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White Double IN 1517 A CRUEL BLOW fell upon the great Augustinian family; Luther, one of its members, raised the cry of revolt which was to be echoed for centuries by every passion. But the illustrious Order, which had unwittingly nurtured this child of evil, was none the less acceptable to God; and He deigned, before long, to demonstrate this, for the consolation of institutes whose very excellence exposes unworthy subjects to more dangerous falls. It was at the First Vespers of All Saints that Luther broached, at Wittenburg, his famous theses against indulgences and the authority of the...

Franciscan Media Image: St. Matthew and the Angel | Guido Reni Saint Matthew Saint of the Day for September 21 (c. 1st Century)  Saint Matthew’s Story Matthew was a Jew who worked for the occupying Roman forces, collecting taxes from other Jews. The Romans were not scrupulous about what the “tax farmers” got for themselves. Hence the latter, known as “publicans,” were generally hated as traitors by their fellow Jews. The Pharisees lumped them with “sinners” (see Matthew 9:11-13). So it was shocking to them to hear Jesus call such a man to be one of his intimate followers.Matthew...

ARGENTINA, September 20, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – An Argentinian archbishop who is a close friend of Pope Francis has suggested that former U.S. nuncio Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò suffers from megalomania, a delusional mental illness “marked by feelings of personal omnipotence and grandeur.” Víctor Manuel “Tucho” Fernández, Archbishop of La Plata, Argentina said in an interview that Viganò has placed his conservative ideological interests above the good of the people who, as a result, end up confused and hopeless. The Fernández interview is filled with hyperbolic statements ranging from accusing Viganò of seeking to groundlessly discredit Pope Francis through his testimony...

US bishops have asked for a Vatican investigation, but the Pope has so far not committedThe Archbishop of New York said Thursday that while he has confidence in the way Pope Francis is handling the Church’s ongoing sexual abuse crisis, he has grown “impatient” while awaiting a decision from the pope on a request made by U.S. bishops more than one month ago. Speaking at a press conference Sept. 21, Cardinal Timothy Dolan called for a formal investigation- an apostolic visitation- of the Church in the United States in response to allegations that have surfaced in recent months regarding decades...

The Archbishop of Newark has announced that he will not attend an October gathering of bishops slated to discuss young adults and vocational discernment. The archbishop cited his pastoral obligations in the archdiocese amid the U.S. Church’s ongoing sexual abuse crisis.“This Synod is a uniquely important moment in the life of the Church, and I was honored to have been named by the Holy Father as a member of this special gathering whose topic, Young People, Faith and Vocational Discernment, is of vital concern to the Church today and in the future,” Cardinal Joseph Tobin wrote in a Sept. 21...

After many years of sex scandals in the Catholic Church, someone finally blew the whistle in a way that could not be ignored. Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganó, a retired Vatican envoy to the United States, said on August 22nd that Pope Francis should resign because he had failed to discipline a major sex offender, former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, D.C. Archbishop Viganó accused McCarrick of having preyed upon Catholic seminarians for many years. He said that Pope Francis “must be the first to set a good example for cardinals and bishops who covered up McCarrick’s abuses.” The Pope, he...

Why is this accused gay predator still running the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception? The other day I received a call from a former Catholic University of America student who recounted episodes of sexual harassment that he suffered at the hands of Monsignor Walter Rossi, the Gay Mafioso whom pederast Cardinal Theodore McCarrick appointed to run the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in 2005. Rossi succeeded another accused gay harasser, (then monsignor, later bishop) Michael Bransfield who is currently under investigation for preying upon men. So in Rossi’s rise we see another case of gay...

Knowing the Bad News Unlocks the Good News Msgr. Charles Pope • September 20, 2018 • Christ in the House of Simon, Dirk Bouts (1440)Some people suggest that the Church should speak less of sin and instead emphasize positive things. After all, it is said that one can attract more flies with honey than with vinegar. In that vein, we in the Church have been collectively de-emphasizing sin to a large degree for decades, and yet our churches have been getting emptier and emptier. Maybe this is because people are just a little more complicated than the flies in...

FR ROBERT ALTIER’S TRUTHFUL HOMILY ABOUT THE CURRENT CRISIS IN THE CHURCH The following is the transcription of the August 19, 2018 homily given at the Church of St. Raphael in Crystal, Minnesota by Fr. Robert Altier. In the second reading today St. Paul tells us that we have to make the most of our opportunity because the days are evil. We aren’t just simply living in days that are evil, we are living in the days that Isaiah spoke about, the days when they will call evil good and good evil. And we have been brainwashed into thinking that...

Hypocrites call out scandal to make themselves seem pure, the Pope saidWhile God’s holy church is made up of sinners, it also has its share of hypocrites who love to cry “scandal” to point out the failings of others and make themselves appear pure, Pope Francis said at morning Mass. “The devil doesn’t have anything to do with repentant sinners because they look to God and say, ‘Lord, I’m a sinner. Help me,’ and the devil is impotent,” the Pope said during Mass in the Domus Sanctae Marthae on Thursday. “But with the hypocrites he is strong,” Pope Francis said....

