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Pope Francis on Ukraine’s Russian Orthodox Church Ban: ‘Churches Are Not to Be Touched!’…
By Daniel Payne CNA Staff, Aug 26, 2024 / 11:09 am Pope Francis on Sunday sharply denounced the Ukrainian government’s recently enacted ban on Russian Orthodox Church worship, arguing that the faithful should not be barred from worshipping as they please. The new Ukrainian law, which passed the country’s Parliament on Aug. 20, bans the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukrainian territory. The measure comes roughly two-and-a-half years after Russia invaded Ukraine in a major escalation of the two countries’ ongoing conflict. The new law further encourages religious organizations in Ukraine, including the Moscow-aligned Ukrainian Orthodox Church, “to break the existing ties with the Russian state,” according to the parliamentary news agency. In his Angelus address on Sunday, the Holy Father ...
A new generation of worshippers is longing for a ‘lost type of Catholicism’ — and among young women, veils are making a comeback…
The Young Catholic Women Bringing Back Veils <!– –> Nicole Moore inside the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer on the Upper East Side of New York. (All photos by Adrienne Grunwald for The Free Press) A new generation of worshippers is longing for a ‘lost type of Catholicism.’ Get all of our stories delivered straight to your inbox. Maybe Later Douglas Murray’s Things Worth Remembering column is on hiatus this week. Douglas has spent his summer writing us searing pieces about assassination attempts and digging into the archives to find the speech that invented the Olympics. The man deserves a break! But don’t worry; he’ll be back in your inbox next Sunday. In the meantime, we’re bringing you a fascinating piece of reporting from one of our brand new Free Pressers, Madeleine Kear...
‘Renew Your Hope in Jesus’: Pope Francis Prays for Persecuted Catholics of Nicaragua at Sunday Angelus…
The Pope’s prayer comes just days after the Ortega dictatorship canceled the legal status of 1,500 nonprofit organizations, including hundreds of Catholic organizations, and exiled two more priests to Rome. Pope Francis prayed Sunday for a renewed hope for the people of Nicaragua, where the Catholic Church is experiencing harsh persecution under the regime of President Daniel Ortega. “To the beloved people of Nicaragua: I encourage you to renew your hope in Jesus. Remember that the Holy Spirit always guides history toward higher designs,” Pope Francis said at the end of this Angelus address on Aug. 25. The Pope entrusted Nicaragua to the protection and intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. “May the Immaculate Virgin protect you in times of trial and make you feel her maternal tenderness...
This Sunday, Decision Time: It All Led Up To This…
Jesus puts a hard question to the Apostles, and to us, on the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B. The Church does a great job of situating his question in a context that shows exactly what is at stake: Do we want to live a one-flesh union of minds and wills with Jesus Christ — or do we want to place ourselves in servitude to his powerless opponents? It’s the final, decisive moment of Jesus’s own Eucharistic Congress — the fifth of five Sundays whose readings take a deep dive into the sixth chapter of John. “Do you also want to leave?” he asks his Apostles. And “Yes, kind of,” seems to be their answer. This is the moment when many of Jesus’s disciples walk away from the life they had found with him. And it seems as if the Twelve are a little iffy on their commitment too. Peter’s first reac...
‘We’re taking the long view’ – Why the American Solidarity Party runs for office…
‘We’re taking the long view’ – Why the American Solidarity Party runs for office Skip to content Listen to this interview here: The Pillar TL;DR As Republicans and Democrats compete in a fractious American election cycle, a small third-party is trying to woo Catholic voters, with a political vision it says is drawn from the principles of Catholic social teaching. Peter Sonski, right, eats with supporters. Courtesy photo. Peter Sonski, 61, is a Connecticut grandfather, a former local public school board member, and the presidential nominee for the American Solidarity Party, which says it promotes human life, social justice, environmental conservation, and international peace. With a growing number of Catholics feeling disenfranchised from major political parties, the American Solidari...
Opus Dei Prelate Responds to Those Who Consider Group ‘Conservative, Powerful and Secretive’…
By Walter Sánchez Silva Lima Newsroom, Aug 24, 2024 / 08:30 am During his recent trip through Latin America, the prelate of Opus Dei, Monsignor Fernando Ocáriz, gave an interview to the Chilean newspaper El Mercurio, in which he spoke about various topics, such as the role of women, the reform ordered by Pope Francis, and a response to those who consider Opus Dei to be “conservative, powerful and secretive.” “Everyone can have their own opinions and reasons for evaluating reality. If some people perceive it that way, it will be because there is something objective and/or subjective that can cause that impression,” said the third successor of St. Josemaría Escrivá as the head of Opus Dei. “Making the Work [Opus Dei] better known is, in part, the task of each member: to live one’s own vocati...
