Mass Exodus: Catholic Disaffiliation in Britain and America since Vatican II Stephen Bullivant Oxford University Press 336 pages $32.95 hardback, $24.99 e-book If you want to start a heated debate in Catholic circles, just state an opinion about the Second Vatican Council’s impact on attrition rates in the modern Church. While many implicate Vatican II…
Epistle: Proverbs 8:22-35 Gospel: Luke 1:26-28 O God, Who by the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin, prepared a worthy dwelling for Your Son, and Who, by Your Son’s death, foreseen by You, preserved her from all taint, grant, we beseech You, through her intercession, that we too may come to You unstained by sin. –…
Already the first great jewel threaded onto the strands of the new liturgical year is upon us: the glorious Feast of the Immaculate Conception. This year, December 8 falls on a Sunday. Yet this feast is so important that it supersedes the Mass of the Second Sunday of Advent in the traditional calendar. Dom Prosper…
There is perhaps no truth today more shunned, suppressed, and vehemently ignored than the reality of death. The modern man is consumed with indulging his slavery to his passions, proclaiming himself free, and absolutely banishing the thought that he will die. He has invented words to shun even the mention of death: “macabre,” “morbid.” Yet…
Author and talk show host Dennis Prager accurately observes that there is no greater concept in the first five books of the Bible than that of “distinction.” More specifically, it is the clear separation God makes between certain things: God and man, animal and human, life and death, sacred and profane, good and evil, male…
At some time, we have all encountered a sedevacantist — if not in person, at least online. I won’t bore you with the theology of the sedevacantism except to say they hold that a heretic cannot be pope, with the most common strain affirming that Pius XII was the last legitimate pope (although I did…
I’m often asked about the state of Catholicism in Japan and about being a Catholic expat in Japan in particular. I thought this might be a good time to write about it, given that Japan might be on a lot of Catholics’ minds with Pope Francis having just wrapped up the first papal visit to…
Epistle: Romans 13:11-14 Gospel: Luke 21:25-33 Stir up Thy power, we beseech Thee, O Lord, and come: that from the threatening dangers of our sins, by Thy protection we may deserve to be rescued, and be saved by Thy deliverance. – From the Collect for the First Sunday of Advent The First Sunday of Advent…
“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.…
With so many crazy things happening in the Church — from idolatry to religious indifferentism to seemingly constant changes to established teaching — Dr. Michael Sirilla, professor of Systematic and Dogmatic Theology at Franciscan University of Steubenville discusses what the faithful should think — and why they should stay Catholic. AUDIO ONLY: [Powerpress] RELATED…
One of the two soldiers who had to lead him caused him all possible sufferings. He was forced to make long marches, was exposed to the rays of the sun, to the rains and the cold of the nights. His body, already weakened by several severe illnesses, finally broke down[.] … In the morning Chrysostom…
