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I want to thank everyone for their well wishes and prayers in the last 2 weeks. My Mom passed on May 24 and we laid her to rest on May 29. Driving up to CT, my car started to fail, the air suspension system was tired, not knowing where it was failing, but on the way home, the warning alarm went off every 25 miles. When I got to Church the day after my mom's funeral, I got a flat tire on the highway that for some reason (THE GRACE OF GOD!) held out until I was safely in the...

The Independent may not be posted due to legal issues but click HERE for the full article.

QUAERITUR: I have observed several Priests of my acquaintance celebrating Mass in various private residences for different occasions, the latest of which was Mother’s Day (the strangest being Christmas Midnight Mass). Most if not all of these private Masses have taken place in non-consecrated space, i.e. in normal living rooms. Are Priests allowed to do this for their families and friends, particularly when there is a church available (though perhaps not with the same measure of “privacy”)? Canon 932 stipulates that Holy Mass should be offered in a sacred place, “unless in a particular case necessity requires otherwise, in such a case the celebration must be done in a decent...

Jimmy Carter severed his ties with the Southern Baptist Convention, but apparently is still a Baptist (Maranatha Baptist Church). Josh Duggar and the Duggar family are Independent Baptist. Some will say that neither of them go to the right Baptist church or the correct one and thus neither of them are truly Baptist, just as some Methodists will say that other Methodists don't go to the right Methodist church and thus truly aren't Methodist. Some Jewish people may say that other Jews, (although quite orthodox in their beliefs) aren't quite Orthodox enough and thus aren't truly Jewish when it comes...

The German cardinal appears to backtrack on earlier comments in interview with EWTNCardinal Walter Kasper has clarified that Pope Francis did not approve his proposal to allow divorced and remarried Catholics to receive Holy Communion after a period of penance. The cardinal made the remarks in an interview with EWTN during a visit to the United States. He said the Pope wanted him to “put the question”, and that afterwards he “expressed his satisfaction with my talk”. But he added: “I wouldn’t say he approved the proposal, no, no, no.” The remarks appear to represent a backtracking from earlier comments....

There’s a shake-up happening in San Francisco — and we’re not talking earthquakes. The epicenter is the City by the Bay’s Star of the Sea parish. A November 2014 decision by recently installed pastor Fr. Joseph Illo and associate pastor Fr. Patrick Driscoll to allow only boys to serve at the altar has sent shockwaves through the region and across the nation, even rating a write-up in the New York Daily News (Jan. 28). It’s been called “discriminatory,” “disturbing,” and “a step in the wrong direction.” At a parish meeting this March, a group of attendees called for the priests...

(Vatican Radio) The first Catholic Church in the UAE, St. Joseph’s Abu Dhabi, was opened in February 1965, and March 2015 marked the Golden Jubilee celebrations of the event. The Ruling Family of the Emirate has always been generous and it was their graciousness in donating a piece of land to build a place of worship that thousands of faithful even today can enjoy a place of prayer and sanctuary. 50 years later, yet again the Church in South Arabia experiences the kindness and open-handedness of the Rulers of the Emirates. His Highness Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, the...

Church in Ireland appeals for new inclusive languageThe head of the Irish bishops’ conference has distanced himself from comments made by American Cardinal Raymond Burke concerning Irish voters who backed same-sex marriage. Reacting to the May 22 poll, in which voters supported the redefinition of marriage by a margin of 62 percent to 38 percent, Cardinal Burke told the Newman Society, Oxford University’s Catholic Society: “It’s just incredible. … Pagans may have tolerated homosexual behaviors, they never dared say this was marriage.” Asked about the comments during an interview with RTE Radio, Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh, Northern Ireland, president...

John Romeri during Mass on Aug. 8, 2010, at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis (RNS/St. Louis Post-Dispatch/Erik M. Lunsford) The head of liturgical music for the Philadelphia archdiocese, who was also to play a key role orchestrating the huge outdoor Mass concluding Pope Francis' trip to the U.S. in September, is resigning his post over long-standing differences with Archbishop Charles Chaput. John Romeri, who has headed the archdiocesan liturgical music office for five years, said he will resign effective June 30 because "there are simply irreconcilable differences" with Chaput over the role and style of music at Mass. Romeri...

