May 2020

• WORSE THAN DEATH: A Pandemic Warning from Cardinals Zen, Müller, Abp. Viganò
Cardinals Joseph Zen and Gerhard Müller have joined with Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò in launching an appeal to governmental leaders to respect people’s inalienable rights and fundamental freedoms in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. - May 7, 2020

• WILL THE ITALIAN CHURCH EVER RISE AGAIN? (Abp. Viganò on Government prohibition of Masses and Pope's call for obedience)
As Italy and the United States begin to open up in the wake of Covid-19, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò has said he believes a widespread disinformation campaign is now underway, and the crisis is providing for some an excellent opportunity to restrict people’s freedoms. - May 2, 2020

• Wisconsin priest protests extra reopening restrictions on churches in his county
Violators could be fined up to $1,000. -  May 29, 2020

• Church leadership: managing the decline?
All this week, CWN carried headlines about tight government restrictions on Catholic churches—restrictions that raised serious questions about religious freedom. So on Friday, when the US Conference of Catholic Bishops sent out a notice about the annual observance of Religious Freedom Week, which will be held June 22-29, it seemed a very timely announcement. - May 29, 2020

• No Mass and Communion? Let faith trump feelings.
During this period of not being able to attend Mass—a period which is now ending ever so slowly in most of the United States—I’ve reflected frequently on this question: What discernible impact is the absence of public Masses having on me? I presume each moderately serious Catholic has reflected on the same personal question. - May 29, 2020

• 1P5 Minute – Episode 24: Why Are German Catholics Leaving?
In 2019, over 10,000 Catholics left the Church in the diocese of Munich and Freising. In 2018, another 9,000 left. Why is the German Church hemorrhaging Catholics? We explore the question.​​​​​​​ - May 28, 2020

• Shepherding New York City’s Faithful, in the Heart of the Coronavirus Pandemic
Local priests and deacons tell the Register about the challenges they’ve faced ministering to their flocks during this painful period. - May 28, 2020

• Maryland county lifts ban on Communion 
Howard County, Maryland, has reversed a policy that banned consumption of any food or drink during religious services, effectively preventing the licit celebration of Mass. - May 28, 2020

• Costa Rican Bishop Disappointed in Legalization of Gay Marriage
In a January 9, 2018 decision, the Inter-American Court on Human Rights ruled that Costa Rica must legalize gay marriage. - May 28, 2020

• Peter Seewald’s ‘Spiritual and Historical Journey’ With the Pope Emeritus
The German journalist discusses Benedict XVI: The Biography - May 28, 2020

• Baltimore archdiocese has ‘serious concerns’ about county Communion ban
The Archdiocese of Baltimore said it has “serious concerns” about public health guidance from Howard County, Maryland, which prohibits the reception of Communion as a condition for churches to reopen during the coronavirus pandemic. - May 27, 2020

• LA archdiocese announces reopening plan
After California relaxed public health restrictions on churches on Monday, the nation’s largest diocese announced its plan on Tuesday to resume public Masses. - May 27, 2020

• Maryland County Bans Eucharist in Church Reopening Order
The order also states that “singing is permitted, but not recommended,” and that only the person leading the service or a choir may sing.​​​​​​​ - May 27, 2020

• How Has ‘Laudato Si’ Fared After 5 Years?
COMMENTARY: Five points to consider. - May 26, 2020

• English Bishop Reflects on the Way Ahead After Coronavirus
Bishop Mark Davies comments, ‘This trial for the Church and the world will surely lead toward what is essential, and what is essential is Christ.’ - May 22, 2020

• Dioceses Seek to Balance Health and Reverence in Plans to Resume Public Mass
As dioceses look to bring the Eucharist to the faithful, various guidance is available to bishops and pastors. - May 21, 2020

• Archbishop Hebda: Catholics ‘Depend on the Eucharist,’ and Masses Will Resume
The archbishop’s remarks came one day after a historic decision that Minnesota’s six dioceses would permit parishes to resume public Masses amid the coronavirus pandemic, and to flout statewide pandemic orders. - May 21, 2020

