The Eponymous Flower: This is what Auxiliary Bishop Athanasius Schneider (50) of Astana in Kazakhstan said at the end of October for the videosite ‘gloria.tv’. Read more here.

A group of Lebanese lay Catholics have formed a group called New Creation, with the objective of fostering devotion to Jesus. They took their name from a phrase in the Second Letter to the Corinthians: “So whoever is in Christ is a new creation,” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Read more here.

There are four  things to remember regarding married priests. 1) In the Eastern Rite married men could always be ordained as parish priests. 2) In neither the Eastern Catholic Church nor the West could a priest get married after ordination. 3) A married priest cannot be consecrated a bishop if his wife is living. 4) Married Protestant ministers who convert to Catholicism can be ordained now even in the Latin Rite.

At his recent enthronement as the Melkite Greek Catholic Bishop in the USA, Bishop Nicholas Samra stated that the Melkite Catholic Church (an Eastern Catholic Church in union with the Pope of Rome) will begin ordaining married men to the priesthood in the USA. More on this story here.

Catholic Culture: Irish government leaders have insisted that they will not allow the secrecy of the confessional to limit the scope of new legislation that would require reporting of all complaints of child abuse.

“The law of the land should not be stopped by a crozier or a collar,” Prime Minister Enda Kenny said. Read more here.

Vatican Insider: Cardinal Jose da Cruz Policarpo: There will be women a priest «when God wills», for the moment it is better «not to raise the issue».  But there is «no fundamental obstacle», from «a theological perspective», for women to say mass on the altar.  It is, instead, a «tradition» that dates back from the time of Jesus.  This was said by Cardinal Jose da Cruz Policarpo, seventy-five year old Patriarch of Lisbon, who has just been confirmed for another two years at the head of the diocese of the Portuguese capital. More on this interview here.

The feast of St. Louis Marie de Montfort coincides this year with Easter Wednesday. This liturgical concurrence provides us with an especially felicitous occasion for considering the sacrament of Baptism. Why? Let us recall two things at the very start. First, the Lenten and Paschaltide liturgy makes little sense unless we keep in mind the catechumens who were to be baptized at the Easter Vigil. (Last time, we made a few comments about this.) Second, the Marian consecration of Saint Louis de Montfort is none other than a renewal of one’s baptismal vows, through the hands of the Blessed Mother of God. Read More »

This is a clip from the Holy Fathers Holy Thursday sermon: “We too, all of us, need to learn again to accept God and Jesus Christ as he is, and not the way we want him to be,” the Pope added. “We too find it hard to accept that he bound himself to the limitations of his Church and her ministers. We too do not want to accept that he is powerless in this world. We too find excuses when being his disciples starts becoming too costly, too dangerous. Read more from the Zenit post here.

Pope Benedict XVI Saturday Address: Getting married in church is a right only if you believe in “true marriage” that is, an act for the realization of the “integral good, human and Christian, of the spouses and of their future children, ultimately projected towards the holiness of their lives”.  From here, follows the importance of preparation for Christian marriage, also to avoid annulments, which were at the heart of Benedict XVI address delivered today to members of the Tribunal of the Roman Rota, received at the beginning of the judicial year. Read the pope’s full address here.

[Taken from The Catechist, by the Very Rev. Canon Howe. Imprimatur: Edm. Canonicus Surmount, Jan 26, 1922.]

There once lived a man who had given himself up to every passion, and had become by his life a scandal to all who knew him. Being at length upon his death-bed, his family, who were good Catholics, sent for the priest, who heard the sick man’s confession, and prepared to give him the Holy Viaticum. Read More »

Il reviendra avec son coeur immense, avec son coeur de flamme, son âme de pauvre et son sourire. Il reviendra ! Et le Coeur Immaculé de Marie triomphera!

I love this motto from the late Abbé de Nantes’ periodical for La Contre-Réforme catholique au XXIe siècle. In the English translation it reads:

“He will come again with his immense heart, with His heart of fire, His poor man’s smile. He will come again! And the Immaculate Heart of Mary will triumph!” Read More »