Catholic Church

By Michael Warren Davis, Editor of Crisis Magazine - I thought of (St. John of the Cross) as I read Robert Cardinal Sarah’s new book, The Day is Now Far Spent. It is dedicated to two very different pontiffs: Pope Benedict XVI (a “peerless architect of rebuilding the Church”) and Pope Francis (a “faithful and devoted son of Saint Ignatius”). Yet it is Sarah himself, I think, who lays out the finest blueprint we’re likely to see for ecclesial reform—or perhaps I should say counter-reform… Today, the word “reform” drips with innuendo, just as it did in the time of St. John of the Cross. It signifies a desire to change the permanent teachings of the Church as a solution to institutional corruption. It uses a temporal crisis as an excuse to propagate spiritual errors.

By Fr. Bill Peckman, ChurchPop - People who willfully exempt oneself from Mass on a Holy Day carry the consequence of being in mortal sin. It is the same exact consequence for those who willfully exempt themselves from going to any Sunday Mass… That’s right: to willfully exempt yourself from Sunday Mass is mortally sinful. Period… Just because I have so busied my life with building earthly kingdoms through work and sports, or find pleasure more to my taste does not exempt me from Mass. God isn’t something else I fit into the schedule: He is the first priority.

By Jeffrey Cimmino, Washington Examiner - Traditional Catholic parishes run by one society of priests are growing in the United States, defying the trend of decline in the broader American church over previous decades… Over the past year, parishes run by the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, a society of priests dedicated to celebrating the traditional Latin form of the Catholic liturgy, have reported large increases in Sunday Mass attendance. The traditional liturgy that draws attendees is the form of the Mass celebrated before the reforms instituted at the Second Vatican Council, a meeting of the church’s bishops in the 1960s.