Red Double of the Second Class The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the son of Abraham. The Eagle and the Lion have already risen in the heavens of the holy Liturgy; today we salute the Man; and next month the Ox will appear, to complete the number of the four living creatures who draw the chariot of God through the world and surround his throne in heaven. These mysterious beings, with their six seraph-wings, are ever gazing with their innumerable eyes upon the Lamb who stands upon the throne as it were slain;...

September 21, 2018 Feast of Saint Matthew, Apostle and evangelist Reading 1 Eph 4:1-7, 11-13 Brothers and sisters:I, a prisoner for the Lord,urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received,with all humility and gentleness, with patience,bearing with one another through love,striving to preserve the unity of the Spiritthrough the bond of peace:one Body and one Spirit,as you were also called to the one hope of your call;one Lord, one faith, one baptism;one God and Father of all,who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each of...

And so he spoke. Knowing the personal risks of truth-telling in the Church of Bergoglio, Archbishop Viganò stepped off the ledge without a safety net, confident that the truth would provide a soft landing in eternity.No one should doubt the validity of his allegations. They ring true, confirmed by eyewitnesses, validated by his integrity and credibility, grounded in the facts, and boldly asserted in spite of dire personal consequences.These are the markings of a white martyr.Reeling from the powerful aftershocks of the Viganò testimony, Francis chose stone-cold silence. He uttered nine callous words: “I will not say a single word...

Silence? No, it seems the Bishop of Rome has gone insane: Medication may be needed. When questioned on the plane from Dublin what he had to say on the declaration of Abp. Viganò, the Bishop of Rome Francis said the following: I read it and sincerely I must tell you, and all those who are interested: read it yourselves carefully and make your own judgment. I will not say a single word on this. And yet, since his return, if there is one thing he has not been is silent. On the contrary: every single day, in his homilies at...

Franciscan Media Image: Saint Andrew Kim Taegon and Companions | CNS Photo Saints Andrew Kim Taegon, Paul Chong Hasang, and Companions Saint of the Day for September 20 (August 21, 1821 – September 16, 1846; Companions d. between 1839 – 1867)    Saints Andrew Kim Taegon, Paul Chong Hasang, and Companions’ Story The first native Korean priest, Andrew Kim Taegon was the son of Christian converts. Following his baptism at the age of 15, Andrew traveled 1,300 miles to the seminary in Macao, China. After six years, he managed to return to his country through Manchuria. That same year...

“But look, what a scandal! You can’t live like that! We have lost our values... Now everyone has the right to enter the church, even divorced people, everyone? But where are we?”. In the past or in the present many have been the “just” and “pure” people who have pronounced such phrases inside and outside the Church. Francis gives a name to these criticisms and public denunciations: “the scandal of the hypocrites”, he says in today’s mass in Santa Marta. It is “the hypocrisy of those who believe themselves saved for their own external merits”.   Jesus himself shows a...

Some Vatican staff shared the public's dismay at the image - but by then it was too lateA pair of photographs released by the Vatican – one in particular – caused quite a stir on Thursday. The offending image showed members of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops Executive Committee sharing a jocular moment during a meeting with Pope Francis. That in itself is nothing too terribly newsworthy. But the meeting was to discuss the ongoing crisis in the US Church, precipitated by the spectacular fall from grace of one of the hierarchy’s best-known and most influential members: the disgraced...

Over the next decade, the entire archdiocese of Utrecht is estimated to be reduced from 280 to less than 15 churches that still hold Eucharistic celebrations, according to Archbishop Wim Eijk. In an interview with local newspaper the Gelderlander, the Archbishop disclosed that 1 in 10 parishes in his diocese are bankrupt, with only 1 in 10 able to be considered ‘rich’, with the other 8 in 10 being somewhere in between. The problem lies in the fact that there is an ageing population coupled with a rapid decline in church attendance. Catholic Churches are currently seeing an annual decrease...

Some amazing news came out of Australia today with a famous atheist politician receiving baptism. Bill Hayden had been the leader of a major Australian political party, then was the Governor General of Australia for 7 years. (The Governor General is the one who signs bills into law in the Queen’s name in 15 Commonwealth countries.) Recently, at 85, he renounced his atheism and joined the Catholic Church. Getting Close to DeathThe Australian reports his motivation to take this step. Bill Hayden, at age 85, has ­renounced his atheism and been baptised into the Catholic Church. The former Labor leader...

All God’s Children and Nothing Greater Msgr. Charles Pope • September 19, 2018 • We often get anxious about rather petty notions related to our ranking relative to one another. On this topic, the Lord teaches an important lesson in the Gospel of Luke:An argument arose among the disciples about which of them was the greatest.Jesus realized the intention of their hearts and took a child and placed him by his side and said to them, “Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me. For the one who...