The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

THE GOOD - An Aggie Nun makes her final vows.
Sr. Rose Marie, class of 2007, is a Passionist nun in Kentucky. You can read about her first vows here. You can also see a video of Sr. Rose Marie here.
Tip o' the hat to The Anchoress for sending me the link.


THE BAD - Mother to Have Dead Son's Baby
A woman from Austin, will have a surrogate mother impregnated with her son's sperm, and keep her grandchild as her own. Medical ethics mean nothing anymore and moral relativism now rules the roost.


THE UGLY - Lottery for In-Vitro Fertilization - Win a Baby!
This is disgusting. Life isn't just a commodity to be traded, now it is a prize to be won. Don't forget that IVF is immoral, in all cases, but that doesn't seem to matter when there is money to be made.
Tip o' the hat to CMR for the links.

Aggie Catholic Priest Leads International Congress on Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in Rome

Fr. Florian Racine was in grad school here while I was an undergraduate. He might be one of the few people I have ever met who said my name more correctly than I do myself. He got a master’s degree in ocean engineering from Texas A&M University in 1994. Fr. Racine worked two years in Houston as an engineer at  before being ordained for the Diocese of Frejus-Toulon in 2002.

Several years after his ordination he established the Missionnaries of the Most Holy Eucharist, a clerical association of diocesan rite, which encourages Eucharistic Adoration around the world.

This past week the group hosted an International Congress on Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in Rome entitled - Adoratio 2011: From Adoration to Evangelization.



Aggie Catholics: Forming Apostles For The Church and the World

An Interview With Jennifer Fulwiler of Conversion Diary

Jennifer Fulwiler is one of the most popular Catholic bloggers today and her personal story is one of great conversion, hence the name of her blog - Conversion Diary.  She blogs for the National Catholic Register and her conversion is currently being written for a new book, which is due out soon. She is another one of our great Aggie Catholics.

She also happens to be a contributor, along with myself and a number of notable Catholics, in a new book - The Church and New Media: Blogging Converts, Online Activists, and Bishops Who Tweet. It will be released at the end of the summer. Jennifer agreed to a short interview and I ask that you keep her in your prayers, because she is due to give birth to another baby very soon.

Here is my interview with Jennifer:

MARCEL - Jennifer, you attended classes at A&M, but were not Catholic at the time. Can you tell our readers a little about your story?

JENNIFER - I spent my freshman and sophomore years at A&M (class of '99). It never occurred to me that I wouldn't graduate as an Aggie; I come from an Aggie family and always thought it was the best school in the world. But at the time I was an atheist, and was really struggling with a lot of the implications of my own worldview, and found that living in such a heavily Christian environment exacerbated my problems. I transferred to the University of Texas for my junior and senior years, but always felt a certain sadness when I thought of not graduating from A&M.

MARCEL - What do you have to say to our non-Catholic readers (esp. atheists and agnostics) about the Catholic faith?
JENNIFER - I encourage them to take just ten seconds to say a sincere prayer and ask God if he wants them to find out more about the Catholic faith. Then listen for an answer -- which may or may not come immediately. Even if you don't believe in God or aren't sold on Catholicism, it couldn't hurt, right?
MARCEL - If you had us read one post from your blog, which would it be?
JENNIFER - I would have them read this one about a prank call gone awry, since it took place in my dorm at A&M (Haas Hall):
MARCEL - Can you tell us a bit about some of your writing? I know you are working on a book. When can our readers buy a copy?
JENNIFER - In addition to my personal blog, I'm blogging at the National Catholic Register  and am working on a book about my conversion. The book has been one huge exercise in trusting in God's plan, since it's moving much more slowly than I'd like. I started it in 2008, scrapped a first draft, finally finished a totally new second draft, and my literary agent came back with epic revisions that will take months to complete. Unfortunately it won't be available for purchase any time soon. But the good news is that I think that whenever it is done, it will be very good, and will appeal to a wide audience -- not just Catholics.
MARCEL - What plans do you have for the future?
JENNIFER - To be honest, I don't have any. One of the biggest changes since my conversion is that I really do just take life one week or month at a time. I focus on discerning what God wants me to be doing *right now* and don't worry too much about where I'll be and what I'll have accomplished a year from now. Interestingly, my life is so much more fun and exciting -- and I get a lot more done -- ever since I started living that way.
MARCEL - What advice would you give to the average college student of today?
JENNIFER - I can't emphasize this enough: The path to fulfillment is to discern your vocation and then throw yourself into it. There's so much pressure these days to think that things like career, travel, accomplishments, etc. will make your life awesome. As I know from personal experience, they won't. Sure, having a cool job or traveling to interesting places is nice, but it won't bring you deep, lasting happiness. It won't even bring you that much excitement. If you want to live life to the fullest, try radical obedience to God.

