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Of Dolphins and Man: The Vast Difference between Animals and Humans Msgr. Charles Pope • September 14, 2016 • Those of you who read my posts regularly know that I have often expressed great fascination with and affection for the pets I have had over the years. I am in awe of the whole of the created order, which proclaims God’s glory.However, there are important distinctions between the human person and the created order that sometimes get lost in modern movements such as environmentalism, animal rights, and even in the realms of philosophy and science.Consider a recent article on...

DAY 32 – MARY, GATE OF HEAVEN, PRAY FOR US STATE OF GRACE Devil’s Tactic #1 – Cut us off from our supply lines The first major strategy from the father of lies is actually as old as the Garden of Eden itself. It is simply to convince us we do not need God (Gen. 3:5-6), nor do we need his strength and his power (Eph. 6:10). In modern times, we have witnessed this in the effective campaign of militant secularists who have sought to de-mythologize our faith, a flat out rejection of the supernatural power of God. Once the...

The pro-abortion group Catholics for Choice placed "Abortion in Good Faith" full-page ads in several newspapers around the country on Monday urging the repeal of the Hyde Amendment. The Hyde Amendment prohibits taxpayer funding of abortion. Today, we launched a campaign to show that Catholics support abortion funding #InGoodFaith. Join us. https://t.co/rsmlSxOBDO— Catholics for Choice (@Catholic4Choice) September 12, 2016 On Wednesday, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the chairman of the USCCB's Committee on Pro-Life Activities, issued a statement condemning the group. Cardinal Dolan said that the use of the name "Catholic" to promote abortion is offensive and that they are in no way...

September 15, 2016 Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows Reading 1 1 Cor 15:1-11 I am reminding you, brothers and sisters,of the Gospel I preached to you,which you indeed received and in which you also stand.Through it you are also being saved,if you hold fast to the word I preached to you,unless you believed in vain.For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received:that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures;that he was buried;that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures;that he appeared to Cephas, then...

MUSLIMS want to eradicate Christianity and conquer Europe - the Catholic cardinal tipped to be the next POPE has incredibly claimed. Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn gave the unexpected warning on Sunday during a special celebration for the Church festival "Holy Name of Mary". According to the Archdiocese of Vienna, the Cardinal said: "Will there be an Islamic conquest of Europe? Many Muslims want that and say: Europe is at its end." He asked God to have mercy on Europe and to show mercy to its people, which he said "are in danger of forfeiting our Christian heritage." Cardinal Schoenborn, who...

The Wisdom and Power of the Cross Msgr. Charles Pope • September 13, 2016 • The readings for Wednesday’s Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross provide rich teachings. Let’s look at five themes, each in turn. I. The Pattern of the Cross – One of the stranger passages in the Old Testamentis the one describing a command Moses received from God to mount a bronze snake on a pole.The people had grumbled against God and Moses because of the “wretched” manna they had to consume (Numbers 21:5). Even though it was the miracle food, the bread from...

DAY 31 – MARY, ARK OF THE COVENANT, PRAY FOR US RECON Any combat training and tactical planning begins with a process of intelligence collection, analysis, and dissemination. Recon (reconnaissance) is a military term used to determine the enemy force’s disposition and intention, gathering information (or intelligence) about an enemy’s composition and capabilities. Dr. Peter Kreeft wrote: “You cannot win a war if you are unwilling to admit we are even at war or you don’t know who your enemy is or you don’t know what strategy your enemy is using.” We have all witnessed how the dry wind of...

September 14, 2016 Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross Reading 1 Nm 21:4b-9 With their patience worn out by the journey,the people complained against God and Moses,“Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert,where there is no food or water?We are disgusted with this wretched food!” In punishment the LORD sent among the people saraph serpents,which bit the people so that many of them died.Then the people came to Moses and said,“We have sinned in complaining against the LORD and you.Pray the LORD to take the serpents from us.”So Moses prayed for...

Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller, M.Sp.S. of San Antonio has shown the kind of leadership so badly needed in this election season. When the oxymoronic Catholics of Choice published a advertisement in the San Antonio newspaper (September 12), Archbishop Garcia-Siller answered with the following broadside. This statement has the ring of a bishop who has had enough of the nonsense and wants to set the record straight. Thank you Archbishop Garcia-Siller! (Italics are added for emphasis.) ARCHDIOCESE RESPONDS TO CATHOLICS FOR CHOICE ADVERTISEMENT IN SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS An organization called Catholics for Choice placed a full-page advertisement in the Sept. 12 edition...

Many Judeo-Christian leaders speak out against abortion, but the few who advocate for abortion often are the ones who get the most media attention. On Monday in Kentucky, pro-abortion clergy held a rally at the State Capitol to advocate for abortion and other issues, the State-Journal reports. The event was called the Higher Ground Moral Day of Action, and it was held in conjunction with other rallies nation-wide. Led by clergy, the event highlighted the upcoming election and called on candidates and elected officials to uphold “the most sacred moral principles of our faith and constitutional values.” These included “the...

