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[Catholic Caucus] Leave behind Tridentine model of priesthood, embrace synodality, Cardinal Hollerich bids parish priestsCWN Editor's Note: On the last day of Parish Priests for the Synod—an international meeting of parish priests at the Vatican—Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, SJ, encouraged participants “to become ambassadors of synodality, to be full participants in a synodal Church, to become with all the people of God, missionary disciples of Jesus.” “Many times their training and their reality have been oriented towards a Tridentine model of the priesthood,” Cardinal Hollerich, the relator-general of the synod on synodality, said of parish priests, in an address to Pope...

[Catholic Caucus] Priest Publicly Challenges Bishops To Defend Sacred TraditionTo the Catholic Bishops: The truth of our much lamented position as the Church is in the sacramental records. This is specifically found in the change of the priest to faithful ratio over the last 54 years. This ratio is as telling as it gets. Obviously, the lower the priest to faithful ratio, the more the Mystical Body of Christ is served. The larger the ratio, the harder it becomes for the faithful to go to Mass, have their Confessions heard, or to have a meaningful contact with priests at all.In...

Daily Readings from the USCCBJesus said to his disciples: “When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will testify to me. And you also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.” John 15:26–27Jesus informs His disciples that “the Spirit of truth” will come and that the Spirit, as well as the disciples, will “testify” to Him. When Jesus first spoke these words to His disciples, they would not have comprehended what He meant. Since these words are prophetic in nature, they are words...

“Considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt . . .” (Hebrews 11:26). Trials can show that material things are inadequate to meet our deepest needs. We rely every day on material possessions—cars, computers, pagers, telephones, microwaves, radios, and TVs. These familiar conveniences make us feel as though it’s quite a hardship to cope without them. Therefore it’s difficult to avoid the pitfall Jesus warned about in Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other....

6 May 2024 Monday of the 6th week of Eastertide St. Dominic Savio Parish in Bellflower, CA Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: B(II).First readingActs 16:11-15 ©The Lord opened Lydia's heart to accept what Paul was sayingSailing from Troas we made a straight run for Samothrace; the next day for Neapolis, and from there for Philippi, a Roman colony and the principal city of that particular district of Macedonia. After a few days in this city we went along the river outside the gates as it was the sabbath and this was a customary place for prayer. We sat...

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5 May 2024 6th Sunday of Easter Edmund Rice Heritage Centre, Mount Sion, Waterford, Ireland Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: B(II).If the Ascension of the Lord is going to be celebrated next Sunday, the alternative Second Reading and Gospel shown here (which would otherwise have been read on that Sunday) may be used today.First readingActs 10:25-26,34-35,44-48 ©The pagans have received the Holy Spirit just as much as we haveAs Peter reached the house Cornelius went out to meet him, knelt at his feet and prostrated himself. But Peter helped him up. ‘Stand up,’ he said ‘I am only...

Daily Readings from the USCCB“I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another.” John 15:15–17Just prior to the passage quoted above, Jesus says, “You are my friends if you do what...

“To keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me” (2 Corinthians 12:7). God sometimes uses trials to humble believers. Professional athletics, as a whole, makes up one of the least humble sectors in modern American society. Players with multi-million dollar salaries and extravagant benefits have replaced those who played because they loved their sport and had great community loyalty. One such noble model from the past was Lou Gehrig, the Hall of Fame first baseman with the New York Yankees, whose career ended in 1939 after he...

In 1967 the Beatles wrote and performed a song for one of the first world-wide TV broadcasts called, “All You Need is Love.” It became a classic and as late as the 1980’s I can remember working on the trombone line of an adaptation of it for my high school band. It’s one of a number of Beatles songs where they stumbled on something true out of their Christian heritage, without understanding the full implications. In fact, they actively distorted the real implications of love by overly-eroticizing the concept. Be that as it may, “All You Need is Love” could...

