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Priest and Victim Are One and the Same – A Meditation on Offering Our Lives to God as Members of a Royal Priesthood Msgr. Charles Pope • April 13, 2016 • A key aspect of the priesthood, set forth by Jesus in the New Covenant, is that priest and victim are one and the same. Prior to this, the priests of the Old Covenant sacrificed animals: lambs, bulls, goats, turtle doves, etc. But in the priesthood of Jesus Christ, the priesthood of the New Covenant, the priest offers himself as victim.Regarding Jesus and His priesthood, Scripture says,For it is...

One thing this campaign season has showed us is who are actual conservatives and who are the cynical opportunists with no values beyond their own bottom line. One of the biggest offenders is Sean Hannity. I’ve never thought that Hannity was the sharpest tool in the shed BUT I had always admired his work ethic, his hustle, and I considered him to be “one of us.” Now there is evidence otherwise. I don’t like quoting ThinkProgress, but, in this case, the odious Judd Legum hits the nail on the head: Trump has appeared on Hannity an astonishing 41 times since...

Glenn Beck brought a fasting child on stage yesterday during his campaign speech for Ted Cruz in Utah. Beck declared to the Cruz crowd: “This is the priesthood rising.”

Priesthood. —The word priest (Germ. Priester; Fr. pretre; Ital. prete) is derived from the Greek presbuteros (the elder, as distinguished from neoteros, the younger), and is, in the hieratical sense, equivalent to the Latin sacerdos, the Greek iereus, and the Hebrew KHN. By the term is meant a (male) person called to the immediate service of the Deity and authorized to hold public worship, especially to offer sacrifice. In many instances the priest is the religious mediator between God (gods) and man and the appointed teacher of religious truths, especially when these include esoteric doctrines. To apply the word...

The Mystery of Being a Priest Msgr. Charles Pope • June 23, 2015 • Each year I concelebrate with hundreds of other priests in the ordination Mass of new priests. I find such Masses deeply spiritual. I have no role other than to quietly concelebrate, so the readings and the rites move me deeply. As I sit quietly, I ponder the mystery of my own priesthood. When I was growing up, there was little to indicate that I would ever become a priest. I was not a particularly spiritual child (at least not after age 7). I did not “play Mass.” In...

One of the surest signs that the Church is indeed flirting with suicide in our day (as foretold by the future Pope Pius XII in reference to the warnings issued by Our Lady of Fatima) is the view of the priesthood so often put forth by high ranking prelates, up to and including the pope. Before addressing the sad state of current affairs directly, let’s begins by considering the portrait of the priesthood painted by Pope St. Pius X in the Apostolic Exhortation, Haerent Animo, wherein the Holy Father makes his intent quite clear: Our first and chief concern is...

This week's Torah portion, Emor, opens with an extensive series of laws regarding the conduct of the Kohanim, the priests of the Jewish nation, who minister and serve in the Tabernacle and the Temple. Because of the elevated status of the Kohanim and the sanctity of the Tabernacle and Temple, priests are required to follow a strict physical and spiritual regimen. Because of the serious responsibility conferred upon them, the Kohanim are expected to live up to a sacred ideal, and be adequately prepared to properly perform their Temple and Tabernacle duties. Members of the priestly class are not, for...

A Brief Directive for Church Leaders from the Acts of the Apostles By: Msgr. Charles PopeThe second reading from today’s Mass is very Catholic and too informative to let pass without comment. It presents a highly organized Church, possessing some of the structures we know today in full form. Granted, some of these structures are in seminal (seed) form, but they are there.We will also notice qualities of the original kerygma that are at variance with what some modern thinkers declare should be the methodology of the Church. The soft, cross-less Christianity of many today, who replace the cross with a pillow and...

Time for Clergy to “Man Up” – How the Exhortation of St. Catherine of Siena is Still Needed Today! By: Msgr. Charles PopeTrue sanctity does not easily fit into our notions of being merely nice or humble. The lives of the actual saints of the Church exude joy and can bring great encouragement to many around them. But it is also true that the great saints were irksome and unsettling to many. Most of the great saints had encountered the holiness of God and wanted to see that holiness be like a fire cast on the earth. When you really want...

Seminarians lead a procession for Mass during the dedication of a new building at the Pontifical North American College in Rome Jan. 6. (CNS photo/Paul Haring) Yesterday the USCCB released some information about men to be ordained priests this year. On average, the report states, the men were 17 years old when they first considered the vocation of priesthood, and 71% said they were encouraged in that regard by a parish priest, "as well as friends (46 percent), parishioners (45 percent), and mothers (40 percent)." And the number of men to be ordained is up 20% from last year:...

