Sunday 1st August 2021

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Catholic Replies

July 30, 2021 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Editor’s Note: Due to the pandemic, we were unable to hold weekly classes for 22 tenth-grade Confirmation students, so we prepared a series of 14 lessons on the material, along with some questions to answer. If these lessons are of value to you, put them to whatever use you can. We will continue to welcome your questions for the column as well, so please send them along and we will interrupt this series to answer them. At the bottom of this column, see the postal mailing address and the email address where you can send your question. Special Course On Catholicism And Life – IX The first sacrament we receive, usually as babies, is Baptism. It is the foundation of…Continue Reading

Traditionis Custodes: Opportunity For Mercy

July 29, 2021 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Traditionis Custodes: Opportunity For Mercy

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK As one of the two parishes in the Archdiocese of Washington that offer the Traditional Latin Mass daily, my majority-traditional church family is now in a quite vulnerable condition after the publication of the motu proprio Traditionis custodes (TC).Following the 2007 publication of Summorum Pontificum I was sent in 2010 as pastor to St. Francis de Sales in Benedict, Md. The parish had already a small Traditional Mass community which had thrived since petitioning and receiving permission for offering the vetus ordo Mass in 1989 under the terms of St. John Paul II’s letter Ecclesia Dei.I found them to be a happy, charitable, and humble group who were quite content to simply pray in the…Continue Reading

Cardinal Zen Decries Pope’s Motu Proprio

July 28, 2021 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Cardinal Zen Decries Pope’s Motu Proprio

Joseph Cardinal Zen, in a statement translated by Diane Montagna, denounced Traditionis Custodes, Pope Francis’ motu proprio on the liturgy.His statement was entitled, “Why Do They See a Problem Where There Is None and Close Their Eyes to the Problem for Which They, Too, Are Responsible?”Cardinal Zen recalled how he warned about a document against the Traditional Mass in his June 12, 2021 blog, “and the blow has been no less severe because it was foreseen.”Zen added: “It came as a bitter surprise to me personally that the ‘widespread’ consultation never reached me, a cardinal and former member of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. In addition, during 2007-2008, I was Bishop of Hong Kong…Continue Reading

Live As Christians, Not Pagans

July 26, 2021 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Live As Christians, Not Pagans

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Eighteenth Sunday In Ordinary Time (YR B) Readings: Exodus 16:2-4, 12-15Eph. 4:17, 20-24John 6:24-35 In the second reading today St. Paul tells the Ephesians that they are no longer to live as the Gentiles do. Considering that the people to whom he was writing were Gentile converts, it makes sense that he would need to instruct them to live as Christian people and not as pagans. Perhaps they were trying to find a way to continue to “be like everyone else,” or to “fit in.” Perhaps they were so accustomed to living in certain ways that they did not even think about changing some aspects of their lives when they were baptized.Regardless of the reason, some…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

July 23, 2021 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Editor’s Note: Due to the pandemic, we were unable to hold weekly classes for 22 tenth-grade Confirmation students, so we prepared a series of 14 lessons on the material, along with some questions to answer. If these lessons are of value to you, put them to whatever use you can. We will continue to welcome your questions for the column as well, so please send them along and we will interrupt this series to answer them. At the bottom of this column, see the postal mailing address and the email address where you can send your questions. Special Courses On Catholicism And Life — VIII As mentioned in the first class, Jesus said that we must do four things to…Continue Reading

War On TLM Is War On Souls

July 22, 2021 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on War On TLM Is War On Souls

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK By the time you read this column we will have discovered whether the Vatican or the Pope has issued a modification of Summorum Pontificum (SP), which basically will serve to gut that document.The revolutionary nature of the motu proprio SP, issued in 2007 by Benedict XVI, served to restore peace liturgically within the Church by giving free access on the part of every lay Catholic and every priest to our historic traditional worship as it existed before it was malformed by committee after Vatican II in the name of ecumenism.The document put into action the truth that the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM), which was at one time sacred for everyone in the Church, must be…Continue Reading

Pope Francis Appoints New Bishop To Diocese Of Covington

July 21, 2021 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Pope Francis Appoints New Bishop To Diocese Of Covington

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Bishop Roger J. Foys, 75, from the pastoral governance of the Diocese of Covington and has appointed Fr. John Iffert, a priest of the Diocese of Belleville, as bishop-elect of Covington. Bishop-elect Iffert currently serves as vicar general and moderator of the curia for the Diocese of Belleville.The appointment was publicized in Washington, D.C., on July 13, 2021, by Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States, according to a USCCB press release.Fr. Iffert was born November 23, 1967. He received a bachelor’s degree in political science from Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois (1988). He attended Mundelein Seminary in Mundelein, IL, where he earned a bachelor of sacred…Continue Reading

Conforming Ourselves To Christ

July 19, 2021 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Conforming Ourselves To Christ

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Seventeenth Sunday In Ordinary Time (YR B) Readings: 2 Kings 4:42-44Eph. 4:1-6John 6:1-15 In the first reading today, the Prophet Elisha orders that twenty barley loaves be set before a hundred people so they can eat. The context suggests the people ate their fill of the bread, but it does not actually say that. One could argue that they broke the loaves into fifths and each person received an equal portion of the bread. One argument, from the Jewish perspective, is that this bread may emulate the qualities of the showbread in the Temple.New loaves of showbread were made each week and the week-old bread was eaten by the priests. According to Jewish tradition, because this…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

July 16, 2021 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Q. The Bible seems to present two different images of God — the Old Testament God of anger and wrath and the New Testament God of love and mercy. How can we reconcile this? And how can we explain the destruction of tribes and nations in the Old Testament to make room for the Israelites? — W.R., Tennessee.A. First of all, there were things that God permitted under the Old Law that we don’t find under the New Law. We are not saying that the God of the Old Testament is different from the God of the New Testament; they are the same God. As Dr. Peter Kreeft has written:“The opposition between nice Jesus and nasty Jehovah denies the very…Continue Reading

A Leaven In The World… Eucharistic Revival Requires More Than Talk

July 15, 2021 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on A Leaven In The World… Eucharistic Revival Requires More Than Talk

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK The discussion about Eucharistic revival and coherence begun by our bishops at their June USCCB conference should be continued among us. Catechists, pastors, parents, bloggers, and journalists, and all of our lay faithful should engage in a continued conversation about this most central gift and mystery of our holy Catholic faith.We should do so, of course, in reaction to the saddening news of unbelief which shook us in 2019. A Pew research poll revealed that a mere one-third of Catholics believe in the Real Presence of Christ under the sign of bread in what we call “Communion” given and received at every Holy Mass.“A new Pew Research Center survey finds that most self-described Catholics don’t…Continue Reading