A reader sent me an email thanking me for the beautiful new Our Lady of the Rosary Church and asked why we don’t build more beautiful Catholic Churches. It’s complicated. First there is an ideological reason. Some modernists considered the second Vatican Council to be a kind of revolution in the church and that everything old had to go and everything new was necessarily a good thing. Therefore, for the last forty years there has been a stripping of the... Read more
Embed from Getty Images First, let me say that I am totally on board with any woman who thinks Donald Trump’s vulgar words about women are worth protesting. I’m also totally with any woman who thinks his cheating on two wives and marrying a third is not only low class, but mortal sin. I’m also totally with the women who are protesting Bill Clinton’s sorry record of sexual abuse of women, rape, sexual harassment and victimizing women. I’m also... Read more
One of the complaints of Protestant converts to the Catholic religion from is that they miss the “fellowship” they enjoyed in their previous church community. By “fellowship” they mean the warm friendship, camaraderie, sense of shared faith and personal commitment. When they come to the local Catholic church they are likely to find not only that it is five times larger than their Protestant church, but the members are from a wider range of socio-economic, ethnic and racial backgrounds. My... Read more
As an ordinary parish priest it falls to me to actually deal with the cases of divorced and re-married people. I’m the person on the front line, and am therefore the one who has to deal with their questions and help them in their chosen situation. Therefore I am grateful for any guidance from above, and any bishop who offers advice on the way forward is trying to help me do my job. I have read with interest the letter... Read more
The end of the world, like an overdue bus, is always just around the corner. Read more
When I became a Catholic I had a few people snark, “How nice for you! You won’t have to think anymore.” I’d never deny that there are robotic Catholics who either can’t think for themselves or who think its a sin, but I haven’t met that many. Most of the Catholics I come across are at least a little committed to thinking things through and taking their faith thoughtfully. Of course there are some who come along every Sunday and... Read more
With the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Protestant Revolution this year there seems to be a heightened enthusiasm for ecumenism with the Lutherans. Far be it from me to rain on anyone’s parade, but when Cardinal Kasper says he hopes the Pope’s next statement will open the way to inter-communion in special cases I wonder exactly in what kind of wonderland he is living. Then I see in the wave of ecumenical “dialogues” that are going on, that... Read more
Here’s one to make people click: The headline reads “Newly Found Document Holds Eyewitness Account of Jesus Performing Miracle” It got me. I clicked through and read the article. It sounded so convincing. In the Vatican archives a scholar unearthed a manuscript from a first century historian who recounts a journey from Persia to Rome, and on the way he witnesses a miracle by Jesus of Nazareth. Is that Good News or Fake News? If this were true it would... Read more
It seems impossible to comprehend why Dylan Roof felt it necessary to gun down nine good Christian people at a Bible study. The fact that he planned the massacre, sat in the Bible study with the folks for half an hour and then opened fire is incomprehensible. His lack of remorse and cold hearted disregard for his victims and their families is horrible. He thought they were sub human. He seems sub human. He’s a rat, a cockroach in human... Read more
The Rosary is a powerful weapon against evil. But have you stopped to figure out why? Read more
Fr. Dwight Longenecker
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