Wednesday 16th October 2019

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Our Motive Must Be Love

October 15, 2019 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Our Motive Must Be Love

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Twenty-Ninth Sunday In Ordinary Time (YR C) Readings: Exodus 17:8-13 2 Tim. 3:14-4:2 Luke 18:1-8 In the Gospel reading today, St. Luke describes a parable spoken by our Lord to teach us the importance of praying always without growing weary. In anything we do as human beings, we grow weary after a time. However, repeatedly doing the same kinds of things increases our strength and ability to endure what we have undertaken for a longer time. Since we are speaking of the need to pray always, we can think of something that would require a great amount of time and effort. Think about someone who wants to run a marathon. I recall reading the story of…Continue Reading

A Leaven In The World . . . True Compassion Is Sharing Fullness Of Faith

October 14, 2019 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on A Leaven In The World . . . True Compassion Is Sharing Fullness Of Faith

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK True love will always be found in the world through those who share the truth. This is at whatever cost to themselves in terms of the comforts of human respect or material gain. Selflessness of love speaks the word the other needs to hear in a disinterested way, regardless of the effect upon the one speaking, whether positive or negative in worldly terms. We are seeing a lack of this true love in the place where God has decreed it should be found unfailingly. The Church is the “place of faith,” founded as such by the Lord Himself, as Benedict XVI taught. Faith is for the sake of seeking the love of God. A crisis…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

October 11, 2019 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Q. The Catholic bishops of Massachusetts recently issued a statement on climate change that repeats all of the propaganda from the global warming extremists. Could you look at this statement and tell me if you agree with me? — T.L.H., Massachusetts. A. Yes, we do agree and have written to the bishops stating our concerns about their statement. Here are our comments: In your recent letter on climate change and the environment, you called upon all persons “to take meaningful steps to protect our environment and provide relief from the impact of toxic pollution and climate change to protect the health and safety of all citizens, particularly the most vulnerable in our society.” You urged members of the Catholic community…Continue Reading

The Phantom Of A German National Church Shows Itself

October 9, 2019 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on The Phantom Of A German National Church Shows Itself

By WALTER CARDINAL BRANDMUELLER (Editor’s Note: Walter Cardinal Brandmueller’s October 1 statement appears below. Please see page 1A of this week’s issue for a news story about the statement. LifeSiteNews published both the story and the text. Maike Hickson translated Brandmueller’s text from the original German.) + + + “Without Judah, without Rome, we shall build Germany’s Dome [Cathedral]” — this slogan from Hitler’s early inspirer, Georg von Schoenerer (1842-1921), gives expression to a German resentment, which – ultimately — had its expression in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. The defeat of Rome in that 9 AD “Hermann Battle” [the Arminius Battle] has been at least for the last two hundred years an essential part of the “Teutonic” culture…Continue Reading

Faith Is The Foundation For Charity

October 8, 2019 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Faith Is The Foundation For Charity

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Twenty-Eighth Sunday In Ordinary Time (YR C) Readings: 2 Kings 5:14-17 2 Tim. 2:8-13 Luke 17:11-19 Today, as we commemorate the anniversary of the “Miracle of the Sun” at Fatima in 1917, we are reminded of the great love God has for us by bearing with us in our frailty and calling us back to Himself when we have wandered. At Fatima He sent His Mother; in Israel 2,000 years ago, He came Himself. In the first reading we see that His mercy and His call were extended to a pagan hundreds of years before our Lord came into the world. Our entire response, as we can see in all the readings, must be one of…Continue Reading

A Leaven In The World… Christ In The Courtroom

October 7, 2019 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on A Leaven In The World… Christ In The Courtroom

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK It will be difficult to forget the tears and wrenching look of pain and grief on former policewoman Amber Guyger’s face as she recounted the steps that lead up to her decision to fire her weapon and end a human life. All of us are sinners and thus we are also always in some sense on the path to judgment. But for Amber, sitting in that courtroom, the sense of being handed over to others to judge her fate was especially powerful and overwhelming. One night, thinking she was in her own home and facing an intruder, she fired her weapon in self-defense. Amber in fact was the intruder: She had mistakenly entered a neighbor’s…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

October 4, 2019 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Editor’s Note: In past columns, we have stated that we will enjoy the company of family and friends in Heaven. This is confirmed by St. Cyprian, a fourth-century Father of the Church. A meditation from one of his letters appeared in the September issue of Magnificat. Among other things, the former bishop of Carthage said of the glory of Heaven: “What will be that glory, and how great the joy of being admitted to the sight of God! To be so honored as to receive the joy of eternal light and salvation in the presence of Christ the Lord, your God! To greet Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the patriarchs, apostles, prophets, and martyrs! To rejoice with the…Continue Reading

Cardinal Burke, Bishop Schneider… Silence About Errors Under Pope Francis Would Be A “Great Sin”

October 2, 2019 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Cardinal Burke, Bishop Schneider… Silence About Errors Under Pope Francis Would Be A “Great Sin”

By DIANE MONTAGNA ROME (LifeSiteNews) — Raymond Cardinal Burke and Bishop Athanasius Schneider have issued a statement defending loyal criticism of Pope Francis, protesting that “defamatory reproaches” laid against such critics and the “almost total infallibilization” of papal remarks have eliminated the possibility of “honest and intellectual theological debate.” In the three-page statement released first by the National Catholic Register on Tuesday, September 24, the prelates insist they have a duty to speak out regarding the “general doctrinal confusion” reigning in the Church today, and that remaining silent would be “a great sin.” In the document, titled A clarification about the meaning of fidelity to the Supreme Pontiff, the two men draw on the writings of Blessed John Henry Cardinal…Continue Reading

God Will Fulfill His Promises

October 1, 2019 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on God Will Fulfill His Promises

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Twenty-Seventh Sunday In Ordinary Time (YR C) Readings: Hab. 1:2-3, 2:2-4 2 Tim. 1:6-8, 13-14 Luke 17:5-10 In the Gospel reading today the apostles ask our Lord to increase their faith. Jesus answers by telling them that if they had faith the size of a mustard seed they could command a mulberry tree to be uprooted and planted in the sea and it would obey. Notice that Jesus does not address the request; rather, He only provides an example to make clear that their faith is not even as big as a mustard seed. Like any virtue, faith only grows when tested. If we want to grow in faith, we have to put faith into practice.…Continue Reading

A Leaven In The World… Celibacy: Still The Total Gift Of Self

September 30, 2019 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on A Leaven In The World… Celibacy: Still The Total Gift Of Self

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK As the Amazon Synod draws nearer, set to take place in Rome this month, the headlines reveal a dueling of perspectives surrounding the role of celibacy in the ministry of the priesthood. The synod has before it a proposal to ordain “proven men,” to include those married, to relieve the shortage of priests. Some doomsayers are predicting that an optional celibacy in the West might portend celibacy’s eventual demise. No less a personage than Raymond Cardinal Burke numbers among them. A statement, in anticipation of the Amazon Synod and restating basic teachings and disciplines, and signed by five bishops including Bishop Athanasius Schneider and Cardinal Burke, urges against the optional celibacy for priests. “The law…Continue Reading