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Catholic Replies

February 15, 2019 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Editor’s Note: Some words of wisdom from Fr. George Rutler in the parish bulletin of The Church of St. Michael in New York City: “The other day, intemperate journalists accused youths from a Catholic high school in Covington, Ky., of making racial threats against an elderly Native American during the March for Life. Videos proved that there was no truth to it, but a flurry of ‘virtue signaling’ berated the boys without giving them a chance to testify. One might expect that from secular bigots, but not from their own diocese with its knee-jerk condemnation of the youths. Apologies have been coming in, but probably the last to correct themselves will be the epicene Church bureaucrats. “Quickly, The Washington Post…Continue Reading

Cardinal Zen In New Book… Vatican’s China Strategy Was All About Compromise And Surrender

February 13, 2019 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Cardinal Zen In New Book… Vatican’s China Strategy Was All About Compromise And Surrender

  By MAIKE HICKSON Joseph Cardinal Zen, For Love of My People I Will Not Remain Silent, Ignatius Press: 2019, www.ignatius.com; paperback, 153 pages. (LifeSiteNews) — Chinese Cardinal Joseph Zen has strongly criticized in a new book the Vatican’s recent dealings with China, stating that the “strategy was wrong,” adding that it was “all about compromise and surrender.” He has also revealed that the troubling China policy did not start with Pope Francis. In For Love of My People I Will Not Remain Silent released by Ignatius Press on January 25, Cardinal Zen describes in detail the history of the Vatican’s shifting China policy over the course of the last decades. After he praises Jozef Cardinal Tomko, the prefect of…Continue Reading

The Trustworthiness Of God

February 12, 2019 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on The Trustworthiness Of God

by FR. ROBERT ALTIER Sixth Sunday In Ordinary Time (YR C) Readings: Jer. 17:5-8 1 Cor. 15:12, 16-20 Luke 6:17, 20-26 In the first reading today the Prophet Jeremiah declares cursed those who trust in human beings while turning their hearts from the Lord. Blessed, on the other hand, are those who trust in the Lord, whose hope is the Lord. This cuts deeply coming from the prophet, but as we see at the beginning of the reading, this is not the prophet’s mere opinion. Instead, Jeremiah begins with the formula: “Thus says the Lord.” In other words, this is not from Jeremiah; this is from God. We need to be brutally honest with ourselves and ask whether or not…Continue Reading

A Leaven In The World… The Culture Rejects Life And Youth’s Religious Needs

February 11, 2019 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on A Leaven In The World… The Culture Rejects Life And Youth’s Religious Needs

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK Our damaged and selfish society does not consistently advocate for the young and sometimes imperils them, beginning with the right to life from the moment of conception under renewed assault in recent days. We are thanking God, however, that our president “gets it.” On the evening of the State of the Union speech to Congress he hit all the right points relevant to our fight to undo the injustice of Roe v. Wade. Regardless of any other effect, the “bully pulpit” of the presidency exists as a way of communicating to all of the American people together a vision of justice and the common good to which God calls all of us as a nation.…Continue Reading

The Authority Of Bishops . . . The Hierarchy Of Orders In The Catholic Church

February 10, 2019 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on The Authority Of Bishops . . . The Hierarchy Of Orders In The Catholic Church

  By RAYMOND DE SOUZA, KM Part 8 It is a well-known fact that the Church today is going through a crisis, especially in faith, as can be seen as early as 1985 when Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger allowed the publication of The Ratzinger Report. I believe that Benedict XVI was the only Pope in Church history whose mind was already well-known a quarter century prior to his election at a conclave. One of today’s gravest crisis is the ambiguity about moral issues, such as contraception, divorce and remarriage, and the Eucharist. In The Ratzinger Report, page 150 of the American edition by Ignatius Press, Cardinal Ratzinger clearly states that “ambiguity is the mark of the demonic,” and recommends devotion to…Continue Reading

