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Notre Dame de Paris Returns to Her Cathedral With Thousands of Parisians Walking Her Home…
PARIS (OSV News) — Miraculously missed by burning beams falling from the roof on April 15, 2019, and waiting for five years to make it back to Notre Dame Cathedral, the 14th-century statue of the Virgin of Paris made it back home Nov. 15, accompanied by thousands of Parisians praying, singing and lighting candles as they walked their Virgin to Paris’ most iconic church, restored after the fire. Since the fire, the statue, also referred to as Virgin and Child, or the Virgin of the Pillar, has been housed near the Louvre in the Church of Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois, from where the procession started at 6 p.m. local time. For Auxiliary Bishop Philippe Marsset of Paris, the statue represents “a kind of miracle.” “Many Christians saw the fire as a sign of the purification God was asking his churc...
The Power of Images in an Iconoclast Culture…
“You were without hope in the world.” This is how Paul describes the Ephesian Christians before their conversion, stuck in the darkness of sin and paganism. Idols expressed their hope for material security, embodying their pleasure and pain, hopes and terrors in tangible forms that entangled their souls. Christ brought divine light into a dark world, freeing it from false substitutes and answering humanity’s prayer to look on the face of God: “Your face, Lord, do I seek. Hide not thy face from me” (Ps 27:8-9). Today, we forget this answered prayer, looking away from God and falling into what the Psalmist warns against: “I will not set before my eyes anything that is base” (Ps 101:3). Our image-saturated culture has lost sight of God’s face made visible to us in Christ, groping instead afte...
What’s ahead for pro-lifers with Trump 2.0?
Soon after becoming president, Democrat Jimmy Carter signed the Hyde Amendment into law — barring the use of federal funds for abortions, except in cases of rape or incest, or when the life of the mother is at stake. When the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris administration attempted to kill the Hyde Amendment, a small — but symbolic — group of Democrats appealed to the elderly Carter for help. “We are asking President Jimmy Carter (who signed Hyde into law) to please help us in saving it. We are so grateful for your humanitarian work and for everything you did for women and families in office,” said a tweet posted Monday, March 22, by Democrats for Life of America (DFLA). “America needs you again, Mr. President. Help us save Hyde,” the group added. Battles over the Hyd...
This Sunday, Jesus is revealing the end game of Christianity…
There are 33 years in Jesus’ life and 33 weeks in Ordinary Time in the Church. Soon we will celebrate the Feast of Christ the King, and then the cycle starts over with Advent. But first comes the Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B, the dramatic end of the liturgical year. The Gospel for the day is dire, insisting that the end really is coming, and we should be ready for it. Here are takeaways from the readings from previous This Sunday columns. First: Jesus is revealing the end game of Christianity. In the Gospel Jesus speaks about a tribulation, after which “the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.” But then “the Son of Man” will come “in the clouds with great power a...
Nicaraguan Regime Exiles President of Bishops’ Conference…
Nicaraguan regime exiles president of bishops’ conference Skip to content The president of the Nicaraguan Bishops’ Conference has been exiled by the Nicaraguan regime after he criticized a pro-regime mayor during a recent Mass. Subscribe now Bishop Carlos Herrera, OFM, was exiled to Guatemala on Tuesday. Various local outlets confirmed the news after Herrera disappeared following a meeting with other Nicaraguan bishops in Managua, the country’s capital. Herrera, who leads the Diocese of Jinotega, is the fourth Nicaraguan bishop to be exiled by the Nicaraguan regime. Rolando Álvarez (bishop of Matagalpa and apostolic administrator of Estelí) and Isidoro Mora (bishop of Siuna) were exiled in January 2024 to Rome along with a group of priests. Silvio Báez (auxiliary of Manag...
The confessions of King Charles: Does this shocking letter reveal his hidden rage at the ‘corrupted’ Church of England?
The then Prince of Wales went on to condemn the mega-corporations that fund such experiments, specifically expressing concern over the US giant Monsanto, which produces disease-resistant genetically modified crops. ‘It is money that drives everything and wisdom has been banished in the face of seemingly unstoppable marketing. One is made to feel so powerless when confronted by such vast corporations as Monsanto…’ Later that year, Charles would link his opposition to genetic modification to his deep faith, arguing that ‘genetic modification takes mankind into realms that belong to God, and to God alone’. Poplak, who famously refurbished the interiors at Highgrove House as a wedding gift to Charles and Princess Diana, died in 2005. His treasure trove of royal correspondence was recently auct...
