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In more dioceses than not, the Feast of the Ascension is celebrated this Sunday. The liturgist in me regrets the move from Thursday, but here we are any way. Let’s ascend with the Lord, three days late! This marvelous feast is not merely about something that took place two thousand years ago, for though Christ our head has ascended, we the members of His body are ascending with Him. Because He was ascended, we, too, have ascended. In my own life as a Christian, I am brought higher every year by the Lord, who is drawing me up with Him....

SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTER JOHN 17:1–11A Friends, Jesus’ prayer in today’s Gospel sums up his wonderful work as he is about to return to his Father. Jesus was, in his very person, the meeting of heaven and earth. God and humanity came together in him, and his entire ministry was the outward expression of that inward identity. By calling a scattered Israel to unity, inviting the poor to table fellowship, healing the sick in body and heart, and embodying the path of forgiveness and love, Jesus was bringing God’s will and purpose to earth. Now, in his Passion and death,...

Francis delivers “good news”On Friday, May 14, Jorge Bergoglio (stage name, Francis) addressed the opening of a meeting held in Rome called the General States of Birth. The online meeting was hosted by the Forum of Family Associations, a European “organization that unites 47 national associations and 20 regional Forums representing the reality of 4 million families.” I heard of the address from a “contributing writer at National Catholic Register” who hailed the presentation in a Facebook post, writing:IMPORTANT and UNDERREPORTED (ask why?)VATICAN—This speech by Pope Francis took place yesterday, addressing Italian leaders including PM Draghi. Note his support of...

May 18, 2021Tuesday of the 7th week of Eastertide, Memorial of Saint John I, Pope and Martyr The Sanctuary of St. Andrew Bobola, Warsaw, Poland Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. First readingActs 20:17-27 ©I have without faltering put before you the whole of God's purposeFrom Miletus Paul sent for the elders of the church of Ephesus. When they arrived he addressed these words to them: ‘You know what my way of life has been ever since the first day I set foot among you in Asia, how I have served the Lord in all humility, with all the sorrows and...

The Church Is Still the Mystical Body of Christ LOUISE MERRIE It is unfortunately common to hear Catholics criticizing the Catholic Church without realizing what the Church really is. The Church is not an institution like a nonprofit organization. The Church is the Mystical Body of Christ. This teaching on the Church was first revealed to St. Paul at the time of his conversion when Jesus asked St. Paul (then called Saul) why he was persecuting Him. At that time, St. Paul had been persecuting the Church. His encounter with Jesus led him to understand that the Church is Jesus’...

Last week, Nancy Pelosi said it should be up to her own judgement whether she should receive communion despite her longstanding pro-abortion record. But a Catholic Archbishop is rebuking her today, saying she is “cooperating with evil” by supporting abortion. As LifeNews.com reported last week, Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she should be able to get communion even though she is a pro-abortion Catholic. The ardent abortion advocate insists she can use her own judgment on whether or not she is eligible to receive the sacrament despite winning pro-abortion awards and blocking a bill to stop infanticide. “I think I can...

Catholics and Protestants Share Communion at German Ecumenical ConventionFrankfurt’s Cathedral of St. Bartholomew served as the site where Catholics and Protestants defied Church teaching against shared communion.FRANKFURT, Germany — Protestant and Catholic worshippers in Germany defied Church teaching on Sunday by taking part in each other’s celebration of the Lord’s Supper at an Ecumenical Convention in Frankfurt. In four services in the city, Catholics were invited to take part in an Evangelical Supper with Protestants and similarly invited to celebrate the Catholic Eucharist, with the decision to receive Holy Communion at Mass or bread at a Protestant service left...

After being put through hell years ago, Aaron Bianco fights for — and finds — peace h2 class="art-title">Taunted and harassed for being a gay Catholic, he resigned his post at a local church when his life was threatened. Now, he’s still a devout Catholic and ‘life is good’Three years ago, Aaron Bianco was going through hell.Homophobic notes were being left on his car. His tires were slashed.Someone broke into the church where he worked and painted an anti-gay slur on a wall.The front doors to that church were set on fire.He was getting death threats.Conservative websites published lengthy diatribes...

COVID Vaccines, the Common Good, and Moral Liceity: A Response to Professor de Mattei — Part IIVaccine Fanaticism versus the Common Good As Part I of this series showed, even before it reaches the moral question, Prof. de Mattei’s “The Moral Liceity of the Vaccination” (MLV) fails to demonstrate a credible basis for his claim that “the common good of the population re­quires mass vaccination” with abortion-derived vaccines and that public authorities would “have a right to impose it, according to the principle that the common good takes precedence over the good of individuals…” (MLV, p. 55). Part I notes...

[Catholic Caucus] Swiss priest got civilly married on his deathbed, after living a lie for decadesHis bishop was there for the funeral, speaking openly about the priest’s partner during his farewell homily.May 14, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — A Swiss priest was civilly married on his deathbed last April, shortly before being plunged into an artificial coma by way of palliative care, putting an end to 30 years of silence about his ongoing relationship with a former nun.Although he opened up about the situation to his bishop, Charles Morerod of Lausanne, about a month before he died, “Father C” received a full...

