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It was a well-nigh universal trope of Reformation rhetoric that the Reformers were the catholics who had to defend orthodoxy and catholicity against the sectarianism of the Roman church. Luther disputed the Catholic claim that obedience to Rome was the definition of catholicity, and disputed it on the basis of the universal testimony of the church (Unitive Protestantism, 65). Calvin defended the Reformers against the charge that they were schismatics: “Verily the wolves complain against the lambs” (quoted, 73). The 1559 French Confession distinguished the true church from “all other sects who call themselves the church” (quoted, 80), a thinly...

Featured Term selected at random:HABITUAL GRACE  Constant supernatural quality of the soul which sanctifies a person inherently and makes him or her just and pleasing to God. Also called sanctifying grace or justifying grace. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

By Dr. Robert Stackpole, STD (Sep 7, 2009)The following is part 9 of a 14-part series to help inspire parish cenacle and study groups who are looking for ways to make a difference in this troubled world. We invite you to view the entire series. Let us now sum up the pattern of life to which our Lord is calling us. Centered on the Merciful Heart of Jesus, whose love is poured into our hearts especially through prayer and the Eucharist, we are to let His merciful love flow through our hearts toward anyone in need whom we meet...

Out of Pride and Into Humility: A Lenten Meditation on a Teaching by St. Bernard of Clairvaux By: Msgr. Charles PopeIn yesterday’s post, we considered the twelve steps of pride set forth by St. Bernard of Clairvaux. In escalating ways, the twelve steps draw us to an increasingly mountainous and enslaving pride.St. Bernard also enumerates the twelve steps to deeper humility (I am using the list from Vultus Dei HERE)  and it is these that we consider in today’s post. As with yesterday’s post, the list by St. Bernard is shown in red, but the commentary on each step is shown in...

Dear Friends in Jesus and Mary, The Foot of the Cross by Father Faber is a Beautiful and Magnificent Catholic Classic. It is all about the "Sorrows of Mary". Mother Mary was the first disciple of our Lord Jesus Christ at the Foot of the Cross. Father Faber explains each sorrow of Mary in great detail in this Book. NOTE TO READERS: The Foot of the Cross by Father Faber is a "MUST READ" Catholic Classic not only during Lent but also during Holy Week, specially on Good Friday. FYI - Pauly Fongemie is the webmaster of "Catholic Tradition:. Here...

February 26, 2015Thursday of the First Week in Lent    Reading 1 Est C:12, 14-16, 23-25 Queen Esther, seized with mortal anguish,had recourse to the LORD.She lay prostrate upon the ground, together with her handmaids, from morning until evening, and said:“God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob, blessed are you. Help me, who am alone and have no help but you,for I am taking my life in my hand.As a child I used to hear from the books of my forefathersthat you, O LORD, always free those who are pleasing to you.Now help me, who am...

An archbishop from Ghana suggested that the Church might explore using “the power of the keys” to release spouses from their marital vows, in an interview with Aleteia. “It is daring to say what I’m saying,” acknowledged Archbishop Charles Palmer-Buckle of Accra. But he suggested that the October meeting of the Synod of Bishops might explore the possibility that the Church could allow couples to remarry without an annulment. He did not specify how such a proposal could be reconciled with the Church’s teaching on the permanence of marriage, and conceded that the Church could not contradict that teaching. Archbishop...

A Vatican department allegedly intercepted over a hundred copies of a new book written by five cardinals to prevent it being read by the majority of participants of a synod last October called by Pope Francis. “Remaining in the Truth of Christ,” a commercially successful book reaffirming Catholic teaching on marriage and the family, was mailed to all the synod fathers in the Paul VI Hall, where the meeting was taking place. Reliable and high level sources allege the head of secretariat of the synod of bishops, Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, ordered they be intercepted because they would “interfere with the...

HOLY ORDERS St. Pius X on Priestly SanctityThe Ordination into the Priesthood is the Sacrament known as Holy Orders. This sacrament is administered by the 'laying of hands', the candidate Deacons for Priesthood, kneel before the Bishop. In silence the Bishop lays his hands upon the head of each individual candidate. The prayer belonging to the imposition of hands is said by the Bishop; by this, the Holy Spirit then enters the candidate imparting on him all Priestly powers. The Sacrament of Holy Orders confers Sanctifying Grace to the recipient. The Bishop, through his power of ordaining, is enabled...

A GAY Roman Catholic priest on trial for sex abuse has admitted being shown a child porn film by a close friend. Tony McSweeney, 68, was father at St Peter’s Roman Catholic Church in Eastwood Road North, Eastwood, before being moved from the church in 1998, just months after his cleaner found pornographic video tapes at his home. McSweeney denies molesting three youngsters at Grafton Close Children’s Home in Hounslow, West London, between 1979 and 1981. He admitted being shown a child sex porn film by close friend and care home manager John Stingemore, 72, and broke down in tears...

