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Franciscan Media Image: Altar of Saint Nikola Tavelić in church of St. Francis of Assisi, Šibenik, Croatia | photo by ignot Saint Nicholas Tavelic and Companions Saint of the Day for November 6 (1340 – November 14, 1391) https://wp.franciscanmedia.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/SODNov06.mp3 Saint Nicholas Tavelic and Companions’ Story Nicholas and his three companions are among the 158 Franciscans who have been martyred in the Holy Land since the friars became custodians of the shrines in 1335.Nicholas was born in 1340 to a wealthy and noble family in Croatia. He joined the Franciscans, and was sent with Deodat of Rodez to preach in Bosnia....

One can sum up today's Democratic party in one word, LAWLESSNESS! Lawlessness is the promotion and application of the rejection of sound moral absolutes; which were instilled into the creation by its ETERNAL RIGHTEOUS Creator (Gen. 1:1-31, Rom. 1:18-32). The Democratic leadership of today has fully embraced lawlessness and the base things of this fallen world (Rom. 1:18-32, 2 Tim. 3:1-7, 2 Thes. 2:10-12, Jude 1:7). These godless reprobates - in their godless rebellion - have sought to rename lawless and evil tendencies with euphemistic feel-good titles, while slandering and branding all those who uphold morality as evil! Almighty God...

Franciscan Media Image: Saint Peter Chrysologus | it.wikipedia.org Saint Peter Chrysologus Saint of the Day for November 5 (c. 406 – c. 450)  Saint Peter Chrysologus’ Story A man who vigorously pursues a goal may produce results far beyond his expectations and his intentions. Thus it was with Peter ” of the Golden Words,” as he was called, who as a young man became bishop of Ravenna, the capital of the empire in the West.At the time there were abuses and vestiges of paganism evident in his diocese, and these Peter was determined to battle and overcome. His principal...

Vatican to send back historic relic worn by archbishop as he was brutally murderedA bloodstained tunic belonging to Thomas Becket is to be returned to Britain from the Vatican to help mark the 850th anniversary of the murder of the former archbishop of Canterbury and the 800th anniversary of the creation of his shrine. Canterbury Cathedral, where Becket was killed in December 1170 following a bitter dispute with King Henry II, became a shrine after Pope Alexander III made Becket a saint following the murder. It drew thousands of pilgrims from England and across Europe until the shrine was destroyed...

St Charles Borromeo – A Model for Clergy in Troubled Times Msgr. Charles Pope • November 4, 2018 • St. Charles Borromeo, by Orazio BorgianniSunday was the feast day of my patron saint, Charles Borromeo. The times in which he lived were not so different from the current ones, and leadership like his is sorely needed today. Although I am not a bishop as he was, I am a pastor. I pray that in some small way I may be like him.St. Charles Borromeo was born in 1538, a time when the Church was in the midst of perhaps...

Franciscan Media Image: San Carlo Borromeo, cardinal of Milan | Wellcome Images Saint Charles Borromeo Saint of the Day for November 4 (October 2, 1538 – November 3, 1584)  Saint Charles Borromeo’s Story The name of Charles Borromeo is associated with reform. He lived during the time of the Protestant Reformation, and had a hand in the reform of the whole Church during the final years of the Council of Trent.Although he belonged to the Milanese nobility and was related to the powerful Medici family, Charles desired to devote himself to the Church. In 1559, when his uncle, Cardinal...

The Whole Law, Standing on One Foot – A Homily for the 31st Sunday of the Year Msgr. Charles Pope • November 3, 2018 • Pharisees Question Jesus, by J. Tissot (1886-94)Hillel the Elder, sometimes referred to as Rabbi Hillel, was a Jewish religious leader who lived shortly before Jesus’ time. There is a famous story told of him in which he was challenged by a potential convert to teach him the entire Torah while “standing on one foot.” In other words, can you distill the essence and present it succinctly?That same theme may be behind the question that...

Franciscan Media Image: Saint Martin de Porres | St Dominic’s priory church in London | photo by Lawrence OP Saint Martin de Porres Saint of the Day for November 3 (December 9, 1579 – November 3, 1639)  Saint Martin de Porres’ Story “Father unknown” is the cold legal phrase sometimes used on baptismal records. “Half-breed” or “war souvenir” is the cruel name inflicted by those of “pure” blood. Like many others, Martin might have grown to be a bitter man, but he did not. It was said that even as a child he gave his heart and his goods...

Franciscan Media Image: Orthodox service for the Faithful Departed | Vasily Vereshchagin Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed Saint of the Day for November 2  The Story of the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed The Church has encouraged prayer for the dead from the earliest times as an act of Christian charity. “If we had no care for the dead,” Augustine noted, “we would not be in the habit of praying for them.” Yet pre-Christian rites for the deceased retained such a strong hold on the superstitious imagination that a liturgical commemoration was not observed until the early...

Spanish DPM had claimed church would cooperate to stop reburial in Almudena Cathedral The Vatican has denied a claim by the Spanish government that the church would cooperate to ensure the remains of Gen Francisco Franco are not reburied in Madrid’s Almudena Cathedral after exhumation from the dictator’s famous mausoleum. The socialist government of Pedro Sánchez has committed itself to removing Franco’s body from the Valley of the Fallen outside the Spanish capital, arguing the move would close wounds “that have been open for many years”. But Franco’s family has dismissed the initiative as a political stunt, saying that if...

