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Christian Browne’s excellent critique of how receiving Communion-in-the-hand while standing are practices that might be reconsidered to strengthen American Catholics’ understanding of the Eucharist properly notes that these ideologically driven changes were required in no way by Vatican II or even the Holy See. Let me add three additional Eucharist-related phenomena bedeviling the “American Church” that also lack much of a doctrinal or theological base but which have become, for ideological reasons, part of the landscape of “American” Catholicism: extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist, blessings in the Eucharistic procession, and the disconnect between the Sacraments of Penance and the...

Trappist Brother Jonah Pociadlo prepares to pour Spencer ale (CNS) Two members spent six months learning the art in BelgiumA Trappist brewery has opened for the first time in the United States.The new brew, Spencer Trappist Ale, is made at St Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts, by Cistercian, or Trappist, monks who wear the distinctive black and white habit.Brother Jonah Pociadlo told Catholic News Service: “It’s got a wonderful smell to it. I hesitate to describe it, because it’s something I think is pretty subjective. But I can almost taste it without it even touching my lips.”The association requires...

Featured Term selected at random:NEOLOGY In theology the introduction of new doctrine, contrary to the Church's teaching but expressed in traditional terms or phrases. (Etym. Greek neos, new + logos, discourse.) All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

What Is the Deepest Root of Sin? It’s Not in Your Wallet and It’s Much Closer Than You Might Think By: Msgr. Charles PopeIn polling friends as to what they think is the deepest root of all sin, I got three main answers. One was a shrug indicating no answer at all (i.e., “I dunno”). Another was to refer to Scripture: For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils (1 Tim 6:10). I’ll discuss below why this is an inadequate answer. The third main response was that original sin (and the concupiscence that followed) is the source of all of our other...

For the Rev. Pádraig Standún, a Catholic priest in western Ireland, voting “yes” is a matter of what’s right. To another Irish priest, the Rev. Iggy O’Donovan, it’s about creating an inclusive state. To the Rev. Martin Dolan, Ireland’s upcoming referendum on same-sex marriage is deeply personal. “I’m gay myself,” he announced to his Dublin congregation in January. It was a surprise ending to Dolan’s homily, in which he urged his congregation to vote “yes” in the referendum. But his parishioners took it in stride — they gave him a standing ovation, according to the Belfast Telegraph. As the Friday...

One rarely finds, among German churchmen today, a sobered openness, born of the recognition that something has gone terribly wrong and that another approach to evangelization and catechesis must be found The 21st-century Church owes a lot to 20th-century German Catholicism: for its generosity to Catholics in the Third World; for the witness of martyrs like Alfred Delp, Bernhard Lichtenberg, and Edith Stein; for its contributions to Biblical studies, systematic and moral theology, liturgical renewal, and Catholic social doctrine, through which German Catholicism played a leading role in Vatican II’s efforts to renew Catholic witness for the third millennium. At...

Members of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart pray in their motherhouse chapel in Fushun, China, in this 2007 photo. The community of nuns was founded in the 1930s by Maryknoll. (CNS file/Nancy Wiechec) By Laura Ieraci Catholic News ServiceVATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis asked Catholics worldwide to show solidarity through their prayers for Catholics in China and for persecuted Christians over the Pentecost weekend.The World Day of Prayer for the Church in China is observed each year on the feast of Our Lady Help of Christians, May 24, which this year falls on Pentecost.Catholics in China invoke Mary,...

May 21, 2015Thursday of the Seventh Week of Easter    Reading 1 Acts 22:30; 23:6-11 Wishing to determine the truthabout why Paul was being accused by the Jews,the commander freed himand ordered the chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin to convene.Then he brought Paul down and made him stand before them. Paul was aware that some were Sadducees and some Pharisees,so he called out before the Sanhedrin,“My brothers, I am a Pharisee, the son of Pharisees;I am on trial for hope in the resurrection of the dead.”When he said this,a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and Sadducees,and the...

BALTIMORE, MD, May 19, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- Breaking a month of silence on the scandal created by one of its high-level executives living in a homosexual “marriage,” the head of Catholic Relief Services (CRS) said the organization has yet to decide whether it should employ someone who violates Church teaching in this manner. The US Bishops’ international relief agency is working on it, CRS President and CEO Carolyn Woo told Aleteia’s John Burger in an interview published May 18. “CRS has a senior person who is in a civil gay marriage,” Woo said, “and the question is, ‘Is that a...

The new Vatican Has support of only 20% of bishops. Enthusiasts, enemies and silent dissenters colour Francis’s fraught relationship with Curia. Bond with ordinary people and harshness with Church hierarchy criticised “There’s depression. Heads are cowed. When he speaks about bishops, this Pope who shows great compassion to everyone else is inclined to use a stick”. On rereading it the following day, the Pope’s address to the opening of the Italian bishops’ conference (CEI) left a deep impression, provoking some bitter reflections. The address was received as confirmation of severity that has been perceived with pained surprise over the past...

