BIG C CATHOLICS

(While many saints are canonized by the Church, most are known only to God.) The process of documenting the life and virtues of a holy man or woman cannot begin until five years after his or her death; this insures that the person has an enduring reputation for sanctity among the faithful. The pope may waive the waiting period. The bishop of the diocese in which the person died can petition the Holy See to allow the initialization of a Cause for Beatification and Canonization. If there is no objection by a department of the Roman Curia, permission is communicated to that bishop. When the cause begins, the individual is called a “Servant of God.” Testimony about the life and virtues of the person are gathered, and his or her writings are examined. This documentary phase of the process can take years and concludes with the judgment of a diocesan tribunal and the decision of the bishop that the heroic virtues of the servant of God have or have not been demonstrated. The resul

By Father Thomas Mattison Galileo created a new hierarchy of truths. Tradition, authority, Scripture, philosophy, theology, all the well-known sources of truth, goodness and beauty were now to be subjected to one single new criterion – scientific proof. Thus, did the good become the useful; the true, the practical; and the beautiful, the appealing. Modern science has challenged Galileo’s deductions, but modern education and, certainly, the education that many of us received, is still frozen in the icy grip of the 16th century. Which brings me to yoga. A world and culture that values nothing but its own material-based experiences cares nothing for the claims of religion or the origins of classical spiritualities and the views of God and man that underlie them. Thus, any eighth grader will tell you that he likes this part of this religion but another part of another; and the fundamental incompatibility of the religions that he has dismembered and reassembled into what he calls

June 29th Saints Peter and Paul are often seen as complementary figures and are regarded as "pillars" of the Church (Gal 2:9). Peter represents the institutional Church, while Paul represents the charismatic or spiritual Church. Both are associated with the Church in Rome. But what binds them together, above all else, was their utter dedication to the message of Christ. They were martyred in Rome under persecution ordered by the Emperor Nero in 64 and 67 respectively due to their fearless proclamation of the Gospel. Today we recall especially their holy deaths. __________________________________________ The New Testament often portrays Peter as rash and headstrong. One minute, he is a paragon of faith; the next, he has completely misunderstood what Jesus wants. He frequently does not seem to get what is going on, and he even denies Jesus when Jesus is about to be executed. And yet, despite his shortcomings and weaknesses, he has a heart for the Lord. He is the Prin

LifeSite reports on an opinion piece by a former Vatican official discussing Pope Francis’ refusal to answer the dubia issued by four of his cardinals concerning the doctrinal implications and proper interpretation of Amoris Laetitia , the post-synod apostolic exhortation on the family. The confusion that emerged in the wake of Amoris ’ release has resulted in myriad conclusions and widespread uncertainty . The LifeSite article begins: "Why doesn’t the Pope respond to the Dubia? The former director of the Vatican Bank thinks he knows why. Ettore Gotti Tedeschi suggests that Francis is sending two messages through his silence: that he can contradict himself if he likes and that he wishes to impose a 'New Catholic Morality' on the Church. This new morality would be based not on doctrine but on the subjective opinions of the individual conscience... Ultimately, Francis’ silence — which allows doubts to continue to flourish — is a denial of objective truth." Mr.Te

The Most Reverend Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap. the Archbishop of Philadelphia presented this Brigham Young University forum address on March 22, 2016. He discusses the difficulties faced by believers in America today and the assaults on religious freedom perpetrated by the government and secular forces. Below is a partial transcript of Archbishop Chaput's remarks. They are well worth your time. Starting at 4:32: I want to begin by giving you some background on the Catholic experience in this country. I’ll do that through the lens of a particular Catholic bishop – me. I don’t claim to speak for all or even most Americans who describe themselves as Catholic. But my comments do reflect the views of many Catholics who rank their Catholic faith as the most precious thing in their lives — and actually live that way. So let’s start with a simple fact: Catholics have never entirely “fit” in America. We’ve tried, but the results are mixed. In fact some years ago Stanley Hauerwas

