Update: Daughter of renowned Catholic architect Duncan Stroik found dead

MONROE COUNTY, Mo. - The Missouri State Highway Patrol is asking the public for help finding a St. Louis woman whose vehicle was found in Monroe County.

A state park ranger found 23-year-old Rafaella Maria Stroik's unattended vehicle Monday in the Highway 107 boat ramp parking lot of Mark Twain Lake State Park, the patrol's Troop B said in a news release. No missing person report had been filed and the vehicle was still there Tuesday, the release said.

Troopers and park rangers then determined Stroik was missing. A missing person report was then filed and authorities are searching the area around the boat ramp, the release said.

continue at ABC17

Duncan Stroik has been involved with many projects through the upper midwest, including the Guadalupe Shrine in La Crosse.  He is also Professor of Architecture at the University of Notre Dame.

Update:

The body of a missing St. Louis ballet dancer was found Wednesday morning in a rural Missouri Lake.

StlToday

Tragic... prayers.

I'm told there will be a Mass at the St. Louis Cathedral this afternoon at 2pm CST.

Update:

We just finished talking to the MSHP who tell us the body of St. Louis ballerina, 23-year-old Raffaella M. Stroik, was found here in Mark Twain Lake. No foul play is suspected. An autopsy will be done tomorrow. @ksdknews pic.twitter.com/q3KtGvWrBP

— Rachel Menitoff (@RachelMenitoff) November 14, 2018

Wisconsin-Notre Dame football series at Soldier Field and Lambeau Field appears imminent

Wisconsin and Notre Dame football series at Soldier Field and Lambeau Field likely to be announced soon 🔥🍀🔥🔴⚪️🔥 pic.twitter.com/lH2VlygwLO

— Barstool Irish (@BarstoolIrish) July 24, 2017

CHICAGO – The idea of Wisconsin facing Notre Dame has intrigued Badgers fans, and several years ago school officials began looking at a potential matchup.

Nothing came to fruition, but Monday both UW head coach Paul Chryst at Big Ten media day and Packers President Mark Murphy at the shareholders meeting in Green Bay confirmed a Chicago Tribune report that discussions are again being held.

The series would be held at Lambeau Field and Soldier Field, and Murphy said he expects an announcement soon.

continue at JS

I suspect I will be making several wagers on these games....  I wish there was a way to bet on which team has more practicing Catholics.

Image

Notre Dame Looks East: University Begins Regular Byzantine Liturgy

Serving a growing international community in South Bend, a Melkite priest brings ancient traditions

Students and faculty at the University of Notre Dame who go to the university’s chapel on Sundays may be hearing something different from the usual Mass opening of “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

“Blessed is the kingdom of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and always and forever and ever,” Father Khaled Anatolios recently chanted, as he made the sign of the cross with the book of the Gospels lifted high above the altar.

He faced the altar, away from the congregation, and there were icons on either side. Those in the congregation sang “amen” in response.

The first Byzantine liturgy on Notre Dame’s campus had begun, and once a month, at least in the beginning, those who are from Eastern Christian traditions and those who are just curious will have a chance to participate.

continue at Aleteia

Also Deacon's Bench

Shaking Down the Thunder From the Sky: Part 2 of Notre Dame's Challenge to the Contraception Mandate

Ryan N. Parsons of Foley & Lardner LLP, Milwaukee, posted on the history and latest developments in this Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) case, at Wisconsin Appellate Law.

"As was true back in 2014, the court [U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit] remained skeptical of the link between Notre Dame’s actions (filling out a form noting its religious objections to contraceptives and sending the form to its insurance administrator) and the resulting actions (the administrator then providing the contraceptives directly to the insured [employee]). Consequently, the court ruled that Notre Dame did not meet its burden of showing that its religious beliefs were substantially burdened by the contraceptive mandate."

Pope Tells Notre Dame to 'Defend, Preserve, Advance’ Catholic Identity

In a powerful statement encouraging fidelity and strong Catholic identity in Catholic higher education, Pope Francis today urged the University of Notre Dame to be an “uncompromising witness… to the Church’s moral teaching” and to resist “efforts, from whatever quarter, to dilute that indispensable witness,” according to a translation by Vatican Radio.

The Holy Father’s words came today as he met with a Notre Dame delegation celebrating the University’s new Rome Center. Although Vatican Radio does not report whether Notre Dame President Father John Jenkins, C.S.C., was present, a photo of Father Jenkins with Pope Francis accompanying the Vatican Radio translation suggests that he was.

Recalling the University’s founding Catholic mission in “service to the Church and American society,” Pope Francis said, “And this is important: its identity, as it was intended from the beginning. To defend it, to preserve it and to advance it!”

