fbpx

Where Peter Is

Do not be disturbed, have no fear

A reflection on the readings for June 25, 2023 — The 12th Sunday of Ordinary Time  Are you ever afraid or disturbed, maybe even frequently? In preparing for this homily, I came across a beautiful quote from Blessed Clelia Merloni, the foundress of the Congregation of the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of...

Vatican investigates controversial Texas Bishop

Might the Bishop Joseph Strickland era soon be over in Tyler? Reports of an apostolic visitation in Strickland’s East Texas diocese were reported by Church Militant just before noon Saturday and by LifeSiteNews in late afternoon. The LifeSite article referenced a video on YouTube featuring Catholic speaker Jesse Romero, LifeSite founder John-Henry Westen,...

Which Pope said this?

They insolently slander the Church and falsely accuse it of error, and their shamelessness should be deplored even more. They claim that the Church, by ordering annual confession, allowing indulgences as an added condition of fulfilling confession, and permitting private Eucharist and daily works of piety, has weakened that salutary tradition and subtracted...

Mother Mary Lange declared Venerable by Pope Francis

Nate Tinner-Williams has the scoop at Black Catholic Messenger: Pope Francis has declared as venerable Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange, the Cuban-born foundress of the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the first Black Catholic religious order in the United States. Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, published decrees on Thursday morning affirming the “heroic...

Pride Month Shenanigans

The month of June in American Catholicism these days is always a hoot and a half. Engaged couples often schedule their weddings for late spring or early summer, families with young children have them suddenly at home for summer vacation, lots of people go on pilgrimages to religious sites in the US and...

Is the Holy Spirit the protagonist of the Synod?

Late last week, in response to Archbishop Christophe Pierre’s address to the US bishops during their Spring assembly, Pillar editor Ed Condon was compelled to write not one, but two articles expressing his frustration with the nuncio’s address. The first appeared in an “analysis” article that questioned whether “Pierre’s synodality” has a future...

Absorbed

Today I have found myself absorbed in reading two new documents from the Vatican. The first is a new Apostolic Letter by Pope Francis about Blaise Pascal, released yesterday on the 400th birthday of the French mathematician, physicist, and philosopher. Entitled “THE GRANDEUR AND MISERY OF MAN“ (a title that Catholic musician Matt...

For a more Sentimental Church

“They were men of genius, but they had no perception of what is just and lawful in music; raging like Bacchanals and possessed with inordinate delights-mingling lamentations with hymns, and paeans with dithyrambs; imitating the sounds of the flute on the lyre, and making one general confusion; ignorantly affirming that music has no...

On eagles’ wings

A reflection on the Readings for June 18, 2023, the Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time In the first reading today, God tells Moses, “You have seen for yourselves how I treated the Egyptians and how I bore you up on eagles’ wings and brought you here to myself.” It is one of two...

Which Pope said this?

Let no one take from you the glory of that rectitude in doctrine and fidelity in obedience due to the Vicar of Christ; among your ranks, let there be no room for that “free examination” more fitting to the heterodox mentality than to the pride of the Christian, and according to which no...

Pope’s health | Pierre v USCCB | Vatican on web trolls

  This week, Dominic and I give an update on Pope Francis’s health and his audience and travel schedule. Next, we discuss the message that the US papal nuncio, Archbishop Christophe Pierre, delivered to the US bishops gathered in Orlando this week. Finally, we touch on some of the highlights of the recent...

Nuncio warns US bishops against Eucharist without mission

In an emphatic speech to the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) this morning in Orlando, Archbishop Christophe Pierre, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, implored US bishops to revisit their understanding of the synodal path and the role of the Eucharist in evangelization. Against the backdrop of the ongoing synodal process initiated...