Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Shrine in Philadelphia Elevated to Status of Basilica...
The Vatican recognized the Miraculous Medal Shrine, located in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia, as the city’s second basilica, elevating its status to a minor basilica this week. The shrine, created by the Vincentians in 1927 under the leadership of Father Joseph Skelly, is now known as the Basilica Shrine of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal...
Is technology discreetly, but thoroughly, rendering parents expendable?
I wasn’t surprised that he could be thoughtful — he often is — but this time his thought seemed momentous to me: “Parents don’t get to teach their children anymore. When I was little,” he explained, “if I wanted to know almost anything, my first instinct was to go to you or Dad about it: ‘What’s a bowline knot? Why does everything get dusty? What is a shillelagh?’ We would always talk it through. Now, if I’m curious about something I just go to Google. Younger kids don’t even develop the habit of going to their parents for answers...
“Even now,” says St. John, “there are many Antichrists.” Knowing that fact is the first step toward treating Ordinary Time as conversion time...
Robert Hugh Benson wrote Lord of the World in 1907, just four years after the Wright brothers invented the airplane and seven years before the bloodbath of the Great War. I first read it more than 60 years ago. I’ve reread it every decade since. Pope Francis has read and publicly mentioned it several times, and the novel has always had an avid, if cultish, following. Set in the near future, it’s a story of the rise of the Antichrist, the climactic battle between good and evil, and the end of the world.
In Father Isaac Achi’s final moments before attackers overran his rectory and burned him to death, he and a brother priest paused to hear each other’s confessions...
On Sun. Jan. 15, 2023, Nigerian priest Father Isaac Achi was burned to death in an attack on his parish. Another Nigerian priest recently revealed a shocking testimony of Father Achi’s final actions just before his assassination. That Sunday morning, a group of bandits attacked the parish residence of St. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Kafin-Koro...
Bikes and Beards and Bibles: Preach the Gospel always. If necessary, use a Harley...
The History of How School Buses Became Yellow...
St. Francis De Sales reminds us that the heart speaks to the heart. But how?
A consistent question I have been asked over the course of my ministry is how important is the use of one’s personal experience in the proclamation of the kerygma and the teaching of Catholic doctrine? This is a critical question because it reveals the intimate relationship between how the person chooses to engage the Word of God and Catholic doctrine in their own personal way...
Silly secularism keeps coming back like a monster in a horror movie who just won’t die...
“The first thing to realize, if you wish to become a philosopher,” wrote one of the 20th century’s major philosophers, “is that most people go through life with a whole world of beliefs that have no sort of rational justification.” That was Bertrand Russell, in a book called “The Art of Philosophizing and Other Essays,” published in 1942, when he was 70. He was one of those super-smart people who become celebrities treated as all-purpose experts...
Why my kids are in the front rows at Mass...
That timely AP interview: What, precisely, did Pope Francis say about homosexual sin?
Let’s say that Pope Francis decides to sit down for an Associated Press interview, thus guaranteeing coverage that will appear in the maximum number of mainstream publications around the world. The basic headline is generic, but points to newsworthy topics: “Pope discusses his health, critics and future papacy.” As you would expect, editors just love a papal interview addressing the potential...
Frank Pavone was accused of ‘sexual misconduct’ and grooming behavior before laicization...
St. Francis de Sales, Bishop and Doctor, Pray For Us!...
How can you become a better catechist? St. Augustine of Hippo told us how more than 1,600 years ago...
In honor of Catholic Schools Week, which I guess is next week? Or was it this week? This is, joyfully, not my problem anymore, so I don’t keep track. Anyway, in honor of it, whenever it is, some thoughts from St. Augustine, specifically his First Catechetical Instruction. The genesis of the work is simple and pastoral. A deacon wrote to Augustine seeking help on catechesis – specifically, the stage of catechesis offered to potential catechumens. That is, if you assented to everything you were taught in this stage...
Benedict’s book, McElroy’s McDonald’s, and the cost of doing business...
There’s a lot bubbling up around the Vatican these days. From Archbishop Gänswein to Cardinal Müller, and including Pell and Benedict, there are a lot of books and articles coming out these days, all of them feeding a feeling that we’re living in a strange moment — even if no one can quite put their finger on why, exactly. There’s hard news happening too...
