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The Jewel of Celibacy by Dr. Jeff Mirus, October 23, 2009 Phil Lawler is undoubtedly correct that the rule of celibacy will not be relaxed for Catholics of the Roman Rite when married Anglican priests begin to appear under a new Catholic ordinariate. He may also be correct that Eastern Rite churches will gradually permit more of their married clergy to serve in the West as we become accustomed to married clergy through a growing familiarity with our Anglo-Catholic brethren. (See The Anglicans and the Eastern Churches.) But the official policies of the Roman Rite and the Eastern Rite churches...

VATICAN CITY, OCT. 23, 2009 (Zenit.org).- When priests are given the choice between marriage and celibacy, the tendency is to choose celibacy, at least according to the experience of the bishop of Cairo of the Chaldeans.Bishop Youssef Ibrahim Sarraf said this today in response to a question concerning married priests at a press conference to present the final message of the synod on Africa. The question was asked in light of the announcement this week that Benedict XVI will publish an apostolic constitution that will allow groups of Anglicans seeking communion with the Church to do so through personal ordinariates....

 Does the Church teach two Gospels?  Daniel Gregg Also posted at Torahtimes.org          When the preacher says Christ died for our sin, what does it make you think?  Does it make you think that he paid the penalty for sin so that the repentant might be forgiven?   Or does it make you think one only needs to believe to be perfectly righteous in God's sight, and then one is saved on the basis of God's vision of righteousness?     Believe it or not, the Church teaches two gospels.  One is a gospel of repentance and pardon, by which a man may be...

Full title: John Calvin: Antidote to the Sixth Session of the Council of Trenton the Doctrine of Justification (1547) Justification would be easily explained, did not the false opinions by which the minds of men are preoccupied, spread darkness over the clear light. The principal cause of obscurity, however, is, that we are with the greatest difficulty induced to leave the glory of righteousness entire to God alone. For we always desire to be somewhat, and such is our folly, we even think we are. As this pride was innate in man from the first, so it opened a door...

  Unam Sanctam is the sort of document that gives our Protestant brothers and sisters a real jolt, primarily because it looks at first blush as though it teaches that Catholics cannot have Protestant brothers and sisters. Written by Pope Boniface VIII in 1302, this papal bull concludes with a shocking dogmatic definition:   We declare, say, define and pronounce, that it is absolutely necessary for the salvation of every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff.   The average modern reader concludes that these words mean: "We know exactly where the Church both is and is...

Index of Prohibited Books 1050. Why is there an index prohibiting books by the leading writers of the day? The Catholic Church exists to sanctify men. She must give them all that is necessary for their salvation, and safeguard them from all that could hinder it. Any Church which has no prohibition of dangerous books would not be doing its duty. Meantime if a leading writer publishes stuff which can lead souls to hell, then the Catholic Church forbids her children to be led by him. What sort of Church would she be if she remained indifferent while the...

The Left, champions of strict separation of church and state, have come out in support of an American theocracy. How can this be? Could this possibly be the same political machine that ritualistically goes from town to town scanning courthouses for explicit references to God, or even worse, the Ten Commandments? Or the establishment telling little Susie she cannot pray at school? Or the organization forbidding the reading of scripture, even on a purely non-sectarian, academic basis? Surely we can't be talking about the same ideologues. But there is no mistake. The Left supports theocracy, as long as it is...

Part One:  The Apostles’ Creed 12.   “ Life Everlasting” Table of Contents     The closing article of the Apostles’ Creed is also the opening door to our spiritual life. In fact, in one sense everlasting life is the spiritual life. As understood in the Sacred Scriptures, eternal life begins at baptism (Romans 6:4). It is a new life, initiated by union with the death of Christ, which is symbolized and effected by baptism (Romans 6:4). It is death according to the flesh (Romans 8:12), but it is a resurrection from the life of sin (Romans 6:13). It is therefore a life...

"Why do we have to go to Mass?" is one of the most frequently asked questions that students address to their religion teachers, and recently I received an email from a former student asking for an article that he could share with his friends that answers that very question. There is obviously a scriptural basis for going to Mass, but there is also a basis in human reason. The human person is the subject of a host of duties. It is the virtue of justice that dictates how he ought to respond to those duties. Firstly, he has a duty...

Reality tells us there are only two religions in the world. There is the religion of human achievement, the religion of works, the religion of the flesh, the religion that says you can be good enough, holy enough, religious enough, spiritual enough. And there is the one other option, the religion of divine accomplishment, the religion of faith, grace, mercy and not of the flesh but of the Spirit and they do not mix. The scribes and the Pharisees were the architects of and the purveyors of and the exemplars of a religion of human achievement. Their salvation and acceptance...

