The United Nations has a problem. A laundry list of recent corruption allegations and scandals has created a credibility gap in the 60-year-old organization that now worries even its staunchest supporters. Seasoned UN employees quietly admit that they hope United States ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, “feared but not revered,” will bring order to … Read more
Notwithstanding the sex-abuse scandal that has buffeted the Catholic Church in the United States, Catholics genuinely admire bishops whose courage and dedication have made a difference in their dioceses. Adversity tends to sharpen the contrast and clarify the picture of Catholicism in America. And the recent presidential election added another dimension to any reflection on … Read more
On September 29, 2003, a frustrated Rev. David Mullen sent a letter to newly installed Archbishop Sean O’Malley of Boston, pleading for help. “Talking About Touching” (TAT), a controversial safety education program designed for children in kindergarten to fourth grade, had just been accepted in the Archdiocese of Boston. He wrote: I am most distressed … Read more
Look at this stone. It has been lying in this water for a very long time, but the water has not penetrated it…. The same thing has happened to men in Europe. For centuries they have been surrounded by Christianity, but Christ has not penetrated, Christ does not live within them. —Cardinal Lamberto, The Godfather … Read more
Glossy travel catalogs overflowed my mailbox in early spring. These days, modern travelers are wooed with the promise of novelty: Swim with the dolphins or search for Incan artifacts with archaeologists in Peru. Travel professionals recognize that often what is sought is not just another excursion but a Significant Experience. Sandwiched between the travel catalogs … Read more
On the third Sunday of Advent in 1998, a handful of middle-aged women wearing purple ribbons clutched purple flowers as they entered St. Barnabas Cathedral in Nottingham, England. The members of Catholic Women’s Ordination (CWO) had come from surrounding parishes to stand as witnesses to their hope for women priests. “At the end of Mass, … Read more
The United Nations (UN) General Assembly is calling world leaders to New York City this month for the 2001 Special Session on Children, a ten-year follow-up to the UN’s 1990 World Summit for Children. The purpose of this year’s session is to “change the way the world views and treats children.” The harsh reality awaiting … Read more
A little-known relic in Oviedo, Spain, called the Sudarium, the cloth said to have covered Jesus’ face after He was crucified, may be the key to unveiling the mystery of the Shroud of Turin. The history and scientific findings respecting the Sudarium, often called the “Cloth of Oviedo,” provide an unfolding story that rivals the … Read more
The final months of the Jubilee year witnessed three pivotal encounters between the Church and an emerging system of global governance. The Millennium Peace Summit, sponsored by the United Nations (UN) and bankrolled by Ted Turner, honorary chair, gathered world religious leaders in New York August 28-31. Immediately following that controversial assembly, Mikhail Gorbachev convened … Read more
Dutch readers of the homosexual magazine Gay Krant tried unsuccessfully to sue Pope John Paul II in an Amsterdam court. In July, Gay Pride organized a gathering in Rome. The Dutch group claims the Holy Father’s comment that the event was “offensive and insulting to Christian values” is discriminatory and incites hatred against homosexuals. Of … Read more
Modern dissident Catholics have sought for years to challenge the Church from within Catholic universities, theological societies, and various anti-magisterial associations. Their litany of complaints has been drowned out of late by the voices of renewed orthodoxy. The papacy of John Paul II has met every thrust and parry progressive Catholics have attempted from within. … Read more
“Herod the king stretched forth his hands to afflict some of the Church. And he killed James, the brother of John, with the sword.” That stark recounting from the Book of Acts begins a marvel of God’s grace for the devoted apostle. James “the Great”; his younger brother, St. John the Evangelist; and St. Peter … Read more
A web of wires connected microphones, earphones, and lights behind the nameplates of the world’s leading foundations: Turner, Hewlett, MacArthur, Rockefeller, Gates. The main committee meeting of the United Nations’s Hague Forum featured an amphitheater of desks manned—often womanned—by delegates of 177 nations and of the rich and famous who bankroll population control worldwide. This … Read more
For the Church at large, the Holy Father’s call to renew the faithful in prayer on the eve of the third millennium is a splendid opportunity to strengthen the faithful and redeem the times. For the individual pastor, however, it can be a splendid misery. Overworked, weary, with resources stretched thin by administrative and pastoral … Read more
Luisa Piccarreta lay confined to bed for more than sixty years, each day recording in her notebooks all that Jesus revealed to her. The notebook entry for January 29, 1919, reads: My beloved daughter, I want you to know the order of my Providence. In every 2000 year period I have renewed the world. In … Read more
Dissident Catholics from thirty-five countries descended upon the Vatican on October 11, the 35th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council. Brandishing a much-publicized referendum and the signatures of more than 2.3 million Catholics demanding Church reforms, the representatives of We Are Church jostled amicably against Roman police. Dissidents, draped in blue or purple stoles to … Read more
St. Anthony Messenger has been a welcomed periodical in Catholic homes for over 100 years. The editor, Norman Perry, O.F.M., writes, “Throughout its century-plus of continuous publication we have been addressing the religious and spiritual concerns of Catholic families and readers, while applying Catholic teaching to the problems and situations we meet in everyday life.” … Read more
The thirty-fifth anniversary of the Second Vatican Council, October 11, will witness the convergence on Rome of dissident Catholics from Europe and the Americas. The militant revisionists will demand that the Vatican acknowledge the signatures collected in a two-year campaign that featured the We Are Church petition. Representatives claim their “restructuring” goals embody the true … Read more
No fad has swept through Catholic seminaries and retreat centers in recent years with as much fervor as has the Enneagram. Teaching the Enneagram, variously billed as “the mirror of the soul” and “a map to the psyche,” has become the new profession of former priests, who offer it as a spiritual guide and an … Read more
One year ago this month, the Catholic dissenters supporting the We Are Church referendum made a bold proclamation: They would deliver one million American signatures to the steps of St. Peter’s on Pentecost 1997. Their intention is to initiate Vatican III. We Are Church volunteers sought to collect signatures on their referendum from Catholics at … Read more
