Catholic Church

The Brown Pelican Society of Louisiana will return on April 9th. Wishing all of you a Blessed Holy Week and a Happy Easter.

Author Don Schwager, Servants of the Word – John 13:21-33,36-38 – 21 When Jesus had thus spoken, he was troubled in spirit, and testified, “Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” 22 The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he spoke. 23 One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was lying close to the breast of Jesus; 24 so Simon Peter beckoned to him and said, “Tell us who it is of whom he speaks.” 25 So lying thus, close to the breast of Jesus, he said to him, “Lord, who is it?” 26 Jesus answered, “It is he to whom I shall give this morsel when I have dipped it.” …

By Samantha Stephenson, Catholic Exchange – Confession and the Garden of the Soul… It was around this time that my daughter received her first Confession, which meant that I found myself coaxing and cajoling a fearful and anxious 8-year-old to our local parish for her second Confession, which held none of the excitement and glamour of the first to obscure the objectively nerve-wracking nature of bearing your weaknesses to a total stranger….

By Steven Ertelt, LifeNews – The Kansas Legislature on Friday overrode pro-abortion Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of legislation shielding pro-life pregnancy centers from government regulations that could restrict their ability to offer life-affirming support to women… The House voted 87-35 and the Senate voted 30-9 to enact House Bill 2635, the Pregnancy Center Autonomy and Rights of Expression (CARE) Act… The measure protects private, nonprofit pregnancy centers and medical pregnancy centers by exempting them from certain regulations on the information …

By Chris Jackson, Hiraeth In Exile, Substack – That is what Bishop Robert Barron effectively did in his March 29 Fox News column. He acknowledged that the overwhelming theological tradition regarded Judas as damned, then shifted the reader’s attention to the Vézelay image beloved by Francis, floated the hope that Judas might have been saved, invoked postconciliar caution about naming anyone in hell, and folded the whole thing into his familiar theology of overwhelming mercy. Instead of an exhortation to fear betrayal, despair, avarice, sacrilege, and final impenitence, it was another attempt to blunt the edge of Christ’s warnings.

By Francis P. Sempa, The American Spectator – Pope Leo XIV on Palm Sunday announced to the world that God “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.” That statement would have surprised Gen. George Patton and the men of the Third Army who in December 1944 were stalled in their drive to relieve the American paratroopers at Bastogne, and it would have surprised Father James O’Neill, the Chief Chaplain of the Third Army, who responded to Patton’s request for a “weather prayer” by writing one that caused Patton to award him the Bronze Star. Perhaps Pope Leo should take the time to read Alex Kershaw’s book Patton’s Prayer,

By Randall Smith, The Catholic Thing – We pride ourselves on the fact that we don’t have a “caste system” in America, with higher and lower castes and those at the bottom who are “untouchables.” I sometimes wonder, though, whether we have something analogous in the way we distinguish “the elite” from the “deplorables.” As for “untouchables,” try going to a “Not a King” rally and saying, “I like some of the things Trump does,” and you’ll quickly discover what lepers felt like at the time of Christ.

By Nathanael Blake, The Federalis – I don’t know how our campaign against the mullahs will turn out, but it has real bombs being dropped on real targets with people really dying. In contrast, the sorts of programs Kristof promotes as better recipients of taxpayer money tend to be more ephemeral in their results — and that’s assuming that the recipients even exist. To cite a few examples that even a New York Times columnist ought to have heard of, there is the Somali daycare piracy, the California wildlife bridge to nowhere, the California high-speed rail debacle, and the embarrassing spectacle of cities spending endlessly to end homelessness while not even reducing it.

By Bridget Sielicki, Live Action News – A father and son duo in Quebec, Canada, have been court-ordered to stop donating sperm after allegations that, between them, they have fathered hundreds of children… A judge in Quebec has ordered two men to stop donating sperm after a lawsuit against them proceeds… Philippe Normand and his son Dominik Seelos have reportedly fathered over 600 children between them. …

By Mary Rose, Zeale – Violence and sectarian pressure targeting Christian communities across Africa and the Middle East have continued in the days leading up to the Easter Triduum, with deadly attacks in Nigeria on Palm Sunday, a sectarian rampage in Syria, ongoing settler incursions in the West Bank, and continued displacement of Christians in southern Lebanon.