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The Need For “Verticality” In The Sacred Liturgy

February 6, 2020 Frontpage Comments Off on The Need For “Verticality” In The Sacred Liturgy

By JAMES MONTI In recent years there has been a renaissance in the understanding and appreciation of the importance of facing “ad orientem” in the sacred liturgy, from scholarly studies of its history and theological significance to forthright initiatives for its reimplementation by courageous pastors such as Robert Cardinal Sarah. The powerful symbolism of “directionality” has likewise been discussed in addressing the problem of an excessive modern emphasis upon the “horizontal” dimension of our faith at the expense of its even more important “vertical” dimension. What perhaps has not been looked at so closely is how in the sacred liturgy the vertical dimension of the Catholic faith has been manifested in so many different ways through words, actions, and sacred…Continue Reading

How Left-Wing Agendas… Killed U.S. Sports And Unborn Babies

February 5, 2020 Frontpage Comments Off on How Left-Wing Agendas… Killed U.S. Sports And Unborn Babies

By REY FLORES (Editor’s Note: Fr. Kevin M. Cusick’s column will appear again in this space next week.) + + + I know many of you won’t like this, but quite frankly I don’t care. Anyone who knows me knows that I hate football. I find it to be the most tedious and boring game ever, next to soccer and golf. I pretty much despise any and all organized professional and collegiate sports. Karl Marx once called religion the opiate of the masses. Well, in my opinion, today’s corporate sports industry is the mind-numbing crack of the masses. I couldn’t think of a worst waste of time, especially on Sundays when people should be going to Holy Mass and spending…Continue Reading

Death Of Kobe Bryant And Daughter… A Tragedy From A Familiar Setting Leaves More Powerful Feeling

February 4, 2020 Frontpage Comments Off on Death Of Kobe Bryant And Daughter… A Tragedy From A Familiar Setting Leaves More Powerful Feeling

By DEXTER DUGGAN PHOENIX — Actually having been at a certain location can make a subsequent news event there all the more vivid. During my one and only visit to Rome, for instance, I went to the roof of St. Peter’s Basilica, looking down into the Square, then climbed the stairs to the top of the dome. When I sometimes hear of pilgrims there now, or a Mass inside that huge church, it means more. So I was struck when news reports said that retired basketball luminary Kobe Bryant, 41, and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, were at Our Lady Queen of Angels Church in Newport Beach, Calif., for 7 a.m. Sunday Mass and Communion shortly before they and seven other…Continue Reading

Suicide Is Painless…?

February 3, 2020 Frontpage Comments Off on Suicide Is Painless…?

By DEACON MIKE MANNO, JD Most of us remember M*A*S*H, the popular television show running from 1972 to 1983. But I wonder who remembers its theme song, Suicide is Painless. Its message, in a single verse: “That suicide is painless; It brings on many changes; And I can take or leave it if I please.” We’re back in that season now. Legislatures across the nation reconvened last month, which means that the architects of death are ready to battle in state capitols and courthouses for the “right” to terminate the lives of their citizens, and death-supporting politicians are readying to take that message — artfully disguising the hideous reality that suicide can be very painful — to the voters. We’ve…Continue Reading

After Nearly Half A Century… The Pro-Life Cause Gets ‘Tremendously Important” Recognition

February 2, 2020 Frontpage Comments Off on After Nearly Half A Century… The Pro-Life Cause Gets ‘Tremendously Important” Recognition

By DEXTER DUGGAN This was a day that early leaders of the pro-life movement never lived to see while on the face of this Earth, although they may have read the news in The Celestial Chronicle while romping on the clouds. The president of the United States actually came out, stood in solidarity with, and spoke directly to hundreds of thousands of pro-lifers massed for the annual March for Life in January 2020 in Washington, D.C. Other presidents, all Republicans, who had proclaimed their pro-life sympathies had never managed to do what Donald Trump accomplished by appearing before a delighted horde. Instead, at best, they stayed in the White House and spoke over a remote connection, as if pro-lifers were some sort…Continue Reading