The Crisis Of Hope In The Modern World

February 9, 2019 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on The Crisis Of Hope In The Modern World

By DON FIER Two opposing vices were identified last week as contrary to the theological virtue of hope: despair and presumption. Despair, on the one hand, goes against Divine Mercy; presumption, on the other hand, goes against Divine Justice. To explain, the renowned Thomist philosopher Dr. Josef Pieper describes hope as “preeminently the virtue of the status viatoris [condition or state of being on the way]” (Faith, Hope, Love [FHL], p. 98), the virtue by which “man reaches ‘with restless heart,’ with confidence and patient expectation,…toward the arduous ‘not yet’ of fulfillment” (FHL, p. 100). However, Dr. Pieper goes on to say, “Both despair and presumption…destroy the pilgrim character of human existence in the status viatoris” (FHL, p. 113). The…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

February 8, 2019 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Editor’s Note: We thought you might be interested in the following column that appeared in a local parish bulletin. “In the Name of God. . . .” Jamie Schmidt, a 53-year-old mother of three, entered a Catholic bookstore in St. Louis last November to purchase supplies to make rosary beads. There were two other women in the store when a man with a gun came in and ordered the women to the back of the store. He threatened to kill them if they did not perform sexual acts. Two of the women, fearful for their lives, complied, but Jamie Schmidt refused, saying, “In the name of God, I will not take my clothes off.” The gunman shot and killed her.…Continue Reading

Gov. Cuomo Terms Unadulterated Evil “Light” And “Progress”. . . The Scandal Of Cuomo And New York’s Horrific Abortion Law

February 6, 2019 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Gov. Cuomo Terms Unadulterated Evil “Light” And “Progress”. . . The Scandal Of Cuomo And New York’s Horrific Abortion Law

By FR. SHENAN J. BOQUET (Editor’s Note: Fr. Shenan Boquet is the president of Human Life International. This commentary first appeared January 28 at HLI.org and is reprinted here with permission. All rights reserved. (Following Fr. Boquet’s commentary, we also reprint a selection of the reactions to it that pro-lifers posted at hli.org.) + + + I can’t imagine a more horrible irony. On Tuesday, January 22, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered that the spire of the One World Trade Center be lit pink. The reason why? To celebrate the passage of a new law that radically liberalizes abortion in New York State — in some cases allowing abortion up until the moment of birth, permitting non-doctors to perform…Continue Reading

Put Out Into The Deep

February 5, 2019 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Put Out Into The Deep

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Fifth Sunday In Ordinary Time (YR C) Readings: Isaiah 6:1-2a, 3-8 1 Cor. 15:1-15 Luke 5:1-11 In the readings today, we have the theme of vocation. This can have several meanings, the most common of which regards the state in life to which one is called by God. However, as we see in each of the readings, there can be a further refinement, or a call within a call. It is this latter concept I would like to address today. In the first reading we are told about the vision Isaiah was given and his subsequent call to his prophetic vocation. However, we also know he was married and had at least two children because they…Continue Reading

Chasing The Devil From Tasmania… Its First Benedictine Monastery Is Taking Shape

February 4, 2019 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Chasing The Devil From Tasmania… Its First Benedictine Monastery Is Taking Shape

By ANIAN CHRISTOPH WIMMER HOBART, Australia (CNA) — The wind blows in great gusts over snow-capped mountains on the other side of the world, across the island of Tasmania. Whipped up by the Southern Ocean’s infamous Roaring Forties, wave upon wave of wind buffets the Australian state on the very peripheries of the world. “Separated from the Australian mainland by 140 miles of the treacherous pitch and toss of Bass Strait, Tasmania is a byword for remoteness….It is like outer space on earth and invoked by those at the ‘centre’ to stand for all that is far-flung, strange, and unverifiable,” Nicholas Shakespeare aptly writes in his book In Tasmania. If you seek out the peripheries, in other words, whether from…Continue Reading