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DENVER — Stephen Szutenbach had never kissed anyone when, he says, a priest he had befriended in the late 1990s started making sexual advances. Szutenbach was 18, a devout Catholic teenager interested in the seminary; the Rev. Kent Drotar was a 39-year-old ranking administrator at St. John Vianney Seminary. "I was so sheltered and I was very uncomfortable because … he's in charge," Szutenbach said. "He's the person who could say, 'I don't think he's fit to be in the seminary.' " But the young man did get into the seminary. And in the ensuing four years, he experienced repeated...

An interesting glimpse at Paul Ryan’s wife, from the Washington Post: Janna Ryan, wife of Republican vice presidential pick Rep. Paul Ryan, is the poster girl for Generation X women who wanted to have it all.Ryan, 43, like many of her 40-something peers, is a stay-at-home mother with an impressive resume. She prefers her husband’s hometown, Janesville, Wis., to Washington and remains out of the political limelight.But Janna Christine Little Ryan hails from Oklahoma, a state known for its Will Rogers’s common-sense ideals mixed with a smidgen of Wild West attitude.She grew up Madill, Okla., in the southern part of...

Dealing with Detractors by Fr. Roger Landry - January 8, 2010 One of the most difficult things for any of us to deal with is criticism. It's hard enough when we're criticized justly and constructively. When the criticism is unmerited, off-base, intended to injure, or worst of all a calumny, it is infinitely harder to endure. One of the most important things a priest in particular has to learn is how to respond in a holy way to the barrage of criticism that will accompany his priesthood. Every priest knows, in some way, that if Jesus himself were repeatedly criticized...

Friday, November 13, 2009 Le Curé d'Ars Camille Dolard (1818- ?) Le Curé d'Ars sur son lit de mort (saint Jean-Marie Vianney, 1786-1859) Also entitled: Le Curé d'Ars, décédé le 4 août 1859, photographié d'après nature Taken 1859 pos. montées sur carton : papier albuminé : d'après nég. sur verre au collodion Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris Saint Jean-Baptiste-Marie Vianney died on 4 August 1859 By 1855, the number of pilgrims who came to see him had reached twenty thousand a year. Vianney yearned for the contemplative life of a monk, and four times ran away from Ars, the last...

Follow one Master only What a sad life does he lead who wants both to please the world and to serve God! It is a great mistake to make, my friends. Apart from the fact that you are going to be unhappy all the time, you can never attain the stage at which you will be able to please the world and please God. It is as impossible a feat as trying to put an end to eternity. Take the advice that I am going to give you now and you will be less unhappy: give yourselves wholly to God...

The World is Everything - God, Nothing! If people would do for god what they do for the world, my dear people, what a great number of Christians would go to Heaven! But if you, dear children, had to pass three or four hours praying in a church, as you pass them at a dance or in a cabaret, how heavily the time would press upon you! If you had to go to a great many different places in order to hear a sermon, as you go for your pastimes or to satisfy your avarice and greed, what pretexts there...

We are wretched creatures We cannot dwell upon the conduct of the Jews, my dear people, without being struck with amazement. These very people had waited for God for four thousand years, they had prayed much because of the great desire they had to receive Him, and yet when He came, He could not find a single person to give Him the poorest lodging. The all-powerful God was obliged to make His dwelling with the animals. And yet, my dear people, I find in the conduct of the Jews, criminal as it was, not a subject for explanations, but a...

St. John Mary Vianney, the Curé d'Ars Dear Brothers and Sisters, In today's catechesis I would like briefly to review the life of the Holy Curé of Ars. I shall stress several features that can also serve as an example for priests in our day, different of course from the time in which he lived, yet marked in many ways by the same fundamental human and spiritual challenges. Precisely yesterday was the 150th anniversary of his birth in Heaven. Indeed it was at two o'clock in the morning on 4 August 1859 that St John Baptist Mary Vianney, having come...

On Priestly Identity "One Who Prays Is Not Afraid; One Who Prays Is Never Alone" VATICAN CITY, JULY 1, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave today during the general audience in St. Peter's Square. He continued with the theme he took up last week: the Year for Priests. * * * Dear brothers and sisters: As you know, with the celebration of First Vespers for the solemnity of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, the Pauline Year has come to a close -- the year...

