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The year that was, and here we go again…..
Happy Friday friends, I hope you are keeping Christmas well. When Pope Francis announced at the Angelus this week that pope emeritus Benedict XVI is seriously ill, I was halfway through packing a bag to fly to Rome before my wife reminded me that (i) Benedict might appreciate my prayers more than my preemptive travel plans for his funeral and (ii) we were due that afternoon at some friends’ house for lunch. Following those reminders, I am praying, as we all are, for the Lord to give Benedict serenity and joyful anticipation as he approaches the end of his days on earth. And, whenever the Lord does call the pope emeritus home, JD and I will head to Rome, to chronicle for Pillar readers what will be an historical event. — If you’ve been reading The Pillar for a while, you know that good cove...
Sunday is the Octave Day of Christmas — and the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God…
User’s Guide to the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God Sunday, Jan. 1, is the Octave Day of Christmas, Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. Mass readings: Numbers 6:22-27; Psalm 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8; Galatians 4:4-7; Luke 2:16-21. This feast day, of Jan. 1, is a very complex tapestry, both culturally and liturgically. It is the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, but we also recognize the Octave of Christmas, the Circumcision of the Lord and the Holy Name of Jesus. Perhaps we can use the second reading by St. Paul to the Galatians as a way to weave through some of the many details. We can look at it in three parts. The Chronology of Our Celebration The text from St. Paul’s Letter to the Galatians says, “When the fullness of time had come …” Most peop...
The death of Benedict XVI marks the passing of a ‘Pope of Ironies’…
Pope Benedict XVI, a gifted intellectual who aspired to be a teaching pope but who saw his papacy sometimes capsized by managerial crises, and who became the first pope to resign in almost 600 years, died Dec. 31 at the age of 95, after his successor, Pope Francis, had announced his final illness to the world the previous Wednesday. Benedict XVI spent his final years in retirement on Vatican grounds, where he remained largely true to a vow delivered when he announced his resignation in 2013 to be “hidden from the world.” The Vatican has announced that Benedict’s body will be placed in St. Peter’s Basilica beginning the morning of Jan. 2 for the faithful to pay their respects. It will mark the first time a public farewell has been staged for an emeritus pope rather than one who died in offi...
Video: Boeing 747 at 35,000 feet overtakes a Boeing 737 at 37,000 feet…
[embedded content] This video was shot in 2011 by Captain Sreekumar from the cockpit of a Boeing 777 flying at 33,000 feet over Baghdad, Iraq. Join Our Telegram Group : Salvation & Prosperity
Does God want you to move to a pro-life state?
Q. My home state of Minnesota is setting itself up to be an abortion destination or safe haven. Taxpayers pay for something like half of the surgical abortions here. What is my family to do when living in a state that promotes opposing views on an issue such as this? On one hand, it seems that we can stay and push back against it by voting, writing our representative, praying, etc. On the other, we can move to a state that is better at supporting our beliefs. What is a good Catholic to do in this situation? — Tony, Minnesota A. This is a question of personal vocation. Does Jesus want me to relocate? That might sound like a spiritually highfalutin question, but it is actually the most basic question a Christian can ask: What is God’s will for my life? I’m not talking about priestly or relig...
Apostolic Letter ‘Totum Amoris Est’ — On the Fourth Centenary of the Death of St. Francis de Sales…
APOSTOLIC LETTER TOTUM AMORIS EST OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS ON THE FOURTH CENTENARY OF THE DEATH OF SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES “EVERYTHING PERTAINS TO LOVE”.[1] These words summarize the spiritual legacy left to us by Saint Francis de Sales, who died four centuries ago, on 28 December 1622, in Lyon. Slightly more than fifty years of age, he had been the “exiled” Bishop and Prince of Geneva for some two decades, and had come to Lyon on what was to be his last diplomatic mission. The Duke of Savoy had asked him to accompany Cardinal Maurice of Savoy to Avignon, where they were to pay homage to the young King Louis XIII, then returning to Paris through the Rhône valley following a victorious military campaign in the south of France. Exhausted and in poor health, Francis had undertaken the j...
