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In Northampton, supporters of President Donald J. Trump gathered to show their concerns about the restrictions imposed on the public and loss of civil liberties during the coronavirus pandemic. “These events have been going on mostly in the eastern part of the state all winter, weather permitting,” said former Hampden County Correctional Officer Chris Ryan. “The sub-theme of this event is opening up our country again and holding the China Communist Party accountable for their weaponized virus creation.”

[Catholic Caucus] “To Be Or Not To Be.” The Capital Question of Masses on TV The discussion had been germinating for some time. But the April 12 homily in which Pope Francis “retracted” his concession for the television broadcast of his morning Masses at Santa Marta has brought it into the light of day.In that homily, the pope said that “this is not the Church” if it decays from the real to the virtual. It is a “gnostic” Church with no more people or sacraments.There is something contradictory in this "j'accuse" of Francis delivered precisely during one of his televised...

Around a third of participants in a Massachusetts study tested positive for antibodies linked with coronavirus, according to researchers. The Mass. General study took samples from 200 residents on the street in Chelsea, MA. Sixty-four of the participants tested positive – a “sobering” result, according to Thomas Ambrosino, Chelsea’s city manager. Ambrosino called Chelsea the epicenter of the crisis in Massachusetts. Chelsea has the state’s highest rate of confirmed cases, with at least 712 confirmed cases and 39 deaths – an infection rate of around 2 percent. .... Doctors used a device made by BioMedomics to analyze the samples. The...

The new "Mass in Time of Pandemic," published on April 1 by the Vatican's Congregation for Divine Worship, has been stripped of all references to the "wrath of God." The liturgy, approved by Pope Francis, eliminates all prayers emphasizing "repentance" — references which abound in the "Recordare domine testamenti" [Remember, Lord, thy covenant] votive Mass — composed and used for deliverance from pestilences since the Black Plague in the mid-14th century. Old "Mass for Deliverance from Death in Time of Pestilence" In the decree authorizing the new Mass, Cdl. Robert Sarah, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, explained that...

"For some time now, we have been in combat against the spread of the coronavirus, COVID-19. From all that we can tell – and one of the difficulties of the combat is that so much about the pestilence remains unclear – , the battle will yet continue for some time. The virus involved is particularly insidious, for it has a relatively long incubation period – some say 14 days and some say 20 days – and is highly contagious, much more highly contagious than other viruses we have experienced."“We cannot simply accept the determinations of secular governments, which would treat...

The Archdiocese of Hartford has cancelled all weekday and weekend Masses in the churches of the Archdiocese through April 3, 2020.

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker’s announcement Sunday night banning gatherings of 25 or more people sent workers scrambling to find out what that means for their jobs, their children’s daycare facilities and preschools. The executive order on gatherings — one of several issued Sunday to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus — prohibited “without limitation, community, civic, public, leisure, faith-based, sporting events with spectators, concerts, conventions, fundraisers, parades, fairs, festivals and any similar event or activity that brings 25 or more persons in a single room or single space at the same time.” Those spaces include auditoriums, stadiums, large conferences,...

[Catholic Caucus] Italian Police Storms Mass in Rome (Video) Italian police interrupted a Mass in Cerveteri, Rome, EWTN's Alexey Gotovskiy reports (Twitter, March 15, video below). The Mass was broadcasted in the Internet. The stream showed few people assembled in front of the Church for prayer. There was less danger of contamination than in a supermarket, train or bus.

Over the course of his public life, Donald Trump has made any number of incendiary, bizarre and flat-out false comments. And since he began his campaign for the presidency in 2015, Trump has kept the quotes coming at an ever-increasing, ever-exhausting pace. “I am a very stable genius.” “I alone can fix it.” “Why are we having all these people from sh*thole countries come here?” “Nobody has more respect for women than I do.” (The latter comment came the same night he referred to Hillary Clinton during a 2016 debate as “Such a nasty women.”) As much as they’ve become...

A second student at Smith College is under medical evaluation for possible exposure to coronavirus. The school shared in a letter with the campus community Tuesday that the student recently traveled to the Hubei province in China and has reported cold-like symptoms.