• Pope Francis moves financial records office under Secretariat for Economy
Pope Francis Wednesday moved the office of the Vatican’s financial records database under the management of the Secretariat for the Economy -- reversing a decision he made in 2016. - May 20, 2020

• Kansas investigating sexual abuse claims in breakaway Society of St. Pius X
The Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) is under investigation in Kansas, amid allegations that members of the group perpetrated or covered up clerical sex abuse in the state.​​​​​​​ - May 20, 2020

• Italian Freemasonry Magazine Strongly Endorses Pope Francis’ Human Fraternity Document
A document on human fraternity which Pope Francis and Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, Grand Imam of Al-Azhar university, co-signed last year in Abu Dhabi, has been given a ringing endorsement in the magazine of Italy’s largest Freemasonic fraternity. - May 15, 2020

• Saginaw Diocesan Employee Alleges Retaliation After Reporting Abuse
The lawsuit alleges that after Villarreal reported the abuse, diocesan employees began to harass him, referring to him as “the mole [spy,]” cutting his hours and benefits, and taking away his master key. - May 13, 2020

• Buffalo diocese seeks permanent injunction of abuse lawsuits
The diocese of Buffalo is asking a federal court to halt all outstanding clergy sex abuse litigation against it as it navigates bankruptcy proceedings. - May 4, 2020

• Pope raises status of two Vatican cardinals
Pope Francis has raised two prelates—Cardinals Beniamino Stella and Luis Tagle—to the status of cardinal-bishops. - May 1, 2020

• The Federalist Radio Hour (Podcast): Father Sirico On Faith During Lockdown
Father Robert Sirico, President of the Acton Institute and Pastor of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, joins host Ben Domenech to discuss faith during the coronavirus pandemic lockdowns.

• New Initiative Urges Congress to Investigate Catholic Relief Services on Aid to Abortion-Related Orgs
Michael Hichborn of the Lepanto Institute is a pro-life rock star.
I’ve never seen a guy work harder to dig in and identify every detail of corruption going on within putatively Catholic organizations, document it, and expose it. It’s often thankless work. It isn’t always well-received by bishops, and certainly not by staffers at large Catholic bureaucratic institutions like the USCCB, where the oversight for organizations like Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is supposed to happen. - May 27, 2020

• Still Waiting for Full Accountability on Abuse
The horror of the sexual abuse of minors by Catholic priests, an unspeakable crime, has been compounded in many cases by the decision of Church leaders – bishops and religious superiors – to downplay grave allegations, and to refuse punishing priests found guilty of criminal behavior. - May 27, 2020

• Dr. Taylor Marshall: Is Benedict XVI still the Pope? Did Pope Benedict XVI Fully Resign the Papacy or Just a Part of It?
Did Pope Benedict XVI Fully Resign the Papacy or Just a Part of It? Dr. Taylor Marshall and Dr. Ed Mazza discuss a controversy at the FIRST VATICAN COUNCIL regarding whether the Papacy is de facto the Bishop of Rome or not. Dr Ed Mazza then explores the sayings and words of Ratzinger-Benedict showing that Ratzinger seems to be believe that "being Pope" is not the same as "being encumbant bishop of Rome"? This raises the question, "Can a man be Pope and not the Bishop of Rome?" Dr. Ed Mazza lays out the information and tries to provide an answer to this complicated question? - May 27, 2020

• Fr. Z's Blog: Spectacular B as in B, S as in S
Today in the reading for St. Venerable Bede, we heard from St. Paul to Timothy:

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths.

