Catholic Church

February 13, 2020

Cardinal Zen to Congressmen: China Wants Vatican ‘Surrender’, by Matt Hadro

By Matt Hadro, CNA - Cardinal Joseph Zen, the bishop emeritus of Hong Kong, has said that the situation of the Church in China is dire. The cardinal also predicted the end of the underground Church… “The situation is very bad. And the source is not the pope. The pope doesn’t know much about China,”… “The Holy Father Francis shows special affection to me,” Zen said, but added that he is in confrontation with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State… “I’m fighting Parolin. Because the bad things come from him,” Zen added… But, the cardinal told CNA, “you cannot compromise” with the Chinese Communist Party, whom he called “persecutors” of the faith… “They want complete surrender. That’s communism.”

February 13, 2020

California Bishop Reaffirms Real Presence, Calls for Summer 2020 Eucharistic Congress, by Martina Moyski

By Martina Moyski, Church Militant - The bishop of the Oakland diocese is dismayed at the results of a poll finding almost 70% of Catholics are ignorant of Church teaching on the Holy Eucharist — and is fighting back… "As bishop of the diocese of Oakland, I find this shocking," Bp. Michael Barber, S.J… As part of the bishop's response to the findings, he has called for a diocesan-wide Eucharistic Congress on June 19–20 at the Cathedral of Christ the Light in Oakland, California… The theme of the congress is "Stay with us, Lord," from Luke 24:29: "But they constrained Him, saying: Stay with us, because it is towards evening, and the day is now far spent. ….

February 13, 2020

Msgr. Charles Pope: How Does Pride Grow in Our Life? Pondering a Teaching by St. Bernard of Clairvaux

By Msgr. Charles Pope - So you think the idea of the “Twelve Steps” is new? Well, if you think you’ve got a new idea, go back and see how the Greeks put it, or in this case how the Medieval Latins put it. St. Bernard of Clairvaux identified twelve steps up the mountain of pride in his work Steps of Humility and Pride… In today’s post, we focus on the Twelve Steps of Pride. Tomorrow, we’ll tackle the Twelve Steps of Humility (from St. Benedict’s rule). Below, I list the Twelve Steps of Pride briefly and then provide some commentary. ….

February 13, 2020

Bishop Barron’s ‘Police Catholic Media’ Proposal Shows Laypeople Don’t Trust Bishops, by Phil Lawler

By Phil Lawler, LifeSiteNews - In making his proposal Bishop Barron said: “I do think that the shepherds of the Church, those entrusted with supervising the teaching office, can and should point out when people on social media are harming the Body of Christ.” But his proposed solution — which has been dubbed online a “yellow check” system — is mainly a reaction against the dangerous level of vitriol that is unfortunately evident in some corners of the Catholic blogosphere. The proposal does not distinguish carefully between two different sorts of offenses: offenses against civility and offenses against doctrine.