Catholic Church

By Catholic News Agency - In a pastoral letter marking the first Sunday of Advent, Bishop Mark Davies of Shrewsbury dedicated 2019 as the diocesan Year of Holiness, calling attention to the Second Vatican Council's emphasis on the universal call to holiness... “It is this universal call to holiness which I wish all of us, clergy and people, to focus upon anew. It is striking that, amid all the crises of the 20th Century, the central message of the Second Vatican Council was that every one of us, in every state of life, is called to the fullness of the Christian life and the perfection of love: that is, called to become nothing less than a saint,”

By Dan Byron, Catholic Stand - One of the joys in living in an area like the Diocese of Knoxville, which is approximately 3 percent Catholic, is that there are many opportunities to explain or correct erroneous beliefs held by our non-Catholic brothers in what they believe the Catholic faith is all about. Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen told his audience several times over the course of his TV program that there are very few people who truly hate the Church, but many hate the Church for what they believe her to be.

By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture - If the February conference is intended as an exercise in damage control, the Cupich appointment makes sense. If the conference is intended to prompt reform, the appointment makes no sense at all. So I conclude that this meeting – which one scarred veteran of the Vatican battles has described as the “last chance” for Vatican credibility – will produce nothing more than “enthusiastic words” about the fight against sexual abuse.

By Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle, Catholic Exchange - As a Carmelite nun, Sr. Lucia stated, “All people of good will can and must say the Rosary every day.” She said it was “in order to put ourselves in contact with God, to thank Him for his benefits, and [to] ask for the graces we need. It is the prayer which places us in familiar contact with God, like the son who goes to his father to thank him for the gifts he has received, to talk to him about special concerns, to receive his guidance, his help, his support, and his blessing.”