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Many of you out there are godparents or sponsors for confirmands (from Latin confirmandus… “someone about to be confirmed”. Some of are are about to take on this responsibility. Yes, this is a “responsibility”.Sometimes you may be asked by the less well-informed because you are pals, etc. But this relationship isn’t merely pro-forma. Sure, there are times when baptisms and marriages have been witnessed by the parish caretaker and the priest’s housekeeper because there was no one else around and time was of the essence. That happened. But we are not usually in that situation.Being a godparent or sponsor means...

At a well-attended Rome conference Saturday, six lay scholars from different parts of the world drew attention to controversial passages of Amoris Laetitia, showing the extent of concern and unease among the laity over the papal document. To hold such a lay gathering — just yards from the Vatican and critical of a papal text — was unprecedented in the modern history of the Church, and took place after much hand-wringing in the Church following the publication last April of Amoris Laetitia, the Pope’s apostolic exhortation following the 2014 and 2015 Synods on the Family. The document has prompted divergent...

Some rather depressing news from Dr. Robert Moynihan, who, in his latest letter reports news from the Monks of Norcia / Monaci di Norcia: "They told me that the archbishop of Spoleto, Renato Boccardo, age 64 -- who has jurisdiction over Norcia -- has decided that he will rebuild the Basilica of St. Benedict in a modern style of architecture. He will also take possession of the quarters where the monks had been living from the year 2000 until October 2016. He will use the quarters as a part-time episcopal residence. "So the Benedictine monks of Father Cassian will not...

Francis says childless Europe is committing suicide by not accepting more Moslem invaders “It’s true we are a society that doesn’t have children, but we close the doors to migrants. This is called suicide.” Francis’ words upon exiting the Basilica of St. Bartholomew  Isola Tiberina, Rome, Italy — Saturday, 22 April 2017  “Thank you for being here. Thank you for your prayers.  This church of the martyrs this reminded me of the cruelty, the cruelty that so many people have to suffer, the exploitation of people I’m reminded of the people who come here in boats and they are left...

Four Qualities of Bold and Believable Witnesses to Jesus Msgr. Charles Pope • April 23, 2017 • It is worthwhile to look back at a text that was read on Saturday (Saturday of the Octave of Easter). It is from Acts and sets forth a picture of courage and holy boldness that is too little evident in many Catholics. Let’s look at the passage and then reflect on four qualities that the Apostles Peter and John manifest.Now when [the Sanhedrin] saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And...

It always seemed as if Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, was in trouble for something. A 1956 article in the New York Times describes an instance in which Day was fined $250 for being the landlord of a building that failed to comply with the fire code. In addition to the fine she was also in danger of being forced to evict the sixty tenants from her house of charity. The paper explains that as she headed to court, “there was a group of needy men about the door, awaiting the distribution of clothing. From their midst...

April 24, 2017 Monday of the Second Week of Easter Reading 1 Acts 4:23-31After their release Peter and John went back to their own peopleand reported what the chief priests and elders had told them.And when they heard it,they raised their voices to God with one accordand said, "Sovereign Lord, maker of heaven and earthand the sea and all that is in them,you said by the Holy Spiritthrough the mouth of our father David, your servant: Why did the Gentiles rageand the peoples entertain folly?The kings of the earth took their standand the princes gathered togetheragainst the Lord and against...

The Diocese of Orlando reprimanded the sixth-grade Blessed Trinity teacher for an “unfortunate exhibit of disrespect.”A Blessed Trinity Catholic School religion teacher has been reprimanded by the Diocese of Orlando after he assigned sixth-grade students to read anti-Muslim excerpts from a 164-year-old text authored by Priest Giovanni Bosco, who later became a saint. Mark Smythe, who teaches religion and social studies at Blessed Trinity, gave students several printouts of Bosco’s 1853 text that states Prophet Muhammad “degrades and dishonors human nature and by placing happiness in sensual pleasures, reduces man to the level of filthy animals.” The text also refers...

India's Catholic bishops have strongly condemned a violent police disruption of a Good Friday service at a small parish in the south of the country. The Dhalit Catholic community in the village of Sogandi was holding a liturgy for the Passion of the Lord April 14 when they were disrupted by the Tehsildar – local tax and revenue officers – as well as police during the Veneration of the Cross and distribution of Holy Communion.

Stan Vanuytrecht beat 50 applicants to win the role and occupy one of the last hermitages in central Europe A Catholic deacon has won a competition to live in one of central Europe’s last hermitages, beating 50 other applicants to occupy a 350-year-old cliffside cell above a small Austrian town. Stan Vanuytrecht, 58, responded to an advertisement placed by Fr Alois Moser, which asked for someone with a “connection to Christian belief” and “at peace with themselves”. The role, which is unpaid, became vacant after the previous incumbent left to pursue a writing career in Vienna. The hermitage, in Saalfeden,...