[T]radition and [t]radition By Dr. Jeff Mirus | October 23, 2009 11:18 AM Yes, I know you’re tired of hearing about it, but one of our most faithful supporters, and a man whose opinion I deeply respect, has posted two highly critical comments in Sound Off in response to my In Depth Analysis from September 23rd, On Waffling, Tradition, and the Magisterium. Both posts challenge not just this particular article but more generally the manner in which I have always portrayed the conflict between Traditionalists and the Church.The posted criticisms assert three points: First, that my use of the term...

Featured Term (selected at random):NEPOTISM Preferment in ecclesiastical practice based on blood or family relationship rather than merit. Applied especially to the conferral of Church offices. Historically nepotism plagued the Church for centuries, was practiced by some of the popes, many bishops, and was one of the factors that led to the legislation of celibacy in the Western Church and to the Protestant Reformation. The most important legislation against nepotism was the bull Romanum decet Pontificem in 1692, of Pope Innocent XII. (Etym. Latin nepos, nephew.) All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, ©...

Part One:  The Apostles’ Creed 11.   “ The Resurrection of the Body” Table of Contents     We not only believe that the human soul is immortal, but that the human body is destined to rise immortal from the grave. Unlike our souls, which as spiritual substances are naturally immortal, our bodies are mortal by nature. They were not created subject to death, according to God’s original plan for mankind. But the sin of our first parents deprived them and their descendants of the gift of bodily immortality. All of us must die because we are all sinners.One of the great benefits...

Donna Steichen is a longtime investigative journalist who has written numerous articles in various Catholic publications. She is also the author of Ungodly Rage: The Hidden Face of Catholic Feminism (Ignatius Press, 1991), and editor of Prodigal Daughters: Catholic Women Come Home to the Church (Ignatius Press, 1999). Her most recent book, Chosen: How Christ Sent Twenty-three Surprised Converts to Replant His Vineyard (Ignatius, 2009), contains the inspiring and often surprising stories of men and women who were not drawn to the Church by sound evangelization programs, beautiful buildings and liturgies, or saintly witnesses among the clergy, but were...

by Emanuel A. Winston, Middle East Analyst & Commentator thelastcrusade.orgIn Tanach (the Jewish Bible), it speaks about the Nations of the North assembling and descending upon Israel in a conquest of savage killing. In the Prophecy the attacking Nations from the North succeed in occupying, first the lowlands along the sea and then they begin to ascend the foothills toward Jerusalem. They succeed with much carnage, raping, killing until the earth heaves; the skies turn black wherein a man cannot see to the end of his arm. This phenomenon speaks of volcanic ash so dense that nothing can be...

Featured Term (selected at random):EXTRAORDINARY MAGISTERIUM The Church's teaching office exercised in a solemn way, as in formal declarations of the Pope or of ecumenical councils of bishops approved by the Pope. When the extraordinary magisterium takes the form of papal definitions or conciliar decisions binding on the consciences of all the faithful in matters of faith and morals, it is infallible. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: – Revelation 22:18 I've seen some incredibly stupid and misguided initiatives by "conservatives" in my day, but this one takes the cake. Because the Bible has been rewritten to conform with the agenda of "liberals," a self-described "conservative" is spearheading an effort to rewrite it to his liking. If you think I'm joking, read on...

Part One:  The Apostles’ Creed 10.   “ The Forgiveness of Sins” Table of Contents     It is deeply significant that the Apostles’ Creed affirms our belief in the forgiveness of sins immediately after professing our faith in the holy Catholic Church. These two mysteries belong together. On Easter Sunday, Jesus told the two saddened disciples on the way to Emmaus: “You see how it is written that the Christ would suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that in His name repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be preached to all the nations beginning from Jerusalem”...

Featured Term (selected at random): LEGATE A LATERE A papal legate deputed by the Holy See for important missions of a temporary character. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Part One:  The Apostles’ Creed 9.   “ The Holy Catholic Church: the Communion of Saints” Table of Contents     Having professed our faith in the Holy Spirit, we continue by professing to believe in the Holy Catholic Church, of which the Holy Spirit is the soul or source of her corporate life. In one sense, the Church began with the origins of the human race. God wants to save people not only as individuals but as members of society. Consequently the Church corresponds on the level of grace to our social existence on the level of nature.The foreshadowing of the Church...