4 May 2024 Saturday of the 5th week of Eastertide San Ciriaco – Ancona's Cathedral Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: B(II).First readingActs 16:1-10 ©'Come across to Macedonia and help us'From Cilicia Paul went to Derbe, and then on to Lystra. Here there was a disciple called Timothy, whose mother was a Jewess who had become a believer; but his father was a Greek. The brothers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of Timothy, and Paul, who wanted to have him as a travelling companion, had him circumcised. This was on account of the Jews in the locality where...

Daily Readings from the USCCBJesus said to his disciples: “If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you.” John 15:18–19This is a sobering thought: “the world hates you.” That is, if you are among those who have been taken by our Lord out of the world. In that case, Jesus says that the world will hate you. No one wants to be hated. No...

“By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac; and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son” (Hebrews 11:17). The main reason God allows trials in the lives of Christians is to test the strength of their faith. The memorable example in Genesis 22 of Abraham’s testing is perhaps the severest trial any human being has ever faced. When God told Abraham to offer his only son Isaac as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of Moriah (Gen. 22:1-2), Abraham no doubt was stunned. In terms of God’s nature, His plan...

Priest: Hatred of the Latin Mass is inspired by ‘hatred of everything that is Catholic’‘Hatred of the traditional Mass is not only hatred of Catholicism, it is above all the precondition for synodal ‘church reform,’’ warns Father Joachim Heimerl, criticizing ‘demonic self-hatred’ within the Church.Latin MassThis essay by Fr. Joachim Heimerl was originally written in German. It has been translated and published with the permission of Fr. Heimerl.(LifeSiteNews) — “Dell’ odio i tristi frutti.” Anyone who loves opera knows these words. They are taken from the prologue of Leoncavallo’s “I Pagliacci,” in which flaming jealousy first leads to fiery hatred...

Daily Readings from the USCCBPhilip said to Jesus, “Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” John 14:8–9Today’s liturgical feast is in honor of two of the Apostles, Philip and James the Lesser. Little is known about James other than that he was chosen by our Lord for the apostolic ministry and that we have one of his...

“‘All these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me’” (John 15:21). The world, in its general hatred of the truth and ignorance of God, will also hate believers. The religious leaders of Jesus’ time hated Him intensely. If we are committed to following Him wholeheartedly today, we can’t expect to avoid persecution and hardship any more than He did. In John 15:20 our Lord tells us what to expect: “Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they...

Friday 3 May 2024 Saints Philip and James, Apostles Feast St. Philip the Apostle Catholic Church, Flower Mound, Texas Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Red. Year: B(II).First reading1 Corinthians 15:1-8 ©The Lord appeared to James, and then to all the apostlesBrothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, the gospel that you received and in which you are firmly established; because the gospel will save you only if you keep believing exactly what I preached to you – believing anything else will not lead to anything. Well then, in the first place, I taught you...

Daily Readings from the USCCB“If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.” John 15:10When Jesus spoke the line above, He followed it by saying, “I have told you this so that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete.” These two lines, taken side by side, provide a helpful unity of Jesus’ teaching regarding holy obedience to Him. First, Jesus speaks of the necessity of keeping His commandments. To some, such a statement, when taken by itself, can seem burdensome,...

[Catholic Caucus] The Associated Press on the future of the ChurchThere have been numerous mainstream media articles on how traditional Catholics (and conservative Catholics favoring tradition) are the future of the Church, particularly in the U.S. Many such articles, however, were during the Benedict XVI papacy and following his 2007 motu proprio Summorum Pontificum. A handful of positive articles since Pope Francis' TLM suppressions have been published in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal.So, it is very encouraging to see a new Associated Press article today entitled "'A step back in time': America's Catholic Church sees an immense...

“‘If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you’” (John 15:18-19). Because they are not part of the world’s system, Christians should expect it to hate and oppose them. If you’ve been a Christian for a while, you doubtless remember how soon you realized that you were no longer in step with the world’s culture. You were no longer comfortable...