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Archbishop Paglia’s transformation of the PAL is not an extension of its mission. It’s a hostile takeover…..
By Phil Lawler ( bio – articles – email ) | Oct 28, 2022 Last week in this space, I expressed my dismay at the news that Pope Francis had appointed a pro-abortion scholar to the Pontifical Academy for Life (PAL)— and Archbishop Vincenzio Paglia, the president of the PAL, had compounded the problem by adopting the rhetoric of the abortion lobby and insisting that his new colleague was not “pro-abortion” but merely “pro-choice.” Then we learned that another newly appointed member of the PAL had indulged in pro-abortion sloganeering, saying that the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade, “undermines basic requirements of tolerance toward the pluralism of moral perspectives within society.” So there were two avowed proponents of legal abortion among the 14 ne...
For better sleep, borrow the bedtime routine of a toddler. Here are 3 easy steps to help you get some much-needed rest…..
Before you turn to books, blogs, sleep-coaches, apps, or one of many products in search of a more satisfying slumber, you might want to consult a toddler. Luckily, there are millions of these tiny advisors waddling around, ready to serve as top-notch sleep role models. Why we need good sleep habits Catching Z’s is critical for many functions of the human body, and current guidelines recommend adults consistently get at least seven hours of sleep per night. Previous research has shown that decreased sleep is associated with an elevated risk of cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes, obesity, and depression. More recent research has linked a lack of sleep in adults in their 50s to 70s to the development of dementia. Sleep is even more important for young children, as they need it for...
In historic shift, Catholics now outnumber Protestants in Northern Ireland…
Northern Ireland’s predominantly Protestant identity has been its foundational premise ever since its creation a century ago — until now. “We are a Protestant parliament and a Protestant State,” the first prime minister of Northern Ireland, Sir James Craig, confidently asserted before the legislature of the nascent state in 1921. His successor, Basil Brooke, went further and admonished a group of Protestant farmers: “Many in this audience employ Catholics, but I have not one about my place. … If we in Ulster allow Roman Catholics to work on our farms, we are traitors to Ulster,” he said. Both men typified the founding narrative of Northern Ireland. Created in 1921 in the six northeastern counties of Ireland, it was to remain part of the United Kingdom when the 26 southern counties won inde...
Archbishop Gomez Condemns Violence, Prays for Paul Pelosi After Hammer Attack…
By CNA Staff CNA Newsroom, Oct 29, 2022 / 01:55 am The president of the United States bishops’ conference said he is praying for Paul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, after he was attacked in his home in San Francisco on Friday morning. Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles said Oct. 28 that he is offering prayers “for the full recovery of Paul Pelosi and comfort for his family.” Pelosi, 82, was attacked with a hammer by a male assailant early on Friday morning, according to CNN. The assailant was reportedly looking for the speaker of the House, and also tried to tie Pelosi up. “I am deeply grieved over this violence,” the USCCB president added, “which should have no place in our communities, our political process, or our great nation. May Our Lady of Perpetual Help interc...
The shepherds saw something in Bethlehem that night, and they passed on what they saw through oral tradition…..
In my research, I discovered that the shepherds were important to St. Luke for a simple reason: They were the primary eyewitnesses of the events in Bethlehem on the night of Jesus’ birth, and they passed down the story through established methods of oral transmission. Earlier this year, I had the privilege of spending a two month sabbatical in Jerusalem. The object of my study was to understand more about the shepherds of Bethlehem who play such an important part in St Luke’s infancy narrative. Why were they important to the gospel author? Some scholars opined that Luke was simply adding some local color—some quaint rustics—rather like Shakespeare’s “mechanicals” in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Others suggested that shepherds had a traditional place in Greek and Roman literature as sim...
Is the Vatican’s China ‘progress’ going backwards?
The Holy See announced on Saturday a two-year renewal of its “provisional” agreement with the government of China, which was first signed in 2018, and renewed again two years ago. The agreement aims to normalize the appointment of bishops in China, and ensure unity of the Catholic Church – with some six to 12 million members – in the country. For his part, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State, argued Saturday that the deal is “essential to the daily life of the Church” in China — repeating a frequent theme in his defense of the bilateral agreement. But while the cardinal insists the deal is a pragmatic necessity, questions about its effectiveness are stacking up. And human rights advocates argue that engagement with the Chinese Communist Party is sapping the ...
