Jesus is Not an Alien [01.12.22] -- Authentic Catholic teaching provides the most comprehensive and reasonable understanding of the human person. We have a body and soul, and we are male or female. We have five senses. The faculties of the soul include intellect and will, memory, and imagination. Emotions—properly controlled by reason—complete this fundamental vision of who we are. But the Sacraments—first among them, Baptism—elevate us, and we enter into the life of the Blessed Trinity. In a nutshell, this vision provides us with the framework for “Christian anthropology.” [Continue reading]
The Spiritual Capital Punishment of Faithful Catholics [01.14.22] -- The moral analysis of rejecting Vatican directives canceling the widespread celebration of the Extraordinary Form of the Mass is worthy of robust debate, adjudication, and repeated appeals for clarification. [Continue reading]
A Mother's Love [01.04.22] -- War stories attract our curiosity and attention with exciting accounts of courage and cowardice. They also help wring out excessive religious sentimentalism—all-too-common in a comfortable consumer society—by provoking urgent questions about the purpose of life. Some say there are no atheists in the foxhole. But others who have experienced the horrors of war question Divine benevolence. [Continue reading]
Appropriating the Christmas Appropriators [12.3.21] -- Three businessmen – a Catholic, a Protestant, and an atheist – go to lunch during Advent to discuss what Christmas means to them. The Protestant says Christmas means a 50 percent increase in profits. The Catholic says he looks at the bottom line; Christmas means a 20 percent increase in earnings after taxes. The atheist says that the Christmas business is so profitable that on Christmas day, he and his friends gather around the Christmas tree, hold hands, and sing, “O what a friend we have in Jesus!” [Continue reading]
Christ, the Great King [11.23.21] -- Good kings and rulers execute their civic duties in response to the lawful requirements of their subjects. They provide for the common defense. They tend to our perceived community, family, and individual needs. They collect taxes to pay expenses, and they guarantee reasonable freedoms. [Continue reading]
Where Accompaniment Fails [11.17.21] -- As the dogmatic precepts of the secular religion take shape, cultural elites try to deflect criticism by presuming the rhetorical high ground. Only a racist and a bigot would object to the allegedly self-evident truths of “diversity, equity, and inclusion.” LGBTQ+ replaces morally descriptive words like homosexual, sodomy, perversion, and mutilation. Abortion and genital mutilation are no longer crimes against humanity. They are human rights.[Continue reading]
55 Cents and the Price of Stationary [10.14.21] -- The rich young man in the Gospel expressed pride in abiding by the Commandments, but Jesus asked for a generous spirit. The Commandments form the moral foundation of all that we do. Charity and generosity—in its countless forms according to our respective vocations—fulfill the justice of the Ten Commandments, just as the Cross of the New Covenant fulfills the Ten Commandments of the Old Covenant. [Continue Reading]
German Bishops Join the Wolves [10.06.21] -- An astonishing news item in the Wall Street Journal reports: “At a meeting in Frankfurt, German [Catholic] church leaders voted 168 to 28. . .to adopt a draft statement on sexuality that includes a resolution saying that ‘same-sex partnerships who want to take the risk of an unbreakable common life. . .should be able to see themselves placed under the blessing of God.’” [Continue Reading]
Cashing in on the Devil? [09.28.21] -- The devil plays a prominent role as the Anti-Christ in the Scriptures. He appears under the guise of a serpent in the Garden, persuading Eve to consume the forbidden fruit. He torments the just man Job to test Job’s fidelity; He returns to tempt Jesus in the desert; Jesus and his disciples cast out demons from the possessed. The Cross is not only a horrible specter of diabolical power, but it is also a definitive Sign of the defeat of evil. In our day, there is widespread disbelief in the devil as a person.[Continue reading]
Peter’s Sacramental Confession [09.17.21] -- The Bible identifies many sinners by name and their crimes. The disobedience of Adam and Eve, King David’s adultery and cover-up murder, Herod’s lust and murder of John the Baptist, Pilate’s cowardly execution of Jesus, and so on. Even the manifest grave sins of Peter, the exemplar pope, are documented in the Gospels. Nevertheless, the restraint of the Evangelists ensures that the Gospels never read like a Hollywood scandal sheet. [Continue reading]
