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"If the right hand doesn't get you, then the left one will." This maxim expresses the double jeopardy faced by a prizefighter in the boxing ring. Like the ambidextrous pugilist, our adversary, Satan, has a two-pronged strategy. To defeat him, we must wage war on two fronts. The tactic is simple. He conquers by spreading disinformation about himself. He divides the church by creating two myths, two erroneous views of his own identity: The first is that he is a myth. The second is that he is as powerful as God. The first deception from Satan about Satan is that...

Bookends: How the First and Last Books of the Bible Fit Together Msgr. Charles Pope • November 16, 2015 • Today's post shows some contrasts and fulfillments between the first book of the Bible, Genesis, and the last book, Revelation. There is a kind of “bookend” quality to those books wherein things are announced or initiated in Genesis and then fulfilled or finished in Revelation.Consider the following two lists. I pray that you will appreciate the parallels and paradoxes presented in them, especially during the months of November and December, when we consider the four last things and the culmination...

Here we go again. Pope Francis has offered some confusing observations about the possibility of Lutherans receiving Holy Communion in the Catholic Church.I'm getting email… angry… alarmed… confused… sad… above all demoralized.Edward Pentin has the best press breakdown I have seen so far. HERE You can read the whole of the answer that the Pope gave to a Lutheran woman Anke de Bernardinis. Here's the video of the whole event in the original language, Italian. The part under discussion here starts at 21:00:Here below are the Pope's comments in context (Pentin's working translation): Question: My name is Anke de Bernardinis...

Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord God; this is the day whereof I have spoken. And they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the handstaves, and the spears, and they shall burn them with fire seven years: (Ezekiel 39:8-9)At long last the Day of the Lord comes near, the long dreaded and anticipated “Cloudy and rainy Day”, the Day of gloom and deep darkness, the time of Jacob’s trouble, also...

All Christians Are Called To Pray Without Ceasing By St. Nikolai Velimirovich "Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart" (Luke 18:1). Does the Lord's command about ceaseless prayer that men ought always to pray (Luke 18:1), apply only to monks or to all Christians in general? If it applied only to monks, the Apostle Paul would not have written to the Christians in Thessalonica to "pray without ceasing" (I Thessalonians 5:17). The Apostle repeats the Lord's command, word for word, and issues it to...

Certainly this new Vatileaks season prompts us to reflect on the way Pope Francis is carrying out his reform. Three years after the first big Vatileaks episode, it seems that the same old Vatican world that opposed Benedict XVI is still alive and active behind Pope Francis. The only difference is that this world elected Pope Francis. Pope Francis owes his election to it. We should look back to Benedict XVI's reform in order to understand the basis on which Pope Francis' reform is grounded. The issues have remained the same. Pope Francis perhaps is trying to overcome them through...

How to Discuss Same-Sex “Marriage” With Dissenting Family Members Msgr. Charles Pope • November 15, 2015 • I was out on the preaching circuit this past week and spoke at five parishes (including my own) on the biblical vision of Holy Matrimony (marriage) as set forth by God and the Church. The talks were sponsored by the pro-life group Defend Life.While I cannot succinctly reproduce the talk in today's blog, I spoke from notes that are available here and here. A video of one of the talks will be posted soon.I heard a consistent concern voiced by those in attendance...

As a Man of Mercy, I do feel compassionate towards those Catholics who express to me anxiety that our present Holy Father may not be the lawful occupant of the See of S Peter. But I re-reiterate: no Catholic can with a good conscience decide for himself/herself that the See of Rome has become vacant through heresy. The Church, in some formal and corporate way, would need either to depose a heretical pope (thus, S Cajetan; John of S Thomas) or to declare that he had himself through heresy already forfeited the See (thus, S Bellarmine, Turrecremata). DIY is no...

The Pope tells Lutheran woman to 'talk to the Lord' in discerning whether or not to participate in CommunionPope Francis has suggested a Lutheran spouse of a Catholic should "talk to the Lord" in discerning whether or not to receive Holy Communion with her husband. Francis made the remark during a Q&A at a visit to Rome's Evangelical Lutheran church on Sunday. During the visit he presented the church's pastor with the same chalice he had given the Archbishops of Washington, New York and Philadelphia while in the United States. The Pope was asked whether a Lutheran and Catholic married...

Saint Paisius Velichkovsky: A Great Hesychast Father (1 of 8) St. Paisius Velichkovsky (Feast Day - November 15) By His Eminence Metropolitan Hierotheos  of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou Saint Paisius Velichkovsky (1722-1794) was a great figure of monasticism who lived a few years on Mount Athos and communicated in Slavic lands, especially in Ukraine, Moldova and Wallachia, but he spread throughout the Balkan and Russian lands and other areas. He was a great prophetic figure in the field of monasticism in the 18th century, having reintroduced to monasticism in the Balkans and Russia its ancient patristic sources, since monasticism had...