Holy Innocents, Young Martyrs, Pray For Us!…
For the first time in our world’s history, with the feast of the Holy Innocents, the lives of babies were celebrated simply for their existence. “When Herod realized that he had been deceived by the magi, he became furious. He ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had ascertained from the magi. Then was fulfilled what had been said through Jeremiah the prophet: A voice was heard in Ramah, sobbing and loud lamentation; Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be consoled, since they were no more.’” (Matthew 2:16-18) The Feast of the Holy Innocents feels jarring in the midst of the joys of the Christmas Octave, beginning with the Birth of Christ and ending with the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God....
The truly devout life of St. Francis de Sales, who died 400 years ago today…
Exactly 400 years ago today, St. Francis de Sales ended his days in the same way he had lived most of them — having labored to his very last breath for the salvation of souls and the call for everyone to be saints. The future doctor of the Church and long-time bishop of Geneva had been on the road to Lyons in his capacity as an adviser to Duke Charles Emmanuel I of Savoy and his family during the duke’s Christmas tour of the massive Duchy of Savoy, stretching across whole parts of southeastern France, western Italy and southwestern Switzerland. Exhausted and increasingly ill from the travels and ceaseless toil, de Sales stopped at the convent of the Visitation Sisters at Lyons and there he saw for the last time his beloved spiritual friend, St. Jane de Chantal, whom he ha...
‘Descent Into Hell’: As Jesuits and Vatican Do Damage Control, Former Loyola Community Sister Speaks Out on Rupnik Allegations…
An alleged victim of Slovenian Jesuit artist Fr. Marko Ivan Rupnik detailed on Sunday the sexual, psychological, and spiritual abuse she said she suffered as a religious sister, in a new interview with Italian media. Allegations against the Jesuit priest have become a point of scandal in the Church, after Rupnik was accused of serially abusing Slovenian consecrated women in the 1980s and 1990s. The allegations were sent to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith in 2021, but have not resulted in canonical prosecution — with Society of Jesus officials saying they were informed that Rupnik would not be canonically prosecuted for the alleged abuse, owing to the canonical statute of limitations. That claim has sparked controversy in the Church, with journalists and victims’ advocates askin...
Your Nativity Set is a miniature replica of the Catholic Church…
It is a nearly universal practice among Catholics to have a nativity set in our homes and surely in our parishes. Not only does the nativity set remind us of the birth of Christ, it is also a miniature replica of the Church. In the scene we see God (Jesus) and man, saints (Jesus Mary and Joseph) and sinners (all the rest), the rich (the Magi) and the poor, (Mary Joseph, Jesus and the shepherds). We see the learned (the Magi) and the simple (the shepherds). There are Jews and Gentiles since the Magi are Gentiles and the rest are Jews. In this midst of this diverse scene, Jesus is found! While it may seem “institutional” to ponder the Church on Christmas Day, please realize that it is not. The Church is not an institution, the Church is the Body of Christ; He the Head of the Body, the ...
St. John, Apostle and Evangelist, Pray For Us!…
Having authored the “Saints and Art” series for more than a year, I would be remiss if I omitted my own patron, St. John the Evangelist. Traditionally regarded as the author of the Fourth Gospel, of three epistles (1 John is the First Reading for most days in Christmastide) and the Book of Revelation, he is generally deemed the younger son of Zebedee and Salome and the younger brother of the Apostle James the Greater. Tradition, indeed, treats him as the youngest of the Apostles. He is also the “Beloved Apostle,” Jesus’ favorite, the only one not to desert him during his Passion and Death, the one to whom he entrusts his Mother. James and John are called “sons of thunder,” which says something both about their supernatural zeal and natural temperaments: they’re the ones who suggest Jesus r...
Cardinal De Donatis just released a peculiar statement about Jesuit Fr. Marko Rupnik that raises several questions while answering very few…..
A screen grab shows Jesuit Father Marko Rupnik, an artist and theologian, giving a Lenten meditation from the Clementine Hall at the Vatican in this March 6, 2020, file photo. Father Rupnik, whose mosaics decorate chapels in the Vatican, all over Europe, in the United States and Australia, is under restricted ministry after being accused of abusing adult nuns in Slovenia. (CNS photo) The Diocese of Rome has issued its own statement regarding Fr. Marko Ivan Rupnik, SJ, the world-famous Jesuit artist-priest accused of serial sexual, psychological, and spiritual abuse of at least nine women over a period of several years. CWR has its translation of the statement in English, below, but it is unlikely to satisfy anyone and in fact raises several questions while answering very few. Rupnik was qu...
