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When St. John Paul II was beatified in 2011, his feast day was fixed for Oct. 22 — the date of the inaugural “Be Not Afraid!” homily — rather than the customary date of death, April 2. The death anniversary would too often fall during Holy Week or the Easter Octave, and thus could not be celebrated.  This year St. John Paul II’s death anniversary falls on Good Friday, which invites us to remember the final Good Friday of his earthly life.  In 2005, Good Friday fell on March 25, as it did in the first Holy Week of John Paul’s life, 1921. It fell on that day again during the Jubilee of Mercy declared by Pope Francis in 2016. It happens rarely, but when it does it is the perfect alignment.  The early Christians held that the first Good Friday was on March 25, the same date as t...

Jesus was arrested late Thursday evening. The Scriptures recount, They took Jesus to the high priest, and all the chief priests, the elders and the teachers of the law came together (Mark 14:53). According to Mark’s chronology there was a sham of a trial, based on false evidence and distortions of Jesus’ teachings. Now the chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were seeking testimony against Jesus to put Him to death, but they did not find any. For many bore false witness against Jesus, but their testimony was inconsistent. Then some men stood up and testified falsely against Him: “We heard Him say, ‘I will destroy this man-made temple, and in three days I will build another that is made without hands.’” But even their testimony was inconsistent. So the high priest stood up before them and ...

We are in the midst of our annual celebrations of Jesus’ death and resurrection. We all know that this happened in Jerusalem in the first century. That separates Jesus from mythical pagan deities, who were supposed to live in places or times that none could specify. Just how specific can we be with the death of Jesus? Can we determine the exact day? We can. And here’s how… Clue #1: The High Priesthood of Caiaphas The gospels indicate that Jesus was crucified at the instigation of the first century high priest named Caiaphas (Matthew 26:3-4, John 11:49-53). We know from other sources that he served as high priest from A.D. 18 to 36, so that puts Jesus’ death in that time frame. But we can get more specific. Much more. Clue #2: The Governorship of Pontius Pilate A...

“I need someone who will sacrifice and lay down life for me.” At least I think that’s how he said it. I do not remember hearing “her,” although I certainly know that’s what he meant. He does not know how to live without a wife — his wife of almost six decades died a few years ago, somewhat suddenly. “She went into the hospital in April and never came out. She died in there.” Michael had approached me as I was leaving church. It was a beautiful spring day and he was looking for something. He thinks it is a wife he wants, but he is asking other questions, too. A baptized Catholic, he goes to Mass every six months or so. It was Lent, but he had no idea, as he confessed to me. When I told him, he seemed pleasantly surprised — a reminder of his more practicing days and the faith of his late mot...

The story of the “Grand Inquisitor” in The Brothers Karamazov provides a key to understanding what is happening today in Germany. Since 2018, a group of German bishops have been frantically attempting to revamp Christian morality, having as a key objective the blessing of homosexual marriage. More than a century ago, Fyodor Dostoevsky foresaw and described the spectacle now unfolding in some circles of the Catholic Church. His brilliant story of the “Grand Inquisitor” in The Brothers Karamazov provides a key to understanding what is happening now. The story of the Grand Inquisitor is one of the high points of world literature. Set in Seville in the 15th century, the author imagines that Jesus has returned to earth to take a close look at the Spanish Inquisition — an episode in history that...

During one of his radio talks in 1943 on his series “Crisis in Christendom,” Archbishop Fulton Sheen saw not only what was happening in his times, but was prophetic about our times. He warned that “the beginnings of a new era are often marked by a general barbarization, when the whole historical order is dissolved … when Truth in some nations is nailed to a Cross, and in others rejected in a stroke of false broadmindedness.” The same year, in Philosophies at War, he referred to the Rome’s decline. “The difference between that crisis and ours is that in the case of Rome a material civilization was collapsing and a spiritual about to emerge,” Sheen explained. “In the present instance, it is the spiritual which is being submerged and the material which is in the ascendency.” What’s more, Shee...

Some workplaces encourage employees to donate blood as an act of charity. But six workers at MSCHF, a quirky company based in Brooklyn that’s known for products like toaster-shaped bath bombs and rubber-chicken bongs, offered their blood for a new line of shoes. “‘Sacrificed’ is just a cool word — it was just the MSCHF team that gave the blood,” one of MSCHF’s founders, Daniel Greenberg, said in an email on Sunday. (Asked who collected the blood, Mr. Greenberg replied, “Uhhhhhh yeah hahah not medical professionals we did it ourselves lol.”) A drop of blood is mixed in with ink that fills an air bubble in the sneaker, a Nike Air Max 97, Mr. Greenberg said. “Not much blood, actually” was collected, he said, adding, “About six of us on the team gave.” MSCHF started selling 666 pairs of the sh...

Amazon banned Ryan Anderson’s When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment in February. I’m not just happy to teach a banned book. I’m elated — and grateful.  As to being grateful, I am thankful to be at Franciscan University, where professors can actually teach truths now considered heretical by “cancel culture.” Why, just this semester I was able to pass on to our students the astounding fact that there are only two sexes (male and female), a fact with considerable support from our biology department. And that brings me to the book that I’ve been teaching (in Human Life Studies) since it was published in 2018 — Ryan Anderson’s When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment. (That link, by the way, takes you to Barnes & Noble, not the eminently exe...

It is Tuesday of Holy Week. Jesus likely arises early, as did all the ancients. Days both ended and started early, at dusk and dawn, prior to the advent of electric lighting. They leave Bethany and head back to Jerusalem. Perhaps a few converts can be made before the transcendent events of the Passion begin. It is only a couple of miles, mostly downhill, to Jerusalem. As they come down the steep hill they see the fig tree Jesus had cursed the day before. As they were walking back in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered from its roots. Peter remembered it and said, “Look, Rabbi! The fig tree You cursed has withered.” (Mk 11:20-21). Jesus had cursed the fig tree, a metaphor for the ancient chosen people, for lack of faith, justice, and charity, the expected fruits in its branches. (Th...

When I first heard the story of a silly nun who’d gotten herself ordained as a Protestant priestess while teaching theology at a major Catholic University, I was not surprised. Nor was I surprised to learn of the subsequent lawsuit she filed to prevent her being fired. What did surprise me, however, was the fact that it was thrown out, thus enabling the institution to go ahead with her dismissal. The good guys do sometimes win. But in a sane world, why should anyone be surprised when, boundaries of permissible belief and behavior having been set, those who violate them get canned? Because we live in strange times, that’s why. Times in which faithlessness, not fidelity, gets rewarded.  Leaving aside the nonsense of this or that chuckleheaded nun, what remains essential to the maintenan...

It is inadequate to describe Mel Gibson’s masterpiece, “The Passion of the Christ,” as a film; it is much more than that. It would be more accurate to describe it as a moving icon. It calls us to prayer and leads us to the contemplation that takes us into the presence of Christ Himself. It’s been seventeen years since the premiere of Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ, and it’s been almost as long since I’d last seen it. There was a period of several years after its release that my wife and I had made a point of watching it during Holy Week. This came to an end after our daughter became old enough to be affected by what she saw on the screen, the gruesome violence of Mr. Gibson’s presentation of the Passion being unsuitable for young eyes. For years, therefore, our copy of the DVD gathered...

[embedded content] I was at an event in New Jersey and a woman came up to me afterward. She had a baby in her arms. She said, “Chris, this baby’s because of your trip to New Jersey last year.” And I said, “What?’ And she said, “I had an abortion in high school and I was convinced that I was damned, and after I heard the message of the Gospel and the Father’s love for me.” Join Our Telegram Group : Salvation & Prosperity