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From the Grand Canyon to Yellowstone, here are 5 classic “parkitecture” gems you need to see for yourself…
Part of the appeal of visiting state and national parks is the immediate—and sometimes drastic—change of scenery they provide as you make your way onto park property and past the welcome sign. In some cases, there’s a particular rock formation, striking waterfall, or rare landscape found within the park that draws tourists from around the world. For other parks, the appeal is simply the chance to be surrounded by nature and reap its benefits while strolling on well-maintained trails. But unless you’re in need of a restroom, you probably don’t deliberately seek out the manmade structures found in parks. In fact, you may not have even noticed them in the first place, as they seem to blend in with their surroundings—architecturally camouflaged. As it turns out, that is usually by design—speci...
‘You will be shepherds like him’: Pope Francis ordains nine new priests in St. Peter’s Basilica…
Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, the Vicar of Rome, concelebrated the Mass at the Altar of the Confession with the pope, as did the superiors of the seminaries where the candidates trained. / Vatican Media After the homily, the ordinands approached the pope one by one. They knelt before him, placing their hands between his as he asked them: “Do you promise to me and my successors filial respect and obedience?” After they answered in the affirmative, he said: “May God who began his work in you bring it to completion.” Then, as a group, the candidates prostrated themselves before the altar, as the choir sang the litany of saints. The nine men again approached the pope individually and he laid his hands on top of their heads, ordaining them priests. The new priests were given stoles and chasubles....
It’s the end of the world as we know it, and Gwyneth Paltrow wants to sell you something…
Happy Friday friends, Quick Links On Thursday, we reported that Cardinal Cupich of Chicago wrote to Denver’s Archbishop Samuel Aquila last week to express “a number of concerns” with an essay Aquila wrote in America magazine on Eucharistic coherence last week. Apparently after he received the cardinal’s letter, Aquila wrote a second essay explaining his explanation of the Church’s sacramental teaching, and noting that a bishop had written to him, but the archbishop did not indicate who his correspondent was, and did not comment on our look into the matter. With the USCCB set to debate a proposed document on Eucharistic coherence in June, the Cupich-Aquila exchange may prove an interesting glimpse of what’s to come. Share — We also reported on the coronavirus situation at Franciscan U...
Bishop Stika of Knoxville, Tennessee, facing likely ‘Vos estis’ Vatican investigation…
The Vatican has received multiple allegations of administrative misconduct against Bishop Richard Stika of Knoxville, and is expected to authorize an investigation under the terms of Vos estis lux mundi, The Pillar has learned. Bishop Richard Stika. Credit: JWoganDOK/wikimedia. CC BY SA 4.0 Complaints filed against the bishop allege that Stika impeded or restricted investigations into accusations of serial sexual misconduct by a seminarian who was living in his home, according to multiple sources in both the United States and Rome. But Stika told The Pillar Thursday that he has acted properly, and is satisfied with the diocese’s handling of a series of misconduct reports against the seminarian. In February, the seminarian was dismissed from seminary studies at an institution outside ...
Treasure hunter finds long-rumored $46,000 hidden in cashbox beneath floorboards of Massachusetts family’s home …
[embedded content] Keith Wille, a self-described treasure hunter and metal “detectorist,” has a motto: “You lost something. I find it.” And that’s exactly what he did for one woman in Western Massachusetts who called him about trying to locate a cashbox potentially missing beneath the floorboards of the attic in her family home. The treasure hunt wound up being the best of 2021 so far, according to Wille, whose operations are based in Connecticut. “One question I get all the time is how many treasures do you think are out there?,” Wille said at the opening of the episode of his show, “Rediscover Lost,” posted to YouTube on Wednesday. “I think there are countless treasures still out there, and if it’s there, I’ll find it.” The treasure hunt in Western Massachusetts was the product of decade...
Medieval pandemic cures that were … medieval…
Illustration from “Herbarium.” Rome, 1481. Rare Book and Special Collections Division. This intriguing look into the medical practices of Europe some 600 years ago was written by Andrew Gaudio, a reference librarian in the Researcher and Reference Services Division. As the world grapples with containing the COVID-19 pandemic with a range of vaccines, each with varying rates of effectiveness, it’s worth remembering that cure-alls for deadly pandemics have often proven to be more of a mirage than a reality. The Library’s collection of medical texts from the ravages of the bubonic plague in 14th -century Europe, known as the Black Death for the color of the swollen lymph glands it caused, are an uneasy reminder of this, showing that the best practices of the era would horrify us today. Many o...
