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[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal Sarah: African bishops ‘have spoken for the whole Church’ by rejecting homosexual ‘blessings’Cardinal Sarah issued a stirring call to the African episcopacy, urging them to ‘speak in the name of unity of faith’ as ‘many Western prelates are paralyzed by the idea of opposing the world.’MVOLYÉ, Cameroon (LifeSiteNews) –– Warning that the “Church is dying,” Robert Cardinal Sarah has issued a striking call to action for African Catholics to be the “defenders of the universality of faith” especially at the Synod on Synodality, while also praising them for their rejection of same-sex blessings. Speaking in Cameroon as...

Daily Readings from the USCCBThe Father loves the Son and has given everything over to him. John 3:35It’s interesting to note that the words of today’s Gospel appear to be from Saint John the Baptist, since they come within the context of his testimony to Jesus. Some commentators, however, suggest that they are words that were actually spoken by Jesus and that the Evangelist inserts them here as a continuation of the testimony of the Baptist, attributing them to Saint John. Regardless of who actually spoke these words, the line quoted above gives us much to reflect upon, in that...

11 April 2024 Saint Stanislaus, Bishop, Martyr on Thursday of the 2nd week of Eastertide St. Stanislaus Basilica Chicopee MAReadings at MassLiturgical Colour: Red. Year: B(II).Readings for the feriaReadings for the memorialThese are the readings for the feriaFirst readingActs 5:27-33 ©We are witnesses to all this, we and the Holy SpiritWhen the officials had brought the apostles in to face the Sanhedrin, the high priest demanded an explanation. ‘We gave you a formal warning’ he said ‘not to preach in this name, and what have you done? You have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and seem determined to fix the...

[Catholic Caucus] Dignitas Infinita: Lowering the BarIn my study of the current crisis in the Church, I have learned that it can all be summed up by one core problem: a collective lowering of the bar.Every parent, teacher, coach, manager, supervisor, or babysitter knows that children are overachievers. They will do anything they can to meet your expectations, no matter where they are set. So where you set them is of critical importance. We carry that childlike desire (and ability) to meet high standards into adulthood as we enter our careers or vocations.This has always been true in the life...

John 3:16-21 Friends, our Gospel passage today includes one of Scripture’s best-known and best-loved lines. The Lord is speaking to Nicodemus, and we read, “God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.”Why does the Son come? Because God is angry? Because God wants to lord it over us? Because God needs something? No, he comes purely out of love, out of God’s desire that we flourish: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that...

Who Are the Guardians of Tradition?The third and final episode in the “Mass of the Ages” documentary trilogy traces the renewed interest in—and renewed attacks against—the traditional Latin Mass.March saw the YouTube release of Guardians of Tradition, the third and final episode in the Mass of the Ages trilogywhich chronicles the liturgical changes since Vatican II and shows the appeal of the traditional Latin Mass (TLM). I have two slight criticisms of this episode, but it concludes a valuable mission and should be seen by anyone interested in the state of the Church. The first episode in the series, Discover...

Catholic Faith: The End of the Italian PrivilegeAlthough the title of ‘eldest daughter of the Church’ belongs to France, the beautiful land of Italy has always had a privileged relationship with the Catholic Church. It has produced more than 200 popes, and Rome’s central position on the peninsula and in the Catholic world has ensured that it has played a leading role for centuries. For the Italians, this supposedly universal Catholic Church was above all ‘their’ Church. But this privilege is being eroded, and the decline in practice, observed throughout the old world, is happening in places where it was...

Daily Readings from the USCCB“God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” John 3:16We continue, today, to read from the conversation that Jesus had with Nicodemus, the Pharisee who ultimately converted and is venerated as one of the early saints of the Church. Recall that Jesus challenged Nicodemus as a way of helping him to make the difficult decision to reject the malice of the other Pharisees and to become His follower. This passage quoted above comes from Nicodemus’ first conversation with...

10 April 2024 Wednesday of the 2nd week of EastertideSacred Heart Province Launching of the 250th Birth Anniversary of St. Magdalene di Canossa, Cagayan de Oro, PhilippinesReadings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: B(II).First readingActs 5:17-26 ©The men you imprisoned are in the Temple, preaching to the peopleThe high priest intervened with all his supporters from the party of the Sadducees. Prompted by jealousy, they arrested the apostles and had them put in the common gaol. But at night the angel of the Lord opened the prison gates and said as he led them out, ‘Go and stand in the...

[Catholic Caucus] 60 Years After the Council, Will Catholics Reject the Unholy Errors of Tucho’s Dignitas Infinita?This document is quite possibly the most wicked statement possible on human dignity. On April 8, 2024, Cardinal Víctor Manuel “Tucho” Fernández and his Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith released their Declaration on Human Dignity, Dignitas Infinita. Although Catholics celebrated the transferred Feast of the Annunciation on April 8th, we can draw a more apt comparison to Dignitas Infinita from the solar eclipse in America also taking place. Almost everyone witnessing the solar eclipse understood that the sun did not actually vanish...

