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"I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father. I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one" (I John...

What Our Church Buildings Say About Us Msgr. Charles Pope • October 15, 2018 • The week in the Office of Readings from the Liturgy of the Hours we are reading from the books of Haggai and Zechariah. Both these prophets wrote at the time of the return of the Jews from the Babylonian exile, which had begun in 587 B.C. The Jewish people were permitted to return to the Promised Land beginning in about 538 B.C. Haggai wrote his book in the summer of 520 B.C. and in it he scolds the people for concentrating on their “paneled...

Catholic school fires teacher after she handed out famed evangelist’s letter on clergy abuse crisis JERSEY CITY, New Jersey, October 15, 2018, (LifeSiteNews) – A Catholic school religion teacher has been fired for sharing an article with her students and their parents mentioning the “homosexual scandal” involved in the clerical sex abuse crisis written by a highly respected, orthodox Catholic theology professor, Dr. Ralph Martin.  Joan Simon, a veteran Catholic school religion teacher with more than forty years of experience was informed October 9 — on her first day back to work from disability — that she had to either...

Franciscan Media Image: The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa of Avila | Gian Lorenzo Bernini | photo by Tybo | flickr Saint Teresa of Avila Saint of the Day for October 15 (March 28, 1515 – October 4, 1582)  Saint Teresa of Avila’s Story Teresa lived in an age of exploration as well as political, social, and religious upheaval. It was the 16th century, a time of turmoil and reform. She was born before the ------------- --------------- and died almost 20 years after the closing of the Council of Trent.The gift of God to Teresa in and through which she...

More Vomit From The Youth Sin-Nod What else can be expected when it starts off with the pope carrying a wiccan stang into the opening Mass?  I just started to glance at the Instrumentum Laboris and that promises to be a stinker, too. At this thing, the attendees were put into fourteen groups for discussion, all led by prelates.  Cardinal Cupich led one, Cardinal Maradiaga another.  Right there you can see the rigging in the works.  Cupich's group allegedly called for "recognition of other forms of family".  Stop right there.  A family comes about when a biologically born man...

Forsaking Everything and Receiving More Besides Msgr. Charles Pope • October 14, 2018 • Church of Holy Comforter St. Cyprian. Photo credit: C. PopeIn the Gospel for Sunday’s Mass, we read this funny story about Peter that speaks to the paradox of losing one’s life only to find it more abundantly:Peter began to say to Jesus, “We have given up everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake...

.... As is often the case with the pope, the result is not clear. Instead of a concrete procedure, the new rules give wide powers to the General Secretary of the Synod, Cardinal Baldisseri, who is to seek “moral unanimity insofar as this is possible.” He also determines when such moral unanimity has been reached. Unless a number of bishops insist of paragraph-by-paragraph voting, this means they could all have the names connected to a document while never having agreed to its specifics.On top of all that, it seems that if the pope approves the final document it can be...

...We begin, therefore, with a little “Litany to Saint Paul VI”, a list of 50 outrageous titles that can justly be applied to this new anti-saint. The idea, of course, is not to ask anyone to use this for an actual litany (God forbid!), but rather to point out vividly the absurdity of taking this wicked man for a saint of the Catholic Church. “St.” Paul VI was the… destroyer of the sacraments architect of the Novus Ordo Missae deformer of the Curia captain of collegiality councilor of heresy admirer of false religions cheerleader for the United Nations patron of...

Ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick is not the only wrong person on whom Francis bet. Because at least three others can be pointed out, in the upper levels of the hierarchy, each one tied with double thread to the changes that this pope wants to introduce into the Church. Francis too had known for some time about McCarrick’s bad conduct, his grooming of young people and seminarians, taking them on outings and then to bed. And yet he kept him right with him until the end, as his chief adviser in the appointments aimed at tipping the balance of power among the...

Franciscan Media Image: Statue of Pope Callistus I on the Saints portal | Northern transept of Our Lady cathedral of Reims, Marne, France | photo by Fab5669 Saint Callistus I Saint of the Day for October 14 (d. 223)  Saint Callistus I’s Story The most reliable information about this saint comes from his enemy Saint Hippolytus, an early antipope, later a martyr for the Church. A negative principle is used: If some worse things had happened, Hippolytus would surely have mentioned them.Callistus was a slave in the imperial Roman household. Put in charge of the bank by his master,...

The Fall of the Gay Mafia’s Don The Pope’s glowing words won’t save Wuerl. He will end his days in disgrace. Some of Donald Wuerl’s priests called him the “Tin Man,” a reference to his cold, heartless style as the archbishop of Washington, D.C., a position from which he has now formally resigned, though outrageously Pope Francis is permitting him to continue as an “apostolic administrator” until his successor arrives. It is hilarious that Wuerl became arguably the most powerful American cardinal in the “pastoral church of Pope Francis,” given that Wuerl is the least pastoral prelate imaginable. He instinctively...

