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Bishop David Kagan of Bismarck, North Dakota, begins the process for the canonization of FOCUS missionary Michelle Christine Duppong…
DENVER, June 17, 2022 — Bishop David Kagan, Diocese of Bismarck, N.D., announced the opening of the diocesan investigation which could lead to the beatification and canonization of North Dakota native Michelle Christine Duppong. At the age of 31, Duppong passed away from cancer on December 25, 2015, while serving as the Director of Adult Faith Formation for the Diocese of Bismarck. Before that, Duppong had served as a FOCUS missionary for six years. Bishop Kagan made the announcement at the FOCUS New Staff Training at the University of Mary, saying, “Michelle’s holiness of life and love for God certainly touched us here in the Diocese of Bismarck, at the University of Mary, and throughout FOCUS, but hers is also a witness which should also be shared with the Universal Churc...
In a first for Italy, a Bologna Catholic parish just hosted a homosexual blessing ceremony — in the archdiocese of Cardinal Zuppi, head of the Italian bishops’ conference, no less…
First, the civil union at the registry office, then the blessing in church. It’s the first time a gay couple has been blessed in public in an Italian church. What’s more, it took place in Bologna which is the diocese of Cardinal Zuppi, the president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference. An act which is in open violation of the Responsum of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith which forbids such blessings. It’s a demonstration of the pharisaic hypocrisy of certain pastors who, instead of calling the sheep back, proudly lead them on the road to perdition. The diocese of Archbishop Matteo Maria Zuppi, one of the most prominent Italian cardinals of the moment and newly appointed president of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI), has staged the first public blessing of a homosex...
Solemnity of Corpus Christi: ‘Whoever Eats This Bread Will Live Forever’…
Today, Catholics in the United States celebrate the Solemnity of Corpus Christi (which most of the rest of the world celebrated last Thursday). Corpus Christi is especially important after the 2019 Pew survey suggested there were real problems with the understanding of Christ’s presence in the Eucharist among Catholics in the United States. What should have been a wakeup call has led to some kind of program of Eucharistic focus by the American bishops, the “National Eucharistic Revival,” set to launch today. I hope that your parish is taking real action to restore the cult of Eucharistic devotion for the local faithful. Being Corpus Christi, there is hopefully some Eucharistic procession occurring at your parish. Many parishes have revived the traditional “40 Hours Devotion,” providi...
Our Lord has a passionate concern to feed all His people — yes, even your wayward spouse or child…..
On the Feast of Corpus Christi, we do well to mediate on the desire of the Lord to feed His people and the shocking indifference many have to this fact. This indifference is not just on the part of those who do not come to Mass; it is also found among those in the pews, many of whom don’t seem to care that so many people no longer attend. We should recognize the passionate concern the Lord has to feed all His people—yes even your wayward spouse or child. Let’s consider today’s Gospel in three ways. I. Desire that is Discerned – Jesus has been teaching the crowds all day by the lake. The text says, As the day was drawing to a close, the Twelve approached him and said, “Dismiss the crowd so that they can go to the surrounding villages and farms and find lodging and provisions; for we are in ...
Pope’s Sunday Angelus: ‘in the Eucharist Is Jesus’ Life Given for All of Us’…
By Linda Bordoni Pope Francis on Sunday reminded believers that the Lord, who is present in the Eucharist, takes each and everyone of us to heart, cares for us and satisfies our need for nourishment, companionship, consolation. Addressing pilgrims gathered for the Angelus in St. Peter’s Square, the Pope noted that on this Sunday, 19 June, the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ is celebrated in Italy and in other countries. “Instituted during the Last Supper,” he explained, “the Eucharist was like the destination of a journey along which Jesus had prefigured it through several signs, above all the multiplication of the loaves” narrated in the Gospel according to Luke ( Lk. 9:11b-17). Everyone can experience the Lord’s loving attention He recalled how Jesus took care of the ...
From the shadows, a fresh voice…
I just kept writing about everything I read and everything I remembered about childhood and motherhood and put it together with what I was experiencing now. I tried to be honest and to share it with a world of others who might be feeling the same way. An Interview with Writer, Denise Trull. By Carrie Gress I first stumbled upon an article by Denise Trull at Dappled Things some time ago. Since then, I think I’ve read just about everything she has published there. When her pieces post, I feel a bit like a greedy child grabbing at a new bar of chocolate, looking to savor each sentence. I have yet to be disappointed by her work, and on occasion, even been brought to tears by the beauty and poignancy of her written words. What makes Trull’s voice so appealing is that it i...
