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Catholic Replies

July 17, 2020 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Editor’s Note: Commenting on the current chaos in our land, Fr. George Rutler of the Church of St. Michael in New York City wrote in his parish bulletin:“The supine ‘virtue signaling’ of failed leaders bending their knees to barbarians makes them poster children for what Lenin called his ‘useful idiots.’ Civilization stands on the precipice of what already seemed chaotic as William Butler Yeats perceived over one hundred years ago. ‘Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, / The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere / The ceremony of innocence is drowned; / The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity.’“Demagogues who lack all conviction ignored…Continue Reading

A Leaven In The World… Catholic Is Dangerous, Not Comfortable

July 15, 2020 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on A Leaven In The World… Catholic Is Dangerous, Not Comfortable

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK As I drove north recently on my route to a vacation destination, I passed along a portion of highway dubbed in honor of Christopher Columbus. I wondered how long that would last while authorities in the same state were removing his statues from public places under cover of darkness.Of course some may have counseled such preventive action to avoid the despicable spectacle seen in Baltimore where a mob pulled down and smashed Columbus’ effigy to cries and howls of fiendish delight and evil satiation.As of this writing, divers have recovered some pieces of the explorer’s statue that were thrown by rioters into the inner harbor. The governor and the mayor rightly spoke out against the…Continue Reading

The Light Of The World

July 14, 2020 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on The Light Of The World

Sixteenth Sunday In Ordinary Time (YR A) By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Readings: Wisdom 12:13, 16-19Romans 8:26-27Matt. 13:24-43 As we continue watching the anarchist agenda unfold before our eyes, our readings today provide us with some hope and a good challenge. The hope comes in two forms. First, there is the hope for those who are on the wrong path. Wisdom tells us that because God is the master of might, He rules with leniency and judges with clemency. Does God not have the power to put an end to the nonsense we are witnessing? Of course, He does. Then why are we not seeing it?Perhaps what we read in the Gospel today gives us the best answer. When the servants…Continue Reading

Bishop Strickland . . . For The New Evangelization… We Need Epiphanies Of Beauty

July 13, 2020 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Bishop Strickland . . . For The New Evangelization… We Need Epiphanies Of Beauty

By MOST REV. JOSEPH STRICKLAND Part 2 The Magnetic Draw Of Beauty But the magnetic draw toward beauty is still present in every man and woman. That is because it is written on the human heart. We are drawn to beauty because we were made for the God who is Beauty. And, this truth offers hope to all who have chosen to follow the Way of Beauty, the way of Jesus Christ who reveals the fullness of Beauty. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Colossians:“He (Jesus) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

July 10, 2020 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Q. In a reply back in January, you said that devotions to Our Lady of America were “approved and promoted” by the late Archbishop Paul Leibold of Cincinnati and Raymond Cardinal Burke when he was archbishop of St. Louis. A Google search makes it quite clear that Cardinal Burke was only approving the devotions and not the apparitions or the messages which St. Mary Ephrem Neuzil of Ohio said she got from the Blessed Virgin in 1956 and 1957. You stated correctly that “devotion” is the key word, but it needs clarification that the apparition was not approved. — J.R.V., Minnesota.A. You are right and your point was confirmed in May 2020 in a statement from six bishops that said…Continue Reading

A Leaven In The World… Confession Of Sins And The Traditional Latin Mass

July 8, 2020 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on A Leaven In The World… Confession Of Sins And The Traditional Latin Mass

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK Some years ago I had the pleasure of meeting Franciscan Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, the very well-educated, longtime preacher to the papal household. I also attended an evening session at a parish in a neighboring state where he spoke at length about his experiences in Rome, and elsewhere, giving retreats and preaching during liturgies for the Pope and his collaborators through many years of such service to the universal Church.Something that stayed with me after hearing his remarks was his description of his experience of first coming into contact with the charismatic movement. He had been approached with a request to do pastoral work in support of them but had initial misgivings. He was in doubt…Continue Reading

Fulfill The Word Of God

July 7, 2020 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Fulfill The Word Of God

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Fifteenth Sunday In Ordinary Time (YR A) Readings: Isaiah 55:10-11Romans 8:18-23Matt. 13:1-23 In the first reading God tells us through the Prophet Isaiah that His word will not return to Him void; rather, it will do His will, achieving the end for which He sent it. This word can be understood in two ways: Jesus, the Word made flesh, or the Word of God spoken to us through the Scriptures.We know that Jesus fulfilled the purpose for which He was sent. He taught, He suffered, He died, and He rose from the dead, thus achieving the redemption of the human race and the salvation of our souls. Having fulfilled perfectly the will of His Father, He…Continue Reading

Bishop Strickland . . . For The New Evangelization . . . We Need Epiphanies Of Beauty

July 6, 2020 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Bishop Strickland . . . For The New Evangelization . . . We Need Epiphanies Of Beauty

By MOST REV. JOSEPH STRICKLAND Part 1 Pope St. John Paul II On Beauty On Easter Sunday in 1999, Pope St. John Paul II issued a reflective letter addressed specifically to artists. He referred to artists as “Images of the Creator.” He wrote that “to communicate the message entrusted to her by Christ, the Church needs art. Art must make perceptible, and as far as possible attractive, the world of the spirit, of the invisible, of God.”The late Pope explained to the artists he addressed in the same letter, “Beauty is a key to the mystery and a call to transcendence. It is an invitation to savor life and to dream of the future. That is why the beauty of…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

July 3, 2020 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Editor’s Note: More thoughtful insights from Fr. George Rutler of the Church of St. Michael in New York City: “Robert Gould Shaw was born into an abolitionist Unitarian family in Boston in 1837. . . . During the Civil War, he was eventually promoted to colonel and, following the Emancipation Proclamation, he led New England’s first all-black military unit, the 54th Regiment. Shaw insisted on equal pay and opposed any form of discrimination. Two of his soldiers were sons of Frederick Douglass.“In 1863, storming Fort Wagner in South Carolina, Colonel Shaw led his regiment’, which suffered heavy losses while he died from several wounds defending the nation and racial justice. Saint-Gaudens sculpted a bronze relief of Shaw and his troops,…Continue Reading

A Leaven In The World… Stop Complaining And Start TLM-ing

July 1, 2020 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on A Leaven In The World… Stop Complaining And Start TLM-ing

By Fr. KEVIN M. CUSICK The Church is in a deplorable state, we all agree. At least those with eyes to see. Attendance is plummeting through the floor after the devastation of COVID in what were once the largest parishes.The elderly are being told by their doctors to not return to Mass. In many parishes the retired individuals were keeping the church doors open through their financial and active support as volunteers. They peopled the daily worship in addition to Sunday Masses.Financial woes continue to plague what were our largest parishes, burdened sometimes with aging physical plants and closed school buildings. Schools are increasingly closing after the financial collapse that overwhelmed the Church in the wake of the Chinese plague…Continue Reading