The process of making this video came in two parts. First, Micheael Frierson, a film maker at UNC-Greensboro, filmed me doing a stand up in front of the cathedral in Reggio. I had to just about shout over the noise of the traffic rushing by on the street. There’s a short transition related to the canonization and then, presto, there I am in Rome! This segment was shot on the last night of our stay in Italy last March. It was filmed around midnight and St. Peter’s Square was all but deserted. Laurelyn and Martha, Michael’s wife, were holding a light reflector and boom mic. We were all gibby from a late, wine-soaked dinner and tired from a long train ride that day from Reggio to Rome. We must’ve done 50 takes, laughing through most of them. Somehow, Michael found a take that worked well enough to use.
Adam Sobsey, a talented book reviewer for The Independent, an alternative weekly in Raleigh, N.C., reviews My Cousin the Saint in this week’s paper. The review is here. An excerpt:
“Although Catanoso often shows us his skeptical-journalist card (he’s a Pulitzer nominee and the executive editor of the Triad’s Business Journal), the combination of his ardent earnestness and his felicitous discoveries mark him as a man who wants very much to believe—partially for the very reason that he seems to keep finding only good news everywhere he looks. Even when people close to him die, there’s uplift at the end.”
A Vatican official said yesterday: “Maybe we need to abandon the habit of issuing apologies and treating history as if it were a court always in session.” The story is here.
Rhode Island Catholic, the disocesan newspaper for the state, reviews “My Cousin the Saint,” in its current issue. The review was written by Father John A. Kiley, a pastor in Warwick. An excerpt:
“Mr. Catanoso’s book is a family saga of faith, ambition, determination, hard work, illness, death and success on both sides of the Atlantic. Crowded Sunday afternoon pasta dinners at the family homestead merge with tense family conferences in hospital waiting rooms. The family camaraderie Mr. Catanoso experienced as a youth when his family moved to the Jersey shore is revived on successive trips to Calabria to research and reaffirm his Italian roots. These familial experiences, mixed with some Church politics, make absorbing reading. The author’s maturing Catholic faith is integral to the narrative as well.”
And this, too: “Pope John Paul has been criticized for canonizing too many saints. But there was a scheme in his zeal. Local saints touch the lives of local people. Local saints re-incarnate Jesus Christ graphically and tangibly on the local level so that once again believers can reach out to touch the tassel of his cloak, learn from his words, enjoy his company, bring him their fears, be consoled by his presence. Saint Gaetano Catanoso had an immeasurable spiritual effect on his family, on his seminarians, on his religious sisters, on his fellow Calabrese, on his American cousins. St. John the Evangelist writes of Jesus Christ: ‘…the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.’ ”
Blogger Tim Hogan of Missouri lays out a long and thoughtful post under the compelling headline: Why practicing Catholics should vote for Barack Obama, and not John McCain. The post is here.
We know so much about Pope John Paul II, one of the most internationally famous and beloved popes in Vatican history. But what about his predecessor, Pope John Paul I, the Italian with the sweet smile and brief papacy? John Thavis, the Vatican bureau chief of the Catholic News Service, writes about JPI here, just prior to the 30th anniversary of the pope’s election to the throne of St. Peter.
An excerpt: “It was one of the briefest pontificates, but it left a lasting impression. Many inside and outside the Vatican felt that a man of extraordinary humility and goodness had passed their way — like a meteor that light up the sky and then disappears quickly, as one cardinal put it.”
Padre Gaetano Catanoso (1879-1963) experienced a relatively quick route to sainthood — about 25 years from the start of his cause to the canonization by Pope Benedict XVI in October 2005. This blog post regarding Father Nelson H. Baker(1842-1936) of Buffalo, N.Y., is a reminder of how long and difficult the path can be for many who are already deemed saints by their ardent followers.
An excerpt: “One of the most frustrating things about the process of establishing that someone is a saint, that someone is with God and can act as an intermediary between God and those still living, is proving miracles. In Father Baker’s case, over 20 healings have been investigated so far for his cause, and none of them have passed muster in Rome.
News report: “Benedict XVI says that the pontificate of Pope John Paul II can be divided into two equally important parts: the years when he took the Gospel to the world and the years of his ‘passion.’ ”
An interesting story, here, in which Pope Benedict reflects on the final years of his predecessor’s life.
Yesterday, during the program “This is the Day” on Catholic TV, a cable network, I was interviewed live by hosts Father Reed and Jay Fadden by telephone. The show will be rebroadcast several times this week. An archived link to the show is here. Click then on the program labled August 12. Our discussion is a few minutes into the program and lasts about 6 minutes.