Lines from the Lord's Prayer, in various languages. From the Eucharist Door at the Glory Facade of the Sagrada Família in Barcelona, Spain. It's Lent in Rome. That means it's time for one of the great Roman traditions: station churches. Each morning, English-speaking pilgrims walk to a different church for Mass. This morning, on the way to St. Anastasia's, I was once again struck by a line in the Our Father: “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” That's a hard thing to pray, It doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room. Even the Catechism...

A priest who witnessed a miracle in communist Czechoslovakia in the 1940s was tortured and beaten to death for refusing to recant what he’d seen. And now Catholics from the country are honoring his heroic virtue and pushing for him to be recognized as a martyr. At a recent gathering in Číhošť commemorating the priest’s brutal death, his current successor at the parish church says he’s grateful for efforts to overturn the decades-long silence on atrocities against Catholics in the 20th century. “Naturally, I am glad that the issue of Father Josef Toufar is starting to be resolved in which...

The words of Jesus in Matthew 7:21-23 are often quoted, but commonly misapplied. In this familiar passage our Lord declared, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'" Unfortunately, this passage is often presented to genuine believers...

I have wanted to write about this for soooooo long now. Kathnet broke this, in German HERE. Remember the Five Cardinals Book™? Remaining in the Truth of Christ: Marriage and Communion in the Catholic Church helped to turn the tide – in a good way – during last October’s Synod of Bishops... ...It contains essays of five cardinals, of the archbishop secretary of the Vatican congregation for the Oriental Churches, and of three scholars direct at the notions suggested by Walter Card. Kasper in the opening discourse of the consistory in February 2014. It blew the Kasper proposals and arguments...

Featured Term selected at random:CARDIOGNOSIS Literally "knowledge of the heart." The special charism that God confers on some people as recorded in the lives of the saints, to know the moral and spiritual condition of a person without self-manifestation. As an extraordinary supernatural gift, it must be distinguished from the psychological phenomenon of being able to shrewdly estimate someone's minimal external evidence. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Disappointing progressives yet again, Pope Francis has now condemned contemporary gender theory as denying “the order of creation.” In an interview published in a new book, Pope Francis: This Economy Kills, by Andrea Tornielli and Giacomo Galeazzi, (portions of which were also published last month in the Italian daily La Stampa), Pope Francis appears to reject the postmodern conceptualization of gender as a moveable point along a spectrum that is fluid and changeable. He does not accept the progressive claim that gender is socially constructed rather than God-given and instead appears to embrace gender in a traditional “binary” category of...

Officials quiet about status of discussion after several scholars voice concernOfficials at the University of Notre Dame are contemplating opening a satellite campus in China, but the discussion has prompted concern among some faculty who say the notion runs afoul of the school’s Catholic identity and, if approved, would appear to condone some of the communist country’s anti-Catholic policies. The partnership under consideration would be a joint residential liberal arts college with Zhejiang University at the school’s new international campus in Haining, China. The college would open for the 2017-18 academic year and is projected to admit 1,000 undergraduate students,...

How Does Pride Accumulate in Our Life? A Reflection on a Teaching by St. Bernard of Clairvaux By: Msgr. Charles PopeSo you think the idea of the “Twelve Steps” is new? Well, if you think you’ve got a new idea, go back and see how the Greeks put it, or in this case how the Medieval Latins put it. St. Bernard of Clairvaux identified twelve steps up the mountain of pride in his work Steps of Humility and Pride.In today’s post, we focus on the Twelve Steps of Pride. Tomorrow, we’ll tackle the Twelve Steps of Humility (from St. Benedict’s rule). ...

Yesterday, on February 23, it was reported that Pope Francis formally declared Gregory of Narek to be a Doctor of the Universal Church. Gregory of Narek was an Armenian priest, monk, and poet who is greatly revered by Armenians but virtually unknown otherwise. So far as I can tell, he is the first and only non-Catholic among only 36 doctors of the Church. He lived and died in the bosom of a schismatic jurisdiction, and he was most likely an adherent of the Miaphysite heresy. Traditionally, a Doctor of the Church is chosen only among recognized Catholic saints. Is this...

The Orans Position and holding hands during the Our Father[caption id="attachment_1144" align="alignnone" width="300"] Dominican Orans position at the Unde et Memores[/caption] Most people who attend a Novus Ordo parish or who simply attend Mass in what is known as the Ordinary Form (which most people attend) encounter two specific types of hand gestures that many of the laity engage in. The first type of hand gesture is that which is known as the "Orans Position" (praying with elevated hands). This type of gesture can be seen in several parts of the Mass such as when one of the laity elevates...