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A US bishop stole the show with his fiery address at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding. The Most Reverend Michael Curry has been praised for his passionate speech which touched upon slavery, the Old Testament and even quoted Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Many of social media were delighted to see the American reverend 'shake up' the traditional royal proceedings. The preacher also provoked a few chuckles in the chapel - and even Harry and Meghan couldn't help but giggle at one point. Meanwhile Prince William seemed to be desperately trying to hold back a fit of laughter as...

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- Four months ago, Pope Francis dug himself into the biggest hole of his papacy by strongly defending a Chilean bishop accused by sex abuse victims of witnessing and ignoring their abuse. On Friday, he emerged from that debacle after strong-arming the entire Chilean bishops conference to resign for what he said were their "grave defects" in handling abuse cases. He accused them of destroying evidence of sex crimes, interfering with investigations and negligently placing children at risk of being raped by pedophiles. By repenting for his original sin with what amounts to an ecclesial nuclear option,...

White Semidouble IN ORDER TO HONOR her Eternal High Priest, the Church presents to him this day the merits of a Pontiff who, after his mortal career, was admitted into a happy Immortality. Ubaldus, here on earth, was the image of our Lord Jesus Christ. Like his Divine Master, he received the holy Anointing of Priesthood; he was a Mediator between God and man; he was the Shepherd of a flock; and now, he is united with our Risen Jesus—the great Anointed, the Mediator, the Shepherd. In proof of his influence in heaven, our Ubaldus has had given to...

White White THE ORDER OF ST. DOMINIC, which has already presented to our Triumphant Jesus Peter the Martyr and Catharine the seraph of Sienna, sends him today one of the many Bishops trained and formed in its admirable school. It was in the 15th Century—a period when sanctity was rare on the earth—that Antoninus realized, in his own person, the virtues of the greatest Bishops of ancient times. His apostolic zeal, his deeds of charity, his mortified life, are the glory of the Church of Florence, which has confided to his care. Heaven blessed that illustrious City with temporal...

White Double SIDE BY SIDE WITH ATHANASIUS, a second Doctor of the Church comes forward at this glad Season, offering to the Risen Jesus the tribute of his learning and eloquence. It is Gregory of Nazianzum—the friend of Basil; the great Orator; the admirable Poet, whose style combines energy of thought with a remarkable richness and ease of expression; the one among all the Gregories who has merited and received the glorious name of Theologian, on account of the soundness of his teachings, the sublimity of his ideas, and the magnificence of his diction. Holy Church exults at being...

Red Double THE 11th CENTURY—the Century of contest between the Priests of the Church and Barbarism—deputes today another Martyr to our Risen Jesus. It is Stanislaus, loved by noble Poland as one of her chief protectors. He was slain at the Altar by a Christian Prince whom he had reproved for his crimes. The blood of the courageous Pontiff was mingles, and in the same sacrifice, with that of our Redeemer. What an invincible energy there is in these Lambs whom Jesus has sent amidst the wolves! They seem to be changes, all at once, into Lions, like Jesus...

White Double THE COURT OF OUR DIVINE KING, during his grandest of Seasons, is brilliant beyond measure: and today, it is gladdened by the arrival of one of the most glorious champions that ever fought for his holy cause. Among the guardians of the Word of Truth, confided by Jesus to the earth—is there one more faithful than Athanasius? Does not his very name remind us of the dauntless courage in the defense of the sacred deposit, of heroic firmness and patience in suffering, of learning, of talent, of eloquence—in a word, of everything that goes to form a...

White Double A MONK, A BISHOP, a Doctor of the Church—such was the Saint whose feast comes to gladden us on this twenty-first day of April. He was a martyr, also, at least in desire, and we may add, in merit too—for he did enough to earn the glorious palm. When we think of Anselm, we picture to ourselves a man in whom are combined the humility and meekness of the cloister with the zeal and courage of the episcopal dignity; a man who was both a sage and a saint; a man whom it was impossible not to...

White Double THE CHURCH PRESENTS TO US TODAY, for our devout admiration, the memory of the one of the holiest of her Bishops—Isidore, the Bishop of Seville, the most learned man of his age, and what is a still greater praise, the most zealous patriot and friend of his noble country. Let us study his virtues and confide in his patronage: both will help us to fervor during this holy season. Among Christian lands, there is one that has gained for herself the glorious name of the Catholic Kingdom. Towards the close of the 7th century, Divine Providence subjected...

White Double IT WAS RIGHT that the Church should honor, during these days devoted to the instruction of catechumens, the Pontiff whose very name suggests the zeal and knowledge which pastors ought to show in preparing candidates for baptism. He has long had a place in the Martyrology of the Western Church, but today, in addition to expressing our gratitude for what he did fifteen hundred years ago, we ask him for aid, which is as necessary now as it was in the first ages of Christianity. It is true that baptism is now administered to infants. The gift...

