By Cecilia Cicone

“The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful: History in Three Dimensions”
Joseph Pearce, Ignatius Press (2023)
300 pages, $19.95

Whether it’s the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition or Galileo, the apparent missteps of the Catholic Church within history are commonly used as arguments against her claim to be the one true path to salvation. In his latest book, Joseph Pearce sets out to work through all of church history in hopes of identifying where God was actually at work, as opposed to where human impulses and evil influences appeared as wolves in sheep’s clothing.

Each chapter of “The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful” summarizes one of the centuries making up the 2,000-year history of the church. Pearce takes a trinitarian formula, based on Jesus’ identity as “the way, the truth, and the life” and identifies where the church, in that century, had been “Good,” serving as the way of salvation; where she went “Bad,” distorting the truth of God’s love; and “the Beautiful” thing she produced as a lasting testament to God’s majesty and the wonder he is due.

“The Good” of each century of Catholic history is what the reader is most likely to expect. The saints, most especially martyrs who witnessed to the faith with their lives and their service to the poor and vulnerable, kept the church on the right path. Scholars such as Irenaeus and Thomas Aquinas revealed the divine through theological works. Widespread practice of the sacraments meant that people were continually given access to the grace they needed for salvation.

And yet, from even the first century of the church, Pearce acknowledges that there have been forces working against the Holy Spirit, seeking to confuse, divide, and even destroy the Bride of Christ, beginning with rampant heresies and persecution. From the fall of Rome to Martin Luther — continuing to the Enlightenment and then two world wars — throughout her history the church has been impacted by political and cultural events. “The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful,” demonstrates that although she is tossed and thrown at every age, “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Mt 16:18).

When Joseph Pearce discusses what is beautiful about each century of church history, he looks primarily at the creation of art as a participation in the transcendental good of “beauty” without excluding secular art. What is beautiful, he says, reflects not only human culture but also brings insight into the divine as the Creator has revealed himself in that particular age. From Augustine’s “City of God” to Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” Trilogy — with many artists, writers, composers, architects, and more in between — the subsections of “The Beautiful” that close out each chapter are delightful expositions of how the popular culture of the day has continually and surprisingly fostered an encounter with God.

Pearce ends the book in the 20th century, however, without mentioning the realities that we now know and must face regarding clerical sex abuse and the cover-ups surrounding all kinds of clerical misconduct. Given the cacophony of the other evils that took place in the last century, and that fact that the abuse and misconduct issues primarily came to light in the 21st-century, this makes some sense, but at least mentioning the apparent evils being faced almost daily by the church faithful might have made the book feel a bit more current and complete.

While “The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful” may be a bit dense for the casual reader, it is a real treasure trove for the history buff or a budding Catholic apologist. Each century is covered briefly, in only a few pages, hitting the highlights of the time without getting bogged down in unnecessary details. In this book, Joseph Pearce has given the church an incredible assist in seeing Catholicism’s sometimes turbulent history within the light of God’s loving plan.

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Cecilia Cicone is an author and communicator who works in diocesan ministry in Northwest Indiana.

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“The Woman in Me”
Britney Spears, Gallery Books (2023)
288 pages, $32.99

Were you to go to Britney Spears’ Instagram page, you’d find video after video of the early-aughts star wearing bizarre outfits and appearing to do some kind of interpretive dance. It has been a long journey for Spears to get to a point where she can freely express herself as an artist. In fact, Spears would probably smile knowing that people don’t understand her posts and the plethora of emojis that she uses in the captions.

In the pages of her memoir, “The Woman in Me,” Britney Spears gives readers an understanding of why she did the things that fueled tabloid headlines for years and the very real effects fame and gossip had on her as a vulnerable young woman. From her childhood home in Louisiana to the 13-year conservatorship that was the subject of the #FreeBritney movement, readers journey with Spears through decades of traumatic experiences and behind-the-scenes details that give a fuller picture of the star, who is now in her early 40s.

