I was invited to give the homily at all the Masses this weekend at Our Lady of the Martyrs in Queens. This was in preparation for World Autism Awareness day on next Thursday (April 2, 2020). Obviously, this has been canceled as there are no public Masses happening this week in the US Roman Catholic Church. However, as I wrote the homily before specifically on the Gospel of the raising of Lazarus, I decided to record it for the parish... Read more
While we are all in some form of restrictions on gathers and most gyms are closed down, it is important to keep exercising for the sake of body, mind, and soul. Often exercise can help us get in a much better mental and spiritual state – it is not just for the body. I know if I go over 48 hours without a least a good walk, I start feeling groggy mentally and often even spiritually. I want to offer... Read more
With the inability to go to Sunday Mass for many families, many parishes are offering live streaming of Mass. I think this a good option for many. However, for some families doing the liturgy of the Word together may be a better option. As I could not find a clear document online for this, I threw one together based on the Celebrations of the Word and Communion without a priest. I think for most printing out THIS PDF would be... Read more
I have found a lot of the reporting both on the effects and possible treatment fro COVID-19 can be hyperbolic. I found one expert in microbiology posting reasoned answers on Facebook that I think are worth sharing here. Fr. Nicanor posted two things worth discussing: possible treatment and metaphysics of viruses. Fr. Nicanor Austriaco, OP, is a priest who has a PhD in microbiology from MIT and teaches biology at Providence College. He also has a doctoral degree in theology... Read more
I’ve seen several posts indicating Masses are canceled due to coronavirus. That is simply not true. Public Masses have been suspended so priests are saying Masses without a congregation, but that is different from Mass being canceled. I have unfortunately seen this error even from dioceses. One diocese had in big letters, “All Masses will be canceled throughout the diocese of [redacted] from Tuesday March 17…” This was odd as the next line was about how they would be live-streaming... Read more
Obedience to the spirit of a command is a virtue. If your bishop suspended public Masses, please don’t flood other Masses. I’m seeing some Catholics post online about how to circumvent their bishop’s rules in response to COVID-19, and get the Eucharist. Different people have suggested things like finding out when the priest celebrates private Mass and slipping in, going to other Catholic Masses – either in other dioceses or in other rites – or going to Masses where the... Read more
Earlier this week a non-verbal autistic child was denied registration for First Communion at a parish in New Jersey. Now the story has exploded in the media. I saw the post early & decided to post a general prayer petition on my page, while messaging the family offering to be a kind of mediator. At that point, the post only had a few hundred shares compared to 10,000+ now, and I hoped we could work through a solution. Now that opportunity... Read more
A year ago, I reported on how the diocese had dealt well with a priest once child pornography was found on his computer. Fr. Virgil Bradley Tetherow, who also goes by Fr. Gabriel Francis, was quickly suspended and later defrocked. I think the diocese did what they could to deal with the situation and they can’t really do much except warn people once he’s defrocked. When I wrote the article in January 2019, it looked like Fr. Tetherow was no... Read more
Ven. Carlo Acutis is the ideal candidate for the patron saint of the internet. He created a database of Eucharistic miracles on a website so people could find out about them all while he was still a teenager. If you’ve seen a traveling exhibit with displays on different Eucharistic miracles, this is based right off his site. On Friday, Pope Francis approved a miracle in his case and this allows beatification to be scheduled. As he is the first saint... Read more
The big, but unsurprising, news today is that Pope Francis did not put a proposal for relaxing priestly celibacy in his document on the Amazon. Surely, allowing married men would have increased the number of priests. However, in his section on the priesthood, he focuses on holiness, not primarily on numbers. This harkens back to how John Paul II spoke about the priesthood. I want to quote Francis and John Paul II with minimal commentary. After, I will briefly note... Read more
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