White Double THE SAINT WE HAVE TO HONOR TODAY is the Apostle of that faithful people whose martyrdom has lasted three hundred years—it is the great St. Patrick, he that gave Erin the Faith. There shone most brightly in this Saint that gift of the Apostolate, which Christ has left to his Church, and which is to remain with her to the end of time. The Ambassadors of Missioners, sent by our Lord to preach his Gospel, are of two classes. There are some who have been entrusted with a small tract of the Gentile world; they had to...

Red Simple HOW VENERABLE OUR SAINT of today, with his hundred and twenty years, and his episcopal dignity, and his Martyr crown! He succeeded the Apostle St. James in the See of Jerusalem; he had known Jesus, and had been his disciple; he was related to Jesus, for he was of the House of David; his father was Cleophas, and his Mother that Mary whom the tie of kindred united so closely to the Blessed Mother of God that she has been called her Sister. What grand titles these of Simeon, who comes with all our other Martyrs of...

White Double “I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.” THESE WORDS, addressed to the serpent in the days which the Church now seeks to bring before the minds of her children, have dominated the world’s history. The woman, who was the first to fall victim to Satan’s deceits, was, in Mary, the first to rise. In her Immaculate Conception, in her virginal motherhood, in her offering of the new Adam to God on the mount of expiation,...

White Double WE ARE TO CELEBRATE today, the Feast of a holy Bishop of the Apostolic Age—a Disciple of the Apostle St. Paul. Little is known of his life; but, by addressing to him one of his inspired Epistles, the Apostle of the Gentiles has immortalized his memory. Wheresoever the Faith of Christ has been or shall be preached, Titus’ name has been venerated by the Faithful; and as long as the world lasts, the holy Church will read to her children this Epistle, which was written, indeed, to a simple Bishop fo the Isle of Crete, but was...

White Double THE SAINTLY BISHOP whose feast we keep today pressingly invites us, by his austere life and his burning zeal for the salvation of souls, to procure at all costs our own reconciliation with the divine justice. We are indebted for this feast to a member of the illustrious family of the Corsini, Pope Clement XII, who, however, was but the instrument used by divine Providence. The holy bishop of the little town of Fiesole ever sought to be unknown during his life, and God, who willed that he should be glorified by the whole Church, inspired the...

Red Simple NOW THAT THE CHURCH has closed the joyous period of her forty days of Christmas, and is putting us through a course of meditations on subjects which are to excite a spirit of penance within us, each of the saints’ feasts must produce an impression, which shall be in accordance with that spirit. From this day till Easter, we will study the saints, as they come to us, in this special light: how much they labored and suffered during their pilgrimage of life, and what was the plan they took for conquering the world and the flesh....

Red Double TWO DAYS MORE, and the happy season of Christmas will be over! This is the vigil of its termination, and lo! there comes to gladden us one of the grandest Martyrs of the year—Ignatius surnamed the Theophorus (“he that carries God,” or “he that is carried of God”), Bishop of Antioch. A venerable tradition tells us that this old man, who so generously confessed the faith before Trajan, was the child whom Jesus took into his arms, and showed to his Disciples as a model of that simplicity which we must all have if we would enter...

White Double THE ANGELICAL BISHOP Francis of Sales has a right to a distinguished position near the Crib of Jesus, on account of the sweetness of his virtues, the child-like simplicity of his heart, and the humility and tenderness of his love. He comes with the luster of his glorious conquests upon him—seventy-two thousand heretics converted to the Church by the ardor of his charity; an Order of holy servants of God, which he founded; and countless thousands of souls trained to piety by his prudent and persuasive words and writings. God gave him to his Church at the...

White Double BEFORE OUR EMMANUEL came upon this our earth, men were as sheep without a shepherd; the flock was scattered, and the human race was hastening on to perdition. Jesus would, therefore, not only be the Lamb that was to be slain for our sins; he made himself, moreover, a Shepherd, that so he might bring is all back to the divine fold. But a he had to leave us when he ascended into heaven, he has provided for the wants of his sheep by providing us with a succession of Pastors who should, in his name, feed...

Red Double AMIDST THE SWEETNESS he is enjoying from the contemplation of the Word made Flesh, John, the Beloved Disciple, beholds coming towards him his dear Polycarp, the Angel of the Church of Smyrna, all resplendent with the glory of martyrdom. This venerable Saint has on his soul the fervent love that made him say, in the amphitheater, when asked by the Proconsul to curse his Divine Master: “Six and eighty years have I served Him, and he has never done me any wrong—nay, he has laden me with kindness. How could I blaspheme my King, who has saved...