April 2020

• In the Midst of Eastertide, Lent Continues for Us
Due to the explosion of the Tambora volcano in 1815, we had a year without summer, for the atmosphere was filled with sunlight-inhibiting dust. This year we had a year without Easter, another gift from the Far East, but it is impossible to miss that although it began much earlier in China, in the West, the Wuhan Flu really got under way in the first weeks of Lent. - April 30, 2020

• FREEDOM ISN’T JUST ANOTHER WORD
long with my good friend Gemma O’Doherty, I have launched a constitutional challenge to Ireland’s COVID-19 lockdown measures, which the Irish government introduced three weeks ago. O’Doherty and I seek a judicial review of the enabling legislation and regulations, and an injunction or declaration to bring it all to an end. - April 30, 2020

• ‘Social distance’ between husband and wife?
Imagine a man who through no fault of his own—perhaps because of a famine in his region—cannot supply food for his family. You would feel sympathy for him, wouldn’t you? - April 29, 2020

• When a Bishop Mandates ‘Social Distancing’ for Brides and Grooms
Leading up to the Pan-Amazonian Synod — I apologize for bringing that up again — it seemed as though the Church was entering the realm of not just the unreal, but the irreal — that is, the hierarchy in the Catholic Church came across as orientated no longer toward simply ignoring reality, much less adhering to it, but toward the utterly ridiculous dystopia of the irrational. Being bored with God, or inspired by other forces, Pope Francis’s regime pursues what was unimaginable in the previous two thousand years of Catholic belief. Exhibit A: The October 2019 bowing before Pachamama idols at the Vatican. - April 27, 2020

• CORONAVIRUS REALITY CHECK
Data are coming in, and their import is clear. The coronavirus pandemic is not and never was a threat to society. COVID-19 poses a danger to the elderly and the medically compromised. Otherwise, for most who present symptoms, it can be nasty and persistent, but is not life-threatening. A majority of those infected do not notice that they have the disease. Coronavirus presents us with a medical challenge, not a crisis. The crisis has been of our own making. - April 27, 2020

• Fr. Z's Blog: Wherein Fr. Z muses about the “survey” sent to bishops about Summorum Pontificum. Rant and suggestions. UPDATED
A few days ago news came out [at Rorate first, publicly] that the CDF has sent or will send to the bishops of the world questionnaires about the implementation of Summorum Pontificum. - April 25, 2020

• Is the Coronavirus a Chastisement? It Depends on Who You Ask
Seeing the corona crisis as a chastisement for sin is a non-starter with many who prefer not to think of God in those terms. However, any pondering about the coronavirus and God will eventually lead us to question His motives. The answers vary depending on whom you ask. - April 25, 2020

• The Most Essential Service
Having received the latest scoldings from Little Greta and my pope, I consulted a message from the public health bureaucracy. My plan was to live dangerously: to go out for a walk. - April 24, 2020

• HAPPY EARTH DAY! (Celebrating the 5th Anniversary of Laudato Si)
To celebrate the 50^th Anniversary of Earth Day yesterday, Pope Francis issued a weird sort of papal confession to Pachamama during one of his increasingly bizarre Wednesday Audiences: "We have sinned against the earth,” confessed His Holiness, prompting Christians around the world to lament: Wouldn’t it be great if Francis cared this much about aborted babies? - April 23, 2020

• Mass Online
Some people ask me what I think about teaching online.  I ask them how they like watching Mass online.  “Really, that bad?” - April 23, 2020

• Why the “Reform of the Reform” Is Doomed
The question may reasonably be asked: why, after fifty years in which the Novus Ordo has been given ample opportunity to “prove its worth” and has singularly failed to do so — years in which a minority of strong-willed priests, attempting to turn the tide against banality and irreverence, have for their pains been sent to the boondocks, if not the shrink’s couch — why are there still liturgically minded people defending the Novus Ordo or promoting its “redemption” through Ratzingerian improvements? - April 22, 2020

The bitter fruit of the secret Vatican-Beijing accord
As you may already have seen, Civilta Cattolica, the Jesuit-run Vatican journal, is now available in China. The Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, welcomed the appearance of the Chinese edition as “fruit of the friendly encounter with the rich tradition of the Chinese people.” - April 22, 2020

• Father Pavone moving to another new diocese?
Father Frank Pavone, the controversial pro-life activist, has told the Catholic News Agency (CNA) that he is no longer under the authority of the Diocese of Amarillo, Texas, where he has clashed with Bishop Patrick Zurek. - April 22, 2020