One story from the memoir has recently made headlines: Spears writes of having an abortion at the encouragement of her then-partner Justin Timberlake. Calling the abortion “one of the most agonizing things I have ever experienced in my life,” Spears expresses remorse for having given up her child to appease Timberlake, especially upon coming to realize that he did not have her best interests in mind when he encouraged the decision.

Scripture says, “God understands every human deed” (Sir 15:19). Throughout the book, it is clear that Britney Spears was motivated from a very young age by a desire to please the people around her. Whether it was trying to avoid conflict with her alcoholic father, wearing explicit outfits that stylists picked out for her, overlooking a boyfriend’s infidelity, or shaving her head in an attempt to outwardly express the grief she felt after losing a close relative to cancer, Spears was always looking for acceptance and validation.

God, however, saw Britney Spears, understands her every deed, and desires to give her the love and affirmation she craves. And as she testifies to in story after story, she realizes that God is the one who carried her through years of pain and the many regrets that she has even today. Like someone who has truly experienced the Cross, Spears says she has no other explanation for how she made it through so many trials.

For Catholics especially, reading “The Woman in Me” provides a valuable opportunity to look at “the other side” and there find compassion for someone whose lifestyle seems to go against everything that we believe. Spears is vulnerable in her new book, providing insight into why she was willing to be sexualized in her public appearances, her masquerading as a hardcore partier, and the experience of having her capabilities as a mother constantly questioned publicly.

It would be a mistake — perhaps even a tragedy — to read Spears’ memoir simply as tabloid fodder. What Britney Spears has provided us with in this book is a catalyst for conversion — for readers to move beyond what they see or hear about individuals and to better understand them, to see them as God sees them.

Some readers may be put off by some of the book’s content; there are mentions of suicidal ideation, alcohol abuse, sexual encounters and some occasional explicit language, but these details are not salacious in any way. They all serve to paint the picture of the life of a woman who grew up in the public eye and has reflected on her experiences.

Growth is always difficult; done within the public eye and amid the judgements of strangers the process must become distorted and drawn out. Spears’ journey is unimaginable to most of us, but we can wish her well, praying that her trek eventually leads her further away from her indiscretions as she moves into a life of maturity, freedom and (hopefully) a deeper acquaintance with faith.
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Cecilia Cicone is an author and communicator who works in diocesan ministry in Northwest Indiana.

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By Caroline de Sury | OSV News

A new version of an iconic cockerel, or rooster, is once again watching over Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, symbolizing resilience amid destruction after a devastating April 2019 fire. It was installed Dec. 16 atop Notre Dame spire’s cross.

Archbishop Laurent Ulrich of Paris blessed the figure, which is a heraldic animal of the French Republic and, in a moving moment, inserted the relics of St. Denis, St. Genevieve and the relics of Christ’s crown of thorns, believed to be worn by Jesus during his passion, into the golden statue — which was then lifted up by a crane to go to the top of the gigantic construction.

The cockerel also symbolically holds a roll of paper listing 2,000 names of the builders of the new spire and of all the companies involved in rebuilding the cathedral.

“It shows that we can do anything, we are capable of it,” said Philippe Jost, president of the Rebâtir Notre Dame de Paris, the organization responsible for the reconstruction.

The previous cockerel, damaged in the fire, will be placed in the future Notre Dame museum, which French President Emmanuel Macron announced will be created in the Hôtel-Dieu building, a stone’s throw from the cathedral.

On Nov. 28, Parisians saw the spire of the “dame” of the city reinstalled — its upper part was placed over its wooden structure, 315 feet above the ground. On Dec. 6, its cross was lifted into the air by a crane, and installed on top.

“It was a spectacular moment,” Father Olivier Ribadeau Dumas, rector-archpriest of the cathedral, told OSV News. “Now you can really make out the silhouette of the cathedral. It is the most visible symbol of the cathedral’s resurrection.”

On Dec. 8, 2024, the most famous cathedral in the world will welcome the faithful again. The French president said he will extend an invitation for Pope Francis to attend the historic moment.

“Never has anyone alive seen Notre Dame as we shall see it,” Father Ribadeau Dumas told OSV News.