Cardinal Matteo Zuppi of Bologna celebrates Traditional Solemn Vespers in Rome’s Pantheon…
Although the Italian cardinal is more widely known for his social activism and closeness to those on Italy’s political left, he is also friendly to adherents of the traditional liturgy. VATICAN CITY — Despite Vatican restrictions on the ancient liturgy, the head of Italy’s bishops’ conference, known for social activism and his closeness to Italian leftist politics, presided at traditional solemn Vespers in the Pantheon in Rome this evening. Cardinal Matteo Zuppi of Bologna, a Rome native with close connections to the Sant’Egidio lay community but who is also friendly to adherents of the ancient liturgy, led the liturgical celebration and gave a short homily. He told the Register afterward that he had decided to preside at the liturgy because the organizers had “invited me — they invited me...
The House Lejeune Built, and from Rome to China…
Hey everybody, Twenty-one years ago today, on October 25, 2001, Microsoft released Windows XP, and with it the last iconic Windows wallpaper, which has since become – probably – the most viewed photograph in all of history. You know the one I’m talking about. This hill: “Bliss,” Charles O’Rear. If you’re curious, the hill is in Sonoma, California, and is today covered in the grape-growing rows of a vineyard. A photographer named Charles O’Rear used to drive past the hill every week, when he made the trek to visit his girlfriend in Marin County each Friday. O’Rear snapped the photo some Friday in January 1996, and uploaded it to a stock photo agency’s website. The photographer didn’t think much about the picture again, until some designer a few years later at Microsoft decided i...
Father John-Nhan Tran, Priest Who Escaped Vietnam in 1975, Named Auxiliary Bishop of Atlanta…
The bishop-elect told Nola.com that his mother died after being shot by friendly fire in Vietnam in 1968, when he was 2 years old. His father was also shot but survived. An older brother had been killed by a landmine. The family, which included aunts, uncles, and cousins of Tran, was rescued from the South China Sea after they had run out of water. “I think we would have perished quite soon if we hadn’t been rescued by a U.S. ship,” Tran told Nola.com. “I was so young that for me it was just, ‘Where’s the water?’ and ‘Are we there yet?’” he said. “Later, I felt the pain for my parents’ generation. I’ll never be able to know what they were feeling, how scared they must have been.” Since his ordination in 1992, Bishop-elect Tran has served as parochial vicar and pastor of several Catholic pa...
Canada Census Shows 2 Million Fewer Catholics, As Disaffiliation Grows…
About 5% of Canadians are Muslim. Their population has doubled in size since 2011. About 2.3% of Canadians are Hindu and 2.1% are Sikh. The Jewish population numbers about 335,000, a slight increase over the last decade, but their proportion of Canadians has declined to 0.9%. They are slightly outnumbered by self-identified Buddhists. Non-Christian religious adherents disproportionately live in large urban centers and their numbers have increased largely due to immigration. They make up 16.3% of the population in Ontario, with Muslims and Hindus the most populous. About 16.7% of British Columbia residents adhere to non-Christian religions and Canada’s Sikhs have their largest presence there. Canada’s 1.8-million indigenous people are largely unaffiliated, with 47% reporting no affiliation....
Wise as serpents, innocent as doves — How to save the lives of unborn babies in a post-Roe world…
Must Catholic politicians — or Catholic voters, for that matter — support only legislation that completely jibes with Church teaching? For example, can they justify voting for a law that permits exceptions in the cases of rape and incest? Well, if the alternative is either maintaining — or risking––an abortion-on-demand legal climate, then supporting an imperfect law — or politician, for that matter — is the most prudent moral option available. As St. Thomas Aquinas conveyed in his Summa Theologiæ, we cannot live in the idealistic abstract, divorced from reality, lest we make pointless pontifications, or, far worse, effectively concede a defeat with great moral fallout. “What is done by us, is possible to us,” say St. Thomas in Article 5 of Question 13 of the first part of the second part ...
When you forget the loved one who died…
He’d lost his father, and he did not want to stop grieving. My friend feared that soon he wouldn’t feel so heartbroken, because that would mean “I was forgetting him.” Many who lose someone they love feel this way. I did, especially when my dad died. You feel he can’t be dead if you can still feel him as if he were with you. He’s just in the next room or on a trip. “Not here” doesn’t feel like “dead.” But the memories that make you feel as if he were with you fade very fast. I felt horrible when one day I suddenly realized I hadn’t thought of my dad in days. Sick to my stomach horrible. Outside prayers, 18 years later, I can go a long time without thinking of him. I remember him most when something triggers a memory. As I wrote a few years after he died, I’d go into a bookstore and see a b...
