By Sheryl Collmer, Crisis Magazine – The open lesion that can’t heal is the realization that our shepherds despise or entirely disregard us. Will any of them break out of lockstep in Baltimore this week?… The attack on the Traditional Latin Mass in Tyler, Texas this weekend has gobsmacked us all, both traditional and Novus Ordo Catholics. Why now? Why on the first anniversary of the loss of our dear bishop? The fact that the apostolic administrator, Bishop Joe Vásquez of Austin, requested a ruling hints that it might be part of a negotiation.
By Stephen Kokx, Catholic Family News – What is going on with Pope Francis and Emma Bonino?… For those who don’t know who that is, Bonino has been the face of abortion in Italy for decades, having first established a facility in the country in the 1970s which she successfully used as a launching pad to push for its legalization years later… She has also spent decades as an elected official in the Italian and European Parliaments advocating for left-wing causes like recreational drug use and lax divorce laws…
By Gene Thomas Gomulka, Complicit Clergy – The recent U.S. presidential election demonstrated how pollsters often get it wrong. Will this also happen in the case of the next papal conclave? Just as many political analysts like to compare the outcomes of different elections, so too might we compare similarities in the current college of cardinals to papabile of another time. This will require that we set the dials on our time machine and travel back to Wittenberg, Germany on October 31, 1517 when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the famed “Castle Church Door.”
NEWS
Republicans Can’t Afford To Elect Another Mitch McConnell As Senate Leader, by Rachel Bovard
By Rachel Bovard, The Federalist – Senate Republicans cannot be led by someone who is openly hostile to the agenda of their party’s president and the base who elected him… Last Tuesday, America sent a resounding message to Washington when they elected Donald Trump and gave Republicans majorities in the Senate and likely the House. D.C. Republicans now have one job: Don’t screw it up… For Senate Republicans, this means closing the book on the Mitch McConnell era of governance ….
Archbishop Viganò: Trump’s Victory Represents the ‘Greatest Reset’ Against the Global World Order
By Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, LifeSiteNews – A few days ago, on the eve of the U.S. Presidential Election, the arrogance of political commentators in the United States and all vassal nations had reached unexplored heights. Singers, actors, philanthropists, public figures, and journalists who supported Kamala Harris went so far as to threaten to leave the United States if Donald J. Trump was elected, and in truth many today expect them to fulfill their promises. Even Jorge Mario Bergoglio made a gesture, with his trademark politeness, traveling in a wheelchair to the penthouse of radical Sorosian activist and abortionist Emma Bonino with white roses and chocolates ….
Bishops Call for Urgent Review of ‘Pediatric Sex-Change Services’ at Catholic Hospitals, by Matthew McDonald
By Matthew McDonald, National Catholic Register – Database Released In October Found That About 150 Catholic Hospitals Assisted Minors In Gender Transitioning During a Five-Year Period… Bishops should discuss and act on a recent report that Catholic hospitals have provided “pediatric sex-change services” for patients 17 and younger, two bishops told EWTN News recently… Their comments come as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops holds its annual fall meeting in Baltimore, which began Monday.
Fr. David Nix’s Blog: Diversionary Scapegoating in the Catholic Church
By Father David Nix, Blog – Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex-offender who was the nexus point for many elite celebrities before his death and Former-Cardinal Theodore Edgar McCarrick, a convicted sex-offender who was also the nexus point for many elite bishops before he was laicized. There are many commonalities between the two criminals besides child-abuse… The crossover we are going to discuss today is something I label “Diversionary Scapegoating.” Diversionary Scapegoating is when a delinquent group conveniently blames all of its crimes on one person (a criminal already busted) so as to divert the public’s eyes from the criminal activity of that very same group.
Diocese of Tyler Suspends All Celebration of TLM Except for FSSP Parish, by McKenna Snow
By McKenna Snow, Catholic Vote – Sheryl Collmer, a parishioner in the Diocese (explains) “[T]he [Traditional Latin Mass] community is now challenged because they either have to crowbar themselves into the already overcrowded FSSP parish in Tyler, or drive two hours to another overcrowded FSSP parish in Dallas”… She said that both the Novus Ordo and Latin Mass communities are “heartbroken.”… “In Tyler, the Latin Mass community is integrated into the Catholic community as a whole; there’s no artificial division,” Collmer said. “So those who worship at the Novus Ordo Mass are brothers of the TLM. We work together in prayer and music and parish outreach; we belong to common organizations; we socialize.”
Fr. Jerry Pokorsky: All About the Money
By Fr. Jerry Pokorsky, Catholic Culture – Individuals and organizations need money to survive. Even Jesus entrusted Judas with the cash box. But many Catholics resent priests making fundraising appeals and add “All he ever talks about is money” to the list of all the things he ever talks about. So many priests avoid the subject. But the generosity of the poor widow in the Gospel validates the conversation and the proper use of money… Jesus sees rich men tossing their gifts into the treasury. He also sees a poor widow casting in two brass mites [coins]. He marvels ….
