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Featured Term (selected at random):MINISTERIORUM DISCIPLINA Decree of the Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship, issued in 1972, giving the norms and ritual for the ministries of reader and acolyte, the admission of men to the diaconate, and the dedication to a life of celibacy (December 3, 1972). All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Featured Term (selected at random):AMENDE HONORABLE Public form of satisfaction formerly inflicted on condemned criminals. With candle in hand, stripped to the waist and barefoot, they appeared before the ecclesiastical judge, begging pardon of God, the king and justice. It was used as late as the seventeenth century. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus Traditional True Holy Mass Propers † Dominica Pentecostes ~ Pentecost Sunday (Whit Sunday † Anno Dómini 27 May 2012 Commemorating The Feast Of † Saint Bede the Venerable, Doctor of His Church † Color: Sanguineus/Red Vestments II Classis ~ Second Class Semi-Double Observance Spíritus Dómini replévit orbem terrárum, allelúja ( "....The Spirit of the Lord hath filled the whole world, alleluia...." ) Et sermónem quem audístis, non est Meus: sed ejus qui misit Me, Patris. Hæc locútus sum vobis, apud vos manens. Paráclitus autem Spíritus Sanctus, quern mittet Pater in nómine Meo, ille vos docébit...

Featured Term (selected at random):GALLICAN RITE A ritual that prevailed from the fourth to the eighth centuries in Gaul. Its origin is disputed, but the ritual was most likely introduced by the first missionaries. It differed from the Roman Rite in the arrangement of the liturgical year, the elaborate ceremonial in the offering of the bread and wine, and in the fact that all Mass prayers were variable daily. Some liturgies today at Milan and Toledo bear resemblance to the Gallican rites. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with...

Fruits of the Holy Spirit They are supernatural works that manifest the presence of the Holy Spirit. Identifiable effects of the Holy Spirit.The one who performs these supernatural works recognizes God’s spiritual presence in the happiness he experiences by doing them.Others around him sense God’s spiritual presence by witnessing these good works.The Church takes its official list of the Fruits of the Holy Spirit from the Latin Vulgate Bible. In the Douay-Rheims translation: Gal 5:22 “But the fruit of the Spirit is, charity, joy, peace, patience, benignity, goodness, longanimity, mildness, faith, modesty, continency, chastity.” CharityJoyPeacePatience BenignityGoodnessLonganimityMildness FaithModestyContinenceChastity

150 Titles of Christ from the ScripturesBy: Msgr. Charles Pope There are many, many titles of Christ in both the New and Old Testaments. As one prays and studies them, they amount to a mini-Catechesis of the Lord Jesus.Presented below are over 150 titles of Christ. I have also presented “hot-links” to the Scriptures from which they are drawn for your further study. The list is compiled from various sources, but most come from The Catholic Source Book, compiled and edited by Fr. Peter Klein. I have also placed this article in PDF Format here: The Titles of Jesus Christ...

The Friend Closest to Your Heart How well do you know the Holy Spirit? By: Alan Schreck Jesus’ way of presenting the Holy Spirit made it evident that his followers were supposed to relate to the Spirit as a teacher, a counselor, a consoler—as someone who would help and guide them in their daily lives as Christians. In the Acts of the Apostles, we saw that Christ’s followers were in a dialogue with the Spirit, who actively directed and assisted them in their missionary activity. They knew the Spirit as the gift of Jesus and the Father to help...

Featured Term (selected at random):FOURTH CRUSADE Considered the most important of the Crusades in terms of lasting results (1202-4). The crusade was preached by Pope Innocent III. Its political effect was to conquer Constantinople, but only at the cost of embittering the Eastern Christians. They mistakenly charged the pope with responsibility for the pillage of churches and massacre of the people by the Venetian-paid crusaders' army. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Brian Johnston was desperate. The pressures of raising six children on one accountant salary were crushing, but worse was that he was starting to doubt the entire reason he and his wife had created a big family with a stay-at-home mom in the first place: Their Mormonism.-SNIP-The official church historian Marlin Jenson made news last year when he said that the loss of members in the last five or 10 years has been greater than perhaps any period since Mormonism was founded in 1830. -SNIP-For Mormons grappling with doubts, the potential spiritual consequences can appear frightening. Mormon scripture teaches that...

