Catholic Reading Wednesday

With many thanks to our awesome curator, Karen Celano, you can delve into a faith-related news article each Wednesday! Karen writes:

From Graham Greene to Flannery O'Connor, G.K. Chesterton to Evelyn Waugh, Catholic novelists and poets have made their contribution to mission of the Church through the craft of writing.  Contemporary Catholic writer David Schickler was recently featured in Salon Magazine and spoke on how his faith influences his craft: 

"I absolutely do consider myself a weird Catholic, but I think Catholicism by definition is weird. Christianity itself is weird. I think it’s contrarian. It goes against a lot of the principles of the world. . . At the end of the day, Christ told me to spend as much of my time thinking about and caring about people less fortunate as possible. The message is the opposite of self-advancement and money and me, me, me. It’s a religion that tells you to try to get out of you head, to think about what you should do rather than what is going to happen to you."

John Paul II - himself an artist and actor - wrote in his Letter to A    rtists of the Church's need for Catholic art as a "genuine source of theology."  Catholic fiction can perhaps be seen as theology in narrative form.  Good Catholic fiction reminds us that faith primarily occurs not in the realm of pristine intellectual theories or logical philosophies, but in the midst of the messy stories of our everyday lives. It draws its inspiration from the stories of Scripture, where we encounter vice-ridden and often downright sinful men and women who wrestled with their faith everyday.  It reminds us that we don't have to be perfect to encounter God - that God comes to meet us right in the middle of our ambivalence, doubt, and sin in the great and scandalous drama of salvation.  

If you're a fiction-reader and want to read more about Catholic fiction, I encourage you to check out www.catholicfiction.net, where you can find reviews of Catholic novels and interviews with contemporary Catholic writers.  The Catholic literary journal Dappled Things is also a wonderful place to read excellent short stories and poems written from a Catholic perspective.  I hope you find as much joy and inspiration in these stories as I do!