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2 things to do when shepherds don’t shepherd…
by Carrie Gress A couple of years ago, my husband and I had dinner with a wonderful bishop at a trendy restaurant in Washington, D.C. It was the first time I recall actually sensing just how out of favor bishops are in an urban setting. Between then-Cardinal McCarrick in the news and the seeming triumph of the LGTB movement, my husband and I confided to each other afterward that it was the first time we could have imagined a restaurant doing something unsavory to our food because of our guest in black with a pectoral cross. There was a time, not too long ago, when it was a big deal for a cardinal or bishop to appear on TV, bringing the moral authority of the Church into our living rooms, like Archbishop Fulton Sheen. Those days are now gone, even though internet streaming makes it pos...
Today is the birthday of Nicholas Black Elk, “Holy Man of the Lakota”…
PINE RIDGE, S.D. — Basil Brave Heart remembers the day his father pointed him to the great Lakota holy man and Catholic catechist, Nicholas Black Elk, whose cause for canonization was formally opened Saturday by the Diocese of Rapid City, South Dakota. At a potato farm in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, Brave Heart’s family was working on one row that seemed to stretch as far as the eye could see. Black Elk and his family were working on the next row and had stopped to quench their thirst. “He said to me in Lakota, ‘The man that’s standing over there: That’s Black Elk,’” Brave Heart told the Register. Black Elk made a deep impression on Brave Heart as a young Lakota boy. He watched as the Oglala Lakota “holy man” and devout Catholic worked with his family. Brave Heart recalled he was a “very humble...
Catholic diocese prays for the dead and injured after car plows into pedestrians in Trier, Germany…
CNA Staff, Dec 1, 2020 / 12:00 pm MT (CNA).- A Catholic diocese said Tuesday that it was praying for the dead and injured after a car plowed into pedestrians in the city of Trier in southwest Germany. CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner, reported that the Diocese of Trier wrote on its Twitter account Dec. 1: “We pray for the victims and all those affected.” Local police announced shortly after 2 p.m. that a car had hit and injured several people in a pedestrian zone in downtown Trier. In a later update, they said that they had arrested a 51-year-old man from the local area and secured a vehicle. Roger Lewentz, interior minister of the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate, confirmed that four people were killed and 15 injured. Media reported that one of the dead was ...
Getting beyond politics on Brooklyn’s fight for religious freedom…
ROME – Probably it should come as no surprise that reaction to Wednesday’s US Supreme Court decision granting an injunction against limits on public worship imposed by New York State was immediately swept up into the broader political fulcrum of 2020. After all, the governor who imposed those limits, Andrew Cuomo, is a liberal Catholic; the bishop who challenged them, Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn, is a member of Opus Dei and conventionally seen as a conservative. Moreover, the deciding vote in the court’s 5-4 decision was cast by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a Trump appointee, meaning one’s perception of the case often is tied to perceptions of Trump himself and his legacy. As if that weren’t enough, the whole question of anti-Covid measures in America has become deeply ideological, with ma...
The Lord Jesus warns that many (possibly even most) are not headed for Heaven. You must be prepared for death and judgment…..
The Sunday Gospel announces a critical Advent theme: While I want to comment primarily on the Reading from Isaiah, the Gospel admonition surely deserves some attention as well. Too many today hold the unbiblical idea that most if not all people are going to Heaven. For weeks now we have been reading parables in the Gospels in which the Lord Jesus warns that many (possibly even most) are not headed for Heaven. There are the wise and the foolish virgins, the industrious and the lazy servants, and the sheep and the goats. Today’s Gospel features those who keep watch and those who do not. Although many prefer to brush aside the teachings on judgment or the teaching that many will be lost, Jesus says, “Watch!” to all of us. In other words, we should watch out; we should be serious, sober, and p...
