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Fear Not by R.C. Sproul We are fragile mortals, given to fears of every sort. We have a built-in insecurity that no amount of whistling in the dark can mollify. We seek assurance concerning the things that frighten us the most. The prohibition uttered more frequently than any other by our Lord is the command, “Fear not …” He said this so often to His disciples and others He encountered that it almost came to sound like a greeting. Where most people greet others by saying “Hi” or “Hello,” the first words of Jesus very often were “Fear not.” Why?...

Reflections on the Latest Pew Survey Documenting “Religious Decline” – Not So Fast By: Msgr. Charles PopeA well-publicized Pew Survey given publicity in yesterday’s Washington Post announced a kind of “doom” for traditional religion in this country. I do not dispute most of the results as an accurate snapshot of today.But snapshots have a way of recording things that eventually are replaced by other realities in the ensuing years. It is clear that what we have called “traditional religious practice” is in trouble. Cultural trends no longer favor the Sunday observance or the sectarian loyalty with which many of us...

According to Vaticanist Sandro Magister, Pope Francis has decided to postpone the publication of his long-awaited encyclical on the environment. The reason, according to Magister, is that the Pope realized that the document in its current state had no chance of receiving the approval of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith under the leadership of Cardinal Gerhard Müller. If it seems somewhat improper for a Cardinal to be telling a Pope what he can and can't write, don't fret, gentle reader: the text wasn't written by Pope Francis at all. The ghostwriter behind the heavily discussed encyclical is...

Featured Term selected at random:HELLENISM A body of classical ideals associated with ancient Greece and including reason, the pursuit of knowledge, and the application of philosophy to the study of religion. Assuming the guiding hand of Providence, Hellenism played an important role in helping to shape, on its human and cultural side, the origins and development of Christianity. The language of the New Testament writings was Greek, the Gentile civilization into which the Church entered was Greek, and the thought patterns of the educated classes in the first-century Mediterranean world were Greek. All items in this dictionary are from Fr....

In the Darkness We See Farther – Pondering the Paradox of the “Dark Knowing” of Faith By: Msgr. Charles PopeAs human beings we are very visual and there is a certain demand of our flesh to see on its own terms. But of course God, who is pure spirit, will not be seen in this way.How can the human eye perceive what is spiritual? It is not designed to do so. We cannot see God, as God, any more than we should expect to be able to see justice sitting down to lunch with humility. These are not physical concepts;...

At The Blaze writer Steven Herreid says something that’s needed to be stated for quite some time now: the Obama-like diplomacy of the FrancisVatican is an unprecedented scandal. This weekend, the Communist President of Cuba Raul Castro met with Pope Francis in private for an “unusually long time,” according to Gerard O’Connell, Vatican correspondent for America Magazine. When he emerged from his meeting with Pope Francis, which a Vatican spokesman called a “very cordial talk,” Castro exchanged gifts with the Holy Father. Castro gave the pope a commemorative medallion in honor of the 200th anniversary of the building of the...

Let us begin with a church history exam question. Cardinal Robert Bellarmine (1542–1621) was a figure not to be taken lightly. He was Pope Clement VIII’s personal theologian and one of the most able figures in the Counter-Reformation movement within sixteenth-century Roman Catholicism. On one occasion, he wrote: “The greatest of all Protestant heresies is _______ .” Complete, explain, and discuss Bellarmine’s statement.How would you answer? What is the greatest of all Protestant heresies? Perhaps justification by faith? Perhaps Scripture alone, or one of the other Reformation watchwords?Those answers make logical sense. But none of them completes Bellarmine’s sentence. What he...

The Habits of Your Temperament Print PDFWhat is your temperament? Depending on your temperament, you can be more prone to exhibit certain virtues and positive qualities, as well as face stronger temptations to fall into certain sins or vices. See the chart below to learn about the bright side and dark side of your temperament.Throughout the day, you are constantly faced with the choice: God or not God. Every time you exercise the virtues and gifts of the “bright side” of your temperament, you choose and glorify God. When you exercise the sins and vices of the “dark side”...

What Does the Arrest of St. Paul at Philippi Teach a Sometimes-Timid Church? By: Msgr. Charles PopeIn daily Mass we are following the missionary journeys of St. Paul. Yesterday we heard of his going over to Macedonia and of the baptism of the first “European” converts: Lydia of Thyatira and her family.Unfortunately, in today’s reading (Tuesday of the 6th Week of Easter) important lines are cut out that describe why Sts. Paul and Silas were in jail. The whole story serves as a metaphor for the radical nature of true Christianity and explains why it so perturbs many in this world....

