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Red Double THE HERO DEPUTED THIS DAY by the Church to greet our Risen Lord was so valiant in the Good Fight that Martyrdom is part of his name. He is known as Peter the Martyr; so that we cannot speak of him without raising the echo of victory. He was put to death by heretics, and is the grant tribute paid to our Redeemer by the 13th Century. Never was there a triumph hailed with greater enthusiasm than this. The Martyrdom of St. Thomas of Canterbury excited the admiration of the Faithful of the preceding Century, for nothing...

White Double IT IS THE FEAST of the austere reformer of the 11th century, Peter Damian, the precursor of the holy Pontiff Gregory the Seventh, that we are called upon to celebrate today. To him is due a share of that glorious regeneration which was effected at that troubled period when judgment had to begin at the House of God. The life he had led under the Monastic Rule had fitted him for the great contest. So zealously did he withstand the disorders and abuses of his times that we may attribute to him, at least in great measure,...

White Greater Double WE ARE CALLED UPON, a second time, to honor St. Peter’s Chair: first, it was his Pontificate in Rome; today it is his Episcopate at Antioch. The seven years spent by the Prince of the Apostles in the second of these cities were the grandest glory she ever had; and they are too important a portion of the life of St. Peter to be passed by without being noticed in the Christian Cycle. Three years had elapsed since our Lord’s Ascension. The Church had already been made fruitful by martyrdom, and from Jerusalem she had spread...

Critics have found a number of ways to describe Sony Pictures’ new adaptation of Beatrix Potter’s mischievous yet beloved bunny, “Peter Rabbit.” The modern Peter Rabbit is a frat bro, a “raging narcissist,” a vandal that escalates a feud into a “truly sadistic display of violence.” Now, the bunny character has been billed as something else — a food allergy bully. The scene prompted intense backlash from allergy advocacy groups and parents of children with food allergies, who said it mocked an attack that in real life could have proved fatal. The segment led to a hashtag — #boycottpeterrabbit —...

White Double THE RANSOMER OF CAPTIVES, Peter Nolasco, is thus brought before us by the Calendar, a few days after having given us the Feast of his master, Raymund of Pegnafort. Both of them offer to the Divine Redeemer the thousands of Christians they ransomed from slavery. It is an appropriate homage, for it was the result of the Charity which first began in Bethlehem, in the heart of the Infant Jesus, and was afterwards so fervently praciced by these two Saints. Peter was born in France, but made Spain his adopted country, because it offered him such grand...

White Greater Double THE ARCHANGEL GABRIEL told Mary, in the Annunciation, that the Son who was to be born of her should be a King, and that of his Kingdom there should be no end. Hence, when the Magi were led from the East to the Crib of Jesus, they proclaimed it in Jerusalem, that they came to seek a King. But this new Empire needed a Capital; and whereas the King, who was to fix his throne in it was, according to the eternal decrees, to re-ascend into heaven, it was necessary that the visible character of his...

White Double THE SAME divine Providence which would not that the Church should be deprived of the consolation of keeping, during Advent, the feast of some of the Apostles, who announced to the Gentiles the coming of the Messias, has also willed that the holy Doctors, who defended the true Faith against heretics, should be represented in this important season of the Catholic Year. Two of them, St. Ambrose and Peter Chrysologus, shine as two brilliant stars in the firmament of the Church during Advent. It is worthy of note that both of them were the zealous avengers of...

White Greater Double QUOD DUCE TE MUNDUS SURREXIT IN ASTRA TRIUMPHAMS, HANC CONSTANTINUS VICTOR TIBI CONDIDIT AULAM. Because the world under thy conduct has risen triumphant to the very heavens, Constantine the conqueror has built this temple in thy honor. This inscription stood in letters of gold over the triumphal arch in the ancient Vatican Basilica. Never did the Roman genius frame a more magnificent utterance in so few words; never did the greatness of Simon Bar-Jona appear to such advantage on the seven hills. In 1506 the great arch that had looked down upon twelve centuries of prostrate...

White Double “O happy penance, which has won me such glory!” said the Saint of today at the threshold of heaven. And on earth, Teresa of Jesus wrote of him “Oh! what a perfect imitator of Jesus Christ God has just taken from us, by calling to his glory that blessed religious Brother Peter of Alcantara! The world, they say, is no longer capable of such high perfection; constitutions are weaker, and we are not now in the olden times. Here is a Saint of the present day; yet his manly fervor equalled that of past ages; and he...

Of Peter and the Papacy – A Homily for the 21st Sunday of the Year Msgr. Charles Pope • August 26, 2017 • Christ Giving the Keys to St. Peter, Perugino, Sistine ChapelThe Gospel today sets forth the biblical basis for the Office of Peter, the Office of the Papacy, for Peter’s successors are the Popes. The word “pope” is simply an English version (via Anglo-Saxon and Germanic tongues) of the word “papa.” The Pope is affectionately called “Papa” in Italian and Spanish as an affectionate indication that he is the father of the family, the Church.Let’s look at...