Featured Term (selected at random):LAW OF CONSCIENCE The natural law as it manifests itself within each person's conscience, where its dictates are expressed by certain basic tendencies of nature, evaluated and regulated by right reason. It is binding in conscience as the fundamental source of moral duty. Human law, on the other hand, is binding only insofar as it agrees with the natural law of conscience. All human beings are subject to the law of conscience, no matter when or where they live. It is, therefore, universal and unchangeable. No one can dispense from its observance, which becomes binding as...

Norms Regarding the Manner of Proceeding in the Discernment of Presumed Apparitions or Revelations by Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Jerome Hamer, O.P., Cardinal Francis Seper Cardinal William Levada's Preface PRELIMINARY NOTEOrigin and character of these normsDuring the annual Plenary Session in November 1974, the Fathers of this Sacred Congregation examined the problems relative to presumed apparitions and to the revelations often connected with them and reached the following conclusions:1. Today, more than in the past, news of these apparitions is diffused rapidly among the faithful thanks to the means of information (mass media). Moreover, the ease of...

Featured Term (selected at random):RULE OF SAINT BASIL A rule of life drawn up, from 358 to 364, by St. Basil the Great (329-79). It is still the basis for monasticism in the Eastern Church. There are two forms of the rule, in question and answer form, with 55 and 313 items respectively. Although austere, it consciously avoids some of the extremes of Eastern monasticism before Basil's time. Hours of liturgical prayer were prescribed. Manual and other work were required. Children were to be trained in classes attached to the monastery and given an opportunity to test their vocation to...

In a previous post, I noted how The Catholic Free Press is once again promoting Sister Joyce Rupp, a dissident religious who rails against the hierarchical Church while promoting New Age spirituality. Many parishes throughout the Worcester Diocese are also promoting the upcoming day-long retreat with this angry, dissenting religious. The retreat, which is to be held on September 29th at St. Anne's Parish hall in Shrewsbury, is being sponsored by the "Commission for Women," and has as its theme: "The Gift of Self - Compassion." Sister Rupp, the self proclaimed spiritual midwife, claims to have learnt a lot from...

Featured Term (selected at random):ANNA This woman was a prophetess who spent all her time, day and night, in the Temple. She was present when Jesus was brought to the Temple by his parents in accordance with the Law of Moses. She "began to praise God" on seeing him, "and she spoke of the child to all who looked forward to the deli-verance of Jerusalem" (Luke 2:36-38). All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Featured Term (selected at random):DREAM INTERPRETATION The personal or professional analysis or night (sleep) dreams, to ascertain their meaning. Night dreams are dreams in the proper sense of the term. In sleep, which is by no means a passive state, a person's sense of activity is not dominated by his higher faculties of reason and will. This sense activity, when natural, is due to a variety of traceable causes, such as the physical condition of the body, external stimuli, such as talking or the ringing of a bell, or psychical factors, such as desires, fears, past thoughts and experiences. Consequently...

The Corporal Works of Mercy "And the crowds asked him, "What then should we do?" He said to them in reply, "Whoever has two cloaks should share with the person who has none. And whoever has food should do likewise." - Luke 3:10-11 The 7 Corporal Works of Mercy are:-To feed the hungry;-To give drink to the thirsty;-To clothe the naked;-To harbor the harborless;-To visit the sick;-To ransom the captive;-To bury the dead. Faith calls us to follow the 10 Commandment, to receive the Sacraments, and to pray, but it also calls us to practice charity for our neighbors...

