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A Shocking Loss of Faith: Reflecting on the Closing of So Many Churches Msgr. Charles Pope • December 6, 2018 • Lincoln Congregational Temple in Shaw, credit: NCinDC, FlickrAs I walk or drive through my Capitol Hill neighborhood here in Washington, D.C., I pass by more than twenty churches (all of them Protestant) that have been closed in the past decade. Many of them are grand and prominent buildings. (Click here to see four of them.) Most of the them have been converted to condominiums, likely due to historic preservation norms that seek to retain the exterior appearance of...

African Cardinal: It’s ‘better to die of hunger’ than accept homosexuality December 5, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Cardinal Polycarp Pengo of Tanzania has refused to welcome international aid programs that are linked with the promotion of homosexuality, insisting that “it is better to die of hunger than to receive aid and be compelled to do things that are contrary to God’s desire.” The German bishops' news website Katholisch.de and the Catholic Information Service for Africa have picked up on a November 30 blog entry of the Eastern African Bishops' Conferences' Association AMECA, according to which Cardinal Polycarp Pengo has asked the government...

Francis Mercy Hits the Familia Christi Hard Francis Mercy Hits the Familia Christi Hard The Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei under Cardinal Ladaria published a December 1 decree, imposing Roman Auxiliary Bishop Daniele Libanori as the new superior of the Familia Christi, an Italian Old Rite community consisting of 15 young priests and seminarians. The group was founded in 2016 by the excellent former Ferrara Archbishop Luigi Negri. It is loved by the faithful but hated by Negri’s successor, Archbishop Gian Carlo Perego, a modernist Bergoglio bishop who promotes mass-immigration and modernism. According to press reports, Archbishop Perego mainly hates the...

Franciscan Media Image: Patron of Sailors | photo by Lawrence OP | flickr Saint Nicholas Saint of the Day for December 6 (March 15, 270 – December 6, 343)  Saint Nicholas’ Story The absence of the “hard facts” of history is not necessarily an obstacle to the popularity of saints, as the devotion to Saint Nicholas shows. Both the Eastern and Western Churches honor him, and it is claimed that after the Blessed Virgin, he is the saint most pictured by Christian artists. And yet historically, we can pinpoint only the fact that Nicholas was the fourth-century bishop of...

Recent Interview: Francis decimates vocational integrity Numerous media outlets, both religious and secular, are publishing excerpts taken from a soon to be released book-length interview of Francis the Loquacious entitled, The Strength of the Vocation.The headlines and most of the commentaries – even from some of his most vocal critics – are focused on how Francis is holding the Catholic line on homosexuality. The fact of the matter is, however, he is doing no such thing.Remember who we are dealing with here. (HINT: It’s not the Vicar of Jesus Christ, but rather the Archservant of the Adversary.) As such, whenever...

The ban imposed on the bishops of the United States on November 12 against voting on two very strict measures they wanted against sexual abuse committed by members of the hierarchy is not  the only blatant recent case of interference by Pope Francis in the decisions of an episcopal conference. During those same days, in fact, Francis also imposed his will on the Italian bishops gathered in plenary assembly, ordering them to replace the petition “and lead us not into temptation” in the “Our Father” at Mass, because in his judgment it is “not a good” translation of the text...

Ireland Votes to Allow Girls Under 16 to Have Abortions Without Parental Consent Young girls may be able to get free, taxpayer-funded abortions without a parent’s consent in Ireland after parliament rejected an amendment to a pro-abortion bill Wednesday. ADVERTISEMENT Ireland is on its way to adopting one of the most radical pro-abortion laws in the world after it repealed its pro-life Eighth Amendment in May.This week, the Dáil is debating a bill to legalize abortion for any reason up to 12 weeks of pregnancy and up to six months in a wide variety of circumstances. It would force taxpayers...

Is it possible to receive an unbaptized person into the Orthodox Church without baptizing him? What would it mean to do such a thing? You might not expect a book about the Second Vatican Council to elicit such questions from Orthodox sacramental theology but Fr. Peter Heers’s 2015 doctoral thesis, published with the title The Ecclesiological Renovation of Vatican II (ERV2), does just that. The book examines the theology and practice of baptism in the Latin West as it was articulated at the Second Vatican Council (V2), tracing its development from the time of St. Augustine, and contrasts this narrative,...

Do You Want to Have a Good Christmas? Then Listen Carefully to this Advent Message: “You Need a Savior!” Msgr. Charles Pope • December 5, 2018 • One of the goals of Advent (in many ways a penitential season) is to meditate on our need for a savior. In daily Mass and in the Liturgy of the Hours, we read lengthy passages from Isaiah and the other prophets, who speak boldly and bluntly about the people’s sin. Some of the passages are even a bit humorous. Here are a few: Hear, O heavens! Listen, O earth! For the LORD...

Cdl. Burke: ‘Synodality’ suggests some kind of ‘new church’ where pope’s authority is destroyed LIMERICK, Ireland, (LifeSiteNews) – Cardinal Raymond Burke has come out criticizing the concept of “synodality” that was barely discussed during the recently concluded “Youth Synod,” but, nevertheless, found its way into the final document, surprising many of the Synod Fathers.  “It’s become like a slogan, meant to suggest some kind of new church which is democratic and in which the authority of the Roman Pontiff is relativized and diminished—if not destroyed,” said Cardinal Burke in an exclusive interview with LifeSiteNews.  “This is typical of a...

