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Featured Term selected at random:CANTICLE OF CANTICLES An allegorical love poem in the Bible that has several layers of meaning. Basically it expresses the special love of God for the Chosen People; prophetically the espousal of Christ with his church; universally the love of God for a devoted soul; by accommodation the delight of God with the soul of the Blessed Virgin. It was read in the Jewish liturgy on the octave of the Passover. Traditionally ascribed to Solomon, the imagery of the two lovers, united and then separated, sought and then found, reflects the changing relationships of God and...

Bear Wrongs Patiently – A Meditation on the 5th Spiritual Work of Mercy By: Msgr. Charles PopeHere is  perhaps the most revolutionary of the Spiritual works of mercy. It is the one tied most directly to the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. To decide to bear wrongs patiently is nothing less than to declare a revolution and to wage a very paradoxical counteroffensive against this world and its economy of anger.There is a cycle of violence and retribution in which the devil seeks to engage us. The cycle begins with one person harming or slighting another, perhaps tempted to do so...

Armenians in Turkey who opted to live as Muslims to avoid mistreatment are recovering their true identities in collective baptisms. The latest such baptism came in May when 12 Armenians from Dersim (Tunceli) recovered their identities. The saga of Armenians who were compelled to live as Muslims goes back to 1915 massacres. Armenian children were adopted by Muslim families, women married Muslim men and some families converted to Islam to save their lives. These Armenians, who for a century were forced to conceal their identities, are trying to return to their roots. This activity is more prevalent among Anatolian Armenians,...

American universities have long been citadels of political correctness but, in the past year, the noose has gotten even tighter. In many places, classic literature and great books have been banished or at least subjected to the prior censorship of “trigger warnings,” lest their content prove discomforting to some students. “Microaggressions” are practically universal. “Speech codes” and faculty guidance on what can and cannot be said which, if imposed elsewhere would bring Planned Parenthood and the ACLU out in force, quietly gag campus discussion. Speakers who might challenge the regnant orthodoxies of the ever so-intolerant heralds of “tolerance” are...

A number of people have recently asked me – directly and indirectly – why context is important in studying scripture. Or to be more accurate, why the original Hebrew context is important. In Rabbinic fashion (how appropriately), I would like to answer this question in the form of a story. One that many Christian readers will be familiar, yet unfamiliar, with. It begins like this: Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. (Mark 8:27) For the casual reader with no geographical context, this sounds no different than “Jesus took the disciples down the road to...

An Ancient Bishop Rebukes His Emperor for Crimes Against Life: A Story of St. Ambrose and the Emperor Theodosius By: Msgr. Charles PopeI have begun a series on the blog that I am tagging the “Courage” series. (Our new blog format, to be unveiled soon, will feature tags at the bottom of each post.) I will be highlighting courageous persons and acts both from both Scripture and Church history. It’s going to take a lot of courage going forward.Bishops, priests, and God’s people are going to have to be willing to accept persecution, fines (which we should refuse to pay), jail, and even...

Bob Jones University, a fundamentalist Protestant university in Greenville, South Carolina, is downright unfriendly toward Catholics. Can I prove that? Well, shortly after the death of Pope Paul VI in 1978, Bob Jones, Jr., son of the founder and chancellor of the university, published an article in the school’s magazine, Faith for the Family, which begins: “Pope Paul VI, archpriest of Satan, a deceiver and an anti-Christ, has, like Judas, gone to his own place.” Catholic Answers tells the whole story in their tract on “Anti-Catholic Whoppers“: It goes downhill from there. At one point, Jones attempts to raise the...

1 and 1 and 1 is One – A Homily for Trinity Sunday By: Msgr. Charles PopeThere is an old spiritual that says, “My God is so high, you can’t get over him, he’s so low you can’t get under him, he’s so wide you can’t get ’round him, you must come in, by and through the Lamb.”That’s not a bad way of saying that God is other; He is beyond what human words can tell or describe; He is beyond what human thoughts can conjure. And on the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity we do well to...

The sin of fornication Unmarried sexual intimacy is mortal sin that requires one to go to confession before Communion  Msgr. Charles Pope OSV Newsweekly 5/6/2015  Question: Several of my cousins live together with others and are having sexual relations outside of marriage. They think that it is no problem for them to go to holy Communion since, in their mind, it is either not wrong at all or only a venial sin. Are there texts in the Bible or Catechism I can point them to? — Doris O’Hare, via email  Answer: The situation you describe objectively involves mortal sin,...