Featured Term (selected at random):HOLY COMMUNION The Eucharist is the sacrament that preserves the souls' union with God and fosters that union by making a person more holy especially in the practice of the supernatural virtue of charity. As a sacrament of the living, to obtain the graces intended, a person must be in the state of God's friendship when receiving, otherwise the reception becomes a sacrilege (I Corinthians 11:27-29). The union of the communicant with Christ in the Eucharist is effective in the moral order. Though physically present in the communicant, Christ is not physically united with him. Only...

Students at Saint Mary's High School in Kitchener, Ontario just celebrated "anti-homophobia day." According to an article in the Metro News, "The anti-homophobia day event was organized by the school's sexual minority support group known as PRISM - Pride and Respect for Individuals of a Sexual Minority." Officials at Saint Mary's High School have assured everyone that the event is in full accord with Catholic teaching and that the anti-homophobia day is all about following Jesus' example. In a statement which may be found here, we are told that, "Jesus offers us the model for how we should live our...

Helen M. Alvare, law professor at George Mason University. Washington D.C., May 18, 2012 / 04:09 am (CNA).- A law professor at George Mason University believes that current threats to religious freedom are intrinsically connected to the modern understanding that “sexual freedom is about shaping yourself.” Helen Alvaré, who has formerly worked with the U.S. bishops' pro-life office, spoke on May 10 at the Catholic Information Center in Washington, D.C. She observed that many modern threats to religious freedom “are coming by way of a newly strong government position on human sexuality.”This view holds that sex is unrelated to...

Featured Term (selected at random): .subadimg { text-align:center; } .subadimg a img { border:none; }   DAYS OF ABSTINENCE The days pre-scribed for the universal Church on which the faithful are forbidden to take flesh meat or anything made from meat. All Fridays of the year, except holy days of obligation, are days of abstinence; but since 1966 there is an option to substitute another form of penance. Abstinence must be observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, and all the Fridays in Lent. Abstinence becomes binding at the age of fourteen. All items in this dictionary are from Fr....

It is not uncommon to hear anti-pretribulationists discount pretribulationism because the Bible teaches that Christians will suffer for Christ. Since pretribulationists teach that the church will not go through the tribulation, some attempt to equate this with a view that Believers will never experience hardship of any kind during the current church age. This is a distortion of our views. Pretribulationism teaches, by God’s grace and decree, the church will not go through the time of God’s wrath because the tribulation is designed for purposes which do not include the church. In fact, we believe that during the church age...

Featured Term (selected at random):PROMULGATION The act of announcing a law publicly, with the effect of obliging its observance from the date expressed. Laws enacted by the Holy See are promulgated by publication in the official Acta Apostolicae Sedis. They have binding force three months after the date affixed to the Acta. However, in a special case the Pope is free to promulgate a law in other ways. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

The tragic link between abortion and contraception May 16, 2012 By Most Rev. James D. Conley, S.T.L., Apostolic Administrator In 1992, the U.S. Supreme Court made the second-most important decision about abortion to date. The case was Planned Parenthood v. Casey and at issue was the right of states to regulate the practice of abortion. The court's decision was a double-edged sword. Tragically, it confirmed the decision of Roe v. Wade and affirmed the principle that abortion should be legally available in the United States through all nine months of pregnancy. The decision was wrong, from both a moral and...

Jesus says: "When I put in Zephaniah's mouth that I wll take away everything from the earth, I am having him prophesy what will happen the day before the eve of the last time. I then announced the same thing when I spoke about the destruction of the world, veiled behind the description of the ruin of the Temple and of Jerusalem. Later the Beloved prophesied it again in his Apocalypse (Rev.14:14-20, 19:11-21, 20:1-15). The voices follow each other. In fact, I can say that, as in a sacred building erected to testify the glory of the Lord, the voices...

