After Ratzinger was elected pope, progressive journalists in Italy exerted themselves in depicting Pope Benedict as vastly unpopular, fully expecting him to be rejected by the masses that had flocked to see Saint John Paul II. They were wrong.
As of July 1, in South Dakota it is no longer legal to abort a child due to a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome, and it will no longer be legal to require a surrogate to abort a child as part of her surrogacy contract.
Bishop Robert Barron has said that he is in “frank disagreement” with the final report of the Synod on Synodality’s claim that advances in the sciences require an evolution in the Church’s moral teaching on human sexuality.
The famous Jewish actor and humorist Gad Elmaleh, beloved in France, announced his conversion to the Catholic faith, a process in which he says the Virgin Mary played a crucial role.
Bishop George Thomas of Las Vegas, responding to a pro-abortion column written by a Catholic politician, has asked all Catholic politicians who do not agree with the Church’s teaching on abortion not to present themselves for Holy Communion.
Cardinal Robert Sarah: “I can say without fear that some priests, some bishops and even some cardinals are afraid to proclaim what God teaches and to hand on the doctrine of the Church.”
Archbishop Chaput: “No synod has the authority to change core Christian teachings; nor does any Pope. In matters of interpretation, the unstated struggle in the 2018 synod revolves around Catholic sexual morality.”
Christians in the West should not take religious liberty and freedom of worship for granted, Cardinal Robert Sarah said in a recent interview with EWTN News.
Archbishop Wolfgang Haas of Vaduz, Liechtenstein has said that his archdiocese won’t take part in the two-year global synodal process, saying that it would run “the risk of becoming ideological.”
George Weigel: There is nothing of churchmanship in the extraordinary venom spewed at Benedict XVI and Cardinal Sarah, nor is there anything of Christian charity.
George Weigel: The irony is that the most successful papal youth minister in modern history, and perhaps all history, was largely ignored in Synod-2018’s working document.
To me, the single most disappointing and aggravating thing about this Synod is the almost total lack of any theology at all, let alone a deep and profound theology, writes Larry Chapp.
George Weigel: Is there a single example, anywhere, of a local Church where a frantic effort to catch up with 21st-century secularism has led to a wave of conversions to Christ?
Father Sean Connolly: May we never take our freedom to worship for granted again by missing Sunday Mass out of laziness when so many Christians across the globe risk their lives to fulfill this obligation to God.
Regardless of Andrew Cuomo’s ineligibility for holy Communion on other grounds, his conduct in regard to New York’s new abortion law also suffices to bar him from holy Communion per Canon 915, says Edward N. Peters
@canonlaw
"Priest diagnosed with brain tumor offers his sufferings for abuse victims":
@frjohnhollowell
talks with
@breeadail
about his recent diagnosis and embracing suffering.
“Politicians who reside in the Catholic Diocese of Spokane, and who obstinately persevere in their public support for abortion, should not receive Communion,” Bishop Thomas Daley wrote.
It is getting more and more difficult to imagine how the Vatican types from Pope Francis on down could possibly mean it when they say they do care about victims or about justice for them in the Church, writes Christopher R. Altieri.
We’ve forgotten who we are as a believing people, writes Archbishop Charles Chaput. This is both a cause and a symptom of today’s lukewarm Catholic spirit, in our nation’s culture and within the Church herself. But that can change, and it needs to change.
“As a bishop,” said Cardinal Robert Sarah at a May 25th conference in Paris, “it is my duty to warn the West: behold the flames of barbarism threaten you!”
In an interview with CWR, Archbishop Joseph Naumann, head of the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities, says Pres. Biden “should stop defining himself as a devout Catholic” and explains how he thinks Biden is “usurping the role of the bishops".
George Weigel: It is imperative for the future of the Australian criminal justice system, and indeed for the future of Australian democracy, that a serious examination of conscience followed by a serious public reckoning take place.
“Transgenderism,” says Michele M. Schumacher, author of Metaphysics and Gender, “is thus just one example—however radical—of the post-modern refusal of human nature as created, and thus as intrinsically ordered to its perfective end.”
German Cardinal Gerhard Müller visited the home and family of Mark Houck, a pro-life father of seven who was arrested on Sept. 23 by several FBI agents in the early hours of the morning.
