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April 13, 2015Monday of the Second Week of Easter    Reading 1 Acts 4:23-31 After 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...

Patricia Jannuzzi SOMERVILLE — Patricia Jannuzzi, the veteran Immaculata High School School teacher suspended for her anti-gay Facebook posts, will be reinstated immediately, school principal Jean Kline said in a letter dated Friday. Jannuzzi, a 33-year theology teacher at Immaculata, was forced by Immaculata to deactivate her Facebook page after several alumni started circulating screen shots of her sharply worded posts against gay marriage and gay rights. Two days later, the school placed her on administrative leave. The letter to students and parents, quoting school director Msgr. Seamus Brennan states in part: Immaculata High School has reached an understanding with...

God’s Perfect Mercy – A Meditation for Divine Mercy Sunday By: Msgr. Charles PopeWe live in times in which mercy, like so many other things, has become a detached concept in people’s minds, separated from the things that really help us to understand it. For indeed, mercy makes sense and is necessary because we are sinners in desperate shape. Yet many today think it unkind and unmerciful to speak of sin as sin. Many think that mercy is a declaration that God doesn’t really care about sin, or that sin is not a relevant concept.On the contrary, mercy means that sin...

April 12, 2015Sunday of Divine Mercy    Reading 1 Acts 4:32-35 The community of believers was of one heart and mind,and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own,but they had everything in common.With great power the apostles bore witnessto the resurrection of the Lord Jesus,and great favor was accorded them all.There was no needy person among them,for those who owned property or houses would sell them,bring the proceeds of the sale,and put them at the feet of the apostles,and they were distributed to each according to need. Responsorial Psalm Ps 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24 R. (1)...

April 11, 2015Saturday in the Octave of Easter    Reading 1 Acts 4:13-21 Observing the boldness of Peter and Johnand perceiving them to be uneducated, ordinary men,the leaders, elders, and scribes were amazed,and they recognized them as the companions of Jesus.Then when they saw the man who had been cured standing there with them,they could say nothing in reply.So they ordered them to leave the Sanhedrin,and conferred with one another, saying,“What are we to do with these men?Everyone living in Jerusalem knows that a remarkable signwas done through them, and we cannot deny it.But so that it may not...

A teacher suspended from a Catholic school for using Facebook to defend traditional marriage has been reinstated. Almost one month ago, Patricia Jannuzzi was suspended from Immaculata High School in Somerville, New Jersey, after she made what became controversial comments about same-sex relationships. Over the next several weeks, she was told that the suspension was effectively a release from her job, as she would not be rehired for the 2016 school year... "Immaculata High School announced today that all issues related to the employment of teacher Patricia Jannuzzi are resolved," said the release. According to Brennan, "Immaculata High School has...

All children deserve to be safe at school. Yet it turns out that New York City does not provide kids who attend private schools with the same level of protection as those at public schools. That’s not only unfair, it’s unsafe. And it ought to change. As matters stand, only public schools in the city are eligible for NYPD school-safety agents. Private schools must provide security officers on their own dime. And while child-safety is an issue no decent school would ignore, the fact is many private schools struggle to cover the costs of adequate security — and sometimes the...

Featured Term selected at random:VALIDITY Having not only legal force but actually producing the effect intended. Applied to the sacraments, it refers to the conditions of matter, form, and circumstances required for valid administration. In ecclesiastical law it means that certain prescriptions must be fulfilled for the law or contractual agreement to bind or take effect. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

When Did the Resurrection Go from Rumor to an Official Declaration of the Church? By: Msgr. Charles PopeIn the early hours of the first Easter Sunday, the news began to circulate that Jesus was alive and had been seen. These reports were at first disbelieved or at least doubted by the Apostles. They dismissed various reports from both women and men. But suddenly that evening there was a change, a declaration by the Apostles that the Lord “has truly risen!”  What effected this change? We will see in a moment. But first, note the early reports of the resurrection and how they...

April 10, 2015Friday in the Octave of Easter    Reading 1 Acts 4:1-12 After the crippled man had been cured,while Peter and John were still speaking to the people,the priests, the captain of the temple guard,and the Sadducees confronted them,disturbed that they were teaching the peopleand proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead.They laid hands on Peter and Johnand put them in custody until the next day,since it was already evening.But many of those who heard the word came to believeand the number of men grew to about five thousand. On the next day, their leaders, elders, and...