Attempts at manipulation, which reached an unprecedented level in the Church at the Extraordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in 2014, continue unabatedThe following piece, written by Professor Manfred Spieker, originally appeared on the Kath.net site on May 28th, and has been translated from the German for CWR. Professor Spieker is Professor Emeritus for Christian Social Sciences at the Institute for Catholic Theology of the University of Osnabrück: Osnabrück (kath.net May 28, 2015). Archbishops Marx and Pontier of Munich and Marseilles, and Bishop Büchel of Sankt Gallen (Austria), have the right to invite prelates to a conference on how...

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...

Spokesman for Vatican finance czar rejects 'false and misleading claims' in Australian news programmeCardinal George Pell is seeking legal advice after a member of the Vatican’s child protection commission called him “almost sociopathic” and appealed for his dismissal from the Vatican. A spokesman for the prefect of the Vatican Secretariat for the Economy said the cardinal was taking the step in response to Peter Saunders’s comments in the Australian television news programme 60 Minutes. Mr Saunders, an abuse survivor and member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, told the programme the former Archbishop of Sydney’s position was...

At pre-Synod meeting, bishops urge families to reject new atheistic ideologiesROME — Catholic bishops from Africa and Europe have urged families to courageously uphold Catholic family values, boldly rejecting new atheistic ideologies that seek to destroy marriage and the family. Meeting in Maputo, Mozambique, the Council of Episcopal Conferences of Europe (CCEE) and the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) contrasted the secularizing trends in the world with the need to empower families to proclaim the Gospel of the family. The May 29 - 31 meeting came after the people of Ireland last week voted in a...

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...

The German bishops are fighting to open the way for divorce and homosexuality. But six of them have broken ranks. And in a book one jurist thoroughly criticizes Cardinal Kasper’s ideas. "It is a crisis of faith," comments African cardinal Sarah ROME, May 29, 2015 - In perfect temporal conjunction four days ago, right when the council and general secretariat of the synod of bishops were at the Vatican with Pope Francis preparing the next session of the assembly, on the same day and not far away, at the Pontifical Gregorian University, the presidents of the episcopal conferences of Germany,...

German, Swiss and French bishops wanted to 'enrich thinking' about the foundations of the synodGermany’s bishops have denied that their talks with other bishops’ conferences ahead of the October family synod were about changing Church teaching. “It was a real fruitful discussion and very broad and that was important; it was not just about the hot topics” of divorce and homosexuality, Matthias Kopp, the German bishops’ spokesman, told Catholic News Service yesterday. The three bishops organised a study day in Rome on Monday, bringing together bishops and scholars, a couple of Vatican officials and a few journalists to discuss issues...

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...

Catholic men are arming themselves for battle.Spiritual battle.Behind the headlines and beneath the radar, a grassroots movement is growing among Catholic men in the United States. Spurred on by the culture wars, they are rallying to conferences, retreats, seminars, and parish study groups that aim to support them in their faith, encourage fellowship, and motivate Christian action in support of charity, social justice, pro-life causes, and the traditional family. Catholic men’s events have become phenomenally successful, gathering Catholic men from a wide spectrum of age ranges to hear motivational speakers, inspiring converts, and spiritual leaders.In an interview with Tim Drake...

I don’t think I’ve linked to it in this space yet, but regular readers have probably already seen my long piece in the May issue of the Atlantic on Pope Francis’s biography and agenda and what his pontificate might mean for the future of Catholicism. The essay was written a little while before its actual appearance, as long-form magazine pieces tend to be, and there have been all sorts of recent developments around the church and the pontiff that deserve to be discussed afresh. I’m hoping to wade more fully into those issues next month, but first, before it slips...

Denver, Colo., May 23, 2015 / 04:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In an unprecedented change for an archdiocese, Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila of Denver announced that the Sacraments of Initiation – Baptism, Confirmation and First Communion – will be restored to their original order. “In an increasingly secular world, the reality is this: the souls of our children are the battleground. As the shepherd of the Archdiocese of Denver, I must do everything I can to help those who form children win that battle,” he explained in his pastoral letter “Saints Among Us” released May 23. “The world needs saints. Even...