Fr. James Martin, homosexualist and Jesuit, Oooos and Ahhhs over a book by Card. Zuppi which claims that no one chooses their orientation.  And yet it remains that people DO have choices. - May 27, 2020

• The Dire Warnings of Zephaniah
“And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and will visit upon the men that are settled on their lees: that say in their hearts: The Lord will not do good, nor will he do evil” (Zep 1:12). - May 27, 2020

• Pope to lead world shrines in rosary prayer for pandemic May 30
Pope Francis will lead the major shrines around the world in praying the rosary to implore Mary’s intercession and protection amid the coronavirus pandemic. - May 26, 2020

• What Video Masses Can Teach Us about the Mass
To the perceptive, the coronavirus lockdowns can teach almost as much about the Mass as the Council of Trent. For others . . . maybe not as much. - May 26, 2020

• After the lockdown, a great Catholic revival?
This morning, in an effort to shift my thoughts away from the epidemic and the lockdown, I thought I’d look back a few months, to remember what I was writing before this unhappy subject began to dominate our consciousness. I came across a column I’d written in February, “Want a Liturgical Renewal? Start with Repentance.” - May 26, 2020

• An Open Letter to Catholics about to Return to Mass
I decided to write this letter with the aim of talking to my fellow Catholics about an issue that I have found troublesome to approach. I am terrified, because we are all about to go back to Mass. My fears do not stem from the potential physical repercussions of returning to Mass. Rather, my fears are purely spiritual. - May 26, 2020

• The Coronavirus and the Moral Decline of Modern Man
The Second Battle of the Aisne, 1917...  In one week, thirty thousand French soldiers were killed.
The Battle of Iwo Jima, 1945...  over twenty thousand American casualties.
These men sacrificed themselves with courage. Knowing what was in store, the soldiers still formed lines and advanced. - May 25, 2020

• Fr. Z's Blog: How stupid are things getting in this time of Coronavirus, you ask?
How stupid are things getting in this time of coronavirus, you ask?
Here are a couple of examples.
How NOT to do things.
Concelebration. - May 25, 2020

• A Progressive Insanity
Cloth masks, narrow plastic shields, and six feet of separation to stop an airborne virus. Limiting exposure to the largely nonlethal virus when immunity is necessary to function and no vaccine exists. An apparent belief that avoiding the virus will remove it from the environment. All this is obviously insane. - May 23, 2020

• Thousands Of Churches Are About To Defy Lockdown Orders. It’s About Time
On Friday, President Trump said churches and houses of worship are “essential” and called on governors nationwide to allow them to open this weekend. If they don’t, Trump said he would “override” governors, citing forthcoming guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. - May 22, 2020

• Bishops and the secular order: Seek first the kingdom of God
Phil Lawler made several excellent points in Rendering to Caesar in an epidemic: the limits of authority. We agree that it is not quite fair to make adverse judgments against the bishops simply for complying with civil restrictions designed to control the pandemic. But as Phil pointed out, there is certainly good reason to be concerned about the general deference of our bishops to the dominant culture, as frequently represented by civil authority. - May 22, 2020

• With Church Reopening Plan, Minnesota Bishops Model Solidarity and Subsidiarity
COMMENTARY: The state’s role is to support social institutions such as churches in their operation, not to supplant their decision-making. - May 21, 2020

• Revictimizing the Victims of Sexual Abuse
COMMENTARY: Bishops and dioceses must answer the phone calls of victims, meet with them, hear their stories and empathize with them. That is not too much to ask. - May 21, 2020

• Will Everything Be Different Now?
I keep hearing people say, “The world is changed now; nothing is ever going to be the same after this.”  I am usually skeptical about such predictions that “everything is changed now,” because I’ve heard people say it too often when it turned out to be false.  I was reminded of one such example not too long ago. - May 20, 2020

• Rendering to Caesar in an epidemic: the limits of authority
My friend and colleague Jeff Mirus cautions us that we should not rush into judgment of our Church leaders; we should not leap to a premature conclusion that they are bowing to civil authorities by restricting pastoral ministry during the current epidemic. He is right, of course, and I recognize in myself a strong tendency toward rash judgment: a tendency that I need to control. - May 20, 2020