• Warning! A Virus Threatens America’s Future and Christian Civilization
America and the world now face a turning point in history that will define generations to come. In addition to the suffering and death toll, the coronavirus pandemic might trigger the greatest changes that humanity has faced in Christianity’s two thousand years. - April 21, 2020

• The Conflicted Legacy of American Catholicism
The French Revolution and its daughter movements defined the social question of the 19^th century, which, as I have noted elsewhere, the Magisterium from Pius VI to Pius XII answered with authority and clarity. But, as Pope Benedict observed in his famous “hermeneutic of continuity” address in 2005, it was the legacy of the American republic ultimately that enabled the sea change of Catholic social and political policy  at Vatican II:​​​​​​​ - April 21, 2020

• Analysis: Can bishops lead the faithful and follow the lawmakers?
Last week, Bishop Peter Baldacchino of Las Cruces became the first bishop in the United States to roll back the ban on the public celebration of Masses. - April 21, 2020

• Vatican II Cannot Be Separated from Its ‘Spirit’
We have heard it all before.
“The Second Vatican Council was not the problem; the problem was the ‘Spirit of Vatican II.’ The documents themselves are not that bad. Modernists hijacked the confusion after the Council, Traditionalists who bash Vatican II probably don’t even know anything about the documents. Archbishop Lefebvre even signed most of the Council documents!” - April 20, 2020

• Protestants Saving the Catholic Church
Protestant-Catholic relations have been volatile, to say the least, throughout American history.  But in recent decades, there has been good reason for friendly collaboration.  People of faith widely recognize Godless secularism as a common enemy.  Hostility to religion has accelerated. With the COVID-19 shutdown, civic authorities in many localities have targeted churches for closure, but not, for example, liquor stores. Where is the pushback by Catholic leaders? - April 18, 2020 

• This week: Vatican ambitions, Vatican vulnerabilities
This week’s CWN headlines have struck a couple of noteworthy contrasts. Pope Francis proposed sweeping global economic reforms, but the reform of the Vatican’s own financial affairs is still lagging. And the Vatican has created a new commission to handle the CO19 crisis, but cracks have already begun to appear in the previously united front of bishops observing a near-universal shutdown of Catholic churches. - April 17, 2020

• Beware: Sacramental Presence is always person-to-person
In recent weeks, a number of writers have expressed concern about the long-lasting impact of substituting live-stream and recorded Masses for the actual attendance of real people at real Masses. These concerns have been raised, among many other places, on CatholicCulture.org. But nobody here is suggesting that it is a bad thing to watch a Mass on TV or the Internet when one is not able to attend Mass, and nobody is suggesting it is a bad thing for bishops and pastors to enable those who are shut in to recall the wonder of the Mass in this way. Rather, the concern is that neither our shepherds nor ourselves should blur the line between recalling or thinking about the Mass (or about any sacrament) and actually participating in or partaking in the sacrament itself. - April 16, 2020

• Cardinal Pell Talks Vatican Bank Corruption Dr. Taylor Marshall Show
Cardinal Pell has been released from prison and His Eminence reveals his mind about financial corruption in the IOR Vatican Bank. Dr. Taylor Marshall and Timothy Flanders play and comment on a recent interview with Cardinal Pell about the financial corruptionn that Cardinal Pell saw and reported and comments on whether his arrest was related to what he knows. - April 15, 2020 

• AFTER CARDINAL PELL’S RIGHTFUL ACQUITTAL
The unanimous decision by Australia’s High Court to quash Cardinal George Pell’s convictions on charges of “historic sexual abuse” and acquit him of those crimes was entirely welcome. Truth and justice were served. An innocent man was freed from imprisonment. The criminal justice system in the State of Victoria was informed by Australia’s supreme judicial authority that it had gotten things badly wrong. The anti-Pell haters in the Australian media were reminded that their power has limits. - April 15, 2020

• Will Catholics Return to Mass?
We seem to have turned the corner on the coronavirus outbreak, and people are starting to think about “re-opening” society. All that is very welcome, of course, but it should lead us to think deeply – and frankly – on what it will take for us to “re-open” the Church. - April 15, 2020

• Shepherding Online in the Coronavirus Pandemic
Priests use social media to reach their flocks. - April 15, 2020

• Why the ban on the parking-lot Mass?
Milwaukee’s Archbishop Jerome Listecki, explaining why he has banned parking-lot Masses: Given that we are a Sacramental Church, a Eucharistic people, parking lot Masses should not be celebrated, mainly because the distribution of the Eucharist cannot be done in a consistent and safe dignified manner. - April 15, 2020