CHERRY HILL, N.J. (ChurchMilitant.com) - A Catholic high school in New Jersey is denying a self-described transgender enrollment in its school. Madelyn Catrambone, a 14-year-old girl, applied to Camden Catholic High School in Cherry Hill in February, and was accepted. Since then, she has decided to start identifying as male, and when the school found out, it rescinded its offer. Camden's principle Heather Crisci said last week that the school's Catholic identity made it impossible to accept a child who believes she is the opposite sex, because to do so would involve implicit rejection of Church teaching Catrambone commented, "I...

Repent, secular heretic, and embrace the revelation du jour! Over the weekend, Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Kaine spoke at a Human Rights Watch event, extolling the virtues of his running mate on LGBTQ rights and dismissing Donald Trump’s claims to championing their interests. Kaine took a detour from that mission, though, to offer a campaign promise unlike anything ever seen. Kaine, a Catholic, noted that his unconditional support for same-sex marriage puts him at odds with his church, but predicted that the Vatican would adopt the progressive gospel in the future: “My full, complete, unconditional support for marriage equality is...

The Stages of Sin from St. Bernard of Clairvaux - Fasten Your Seatbelts! Msgr. Charles Pope • September 12, 2016 • Saint Bernard of ClairvauxThere are times when one reads something from one of the saints and is stunned by the tremendous insight, the piercing analysis, like a surgeon’s scalpel dividing diseased from healthy tissue. Such was my experience recently when reading a passage from St. Bernard of Clairvaux.In this passage, Bernard analyzes the descent into the increasing darkness of sin experienced by those who refuse to hear the call to repent. I would argue that it applies not...

DAY 30 – MARY, HOUSE OF GOLD, PRAY FOR US SANCTIFY YOURSELF Pope Urban II launched the First Crusade in 1095 with the primary goal of the Christian re-conquest of the sacred city of Jerusalem and the Holy Land. So great was the pope’s speech in Clermont, France, on that day that the crowd was inspired to cry out: “Deus Vult! Deus Vult!” (“It is the will of God! It is the will of God!”). This became the battle cry of brave and noble knights who sought to recover that holy ground. In our vastly secularized modern world, the need...

September 13, 2016 Memorial of Saint John Chrysostom, Bishop and Doctor of the Church Reading 1 1 Cor 12:12-14, 27-31a Brothers and sisters:As a body is one though it has many parts,and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body,so also Christ.For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body,whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons,and we were all given to drink of one Spirit. Now the body is not a single part, but many. Now you are Christ’s Body, and individually parts of it.Some people God has designated in the Churchto be,...

The Viennese Cardinal Christoph Schönborn warned last Sunday at a Mass for the Feast of the Holy Name of Mary that "Europe is well on the way to forfeiting its Christian heritage"...

The Genius of Sacred Music as Heard in Seven Musical “Onomatopoeias” Msgr. Charles Pope • September 11, 2016 • Do you remember the meaning of the literary term onomatopoeia? In case you’ve forgotten, it’s a word that sounds like the object it describes. Words like oink, meow, wham, sizzle, and my personal favorite: yackety-yak are examples of onomatopoeia.There are times when music, including sacred music, has an onomatopoetic quality; they sound like what their words are describing. For example, there are songs that describe the crucifixion featuring hammer blows in the background, and songs about the resurrection and ascension...

DAY 29 – MARY, TOWER OF IVORY, PRAY FOR US! SUMMONED TO COURAGE A society increasingly disengaged from the Divine Life has no place to go but down. Definitely not progress, but a radical descent away from our greatest potential. “Tens of millions of unborn babies have been slaughtered; illegitimacy rates have soared; divorce has skyrocketed; pornography is rampant; drug use has exploded; sexually transmitted diseases such as AIDS have killed millions; birth control is a way of life; sex outside of wedlock has become the norm; countless children have been permanently damaged — their innocence lost forever — because...

September 12, 2016 Monday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 1 Cor 11:17-26, 33 Brothers and sisters:In giving this instruction, I do not praise the factthat your meetings are doing more harm than good.First of all, I hear that when you meet as a Churchthere are divisions among you,and to a degree I believe it;there have to be factions among youin order that also those who are approved among youmay become known.When you meet in one place, then,it is not to eat the Lord’s supper,for in eating, each one goes ahead with his own supper,and one...

`There are around 1.2 billion Catholics in the world today; by 2050 it may be 1.6 billion (CNS) `Critics keep announcing the Church's imminent demise. If only they realised that numbers have doubled since 1970 – and are still rising In many parts of the world, it’s difficult to feel optimistic about the future of the Catholic Church. Some years ago, the American Physical Society heard an alarming paper that predicted the countries in the world that would have no religion whatever by 2100, and high on the list were such former Catholic heartlands as Austria and Ireland – Ireland!...