A promise from the governor of Illinois to veto an abortion funding bill drew the gratitude of Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago, who called it a “principled stand.” “Abortion is a controversial issue in this country, but using public money to provide abortions should not be,” the cardinal said April 19. “The federal government prohibits the practice, and polls show a substantial segment of the American public reject it.”Governor Bruce Rauner had pledged to veto Illinois House Bill 40. The legislation would fund elective abortions throughout pregnancy for any reason through the Medicaid and employee health insurance programs. It would...

The five questions, or dubia, submitted by Cardinals Caffarra, Burke, Meisner and Brandmüller to Pope Francis regarding his Apostolic Exhortation on family life, Amoris Laetitia, have been mentioned here before. Many commentators have expressed frustration that the pope has yet to answer them. Plain rude, some say. Probably quite a few liberals also would like Pope Francis to answer the dubia, and make the de facto practice in many places de iure: that divorcees who have entered into a subsequent civil remarriage might be allowed to receive Holy Communion.So far the pope has been silent, and his defenders—not a few of them self-appointed...

From Fear to Faith – A Homily for the Second Sunday of Easter Msgr. Charles Pope • April 22, 2017 • In today’s Gospel, the risen Lord appeared to the Apostles, who were gathered together in one place. The fact that they were gathered in one place is not without significance, for it is there that the Lord chose to appear to them. One of them was not in the gathering and thus missed the blessing of seeing and experiencing the risen Lord. It might be said that Thomas, the absent Apostle, blocked his blessing.Some people want Jesus without...

In Germany, in 1933, two men came to power... The first man, of course, was Adolf Hitler... The other man was Clemens August Graf von Galen, a towering giant of a man who later in 1933 was named bishop of Münster. Under the Nazis, he battled racial bias, the Nazi corruption of Church teaching and most notably the state-sanctioned program of euthanasia to kill off so-called “useless eaters” and burdens on the state.

Scripture scholars had started to read the Bible as if it were simply a classic text. Benedict XVI helped to change that Before the ninetieth birthday of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI on Easter Sunday, Tracey Rowland published in these pages an appreciation for what she called a “Ratzinger revolution” – a theological foundation on which, she predicts, future scholars and pastors will rebuild a Church damaged by secularism. Rowland speaks of a “treasury to be mined by future generations trying to piece together elements of a fragmented Christian culture.”

WASHINGTON, D.C., April 21, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) – A concurrence of dates this weekend putting Earth Day just before Divine Mercy Sunday has environmental activists capitalizing on Pope Francis' message from last year embracing the controversial notion of manmade climate change. #Mercy2Earth Weekend combines the annual environmental activist Earth Day event with the Catholic devotion based on the Divine Mercy of Jesus. Divine Mercy Sunday is associated with apparitions attributed to the Polish nun St. Faustina Kowalska and is observed the Sunday after Easter. Both happen to fall on the same weekend this year. “#Mercy2Earth Weekend is the combination of...

Researcher says that, if trends continue, more Catholics than Presbyterians will be in church on Sunday The Catholic Church is likely to become the largest churchgoing denomination in Scotland. Figures from the 2016 Scottish Church Census reveal that the Catholic Church and Church of Scotland both make up 35 per cent of the churchgoing population, but that the Catholic proportion is expanding.

The Vatican doctrinal chief sits down with Aleteia Poland in this wide-ranging, exclusive interview. POLAND — The head of the Vatican’s doctrinal office, German Cardinal Gerhard Müller, traveled to Poland on April 19 for a conference honoring the 90th birthday of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.The theme of the conference was “The Concept of the State in the Teaching of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger – Benedict XVI.”Aleteia spoke with the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in the offices of the Polish Bishops’ Conference. Cardinal Müller answered several questions exclusively for Aleteia readers, on topics ranging from Medjugorje...

José Camara, who has paid for statues to be sent everywhere from England to Madagascar, says he has nearly depleted his life savings. Every time José Camara thinks his ministry is completed, somebody else needs a statue of Our Lady of Fatima to spread the devotion.Camara, a retired Portuguese businessman, has donated more than 1,000 of the statues, handmade in Fatima, to parishes around the world since January 2013. He even covers the cost of transport, including to South Africa, Madagascar, Australia and the United States.“I started out just over four years ago with the idea of offering 12 hand-made...

The four cardinals have never been alone with their “dubia.” Proof of this comes from what happened in Rome on April 22 in an auditorium of the Hotel Columbus, a short walk from Saint Peter’s Square, where six renowned lay scholars came together from as many countries of the world to give voice to an appeal that is being raised from a large part of the “people of God” so that clarity may be brought to the confusion raised by “Amoris Laetitia.”Anna M. Silvas came from Australia, Claudio Pierantoni from Chile, Jürgen Liminski from Germany, Douglas Farrow from Canada, Jean...