The way things are going, I’m considering the Lakskhi Option…
After a week in the priest’s cabin at the Norbertine Monastery of Canonesses in California I can be excused for wishing to hunker down even more than usual. I’m one of those introverts who, when faced with pandemic lockdown, muttered, “So things are going to change?” The priest’s cabin at the nun’s Bethlehem Priory was one thing, but the way things are going I’m considering the Lakskhi Option. This article from the Daily Mail in London is written at about a first grade level (and that’s an insult to our first graders) but the pictures are good. It features Maxime–the hermit of Lakskhi in Georgia (that would be the country not the state where Flannery O’Connor lived). Maxime has resurrected the ancient tradition of the stylites by living on a 130 ft high limestone monolith. The si...
Video: Pope Francis and newly-created cardinals pay visit to Benedict XVI…
📹VIDEO | Pope Francis and new cardinals visited Benedict XVI at the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican today after a cardinal-creating consistory in St Peter’s Basilica. Images: Vatican Media pic.twitter.com/jefsYlmlmK — EWTN Vatican (@EWTNVatican) November 28, 2020 Join Our Telegram Group : Salvation & Prosperity
Forget Becciu, Boff and Sachs — the Vatican should just hire this 8-year-old economic genius instead…..
[embedded content] Kyren Gibson teaches his son Kyng all about finance and how “not to be a sucker with his money.” Join Our Telegram Group : Salvation & Prosperity
French Catholic bishops win appeal against ‘disproportionate’ 30-person Mass limit…
Rome Newsroom, Nov 30, 2020 / 10:00 am MT (CNA).- The French Council of State has ruled that a proposed 30-person limit on Masses and other forms of public worship is a “disproportionate” government measure and must be modified by Dec. 2. The country’s Catholic bishops welcomed the decision Nov. 29, saying in a statement that “reason has been recognized.” The bishops’ conference had submitted the urgent legal appeal with the administrative court two days prior, declaring that they had “a duty to ensure freedom of worship in our country.” With its ruling, France’s highest administrative court gave Prime Minister Jean Castex three days to propose an alternative protocol to prevent the spread of the coronavirus at places of worship. The prime minister met with a delegation...
Father Vincent Lampert: An exorcism is a prayer to God…
“An exorcism at its very core is a prayer. It’s a prayer directed to God, who is asked to bring relief into the life of the person. In extreme cases, it’s a command given to a demon, commanding it to depart based on the power of the authority of J… “An exorcism at its very core is a prayer. It’s a prayer directed to God, who is asked to bring relief into the life of the person. In extreme cases, it’s a command given to a demon, commanding it to depart based on the power of the authority of Jesus Christ. But again, it’s all about bringing healing into the life of people who are suffering,” said Fr. Vincent P. Lampert, a priest in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, an exorcist, and author of the recent book, “Exorcism: The Battle Against Satan an...
Thank God for your life, even if it stinks…
“I should thank God for my creation if I knew I was a lost soul,” G. K. Chesterton’s grandfather once declared. He tells the story in his Autobiography. Chesterton quoted his grandfather with approval. When I first read this, as someone fairly new to serious Christianity, I thought it was the craziest thing I’d ever heard. It sounded like the pious stuff religious people said because it sounded good. No one actually meant it. My reaction was: Why thank God for a few years on this earth if you’re going to spend eternity in Hell? I wouldn’t. I’d be hugely ticked off. The Point Only years later did I see the point. Genesis tells us that God called the creation good. That included man. Good is good. It’s not “good unless” or “good if.” When God Himself says it’s good, it’s good, period. Having...
Analysis: Will Cardinal Gregory’s “dialogue” with Biden undermine the USCCB?
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 25, 2020 / 11:30 am MT (CNA).- Archbishop Wilton Gregory announced in an interview yesterday that he will not deny Holy Communion to Joe Biden, and committed himself to working with the president-elect’s administration. But the soon-to-be cardinal’s pledge could put him in tension with the work of the U.S. bishops’ conference, as it tries to speak to the White House with a unified voice. Last week, USCCB president Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles announced the formation of a special committee, tasked with coordinating the U.S. bishops’ response to, and work with, the incoming Biden administration. Recognizing the unique “challenges” presented by a Catholic president pledged to several policies in opposition to Church teaching, the conference under G...
