June 2013 – Page 2 – Restless Pilgrim

Catholic Answers Apologetics Conference

June 25, 2013 pilgrim 2 comments

Did you know that Catholic Answers are having an apologetics conference in September? You’ve got until the end of the month to qualify for the early bird discount!

Announcement

“Religion is anti-science!”

June 24, 2013 pilgrim 8 comments

Let me stop you there and list some of the major Catholic scientists….

Marks of the Church

June 24, 2013 pilgrim Leave a comment

Here’s Curtis Mitch, one of the commentators behind the Catholic New Testament Study Bible, speaking about my favourite Early Church Father, Ignatius of Antioch and the “Marks of the Church”:

Thanks to The Sacred Page for the link.

Catholicism

Somehow this completely passed me by. If you’re in the San Diego area, Catholic answers are having a series of free talks available this summer. Some of them have happened already, but there remaining talks are “The Gift of the Magisterium”, “Answering Atheism” and “Marriage Issues”:

Announcement

Easter: The Pagan Conspiracy

June 23, 2013 pilgrim 3 comments

I meant to write this post in the weeks leading up to last Easter, but I’m afraid it completely slipped my mind. Unfortunately, this meant that when Easter Sunday rolled around and all the “Easter is a pagan festival!” comments started to appear on Facebook and on blogs, I was repeatedly forced to write some off-the-cuff comments in response, rather than having something prepared here to which I could link.

I was reminded that I had intended to do this post a couple of days ago while reading an article in the Telegraph. The article in question was talking about how the Church of England has plans to create a new Pagan church to attract new people . Inter-faith dialog is one thing, but this sounds like something quite different. I’m intrigued as to what this’ll end up looking like. We’ll just have to wait and see…

So, I know Easter Sunday has long since passed. In fact, Pentecost has also been and gone and we’re even nearing the end of the Apostles’ Fast. However, I’ve decided to write a quick blog entry here in preparation for next year so that when we’re in the run up to Easter I’ll be ready 🙂

A festival by any other name…

The main thrust of most the comments I saw this year was over the word “Easter” itself. It was pointed out, ad nauseam, that the word “Easter” is most likely etymologically related to the word “Eostre”, a Germanic deity from paganism. The “logic” goes that, since the word “Easter” has pagan roots, the celebration itself must also be pagan. Makes sense, right? Err….no.

I’ll admit that when I see such comments I get a little irritated because I don’t think they’ve really thought through what it is that they’re saying nor have they applied their position consistently.