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2 Italian Priests Sanctioned for Decrying Pope Francis as an ‘Anti-Pope’…
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Obadiah, the Crux of the Matter, and Bible Bees…
Obadiah, the crux of the matter, and Bible Bees Skip to content Pillar subscribers can listen to JD read this Pillar Post here: The Pillar TL;DR Hey everybody, Eastern Catholic Churches celebrate today the holy prophet Obadiah, and you’re reading The Tuesday Pillar Post. Obadiah, who lived in the 6th century B.C., authored the shortest text included as a book of the Old Testament, a warning to the Edomite kingdom that a betrayal of Jerusalem during Nebuchadnezzar’s siege would lead to its destruction. The prophecy of Obadiah is fewer than 500 words. You could read the whole thing on your morning coffee break. Without too much work, you could probably memorize it, if you wanted to say that you have an entire scriptural book committed to memory (assuming you’re not this girl, Anastasia...
Woke Ideology Is Not Dead and Buried…
I spent the evening after November 5 on YouTube. The site was full of time-compressed videos that tracked news media icons and Hollywood celebrities as election night wore on. The clips were mesmerizing. It was like watching a Carnival Cruise ship gradually sink. Passengers went from champagne to life jackets in just six hours. Jimmy Kimmel, Rachel Maddow, the always unpleasant Joy Reid, and so many others found themselves trapped in a Greek tragedy, with the bill for their jumbo helping of hubris suddenly due. How did it happen? The reasons, as the emotionally battered luminaries said, were legion: misogyny, racism, and transphobia from America’s uneducated, sex-reactionary masses. And the pain was made even worse by bitter treason on the part of Latinos, blacks, and women. Ov...
Avoiding the Religion of Me…
At any time, we have a tendency I argue to overlook something unique about our human condition. I’m referring to our ability to recognize the presence of someone (Incarnational character) and greet them with the simplest yet most profound of human gestures, a joyful smile-filled “hello.” This is what I would describe as an Incarnational gesture, i.e., a gesture in the name of Jesus Christ because our actions are meant to reflect the words and deeds of Jesus Christ our Lord, Savior, and King. Sacred Scripture provides us with several joyful “Incarnational gestures” such as Jesus’ greeting to the Apostles and disciples on the Road to Emmaus when upon celebrating the Mass the Apostle’s eyes were opened and then Jesus disappeared.[1] The greeting between Mary and Elizabeth led John the B...
NYC priest who allowed Sabrina Carpenter to shoot a music video in church stripped of duties…
NEW YORK – There’s more fallout for a Brooklyn pastor who allowed pop star Sabrina Carpenter to film a music video inside his church. Monsignor Jamie Gigantiello has been stripped of his duties at the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Williamsburg. Church officials said they were appalled he permitted Carpenter to film the provocative video last year for her hit song “Feather.” The Diocese says an investigation revealed instances of mismanagement, including unauthorized financial transfers to a former aide in the Adams administration, which is now the subject of a corruption probe. “Evidence of serious violations” “I am saddened to share that investigations conducted by Alvarez & Marsal and Sullivan...
Putin Lowers the Threshold for Using His Nuclear Arsenal After Biden’s Arms Decision for Ukraine…
President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday formally lowered the threshold for Russia’s use of its nuclear weapons, a move that follows U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to let Ukraine strike targets inside Russian territory with American-supplied longer-range missiles. The new doctrine allows for a potential nuclear response by Moscow even to a conventional attack on Russia by any nation that is supported by a nuclear power. Russia’s Defense Ministry said Ukraine fired six U.S.-made ATACMS missiles early Tuesday at a military facility in Russia’s Bryansk region that borders Ukraine, adding that air defenses shot down five of them and damaged one more. Ukraine’s military claimed the strike hit a Russian ammunition depot. While the doctrine envisions a possible nuclear response by Russia to such ...
