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Happy Michaelmas! Here’s a recipe for St. Michael’s Bannock, a Scottish tradition…
September 29th is the traditional feast of Saint Michael and All Angels, or Michaelmas. Historically one of the British quarter days, when school terms started and rents came due, Michaelmas also has particular foods associated with it, especially roast goose, carrots, and apples. Most charming of all, Michaelmas is traditionally the last day on which you should pick and eat blackberries, as folklore has it that when Saint Michael expelled Lucifer from heaven, the fallen angel landed in a patch of blackberry vines and, unhappy with the way things turned out, he, um, wet himself forthwith, thus rendering the berries unfit for consumption. As much as I like both tradition and blackberries, the timing seems precariously tight, and September 29th usually finds me alread...
‘Eucharist,’ by Bishop Robert Barron, is an excellent explanation of the Blessed Sacrament, Holy Sacrifice and Real Presence…
Eucharist, by Bishop Robert Barron, is an excellent explanation of the importance of the Eucharist as a sacred meal, sacrifice, and the Real Presence of Christ. It is short – a little over 100 pages long – but rich in content. Bishop Barron establishes his arguments by drawing on Salvation History, Church history, and Thomistic philosophy and theology. Throughout, he does so in an accessible style appropriate to a wide readership, one that both assumes the intelligence of the reader yet demands little prior knowledge of formal theology. Without relying on obscure jargon, he explains all his points from first principles, guiding the reader through to the conclusions, without shying away from the most conceptually difficult aspects of eucharistic theology. As the Second Vati...
U.S. Bishops Warned of Multiple Instances of Transgendered Seminarians; Cases Involve Scrubbed Medical Records, Fraudulent Sacramental Records …
Archbishop Listecki’s memo does not identify which seminaries or houses of formation have enrolled a biological female who presented herself as a male, nor was it clarified if these “instances” occurred in the United States or elsewhere. Bishops should consider requiring DNA tests or physical examinations to ensure that all seminarians are biological men, said Archbishop Jerome Listecki in a recent memo sent to the members of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. “Recently, the Committee on Canonical Affairs and Church Governance was made aware of instances where it had been discovered that a woman living under a transgendered identity had been unknowingly admitted to the seminary or to a house of formation of an institute of consecrated life,” said the memo. Archbishop L...
In storm-damaged Louisiana, there is not victimhood, but resilience and gratitude…
Volunteer William Holmes offers gallons of water during a distribution of supply event put on by New Orleans City Council President Helena Moreno and Vice President Donna M. Glapion, who teamed up with community partners to distribute cell phones, ice, essential items and hot meals over a week after Hurricane Ida hit Louisiana, at Carver High School in New Orleans, La., September 7, 2021. (Kathleen Flynn/Reuters) Hurricane Ida puts Louisiana’s resilience in focus. New Orleans, Louisiana — Mattresses waiting for sanitation pickup. Downed trees. Trees pruned by nature. Bags and bags and bags of garbage that has not been picked up — but mercifully not the first Ida-round of once-frozen meat. On the way from the airport into New Orleans, you saw refrigerators outside homes, too; you wound up h...
This was the last prayer of the four Missionaries of Charity before they were killed by terrorists in 2016…
Their supplication is ever applicable today … In early March of 2016, a terrorist attack at a convent and nursing home in Yemen left 16 dead. Four of the victims were Sisters of the Missionaries of Charity, the community founded by Mother Teresa. I found a hand-written prayer card this morning commemorating the tragedy. It was tucked inside my journal, and I quickly taped it to the fridge, as hardships at home and in the news headlines have left me sad to the point of distraction. I’ve been saying the prayer after Mass and before breakfast, as was the habit of the nuns who were killed — which is also how we know that, according to the time of day they were murdered, it’s&...
Thankless lepers: On San Marino and the Church today…
By Dr. Jeff Mirus ( bio – articles – email ) | Sep 28, 2021 If you are looking for a microcosm of the modern West, try San Marino. It’s a tiny, land-locked nation just west of the port city of Rimini, Italy on the Adriatic Sea. Its population of just under 35,000 inhabits an area of 24 square miles. Based on GDP per capita, San Marino is one of the wealthiest nations in the world. This same population is also 91% Catholic. Yet San Marino has just legalized abortion, not through a political trick but through a public referendum. While San Marino did lag over forty years behind Italy in getting on the abortion train, its bid to “catch up” illustrates very clearly the failure of the Catholic Church in this era of Western civilization’s spiral into paganism. A key feature of this i...