Franciscan Media Image: Relics of St. Sabbas the Sanctified in the Catholicon (main church) of the Eastern Orthodox Mar Saba monastery in Palestine | photo by adriatikus Saint Sabas Saint of the Day for December 5 (439 – December 5, 532)  Saint Sabas’ Story Born in Cappadocia, Sabas is one of the most highly regarded patriarchs among the monks of Palestine, and is considered one of the founders of Eastern monasticism.After an unhappy childhood in which he was abused and ran away several times, Sabas finally sought refuge in a monastery. While family members tried to persuade him to...

Hi everyone! It's Wednesday night Bible study!For this week's Why the New Testament was Written video, we're talking about why Paul wrote the second letter to Timothy. I consider it to be the saddest book of the New Testament, as Paul's farewell letter to the church and to the world in general. This is part 15 of the series (should be three more to go...next week is II Peter, then Jude, then finally Revelation).Why Paul Wrote II TimothyVideo clocks in at 9:29.

What Pope Francis may really be doing by saying he doesn’t want gays to become priests Pope Francis at 2016 Rome consistory when "progressive" archbishops Cupich, Joseph Tobin and Farrell were made cardinals Steve ANALYSIS December 4, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – The full book has not been released, but the teaser quotes from Pope Francis’ new book-length interview on clergy and religious life are causing a stir. The book suggests that active homosexuals within the ranks of clergy and religious are not acceptable. Only the most scrutinizing Pope-watchers will recognize Francis as having mentioned such things before since they seem...

Vatican Places Traditional Society Under Commissar Vatican Places Traditional Society Under Commissar The Vatican is putting the Society of the Fraternity of Familia Christi under a Commissar  (Rome) Rome is subordinating another traditional community to a Commissar, for disturbing the new Archbishop of Ferrara and daring to accept the Brothers of the Franciscans of the Immaculate, also under the temporary administration. Will Archbishop Perego of Ferrara erase the legacy of his predecessor, Archbishop Luigi Negri? Decree of the commissioner's appointment The Roman Congregation of the Faith has placed the Fraternity of the Familia Christi (FSFC) at the request of...

Is It as Good to Pray the Breviary from Electronic Devices as It Is from Traditional Books? Msgr. Charles Pope • December 4, 2018 • It is hard to overestimate the convenience of praying the Liturgy of the Hours from an online breviary. Not only are they convenient but they also help to lessen the complexities that often go with setting up the traditional book. For example, Do the psalms come from the day or the Common?Do we use the Common of Pastors or that of the Doctors of the Church?Do the Advent weekday prayers and antiphons outrank the...

Franciscan Media Image: Saint John Damaskinos | unknown Saint John Damascene Saint of the Day for December 4 (c. 676 -749)  Saint John Damascene’s Story John spent most of his life in the Monastery of Saint Sabas near Jerusalem, and all of his life under Muslim rule, indeed protected by it.He was born in Damascus, received a classical and theological education, and followed his father in a government position under the Arabs. After a few years, he resigned and went to the Monastery of Saint Sabas.He is famous in three areas:First, he is known for his writings against the...

Schönborn profanates Vienna Cathedral once more Cardinal Schönborn of Vienna has once again made a mockery of St. Stephen's Cathedral. This past weekend, this happened in the venerable consecrated building, a "rock concert" in honor of "World AIDS Day" (apologies for the utter lack of modesty): God, have mercy! (Tip and image from Vienna.at via Infovaticana)

Priest-Sociologist Examines Data on Clergy Sex Abuse Much effort has been made to disassociate homosexuality from paedophilia to the point where this has become received opinion: There is no connection between being a homosexual and being a paedophile. You are conflating two different things. — LondonInternetChurch (@LInternetChurch) December 3, 2018This predominantly secular paradigm has been adopted by the Bishops of England & Wales, who in 2010, publicly broke with the Vatican directive banning men with a deep-seated same-sex practice to be allowed into Seminary. In 2010, Marcus Stock, now the tenth bishop of Leeds, then appointed General Secretary for...

Archbold on “Actuating the Schism” At his longtime blog, Creative Minority Report, 1P5 and Remnant contributor Patrick Archbold has a five-part series about “actuating” the schism in the Church. Some of you are going to want to read the whole thing, but I’d like to offer a Cliff’s Notes version here by way of introduction.In the first installment, Archbold begins with a quote attributed to Pope Francis back in 2016 – which we covered here – wherein he is alleged to have said, “It is not to be excluded that I will enter history as the one who split the Catholic...

Creation, Too, “Longs” for the Healing That Christ Will Bring Msgr. Charles Pope • December 3, 2018 • In the first reading for Tuesday of the first week of Advent is expressed the implicit longing of all creation for healing. Isaiah tells us of the healing that will one day come to creation when prey lie down in peace with their predators:The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear,...