Site Map

Site Feeds

Pages

Categories

Monthly Archives

Tags

All Articles

Pastores Dabo Vobis (“I Will Give You Shepherds”)

Pastores Dabo Vobis (“I Will Give You Shepherds”)

Occasionally I am asked why I became a priest. My response is always the same: “Because God asked me to.” Is it really that simple? Basically, yes. Priests aren’t delivered by the stork, and we don’t fall from the sky. Well, in a way we do, because our vocation comes from on high. Ultimately a […]

Jesus Only?

Jesus Only?

It’s not politically incorrect to believe in God. Just so long as you acknowledge that all are God’s children, and that there are many, equally honorable paths to the Most High. After all, that’s only fair. How conceited it would be to claim that your way is the only way. There is nothing really new about […]

If Only Granny Were a Wild Animal

If Only Granny Were a Wild Animal

Apr 24 15 • 1 comment

If Granny were living in a civilized country rather than one that is hell-bent on ending lives and calling it a “choice,” there would be no need for such a provocative title. But this is America, friends, and many in our midst see things differently. Or maybe they just don’t see at all. It becomes […]

UN Agency Accused Of Harassment and Exerting Undue Influence

UN Agency Accused Of Harassment and Exerting Undue Influence

In a rare case of backroom pressure spilling onto the floor of a UN meeting, a delegate from the Pacific island of Nauru angrily scolded the UN Population Fund for “harassing” their government and “maligning” their UN delegation. “Does UNFPA think they can do this because Nauru is the smallest member state?” Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin […]

Poem: "Prostitution Politics"

Poem: “Prostitution Politics”

Apr 24 15 • 1 comment

Prostitution Politics I live in a brothel, But I am not a whore. Personally opposed to impurity, I’m chaste to the core. I help with the auctions, But no slaves are mine. Opposed to such servitude, I try to be kind. Working at Auschwitz, Folks arrive every day. Personally opposed to holocaust, What else can […]

The Fruit of Abortion's Poisonous Tree

The Fruit of Abortion’s Poisonous Tree

Apr 23 15 • 0 comments

Presidential candidate Rand Paul made headlines last week by turning the rhetorical tables on Progressives on the issue of abortion. When pressed by the media to articulate specifically his position on abortion, Paul responded, “Why don’t we ask the DNC: Is it okay to kill a seven-pound baby in the uterus? You go back and […]

Enjoying My Peaceful Place

Enjoying My Peaceful Place

Apr 21 15 • 0 comments

I have many ways to begin prayer, with numerous different motivations. Lately, God has been providing a certain motivation without my consciously asking for it. Ultimately, it’s almost always about finding peace. Before I get to that, let me share some of the ways I like to pray. There are times when I wish to […]

Christ Understands Every Grief

Christ Understands Every Grief

Apr 21 15 • 0 comments

Today I met a 14 year old boy who was paralyzed in a freak accident last summer. He is quadriplegic. It’s not yet been a year since his accident. I’m not sure if the reality of severe, permanent disability has been fully internalized for him or his parents. It is a hard grief journey that will […]

Hollywood’s Blacklist and Agents of Stalin—and Hitler

Hollywood’s Blacklist and Agents of Stalin—and Hitler

Apr 20 15 • 0 comments

These comrades took literal marching orders from Stalin’s Kremlin.

Abortion Celebrations

Abortion Celebrations

Apr 20 15 • 4 comments

If you’re happy killing babies, clap your hands. If you’re happy killing babies, clap your hands. If you’re happy baby killing and for you its so fulfilling, If you’re happy killing, babies clap your hands.   The Abortion Industry has been having “Abortion celebrations” around the country whose themes include: “Celebrate the death of your […]

Boko Haram Suffers Setback, Refugees Return Home

Boko Haram Suffers Setback, Refugees Return Home

Apr 20 15 • 0 comments

“It is all up to God—it’s not up to us to avenge and take retribution.” That’s the message proclaimed by Bishop Oliver Dashe Doeme of Maiduguri, Nigeria, one of the dioceses heaviest hit by the deadly raids of Boko Haram. Over the past few weeks, a strike force of the Nigerian army joined by troops […]

