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Pied Piper of Atheism: Philip Pullman and Children's Fantasy | Pete Vere and Sandra Miesel

God Is No Delusion: A Refutation of Richard Dawkins | Thomas Crean, O.P.

Socrates Meets Descartes | Peter Kreeft

Sermon in a Sentence: Saint Thomas Aquinas | John McClernon

New Outpourings of the Spirit | Joseph Ratzinger

Meet Henri De Lubac | Rudolf Voderholzer

Marian Devotion in the Domestic Church | Catherine & Peter Fournier

Joseph Ratzinger: Life in the Church and Living Theology | Maximilian Heinrich Heim

The Greek Fathers: Their Lives and Adventures | Adrian Fortescue

Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: The Letter to the Hebrews | Scott Hahn and Curtis Mitch

Chastity, Poverty and Obedience | Mother Mary Francis, P.C.C.

The Blessing of Christmas | Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger

Chance or Purpose?: Creation, Evolution, and a Rational Faith | Chrisoph Cardinal Schšnborn

Island of the World: A Novel | Michael O'Brien

The Order of Things | James V. Schall, S.J.

The Judge: William P. Clark, Ronald Reagan's Top Hand | Paul Kengor & Patricia Clark Doerner

Seek that Which is Above | Pope Benedict XVI

Jesus, the Apostles and the Early Church | Pope Benedict XVI

God and His Image: An Outline of Biblical Theology | Dominique Barthelemey

An Invitation to Faith: An A to Z Primer on the Thought of Pope Benedict XVI | Pope Benedict XVI

Mother Benedict: Foundress of the Abbey of Regina Laudis | Antoinette Bosco

Pope Benedict XVI: The Conscience of Our Age | Vincent Twomey

Ronald Knox as Apologist: Wit, Laughter and the Popish Creed | Fr. Milton Walsh

Christians in China: A.D. 600-2000 | Jean Charbonnier

 


by Sandra Miesel


The African slave trade left a lasting stain on the Western Hemisphere but its cruel challenge was met by St. Peter Claver (1580-1654), "slave of black slaves for all time." His unfailing charity and dogged persistence in the face of overwhelming odds are an inspiration to all engaged in works of mercy.

Peter Claver was a Catalan, youngest son of a prosperous farmer. After entering the Society of Jesus in 1602, he was later sent to study on the island of Majorca where he found a mentor in the kindly old college porter Alphonsus Rodriguez. Over the course of three years, Brother Alphonsus encouraged Peter’s call to the missions and taught him to "look for God in all men."

In due course Peter was dispatched to South America and was ordained a priest in 1616 at Cartegena, in what is now Colombia. As the treasure-port of the Caribbean, Cartegena received 10,000 African slaves a year shipped from Angola and Congo.

Those who survived the horrors of theocean crossing found Peter waiting for them with food, drink, and medicine. He tended the sick first, then baptized infants and the dying.. "We must speak to them with our hands," he said, "before we try to speak to them with our lips." Helping Peter speak were seven interpreters and a set of basic visual aids. He preached that Jesus died for all men, slaves and master alike. This simple message produced 300,000 baptisms over Peter’s career. Peter’s predecessor in this work had scarcely been able to stand the conditions, but Peter’s zeal never faltered. He relied on prayer and severe penances to keep him humble.

Peter followed up initial contact at the port with visits to inland plantations. Slave owners resented Peter’s inspections as well as his appeals to reform their own lives. They did whatever they could to oppose his work, for hope and dignity were not lessons they wanted slaves to learn.

When not busy ministering to slaves, Peter visited hospital patients, including lepers. He evangelized visiting seamen, merchants, Protestant war prisoners, and condemned felons. He won repentance from every criminal executed in Cartegena during his stay. Peter still found time to be a confessor, counselor, and preacher to people of the city.

When a plague epidemic struck Cartagena in 1650, Peter nursed the sick until he fell ill himself. He survived but was left permanently disabled with tremors that kept him from saying Mass ever again. Although abused by the freed slave hired to care for him, Peter humbly refused to complain.

Four years later when Peter lay on his deathbed, the city suddenly remembered him. Huge crowds came to pay their respects--and strip his room of relics. He died comatose on September 8, 1654 and received a splendid funeral. A new Spanish priest had arrived shortly before his death to carry on his work.

St. Peter Claver is the universal patron of missions to black people. He was canonized in 1851 beside his old friend Alphonsus Rodriguez.

St. Peter’s feast day is September 9.



Originally published in Four County Catholic, newspaper of the diocese of Norwich CT. Used with permission.



Sandra Miesel is the co-author, with Carl Olson, of The Da Vinci Hoax. She holds masters’ degrees in biochemistry and medieval history from the University of Illinois. Since 1983, she has written hundreds of articles for the Catholic press, chiefly on history, art, and hagiography. She regularly appears in Crisis magazine and is a columnist for the diocesan paper of Norwich, Connecticut. Sandra has spoken at religious and academic conferences, appeared on EWTN, and given numerous radio interviews. Outside the Catholic sphere, she has also written, analyzed, and edited fiction. Sandra and her husband John have raised three children.

Visit www.davincihoax.com | Sandra's thoughts on The Da Vinci Code




   
















G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936) was one of the finest Christian authors and apologists of the past two hundred years. Raised as an agnostic, he embraced Christianity as a young man, ultimately entering the Catholic Church in 1922. He wrote hundreds of essays, as well as novels, short stories, poetry, apologetics, literary criticism, and nearly everything else imaginable. Dale Ahlquist, president and co-founder of the American Chesterton Society and author of G.K Chesterton: Apostle of Common Sense, writes, "Chesterton was equally at ease with literary and social criticism, history, politics, economics, philosophy, and theology. His style is unmistakable, always marked by humility, consistency, paradox, wit, and wonder. His writing remains as timely and as timeless today as when it first appeared, even though much of it was published in throw away paper." Read more about the life and work of this remarkable thinker, author, and apologist.



Confessions of an Ex-Feminist
by Lorraine V. Murray


Confessions is the honest and heart-rending account of a woman who was born into a Catholic family, attended parochial schools and fully embraced the beliefs of her faith, but ran into major roadblocks in college. Amidst the radical feminist college environment of the 1960's, she lost her faith, and her morality, jumping aboard the bandwagon of "free love." She indulged in a series of love relationships in college, all of which crashed and burned. Despite the obvious contradiction between feminist teachings and her own experience, Murray still believed she had to free herself from the yoke of tradition. Attaining a doctorate in philosophy, with an emphasis on the feminist writings of Simone de Beauvoir, Murray taught philosophy in college. For many years, she launched a personal vendetta against God and the Catholic Church in the classroom, trying to persuade students that God did not exist, mocking values Catholics hold dear, and touted feminism as the cure for many social ills. When she discovered she was pregnant, Murray followed the route that feminists offer as a solution for unmarried women. Much to her surprise, her abortion was a shattering emotional experience, which she grieved over for years. It was the first tragic chink in her feminist armor.

Read more about Confessions of an Ex-Feminist, or read an excerpt from the book.










 
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