Free Republic

Tuesday, December 6, 2011 Which Christmas Mass are you attending? A little more than a year ago, we moved across town and joined a new parish, much larger than our last one. It has been a great community to get plugged into and get to know. I'm always interested to see how things are done there. One interesting change this year for the parish has been some modifications to the Christmas liturgy schedule. The Christmas Vigil Mass is a children's Mass held at 5 p.m. By all accounts, this is by far the best-attended liturgy. Midnight Mass has been moved...

Vatican City, Dec 18, 2011 / 02:17 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict XVI said today that the virginity of Mary guarantees Jesus’ divinity because it proves the Incarnation is solely the work of God. “The human being that begins to live in her womb takes the flesh from Mary, but his existence is derived entirely from God,” the Pope said Dec. 18 in his final Sunday Angelus address before Christmas.“The fact that Mary conceived while remaining a virgin is, therefore, essential to the understanding of Jesus and our faith, because it witnesses that it was God’s initiative and above...

Edmund was born in London, the son of a bookseller. He was raised a Catholic, given a scholarship to St. John's College, Oxford, when fifteen, and became a fellow when only seventeen. His brilliance attracted the attention of such leading personages as the Earl of Leicester, Robert Cecil, and even Queen Elizabeth.

Thursday, November 10, 2011 "The Roman Catholic Mass is undergoing a major overhaul." [Note: I started this post five days ago, then decided to let it go. But I've decided to post it because I'm curious—see the end of this post—for reader's reactions to the approaching changes to the Missal that will take effect at the start of Advent.] Is it? Really? I guess it depends somewhat on one's perspective. Here is a longer quote from the post titled, "Big changes to Catholic Mass spur confusion in the pews", on the CNN blog:The Roman Catholic Mass is undergoing a...

A Scriptural Reflection on the Readings for November 2, 2011 | The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed | Carl E. Olson“I’ve always had a hard time explaining purgatory,” the man said. “Didn’t the Second Vatican Council say that Catholics no longer have to believe in purgatory?”That remark was made to me years ago, not long after I had entered the Catholic Church. Although I was saddened to hear it, it didn’t surprise me. In the course of studying various Catholic doctrines, I had learned that certain beliefs, including purgatory, were often avoided or even ignored by some Catholics. And...

Judging from the hundreds of thousands of Germans who attended and watched Pope Benedict XVI’s September trip to his homeland (not to mention the tsunami of commentaries sparked by his Bundestag address), the pope’s visit was — once again — a success. And, once again, it was also an occasion for self-identified dissenting Catholics to inform the rest of us what the Church must do if it wants to remain “relevant.” To no-one’s surprise, their bottom-line remains the same. The Church is “out of touch.” Why? Because it’s insufficiently “modern.”By “modernizing,” progressivist Catholic activists (who, incidentally, are increasingly hard to...

The Holy Eucharist is the most important of the seven sacraments because, in this and in no other sacrament, we receive the very body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ. Innumerable, precious graces come to us through the reception of Holy Communion. Communion is an intimate encounter with Christ, in which we sacramentally receive Christ into our bodies, that we may be more completely assimilated into his. "The Eucharist builds the Church," as Pope John Paul II said (Redemptor Hominis 20). It deepens unity with the Church, more fully assimilating us into Christ (1 Cor. 12:13; CCC 1396)....

What is the best devotion to help the souls in purgatory? The holy sacrifice of the Mass is the chief source of devotion for the holy souls. So, the most powerful means to relieve or release a soul from purgatory is through the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. You’ll find that in the Catechism. It says it in 1032: “From the beginning, the Church has honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God.” In Praying With the Saints...

      ST. JEROME              AND THE               VULGATE                              Jerome is one of the four Latin doctors. Whenever one thinks of Jerome one immediately thinks of the Vulgate, his Latin translation of the Bible, which was the standard version until Vatican II in the Roman Catholic Church. His translation of the Old Testament came from the Hebrew, and the New from Greek Texts. It was a task that took him some fifteen years. Indeed it is not so much his...

Anchorage, Alaska, Oct 16, 2011 / 01:16 pm (CNA).- As young girls, Anastasia Kenney and her little sister played Mass. They cloaked their heads in a white curtain, draped accordingly as a bridal veil or a nun’s habit, and served crackers and grape juice to each other as they pretended to receive Holy Communion.Some 30 years later, Kenney is moving into a convent and aspiring to wear a white habit in earnest.The religious vocation startled even her.“I was horrified! I was the least nunnish person I knew,” said Kenney, 35, of her initial inclination. “I thought the last group of...

