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Does It Really Matter What The Supreme Court Says?

July 22, 2015 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Does It Really Matter What The Supreme Court Says?

By FR. JOHN DE CELLES (Editor’s Note: Fr. John De Celles, pastor of St. Raymond of Penafort, Springfield, Va., preached the homily below for the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time, June 28, 2015, about the Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision. Reprinted with permission; all rights reserved.) + + + Do you remember the classic scene from the movie Casablanca, when the police captain says: “I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on here!” and then the dealer hands him a stack of chips saying: “…Your winnings, sir.” That’s kind of how I felt on Friday [June 26] when the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision that there is a constitutional right to gay marriage. Of course,…Continue Reading

A Leaven In The World . . . Where Is There “Room To Disagree” With Jesus? In Hell!

July 20, 2015 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on A Leaven In The World . . . Where Is There “Room To Disagree” With Jesus? In Hell!

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK I’m on my way to Mexico this week with a group of women for a retreat at Guadalupe where our Lady many years ago wiped out human sacrifice and pagan worship through her apparition to St. Juan Diego. The coming of Christianity to places around the world like Mexico and even our own land through such great supernatural interventions as on Tepeyac hill and through the work of countless missionaries is being undone. Where fealty to Mary and her Son our Lord brought reverence and respect for human life and the family, today there is increasing rejection of basic moral teaching. As once family-friendly organizations like the Boy Scouts and institutions like our nation’s military…Continue Reading

Apologetics Course… Who Wrote The Gospels? Are They Complete?

July 19, 2015 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Apologetics Course… Who Wrote The Gospels? Are They Complete?

By RAYMOND DE SOUZA Part 11 The Catholic Church maintains that four men wrote the Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. That is, the writers were Jews, and familiar with the colloquial Greek language of the time, the Koine or Hellenistic Greek, which was the lingua franca of the Roman Empire. Are the Gospel texts complete? Muslims and others have claimed that the Gospel texts are incomplete, or corrupted, or whatever else comes to their minds to say. Muslims even say that the original Gospels spoke of Mohammed, but those dreadful early Christians removed all mention of their prophet. The only problem is that they do not present one ounce of historical proof to give any weight at all to…Continue Reading

The Four Marks Of The Church — Catholicity

July 18, 2015 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on The Four Marks Of The Church — Catholicity

By DON FIER Part 2 The third mark of the Church, her catholicity or universality, manifests itself in two distinct ways. As was illustrated last week, she is universal because Christ is present in her: She is the Mystical Body of Christ and He is her Head. As far back as the early second century, St. Ignatius of Antioch proclaimed, “Where there is Christ Jesus, there is the Catholic Church.” The wondrous effect of this enduring union, as summarized by the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, is that “the Church proclaims the fullness and the totality of the faith; she bears and administers the fullness of the means of salvation” (n. 166). The Church teaches the same…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

July 17, 2015 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Editor’s Note: Regarding a recent reply about the Society of St. Pius X, the writer said that he could not find a Traditional Latin Mass in the Los Angeles area. After reading the reply, R.W.H. in Vermont e-mailed the following: “Would you charitably notify him to log on to www.ecclesiadei.org, click the second item (Directory of Latin Masses), and scroll down to California Los Angeles Diocese. There are 14 different entries, but carefully check the scheduled days and times.” Thank you for the information. Q. It aggravates me to hear people say that Jesus would not be against “gay marriage” if two people really love each other since He so often told us to love one another. What can I…Continue Reading

The Salt Of The Earth

July 16, 2015 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on The Salt Of The Earth

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Sunday Sermon for July 26, 2015 Seventeenth Sunday In Ordinary Time (YR B) Readings: 2 Kings 4:42-44 Eph. 4:1-6 John 6:1-15 In the second reading today St. Paul exhorts us to live in a manner worthy of the call we have received. This has always been required of Christian people, but today it is more important than it has been since the early centuries of the Church. What set the people of the early Church apart from the rest of society was the virtue they lived. Society had gone astray. The Roman Empire officially worshiped the gods while the Christians, of course, worshiped the One True God. The morality of the people in many parts of…Continue Reading

A Leaven In The World… CHA: It’s Time For The Bishops To Act

July 13, 2015 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on A Leaven In The World… CHA: It’s Time For The Bishops To Act

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK With all due respect, it is time that the bishops took action. Sr. Carol Keehan’s latest outrage of scandalous disobedience was to invite President Obama to address the national gathering of the U.S. Catholic Health Association (CHA) in June where he proceeded to thank the organization, crediting it with the role of those without whose help he could not have passed Obamacare. Sr. Keehan is the president of CHA. The increasingly confusing Catholic landscape is making the truth of Catholic faith and morals ever more difficult for the average Catholic to grasp in the context of what Benedict XVI called a “catechetical emergency.” Where the bishops can act to remove that fog of war in…Continue Reading

An Apologetics Course… More Thoughts On Why Be A Christian

July 12, 2015 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on An Apologetics Course… More Thoughts On Why Be A Christian

By RAYMOND DE SOUZA Part 10 People who profess to believe in Jesus Christ often take the Bible, or, more specifically, the Gospels, for granted. Most simply assume that they are God-inspired, and that’s the end of it. But, in these days of de-Christianization and cultural Islamization, it is important for Catholics to know, and know well, our foundations. How historical are the Gospels? How authentic? How reliable? Let us investigate these important issues. First of all, how do we accept a document as truly historical? And what do we mean by the word “historical”? A work is historical when it faithfully narrates past events; if it speculates about the past it is not historical. It is “genuine,” or authentic,…Continue Reading

The Four Marks Of The Church — Catholicity

July 11, 2015 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on The Four Marks Of The Church — Catholicity

By DON FIER As we profess each Sunday in the Nicene Creed and has been demonstrated over the past two weeks, the one true Church founded by Christ possesses the mark of holiness. She is holy in her origin, in her purpose, in her means, and in the fruit she produces. She lovingly embraces sinners, calling them to repentance and conversion. As the “universal sacrament of salvation” (Lumen Gentium, n. 48 § 2), the Church is the primary instrument through which grace flows to the People of God. The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church summarizes this dogmatic teaching of our faith in a marvelous manner which bears quoting in its entirety: “The Church is holy insofar as…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

July 10, 2015 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Editor’s Note: While taking part recently in a Patriotic Rosary on the common in our town (yes, some towns do allow religious services on public property), we were assigned a passage to read prior to leading the fourth decade of the sorrowful mysteries. The passage was written in 1799 by Jedidiah Morse (1761-1826), author of texts on geography, a Congregational pastor, and the father of Samuel F.B. Morse, inventor of the telegraph. Because Jedidiah’s words are so prescient regarding the anti-religious sentiment that is prevalent in our country today, we thought you might like to read them: “To the kindly influence of Christianity we owe that degree of civil freedom and political and social happiness which mankind now enjoys. In…Continue Reading