Feb. 2 is both. Unless it’s wearing a down-filled parka and knee-high boots, forget about the groundhog crawling out of its hole, let alone seeing shadows of anything
Movable feast: By the time the Feast of St. Blaise arrives on Feb. 3, most folks have already been afflicted with their winter throat ailments. Maybe it’d be better if this feast were moved to fall.
I’m not sure what to make of this: Feb. 6 is National Pornography Sunday. More than 300 churches throughout the US are observing this day, calling attention to the epidemic of pornography. You may have read or heard that Ryan Pickett of the Packers is among the athletes who will appear in a video that day urging people to rid porn from their lives.
Do you know how many Catholic churches are participating in National Pornography Sunday? One. St. Paul Catholic Student Center on the campus of Boise State University. I hope the lack of Catholic participation is due to lack of awareness about the event or that parishes and dioceses are addressing the porn epidemic in other ways, and not a result of parish leaders saying, “Oh, that’s a fundamentalist thing.”
To its credit, the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, through the Nazareth Project of the John Paul II Center, is addressing pornography as a pastoral concern. Dr. Peter C. Kleponis will speak to clergy and seminarians at one session, and to parish staffs at another on Feb. 18.
Two reasons to celebrate: Not only is this Catholic Press Month, but it is also Return Shopping Carts to the Supermarket Month. Nothing like the feelings you get from reading your Catholic publication and rescuing a shopping cart abandoned at a bus stop.
In case my fingers are still attached to my snow shovel instead of my keyboard later this week, let me write it now: GO! PACK! GO! And, if you’re feeling liturgically incorrect, go ahead and add an “Alleluia” to it.