Recently, the head of France’s Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop de Moulins-Beaufort, said that the Seal of Confession should not take precedence over French law (dealing with sex crimes against children). This scandalous statement was the exact opposite of what he had said earlier. What made him change his mind? Well, could it be because he had been summoned…
“In fourteen hundred and ninety-two Columbus sailed the ocean blue,” a chant familiar to every school-aged child in the United States. Well, let us hope that this is still the case! It marks the event, of course, in which the Italian-born navigator, Christopher Columbus, departed from Spain and discovered the Americas. An event of enormous…
In February 1917, before Our Lady of Fatima, and before the Soviets took over Russia, the Communists targeted Mexico first. In it we find the first socialist constitution in the history of the world (Royal, Catholic Martyrs of the Twentieth Century, 15). The Mexican government knew that a direct confrontation with the Church would be…
There is one business that is thriving in this pandemic: The dog-breeding business. Of all things! This I did not know. I discovered this one day as I was walking along the pier at our lake-side city. A popular spot with dog-walkers. Of which we have a great many in our town. As I struck…
The Yucatan. To winter-wearied North Americans, the name revives images of turquoise seas, powder-white beaches, and ancient Maya ruins. The Yucatan Peninsula is alleged to have one of the richest stores of archaeological ruins in the world and is home to the Maya Indians, the largest indigenous group in North America. The peninsula is comprised…
Who doesn’t love a circus? The acrobats. The clowns. The trapeze artists. And the inhabitants of San Juan de los Lagos in the state of Jalisco were no exception. They were abuzz with excitement. The circus was coming to town! The year was 1623. A family of trapeze artists had just arrived in town, en…
There is a strange new vocabulary which dominates the evening news, night after night: “Variants; ‘compulsory jabs’; Moderna; Pfizer; mRNA vaccinations; Astra Zeneca; digital passports; ‘needles-in-arms’.” And as if that were not enough there is the ubiquitous Doctor Fauci. At some point you have to wonder if the fellow is bi-locating. He seems to be…
D.H. Lawrence wrote a novel about Mexico in 1926, a time of severe persecution of the Church in that country. In his book, The Plumed Serpent, he recounts the words of Dona Carlota to her friend, Kate. Doña Carlota’s husband, Ramon, is the leader of a group dedicated to Quetzelcoatl, the Aztec serpent god: ‘Ah, Señora!’ said…
On May 30, 1990, a grievously depressed teenager hurled himself from the balcony of his apartment in Mexico City, plunging 30’ to the pavement below. He suffered life-threatening head injuries and the doctors gave him a zero chance of survival. Hoping against hope, his family prayed urgently to Juan Diego for a miracle. Ten days…
It’s hard to be a Catholic today. Every time you turn on the news it seems that there’s another statue being defaced or a crucifix being vandalized or a church being set ablaze. Just the other day, a statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe was smashed to the ground in broad daylight in a Brooklyn,…
I spent a lovely weekend with my family, and have mostly avoided the news. This morning I awoke to a story about Pope Francis making a surprise public appearance in Quito, Ecuador, where he is beginning a tour of three Latin American countries. He is scheduled to celebrate Mass for an enormous crowd — estimates say…