Infallibility Christ gave to Simon Peter and his successors, the Keys to the Kingdom and the power of binding and loosing. To the Popes was given the authority to teach. To them, in this regard, was given the charism of infallibility. "Infallibility" is not "impeccability" -- the inability to sin. Catholics do not believe that Popes are sinless and never err. Infallibility is simply a gift that is expressed in very specific ways, limited by Sacred Deposit of Faith -- Tradition, Scripture, and the unanimous writings of the early Fathers. As put by Vatican I: For the Holy Spirit...

Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus Traditional True Holy Mass Propers † Dominica Quinta Post Pascha ~ Fifth Sunday After Easter † Anno Dómini 13 May 2012 Commemorating † The Ascension of Our Lord, Christ Jesus † † The Presence of The Blessed Virgin Mary at Fátima, Portugal † † Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament † Color : Albus/White Vestments II Classis ~ Second Class Semi-Double Observance Vocem jucunditátis annuntiáte, et audiátur, allelúja: annuntiáte usque ad extrémum terræ: liberávit, Dóminus pópulum suum. Allelúja, allelúja.... ( Declare it with the voice of joy, and make it known, alleluia: declare it...

Featured Term (selected at random):SIRACH See: ECCLESIASTICUS All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Since we ourselves cannot fulfil the demands of the Law, God requires faith in the crucified and risen Christ for eternal life. But is this requirement of faith any easier for us than the requirement to obey the commandments? No, even this demand is too hard us ... because the natural man is spiritually blind to God's beauty and by nature hostile toward God, as the Scripture affirms (Rom 8:7,1 Cor 2:14). No one, left to themselves, will exercise faith in Christ ... that is, no one will naturally understand and love the gospel, thereby trusting in Christ unless God...

Featured Term (selected at random):SUICIDE The direct killing of oneself on one's own authority. It is a grave sin against the natural and revealed law. The suicide offends against the divine precept "You shall not kill." One causes grave injury to the welfare of society and violates the virtue of charity to oneself. God is the supreme and exclusive owner of all things, so that exercising ownership over life is lawful only to God. He alone can take human life when he wills. The one who directly takes his or her own life violates the rights of God. (Etym. Latin...

Abortion and ExcommunicationMay 20, 2004 Any Catholic who obstinately denies that abortion is always gravely immoral, commits the sin of heresy and incurs an automatic sentence of excommunication. Canon Law and Church Teaching Canon 1398: “A person who procures a completed abortion incurs a latae sententiae excommunication.” Canon 751: “Heresy is the obstinate denial or obstinate doubt after the reception of baptism of some truth which is to be believed by divine and Catholic faith; apostasy is the total repudiation of the Christian faith; schism is the refusal of submission to the Supreme Pontiff or of communion with the members...

[dc]O[/dc]n May 14, noted philanthropist and neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson is scheduled to give the commencement address at Emory University and receive an honorary degree. But there is a problem. In recent weeks Emory faculty and students have asked the University to disinvite Dr. Carson because he is a critic of evolutionary theory and advocate of creationism. Faculty and staff have written that Dr. Carson’s “great achievements in medicine allow him to be viewed as someone who ‘understands science’” poses a direct threat to science that “rests squarely on the shoulders of evolution.” The anti-Carson letter describes how there is...

Featured Term (selected at random):MATERIAL CO-OPERATION Assisting in another's wrongdoing without approving it. The help given assists a person to perform the sinful action, although of itself the help is not wrong. To provide necessary information to a thief, because one is forced to, would be material co-operation. Material co-operation with another person's evil action is allowed provided certain conditions are fulfilled. Such collaboration is licit because the co-operator does not internally approve of the sin of another, nor does he or she approve of the sinful use to which the assistance is put by the other. The following principles...

“I Make Myself a Leper” Damien of Molokai made a total gift of self. By: Jeanne Kun  May 10 is the feast of St. Damien of Molokai, the Belgian missionary who volunteered to serve the people who had been banished to a government-sanctioned leper colony on the Hawaiian island of Mokokai. The bishop who accompanied Fr. Joseph Damien de Veuster when the priest came to live among the lepers told the crowd that he had brought them “one who will be a father to you, and who loves you so much that … he does not hesitate to become...