By Msgr. Bernard Bourgeois Pentecost is one of the most joyful feasts on the Christian liturgical calendar. For fifty days the Church has been celebrating the great mysteries of Easter, most notably the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Pentecost is the conclusion of the Easter season. Today, the familiar story of Pentecost will be the first reading. The Spirit blows through the upper room where the disciples are hiding and, according to tradition, resides over each of them as tongues of fire. The disciples burst forth from that upper room to preach, teach, baptize, and celebrate the Eucharist. Most of them were martyred for their faith. Courage, strength, love, resolve, faith, and conviction were the marks of the apostles as they began their ministry to the known world after that experience of the Holy Spirit in the upper room. Each Pentecost the Church prays that the same Spirit will make his appearance once again. The wind and fire of the first Pentecost is needed today as much

Fr. Charles Irvin Senior Priest Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for today’s readings ) In speaking with you about Pentecost I must speak of what cannot be fully explained. All we can do is reverently gaze into the mystery of God’s final movement toward us, the alienated and distant men and women who, with Adam and Eve, have broken off relations with God. Words cannot capture the enormity God’s merciful love for us; they buckle under the weight of it. So Scripture and the Church employ symbols to try to carry Pentecost’s meaning to us. Sometimes symbols are more effective than words in conveying the truth of stupendous events. Essentially Pentecost is the final movement of God’s journey toward us. The initial movement begins in Genesis with God in the Garden of Eden. Note that it is God who makes the move. It is God who initiates; God who offers; God who loves us first. He chooses us. We do not choose him. He chooses us first because He is the superior. If it were other

Via the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops This summer, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops will be convening an unprecedented gathering of leaders from dioceses and Catholic organizations from all across the country in order to assess the challenges and opportunities of our time, particularly in the context of the Church in the United States. This has been an ongoing initiative of the Bishops' Working Group on the Life and Dignity of the Human Person. The gathering will assemble Catholic leaders for a strategic conversation, under the leadership of the bishops, on forming missionary disciples to animate the Church and to engage the culture. The Convocation of Catholic Leaders: The Joy of the Gospel in America will be held in Orlando, Florida, from Saturday, July 1, to Tuesday, July 4, 2017. Inspired by Evangelii Gaudium , the Convocation will form leaders who will be equipped and re-energized to share the Gospel as missionary disciples, while offering fresh

April 28th, is the optional memorial of Saint Louis-Marie Grignion De Montfort (1673 – 1716). De Montfort's life is inseparable from his prodigious efforts to promote genuine devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of Jesus and the Mother of the Church. " Totus tuus" (completely yours) was De Montfort's personal motto; Karol Wojtyla chose it as his episcopal motto. Born in the Breton village of Montfort, close to Rennes (France), as an adult Louis identified himself by the place of his baptism instead of his family name, Grignion. Educated by both the Jesuits and the Sulpicians, he was ordained a diocesan priest in 1700. Soon he began preaching parish missions throughout western France. His years of ministering to the poor prompted him to travel and live simply, sometimes getting him into trouble with church authorities. In his preaching, which attracted thousands of people back to the faith, Father Louis recommended frequent, even daily, Holy Communion

Douglas Farrow, the Kennedy Smith Chair in Catholic Studies at McGill University, writing for First Things last month , asks whether the papacy of Pope Francis is driving the Church toward schism. The confusion surrounding Amoris Laetitia has resulted in a diversity of understandings based upon the subsidiarity judgment of individual priest and prelates. Seeking clarity, four cardinals issued a dubia asking the Holy Father to answer questions about his post-synod apostolic exhortation. Pope Francis has yet to answer the dubia. Consequently, prelates worldwide have interpreted Amoris in radically different ways . Farrow observes, "The trauma of the two synods on the family, which led to Amoris and to the dubia, is a trauma for which Francis himself is largely responsible." "Actually, very little one hears from the Vatican these days reassures." Farrow continues. "This leaves those of us who are struggling with “discernment of situations” (to use the p