In my Exhortation on the Joy of the Gospel, I stressed the missionary dimension of Christian discipleship, which needs to be evident in the lives of individuals and in the workings of each of the Church’s institutions. This commitment to “missionary discipleship” ought to be reflected in a special way in Catholic universities (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 132-134), which by their very nature are committed to demonstrating the harmony of faith and reason and the relevance of the Christian message for a full and authentically human life. Essential in this regard is the uncompromising witness of Catholic universities to the Church’s moral teaching, and the defense of her freedom, precisely in and through her institutions, to uphold that teaching as authoritatively proclaimed by the magisterium of her pastors. [BOOM!] It is my hope that the University of Notre Dame will continue to offer unambiguous testimony to this aspect of its foundational Catholic identity, especially in the face of efforts, from whatever quarter, to dilute that indispensable witness.

continue at: http://www.cardinalnewmansociety.org/CatholicEducationDaily/DetailsPage/tabid/102/ArticleID/2937/Pope-Tells-Notre-Dame-to-Defend-Preserve-Advance%E2%80%99-Catholic-Identity.aspx#sthash.u62jSLp5.dpuf

WOWZA! 

Photo

Notre Dame Linebacker Duped Into Playing For Fake Catholic University

Eye of the Tiber is fantastic

South Bend, IN––According to sources within the University of Notre Dame last week, star linebacker Manti Te’o was “duped” into attending and playing for what he believed to be a real Catholic university. The university told reporters that Te’o, who became the inspirational force behind the Fighting Irish’s Cinderella run to the BCS National Championship this season, was the target of an elaborate hoax perpetrated against him by Notre Dame officials. Deadspin.com issued a news release Wednesday reporting that it could find no record of the university’s Catholic identity ever existing. A spokesman for Notre Dame confirmed to Eye of the Tiber that Te’o had indeed been the victim of a hoax. “Officials used a fictitious Catholic identity, and were successful in ‘ingratiating themselves’ with Te’o, then conspired with other school officials posing to be scholars, in line with the Magisterium. Later that week, Te’o sat down with ESPN, telling them that he was not as much devastated, as he was confused as to why Notre Dame would go through the effort to pull off the elaborate hoax. “I mean, I’m not even Catholic…I’m Mormon”, Te’o said. “What do I care about the Catholic Church and whether the university’s in line with the Magisterium? Kinda like them, I guess. I don’t know…the whole thing is just kinda weird.”

Lou Holtz featured in Catholics Come Home commercial

HT to our good Mr. Ben Yanke.


I didn't see it during the Rose Bowl, but I was so sick I probably wouldn't have noticed(I slept through the second half).  Lou Holtz was the last Notre Dame coach to lead the team to a national championship.  Would be great to get some air for tonight's big game.

Good stuff from Catholics Come Home

more over at his place

CNS: Marquette Jesuit: Catholic Identity on the Rise

via Cardinal Newman Society

Fr. Douglas Leonhardt, S.J., Associate Director of the Office of Mission and Identity at Marquette University, said in a video posted on the university website that the Jesuit university is more Catholic and Jesuit than it was twenty, thirty, or even forty years ago.

Fr. Leonhardt says that in an attempt to prove that Jesuit universities compare academically with public universities “we weren’t looking as much at what made us distinctive.”

The Cardinal Newman Society applauds any strengthening of a Jesuit university’s Catholic identity but sadly, it seems that much remains to be done. Just last month, The Cardinal Newman Society reported that the Gender Sexuality Alliance at Marquette (GSA) celebrated “LGBTQA diversity” on campus with an event called “Chronicles of the Closet” which was described on the university’s website as “an open-mic night for sharing coming-out stories.”

The Cardinal Newman Society also reported last year that Marquette University Law School appointed pro-abortion rights former U.S. senator Russ Feingold as a visiting law professor.

Any Marquette alumni want to comment on that prominent Catholic identity at Marquette today as opposed to when they went to school?

Speaking of, that reminds me, have you heard of Project Sycamore?  It is a really impressive organization that the administration respects because of the vast number of alumni who support it. 

The University should not compromise its academic aspirations in its efforts to maintain its Catholic identity.

University of Notre Dame
Faculty Senate
April 9, 2008

That’s a shocking declaration from a place where, Fr. Hesburgh has declared, “the Church does its thinking” and reflects a radical weakening of Catholic identity under the Golden Dome. Still, hope is not lost! And we invite you to learn more about our mission of Catholic renewal at Notre Dame and how you can help.

The group is specific to recovering Notre Dame, but is there any such organization that exists for Marquette?  If so, let's support it!