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A Study of Sloth in the Life of Lot Msgr. Charles Pope • July 1, 2015 •   In daily Mass this week (the 13th week of the year) we have been reading through Genesis. Tuesday’s reading highlights a significant spiritual problem: sloth, one of the seven deadly sins. Sloth is a sorrow, sadness, or aversion to the good things God offers. Rather than being joyful and zealous to obtain these gifts, the slothful person sees them as too much trouble to obtain and is averse to the changes such gifts might introduce into his life. This is clearly the...

Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence, Rhode Island, has offered his support for conscientious objection in response to the Supreme Court ruling that requires legal recognition of same-sex marriages. Reacting to a statement by a country clerk in Texas, who said that she would refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, Bishop Tobin said: “Congratulations to Ms. Lang for her courageous stand! We need many more conscientious objectors-– public officials, private businesses, advertisers, religious leaders, and family members-– people of courage who will abide by their conscience, protect their religious rights, and not support or enable the furtherance of this...

July 2, 2015  Thursday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Gn 22:1b-19 God put Abraham to the test. He called to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. Then God said: “Take your son Isaac, your only one, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah. There you shall offer him up as a burnt offering on a height that I will point out to you.” Early the next morning Abraham saddled his donkey, took with him his son Isaac, and two of his servants as well, and with the wood that he had cut...

Pope Francis said he supports the idea of setting a fixed date for Easter Sunday, which for centuries has moved back and forth according to the lunar calendar. Easter and the Holy Week that precedes it is rooted in the Jewish Passover and fixed on the first full moon, which falls on the first Sunday after the spring equinox, March 21. […] The Orthodox Churches normally celebrate Easter a week after the Catholics. […] Historians and expert agree that a common date for Easter would encourage “reconciliation between the Christian churches.” …

The U.S. Catholic bishops have let this charade go on long enough. It's time for them to step up and perform their duty to protect the sheep and get rid of the wolves among us. Justice Anthony Kennedy needs to be excommunicated. In truth, he already should have been after upholding Roe v. Wade in the 1992 Casey v. Planned Parenthood decision. But this same-sex unmarriage ruling is beyond excommunicable. And please, smarmy Church of Nice theologians out there — none of that stupid, insufficient, "Well, by his actions he has already excommunicated himself." That's not enough. The bishops, collectively...

On 22 June, just four days after Pope Francis promulgated the encyclical on the environment, Archbishop Bernardito Auza, Apostolic Nuncio and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations gave a formal statement to the United Nations on the “Zero Draft, Post-2015 Development Agenda.” As an Apostolic Nuncio, the Archbishop represents Pope Francis himself and, in effect, is speaking on his behalf. In his statement he said: “We support the verbatim inclusion of the sustainable development goals and targets as in the Report of the OWG (Open Working Group).” (emphasis added) Toward the end of the statement, the...

From a reader…QUAERITUR: Who is a member of the Roman Catholic Church? Is baptism all that is required? What about people baptised into the RC Church who later in life do not believe in some of the teachings of the RC Church (eg regarding homosexuality) but still go to Mass & Holy Communion? Can they still claim to be members? This seems like a simple question, calling for a simple answer.  It isn’t.From the perspective of the world, the Church, like any other “club” should have clearly demarcated lines of membership, with an initiation process, rules for membership, and penalties...

I’ve seen that question a lot lately, as people have wondered on social media why certain Catholic Supreme Court Justices—along with prominent Catholic politicians—haven’t yet been publicly excommunicated, either for their position on abortion or their stance on same-sex marriage.Good question. I have no idea. That’s above my pay grade. Public excommunication, at any rate, seems to be a relatively rare phenomenon.But I was curious about just whom the Church had excommunicated.This, of course, is why God made Wikipedia. The good people at Wikipedia have compiled a list of recent formal excommunications, which might be of interest:21st century  Members of...

In other news, the head of the SSPX, Bp. Bernard Fellay, gave an interview to Present in which he spoke of the status quaestionis these days, both within the Society (a priestly society, remember) and outside. HERESamples: Present: In an interview with Fideliter in 2001, you mentioned the “movement of profound sympathy from the young clergy for the Society.” Has this movement grown, especially with the motu proprio in 2007?Bishop Fellay: Without a doubt! The motu proprio gave this movement a new impetus. And it is important to insist upon Benedict XVI’s interest for the liturgy in general. He truly...

Awesome or Awful? A Reflection on the Mosaic of Christ in Majesty at the Basilica in Washington Msgr. Charles Pope • June 30, 2015 • I’ve been spending quite a bit of time at the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception here in Washington recently, due to ordinations and other special occasions. As I walk up the main aisle I never fail to be moved by the scene above the apse of Christ in majesty. (See one of my photos to the right.) I have discovered that very few people are neutral on this image of Christ seated in Judgment. People either love...

