Catholic Culture Website Reviews

Catholic Heritage Curricula (CHC) is a family-run apostolate that provides orthodox Catholic materials to help families instruct their children from a truly Catholic perspective. Of special note is a section of curricula resources that includes everything from coloring pages to study guides that will help children of all ages live and learn their Catholic Faith. This site is a great resource, not only for Catholic homeschoolers, but all families who want to promote Catholic culture.

This site is devoted to promoting and explaining the Divine Mercy devotion and to providing information on the life and mission of St. Faustina Kowalska, the Apostle of Divine Mercy. It provides some of the most complete explanations of the Divine Mercy devotion on the web.

This is the website of the Sisters of Loretto founded in the Southwest in 1812. It provides information on the community's history, mission and work, committees, news and events, and excerpts from publications. Unfortunately, there is little indication on the site of a spiritual dimension to the Sisters of Loretto. Their focus appears to be primarily on socialist politics and radical dissent.

Trinity University in Washington, D.C. was established by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in 1897 to provide women with a solid Catholic education. The website provides typical college catalog type information about the campus, course offerings, admission requirements, the faculty, etc. But there are also some troubling areas that indicate the education offered may be more about forming radical feminist women with no concern for the Church's teachings than about forming strong Catholic women. A glance at the bookstore should be enough to convince Catholic parents to run in the opposite direction. The total lack of morality in the titles offered is sad and removes any question about the college's catholicity.

RENEW International (formerly RENEW 2000) is a Catholic organization which "attempts to foster spiritual renewal, evangelization and the transformation of the world through parish-based small Christian communities." The website serves as an introduction to the program and there is little here to be critical of. However, since this site exists primarily to promote the RENEW program, we must advise caution because the program itself raises some serious concerns. While there is much that is good about these materials, there is also much that is highly questionable. For more specifics, please see A Review of Renew 2000 Materials, and Critique of Renew 2000 Leader's Manual, as well as Paulists' RENEW 2000 Is Just a Front For Call To Action.

Holy Spirit Interactive is a Catholic internet apostolate founded by Aneel Aranha, to promote "mutual respect between people, nations, and cultures." The site presents a number of good resources and has a lot of potential to include even more. Of special interest is the youth section, which features many good resources for youth, including an excellent section on the Popes and their words to teens. The kids section also has some great activities that will get children interested in the Bible and the Faith. There is much to recommend about this site, but readers should be aware of charismatic elements which confuse sound Catholic theology with Protestant Biblical understanding.

Catholic Daily offers news and articles from various websites and blogs. Their laudable mission is to provide Catholic inspiration and up to the minute news for those wishing to live their faith. The website is easy to use and aesthetically pleasing. Unfortunately less than Catholic news sites are included as well as Protestant and secular advertising.

Website launched by Ave Maria radio devoted exclusively to the fight against the new HHS mandate that would compel Catholic institutions to subsidize contraception. The StopHHS.com site will provide the latest news on this issue, background, and suggestions for those who want to become actively involved in the struggle.

Elephants in the Living Room is an organization of priests of the Archdiocese of Detroit who seek "renewal" of the Church of Detroit. The first meeting of the organization was held in 2003. They have about 500 members, most of whom are clerics but include local religious and laity. Their educational forum speaker's list reads like a "Who's Who" of dissenters, including such notables as Fr. Richard McBrien and Sr. Joan Chittister. Members also hold membership and leadership roles in other organizations, such as: Call to Action, Catholic Caucus, Catholics for the Common Good, Detroit Catholic Pastoral Alliance, Pax Christi and Voice of the Faithful. This is definitely a site to avoid unless you enjoy listening to disgruntled dissidents dance to an increasingly obsolete tune without realizing they are the lost "elephants" wandering in the opposite direction of the main herd.

This website is dedicated to information and discussion about vocation to states of life in the Catholic tradition, drawing upon the Fathers of the Church, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Francis de Sales, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, and the popes, particularly Pope John Paul II. Many texts on vocation discernment may be found here, as well as information about the book "Paths of Love", which takes as its starting point the universal call to holiness and to love.

This personal website of Fr. Roger J. Landry is a wonderful resource of excellent Catholic homilies and articles. Father Landry is a priest in the Diocese of Fall River. He speaks widely on the thought of Pope John Paul II and on apologetics, and is pastor of St. Anthony of Padua in New Bedford, MA and Executive Editor of The Anchor, the diocesan weekly newspaper.