Science and the Sacred Heart: Hello, Mandelbrot Set!…
During this month of June — the Month dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, in the Church – I have been each day** posting an image of the Sacred Heart with some little thought, either my own or someone else’s to my Twitter and Facebook feeds. The action feeds my own devotion to and meditations on the Sacred Heart, but the thoughtful responses of others is certainly gratifying and sometimes enlightening, too. There was one response, however that left me gobsmacked. Yes, gobsmacked — a great word but one I don’t use very often, because I am generally pretty hard to shock. Someone on twitter mentioned that she too had been pondering the Sacred Heart but also something that I (being an unmathmatical sort) had never heard of, called The Mandlebrot Set. In general, I avoid such videos. I’m al...
Good news in Canadian, artistic ambitions in Italian, and Francis’ law of power…
Happy Friday friends, There is a very lot of news to get through this week, so let’s just get on with it. Some good news this week out of Canada. We covered last month the efforts of a local parish community to buy their own parish church after it was put up for sale by the Archdiocese of St. John’s Newfoundland, along with 17 other properties, as part of a bankruptcy filing to meet the cost of a settlement with abuse victims of the Christian Brothers at the former Mount Cashel orphanage. A group of business leaders in their small seaside community of Portugal Cove-St. Philips wanted to purchase and redevelop Holy Rosary church as a community space, with a focus on — God spare us — “health, wellness, and mindfulness.” Well, we heard from friends at Holy Rosary this week, who told us ...
True Catholic leadership is rooted in the fear of God…
By Dr. Jeff Mirus ( bio – articles – email ) | Jun 17, 2022 At some point in any leadership situation, we have to evaluate the fruits of that leadership. It isn’t enough to assume that someone means well and ignore the results. This is especially true for Catholic bishops. It is utterly insufficient to speculate as to whether a particular bishop’s “heart is in the right place”, or whether many people find him “warm and likeable”. At some point, we have to ask about practical results: Is the number of priests growing? Is the quality of a specifically Catholic education improving? Do the laity receive encouragement when they uphold unpopular Catholic teachings in the larger social order? Are priests and religious who teach error or abuse the liturgy disciplined? Are Catholic soci...
Holy Communion unites you with Christ if you receive in the state of grace — or with the soldiers driving in the nails if you’re not…..
The readings for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, Corpus Christi Sunday, Year C, give us reason to approach communion with grave fear or great joy. The readings tell us the Eucharist is an ancient mystery, reaching back before the written record of the Jewish religion, and it is a sign of the future glory of heaven. Depending on how we receive it, its enormous power can renew us or wreck us. The Eucharist is so important that Jesus does not give it to the multitudes he feeds miraculously. Notice how Sunday’s Gospel passage, from Luke, begins: “Jesus spoke to the crowds about the kingdom of God, and he healed those who needed to be cured.” Though all four Gospels report the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves, only Luke makes sure we know that it came while J...
Gallup Poll: Belief in God in U.S. Dips to All-Time Low of 81%…
###Embeddable### Story Highlights 81% believe in God, down from 87% in 2017 New low in Gallup’s trend Four in 10 believe God can intervene on people’s behalf WASHINGTON, D.C. — The vast majority of U.S. adults believe in God, but the 81% who do so is down six percentage points from 2017 and is the lowest in Gallup’s trend. Between 1944 and 2011, more than 90% of Americans believed in God. Gallup’s May 2-22 Values and Beliefs poll finds 17% of Americans saying they do not believe in God. Gallup first asked this question in 1944, repeating it again in 1947 and twice each in the 1950s and 1960s. In those latter four surveys, a consistent 98% said they believed in God. When Gallup asked the question nearly five decades later, in 2011, 92% of Americans said they be...
‘Through Attacking, We Find Joy’ — ‘Jane’s Revenge’ Condemned by White House as Threats to Pro-Life Groups Increase…
The statement threatening pro-life pregnancy centers was posted on abolitionmedia.noblogs.org and is dated June 14. “You have seen that we are real, and that we are not merely pushing empty words. As we said: we are not one group but many,” the alleged Jane’s Revenge post says. In the communique, “Jane’s Revenge” claims responsibility for attacks in “Madison WI, Ft. Collins CO, Reisertown MA, Olympia WA, Des Moines IA, Lynwood WA, Washington DC, Ashville NC, Buffalo NY, Hollywood FL, Vancouver WA, Frederick MA, Denton TX, Gresham OR, Eugene OR, Portland OR,” and more. It remains an open question if Jane’s Revenge is an organized group, or merely a call to action via copycat attacks on pro-life centers. The post says the group exists in “countless locations invisibly” ...