Meet Blessed Vilmos Apor, a bishop who died defending women from the Soviets…
Bishop Apor was shot by Soviet police while defending women who were in hiding in fear of being raped. During World War II, Bishop Vilmos Apor was a strong advocate for all the oppressed, especially Jews who were being taken away by Nazi soldiers. He would often use his own episcopal residence to shelter those who were being persecuted, while he would use a small room for himself. After the Nazis were driven out, the Soviet government stepped in and enacted their own atheistic regime. Again, Apor would advocate for anyone who was being oppressed and this made him a primary enemy of the Soviets. It all culminated on March 28, 1945, which was Good Friday that year. Several drunken Soviet soldiers invaded his residence and were looking for women they heard were hiding there. The women were hi...
Without the right of conscience, there is no common good…
Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich recently mandated that all priests and employees of his diocese receive vaccinations against COVID-19. While medical exemptions to his mandate will be granted, religious exemptions will be refused. You read that correctly. With a broad appeal to the “common good,” the cardinal is refusing to recognize individual objections of conscience. Perhaps someone who has the cardinal’s ear can ask him what he means by a “common good” wherein freedom of conscience does not exist? He won’t find such a definition in the documents of the Second Vatican Council. See, for example, Guadium et Spes, which defines the “common good” as “the sum of those conditions of social life which allow social groups and their individual members relatively thorough and ready acces...
The Tuesday Pillar Post: They might be saints…
Hey everybody, A few weeks ago, a friend, discouraged by the news of the world, asked me whether The Pillar could have a “good-news-only” week sometime. Well, today’s Tuesday Pillar Post, with several good news stories, comes close to fitting the bill. This was purely coincidental, I assure you. And if you’re here because The Pillar is committed to reporting serious and important news, good or bad, when no one else will — rest assured, we’ll likely have something more to your tastes by the end of the week. But for now, here’s some (mostly) good and interesting news: The news Rock Chalk! Seventy years after he died in a Korean P.O.W. camp, the body of Fr. Emil Kapaun landed in Kansas on Saturday, where it will be interred this week in Wichita’s Immaculate Conception Cathedral. Fr. Emil Kapa...
‘Let down your nets!’ — In 2001, John Paul II spelled out this 5-step plan for our times…..
Each of the steps is surprisingly simple and the results will be great. Jesus has promised. “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” Those words of Jesus Christ were also favorites of St. John Paul II, and 20 years ago, he got very practical about what they should mean for us in our time. He gave a very specific plan for the years that would follow the year 2000, and promised it would bring the same result as it did for Simon: “When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish.” The Church has had a tough 20 years since then. St. John Paul spelled out his plan in the 2001 Apostolic Letter “At the Beginning of the Millennium.” Disaster followed. First came 9/11, which turned many people against religion; then came the scandals, which turned many people aga...
The Baltimore Ravens’ record-setting kicker Justin Tucker is a devout Catholic. Listen to him sing Schubert’s Ave Maria… …
NFL player Justin Tucker set an amazing record on Sun., Sept. 26. The 31-year-old Baltimore Ravens player set the NFL record for kicking the longest fieldgoal ever – 66 yards! Did you know he is also a devout Catholic and an opera singer? The talented professional athlete makes the Sign of the Cross before every kick to “give glory” to God and “say ‘thanks’ for the opportunity.” He also helped raise money for Catholic Charities at a 2016 concert, and sang the Ave Maria at 2015 opera concert. ChurchPOP posted the 2016 concert in a previous article. However, the Baltimore Ravens published an extended cut featuring an interview with the kicker. Here’s the video below: Click here if you cannot see the video above. He also describes his Catholic faith in the video below: [embedded content] ...
Canonization cause advances for Cyprien and Daphrose Rugumba, married couple killed in Rwandan genocide…
A married couple killed at the start of the 1994 Rwandan genocide is moving one step closer to canonization. Daphrose and Cyprien Rugumba. Copyright Emmanuel Community Archives. Share The diocesan inquiry into the lives of Cyprien and Daphrose Rugumba concluded last week. If canonized, the couple will become the first Rwandan saints. The couple is known for their humanitarian efforts and their work with the Emmanuel Community, which is promoting their story. Cyprien studied at a Catholic seminary as a young man. However, he was scandalized by some of the behavior of the seminarians there and discouraged by encountering anti-Catholic philosophers. He left the seminary and fell away from the Catholic faith, going on to establish a successful career working for the Rwandan government to prese...
