The Importance of a Sacramental Perspective – “The wonderful thing about the sacraments is their blessed objectivity: the fact that we have the assurance that they do confer the grace for which they’re set up, whether we feel anything or not. ” On Baptism: Conversation with Tibor Gorfol (coram fratribus intellexi)
Truth and Justice for Ukraine – “Leader of Ukrainian Catholic Church tells Aleteia that his nation finds hope in God and in its own resilience, reflects on changes in international policy.” After US tour, patriarch sees 2 essential elements for peace in Ukraine (Aleteia)
The Unending Synod – “The current “Implementation Phase” of the three-year synodal path, following the conclusion of last Fall’s Synodal Assembly in Rome, has now become the preparatory phase for something no one has ever heard of in the Catholic Church, namely an “Ecclesial Assembly.” Processes, Accompaniment, Implementation: Synodality, Forever (The Catholic Thing)
Sharing Mary’s Sorrows – “Early in Lent I always celebrate a votive Mass, which invites us to take our place at the foot of the Cross with the Mother of Sorrows.” Joining the Mother of Sorrows at the Cross (What We Need Now – Substack)
Together in His Truth – “As the People of God, the Church is the temple of the Holy Spirit, Christ’s very body (1 Cor. 12:27). Our Lord superintends our prayers, teaching, and leadership.” The Pillar and Foundation of Truth: A Statement by Evangelicals and Catholics Together (First Things)
To Young People – “In 1999, Pope John Paul came to St. Louis for a pastoral visit and, as was his custom, he wanted to meet with young people, so we held a gathering in the hockey stadium.” Opening Our Hearts to Jesus (What We Need Now – Substack)
Decline of Priests – “The number of major seminarians worldwide fell from 108,481 in 2022 to 106,495 in 2023, according to statistics published in the new Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae (CWN coverage)—a decline of 1.83% in a single year.” 12-year decline in worldwide priestly vocations accelerates (Catholic Culture)
Reading Makes Saints – “I made a pledge to keep up with my intellectual formation as a young priest and to not just be a dilettante who collected books and never really read them. And I have found that having a good, basic theological library has been a blessing in my life … ” 10 Books That Belong in Every Catholic Library (National Catholic Register)
Power and the Sexes – Power is now both the most basic difference between the male and female sexes, and it is also the root of sexual attraction between men and women. John Paul II’s Exploration of the Full Personhood of Women (Church Life Journal)
On Aslan’s Side – “Our desire for goodness, truth, and beauty is not escapism but homesickness.” On Living as a Narnian in Exile (The Sacred Image Project – Substack)
Church Teaching on Immigration – “While progressive Catholics conclude that Vice President Vance and other Catholic defenders of administration policy are flatly at odds with Church teaching on immigration, I will argue that that is not the case.” A Catholic Defense of Enforcing Immigration Laws (Public Discourse)
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@ The Unending Synod
Fr. Murray asks about “the not-so-slow-motion revolution that goes by the name synodality”….In answer, what we have here is a new Galileo Moment…
In concentric spheres, the discredited Ptolemaic cosmology featured the five known planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn), with four of these and the SUN revolving equally around the flat-earth and self-referential earth. Likewise, the self-referential synodal cosmology features concentric processes revolving equally around flat-earth and self-referential roundtables in place of the more vertical altar…
…Cardinal Gretch’s Ptolemaic cosmology: diocesan “synods,” then the first Synod, then the self-validating Synod on Synodality, then the “expert” post-synodal Study Groups, and then in 2028 the Ecclesial Assembly. Rounding out this cosmology we have new pre-Assembly accountabilities: diocesan, national and continental—all of this validating a new post-morality displacing the gifted, inborn and universal Natural Law, as insinuated by the revelatory Amoris Laetitia and consummated in the new end-state (pun intended) blessings under Fiducia Supplicans. Thusly, we have nine Ptolemaic ecclesial orbits…
…or is it zeitgeist “obits”? Not the Holy Spirit, but a swan song?
Too bad about Grech’s bad timing for Assembly 2028! The next red-hat conclave will come too early for the papal election to be possibly ratified or even replaced by Grech’s old-hat, Pentecostal Great Awakening spawned under the detached “spirit of Vatican II.” Instead, and intact will be the permanently luminous Apostolic Succession and “hierarchical communion”—as reaffirmed by the two Vatican Councils, together, in “Lumen Gentium” (Chapter 3 plus the Explanatory Note).
The only thing really new under the sun—the Eucharistic and therefore perennial Catholic Church assembled around the SON: “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever!” (Heb 13:8).
@ Decline of Priests
Africa remains the only region where there’s growth, likely due to fresher evangelization of Africans by devoted missionaries who believed and were willing to risk illness and death for conveying faith in Christ.
Otherwise, we have a Church on the defensive, priests threatened from within by frightened bishops over mounting lawsuits and bankruptcy, from without by a Vatican reshaping the priest into a modified Judas Iscariot. And an adult relational homosexual one at that. What mother would encourage her son?, what father would not warn of the reality of the modern priesthood?
Catholic Christianity requires an earthquaking disruption and remaking of the Church back to the early Church image of Christ.
Re: “Unending Synod”
May I suggest that the reason for Bergoglio’s recent invention, the ‘Ecclesial Assembly,’ is to give his legions of Dark Vatican saboteurs more of an opportunity for ecclesial dissembling.
So that the Church Jesus gave us can itself be disassembled.
Re #11 – Catholic Teaching on Immigration
‘”While progressive Catholics conclude . . .”‘
Most people think “progressive” means constructive, enlightened, seeking to improve things”.
I’d like to retire this label as it’s commonly used today in the political/philosophical context. Why not “leftist”, a word that is less ambiguous and, therefore, less prone to being used to smuggle in unwarranted presumptions?
Words matter.
Reading Makes Saints – 10 Books That Belong in Every Catholic Library (National Catholic Register)
Great selection of books. OBVIOUSLY this priest has his priorities right, listing the Bible and the Catechism as first and second choice. Number three, four and five are also top: Enchiridion, VCII documents, and the Summa. I do not see the sense in owning the book version of the Summa, VCII or Enchiridion as they are easily accessed online (and likely more quickly too). My copy of VCII documents is a shredded mess with many pages loose, taped, torn. I cannot imagine the Summa in one bound volume; the size of the print must appear large for ants only. I admit I don’t own Ratzinger’s Introduction to Christianity, but I justify this by having and having read many other of his books. Of course everyone should have AT LEAST one book about the saints and another about the Fathers.
To this list I would add some fun and interesting fictional stuff, say from Bernanos, from that new and astounding poet whose name now escapes memory, Dante, and/or Shakespeare, Tolkien, Lavransdatter. Chesterton, Belloc, Knox, and a history or two, one preferably containing blurbs on the popes (for a base of comparison, to embolden hope in our current days of fog and haze).
Great list. Keep reading!
Meiron – Get thee to a bookstore and buy the Catechism. It is a (too-little-known) treasure.
Cleo – Read much?
Did you see me write I didn’t have one??
I’m pretty sure we all have a copy of the Catechism at home.
🙂