Many things rightly preoccupy us as we go about trying to solve personal and public problems. Other preoccupations are obsessive. The abundance of news, entertainment, and advertising often creates and feeds such obsessions. The Sacred Liturgy on this Feast of Corpus Christi, along with the regular recitation of the Lord’s Prayer, can help us overcome these paralyzing and destructive worries. The Our Father is a prayer before the most sacred of meals: Holy Communion. We pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” The petition immediately follows our acknowledgment of the supremacy of God’s will ..read more

The latest news from the American episcopacy comes from a bishop who has welcomed, as a hermit, a woman who fourteen years ago underwent surgery and pumped her body with chemicals to simulate the appearance of a male.  She says she did so out of a respect for the created order, which is like saying that you filled the lake with sand because you found it so lovely. I’ll grant that it is a touchy thing to minister to someone so confused about both male and female that she thinks a little lopping and pasting, some hair on the face, and some extra muscle can obliterate her womanhood and make ..read more

There is a wall of flesh before the eyes Of John, who yet perceives and hails his King. It is Our Lady’s painful bliss to bring Before mankind the Glory of the skies. Her cousin feels her womb’s sweet burden rise And leap with joy, and she comes forth to sing, With trembling mouth, her words of welcoming. She knows her hidden God, and prophesies. Saint John, pray for us, weary souls that tarry Where life is withered by sin’s deadly breath. Pray for us, whom the dogs of Satan harry, Saint John, Saint Anne, and Saint Elizabeth. And, Mother Mary, give us Christ to carry Within our hearts, that we ..read more

Gratitude lies at the heart of Christianity. All human attitudes, gratitude acknowledges our dependency upon others – both God and other human beings – and that is one of the things that marks us out as truly human and unique. Desecration delights in dehumanizing those made in God’s image; gratitude reconsecrates them.     The post The reconsecration of Man appeared first on The Catholic Thing ..read more

The drawn-out judicial proceeding against former Jesuit artist Marko Rupnik, accused of sexually abusing and manipulating at least 30 different women, most of whom were nuns, “is at a fairly advanced stage,” according to the DDF’s Msgr. John Joseph Kennedy. But there are difficulties with charges against Rupnik, particularly “false mysticism,” an element in the way he suborned his sexual victims, because there’s no specific provision about it in canon law.   The post Rupnik update: Case is a “delicate” work in progress appeared first on The Catholic Thing ..read more

L’Osservatore Romano reports that the Catholic faithful, several of them very young, were killed in North Kivu, in the Republic of Congo by members of an ISIS-affiliated militia called “Allied Democratic Forces.” Pope Francis confirmed that “their throats were slit simply because they were Christians and didn’t want to convert to Islam.”       The post 14 Congolese Catholics killed for refusing to convert to Islam appeared first on The Catholic Thing ..read more

The great “master of paradox,” born on May 29, 1874, wrote that the celebration of a birthday “is a way of affirming defiantly, and even flamboyantly, that it is a good thing to be alive.” The immensity of Chesterton’s literary corpus means that there remains something relevant to any and every circumstance. He was a convert and saw the Church from the outside before he came inside. Hence his well-quoted observation that the Catholic Church is “larger on the inside than it is on the outside.”     The post Happy 150th birthday G.K. Chesterton appeared first on The Catholic Thing ..read more

On Tuesday, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops published a “National Synthesis of the People of God in the United States of America for the Interim Stage,” which summarizes the responses of more than 35,000 Catholics gathered from more than 1,000 diocesan listening sessions over Lent. One source of tension mentioned in the report is disagreement about how the Church should balance a “welcoming spirit” with a need to articulate church teaching.     The post USCCB releases ‘National Synthesis’ report for Synod on Synodality II appeared first on The Catholic Thing ..read more

A new report from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops shows that across the country from mid-2022 to mid-2023, just over 1,300 clerical abuse allegations came to light, while payouts to victims reached $284 million – tens of millions more than the prior year. However, those figures are down from 2,704 allegations brought the prior year and considerably lower than the 4,434 allegations brought in 2019.     The post 2022-23 sex abuse claims down but payouts up appeared first on The Catholic Thing ..read more

The Supreme Pontiff is Christ’s vicar on earth, the head of the Church. He is also human, capable of mistakes. The fact that his words may reverberate around the world – not just the Catholic world – means he has the responsibility to think before he speaks. And he should remember that closed-door conversations in Rome are non-existent.       The post Memo to Pope Francis: Be careful about careless talk appeared first on The Catholic Thing ..read more