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April 29 is the memorial of St. Catherine of Siena. She is a saint, a mystic and a doctor of the Church, as well as a patroness of Italy and of Europe. Who was she, and why is her life so significant? Here are 8 things to know and share… 1. Who is St. Catherine of Siena? In 2010, Pope Benedict gave an audience in which he discussed the basic facts of her life: Born in Siena [Italy] in 1347, into a very large family, she died in Rome in 1380. When Catherine was 16 years old, motivated by a vision of St. Dominic, she entered the Third Order of the Dominicans, the female branch known as the Mantellate. While living at home, she confirmed her vow of virginity made privately when she was still an adolescent and dedicated herself to prayer, penance and works of charity, espe...

A friend recently made a short comment, “Antinomianism is the fashionable heresy today.” I hadn’t seen it before, but he’s right. Antinomianism has been around since the early church battled with the gnostics, but it gained its name in the wake of the rise of Lutheranism. Antinomianism is the heresy that once you are saved you don’t have to bother with the moral laws. You can see how it flourished: If, as the Protestants taught, you were saved by faith through grace alone and not through good works, then one might conclude that good works and morality generally don’t matter. Under the Manicheans and other gnostic sects (and later the Albigensians) the emphasis was not so much on salvation by faith as it was on a belief that the “spiritual” was superior to the physical realm and consequentl...

For over a century, St Louis de Montfort’s masterpiece the Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin remained completely hidden and mysteriously concealed. Although St Louis wrote the book in the early 1700s, it was only in 1842 that the manuscript was unearthed by a librarian at the mother-house of the Montfort Fathers at St. Laurent-sur-Sèvre, France. Was the manuscript discovered by chance or Providence? It seems the latter. St Louis himself foretold that his book would be exposed to vicious attacks and kept hidden by Satan who would try to suppress any means of spreading the ‘true devotion’ to Our Lady. St Louis penned these prophetic words: “I clearly foresee that raging beasts will come in fury to tear to pieces with their diabolical teeth this little book and the one the Holy ...

by Donal Anthony Foley – Gerard van Honthorst The feast of St Joseph the Worker falls on May 1, this Saturday (also a First Saturday), following the Solemnity of St. Joseph, which we celebrated on March 19. This is a relatively modern feast day since it was only instituted in 1955, during the pontificate of Pope Pius XII. The intention was that it should be a Christian alternative to the celebration of what was known as International Worker’s Day. This was originally promoted by the International Labor movement as a celebration of the working classes, and the date was chosen in 1889, in Paris, by the Second or Socialist International, a federation of trade unions and socialist groups, ostensibly with the aim of campaigning for an 8-hour work day. That in itself was a good aim, since excess...

Was St. Joseph old or young? A widower who served more as a guardian for the virginity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or a young, virile husband, who loved her with a virginal love? Such questions are ancient, but have come to the fore during this Year of St. Joseph as study of the saint grows. Most devotional materials today present Joseph as a young man who lived a real, but virginal, marriage with Mary.  As we draw close to the feast of St. Joseph the Worker (May 1), it is noteworthy that the usual arguments for Joseph being young are not related to his capacity to work, but rather the desire for a saint who lived chastity. It is thought that an old Joseph would have found chastity insufficiently challenging to live. That likely says more about our preoccupations than it does about St...

Happy Friday friends, Quick Links Joe Biden has a new bishop. Pope Francis this morning accepted the resignation of Bishop Francis Malooly, 77, of the Diocese of Wilmington. Biden’s new hometown shepherd will be Monsignor William E. Koenig, a priest of the Diocese of Rockville Centre in New York. The president actually has two local ordinaries, as it happens, since he maintains canonical domicile and quasi-domicile in both the Archdiocese of Washington D.C. and in Wilmington. You can expect the media to immediately start asking Msgr. Koenig where he stands on the question of pro-abortion politicians receiving Communion. You can also expect that Rome would never have made the appointment if they didn’t already know the answer, so don’t expect any surprises there.  Share — Bishop Richar...