What are your thoughts about this? Fr. Peter O’Connor of Dublin, Ireland made headlines this week after riding a scooter down the aisle at Christmas Eve Mass....The pastor of Ballyroan Parish in Dublin told his congregation “that he received the scooter from Santa and wanted to test it out.” The parish posted a video with the caption, “Fr. Peter’s Christmas present put to very good use! Happy Christmas”. The video depicts Fr. O’Connor providing the congregation’s final blessing, then rolling away on a scooter for the recessional. Other videos of the full recessional also surfaced. ABC News posted the pastor...

December 2 2019 « December 1 | December 3 » Monday of the First Week of AdventLectionary: 175 Reading 1 Is 4:2-6 On that day,The branch of the LORD will be luster and glory,and the fruit of the earth will be honor and splendorfor the survivors of Israel.He who remains in Zionand he who is left in JerusalemWill be called holy:every one marked down for life in Jerusalem.When the LORD washes awaythe filth of the daughters of Zion,And purges Jerusalem's blood from her midstwith a blast of searing judgment,Then will the LORD create,over the whole site of Mount Zionand over...

December 1 2019 « November 30 | December 2 » First Sunday of AdventLectionary: 1 Reading 1 Is 2:1-5 This is what Isaiah, son of Amoz,saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.In days to come,the mountain of the LORD's houseshall be established as the highest mountainand raised above the hills.All nations shall stream toward it;many peoples shall come and say:"Come, let us climb the LORD's mountain,to the house of the God of Jacob,that he may instruct us in his ways,and we may walk in his paths."For from Zion shall go forth instruction,and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.He shall judge between...

December 1 2019 « November 30 | December 2 » First Sunday of AdventLectionary: 1 Reading 1 Is 2:1-5 This is what Isaiah, son of Amoz,saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.In days to come,the mountain of the LORD's houseshall be established as the highest mountainand raised above the hills.All nations shall stream toward it;many peoples shall come and say:"Come, let us climb the LORD's mountain,to the house of the God of Jacob,that he may instruct us in his ways,and we may walk in his paths."For from Zion shall go forth instruction,and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.He shall judge between...

For today's readings, go here: November 30 Messed up the title, sorry

November 30 2019 « November 29 | December 1 » Feast of Saint Andrew, ApostleLectionary: 684 Reading 1 Rom 10:9-18 Brothers and sisters:If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lordand believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,you will be saved.For one believes with the heart and so is justified,and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.The Scripture says,No one who believes in him will be put to shame.There is no distinction between Jew and Greek;the same Lord is Lord of all,enriching all who call upon him.For everyone who calls on the name...

Incredibly beautiful sacred liturgy and music from the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Imnaculate Conception, Washington DC.

FLORENCE, S.C. – Former Vice President Joe Biden, a candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2020 presidential race, was denied Holy Communion on Sunday morning at a Florence church. Father Robert E. Morey of Saint Anthony Catholic Church confirmed Monday afternoon that he had denied the presidential candidate Holy Communion because of his stance on abortion. Biden, a lifelong Catholic, had attended the church's 9 a.m. Mass. Communion is one of seven sacraments in the Roman Catholic Church. The others are baptism, reconciliation, confirmation, marriage, anointing of the sick and holy orders.

Can a candidate be a favorite and an underdog at the same time? Ordinarily the answer is no. But if your name is Joe Kennedy III anything is possible, even wresting the U. S. Senate seat from longtime Washington veteran Sen. Ed Markey. But despite the polls that put Kennedy ahead after his decision to challenge Markey in the September Democrat primary, it will not be as easy as it looks. Kennedy must articulate why Markey, a fellow progressive, should be ousted. He did not do that convincingly on Saturday when he made his candidacy official.

The KATRIN discovery stems from direct, high-precision measurements of how a rare type of electron-neutrino pair share energy. This approach is the same as neutrino mass experiments from the 1990s and early 2000s...both of which set the previous upper limit of the mass at 2 eV. The heart of the KATRIN experiment is the source that generates electron-neutrino pairs: gaseous tritium, a highly radioactive isotope of hydrogen. As the tritium nucleus undergoes radioactive decay, it emits a pair of particles: one electron and one neutrino, both sharing 18,560 eV of energy. KATRIN scientists cannot directly measure the neutrinos, but they...