“If there is one thing I love, it’s being a father,” says
@dougontap
Doug Johnson, husband of pro-life activist and author
@AbbyJohnson
. “I have no greater passion in this world, so who greater to lean on than Saint Joseph?”
I fear that, by restricting the pre-Vatican II Mass, Pope Francis has deprived me of the best antidote to the world’s callousness and the greatest resource for my family’s spiritual resilience, writes Dr. James Merrick.
Pope Francis, writes Christopher R. Altieri, has shown himself capable of wielding the great power of his office, but little evident interest in wielding it safely or with care for who gets hurt.
Cardinal Robert W. McElroy of San Diego, in his recent manifesto on synodality (“Cardinal McElroy on ‘radical inclusion’ for L.G.B.T. people, women and others in the Catholic Church”) in America magazine, has done us a tremendous service.
Edward Feser: When one reads Pope Francis’s statements about the death penalty carefully, it turns out to be difficult to interpret them in a way that would make assent to them binding on Catholics.
The trend of young people drawn to the Tridentine Latin Mass and other elements of traditional Catholic art and spirituality has become more prominent on the internet and in news outlets, writes Stephen G. Adubato.
#LatinMass
#Catholic
#tradition
.
The Archbishop Emeritus of Philadelphia last week said that some Catholic bishops were “too compliant” with state and local restrictions on churches during the recent pandemic.
The new document from the Congregation for Catholic Education, entitled “Male and Female He Created Them”, is a sweeping denunciation of so-called gender theory.
German Cardinal Gerhard Müller, prefect emeritus of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, warned of a grave danger that could lead to the “collective suicide” of humanity.
The behavior of Bishop John Stowe of Lexington—behavior so gratingly at odds with the good work of his brother bishops—can only serve to embarrass the USCCB and will continue to hamper their pastoral witness if left unaddressed by the Holy See.
“To fail to appreciate the role that the Catholic Church played—and plays—with respect to the Bible,” says apologist
@JimmyAkin3000
, “is to fundamentally misunderstand the Bible.”
“The motive for sexual abuse of minors and ecclesiastical inferiors,” the former prefect of the CDF tells CWR, “is not the thirst for power over others, but unmastered sexual desire, which leads to the sin of lust and dehumanizes the victims.”
“I have this desire to give hope and encouragement to those who may have challenges of their own and are not quite sure how God can use them,” says John Kraemer of the LEGO Church Project.
“It is fundamentally a question of integrity: to receive the Blessed Sacrament in the Catholic liturgy is to espouse publicly the faith and moral teachings of the Catholic Church, and to desire to live accordingly,” wrote Cordileone in a pastoral letter.
Wokeness is a paranoid delusional hyper-egalitarian mindset that tends to see oppression and injustice where they do not exist or greatly to exaggerate them where they do exist, Dr. Edward Feser.
“My work is a prayer,” says John Kraemer of his “Lego Church Project”. “I am putting all of my troubles before the Lord into my hands. Issues within my own life. Things going on in the Church. As I am building, I am praying.”
Al Kresta, a longtime Catholic radio host, author, and founder and president of Ave Maria Radio, died Saturday at his Michigan home after a battle with liver cancer. He was 73.
It looks for all intents and purposes that we are witnessing an attempt to alter fundamental Church teachings on a range of important issues in the name of “listening”, writes Larry Chapp.
"When there is legitimate disagreement about what is in a child's best interest, and abuse is not part of the scenario, the Catholic position is to defer to the parents":
@CCamosy
talks to
@jdflynn
about
#AlfieEvans
Fr. Rutler: Pope Francis says that his innovative teaching “does not imply any contradiction” of the Church’s tradition but, one has to say reluctantly, it indeed does.
“He was a true servant of the Church, and fostered his love in the communities that he served for that Church,” said Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki, the main presider at Morlino’s Mass of Christian Burial.
In 1988, carbon-dating tests concluded the Shroud of Turin was a 700-year-old fake. Thirty-five years later, 21st century science is pointing to a dramatically different conclusion.
A Catholic priest in Phoenix has apologized, asked forgiveness, and resigned as parish pastor after a determination that he had failed to baptize validly over his two decades of priestly service in Brazil, and the Dioceses of San Diego and Phoenix.
A papacy that, in words, emphasizes synodality, accompaniment, listening, dialogue, outreach to the margins, and consistently condemns “clericalism” issues a document that ... restricts ... and directs more power, ultimately, to Rome, writes Amy Welborn.