The GOP Will Control the Senate … But Will It Be Establishment or MAGA? by Al Perrotta
By Al Perrotta, The Stream – The Battle for Senate Majority Leader.. You’d think with the massive mandate won by Donald Trump, and the stepping down of Trump-hating Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the most logical thing in the world would be for GOP Senators to pick as their incoming Majority Leader someone who is actually on board with the president-elect. That would ensure the smooth enacting of Trump’s agenda… But logic is scarce in The Swamp. The job was set to be a battle between two McConnell-lites: Sen. John Thune and Sen. John Cornyn, both with a history of trashing Trump …
Film Tells Story of Michelle Duppong, FOCUS Missionary Who ‘Evangelized Through Friendship’, by Francesca Pollio Fenton
By Francesca Pollio Fenton, CNA – Servant of God Michelle Duppong was 31 years old when she died from cancer on Dec. 25, 2015.
A young woman filled with joy and a fire for the Lord, she was born in Colorado and grew up on her family farm in North Dakota, after which she served as a Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS) missionary before becoming the director of adult faith formation for the Diocese of Bismarck… Duppong’s inspiring life has now been documented in a film ….
The 4B Movement is a Cult of Death, by John M. Grondelski, Ph.D.
By John M. Grondelski, Ph.D., Catholic World Report – What is most interesting to me, however, is the “4B reaction” of this death cult. For those noninitiates who never heard of this movement… it is apparently a five-something-year-old South Korean “feminist” ideological import. The four “Bs” are words in Korean: 1) no dating men, 2) no marrying men, 3) no having babies, 4) no sex with men…. What is happening, I maintain, comes from a deeper and darker place: a sacralization, an idolization of politics into a false religion, so that a political loss becomes an act of faith and the casus belli for a war of religion against one’s opponents.
Pro-Life Americans Still Have Much Work to Do to Change Hearts and Minds on Abortion, by David Clossen
By David Clossen, LifeNews – On November 5, 2024, Donald J. Trump completed the greatest comeback in American political history by winning the 2024 presidential election and defeating Kamala Harris. Trump becomes only the second president to be elected for non-consecutive terms, the first being Grover Cleveland in 1892. For beleaguered pro-lifers, Trump’s victory offers hope and opportunity… Although “unprecedented” is an overused word in modern politics, the 2024 election featured a series of events truly without equal in American history. …
Trump’s Victory Is Good News for Religious Believers, by R. R. Reno
By R. R. Reno, Editor, First Things – Religious believers may or may not agree with Trump about immigration or trade. And they may have diverse views about how to respond to our society’s confusions about what it means to be a man or a woman. But they should welcome the general erosion of the open society consensus and its ready accusations of fascism and authoritarianism. In that regard, whatever one thinks of the man or his platform, Trump’s electoral success is good news for those of us who think that the highest, noblest, and most liberating act is to surrender ourselves, heart, mind, and soul, to God.
Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation: We Have Only Done Our Duty
Author Don Schwager, Servants of the Word – Luke 17:7-10 – 7 “Will any one of you, who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep, say to him when he has come in from the field, `Come at once and sit down at table’? 8 Will he not rather say to him, `Prepare supper for me, and gird yourself and serve me, till I eat and drink; and afterward you shall eat and drink’? 9 Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? 10 So you also, when you have done all that is commanded you, say, `We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.'”
Avoiding Elitism, by Rob Marco
By Rob Marco, Crisis Magazine – I heard a quote years ago from the late Fr. John Hardon, S.J., that “Ordinary Catholic families cannot survive. They must be extra-ordinary families. They must be what I do not hesitate to call heroic Catholic families.” I thought it was a bold, prophetic proclamation; and the more of his writings I read, the more I admired the good Jesuit’s zeal—until I realized that the Traditionalists I had aligned myself with regarded Fr. Hardon as a “modernist.” I would hear this pejorative used time and time again …
The Lesson Some Leftists Have Learned From Trump’s Win Should Terrify Americans, by Margot Cleveland
By Margot Cleveland, The Federalist – Since Donald Trump’s landslide victory over Kamala Harris last Tuesday, the legacy press has been hosting a public inquest into her demise. Three competing theories soon dominated the discussions — only one of which accepted the reality that Americans rejected the far-left policies and candidate on the merits… a second and more vocal segment of the press and Harris voting bloc instead declared that Trump’s election proves a majority of Americans are racist, sexist autocrats.
A Catholic Renaissance, by Randall Smith
By Randall Smith, The Catholic Thing – I read an article recently by a professor who described how, years ago, she was expressing enthusiasm at an English Department meeting at her Jesuit university about a course on Catholic poetry that she had developed… a senior member of the department “who seemed to be speaking for both himself and his skeptical colleagues” announced: “Someone is going to have to prove to me that this is a legitimate way to approach the study of literature.” ….
Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation: We Have Only Done Our Duty
Author Don Schwager, Servants of the Word – Luke 17:7-10 – 7 “Will any one of you, who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep, say to him when he has come in from the field, `Come at once and sit down at table’? 8 Will he not rather say to him, `Prepare supper for me, and gird yourself and serve me, till I eat and drink; and afterward you shall eat and drink’? 9 Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? 10 So you also, when you have done all that is commanded you, say, `We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.'”
Founder’s Quote
Patriot Post – “Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the Spirit of Party generally. … A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume.” —George Washington (1796)
Saint of the Day for November 12: St. Josaphat
Franciscan Media – In 1964, newspaper photos of Pope Paul VI embracing Athenagoras I, the Orthodox patriarch of Constantinople, marked a significant step toward the healing of a division in Christendom that has spanned more than nine centuries… In 1595, the Orthodox bishop of Brest-Litovsk in present-day Belarus and five other bishops representing millions of Ruthenians, sought reunion with Rome.