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A very short course in the Catholic faith…
By Fr. Jerry Pokorsky ( bio – articles – email ) | Feb 20, 2023 The widespread rejection of the Catholic Faith in favor of atheistic secularism makes apostasy vulnerable to an ageless counter-attack: the precepts of the Apostles’ Creed. The Creed provokes our conscience and restores our balance as Catholics in tumultuous times. The Creed summarizes the Catholic Faith. Enhanced by “talking points,” we can use the Creed to present the entirety of Faith in less than an hour (for marriage and baptismal preparation, parental catechetical meetings, apologetics—and conversations with faithless prelates). I believe in God, the Father almighty. God is without beginning and end. God is Three-Persons-in-One, the Blessed Trinity. Pentecost is the final chapter of God’s self-revelation. Cre...
Did Vermeer’s iconic ‘girl’ really have a pearl earring?
Johannes Vermeer’s Girl With a Pearl Earring at the Mauritshuis museum Lex van Lieshout / ANP via Getty Images Something isn’t right about Johannes Vermeer’s iconic Girl With a Pearl Earring. No, it hasn’t been misattributed, and no, it’s not a fake. But according to Dutch art historian Pieter Roelofs, the earring was likely an imitation glass bauble, rather than a real pearl. Others have raised this possibility before, but the claim is resurfacing thanks to a new blockbuster Vermeer exhibition—the largest ever staged—at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum. Roelofs, who is co-curator of the display, writes in the exhibition catalog that a pearl of this size would have been “astronomically expensive,” far beyond the financial reach of the Dutch painter, per the Art Newspaper...
Major-Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk and Archbishop Borys Gudziak are the churchmen of the year…
When they were working together some years ago at the Ukrainian Catholic University — the only Catholic institution of higher learning in the former Soviet space — Father Borys Gudziak and Father Sviatoslav Shevchuk did not imagine themselves occupying their present positions. Nor could they imagine that they would be at the center of epic historical events in 2022-2023, defending order and decency in world politics amidst a brutal war. In that wholly unanticipated circumstance, however, and from their current positions of responsibility in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Major-Archbishop Shevchuk (the UGCC’s head) and Archbishop Gudziak (the archeparch of Philadelphia for Ukrainian Greek Catholics) have borne a powerful global witness to the truths of Catholic faith amidst a moral mo...
Four Prominent Women Renounce Participation in German Synodal Way, Saying It ‘Departs From the Universal Church’…
The 2018 Ratzinger Prize winner Marianne Schlosser has previously raised concerns, identifying a “fixation on ordination” of women at the process. A professor of theology at the University of Vienna, Pope Francis appointed Schlosser as a member of the International Theological Commission in 2014. She was also appointed a member of the study commission investigating the female diaconate in 2016. In an interview with CNA Deutsch last year, Schlosser pointed to several problems with the process, in particular, demands for the ordination of women to the priesthood. She warned that the sacrament of holy orders could not just be conflated with hierarchical positions of power. More in Europe Vatican concerns ‘not forwarded’ In their Wednesday “departure note,” Westerhorstmann, Gerl-Falkovitz, Sch...
How living on Mars would warp the human body…
In July 1969, as the Apollo 11 astronauts prepared to trek to the moon, the Nixon Administration prepped some worst-case-scenario remarks in case this risky mission became deadly — a distinct possibility. Nixon’s prepared statement, which was not widely publicized until 1999, was grim. It thanked the astronauts for their brave sacrifice, preceded by a clergyman who would’ve adopted the same procedure as a burial at sea: commending their souls to “the deepest of the deep,” and concluding with the Lord’s Prayer. Thankfully, the mission was a success, but some future president may need to prepare a similar draft speech if humans are ever to travel to Mars, the fourth planet in our solar system. Such an assignment would be even more dangerous, and much, much ...
Held without charge, a Miami inmate’s unborn child is asking a court for release in an odd case…
© Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS Natalia Harrell, an inmate at Florida’s Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, is carrying the person behind a request for release: an unborn child, lawyers argue. MIAMI — For eight months, someone has been held at Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center with no charge. At least that’s what lawyers are arguing in Florida’s Third District Court of Appeal. Natalia Harrell, an inmate at the center, is carrying the person behind the case: an unborn child. And it could even set a precedent amid a legal system navigating complex arguments in a post-Roe world. On Thursday, attorney William M. Norris filed an emergency writ of habeas corpus, which allows the court to determine whether someone’s imprisonment is lawful. He argued that the fetus’s incarcerati...
