At The Eponymous Flower, Maximilian Hanlon offers a few salubrious reflections on his recent visit to Clear Creek Monastery, the traditional Benedictine Abbey in Oklahoma. (By the way, it’s not really true: the rumor, that is, that the license plate … Continue reading
Category: Columns
Feastday, St. Benedict Joseph Labre, Patron of Beggars and Mentally Ill
What a powerful saint he is! How extraordinary his saintly life (1748-1783)! The miracles that he wrought in Rome immediately after his death led to the conversion of an American Congregationalist minister, Rev. Mr. John Thayer. Thayer went on to … Continue reading
April is Confederate History Month
Yes, we’re in Confederate History Month. And wherever you stand on the issue — whether you’re a liberal or a conservative — you will probably agree that it’s important for Americans (even Southerners) to learn their history and love their … Continue reading
Mayor Koch Defends Pope Benedict
In the pages of the Jerusalem Post comes an editorial on the journalistic pseudo-inquisition launched against the Holy Father. Former New York City mayor, Ed Koch, makes some points that deserve wide circulation: The primary explanation for the abuse that … Continue reading
April 11: Mercy Sunday, Plenary Indulgence
Low Sunday, Quasi Modo Sunday, Dominica in Albis Deponendis, and now Mercy Sunday. I think the first Sunday after Easter is the most named on the Roman Church’s calendar. And for the last several years, it has also been richly … Continue reading
R.I.P., Sister Maria Cordata, M.I.C.M.
STILL RIVER/HARVARD — Sister Maria Cordata, nee Rose Mary Eugenia Baravella, 85, of the Sisters of St. Benedict Center, Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, died Monday, March 30, after a brief illness. She is survived by her sister, … Continue reading
Pat Buchanan on the New York Times’ Professional Anti-Catholicism
The Holy Father has taken a beating in the pages of the New York Times and other venues. Sic transit gloria mundi. Pat Buchanan calls the spinmeisters on their mendacious and unvarnished anti-Catholicism. Better, he deftly contrasts reality with the … Continue reading
James Antle on the Southern Poverty Law Center
In “Tolerance Mafia,” James Antle III asks the question: “Who watches the hate watchers?” A surprising array of left-leaning journalists — fed up by the left’s own venal, manipulative, and money-minded enfant terrible — are included in the answer. It’s … Continue reading
Mother Henriette Delille, New Orleans Native, Declared Venerable
On Saturday, March 27, the Holy Father signed a decree advancing the cause of sainthood of Henriette Delille, declaring that this exemplary New Orleans Creole had lived a life of “heroic virtue.” As a native of that lately beleaguered city, … Continue reading
Husband of St. Gianna Molla Died Holy Saturday at 97
It’s not front page news, even in Catholic media, but it ought to be. We’ve had enough of the bad news during this Lent. Pietro Molla was a remarkable Catholic who lived a life of sacrifice along with his wife … Continue reading
The Parable of the Rats
1 At that time, when he was teaching in the temple, he spoke unto them this parable, saying: 2 “The kingdom of Satan is like a chief scientist and his treatment group of rats. 3 The rats did consume steadily … Continue reading
R.I.P., Right Reverend Abbot Gabriel Gibbs, O.S.B.
Abbot Gabriel, one of the early members of Saint Benedict Center and the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, passed away on Saturday, March 27, 2010. We have had a Mass offered, for the repose of his soul, in … Continue reading
Pravda Defends the Pope!
We are indeed living in strange times! One of the various resurrections of the officially defunct organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, Pravda Online, has come to the defense of the Roman Pontiff. The article is translated … Continue reading
The Christian Training of Children: Preparing a Child for Confession
Little Book of Instructions for Christian Mothers [continued] (from Mother Love – A Manual for Christian Mothers – by Rev. Pius Franciscus, O.M.Cap., 1926) On the Christian Training of Children Chapter XIII. – How a Christian Mother Should Prepare Her … Continue reading
Pedophilia Reality Check
Father Dwight Longenecker cuts through much of the wrong thinking on the present scandal with a no-nonsense digest of brief, commonsensical observations. Among other shattered taboos is the sodomite connection. “Most of the cases of euphebophilia [that’s what most of … Continue reading