Broken Keys by Ian Wolfe — October 21, 2009 And when [Jesus] had said this, he breathed on [the disciples] and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.” John 20:23 The church has given to her ordained ministers through the gift of the Holy Spirit the power and authority to exercise the apostolic ministry to bind and loose sin.1 Traditionally Luther’s Small Catechism included a section on the Office of the Keys, although not written by Luther himself.2 I note...

It is my pleasure to be able to write on a subject where we as Catholics share so much common ground with our Reformed brothers, and even with most Evangelicals. In fact, it is no small thing that we agree upon foundational truths contra mundum in a time when even many Christians deny them.This article intends to show that, though Protestants agree with the Catholic Church on the basic truths about Scripture and its authority, the Reformed view of Scripture errs in three respects: in its assumption about the canon of Scripture, in its view of the authority of Scripture,...

Featured Term (selected at random):POPE Title of the visible head of the Catholic Church. He is called Pope (Greek pappas, a child's word for father) because his authority is supreme and because it is to be exercised in a paternal way, after the example of Christ. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

I was talking with a friend the other day. He’s a fellow convert who (as is common with us) was wondering why on earth Catholics who don’t believe much of what the Church teaches stay . He was greatly puzzled about the tendency of many life-long Catholics to remain quite proudly Catholic despite the fact that much of what the Church insists we must believe is something they flatly reject in favor or whatever the latest Oprahism is on the tube. Equally puzzling, both during this pontificate and the last one, is the common tendency of many Catholics–usually cradle Catholics–to...

Part One:  The Apostles’ Creed 8.   “ I Believe in the Holy Spirit” Table of Contents     The best way to understand what we mean by our profession of faith in the Holy Spirit is to compare it with our faith in the Son of God. In God there is intellect and will, corresponding to thinking and loving in human beings. Scripture identifies the mind of God with the Word of God, as St. John tells us: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). “So, just as the Word...

Coalition of Reason An advertisement that promotes atheism will run in a dozen subway stations in Manhattan for a month starting next Monday. Atheism is coming to the subway — or at least subway ads promoting it are. Starting next Monday, a coalition of local groups will run a monthlong advertising campaign in a dozen Manhattan subway stations with the slogan “A Million New Yorkers Are Good Without God. Are You?” The posters also advertise the Web site BigAppleCoR.org, which provides a listing of local groups affiliated with the Coalition of Reason, the umbrella organization that coordinated the campaign.

What is your first response when you hear someone refer to the mother of Jesus Christ as the “Co-redemptrix�? Extreme? Excessive pietism, even if well-intended? Heresy? Only Jesus is the Redeemer. If not directly heresy, then extremely dangerous? At least anti-ecumenical? At best confusing?Witness of the Saints Now let’s look at some people who have in fact called the Virgin Mary the Co-redemptrix: John Paul II (on six different occasions); Bl. Mother Teresa of Calcutta; St. Padre Pio, stigmatic wonder worker of the 20th century; Sr. Lucia, the Fatima visionary; St. Francis Cabrini, the first American citizen to be canonized;...

Featured Term (selected at random):FEELING A conscious state or experience. More particularly in scholastic philosophy an experience of the external or internal senses, namely of sight, smell, touch, hearing, taste, and bodily, or somatic, sensation. Feeling is often simply equated with emotion, but emotion can also be spiritual, whereas feeling is, properly speaking, in the material order. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

My friends have often heard me say, “The more I read my Bible the less dispensational I become.”This statement comes from someone who was spiritually nurtured in churches with dispensational theology, who graduated from a Christian university steeped in dispensational theology, who received his first graduate degree from a dispensational seminary, and who—for twelve years—preached sermons that reflected dispensational theology. For the first sixteen years of my Christian life, I rarely questioned the fundamental distinctions of dispensational theology. What are those distinctions? In his discussion of what he called the “sine qua non of dispensationalism,”Ryrie asserted:“A dispensationalist keeps Israel and...

Church members from Utah and abroad gathered on Friday to hear some Book of Mormon stories their teachers have never told them. The lessons centered around Mesoamerica, including Mexico and Guatemala, as the most likely setting for Book of Mormon peoples and events at the 7th annual Book of Mormon Lands Conference at the Red Lion Hotel in Salt Lake City. The conference drew 280 attendees — the conference’s biggest crowd ever — as a result of key speakers such as Dr. John L. Lund, Joseph Allen and Jerry L. Ainsworth, said Stephen L. Carr, senior vice president of the...

