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The Pell Verdict: Some Reflections

May 1, 2020 Frontpage Comments Off on The Pell Verdict: Some Reflections

By JOHN YOUNG Interest in the Pell case is worldwide, and I have an added interest because I live in the city of Melbourne where the alleged offenses are supposed to have occurred. Reactions to the unanimous verdict by the Australian High Court to free Cardinal Pell are as one could have predicted. Those who always believed him innocent have rejoiced; those who always thought him guilty have, for the most part, either continued to think so or have refused to concede that they were wrong. Some have taken refuge in the excuse that the High Court found him “not guilty,” but not “innocent.” The fact, of course, is that there is no judicial verdict of innocent: An accused is…Continue Reading

For A New Missionary Age: We Need Saints Like Catherine of Siena

April 30, 2020 Frontpage Comments Off on For A New Missionary Age: We Need Saints Like Catherine of Siena

  By DEACON KEITH FOURNIER In an age collapsing under the weight of sin and wandering aimlessly without a moral compass, we need holy women and men to be raised up to shake the Church and bring conversion to a world waiting to be born again. We need saints. Saints put legs on the Christian faith. Our age is an age with no real heroes. Saints are heroes of the faith and they need to be held up high once again! They inspire us, no matter what our state in life or vocation. They need to be imitated, as they imitated Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 4:16). Saints are a gift for the whole Church. They remind us that the Risen…Continue Reading

Under The Shadow Of Pandemic . . . Speakers Consider Faith, Family, Responsibility

April 30, 2020 Frontpage Comments Off on Under The Shadow Of Pandemic . . . Speakers Consider Faith, Family, Responsibility

By DEXTER DUGGAN PHOENIX — In many ways before Vatican II, people thought the mission of the clergy was to evangelize, but now it’s the mission of every baptized Catholic, a veteran lay evangelist told a morning presentation being livestreamed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. “We really need to be focused on what John Paul II has called a new evangelization,” Bill Marcotte, one of three speakers, told the April 18 morning session of the Institute of Catholic Theology (ICT), based at St. Thomas the Apostle Church here. As the session concluded, ICT director Eric Westby, Ph.D., wryly noted that the pandemic so affected the proceedings, this was “the ICT news hour.” Marcotte is director of evangelization and discipleship at…Continue Reading

Real Men

April 29, 2020 Frontpage Comments Off on Real Men

By JOE SIXPACK As a former Protestant and the son of a real “man’s man,” I grew up with a view of manhood that is, thankfully, very manly. I grew up hunting, fishing, spending a lot of time in the forests where I grew up. The old man taught me to stand up for myself at an early age, but not to be a bully. Indeed, he taught me to have pity for and to defend the “underdog,” as he would call boys he considered weaklings. Consequently, nobody messed with me more than once. Anti-Catholic that my father was, he believed priests simply weren’t “real men.” He believed any man who didn’t marry was…well, you know the kind. An unfortunate…Continue Reading

A Book Review… What Catholic Civil War Experiences Tell Us

April 28, 2020 Frontpage Comments Off on A Book Review… What Catholic Civil War Experiences Tell Us

By PEGGY MOEN Faith and Fury: The Rise of Catholicism During the Civil War by Fr. Charles P. Connor. EWTN Publishing: 2019; 259 pp.; paperback $19.95. Order from Sophia Institute Press at sophiainstitute.com or call 1-800-888-9344. The Civil War might not be much in the news now — at least, not like it was during its centennial from 1961 to 1965 or again in its sesquicentennial from 2011 to 2015. Nonetheless, Fr. Charles P. Connor’s Faith and Fury: The Rise of Catholicism During the Civil War is timely reading, for at least three reasons. First, he shows the depth and the extent of anti-Catholicism in the United States, and how it has always recurred. One example: The trial of Mary…Continue Reading

Allegedly Pointed Gun… Abortionist Requests Another Court Delay

April 27, 2020 Frontpage Comments Off on Allegedly Pointed Gun… Abortionist Requests Another Court Delay

