"My Lady's Knight": Charles Untz

Terry Nelson's Abbey Roads is one of the most edifying and interesting blogs to be found. He very kindly granted us permission to repost the following. It is a powerful reminder that great saints still walk among us.

Charles Untz once wrote to one of his friends, "Don't take God's mercy for granted because death will come you when you least expect it, so make sure you are as blameless as possible when that time comes."*

The Scapular kid.

Charles Anthony Francis Untz, killed by a driver who did not see him, right in front of his family's home, as Charles set out on his short walk to work.  Charles died that day, March 20, 2000 at the age of eighteen.

On his college application, Charles wrote, "I go to Eucharistic Adoration and Mass almost every morning before school. I think that this sets a better mood for the day. "

Charles enjoyed country living, the horses and other animals, and his job across the street at the turkey farm. He especially enjoyed his scouting experiences. He earned the rank of Eagle Scout on July 8, 1998. For his Eagle project he wrote an altar server handbook for Epiphany Catholic Church, Coon Rapids, MN, and directed the training of the new servers.

Before moving west, he and his family mowed the lawn, and shoveled and plowed the walks and parking lot of St. John Bosco Church, Stamford, VT. Charles also mowed the lawn at St. Francis of Assisi Church, North Adams, MA. Both projects were done as a volunteer.

Charles became an altar server when he was eight. He was the only server at the small parish of St. John Bosco, where he served for 5 years. His family transferred to St. Francis of Assisi where he served for two years. In 1996, the family moved to Andover, Minnesota; and he served at Epiphany Church until his birth into eternal life in 2000. He had that "presence" about him when he was serving that can’t be taught. One could see that he truly believed that Jesus was present.

Charles began praying the Liturgy of the Hours regularly when he was eleven. At the same time, he started serving as a Youth 2000 New England volunteer. He designed the web page, maintained the mailing list, and designed flyers and nametags. During the retreats he was an altar server and sacristan, and the general gopher for whatever was needed. For Youth 2000 Minnesota, he maintained the mailing list, designed the nametags, served at the altar, and was available to help behind the scenes whenever needed.

Charles had a great devotion to Mary. He designed and made his own brown scapular on his Mom’s embroidery machine. On one side was "My Lady" and the other side was "Mary" with twelve stars around it. In 1999, he also made a Mother’s Day card for Mary (this was discovered after his death).

On his "Ambition and Life Purpose" sheet for attaining the rank of Eagle Scout, Charles Anthony Francis Untz wrote, "My life purpose is to do the will of God. My ambition in life is to become a saint. There is nothing harder to achieve than this, but I will continue to strive for it. " - Source

Source

Pray for us Charles, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

More on Charles Untz

Young Knights...

Westminster Abbey Choir - "Christ Is Made the Sure Foundation" - Henry Purcell

The above is from the Ecumenical Celebration in Westminster Abbey during Pope Benedict's Apostolic Journey to the United Kingdom, September 16-19, 2010.

Christ Is Made the Sure Foundation
Words: Latin, c7th--8th century, translated by John Mason Neale
Music: Henry Purcell
Sung by: Westminster Abbey Choir

Text:
Christ is made the sure foundation,
and the precious corner-stone,
who, the two walls underlying,
bound in each, binds both in one,
holy Sion's help for ever,
and her confidence alone.

All that dedicated city,
dearly loved by God on high,
in exultant jubilation
pours perpetual melody,
God the One, in threefold glory,
singing everlastingly.

To this temple, where we call thee,
come, O Lord of hosts, today;
with thy wonted loving-kindness,
hear thy people as they pray;
and thy fullest benediction
shed within its walls for ay.

Here vouchsafe to all thy servants
gifts of grace by prayer to gain;
here to have and hold for ever,
those good things their prayers obtain,
and hereafter, in thy glory,
with thy blessèd ones to reign.

Laud and honour to the Father;
laud and honour to the Son,
laud and honour to the Spirit,
ever Three, and ever One,
One in love, and One in splendour,
while unending ages run. Amen.