Bored and Boring Bishops [09.07.2021] -- Boredom among priests and bishops has become a common malaise. After Texas passed a pro-life law that prohibits abortions after six weeks of gestation, Bishop John Stowe of Lexington, KY, tweeted: "Those who vehemently fight legal abortion, but are uninterested in providing basic healthcare for pregnant mothers or needy children, who are unconcerned about refugee children or those lacking quality education with no hope of escaping poverty cannot really claim to respect life." [Continue reading]
Natural Law to the Rescue (09.01.21) -- Voltaire, the apostate Enlightenment philosopher, famously quipped, “In the beginning, God created man in His own image, and man has been trying to repay the favor ever since.” The repackaging God’s revelation to reflect our biases helps explain the present breakdown in trust for our leaders.[Continue reading]
The Creed and the Name of Christ (08.25.21) -- Rosebud. Movie enthusiasts will immediately think of the classic 1941 film Citizen Kane. A two-syllable word recapitulates the entire drama and renews speculation—whether it refers to unrequited love, innocence lost, or happiness abandoned. Indeed, our vocabulary is not only laden with meaning, but laden with historical and experiential references. [Continue Reading]
Mask Mandates, sic et non (08.22.21) -- Are mask mandates reasonable and necessary, or are they dangerous and even immoral? This essay is, in part, a response to comments made to an earlier piece, titled “The Pandemic and the Contraceptive Mentality” (Aug 17, 2021). I suggested that the contraceptive mentality induces the same fear and entitlement behavior patterns we are experiencing in response to the pandemic. Some critics disagree and contend that I’m insensitive to the gravity of the COVID threat. [Continue reading]
The Pandemic and the Contraceptive Mentality (08.17.21) -- We take reasonable safety measures throughout our lives. We teach children to look both ways before crossing. Police and soldiers wear Kevlar body armor, surgeons and medical personnel don masks and gowns when necessary, and so on. But some precautions, such as contraception, are excessive, wrong, and betray irrational fears. [Continue reading]
"You're Only Human" (08.16.21) -- We never quite get over adolescence. We are either too fat or too skinny, and we forever obsess over countless other physical details. (Google ads exploit our bodily insecurities, often with amusing results. The data collectors may correctly determine that a user needs to lose belly fat, for example. But when the ads relentlessly depict senior ladies, and a user is a man, it undermines confidence in the algorithm’s reputation for omniscience.) Let’s be attentive to our health. But there should be limits in our war against the flesh. The way we wage this war reveals our view of our humanity. [Continue reading]
Freaks (07.16.21) -- Many years ago, in a terrible accident, a NASCAR collision caused a wheel to fly high into the air. The errant wheel killed a spectator sitting in isolation in the upper grandstands: an unfortunate, freak accident. An investigation of the crash scene would reveal the convergence of many unlikely events, mechanical failures, and errors of judgment that would lead to such an unexpected and shocking outcome. The probabilities were stacked heavily against that outcome—until it happened. A freak is an oddity, an extreme departure from the norm. However, in using the term to describe the behavior of a human being, there are limitations. [Continue Reading]
Can Catholics Pledge Allegiance to the Flag Today? (07.06.21) -- In the United States, we usually identify ideological differences as liberal or conservative, right or left, Democrat or Republican. The categories are helpful to some extent. Disciples of Jesus worship the Word made Flesh, “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). Thoughtful Christians prefer to distinguish between truth and error. So when we pledge our allegiance to the flag, we must pay close attention to the words for purposes of personal integrity. [Continue Reading]
Suffering, medical ethics, and the glory of God (06.28.21) -- It is normal to desire health and a long life. Tending to the health of our bodies is holy and commendable. Several beautiful verses in the Bible (Ps. 91 and Dt. 5:33, for example) invoke blessings for long life in the Lord. In the early Church, Saint Irenaeus insisted that the glory of God is man fully alive. With body and soul right with God, we have the fullness of humanity. We are normal. [Continue Reading]
Agent Provocateurs for the Unborn (06.7.21) -- “This is my Body” are the hallowed words of Jesus at the Last Supper when He instituted the Blessed Eucharist—the New and Everlasting Covenant—and instructed His Apostles to “Do this in memory of me.” But the sacred declaration has an alternative meaning, as the late, great Notre Dame Law professor Dr. Charles Rice often observed. [Continue Reading]