How is it, my dear brethren, that so few Christians behave with one end only in view -- to please God? Here is the reason, pure and simple. It is just that the vast majority of Christians are enveloped in the most shocking ignorance, so that, humanly speaking, they really do the very best they can.

Have You Religion in Your Heart? Alas, my dear brethren, what have we become even since our conversion? Instead of going always forward and increasing in holiness, what laziness and what indifference we display! God cannot endure this perpetual inconstancy with which we pass from virtue to vice and from vice to virtue. Tell me, my children, is not this the very pattern of the way you live? Are your poor lives anything other than a succession of good deeds and bad deeds? Is it not true that you go to Confession and the very next day you fall again...

The Dreadful State of the Lukewarm Soul In speaking to you today, my dear brethren, of the dreadful state of the lukewarm soul, my purpose is not to paint for you a terrifying and despairing picture of the soul which is living in mortal sin without even having the wish to escape from this condition. That poor unfortunate creature can but look forward to the wrath of God in the next life. Alas! These sinners hear me; they know well of whom I am speaking at this very moment.... We will go no further, for all that I would wish...

Play about life of St. John Vianney to tour U.S. in 2009 Seattle, Wash., Mar 26, 2009 / 03:05 am (CNA).- A production of a play on the life of St. John Vianney will begin its U.S. tour this August, traveling to parishes, theaters, seminaries, universities and Catholic schools to help mark the Year of the Priesthood declared by Pope Benedict XVI.The play "Vianney" is produced by Leonardo Defilippis, director and star of the film Thérèse. It tells the story of St. John Vianney, who lived from 1786 to 1859. The play will discuss the life of the saint, also...

MERRICK, N.Y. (CNS) – More than 5,000 people entered Cure of Ars Church in Merrick Oct. 7-9 to pray before St. John Vianney's heart, and the pastor expected thousands more by Oct. 11, when the incorrupt relic of the sainted 19th-century French priest would end its visit and be taken to Boston. St. John (Jean-Marie Baptiste) Vianney, who died in 1859, is widely known to Catholics as the Cure (parish priest) of Ars. He won over the hearts of his villagers in France by visiting with them, teaching them about God and reconciling people to the Lord in the confessional....

August 4, 2005Memorial of Saint John Vianney, priest Psalm: Thursday 34 Reading INm 20:1-13 The whole congregation of the children of Israelarrived in the desert of Zin in the first month, and the people settled at Kadesh.It was here that Miriam died, and here that she was buried. As the community had no water,they held a council against Moses and Aaron. The people contended with Moses, exclaiming,"Would that we too had perished with our kinsmen in the LORD's presence!Why have you brought the LORD's assembly into this desertwhere we and our livestock are dying?Why did you lead us out of...

VATICAN CITY, MAY 23, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI prayed before relics of St. John Vianney, the Curé of Ars, which had been brought to the Pope's private chapel for an overnight stop. The Holy Father's homage this morning was one of the most significant moments of the centenary of the French priest's canonization. The Curé, who lived from 1786-1859, is the patron of parish priests. The Parish of St. John Vianney in Rome, located on the Via Lentini, is currently looking after the saint's incorrupt heart, reported Vatican Radio. The relic will return to Ars on Wednesday.

August 4, 2004 Memorial of Saint John Vianney, priest Psalm: Wednesday 34 Reading I Responsorial Psalm Gospel Reading IJer 31:1-7 At that time, says the LORD, I will be the God of all the tribes of Israel, and they shall be my people. Thus says the LORD: The people that escaped the sword have found favor in the desert. As Israel comes forward to be given his rest, the LORD appears to him from afar: With age-old love I have loved you; so I have kept my mercy toward you. Again I will restore you, and you shall be...

August 4, 2003Memorial of Saint John Vianney, priest Psalm: Monday 34 Reading I Responsorial Psalm Gospel Reading INum 11:4b-15 The children of Israel lamented,"Would that we had meat for food!We remember the fish we used to eat without cost in Egypt,and the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks,the onions, and the garlic.But now we are famished;we see nothing before us but this manna." Manna was like coriander seed and had the color of resin.When they had gone about and gathered it up,the people would grind it between millstones or pound it in a mortar,then cook it in a pot and make...