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In Iraq, ISIS is bulldozing churches and turned the Cathedral of Mosul into a mosque. Meanwhile, many thousands of miles away…… in the National Post: What’s happening to Montreal’s churches? Quebec finding new ways to preserve its heritage in a secular ageMONTREAL — Weight machines fill the space where once there were pews, and visitors sip nutritional green smoothies, not communion wine. But despite its dramatic transformation into a private gym and spa, the onetime Dominican St. Jude’s Shrine on Montreal’s St. Denis Street remains a temple of sorts.“It becomes almost a religion for some people,” Sonya Audrey Bonin, general...

EPISTLE Rom. 6:19-23 Brethren: I speak an human thing, because of the infirmity of your flesh. For as you have yielded your members to serve uncleanness and iniquity, unto iniquity: so now yield your members to serve justice, unto sanctification. For when you were the servants of sin, you were free men to justice. What fruit therefore had you then in those things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of them is death. But now being made free from sin and become servants to God, you have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end life everlasting. For...

The Gospel today asks a fundamental question: “What is it that you value most?”  In other words, “What is it that you most want?” Now be careful to answer this question honestly. We tend to answer questions like this the way we think we “should” answer them rather than genuinely. But when we’re with the doctor (and Jesus is our doctor) the best bet is to answer honestly so that we can begin a true healing process. And the fact is, we all need a heart transplant. That is, we need a new heart, one that desires God and the things waiting...

July 27, 2014Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time    Reading 1 1 Kgs 3:5, 7-12 The LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream at night. God said, “Ask something of me and I will give it to you.” Solomon answered:“O LORD, my God, you have made me, your servant, kingto succeed my father David;but I am a mere youth, not knowing at all how to act. I serve you in the midst of the people whom you have chosen,a people so vast that it cannot be numbered or counted. Give your servant, therefore, an understanding heartto judge your people and...

Yes, Pope Francis sees capitalism and inequality as the root cause of all the world’s social problems. His Apostolic Exhortation makes clear he’s on a mission. His power to change the world rests with his moral authority, convincing people to do what’s right, not just the 1.2 billion Catholic faithful, everyone in the world. But moral persuasion goes just so far. The Pope has another weapon, the rarely used but extraordinary power of excommunication. When he used it recently the thought came up, could he use it against capitalists? Capitalism? To understand this weapon you need some background and what...

The three most radical proposals are: 1) A new “pastoral solution” to allow divorce and remarried Catholics to receive Holy Communion; 2) A new “pastoral approach” that permits the baptism of children from same-sex couples, thus indirectly legitimizing these unions; 3) A recasting of natural law in “new language”, which threatens to undermine our entire ethical foundation of true morality. Indeed the Synod’s Working Document further displays the triumph of the New Theology over today’s Vatican; the same new theology that wrought havoc at Vatican II and continues its destructive path to this day.

When the Americans (“and allies”) took Kabul, they discovered that one of the clichés about Afghanistan was wrong. It was not true that there were no Jews left in that country. An elderly gentleman emerged from the rubble, a certain Ishaq Levin (may he rest in peace). All these years he had kept his head down, but was now under the impression he could come out.It turned out there was another one. Perhaps gentle reader has heard the story, which was made into a little play in London. Zabolon Simenov (various spellings), carpet dealer and kebab-seller, also survived the...

FULL TITLE - "An Appeal for the Christians of the Middle East" French elected officials lead the way: will those elsewhere follow suit, or remain silent? As in Turkey in 1915, a Christian Genocide is happening once again. One week after the terrorists of the so-called "Islamic State" expelled all Christians from Mosul, no statement on the matter has been made by the heads of state or government of any major nation -- no permament member of the Security Council, no major world power... The only relevant exception was Prime-Minister Stephen Harper of Canada, for which he is to be thanked...

Featured Term (selected at random:HOLY WELL St. Winifride's Well in North Wales. A place of pilgrimage throughout the year but especially on November 3, the saint's feast day. The legend of St. Winifride, virgin and martyr, is authenticated by two twelfth-century documents. A daughter of a Welsh chieftain, she lived in the seventh century. When St. Beuno came to her father's house, he was hospitably received and instructed Winifride in the Christian faith. So impressed was she that she determined to become a religious. Then followed a series of extraordinary events: Winifride was beheaded, miraculously restored to life, and a...

July 26, 2014Memorial of Saints Joachim and Anne, Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary    Reading 1 Jer 7:1-11 The following message came to Jeremiah from the LORD:Stand at the gate of the house of the LORD,and there proclaim this message:Hear the word of the LORD, all you of Judahwho enter these gates to worship the LORD!Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel:Reform your ways and your deeds,so that I may remain with you in this place.Put not your trust in the deceitful words:“This is the temple of the LORD!The temple of the LORD! The temple...