Saint Louis University has removed a statue on its campus depicting a famous Jesuit missionary priest praying over American Indians after a cohort of students and faculty continued to complain the sculpture symbolized white supremacy, racism and colonialism. Formerly placed outside the university’s Fusz Hall in the center of the private Catholic university, the statue will go to the university’s art museum, a building just north of the bustling urban campus. The statue features famous Jesuit Missionary Pierre-Jean De Smet S.J. praying over two American Indians dressed in traditional clothing. Last Monday, just two days after graduation, it was removed...

Penny Starr, writing for CNS News, notes how, "The U.S. State Department’s new envoy for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons (LGBTI) spoke on Tuesday about the U.S. mission to put in place constitutional protections for homosexuals in countries around the globe and how that those protections make 'a more durable, healthier nation.' Randy Berry’s remarks are particularly interesting when contrasted with the Congressional Record--Appendix, pp. A34-A35, January 10, 1963 that list 'Current Communist Goals.' The list of 42 goals, entered into the record by Rep. A. S. Herlong Jr., a Democrat from Florida, is credited to the book...

On Your Marks: The Church Is OneHector Molina June 21, 2013 | During a recent speaking tour in Australia, my good friend and fellow apologist, Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers, and I delivered a presentation on The Four Marks of the Church. Our tag-team talk was well received. Afterward, I was encouraged by a few of the participants to share some of my notes and citations with them. In light of their request and in light of my last blog post, I thought I would focus this week’s entry on the first of the four marks of the Church.What do we...

Featured Term selected at random:LAX CONSCIENCE An erroneous conscience when the mind decides on insufficient grounds that a sinful act is permissible or that something gravely wrong is not serious. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

The poet T.S. Eliot predicted that, after the disintegration of Western society, civilization would be conserved and restored by a new monastic movement. He was referring to the events at the end of the fifth century, when Benedict of Nursia abandoned the decaying Roman Empire and established small communities of men and women dedicated to prayer, work and study. In Benedict’s day, the once-great Roman Empire had collapsed into chaos. Through economic disaster, famine, plague, moral decadence and political corruption, the society was enervated and vulnerable. Barbarians invaded from the north and east, sensing lucrative spoils to be had. In...

The origins of the Papacy can be traced to St. Peter, one of the original disciples of Jesus. The current pope, Francis I, is the 265th successor of St. Peter. Needless to say, all 266 popes are male. Yet, during the middle ages, there existed a story about a pope who was actually a female in disguise. The name of this supposed female pope was Joan. Who was this mysterious Pope Joan, and did she really exist? The statue that still stands in Rome is Joanna with a papal crown.(ericcostanzo.com)The first written account of Pope Joan can be traced to...

Featured Term selected at random:NET WITH FISH Symbol of the Church based on the text "the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast unto the sea. When it is full the fishermen haul it ashore" (Matthew 13:47). Saints and sinners will fill the net to be sorted out later. Reminiscent of Christ's meeting with Peter and Andrew casting their nets into the sea as Christ bade them, "Follow me and I will make you fishers of men" (Mark 1-17). All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

A Distinction Without a Difference or a Distinction to Die For? Wrestling With the Subtleties of John 21:16 – Peter, Do You Love Me? By: Msgr. Charles PopeLast week, as we wrapped up the Easter season, we read the beautiful dialogue between Jesus and Peter: “Peter, do you love me?” Analyzing this beautiful text is one of the great indoor sports of New Testament Biblical Scholarship: how to interpret the subtleties in that dialogue between Jesus and Peter.And thus Jesus asks, “Peter do you love me?” And Peter responds, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” This exchange occurs three times. But...

Is There a Vocation to the Single Life? I Think Not and Here’s Why By: Msgr. Charles PopeThere are some today who think that the Church should give greater recognition to the “call” to the single life. And therefore when we pray for  vocations to the priesthood, religious life, and marriage in the Prayer of the Faithful (or at other times) some will say, “Why don’t you ever pray for those called to the single life or mention the vocation to the single life?” Here in the blog, too, when I write about vocations there are usually some who comment...

Featured Term selected at random:EMPIRICISM In moral philosophy, the system of thought that claims that experience is the only valid source of knowledge. This is more than saying that experience is a presupposition to all human knowledge or a test of that knowledge once gained. It holds that the mind can regulate only the data of experience. All so-called universal ideas and all judgments in which people speak of the nature of things, according to empiricists, are not universals or natures at all. They are merely a series of sense data drawn from experience and connected by reason in a...

Beware the Strangest Idol of All – A Reflection on How Even Works of Charity Cannot Eclipse Obedience to Christ By: Msgr. Charles PopeThere is a passage in the gospels that breaks conventions and cuts to the core of what has come to be called the “Social Gospel.”  Before looking at the passage we need to define “Social Gospel.” The phrase “Social Gospel” emerged in the Protestant denominations but has also come to be used in Catholic circles as well. The Social Gospel is an intellectual movement that was most prominent in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The...