Facing a growing shortage of priests, the Roman Catholic Church is turning to former priests who left their callings to get married.While the “dispensed” priests won’t be allowed to take confessions or celebrate mass — they will be asked to serve as teachers and lay workers in such roles as helping serve communion to the congregation, roles already filled by lay members of local congregations.“The Vatican has appealed to diocesan bishops to encourage priests who have left ministry in order to get married to play a more active role in parish life,” reports Catholic Herald magazine, which reports that Cardinal...

October 8, 2011   Saturday of the Twenty-Seventh Week in Ordinary Time   Reading 1 Jl 4:12-21 Thus says the LORD:Let the nations bestir themselves and come upto the Valley of Jehoshaphat;For there will I sit in judgmentupon all the neighboring nations. Apply the sickle,for the harvest is ripe;Come and tread,for the wine press is full;The vats overflow,for great is their malice.Crowd upon crowdin the valley of decision;For near is the day of the LORDin the valley of decision.Sun and moon are darkened,and the stars withhold their brightness.The LORD roars from Zion,and from Jerusalem raises his voice;The heavens and the...

What a difference a bishop makes.When the “Catholic” Association for Lesbian & Gay Ministry attempted to hold a fundraiser in a St. Paul-Minneapolis parish several months ago, Archbishop Niensted quickly put a stop to it.When the same “Catholic” Association for Lesbian & Gay Ministry (CALGM) announces it will host its national conference in Albany, NY, Bishop Howard Hubbard agrees to celebrate Mass for them.Bishop Hubbard turns 75 in a little over two years, but he seems intent on continuing to inflict pastoral damage on his diocese until he retires.This is the same bishop who has publicly praised and gave Communion...

VATICAN CITY, 14 SEP 2011 (VIS) - At midday today the Holy See Press Office released the following communique concerning the postion of the Society of St. Pius X: "On 14 September at the offices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal William Joseph Levada, prefect of the congregation and president of the Pontifical Commission 'Ecclesia Dei'; Archbishop Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer S.J., secretary of the congregation, and Msgr. Guido Pozzo, secretary of the pontifical commission, met with Bishop Bernard Fellay, superior general of the Society of St. Pius X, who was accompanied by Fr. Niklaus Pfluger...

SYNAXARION For some time, there have been many ambiguities surrounding the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. Some have confused this doctrine wit that of the virginal conception, the conception of Jesus in the womb of Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit. However, today's feast commemorates the conception of Mary in the womb of Ann. Mary was given the exclusive privilege of being conceived in a state of perfect holiness. In preserving Mary immaculate, the Word of God prepared a dwelling place for himself. Jesus could not permit the forces of evil to have had even for one instant...

A selection of Gloria Hoffner's collection includes a Bavarian rosary, circa 1900, bottom left. In a collection of rosaries that numbers 860, the prayer beads that started it all look like supporting players amid the headliners. There are the shimmering (with garnet beads from Bavaria), the miniature (just three inches long), and the relics (filled with soil from Italy's catacombs).The plain ebony strand that travelled with her grandfather from Ireland and the silver beads that spent decades in a mother's handbag have history on their side."I bought it for my mother when I was 19," said Gloria Hoffner, 82, about...

VIENNA — There is open rebellion among the clergy of Austria's Catholic Church. One highly placed man of the cloth has even warned about the risk of a coming schism as significant numbers of priests are refusing obedience to the Pope and bishops for the first time in memory. The 300-plus supporters of the so-called Priests' Initiative have had enough of what they call the church's "delaying" tactics, and they are advocating pushing ahead with policies that openly defy current practices. These include letting nonordained people lead religious services and deliver sermons; making communion available to divorced people who have...

One way to get a perspective on what God has done, is doing, and will do, is to become familiar with the various temples of Scripture. To begin with, it is necessary to understand the four Jewish temples. Two of these temples existed in past Jewish history. Two of these temples will exist in Israel's future. My previous article gave a brief overview of the first two historical temples. That article concluded by noting that the Scripture predicts a coming third temple that will be desecrated by the Antichrist. Although the Scripture clearly predicts the reality of the coming third...

Welcome to the Ever Persecuted Church! Posted by Frank Of the many reasons that my (former) partners and I have written of answering the title of this blog, this is one that I've never mentioned but I do so now. Persecution. You would have to have your head solidly buried in the sand to miss the fact that of all the great religions the world over, only Christianity, and her members, is constantly bashed, battered, and attacked.And among the many splinters and shards of a broken up, post-Reformation, post-Modern, Christianity available to the modern person trying to choose a faith...

Here is something that should put some heart into readers who are feeling down about continued liberal and dissenting dominance in many places.Here is something from a blog of a Catholic bishop, His Excellency Most. Rev. Christopher Coyne, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis. He was just consecrated bishop this year.Here are a few excerpts, but there is a lot of great material over there. We come into the story while the bishop is having a bit of a vacation…. My emphases and comments. Why I Didn’t Go to Confession Today.This morning I attended Mass rather than concelebrated Mass....