Catholic Church

By Deacon Keith Fournier – “Lent”… The word is derived from an old English term referring to the “lengthening” of the hours of the day each year. It falls in the transition time when we move from the barrenness of winter with its long periods of darkness into the verdant new life and longer days of sunshine we call spring. This Season continues for forty days until the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday. Then, the Easter “Triduum” (three days) lead us through death and into life, culminating in the Victory Feast of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

By Matthew Bunson, EWTN News – The poll, taken Jan. 28-Feb. 4 of a sample of 1,521 self-identified Catholics, affirms once again — and even more convincingly — that any survey of Catholics must be careful in addressing the massive gulf among those Catholics who accept all of the Church’s teachings and those who accept only some, or those who reject key teachings, or say the Church has only a small influence on their lives… Overall, the poll found that 18% of Catholics indicate that they accept all of the Church’s teachings and those are reflected in how they live their lives.

By Franciscan Media Saint Maria Bertilla Boscardin’s Story – If anyone knew rejection, ridicule and disappointment, it was today’s saint. But such trials only brought Maria Bertilla […]

“Have you something to do to-morrow; do it to-day.” —Benjamin Franklin (1742)

When you pray, fast, and give alms Author Don Schwager Gospel Reading:  Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18 1 “Beware of practicing your piety before men in order to be […]

By Al Perrotta, The Stream – “We are asking the American public to prepare for the expectation that this might be bad.”… A CDC official has given a warning about the coronavirus: We should be bracing for the likelihood the virus now hitting hot spots around the globe will spread to communities in the U.S… “It’s not so much of a question of if this will happen in this country any more, but a question of when this will happen,” says Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

By Msgr. Charles Pope – There is a great sense of urgency in the readings for Ash Wednesday. It is as if some great event is looming that could be awesome, but only if the warning is heeded. Consider this selection from the first reading (Joel 2:12-18): “Even now,” says the LORD, “Return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning; Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the LORD, your God.”… Sound the trumpet in Zion! Proclaim a fast, call an assembly; gather the people! Assemble the elders; gather the children, even the infants at the breast.

By Dr. Maike Hickson, LifeSiteNews – Cardinal Oswald Gracias, a member of the Pope’s C6 Council of Cardinals as well as the head of the Indian bishops’ conference, has claimed in an interview that the path to married priests is still “open.”… He calls Pope Francis “very clever” by “endorsing the final document” of the Amazon Synod, thus leaving it “a valid reference point.”.. In the interview, Gracias also calls for greater responsibilities for women in the Catholic Church… The final document of the October 2019 Amazon Synod had endorsed to ordain to the priesthood married men who are already deacons.. and also proposed to support further study the question of the female diaconate..

By Ryan Ellis, Church Militant – If you don’t feel compelled to give to your parish, you are not off the hook. You have to come up with some other way to donate to the Church. Here, I would avoid things that are under the control of the bishops. That means no second collections, and certainly no groups like the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, Catholic Charities, Catholic Relief Services, or the other boondoggles routinely flagged by the Lepanto Institute… Your informed conscience… should be your guide… Rather, you might give to traditional Catholic religious orders like the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, or to another good apostolate of your choosing free of the Catholic hierarchy.

By Most Rev. Joseph Strickland, The Wanderer – Jesus called Mary “Mother” and He entrusted her, as one of His last and greatest gifts, to His beloved disciple and to the entire Church with these tender words of entrustment in the Gospel of John: “When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, behold, your son.’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother.’ And from that hour the disciple took her into his home” (John 19:26, 27).