Part One:  The Apostles’ Creed 7.   “ From Thence He Shall Come to Judge the Living and the Dead” Table of Contents     There is only one final judge of the human race. It is God by whom the world was first created and to whom we are destined in eternity to return. What may be less obvious is that this same Almighty God became man in the person of Christ. Consequently, Jesus Christ has the divine right to judge all mankind. Immediately we distinguish between the Lord judging us individually at the moment of death, and judging us as the...

Since its inception in 1830, the Mormon Church (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) has denied any continuous historical connection with Christianity. Mormonism's founder Joseph Smith, claimed that in 1820 God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to him in the woods near his home in Palmyra, New York. Jesus said that for the proceeding 1700 years (give or take a century — Mormonism can't say exactly) the world had been living in the darkness of a total apostasy from the gospel. This was the answer to a question young Smith had been pondering. "My object in going to...

Featured Term (selected at random):LITANY OF THE SACRED HEART Invocations of Jesus Christ under the title of the Sacred Heart, authorized for recitation in the universal Church by Pope Leo XIII in 1899. After the customary petitions to the Persons of the Holy Trinity, the litany contains thirty-three invocations of the Heart of Jesus. Each invocation reflects an aspect of God's love symbolized by the physical Heart of Christ, the Son of God who became man and died out of love for sinful mankind. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life....

Traditional Holy Mass Propers † Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost † † Feast of Blessed Apostle and Evangelist Saint Luke, Martyr † Missa Mihi autem nimis honoráti sunt amici tui, Deus ( "....To me thy friends, O God, are made exceedingly honorable...." ) 18 October 2009 Anno Dómini "....Unless you see signs and wonders, you believe not...." "Nothing is so consoling, so piercing, so thrilling, so overcoming, as the Mass, said as it is among us.I could attend Mass forever, and not be tired.It is not a mere form of words; it is a great action.The greatest action that can...

Part One:  The Apostles’ Creed 6.   “ He Ascended into Heaven, and is Seated at the Right Hand of God, The Father Almighty” Table of Contents     Jesus Christ arose from the dead and remained upon earth in visible form for forty days. On the fortieth day, He ascended into heaven. As described by St. Luke, Jesus had just finished telling His disciples they would receive the power of the Holy Spirit: When He had said these things, while they looked on, He was raised up. And a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they were beholding Him...

This book has been forty-six years in the writing. The first version was written when I was twelve years old, the second when I was twenty-two, the third when I was twenty-six, and all through those years work did not cease on this book. The last version began five years ago. It was impossible to complete, as the other versions were impossible to complete, until my husband and I visited the Holy Land in 1956, and until my husband could give me the information for the last third of the book, and other assistance. From my early childhood Lucanus,...

Ecclesiastical censures 1037. But your Church scatters curses, interdicts, and excommunications! Where is "Love your enemies" in this? The Church condemns evil doctrine, and says that her condemnation falls upon such as knowingly and deliberately identify themselves with the condemned doctrine. The gentle Christ said, "If a man will not hear the Church, let him be as the heathen." St. Paul says, "If any man preach any other doctrine, let him be accursed." Gal 1:8. St. Paul meant that in the Catholic sense I have explained. Love your enemies, by all means. But if you do, you will hate the...

What does it mean when we say that the gospel is historical? Dr. Tim Keller explains: The gospel is historical . . . The word “gospel” shows up twice [1 Peter 1:1-12, 1:22-2:12]. Gospel actually means “good news.” You see it spelled out a little bit when it says “he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ”. Why do we say that the gospel is good news? Some years ago, I heard a tape series I am sure was never put into print by Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones. It was an...

Part One:  The Apostles’ Creed 5.   “ He Descended into Hell. On the Third Day, He Rose Again from the Dead” Table of Contents     There are two truths of faith affirmed in this article of the Creed. The first is that after Christ died, His soul – separated from the body – visited the souls of the faithful departed in what has come to be called the Limbo of the Fathers. The second truth is the Resurrection of Christ from the grave on Easter Sunday. While the Resurrection of Christ is far more significant, His descent “into hell” deserves to...

1. The Jewish people would be scattered worldwide; yet Israel would become a nation again after a long time and at a time the Bible calls the "latter days"-ref Isa 66:8; Mic 5:3; Ezek 38:8. Against what appeared to be impossible odds, this prophecy has been fulfilled. It happened as predicted on May 14, 1948 after about 2500 years. That’s 1 out of 1. Note: Israel was destroyed in approximately 721 B.C. and Judah about 135 years later. Since that time, approximately fourteen different peoples have possessed the land of Israel. Yet as the Bible said, the nation of Israel...

