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In the fifth century before Christ, the Greek playwright Sophocles wrote the tragedy entitled Antigone. The protagonist, Antigone, is one of theater’s most powerful women. Antigone faces a conflict that is profound and poignant. The newly crowned King of Thebes has forbidden a proper burial for her brother. Does she obey him or does she show the proper respect for her brother? Antigone places conscience above human law. She refuses to obey a man-made law. Instead, she insists on obeying the law of the gods. Not even the threat of death deters her. In the figures of Antigone and the...

The city of Damascus in Syria claims the title of being the world’s oldest continuously inhabited city. The Hyksos, the Aramaeans, the Assyrians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Muslims, the Mamelukes, the Ottomans and the French have all left their imprint on this ancient city. Today, in the midst of a protracted civil war in Syria, its citizens cling to their normal routine in the shadow of Roman ruins and along the alleyways of the souks.  For Christians, the very name “Damascus” conjures up the memory of the conversion of St. Paul. On his way to this city to persecute...

On July 1, 2015, American dentist Walter Palmer shot Cecil, the African lion, a popular attraction in Zimbabwe. The killing of Cecil immediately sparked international rage. Politicians and celebrities raised their voices protesting this crime against animal life. Our government’s Fish and Wildlife Service not only expressed deep concern for the killing of Cecil, but also launched an investigation to see if any laws were broken. One Zimbabwe official has called for Palmer’s extradition to Zimbabwe to make him accountable for the death of the lion. On July 13, 2015, the Center for Medical Progress began releasing videos of the...

In the English language, the word “Spartan” has come to mean austere. The culture of ancient Sparta was so harsh that mothers would send their sons off to war with the warning, “Return with your shield or on it.” Spartan austerity began at birth. New-born infants were examined and if they were not fit, they were left to die. Infanticide was not unusual in the ancient world. But, in Sparta, it was managed by the state with chilling efficiency. What mattered most was not the individual, but the nation. Weak individuals were not allowed to drain the strength of one...

One sows; another reaps.  This is an inevitable law of life. And the great apostle Paul uses it in speaking to the church of Corinth. Corinth had to be one of the most enthusiastic of Christian communities in the first century. Here Paul made the second longest stay in his missionary journeys.  And it was to these Christians that Paul writes perhaps as many as four different letters.  In the New Testament we have two of those letters.  But these may contain some of his other correspondence.  Paul was not the only well-known and respected apostle at Corinth. There is...

By the second half of the 19th century, the industrial revolution along with many new discoveries captured the minds of intellectuals and ordinary folk alike. By 1858 Mill, Darwin and Marx had published their ideas that challenged the way people looked at the world. So many drunk with the new wine of science dethroned God from his creation and denied the supernatural.   Voltaire's sarcasm and criticism reigned.  And rationalism made its wholesale rejection of basic beliefs that had sustained the human family.  The absolute, sovereign authority of God; the divine creation of humankind; the immortality of the soul; the moral...

NJ, 9th Congressional Democrat Primary Election Bill Pascrell is a Catholic, pro-abortion, pro-gay-marriage, 18-yr. congressman in NJ. He and Nancy Pelosi are great friends and vote the same way. As a former mayor of Paterson, NJ, he chose the hall of a Catholic Church in Paterson, NJ as the venue for his Campaign Rally. Congressman Bill Pascrell has a 100% NARAL voting record and a 100% Pro-Homosexual Agenda voting record Facebook Event Campaign Page Pascrell also credits himself for writing the obama health-care law. The law that pays for abortion and calls for death panels for senior citizens. Call the...

The Recovery of the Sacred The Dutch historian and philosopher of religion Gerardus van der Leeuw once said, “The modern man is not capable of finding himself in several circles simultaneously as his primitive cousins did. ‘When we dance, we do not pray; when we pray, we do not dance. And when we work, we can neither dance nor pray.’” In a word, the sense of the sacred has disappeared. But not completely nor irretrievably. The Liturgy of the Church is a moment where all the dimensions of our lives come before the living God. It is the place where...

19 June 2007 Bp. Serratelli steps up CATEGORY: SESSIUNCULUM — Fr. John Zuhlsdorf @ 10:31 am His Excellency Arthur J. Serratelli, Bishop of Patterson (NJ) since 2004 has begun a series of articles on the sense of the sacred.  I tip my biretta in his direction for this good initiative.  o{]:¬)Here is an excerpt from the first offering (my emphases and comments).  Living in our world, we breathe the toxic air that surrounds us.  Even within the most sacred precincts of the Church, we witness a loss of the sense of the sacred [Do my eyes deceive?  I think...

Roman Catholic church leaders meeting this week in Baltimore heralded the election of the first black president, but maintained forceful opposition to President-elect Barack Obama's pro-choice stance. Leading that opposition was Paterson Bishop Arthur Serratelli, who proposed a new blessing of unborn children and called for elected officials to oppose abortion. In adopting the blessing Tuesday, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops compared abortion to genocide during its annual convention and vowed to accept no compromises, according to the McClatchy News Service. For his part, Serratelli introduced a new "Blessing of a Child in the Womb," which prays "for our...

