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To be fair, Cardinal McElroy didn’t call for the Church to ordain women. And, technically, Cardinal Cupich hasn’t called for the Church to condone homosexuality. Rather, what Cardinal McElroy said is that “the exclusion of men and women because of their marital status or their sexual orientation/activity is pre-eminently a pastoral question, not a doctrinal one.” Likewise, Cardinal Cupich condemned those who would “exclude sinners from fuller participation in the life of the church until they have reformed, out of respect for God’s justice.” But we all know what that means. What’s more, they know that we know what it means. Their Eminences want everyone to understand that they dissent from the Catholic faith. They’re a fifth column of feminists and LGBT allies, working to recreat...

Hey everybody, Today is the memorial of Sts. Perpetua and Felicity, and you’re reading The Tuesday Pillar Post. You know their names from the litany of saints. But do you know their stories? They were Christian martyrs put to death together in North Africa in the early third century, during a persecution ordered by the Emperor Severus. Both were 21 years old or so. One, Perpetua, was a noblewoman and a nursing mother when she was put into prison for refusing to renounce Christ, just after she was baptized. The other, Felicity, was a slave, who gave birth in prison to a baby girl in prison, just days before she was martyred. They are the patronesses of mothers and expectant mothers. May they intercede today for all mothers in need of prayer. The news Pope Francis this morning appointe...

By Phil Lawler ( bio – articles – email ) | Mar 03, 2023 From my personal perspective, the this week’s stunning First Things essay by Bishop Paprocki is easily the most important news story of the young year: a development that I have anxiously awaited for years. For far too long our bishops have papered over their differences, allowing confusion and consternation to fester among the faithful, in order to preserve a façade of episcopal unity. Now at long last, an American bishop has called another bishop (a cardinal, in fact) to account. Bishop Paprocki does not actually charge Cardinal Robert McElroy with heresy. But he does quote verbatim from the cardinal’s outrageous article in America, and he does question how those statements can be reconciled with Catholic doctrine. The ...

COMMENTARY:The brutal murder of Bishop David O’Connell has aggravated the episcopal shortfall in the largest diocese in the US. Shock and grief were the initial reactions to the killing of Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop David G. O’Connell. Beyond the horror of the brutal murder, however, lies a prosaic fact: With the death of Bishop O’Connell, the huge archdiocese faces an episcopal shortfall in one of the busiest seasons of the year for auxiliary bishops. Bishop O’Connell was shot to death, apparently in his sleep, during the night of Feb. 18. Police charged Carlos Medina, husband of the archbishop’s housekeeper, with the crime.  Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles did not refer directly to these events in a Feb. 24 Lenten statement called “Learning to Forgive,” but his words seemed t...

Long, long ago, on a planet far, far away, I organized a conference on religion and the public square in a city on the Potomac that I increasingly find hard to recognize. There were sessions on Catholicism, Protestantism, and Judaism. During the last, a rabbi who was also a lawyer working at the White House was challenged by a trio of Jewish feminists. The exchange was civil enough (almost unbelievably so by current standards). But my Jewish friend deftly handled the usual questions about gays, abortion, and women’s roles; “Show me where it’s in the [Jewish] Law and we can talk.” A good and clarifying principle for Catholics as well. Jesus Himself often referred questioners to the Law and the Prophets. Of course, it also has to be a sincere effort to understand and be fully faithful to God...

North Texas Catholic Director of Youth Ministry Emmafae Lemons took this photo of the statue of Mary with roof behind her after the storm on March 2, 2023. WEATHERFORD — The 70 mph winds that blew through St. Stephen Parish in Weatherford the evening of March 2 were no match for Mary. After all, in the Litany of Loreto, she’s called “Virgin most powerful.” And her Son could calm a storm. Around 5:30 p.m., Father Emmet O’Hara, SAC, and several others were in the church preparing for Eucharistic Adoration when the level 4 storm approached. Fr. O’Hara said he was watching through the church’s glass doors as the squall line blew through. The winds suddenly became strong, and the huge metal roof of the parish’s clubhouse lifted off the building and blew across the parking lot towards the statue...