Jeffrey Miller

In most news reports, Mother Teresa seemed like such a nice, quiet holy woman.
But as any reporter who actually interviewed her quickly learned, Calcutta’s “saint of the gutters” could be remarkably blunt. She once noted — in a half-serious jest — that she would rather bathe a leper than meet the press.

“Mother was not known for the ambiguity of her feelings,” noted Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver at a recent gathering of journalists at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. “A lot of people in the church, especially those who practice their faith in an active and regular manner, would agree with what she meant — because they feel the same way.”

The archbishop stressed that he does not feel that way, especially when working with journalists who have acquired the knowledge and skills needed to do accurate, critical coverage of religion. However, he is convinced that many religious believers simply do not appreciate the vital role that journalists are supposed to play in public life.

Though the religion beat journalist who match that criteria are few are fare between. Though Terry Mattingly who did this column is one of the bright examples for how it should be done.

“Journalism is a vocation, not a job,” said Chaput. “Pursued properly, journalism should enjoy the same dignity as the law or medicine because the service that journalists perform is equally important to a healthy society. I really believe that. You form people. You form the way they think and the way they live their lives. So journalists have a duty to serve the truth and the common good.”

When it comes to journalism, Chaput knows the good news and the bad news.

The bad news, he said, is that far too many journalists who cover religion events have no idea what they are doing. They may be talented and intelligent, but when it comes to religion they just don’t get it.

“I don’t expect journalists who track the church to agree with everything she teaches. But I do think reporters should have a working knowledge of her traditions and teachings,” he said. “I do think editors should have the basic Catholic vocabulary needed to grasp what we’re talking about and why we’re talking about it.”

Consider, for example, the media storms surrounding discussions of Holy Communion and the sacramental status of Catholic politicians who disagree with church doctrines on abortion, marriage and other issues. In his book “Render Unto Caesar,” Chaput argued that it’s the “political duty” of Catholics to “know their faith and to think and act like faithful Catholics all the time” — even those who work inside the Washington Beltway.

Alas, the journalists think they are writing about the rights of politicians, while some Catholic bishops want to discuss the salvation and, yes, damnation of souls. If journalists insist on describing this conflict in strictly political terms, he said, there is no way the public will ever understand what is happening.

“No one ever has a right to the Eucharist, and the vanity or hurt feelings of an individual Catholic governor or senator or even vice president does not take priority over the faith of the believing community,” said Chaput.

Thus, while journalists are under “no obligation to believe what the church teaches … they certainly do have the obligation to understand, respect and accurately recount how she understands herself, and especially how she teaches and why she teaches” these doctrines.

Too often, said the archbishop, inaccurate news reports about this controversy have left the impression that “access to Holy Communion … is like having bar privileges at the Elks Club.”[reference]

Members of the Teresian Carmelites monastery were having difficulties supporting themselves financially and the Diocese of Worchester withdrew support saying they were too small to sustain themselves and to grow.

That’s when one of what Brother Dennis Wyrzykowski calls “God-incidences” connected them with a medical school professor, whose work included patented research into a compound in the human heart that has been found to also fight wrinkles.

With the professor’s blessing, the religious community recently started selling a high-end skin cream online based on the compound.

Its three consecrated members and approximately 30 lay members hope it’s the answer to their prayers, not just to keep the community afloat financially, but to prove its viability to the diocese and fund programs for homeless and disadvantaged people throughout the region.

“My first thought was, ‘What are people going to think about nuns and monks making cream for your face?’ ‘ Sister Nancy Connors said. “But it’s a good product, I use it every day and I believe it will help people.”

The $65-per-tube face cream, called Easeamine, is a far cry from the more traditional offerings that some monasteries sell, such as homemade jam and cheeses. After the Carmelites pay off their launch costs, the profits will be used for grants to Worcester-area agencies serving poor and homeless people, and to support the tiny religious community which has existed on donations since it was founded in 1971.

“I did worry initially about offering a so-called beauty product, but monks and nuns have always had a long tradition of making health care products and food products,” said Brother Solomon Balban, one of two consecrated monks in the independent religious community who live at the monastery in the Worcester suburb of Millbury in central Massachusetts. [reference]

Well St. Teresa of Avila was suppose to have said “From silly devotions and from sour-faced saints, good Lord, deliver us.” So maybe less wrinkled-faced saints could be included – though I doubt Blessed Mother Teresa would agree.

On another level though there is something just plain wrong about Carmelites selling high-end anti-wrinkle cream. Though I can imagine an appropriate motto for Easeamine “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”

But then again St. Paul did write in Ephesian in regards to husbands taking care of their wives ” that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.” Their is a link on their web site to buy the cream from Carmel Laboratories, LLC. So those that want the cream can also say that they are helping the poor by doing so! Plus at $65 a tube it is less than many on the market.

I once wrote a parody post about a moisturizer for spiritual dryness.

Not sure what to make of this. Holy Spirits wine which includes Our Lady of Mt. Carmel’s Riesling Wine, St. Nick’s Merlot Wine, and St. Rocco’s Cabernet Sauvignon. Well at least they don’t have a Matt Talbot wine.

Quite a while back I did a story about Fr. Domenic J. Roscioli and his selling of fertilizer to raise money for charity and a product with the actual name of “Father Dom’s Duck Doo Compost. The products now come under the name “Father Dom’s Doo Good”

The fertilizer I can understand, just really don’t like the name Holy Spirits for the wine even as much as I love puns. It was Fr. Dom who emailed me about this in the first place.

Via Mark Shea, English writer, biographer, and novels novelist A. N. Wilson tells his story of loss of faith, skepticism, and return to belief.

Like most educated people in Britain and Northern Europe (I was born in 1950), I have grown up in a culture that is overwhelmingly secular and anti-religious. The universities, broadcasters and media generally are not merely non-religious, they are positively anti.

To my shame, I believe it was this that made me lose faith and heart in my youth. It felt so uncool to be religious. With the mentality of a child in the playground, I felt at some visceral level that being religious was unsexy, like having spots or wearing specs.