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Vatican congregation issues new norms for ecclesiastical institutions of higher learning…
Archbishop Zani said that the instructions aimed to promote a missionary spirit among ecclesiastical higher education institutions. VATICAN CITY — The Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic Education issued Wednesday three new instructions on ecclesiastical institutions of higher education. The congregation issued the new norms concerning the affiliation, aggregation, and incorporation of such institutions Dec. 9, in Italian, French, Spanish and Polish. Archbishop Vincenzo Zani, the congregation’s secretary, told Vatican News that the instructions sought to strengthen the worldwide network of ecclesiastical institutions. The instructions state that ecclesiastical institutions of higher education must apply to the congregation when seeking a change regarding affiliation, aggregatio...
8 ways to gain a plenary indulgence in the Year of St. Joseph…
This is amazing news! 🙌 Pope Francis declared the new liturgical year as the Year of St. Joseph. The year begins Dec. 8, on the 150th anniversary of Pope Bl. Pius IX’s declaration of St. Joseph as patron of the Catholic Church. It is also the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. Pope Francis establishes this year “in which every faithful following [St. Joseph’s] example can daily strengthen their life of faith in the full fulfillment of God’s will.” “All the faithful will thus have the opportunity to commit themselves, with prayers and good works, to obtain with the help of Saint Joseph, head of the celestial Family of Nazareth, comfort and relief from the serious human and social tribulations that today grip the contemporary world,” the decree states. The decree comes after Fr....
In memory of Walter Hooper (1931-2020), secretary and literary executor of C.S. Lewis — and a man who had nearly 50 godchildren…
And I smile to think How God’s completenessFlowed round my incompletenessRound my restlessnessHis Rest. – Walter’s Desired Epitaph When I was a junior in undergraduate, I went off to Oxford for a term abroad. It was early January and the August or September prior I had begun catechesis to enter the Catholic Church. Now, having travelled in the middle of it, I was keen to find a good priest to prepare me. The day after I arrived, I happened to pass by the Oxford Oratory, where, as a small sign on its gates boasts, St John Henry Newman had preached, Gerard Manley Hopkins was a priest, and J.R.R. Tolkien a regular. Another sign listed Mass at 10.00a on Saturday, so I planned to go the next day. After that morning Mass, I looked around for a man in a collar and saw one talking...
Pope’s Wednesday audience: ‘Even death trembles when a Christian prays’…
VATICAN CITY — Prayer is so powerful that “even death trembles when a Christian prays,” Pope Francis said at the general audience Wednesday. In his address Dec. 9, the pope said that this was the case because Christ triumphed over death at the resurrection. “Even death trembles when a Christian prays, because it knows that everyone who prays has an ally stronger than it has: the Risen Lord,” he said. “Death has already been defeated in Christ, and the day will come when everything will be final, and it will no longer scorn our life and our happiness.” In his audience address, the pope continued his cycle of catechesis on prayer, which he began in May. He dedicated the address to the prayer of petition, which the Catechism of the Catholic Church recognizes as one of the principal form...
Of preludes, postludes, and appreciation for sacred liturgy…
In the first video below there is a scene, not exceedingly rare today, of a piano placed in an airport or shopping mall. A person approaches the piano and begins to play, meekly at first, but then displaying virtuoso talent. Soon a crowd assembles in appreciation of the remarkable gift before them, both the man and the music. Sadly, I have not noticed a similar appreciation expressed by Catholics at Sunday Mass, weddings, or other similar moments when virtuosity was displayed by the church organist. For example, a few years ago I was at a large Mass of the faithful at a large church in Washington, D.C. where very talented organists are known to play. For the postlude, the organist played the Symphonia from Cantata 29 by J.S. Bach, a phenomenal and difficult piece (see the second video also...
Why would CBS News say that Archbishop Wilton Gregory was the first ‘black’ cardinal?
It was the kind of newsroom error that lights up Twitter, while also inspiring more than a few folks in cyberspace to say to themselves, “I need to let GetReligion know about this!” I am referring to the headline at CBSNews.com that currently proclaims: “First Black American Cardinal said he hopes to begin on ‘positive’ note with Biden after contentious relationship with Trump.” When that story went online, it said that Washington, D.C., Archbishop Wilton Gregory was the first “Black Cardinal” — period. See the difference? Other news organizations made the same error. At Axios, for example, the headline eventually morphed to become: “Wilton Gregory becomes first Black cardinal in U.S.” Note that the URL for that story still contains this: “www.axios.com/washington-archbishop-first-black-ca...