The Church Prior to the Reformation: The Mass Medieval conception of Purgatory As Protestants, we all seem to know that the Roman Church was very bad during the middle ages, but in what ways? What, precisely, was being protested? In his work “The Reformation: A History”, Diarmiad MacCulloch gives a brief overview of the Roman Church prior to the Reformation. He introduces that overview with this passage: Nicholas Ridley, one of the talented scholarly clergy who rebelled in England against the old [Roman] Church, wrote about this to one of his fellow rebels John Bradford in 1554, while they both...

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Featured Term selected at random:WAR OF AGGRESSION Unjust military attack on the independence, territory, or any other rights of one nation or part of a nation by another policitcal power. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission. 

Honor to the Martyrs! A Declaration of Gratitude to the Martyrs of Our Day By: Msgr. Charles PopeIn the Divine Office last week we read a remarkable passage on the persecution of the Church. It seems proper to consider a portion of it in times like these; more on that in a moment.Of course in writing of persecution and martyrdom, I write as an American who, though experiencing a lot more scorn these days, does not have to endure grave threat for being a Catholic. But as I consider Catholics and Christians in places like Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Nigeria, the...

It seems that every year a new children’s story Bible comes out. The captivating artwork often makes the biblical stories come alive. There is one picture in a particular story Bi ble our family has that my two-and-a-half-year-old, Elijah, loves more than others. It is a picture of a flame coming down on the altar the prophet Elijah built for God. There was a time when my son refused to go to bed until he saw this picture. Every night he would say: “Fire! Fire! Show me the fire.”While the Israelites did not have children’s story Bibles filled with artwork,...

The story of “Team Bergoglio” has been covered in detail by this blog from the beginning, but the story yet to be told, is that “Team Bergoglio” was and is a heretical plot to destroy the Church of Christ. The proof is found in nothing less than the words and deeds of its members, before, during and after the Conclave of 2013. Who’s who in “Team Bergoglio”? o-POPE-ROLLING-STONE-570“Team Bergoglio” is the name given by Dr. Austen Ivereigh to the group of Cardinals whom he says, in this book, The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope, conspired...

On the Paradoxical Connection Between Love and Law – A Homily for the 6th Sunday of Easter By: Msgr. Charles PopeIn the gospel today, Jesus cuts right across the modern Western tendency to oppose love and law, and law and joy. Though we oppose them, Jesus joins all three concepts and summons us to a new attitude. Let’s take a look.I. Connections – Jesus says, As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and...

...Latter-day Saint literature to a Mother in Heaven...Since the 1840s, this cherished doctrine has been an important, although relatively obscure, part of the Latter-day Saint understanding of the premortal origins and divine nature of mankind... As Elder Erastus Snow (Quorum of the Twelve, February 12, 1849–May 27, 1888) avowed: “What,” says one, “do you mean we should understand that Deity consists of man and woman?” Most certainly I do. If I believe anything that God has ever said about himself...I must believe that deity consists of man and woman...There can be no God except he is composed of the man...

One of the major goals of the pagan, anti-life ecology movement was to get the Church and religious leaders committed to the cause of environmentalism. In this, the Green Movement succeeded. We will look at a central 1986 event at Assisi that was crucial to getting the Catholic Church involved. The Greening of Religion The first pan-religious event at Assisi was not Pope John Paul II’s prayer meeting for peace on October 27, 1986, but the 25th Anniversary of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) starting on September 26th, the previous month of the same year. At a speech delivered to...

Featured Term selected at random:BAPTISMAL VOWS Profession of the Christian faith by an adult candidate for baptism or by the sponsor in the name of the infant to be baptized. The solemn renewal of these promises is a widespread act of piety usually at the close of a mission or retreat or when receiving First Communion or the sacrament of confirmation. It is a part of the Eucharistic liturgy at the Easter Vigil and on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. BAPTISMAL WATER. The water used for the administration of the sacrament of baptism. For the valid conferral...

Millions of sincere Catholics wear the brown scapular thinking by doing so it will help them spiritually. They believed the report that Mary made and is backing a salvation promise in connection with the brown scapular hundreds of years ago based on their religious traditions. Over the years wearing the brown scapular has been perpetuated by sincere Catholic leaders, such as the one in this video, but it is in complete futility that it is worn. It is a false hope and a spiritual snare. It is not based on God’s truth and is, therefore, just as deadly for...