St. Patrick’s Day Parade chairman John Dunleavy has been ousted after 22 years after a decades-long dispute over the inclusion of gay groups at the annual march down Fifth Ave., according to a report. The decision, made Tuesday afternoon after a meeting involving the parade’s board, comes just four days after the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage across the United States.

Abide with me; fast falls the eventide; The darkness deepens; Lord with me abide. On board in all directions there was the sound of running feet. It was clear there was something wrong. Before hearing anything, however, one had somehow sensed it. Some indiscernible threat had impacted and was quickly making its presence felt throughout the ship. At that moment a priest with breviary in hand was praying Night Office as he walked on the upper deck; nevertheless, as the alarms sounded he knew something had gone seriously wrong. The priest in question was Fr. Thomas Byles, and the ship’s...

For millennia the Catholic Church has consistently opposed unnatural vice. Here is a brief sampling of useful quotes from Saints, Doctors of the Church, Church Fathers and Ecclesiastical Writers who condemn homosexual vice in their writings. Please share this post with all your Catholic friends. 1. Athenagoras of Athens (2nd Century) Athenagoras of Athens was a philosopher who converted to Christianity in the second century. He shows that the pagans, who were totally immoral, did not even refrain from sins against nature: "But though such is our character (Oh! why should I speak of things unfit to be uttered?), the...

Though the 24-hour news cycle has long moved on from applauding the Irish referendum in favor of same-sex "marriage," this catastrophe for the Church and future of Ireland should still be the focus of thoughtful reflection by faithful Catholics. Just as outward physical symptoms reveal the presence of disease and disorder throughout the body, the abandonment of the Faith in Ireland is the outward manifestation of a virulent spiritual disease infecting the entire Church in the West. This deadly disease infecting the Church in Western society has three inter-related symptoms — heresy, apostasy and schism. The Catechism of the Catholic...

July 1, 2015  Wednesday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Gn 21:5, 8-20a Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. Isaac grew, and on the day of the child’s weaning Abraham held a great feast. Sarah noticed the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham playing with her son Isaac; so she demanded of Abraham: “Drive out that slave and her son! No son of that slave is going to share the inheritance with my son Isaac!” Abraham was greatly distressed, especially on account of his son Ishmael....

A Catholic church in the central Cuban city of Cienfuegos has banned female relatives of political prisoners from attending mass unless they no longer wear white, a color associated with political imprisonment in the nation. The slight to families of the abused follows the bewildering remark from Archbishop of Havana Jaime Ortega that Cuba no longer has prisoners of conscience.

Hello everybody. The Supreme Court ruling in favor of same sex marriage occurred June 26, 2015. I do not agree with it. I have to say, the last few days, I have been kinda bummed out about it. I have thought and prayed much about it. Why is that? Oh, the bigoted, hateful guy didn't get his way? He hates gay people so much, he's sad that the Court didn't rule his way. Is that it? Easy. Let's all stop being armchair psychologists, alright. I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth, and in Jesus Christ,...

Having read scores of essays, op-eds, and blog posts about the Obergefell decision, I keep coming back to this outstanding piece by Russell Moore, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s commission on ethics and religious liberty. Moore drives home the point that marriage will endure, and the Church will endure, because both are established by God, who is not subject to the velleities of Supreme Court justices. That does not mean the cultural change wrought by last week’s decision will be painless, Moore warns; on the contrary. But in the end, “the Gospel doesn’t need ‘family values’ to flourish."...

Liberals and conservatives have compared the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision with Obergefell v. Hodges. Both are landmark rulings, in which the high court takes sides in a fractious national debate that was far from decided in the minds of many voters. But Bill McGurn, the Wall Street Journal columnist, takes issue with that assessment, at least as it involves the likely impact of the court's decision to legalize same-sex marriage. McGurn does not dispute the grave immorality of legal abortion. Rather he argues that the weak, ambiguous language on free-exercise protections in Justice Kennedy's majority opinion in...

The Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges on Friday raises troubling questions about the future of religious freedom in the United States. Most ominously, Justice Kennedy writing for the court seemed to circumscribe the freedom of religion as no longer the exercise of one’s faith, but merely the profession of it. All four of the dissenting justices wrote vehemently about the danger that this decision presents to the entire project of ordered liberty. Meanwhile, progressive organizations have made it clear that religious freedom is their next target now that same-sex marriage is the law of the land.Still, as we...