• Awaiting the Return of the Public Mass
Our late, beloved friend, Cardinal Francis George, made his way back to our mutual native ground, to serve with wisdom and panache as Archbishop of Chicago.  On a plane once to Argentina, he found himself next to an  Evangelical woman, a missionary, who turned and asked him earnestly, “Have you been saved?” He paused for a moment, because he had never had the question put so directly to him.  And finally he said, “Yes, I’ve been saved by Christ, but from within a sacramental system that demands my free participation.” - May 19, 2020

• Church and State in the Pandemic: Benefit of the doubt?
On the one hand, we have the majority in our secular culture who believe the Catholic Church is morally obliged to follow the directives of the State in deciding questions of how and when to worship during the Coronavirus pandemic. On the other hand, we have a small minority of Catholics who believe the Church’s decisions should be not only independent of the State but obviously independent. - May 19, 2020

• Accepted, Not Elected: The Curious Case of Pope Boniface II
In the near future:
Pope Francis’s health has taken a turn for the worse. He knows he has only a few weeks to live. In an effort to perpetuate his agenda after his death, he declares Cardinal Tagle as his successor. In a formal ceremony, he places a special pallium upon Cardinal Tagle, representing the succession of the papacy to him. Francis then threatens excommunication to anyone who does not accept Tagle as the legitimate pope after his death. - May 19, 2020

• Dr. Taylor Marshall: Pope Francis and Freemasonic Infiltration of Vatican
Recently the leading Italian Freemasonic magazine Nuovo Hiram of the masonic Grand Orient lodge in Italy has hailed Pope Francis's "Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together" and promoting their secular ideals. The periodical praises Pope Francis's document as: “innovative” as “a slow-released drug” inaugurating a “new era” and “turning point for a new civilization." Dr. Taylor Marshall gives you a run-down on the history of Infiltration into the Vatican and how Pope Francis is accomplishing the Revoltion of Tiara and Cope planned in the 1800s by the Carbonari in the Permanent Instruction of the Alta Vendita. - May 18, 2020

• Humanism – True and Untrue
We’re all lamenting many things that we cannot do because of the virus lockdown – true human goods to be recovered as the world now carefully begins to re-open. But we should also be grateful for many things that are not happening, some inside the Vatican. - May 18, 2020

• The dangers of proliferating Communion services
The cancellation of the public celebration of the Mass in dioceses across the US and the world—beginning in Rome—has established dangerous precedents. In addition to the breathtaking surrender to secular authorities with no public pushback on the part of Catholic bishops, chanceries have introduced the innovation of abbreviated Communion services (with ten or fewer people). The early response by parishioners has been favorable, and in some instances, exuberant. But without vigilance, could the practice become a Trojan horse of confusion and even schism? - May 18, 2020

• Rather than Interfaith Prayer, Why Not Rogation Days?
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues deep into May, the majority of Catholics in Western society are still without public Masses. Some Catholics are without any sacraments at all, depending on the diocese. On May 14, the Pope Francis called all Catholics to a day of fasting and prayer to end the coronavirus. Surely, this is a prayer all Catholics can get behind. - May 18, 2020

• Is Religion Divisive?
Religion gets a bad rap in our secular, selectively judgmental society. The Dictators of Relativism claim that religion – and by that they usually mean Christianity – ought to be discarded because it is “divisive.” It separates people by forcing them to take sides. - May 16, 2020

• Unmasking the Virus
It was Friday. My husband and I were sitting at the table, eating clam chowder and tuna melts when the alarms on our smartphones blasted through the house. The little flip phone I use for actual conversations beeped, then sent an ominous text: Emergency Alert. Imminent threat. Emergency. Over and over the terrifying words crawled across the tiny screen. - May 15, 2020

• Dr. Taylor Marshall: Covid-19 and Can They Ban Communion on the Tongue?
The closure of public worship and it's slow reopening has entailed new restrictions about "safety" and a usual ban or preference against "Communion on the Tongue." Is this lawful? Do Catholics have a right to Communion on the tongue? Ray Grijalba and Taylor Marshall discuss the history and your rights as baptized Catholic. - May 15, 2020