     Author’s Preface (2018) The paper that follows was originally drafted in 2015 as an internal reference document for members of various theological commissions, as a response to documents that had then been somewhat recently published and generated debate over the preceding years. The more recent events of 2018, centred in Ukraine but relating to questions of ecclesiological primacy that affect the whole Orthodox world (and which, at the present moment,1 are still very much ongoing), have given cause to disseminate the text more broadly, as a small study of some of the core ecclesiastical and theological principles involved....

Praying for Those Who Have Died Is a Work of Mercy Msgr. Charles Pope • November 1, 2018 • What is the value of one prayer? I suspect it is far greater than any of us imagine. Prayer changes things, sometimes in obvious ways, but more often in subtle and even paradoxical ways. But prayer is surely important, even when we don’t experience its immediate effects. Perhaps this is why Jesus taught us to pray always and never to lose heart (cf. Luke 18:1). St. Paul echoed this with the simple exhortation, “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thess 5:17). St....

People visiting the famous Kotel this week filmed the serpent wriggling out from between the ancient stones. In the footage, the snake can be seen coming out of the wall after scaring off a pigeon that had been perched there. And it is reportedly a sign of the return of the Messiah. “We are truly in the dangerous times that directly precede Mashiach (Messiah),” Breaking News Israel reported, quoting a Hebrew blogger. “Just as the pigeon is safe so long as it seeks shelter among the stones of the Temple Mount, the Jews are protected by the Torah commandments. “When...

"Once upon a time in a primitive land of polytheist idolaters far, far away, an egomaniac zealot with high ambitions hit on a bright idea. On learning of the ancient Jewish prophecy of a Messiah, and the newish Christian communities’ worship of Jesus as the “Chosen One”, he decided to nominate himself as the latest in the line – the Messenger of Allah and the Seal of the Prophets. If the Angel Gabriel could give the name ‘Jesus’ to Mary, why couldn’t Gabriel be recruited to authenticate Muhammad’s pronouncements? The polytheists who worshipped 360 idols in the Ka’aba of Mecca...

Franciscan Media Image: Evening of All Saints’ Day at Malmi Cemetery, Helsinki, Finland | photo by Jori Samonen | flickr Solemnity of All Saints Saint of the Day for November 1  The Story of the Solemnity of All Saints The earliest certain observance of a feast in honor of all the saints is an early fourth-century commemoration of “all the martyrs.” In the early seventh century, after successive waves of invaders plundered the catacombs, Pope Boniface IV gathered up some 28 wagon-loads of bones and reinterred them beneath the Pantheon, a Roman temple dedicated to all the gods. The...

VATICAN – A former nuncio to the United States acknowledged hearing rumors about the sexual misconduct of Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick already in 1994. Cardinal Agostino Cacciavillan, who served as pro-nuncio to the United States from 1990 to 1998, told Catholic News Service Oct. 29 that he received a phone call from a woman in the months preceding St. John Paul II's visit to the United States in 1995. "I remember in 1994, during the preparation of the papal visit to New York, Newark and Baltimore," Cardinal Cacciavillan said, "I received a telephone call" at the Apostolic Nunciature in Washington,...

Okay, I'm a day late on this (due to an extremely busy week). Nevertheless, here is part 11 of our video series on why the New Testament was Written.Why Hebrews Was WrittenSource is The Untold Story of the New Testament by Frank Viola. Video clocks in at 13:57.

What Is the “Dark Energy” That Scientists Seek to Measure and Define? Msgr. Charles Pope • October 31, 2018 • In 1929, Edwin Hubble discovered that the universe was not static but was in fact expanding outward from some point of singularity. At first his fellow scientists ridiculed his theory, labeling it with the term “the big bang.” Even as late as the 1960s I remember being taught in school that the universe was eternal and fixed. That “settled science” has since given way to the current view that the universe is expanding outward—quite rapidly, in fact.There is more,...

Hubble’s Law, a cornerstone of cosmology that describes the expanding universe, should now be called the Hubble-Lemaître Law, following a vote by the members of the International Astronomical Union (IAU), the same organization that revoked Pluto’s status as a planet. The change is designed to redress the historical neglect of Georges Lemaître, a Belgian astronomer and priest who in 1927 discovered the expanding universe—which also suggests a big bang. Lemaître published his ideas 2 years before U.S. astronomer Edwin Hubble described his observations that galaxies farther from the Milky Way recede faster. The final tally of the 4060 cast votes,...

Franciscan Media Image: Statue of Saint Wolfgang of Regensburg | main altar, Parish church in Metnitz | Raul de Chissota Saint Wolfgang of Regensburg Saint of the Day for October 31 (c. 924 – August 31, 994)  Saint Wolfgang of Regensburg’s Story Wolfgang was born in Swabia, Germany, and was educated at a school located at the abbey of Reichenau. There he encountered Henry, a young noble who went on to become Archbishop of Trier. Meanwhile, Wolfgang remained in close contact with the archbishop, teaching in his cathedral school and supporting his efforts to reform the clergy.At the death...