Jesuit Father Paul Mankowski was a man for strengthening others...
When the choirs of angels led Father Paul Mankowski, SJ, into the Father’s House on September 3, I hope the seraphic choirmaster chose music appropriate to the occasion. Had I been asked, I would have suggested the Latin antiphon Ecce sacerdos magnus as arranged by Anton Bruckner. The all-stops-pulled moments in Bruckner’s composition, deploying organ, brass, and full choir, would have been a perfect match...
Did St. Joseph of Cupertino actually fly? Most certainly...
Readers of a certain age might remember the silly TV show The Flying Nun...religious brothers and sisters who take flight are nothing new. When we lived in Wiltshire in England we learned the delightful story from the Middle Ages about Eilmer, a Benedictine monk of Malmesbury Abbey who, in the eleventh century, jumped off the tower of the abbey church with some home made wings. Like Icarus he plummeted. The story is related by a monastic historian, William of Malmesbury...
Italian bishops’ conference newspaper defends Netflix’s ‘Cuties’...
Catholics need to start again in many ways, in how we live and participate in civil society. And Cardinal Tobin isn’t helping...
Newark’s Cardinal Tobin has said that it is more problematic to vote for Donald Trump than for Joe Biden. With all due respect, I don’t know that he should be making that call in either direction. The bishops’ role is to inform consciences. He seems to think we are beyond “single issue” voting. Unfortunately, I think he buys into some cultural lies in his implication...
Lessons about democracy in ‘Justice League — Rule of War’...
Bite your tongue! A reflection on common sins of speech...
In the pastoral guide of St. Gregory the Great, the opening line reads: “A spiritual guide should be silent when discretion requires and speak when words are of service.” This is not easy. Indeed, self-mastery in speech is among the rarer gifts and usually comes later in life! Some of the most common sins we commit are related to speech: gossip, idle chatter, lies, exaggerations, harsh attacks, and uncharitable remarks...
This is why it’s so hard to climb an iceberg...
George Weigel’s ‘The Next Pope’ is a renewed agenda for the Church through a revitalized sense of mission...
In the Catholic Church, synods of bishops are complex bits of theater. The pope sets the theme, observes the proceedings, and writes the “apostolic exhortation” that translates a synod’s work into teaching. Some post-synodal texts, such as Paul VI’s Evangelii Nuntiandi, are brilliant. Others, such as Pope Francis’s document Amoris Laetitia, are more problematic. The role of synods is consultative, not legislative...
A bold vision for what a post-COVID parish ought to look like...
In 2017 I drove to Houston after Hurricane Harvey to help with relief efforts. A drive that would normally take 1.5 hours took me twice as long, due to closed streets, debris, flooding, etc. I finally made it to my destination and spent the rest of the day at a home that had 5 feet of water in it. It was a daunting task. You have to wonder how we could ever recover from such a disaster...
Sacred Heart of Jesus statue in El Paso cathedral beheaded...
Top 5 Bible comic books for Christians...
The Bible is a dynamic story of adventure and intrigue, with intense scenes of action throughout the Old and New Testaments. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that is has now been adapted in the comic book format, bringing to life the pages of the Bible in a new way. While the Bible had a few adaptations in the mid-20th century, it has received a renewed interest during the last 10 years...
New York Times considers free speech wars in Hong Kong, while ignoring religious issues...
New organization working to promote Eucharistic Processions nationwide...
There is a contagion in our land. It’s on the left and the right. We are falling into ideology...
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St. Thérèse statue beheaded, church robbed and vandalized at Catholic parish in Utah...
New Italian Missal introduces new formula of consecration...
With the approval of the new Italian translation of the Roman Missal third edition (2002), consider the following: A Catholic anywhere in North America — from Alaska to Zacatecas — will hear the same consecratory formula for the chalice at Mass, whether attending Mass in English, French, Spanish or the original Latin. The same would be true if he went to Mass in Spanish in Argentina or in French in Zaire.
Jared Staudt’s new book offers theological foundations for rebuilding Catholic culture...
Why Marxism is the opium of the intellectuals...
Two quirks haunt human nature — the desire for paradise, and the demands of paranoia...
In second known instance, invalidly baptized Oklahoma priest baptized and ‘re-ordained’...
We should remember our dead daily — for memory is a promise, and a preparation, for something yet to come...
Some time ago it really struck me when reading Wendell Berry’s fiction how he portrayed growing old, and the deepening connection one feels to those who have gone before you. Now years later his sentiments are much more real to me. I find myself thinking about death, or rather I should say thinking about the dead, more than I did before. There is a great Christian practice of remembering our dead in prayer...
Will Catholics go back to Mass on their bishops’ orders?
Starting this coming Sunday, it will be a serious sin for a Catholic in the Milwaukee archdiocese to miss Sunday Mass without a serious reason. Last week it was OK. It’s still OK in most other American dioceses and archdioceses. Can we expect ordinary Catholics to understand this situation? Can we expect them to come back to Sunday Mass, after a six-month hiatus? Having used their authority to stop lay Catholics from attending Mass...
Yet another book about who will follow Pope Francis examines a Church in transition...
Who will be the next pope? That seems to be the preoccupation these days among some segment of Catholics. It is, at least, among religious publishers. While 83-year-old Pope Francis is in good health, that hasn’t stopped speculation over who will come next. After all, he is 83. Earlier this summer, a book by Edward Pentin entitled The Next Pope: The Leading Cardinal Candidates was released in July to much fanfare...
Every Catholic needs to know about this little-known Eucharistic doctrine...
This summer, I got to celebrate Holy Mass in the Brooklyn parish where I stay when I’m home from my assignment as the academic dean of the Pontifical North American College in Rome. It is always a joy to offer Mass for a parish community. For me, it is a homecoming. This parish is a multi-ethnic one in my diocese with a pastor born in Pakistan, an Urdu Mass, growing Haitian and Hispanic communities, and many other people...
Our Lady of Sorrows, mother of the Man Of Sorrows...
September is the month traditionally dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows, and the feast day for this actually falls on September 15, the day after the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. Clearly, it is very appropriate that these two feasts, representing the sorrows of Christ and our Lady, should be celebrated so close together, given that the Blessed Virgin was the one who stood so steadfastly at the foot of the cross on Calvary during the awful sufferings of her Son.
Catholics say new religious ed plan teaches error, while Australian diocese defends curriculum...
Why did Jesus appear? Jesus appeared to destroy the works of the devil...
There is an important tenet that tends to bind a community together and that is the deliberate exercise of respect and dignity toward your fellow man. Intimately bound by these attributes of faith, it is reasonable for any human being to see an inherit value and worth of their fellow brother and sister in the name of Jesus Christ. St. John XXIII spoke of this value and worth emphasizing the importance of returning to a sense of dignity;
St. Louis de Montfort on how to say the ‘Our Father’ well...
Rust Belt religion: Do political reporters get that Catholics are the key voters in 2020?
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