• Saint Paul the Sociologist
Re-reading the first chapter of St Paul’s Letter to the Romans recently, it occurred to me that Paul was offering, among other things, a kind of sociological theory of the three stages of society’s moral degeneration. - May 15, 2020

• FRANCIS: Vicar of the 'Higher Committee of Human Fraternity'
The ever-predictable Pope Francis participated in an interfaith prayer meeting Thursday (May 14) with Muslims, Jews and Christians, ostensibly for the purpose of calling on God to put an end to the coronavirus pandemic. - May 15, 2020

• The Pachamama, Pope Francis, and the Pandemic
In several recent pronouncements, Pope Francis has hinted that the current coronavirus pandemic is a revenge of nature. “A Revenge of Nature”? - May 14, 2020

• ‘Appeal for the Church and the World’: A Catalyst for Honest Debate
 It is astonishing to witness how the Church, political and media establishment have sought to “squelch discussion” and discredit the recent “Appeal for the Church and the World” as mere “conspiracy theory,” Bishop Schneider has said.​​​​​​​ - May 14, 2020

• Can Doctrine Change? Not Strictly
This is the first of two related articles on whether doctrine can change. In the first, we examine doctrine from the strict point of view, side by side with dogma.
What does the Church really teach? Since Pope John Paul II, media and laity alike have been interested in and sometimes confused by the pope’s ex tempore comments, whether on airplanes, during press conferences, or in dealings with secular leaders. We reach a high point in the pontificate of Pope Francis, during which major controversies break out as a result of statements both inside and outside the traditional avenues of teaching. - May 14, 2020

• Vatican finances: the fox in the henhouse
So now the question is whether the Vatican will default on its financial obligations. When asked that question, the Vatican’s top financial officer replied, “No, I don’t think so.” That answer in itself does not inspire great confidence. But the more significant point is that the question of default has been raised—even by the Vatican’s own news service. -  May 14, 2020

• Fr. Z's Blog: A bishop reverses his restriction on Communion on the tongue.
During this Chinese COVID-1984 virus pandemic, some bishops have, ultra vires, improperly restricted Communion on the tongue, ostensibly out of concern for public health.  When questioned, some have succumbed to the temptation to double-down on poorly crafted and unfortunately worded restrictive policies which their staff have put together.  Moreover, such policies contradict obvious and easily understood law in the matter of Communion on the tongue (e.g., RS 92).  Their arguments are not convincing.  Their attitude is more alarming yet. - May 13, 2020

• Coronavirus Panic Should Not Mean Abusive Holy Communion
I have been fortunate, during this COVID-19 lockdown, in that my pastor has continued to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass per our regular schedule. Ten people have been allowed in the church. The rest of us who attend sit in our cars and watch the Mass on our cell phones. The pastor or the deacon brings Holy Communion outside the front doors, and we queue up — socially distancing ourselves, of course — to receive the Blessed Sacrament. Confessions have likewise been available to us outside the church building, with plenty of space between the priest’s and penitent’s chairs. - May 13, 2020

• Dr. Taylor Marshall: Are Tracking Implants the Mark of the Beast?
The Covid19 Controversy has people asking: Are Tracking Implants the Mark of the Beast? There have been allegations that governments and elites want to implant tracking devices into the populace to tracka and control them. Last week on Reddit, Bill Gates suggested a means of "digital tracking certificates", which caused many people to think that we could be close to this imposed technology. Dr. Marshall looks at the controversy and whether this could be the "Mark" that is described in Apocalypse 13:18. - May 13, 2020

• Coronavirus and the Changed Theology on Creation
The Church has had some difficulty interpreting the pandemic crisis from a theological viewpoint. This is because contemporary theology has replaced the traditional conception of God’s Creation, according to which He created everything out of nothing and produced a whole collection of things mysteriously ordered for salvation. - May 12, 2020

• Quick Hits: More Vatican financial woes; and when will churches reopen
Imagine that you make regular annual donations to a large non-profit institution: a university, let’s say. The university has a large endowment, managed by professionals who are authorized to invest the funds. But you learn that another office at the university, with access to large sums, has been quietly managing its own portfolio, without official authorization. Do you begin to feel uneasy? - May 12, 2020