A manifold witness I have placed in you , All that is faithful and true , A oneness of The Father and I in one breath , Can you imagine this depth , For what once rested upon me , Was the one and the three in complete harmony , And so it is even now My fullness with you , For as you witness me all 3 come through ~ ~ ~ John 15:26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father,...

There are two traditions — East and West — when it comes to the sacrament of confirmation. Together they show how doctrine can develop and unfold within the Church much as the branches on the mustard plant can develop from the seed in ways that, while different for different branches, retain the seed’s mustardiness. Originally, the norm in the Church (with a few exceptions such as we noted with the Samaritans last week) was to administer the sacraments of baptism and confirmation as a sort of “double sacrament” (to quote St. Cyprian). With small Christian communities, this was doable because...

Featured Term (selected at random):PERFECT HAPPINESS The complete possession of the perfect good. That which fully satisfies all human desires. Imperfect happiness falls short of the perfect in some way by not satisfying all human desires or, if all of them, not all of them fully. Natural happiness, when perfect, is called natural beatitude. It satisfies those cravings which spring from human nature alone. It is the kind of happiness that human beings would have been destined to, had they been left on a purely natural plane. Mere reason cannot pass beyond this point. Christian revelation adds to this...

Many dear, professing “Christians” today, who are dear and sincere in their Christian traditions and personal beliefs, believe in a DIFFERENT Christ (i.e., they have “their own” Jesus). Therefore they - either knowingly or unknowingly - have rejected the CHRIST of the Holy Scriptures.I personally know how this works. I once had “my own” Jesus. For years I was a practicing Roman Catholic. From the womb I was taught and raised in the traditions of the Catholic faith (ideology), and in true sincerity I went to church every week, prayed every night, and practiced the Golden rule, but I lived...

Part One:  The Apostles’ Creed 4.   “ Suffered Under Pontius Pilate, was Crucified, Died, and was Buried” Table of Contents     We get some idea of the importance of this article of the Creed from St. Paul’s statement to the Corinthians, that “I judged not myself to know anything among you, but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (I Corinthians 2:2). Christ’s Passion, death, and burial should be deeply understood. They are the crowning proof of God’s love for us. They are also the most powerful motive for our loving God, and the model of how we are to love Him in...

Sometime around the year 107 A.D., a short, sharp persecution of the Church of Christ resulted in the arrest of the bishop of Antioch in Syria. His name was Ignatius. According to one of the harsh penal practices of the Roman Empire of the day, the good bishop was condemned to be delivered up to wild beasts in the arena in the capital city. The insatiable public appetite for bloody spectacles meant a chronically short supply of victims; prisoners were thus sent off to Rome to help fill the need. So the second bishop of Antioch was sent to Rome...

If reports from Poland are true, an alleged Eucharistic miracle that took place a year ago may have merit. According to a Polish blog, the Metropolitan Curia of Bialystok has announced the results of the investigation of an Ecclesial Commission appointed by Archbishop Edward Ozorowski on March 30, 2009. The original post (in Polish) can be found here. Father Andrzej Kakareko, Chancellor, writes that on October 12, 2008, a consecrated Host fell out of the hands of the priest distributing Holy Communion. The priest had it picked up and placed in the vasculum in the Tabernacle. After Mass, the vasculum...

In a new pastoral letter on Church renewal, Bishop R. Walker Nickless of Sioux City denounces false interpretations of the Second Vatican Council and calls upon Catholics to “reclaim and strengthen our understanding of the deposit of faith.” Bishop Nickless, originally a priest of the Archdiocese of Denver who served as Archbishop Charles Chaput’s vicar general, writes: "The question arises: Why has the implementation of the Council, in large parts of the Church, thus far been so difficult? Well, it all depends on the correct interpretation of the Council or - as we would say today - on its proper...

Featured Term (selected at random):PETITIONS TO THE HOLY SEE The right of the faithful to petition the Holy See on any matter at any time. Requests are normally submitted through the local ordinary, who in turn communicates the petition to the appropriate Roman congregation or commission. But every Catholic may write directly to the Pope or any official at the Vatican and be assured that his or her request is given due consideration. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

  Many of our Protestant friends appreciate Mary in a way their ancestors didn't. This is a good thing. Some of them even like her a lot, and in a way that their ancestors would denounce. This is an even better thing. But there are limits, which too many Catholics just can't see.   By "Protestant" I'm thinking particularly of our Evangelical friends who are, in doctrinal seriousness and many other ways, close to us. For centuries they simply ignored Mary, even at Christmas. The only time they thought of her in any substantial way was when they were...