Mantilla the Hon on the Cappa Magna

Last updated on: October 31, 2014 at 10:11 am By Fr. Dwight Longenecker

Guest blogger Mantilla Amontillado is the founder of Veritas Vestments. She holds a degree in Ecclesiastical Haberdashery from Salamanca University. She has done the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella three times on horseback and is engaged to the famous matador, Senor Augusto Torquemada. Lemme tell you hon, that Cardinal Burke, he some kind of crazy American bishop. I just about roll over and thank Jesus, Mary and Joseph when I see him wear the cappa magna. Everybody say, “Ohh, that... Read more

Answering Margery Eagan on Homosexuality

Last updated on: October 31, 2014 at 5:37 am By Fr. Dwight Longenecker

Margery Eagan, the spirituality columnist at Boston Globe’s CRUX website poses a question about homosexuality in this column. Listening to the reading at Mass this week from Ephesians Margery heard St Paul say, “Slaves be obedient to your human masters with fear and trembling.” The priest explained that times were different back then and St Paul was not really condoning slavery. Slavery was a reality in the ancient world, and Paul was a man of his time. We know better... Read more

Does Beauty Matter?

Last updated on: October 29, 2014 at 8:50 pm By Fr. Dwight Longenecker

True story: here in the Bible Belt a young Baptist high school kid goes into a Catholic Church. He’s smart and amazingly well read. Already by eleventh grade he has rejected Baptist fundamentalist Christianity. He’s explored the other world religions and rejected them all. He’s on the brink of atheism Then he steps into a beautiful, old, neo Gothic Catholic Church. The beauty overwhelms him and he kneels to pray. He testifies later that at that moment he knew he... Read more

Troubled by Evil Spirits or Demons?

Last updated on: December 27, 2014 at 1:29 pm By Fr. Dwight Longenecker

Are all evil spirits demonic? I don’t think so, and here’s why: From time to time I will have someone come to see me who thinks they are demon possessed. They may be hearing voices telling them to do bad things or they might be having hallucinations which they interpret as devils. They might have frightful compulsions to do things they know are evil. They might suffer from obsessions of all kinds or be drawn to dark and loathsome things.... Read more

Get Real Here and Now

Last updated on: October 29, 2014 at 6:34 am By Fr. Dwight Longenecker

I’ve worn out the keyboard on my laptop. Honestly. The keys don’t respond. Maybe my laptop is telling me something. I spend so much time on the laptop because I write, write, write. I’m blessed with lots of ideas so I clutter up the blogosphere, websites and publishers with my tappety tappings. (this is the new word for scribblings) I’m busy offering analysis and opinions on the papacy, on church politics and commenting on this scrap there and this brouhaha... Read more

The Intellectually Secular Insane

Last updated on: October 27, 2014 at 9:13 pm By Fr. Dwight Longenecker

Fr George Rutler has a clever and rollicking essay here at Crisis Magazine in which he twits the twits in the ivory towers of the Ivy League in their ridiculously blind defense of radical Islam Public thinkers have been usurped by practical atheists who are politely styled “secularists.” Essentially, the secularist is not without religion: rather, he has made a religion of politics and wealth, and rejects any religion that worships anything else. Now, to be secular is unavoidable for... Read more

Ten Things That Are Killing the Family

Last updated on: October 27, 2014 at 8:32 pm By Fr. Dwight Longenecker

The Synod fathers this month were trying to address a real crisis in the human race: the disintegration of the family. The problems are very complex and are not simply a matter of people disobeying God’s law and running around with whoever they please. Is promiscuity a problem? Of course. Is divorce a disaster? Without a doubt. Is feminism futile? Indubitably. But all of these problems and more are rooted in larger societal and historical shifts that have influenced the... Read more

How Close Is This Church to Reality?

Last updated on: October 27, 2014 at 6:34 am By Fr. Dwight Longenecker

Readers of this blog have been following the progress of an exciting new church building project at Our Lady of the Rosary parish in Greenville, South Carolina. In the heart of the Bible Belt we are building a church that looks Catholic to proclaim our Catholic faith with vigor, joy and confidence. Why is this important? Because Our Lady of the Rosary is also the title of Our Lady of Victories. The devotion was established after the Battle of Lepanto... Read more

Duane Mandible on Welcoming Grays

Last updated on: December 27, 2014 at 1:30 pm By Fr. Dwight Longenecker

Guest blogger, Duane Mandible is a contributing editor to The Truth Hurts, a bi-monthly journal of politics, economics and opinion. He also contributes regularly to Freedom Monthly; Illuminations and The Sojourner. Duane is the author of Guns and Knives will Save Your Children’s Lives. He is Vice President of the Sacred Society of St Philibustre, and enjoys hunting rattlesnakes, square dancing and watching re runs of comedy classics. He is unmarried. It has been drawn to my attention that the anti-Pope Jorge Bergoglio has held a... Read more

Why Build a Romanesque Church Today?

Last updated on: October 25, 2014 at 12:37 pm By Fr. Dwight Longenecker

When I arrived at Our Lady of the Rosary parish one of my first tasks was to meet with the Building Committee. The folks in the parish had been trying to build a church for about twenty years off and on and for various reasons it simply didn’t get done. Now it was my job. So we rolled up our sleeves and began gathering information. The whole parish had been through a consultation process under my predecessor and they had... Read more