Synodality Requires Conversion of Heart More Than New Structures, US Bishops Say…
Promoting synodality in the United States depends more on a conversion of heart than on the creation of new structures, the U.S. bishops emphasized at their fall assembly in Baltimore. “It’s about cultural change, not necessarily structural change or not necessarily canonical changes, but first and foremost a change in how we can relate one to another and the Body of Christ,” said Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore at a Nov. 13 press conference at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) meeting. The USCCB’s vice president, Archbishop Lori was one of five bishops who had been tapped by the conference to take part in last month’s Synod on Synodality session in Rome, which brought to a close a four-year process initiated by Pope Francis aimed at discerning how to make the Church mor...
Cardinal Becciu Pushes Back Against Vatican Media Editorial…
Cardinal Angelo Becciu, the Vatican cardinal who is appealing his embezzlement conviction last year, has pushed back against recent claims made by the Vatican’s chief editorial director, criticizing his “vaguely moralistic tone” and saying “we are dealing with a criminal trial, not a trial aimed at teaching lessons.” In a commentary published in L’Osservatore Romano and Vatican News Nov. 11, the former deputy Vatican secretary of state said an Oct. 30 editorial by Andrea Tornielli “surprised” him as he had appreciated the “balance and accuracy” of Vatican News during the trial. Tornielli, a top official in the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication, had penned his reaction, published in L’Osservatore Romano and Vatican News, to a Vatican Tribunal’s publication of its reasons for...
Liturgical Conflict Resurfaces in Troubled Indian Syro-Malabar Archdiocese…
KOCHI, India — This month’s delayed priestly ordination of eight deacons of the Ernakulam Archdiocese of the Syro Malabar Church (SMC) has highlighted continuing divisions in the troubled archdiocese, which remains crippled by a bitter liturgical feud that erupted three years ago. The ordination ceremony — which was delayed from Christmas 2023 because of the liturgical dispute — took place at the archdiocese’s minor seminary on Nov. 4, with dozens of police deployed outside. And while more than 200 archdiocesan priests were in attendance, the majority of them boycotted the Mass led by Bishop Bosco Puthur, the administrator of the archdiocese, because of the liturgy he utilized. Alongside of this liturgical dispute, many local clergy and laity have been further incensed over Bishop Pu...
Baltimore, Dr. Barber, and ‘Character Is Conduct’…
Baltimore, Dr. Barber, and ‘character is conduct’ Skip to content Pillar subscribers can listen to this Pillar Post here: The Pillar TL;DR Hey everybody, Greetings from Baltimore, where the fall plenary meeting of the U.S. bishops; conference is in full swing. Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. The bishops have been meeting in committees, and will begin today their public sessions, with a few things of note on the agenda. More on that in a minute. First, let me remind you that The Pillar Podcast will have a LIVE SHOW EXTRAVAGANZA in Washington, DC, on this Thursday, November 14. We will break down the fall meeting of the USCCB, and have a lot of fun, on November 14 at 7pm at the Royal Sands Social Club. —Next, let me tell you about Dr. Gertrude Barber — a holy woman about whom the bisho...
St. Michael Prayer: A Better Translation?
The Romans, as any first-year Latin student can tell you, were in the practice of ending their sentences with verbs. Regina agricolam amat, for example—literally, “The queen the farmer loves.” Unless you are Yoda, however, you would speak this sentence in English this way: “The queen loves the farmer.” (Something tells me this relationship is not going to work out.) In any case, Latin word order often (not always) proceeds this way: subject, object, verb. In English, word order often (not always) proceeds this way: subject, verb, object. Because Latin nouns are declined—that is, they are assigned distinct endings for how they function in a sentence—it is easy to identify the subject and the object. The Church preserves the practice of ending sentences and clauses with the predicate. I...
What happens to God if Marvel chooses to ‘repent’?
If you are into superhero epics — I will confess some interest in Iron Man and Captain America — then you know that the creators (small “c”) of the Marvel Cinematic Universe have been struggling for several years now. Many are convinced that they caught a bad case of what that Elon Musk guy calls the “woke mind virus.” Some critics point to a more specific problem — an obsession with a “strong female character” stereotype that appears to do little to woo females into multiplexes, while infuriating many young males and older superhero fans. Click here for a collection of YouTube discussions of that war. As for me, Rational Sheep readers will not be surprised that I find it interesting that all of these big-screen sermons — built on powers that transcend the ordinary material world — include...
