Tuesday 23rd April 2024

Home » Our Catholic Faith » Recent Articles:

The Sacrament Of Holy Orders… Women Priests — Why Not?

November 4, 2018 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on The Sacrament Of Holy Orders… Women Priests — Why Not?

By RAYMOND DE SOUZA, KM Part 3 Here we enter a specifically controversial issue, which has become the topic of conversation, argument, and heated debate in some trendy Church circles: the ordination of women to the priesthood. Since shortly after Vatican II, some say that, guided by the “Spirit of the Council” — whatever that may mean — it is unjust that a sacrament be denied to women, who compose more than half of Catholic congregations in general. Therefore, some ask for, and some others demand, the ordaining of women. Some feel that it is “machismo,” a discrimination against women, that does not allow to be ordained to the priesthood. Some Protestant denominations have their women “priests” and “bishops,” and…Continue Reading

Virtues Related To Temperance

November 3, 2018 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Virtues Related To Temperance

By DON FIER “We may fail in our duty either because of the hardships and sacrifices we encounter,” asserts Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, OCD, “or because of the allurements of pleasure” (Divine Intimacy [DInt], p. 886). Such is the distinction between assistance provided by the virtues of fortitude and temperance as articulated by one of the outstanding Discalced Carmelite authors and lecturers of the twentieth century. For just as fortitude assists us in overcoming arduous difficulties in living the Christian life, temperance moderates the inordinate desire for sensible pleasure that is part and parcel of our human condition due to the sin of our first parents. Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ, provides a crisp characterization of temperance which…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

November 2, 2018 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Q. When I pray, sometimes during Mass, or when reading Scripture, or saying the rosary, I am plagued with unholy, impure thoughts directed toward holy persons or objects. I don’t know why I have these thoughts, but I do not want them. What is the answer to my problem? — Name and State Withheld. A. A priest we know recently gave a talk to young adults about overcoming impure thoughts while praying. Here are his comments: Regarding distractions in prayer, the Catechism says that “the habitual difficulty in prayer is distraction” (n. 2729). How easy it is for any of us to be saying our prayers, or reading Sacred Scripture or another spiritual book, and then to realize our minds…Continue Reading

St. John Paul II: “Be Not Afraid” 40th Anniversary Of Homily To Inaugurate Election As Pope

October 31, 2018 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on St. John Paul II: “Be Not Afraid” 40th Anniversary Of Homily To Inaugurate Election As Pope

By JIM FAIR VATICAN CITY (ZENIT) — “Brothers and sisters, do not be afraid to welcome Christ and accept His power. Help the Pope and all those who wish to serve Christ and with Christ’s power to serve the human person and the whole of mankind. Do not be afraid. Open wide the doors for Christ. To His saving power open the boundaries of states, economic and political systems, the vast fields of culture, civilization, and development. Do not be afraid. Christ knows ‘what is in man.’ He alone knows it.” These were words of St. John Paul II that we would hear many times during his long and remarkable pontificate. But he spoke them for the first time as…Continue Reading

The Sacrifice Of Jesus Is Eternal

October 30, 2018 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on The Sacrifice Of Jesus Is Eternal

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time (YR B) Readings: Deut 2:2-6 Heb. 7:23-28 Mark 12:28b-34 In the Gospel reading today our Lord is asked which commandment in the Law is first, meaning the greatest or the most important. Our Lord answers in the way any good Jewish person would by reciting the Shema Israel that we hear in the first reading: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God the Lord alone! Therefore, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. I say any good Jewish person would answer this question the same way because God specifically instructed the people of Israel to fasten…Continue Reading

A Leaven In The World … Youth Synod Operates In Artificial Vacuum

October 29, 2018 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on A Leaven In The World … Youth Synod Operates In Artificial Vacuum

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK Reporting on the Youth Synod in Rome followed a predictable path but did not, for all that, eliminate signs of hope. There was bad news with outworn and disproven modernizing tactics pulled out of cold storage for airing once again in the somewhat free-floating search for relevance. The guitar Masses of the sixties which still exist in some holdout corners of the Church among the ever-hopeful gray set are a case in point. The parents always decide what the kids want with surprisingly little discussion on the matter. Like a new pet that everybody forgets about I’ve been through the reliving of this scenario. The crushing fundraising required to buy a program levied by self-supporting…Continue Reading

The Sacrament Of Holy Orders… The Rite Of Ordination To The Episcopate

October 28, 2018 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on The Sacrament Of Holy Orders… The Rite Of Ordination To The Episcopate

By RAYMOND DE SOUZA, KM Part 2 A bishop is a successor of the apostles, of those men who followed Jesus to the end, and began the spreading of the Gospel through the Church founded by the same Master. Some bishops, like most of the apostles, sacrificed their lives for the success of their mission. Others, like Peter, denied it but converted in the end. Others, thankfully in very small numbers, followed Judas and did harm to the Church they were supposed to and expected to defend. Later in this series, we will investigate this painful issue, since of late there have been many scandals perpetrated by bishops. The fact is that no one may consecrate a bishop without a…Continue Reading

The Cardinal Virtues — Temperance

October 27, 2018 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on The Cardinal Virtues — Temperance

By DON FIER The cardinal virtue that has been our topic of consideration for the past two weeks, fortitude, assists us in regulating our fears. “It assures stability and constancy in doing what is good even in the face of difficulties,” explains Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ. “The virtue of fortitude enables us to resist fear, even the fear of death, and to suffer everything in the defense of the practice of the faith” (The Faith, p. 162). The verse from Sacred Scripture with which the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) concludes its paragraph on fortitude should engender in us great confidence: “In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

October 26, 2018 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Editor’s Note: In a recent column in the Sunday bulletin of the Parish of St. Michael in New York City, Fr. George Rutler expressed his concern about the “mixture of calculation and callowness in the provisional agreement between the Holy See and Communist China, recognizing the primacy of the Pope, but at the price of an unclear arrangement giving the government a role in the appointment of bishops.” He said that “it was my privilege to know Cardinal Ignatius Kung Pin-Mei of Shanghai, who endured thirty years in prison, and Archbishop Dominic Tang Yee-Ming of Canton, who was imprisoned for twenty-two years, seven of them in solitary confinement. The 87-year-old Cardinal Archbishop of Hong Kong, Joseph Zen, sees a betrayal…Continue Reading

At Ninth Circuit Court… Little Sisters Defend Their Supreme Court Victory

October 24, 2018 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on At Ninth Circuit Court… Little Sisters Defend Their Supreme Court Victory

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Little Sisters of the Poor were in federal court October 19 defending themselves from a new lawsuit by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who is attempting to strip the nuns of their religious exemption to the HHS mandate. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit heard oral arguments in State of California v. Little Sisters of the Poor and will decide if the order of Catholic nuns can continue caring for the elderly poor without violating their Catholic faith. Last October, as directed by the Supreme Court in Zubik v. Burwell, HHS issued a new regulation giving religious nonprofits, including the Little Sisters of the Poor, legal protection from having to provide services such…Continue Reading