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Rejoice, love the mothers, and hate the meatballs…
Rejoice, love the mothers, and hate the meatballs Skip to content Happy Friday friends, This newsletter is coming to you from somewhere over Missouri. I’m on my way to Denver this morning. It’s coming up to the end of the year, so JD and I have to be in the same place at the same time to sign some things at the bank, check our maths on the end-of-year numbers before turning them over shamefacedly to our accountant, and basically have our annual conversation about The Pillar’s financial viability heading into the New Year. Assuming we haven’t made a catastrophic mistake, I’m quietly confident The Pillar will still be standing in 2024. That’s cause to rejoice all on its own. Though, if I am being honest, things are still some way off from being as rosy as a Gaudete Sunday chasuble. It’s no s...
A Random Catholic Blog Just Became The Most-Interacted With Site On Facebook…
—by Adam Bumas We’ve been using Newswhip’s real-time tracking data to analyze the top posts, links, and publishers on Facebook since April. It’s usually a mix of known publishers, some viral videos, and the occasional Taylor Swift post. That is, until November, when all 10 of the most popular links on Facebook were from a blog called Catholic Fundamentalism. Catholic Fundamentalism first came to our attention in September, when the single most popular link on the platform for that month was “Do Catholics find ‘Life’ by being pleasing to God? The Psalms tell us! #17.” The page linking the post had 409,000 total interactions in September. For scale, the Associated Press obituary for Jimmy Buffet had 356,000 interactions over the same time. It was unusual, sure, but random sites s...
Vatican Shutting Down Loyola Community Co-Founded by Accused Abuser Father Marko Rupnik…
Since then, the Vatican has announced that Rupnik will face a canonical process over the abuse allegations after Pope Francis decided to waive the statute of limitations on the claims. According to one alleged Italian victim, Rupnik guided her to enter the Loyola Community in Slovenia, demanding “absolute availability and obedience,” isolating her from her friends and family, at a time when he was physically and spiritually abusing her. “Father Marko had openly started to duress other sisters in the community with the usual psycho-spiritual strategies he had already used with me, with the goal of having sex with as many women as possible,” the former Loyola sister told the Italian media outlet “Domani” in December 2022. “At the beginning of the 1990s there were 41 sisters and, from what I ...
Why Has Pope Francis Never Visited His Homeland?
Pope Francis has demonstrated real physical courage on his papal visits. Next year he will have something of a new challenge when visiting his homeland, where a moral and political confrontation awaits him. Courage will be needed for a visit that is likely, but not yet scheduled. The inauguration of Argentina’s new president on Sunday has set the stage for something unusual in this pontificate, a visit to a hostile political environment. Javier Milei, who won a landslide victory last month, insulted the Holy Father liberally during his campaign, calling him an “imbecile” and a “filthy leftist” who “has an affinity for murderous communists.” That Milei himself is Catholic makes his disrespect for the Holy Father all the more offensive, not merely a matter of bad manners. Early in his pontif...
Pope Francis’ company at St. Mary Major captures contrasts, contradictions of papal history…
ROME – In a new interview released yesterday, Pope Francis revealed his intention to be buried at Rome’s Basilica of St. Mary Major, reflecting his intense personal devotion to Mary and the famed icon of Salus Populi Romani contained in its Borghese chapel. Francis thus will become the sixth pontiff to be interred in the basilica, joining Pius V, Sixtus V, Paul V, Clement IX and Clement XIII, all of whom reigned between the late 16th and late 18th centuries. The fact that Francis’s mortal remains will be interred along with these five predecessors offers a presumably inadvertant, but nonetheless unmistakable, reminder of the contrasts and contradictions of papal history through the ages. To begin with the most obvious irony, Pope Pius V, who ruled the church from 1566 to 1572, was the pont...
Pope Francis Recognizes Miracle Attributed to Sister Ana De Jesús, St. Teresa of Ávila’s Spiritual Daughter…
By Courtney Mares Vatican City, Dec 14, 2023 / 10:55 am More than 400 years after her death, Pope Francis has recognized a miracle attributed to Carmelite Sister Ana de Jesús, a spiritual daughter of St. Teresa of Ávila and a friend to St. John of the Cross. In a decree signed on Dec. 14, Pope Francis authorized the beatification of Ana de Lobera y Torres (1545-1621), better known by her religious name Sister Ana de Jesús, who helped to expand the Discalced Carmelites to France and Belgium. Ana was orphaned at the age of 9 and in 1569 in the city of Toledo was introduced to St. Teresa, who saw Ana’s virtues and invited her to join the Carmelites. Ana and Teresa went on to form a strong bond and even shared a cell in the Salamanca monastery while Teresa was writing “The Book of the Foundati...