‘Red Wednesday’ Nov. 18 to Put Christian Persecution in the Global Spotlight…
DUBLIN (OSV News) — From Sydney to Santiago, Chile, Catholics across the globe are coming together this November to stand in solidarity with those who suffer for their faith. Persecution and discrimination against Christians around the world is getting worse — that’s the stark warning from the pontifical charity that works with thousands of vulnerable Christian communities in 140 countries. This coming Nov. 20 will mark “Red Wednesday,” a commemoration held annually by Aid to the Church in Need to highlight the fact that today one in seven Christians face extreme hostility, violence and repression because of their faith in Christ. In some countries, the observance is being extended throughout the week and is called a “Red Week.” To highlight the plight of persecuted Christians and raise aw...
What Is It Like to Be Enchanted?
Nowadays more and more people, Christians and non-Christians alike, are pondering the themes of enchantment and disenchantment. (I haven’t read it yet, but this is the theme of Rod Dreher’s newly released book, Living with Wonder.) Many lament the loss of an enchanted world, the pre-modern world in which people experienced themselves to be caught up in a spiritual drama, a world where people perceived the presence of spiritual realities around them, in which there was no sharp break between the spiritual and the physical. Many people long for a world in which gods and fairies, elves and demons were directly experienced, a world in which blessings and curses, magic and sacraments were not just believed in but perceived to work. Instead, we now have a disenchanted world, a secular world in w...
Notre Dame de Paris Returns to Her Cathedral With Thousands of Parisians Walking Her Home…
PARIS (OSV News) — Miraculously missed by burning beams falling from the roof on April 15, 2019, and waiting for five years to make it back to Notre Dame Cathedral, the 14th-century statue of the Virgin of Paris made it back home Nov. 15, accompanied by thousands of Parisians praying, singing and lighting candles as they walked their Virgin to Paris’ most iconic church, restored after the fire. Since the fire, the statue, also referred to as Virgin and Child, or the Virgin of the Pillar, has been housed near the Louvre in the Church of Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois, from where the procession started at 6 p.m. local time. For Auxiliary Bishop Philippe Marsset of Paris, the statue represents “a kind of miracle.” “Many Christians saw the fire as a sign of the purification God was asking his churc...
The Power of Images in an Iconoclast Culture…
“You were without hope in the world.” This is how Paul describes the Ephesian Christians before their conversion, stuck in the darkness of sin and paganism. Idols expressed their hope for material security, embodying their pleasure and pain, hopes and terrors in tangible forms that entangled their souls. Christ brought divine light into a dark world, freeing it from false substitutes and answering humanity’s prayer to look on the face of God: “Your face, Lord, do I seek. Hide not thy face from me” (Ps 27:8-9). Today, we forget this answered prayer, looking away from God and falling into what the Psalmist warns against: “I will not set before my eyes anything that is base” (Ps 101:3). Our image-saturated culture has lost sight of God’s face made visible to us in Christ, groping instead afte...
What’s ahead for pro-lifers with Trump 2.0?
Soon after becoming president, Democrat Jimmy Carter signed the Hyde Amendment into law — barring the use of federal funds for abortions, except in cases of rape or incest, or when the life of the mother is at stake. When the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris administration attempted to kill the Hyde Amendment, a small — but symbolic — group of Democrats appealed to the elderly Carter for help. “We are asking President Jimmy Carter (who signed Hyde into law) to please help us in saving it. We are so grateful for your humanitarian work and for everything you did for women and families in office,” said a tweet posted Monday, March 22, by Democrats for Life of America (DFLA). “America needs you again, Mr. President. Help us save Hyde,” the group added. Battles over the Hyd...
This Sunday, Jesus is revealing the end game of Christianity…
There are 33 years in Jesus’ life and 33 weeks in Ordinary Time in the Church. Soon we will celebrate the Feast of Christ the King, and then the cycle starts over with Advent. But first comes the Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B, the dramatic end of the liturgical year. The Gospel for the day is dire, insisting that the end really is coming, and we should be ready for it. Here are takeaways from the readings from previous This Sunday columns. First: Jesus is revealing the end game of Christianity. In the Gospel Jesus speaks about a tribulation, after which “the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.” But then “the Son of Man” will come “in the clouds with great power a...