• The World and Its Lockdowns
The world was the world before the coronavirus, and we have no reason to believe it is not the world still.  If we consider what the world cared about, say, last December, would we have reasons to wonder if the world’s decision (yes, we can say that) to lock everyone in their homes, shut down business activity, and close churches – with no clear cut-off – is prudentially sound?  By prudentially sound, I mean: practical judgments that are based on a true appraisal of basic goods and the human condition. - April 14, 2020

• Fr. Z's Blog: ASK FATHER: Priest allows EMHCs to take Communion home
From a reader…
QUAERITUR: Some relatives told us that this past Saturday night for the Easter Vigil they were allowed to bring home consecrated hosts which then they decided to consume while watching a livestreamed Mass, at the moment when the priest was distributing the holy Eucharist to the people present. - April 14, 2020

• We can lean on the Church’s stability in unstable times
The powers of death strike and the ground shakes. The tremors of instability and uncertainty roll under our feet. The well-trodden paths of our familiar customs have shifted, and we step with confidence neither here nor there. To what may we entrust ourselves? What will bear our weight? The Church. - April 14, 2020

• COVID-19 AND THE SPIRITUAL LIFE
The coronavirus is altering social existence in ways that we can and cannot yet perceive. Even after a vaccine finally defangs the virus, society will feel the impact of COVID-19 for decades, if not longer. The same was true of the Black Death that first hit Europe in the mid-fourteenth century.  - April 14, 2020

• The ideology that favors a long national shutdown
The coronavirus epidemic is frightening. But the shutdown it has prompted is also frightening. How long can we all stay in quarantine without doing severe damage to our economy, our society, our way of life? - April 14, 2020

• Cardinal Pell’s Acquittal Contains Message for Retired Professionals: Get to Work!
COMMENTARY: The people who have the most to offer in combating the sexual revolution also have the most to lose from doing so. - April 14, 2020

• Why Are the Bishops Trying to Be More Like Caesar Than Caesar?
In times of disaster in America, public authority has always called upon God to come to the nation’s aid. The call is to a vague God. Our religious consensus recognizes only “Nature’s God” without going into specifics. - April 13, 2020

• Fr. Z's Blog: Amazing coincidences! Pachamama bowl – Vigil of Easter in St. Peter’s – Annuario Pontificio
At the end of the Amazon Synod (“walking together”) in October 2019, a black ritual bowl with markings associated with Pachamama, with demonic idol worship, was placed at Francis’ behest directly on the main altar of St. Peter’s Basilica, above the tomb of the Apostle Peter.  It had red flowers associated with that demon cult.  HERE - April 11, 2020

• COVID19: Globalism's Perfect Storm
Good news! If you are infected with COVID19, a new report says you have a 98% chance of recovering from it.  Why is the mainstream media not reporting the good news?
In this Special Edition of ‘From the Editor’s Desk’, Michael Matt asks the question we all want answered:  Yes the virus is deadly, but won’t euthanizing the U.S. economy be even deadlier?  - April 11, 2020

• The dangers of live-streaming Masses
During the COVID-19 pandemic, bishops have canceled the public celebration of the Mass in obedience to government authorities. Live-streamed Mass on the internet has become the “new normal” of worship for the duration. But this quasi-liturgical innovation may have problematic long-term ramifications. - April 9, 2020

• Dr. Taylor Marshall: Pope Francis Revisits Female Deacons and Cardinal Pell Goes Free
Pope Francis Revisits Female Deacons and Cardinal Pell Goes Free. Dr. Taylor Marshall and Timothy Flanders return to their discussion after the Amazon Synod document concerning the women "deaconettes" and how the Conciliar Church will create a way for more "women's' ministry". - April 9, 2020

• Pandemic or pandemonium: The first priority is Christ’s life within us.
It is Holy Thursday, and we are about to reflect again on Christ’s gift of Himself at the Last Supper and on the Cross, as well as his temporary absence from His disciples immediately following His death. Ever since that sequence, which ended in the Resurrection, it has been the first priority of the Church to make Christ continuously present—to the full extent of the capability of her ministers and members—to everyone in the world. - April 9, 2020

• Silence: closed churches and mixed messages
A great silence spreads over the Christian world each year on Good Friday, to be broken by the explosive joy of the Gloria at the Easter vigil. But this year the silence has been with us already for a few weeks, with churches closed and public liturgical celebrations banned. - April 9, 2020