Back in May, I offered some general comments on the question of communion for divorced and remarried Catholics — which looms over the Synod on the Family scheduled for this autumn in Rome, and may represent one of the defining controversies of Pope Francis’s pontificate — and then wrote what was intended to be the first of two posts addressing Cardinal Walter Kasper’s high-profile case for admitting the remarried to the sacrament. That post offered theological and sociological reasons to be skeptical of Kasper’s broad suggestion, offered in an interview with the editors of Commonweal, that Catholic marriage generally is...

The Saint of the First Red Cross St. Camillus of Lellis By: Louise PerrottaIf you’ve ever been tempted to think that you’re not cut out for sanctity, consider the case of Camillus of Lellis. Here is a saint—the patron of hospitals, health care workers, and the sick— whose burning love for God effected a widespread reform of patient care.“I’ll never forget the sight,” wrote one person who saw six-foot-six Camillus in action. “When he was attending a sick person, he looked like a hen with her chicks or like a mother at her child’s bedside.”And yet for the first...

Following the controversy sparked by his remarks against voodoo, Haitian Cardinal Chibly Langlois specifies in a note, that the fragments of his interview published in The Guardian newspaper, does not accurately reflect his vision of voodoo. Without however put these "fragments" in the context of this interview, Cardinal Langlois today recognizes that voodoo is "an undeniable part of the culture of the Haitian people." Explanations of Cardinal Chibly Langlois : "1 - In an article in the British newspaper The Guardian Sunday, July 13, 2014 titled - Vodoo won’t save Haïti, says Cardinal - it was reported fragments of an...

Archbishop Charles Chaput has disclosed the Pope Francis plans to attend the World Meeting of Families, to be held September 2015 in Philadelphia. Although the Vatican has not made an official announcement, the Pope "has told me he is coming," Archbishop Chaput said. He said that the Pontiff would be in Philadelphia for the final 3 days of the meeting, September 25-27. (As a rule, the Vatican does not formally confirm papal trips until a few weeks before they take place.) The archbishop also announced that Pope St. John Paul II and St. Gianna Molla are the patron saints of...

Pope Francis blesses Meriam Ibrahim yesterday (via @bettapique) Yesterday Pope Francis received Meriam Ibrahim, the Sudanese Christian woman who is condemned to death, while pregnant, for alleged “apostasy”. The touching encounter gained worldwide media attention and, in the words of writer Fr Dwight Longenecker, enabled millions to “put a face to the thousands of persecuted Christians around the world“.The meeting also drew attention to the Pope’s role in raising awareness of Christian suffering. But what exactly is Francis doing and how effective is it?Why does the problem warrant the Pope’s attention?Even those who follow current affairs closely sometimes fail to...

Featured Term (selected at random:QUIRINAL PALACE Before 1870, a papal residence where conclaves were held. Also used as a summer home. built by Pope Gregory in 1574, it was taken over by the Italian Government at the time of the confiscation of the Papal States. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Phil Lawler at CatholicCulture.org voices what should be obvious: that by taking federal money and grants, the Catholic Church has put herself in a very awkward place. Money from the government always comes with strings attached, and those strings have tied the hands of too many  Catholics.Earlier this week, President Obama handed down an executive order that requires the cutting off of government funds from “any organizations that discriminate against homosexual or ‘transgendered’ persons. This executive order is not aimed solely at the Catholic Church; many others will lose federal contracts.” The U.S. Catholic bishops have opposed this move, but...

In the 13th chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, which we are currently going through in daily Mass, there are a number of parables that Matthew seems to have collected from Jesus’ ministry in Galilee. Among them are the parable of the sower, the parable of the wheat and tares, the parable of the mustard seed, and the parable of the yeast.Another structure employed by Matthew, likely recording the actual practice of Jesus, is the mention of  “the house.” Chapter 13 begins with Jesus going “out of the house,” and speaking to the crowd in parables. Midway through the chapter (verse 36), Jesus goes...

July 25, 2014Feast of Saint James, Apostle  Reading 1 2 Cor 4:7-15 Brothers and sisters:We hold this treasure in earthen vessels,that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us.We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained;perplexed, but not driven to despair;persecuted, but not abandoned;struck down, but not destroyed;always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus,so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body.For we who live are constantly being given up to deathfor the sake of Jesus,so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh....

"One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic." (Friendly Friday Post, by David Ozab) May 13, 2011 By Kurt Willems I am excited to have a post here by David Ozab. He is a writer and recently converted to Roman Catholicism. While I do not share his convictions, certainly it is beneficial to hear from others outside of our own sphere of experience. I am pleased to have his guest contribution on the blog…—————————————photo © 2005 Jo N | more info (via: Wylio) There was once a guy who was stranded on a deserted island. After many years, a passing ship found him....