Spy Wednesday and a Reflection on the Sins of the Clergy By: Msgr. Charles PopeWednesday of Holy Week is traditionally called “Spy Wednesday,” since it was on this day that Judas conspired with the Temple leadership to hand Jesus over. He would not accomplish his task until the evening of the next day, but this day he made the arrangements and was paid.One way to reflect on this terrible sin is to consider that Judas was among the first priests called by Jesus. We see in the call of the Apostles the establishment of the ministerial priesthood. Jesus called these men to...

The Evolution of the Sacrifice of the Mass: Part 1 March 12, 2009 The most ancient writing depicting what early Christian gatherings looked like come from a work called the Didache, also known as “The Teachings of the Twelve Apostles.” But every Lord’s day do ye gather yourselves together, and break bread, and give thanksgiving after having confessed your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure. But let no one that is at variance with his fellow come together with you, until they be reconciled, that your sacrifice may not be profaned. For this is that which was spoken by the...

In a Blog post which may be found here, Deacon Ryan Duns argues that same-sex "marriage" could actually be beneficial to society. Deacon Duns quotes from Louis Dupre, who said that, "The quality of a civilization may be measured both by the complexity of its ingredients and by the harmony of their order. The more diverse elements it succeeds in integrating within a harmonious and unified balance, the greater its potential and, usually, its achievements are." (Louis Dupré, Passage to Modernity, 29). Then this confused soul writes, "...the Supreme Court's decision to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) has...

On March 15, 1994, a virtual tsunami struck the Liturgy of the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church. Cardinal Antonio Ortas wrote a document to the Episcopal conferences announcing that the Vatican had, for the first time, permitted altar girls. Over 20 years later, many question the impact of this decision as the Church continues to reap a desperately meager harvest of young men responding to God’s call to the Priesthood.Born in 1997, I was blissfully unaware of the damage being wrought in the Eternal City. By the grace of God I was destined to remain ignorant of the fact for many years. Thinking...

Is an American Catholic renaissance possible in our lifetime?Nine years ago I started writing as the “American Papist” because I was, and remain, proud to be both Catholic and an American.We as Christians understand that hope is a necessity of being Catholic because there is no better foundation for hope than the promises of Christ.Newly ordained priests. Copyright: The Catholic Spirit But what signs of hope can be gleaned for the future of the Catholic Church in America?This year, interspersed with my other writing, I’m launching a series of essays around the theme “Signs of Hope” to share and explain...

Depending on who is telling the story, accounts differ as to when the priesthood came to the British Isles. Anglicans tend to give this account: Christianity arrived in the British Isles around AD 47 according to Gildas's De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae. Christians likely entered as metal workers and traders traveling long the tin route between Spain and Ireland. The earliest historical evidence of Christianity among the native Britons is found in the writings of such early Christian Fathers as Tertullian and Origen in the first years of the 3rd century. In the 1st or 2nd century, southern Britain became...

On Saturday, January 3 in Kansas City, Georgia Walker attempted to do what no woman had done before:  She tried to become a Roman Catholic priest.And she’s got the pictures to prove it:  Georgia smiling, arms raised in triumph, vested in red and white, processing down the aisle at St. Mark Hope and Peace Lutheran Church.  Her friend, “Bishop” Bridget Mary Meehan, smiles proudly at her side.  Attending the ceremony were members of the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests, a group of similarly deluded women who imagine themselves to be ordained.Here’s the thing, though:  WOMEN CAN’T BE PRIESTS.No, really!  Women...

Those Catholics who are seeking and hoping to "ordain" women are working within a hermeneutic of revolution. Rose Marie Dunn Hudson and Elsie Hainz McGrath kneel before Patricia Fresen, center, during a ceremony in November 2007 "ordaining" them into a group called the Roman Catholic Womenpriests at a St. Louis synagogue called Central Reform Congregation. (CNS photo/Karen Elshout) Eleven years ago Christine Mayr Lumetzberger was excommunicated because she attempted to be ordained as a Catholic priest. A mischievous and misleading article by British journalist Peter Stanford entitled “Meet the Female Priest Defying Catholicism for her Faith" recounts her story.  Ms....

A Silent Priest is a Dead Priest – A Meditation on a Teaching of St. Gregory the Great By: Msgr. Charles PopeA former Archbishop of Washington was known to often remark, “There’s nothing deader than a dead priest.” Some wondered as to the meaning of this expression, and those who knew him the best explained that it was a sort of version of the old Latin expression Corruptio optime pessima (The corruption of the best is the worst thing of all).Of all the men on the planet who need to be alive, vocal, clear, and active, the priest is...

In a historic vote, the Church of England today approved female bishops. The vote was far from even being close. Women will be bishops in the Church of England after a historic vote in the General Synod, ending 40 years of not being able to do so. An overwhelming 81 per cent of Synod members backed the change, during the sitting in York, and 75 per cent of the laity supported the move.There will no doubt be a great push of the Feminist movement to use this event to further their causes for whatever reasons they may be. There will...