The rector of the cathedral welcomed President Macron at Notre Dame’s reconstruction site on Dec. 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, together with Archbishop Ulrich. In accordance with the French 1905 law of separation of church and state, the cathedral is the property of the French state, although it is assigned to the Archdiocese of Paris for Catholic worship.

“Since April 2019, the entire nation has been rebuilding,” Macron told reporters. “And it’s very moving to be here a year before. You can see the extraordinary progress of the work on this nave, the choir and the frames and the spire,” he said.

In an interview with France 2 television, Macron said he would invite Pope Francis to attend the cathedral’s reopening. “I hope so, in any case we’ll invite him,” he said when asked about the pope’s possible presence. “The invitation will be extended. But it’s not for me to answer on his behalf,” he added.

The spire, Notre Dame’s iconic topping, collapsed April 15, 2019, amid a fire that shocked France and the whole world. After debates on how it should be rebuilt, French and church authorities decided to rebuild the spire exactly the same as before.

Inside the cathedral, one last piece of scaffolding remains under the transept crossing. The workmen are reinstalling the stones in the floor, which they had to remove to make way for pipes and electrical cables.

The famous Paris cathedral will be equipped with a unique fire protection system when it reopens next year, Jost said on Dec. 13.

The head of the body charged with rebuilding the cathedral after a devastating blaze told the parliamentary commission that “All precautions have been taken for a complete rethink of its fire protection.”

Notre Dame will be equipped with a vaporization system, currently being installed below the roof and in the spire, that Jost said would immediately stop any outbreaking fire from spreading, Le Monde reported. “This is a first for a cathedral in France,” he said.

The UNESCO-listed building had 12 million visitors a year before the fire and Jost said that after the Dec. 8, 2024 reopening, would attract some 14 million visitors per year.

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Caroline de Sury writes for OSV News from Paris. KNA, a German Catholic news agency, contributed to this report.

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By Charlie Camosy | OSV News

Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno is the director of the Vatican Observatory. A native of Detroit, Michigan, he earned undergraduate and masters’ degrees from MIT and a Ph.D. in Planetary Science from the University of Arizona. He was a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard and MIT, served in the U.S. Peace Corps (Kenya), and taught university physics at Lafayette College before entering the Jesuits in 1989. Brother Guy’s research explores connections between meteorites, asteroids and the evolution of small solar system bodies. He has observed Kuiper Belt objects with the Vatican’s 1.8 meter telescope in Arizona and measured meteorite physical properties to understand asteroid origins and structure.

At the Vatican Observatory since 1993, Brother Consolmagno was appointed its director in 2015 by Pope Francis.

Charlie Camosy: You’ve written yet another great book! This one is titled “When Science Goes Wrong: Desire and the Search for Truth.” What led to your writing this topic?

Jesuit Brother Guy J. Consolmagno: Chris Graney and I both do a lot of public outreach where we talk about science, and address faith-science questions. Over the years, we’ve discovered that a lot of people have some fundamental misconceptions about what science actually is, and how it does what it does. How can you talk intelligently about science to someone whose idea of science is missing some important concepts?

For example, most of us learn science in a classroom where we pass the course by being able to do problems and come up with the answers in the back of the book. But real science is not about facts that can be found in a book; it’s about all the stuff we don’t know yet, the stuff that will be in the backs of future textbooks! That’s where the fun lies. And inherently this means that a lot of what we think we know now isn’t quite right just yet. It’s wrong.

We’ve also learned that the best way to address these issues is by telling stories from the history of science that shows how science progresses precisely because it is not afraid to “go wrong”.

Camosy: I must ask about this in the context of the pandemic. This was obviously a foundational moment regarding several different issues, including the role and reputation of science and scientists. What do you think happened and/or is happening here? How does it overlap with the themes and goals of your book?

Brother Guy: The pandemic was a moment when we needed science the most. Science suddenly became an issue of life and death. To understand what a vaccine was and how much to trust it meant knowing what to expect from the science, and what not to expect. And that’s when it became so obvious to us that these misconceptions about science — both on the side of those who would deny the power of science, and those who gave it too much credence — got in the way of letting science grow and improve and help us out of the pandemic.