A Star in the Darkness of Night

From CNA

By Joe Tremblay

St. Benedict, father of the West

In 1947, seeing that Western Civilization was weighed down by a long and exhausting world war, Pope Pius XII penned a wonderful encyclical on St. Benedict.

Contained within this letter to the Church are shafts of light that have the potential, if we just lay hold of it, to illuminate the moral and spiritual darkness which envelopes our public institutions. Using St. Benedict as an example, he recounts what it means to forsake all for Christ only to "receive a hundred times more now in this present age." (Mark 10:30)

What was accomplished in the fifth century can be revived and brought to bear upon the trying circumstances which challenge America's future. "St. Benedict," as Pius XII reminds us, "reclaimed the uncultured tribes from their wild life to civic and Christian culture; directing them to the practice of virtue, industry and the peaceful arts and literature, he united them in the bonds of fraternal affection and charity." And the Church herself, always needing an infusion of Christ's eternal youth, can also benefit from St. Benedict's sanctity and teachings.

Joseph Pearce: The Catholic Literary Revival in England

An excellent overview by author Joseph Pearce at the 2003 Coming Home Network Conference.

 

Pearce is an English-born writer, and as of 2012 Writer-in-Residence and Professor of Humanities at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in Merrimack, NH.  He is known for a number of literary biographies, many of Catholic figures. Formerly aligned with the National Front, a white nationalist political party, he converted to Roman Catholicism in 1989, repudiated his earlier views, and now writes from a Catholic perspective. He is a co-editor of the St. Austin Review and editor-in-chief of Sapientia Press. He also teaches Shakespearian literature for Homeschool Connections, an online Catholic curriculum provider.

Confessions of a Former Communist

Joseph Farah reveals how much his youth matched that of Obama

From WorldNetDaily
By Joseph Farah

 

Farah circa 1972

I have a confession to make.

It might help explain why I fear a second term of Barack Obama so much.

I understand what Obama is and what he is doing because I was once like him: I am a former communist.

As a youth growing up during the Vietnam War, I was influenced by some of the more extreme, anti-American opposition to that conflict and began to identify with the enemy. I became convinced the U.S. epitomized all that was evil in the world.

Nun Reveals Truth About LCWR Assessment

Sister Mary Rose Reddy: “We do not feel at all represented by the LCWR”

We've avoided this story because it is so close to women religious we have known  -- heroically faithful sisters who have suffered in silence while those around them lost their grounding in Catholic orthodoxy and embraced new age beliefs and practices, abandoned community prayer and the Blessed Sacrament and in the cause of "peace and justice" became pawns in social and political movements antithetical to the Church.  We have also known those swept away by the fevered ideologies of our times - radical feminism, environmentalism, pantheism, socialism and even the occult.  Some of the latter serve in the offices of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and head major Catholic institutions.  They see themselves as "defecting in place," but it is a rebellion rapidly drawing to a close.  Their communities are dying because joyless defiance of the Church has no appeal to idealistic young women eager to dedicate their lives to the service of Christ and His Church.

The following is reprinted with the permission of a superb blog we were pleased to discover today, Courageous Priest.  Sister Mary Rose Reddy has provided a clear and succinct summary of the Holy See's intervention into the direction of the Leadership Conference of  Women Religious.  Unlike those sisters who are rightly threatened by the Vatican's intervention, there are thousands of bright, zealous and dedicated young women, like Sister Mary Rose, who are responding to God's call, eager to be faithful brides of Christ.

From Courageous Priest

By Sister Mary Rose Reddy, DMML

What did the Holy See actually say to the LCWR?

Recently the Office of the Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith issued a statement entitled, Doctrinal Assessment of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.   (All quotations are taken directly from this 8 page document).  Many people in the United States have mistakenly regarded this document as disparaging to women religious.  Actually the contrary is true; the document praises the legitimate contributions of women religious over the years: “The Holy See acknowledges with gratitude the great contribution of women Religious to the Church in the United States as seen particularly in the many schools, hospitals, and institutions of support for the poor which have been founded and staffed by Religious over the years.”

