As I write this, I have two boys outside pretending to repair a tree. For those who do not know boy-speak, to repair a tree is simply an excuse to hook a rope on a branch and pully the younger boy upward as high as can be attained. The older son informs me all is…
Our world has never needed a father more than now. Our shepherds are not merely absent to their spiritual children, but also often part of the pack of wolves devouring souls. Many young people are tragically confused about their sexual identity. Parents have no idea how to be sacrificial spouses. Fortunately, we have no need…
Since the Fall of Man, men and women have been locked in a contest of power. Instead of the order of humility and charity created by God, Adam and Eve chose pride and rebellion against God and each other. Pride produces a contest of power because pride cannot be satisfied unless it obtains more power…
This is a question many Catholics (including clergy) are asking, and this topic has contributed to the revealing of an obvious divide among the people of the Church (which is different from the Church as the Spotless Bride of Christ [CCC 789 and 796]). We owe it to our brothers and sisters in Christ to…
Consider a young man kneeling devoutly in a quiet church. He strives to be chaste, pious, well catechized, strong, and healthy. It seems that all his life, he has desired to please God. But something is distressing him. The young man seems confused. “Lord, what would you have me do?” he implores the Lord in…
Editor’s note: This article comes to 1P5 via an anonymous Catholic, whose identity we are protecting at the author’s request. In these confusing times, when so many voices are vying for attention and claiming to give answers to important questions, it can be difficult to hear the authentic voice of Catholic teaching on certain moral…
“Little children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 Jn. 5:20–21). “For all the gods of the Gentiles are devils; but the Lord made the heavens” (Psalm 96:5). Recently, these verses were cited in a homily by a priest at my local parish. He spoke out against idols and focused on making an idol of the Earth.…
One day, following Mass, a Polish man, in his fifties, shared a childhood story with me. It seems that he and his brother were serving Mass with another boy who, to their frustration, was being deliberately unruly and obstinate. The two brothers, no doubt higher in the pecking order of altar boys, made threatening gestures…
Happy St. Hubert’s Day, everyone. By now, we are done with our soul cakes, our Hallowtide jack-o-lanterns, our cemetery visits, parties, and trick-or-treating. The carved pumpkins are getting softer, the candy is wearing out its welcome, and many folks are taking the fake spider webs and orange decoration lights off their houses. At this point,…
Even though Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen said the laity would save the Church, many in the laity are acutely aware of their limitations. We can’t elect a pontiff, submit dubia, or run a diocese. In the ongoing civil war between orthodoxy and modernism, we are privates, not generals, colonels, or even lieutenants. It’s good to…
Early Monday morning in Rome, an anonymous group of men entered the Church of Santa Maria in Traspontina, removed the wooden “Pachamama” idols, and ceremoniously threw them into the Tiber river. Catholics the world over rejoiced, much to the chagrin of various papal sycophants, liberals, and Vatican representative Paolo Ruffini, who called the act “A…
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