BENEDICT XVI GENERAL AUDIENCE Wednesday, 17 November 2010  Saint Juliana of Cornillon Dear Brothers and Sisters, This morning too I would like to introduce a female figure to you. She is little known but the Church is deeply indebted to her, not only because of the holiness of her life but also because, with her great fervour, she contributed to the institution of one of the most important solemn Liturgies of the year: Corpus Christi. She is St Juliana de Cornillon, also known as St Juliana of Liège. We know several facts about her life, mainly from a Biography that was probably writ ..read more

Beelzebub,  mentioned in 2 Kings, was a prince of demons worshiped by the Philistines, whose most famous warrior was Goliath killed in battle with a slingshot to the head by the Jewish boy David. The Philistines probably occupied an area of modern Palestine. In 1714 the Dutch writer Bernard Mandeville (1670-1733) published in English his infamous book The Fable of the Bees (alternate title Private Vices, Public Benefits). The main premise of his book, that vice is a positive good in society, startled his contemporaries and evoked condemnation from many directions. Mandeville argued that a ..read more

The secularization of Poland continues apace: The mayor of Warsaw, Rafał Trzaskowski, has now banned any public display of crosses (and any other ‘religious symbol’), including on one’s own desk at work. The Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, has called for such a ban nation-wide. I went on pilgrimage to Poland back in 2015 with my local parish, which is under the patronage of one of the patrons of Poland, Saint Hedwig. The parish was founded by the hard-working Polish immigrants and settlers to the region back in 2014, and the pilgrimage was celebrating the parish’s hundredth anniversary. One of th ..read more

(On this feast of the Visitation, it is fitting that we post this reflection from contributor Rebecca Jacobson on a pilgrimage she took to the primary Marian shrine in England, Our Lady of Walsingham. Wherever you live, make some sort of devotion – even if it cannot be a full pilgrimage! – to the blessed Mother, as she did to her kinswoman Elizabeth) Ed.     And many a pilgrim to day of his death / Took the road once a year to “England’s Nazareth.” (verse from “The Walsingham Hymn”) Last August I had the joy of attending a walking pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, a ..read more

On this 29th of May in 1886, John Pemberton, a pharmacist, placed the first advertisement for a new drink he had invented, in the Atlanta Journal. Originally called Pemberton French Wine Coca, he took out the alcohol – due to temperance restrictions back then in force – but kept in a smidgen of cocaine, as a healthier substitute (!) for the morphine to which he had become addicted, after a saber wound in the Civil War (Pemberton fought on the Confederate side, of course). Cocaine and wine – a winning combination to spruce up one’s day. Don’t laugh: There was a popular concoction in Italy with ..read more

G.K. Chesterton is known as the most often quoted of any writer . . . and the least often read. It’s easy to see why that is so; merely consider these clever statements: A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.[1] It is terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged.[2] The whole pleasure of marriage is that it is a perpetual crisis.[3] “My country, right or wrong”’ is a thing that no patriot would think of saying. It is like saying, “My mother, drunk or sober.”[4] These are the days when the Christian is expected to praise every creed except his ..read more

William of Gellone (ca. 755 – 812) had two phases to his life: He began as a warrior knight of the Carolingian era in France, and he was related to Charlemagne himself, perhaps a cousin, the nephew of Charles Martel, who was Charlemagne’s grandfather (some of the lineage is historically obscure). Like Martel, the ‘Hammer’, who crushed a vast force of Umayyad Muslims at the Battle of Tours in 732, saving France and Europe, William three decades later had to fight the Saracens, another branch of militant Muslims who once again sought the domination of Europe. In 793, Abd ar-Rahman declared a ‘ho ..read more

The iconic Saint Bernard dogs take their name from today’s saint, Saint Bernard of Menthon – also known as of Montjoux – an 11th century Burgundian priest from a noble family, who was born in about 1020, and died in 1081. He evangelized the then largely pagan regions of Aosta and Lombardy, with numerous conversions and miracles. As a young man, discerning his vocation, his father had arranged a marriage for him, a fate nearly impossible to avoid in those days. But, as the Gospel says, nothing is impossible for God, so Bernard jumped out of a window in the castle, and angels guided him gently t ..read more

May 27th marks the anniversary of the promulgation of the first official Code of Canon Law, by Benedict XV in 1917. The laborious – even Herculean – endeavour of collating the two millennia wide swathe of Church laws, customs and ordinances was begun by the indomitable Saint Pius X, but completed under his successor. Some thought it simply could be done, to synthesize the immense amount of material into one handy handbook, but, as Christ says in today’s Gospel, all things are possible with God.  The Pio-Benedictine code is now known as the ‘old code’, as a new edition was promulgated by P ..read more

I hope this review might provide a double service to readers. I am excited to promote both a new novel, which provides the core subject of this piece, as well as the existence of a new, Catholic press, which makes it possible to read such novels. My first business, however, is to write of the novel, relaying my thoughts and reactions to the work. I do not endeavor to lay out a summary or synopsis here – such information may be found elsewhere – so I shall only refer to the most basic points concerning the novel. Karen Ullo presents a brilliant work of Catholic fiction, quite recently released ..read more