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Audrey Strauss, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and William F. Sweeney Jr., Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), announced the arrest today of FRANCIS HUGHES.  HUGHES, 65, a pastor at a religious institution in Queens, New York, is charged with receiving images of child pornography via text from a 15-year-old minor in Westchester, New York, with whom Hughes was engaging in sexually explicit text communications.  HUGHES was arrested this morning and will be presented later today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisa Margaret Smith in...

July 30, 2020 Thursday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Jer 18:1-6 This word came to Jeremiah from the LORD: Rise up, be off to the potter’s house; there I will give you my message. I went down to the potter’s house and there he was, working at the wheel. Whenever the object of clay which he was making turned out badly in his hand, he tried again, making of the clay another object of whatever sort he pleased. Then the word of the LORD came to me: Can I not do to you, house of Israel,...

July 29, 2020 Memorial of Saint Martha Reading 1 Jer 15:10, 16-21 Woe to me, mother, that you gave me birth! a man of strife and contention to all the land! I neither borrow nor lend, yet all curse me. When I found your words, I devoured them; they became my joy and the happiness of my heart, Because I bore your name, O LORD, God of hosts. I did not sit celebrating in the circle of merrymakers; Under the weight of your hand I sat alone because you filled me with indignation. Why is my pain continuous, my wound...

July 28, 2020 Tuesday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Jer 14:17-22 Let my eyes stream with tears day and night, without rest, Over the great destruction which overwhelms the virgin daughter of my people, over her incurable wound. If I walk out into the field, look! those slain by the sword; If I enter the city, look! those consumed by hunger. Even the prophet and the priest forage in a land they know not.Have you cast Judah off completely? Is Zion loathsome to you? Why have you struck us a blow that cannot be healed? We...

July 20, 2020 Monday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Jer 13:1-11 The LORD said to me: Go buy yourself a linen loincloth; wear it on your loins, but do not put it in water. I bought the loincloth, as the LORD commanded, and put it on. A second time the word of the LORD came to me thus: Take the loincloth which you bought and are wearing, and go now to the Parath; there hide it in a cleft of the rock. Obedient to the LORD’s command, I went to the Parath and buried the loincloth....

July 26 2020 Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Reading 1 1 Kgs 3:5, 7-12 The LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream at night. God said, “Ask something of me and I will give it to you.” Solomon answered: “O LORD, my God, you have made me, your servant, king to succeed my father David; but I am a mere youth, not knowing at all how to act. I serve you in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a people so vast that it cannot be numbered or counted. Give your servant, therefore, an understanding heart to...

July 25 2020 Feast of Saint James, Apostle Reading 1 2 Cor 4:7-15 Brothers and sisters: We hold this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being given up to death for the sake of Jesus, so that...

July 20, 2020 Friday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Jer 3:14-17 Return, rebellious children, says the LORD, for I am your Master; I will take you, one from a city, two from a clan, and bring you to Zion. I will appoint over you shepherds after my own heart, who will shepherd you wisely and prudently. When you multiply and become fruitful in the land, says the LORD, They will in those days no longer say, “The ark of the covenant of the LORD!” They will no longer think of it, or remember it, or miss...

A shocking Vatican perspective on the pandemic The latest document from the Vatican, a reflection on the CO19 pandemic, is an embarrassment to the Catholic faithful. The Pontifical Academy for Life, under the leadership of the controversial Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, produced the document, and the Vatican press office introduced it on July 22 with a title as prolix as the statement itself: “Useful information on the Document of the Pontifical Academy for Life: Humana Communitas in the age of pandemic: untimely meditations on life’s rebirth.” That title is misleading; the document provides very little hard information. But I will grant...

July 23, 2020 Thursday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Jer 2:1-3, 7-8, 12-13 This word of the LORD came to me: Go, cry out this message for Jerusalem to hear!I remember the devotion of your youth, how you loved me as a bride, Following me in the desert, in a land unsown. Sacred to the LORD was Israel, the first fruits of his harvest; Should any presume to partake of them, evil would befall them, says the LORD.When I brought you into the garden land to eat its goodly fruits, You entered and defiled my land,...

