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After yesterday’s long plane ride, I slept fitfully but somewhere around 5 a.m. found myself hearing the not-too-distant call to Muslim prayer—a sound both mournful and humbling. I figured it was a good time to get up and pray, anyway, so climbed out of bed and did Morning Prayer.  “All you heavens, bless the Lord,” I prayed, along with countless other Christians around the world—but now, with Muslim cries echoing a few blocks away.As daylight broke, I got a first look at the view out my window. Behold, downtown Amman.At 6:30, I made my way downstairs for breakfast. The hotel, I discovered,...

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...

Turkey has summoned the Vatican ambassador after Pope Francis used the word "genocide" to describe mass killing of Armenians under Ottoman rule in WW1 100 years ago.The foreign ministry requested a meeting with the Vatican's envoy in Ankara, Turkish media reported. Armenia and many historians say up to 1.5 million people were systematically killed by Ottoman forces in 1915. Turkey has consistently denied that the killings were genocide. The Pope's comments came at a service in Rome to honour a 10th Century mystic, attended by Armenia's president. The dispute has continued to sour relations between Armenia and Turkey. 'Bleeding wound'The...

1. Jesus asked for it. St. Faustina Kowalska, was a young member of The Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Lodz, Poland. In the early 1930s, she received a series of messages from The Lord expounding His desire to extend mercy upon humanity. He asked her to write these messages down. Among the messages was the request for an image of Himself to be commissioned: "Paint an image according to the pattern you see, with the signature: Jesus I Trust in You. I desire that this image be venerated, first in your chapel, and throughout the world."(The Diary of St. Maria Faustina...

The argument that divorced and civilly remarried Catholics (lacking annulments) be allowed to receive the Eucharist is kind of like 40+ year-old, re-heated mashed potatoes: it’s been spit out by the authority of Church time and again, but for some reason keeps appearing on the spoon of stubborn theologians and bishops who keep trying to trick us into eating it by making cutesie airplane noises. In an essay for Communio entitled “The Merciful Gift Of Indissolubility and the Question Of Pastoral Care For Civilly Divorced And Remarried Catholics”, Nicholas J. Healy, JR. traces the history of this argument, as well...

As a Christian, he never ceased to stand by those who suffered, even when it cost him his life. The too-brief life of the German pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer has been the subject of much film and literary interest in recent years, and Eric Metaxas’s insightful biography of this heroic figure helps us understand why. Bonhoeffer’s life vividly demonstrated the natural and indeed inevitable tensions between the individual and the modern state, and it pointed toward a response based firmly in Christian thought. There are two powerful presences throughout the book: Bonhoeffer himself and Adolf Hitler, as the two...

Steve Weidenkopf, lecturer at Christendom College’s graduate program, has written a readable, story-like book that provides a blow-by-blow account of the Crusades that simultaneously counters many of the myths that have sprung up around them.

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...

Francis laments that nations have 'not yet reached a consensus on the reading of such sorrowful events'Pope Francis has prayed that the Divine Mercy might hasten reconciliation over the deaths of more than a million Armenians a century ago in what is commonly referred to as the Armenian genocide. The Pope made the comment during a meeting with Armenian bishops and faithful ahead of a Mass on Sunday that will mark the 100th anniversary of the massacre. In his prepared remarks he prayed that the Divine Mercy “might help us all, in love for truth and justice, to heal every...

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...

A few weeks ago, an Israeli geologist met with a reporter from the New York Times in the lobby of Jerusalem's King David Hotel. The geologist brought along evidence. Just before Easter, the Times came out with his story. The geologist, Aryeh Shimron, claims to have proof of a connection between a famous ossuary, or burial box for bones, and a tomb of in the environs of Jerusalem that, he believes, was the final resting place for Jesus of Nazareth, his wife and his family. If he were right, his theory would call into question the truth of the Resurrection. The Times...

The United Nations is mulling a Palestinian sponsored security council resolution demanding that Israel end the occupation of lands that the Arab/Palestinians claim as their own. Concurrently, the oil rich Arab League (e.g. Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Palestine, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, etc.) has voted to support this resolution. The Palestinian resolution at the UN Security Council calls for setting a timeline for ending Israeli “occupation” and creating an Israel with indefensible borders. Ostensibly, the Arab League decision came following the recent Arab summit at Sharm e-Sheikh where the league found it an appropriate means to help the...

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...

In a stunningly blunt brief, a team of lawyers acting on behalf of a number of Christian and liberty-focused organizations has told the U.S. Supreme Court that to mandate same-sex marriage is to invite God’s judgment. And that’s probably not going to turn out well. The brief was filed by the William J. Olson law firm and the U.S. Justice Foundation on behalf of Public Advocate of the U.S., Joyce Meyer Ministries, the Lincoln Institute, the Abraham Lincoln Foundation, Institute on the Constitution, Conservative Legal Defense and Education Fund and pastor Chuck Baldwin. The Supreme Court is to hear arguments...

Q:  What is this about the “brothers” of Jesus in the Bible?  Did Mary have other children besides Jesus?   A:  No.The Church teaches that Mary was a perpetual virgin. Yet, as you mention, the Bible does indeed mention the “brothers” of Jesus.  Mark 6:3, “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon...” The “brothers” of Jesus are clearly mentioned, and named, in the Bible. So, Mary must have had other children and the Catholic Church is wrong when it dogmatically teaches that she was a perpetual...

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.

What Effect Will Pressure to Accept Same Sex Acts or “Marriage” Have on Church Teaching? None! By: Msgr. Charles PopeLast week was Holy Week, so sure enough there were many critical issues in the news that needed attention but we in the Church were off doing more important things like worshipping God and pondering our need for salvation. Permit a brief summary and some predictions from me based on the latest unpleasantness in Indiana last week.I am not a lawyer and neither know nor understand all the legal implications of the law signed by the Indiana governor and then later...