Nigerian Bishops March, Sing and Train at Pro-Life Conference

Nigerian Bishops March, Sing and Train at Pro-Life Conference

Apr 20 15 • 0 comments

“We had to limit the number of people in each diocese who could come,” said one organizer of a pro-life and pro-family conference in Ibadan, Nigeria. Over 1,500 filled the auditorium, and even then people spilled outside. One region with a small Christian population extended invitations to their Muslim neighbors who gladly attended. Bishops in […]

Poem: "Shine"

Poem: “Shine”

Apr 19 15 • 0 comments

Rapping Priest/Urban Poet: A Spoken Word by Fr. Pontifex

Not a spook

Not a spook

In the heyday of the Roman Empire, the corruption of the times caused a wave of dissatisfaction to ripple across the civilized world.  Many were disgusted with the gross sensuality of society and yearned for a higher, spiritual kind of existence.  They sought a redeemer who would come down from heaven and enlighten those who […]

Great Expectations?

Great Expectations?

Apr 16 15 • 0 comments

Encouraging positive character development.

Take Me to Church -- The Mega-Church, That Is

Take Me to Church — The Mega-Church, That Is

Apr 16 15 • 0 comments

My best female friend is a non-practicing Catholic. Like many lapsed Catholics, she attends Mass twice a year (Christmas and Easter). Though she has no genuine faith, she at least still appreciates Catholicism culturally, which is why she had a Catholic wedding, is supportive of our celibate priests, and ferries her kids to CCD at her local […]

<em>The Messengers</em>: An End Times TV Series

The Messengers: An End Times TV Series

The new TV series The Messengers is an end-times drama in the battle of good and evil. But first, before tuning in, suspend any theological expectations–it is fiction after all. The plot centers on a group of five young people with no connections to one another. An energy pulse courses through them, killing them, after […]

Birth Control:  Now That You Know, What's Next?

Birth Control: Now That You Know, What’s Next?

Apr 16 15 • 1 comment

In part 1 of this discussion on rethinking your birth control, I defined what it means to be a woman. Not just a modern woman, but a whole woman according to God’s design. Part 2 detailed attributes of her feminine genius in the form of female fertility. The cyclic ebb and flow of her fertile […]

The Law of Human Nature Still Exists

The Law of Human Nature Still Exists

Apr 15 15 • 1 comment

Is there anything so wicked as a man trying to silence his conscience?  It is a willful act that happens in stages: Bit by bit, incident by incident, rationalization by rationalization, the voice of a man’s conscience can be stifled—that still small voice within him eventually becomes fainter, until his heart turns to stone and […]

<em>Gifts of the Visitation</em> by Denise Bossert

Gifts of the Visitation by Denise Bossert

Apr 15 15 • 1 comment

Gifts of the Visitation: Nine Spiritual Encounters with Mary and Elizabeth (Ave Maria Press, 2015) is a story of grace, conversion and surrender. Denise Bossert beckons us to go deeper than ever before into the world of Our Blessed Mother and of St. Elizabeth as they joyously await the birth of our Lord and of St. John the Baptist. […]

Head Crop, Abraham Lincoln by Alexander Hesler, June 3, 1860, Springfield, Illinois

Lincoln: His Own Words

Apr 15 15 • 0 comments

On the sesquicentenary of his death.

Would You Lay Down Your Life for Them?

Would You Lay Down Your Life for Them?

Apr 14 15 • 0 comments

I have more than 1,100 friends on Facebook. Are they all really my friends? Fair question. My wife and children frequently voice their doubts that I even know that many people, much less can call that many people friends. My family has challenged me with this: “How many of those people, if they died, would […]

Poem: "This"

Poem: “This”

Apr 14 15 • 1 comment

This This, only this is truly necessary. An outdated wooden crucifix in a forgotten sacristy corner, my forehead pressed to the nail-pierced feet reducing ten thousand things to one. A simple act that clarifies. Calling, inviting – I come. This single act making me one. Scott Warren

How a Parish Can Attract Traditionalists

How a Parish Can Attract Traditionalists

Apr 14 15 • 5 comments

Dear William, When I shared your previous letter on Facebook, I referred to the contents as “interesting.”  In it, you expressed a desire that over time, the need for the Extraordinary Form would lessen, and that you hope traditionalists would begin to frequent a better done Ordinary Form liturgy.  This is a difficult discussion, but I’d like […]