This is the foundational site for the Catholic Servant Leadership movement. The leader of this movement is Timothy H. Warneka, author of Black Belt Leader, Peaceful Leader: An Introduction to Catholic Servant Leadership. Mr. Warneka describes his Black Belt Way as "an innovative new approach to leadership that combines the strengths of Emotional Intelligence with the power of the revolutionary non-violent martial art of Aikido to create success with individuals, groups, teams, and organizations." We cannot recommend this site because it promotes New Age philosophy.

Catholic Exchange is a non-profit media organization that seeks to bring the Good News of Jesus Christ as proclaimed by the Catholic Church to the world through the modern tools of mass communication. Inspired by Pope John Paul II's call for a "Springtime of a New Evangelization," and in faithfulness to Pope Benedict XVI, they strive to "put out into the deep" a relevant response to the need for greater catechesis and revival of the lay faithful. This is a very well designed site that is easy and fun to use. The columnists are some of the Church's most respected authors. The wide variety of resources makes this site well worth a visit.

The Catholic Association for Lesbian and Gay Ministries - "CALGM" (formerly the National Association of Catholic Diocesan Lesbian and Gay Ministries - NACDLGM) was formed in 1994. Its self-stated mission reads thus: "Inspired by the Gospel of Jesus Christ and grounded in the Catholic moral and social justice tradition, the National Association of Catholic Diocesan Lesbian and Gay Ministries, as a resource and network, encourages pastoral care with lesbian and gay persons and their families." Unfortunately, what this organization offers is directly contrary to true pastoral care. Rather than ministering to those with same-sex attractions, the NACDLGM only encourages a defiance of the Church's teachings. A better resource for this issue is the Courage website.

This devotional website is the creation of Pauly Fongemie. The numerous sections of the site offer a nice blend of prayers and articles related to the liturgical year, as well as lovely religious art. The webmaster is sincere and obviously has a great love for the Church. Unfortunately, the links on the site lean in the more radical traditionalist direction and one article defends Fr. Nicholas Gruner. The graphics may also load slowly for some users, and the site is somewhat confusing to navigate. However, it is certainly worth a visit for those who wish to spend some time exploring its resources.

This site features the work of Joao Filipe, a Roman Catholic painter and lay missionary, specializing in sacred art, ikons, and byzantine Mediterranean style. It contains unique Christian art—museum quality artworks in egg tempera and gold leaf on gessoed wood. Mr. Filipe has more then 300 works presented in churches and private collections in Europe, South America and United States. Although this site doesn't have many resources, we are including it because the work is excellent and art lovers will enjoy viewing the icons and reading about Mr. Filipe's work.

The Legion of Christ is a "Roman Catholic Congregation of priests, founded in 1941, active in 20 countries on 4 continents, North America, South America, Europe and Australia, with over 510 priests and over 2,500 seminarians. Legionaries of Christ serve the Church by forming and motivating enterprising lay Catholics to take an active part in the Church's mission: to Love Christ enthusiastically; and to live their Catholic Faith to the full." The site itself serves as a general introduction to the Legionaries and their work.

Regnum Christi is an apostolic movement at the service of mankind and the Church affiliated with the Legionaries of Christ. The Regnum Christi Movement includes lay men and women, as well as deacons and priests. It contributes to spreading Christ's message to humanity by undertaking personal, organized apostolic activity. The site is dedicated to providing information about Regnum Christi and its work. However, it also features daily inspirations, formational articles, and other devotional resources. This easy to use site is a great place to visit to help enrich your spirituality.

Aleteia is a website for those with questions about life and faith. Instead of a repository of Catholic information, the site is an open dialogue where all truth-seekers are welcome. Aleteia offers a concrete response to Pope Benedict XVI's request to proclaim the Gospel through the new media. It is a private initiative of lay Catholics which works in association with the Pontifical Council for Social Communications and with the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization. Aleteia is the first multi-lingual online community that offers questions and answers about the Catholic faith, life and society. This is an exciting and dynamic site which promises to become even better. We highly recommend that you check it out.

The "Daily Gospel" is run by an international team of lay Catholics and volunteers who are eager to spread the Gospel. The site's primary resource is a free, personalized email each morning, containing the text of the Gospel of the day according to the Liturgical calendar. Each day also offers a short commentary on the Gospel. The website is attractively simple, and offers users an easy way to read the Gospels.