Religious Thugs for Obama   By Joseph D'HippolitoFrontPageMagazine.com | Monday, November 03, 2008 Challenging Democratic Senator Barack Obama means facing a squadron of self-benighted ideological body guards who will exploit law to intimidate opponents – as one Catholic prelate recently discovered. Bishop Arthur Serratelli of Patterson, NJ, wrote a column  for his diocesan newspaper October 9 in which he implied that Obama’s support for pro-abortion legislation would destroy constitutionally protected freedom. On October 24, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State (or AU) announced that it would petition the Internal Revenue Service to review the Diocese of...

Americans United for Separation of Church and State has asked the IRS to investigate the Roman Catholic Diocese of Paterson, N.J. and Rock Christian Fellowship in Espanola, New Mexico. According to AU's letter to the IRS, Roman Catholic Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli has published a letter on Catholic Diocese of Paterson, N.J.'s website and newspaper attacking Barack Obama." The letter criticizes Obama for his pro-choice stance and encourages parishioners not to vote for Obama. AU also wants the IRS to investigate Rock Christian Fellowship in Espanola, New Mexico for posting a large display that encourages voters to support republican candidates...

After committing a murder in Rome, the famous 17th century Italian painter Caravaggio went to Malta to avoid the death penalty. While there, the Great Master of the Order of the Knights of Malta commissioned him to do a painting for the chapel of the Co-Cathedral of St. John in Valletta. Caravaggio chose as his theme the martyrdom of John the Baptist. He produced The Beheading of St. John, his largest work, the only one he ever signed. No doubt the scene touched him personally.    Herod was married to Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife. Because John the Baptist preached against...

In his weekly column last week, Bishop Arthur Serratelli urged Catholics against voting for Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, based on his pro-abortion stance. "Every vote counts. Today, either we choose to respect and protect life, especially the life of the child in the womb of the mother or we sanction the loss of our most basic freedoms," wrote Serratelli in his column that appeared on the Roman Catholic Diocese of Paterson Web site. Stopping short of mentioning the Illinois senator by name, Serratelli, nevertheless, criticized his legislative voting record on abortion issues. "In 2002, as an Illinois...

A deacon formerly associated with the controversial Society of St. John will not be a priest in the Catholic Diocese of Paterson, N.J. Deacon Joseph Levine is still a deacon in the diocese, but will not be ordained to the priesthood, Marianna Thompson, the diocesan communications director, said Tuesday. The diocese announced late last week that Deacon Levine would not be ordained Saturday in Paterson as previously scheduled, but released no other details. Four other men were ordained. Ms. Thompson confirmed Deacon Levine’s ordination is off permanently, a result of the “discernment” process during which the deacon and church officials...

PATERSON, New Jersey, June 19, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Pro-choice Catholics, not just Catholic politicians, must not receive Communion if they knowingly support legalized abortion says an American Catholic bishop.  "By steadfastly choosing to be pro-choice, a Catholic -- politician or not -- excludes himself or herself from communion," wrote Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli in the June 7 edition of the Beacon, the Paterson diocese newspaper.  In his column Serratelli rebuked "pro-choice" Catholic politicians and those who "arrogantly insist that the Church does not have the right to her own teaching" and who claim a right to Communion at the same time....

As Prefect of the Congregation for Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Ratzinger spent many hours pouring over Liberation Theology.  The liberationists had become very involved in political movements to insure a just society.  They had confused the role of the Church and the role of the State.  And, at times, they were openly Marxists.  In 1966 when the German journalist Peter Seewald asked the Cardinal what was his greatest success in his work, he pointed to the corrections offered to Liberation Theology.  The Pope's first encyclical shows the fruit of this long struggle with liberationists.  The Holy Father carefully outlines...

The bishop of the Paterson Diocese has asked priests in Morris County to contact organizers of the Saint Patrick's Day parade in Morristown and express their concerns that a group that supports abortion rights plans to participate. In a letter dated Feb. 13, Bishop Arthur Serratelli wrote that the National Organization for Women's support for "abortion, birth control and reproductive rights for all women ... stands against the teachings of the Church and the Catholic values that St. Patrick in his life as a missionary and bishop worked tirelessly to promote." The county chapter of NOW has marched in the...

Listed below is thread on Angela Bonavoglia. She will be speaking at the Loyola Retreat House, Morristown, NJ,  on Wednesday night, May 11, 2005, which is being sponsored by the Voice of the Faithful (VOTF), an apostate Marxist organization run by laypersons who don't like the traditional church. She is a pro-abortion feminist who wants a "new Catholic church" !   Angela's WebsiteContact Angela Here  The Local Catholic Bishop, Most Reverend Arthur J. Serratelli, S.T.D., S.S.L., D.D;  needs to know what is going on in his diocese by religious orders who don't necessarily report to the local ordinary.Here is a story, written by...

Whose Moral Values?  Deeper Issues Just days after the presidential election, the press reported a change the Texas Board of Education made in a high school text.  When speaking of marriage, the textbook would now speak of marriage not as a union of partners but as a union of man and woman.  Not a startling definition in light of the common tradition of humanity stretching far back beyond the pages of Genesis.  Yet what is disconcerting is the remark reported of a board member who refused to endorse the change.  She labeled the change "political agenda."  She argued that the...