Prayer is the one thing that can conquer God. But Christ has willed that it should work no evil, and has given it all power over good.   Its only art is to call back the souls of the dead from the very journey into death, to give strength to the weak, to heal the sick, to exorcise the possessed, to open prison cells, to free the innocent from their chains. Prayer cleanses from sin, drives away temptations, stamps out persecutions,... Read more

Every year during Lent I am asked to conduct a Lenten mission in a parish. On the first night I tell my conversion story. On the second I talk about the “attach of the Ism’s”. These are twelve ways of thinking that have invaded our society and which undermine our Catholic faith. 1. Individualism – I’ll do it My Way 2. Eclecticism – Cafeteria Catholicism 3. Sentimentalism – If it Feels Good it must be True 4. Materialism – What... Read more

Watching the news coverage of the Alabama and Mississippi primaries last night it was interesting to note that Santorum got the large share of women’s votes. The commentators on MSNBC were bemoaning the fact, revealing their own bias and arrogance. When we hear the narrative that Republicans are “against women” what we are really hearing is from the feminists is “we don’t like Republians.” The idea that one political party is “against” one gender is ridiculous and degrading to women.... Read more

Do you know why the commerce in the temple was so bad? Not because you shouldn’t sell stuff in church. It’s because the Jews had to make sacrifice in the temple in Jerusalem. It couldn’t happen anywhere else. Furthermore, they had to sacrifice animals that were perfect. So here is what happened: Good Jewish man comes to temple gates to sacrifice the little lamb he thought was perfectly acceptable. The temple guard checks it out..whoops it has a defect. He... Read more

I was feeling grumpy and anti-American yesterday because it was a Friday in Lent, but also because sometimes I get exhausted with the whole grinning, plastic society that much of America has become. I read a letter from someone in a Catholic leadership position who was saying something like,  “We need to ask ourselves the question whether we have truly found what will make us truly happy.” What is that all about? Where on earth in the gospel is the... Read more

So much talk amongst right wing Catholics of the erosion of religious liberty, the collapse of all things and the coming persecution. Talk of government detention centers and priests being shot like Bl. Miguel Pro. I don’t think they get it. That’s not what it will be like. America is different. We’re into image big time. We thought the Soviets were into brainwashing and propaganda. We put them in the shade. America is all about healthy, lusty, good looking guys... Read more

Read John Allen’s excellent article here. He corrects three widespread misconceptions about the Catholic Church in the mainstream media and general population (and also among many Catholics) 1. The Church is all about the clergy. Nope. The clergy make up only .04% of the  Catholic population. 2. The Church is in decline. Nope. The global church is growing phenomonally. What is in decline is old fashioned American cultural Catholicism. 3. The Catholic Church is the oppressor. Nope. The rate of... Read more

Cardinal George writes here on the direction our country is going. Among other things he comments on the prevailing tendency by Hilary Clinton and the Obama administration to change the term “freedom of religion” to “freedom of worship.” “Freedom of worship was guaranteed in the Constitution of the former Soviet Union,” Cardinal George said. “You could go to church, if you could find one. The church, however, could do nothing except conduct religious rites in places of worship—no schools, religious publications,... Read more

Here is what is going on politically: In this public appearance Nancy Pelosi says the Catholic Church wants to ban contraceptives. This is part of a political ploy in election year. The HHS Mandate was a set up. It wasn’t about women’s health. It wasn’t about contraceptives per se. It was a way to set the Catholic Church against the Obama administration and then, by November, to portray the Catholic Church and the Republican party as being in an anti-contraception alliance.... Read more

The murder of unborn baby girls in Britain is in the news this week, and this female columnist is shocked and horrified. Yet, in the middle of the article she clings stubbornly to the Clinton creed about abortion wanting it to be “safe, legal and rare.” The simple fact is that although abortion might be legal it is not rare nor is it safe, for even if it does not harm the woman physically it harms here psychologically, and it... Read more