Free Republic

White Double THE SCHOOL WHICH IS FOUNDED upon the rule of the great Patriarch of the Monks of the West began with St. Gregory the Great. Such was the independent action of the Holy Spirit who guided it that in it women have prophesied as well as men. It is enough to mention St. Hildegarde and St. Gertrude, with whom we may fitly associate St. Mechtilde and St. Frances of Rome. Anyone who has tried modern methods will find, on making acquaintance with these ancient writers, that he is breathing another atmosphere, and is urged onward by a gentle...

November 16, 2018 Friday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 2 Jn 4-9 [Chosen Lady:]I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truthjust as we were commanded by the Father.But now, Lady, I ask you,not as though I were writing a new commandmentbut the one we have had from the beginning:let us love one another.For this is love, that we walk according to his commandments;this is the commandment, as you heard from the beginning,in which you should walk. Many deceivers have gone out into the world,those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ...

Franciscan Media Image: Saint Albert the Great | Vincenzo Onofri | photo by sailko Saint Albert the Great Saint of the Day for November 15 (1206 – November 15, 1280)  Saint Albert the Great’s Story Albert the Great was a 13th-century German Dominican who decisively influenced the Church’s stance toward Aristotelian philosophy brought to Europe by the spread of Islam.Students of philosophy know him as the master of Thomas Aquinas. Albert’s attempt to understand Aristotle’s writings established the climate in which Thomas Aquinas developed his synthesis of Greek wisdom and Christian theology. But Albert deserves recognition on his own...

The papally appointed prelates' fate was not included in the recent deal with Beijing and remains under discussionOn the face of it, one of the more curious issues about the recent "temporary" deal between the Vatican and Beijing on the appointment of bishops, as described in the official state-run Chinese media, was the lack of any resolution of the status of bishops appointed by the Vatican but not recognized by Communist Party-run Catholic groups. It would seem to have been a logical quid pro quo — something granted or expected in return for something given — for the Vatican's forgiveness...

Baltimore, Md., Nov 14, 2018 / 03:16 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- On the last day of their fall meeting, the U.S. bishops' conference voted down a resolution that would have “encouraged” the Holy See to release all documents on the allegations of sexual misconduct against Archbishop Theodore McCarrick. After about a half hour of debate, objections that the resolution was redundant and ambiguous won out, and it was voted down by a clicker vote of 83-137, with three abstaining. The original text of the resolution, proposed by Bishop Earl Boyea of Lansing, read: "Be it resolved that the bishops of the...

US bishops vote down resolution urging Holy See to release McCarrick documents The bishops of the United States resumed their open-floor discussion on the recent sexual abuse scandals facing the Church in America Wednesday morning. In addition to debating the best means of institutionally responding to the crisis, the specific case of Archbishop Theodore McCarrick was raised by several speakers. Bishop Richard Stika of Knoxville told the conference Nov. 14 that the allegations against McCarrick, and the scandal of his rise and fall, were not just affecting long-time Catholics. Many people in the process of entering the Church found themselves...

I lurked about the Marriott lobby for a few minutes, then looked up and saw Tobin emerge from the elevator and saunter over to the check-out desk. Here was my chance. I waited for him to complete his business, then introduced myself and asked him about Francesco Castiglione. Was Castiglione living at the rectory until I reported it? Tobin responded that, yes, Castiglione was living at his rectory “temporarily.” I asked him why. He said that Castiglione was taking “language classes” at Seton Hall. Asked why he would provide temporary housing to a random Seton Hall student, Tobin couldn’t offer...

US bishop challenges brother bishops for allowing pro-LGBT priest to speak in dioceses BALTIMORE, Maryland, November 14, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Texas Bishop Joseph Strickland forthrightly articulated Church teaching on the immorality of homosexual acts to the U.S. Bishops’ Conference Tuesday. He questioned whether his brother bishops believed this “doctrine of the Church or not,” and if they did, why some of them have allowed certain clergy to speak in their dioceses with a pro-homosexual message.  “Brothers, I think part of the fraternal correction, or the fraternal support, we offer each other is to say, 'Can that be presented in...

f the scorching address by Francesco Cesareo, calling for negligent bishops to resign voluntarily, produced the most encouraging moment in the USCCB meeting, the low point might have come when Cardinal Joseph Tobin spoke, and made it abundantly clear that some prelates still don’t “get it.” After delivering a report on the investigations into “Uncle Ted” McCarrick in his Newark archdiocese (it’s complicated), Cardinal Tobin wondered aloud why people don’t trust their bishops. “What was there before?” he asked rhetorically. “What was our credibility built on, that it could be so swept away?” Let me attempt to answer that question....

The Vatican theologian says unless the Pope reaffirms Church teaching on morals, the faith and the sacraments, ‘the apostasy will deepen and the de facto schism will widen.’ In a forceful interview with Italian Vaticanist Aldo Maria Valli, Msgr. Nicola Bux has warned that the current pontificate is issuing statements that are generating “heresies, schisms, and controversies of various kinds” and that the Holy Father should issue a profession of faith to restore unity in the Church.In the interview, published Oct. 13 but overlooked due to the Youth Synod taking place in Rome last month, the theologian consultor to the Congregation for the Causes...