An Interview With Aggie Catholic, Matt Warner, Founder of flockNote.com and Blogger

Matt is one cool cat. He is a Catholic blogger, speaker and founder of flockNote.com, TweetCatholic.com and QuoteCatholic.com. He was named one of the Top Ten Most Fascinating Catholics of 2009 and also blogs at Fallible Blogma and for the National Catholic Register.

He also happens to be a contributor, along with myself and a number of notable Catholics, in a new book - The Church and New Media: Blogging Converts, Online Activists, and Bishops Who Tweet. It will be released at the end of the summer.

Here is my interview with Matt:

MARCEL - Matt, how did you get involved in the different initiatives you have undertaken in the past few years, including flockNote, Catholic blogging, etc.?

MATT WARNER - It was kind of a gradual process that all started with just kind of putting myself out there and trying a few things. I've always been fairly entrepreneurially minded, I just needed to find the thing I was really passionate about. My Electrical Engineering degree from Texas A&M had me working for a big engineering company after graduation where I expanded my skills to include a lot of software programming and some user-interface design. While working, I got my MBA in entrepreneurship. That was right around the same time I was also becoming very actively passionate about my Catholic faith. So it all just kind of came together.

I was volunteering a lot at my parish and was seeing some genuine deficiencies in how the Church communicates...on both a large scale and the parish level. So, I figured I'd see if I could help. It started with a kind of basic group networking/communication website for Catholics (keep in mind this was before Facebook, etc. had exploded), TweetCatholic.com, QuoteCatholic.com and other projects and then I eventually came up with something very different and that really worked - flockNote.com. And it's continuing to grow every day. God is really doing some big things.

And blogging was always just an outlet for the steam I didn't work off elsewhere. It's been really healthy for my own personal, spiritual development. I love it.

MARCEL - What is it that drives you to work in this area of Catholic evangelization?

MATT WARNER - I love my Church. And I want to help. That's really it. I think each of us have some unique talents that God has given us specifically to build up His Church. I don't want to make the mistake of wasting them or burying them somewhere.

MARCEL - Tell us about your experiences at St. Mary’s Catholic Center at Texas A&M. How did St. Mary’s help prepare you to go out into the “real world”?

MATT WARNER - My experience at St. Mary's is partially one of regret. I regret not getting involved more than I did. I was very busy with full loads of tough classes (and the REC Center) back then - which is a really bad excuse. I did make it to Mass every Sunday. But I hadn't matured enough yet to appreciate everything else that St. Mary's offered.

But most of all, and most importantly, St. Mary's kept me grounded in my faith. It was constantly calling me back every Sunday no matter how late I had been up the night before and no matter what everyone else was doing. It was a sanctuary of peace amidst the volatility of college life. I remember feeling so many moments at Mass there of love and contentment. A genuine peace that even immature, searching, insecure, mixed-up college students can latch on to no matter what other confusion or uncertainty they are experiencing in their life. The Mass just rings true. And I'm so thankful that my parents instilled that in me and that St. Mary's was there to sustain me during an important time of my life. The certainty in that foundation is ultimately what drove me deeper and deeper into the treasures of the Church as I matured and "grew up."

MARCEL - What does the future hold for you?

MATT WARNER - It seems like just yesterday I was making the not so short - but not so unusual - walk from Aston Hall all the way down to St. Mary's, dressed up in the heat of the day to catch the late morning Mass. Now I I'm a decade older, on a second career, with a little less hair (and a lot less muscle), I've been blessed with a beautiful wife and two kids and somehow the Ags still haven't won a national football championship. In the blink of an eye, life just happens.

I used to spend a lot of time planning and working toward the future and not enough time being present in the present. So, in the future, I plan on spending more time in the present.

MARCEL - You still support St. Mary’s Catholic Center. Why?

MATT WARNER - I still support St. Mary's because it's the best campus ministry program in the country. And the Aggies there need it more than ever. More of the world needs to hear about and learn from what is going on there. Aggieland is a special place. St. Mary's is one of the big reasons why.
Gig'em!

Thanks to Matt for granting the interview. Please keep him, and all of our Aggie Catholics, in your prayers.