The Heritage of Pilgrimage – Podcast
Dr. Italy, in this 14 minute podcast, discusses the central and constant role pi...
Dr. Italy, in this 14 minute podcast, discusses the central and constant role pi...
2 minute trailer for the new video Bible Study series from Ascension Press, Jesu...
On the Second Sunday of Lent, the church places together the story of Abraham and Isaac on Mt. Moriah with the story of Jesus and three disciples on t...
An excerpt from the account of the Martyrdom of St. Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna on the West Coast of Asia Minor (now Turkey). He was apprehended by th...
This 5 minute podcast from the Sonrise Morning Show discusses Dr. Marcellino D’Ambrosio’s book, 40 Days, 40 Ways: A New Look on Lent. The conversatio...
Isn’t Advent great? Welcome to the season where the only song we sing for four weeks is O Come, O Come, Emmanuel! It’s the best! Advent is...
28 November, 2016Most Americans tend to think of religion as something rather fluid. It’s very common for us to say things like “all religions are basicall...
12 February, 2016Karol Wojtyla, otherwise known as Pope John Paul II, was certainly one of the most widely talented and broadly experienced men ever to have occupied the chair of St. Peter. Born in 1920 to a devout Polish family, Pope John Paul II endured the loss of his mother at age 9, the death of his only brother a few years later, and, amidst the horrors of the Nazi occupation, finally his beloved father. In the face of such tragedy, many would indulge in self-pity and would preoccupy themselves with self-preservation. Adversity had the opposite effect on Karol Wojtyla. He responded to it by deciding to give of himself still more generously. And so in his twenties, amidst forced labor in a quarry under the German conquerors, Karol entered a clandestine seminary and continued his studies under the oppression of the Communist “liberators.” Actor, athlete, philosopher, professor, pastor, and disciple, he became first a priest in 1946, then the youngest Polish auxiliary bishop of modern history (at age 38). It was in this capacity that the future Pope John Paul II traveled to Rome in 1962 to attend the first session of the Second Vatican Council. His holiness and brilliance being impossible to hide, he caught the eye of Pope Paul VI and was named Cardinal Archbishop of Cracow in 1967. Eleven years later, in October 1978, the world was stunned when he was elected the Successor of Peter, the first Polish Pope. In the history of the Papacy, no Pope has traveled more extensively or has written more profusely than Pope John Paul II. Only Pius IX and St. Peter himself pastored the universal church as long as he. While all previous popes of the twentieth century combined canonized 98 saints, Pope John Paul II himself canonized 464 saints during the course of his pontificate. Many have suggested that someday Pope John Paul’s name will be followed by “the Great,” an honor bestowed by popular acclamation upon only two prior popes, Popes St. Gregory I and St. Leo I. Biography by Dr. Italy