Durand family sustained by faith

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Walsh children recall 1955 polio outbreak

By Sharon Boehlefeld
Features Editor
In 1955, 11 of  the 14 children of Keron and Anne Walsh of Durand suffered from mild to severe forms of polio.
Five of the children were hospitalized. The two oldest children, teenage brothers Dan and Ed, died.
Sixty years later, Rose Walsh Landers, the youngest of the hospitalized children, along with family friend Mike Waller and sister Sue Walsh Cocoma, have written about the family’s struggles and survival in "Triumph on Baker Road: How the Walsh Family Defeated Polio."

Stroll, journey offer different paths to confronting stress

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Sure, you've heard dozens of talks and homilies about the Eight Beatitudes, but have you ever taken "a friendly stroll" through them? Sister Mary Lea Hill, a Daughter of St. Paul, invites readers to do that in "Blessed are the Stressed: Secrets to a Happy Heart From a Crabby Mystic."
If one thinks of strolling as a low-impact exercise, then this is a low-impact but effective spiritual exercise because of the content and how it is presented. Strolls are for conversation, for ambling with no particular purpose other than to take in the surroundings or to informally converse with a companion.
Here, the beatitudes are the surroundings; Sister Hill starts the conversation. And like conversation that occurs during a stroll, she jumps from topic to topic, always linking each to one of the beatitudes. From this conversation comes reflections such as: "The beatitudes are our spiritual selfies. They are individual snapshots of our soul at work." In speaking about the meek, she relates it to handles. Remember, this is strolling conversation; it can go in any direction, with any connection.

Books tell of Blessed Mother Teresa's life

With her canonization scheduled Sept. 4, 2016, people are more interested than ever in Blessed Mother Teresa. In the past several years, Catholic News Service reviewers have written about a number of books that tell the story of Blessed Mother Teresa. Here is information from a few of those reviews, originally published in 2010, 2012 and 2013.

Three books detail Mother Teresa's 'thirst,' teachings and impact

Much has been written in the past months concerning the interior darkness and long periods of spiritual dryness in the life of Blessed Mother Teresa, revealed through her private correspondence in the book "Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light," by Father Brian Kolodiejchuk, a Missionaries of Charity priest who is the postulator of her sainthood cause. Both the secular press and scholars alike have delved into the meaning of her letters and the long periods in her life when she no longer felt the presence of Jesus.

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In "Mother Teresa's Secret Fire," Father Joseph Langford, a Missionaries of Charity priest and companion of Mother Teresa since the early 1970s, shares his personal encounters with Mother Teresa and sheds light on two words which can sum up her life: I thirst.

It is the thirst of Jesus on the cross that became Mother Teresa's own thirst and she spent the last 50 or so years of her life trying to satiate this thirst through her service to the poorest of the poor. It is this thirst that is at the heart of Father Langford's book.

Overview of religious freedom debate is easy to read

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The author of this readable and informative volume -- Kevin Seamus Hasson -- studied law and theology at the University of Notre Dame and is the founder of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, so is well qualified to take on what was a central set of questions for the founders of the American republic, questions still being debated today.
He begins with legal cases challenging the "under God" phrase in the Pledge of Allegiance recited in public schools and other events. Does this amount to the establishment of a religion or of religion itself?

Book reveals pope's secret spy network during World War II

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Who really was Pope Pius XII during World War II? Was he a weak pope, too afraid to speak out publicly against Hitler? Or was he an expert diplomat, calculatingly using his position to help posture assassination attempts of the horrific German leader?
Author Mark Riebling's book, "Church of Spies: The Pope's Secret War against Hitler," contends that the pontiff was indeed a skilled man who used his role to help German plotters attempt to kill Hitler. The book even suggests that his initiatives came at the cost of his legacy and reputation, a point of wide controversy for historians.
"Church of Spies" reads like a spy thriller that is exhaustingly researched, as shown by its more than 100 pages of notes and sources. Riebling, a former editor at Random House and author of "Wedge: The Secret War Between the FBI and CIA," has researched and written about intelligence for various publications. He shares with readers many vivid details about the underground communication, secret meetings and failed attempts to take Hitler's life; the book truly is a treasure trove of surprising information.

Author finds controversy in life of great-grandfather most saw as heroic

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As a retired research analyst for the CIA, James Carson knows how to dig up secrets. But even Carson was surprised by some of the facts that turned up when he decided to research and write a book about the life of his great-grandfather, U.S. Army Col. Henry Lazelle.
Carson grew up hearing stories about Lazelle from his mother, who was only 10 years old when the colonel died. In her eyes, Lazelle was a heroic figure who scouted across the Wild West with Kit Carson, fought for the Union during the Civil War and retired after nearly four decades in the military.
It turned out that the story wasn't quite that clear-cut. While Lazelle had a formidable intellect, wrote articles on military strategy and served as commandant of cadets at West Point, he was known for overstepping boundaries and had a hand in several notorious incidents in Army history.

Book advocates using science to deepen faith, relationship to God

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Walking hand in hand through history has not been easy for science and faith. People on both sides too often and easily toss invectives at the other, such as "superstition" and "heresy." At the same time, ambitious historical efforts have been made, going back at least to the fourth-century St. Augustine of Hippo, to reconcile or bridge some of the gaps between the two.
True, faith and science abide comfortably in many people; but so far no one has succeeded in convincing all of the diverse mentalities in either camp to accept a basic compatibility.
Adding his voice to the reconciliation effort is Michael Dennin. A cradle Catholic who continues to attend Mass regularly and is active in parish life, Dennin also is a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California, Irvine. Dennin's book, "Divine Science," uses his faith and scientific knowledge to make a case that believers should embrace science as a tool for deepening their belief.