Bones attributed to St. Peter have been found by chance in a church in Rome during routine restoration work, 2,000 years after the apostle’s death. The relics of the saint, who is regarded as the first Pope, were found in clay pots in the 1,000-year-old Church of Santa Maria in Cappella in the district of Trastevere, a medieval warren of cobbled lanes on the banks of the Tiber River. The bones were discovered when a worker lifted up a large marble slab near the medieval altar of the church, which has been closed to the public for 35 years because...

Christian tradition maintains that after Rome nearly burned to the ground, Nero engaged in a brutal crackdown on Christians which led to the executions of Peter and Paul. On the evening of July 18, in the scorching summer of 64 CE, a fire started in a shop under the Circus Maximus in Rome. The fire quickly spread to nearby homes and businesses and the Circus itself. The fire burned for six days, ravaging the city. It left only four of Rome’s fourteen quarters untouched. The reigning emperor, Nero, a man known for his cruelty and love of theater, scapegoated the...

Peter in Jail - Five Facts of Faith We Learn from His Story Msgr. Charles Pope • June 29, 2016 • Today’s Feast of Saints Peter and Paul honors two pillars of the early Church. While all the Apostles form the foundation, Peter and Paul stand out profoundly in terms of their influence and their work. And while some suggest a division between them, the Church insists that they must been seen together; hence their feast is set forth in this way.Indeed, those who see division between them base it on only one text (Galatians 2:11), in which St....

In some translations of 2 Peter 3, we see implied that the planet itself (heavenly bodies/elements) will be literally burned up. There are many reasons why this is not literally about the physical cosmos, but rather is about the coming events of AD 70 when God judged Old Covenant Israel. At that time, over a million Jews were slaughtered at the hands of the Romans, the temple was destroyed, and along with it the last vestiges of the Old Covenant order. 1. The Bible elsewhere anticipates a never-ending earth (Ecclesiastes 1:4; Psalm 78:69; 104:5; 148:3-6; Ephesians 3:21). 2. The context...

But at Your Command I Will Lower the Nets -- A Homily for the 5th Sunday of the Year Msgr. Charles Pope -- February 6, 2016 -- Today's gospel describes the call of Simon Peter. It is a call that takes place in several stages. And while it is presented in a compact time frame, for most of us it takes place over a longer period, as the Lord works to deepen our faith and heighten our call. The upshot of today's gospel is that Peter's faith is strengthened by his obedience to the Lord's command.Let's see how the...

Early on in Pan, a young Peter Pan asks “where’s the bacon” when being served a watery bowl of gruel at an orphanage in World War II London. Little did British director Joe Wright and Warner Bros. know how prophetic the question would become. Over the weekend, the ambitious Peter Pan origin story bombed at the North American box office, grossing a paltry $15.5 million despite a $150 million production budget and a friendly PG rating. Pan, from Warner Bros. and co-financing partner RatPac-Dune Entertainment, could lose more than $100 million unless the live-action movie does huge business overseas, a...

The scene after Rep. Kevin McCarthy (RINO-CA) announced he was dropping out of the Speaker’s race… Out of the way!

Myth #3: Peter was important, but he had no special authority that could be passed on to a successor like the pope. Peter’s role as “chief apostle” is evident in the fact that he is mentioned more than any other apostle, often speaks for the whole group, and is placed first in every list of the apostles. Since Judas is always listed last, we can deduce that these lists were made in order of importance. Moreover, Christ made Peter alone the shepherd over his whole flock (see John 21:15-17), and the book of Acts describes Peter’s unparalleled leadership in the...

A Distinction Without a Difference or a Distinction to Die For? Wrestling With the Subtleties of John 21:16 – Peter, Do You Love Me? By: Msgr. Charles PopeLast week, as we wrapped up the Easter season, we read the beautiful dialogue between Jesus and Peter: “Peter, do you love me?” Analyzing this beautiful text is one of the great indoor sports of New Testament Biblical Scholarship: how to interpret the subtleties in that dialogue between Jesus and Peter.And thus Jesus asks, “Peter do you love me?” And Peter responds, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” This exchange occurs three times. But...

Season 1, Episode 3 — ‘The Spirit Arrives’Acts 2-4Editing Acts. The third episode of A.D. The Bible Continues is the first one that takes place entirely within the timeframe of the book of Acts, and it zips through the first few chapters so quickly that the final scenes are taken from Acts 4.  This is remarkable, when you consider that there are still nine episodes to go and the season as a whole is only supposed to get as far as Acts 10.  How does this episode get through the first few chapters of Acts so quickly? Partly by...