By DEXTER DUGGAN PHOENIX – An allegedly gun-pointing abortionist’s request to have his day in court extended at least 45 days past May 1 was awaiting action as of April 22. Ronald Yunis, MD, previously successfully had his date delayed to May 1, then his attorneys told Maricopa County Superior Court on April 20: “As the court is aware, the parties are in discussions and are actively seeking a pre-idictment (sic) to the case. However, given recent World events, and the collateral consequences of the (corona) virus, the parties have conferred and agreed additional time is needed to finalize these discussions.” Yunis was arrested by Phoenix police on October 18, 2019, briefly jailed and charged with aggravated assault with a…Continue Reading

Are Church Closings Constitutional Or A Power Trip?

April 27, 2020 Frontpage Comments Off on Are Church Closings Constitutional Or A Power Trip?

By DEACON MIKE MANNO, JD Fortunately, unlike some, I am not totally isolated during this pandemic. My wife is working from home, she’s downstairs and I’m upstairs during the day and we meet in the kitchen for lunch; I have a dog that always wants on the other side of the door to the deck, and a cat that drinks my morning coffee when I’m not looking — well, I take that back, she drinks it whether I’m looking or not. My normalcy is now an at-home wife, a dog that hopefully will settle down on the deck and let me work, and a caffeine-buzzed kitten. The 2020 all-American family. I’m lucky. I live in Iowa and our governor, Kim…Continue Reading

Coronavirus Catholic Chronicles… Must Avenging Angels With Flaming Swords Get The Word Out?

April 26, 2020 Frontpage Comments Off on Coronavirus Catholic Chronicles… Must Avenging Angels With Flaming Swords Get The Word Out?

By DEXTER DUGGAN Bad Joey stole cookies again and Mom gives him the latest swat without repeating her lecture about his misbehavior. Does Joey finally take the hint or does he go back to grabbing sweets until Mom delivers an explicit threat that his Father will deal with him? And what if Father, patience at an end, is the creator of all the galaxies in the universe? If the COVID-19 pandemic actually is a warning from God that the bold sins of recent generations finally are starting to be called to account, the warning seems not to have made much of an impression so far. Abortion clinics continue to rip apart babies as the daily routine, and their media cheerleaders…Continue Reading

Why Didn’t Anybody Notice?. . . CNN Admits “Racism” Charge Is A Farce

April 25, 2020 Frontpage Comments Off on Why Didn’t Anybody Notice?. . . CNN Admits “Racism” Charge Is A Farce

By CHRISTOPHER MANION “Trump is Fanning the Flames of White Supremacy and Hatred in Our Country,” Joe Biden tweeted on Divine Mercy Sunday. Not to be outdone, Bernie Sanders called the president “a racist, a sexist, a homophobe, a xenophobe and a religious bigot.” The prestige press is unanimous: Trump is “racist.” Why? He blames China for its coverup of the Wuhan Virus. He imposes a temporary immigration ban. Case closed. Meanwhile, the always entertaining Cong. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) charges that the virus itself causes “straight up racism” because folks now refuse to go to Chinese restaurants. Amidst the changes we’ve experienced during the current unpleasantness, this outworn charade struggles valiantly on. As their forays continue to collapse, the…Continue Reading

Is This The Eve Of Destruction?

April 24, 2020 Frontpage Comments Off on Is This The Eve Of Destruction?

By GEORGE A. KENDALL I’m seeing a lot of discussion now in the faithful Catholic press, including The Wanderer, on whether the coronavirus is divine chastisement. In matters like this we can never be certain, but I cannot help sympathizing with those who argue that it is, if only because the disorder and destructiveness of our civilization so clearly cry out for chastisement. Besides, I am getting feeling that people get when a volcanic eruption or an earthquake is imminent, when rumblings in the earth or the odd behavior of the animals get your attention. There is one clarification I feel the need to make. When God chastises, He doesn’t generally do it by raining fire and brimstone on people,…Continue Reading