‘The Vatican Prophecies’ Is the New One Diocese, One Book Pick

Veteran Journalist John Thavis Explores Modern Day Miracles

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By Sharon Boehlefeld
Features Editor
When John Thavis retired, the former Vatican bureau chief for Catholic News Service took us behind the scenes at the Holy See in his first book, “The Vatican Diaries.” (See our post.)
In his second book, “The Vatican Prophecies,” he’s taking us behind the scenes of “Investigating Supernatural Signs, Apparitions and Miracles in the Modern Age.”
And Thavis’ second book is also the second selection for The Observer Book Club’s One Diocese, One Book program.
Scheduled for release Sept. 15, “The Vatican Prophecies”  talks about relics, such as cloth used by Padre Pio, Therese of Liseux and others, and how people view them.
It also discusses apparations, including the differences in Church attitudes toward the widely acclaimed visits of Mary to Medjugorje in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the less well known, but officiallly recognized, visits of Mary to Adele Brise  near Campion, Wisconsin.
But, as with his first book, Thavis doesn’t just tell the surface story. He looks at the controversies and debates about these phenomena within the Church.
For example, Thavis tells us about Pope Benedict XVI’s concerns about how modern technology can spread word of potential apparitions or miracles before the Church can deal with them properly.
Thavis goes on to discuss a Vatican document outlining procedures for local bishops to examine such claims.

Thought-provoking, inspiring almanac will delight Catholic gardeners

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Any Catholic who enjoys gardening will find much inspiration, both spiritual and practical, in this original compendium written by Margaret Rose Realy, a master gardener, retreat leader and Catholic blogger.
Each chapter highlights a particular month's religious themes, traditions, feasts and special saints and offers unique gardening lore.
For instance, the author presents June as a month of "transformation and new life," not only for plants but for Christians given the gift of Christ's love.
Thus during June we honor saints such as St. Boniface (also known as St. Winfrid), the patron of brewers, and St. Botulph of Ikenhoe, the patron of agricultural workers. And June 29 is the feast of the Solemnity of the Apostles, Sts. Peter and Paul; but did you know that the persecution and martyrdom of these two great saints are traditionally symbolized by the checkered fritillary, a "nodding, blood-red flower"? This is the kind of detail that makes "A Catholic Gardener's Spiritual Almanac" so engaging.
The June chapter closes with several practical tips on early summer gardening, including how to manage root-bound potted plants that you wish to transplant into the garden to fill bare holes left by winterkill or spring bulbs now gone dormant. For the more ambitious, there's even a detailed plan for how to create a home garden with the theme of the Stations of the Cross.

Children's reading: books to pray, learn with all summer long

Reviewed by Regina Lordan Catholic News Service

The following books are suitable for children's summer reading:

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"The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch" by Chris Barton, illustrated by Don Tate. Eerdmans Books for Young Readers (Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2015). 50 pp., $17.00
There's no time like the summertime for a refresher on American history. "The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch" would make a nice addition along with a smilar book, "Henry's Freedom Box" by Ellen Levine, to a lesson on slavery and the Reconstruction era. John Roy Lynch was a boy from Mississippi who fought for his own freedom and eventually the freedom of others as an elected state and House representative. He never lived to see a peaceful, unified nation, but during his lifetime he never stopped fighting for those goals. As illustrator Don Tate points out, the intentionally colorful and whimsical illustrations wonderfully accompany this story of a particularly cruel and dark part of American history. Ages 7-10.
 
"Big Tractor" by Nathan Clement. Boyds Mills Press (Honesdale, Pennsylvania, 2105). 28 pp., $16.95
Author and illustrator Nathan Clement's style of simple storytelling using high frequency words paired with brightly colored graphic illustrations will delight toddlers and beginner readers in this book about a tractor. In the story, a farmer revs up his tractor and prepares, plants and harvests crops throughout the seasons. And when it's all done, there's even time for fun on a hayride. Ages 2-5.

You can help fund movie about vocations

Abbie Reese, author of our One Diocese, One Book selection, "Dedicated to God," about the Poor Clare nuns of Rockford, is trying to get the film "Chosen (Custody of the Eyes)" edited in to a feature film. As she says in her flyer, most of the images are the work of one of the youngest women living in the Rockford monastery. If you would like to help spread the word about vocations in the modern world, you can learn more at www.chosenthefilm.com. There is a fundraiser going on now.

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Books approach lessons to youths differently

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Human development is an interesting field of study. Over the last 100 years a variety of social sciences have explored what are developmentally appropriate tasks for each stage of life. A great deal of study has gone into trying to understand the development that takes place during adolescence, the period that runs roughly through the teen years but may begin earlier and often continues into the early 20s.
The two books considered in this review also address these adolescent years but from a religious development perspective. While they come from the same publisher and are aimed at the same audience, their approaches are very different. Both offer ideas that would be beneficial to the teens to which the books are addressed, but only one of the books offers these ideas in a teen-friendly way.
“From Teens to Twenties” offers 28 lessons that the author, Alexander J. Basile, feels that teens should learn. Basile chairs the religion department at Kellenberg Memorial High School in Uniondale, New York.

Slim volume offers amazing depth in history of Jesuits

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With the 2013 election of history's first Jesuit pope, interest mounted exponentially in the now-worldwide Society of Jesus that St. Ignatius Loyola, with nine friends, founded in the 16th century.
What Pope Francis' election means for the Jesuits "remains to be seen," writes Jesuit Father John W. O'Malley. But he points out in "The Jesuits" that "having a Jesuit as pope" represents "an eventuality that through the centuries seemed almost unthinkable."
The reasons it virtually was unthinkable are, from one perspective, what Father O'Malley's brief, easy-to-read history of the Jesuits is about. Over the course of time, "myths and misunderstandings about the Jesuits" entered so deeply into the public mind that "they seem impossible to eradicate," he observes.
Histories of the Society of Jesus written over the centuries often reflected a certain "bifurcation." Either the "Jesuits were saints" or they "were devils," according to Father O'Malley. Only about 20 years ago, he notes, did historians begin "approaching the Jesuits in a more evenhanded way, asking the simple and neutral question, 'What were they like?'"

Enter to win

We're giving a way a copy of "No Pulling Back" by Ruth Ann Hanley.

Enter before May 15, 2015, to win a copy of "No Pulling Back" by clicking on the link at the top of The Observer Book Club home page.