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With the election of a new pope, some have reexamined an alleged prophecy by a 12th century Irish saint who predicted the number of popes before the end of the world. Saint Malachy of Armagh, a Roman Catholic bishop who died in 1148, reportedly had a vision while on a pilgrimage to Rome, where he claimed to have learned the exact number of popes who would reign from his time until Judgment Day. Interest in the purported prophecy was high in 2013 with the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, as the prophecy indicated that the pontiff after him — which...

In the five years since I began writing the Twilight Patriot Substack, I’ve had occasion to mention only one pope — and that was the medieval Pope Innocent III, who appears briefly in my essay on the Magna Carta.If you’re a Catholic and you believe that these men are chosen with the aid of the Holy Spirit, then the reason for refusing to put them in political boxes should be obvious. If, like me, you’re merely an astute observer of events, then just remember how John Paul II annoyed the traditionalists by kissing the Quran as a gesture of friendship...

Daily Readings from the USCCBWhen Jesus had washed the disciples’ feet, he said to them: “Amen, amen, I say to you, no slave is greater than his master nor any messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you understand this, blessed are you if you do it.” John 13:16–17During this, the Fourth Week of Easter, we return to the Last Supper and will spend a few weeks considering the discourse Jesus gave that Holy Thursday evening to His disciples. The question to ask yourself today is this: “Are you blessed?” Jesus says that you are blessed if you...

15 May 2025Thursday of the 4th week of EastertideSt. Isidore Church, Grand Rapids, MichiganReadings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: C(I).First readingActs 13:13-25God has raised up one of David's descendants, Jesus, as SaviourPaul and his friends went by sea from Paphos to Perga in Pamphylia where John left them to go back to Jerusalem. The others carried on from Perga till they reached Antioch in Pisidia. Here they went to synagogue on the sabbath and took their seats. After the lessons from the Law and the Prophets had been read, the presidents of the synagogue sent them a message: ‘Brothers,...

Kelsey Grammer is revealing that he had complicated feelings after his ex had an abortion when they were together. "I know that many people do not have a problem with abortion, and though I have supported it in the past, the abortion of my son eats away at my soul," Grammer writes The star explains that in 1974, his girlfriend became pregnant and did not want to keep the baby. Although Grammer says he was "willing" the keep the baby, he "did not plead with her to save his life." "I supported the idea that a woman has the right...

[Catholic Caucus] Pope Leo XIV: Catholics need to rediscover ‘sense of mystery’ in the liturgyPope Leo XIV's praise for the beauty and 'mystery' of the Eastern liturgy has given hope to Catholics that he might be more favorable to the traditional Mass than his predecessor.VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Praise from the pope for the beauty and “mystery” of the Eastern liturgy has given hope to Catholics that Leo XIV might be more favorable to the traditional Mass than his predecessor.In recent years, the long-standing so-called “liturgy wars” have become even more painful due to the sweeping and punitive restrictions placed...

[Catholic Caucus] Better death than devotion: Indiana Novus Ordo parish kicks out Latin Mass community, gets closed by bishop several years laterAn Indiana parish that ran to the National Catholic Reporter to stir up animosity against the Latin Mass community found out this week it will be closed due to lack of vitality.St. Joseph's Church, Hammond, INOn Sunday, the parish officially announced it would be closing sometime in 2026, following a series of discussions with other churches in the area over how to address demographic changes and a declining number of priests.Yet things could have gone so differently.St. Joseph’s Church...

Daily Readings from the USCCB“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.” John 15:16After Judas betrayed our Lord, the Apostles gathered together to pick someone to succeed him. They decided it should be someone who had been with them from the beginning. They prayed for guidance and cast lots “and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was counted with the Eleven Apostles” (Acts 1:26). Little is known about the ministry...

CV NEWS FEED // Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago has contracted with a lobbying firm that also represents organizations supporting or providing abortions, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The firm, Cozen O’Connor Public Strategies, is currently registered to lobby on behalf of Catholic Charities before the Illinois state government. Public records show that the same firm also lobbies for Rush University Medical Center, which provides abortions, and CVS Health, whose pharmacies dispense drugs used in chemical abortions, according to the outlet. Beyond client representation, the Sun-Times found that Cozen O’Connor and its employees have contributed to political campaigns...

Wednesday 14 May 2025 Saint Matthias, Apostle Feast St. Matthias Catholic Church - Bala Cynwyd, PA Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Red. Year: C(I).First readingActs 1:15-17,20-26'Let someone else take his office'One day Peter stood up to speak to the brothers – there were about a hundred and twenty persons in the congregation: ‘Brothers, the passage of scripture had to be fulfilled in which the Holy Spirit, speaking through David, foretells the fate of Judas, who offered himself as a guide to the men who arrested Jesus – after having been one of our number and actually sharing this ministry of...

