Grace and peace! Pretty good opening line, don’t you think? St. Paul thought so, and introduced some of his many letters with that salutation.
I bring it up now because the Church is preparing to celebrate the jubilee of the birth of St. Paul, beginning June 29, on the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. The jubilee will provide a focal point for the Church that will last a year and will focus on such questions as: Who was St. Paul? Why was his energy as one of the Church’s early founders so important? In what ways do his writings speak to us today? We’re pulling together a feature for Catholic webmasters that will enable you to put a link on your site to content-rich sources that help your Web-site visitors sort out such questions. We’ll include a number of articles, and eventually some audio reflections and even e-greetings to help your visitors share this “Pauline moment.” Heads up!
We’ll get to Father’s Day and more in the next issue of Web Catholic, June 10. I’d like to tell you now about a lesser-known event that will be a growing issue on the religious scene between now and early 2009. February 12, 2009, will mark both the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his earthshaking work, The Origin of Species. The religious right will be up in arms, no doubt, as the media roll out any number of stories on evolution. What’s key for us to understand is that the Catholic Church essentially accepts evolution as a finding of science, which is in a different realm than the findings of theology. To be blunt, Catholics don’t have any problem with evolution, in spite of the uproar that will fly in some corners of Christianity in the coming months. We’ve prepared a news feature, with several articles now and more to be added in coming months, that will help you to inform your visitors about Catholic teaching in this “hot-button” area.
With that, let me wish for you, pioneers of Catholic communication, grace and peace! It’s what St. Paul prayed for those willing to step out and do something entirely new as early Christians!
John Feister
Editor, AmericanCatholic.org
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