Rachel Lu on female altar servers. (via Fr. Z)

By what authority does the CDW have to supercede tradition? If it has forgotten the rationale behind reserving certain liturgical ministry to males only, then maybe it should have refrained from making a decision and said it was "under review." But a centralized bureaucracy knows no bounds.

Another Article on the Byz Rite at Notre Dame

Divine Liturgy Comes to Notre Dame
Prominent Catholic University Offers Byzantine Worship on Campus

This does not balance out all of the bad stuff being done by Latins there.

No Grasp of Sound Moral Theology

In political questions, just watered down Catholici social teaching and a reliance upon a liberal (or aggregate) conception of the common good. The statism of some of those offering their opinions is also revealing. Of course the NCReg relies upon standard "journalism" writing, giving both "sides" of the issue, but Catholic newspapers should either avoid doing popular articles on disputed questions in moral theology or do it correctly with an informed presentation. Apparently a Catholic newspaper cannot replace sound catechesis.

Does Catholic Faith Dictate a Position on Gun Control? by Brian Fraga

Mother Teresa Movie

Too sappy? Or just right?

Pope Francis on Thursday authorized the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to promulgate a decree regarding a miracle...

Posted by Vatican Radio - English Section on Friday, December 18, 2015

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta is to be made a Saint. Pope Francis on Thursday authorized the Congregation for the Causes of...

Posted by Vatican Radio - English Section on Friday, December 18, 2015

The New Chaplain for the Swiss Guard

The Swiss Guards have a new chaplain!

Posted by Vatican Radio - English Section on Sunday, December 13, 2015

Poster Child for a Dying Uhmerican Church

The Chairman of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ ad hoc Committee on Religious Liberty, Archbishop William E. Lori...

Posted by Vatican Radio - English Section on Thursday, December 17, 2015

And another...

Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), gave a...

Posted by Vatican Radio - English Section on Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Following in the footsteps of their patriarch:

Pope Francis on Thursday addressed members of the Italian “Azione Cattolica” movement thanking them for their commitment to welcome migrants.

Posted by Vatican Radio - English Section on Thursday, December 17, 2015

Coptic Style?

Seeing these photos of the Jubilee "icon" of the prodigal son here, that is what I am thinking...

Pope Francis on Friday visited a new homeless shelter in Rome’s Termini – John Paul II train station, where he opened a...

Posted by Vatican Radio - English Section on Saturday, December 19, 2015

Pope Francis opens the Holy Door of the Caritas Diocesan Hostel in Via Marsala, at Rome's Termini Station, and celebrates Holy Mass there, in occasion of the Jubilee of Mercy. Watch LIVE now!

Posted by Vatican Radio - English Section on Friday, December 18, 2015

Photos from the NAC

From the Pontifical North American College

Posted by Vatican Radio - English Section on Saturday, December 19, 2015

The First Order is So Racist!

After all, it makes its black stormtroopers wear white armor!

Twin Peaks Teaser

The new season of TWIN PEAKS gets a teaser trailer, and we guess this piece of news gets hard to top for today.

Posted by TwitchFilm on Friday, December 18, 2015

A Cult

To My fellow Cultists by Fr. Jerry J. Pokorsky

"Every priest is asked questions about behavior during worship, both what should be done to show proper respect in the...

Posted by Orthodox Christian Network on Saturday, December 19, 2015

Interview with the Wenzhou Pastor

second (via Rod Dreher)

Google Getting in on Some Star Wars Action

Is this advertising paid for by Disney? Or the geeks (SJWs all of them, no doubt) just geeking out?

Pathetic...

How Many Will Wish Lucas Was in Charge?

Disney has its moneymaker. The Daring Genesis of J.J. Abrams’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens (via The Atlantic) -- Lucas wanted to make the equivalent of Hunger Games, rather than Star Wars (A New Hope)?

Another opportunity for schadenfreude.

If Rey seems incredible because she is skilled at everything despite being abandoned on a planet (to herself?), maybe it's because she's a Mary Sue character for the script writer?

Effeminate Synod

One of the few Latin Catholic intellectuals willing to go the distance... Anthony Esolen:

The synod’s final recommendation to Pope Francis is mainly bland and inoffensive. It is also an exercise in unreality. That’s what happens when your mode of thought and expression is neither philosophical and theological, nor earthy and poetic: It does not aspire to reveal the essences of things, and it does not confront the sweat and mire of the created world. The bishops write in sociological patois, abstract and banal at once. Reality escapes them.

As if this is a good thing...