• The ‘Demonic’ Source Of Our Global Fear, And The Lesson Liberty-Loving People Must Remember About Our ‘Hostile Government’
There’s something to the fear, the panic, the anger, and the destruction. Something powerful driving it, and not “just the media or some ‘conspiracy of globalists,'” Washington, D.C.’s Monsignor Charles Pope tells The Federalist Radio Hour. - May 11, 2020

• The Modern Church WANTS to be Nonessential
Remember the Amazon Synod? Seems like a lifetime ago, and yet it was the last thing anyone saw before the lights went out. Francis says the Covid pandemic is Pachamama's response to climate change. I would argue that it's actually God's response to Pachamama. But who am I to judge? - May 11, 2020

• Dr. Taylor Marshall: Post-Covid19 Catholicism: 10 Predictions of What Might Change in Catholic Practice
We are already seeing government and ecclesiastical mandates on how Catholic life and devotion must change because of the alleged global threat of the Corona Virus (Covid-19). Dr. Taylor Marshall gives 10 predictions on how the Corona Crisis will change how Catholicism is practiced in the months and even years to come. - May 11, 2020

• Fr. Z's Blog: @BishopStika issues a Decree for @knoxdiocese and people react. Wherein Fr. Z makes an entreaty
I has come to my attention via LifeSite that His Excellency Most Rev. Richard Fr. Stika, Bishop of Knoxville on 6 May issued a DECREE (it says “decree”) which says, inter alia, that “Reception of Host on the tongue is strictly prohibited at this time.” - May 11, 2020

• Dr. Taylor Marshall: Archbishop Viganò and Cardinal Sarah Controversy PLUS: Is Benedict Still Pope?
Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò has said that Cardinal Sarah caused him “serious harm” in a debate surrounding the Cardinal's suppor for the “Appeal for the Church and the World." Notably the document has the signatures of two open supporters of the thesis that Benedict XVI is STILL Pope. Dr Taylor Marshall and Timothy Flanders discuss the controvery, the document, and the emergence of the "Beneplenist" thesis stating that Pope Benedict XVI is still Pope. - May 11, 2020

• Fr. Z's Blog: Wherein a Bishop bans Communion on the tongue until after Mass. A Response.
Here is a dictate from the Bishop of Little Rock, Most Rev. Anthony B. Taylor, dated 7 May 2020 to his flock about reception of Communion on the tongue during this COVID-1984 time. - May 8, 2020

• The German Synodal Path: Noteworthy or not worthy?
We now know a good deal about what is advocated in the draft documents arising from the so-called “Synodal Path” in Germany. Of course it is all predictable, because it is all simply a summary of the points on which secularists and the Catholic Church disagree, with the Synodalists on the side of the secularist cultural mainstream. - May 8, 2020

• Cardinal Pell does not deserve scapegoat status
An Australian royal commission has found that Cardinal George Pell was aware of sexual abuse in the 1970s “but failed to take action.” Cardinal Pell says that he is “surprised” by that finding, and observes quite accurately that the evidence against him is very thin. - May 7, 2020

• In New Book, Benedict XVI Confirms His Resignation, But Clings to Confusing Theology
In the writings of the Second Vatican Council, and those of the post-conciliar popes, it’s hard not to detect a certain drift towards an increasing obscurity of language. When one goes back and reads older enyclicals, or papal bulls from prior councils, what is striking by contrast is the clarity and precision of the texts. Even when the language in use has a certain archaic aspect, the concepts are expressed in ways that are immediately understandable. It would seem that modern (and Modernist) theology has a circumlocutory effect on the mind. - May 7, 2020

• JOSEPH RATZINGER, THEOLOGICAL REFORMER
As he turned 93 on April 16, Joseph Ratzinger remained one of the most misunderstood and misrepresented men of consequence in recent Catholic history. I doubt the Pope Emeritus minds; he’s probably impervious to calumny, having had it visited upon him for over a half-century. This kindly man may feel a measure of compassion for the small minds that continually tell untruths about him and his theology. But he has better things to do than fret about his detractors: dwarves ineffectually tossing pebbles at a serene giant. - May 6, 2020