(Hymn at the link.) With everyone so urgent about who is Pope Leo XIV, we may want to pull back and think about who he will seem to be in a year, 5 years, 10 years, 20 years, after his death, after the next Pope. When God sends the people a scourge because they dispise his blessings, and they are trying to understand why bad things are happening to supposedly good people, you can't just look at the punishment, you need to examine those who are the punished. The punishment for our faithlessness was a Dictator Pope who deliberately promoted...

Daily Readings from the USCCBJesus walked about in the temple area on the Portico of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I told you and you do not believe.” John 10:24–25Why is it that these people did not know that Jesus was the Christ? They wanted Jesus to speak “plainly” to them, but Jesus surprises them by saying that He already answered their question but they “do not believe.” This Gospel passage continues the...

Twenty-three-year-old Joshua Steel found a "great sense of peace" that he couldn't find anywhere else when he started attending Catholic Mass in Britain. Twenty-six-year-old Dan Williamson was driven to convert to the faith by an "ache" he had for something "deeper and ancient and more rich". Both are among a growing number of men aged 18-34 who are going to church in Britain compared with before the COVID pandemic, upending the long-held tenet that Christianity was in generational decline in Western nations like Britain. ..."I was looking for meaning in life," Steel said after Mass ended at St. Elizabeth of...

13 May 2025 Tuesday of the 4th week of Eastertide St. Robert Bellarmine Parish, Chicago, IllinoisReadings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: C(I).First readingActs 11:19-26They started preaching to the Greeks, proclaiming the Lord JesusThose who had escaped during the persecution that happened because of Stephen travelled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, but they usually proclaimed the message only to Jews. Some of them, however, who came from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch where they started preaching to the Greeks, proclaiming the Good News of the Lord Jesus to them as well. The Lord helped them, and...

[Catholic Caucus] As a priest, Pope Leo XIV opposed the Western media’s pro-LGBT lies and promoted truthPope Leo XIV has understood what Pope Francis did not: it is precisely the hard teachings of the Gospel that draw people to salvation through Jesus Christ.While there are only a few recorded examples of Pope Leo XIV’s history with LGBTQ issues, his statements stand in stark contrast with those of his predecessor, Pope Francis, who early in his pontificate wondered aloud, “If a person is gay … who am I to judge?” He later allegedly told a young man, “God made you gay.”At...

[Catholic Caucus] Our Long Collective Nightmare is OverEarlier today, another sign that, no matter what happens, at least a sense of Catholic normalcy is returning to the Vatican.After each of the past conclaves, one of the first meetings of the elected Roman Pontiff is a salutation to the men and women of the media who covered the interregnum and conclave. In 2013, at the end of his rambling, Francis refused (simply refused) to impart the traditional blessing, just remaining in silence for a while and saying he was giving a "silent blessing" out of "respect" for "non-believers." Today, Leo XIV...

[Catholic Caucus] On Silence about the Papal Tyrant"He who does not bellow the truth when he knows the truth makes himself the accomplice of liars and forgers." ~Charles PeguyNow we learn. For a dozen long miserable years, they all kept their mouths shut about Bergoglio. They all covered up the chaotic madness of this man, yet whispering and gossiping and cowering in the halls of Casa Santa Marta about the man in white. They breathed not a word about the man, who subjected the Catholic Church to 12 years of brutal tyranny, blatant material heresy, vindictive psychopathy, and rampant predator...

Daily Readings from the USCCB“But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice, as the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has driven out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice.” John 10:2–4Do you recognize the voice of the Shepherd? Does He lead you each and every day, guiding you into His holy will? How attentive are you to what He speaks each day? These are some...

12 May 2025 Monday of the 4th week of Eastertide St Pancras Old Church, LondonReadings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: C(I).First readingActs 11:1-18God can grant even the pagans the repentance that leads to lifeThe apostles and the brothers in Judaea heard that the pagans too had accepted the word of God, and when Peter came up to Jerusalem the Jews criticised him and said, ‘So you have been visiting the uncircumcised and eating with them, have you?’ Peter in reply gave them the details point by point: ‘One day, when I was in the town of Jaffa,’ he began,...

POPE LEO XIV REGINA CAELI Loggia of the Blessings of St. Peter's Basilica Sunday, 11 May 2025Dear brothers and sisters, happy Sunday!I consider it a gift from God that the first Sunday of my service as Bishop of Rome is Good Shepherd Sunday, the fourth Sunday of Easter. On this Sunday, we always hear proclaimed at Mass a passage from the tenth chapter from the Gospel of John, where Jesus reveals himself as the true Shepherd: who knows and loves his sheep and gives his life for them.This Sunday also marks the World Day of Prayer for Vocations, which we...