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal Fernández defends Fiducia Supplicans, says Pope Francis ‘has expanded our understanding’Cardinal Fernández said Pope Francis has the ‘right’ to endorse homosexual ‘blessings’ in contradiction to Catholic teaching and that the matter is ‘close to the Pope’s heart.’VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Víctor Manuel Cardinal Fernández has defended Fiducia Supplicans, which endorses “blessing” homosexual “couples,” saying that “Pope Francis has expanded our understanding of blessings” and “he has the right to do so.”Speaking at the April 8 press conference presenting Dignitas Infinita – the latest document published by Fernández’s Congregation (now Dicastery) for the Doctrine of the Faith –...

[Catholic Caucus] Infinite ShamelessnessI have tried to read the newest excrementation, or declaration, or whatever document it is, about the alleged infinite dignity of the human person. They quote the United Nation at the very start. I have stopped reading there, as I am not a follower of the United Nations religion. Still, already from a general perspective, it is quite evident what this infinite here and infinite there aims at: the divinisation of the human being. It is not Christian (much less Catholic) tradition to say that a person has “infinite dignity”. Why? Because it hasn’t. A person can...

Daily Readings from the USCCBNicodemus answered and said to him, ‘How can this happen?” Jesus answered and said to him, “You are the teacher of Israel and you do not understand this? Amen, amen, I say to you, we speak of what we know and we testify to what we have seen, but you people do not accept our testimony.” John 3:9–11As we reflected upon yesterday, Nicodemus is one of the only Pharisees who ultimately converted, became a follower of Jesus, and is today considered a saint. The only other Pharisees who were recorded by name as converts to Christianity...

9 April 2024 Tuesday of the 2nd week of Eastertide Retable of the Cathedral of Toledo Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: B(II).First readingActs 4:32-37 ©The whole group of believers was united, heart and soulThe whole group of believers was united, heart and soul; no one claimed for his own use anything that he had, as everything they owned was held in common. The apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus with great power, and they were all given great respect. None of their members was ever in want, as all those who owned land...

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal Fernández’s Dignitas Infinita condemns abortion, gender theory but is silent on homosexualityIn the newly released text Cardinal Victor Fernández criticizes abortion and the rejection of gender differentiation as attacks on human dignity, while neglecting to discuss homosexuality.VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández has released his long-anticipated document on human dignity, written in line with Pope Francis’ encyclical Fratelli Tutti and modern teaching on dignity, which condemns abortion and surrogacy while notably remaining silent on homosexuality.Released via press conference April 8 – the transferred feast of the Annunciation – the new text, Dignitas infinita, aims to...

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal Fernández calls for change to Catholic condemnation of homosexuality as ‘intrinsically disordered’VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández issued a call for the Catholic description of homosexual acts as “intrinsically disordered” to be changed, saying a “clearer” expression would be better.Speaking at an April 8 press conference launching the Congregation (now Dicastery) for the Doctrine of the Faith’s (CDF) new text Dignitas Infinita, Fernández fielded questions regarding homosexuality and the Catholic Church’s teaching on the topic. READ: Cardinal Fernández’s Dignitas Infinita condemns abortion, gender theory but is silent on homosexualityThe cardinal was asked if it is...

Luke 1:26-38 Friends, in today’s Gospel from Luke, we find the Annunciation to Mary. Here is what Gabriel said to the Virgin: “You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. . . . The Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his Kingdom there will be no end.”No first-century Israelite would have missed the meaning here: this child shall be the fulfillment of the promise made to King David.And this means that the child is, in...

The Vatican on Monday issued a new document approved by Pope Francis stating that the church believes that gender fluidity and transition surgery, as well as surrogacy, amount to affronts to human dignity. The sex a person is assigned at birth, the document argued, was an “irrevocable gift” from God and “any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception.” People who desire “a personal self-determination, as gender theory prescribes,” risk succumbing “to the age-old temptation to make oneself God.” ....Cardinal Fernández made clear, drawing a distinction between the...

Daily Readings from the USCCBThe angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.” Luke 1:26–28Imagine if the Angel Gabriel, the glorious Archangel who stands before the Most Holy Trinity, were to come to you and announce to you that you were “full of grace” and that “The Lord is with you.” What an indescribable and awe-inspiring experience that would be!...

Monday 8 April 2024 The Annunciation of the Lord Solemnity Tomb of Saint Martin of Tours in the crypt of the basilica built by Saint Perpetuus Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: B(II).First readingIsaiah 7:10-14,8:10 ©The maiden is with childThe Lord spoke to Ahaz and said, ‘Ask the Lord your God for a sign for yourself coming either from the depths of Sheol or from the heights above.’ ‘No,’ Ahaz answered ‘I will not put the Lord to the test.’ Then Isaiah said:‘Listen now, House of David:are you not satisfied with trying the patience of menwithout trying the patience...