• In These Ominous Days, Benedict Must Speak
I begin by recounting a magnificently horrible tale from the Church’s past: the exploits of the iniquitous Pope Stephen VI. It speaks to corruption, power, and the extent one is willing to go to “undertake” macabre vengeance.​​​​​​​ - April 9, 2020

• What Fulton Sheen Did When Churches Were Closed
I remember my utter shock and disbelief when our diocese closed all the churches. It seemed like an impossibility (and still does) that there would be no sacraments available to the laity. How does this make sense? In the time of global pandemic and such fear and uncertainty, the sacraments are what we seem to need the most! - April 9, 2020

• What Happens When Most Bishops Deny The Faith? Henry VIII vs St. John Fisher (Dr. Marshall Show #393)
What Happens When Most Bishops deny the Catholic Faith and Church? This happened in England in the 1500s under King Henry VIII. Only one Catholic bishop remained true: St John Fisher. Today Taylor Marshall is joined by Ryan Grant as they talk about the story of episcopal apostasy and the fidelity of St John Fisher against the perfidious agenda of a king and state. - April 8, 2020

• THAT WAS THEN, THIS IS NOW: Open Our Churches Now!
Editor's Note: On this Wednesday in Holy Week, I'd like to dedicate the following article to all the heroic priests in the world today who are defying the fearmongers of secularism by finding a way to keep the sacramental life of the Church active in the lives of faithful Catholics. The present crisis is sustained by fear. Fear is crippling. Fear causes men to become weak and easily controlled.  Karl Marx was wrong. Religion is not the "opium of the masses" but rather the thing that makes us who we are and gives life its deepest meaning and most profound purpose. - April 8, 2020

• The Enduring Lesson of the Persecution of Cardinal Pell
COMMENTARY: Does the Church in Australia realize that the wrongful conviction of Cardinal Pell was an example and warning to all Catholics who might be too open about their Catholic faith? - April 8, 2020

• Who Needs Conspiracy Theories When Progressives Openly Describe the Post-Corona World?
Anyone who thinks that the coronavirus crisis represented a truce in the raging culture war is very mistaken. The war is only going to accelerate. - April 7, 2020

• A Priest’s Sacramental Obligations in Time of Plague
A man is bound to his neighbor in two ways: justice and charity. Justice is concerned with giving what is right to whom it is owed (S.T. II-II q57 a1). Charity is the action whereby a man wills the good of another for the sake of God. St. Thomas says the charity we give to our neighbor is the same action as loving God, since a man cannot love God and hate his brother (S.T. II-II q25 a1, cf. I Jn. 4:20). - April 7, 2020

• ‘The Cardinal Was Wronged’: Pell Acquittal Exposes Flawed Australian Legal Process
Observers say that the unanimous ruling by the country’s highest court constitutes a scathing indictment of the fundamentally unjust proceedings that led to the cardinal’s wrongful conviction and imprisonment. - April 7, 2020

• Bishops can do more to provide sacraments despite coronavirus fears, open letter claims
In the wake of the coronavirus epidemic, the nationwide shutdown of Catholic churches has halted regular Mass attendance and impeded access to other sacraments for the Catholic faithful. Now, some Catholics have endorsed an open letter asking the Catholic bishops to do everything possible to make the sacraments more available. - April 7, 2020

• EASTER WITHOUT MASS?
Easter without Mass? Of course not! Mass will be said, and my family and I will prayerfully hear it said. But though we are not under sentence of excommunication, we will be forbidden to hear it said in person. Forbidden by the government—and by the Church itself—to take part in it. - April 7, 2020

• Analysis: Freed from prison, will Cardinal Pell now face Vatican trial?
The High Court of Australia ordered the acquittal of Cardinal George Pell on Tuesday. While Pell’s criminal trials in Australia are now at an end, the same accusations which saw him first convicted, then denied appeal, then acquitted, must now be addressed by the Church’s own legal process. That canonical process, on hold while the Australian justice system ran its course, can now begin. - April 6, 2020

• Francis Footnote Follies: Why Francis Dropped the Title of Vicar of Christ…
*On February 4, 2019, Francis flew to Abu Dhabi and co-signed the Abu Dhabi Declaration, along with his Islamic collaborator, Grand Imam Ahmed Al-Tayyeb. Read the Abu Dhabi Declaration, in which Francis declares that “God wills the diversity of all religions.” - April 5, 2020