A Former Muslim watches an old film about Muhammad with new eyes — and finds that it’s not the greatest story ever told…
I was at the house of a Secular Franciscan brother. We’d just finished watching an episode of the YouTube series The Chosen on his television. Our conversation steered so that the topic of Islam was raised. “If you want a better understanding of a Muslim’s perspective,” I told him, “then you really need to see a film called The Message.” He picked the remote up from the arm of his couch and began searching on YouTube. “Who’s Grandmaster Flash?” he asked. The Message had indeed shown up on his YouTube search, both the film I’d mentioned to him as well as the official music video of the rap classic. I gave my friend a brief explanation of who Grandmaster Flash was (this brother is in his 80s), and after carefully consideration as to whether he preferred to learn more about pioneering r...
Pope Francis declares Margaret of Castello, a blind 14th-century lay Dominican, through rarely-used “equipollent canonization” process…
To thank her neighbors for raising her, she opened a small school, where she taught children the Psalms, which she had learned by heart, and instructed them in the Catholic faith. She died in 1320, at the age of 33, and was buried inside the church, where her tomb quickly became associated with miracles. Pope Paul V declared her Blessed by equivalent beatification in 1609. Candidates for equipollent canonization must meet three criteria. They must be the subject of a long-standing cult. They should have a solid and enduring reputation for virtue. They must also have a long association with miracles. While there were few equipollent canonizations in the 20th century, Benedict XVI declared Hildegard of Bingen a saint via the procedure in 2012. Pope Francis has used the process relatively fre...
9 lessons about how to defeat assisted suicide in your state…
Drawing on these insights, advocates for life have halted assisted suicide for nine consecutive years in Connecticut. We just defeated assisted suicide again in Connecticut. Other states, like New Mexico, have not been as fortunate. But here in Connecticut, we have crushed it nine years in a row. Why? What makes Connecticut different? And what lessons can be learned here for the fight in other states? To be sure, every state is different. Some may have it easier than we do in Connecticut. Others may have it tougher. Nevertheless, nearly a decade’s worth of experience on this issue has provided us with useful insights for the rest of the country, including some new insights from this year’s battle. Here are nine: First, do not give up. Do not intimidated. Do not let them get inside yo...
The inexpressible sadness of Christian failure…
By Dr. Jeff Mirus ( bio – articles – email ) | Apr 23, 2021 I suppose we have all awakened on a spiritually foggy morning and wondered what’s the use. Compared to the better olden days, during which Christ appeared to have triumphed throughout the West and the Church made a good stab at evangelizing the world, we seem so utterly fruitless. Every day now, for a full lifetime and more, each step appears to be a step backwards, and each triumph a grace of suffering only. Sometimes it seems that, one after another, each new hope has left Him and fled. Writers like to remind us that it is always darkest before the dawn, but do we have any reason to expect the dawn? If this seems hopeless, I want to emphasize that it represents our foggiest of moods. Even in the worst of times, the e...
Bishop Bätzing opens path to Protestants receiving Catholic Communion in Germany…
In his latest challenge to Rome’s authority, the president of the German bishops conference is publicly rejecting recent Vatican instructions regarding this issue. In his latest salvo to challenge Rome, the president of Germany’s bishops’ conference has said that any German Protestant who wishes to receive Holy Communion in a Catholic Church on Kirchentag — a day of unity in May for German Protestants — may do so. “Anyone who is Protestant and attends Communion can receive Communion,” Bishop Georg Bätzing told an online discussion in Frankfurt on Thursday about the May 15 event that usually brings thousands of Christians to the city for ecclesial events. “We want to take steps towards unity,” he said, adding that “whoever believes in conscience what is celebrated in the other d...
Should Catholics professionally share values the Church rejects?
Q. I work at a public university as the director of a career center and I love my job. I recently created for my students a web portal with a section on 10 recommended professional competencies, among which is compassion. I have been asked to connect my compassion webpage to the university’s new “LGBT Pride Center” to get students to join/support it as an organization that is “compassionate.” As this is a public university, I fear I cannot fend off the requests much longer without repercussions for my job. I want to be compassionate with the LGBT population, as with all people. But I don’t want to wrongly validate their agenda. Would it be wrong for me to link my page in this way? — Kathy A. You face an increasingly common dilemma. Defenders of Christian morals today are not only being ask...