On March 30th, 2017, canon lawyers, theologians and scholars will attend a first of its kind colloquium titled: " The Pope's Deposition, Theological Sites - Canonical Models - Constitutional Issues ". The two day gathering at the University of Paris will discuss a subject that has never been the topic of a Catholic conference previously, how to depose a heretical pontiff. The colloquium seeks to examine "the mechanisms that are built into the Catholic Church for dealing with a pope who openly teaches falsehood." LifeSiteNews has more on the upcoming event : The conference includes 15 speakers who will be giving a range of talks on the subject matter with titles such as "Conciliarism and the Deposition of a Pope Through the Prism of Gallicanism," "The Downfall of the Pope: Between Renunciation and Deposition," and "The Deposition of John XXII and Benedict XIII at Constance..." Those speaking at the conference include,"Prof

Great Saint Joseph, you were chosen by God to be the head of the Holy Family. Kindly look down upon us and bestow your fatherly protection upon our home. Model of the most lively faith, obtain for all the members of our family the grace to believe firmly what God has revealed and bear witness to our faith in all that we do. May we ever remain bound together for the salvation of souls, in order to fulfill our role in the great family of the Church and be reunited after this life in the happiness of heaven. Amen.  ____________________________________________________ Grant, we pray, almighty God, that by Saint Joseph's intercession your Church may constantly watch over the unfolding of the mysteries of human salvation, whose beginnings you entrusted to his faithful care. Saint Joseph, pray for us!

One longtime Catholic commentator says, in the most demonstrative of terms, that the papacy of Pope Francis is a disaster. In Phil Lawler's Op-Ed for Catholic Culture he writes: For over 20 years now, writing daily about the news from the Vatican, I have tried to be honest in my assessment of papal statements and gestures. I sometimes criticized St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, when I thought that their actions were imprudent. But never did it cross my mind that either of those Popes posed any danger to the integrity of the Catholic faith. Looking back much further across Church history, I realize that there have been bad Popes: men whose personal actions were motivated by greed and jealousy and lust for power and just plain lust. But has there ever before been a Roman Pontiff who showed such disdain for what the Church has always taught and believed and practiced—on such bedrock issues as the nature of marriage and of the Eucharist? Pope Francis has sparked controvers

With Lent just hours away, let us reflect on our lives as disciples of Christ and as members of His mystical body that is the Church on earth. Anyone old enough to remember the election of Pope Saint John Paul II, nearly forty years ago, can recall a Church markedly different from that of today. Growing up in a small New England town, I was blessed to have four native born priests in residence on the alter celebrating Mass each Saturday night. At present, that same parish is administered by a single pastor who is also responsible for the sacramental life of two additional Churches nearby. This is now the norm throughout the diocese. The future priest shortage predicted in the 1970’s and 80’s has come to pass in many dioceses in the United States. Moreover, the forces of secularization, like attacks on Christianity and individual Christians, increase on a daily basis. This Lent, we as Catholics must confront a post-Christian America where-in our Faith and beliefs are persecuted,

"Today, having a clear faith based on the Creed of the Church is often labeled as fundamentalism. Whereas relativism, that is, letting oneself be 'tossed here and there, carried about by every wind of doctrine', seems the only attitude that can cope with modern times. We are building a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one's own ego and desires. We, however, have a different goal: the Son of God, the true man. He is the measure of true humanism. An 'adult' faith is not a faith that follows the trends of fashion and the latest novelty; a mature adult faith is deeply rooted in friendship with Christ. It is this friendship that opens us up to all that is good and gives us a criterion by which to distinguish the true from the false, and deceit from truth." From the homily of Card. Joseph Ratzinger at the Mass for the Election of the Roman Pontiff ( Pro Eligendo Romano Pon

