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The universe is flat. Here’s what that teaches us…..
What is the shape of the Universe? If you had come along before the 1800s, it likely never would have occurred to you that the Universe itself could even have a shape. Like everyone else, you would have learned geometry starting from the rules of Euclid, where space is nothing more than a three-dimensional grid. Then you would have applied Newton’s laws of physics and presumed that things like forces between any two objects would act along the one and only straight line connecting that. But we’ve come a long way in our understanding since then, and not only can space itself be curved by the presence of matter and energy, but we can witness those effects. It didn’t have to be the case that the Universe, as a whole, would have a spatial curvature to it that’s indistinguishable from flat. But...
Warning: If the Supreme Court overturns Roe, Catholic churches will become targets. Make plans now to defend your parish…..
An informed and highly trusted source tells me: Homeland Security has officially notified the bishops there are credible threats to the safety of Catholic churches, clergy, and bishops if the Supreme Court overturns Roe. Violence has been called for beginning the night such a decision is handed down. This does not surprise me. Catholics and their allies should prepare to stand guard around their churches on that night and the nights to follow. It won’t only be Catholic churches at threat, I’m sure — conservative Evangelical churches will be too — but to their great honor, the Catholic parishes will be the most obvious targets. They were in Poland a year or so ago, when the country’s highest court approved a near-total ban on abortion: [embedded content] In January, here’s what pro-abortion...
Fly-casting before D-Day: General Eisenhower was a man of character. We could use more of his kind today…..
With a gracious assist from former Kansas governor Sam Brownback, I had the privilege of a personal tour of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Museum in Abilene this past March. And I couldn’t have had a better guide: Mary Jean Eisenhower, the 34th president’s charming granddaughter, with whom I shared lunch in a roadside restaurant evidently much favored by the locals — the parking lot was jam-packed before noon. After a getting-to-know-you hour over heartland victuals, Mary Jean and I were off to the museum and the memorial chapel where Ike, Mamie Eisenhower, and their son Icky, who died of scarlet fever before his fourth birthday, are buried; the boy’s death, his father later wrote in At Ease: Stories I Tell to Friends, was “the greatest disappointment and disaster of my life.” The m...
St. Charles Lwanga and his companions were martyred for resisting a sexual predator. We need their intercession now more than ever…..
At the beginning of June, we remember two critical stages in the Church’s fight against the sexual abuse of minors. The first is the 20th anniversary of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, adopted by the U.S. bishops during their epochal June 13-15, 2002, meeting in Dallas. It established procedures for addressing the sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy, as well as provided guidelines for reconciliation, healing, accountability and abuse prevention. The second is the third anniversary of Vos Estis Lux Mundi (“You Are the Light of the World”), Pope Francis’ motu proprio that established new norms to combat sexual abuse in the Church universal and to ensure that bishops and religious superiors — who had been largely exempted from the Dallas Charter ...
Archbishop Cordileone’s ban on Communion for Pelosi was the right thing to do…
The grave significance of receiving of Holy Communion should not be underestimated. Last week, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone announced that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi may not be admitted to Holy Communion in the Archdiocese of San Francisco. Not a few of you have been asking me about it. I want to talk about what the announcement actually means, so we can discuss this in a thoughtful way. I’m mostly addressing those of you who are Catholic and are “personally opposed” to abortion, but might say you wouldn’t want to impose your beliefs on others — or those of you who identify as faithful Catholics but who are in support of abortion rights. I want to start by saying that what Archbishop Cordileone did is as much about Holy Communion as it is about abortion. What does it mean to rece...
Pope Francis to Eastern Orthodox Priests: ‘Unity Does Not Come About by Standing Still’…
Within the group, clergy from the Coptic Orthodox Church, Armenian Apostolic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch, and many others were represented. In his speech to the delegation, Pope Francis spoke about the Solemnity of Pentecost and the gift of Christian unity. He said that unity is a gift “of the working of the Holy Spirit, to whom we need to open our hearts in trust, so that he can guide us along the path to full communion.” The pope also noted that “unity is not uniformity,” but rather a “harmony in the diversity of the charisms bestowed by the Spirit.” The Orthodox delegation was invited to the Vatican by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. Cardinal Kurt Koch, the president of the council, welcomed the group to Rome on May 31. While in Rome, the delegation i...
