OSLO, Norway (CNA/EWTN News) — Catholics in Norway are shocked by what appears to be a terrorist attack on government headquarters in Oslo that killed at least seven people and injured another 15 on July 22.

“We are so used to being this quiet little nation where nothing like this happens,” said Father Paul Bratbak, the communications director for the Diocese of Oslo, in a July 22 interview with CNA.

“It’s just too much to take in at the moment.”

Following the explosion, a gunman opened fire at a youth camp connected to Norway’s ruling Labour Party, killing at least 20 youth, according to The Associated Press.

Responsibility for the explosion and subsequent shooting remains...READ MORE

A Pope Who Thinks in Centuries - Tracy Rowland, Catholic World Report

Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman - Ches, The Sensible Bond

Pope Addresses Rising Food Prices - Kenneth Spence, Acton Institute/PowerBlog

Adult Stem Cells Help Create New Windpipe, Save Cancer Patient - David Prentice Ph.D., LifeNews.com

Chinese Clerics Resist Pressure to Join in Illicit Ordinations- CatholicCulture.org

Ways Out of the Christian Ghetto - Joseph Weiler, Catholic Education Resource Center

Presidential Candidate Michelle Bachmann Vows Fight Against Porn, Abortion, Divorce, & Same-Sex ‘Marriage’ - Peter J. Smith, LifeSiteNews.com

For the latest round-up on the best punditry in the Catholic blogosphere...READ MORE

JOLIET, Ill. (EWTN News) — During his installation Mass, Bishop R. Daniel Conlon of Joliet, Ill., stressed the need for bishops to be humble, courageous and conscious of their role as someone sent by God.

“I did not seek to be a bishop, nor am I worthy to be one,” he said in his homily. “This is all someone else’s idea. And, although God may use human instruments, in the end, it is his idea.”

“With Christ Jesus, the ultimate apostle, as the model, nothing central to our faith starts with us: not the Scriptures, not the sacraments, not the doctrines, not the moral principles. Nor can we treat God’s household as though it were our own,” he continued.

The bishop’s installation took place at...READ MORE

Early in Captain America: The First Avenger, we find Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) in a darkened movie theater unhappily protesting the boorish, disruptive behavior of another patron. “Hey, you wanna show some respect?” he appeals, not too hopefully.

How can any film lover resist such a hero? How many ringtones will echo in theaters showing Captain America this weekend? How many flashing handheld screens will distract viewers while their neighbors text or tweet about the movie or about what they had for dinner? A hero who champions respect, civility and silence in movie theaters is surely a hero for our times, even if the year is 1943 and there are no mobile phones yet. Why don’t more of us...READ MORE

A Fatherly Figure - Robert Royal, Catholic World Report

For the Work of On-Going Personal Conversion (Part I) - Frank Weathers, Why I Am Catholic

Pope: Healthy Secularism in a Society is When Life & Family is Made Important - Giacomo Galeazzi, La Stampa/Vatican Insider

Swiss Initiative to Defund Abortion Gains 111,000 Signatures - Thaddeus Baklinski, LifeSiteNews.com

Los Angeles’s Shrines to the Virgen de Guadalupe - Esmeralda Bermudez, Los Angeles Times

Why So Many Atheists are on the CNN Belief Blog - Father Robert Barron, The Integrated Catholic Life™

The Great Scientology Implosion: Author Details Church on the Decline - Ruth Davis Konigsberg, Time Magazine

For the latest...READ MORE

‘Virtual Pilgrimage’ to World Youth Day Uses Facebook - Catholic News Agency

Reform within Continuity - Father Matthew Lamb, Catholic World Report

Support Brooklyn School That Returned Donation from Assemblyman Who Voted For Same-Sex Marriage - Thomas Peters, Catholic Vote/American Papist

Disgraced ‘Father Oprah’ Launches T.V. Show - CatholicCulture.org

A Tale of the Laiety and Priestly Scandal, Circa 1400 A.D. - Frank Weathers, Why I Am Catholic

“A Biblical Walk Through the Mass”, An Interview with Dr. Edward Sri - Deacon Mike Bickerstaff, The Integrated Catholic Life™

New York Lawmakers Changed Senate Rules to Ram Through Gay ‘Marriage’ - Kathleen Gilbert, LifeSiteNews.com

For the...READ MORE

DENVER (CNA/EWTN News) — Archbishop Charles Chaput said on July 20 that he was “very grateful” for his time in Denver and that it would be “very difficult” for him to leave the city for his new post in Philadelphia.

“I have a great love for the people of the Archdiocese of Denver,” Chaput said at a July 20 press conference, one day after his new appointment was announced. “It’s going to be hard — very, very hard for me to leave.”

Two weeks before the public announcement, Chaput received notification that Pope Benedict XVI was appointing him the next archbishop of Philadelphia. His installation will take place Sept. 8, the date on which the Church commemorates the birth of the Virgin...READ MORE

Hollywood icon Gary Cooper, who died 50 years ago this year, had a refreshing authenticity that makes his conversion to Catholicism only natural.

Contrary to frequent reports asserting otherwise, his conversion was not prompted by illness. “No way,” his daughter, Maria Cooper Janis, said. “He was coming to this on his own, in his own time … bits and pieces of his own life that he wanted to put together in a new way.”

“He had a very real spirituality,” Maria said, “that wasn’t an ‘ism’ … that, I think, he was born with, that he grew up with, living out West in nature [and] having a very strong affinity to the American-Indian culture and spirituality.”

Born May 7, 1901, in Helena, Mont.,...READ MORE