The problem in our culture is much deeper than disenchantment. It is desecration…..
A Planned Parenthood mobile clinic has been offering free abortions just a few blocks from the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, which concludes today. The DNC is not officially involved, but that is a minor detail, given that abortion has the status of a creedal non-negotiable in the upper echelons of the Democratic Party. The clinic is simply actualizing the central plank of the Democrats’ election campaign. Its proximity to the convention is entirely appropriate—as is the presence of an eighteen-foot-tall inflatable IUD, named “Freeda Womb,” erected by the group Americans for Contraception. It is a stark reminder, along with the performances of Kid Rock and Hulk Hogan at the Republican National Convention last month, of how unserious today’s American politics has become. W...
The Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe…
Our Blessed Mother’s appearances and message at Tepeyac show God’s love and mercy as much to us today as she did almost 500 years ago. It is a loving appearance and message for which we all hunger and which can draw us all to the fount of life and grace in our Lord Jesus Christ. I have recently finished a new book about the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe at La Crosse, Wisconsin. The book is titled The Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe and is available for pre-order on August 22, the Memorial of the Queenship of Mary. It will be officially released on October 7, the Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary. *** The Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, by Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke (Flores Mariae, 2024, 212 pages) All that my family gave to me came with me as I entered the diocesan minor seminary, Holy...
All That Matters: Sisters of Life Solemn Profession of Vows…
A picture speaks a thousand words, when it comes to communicating a young woman’s exemplary love for Jesus present in the Eucharist. I just saw something. Covering events like the solemn profession of the Sisters of Life, ordinations, Eucharistic pilgrimages, and all manner of sacraments is always entirely too much to process in the moment. A new Sister of Life accepts the chalice during Holy Communion. While worrying about getting a decent shot, which lens to use … and my aching back, so much passes that I don’t see at the time. Until I look at the photographs. The new sisters prostate themselves while professing their solemn vows. As I sorted through the thousands of photos from Aug. 6’s solemn profession, one photograph stopped me in my tracks. It stopped me because it was a moment that...
Summer School, Rorschach Tests, and Some Thoughts About Pork Bellies and Human Hearts…
Summer school, Rorschach’s prayer, and one man’s meat Skip to content Pillar subscribers can hear Ed read this Pillar Post here: The Pillar TL;DR Happy Friday friends, I have reached that point in summer where my internal emotional tension has reached its breaking point. The news cycle slows over August, inevitably. And of human necessity people cycle in and out of the office on vacation. If you have, as I do, a disordered Pelagian disposition towards work as self-justification, this can become more oppressive than restful very quickly. At the same time, I am acutely aware of the precious summer moments ticking by which I could, maybe should be spending with my daughter. She’s only two, so it isn’t like there is an all-consuming academic calendar about to swamp the schedule. Bu...
Sister Wilhelmina Medical Evaluation Finds ‘Lack of Any Detected Features of Decomposition’ of Body and Clothing …
Posted on August 22, 2024 in News Most Reverend Bishop James V. Johnston, Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, releases results of examination and evaluation by medical experts concerning the remains of Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster, OSB Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster died on May 29, 2019, and was buried within days in a grave on the property of the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles monastery in Gower, Mo. She was buried without any embalming or other treatment of her body, in a simple unsealed wooden casket. Following the exhumation of the body of Sister Wilhelmina on April 28, 2023, for the purpose of moving her body into the Abbey church for interment, it was discovered that her body did not exhibit signs of decomposition that would normally have occurred after nearly four years of buria...
We were created in a garden. Now we live in the most art-less age in history. Creation needs our craftsmanship…..
Cultivating the earth is an exercise in being human. And this exercise is more important today than ever before as we suffer an increasing loss of a sense of the human difference. Here I mean all of us, not just confused intellectuals or mislead youth. Human life is a matter of exercising various ‘arts.’ To be attentive then to the nature of art in the broad and most important sense can reveal much about the human difference and how better to live it out. But we live in the most art-less age in history. I speak here of much more than the ‘fine arts;’ I mean art in the sense of the many crafts or know-hows that concern how humans go about living on this earth. Aristotle warned long ago of what has largely come to pass. When the main criteria for the crafts come from ‘business’ in the form o...