The pro-abortion American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is suing the Obama administration for documents it says will show that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is restricting access to abortions for unaccompanied immigrant children.In February 2014, the USCCB objected to a new regulation proposed by the Obama administration that would require contractors to provide access to contraception and abortion for unaccompanied immigrant children who have been raped.  In an official letter, the USCCB as well as World Relief, the National Association of Evangelicals and Catholic Relief Services, explained that the new regulation violates religious liberty, specifically the federal...

Students and alumni of a Catholic high school in Iowa held a rally on Wednesday afternoon to protest a decision by school officials not to hire a gay teacher. The rally at Dowling Catholic High School in West Des Moines involved a walkout and a demonstration at which a handful of students and alumni spoke, reports The Des Moines Register. The gay teacher who did not get hired had worked as a substitute at Dowling Catholic High — a school of some 1,430 souls. In the process of vetting the teaching candidate for a full-time teaching job, school officials learned...

Featured Term selected at random:CANONS REGULAR Priests who are bound by religious vows and who live in community under a distinctive rule. Originating in the eleventh century, in connection with the reform movement of Pope Gregory VII, they have mainly adopted the Rule of St. Augustine. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

A Meditation on the Sins of the Intellect By: Msgr. Charles PopeWhen I was in the seminary, my Moral Theology Professor, Fr. Robert Zylla (R.I.P.), encouraged us to meditate on the sins of the intellect during the third sorrowful mystery (The Crowning with Thorns). In his years of teaching he had surely witnessed the intellectual pride that could beset theologians and seminary students who figured they knew a few things. And added to this human tendency to intellectual pride was the rather prideful sense of the 20th century that we had somehow “come of age.” Dissent from church teaching was rampant and...

April 9, 2015Thursday in the Octave of Easter    Reading 1 Acts 3:11-26 As the crippled man who had been cured clung to Peter and John,all the people hurried in amazement toward themin the portico called “Solomon’s Portico.”When Peter saw this, he addressed the people,“You children of Israel, why are you amazed at this,and why do you look so intently at usas if we had made him walk by our own power or piety?The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesuswhom you handed over and...

Featured Term selected at random:PENITENTIAL ACT The invitation by the priest at Mass, after the opening salutation, to have the congregation acknowledge their sinfulness. This is followed by the Appeal for Mercy, the Kyrie, unless the pleas for forgiveness was already included in the penitential act. Normally each invocation is sung (or said) twice, but there may be further repetitions and also brief text insertions (tropes) if the circumstances warrant such additions. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Equal in Dignity and Responsibility: Ministering to Those With Same-Sex Attraction By: Msgr. Charles PopeA conference is being planned in August to ponder an authentic pastoral response in ministering to those with same-sex attraction. Dr. Janet Smith is the organizer; Courage International and the Archdiocese of Detroit are the sponsors. It looks to be a  fine gathering of solid speakers. Though I am clearly a “back-bencher” among the fine speakers being lined up, I was asked to submit a paper for possible inclusion in the book that will likely be published by Ignatius Press just prior to the conference.As a...

April 8, 2015Wednesday in the Octave of Easter    Reading 1 Acts 3:1-10 Peter and John were going up to the temple areafor the three o’clock hour of prayer.And a man crippled from birth was carriedand placed at the gate of the temple called “the Beautiful Gate” every day to beg for alms from the people who entered the temple.When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple,he asked for alms.But Peter looked intently at him, as did John,and said, “Look at us.”He paid attention to them, expecting to receive something from them.Peter said, “I have...

A young Syrian child raises her arms in a gesture of surrender. Credit: Osman Sagirli. Beirut, Lebanon, Apr 4, 2015 / 04:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A photo that went viral last week depicting a young Syrian child “surrendering” in front of a camera she thought to be a gun is but a mere hint at the trauma which displaced and refugee children face across the Middle East, an aid worker says. “In regards to the children, it’s a very bleak and complex (situation). Circumstances are not good at all,” Zerene Haddad told CNA during a March 31 phone call from...

Featured Term selected at random:ONTOLOGISM A theory that holds that each person has an immediate intuitive vision of God, and this vision is the source and ground of all other human knowledge. Originating with Platonic mysticism, the doctrine was first projected by Marsilio Ficino (1433-99), systematically organized by Nicolas Malebranche (1638-1715), and developed by Vincenzo Gioberti (1801-52). It was condemned in 1861 as erroneous under Pius IX by the Congregation of the Inquisition. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.