I had lateley heard rumblings about this, and today, it was announced.
The University of Notre Dame's annual Laetare Medal will be presented to Martin Sheen for his contributions to Catholic Life in the United States.
Each year, the University presents this award to an outstanding Catholic who has advanced the cause of Catholicism in our country.
Sheen has been in numerous film, and theatrical presentations in which he's portrayed Catholic characters facing modern and challenging situations.
I confess that one of my favorite scenes is from "THE WEST WING": In it, the President, Jed Bartlett (Sheen) is suddenly faced with a surprise commuting of a death sentence for an inmate faced with capital punishment. He struggles with his decision, as do his staff: Jewish, and Christian alike. He struggles with the political implications of commuting a death sentence in today's culture.
In the end, he "allows" the death sentence to go through, but not without a little Catholic guilt. He's summoned his boyhood parish priest to come report to the Oval Office. The priest, played wonderfully by Carl Mauldin, comes to comfort the President, but doesn't back down for a moment as his lasting, and most powerful conscience. It's an unforgettable scene.
I personally consider that episode to be one of my favorites of the WEST WING, and one of the best scenes ever portrayed on television in the United States.
Anyway, Sheen has been honored by numerous Catholic colleges, including King's College, my alma mater, and so I'm not surprised by this recent honor from Notre Dame, my other Alma Mater.....
Actor and human rights activist Martin Sheen has been awarded Notre Dame’s Laetare Medal for 2008. He will receive the medal, the oldest and most prestigious honor given to American Catholics, during the University's 163rd Commencement exercises May 18 (Sunday).
“As one of our nation’s most recognizable and accomplished screen actors, Martin Sheen has achieved a level of celebrity that few Americans enjoy,” said Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., University president. “He has used that celebrity to draw the attention of his fellow citizens to issues that cry out for redress, such as the plight of immigrant workers and homeless people, the waging of unjust war, the killing of the unborn and capital punishment. We welcome the opportunity to lift up his example for our Church, our country, and our students.”
A native of Dayton, Ohio, Sheen was born Aug. 3, 1940, one of 10 children of a Spanish-born father and an Irish-born mother. His legal and baptismal name is Ramon Gerardo Antonio Estevez, but he later adopted his stage name in honor of the pioneering televangelist Archbishop Fulton Sheen.
After his graduation from Chaminade High School in Dayton, Sheen claims to have intentionally failed his entrance examination for the University of Dayton in order to pursue an acting career of which his father disapproved. Borrowing money from a priest friend, he went to New York City, working with Julian Beck’s Living Theatre and eventually landing a widely acclaimed role in the 1964 Broadway play, “The Subject Was Roses.” During this period, he became fascinated by Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement, visiting and volunteering at the Catholic Worker’s houses on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
Sheen has played numerous award-winning television and film roles, most notably an amoral young murderer in the 1973 film “Badlands,” a disintegrating American soldier in the 1979 film “Apocalypse Now,” a bemused journalist in the 1982 biopic “Gandhi,” and the itinerant French co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement, Peter Maurin, in the 1996 film “Entertaining Angels.” From 1999 to 2006, on NBC's widely acclaimed television series "The West Wing," he played a soulful American president who was a Notre Dame graduate.
A self-described Catholic peace activist, opponent of abortion and student of Catholic social teaching, Sheen acknowledges his spiritual debts to St. Francis of Assisi, Mother Theresa of Calcutta, Dorothy Day, Rev. Daniel Berrigan, S.J., and the late labor leader Cesar Chavez. He often has been arrested as a participant in nonviolent demonstrations against various U.S. military policies and has enthusiastically donated money, time and his celebrity to such causes as the alleviation of poverty and homelessness, human rights for migrant workers, and environmental protection.
The Laetare (pronounced Lay-tah-ray) Medal is so named because its recipient is announced each year in celebration of Laetare Sunday, the fourth Sunday in Lent on the Church calendar. “Laetare,” the Latin word for “rejoice,” is the first word in the entrance antiphon of the Mass that Sunday, which ritually anticipates the celebration of Easter. The medal bears the Latin inscription, “Magna est veritas et prevalebit” (“Truth is mighty, and it shall prevail.”)
Established at Notre Dame in 1883, the Laetare Medal was conceived as an American counterpart of the Golden Rose, a papal honor which antedates the 11th century. The medal has been awarded annually at Notre Dame to a Catholic “whose genius has ennobled the arts and sciences, illustrated the ideals of the Church and enriched the heritage of humanity.”