Jesuits Bar Father Mark Rupnik From Artistic Activity After 15 New Abuse Claims Emerge…
ROME (AP) — Pope Francis’ Jesuit religious order has decided to prohibit a prominent Jesuit artist whose mosaics decorate churches around the globe from pursuing his artistic activity after 15 more people came forward with fresh accusations against him of spiritual, sexual and psychological abuse. The Jesuits told The Associated Press that they are weighing further disciplinary measures against the Rev. Marko Ivan Rupnik following a third church investigation into allegations he used his exalted status as one of the Catholic Church’s preeminent religious artists to manipulate adult women into sexual activity. While defrocking technically remains an option, alternative measures could include removing him from the art community he founded in Rome and isolating him in a monk-like life of pena...
Memo to Gen Z Catholics: Why Vatican II Is Still Important…
Mr. Adam Lucas, who is “newly married with a baby on the way” (mazel tov!) and “has a Master’s in Theology,” speaks for a depressing number of Gen Z Catholics when he writes on the Crisis website that “the world of the 1960s is gone, and with it any real relevance of Vatican II.” The Council, he concludes, should just be ignored: “After all, aggiornamento demands it.” This is so mind-numbingly wrongheaded that one hardly knows where to start in responding to it. Mr. Lucas’s lament seems to be the result of a number of blogosphere contentions about the Council, ignited by two Ross Douthat op-eds in the New York Times. I hope I won’t be thought excessively self-referential, however, if I note that Mr. Lucas fails to mention my recent book, To Sanctify the World: The Vital Legacy of Vatican I...
Cardinal Cupich’s shocking misrepresentation of Pope Benedict XVI…
By Phil Lawler ( bio – articles – email ) | Feb 17, 2023 Taking his cue from Cardinal McElroy—and ignoring the strong cautions from Archbishop Aquila and Archbishop Naumann, among others—Chicago’s Cardinal Blase Cupich has written a column in his archdiocesan newspaper calling for full inclusion of active homosexuals in the life of the Church. Actually the cardinal does not mention homosexuality in his column. But anyone conversant with current debates within the Church will know what he means when he laments: “There are voices that insist the church must exclude sinners from fuller participation in the life of the church until they have reformed, out of respect for God’s justice.” Cardinal Cupich stops short of saying that active homosexuals should be admitted to Communion, bu...
Cappadocian cave churches, St. Basil the Great, and the Passions of St. Blaise and St. John Chrysostom…
Note from the Author: Copy/paste GPS Coordinates listed below into Google Maps to see or travel to each location. We woke up to a beautiful, clear Fall morning in Göreme and it only got more beautiful as we took in the otherworldly landscape and the hot air balloons drifting slowly through the blue sky. Below is the view from the balcony of our hotel where the breakfast room was. After firing down a quick breakfast, we checked out of our hotel and got on the road again. Thankfully, our next destination was just a 5 minute drive east of town: the world famous Göreme Open Air Museum (GPS Coordinates: 38°38’24.27″N, 34°50’43.55″E). The name of this place has always struck me as curious. My wife, when we were stationed in Turkey ten years ago, told me about ...
Here are a few short facts about Bishop David O’Connell that the media aren’t reporting…
This morning I woke up to the news of the murder of my friend Bishop David O’Connell. When I first saw the news, I reread the headline of the article over and over so my sleepy eyes could catch up with my brain. I was instantly sad, but not surprised. This is the way I would expect him to go. He wasn’t the type of man to peacefully drift into death in old age. He had too much passion for that. He tricked death into bringing about new life for too long… Services Marketplace – Listings, Bookings & Reviews Entertainment blogs & Forums
Police in Torrance Arrest Barricaded Suspect in Bishop O’Connell Murder Case; Neighbors Say Man’s ‘Wife Worked in Bishop’s Home’…
A man has been arrested in connection with the murder of a Catholic bishop who was found shot to death inside his Los Angeles home over the weekend. Sheriff’s deputies responded to Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell’s Hacienda Heights home Saturday afternoon, where they found the clergyman with a gunshot wound to his upper torso in his bed. The 69-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene. The following day, deputies officially said they were investigating O’Connell’s death as a murder before announcing on Monday that they have made an arrest. Authorities told NBC 4 Los Angeles the man was identified early on in the investigation through an ‘unnamed technical means,’ and he was arrested without incident — though a reporter on the scene...