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In China, new evidence that surgeons became executioners by extracting organs from living death-row prisoners [WSJ paywall]…
Eight doctors at the Tongji Medical College hospital in Wuhan, China, traveled 40 miles on March 18, 1994, to procure a heart from a death-row prisoner. But rather than wait until the judicial authorities had executed the prisoner, the doctors carried out the execution themselves—by heart extraction. In a large-scale review we conducted of nearly 3,000 Chinese-language clinical reports and published in the American Journal of Transplantation, we find surgeons acknowledging such actions again and again. The Wuhan doctors write: “When the chest of the donor was opened, the chest wall incision was pale and bloodless, and the heart was purple and beating weakly. But the heartbeat became strong immediately after tracheal intubation and oxygenation. The donor heart was extracted with an incision...
What are so many bishops so afraid of?
Until the issue of Holy Communion for pro-abortion politicians gets resolved, the faithful are left to wonder if the Church is entirely serious about upholding the truth of her teaching. Imagine a time traveler from another century, who, as fate would have it, finds himself suddenly parked in the middle of almost any state in the country. Then tell him it’s been 40 days since Easter Sunday, which makes it Ascension Thursday, faith’s greatest festival of the future. Chances are, if he’s Catholic, he’ll want to know where the nearest church is, so he can get to Mass. However, here’s where things get a bit sticky because, depending on which state he’s fallen into, there might not even be a Mass. In fact, in all but a very few places — six to be exact, i.e., Boston, Hartford, New York, Newark,...
What Catholics can take away from the Johnny Depp/Amber Heard trial…
Here’s the verdict: Johnny Depp and Amber Heard are missing the heart of what life has to offer them. I watched none of the Johnny Depp/Amber Heard trial. Not that I’m above celebrity curiosity, but I saved myself quite a bit of time by skipping the entire six-week defamation trial between the two actors. As a bit of a news junkie, however, I saw that it was trending news and did read a couple of articles and watched a news segment or two on it. So, I was not totally in the dark when the verdict was handed down before millions of viewers on June 1. Although it was 3:00 on a Wednesday afternoon, more than 3 million people were streaming the courtroom proceedings live — and that’s just on YouTube alone. There was also a live Twitter feed and another on Court TV. Don’t people have jobs? The D...
Muslim and Protestant Politicians Receive Holy Communion at Bishops’ Masses at German Catholic Event…
Bätzing has repeatedly expressed qualified support for intercommunion with Protestants, telling journalists in February 2021 that it was necessary to respect the “personal decision of conscience” of those seeking to receive Communion. Bätzing also led an ecumenical study group that published the 2019 document “Together at the Lord’s Table,” proposing a “Eucharistic meal fellowship” between Catholics and Protestants. The situation triggered a response by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) in September 2020. In a four-page critique and letter to Bätzing, the doctrinal congregation emphasized that significant differences in understanding of the Eucharist and ministry remained between Protestants and Catholics. More in Europe “The doctrinal differences are still so important ...
On Her Majesty’s spiritual service: Remembering my days in the Queen’s ecclesiastical household…
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The Catholic spirit of Star Trek…
In a time when much of television fare fails to reflect Christian values, it’s encouraging to have shows that successfully present a world in which people of different backgrounds can cooperate. Every Christian Star Trek fan recalls Stardate 4041.7. (That would be AD 2268 for planet-bound humans.) James Tiberius Kirk, valiant captain of the good ship Enterprise, in the midst of its five-year mission, came across planet 892-IV, a draconian 23rd-century version of the Roman Empire, complete with gladiators, senators and nefarious, back-stabbing politics. This empire also sponsored state executions of renegade slaves who practiced a pacifist religion of “total love and total brotherhood.” Sound familiar? The slaves imprisoned for practicing their religion were “sun worshipers.” As Mr. Spock, ...
