lent:



Also, please check out Aggie Catholics' mega-post on Lent, which will answer all of your questions about Lent, and then some. Jimmy Akin also just put up his Annual Lent Fight post, which takes a detailed look at thorny questions like the exact duration of Lent, and whether or not Sundays count as part of Lent.

Peter Kreeft and Robert Spencer Debate Islam

This video is very long, but it is well worth viewing (or just listening to). Robert Spencer and Peter Kreeft are both Catholic, but they have somewhat different views on Islam. They discuss these different views in detail in this friendly and informative debate:

News Report on Dominican Sisters

At least for the next several weeks, I plan to post a video about vocations to the priesthood or religious life each Friday. Here is a great one to start with -- a positive and informative news report about a group of Dominican sisters from the St. Cecilia Congregation in Nashville, Tennessee:



(Found on the Aggie Catholics blog.)

Interview with Abby Johnson on her book "Unplanned"

This episode of EWTN's "World Over Live" contains a very informative interview with Abby Johnson. Until a couple of years ago, Abby was the director of a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic, but after an experience assisting with an ultrasound-guided abortion, she had a profound conversion and is now a pro-life activist. In this interview, she tells her own personal story, and she also provides valuable insight into how Planned Parenthood does business.



(Once you start playing the video, skip to 08:00 on the counter if you want to go directly to the start of the interview with Abby Johnson.)

You can read Abby's full story in her book Unplanned.

World Youth Day 2011

Here is a nice promotional video for the upcoming World Youth Day 2011, which will be in Madrid, Spain in August of this year.

New worldwide statistics on number of Catholics, number of priests, etc.

Sherry from the Intentional Disciples blog has some thoughts on these numbers here.