Random stuff I find interesting and you may not.
Fr. Paul Mankowski, SJ. Commentary on the Catholic Church Also see – “A timeline of abuse allegations against deceased former cardinal Theodore McCarrick” – “The Mighty Pen of Father Paul Mankowski, S.J.” – “Viganò on Scandalous Rumored Appointment of Peña Parra” Related PostsEsteem Americans should feel uneasy about the new Archbishop of Washington … Read more
This year marks the ten-year anniversary of the martyrdom of Jacques Hamel, the 85-year-old French priest who was brutally murdered on July 26, 2016, by two Muslim men inspired by the terrorist group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, otherwise known as ISIS or ISIL. During the Prayers of Petition, the two men, … Read more
Failing to mention the Jews on Holocaust Remembrance Day reflects a deep moral sickness. It’s not often we can say JD Vance and the BBC have something in common. The bruising VP of the United States and the lily-handed woke-mongers of Britain’s public broadcaster probably disagree on every big topic. But this week, briefly, they … Read more
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
Many news organizations carried the story of the release of Bar Kuperstein two years after he had been kidnapped by Hamas on October 7. Kuperstein was a young security guard at the Nova Festival, the music festival targeted by Hamas for its fat genocidal possibilities, with sides of rape, torture, and kidnapping. After taking some … Read more
Merry Christmas!
The digital right’s embrace of Jew hatred can no longer be ignored. In a way, I’m glad Candace Owens held up a copy of the notoriously anti-Semitic screed, The Talmudic Jew, during her latest digital rant. For it confirms what she is. More importantly, it lays down a gauntlet to the right. To the left … Read more
Anybody who spends much time on social media, especially that website formerly known as Twitter, has likely seen an uptick in antisemitism these last couple years. As a Catholic, it has been disappointing to see so much of it among Catholic youth. For many years, we lived in a world in which the social memory … Read more
On Sunday, a Chabad Hanukkah candle-lighting at Bondi Beach was turned into a massacre. At least 16 people are dead. Witnesses report that the terrorists shouted “Allahu Akbar” between bursts of gunfire. What should have been a moment of communal joy became a scene of mass murder, carried out in full view of a society … Read more
When she was writing in opposition to the Illinois assisted-suicide law that was just signed into law, the president of Illinois Right to Life wrote about a least-favorite topic of humans: death — and when preceded by suffering. (Even when death is sudden, I’ve yet to meet a human who has experienced no suffering.) Mary … Read more
Each December, as holiday decorations go up and familiar music fills the air, another relatively new holiday ritual returns with equal predictability — social media fills with declarations that “Jesus was a Palestinian,” often joined by the equally fictional assertion that he was a “Palestinian refugee.” These claims appear every Christmas season as reliably as … Read more
Last month, Communist China launched its largest ever crackdown on Christians. The raids across Beijing, Shanghai and eight other cities mark the beginning of an escalation as the paranoid Xi regime sets out to suppress the growing number of Chinese Christians. While the Communist regime claims that the official number of Christians in China is … Read more
COMMENTARY: Reconciliation must never sacrifice the timeless truths of the Church, but sadly that appears to be the case in China. Cardinal Stephen Chow, the bishop of Hong Kong, defended the state of religious freedom in Hong Kong in a public dialogue in Parramatta, Australia, on Sept. 15. If what he said were true — … Read more
Friar Clodovis Boff has written an open letter to the bishops of the Latin American and Caribbean Bishops’ Council (CELAM, by its Spanish acronym), who recently met in assembly, asking: “What good news did I read there? Forgive my frankness: None. You, bishops of CELAM, always repeat the same old story: social issues, social issues, … Read more
The incense is rising again. Not just in Gothic cathedrals or Latin Mass enclaves—but in the hearts of young Americans who, against every cultural current, are swimming upstream toward Catholicism. It’s a phenomenon that baffles secular elites and liberal Protestants alike. How, in this age of deconstruction and digital nihilism, could the Church of hierarchy, … Read more
Catholicism needs a smaller papacy to clear room for worship and wonder . . . But there is another urgent, and perhaps unwelcome, task for the new pontiff. The greatest service he can give the church, and to restore true Catholic faith, is to take it upon himself to begin dismantling some of the accretions … Read more
Thank God for the Jews! God the son, God almighty, the Christ – the Messiah, Jesus was a Jew, is now a Jew, and will be ‘til forever. Mary, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, Theotokos-the God-bearer, was a Jew, is now a Jew and will be ‘til forever. Joseph, spouse of Mary, … Read more
Pope Leo XIV: Say This at Communion or Miss Heavenly Graces When recieing Communion: Jesus, stay with me, for without You I am lost. Stay with me Lord, for without You I can not bear this cross. Lord, You are my strength, free me from my chains. Jesus. make my heart Your home. … Read more
“DEI,” the woke religion’s hellish moniker, is in fact a blasphemous facsimile of the Catholic Church, in word and in deed. In another example of the culture co-opting and distorting something holy, DEI has become a popular acronym for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. And it’s no coincidence when we say this movement is not of … Read more
We are not called to be Church watchers. We are not called to fuss at the rectory, the chancery, or the Vatican. Our proper “stance” is to face the world with the Church at our back. The way God set up the Church is one Pope, a lot more Bishops, and exponentially more laymen. This … Read more
Understanding how Divine Mercy fulfills, rather than replaces, the Sacred Heart message. As Divine Mercy Sunday celebrates the 90th anniversary of the first celebration in 1935, a celebration that was made official for the universal Church in 2000, Marian Father Chris Alar, provincial superior of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Mercy Province of the … Read more
The war against Catholic traditionalists has done terrible damage to the Church Pope Francis began regularly using a wheelchair in public in 2022, around the time he stopped celebrating Mass in public. On 14 February he was admitted to the Gemelli University Hospital in Rome. His end grows nearer. Faithful Catholics seem increasingly anxious, less … Read more
Men are not inspired by diversity, equity, and inclusion. Whatever else they may be, these are not masculine qualities. Young men are simply not signing up to become priests — certainly not in the numbers that they used to. According to the Vatican’s Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae, the past 12 years have seen a continuing decline … Read more
One of the greatest gifts of the Human person is the capacity to speak. It is also one of our greatest weaknesses. The Book of James says, We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect!, able to keep their whole body in check. When we … Read more
It is a truth universally acknowledged that people may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel. If that wasn’t true for most of human history, it is certainly true now. And so it was that at the ARC conference this week, packed with giants from the political, economic … Read more