Camosy: Most of your book, unsurprisingly, has a focus on astronomy. Can you give us one brief story or anecdote that might suggest to possible future readers what else they will encounter when it comes to science going wrong?

Brother Guy: One of my favorite stories comes from the arguments against Copernicus’ idea of Earth spinning on its axis as it goes around the sun. It turns out, these challenges were mostly not based on the Bible at all; they were based on really good science that was only missing some subtle point no one at the time could have known about.

For example, several scientists of the day pointed out an effect about motion on the surface of a spinning globe, turning towards the east (to make the sun appear to move from east to west, from sunrise to sunset). In such a case, the actual speed at which the surface of the earth moves eastward should get less and less as you move north — the surface moves fastest at the equator, while at the north pole it isn’t moving at all.

But if you shot a cannon due north, the cannonball would have an inherent speed to the east. So, the path of the cannonball would appear to bend towards the east once it was traveling over a surface that was moving less quickly towards the east.

That very subtle effect actually happens; it is now called the Coriolis Force and it is what makes hurricanes swirl around. But for a cannonball the effect is so tiny that in practice it’s all but impossible to measure. Since no one had ever seen such a deflection in the 16th century, they concluded that Copernicus was wrong, and the Earth did not spin!

As you note, the early chapters deal with astronomy, where in a certain sense the stakes are low. It doesn’t matter to most people if they know whether the earth is spinning! But the fifth chapter looks at a much more serious case, where scientists — and worse, science’s “fan club” — attempted to use a brand new insight of science as a way of ranking and controlling people who were different from them.

The people who followed the eugenics movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries — when it was all the rage in the Sunday supplements — thought that they could “breed” superior human beings. Besides the obvious immorality of manipulating human beings that way, the science behind it was absurd from start to finish. For instance, what do you mean by “superior” and how could you rank it? You can breed cows to give more milk or German shepherds to have pointy ears, but there is no such simple algorithm to rank human beings.

Yet in America, immigration from supposedly “inferior” nations (like Italy!) was restricted, and thousands of women, usually minorities, were forcibly sterilized. And, of course, we saw the ultimate outcome of eugenics in the death camps of Nazi Germany.

Camosy: You have a provocatively titled conclusion: “When Faith Goes Wrong.” What are you trying to get across here?

Brother Guy: Both faith and science are ways that we human beings try to search for truth. In both cases, because we are human, we can get it wrong. In fact, because of our human nature, we’ll never get it completely right!

But rather than being afraid of being wrong, or despairing of ever finding the truth, we can use the lessons we learned when we looked at how science could go wrong, and then as it grows, corrects itself and comes closer to the truth. How can that teach us about where our understanding of our faith might go wrong, and where we can find opportunities for our faith to grow?

The key insight is that our experience of faith — like truth, like love — is not something in a fixed and static state but something that we forever grow into, come closer to, appreciate more deeply. We learn from the very love or truth that we have managed to experience, how rich that experience can be, and how important it is to never give up seeking ever deeper ways to believe, to love, and to know. That is where we find God: God who is love, and who is the way, the truth, and the life.

Along with more than 250 scientific publications, Brother Guy is the author of several popular books including “Turn Left at Orion” (with Dan Davis) and “Would You Baptize an Extraterrestrial?” (with Paul Mueller). In 2000, the International Astronomical Union named asteroid 4597 “Consolmagno” in recognition of his work. In 2014 he received the Carl Sagan Medal from the American Astronomical Society Division for Planetary Sciences for excellence in public communication in planetary sciences. Aside from his work at the Vatican Observatory, Brother Guy currently serves as chair of the IAU Mars Nomenclature Task Group and vice president of the Meteoritical Society.

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Charlie Camosy is professor of medical humanities at the Creighton School of Medicine in Omaha, Nebraska, and moral theology fellow at St. Joseph Seminary in New York.

