CMN—The Archdiocese of Baltimore said it has “serious concerns” about public health guidance from Howard County, Maryland, which prohibits the reception of Communion as a condition for churches to reopen during the coronavirus pandemic. “For the Catholic community, the reception of Communion is central to our faith lives and to our public worship,” said a…
In Minnesota, a coalition of Twin Cities faith organizations and local businesses sued and called on Gov. Tim Walz to end what it calls an unconstitutional and draconian scheme to close businesses and places of worship. This lawsuit says it all The Minnesota lawsuit states, in part, that Walz’s executive orders during the pandemic unfairly…
National Review—We’re not just living through an earthshaking pandemic. We’re living through a new crisis in which a highly virulent virus arrives at the very moment when ubiquitous media coverage, global interconnectivity, and a certain amount of scientific conformity amplify everything. All of this has combined to create an unprecedented public-policy response. For the first…
May 22, 2020—“Today, I am identifying houses of worship, churches, synagogues and mosques as essential places that provide essential services,” Trump said in today’s White House press briefing. “Some governors have deemed liquor stores and abortion clinics as essential, but have left out churches and other houses of worship, it’s not right,” he continued. “So…
We have been “socially distanced” now for more than two months with widespread mandatory business closures. The purpose of this was to slow the spread of the Coronavirus, “flatten the curve” so that our hospitals will not be overwhelmed and possibly buy time for a vaccine to be developed. The experts told us this…
It sounds innocent enough. A proposed piece of legislation (SB 939)—currently gathering momentum to be pushed through the California state legislature at breakneck speed in the name of COVID-19—would add a Section to the Civil Code relating to commercial tenant evictions, “declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately.” But it is far from innocent.…
Dr. Shi Zhengli, known as China’s batwoman, was worried. Her creation, a highly infectious coronavirus, had leaked from her lab in October. Early efforts to stop the widening circle of infections had failed. It had spread like wildfire through the densely populated city of Wuhan. The Communist authorities were also worried that the source of…
Practicing Catholics and small- to mid-sized business leaders in the U.S. breathed a sigh of relief when the Little Sisters of the Poor finally won their battle against Obama care in the Supreme Court. As you recall, the nuns fought the forced mandate triggered by Obama’s and Pelosi’s healthcare mandate to violate the nuns’ faith,…
Anger is a funny emotion. No, check that. It’s not funny. It’s angry. But it is often strange and hard to understand. That’s especially true when otherwise affable or thoughtful people become leaders and start to exhibit anger more and more frequently. Anger provokes the people being led to question what they thought they knew…
In response to a request from some of the faithful of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, I consecrated the Archdiocese to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on October 7, 2017. The day was the Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary; and the year was the centennial of the apparitions of Our Lady at Fatima, Portugal, where, among…
A Christian congregation in Chula Vista, California, and its pastor are suing Governor Gavin Newsom and other officials for unconstitutional stay-at-home orders and actions during the coronavirus pandemic. After weeks of mandatory isolation to stop the spread of COVID-19, Governor Newsom has begun a four-stage plan to “reopen” California’s economy. Retail and supporting manufacturing are…
Vatican City—March 23, 2020—CNA—Cardinal Raymond Burke issued a letter encouraging priests and bishops to work constructively with civil authorities to meet the spiritual needs of Catholics during the coronavirus pandemic. Acknowledging the “sadness” and “fear” which the pandemic has brought with it, the cardinal reflected Saturday that “Oftentimes, when we find ourselves in great suffering…
Fr. Wilson D. Miscamble’s American Priest was intended to be a critical biography of Theodore Hesburgh, the priest who was president of the University of Notre Dame for 50 years. Notre Dame loyalists who hold Hesburgh in reverence and are intolerant of criticism need not worry: Nothing in the book will lead to removal of…
In what is becoming an interesting showdown of Business vs. Government, Tesla founder Elon Musk has thrown down the gauntlet of reopening his manufacturing plant in the face of California Governor Newsom’s extended lockdown orders, with one of Northern California’s counties caught in the middle. To fine, jail, halt or to look the other way,…
CNA—Well into the pandemic’s grip on American public life, parishes and dioceses are preparing a return to some new kind of normal. Masses are resuming, albeit for small numbers in limited circumstances. Catholic schools and universities are making plans to reopen in the fall. Regrettably, even the ordinary fault lines and debates among Catholics, somewhat…
So it’s been almost two months without the Sacraments. In my parish, as ordered by our Bishop, there has been no Holy Mass, no anointing of the sick, no confession , no Eucharistic Adoration and little or no communication from the parish or the diocese except an email link to our parish bulletin and an…
As a life-long Catholic, I must confess. I did something Sunday morning I’ve never done before. Even a month ago it would have seemed not quite right based on my Catholic foundation. Yet now it feels spiritually uplifting and beneficial! Confined at home in the coronavirus shutdown, I followed the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass…
CNA—Modern society is formulating an “anti-Christian creed” and punishing those who resist it with “social excommunication,” Benedict XVI has said in a new biography, published in Germany May 4. In a wide-ranging interview at the end of the 1,184-page book, written by German author Peter Seewald, the pope emeritus said the greatest threat facing the…
CNA—The liquefaction of the blood of the early Church martyr St. Januarius occurred Saturday amid the coronavirus lockdown, leading the Archbishop of Naples to bless the city with the miraculous relic. “Dear friends, I have a big announcement to make: even in this time of coronavirus, the Lord through the intercession of St. Januarius has…
Mind&Spirit—What is suffering? One way to define suffering is the rupture between your future as you pictured it and the reality of what your future will actually be. This is easy to see in the case of the loss of a loved one, especially a sudden loss. The future we thought we had with that…