Modesty is a character strength that often gets a bad wrap. You know the stereotype—the crabby, austere nun covered from head to toe in an over-starched, high-collared habit. While I happen to be a proponent of the more traditional dress for religious sisters, this, however, is not an accurate portrayal of such an important virtue as modesty.  The confusion surrounding the meaning of modesty may come from the fact that many people don’t really know what it is. For the record, it doesn’t just mean a way of dressing for women. It also expresses how anyone, man or woman, carries themselves in their presentation of goodness and beauty. A modest individual is happy to live a life of goodness without drawing attention to him/herself. Now, let’s talk Kardashians… where does one even begin? E...

The pope said that the new law was intended to bring the Holy See and Vatican City State further into line with international best practices on corruption and financial transparency, VATICAN CITY — As part of a sweeping new anti-corruption law, Pope Francis on Thursday declared that officials of the Roman Curia should no longer accept personal gifts with a monetary value over 40 euros (about $50). The new rule appears to be an effort to quash the Vatican “envelope” culture, in which large monetary donations are made to bishops and cardinals working in the Roman Curia.  These gifts have been blamed for contributing to corruption in the Church when they were used between high-level Church officials to seek favors, most notably in cases like that of ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick. Pope F...

Everyone is called to enter the kingdom.[1] The significance of this statement introduces us to the intention God has for his children; the desire to share His love for all eternity. It also proposes whether man ultimately decides to engage God in this journey of faith. God’s divine intention to nourish us in His love is both perpetual and infinite. We encounter this reality in the way He rescues Israel from Egyptian bondage with the apex of this rescue centered on the Passover meal[2] the feast of unleavened bread or the continual nourishment He provides through the manna[3] in the desert for forty years until Israel reached the land of Canaan. A distinction to be made of the Manna from Heaven is that its origin is supernatural. God chose to minister to his people with bread from Heaven. ...

ROME – Pope Francis has signed a new anti-corruption law for the Vatican, which prohibits employees from using tax havens investing in companies that go against Church teaching. “Faithfulness in things of little account is related, according to Scripture, to faithfulness in the important ones,” begins the motu proprio on anti-corruption for members of Vatican management signed by Francis April 26. “Just as being dishonest in things of little importance is related to being dishonest in important matters.” The Holy See adheres to the United Nations Merida Convention against Corruption, and is therefore compelled to conform to the best practices for preventing and combating corruption. To that end, employees at all managerial levels of the Vatican – from cardinals to lay executive personnel –...

By Dr. Jeff Mirus ( bio – articles – email ) | Apr 27, 2021 | In Reviews Deeply committed Catholics have been very concerned about the Church’s response to Covid. Most of us have at least a vague suspicion that something is very wrong when the Church shuts down her sacramental ministry for any reason, especially if she seems to be simply following secular political directives—as if that agenda is not very different from her own. At first this was uncharted territory, so perhaps the initial reaction was confusion. But it was uncharted because the Church as a whole has never in her 2,000 year history restricted her mission so much or so quickly as she did in the year of Our Lord 2020. I don’t mean that the sacraments have never been restricted. This has happened briefly and on a ...

Pope Francis on Saturday declared Margaret of Castello a saint, in a somewhat rare move called an “equipollent canonization.” Here’s what that means: St. Margaret of Castello. public domain. Margaret of Castello Margaret of Castello was an Italian woman in the 13th and 14th centuries, and a member of the Dominican third order.  Her life was extraordinary. She was born blind, with a curvature of the spine so severe it was almost impossible to walk, and with the condition now called dwarfism. Her parents were minor nobles, overly concerned with social status, and they treated Margaret terribly. They were ashamed of her, and told people she had died in childbirth. When Margaret was six, her parents got worried that people would find out about her. So they imprisoned her in a room off the...