Canadian broadcaster and commentator Michael Coren has left the Catholic Church again...Currently, he is affiliating with the Anglican church, where he says he feels very comfortable. Why did Coren leave the Catholic Church? In an interview with Canada’s National Post, he says that it was because of the Church’s teaching on homosexuality... [long snip] He says that although the Church’s teaching on homosexuality was the main reason he left, “there’s more than that — some teachings on contraception and on life. There seemed to be an obsession with issues that Jesus never mentioned.” Dude, really? The Gospels are limited documents...

From a reader…QUAERITUR: I have noticed at the Traditional Latin Mass I attend that the women cover their heads with their veils once their sit down in their pews. [?!?] I was told by a friend that the norm years ago was that women veiled their heads before their entered the church and took off their veils once they stepped out of church, not once they sat down in their pews. [!] Which is the proper way for women who veil their heads? Are the women who veil once they enter their pews doing anything wrong? Should the priest(s) address...

In John 5:43, Jesus declared:I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive.With the advent of Protestantism and the confusion that followed, and that continues to this day, Christians, outside of the Catholic Church, have, at best, an incomplete understanding of the power of these words. When Jesus says, “I come in my father’s name,” he reveals the nature of the authority he possesses from God, the Father.We use this phrase—at least, the “in the name of” part—similarly in modern parlance in law enforcement when a police...

On Sunday, May 10, after church mass, a group of young Muslim immigrants interrupted a Catholic procession in honor of the Virgin Mary.  They hurled verbal insults, shouts, and threats as the group passed in front of the Islamic Cultural Center in Conselice, a small town in lower Romagna.Approximately 100 Catholic Christians, including several small children, were preparing to receive their first Holy Communion, when Muslims from the Islamic Center began howling verbal abuses and threats at the passing procession.According to an eyewitness, “During the slow procession of the sacred image, some kids on the ground floor of the building of the headquarters of...

Featured Term selected at random:FISHERMAN'S RING  The Pope's signet ring, used for the sealing of important documents, such as papal briefs. It represents St. Peter fishing and bears the name of the Pope. When he dies, an official document is drawn up testifying that his ring was destroyed. This is done to prevent falsification of briefs. See Also: RING OF THE FISHERMANAll items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

What's Wrong with a Little Indulgence?  by Jimmy Akin Ever since Luther's Ninety-Five Theses was posted in 1517 to the door of the castle church in Wittenburg, the topic of indulgences has been a controversial one. In this article Jimmy Akin explains exactly what indulgences are and how they may be applied by Catholics to mitigate the temporal punishment due to sin. He discusses the nature of punishment, the role of grace, and the role of the Church, ending with an explanation of how an indulgence may be obtained. October 31, 1517, is sometimes celebrated as the birth date...

Comfort the Sorrowful – A Consideration of the Fourth Spiritual Work of Mercy By: Msgr. Charles PopeThe fourth Spiritual Work of Mercy is to “comfort the sorrowful.” Sometimes it is listed as to “comfort the afflicted.” This description broadens the work just a bit and also fits more with the original notion of the word “comfort,” as we shall consider in a moment.But of all the spiritual works of mercy, comforting the sorrowful requires the greatest patience, sensitivity, and also silence. This is because sorrow (or grief) often has a life and logic of its own; often it must be allowed...

Diarmuid Martin stresses ‘people should be informed’ about about same-sex marriage Catholic Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin has declined to comment on the position of those Catholics who may vote Yes in Friday’s same-sex marriage referendum. It was not his policy “to tell others how to vote”, a spokeswoman said, while he stressed “that people should be informed”. Responding to a query from The Irish Times as to the position of Catholics who may in conscience vote Yes on Friday, she said: “Archbishop Martin has publicly stated how he intends to vote and why. “It is not his policy, however,...

I was sixteen years old when the concept of the Transubstantiation became clearer to me.  Until that time, I attended Mass with my parents half-heartedly and out of obligation.  It wasn’t until I left my Catholic elementary school only to enter the cesspool of public high school, riddled with all varieties of unbelievers and even some colorful Satanists, that I began to question what I believed and why in terms of religion.My parents reluctantly permitted me to attend a megachurch youth group with my closest friends from school, as long as I agreed to continue attending Mass on the weekends...

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the close of the Second Vatican Council. Pope Francis has decided to mark the occasion with the “Year of Mercy.” Despite much happy-talk and positive papal press, it is a time of foreboding in the Church. The anxiety over the coming Synod on the Family is substantial and growing, with the German bishops’ recent moves to formally ignore the Church’s teachings on sexual morality and the family. Their corruption, and the decayed state of the Church in Europe, is a source of much distress.The social and political situation in the United States is...