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NEW YORK — Every week day, several traditional Catholics in New York City gather for a 6pm traditional Latin Mass at the Church of the Holy Innocents, a Gothic-Revival structure in Manhattan’s Garment District. On Sundays, a 10:30am sung high Mass in the extraordinary form, which features a talented schola, attracts more than 200 worshippers. The traditional parish community also attends a Sunday Rosary and 2:30pm vespers service that consistently draws more people than the 12:30pm English-language Mass. “The Masses there are packed. They have sung Latin Masses at all major feast days and processions. What other church does that?”...

Featured Term (selected at random:OMEGA  The twenty-fourth and last letter of the Greek alphabet. Occurs in the Bible as Alpha and Omega (Revelation 21:6), where Christ refers to himself as the Beginning and the End. He is the Omega of the universe as the destiny of the human race and the final fulfillment of all creation. (Etym. Greek omega, the great [i.e., long] o., last letter of the alphabet.) All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

The most frustrating thing for Christians watching the self-destruction of liberal denominations may be that the liberals don't seem to learn. The more liberal they become, the faster they shrink, and the faster they shrink, the more liberal they become. You'd think self-preservation would force a change. You'd be wrong. Financially, mainline churches don't function like businesses, but rather inheritances. And that's a big problem. Businesses get wealthier as they gain customers or members. Inheritances get wealthier as siblings die. Hang with me here… that sounds like an amazing accusation, that churches grow wealthy as their congregations die off, but...

Featured Term (selected at random:CHAINED BIBLES  An institution of the medieval Church to protect copies of the Bible from thievery. Before the advent of printing, the rarity of books made them available only to the wealthy. they were often locked away in chests. The Church, wishing to make the Bible available to all the faithful and still to ensure it against loss, chained it to a desk or lectern near a window. There even poor students had its use and it was in popular demand. Bias and ignorance have interpreted this chaining as proof that the Church withheld the Bible...

Is the Church invisible? Well... WATCH ON YOUTUBE.(Alternate link, via Vimeo.) Follow me on Twitter, Like Answering Protestants and Catholic Analysis on Facebook, Add Answering Protestants and Catholic Analysis to your Circles on Google+, and Subscribe to my YouTube videos. TRANSCRIPT ——————— Is the Church only invisible? Many believe that "extra Ecclesiam nulla salus", the famous phrase of St. Cyprian in Latin, which translates to "outside the Church, there is no salvation", means that the Church teaches that one must be within what's called the "visible" Church in order to be saved. But this is untrue, of course. St. Augustine...

Christian Baptism Since the Protestant Reformation, the issue of baptism has been a source of much controversy. While arguments about doctrine have become less prevalent in recent years as such topics have become less in vogue, there continues to be disagreement over this subject – though it seems as though it ought to be a relatively straightforward and simple topic. This piece is not a comprehensive study of all the various issues associated with baptism with a lengthy series of ‘proof texts’ – there are plenty of articles like that which have been written over the years. Instead, I am...

A few weeks ago I wrote about the debacle that Pope Francis allowed, if not orchestrated, at the Vatican Gardens on Pentecost Sunday. Well it seems that the fallout was rather immediate. In a Catholic Church in Orlando, FL, also on Pentecost Sunday, two Muslim men were allowed to give their "reflections" - in place of the homily!

Featured Term (selected at random:UNJUST DAMAGE  Violating the property of another in some unfair manner without deriving any advantage from the harm caused. The obligation to undo the damage caused binds under the following conditions: 1. the act of damage must be unjust in the strict sense; 2. the action must be the real and effective cause of the damage, so that a accidental cause would not require restitution; 3. the harmful action must be formally sinful, i.e., deliberately unjust. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

A crucifix with the corpus renderedwith the wounds as observed in thethe image on the Shroud of Turin. Beholding a crucifix discomfit us. The poles and the bloodied Man hanging from it makes us feel that not all is well with the world. Once understood, beholding a crucifix reminds us of the cost God paid for our salvation and that doesn't make us feel better with ourselves. All that pain and bloodshed was for us? It discomfit even more those who feel themselves as righteous enough to resist and even oppose such a barbaric death on their behalf. Brethren,...

Featured Term (selected at random:FREEMASONRY  The teachings and practices of a secret international organization whose modern origins date from the first quarter of the eighteenth-century. Freemasonry began as a fraternity of Deists in Europe, and its basic orientation has been naturalistic, i.e. supernatural, ever since. Its hostility to the Catholic Church has evoked numerous declarations of the Holy See, notably of Popes Clement XII (1738), Pius IX (1864) and Leo XIII (1884). The Code of Canon Law (1918) decreed that no Catholic may join "Masonic sects or any other similar associations which plot against the Church" (Canon 2335). The...

