The Jedi bishop
Woodworking Bishop-elect David Konderla is making his own crosier, ahead of his ordination as Bishop of Tulsa, Oklahoma, on June 29.
Bishop-elect Konderla, who has already made crosiers for four US bishops, told the Catholic News Agency: “Every Jedi has not completed his training until he’s made his own lightsaber that he uses to fight evil with – so this is my lightsaber.”
While the bishop may be inspired by the image of the Jedi, Philip Kosloski at Aleteia explained that George Lucas’s Jedi knights were actually modelled on Catholic “warrior-monks”. Early drafts of Star Wars mention a young man going “to train as a potential Jedi-Templar”.
“Like the Jedi, [the Knights Templar] practised individual poverty within a military/monastic order that commanded great material resources,” Kosloski wrote. Even the Jedi’s garb would remind a medieval historian of the robes worn by the Christian warrior-monks.
Orthodox fantasy
At crux, John Allen explored why the Orthodox “Holy and Great Council” is falling apart. “There’s a reason the Orthodox churches haven’t gotten together since the split between East and West in 1054, which is that they often don’t work and play well with each other,” he wrote. “The idea that such a council would come off without a hitch was always a fantasy, and the only startling part is that it’s taken this long for the crisis to erupt.”
A successful council would be good for ecumenism, Allen said. But the Orthodox churches are strongly nationalistic. “The more the Orthodox come to see each other, rather than their national governments, as their primary interlocutors, the easier it may be to build a common Christian front,” Allen concluded.
Dante’s Pelican
Why is the image of a pelican feeding her chicks so often found in Church art That was the question posed by Daniel Esparza at Aleteia.
The myth is that the pelican, “in order to prevent its chicks from starving in times of scarcity, would pierce its chest with its own beak to feed them with its own blood”.
The early Christians adopted the image as a symbol of Christ who gave up his blood to save us.
Dante refers to Christ as “our Pelican”, Esparza noted, and Shakespeare refers to the legend in Hamlet.
“Even Aquinas, in his Adoro te devote, wrote:
‘Like what the tender tales tell of the Pelican/
Bathe me, Jesus Lord, in what Thy Bosom ran/
Blood that but one drop of has the power to win
All the world forgiveness of its world of sin.’”
✣ Actor and film-maker Mel Gibson is reported to be planning a sequel to his blockbuster The Passion of the Christ, focusing on the Resurrection. Screenwriter Randall Wallace told the Hollywood Reporter that he was working on a script: “I always wanted to tell this story. The Passion is the beginning and there’s a lot more story to tell.”
The news was not welcomed by Catholic film critic Steven D Greydanus, who in a sceptical piece at the National Catholic Register observed that the Resurrection appearances recorded in the Gospels are more “scattered and fragmented” than the story of the Passion.
Greydanus said that in The Passion, Gibson’s direction had captured this mood – but only in the film’s closing moments. “It’s not a tactic that would sustain an entire film; at least not a film I can imagine Gibson making.”
✣ Sean Bryan wore a bright yellow T-shirt with the slogan “Papal Ninja” when he took part in the American TV show Ninja Warrior, where competitors have to overcome increasingly difficult physical obstacles.
“I thought, how could I be a bit more explicit about my faith,” he told CNA, “because it is quite explicit in my life.” Throughout his training Bryan prays to St Francis de Sales for humility.
A sword has pierced the heart of our city
Bishop John Noonan of Orlando
Press statement
The Lord Almighty is on the throne. He will see us through and one day we will all rejoice and be glad in it
The mother of a Nigerian schoolgirl, one of the 200 kidnapped by Boko Haram in 2014
News conference in Washington DC
Care for one’s body has become an obsession
Pope Francis
Homily at Mass for sick and disabled people
3
The number of life-threatening gun incidents Brazilian Cardinal Tempesta has been caught in this year
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.
Areas of Catholic Herald business are still recovering post-pandemic.
However, we are reaching out to the Catholic community and readership, that has been so loyal to the Catholic Herald. Please join us on our 135 year mission by supporting us.
We are raising £250,000 to safeguard the Herald as a world-leading voice in Catholic journalism and teaching.
We have been a bold and influential voice in the church since 1888, standing up for traditional Catholic culture and values. Please consider donating.