Featured Term (selected at random):ANTISTES The title in liturgical language sometimes given to a bishop. It identifies him as the chief priest of the diocese. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

It was St. Augustine, Father and Doctor of the Church, who said, "Interficere errorem, diligere errantem" - Kill the error, love the one who errs. I have actually taken that as the motto for this Blog. Gaudium et Spes of the Second Vatican Council put it this way: "..it is necessary to distinguish between error, which always merits repudiation, and the person in error, who never loses the dignity of being a person even when he is flawed by false or inadequate religious notions. God alone is the judge and searcher of hearts, for that reason He forbids us to...

One of the disappointments of the post-Vatican II period has been the glacial pace of the growth in Catholic biblical literacy the Council hoped to inspire. Why the slow-down? Several reasons suggest themselves.The hegemony of the historical-critical method of biblical study has taught two generations of Catholics that the Bible is too complicated for ordinary people to understand: so why read what only savants can grasp? Inept preaching, dissecting the biblical text with historical-critical scalpels or reducing Scripture to a psychology manual, has also been a turn-off to Bible-study. Then there is the clunkiness of the New American Bible,...

You know the conversations.“Catholicism is so out-dated and inflexible!� “You don’t really need to follow the Vatican’s teaching to be loyal to the faith.� “Catholic to Catholic Church: It’s Reality-Check Time.�There are all manner of arguments people make to assert that the Catholic Church should evolve with the times to stay modern, to gain proselytes lest followers depart and the cranky old religion ceases to exist. “Change or perish!� they say.And they’ve been saying it for 2,000 plus years.It’s sensible to reply, “Well, Truth does not change.� It’s easy to then launch into an explanation about the objectivity and immutability...

Clarifying Certain Misunderstandings About ConfirmationBy: Msgr. Charles Pope Yesterday we discussed a bit about baptism and some of the pastoral practices surrounding it. Today in a kind of companion piece I’d like to address some of the distortions and confusion that often surround the Sacrament of Confirmation.Some one once said that Confirmation is the Sacrament in search of a theology. While not true, the statement does capture that there is a lot of incorrect and sometimes silly teaching about this sacrament to young people. And since it is the season for Confirmations, it may be helpful to explore what...

Listening To Mary’s Voice – Part 7 (Her Final Words) Feb 27th, 2012by Gary Zimak.   As we conclude this series on Mary’s words in Scripture, her advice to the servants at Cana summarizes her faith and how she lived her life. After informing Jesus that “they have no wine”, Mary turned to the servants and uttered her last recorded words in the Bible:“Do whatever he tells you.” (John 2:5)Throughout this study, we have listened to the Blessed Mother’s words as she teaches us how to better live our Christian faith:“How can this be, since I have no relations with...

Featured Term (selected at random):GILEAD 1. father of the valiant Jephthah (Judges 11:1), who led the Israelites in their victorious wars against the Ammonites and Ephraimites; 2. part of the territory given by Moses to Gad as his inheritance when the country was apportioned among Israel's tribes. It was a grain-producing region in the Jordan valley between the Yarmuk and Arnon rivers (Joshua 13:24-25). All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Featured Term (selected at random):MENSA The flat top of a fixed or consecrated altar. The portable altar stone sometimes carries the designation of both altar and mensa. The word is also applied to that portion of church property which is set aside for the support of the prelate or the serving ministry. In a canonical sense a mensa requires that the church property be divided equitably between the part that belongs to the clergy and the part to be administered as belonging to the church community. (Etym. Latin mensa, table.) All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's...

Here's 3 excerpted paragraphs DARPA is at it again. This time, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has announced plans to create nanochips for monitoring troops health on the battlefield. Kate Knibbs at Mobiledia reports the sensors are targeted at preventing illness and disease, the two causes of most troops medical evacuations. . . . Bob Unruh at WND reports one of those opponents, Katherine Albrecht, co-author of Spychips says “It’s never going to happen that the government at gunpoint says, ‘You’re going to have a tracking chip. It’s always in incremental steps. If you can put a microchip in...