Pope Francis and the Pro-Abortion President (of Argentina)COMMENTARY: The visit of Argentinian President Alberto Fernández to Pope Francis on Thursday was curious — and embarrassing — on several levels.When Pope Francis thinks about Catholic politicians who promote abortion, it is likely that his first thought is about the president — not of the United States, but of his home country, Argentina. In a week where the duties of Catholic legislators regarding abortion was at the top of Vatican news, the visit of Argentinian President Alberto Fernández to Pope Francis on Thursday was curious on several levels.It was the first...

The Catholic churches in the Harrisburg area are among the many establishments that are relaxing mask requirements for people who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. In a press release, the Diocese of Harrisburg announced that “in continued alignment with local, state, and federal health guidelines, effective immediately, all fully vaccinated parishioners no longer need to wear masks when attending Mass.” “This move comes after the state of Pennsylvania immediately adopted the recent recommendations from the CDC regarding fully vaccinated people,” the press release said, referring to the Center for Disease Control’s announcement last week that fully vaccinated people are safe...

SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTER JOHN 16:29–33 Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus promises peace to his disciples, who would abandon him at his arrest. “Behold, the hour is coming and has arrived when each of you will be scattered . . . and you will leave me alone. But I am not alone, because the Father is with me. I have told you this so that you might have peace in me.” And Jesus’ prophecy is fulfilled at the Resurrection. The disciples are gathered in the upper room, that place of fear, and suddenly Jesus is in their midst. What is...

May 17, 2021Monday of the 7th week of Eastertide Cathedral of Christ the King, Rejkyavik, Iceland Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. First readingActs 19:1-8 ©The moment Paul laid hands on them the Holy Spirit came down on themWhile Apollos was in Corinth, Paul made his way overland as far as Ephesus, where he found a number of disciples. When he asked, ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?’ they answered, ‘No, we were never even told there was such a thing as a Holy Spirit.’ ‘Then how were you baptised?’ he asked. ‘With John’s baptism’ they replied....

A statue depicting Jesus Christ was toppled and an American flag burned outside a Catholic church in Brooklyn, prompting the New York City Police Department to launch a hate crime investigation. The New York Post reported: The incident occurred around 10 p.m. Thursday when an unknown person hopped the fence at St. Athanasius Church on Bay Parkway at 61st Street in Bensonhurst, police said. The vandal pushed over a statue of Jesus’s crucifixion, breaking it into pieces, and torched an American flag hanging outside the rectory, according to cops.“This was truly an act of hatred, and today is the saddest...

Regime Change: Francis Becomes Biden's Altar BoyFrancis received on May 15 John Kerry, the special Climate Envoy of Biden's woke regime, who visited the Vatican for a closed-door conference on the same day about “Dreaming of a Better Restart.”"Restart" seems to have replaced the ominous "reset." Participants included the finance ministers of Mexico, Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Argentina, left-wing economists, and the heads of the World Bank, the African Union, the Rockefeller Foundation and the International Monetary Fund.A flattering Kerry told VaticanNews.va that he met Francis because he is a “moral authority on the subject of climate crisis” and...

Report: Time magazine gave journalist $20,000 per month to host progressivist parties during Vatican IIThe U.S. secular TIME magazine hosted luxurious gatherings throughout the 1962-1965 Vatican II sessions with numerous influencers in order to push the Council in a more progressivist direction, according to this report.May 14, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – Dr. Robert Moynihan, a veteran journalist and Vatican expert, has published an article (Moynihan Letter #26) in which he relates what a Time magazine journalist revealed to him in 2004. The now-deceased Robert Blair Kaiser told Moynihan that he was sent by Time’s Clare Booth and Henry Luce to the...

Germany: Ecumenical Convention Uses Body of Christ as Toy for Act of DefianceAt the Ecumenical Convention in Frankfurt (May 15), it was up to "Catholics" and "Protestants" to help themselves either by taking Holy Communion or by eating bread at the Protestant Lord's Supper.The two presidents of the Convention made a start with a childish act of defiance. The President of the Central Committee of German Catholics, Thomas Sternberg, took part in the Protestant service and ate bread there. The Protestant President, Bettina Limperg, the president of the Federal Supreme Court in Karlsruhe, sacrilegiously took the Body of Christ at...

The Vatican Defends Biden on CommunionEt tu, Brute? This pontificate is rightly seen as a repudiation of the restorationist priorities of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. Perhaps nowhere is this clearer than on the matter of long-neglected canon law. Discussions about it had intensified under those two previous pontificates. It appeared, for example, that the Church, after many years of laxity, was on the cusp of finally applying canon law to pro-abortion Catholic politicians. Pope Benedict XVI, who was on record favoring a denial of Communion to them, spoke of the “pseudo-pastoral” claims made by progressive churchmen...

May 16, 2021 7th Sunday of Easter Saint Brendan’s Cathedral, Clonfert Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: White.In some dioceses the Ascension of the Lord is celebrated today. If this applies to you, please reconfigure Universalis to use the appropriate local calendar.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...