February 23th, the Church celebrates the optional memorial of Saint Polycarp (69 – 155 AD), the 1st century bishop, martyr and renowned Apostolic Father. Polycarp was widely venerated largely through the accounts of his heroic martyrdom as recorded by the Church in Smyrna. Tradition holds he was born a pagan before being befriended by Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist who catechized Polycarp in the Faith. As Bishop of Smyrna, (a city in Turkey) Polycarp defended orthodoxy and was a staunch opponent of heresy, most notably the Gnostic sects of Marcionism and Valentinianism. He is honored in both the Eastern and Western Church as one of the three chief Apostolic Fathers (together with Saint Clement of Rome and Saint Ignatius of Antioch). His pupil Saint Irenaeus of Lyons praised his personal holiness and great devotion to God. Some scholars contend that Polycarp may have been responsible for compiling, editing and publishing the New Testament. Whatever the case, there is no doubt

Fr. Charles Irvin Senior Priest Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for today’s readings ) Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche lived from 1844 to 1900. He turned out to be a philosopher of considerable stature — and an atheist. He is probably responsible, more than any other one individual thinker, for the rise of the Nazi Third Reich and all that the Nazis stood for, as well as for the shaping and formation of Adolph Hitler’s mind. He was the generator of Superman — not the comic book character, but rather the sort of character seen in many modern men and women of our day. Nietzsche believed, and taught others to believe, that God is dead… or if not dead, then God is irrelevant, immaterial to our lives and ways of thinking and living. Said Nietzsche: “Two great European narcotics are alcohol and Christianity.” In his last great effort, Nietzsche wrote a book blasting everything associated with Jesus Christ. He titled his book The Antichrist , and in it wrote: “I call Christianity the on

January 13th, is the optional memorial of Saint Hilary of Poitiers (c. 310 – 367), the 4th century philosopher, bishop and Doctor of the Church, whose staunch defense of orthodox Trinitarian theology protected the deposit of faith against heretical attacks in a period of discord. His spiritual formation and extensive education included the classic literature of Latin and Greek as well as Sacred Scripture. Much of St. Hilary's life before his episcopacy is a mystery. What is known comes almost entirely from details contained in his theological writings. He was born in present-day France to a pagan family, three years before the Roman Empire ceased its persecution of Christians and officially recognized Christianity. Although he came of age without any significant Christian influence, his comprehensive study of Greek philosophy and the Bible enabled him to acknowledge the truths of the Faith. This acceptance occurred gradually. At age 35, Hilary was baptized together with his da

The Young Pope is a ten episode English-language drama television series, directed by Paolo Sorrentino and featuring Jude Law as Pope Pius XIII, who, at 47, becomes the youngest and first American pope in history. From HBO’s website: "Born Lenny Belardo, [Pope Pius XIII] is a complex and conflicted character, so conservative in his choices as to border on obscurantism, yet full of compassion towards the weak and poor. The first American pope, Pius XIII is a man of great power who is stubbornly resistant to the Vatican courtiers, unconcerned with the implications to his authority." But there is much more. As the series gradually unfolds, viewers learn that Pius XIII spends more time contemplating himself than he does praying. He smokes, smirks, connives and chides his way through his first days in office. When someone objects to him breaking long held convention, he snaps: "Well, there’s a new Pope now." In truth, "Lenny is an insecure enigma." We dis

Reversing a five centuries-old tradition, the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity released a new Vatican document in commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation officially recognizing Martin Luther as a  "Witness to the Gospel". The ecumenical document states: "Given the fact that the history of the Reformation was marked by painful division, this is a very remarkable achievement. The Lutheran-Roman Catholic Commission on Unity has worked hard to produce a shared understanding of the commemoration. Its important report, From Conflict to Communion, recognizes that both traditions approach this anniversary in an ecumenical age, with the achievements of fifty years of dialogue behind them, and with new understandings of their own history and theology. Separating that which is polemical from the theological insights of the Reformation, Catholics are now able to hear Luther’s challenge for the Church of today, recognizing him as a “witness to t