Featured Term (selected at random):SOUTANE A cassock worn by the clergy. A long, fitted garment covering the body from neck to ankle, fastened by means of buttons, sash, or cord. (Etym. French; from Italian sottana, garment worn under [religious vestments], from sotto, under; from Latin subtus, beneath, from sub, under.) All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus Traditional True Holy Mass Propers † Dominica Quarta Post Pascha ~ Fourth Sunday After Easter † Anno Dómini 6 May 2012 Commemorating† Blessed Apostle Saint John at the Latin Gate † Color : Albus/White Vestments II Classis ~ Second Class Observance Cantáte Domino cánticum novum, allelúja: quia mirabília fecit Dóminus, allelúja: ante conspéctum géntium revelávit justítiam suam. Allelúja, allelúja, allelúja.... ( Sing ye to the Lord a new canticle, alleluia, for the Lord hath done wonderful things, alleluia; He hath revealed His justice in the sight of the Gentiles, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.... ) "....Sed ego...

Actor Keira Knightley, a self-confessed atheist, says she is desperate to be Catholic because she would “just get to ask for forgiveness”. “It sounds much better than having to live with guilt. It’s absolutely extraordinary. If only I wasn’t an atheist, I could get away with anything,”

It takes bravery to follow Christ as priests Bishop's Column Thursday, May. 03, 2012 -- 12:00 AM This column is the bishop’s communication with the faithful of the Diocese of Madison. Any wider circulation reaches beyond the intention of the bishop. This past Sunday is often called, “Good Shepherd Sunday.” The word the Scriptures use is really not adequately translated in English as simply, “good.” The word really means, “honorable, worthy, noble,” or, “so excellent in every way that its goodness is itself beautiful.” And, in particular, our Gospel for this past Sunday (Jn 10:11-18) points out that the shepherd...

ST. CATHARINES, ONT. — Doris Rosado watches her teenage daughters, Ninette and Kiara Mongrut, get the numbers “666” tattooed on their wrists, beaming with pride. The number typically conjures up biblical symbolism tied to the Antichrist, but this St. Catharines, Ont., family belongs to a obscure Christian sect for which “666” is a positive symbol of their group’s messianic leader. “They wanted to do it,” Ms. Rosado, 45, said at the St. Catharines tattoo parlour where her daughters were inked. “But now it’s more important because we’re counting down… I’m so proud.” For this family, and other members of Growing...

Apologetics: The Next Generation Young Adults Find New Ways to Defend the Faith by Eddie O'Neil in Faith on Saturday, April 17, 2010 6:00 AM Easter reminds us to go and share the good news of Christ’s glorious resurrection. Young adults who are on fire for the faith are doing just that using some traditional means of defending the Church — as well as tapping into the use of new media to get the message out.Down south at Texas A&M University, the opportunities are plentiful for the more than 12,000 Catholics students to get involved in their faith. According to...

Fr. Niklaus Pfluger, FSSPX, is the First Assistant of the Superior General of the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX). He was the main speaker at a conference promoted in Hattersheim, Hesse, Germany, this past Sunday, by the Actio Spes Unica association in which he talked about Rome, the Society, and the future. The following is a translation of the official summary of the conference (original, in German): Account of the most recent developments Nothing new – that is how one could describe the first half hour of the conference given by Fr. Niklaus Pfluger at this year’s Spes-Unica-Sunday: the...

Many writers focus here on what they consider to be the moral failings of the woman making her out to be an immoral loose woman but this reads into the text what is not there. In reality, the focus is on the failure of the men in her life. We are simply not told how she came to lose her husbands; was she divorced or was she widowed? In view of social practices in ancient Samaria, it is not unlikely that the woman was married more than once to men very much her senior in which case she could well...