Random stuff I find interesting and you may not.
A leading cardinal and former secretary of the Roman Curia has spoken to the Catholic Herald about the state of the Church, the role of the papacy, and how Catholics should approach authority. Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, prefect emeritus of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, described the veneration of the private and … Read more
Bishop Joseph Strickland invited priests this month to join a “prayerful community” of fraternity, while criticizing Pope Francis for apparently failing “to reject the siren call of sodomy.” The invitation came in a letter distributed by the former Bishop of Tyler, Texas — given to priests who attended a March 19 gathering of Catholics at … Read more
On Feb 14, 2025, Muslim terrorists kidnapped 70 Christians in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, took them to a church, tied them up and beheaded them. Their bodies were left there to rot by the Muslim killers who did it to show the supremacy of Islam over Christianity. Pope Francis made no mention of … Read more
From Christianity’s beginnings, the Church has been attacked by those introducing false teachings, or heresies. The Bible warned us this would happen. Paul told his young protégé, Timothy, “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, … Read more
Various cultures—English, Turkish, Chinese—claim to have invented the maxim, “The fish rots from the head down” (a favorite in your nation’s capital during the unhappy years when the Redskins/Commanders were owned by Daniel Snyder). Applied to the Church, the idiom suggests that when theology is decadent, bad things will follow in the life of faith. … Read more
Layer upon layer of Eucharistic practice was constructed over the millennia as protection against the slightest attenuation of Catholic doctrine regarding the Eucharist. For over sixty years, it has been breached. For all its good intentions, the grand project of Eucharistic Revival is barely limping to its finish line. Applause is in order, for at … Read more
No, Pope Francis has not said that the Catholic Church should end her opposition to sex-change operations. But he has: Agreed to a meeting with advocates of “gender-altering therapy” arranged by Sister Jeannine Gramick of New Ways Ministry, “wanted Pope Francis to hear directly from transgender and intersex Catholics and those who support them.” Issued … Read more
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At long last, “pride month” is coming to a close. Come Monday, a broad swath of corporations and companies will return to normal merchandising and normal advertising aimed at normal people. The corporate celebration of “pride month” makes some degree of sense: it is the state-mandated month of worshipping the decadent cultural zeitgeist’s favored sin. … Read more
Today is the official release date of Pope Francis’ autobiography. According to advance extracts published on the Vatican website, the Pope once again endorses homosexual civil unions, writing that “It is right that these people who live the gift of love can have legal coverage like everyone else.” I see two serious issues here which … Read more
Just when we thought we had blessedly stamped out the cartoon, CCD “Jesus,” a newer, slicker incarnation of this caricature has seeped back into the Catholic Church in the form of “The Chosen”. My generation first met the happy, hippie “Jesus” in our 1970s and ’80s CCD classes. He was a super-nice dude, not scary … Read more
Last week, Pope Francis spent 40 minutes – a long time for a busy man – with representatives of DIALOP, a group that engages in Christian-Marxist “dialogue.” It was formed in 2014 after he met with some of the founders. It will probably only be remembered as a mere blip compared with much more momentous … Read more
One of the standards the Church uses to measure the quality of her leaders is a simple line from Scripture: “God is not the author of confusion but of peace” (1 Cor. 14:33). So it was for Paul. So it is now. So it is for local pastors and bishops, including the bishop of Rome. … Read more
How the Vatican capitulated to the Chinese Communist Party The Holy See’s 2018 provisional agreement with Beijing is failing, but the problems with the Vatican’s China policy did not begin five years ago. They stem from the 1980s, when the Holy See began pursuing dialogue with the Chinese Communist Party. The Vatican has capitulated more … Read more
YLER, TX — Pope Francis has officially sacked Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas for being “way too Catholic.” “Despite repeated warnings, Bishop Strickland refused to stop being so Catholic,” said Pope Francis. “He adamantly held firm to Catholic doctrine, and there is simply no room for that in today’s Catholic Church.” According to sources, … Read more
It is no surprise that the call to ordain (or to pretend to ordain) women as priests comes mainly from people who wish to marry (or to pretend to marry) a man with a man or a woman with a woman. We see that, at the Synod, the topic of women’s ordination has come up, … Read more
“After the statement from the Rome vicariate on Monday announcing a clean bill of health for the Centro Aletti, the only question is: What do you call a whitewash that is also a coverup that is also a snow job?” asks Christopher Altieri, writing in Catholic World Report. He answers his own rhetorical question at … Read more
All joking aside, the modern Church is utterly feckless against transgenderism and other anti-Catholic isms because of the dangerous isms that have animated the theological and philosophical landscape of the Church for decades. Modernism has infected the Church’s intellectual life root and branch. As a result, the leadership is in no place to effectively combat … Read more
For many years—during the pontificates of John Paul II and Benedict XVI—worried Catholics like me wished that the Holy See would intervene to fix the damage caused by liberal American bishops. Now the roles are reversed, and I pray that our bishops, joining with bishops of other countries, will step in to guard the universal … Read more
I imagine most Catholics who pay attention to Church news are aware by now of the numerous sacrileges and disgraces that characterized the reservation and distribution of Holy Communion at World Youth Day in Lisbon. A little digging around indicates that such evils were not limited to this WYD but have afflicted many other WYDs … Read more
Saint or Ain’t 16a 2023, Msgr. Charles Pope Related PostsThe Loss of the Sacred Live rightly Hey Disney, don’t Chinese lives matter too? Bishop Barron at His Best and a Lament of a Growing Rift Huey Long Will Not Save You
Does Jesus Love You Just the Way You Are? No. Against such absurd claims, only sharp replies will do. Like ice water splashed onto the face of a hallucinating man, the sharp reply brings a man back to his senses. Indeed, such ubiquitous sloganeering is built upon decades of theological dissent, very much the way … Read more
Have you heard about the scandalous writings by the new head of the Vatican’s doctrinal office? No, no: I don’t mean Heal Me With Your Mouth: The Art of Kissing, the 1995 pamphlet that has occasioned so much comment since Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernández was elevated to Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of … Read more
As this “pride” month comes to a close, it is high time we discuss the infamous Fr. James Martin, S.J. There are so many instances wherein we find Martin promoting the rainbow lifestyle to Catholics that I am sure we can all think of a few. One extremely egregious example comes to mind: namely, when … Read more
Welcome to the Middle Ages. Have you ever stopped and asked yourself: How, in the year 2023, did humans begin to debate propositions like “Can men become women?” How can a society that invents vaccines and sends vehicles to other planets start to doubt the sexual dimorphism of humanity? Or begin to wonder whether our … Read more