Recently, a friend emailed me with a very common claim, namely, that, “Paul hijacked Christianity with no personal connection with Jesus and filled his letters with personal opinions.” This could be rephrased in the more common claim: Paul invented Christianity.This claim is especially common among Muslim apologists who use it in an attempt to explain why the Qur’an simultaneously affirms Jesus as a true prophet while also contradicting the Bible at every major point. However, since my friend is not a Muslim and is not coming at the issue from that angle, I will just deal with the question more...

Twenty-two years ago I craved justification for my homosexuality. I had decided I was gay, and I felt utterly incapable of changing my sexual desires. Instead of conforming my actions to biblical standards, I chose to adjust biblical standards to accommodate my actions. My subsequent six-year involvement as a staff member of the pro-homosexual Metropolitan Community Church became the fruit of that compromise and remains a source of deep regret to this day. During my tenure as a self-professed “gay Christian,” I was often confronted by believers who argued the standard passages on homo­sexuality. Like anyone steeped in propaganda, however,...

Featured Term (selected at random:LAYING ON OF HANDS In both the Old and New Testaments a significant symbolic action denoting various meanings. Examples: Israel giving his parental blessing to Ephraim and Manasseh (Genesis 48:18); Moses passing his authority to his successor (Numbers 27:18); Joshua receiving the spirit of wisdom to lead his people (Deuteronomy 34:9); Aaron preparing the ram for sacrifice (Exodus 29:10). In the New Testament its symbolism took on a further and deeper meaning: Jesus blessing the children (Matthew 19:15); Jesus bringing the official's daughter back to life (Matthew 9:18); Peter and John calling down the Holy Spirit...

Over the past month, the public has been treated to a series of news stories alleging that Irish nuns threw almost 800 babies into a septic tank outside a home for “fallen women” and children in the 20th century. As it turns out, the “mass grave” story is a hoax. To read Bill Donohue’s article, “Ireland’s ‘Mass Grave’ Hysteria,” click at link. It is being widely distributed in Ireland, England, and the United States.

A Protestant Historian Discovers the Catholic Church – Conversion Story of A. David Anders, Ph.D. February 13, 2012 | 74 responses A Protestant Historian Discovers  the Catholic Church by A. David Anders, Ph.D.I grew up an Evangelical Protestant in Birmingham, Alabama. My parents were loving and devoted, sincere in their faith, and deeply involved in our church. They instilled in me a respect for the Bible as the Word of God, and a desire for a living faith in Christ. Missionaries frequented our home and brought their enthusiasm for their work. Bookshelves in our house were filled with theology...

Featured Term (selected at random:THEOLOGY OF JUSTIFICATION The process of a sinner becoming justified or made right with God. As defined by the Council of Trent, "Justification is the change from the condition in which a person is born as a child of the first Adam into a state of grace and adoption among the children of God through the Second Adam, Jesus Christ our Savior" (Denzinger 1524). On the negative side, justification is a true removal of sin, and not merely having one's sins ignored or no longer held against the sinner by God. On the positive side it...

Forasmuch, my lord, as this indictment is grounded upon an act of Parliament directly oppugnant to the laws of God and his holy church, the supreme government of which, or of any part thereof, may no temporal prince presume by any law to take upon him, as rightfully belonging to the See of Rome, a spiritual preeminence by the mouth of our Savior himself, personally present upon the earth, to Saint Peter and his successors, bishops of the same see, by special prerogative granted; it is therefore in law amongst Christian men, insufficient to charge any Christian man…. Saint Thomas...

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A common criticism of the Catholic Church’s teachings on sexual morality has to do with the largely unmarried clergy who are charged with preaching the message.  The accepted wisdom is that celibate males have no business telling married couples how to live their lives: “What do they know about the subject?”   I remember a particularly egregious example. In 1974, Earl Butz, then U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, ridiculed Pope Paul VI’s opposition to contraception, “He no playa the game, he no maka the rules.” He later apologized, but in reality he was only saying publicly what many, including many Catholics, were saying...

The Vocation of MarriageAll Christians in whatever state or walk of life are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of charity.When the Catholic Church teaches that marriage is a Christian vocation it is saying that the couple’s relationship is more than simply their choice to enter a union which is a social and legal institution. In addition to these things, marriage involves a call from God and a response from two people who promise to build, with the help of divine grace, a lifelong, intimate and sacramental partnership of love and life.The Second Vatican...