From that SJW website Twitch Film, a review of the new SJWars movie:

To twist words famously sung by Mick Jagger, sometimes you don't get what you need, you get what you want. The Force Awakens, from its opening crawl through the final notes, feels like a film that's trying to give people what they want. It feels at times like a greatest hits package, name-checking elements from the past, bringing elements out of retirement and dusting them off afresh. What makes the process effective is that the filmmakers know full well that this is what they're doing, even calling attention to it throughout (note the line about C-3P0's red arm for one of the most overt moments).

Kitano "Classic"?

UK distributor Third Window Films is about to release three classic Kitano Takeshi movies on Blu-ray, using new 2K...

Posted by TwitchFilm on Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Fr. Rutler on Scientific Opinion

Making Dogma Out of Unsettled Science by by Fr. George W. Rutler

Also from Crisis:
An Intimate Portrait of the Founder of Opus Dei by Richard Bastien
The Vast Majority Myth by William Kilpatrick
The Contemporary Denial of Reality by Anthony Esolen

The Unseriousness of Catholic Education...

When Sports Displace Catholic Education by Douglas Kries

The Priests (검은 사제들)

Saw the movie yesterday with πατήρ; πατήρ actually enjoyed it as a movie, not for its theological points. If you played a drinking game where you had to take a shot for something in the movie that is portrayed as Catholic but isn't really, you probably wouldn't get past the first 30 minutes. (Before the movie's depiction of the rite of exorcism, which would definitely put you over the edge of sobriety.) The movie is interesting for what visual symbols are used to depict authentic Catholicism (icons, censers, cassocks, rosaries, statues of Mary, the use of Latin). Maybe the best part of me was the use of the sequence for Mass for the Day of Pascha, chanted by the assistant deacon (played by Kang Dong-wan) and used for the end credits, which I rarely heard during my Latin trad days, as I usually attended the vigil Mass and slept the next morning. (πατήρ had to identify it for me.)



Also interesting was the depiction of Korean shaman religion in the movie. Accurate? While the Korean Franciscan priest/exorcist (played by Kim Yoon-seok) was "ecumenical" in praising the shaman's effectiveness in expelling demons, the shaman does fail to do so for the high school girl at the center of the movie. (More "traditional" exorcists like Fr. Amorth would probably see shaman religion as being spiritually problematic in its communication with the spirits and use of spells/chants -- contributing to the problem rather than solving it. "By what authority do you cast out demons?")

Will the use of Modernist architecture to symbolize the future and progress

be included in the social commentary of the movie? High Rise, based on the novel.


movie viral marketing campaign website

So brave.

Saw a non-white (Pakistani? Bangladeshi?) wearing a "F--- ISIS" T-shirt at Costco today. Some may commend him for his action, but wearing such a shirt to a store where children may be present? Vulgar and insensitive. I suppose the likelihood of him being punished for apostasy is low, and it is unlikely that he is protesting too much...

How many are "groupies" of the Dear Leader?

Are they North Korea's version of Girl's Generation?

Posted by Soompi on Thursday, December 10, 2015

Probably not too much plastic beauty?

Dr. Fleming, Cicero, De Officiis, A ON THE HOUSE

Our Lady of Guadalupe and American Catholics

The Challenge of Our Lady of Guadalupe by Bishop Robert Barron
"I am the ever Virgin Mary, Mother of the True God." In so saying, the Lady of Tepeyac was actively de-throning and de-legitimizing any false claimant to that title.


Our Lady of Guadalupe is the patroness of all the Americas, but who identifies with her the most strongly? The children of the Aztecs and the nations that suffered under them and of the Spanish who settled in Mexico, the new Mexican nation? Do the other Ibero-American nations have as strong a devotion? (Or are they more likely to acquire it if they immigrate to the United States?)

The United States has its own patron, the Immaculate Conception. (I say this instead of: The United States have their own patron. Although the U.S. bishops made their choice in 1847, still I think it is likely that their mindset was more nationalist than federalist.) Do the "indigenous" peoples of the land that is now of the United States identify with Juan Diego and the appearance of the Virgin Mary to him?

What is the relationship of the United States to the rest of the Western Hemisphere? Given the link of the cult of Our Lady of Guadalupe to Mexican nationalism, is it wise for a Latin bishop in the United States to encourage non-Mexican Roman Catholics to cultivate a devotion to her? Is such a move fairly regarded as a move towards Hispanicization (or Mexicanization) of American Catholic culture? Is it possible for the possession of a common religion to eliminate differences in ethnic identity and culture? I don't believe so.