The Election of Pope Francis - Remixed

The same gentleman who created the video which I posted as "Pope John Paul II Remixed" has done another video for the election of Pope Francis. This one is not quite as good as the first one, but it's entertaining, and it was nice to revisit Pope Francis's election:



In the video description on YouTube, the video creator says that he already has plans for a third video. I will watch for it and try to post it here when it's available.

World Youth Day 2013 - Catechesis and Mass with Cardinal Dolan

From World Youth Day 2013 in Rio de Janeiro, via Salt + Light TV:



(If there is no sound, please adjust the volume control at the bottom of the video frame. When I first started playing the video, the sound was all the way to zero for some reason.)

Should the U.S. bishops re-institute meatless Fridays year-round?

I have been looking for video about this suggestion by Cardinal Dolan, since I read about it earlier this week:



And here is a clip from a Catholic radio program where Cardinal Dolan discussed this idea further:



Personally, I think that this is a great idea, as Friday abstinence from meat would be a year-round witness to the wider culture. Also, I think it would be easier to remember to abstain from meat every Friday for the whole year, than the current system where we have to abstain only on the Fridays of Lent (and Ash Wednesday of course).

Finally, if anyone would like to see the full video of Cardinal Dolan's opening speech at the U.S. bishops' fall assembly, here it is:



(Thanks to Whispers in the Loggia, where I found the audio clip and the second video.)

Fr. Robert Barron on Effective Evangelization

Here is another video about evangelization, to follow up from yesterday's video.

As usual, Fr. Barron makes an excellent point, this time on how to evangelize effectively:



(Found at Aggie Catholics.)

HHS Contraception Mandate

NOTE: I have added some updates at the end of this post.

I have intended for a few weeks now to post some videos about the recent contraception mandate from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In the unlikely event that you haven't heard about this mandate, essentially the issue is as follows:

As part of the "Obamacare" health care law, the Department of Health and Human Services has defined contraception, sterilization, and even abortifacient "emergency contraception" as preventive care which must be covered in all employer-sponsored health plans. Most religious organizations are not exempt from this requirement, meaning that organizations such as Catholic universities, Catholic charities, and Catholic hospitals must choose either to pay for medicines and procedures which they believe are morally wrong, or stop providing health insurance coverage for their employees and pay a steep fine to the government.

Obviously, the first option (providing contraception) is not an option that a Catholic individual or a Catholic organization can follow without violating the teachings of the church. And the second option is clearly unjust, because it prevents Catholics and Catholic organizations from providing health care coverage to their employees, and penalizes them monetarily for not being willing to violate their consciences. This HHS mandate is a clear violation of the religious liberty of Catholics, or of anyone whose religion teaches that these medicines and procedures are morally wrong.

To read more about this mandate, I would recommend starting with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' web page on the HHS mandate, as well as the National Catholic Register for ongoing news coverage.

And of course, since this blog is focused on Catholic videos, I do have some videos on this issue. First, here is Archbishop and Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan of New York on CBS News:



Ave Maria University states that they will not comply with the contraception mandate:



And here is Fr. Barron's commentary on the contraception mandate, in which he replies to some commentators who favor the mandate:




Finally, there are several petitions that people can sign, including the following:

Online petition at StopHHS.com, courtesy of Ave Maria Radio
Online petition at whitehouse.gov
"Stop the Birth Control Mandate" petition
Becket Fund for Religious Liberty Petition


UPDATE 1: Here is one more video, from the Archdiocese of St. Louis, which I found on the Aggie Catholics blog:




UPDATE 2 (Feb. 11, 2012): Yesterday, President Obama offered an "accommodation," essentially saying that religious employers who provide health insurance to their employees must still purchase plans that provide free contraception, but the contraception will be paid for by the insurance company rather than by the employer. Of course this is merely a change in semantics, not a change in the actual situation. The insurance companies do not magically create money with which to pay for these "free" contraceptives; rather the contraceptives must be paid for with the premiums paid by their customers -- including religious employers. Thankfully, it does not appear that the Catholic bishops or many Catholic religious organizations are buying this. Here is the most recent statement from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and here is a video statement from Bishop Edward Slattery of Tulsa, Oklahoma:

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:

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.)

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: