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Featured Term (selected at random:UNITATIS REDINTEGRATIO Decree on Ecumenism of the Second Vatican Council. It deals with the Catholic principles on ecumenism, the practice of ecumenism, and the churches and ecclesiastical communities separated from the Roman Apostolic See. A careful distinction is made between spiritual ecumenism, mainly through prayer and the practice of virtue, and practical ecumenism, which actively fosters the reunification of Christianity. Also the faithful are told to recognize various levels of nearness to the Catholic Church, in descending order, the Eastern Orthodox, Anglicans, and Protestants (November 21, 1964). All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John...

In this show, I discuss the central concerns of the "Men's Rights Movement", how the social doctrine of the Church matches up with it, and what simply must be done in this area in order to prevent societal collapse. LISTEN ON YOUTUBE (Alternative link, via Vimeo.) Summary: I start off with a note to women and I complain about the modern media's terrible influence in these matters. I make note of what I call "practical polygamy" (80-90% of women chasing after 10-20% of men). Perhaps most controversially, I tackle the issue of the advanced education of women and their "right"...

A couple of years ago I wrote of an unusual experience I had at Mass wherein a person who was troubled by a demon had those demons manifest themselves at the consecration, causing the person to run out of the Church. More on that in a moment.I thought of that long-ago incident in relation to the current events transpiring in Oklahoma City, where a satanic cult stole the Eucharist from a Catholic parish and announced plans to desecrate it at a satanic “mass” in September. Archbishop Paul Coakley filed a lawsuit, asking a judge to stop the desecration by requiring...

August 25, 2014Monday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time    Reading 1 2 Thes 1:1-5, 11-12 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy to the Church of the Thessaloniansin God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:grace to you and peace from God our Fatherand the Lord Jesus Christ. We ought to thank God always for you, brothers and sisters,as is fitting, because your faith flourishes ever more,and the love of every one of you for one another grows ever greater.Accordingly, we ourselves boast of you in the churches of Godregarding your endurance and faith in all your persecutionsand the afflictions...

By now, we’ve all heard the refrain that U.S. churches need liberalize their teachings on sexuality and homosexuality or rapidly decline. The logic behind the argument is simple: more and more Americans are embracing homosexuality and same-sex marriage, including growing numbers of religious Millennials. So long as churches remain the face of opposition to gay marriage, those churches will shrink into irrelevancy when gay marriage (inevitably, we are told) becomes a settled political issue. These arguments often see church acceptance of homosexuality as a carrot as well as a stick. It isn’t so much that denouncing homosexuality will drive people...

Priest on Road to Canonization Given Highest US Military Honor Editor of Biography Reflects on What Fr. Kapaun Has to Teach Us Washington, D.C., April 12, 2013 (Zenit.org) Kathleen Naab | Thursday in the White House, President Barack Obama bestowed on Fr. Emil Kapaun the nation's highest military recognition, the Medal of Honor.The priest, who died in a prisoner of war camp during the Korean war, is also being considered for canonization.The life that won Fr. Kapaun not only such high military praise, but also possible recognition as a canonized saint, is the subject of a biography called "The...

When I entered I saw what I had written. I wanted to say a word to you and the word is “joy”. Wherever there are consecrated people, seminarians, men and women religious, young people, there is joy, there is always joy! It is the joy of freshness, the joy of following Jesus; the joy that the Holy Spirit gives us, not the joy of the world. There is joy! but — where is joy born? Joy is born from the gratuitousness of an encounter! It is hearing someone say, but not necessarily with words: “You are important to me”. This...

EPISTLE I Cor. 15:1-10 Brethren: Now I make known unto you brethren, the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye received, wherein also ye stand, by which also ye are saved, if ye hold fast the word which I preached unto you, except ye believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which also I received: that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried; and that he hath been raised on the third day according to the scriptures; and that he appeared to Cephas; then to the...

The Gospel today sets forth the biblical basis for the Office of Peter—the Office of the Papacy—for Peter’s successors are the popes. The word “pope” is simply an English version (via Anglo-Saxon and Germanic tongues) of the word “papa.” The Pope is affectionately called “Papa” in Italian and Spanish as an affectionate indication that he is the father of the family, the Church.That Peter receives an office and not simply a charismatic designation we will discuss later. As to certain objections regarding the Office of the Papacy, we will also deal with them later. But for now let’s look at...

Stabat Mater (At the Cross Her Station Keeping) This 13th-century hymn is variously attributed to Gregory I, Bernard of Clairvaux, Pope Innocent III, St. Bonaventura, Jacopone da Todi, Pope John XXII, and Pope Gregory XI, and others. It was the liturgical sequence for the Seven Sorrows of the Virgin (Sept. 15 and the Friday before Palm Sunday). It is no longer used on the Friday before Palm Sunday and is optional on September 15, but it continues to be sung at the Stations of the Cross during Lenten services. It was not admitted as a liturgical sequence until 1727, and...

August 24, 2014Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time    Reading 1 is 22:19-23 Thus says the LORD to Shebna, master of the palace:“I will thrust you from your officeand pull you down from your station.On that day I will summon my servantEliakim, son of Hilkiah;I will clothe him with your robe,and gird him with your sash,and give over to him your authority.He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem,and to the house of Judah.I will place the key of the House of David on Eliakim’s shoulder;when he opens, no one shall shutwhen he shuts, no one shall open.I...

August 23, 2014Saturday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time    Reading 1 Ez 43:1-7ab The angel led me to the gate which faces the east,and there I saw the glory of the God of Israelcoming from the east.I heard a sound like the roaring of many waters,and the earth shone with his glory.The vision was like that which I had seenwhen he came to destroy the city,and like that which I had seen by the river Chebar.I fell prone as the glory of the LORD entered the templeby way of the gate which faces the east,but spirit lifted...

In times of evil, prophets who see it in what Ronald Knox called a “clear light” are not necessarily heeded, though they are desperately needed. Such a man was Hilaire Belloc, as Monsignor Knox described him at Belloc’s funeral Mass in 1953. “By derivation,” Knox explained, a prophet “is one who speaks out.” Belloc, the first truly revisionist historian, made it his life’s work to speak out. He warned of the rise of Islam throughout the early years of the 20th century and then between the two world wars, when such prophecy seemed absurd. In 2006 another great prophet, Pope...

Cross being removed from the Armenian Church in Raqqa, Syria, 2013 Source:  Caffè Storia, August 22, 2014 It was in March 2013, at the peak of the complex phase of the civil war in Syria, when the Jihadist militants of Jabat al-Nusra captured the city of Ar Raqqah (Raqqa or Rakka) from the government troops of President Bashar al-Asad.  In May of 2013, while the United States and Europe were still discussing a possible military intervention in Syria against al-Asad and at the United Nations they were trying to find, without success, tangible proof as to who had really...

A story which happened in Buenos Aires eight years ago helps us to understand the position adopted by Pope Francis regarding the ISIS, the “Islamic State” which has embarked on a merciless hunt against Christians. Avoiding, as always, naming Islam and fanatic Muslims, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, invited “stopping the unjust aggressors” without “any bombing” or “starting a war”. A choice which does not seem to leave escape for the victims and for this judged sterile by many: believers (including Antonio Socci from these columns) and non-believers (the case of Massimo Cacciari). In reality this intervention is perfectly in line with...

The Second Vatican Council was not evil: no Council of the Church ever is. But because it was dominated by Modernist experts, periti, the considerations of its bishops reflected their influence. Thus, the Council served as a catalyst for the resurgence of the heresy within the Church.

There was to be a “Black Mass” performance at the Oklahoma City Civic Center on September 21, using a consecrated Host. But after Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul Coakley succeeded in getting a judge to issue a restraining order, on the grounds that the Host had been stolen, the attorney for the Satanic group returned the Host to a Catholic priest. The archbishop then dropped his lawsuit. Here is how the story played out over the summer. When we learned of this scheduled performance, we issued a news release on July 2 calling attention to what a “Black Mass” entails. We...

A family of Christian refugees in Iraq who are taking shelter at the Syriac Catholic Mrtshmony Shrine in Erbil. Credit: Aid to the Church in Need-USA. Erbil, Iraq, Aug 22, 2014 / 04:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Iraqi Christians' faith is not diminished, even as they face exile from their homes and profound suffering, an official with a Catholic pastoral charity has said after visiting Kurdistan, where many have taken refuge. “The faith is the reason for their lives. And despite the persecution, children wear rosaries around their necks and the people do not hide their tattoos of crosses or their...

Cardinal Fernando Filoni, who traveled to Iraq Aug. 12-20 as Pope Francis' personal envoy, speaks to CNA in Rome, Aug. 22, 2014. Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNA. Vatican City, Aug 22, 2014 / 01:19 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis has given $1 million as a personal contribution to help Christians and other religious minorities in Iraq who have been forced from their homes, according to his personal envoy to the country. Cardinal Fernando Filoni, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, visited Erbil as Pope Francis' envoy from Aug. 12-20. Erbil, where more than 70,000 Christians have fled from the...

When we think of great mystics and wonder-working saints, we often think of those who lived centuries ago. Yet, St. Pio of Pietrelcina was both a mystic and a performer of many miracles—and he died in 1968, only 46 years ago.In many ways, this saint was and is a contradiction to our scientific, rational age, and despite their eagerness to prove him a fraud, skeptics remain consistently unable to explain the many miracles that accompanied St. Pio’s life.But while St. Pio is remembered as a miracle worker, he was perhaps best known in his day as a spiritual father to countless souls. He gave wise and holy counsel...