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A Catholic church in Ukraine named for St. Nicholas marked its patron’s feast day by enshrining relics from St. John Paul II, who witnessed the power of faith over authoritarianism.

The Roman Catholic Church of St. Nicholas in Kyiv, part of the Diocese of Kyiv-Zhytomyr, celebrated a patronal Mass Dec. 6, after which the faithful had an opportunity to venerate the relics of the late pope.

For the occasion, an exhibition of works entitled “Strength to Endure” by Kyiv artist Svitlana Sevostyanchyk was displayed, with Sevostyanchyk donating one of them to the church.

“The painting depicts St. Nicholas and everything related to our soldiers, our defenders, and our will. These are different warriors. St. Nicholas is also in military uniform, because he is also a protector,” the artist told Ukrinform, the Ukrainian national news agency, which reported the relic enshrinement and liturgy Dec. 7.

The agency quoted St. Nicholas’ pastor, Oblate of Mary Immaculate Father Pavlo Vyshkovskyi, as saying the event was “a very important one for us.”

St. John Paul’s relics will be in St. Nicholas’ church on a permanent basis “accessible to everyone,” said Father Vyshkovskyi.

The priest recalled that St. John Paul was at St. Nicholas in June 2001 during his apostolic visit to Ukraine. The country’s president at the time, Leonid Kuchma, promised the pope that the church building, owned by the government, would be handed over to the parish for permanent use — a transfer that is still in process more than two decades later, and that speaks to the long struggle of the Catholic Church in Ukraine to emerge from decades of persecution under Soviet rule.

Modeled after Vienna’s Votivkirche, the neo-Gothic church — which was constructed over a ten-year span from 1899-1909 — is the second Catholic cathedral built in Kyiv. When St. Alexander Church could no longer accommodate a growing Catholic community, local Catholic leaders approached civil authorities in 1898 for the land to build a new church. To ensure their request would be approved, they promised to name it in honor of a visit to Kyiv by Russian tsar Nicholas II (who was ultimately assassinated along with his family in 1918 by the Bolsheviks).

Catholics worshiped at the church until 1936, with Soviet authorities enacting increasingly harsh repressive measures and finally closing the church in 1938. Under Soviet rule, the church was looted of its treasures — among them, icons and chalices — and used as a warehouse. Having suffered artillery damage during World War II, the church was renovated in the 1950s for use as a state archive. In the 1970s, Soviet authorities placed equipment on its roof to block signals from Western media such as BBC News and Radio Svoboda (Radio Liberty).

By 1978, the church had been given to the Kyiv House of Organ and Chamber Music, with a massive pipe organ — containing almost 4,000 pipes and 55 registers — installed for concert performances. The organ was destroyed in 2021 when a fire broke out in its electrical wiring.

Only in January 1992 were Masses resumed at St. Nicholas; today, liturgies are celebrated at the church daily in Ukrainian, Polish, Spanish and Latin.

Since the full-scale war broke out in Ukraine with Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, the Catholic Church is seen as a prominent supporter of Ukrainian freedom.

On Nov. 6, Ukraine’s Minister of Culture and Information Policy, Rostyslav Karandeev, met with local Catholic leaders to discuss the ongoing legal arrangements for “the church to be handed over to the (Catholic) community for free and permanent use.”

Currently, there is no such norm in Ukrainian law on culture and the only form of use — under which state property can be provided — is a lease.
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Gina Christian is a national reporter for OSV News. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, at @GinaJesseReina.

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Each summer, the Buffalo Bills travel east down the New York interstate from Buffalo to Rochester for the team’s annual training camp at St. John Fisher University. For two weeks, local media is saturated with reviews of players’ performances on the field, their interactions with fans in the stands and their favorite turkey-burger meals in the dining hall at the university located in a Rochester suburb.

Not all of the team’s activities attract media attention, however. Each Sunday of training camp, Basilian Father Kevin Mannara with Deacon Jonathan Schott offers an early morning Mass for Catholic players and coaches before practice.

