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What Ever Happened to the Spiritual Works of Mercy? By: Msgr. Charles PopeDuring daily masses at this time we are beginning to read through John Chapter 6. There of course is a glorious focus and teaching of the Lords true presence in the Most Blessed Sacrament.However, there is also another important teaching given at a critical moment in chapter 6 that is important for us to lay hold of today. It is a call to recover a greater awareness of the importance of the spiritual works of mercy. We will list what they are in the moment, but for now, consider that, despite living in rather...

When the Roman Pontiff speaks EX CATHEDRA...he possesses, by the divine assistance promised to him in blessed Peter, that infallibility which the divine Redeemer willed his Church to enjoy in defining doctrine concerning faith or morals. Therefore, such definitions of the Roman Pontiff are of themselves, and not by the consent of the Church, irreformable (Vatican I, 1869b, chap. 4, s. 9). This is the dogma declared by Pope Pius IX, and approved by the Vatican I Council, in regard to the alleged infallible teaching authority of the Roman pontiff. For more than a century, this dogma has pressed greatly...

The Greatness of Little Things: A Reflection on a Quote From St. Augustine By: Msgr. Charles PopeI have found that one of my favorite quotes from St. Augustine  is not all that well known. Here it is in Latin, followed by my own translation: Quod minimum, minimum est, Sed in minimo fidelem esse,magnum est.What is a little thing,  is (just) a little thing.But to be faithful in a little thingis a great thing. (from St. Augustine’s De Doctrina Christiana, IV,35)I first saw this quote on the frontispiece of a book by Adrian Fortescue. Fortescue applied it to the intricate details of celebrating...

At the Italian site Nuova Bussola, we find the observations of Oscar Card. Rodriguez Maradiaga about the possibility of Communion for the divorced and remarried. Impossible? “No!”, says the Cardinal. And if the upcoming Synod rejects the proposal, the Kasperite Solution, hey!… maybe there could be a third synod on the question! And His Eminence seems to be putting a great deal of stock in polls. I’m in my car in a parking lot, so I can’t do the translation at the time of this posting. In tutto il mondo, aggiunge Maradiaga, “i sondaggi dicono che la gente non vuole...

There are usually a few Masses per year at which there can be expected to be a large number of non-Catholics present. Christmas and Easter Masses are popular with non-Catholics, mainly because they are visiting Catholic family and friends. Nuptial Masses, especially when one of the parties to be married is a non-Catholic Christian, will have large turnouts of non-Catholics (sometimes up to half the congregation). Non-Catholics can also be expected at Masses offered for other sacramental firsts and life-cycle events, such as confirmations and funerals.This reality raises a common question for the apologists here at Catholic Answers: What...

One commenter said: The way you write, I guess, seems to me to reveal a near certainty concerning the falsity of Catholic Doctrine. It seems as though you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Catholicism simply couldn’t be true. And you’re willing to hang everything on that confidence. Too often, an argument is put forth in this form: “Protestantism has lots of problems. Therefore, Catholicism.” I once looked at it this way myself. I was hanging around some close friends who were starting a fellowship for “completed Jews,” — that is, these were all Jewish people who had...

Featured Term selected at random:HOLY HILL A shrine of Mary, Help of Christians in Hubertus, Wisconsin, northwest of Milwaukee. A statue of the Madonna, arms outstretched, with the Child beside her, is the central feature of the shrine. The present edifice is the third church built since 1863, when the first log building became to small to hold the pilgrims who came to Holy Hill, where it is reputed that Jacques Marquette first planted the Cross. Now in charge of the shrine, the Carmelites have built a six-story monastery on the grounds. Discarded crutches and braces there attest to the...

Strange but Rich Verses File: What Does Acts 1:4 Mean by Saying That Jesus Was “Eating Salt with Them”? By: Msgr. Charles PopeThere is an unusual verse that occurs in the first chapter of the Acts the Apostles, describing a gathering of Jesus and the Apostles after the resurrection but before the ascension. For the most part, modern translations do not reveal the full oddity of the verse. The verse in question, as rendered by the Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition, is,And while staying with them he charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father (Acts 1:4).However,...

In desperation, the Philippian jailor cried, “What must I do to be saved?” Paul’s reply was simple: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts:16:31). The great apostle said nothing about baptism or sacraments, candles, incense, church attendance, reforming one’s life, or anything else being necessary or even helpful for salvation. From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible makes it clear that there is nothing a sinner can do , much less must do , to pay the infinite penalty required by God’s justice. One can and need only believe in Christ, who paid the penalty in...

As world Catholicism’s gravity shifts away from Western Europe and towards the developing world, listening to Africans like Cardinal Robert Sarah may be something that even the most hidebound of liberal German theologians won’t be able to avoid in the future.