It is interesting that in her appearances at Lourdes, Fatima and other locations, the Mother of God repeatedly recommends praying the Rosary. She does not invite us to pray the Divine Office, or to do spiritual reading, or Eucharistic Adoration.
Homosexual relations and sex outside of marriage, of any sort, has nothing to do with human love elevated by God’s grace, writes Father Jerry J. Pokorsky.
Expert morticians are scratching their heads at the recently exhumed body of Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster, a Benedictine nun who died in 2019 and now appears to be in an unexpected state of preservation.
The unraveling of St. Patrick’s great accomplishments leaves Ireland more aligned with the paganism he worked tirelessly to bring them out of, writes Joe Marti.
“Every monastery has its own idea about how to respond to Cor Orans. We know of 60 monasteries who are very much against it, but the Fairfield Carmelites are the only ones willing to take a stand,” says Catherine Bauer, spokeswoman for the community.
While the increase in opposition to the death penalty in modern society does indeed reflect a moral revolution, it is precisely a revolution away from the Catholic understanding of human dignity, not a deeper appreciation of it, writes Dr. Edward Feser.
Fr. Rupnik’s case is now only shocking in the fact that it no longer shocks. It is the same story of past decades, just a different chapter, writes Larry Chapp.
Why is the Working Document for October’s Synod on Synodality virtually devoid of references to the saints, or to the Church’s heritage of holiness over two millennia, or to the holy ones who surround us in this third millennium of “journeying together”?
A Chicago police chaplain says he is “mortified” that he mistakenly gave Holy Communion to Mayor Lori Lightfoot, a non-Catholic Christian in a same-sex marriage, during Thursday’s funeral Mass for fallen city police officer Ella French.
Two Mexican cardinals, a bishop, and 3 priests were convicted of constitutional violations for warning the public against the ruling party’s opposition to the values of human life and family, its advocacy of the LGBT agenda, and its promotion of socialism.
Sitting and watching the June 10th event in St. Peter’s Square, surrounded by nearly no one at all, I noticed how completely absent was any mention or image of Jesus Christ, writes Larry Chapp.
The late pontiff’s great and most controversial encyclical, on morality and moral theology, given on August 6, 1993, still answers some of the most crucial questions of our time, writes Dr. Samuel Gregg.
#Catholic
#VeritatisSplendor
,
#Truth
,
#JPII
Biden’s statement backing legal abortion on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade drew swift reaction from the USCCB, whose pro-life chairman said no president of the United States should ever defend denying the right to life of unborn children.
Following the advancement of a bill yesterday in the U.S. Senate to federally recognize same-sex marriages, the nation’s Catholic bishops reaffirmed the Church’s teaching on marriage.
In a new book, Cardinal Robert Sarah calls priests to spiritual renewal, saying that it will not come through structural changes, but through rediscovering the priest’s mission and identity as the presence of Christ in the world.
Calling abortion “the most pressing human rights challenge of our time,” Archbishop Cordileone invoked the excommunication of prominent Catholics in the early 1960s as an example of a legitimate response to Catholic politicians who support abortion.
The reported influx of requests for papal blessings on parchment sheets for same-sex couples puts Pope Francis is a very difficult position, writes Christopher R. Altieri.
Thomas More Society alleges in a 49-page lawsuit filed Wednesday in Superior Court of the State of California that removing Serra’s name from high school was illegally enacted and based on anti-Catholic animus.
Poland was consecrated Friday to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The act of consecration took place at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Kraków, Poland, on June 11, the 100th anniversary of a previous national consecration at the same location.
The text of the new Instrumentum Laboris is turgid and the verbiage is swollen with sociological terminology and bureaucratic bloviation. That’s apparently the “synodal style”, writes Carl E. Olson.
Rev. F.X. Lasance suffered from debilitating headaches during 63 years of priesthood, but the fruit of his suffering was a steady stream of more than 40 devotional books and missals across five decades, writes Joseph M. Hanneman.
Supporters of the Traditional Latin Mass are petitioning Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington, Virginia, to lift restrictions he recently imposed on the celebration of the sacraments in the Extraordinary Form.
#latinmass
The Benedictines are returning to their ancient tradition of building church organs, according to Benedictine Father Lew Grobe, director of Saint John’s Abbey Woodworking and soon-to-launch Abbey Organ Builders in Collegeville, Minnesota.