Vatican Issues Novel Guidelines on Cremation, Says ‘Minimal Part’ of Ashes Can Be Kept in Personal Place in Certain Cases…
“The ashes of the deceased person … come from the material remains that were part of the person’s historical journey — so much so that the Church shows particular care and devotion concerning the relics of the saints,” Fernández added. “This attention and remembrance also leads us to have an attitude of sacred respect toward the ashes of the deceased, which we conserve in a sacred place suitable for prayer, sometimes located near the churches visited by the family and neighbors of the deceased.” The cardinal also said that it is permissible for the commingled ashes of deceased and baptized persons to be set aside in a permanent sacred place if the names of the person are indicated so as to not lose memory of them. In explaining Church regulations for the preservation of cremate...
5 Ways to Signal for Help if You’re Lost in the Wilderness…
I read recently of a hunter in my home state of Kentucky who slipped and fell from a short rock face. As he was falling, his boot got hung in the root of a tree, and he was then hanging upside down. Fortunately, he had a GPS locator beacon attached to him so he could signal for help in the wilderness. He was able to get search and rescue to his exact location quickly enough to save his life. The ability to signal for help can differentiate between a safe return and a dire situation. With countless tales of adventurers like this gentleman being rescued thanks to their knowledge of signaling techniques, it’s crucial to understand the best methods to get noticed when you’re in distress. This guide will delve into five tried-and-tested ways to signal for help in the wilderness. Table of Conten...
Standing fast in our Christmas rituals, though difficult, can make our sufferings more bearable, meaningful, and fruitful…..
*Special Message, followed by Reflection: Please consider contributing today to our Beginning at Home campaign. See below for a video message from Sofia and me, and Click to help us reach our goal, so we can reach more people with LifeCraft! Thank you!* ~ ~ Those who have suffered much—especially in the loss of loved ones—often find that Christmas renews and even intensifies the suffering. The reason for this is plain. Yet, Hilaire Belloc suggests that Christmas rituals done well are precisely what can make our sufferings more bearable, meaningful, and fruitful. This is a bold claim that gives a powerful new perspective on the importance of how we celebrate Christmas. For those tempted to back-off from traditional rituals because of their painful associations, this suggests precisely the o...
A guide to the mainstream media’s failed attempts to report on Pope Francis-era scandals…
Another month, another scandal. That seems to be the case these days with former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden. It’s also the case when we talk about Vatican life in the tense era of Pope Francis. World without end. Amen. The most-recent drama in Rome involves Luca Casarini, who recently took part in the Synod on Synodality as a special nominee of Pope Francis. Here is the key for religion-news consumers: The problem isn’t that the mainstream press has done a poor job covering this case — it’s that mainstream journalists have’t covered it at all. This fits into a recent trend in which important and, for many, troubling stories about Catholic debates, scandals and divisions are simply ignored by leaders in elite newsrooms. The Catholic press, however, has b...
In New Interview, Pope Says He Wants to Be Buried in Rome’s Basilica of St. Mary Major Out of Devotion to Our Lady…
He said that a “place is already prepared” for his burial in one of the oldest and most important Marian shrines in the West. “I want to be buried in St. Mary Major,” Francis said. “Because of my great devotion.” Pope Francis would be the first pope to be buried outside of the Vatican’s grotto crypt in St. Peter’s Basilica in more than a century. (Pope Leo XIII was buried in the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran in 1903.) The last pope to have been buried in St. Mary Major was Clement IX, who died in 1669. He is one of six popes buried in the Marian basilica. Pope Francis has made more than 100 visits to the Basilica of St. Mary Major since becoming pope. He visits the basilica to venerate the icon known as the “Salus Populi Romani” — “Mary, Protection of the Roman People” — before and afte...
Nuestra Señora, the ‘New World’ and the Discipleship of Love…
Nuestra senora, the ‘new world’ and the discipleship of love Skip to content Hey everybody, Today is the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and you’re reading The Tuesday Pillar Post. Our Lady of Guadalupe. From where I stand, there is very little that needs to be said about the Empress of the Americas. She is our queen and our patroness, the Church says, and the Lady who converted a continent, by revealing herself to St. Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, and by giving him roses in winter. Because she is the “Patroness of the Americas,” she’s always been at the center of discussion surrounding the mission of the Church on our American continents —as she was exactly 10 years ago, when bishops, priests, religious, and lay leaders gathered in Mexico City for a conference on Our Lady of Gua...