A Hidden Mass in the Gospel of the Ten Lepers Msgr. Charles Pope • November 14, 2018 • Healing of the Ten Lepers, by J. Tissot (1886-94)The Gospel for Wednesday of the 32nd Week of the Year teaches that the Mass is the perfect offering of thanks to the Father. It does so in a remarkable and almost hidden way, but it is right there for us to see if we have eyes to see it.The Gospel telling the story of the ten lepers contains all the essential elements of Holy Mass and thus it reminds us once that...

November 15, 2018 Thursday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Phmn 7-20 Beloved:I have experienced much joy and encouragement from your love,because the hearts of the holy oneshave been refreshed by you, brother.Therefore, although I have the full right in Christto order you to do what is proper,I rather urge you out of love,being as I am, Paul, an old man,and now also a prisoner for Christ Jesus.I urge you on behalf of my child Onesimus,whose father I have become in my imprisonment,who was once useless to you but is now useful to both you and...

Franciscan Media Image: The high altar statue of Saint Gertrude the Great with a mouse on the distaff| Grafenbach, Austria | photo by Rollroboter Saint Gertrude the Great Saint of the Day for November 14 (January 6, 1256 – November 17, 1302)  Saint Gertrude the Great’s Story Gertrude, a Benedictine nun in Helfta, Saxony, was one of the great mystics of the 13th century. Together with her friend and teacher Saint Mechtild, she practiced a spirituality called “nuptial mysticism,” that is, she came to see herself as the bride of Christ. Her spiritual life was a deeply personal union...

Six men filed a class action and racketeering lawsuit Tuesday against the Vatican and America’s Catholic bishops, arguing they were aware of but ignored evidence of rape and sexual abuse within the clergy. The 80-page complaint, filed in federal district court in Washington, D.C., asks a judge to order a personal apology from the church hierarchy to abuse victims, to demand a full public accounting of all cases dating back to 1940, and to compensate victims and create a medical monitoring fund to help in recovery. The plaintiffs all say they were abused when they were children attending churches from...

Last Sunday, as the Bishops of the United States began to make their way to Baltimore, those blessed with the opportunity to attend the Tridentine Mass heard Matthew 13:24-30 read as the Gospel. The following is a synopsis of this parable as I heard it explained by a diocesan priest who wishes to remain anonymous:The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men were asleep, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away.Why would an enemy—no matter how vicious—expend an incredible amount of energy to sow weeds?...

A Word of Encouragement from Elisha the Prophet Msgr. Charles Pope • November 13, 2018 • There is an old saying, “Stop telling God how big your storm is and start telling the storm how big your God is.” In other words, we often need to shift our focus, building up our trust and confidence. Because we are so wired for fear, we tend to overestimate the power and shrewdness of demons, or of our enemies, or of whatever it is we fear. At the same time, we tend to underestimate the power of God, the power of our...

Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun flew to Rome and handed a seven-page letter to Pope Francis appealing for him to pay attention to the crisis facing the underground church in China. The Hong Kong emeritus bishop on Nov. 8 told ucanews.com that underground clerics have cried to him since the Vatican-China deal on the appointment of bishops. "They said officials have forced them to become open, to join the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association and to obtain a priest's certificate with the reason that the pope has signed the Sino-Vatican provisional agreement," said Cardinal Zen. He said some parts of the agreement...

In the early days of Baltimore, if a Catholic leader had proposed a religious gathering at a swanky hotel, he would have been ridiculed. Such a suggestion would have been taken as a mark of spiritual unseriousness. Ascetic, serious-minded bishops might meet in monasteries or religious houses to discuss matters of grave importance to the Church. But a hotel? That practice only became popular after worldly, faux-populist fetishes saturated the post-Vatican II Church.And so now every November Catholics in the pews have to pony up hundreds of thousands of dollars for the bishops to enjoy a cushy get-away at such...

November 14, 2018 Wednesday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Ti 3:1-7 Beloved:Remind them to be under the control of magistrates and authorities,to be obedient, to be open to every good enterprise.They are to slander no one, to be peaceable, considerate,exercising all graciousness toward everyone.For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, deluded,slaves to various desires and pleasures,living in malice and envy,hateful ourselves and hating one another. But when the kindness and generous loveof God our savior appeared,not because of any righteous deeds we had donebut because of his mercy,he saved us through the bath of rebirthand...

Red Double JOSAPHAT KUNCEWICZ, contemporary with St. Francis de Sales and St. Vincent de Paul, might have been taken for a Greek monk of the eleventh century, or an ascetic of the Thebaid. A stranger to the intellectual culture of the West, he knew only the liturgical books and sacred texts used in his own church; as a priest, an archimandrite, a reformer of his order of St. Basil, and lastly as Archbishop, he combated all his life against the consequences of the schism of Photius, and closed the struggle by culling the palm of martyrdom. Yet all this...