Among the 130 previous recipients of the Laetare Medal are Civil War Gen. William Rosecrans, operatic tenor John McCormack, President John F. Kennedy, Catholic Worker foundress Dorothy Day, novelist Walker Percy, Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, and death penalty abolitionist Sister Helen Prejean.
So Martin Sheen joins us in being "Loyal sons and daughters of Notre Dame"...... may we all join in praising the Mother of the Savior of us all!
Congratulations, Martin!
May the Lord continue the good work begun in you!
An amazing encounter. An angel, sent by God.....to a young virgin. With an amazing announcement.
The Second Sunday of Easter, a.k.a. "Divine Mercy Sunday"
This weekend, we hear the familiar story of Jesus' post-resurrection encounter with Thomas, who missed the first appearance. 
Easter Week!
He is Risen, He is Risen Indeed!
Good Friday.
Washing Feet....
For Christians, our every year has its origin and its climax at a time determined by the earth and the sun and the moon and the human-made cycle of a seven-day week. The marvelous accidents of earth's place and sun's place, of axis and orbit make cycles within human cycles so that days can be named and remembered and rhythms established.First, we wait for the angle of the earth's axis to make day and night equal (going toward longer days in the "top" half of earth, longer nights in the lower half). Then we wait for the moon to be full. Then we wait for the Lord's Day and call that particular Lord's Day "Easter" in English, but in most other Western languages some word that is closer to an old name, "Pesach" or "Pascha," made into English as "Passover."In these generations, we are finding out how, on the night between Saturday and that Sunday, the church ends and begins not just its year but its very self.We do not come to this night unaware. The church has spent the time since Thursday evening in intense preparation. Even more, we have had the 40 days of Lent to dear down and to build up toward this night.And the night needs a week of weeks, 50 days, afterward to unfold. The 50 days are Eastertime; only after Pentecost does life return to normal.The church came very early to keep something of the spring festival known to Jesus and the first followers. They were Jews and that first full moon of spring was Passover. For those who followed Jesus, whether Jew or Gentile, this was the time when the story of the deliverance they proclaimed in the death and resurrection of Christ was placed beside the story already told at this festival, the deliverance of the captive people from Pharaoh. Very early, that proclamation came to be made not in words alone but in the waters where those who were ready to stake everything on such a deliverance, on this Christ and this church, passed over in God's saving deed.- Gabe Huck in The Three Days: Parish Prayer in the Paschal Triduum
In this undated photo Pope Benedict XVI meets with Chaldean Catholic archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, left, and Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, Patriarch of Babylon for Chaldeans of Iraq. The body of Rahho, kidnapped in Iraq last month, was found just outside the northern city where he was abducted. Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho was seized in Mosul and three of his companions were killed Feb. 29 when gunmen attacked them after they had celebrated the Stations of the Cross . (AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano)
Tonight, Tuesday of Holy Week, the people of the Diocese of Trenton gathered for the annual celebration of the Chrism Mass. It was held at St. Mary's Cathedral in Trenton, and was presided over by Bishop John Smith and all of the gathered priests and deacons from throughout the diocese. The diocesan choir provided great musical leadership, and the mass was complete with "smells and bells."
This week we call "Holy", we turn to the essentials of our faith. We turn to Jesus of Nazareth, a human being, who knew the pains and joys of human life, but who was open to his Mission.
Did you hear that the Vatican has released "New Sins"? It's not really that sensational. 
Today, I join 25 Seniors from SJV, and their student/adult team leaders on retreat at a camp in Bucks County, PA. The retreat begins tonight, and ends on Saturday afternoon. We'll have many talks, prayers in morning and evening, a Midnight Mass, and great witness talks, and lots of different, life-affirming events.
On Saturday, the Lady Lancers will play at the Ritacco Center in Toms River. As always, I wish them the best. I just ask that they do their best, to play smart and fair, and to represent St. John Vianney H.S. with grace and class. 
Jesus raises his friend Lazarus from the dead. 
Tonight, the Lady Lancers sent the Caseys home once again. The Lady Lancers beat the Caseys at a game held in Jackson Twp, at a new high school called Jackson Liberty High School. 
I had lateley heard rumblings about this, and today, it was announced.
One more reflection on today's gospel, a poem by Sr. Elizabeth Michael Boyle, O.P.