• Is Pope Francis setting up the next Conclave?
At the end of the last week, Pope Francis elevated cardinals Luis Antonio Tagle and Beniamino Stella to the Order of Cardinal Bishops – the highest rank of dignity within the College of Cardinals – putting them on par with the Cardinals eligible for the office of Dean of the College. He also appointed the archbishop Ilson Montanari as vice Camerlengo. These decisions could have an impact on the next conclave. - May 6, 2020

• Bishops Cannot Mandate Communion on the Hand or Forbid Communion on the Tongue
With the gradual thawing of restrictions on public gatherings, some dioceses have begun to issue new sets of regulations for Masses. These regulations often include a stated preference for Communion in the hand or even a forbiddance of Communion on the tongue. - May 6, 2020

• The Unintended and Intended Consequences of Anti-Coronavirus Measures
By consenting to church closures, the Vatican has contributed to increasing the climate of panic vis-a-vis the coronavirus epidemic. With his repeated calls for integral ecology and a new model of globalization, plus his support of the so-called “popular movements” in Latin America, Pope Francis is giving spiritual backing to the most massive social engineering operation in history. - May 5, 2020

• Fr. Z's Blog: As Masses open up, priests told to DROP Hosts onto hands, Communion on the tongue is banned
As public Masses start up again, people are sending notes with indications from different dioceses about distribution of Holy Communion. - May 5, 2020

• Editorial: A plea for prudence and charity as things ‘open back up’
“Open back up.” Like “new normal,” “stay at home” and “social distancing,” this phrase has suddenly become an unanticipated addition to our 2020 lexicon. - May 5, 2020

• Still no transparency in Vatican financial investigations
The Vatican, which is struggling to regain public confidence in its financial dealings, announced late last week that “individual measures had been arranged for some employees of the Holy See.” - May 5, 2020

• The Church’s Abandonment on the Cross
Having devoured many spiritual classics from the desert fathers to St. Augustine during my two and half years as a Benedictine monk before discerning out, one idea struck me above the rest. An author, whose name escapes me, prophetically proclaimed that the Catholic Church must undergo everything our Lord has gone through. On a personal level, our Lord minces no words: if we wish to be His disciples, we must tread the path He has blazed for us by following His trail of tears and blood. In order to reach Easter Sunday, we must first pass through Good Friday.  - May 5, 2020

• Antisocial Distancing
Pope Benedict, somewhere in his writings, argued that reality is based on relationship because it was created by the Triune God. Aristotle's great mind perceived this partially, naming man a "social animal," Politics, Bk. I, Pt. II, though even Aristotle could not perceive that God is social as well. The astonishing response of governments around the world to the COVID-19 disease therefore presents a metaphysical problem. - May 5, 2020

• Is the Voice of God Resounding in the Present Pandemic?
For some high-ranking prelates, God never punishes. To say that the scourge of the current epidemic could be divine punishment would be, for them, a pagan thing. - May 4, 2020

• Fr. Z's Blog: ASK FATHER: Words of comfort for those whose bishop demand Communion only on the hand?
From a priest...
QUAERITUR:
I am a parish priest in a Midwestern diocese. Our bishop is allowing us to celebrate the Mass publicly again soon. One of the stipulations is that communion can only be given in the hand. Do you have any words of comfort or wisdom for members of my congregation who only receive on the tongue? 
- May 2, 2020

• Striking the Balance
Some decades ago I took it for granted that sooner or later the Catholic priesthood would be open to women.  Maybe not in my lifetime, because the Catholic Church, when it changes, changes slowly.  But eventually, I was sure, it had to happen. - May 1, 2020

• #veritasliberabitvos

• Renewal of the Consecration of the United States of America to the Blessed Virgin Mary
 - May 1, 2020