In Washington, Some Things Never Change

February 1, 2020 Frontpage Comments Off on In Washington, Some Things Never Change

By CHRISTOPHER MANION In the mid-1980s, Ambassador Lew Tambs approached one of Washington’s premier talent agencies to scope out the possibilities of a speaking tour. Washington was full of such businesses. They sent prominent speakers to corporate meetings, conventions, and, of course, hundreds of college campuses nationwide. Frankly, there were few folks more interesting than Tambs available for the agency’s talent roster. He had been Reagan’s ambassador to Colombia in the early ’80s, in the middle of the war being waged by the leftist drug-running revolutionary group known as FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia) against the Colombian government. Tambs then served in Costa Rica, a hub of drug and terrorist intrigue nestled between Nicaragua, run by the Sandinista Communists,…Continue Reading

Death, #KobeBryant, And You

January 31, 2020 Frontpage Comments Off on Death, #KobeBryant, And You

By FR. JOHN T. ZUHLSDORF (Editor’s Note: Fr. John T. Zuhlsdorf posted the following on his January 26, 2020 blog, at wdtprs.com, and it is reprinted here with permission.) + + + You will hear a great deal in the next few days about the early death of basketball star Kobe Bryant, who seems to have been a practicing Catholic. It might even bump some impeachment coverage off the waves. A death like this is very sad. We should say a prayer for him and his closest. His death will seem sadder to many because of his fame. You are no less valuable to God, no less desired by Him for Heaven than the late Mr. Bryant. Sudden death happens.…Continue Reading

They’ve Got Every Reason To… Are Chinese Communists Lying About Number Of Babies Born?

January 30, 2020 Frontpage Comments Off on They’ve Got Every Reason To… Are Chinese Communists Lying About Number Of Babies Born?

By STEVEN MOSHER (Editor’s Note: This commentary first appeared in LifeSiteNews on January 22. Steven Mosher is president of the Population Research Institute.) + + + (LifeSiteNews) — China’s National Bureau of Statistics just announced that 14.65 million babies were born in China last year. It also claimed that China’s population continued to grow, reaching 1.4 billion by the end of 2019, up from 1.39 billion the year before. Both claims are probably false. The real number of births is lower, probably much lower. As for the population of the most populous country on Earth, it has not only stopped growing, but may actually be shrinking. So why is the Communist Party insisting on inflating the numbers? Because to do…Continue Reading

The Liberal Mind: Its Genesis And Propensities

January 29, 2020 Frontpage Comments Off on The Liberal Mind: Its Genesis And Propensities

By JUDE DOUGHERTY Foe of the inherited, symbolized by crown and miter, the liberal, although politely agnostic with respect to the existence of God, is a practical atheist hostile to religion and to religious education. Knowingly or not, he is likely to subscribe to a social determinism with allegiance to Emil Durkheim, if not Marx, and to a psychological determinism, notably advanced by Sigmund Freud. The liberal dogmas to which he subscribes have been translated into an educational philosophy by John Dewey and installed as official ideology of the secular state school. The liberal mind does not hold itself accountable to a natural order, let alone to a divinely established plan governing nature and human nature. Lacking a sense of…Continue Reading

What Is The Holy Eucharist?

January 28, 2020 Frontpage Comments Off on What Is The Holy Eucharist?

BY JOESIXPACK One day a messenger came into the court of King St. Louis of France all out of breath from excitement. He exclaimed, “Your Majesty, hurry to the church! A great miracle is taking place!” “What kind of miracle?” asked the saintly king. “A great miracle! A priest is saying Holy Mass, and after the consecration, instead of a Host, there is visible on the altar Jesus Christ Himself. Hurry before it disappears!” The king remained quiet, which greatly surprised the messenger. “Well, isn’t Your Majesty coming?” asked the messenger. “No!” replied the king. “Let them who have any doubt about the Real Presence of our Lord in the Eucharist go and see. As for me, even if I…Continue Reading