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‘The Neighbors Hate the Church’: Sacred Heart Church in Bordeaux, France, Vandalized With Satanic and Anarchist Graffiti…
By Diego Lopez Marina ACI Prensa Staff, Mar 18, 2023 / 08:00 am The walls of Sacred Heart Church, located in downtown Bordeaux, France, were vandalized with satanic graffiti and communist and anarchist symbols the night of March 12-13. In addition, the vandals burned trash on the church’s esplanade. The news was confirmed on March 13 by Constance Pluviaud, head of communications for the Archdiocese of Bordeaux. “On the night of March 12-13, the door and some of the walls of the façade of the Church of the Sacred Heart were defaced with graffiti. A trash fire in front of the church was extinguished by firefighters called to the scene. This fire did not damage the church,” the archdiocese reported in a statement. Services Marketplace – Listings, Bookings & Reviews Entertainment blo...
Endless filth needs transparency, truth, tiers and tears…
(OSV News) It was terrible to learn that Jean Vanier — whom so many Catholics had looked up to as the saintly, heroic founder of L’Arche — had been manipulating and abusing women who came to him seeking spiritual direction. We needed to learn about it, though, and that we have is due to the admirably full-on, deep investigation that L’Arche undertook when informed of the abuse, and its transparent release of findings. It had to be immensely painful and difficult for the community, but they did not shirk their responsibility to the victims of abuse, to their communities and supporters, and to the Church. Having discovered that their body was carrying an illness — one that, if permitted to fester, might turn into an incurable and fatal sepsis — the organization addressed it with the potent a...
Pope Francis’ Decade of Division…
Lent is with us, and so is the 10th anniversary of Pope Francis’ ascent to the papal throne — an appropriate conjunction, since these are days of tribulation for his papacy. There is the two-front war that Rome finds itself fighting on doctrine and liturgy, trying to squash the church’s Latin Mass traditionalists while more gently restraining the liberal German bishops from forcing a schism on Catholicism’s leftward flank. There is the latest example, in the grim case of the Jesuit priest-artist Father Marko Rupnik, of well-connected clerics accused of sex abuse who seem immune to the rules and reforms that are supposed to put limits on their ministry. And then there are the grim numbers for the Francis-era church, like the accelerating drop in the number of men st...
More Than 70% of US Bishops Allowing Meat on St. Patrick’s Day; Here Are the Rules in Your Diocese…..
In a Nutshell Over 70% of U.S. bishops are allowing Catholics to eat meat on Friday, March 17, even though it’s a Friday during Lent. Many bishops issuing dispensations cite Irish cultural customs celebrating St. Patrick’s Day. Some say the Church should hold the line on the rules of Lent. About 92% of bishops have announced what they plan to do. More than 70% of U.S. diocesan bishops are allowing Catholics to eat meat on St. Patrick’s Day this year, even though it’s a Friday during Lent. With a week to go, 125 of the 176 dioceses in the country are providing a dispensation from the ordinary rules of Lent or a commutation offering Catholics another option to make up for celebrating the occasion by eating the flesh of a warm-blooded animal. Of those saying some form of Yes, 91 a...
Homosexual behavior in the priesthood has no claim to “privacy.” Enough is enough…..
A number of lessons can be drawn from a recent Washington Post story. On March 9, the Post published a nearly 4,000-word story on the work of Catholic Laity and Clergy for Renewal (CLCR), a nonprofit based in Colorado. CLCR meticulously – and legally – collected publicly available data on clergy usage of Grindr and other hetero and same-sex hookup dating apps. It then provided the information to bishops for corrective action. Similar data reported on by The Pillar forced the resignation of former USCCB general secretary, Msgr. Jeffrey Burrill. In the Latin rite, diocesan priests make a promise of celibacy. Religious community priests take a vow of chastity. The intended result is the same: The priest commits himself to refrain from sexual relations...
Not monsters, but “undeniably spooky”: The myth and mystery of mountain lions…
Last winter, I went walking on a gray afternoon between storms. Meltwater pattered the snow around the ponderosas. Fog wound through overhanging boughs. My dog, Taiga, strained at her leash. We turned up a ravine, climbing toward an outcrop above our home where we could watch clouds river down the narrow Methow Valley, on the east slope of Washington’s North Cascades. I turned my head and froze. Through the trees, a brown shape closed in. Not coyote. Not bobcat. Rounded ears; a long bow of tail. Seeing itself seen, the cougar dropped to a crouch a few paces from me. It was still woolly with kittenhood, but big enough to send a chill down my spine. Its golden eyes locked on mine. Time suspended for a moment; I watched from outside myself. I grew up in cougar habitat on Colo...
