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We are in lockdown. Supermarket shelves are stripped bare. Flights are grounded. Workers have been laid off; furloughed; transformed into primary school teachers. A Conservative government has nationalised the railways and is paying people not to work. And this is still only week two. In less than a fortnight, Britain has experienced the kind of social and political upheaval that normally only comes when you guillotine some royals, or storm a winter palace. But is this a brief moment of national solidarity, or a ‘new normal’? That all depends on how long the coronavirus crisis lasts. Experts believe a vaccine for Covid-19 (the disease caused by the Sars-CoV-2 virus) is still at least 18 months away, which makes Donald Trump’s promises that the US will “reopen”...

“Courage: in all circumstances the ability to judge rightly about the nature and extent of dangers.”“For instance, when Homer makes Odysseus strike himself on the chest, and ‘call his heart to order,’ saying: ‘Prudence my heart, you have put up with fouler than this.’” Plato, Republic Fear is an essential human emotion, so it surely must have its proper place. Yet there are different kinds of fear, or ways of fearing, and it is hard to know how to fear well. It is especially difficult to think clearly about this when much of the fear that we experience probably needs to be set aside, or in any case transformed or redirected. How do we recognize the difference between good fear and bad fear? This is a great question. The first step is to know that there is a difference. Often, the admonitio...

As Yale’s Carlos Eire masterfully demonstrated in Reformations: The Early Modern World, 1450-1650, there was no one “Protestant Reformation” but rather several religious movements, often in disagreement with each other, that shattered western Christendom in the 16th century. Still, Martin Luther’s protest at Wittenberg on October 31, 1517, has long been taken as the starting gun for “the Reformation,” and various Protestant denominations celebrate “Reformation Day” on the Sunday closest to October 31. So “Wittenberg” can serve as a synonym for other efforts to distance Christian communities from the authority of Rome and the papacy. Which suggests that what’s afoot in German Catholicism today is “Wittenberg” in synodal slow motion. In this instance, there is no nailing of contested proposi...

The Angel Gabriel appeared to Mary to announce the birth of Christ. Here are 8 things to know and share about the event and how we celebrate it. We are celebrating the solemnity of the Annunciation. This day celebrates the appearance of the Angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary to announce of the birth of Christ. What’s going on and why is this day important? Here are 8 things you need to know. 1. What does the word “Annunciation” mean? It’s derived from the same root as the word “announce.” Gabriel is announcing the birth of Christ in advance. “Annunciation” is simply an old-fashioned way of saying “announcement.” Although we are most familiar with this term being applied to the announcement of Christ’s birth, it can be applied in other ways also. For example, ...

There is a desperate need for new medicines to treat Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus that has shut down much of the world. A vaccine to prevent infection entirely would be even better. Drug companies and medical researchers are making heroic efforts to deliver new medicines. Several dozen are now in development, and you can see highlights of those efforts here. Studies so far are mostly small and lack real control groups, making it hard for researchers to be sure of their conclusions.  Doctors on the front lines have been trying older medicines, such as the malaria drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, in the hopes that they will prove effective. Large studies of such medicines are already in process. advertisement But the relentless pace of the virus’ spread...

Today’s Guest Contributor is Father Andrew Hart, priest and friend of Bellator Society.  He answers some questions for us about the special new Plenary Indulgence granted by the Holy See this week in response to the Covid-19 health crisis. ____________________________ Question:  What is an indulgence? Father:  An indulgence is the remission of the temporal punishment for sins whose guilt is already forgiven. The Catholic Church teaches that every sin produces two effects in our souls. First, we incur the guilt of sin, which in the case of grave or mortal sin destroys supernatural charity within us and deprives us of communion with God, or eternal life with him. Second, we incur temporal punishment, a spiritual debt to God. The Catechism describes this as “an unhealthy a...

I stumbled across the pilgrim plague survivor, St. Rocco, when I was 15. It was my first time in Europe, visiting my aunt who was studying at the University of Montpellier (founded c. 1292) in southern France. I hadn’t heard of Rocco before, but I found myself praying in his hometown church, the very first medieval church I visited. Church of St. Rocco, Montpellier St. Rocco (Roche or Rock) lived in the mid 14th century during the outbreak of the Black Death. He was orphaned as a young man and renounced his inheritance before his uncle, the lord of Montpellier. He set out as a pilgrim for Rome, but stopped to serve plague victims along the way, healing the sick through prayer. After visiting the Eternal City and an audience with the pope, he came down with the plague himself, the reason mo...

Father Shaun Whittington celebrates Mass on March 15 under a tent in the parking lot of St. Anthony Parish in Morris. The Mass was broadcast over a low-power FM transmitter to parishioners joining him in prayer in their cars. The pastor of St. Anthony Parish as well as St. Nicholas Parish in Ripley County, Father Whittington offered parking lot Masses in his faith communities to make the Eucharist available to his parishioners in a way that would prevent the spread of the coronavirus. (Submitted photo) By Sean Gallagher As a pastor, Father Shaun Whittington wanted to keep the Eucharist available to the people he ministers to at St. Anthony Parish in Morris and St. Nicholas Parish in Ripley County in the midst of the growing national outbreak of the coronavirus, also known as COVID-19. But ...

At the press conference on Friday announcing the New York shutdown, Governor Andrew Cuomo said, “I want to be able to say to the people of New York—I did everything we could do. And if everything we do saves just one life, I’ll be happy.”  This statement reflects a disastrous sentimentalism. Everything for the sake of physical life? What about justice, beauty, and honor? There are many things more precious than life. And yet we have been whipped into such a frenzy in New York that most family members will forgo visiting sick parents. Clergy won’t visit the sick or console those who mourn. The Eucharist itself is now subordinated to the false god of “saving lives.” Truth is another casualty of this sentimentalism. The media bombard the public with warnings about the danger posed by the...

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Latin, as the primary historical language of erudition and learning in the West, is the sole gateway into the halls of Western thought and humanistic learning. Without the use of this language, we can hardly know ourselves, and certainly not the road that brought us to the modern day. “To read Latin and Greek in their original, is a sublime luxury. I thank on my knees him who directed my early education for having put into my possession this rich source of delight; and would not exchange it for anything which I could then have acquired, and have not since acquired.”​ – Thomas Jefferson I The value of Latin hardly needs be argued to anyone who reads here, but I will nevertheless restate what may be obvious: Latin, as the primary historical language of erudition and learning in the West, is ...

Reading the Bible (CC0 Joel Muniz on Unsplash) With the inability to go to Sunday Mass for many families, many parishes are offering live streaming of Mass. I think this a good option for many. However, for some families doing the liturgy of the Word together may be a better option. As I could not find a clear document online for this, I threw one together based on the Celebrations of the Word and Communion without a priest. I think for most printing out THIS PDF would be ideal but I paste it all below as well. This was prepared for times when families gather at home to pray a paraliturgy when attending Mass is impossible. Preparation Before you lead the celebration, you should prepare the following: Set the Lectionary for the readings of the day. See: usccb.org/bible/readings/ Get the rig...