Popular culture holds a dismissive attitude toward history. Common headlines include “unprecedented times”, “worse than ever”, and “never before.” But how often is that really true? What do we face that is truly without precedent? This mindset—that all things have either escalated or de-escalated, that the present is always somehow more or less than the…
Presumptive president-elect Joe Biden announced his advisory board to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, with one member attracting criticism for his views on the elderly and people with disabilities. Biden’s transition team on Monday tapped Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, who advised the Obama administration on health policy, to join a team of other public health experts…
CNA—The Vatican’s report on Theodore McCarrick released Tuesday includes a letter written by an American cardinal in 1999, who objected to McCarrick’s potential appointment to higher office, on the basis of existing allegations of misconduct, including incidents involving sharing a bed with seminarians at a New Jersey beach house. On Oct. 28, 1999, Cardinal John…
CNA—The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Tuesday in the latest legal challenge to the Affordable Care Act. How the court might decide the case was a crucial part of Democratic opposition to the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to the court last month. In the cases of California v. Texas and Texas v. California,…
CNA—While the U.S. bishops’ conference congratulated presumptive president-elect Joe Biden on the election results this weekend, the bishop of Fort Worth has called for prayer, saying the vote tallies are not yet official. “This is still a time for prudence and patience as the results of the presidential election have not been officially authenticated,” Bishop…
CNA—The Vatican’s Secretariat of State published Tuesday a report on Theodore McCarrick, saying that the Holy See had received inaccurate information about McCarrick from three New Jersey bishops before McCarrick’s 2001 appointment as Archbishop of Washington. (Click here to read The McCarrick Report for yourself) The false information presented by those bishops might have been…
Catholic and political leaders paid tribute to the late EWTN News president Andrew Walther on Monday and Tuesday. Walther, who died Nov. 1, was remembered as a communications strategist, an advocate for persecuted Christians, a faithful Catholic, and a husband and father. Walther died on All Saints’ Day, from complications related to leukemia. He had…
His Excellency, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, has written yet another open letter to President Donald J. Trump. Read it in its entirety below. It is available in PDF by clicking here. Read it in Italian here.
The Catholic Leader—BRISBANE Archbishop Mark Coleridge has joined church leaders from around the world condemning the killing of three people in southern France – hacked to death in Nice’s Notre Dame Basilica while preparing for morning Mass. “Violence in the name of God is the ultimate contradiction and is utterly abhorrent, whatever historic injustices are…
After a unanimous vote by the Judiciary Committee last week, the Senate on October 26, 2020, confirmed Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Amy Coney Barrett to become the 115th Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. “Having confirmed her to the Circuit Court in 2017 with bipartisan support, the Senate has already undertaken…
“Either the government will be given to us, or we will seize it by marching on Rome!” declared Mussolini. And his Fascists responded with the cry, Roma! Roma! Roma! The following text comes from the pre-eminent history textbook series for Catholic students, Volume: “Light to the Nations II: The Making of the Modern World.” The…
Quick Observations: Reason, Faith and Common Sense — contrary to media hype and distortion — enables us humans to make clear distinctions such as “Love the sinner, Hate the sin.” It is against Truth and reality to call something against nature, “natural.” It is against the most fundamental tenants of our Faith to treat any…
“We have waited half a century for this opportunity,” said Students For Life America (SFLA) President Kristan Hawkins. “It’s absolutely vital that the U.S. Senate vote to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court, and, as we continue to travel across the country in–person and virtually, we are activating a new generation of single-issue voters on the human rights struggle…
I was shocked to learn that Thomas Howard had died last week at age 83. It just seemed, as odd as it sounds to say, so out of character for the lively, inspiring and fiercely bow-tie-affectionado professor, speaker and Catholic convert who was ever so full of life, good wit and clear discernment. It is…
CNA—With the beatification of Carlo Acutis in Assisi last Saturday, October 10, 2020, the Catholic Church now has its first “Blessed” who loved Super Mario and Pokémon, but not as much as he loved the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. “To be always united with Jesus, this is my life program,” Carlo Acutis…
CNA—A federal court ruled on Friday that Florida State University (FSU) must pay the Catholic former leader of the student senate who was removed in June for comments he made about Church teaching and anti-racist groups. Jack Denton, the former president of the FSU student senate, was removed from his position by fellow senators in…
Today, October 14, is a long-established U.S. national holiday in honor of the Catholic Italian Explorer Christopher Columbus who was the first to discover and bring settlers to the new world of what just a few centuries later became the United States of America. There’s much more to the story that you and I learned…
At the cathedral where I live, often I stop to pray at the outdoor chapel to Our Lady of Guadalupe, which overlooks the US 101 freeway. As I pray to Our Lady and look out on the cars moving by below, my mind goes to St. Junípero Serra and the missionaries. Three centuries ago they…
CNA—Criticism of Amy Coney Barrett is part of a “virus” of anti-Catholic “bigotry,” retired Archbishop Charles Chaput said on Monday. The archbishop warned that public attacks on the Supreme Court nominee’s faith constitute a wider threat to religious liberty. Chaput, long considered a leading intellectual among American Catholic bishops, retired as Archbishop of Philadelphia in…
“And now for something completely different,” as the entertainment industry is wont to say. Some aspects of liturgical worship are used for reasons that express the psychology of praise. For instance, there are vesture, candles, bells and, especially, holy water. The more that worship is confined to cerebral edification, the less attention is given to…