Cardinal McElroy’s attack on Church teachings on sexuality is a pastoral disaster...
That a cardinal wishes to change the Church’s teaching on the morality of same-sex sexual acts is not new. But there is a new one advocating just that, and one of the newest in the college at that. Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, created a cardinal by Pope Francis in 2019 and appointed relator general of the synodal process on synodality for a synodal Church...
Attacks against our churches are bigotry, pure and simple...
Last summer, I received a startling early morning text message from a Dominican brother. He shared a photo of the wall of one of our churches that had been tagged by graffiti. The vandal(s) had written the grotesque message, “abort the church.” That was not long after the pregnancy resource center on Capitol Hill was vandalized. Located just a mile away from the U.S. Capitol, attackers threw red paint on the door...
Leading expert John Finnis reassure faithful Catholics: Despite assaults on doctrine, Church teaching on contraception is ‘certainly true’ ...
One of the world’s leading professors of the natural law has given a robust defense of the infallibility of the Church’s teaching on contraception, saying it should always be regarded by all Catholics as “certainly true,” even though “the episcopal unity that guaranteed that judgment as irreversible has subsequently shattered.”
Why does ‘ad orientem’ worship have to be so controversial?
Until the 1960s, Catholics worshipped ad orientem, with priest and congregation facing the East during Mass. Originally Christians celebrated Mass before daybreak Sunday morning with the rising sun serving as a symbol of Christ’s resurrection (testified by Pliny the Younger’s letter to the Emperor Trajan in 112 A.D.). The common liturgical direction toward the East honored the resurrection...
Terrible things happen, and being a victim is real. But beware ‘victimhood’ — it’s a fashionable mental trap that corrodes the soul...
I’ll never forget her face. It was objectively beautiful, but hardly perceptible, masked by contortions of anger and revenge. We met on the sidewalk outside the local abortion clinic. I can’t remember her name, but I will never forget her face and her rage. She was pregnant with a baby conceived by a faithless father. How could she possibly carry this baby? And what better revenge upon him than to kill his child, she explained to me...
Jack Rigert: Defending your kids and family amid a spiritual war...
Need is the hidden key to wealth...
My dinner with two ‘white-martyr’ cardinals: Cardinal Zen and Cardinal Pell...
Going Dutch, Das Deutsch, and De Sales...
Irish teacher sacked by school over use of pronouns for transgender pupil...
Get this entire Catholic website as an instant digital download...
The full contents of the New Advent website are available as a digital download. It includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more — and it's only $19.99...
CATHOLIC LINKS
Adoration: Adoration DirectoryAudio: Lighthouse
Bibles: Douay - Knox - NAB - RSVCE
Blogs: Blog Directory
Bulletins: Seek and Find
Calendars: Calendar - Easter Table
Catechisms: Baltimore Catechism - Catechism of the Catholic Church
Events: Catholic Event Finder
Forums: Catholics Answers
Novenas: Pray More Novenas
HHS Mandate: Becket Fund
Jobs: Jobs for Catholics
Latin: Ecclesiastical Latin Resources
Latin Mass: TLM Altar Server Tutorial - TLM Mass Directory
Mass Times #1: MassTimes
Mass Times #2: Catholic Mass Time
Movie Reviews: USCCB Movie Reviews
Panoramas: St. John Lateran - Sistine Chapel
Readings: Today's Readings (USCCB)
Retreats: U.S. Retreats and Retreat Centers
OTHER LINKS
Cameras: EarthCam (Live) - Aerial PanoramasComics: Calvin and Hobbes - C&H Search Engine - Dilbert - Peanuts
Customer Service: GetHuman
Find Things: Mailboxes (USA) - Payphones - Phone Numbers
Money: Missing Money
Privacy: Do Not Call
Reading Lists: USLHE - Marines
Scanners: Air Traffic Control - Radio Reference - Broadcastify
Shopping (Local): Yard Sales
Tracking: Airplanes - ISS - Satellites - Ships #1 - Ships #2
Travel (Flying): Turbulence - VFR Maps - SeatGuru - FlightAware
Travel (Hotels): Bed Bug Registry
Weather: ECMRF (Europe) - NCAR/RAP - Wind Map - National Weather Service (USA)