Since 1964 the United States Governments (Federal and State) have transferred over five trillion dollars from the middle class and the rich to the poor. Are the poor better off today or have they become more enslaved and dependent on government? How much is five trillion dollars? A billion dollars is one thousand million dollars. A trillion dollars is one thousand billion dollars, thus five trillion dollars is five thousand billion dollars. That amount is inconceivable to the human mind. That is how much government has taken from the middle and rich class and transferred it to the poor. This...

But the Word of the Lord Remains Forever! A Homily for the 33rd Sunday of the Year Msgr. Charles Pope • November 14, 2015 • “O Jerusalem” by Greg OlsenAs winter approaches and we approach the end of the liturgical year, we ponder the passing quality of this world and the fading of its glories. Jesus' words in the gospel today must surely have shocked, even horrified, his Apostles. Let's look at His stunning words and seek to apply them in our own life.The Place of this Gospel -- As we complete the liturgical year, we find Jesus standing just...

A Poem Upon Seeing A Picture Of The Cross Posted on October 5, 2013 by billrandles My lovely wife Kristin, wrote a poem after being inspired by this beautiful Gustave Dore painting of the cross of Jesus. I just wanted to share it, as I found both picture and poem to be moving. Enjoy…. Got really choked up when I saw this amazing piece of art today … the foreboding dark clouds pressing down upon the whole world took my breath away as He hung on that tree … His love for you … His dying love for me. Then...

In the United States and in Italy the changes are most spectacular. With new “Bergoglio-style" bishops and cardinals. In Belgium, Danneels’s revenge against Ratzinger. The triumph of the St. Gallen club. Much more than reforming the Vatican curia and finances (to which he is applying himself more out of obligation than out of passion, with no comprehensive plan and too often relying on the wrong men and women), it is clear by now that Pope Francis wants to revolutionize the college of bishops. And he is doing so in a systematic way. The two talks that he gave this autumn...

This website has a list of churches and chapels that have Eucharistic Adoration in the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Canada. For those in the US and Canada, they are listed by state or province, then town. The phone number, address, and hours of adoration for each are included, as well as a Map button so that you can see exactly where one is located. Archives of Father John Hardon S.J.'s writings are also available on the site, plus a collection of his audio and video recordings.

This is the final group of bishops -- twelve elected by the Synod and three handpicked by Francis -- who will be governing the synods going forward. The original thread that was posted when the twelve were elected is here, and has a little bit more detail about how they were elected. Francis has now added his three, shown at the bottom of the chart. AFRICA Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, Guinea Excellent Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier, archbishop of Durban, South Africa Excellent Mathieu Madega Lebouakehan, Bishop of Mouila, Gabon Excellent . AMERICAS Charles J....

Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. The wicked plotteth against the just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth. The Lord shall laugh at him: for he seeth that his day is coming. The...

Crowded with saints? Msgr. Charles Pope Q.  The descriptions of heaven in the Bible seem to describe a vast amount of people, and the paintings I have seen from the Renaissance make it look rather crowded and busy. Frankly, I hate big cities and crowds. Are these descriptions accurate, or am I missing something?— D.L., Wichita, Kansas A. Here’s a reply from Msgr. Charles Pope: The danger to avoid when meditating on heaven is taking earthly realities and merely transferring them to heaven. Whatever similarities heavenly realities have to things on earth, they will be experienced there in a heavenly...

Rome, Italy, Nov 12, 2015 / 03:18 pm (CNA).- Spanish liberation theologian Fr. Jon Sobrino, whose works were censured by the Vatican nearly a decade ago, is slated to take part in an event this Saturday at Rome's Urbaniana University. The gathering is aimed at republishing the "Catacombs Pact," a document signed after the Second Vatican Council by various future members of the Marxist school of thought. It was condemned in 1984 by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, headed at that time by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. Fr. Sobrino, a Jesuit priest born in Spain in 1938, had...

In 1227 Sultan Jalal al-Din of Khwarazm and his army of Turkmen attacked Georgia. On the first day of the battle the Georgian army valorously warded off the invaders as they were approaching Tbilisi. That night, however, a group of Persians who were living in Tbilisi secretly opened the gates and summoned the enemy army into the city. According to one manuscript in which this most terrible day in Georgian history was described: “Words are powerless to convey the destruction that the enemy wrought: tearing infants from their mothers’ breasts, they beat their heads against the bridge, watching as their...