• This week: Canonical conflicts over access to the sacraments
During another week dominated by news about the CO19 epidemic, the most interesting theme that emerged this week involved the conflict between legitimate forms of authority: the authority of the state to protect public health and the authority of the Church to administer the sacraments. - April 3, 2020

• Pope drops traditional titles, including ‘Vicar of Christ’
In the latest Vatican yearbook, the Annuario Pontificio, the title “Vicar of Christ” does not appear on the listing for Pope Francis. In the 2020 edition of the Annuario, the page devoted to Pope Francis is headed simply by his name: Jorge Maria Bergoglio. Past editions have always been headed by the titles accorded to the Pope, beginning with “Vicar of Jesus Christ.” - April 3, 2020

• Coronavirus Clarity on Confession Suspension: A Primer for Pastors
COMMENTARY: The clarity around confessions has not matched the clarity about the Holy Mass. - April 3, 2020

• Dr. Taylor Marshall Video: Why are Bishops Banning Mass and ALL Sacraments? 
Why are Bishops Banning Mass & ALL Sacraments? Dr. Taylor Marshall and Ray Grijalba discuss what's happening and whether Catholics should be concerned. - April 2, 2020

• Archbishop Viganò Calls on Pope and Bishops to Repent Amidst Corona Crisis 
Archbishop Viganò Calls on Pope and Bishops to Repent Amidst Corona Crisis with Dr. Taylor Marshall and Timothy Flanders - April 1, 2020

• EWTN to Broadcast Friday Consecration of US, Canada to Blessed Virgin Mary
EWTN Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Michael P. Warsaw said: “EWTN is honored to be airing this important Re-Consecration of the United States and Canada to Our Lady. - April 30, 2020

• What to Expect When Public Mass Resumes
Closing the doors was simple — opening them back up will take thought and understanding - April 27, 2020

• Pope composes prayers for end of pandemic to be recited after rosary
Pope Francis asked Catholics to make a special effort in May to pray the rosary, knowing that by doing so they will be united with believers around the world asking for Mary’s intercession in stopping the coronavirus pandemic. - April 25, 2020

• Pope Francis urges Catholics to unite through praying the rosary in May
Pope Francis sent a letter Saturday encouraging Catholics to pray the rosary throughout May. He also shared two new prayers to implore the help of the Virgin Mary during the coronavirus pandemic. - April 25, 2020

• US and Canada to be Consecrated to ‘Mary, Mother of the Church’
The announcement follows similar plans made by the bishops of Canada, who will consecrate the Crown Dominion to Mary under the same title on the same day. - April 23, 2020

• Holy Saturday: Parking-Lot Priest Answers +Vigano's Urgent Plea
Priest Calls On Faithful Catholics To Pray Today
From the parking lot on Good Friday, Father calls on faithful Catholics to, in cooperation with Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano's urgent plea to the world's bishops and priests to pray the exorcism of Pope Leo XIII today, to join our shepherds in praying a Rosary and the Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel today, Holy Saturday. - April 11, 2020

• Archbishop Viganò asks Bishops and Priests to recite an Exorcism on Holy Saturday
ON OCTOBER 13, 1884, Leo XIII had a terrible vision of the assault of the powers of Hell against Holy Mother Church, and ordered the prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel to be said at the end of Mass. He also composed an Act of Exorcism and ordered it to be inserted into the Roman Ritual, and explicitly mentioned what he had seen: “The Church, the Spouse of the Immaculate Lamb, has been filled with bitterness and inebriated with poison by her crafty enemies, who have laid impious hands on her most sacred possessions. In the place where the See of Holy Peter and the Chair of Truth has been set up as the light of the world, they have raised the throne of their abominable impiety, with the iniquitous design that when the Pastor has been struck, the sheep may be scattered.” - April 9, 2020

• THAT WAS THEN, THIS IS NOW: Open Our Churches Now!
Editor's Note: On this Wednesday in Holy Week, I'd like to dedicate the following article to all the heroic priests in the world today who are defying the fearmongers of secularism by finding a way to keep the sacramental life of the Church active in the lives of faithful Catholics. The present crisis is sustained by fear. Fear is crippling. Fear causes men to become weak and easily controlled.  Karl Marx was wrong. Religion is not the "opium of the masses" but rather the thing that makes us who we are and gives life its deepest meaning and most profound purpose. Men like Marx could not compete with religion and so they mocked it and suggested it is only meaningful for the unenlightened and oppressed masses who have nothing else. But they were wrong. - April 8, 2020