Bishops who say they’ll give Communion to Biden are giving scandal to their brother bishops, to priests, and to the Catholic faithful…
Readers may recall that during the 2004 presidential campaign, Sen. John Kerry led the Democratic ticket. As a Catholic, Kerry held certain policy views that conflicted with the moral beliefs of his Church. This led to internal tensions among U.S. bishops about how to handle the matter of Holy Communion for Catholic public officials who publicly and persistently diverge from Catholic teaching on issues like abortion. At the time, Washington’s then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, along with Pittsburgh’s Bishop Donald Wuerl, had very different views from my own regarding how to proceed. I believed then, and believe now, that publicly denying Communion to public officials is not always wise or the best pastoral course. Doing so in a loud and forceful manner may cause more harm t...
St. Joseph, proclaimed Patron of the Universal Church 150 years ago, is needed today more than ever…
Dec. 8, 2020, marks the 150th anniversary of Blessed Pius IX proclaiming St. Joseph as “Patron of the Universal Church.” The timing was providential, for several reasons. The date also celebrated the 16th anniversary of Pius IX’s proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. With the declaration on that Dec. 8, Pope Pius IX called the day “sacred to the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God and Spouse of the Most Chaste Joseph.” Now, 150 years later, Father Matthew Spencer, provincial superior of the Oblates of St. Joseph, finds the title “perfectly apt and very important to our times.” He makes strong connections between today’s society and the situation during the time of the proclamation. “The time when Pius IX lived was facing a lot of darkness, and the Church was facing a lot of p...
Apostolic Letter ‘Patris Corde’ on the 150th Anniversary of the proclamation of Saint Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church…
APOSTOLIC LETTER PATRIS CORDE OF THE HOLY FATHERFRANCIS ON THE 150th ANNIVERSARY OF THE PROCLAMATION OF SAINT JOSEPHAS PATRON OF THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH WITH A FATHER’S HEART: that is how Joseph loved Jesus, whom all four Gospels refer to as “the son of Joseph”.[1] Matthew and Luke, the two Evangelists who speak most of Joseph, tell us very little, yet enough for us to appreciate what sort of father he was, and the mission entrusted to him by God’s providence. We know that Joseph was a lowly carpenter (cf. Mt 13:55), betrothed to Mary (cf. Mt 1:18; Lk 1:27). He was a “just man” (Mt 1:19), ever ready to carry out God’s will as revealed to him in the Law (cf. Lk 2:22.27.39) and through four dreams (cf. Mt 1:20; 2:13.19.22). After a long and tiring journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, he beheld t...
Pope makes surprise announcement on Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, proclaims Year of St. Joseph …
Pope Francis announced a Year of St. Joseph Tuesday in honor of the 150th anniversary of the saint’s proclamation as patron of the universal Church. The year begins Dec. 8, 2020, and concludes on Dec. 8, 2021, according to a decree authorized by the pope. The decree said that Pope Francis had established a Year of St. Joseph so that “every member of the faithful, following his example, may strengthen their life of faith daily in the complete fulfillment of God’s will.” It added that the pope had granted special indulgences to mark the year. The Dec. 8 decree was issued by the Apostolic Penitentiary, the dicastery of the Roman Curia that oversees indulgences, and signed by the Major Penitentiary, Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, and the Regent, Msgr. Krzysztof Nykiel. In add...
C.S. Lewis offers some guidance on how to live knowing we are going to die…
You don’t expect an apologist to write much about dying and death. That’s for the evangelist trying to close the sale. But the great apologist C. S. Lewis wrote surprisingly often about the death that awaits us all. Lewis wrote so much about death because he believed so strongly in the reality of Heaven and Hell, and wanted his readers to get to the first and not the second. Our final end is the real point of almost all his writing. The pandemic may make us think about a little more about our inevitable death than we usually do. And therefore about how we should live to be prepared for it. Here’s where Lewis is so helpful. He saw clearly how the end of life tells us how to live. From This Life to the Next This is the key to Lewis’s writing on the subject: He believed Heaven to be more real...
Pope to visit Iraq in March, ending COVID-19 travel hiatus…
ROME – After a year of no travel due to the coronavirus pandemic, Pope Francis will make a three-day visit to Iraq in March – a trip he had hoped to take last year to support the nation’s small Christian minority, but which was deemed impossible due to security concerns and COVID-19. In a Dec. 7 statement, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said that the pope, at the invitation of the Republic of Iraq and the local Catholic Church, will make an Apostolic Journey to the country from March 5-8, 2021, with several stops along the way. According to the Vatican, Francis will visit the Iraqi capital of Baghdad; the plain of Ur, traditionally held to be the birthplace of the biblical figure of Abraham; the city of Erbil, where most Christians fled during the ISIS takeover of the Nineveh Plain in 2014...