Perhaps the biggest falsehood about Helder Camara is the one that presents him as a friend of the poor and defender of freedom. The title, defender of freedom fits very badly on one who sang the praises of some of the bloodiest dictatorships that constellated the 20th century; first Nazism, and then Communism in all of its variants: Soviet, Cuban, Chinese… Most of all, however, the title friend of the poor does not fit at all one who sustained regimes that have caused such terrifying poverty, described by the then Cardinal Ratzinger as “the shame of our times.”

Q: Can the pope or the Catholic Church change, eliminate, or discontinue mortal sins — such as  missing Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation — as they did with the mortal sin of not eating meat on Fridays and eliminating some of the holy days of obligation?         A: The short answer is, “No.” Something either is a mortal sin or it isn’t a mortal sin and neither the Pope nor the Church can change that. In order to commit a mortal sin, three conditions have to be met: 1) Full awareness of the intellect; 2) Full consent of the...

The Didache - The Complete Text 1 There Are Two Ways 1:1 There are two ways, one of life and one of death! and there is a great difference between the two ways. 1:2 The way of life is this: First, you shall love God who made you. And second, love your neighbor as yourself, and do not do to another what you would not want done to you. 1:3 The meaning of these sayings is this: Bless those who curse you, and pray for your enemies, and fast for those who persecute you. For what reward is there...

A Short Meditation on the “Look” of Jesus By: Msgr. Charles PopeI have a large Icon of Christ in my room. What icons from the Eastern tradition do best is to capture “the Look.” No matter where I move in the room Christ is looking right at me. His look is intense, though not severe. In the Eastern spirituality Icons are windows into heaven. Hence this icon is no mere portrait that reminds one of Christ, it is an image which mediates his presence. When I look upon him, I experience that he knows me. It is a knowing...

Featured Term selected at random:SANCTIFYING GRACE  The supernatural state of being infused by God, which permanently inheres in the soul. It is a vital principle of the supernatural life, as the rational soul is the vital principle of a human being's natural life. It is not a substance but a real quality that becomes part of the soul substance. Although commonly associated with the possession of the virtue of charity, sanctifuing grace is yet distinct from this virtue. Charity, rather, belongs to the will, whereas sanctifying grace belongs to the whole soul, mind, will, and affections. It is called...

Two Gifts of Deeper Prayer: Silence and Spaciousness By: Msgr. Charles PopeOne of the great spiritual battles and journeys is to get beyond, and outside our self. St. Augustine described one of the chief effects of sin was that man was curvatus in se (turned in on himself, i.e. turned inward). Forgetful of God we loose our way. Called to look outward and upward, to behold the Lord and his glory, instead we focus inward and downward, on things that are passing, noisy, troubling, and far less noble. No longer seeing our Father’s face and experiencing joyful confidence, we...

He slipped His fingers in the man’s ears. Spitting, He touched the man’s tongue. Then He looked up to heaven and groaned.“Ephphatha!” Jesus said.So goes the account of the healing of the deaf man near the Sea of Galilee, as told in Mark.The word is one of a handful of words in Aramaic—believed to be the vernacular language of Jesus—that survived into the Greek New Testament. We don’t have to find an Aramaic dictionary to discover the meaning of this word. Mark readily supplies a definition: Be opened! Immediately, then, we are told that the man’s ears were “opened”...

Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, has announced, on the heels of the recent beatification of Pope Paul VI, an exciting new candidate for beatification on the increasingly crowded Expressway to the Ever-Widening Gate of Heaven. It seems that Cardinal Walter Kasper, President Emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, has now introduced the cause of Annibale Bugnini, the architect of the highly-touted liturgical reform of Vatican II, to the Congregation. Kasper reportedly gave his permission to open an investigation into Abp. Bugnini’s virtues in response to repeated and urgent requests from...

The following is an edited transcript of the audio. Are Christians under the 10 commandments? No. The Bible says we're not under the law. I love Romans 7:4-6. By way of analogy, it says that you are married to the law. And you better stay married because if you leave this husband and go marry another you are going to be called an adulterer. But if your husband dies, then you can go and remarry. And then Paul draws the analogy out—a little complex the way he does it—saying that you died to the law. You aren't married anymore, you...

God’s Perfect Mercy – A Meditation for Divine Mercy Sunday By: Msgr. Charles PopeWe live in times in which mercy, like so many other things, has become a detached concept in people’s minds, separated from the things that really help us to understand it. For indeed, mercy makes sense and is necessary because we are sinners in desperate shape. Yet many today think it unkind and unmerciful to speak of sin as sin. Many think that mercy is a declaration that God doesn’t really care about sin, or that sin is not a relevant concept.On the contrary, mercy means that sin...