“This is a real joy for us to be able to help players, coaches and staff practice the faith and attend holy Mass,” Deacon Schott, assistant director of campus ministry, said to the Catholic Courier, the newspaper of the Diocese of Rochester.

The team also uses the university’s ministry center for team Bible studies with the Bills’ team chaplain, Len Vanden Bos.

“Our relationship with their chaplain is year-round,” Father Mannara, director of campus ministry, also told the Catholic Courier.

Now in his seventh season as the Buffalo Bills’ team chaplain, Vanden Bos is a rare breed in the NFL: He is a full-time chaplain.

“There are only a couple of teams that have a full-time chaplain like myself that works for the organization. There are only two or three out of the 32 teams,” Vanden Bos told the Catholic Courier.

While a Catholic priest based in Orchard Park, New York, frequently leads Saturday-evening Masses for the Catholics with the Buffalo Bills, Vanden Bos, a nondenominational Christian, is entrusted with the task of providing pastoral care for the team on a daily basis. This is no small task, as there are 53 players on the roster, 16 more on the practice squad and more than 20 people on the coaching staff, he said.

Each of those 100 or so people is at a different place in his or her faith journey, Vanden Bos added. Some have a close relationship with God, others have no previous experience with faith but are interested, and many fall somewhere in between, he noted.

“You have to meet them where they’re at,” he said.

Vanden Bos said his ministry is challenging; yet, at the same time, it’s his dream job. He coached college football teams for several years in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and he continued to coach part time even after he turned his professional attention to ministry. He served as a part-time chaplain for the Chicago Bears from 2013-14 and for the Baltimore Ravens in 2016.

In 2017, Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott hired him to take on the newly created position of full-time team chaplain. This role allows Vanden Bos to utilize skills he honed in his previous careers, he said, noting that he doesn’t coach the players but can relate to them.

“I stay in my lane, but I understand the world they’re in. Being able to marry those two worlds has given me an advantage to meeting them where they are,” he said.

Vanden Bos strives to meet people where they are by offering different ways for them to enrich their spiritual lives. During a chapel service the night before each game, he will present a 25-minute talk about a particular theme or Scripture passage. All are welcome, and usually 35 or 40 people attend, Vanden Bos said.

Several weekly Bible-study groups are offered for those who would like to delve deeper into the theme explored during the chapel service, he said. Vanden Bos leads separate groups for players and coaches while his wife, Charlene, leads a group for players’ and coaches’ significant others. Bills wide receiver Trent Sherfield and his wife, Marcella, host a weekly couples’ Bible study in their home.

Vanden Bos also frequently meets with individual players to discuss anything that may be troubling them, whether it be related to their performance on the field or concerns in their private lives. Trent Sherfield, for example, meets weekly with Vanden Bos and has shared some of the struggles he’s faced as a football player, husband and father.

“He’s always there to read Scripture to me, to give me a different point of view than what I might be looking at it with,” Sherfield told the Catholic Courier, noting that faith has been an important part of his life since childhood.

Sherfield came to the Buffalo Bills from the Miami Dolphins in March 2023 and said he’s happy to have landed on a team that prioritizes its players’ spiritual well-being.

“Me being here has been nothing short of God sending me here,” said Sherfield.

Bills players often tell Vanden Bos they have felt “cared for” since joining the team, and this type of environment has been cultivated intentionally by McDermott and the team’s owners, Terry and Kim Pegula, the chaplain said.

“We believe that if a player is loved and cared for and feels like they’re known … they’re in a better mind space. We think that translates to being freed up,” Vanden Bos explained. “We all carry burdens. When other people can help you carry your burden, you’re being freed up so you can get out and do the job you’re paid to do.”

Although the team’s leaders believe that investing in the spiritual health of its players pays dividends on the field, that’s not the only reason they’ve committed to having a full-time chaplain on staff, Vanden Bos said.

“(McDermott and the Pegulas) believe that this is more important than just making money and winning games. We want to make this as transformational as possible and help people become the best versions of themselves,” he said.

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Jennifer Burke is a staff writer at the Catholic Courier, the newspaper of the Diocese of Rochester, New York.

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