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White Double THE PRIMARY AIM OF HIS PONTIFICATE Pius X announced in his first encyclical letter, viz., “to renew all things in Christ.” Here we need but allude to his decree on early and frequent reception of holy Communion; his Motu Proprio on church music; his encouragement of daily Bible reading and the establishment of various Biblical institutes; his reorganization of the Roman ecclesiastical offices; his work on the codification of Canon Law; his incisive stand against Modernism, that “synthesis of all heresies.” All these were means toward the realization of his main objective of renewing all things in...

White Double WE HAVE ALREADY MET WITH the names of several Pontiffs on the Paschal Calendar. They form a brilliant constellation around our Risen Jesus, who, during the period between his Resurrection and Ascension, gave to Peter, their predecessor, the Keys of the kingdom of heaven. Anicetus, Soter, Cauis, Cletus and Marcellinus, held in their hands the palm of martyrdom: Leo was the only one that did not shed his blood in the cause of his Divine Master. Today, there comes before a holy Pope who governed the Church in these latter times; he is worthy to stand amidst...

White Double THE primary aim of his pontificate Pius X announced in his first encyclical letter, viz., “to renew all things in Christ.” Here we need but allude to his decree on early and frequent reception of holy Communion; his Motu Proprio on church music; his encouragement of daily Bible reading and the establishment of various Biblical institutes; his reorganization of the Roman ecclesiastical offices; his work on the codification of Canon Law; his incisive stand against Modernism, that “synthesis of all heresies.” All these were means toward the realization of his main objective of renewing all things in...

Satan at His Most Subtle: A Reflection on the Temptations and Traps of the Pious By: Msgr. Charles PopeWhat is temptation? Temptation is the work of Satan to drag you to Hell. And Satan can read you like a book and play you like piano. Do not exaggerate his power, but do not underestimate it either.Some of his subtlest work is done in the area of religious observance. There, he can cloak himself quite easily in the lamb’s clothing of piety, but, wolf that he really is, distort it, either through excess or defect, thereby destroying you with what...

Ten years ago, on a cold winter morning in New York City, the Catholic-Jewish Historical Commission, established to investigate Pope Pius XII’s response to the Holocaust, met for the first time to discuss its future work. I was the only Israeli historian among the six scholars (three Catholics and three Jews) designated by the Vatican and leading Jewish organizations to study this hotly contested issue. A little under two years later, the project was abandoned as a result of the Holy See’s unwillingness to release materials from its own archives that could help clarify issues that our team of scholars...

The founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center voiced dismay and disappointment Monday at weekend Vatican moves to raise controversial wartime pope Pius XII to sainthood. The Vatican sparked anger in Jewish communities worldwide with moves to nudge Pius -- whose beatification process was launched in 1967 -- closer to sainthood, its ultimate honor. The Catholic Church argues that Pius saved many Jews who were hidden away in religious institutions, and that his silence during the Holocaust -- when millions of Jews were exterminated by Germany's Nazi regime -- was born out of a wish to avoid aggravating their situation. But...

The camouflage on the new Prius has come off a little sooner than Toyota had planned. We've known for quite a while that Toyota was going to bring the new Prius to the Detroit auto show next January. And there's been no shortage of spy shots of well-covered prototypes. But the new Prius has gone naked. The fans at priuschat.com posted pix of what was claimed to be redesigned Prius. And guess what? Toyota PR confirms that the photos are legit, although they won't say anything else about them.

It is ironic that sixty years after the Holocaust – with anti-Semitism virulent among Islamic fundamentalists and growing rapidly among secular Europeans – that the liberal media in the West has tried to blame Pope Pius XII (and even the Catholic Church as a whole) for anti-Semitism. Was Pope Pius XII secretly in league with Adolf Hitler? No, says Rabbi David G. Dalin, author of the revealing new book The Myth of Hitler’s Pope: How Pope Pius XII Rescued Jews from the Nazis (Regnery, a Human Events sister company). In fact, as Pope Pius XII worked to save Jews from...

Now that the mourning for John Paul II has ended and he has been laid to rest in St. Peter's, it is time to consider the state of the church he led for 27 years. For, despite his extraordinary life, his holiness and his critical role in bringing an end to communist rule in Eastern Europe, the condition of the church is grave. Two years ago, Kenneth C. Jones of St. Louis pulled together a slim book he titled "Index of Leading Catholic Indicators: The Church Since Vatican II." As that church council ended 40 years ago this year, what...

(Excerpts from the Catholic Encyclopedia entry) Immaculate Conception THE DOCTRINE In the Constitution Ineffabilis Deus, of 8 December, 1854, Pius IX pronounced and defined that the Blessed Virgin Mary "in the first instance of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace granted by God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race, was preserved exempt from all stain of original sin." PROOF FROM SCRIPTURE Genesis 3:15 No direct or categorical and stringent proof of the dogma can be brought forward from Scripture. But the first scriptural passage which contains the promise of the...

INEFFABILIS DEUS (The Immaculate Conception) Pope Pius IX Apostolic Constitution issued on December 8, 1854.God Ineffable—whose ways are mercy and truth, whose will is omnipotence itself, and whose wisdom "reaches from end to end mightily, and orders all things sweetly"—having foreseen from all eternity the lamentable wretchedness of the entire human race which would result from the sin of Adam, decreed, by a plan hidden from the centuries, to complete the first work of his goodness by a mystery yet more wondrously sublime through the Incarnation of the Word. This he decreed in order that man who, contrary to...

Recently the SSPX published a book titled "Priest, Where Is Thy Mass? Mass, Where Is Thy Priest." The SSPX mailed a free copy of the book to the Catholic priests in America, all 45,915 of them. Over 300 have actually begun correspondence with the priests involved and with the SSPX. A review of this book and discussion of the issues involved can be viewed on-line at http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1173010/posts Unfortunately, with priests with whom I've discussed this book the common concern was that the book underestimates the first and primary hurdle for any priest, especially our retired priests. These priests need to...