Lenten fish sandwiches, by the numbers. And the taste…..
It’s Lent, and that means that the nation’s fast food chains have rolled out their seasonal fish sandwich offerings, to compete for the business of hungry Catholics on the go. But while many fast food chains do offer a fish sandwich option this time of year, how do those products stack up against their everyday staples of hamburgers and chicken sandwiches? Is a fish sandwich a Lenten indulgence, or will you save enough on your lunch to put some extra in your Operation Rice Bowl bank for the world’s poor? And on Good Friday — is a fast food fish sandwich more like your “one normal size meal,” or closer to one of the “two small meals which taken together would not exceed the main meal in quantity”? As a former menu pricing manager for Wendy’s corporate (2010 to 2012), analyzing these q...
Meat on St. Patrick’s Day, even though it’s a Friday during Lent? Here are the rules in your diocese…..
St. Patrick died during Lent. Which year isn’t certain. But for one of the leading candidates (A.D. 461), March 17 was a Friday. And while Easter is a moveable feast, St. Patrick’s Day is always during Lent — and sometimes on a Friday. Like this year, for instance. That means trouble — for Friday is also a day of abstinence for Catholics, especially during Lent. Something’s got to give. “You cannot feast and fast at the same time,” noted C.J. Doyle, executive director of the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts, who supports St. Patrick’s Day dispensations from the obligation of abstinence. Since Aug. 15, 1790, when John Carroll lay prostrate on the floor of a castle chapel in Dorset, England, and was ordained America’s first Roman Catholic bishop, St. Patrick’s Day has fallen on a Frid...
Why the 10th anniversary of Pope Francis’ election was more somber than festive…
March 13 ought to have been a happy day in Rome. But the mood in and around Vatican City before, during and after the 10th anniversary of Pope Francis’s election was more somber than festive — and not because the anniversary fell during Lent. Rather, the melancholy reflected the current atmosphere in the Holy See, which has gone unremarked for too long and deserves candid description. The prevailing mood in today’s Vatican is one of trepidation. That’s not only what those who question the pontificate’s direction think. It’s also the judgment of some who are comfortable with the past 10 years, and who applaud Pope Francis’s efforts to display God’s mercy in his public persona, but who also know that “kinder, gentler” does not characterize papal governance behind the scenes. Because papal au...
Facing Hundreds of Sex Abuse Lawsuits, Albany Diocese to Declare Bankruptcy…
“It is very important for me to point out that the mission and ministries of the diocese and parishes will continue during the reorganization proceedings,” he said. He asked for prayers “for all involved, that God’s peace and healing can prevail.” Scharfenberger said the diocese has been named in more than 400 lawsuits filed from August 2019 to August 2021 under the Child Victims Act of 2019. The act allowed a retrospective one-year “look back” window during which alleged abuse victims could file lawsuits long after the statute of limitations had ended. Then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo extended the window through 2021, citing the obstacles caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The diocese has settled more than 50 of these lawsuits. Settlements have been “large” and the “limited funds” have been deplet...
When it comes to divorce and a lack of faith in the Real Presence, many Catholics are now as Protestant as the “Reformers”…
“Incorporated into the Church by Baptism, the faithful have received the sacramental character that consecrates them for Christian religious worship. The baptismal seal enables and commits Christians to serve God by a vital participation in the holy liturgy of the Church and to exercise their baptismal priesthood by the witness of holy lives and practical charity.” CCC #1273 [bold mine] [you might want a Bible to accompany this essay as the biblical references are important] New Priesthood and Embodied Spiritual Sacrifices Through Jesus’ sacrifice and institution of his Body and Blood, participation into the true and heavenly sanctuary was re-established for all who believe on and in Jesus Christ (cf. Heb 10:19-22). With the liturgical renovation that Jesus began in the Upper Room (“do thi...
Cardinal Parolin says he’s opposed to the German bishops’ same-sex blessings. That’s good. But the reasons he gave are troubling…..
By Phil Lawler ( bio – articles – email ) | Mar 14, 2023 In an interview posted today, Cardinal Pietro Parolin expressed opposition to the German bishops’ decision to offer blessings for same-sex unions. So far, so good. But the reasons that the Vatican Secretary of State gave for that opposition are troubling. Cardinal Parolin said that the German episcopal conference “cannot make such a decision that involves the discipline of the universal Church.” Well, first of all, the German bishops did make that decision. The German bishops voted 38-9 in favor the statement passed by the Synodal Path, “Blessing ceremonies for couples who love each other.” When he says that the German bishops “cannot” make that decision, presumably Cardinal Parolin means that they do not have the authori...