July 22, 2020 Wednesday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time July 21 | July 23Reading 1 Sgs 3:1-4b The Bride says: On my bed at night I sought him whom my heart loves– I sought him but I did not find him. I will rise then and go about the city; in the streets and crossings I will seek Him whom my heart loves. I sought him but I did not find him. The watchmen came upon me, as they made their rounds of the city: Have you seen him whom my heart loves? I had hardly left them...

July 21, 2020 Monday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Mi 7:14-15, 18-20 Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your inheritance, That dwells apart in a woodland, in the midst of Carmel. Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old; As in the days when you came from the land of Egypt, show us wonderful signs.Who is there like you, the God who removes guilt and pardons sin for the remnant of his inheritance; Who does not persist in anger forever, but delights rather in clemency, And will again...

July 20, 2020 Monday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Mi 6:1-4, 6-8 Hear what the LORD says: Arise, present your plea before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice! Hear, O mountains, the plea of the LORD, pay attention, O foundations of the earth! For the LORD has a plea against his people, and he enters into trial with Israel.O my people, what have I done to you, or how have I wearied you? Answer me! For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, from the place of slavery I released you;...

Posted on July 18, 2020 by Msgr. Charles Pope Saint or Ain’t? A Homily for the 16th Sunday of the Year We live in difficult times for the Church; from many sectors the very legitimate cry for reform goes up frequently. Beyond the sexual abuse scandal there are also deep concerns regarding the uncertain trumpet of Catholic preaching, lukewarm and nominal Catholics, an overall lack of self-discipline among Catholics, and a lack of disciplining by the bishops and clergy of those Catholics (lay and clergy) who cause scandal. The list of concerns is long, and in general I have...

July 19 2020 Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Wis 12:13, 16-19 There is no god besides you who have the care of all, that you need show you have not unjustly condemned. For your might is the source of justice; your mastery over all things makes you lenient to all. For you show your might when the perfection of your power is disbelieved; and in those who know you, you rebuke temerity. But though you are master of might, you judge with clemency, and with much lenience you govern us; for power, whenever you will, attends you....

July 18 2020 Saturday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Mi 2:1-5 Woe to those who plan iniquity, and work out evil on their couches; In the morning light they accomplish it when it lies within their power. They covet fields, and seize them; houses, and they take them; They cheat an owner of his house, a man of his inheritance. Therefore thus says the LORD: Behold, I am planning against this race an evil from which you shall not withdraw your necks; Nor shall you walk with head high, for it will be a time...

Posted on July 16, 2020July 16, 2020 by Msgr. Charles Pope If You Think You’re in a Hurry, You Have No Idea of How Fast You Are Getting There. Have you been feeling a little rushed lately? Well, you might be surprised to find out how fast you’re actually moving even when you think you’re “standing still.” Earth, at the latitude of Washington, D.C., is spinning at a rate of about 750 miles per hour [1].At the same time, the spinning Earth is rotating around the Sun at approximately 67,000 miles per hour [2].And the Sun around which we...

July 17 2020 Friday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Is 38:1-6, 21-22, 7-8 When Hezekiah was mortally ill, the prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz, came and said to him: “Thus says the LORD: Put your house in order, for you are about to die; you shall not recover.” Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD:“O LORD, remember how faithfully and wholeheartedly I conducted myself in your presence, doing what was pleasing to you!” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah: “Go, tell Hezekiah: Thus...

July 16 2020 Thursday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Is 26:7-9, 12, 16-19 The way of the just is smooth; the path of the just you make level. Yes, for your way and your judgments, O LORD, we look to you; Your name and your title are the desire of our souls. My soul yearns for you in the night, yes, my spirit within me keeps vigil for you; When your judgment dawns upon the earth, the world’s inhabitants learn justice. O LORD, you mete out peace to us, for it is you who have...

[Catholic Caucus] ‘We Live for Christ,’ Says Priest in Viral Photo Bringing Last Rites in Horrific Wreck Above, Father John Killackey walks down Interstate 81 southbound on July 8. HARRISBURG, Pa. — A lone young priest in a cassock walked in a downpour toward the scene of a horrific wreck of tractor-trailers and cars on a Pennsylvania interstate and gave the last rites to a truck driver, the lone fatality of the crash. Unbeknownst to him, a bystander photographed the moment, which captured the imagination of social media and went viral. The priest, Father John Killackey, was identified as a...