At the same time as the Holy See praises these legitimate accomplishments it rightfully criticizes destructive aberrations in authentic religious life that have developed in and through the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR). (The LCWR was founded at the encouragement of the Vatican in 1956 to be the official representative body of women religious in the United States).  Here are some of the LCWR errors which this document from the Vatican addresses:

1. There has been “a diminution of the fundamental Christological center and focus of religious consecration which leads, in turn, to a loss of a ‘constant and lively sense of the Church’ among some Religious.”

2. Speakers have been allowed to promote destructive teachings such as “Sr. Laurie Brink’s address about some Religious ‘moving beyond the Church’ or even beyond Jesus. This is a challenge not only to core Catholic beliefs; such a rejection of faith is also a serious source of scandal and is incompatible with religious life.”

3. Some members of the LCWR have been “protesting the Holy See’s actions regarding the question of women’s ordination and of a correct pastoral approach to ministry to homosexual persons, e.g. letters about New Ways Ministry’s conferences. The terms of the letters suggest that these sisters collectively take a position not in agreement with the Church’s teaching on human sexuality.”

4. “Moreover, some commentaries on ‘patriarchy’ distort the way in which Jesus has structured sacramental life in the Church; others even undermine the revealed doctrines of the Holy Trinity, the divinity of Christ, and the inspiration of Sacred Scripture.”

5. “…while there has been a great deal of work on the part of LCWR promoting issues of social justice in harmony with the Church’s social doctrine, it is silent on the right to life from conception to natural death, a question that is part of the lively public debate about abortion and euthanasia in the United States. Further, issues of crucial importance to the life of Church and society, such as the Church’s Biblical view of family life and human sexuality, are not part of the LCWR agenda in a way that promotes Church teaching.”

6. “Moreover, occasional public statements by the LCWR that disagree with or challenge positions taken by the Bishops, who are the Church’s authentic teachers of faith and morals, are not compatible with its purpose.”

Having been a professed religious Sister for more than 29 years I welcome this statement of the Holy See.  We, the Daughters of Mary, Mother of Healing Love (along with hundreds and probably thousands of other women religious), do not feel at all represented by the LCWR.  We consider that the vocation of women religious is to personify the Church as Bride.  The Bride is submissive to Christ, the Head (as particularly represented by the Pope and the magisterium).  Through this powerful charism of submissive obedience, entrusted particularly to women religious in imitation of the exalted Mother of God, the life of Christ is brought to birth and nurtured in multitudes of hearts.  Thank you, Pope Benedict XVI and the Holy See for protecting the authentic charism of women religious which we receive as an eternal gift from Christ the Bridegroom.

Sister Mary Rose Reddy, DMML (Daughters of Mary, Mother of Healing Love), is a founding sister of the Running Nuns,  a religious order dedicated to housing children victimized by trauma, abuse and neglect.  They are called the Running Nuns because they have a daily running program to relieve anger and stress of the victimized children and have a  nationally known annual 5k race.  Sister wrote this article because she “feels so strongly that we need to speak out for the many Sisters who love and support our Holy Father and the magisterium.”

Post-Comfortable Christianity and the Election of 2012

By Rev. George W. Rutler 

 

Shortly before he died in Oxford in 1988, the Jesuit retreat master and raconteur, Bernard Bassett, in good spirits after a double leg amputation, told me that the great lights of his theological formation had been Ignatius Loyola and John Henry Newman, but if he “had to do it all over,” he’d only read Paul.  “Everything is there.”  There is a temptation to think that God gave us the Apostle to the Gentiles in order to have second readings at Sunday Mass, usually unrelated to the first reading and the Gospel.  But everything truly is there.  Paul was one of the most important figures in human history, and a great character to boot.  That is, a character in the happiest sense of the word.  “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain” (1 Cor 15:10).

Read the rest of this entry at Crisis Magazine >>