An excerpt from my book Mary-A Catholic Evangelical Debate–which will be re-published next year. I can remember soon after I moved to England (and still a convinced Evangelical) hearing a German Catholic refer to Mary as Mutter Gottes. I don’t know German and thought he was calling Mary “Mother Goddess”. I was suitably horrified and not really surprised that this Catholic actually referred to Mary as the Mother Goddess. Only when I expressed my dismay did a friend explain that... Read more
Happy New Year? Bah. Humbug. I stay at home and go to bed early. Here’s why: First of all, I’m pretty exhausted not only from celebrating Christmas, but its a very busy time for a priest. Not only do we have to preside at services at unusual hours, but there are a lot of services and a lot of people. Furthermore, practically every year there is a crisis of some kind. Maybe marriage tensions that have been simmering boil over.... Read more
John Allen reports with his usual succinct, objective style on an Italian journalist’s criticism of Pope Francis. Vittorio Messori’s evaluation is that “this papacy oscillates continually between adhesion and perplexity,” According to Messori, those average Catholics today are confused about which Pope Francis to follow. He offers three instances of what he sees as contradictions: The Francis of the morning homilies at the Santa Marta, full of classical pastoral wisdom and even repeated warnings about not falling into the devil’s... Read more
…Or How We Got New Year’s Day Some atheists, Muslims and Christian fundamentalists like to grumble and gibe that the celebration of Christmas and Easter are “pagan.” They are right and they are wrong. They are right inasmuch as the wellsprings of our Western culture are deep in the pre-Christian cultures of Europe. They are wrong because the early Christians, like the Hebrews before them, saw their religion as a contrast and a corrective to the prevailing pagan culture. Like... Read more
London’s Daily Telegraph reports here on the tornado of rumors swirling about J.J.Abrams upcoming seventh installment of the Star Wars saga. The aficionados of the Star Wars movies are religious in their passion for the films. I realize it was a spoof, but in 2012 the census in the UK reported that “Jedi Knight” was listed as the seventh most popular religion under the “other religion” category. Go here to learn more about the Jedi religion in Britain… The Star... Read more
Beauty is the language of worship, and we’re determined to build a beautiful new church in our parish in Greenville, South Carolina Readers of this blog will have learned that this romanesque style church will incorporate a set of fantastic stained glass windows salvaged from the church of St Mary Morning Star in Pittsfield MA. The windows, by the famed American craftsman Wilbur Burnham will teach the faith and add an air of mystery to the new church. The lower... Read more
Why should anyone be surprised at the recent spate of random murders of policemen? When a society goes bad all of it goes bad together. When individuals stop believing the Christian religion its not long before they stop believing in Christian morality and when they stop believing in Christian morality they stop behaving morally. The absence of Christian morals in a society soon turns into chaos and violence on the part of everyone. Criminals on the street may be violent... Read more
What too many people seem to miss is that marriage is a sacrament. That means it is a means of grace. It is one of the great seven. It is one of the gifts in which heaven is poured into our lives through the physical. Because marriage is a sacrament it is sacred. If you trample on marriage you are trampling not just on your spouse or your future spouse or your kids. You are trampling on God’s gift to... Read more
I should be clear. One of the rules I have set myself is to never criticize a fellow priest on this blog. Even if I think the priest is an insane traditionalists nutcase or an idiotic left wing, crypto Marxist new age freak I keep my mouth shut. Almost all the time, and when I’ve let rip about a fellow priest I have always regretted it. I don’t criticize my fellow priests because, to tell the truth, we have enough... Read more
Allow me on this Boxiing Day to say that England tops USA for Christmas. Hands down. No debate. No question. Not even a possibility of a question. Here’s why: 1. English radio stations do not play nauseating Christmas music like Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the red nosed reindeer chestnuts roasting by the open fire jack frost nipping at your nose city sidewalks etc. etc. from the middle of November non stop for weeks. 2. English churches have Advent Carol services... Read more
Fr. Dwight Longenecker
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