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Uranus, which takes its name from the Greek God of the sky, is a gas giant and the seventh planet from our Sun. It is also the third largest planet in our Solar System, ranking behind Jupiter and Saturn. Like its fellow gas giants, it has many moons, a ring system, and is primarily composed of gases that are believed to surround a solid core. Though it can be seen with the naked eye, the realization that Uranus is a planet was a relatively recent one. Though there are indications that it was spotted several times over the course of...

The Neo-Catholic Dead End! by Thomas E. Woods, Jr. Ph.D. The Wanderer, a periodical that has done some good work over the years chronicling the antics of an American hierarchy almost too contemptible to be worth discussing, is attacking traditionalists again. Many readers will remember the attacks of Stephen Hand two years ago, inanely comparing traditionalists with modernists because both criticize some of the actions of the hierarchy. Chris Ferrara and I responded to each of his articles with essays of our own, and we were gratified to find that quite a few people became traditionalists as a direct result...

The current political campaign, with its fusillade of personal attacks and orchestrated charges and counter charges, is unpleasant to endure. Even partisans and those firmly in support of a candidate must grow weary of the incessant personal attacks on the candidates, their integrity and their reputations. One wonders why the Christian values of charity toward one another and the American value of fair play have been abandoned. Particularly distressing is that this uncharitable, biased and reckless substitute for what formerly was fair-minded commentary and fact-based dialogue has found its venomous way into our Catholic family. Just this past week, I...

Dear Faithful, Unfortunately I have sad news to end the year. Some of you may have seen it on the Internet. Indeed Father Aulagnier, one of Archbishop Lefebvre’s first and closest companion in the resistance, assistant to the Superior General, founding district superior of the French district had to be expelled from the Society. Last September we were saddened by the interview of Father Aulagnier to the Wanderer. At first I thought of replying earlier but then decided to wait to see how this affair would end. This interview, along with an extended article published in French on his website...

Q. Since you are the first French priest ordained for the Priestly Society of St. Pius X, were you close to Archbishop Lefebvre? How did he inspire you? A. Yes, I was close to Archbishop Lefebvre. I knew him well and I strongly appreciated him. He was so cordial, pleasant, a great prelate, but humble, simple, thoughtful for those who surrounded him. He had heart. It was difficult to not love him. He had a magnetic per- Fr. Aulagnier meets with Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos and Bishop Rifan. sonality. I knew him while during my seminary days at Santa Chiara, the...

Did you ever feel sorry for old Mr. Potter in Frank Capra’s classic film It’s A Wonderful Life? Here was a man who had all the money and prestige in the world, but, because he’d wasted his life stockpiling power and human manipulation, he just couldn’t see how wanting his moral coffers were, even as death began to stare him squarely in the face. In his warped worldview, the little town of Bedford Falls could never have been large enough to hold both his significant business interests and those of the little one-horse Bailey Building & Loan. By the end...

A Case of Theological Malpractice In his meandering attack on The Great Façade, The Wanderer’s “young theologian” mangles Catholic doctrine on the identity between the Mystical Body of Christ and the Roman Catholic Church, thereby misleading thousands of Wanderer readers. Al Matt may be unconcerned, but somebody must address this scandal. —by Christopher A. Ferrara— Remnant Columnist, New Jersey I really did not want to write any sort of direct reply to The Wanderer’s six-part, 127-page attack on The Great Façade (TGF), written by a fellow named Gutierrez, whom Al Matt holds out to his readership as “a young theologian”...

Two Words You Can’t Say On TV. By Joseph Sobran Every year I forget to wish our readers a Merry Christmas - or rather, I remember too late, failing to allow for lead time. It isn't as if I'm not reminded: The shopping and advertising madness begins the, day after Thanksgiving, on the dot. It reminds me of P.G. Wodehouse's Bertie Wooster: "Jeeves was in the other room hanging holly, for Christmas would soon be at our throats." I know the feeling. It isn't just that the commercial side is so cloying; it's that the central meaning of Christmas is...

 An Open Letter To The USCCB President . . . The U.S. Bishops Have Become Strangers To Their Flocks By MIRIAM DAPRA   (Editor’s Note: A few weeks ago, The Wanderer published a front-page editorial calling upon the Holy Father to appoint a papal legate to the United States to begin cleaning the Augean stables of the U.S. Church. Many readers have responded with thoughtful letters. The following "open letter" to Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, from Miriam Dapra, a reader from Hartville, Wyo., is one we can heartily endorse.)  An Open Letter ToBishop Wilton Gregory Your Excellency:   I have...

Crisis in the priesthood....NEW BOOK ON SEMINARIES RAISES TROUBLING QUESTIONSby Paul Likoudis Michael S. Rose’s new book on the crisis in Catholic seminaries in the United States and Europe, Good Bye! Good Men: How Catholic Seminaries Turned Away Two Generations of Vocations from the Priesthood, powerfully illustrates Pope John Paul II’s words in his Holy Thursday letter to priests on the "mystery of evil at work in the world." There is no other word than "evil" – other than "demonic" – to describe the real situation in most modern Catholic seminaries, charged with providing the Church with its priests and...

Are there any Catholic Freepers who read the Wanderer? I used to get that weekly several years ago, and I consider it to be one of the best, if not THE best source of news on the Vatican. Now that we've got the 'Net, I'm not sure I would need to read the Wanderer, but I want to keep up to date on the Vatican, especially now. Is there a comparable source for Catholic/Vatican news on the internet?