What Does Heaven Cost? A Homily for the 28th Sunday of the Year Msgr. Charles Pope • October 13, 2018 • The Rich Young Man Goes Away Sorrowful, J. Tissot (1894)The Sunday Gospel invites us to wrestle with these fundamental, essential, focal questions: “What does Heaven cost?” and “Am I willing to pay it?” I. Problematic Pondering – A rich man asks Jesus, Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?Though his question is a good one, it is problematic because he couches it in terms of his own personal power and achievement. He wonders what he...

Franciscan Media Image: Blessed Marie Rose Durocher | Achona, The Online Newspaper of Academy of the Holy Names, Tampa | photo by Keri Kelly/Achona Online Blessed Marie-Rose Durocher Saint of the Day for October 13 (October 6, 1811 – October 6, 1849)  Blessed Marie-Rose Durocher’s Story Canada was one diocese from coast to coast during the first eight years of Marie-Rose Durocher’s life. Its half-million Catholics had received civil and religious liberty from the English only 44 years before.She was born in a little village near Montreal in 1811, the 10th of 11 children. She had a good education,...

Why We Need Not (and Should Not) Call Paul VI ‘Saint’ Many who have studied the life and pontificate of Pope Paul VI are convinced that he was far from exemplary in his conduct as pastor; that he not only did not possess heroic virtue, but lacked certain key virtues; that his promulgation of a titanic liturgical reform was incompatible with his papal office of handing on that which he had received; that he offers us a portrait of failed governance and tradition betrayed. In short, for us, it is impossible to accept that a pope such as this could ever be...

How Many Moseses Wrote the Torah? By Philip Cottraux I wrote two previous blogs discussing mid-19th century German theologian J.G. Eichhorn, originator of many modern criticisms of the Bible. In “The Daniel Lynchpin,” (click here to read) I addressed his proposal that the book of Daniel was a product of the Maccabean period. In “How Many Isaiahs Wrote Isaiah?” (click here to read), I addressed his theory that Isaiah has more than one author. This is a follow-up of sorts, as there is a similar claim that the Torah has multiple authors (at least in the Isaiah theory, the prophet...

The Case against Pope Francis He has elevated immoral men in order to change the Catholic faith Just over five years ago, the Argentine cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio came out onto the loggia of St. Peter’s as Pope Francis. It is useful to recall the situation of the Church that he inherited.The sex-abuse scandals that had rocked the Church in America and some European countries at the turn of the millennium were subsiding, or so it seemed. But the dysfunction at the Vatican under Pope Benedict XVI had overwhelmed the scholarly pontiff. Benedict’s chosen reformer for the corrupt Vatican...

Franciscan Media Image: Shrine of Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos, St Magn Basilica, Füssen, Germany | photo by Myke Rosenthal Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos Saint of the Day for October 12 (January 11, 1819 – October 4, 1867)  Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos’ Story Zeal as a preacher and a confessor led Father Seelos to works of compassion as well.Born in southern Bavaria, he studied philosophy and theology in Munich. On hearing about the work of the Redemptorists among German-speaking Catholics in the United States, he came to this country in 1843. Ordained at the end of 1844, he was assigned...

Fatima Perspectives #1241 (pictured above: The Face of Occupied Rome)As Life Site News reports, Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio (pictured above), “a close collaborator of Pope Francis, was present at the homosexual drug-fueled party raided by the Vatican police in the summer of 2017 at which his secretary, Monsignor Luigi Capozzi, was arrested.” Indeed, he was reportedly presiding over the abomination in progress. Yet Coccopalmerio was allowed to leave the scene of the crime, an apartment in the very building that houses the former Holy Office, now called the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.Thus no one should be surprised that...

Francis’ glowing send-off of Wuerl signals he’s ‘not the Pope to clean out the stables’: scholar WASHINGTON, D.C., October 12, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Pope Francis’ praise of Cardinal Wuerl for his “nobility” and “docility to the Spirit” in his letter accepting the Cardinal’s resignation signals that Francis is “not the Pope to clean out the stables” of the abuse crisis that is rocking the Church, a Catholic scholar said.  Oxford University’s Dr. Joseph Shaw told LifeSiteNews that Pope Francis’s Oct. 12 letter accepting Cardinal Wuerl’s resignation “makes it very clear” that he doesn’t want to punish his subordinate.  “In...

Vatican II at 56: Like all Totalitarianisms of the 20th Century, Vatican II will still cause great havoc The Second Vatican Council was opened in Rome exactly 56 years ago, on October 11, 1962. John XXIII had chosen this day, the Feast of the Divine Motherhood of the Blessed Virgin, a memento of the Council of Ephesus, as the day of its beginning. Irony of ironies: the whirlwind generated by the Council that would almost extinguish the Traditional liturgy of the Roman Church included the abolition of the Feast on this day and the transformation of the Octave Day...