Faith is Personal, not Ideological (06.2.21) -- Every prayer and every slogan—religious or secular—introduces and reinforces some doctrine. Catholic prayers beckon us to enter into the mysteries of the Faith. The Sign of the Cross expresses the first mystery and the central mystery of our existence: “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.” In one brief statement, we assent to the entire Catholic faith.[Continute Reading]
Every prayer and every slogan—religious or secular—introduces and reinforces some doctrine. Catholic prayers beckon us to enter into the mysteries of the Faith. The Sign of the Cross expresses the first mystery and the central mystery of our existence: “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.” In one brief statement, we assent to the entire Catholic faith. [Continue Reading]
Undermining the Communist Menace (05.25.21) -- After the Ascension, when Jesus completed his earthly mission, He brought our redeemed humanity with Him to reign at the right hand of the Father. He then sent the Holy Spirit upon us to guide and direct His Mystical Body, and He inspires us to constant conversion and renewal, as we share in His generous Spirit of love for the transformation of the world. How does the Holy Spirit transform us, our immediate life circumstances, and our institutions? [Continue Reading]
Dare to be Irrelevant (05.14.21) -- For better or for worse, most priests and bishops try to be relevant. In 1965, Pope Paul VI released the documents of Vatican II. Among them was Gaudium et Spes, “The Church in the Modern World.” Henceforth, with renewed vigor, we would engage the world. It didn’t take long for the new spirit to dominate our devotion. But a funny thing happened on the road to a relevant Church.[Continue Reading]
The Book of Normal (05.12.21) -- Regardless of age, most of us have emotional maturity issues. How can we harness the insecurities of adolescence and the immaturities of young adulthood? How can we tame the neuroses of middle age and the eccentricities of old age? How can we become normal? [Read More]
Dr. Frankenstein Meets Joe Biden (05.04.21) -- It is a sad testament to our age that the fate of children’s body parts is so much in the news lately. Abp. Joseph F. Naumann said recently: “The bodies of children killed by abortion deserve the same respect as that of any other person. Our government has no right to treat innocent abortion victims as a commodity that can be scavenged for body parts to be used in research.” President Biden’s press spokeswoman responded to the archbishop’s remarks: “We believe that it’s important to invest in science and look for opportunities to cure diseases and I think that’s what this is hopeful to do.” [Continue reading]
The Ten Commandments and Systemic Clericalism (03.22.21) -- The Ten Commandments represent God’s immutable laws. Obedience to Jesus and His name brings salvation: “He who believes in Him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” (Jn. 3:18) The Commandments, fulfilled in Jesus, form the “skeletal structure” of Christian morality. Our virtuous response forms the muscles, sinews, and flesh. But we remain in conflict with ourselves because of our sinful inclinations, while the Commandments provoke conflict with the world—and within the Church. [Continue reading]
In Gratitude for Joe Biden (02.26.21) -- Sacraments, according to the Baltimore Catechism, are outward signs instituted by Christ to give grace. The Sacraments define and direct our lives. Our choices form us. When we choose to live a sacramental life, in a sense we become sacraments reflecting the Lord. But the contrary is also true.[Continue Reading]
Make a pledge to the BLA: For your convenience, you may use this site to make your pledge to the Bishop's Lenten Appeal. (Click here.) (When the page comes up, put "1" in the "quantity" field on the lower right to proceed.) The Parish staff will handle the paperwork for you. You will receive pledge reminders from the Chancery's Development Office. If you prefer, you can use the BLA hard-copy envelopes in the pews or available from the rectory office. Thank you for your financial support of the BLA. "Encourage One Another by Word and Deed".
We are about to start gathering the paperwork for First Holy Communion and Confirmations, so it is very important for any homeschool or Catholic School parishioners to have their kids registered in the CCD program. This is the only way we can effectively communicate with you and avoid a paper chase as we get close to the FHC and Confirmation dates. Here’s the good news. If you fail to meet the deadlines this year, you will have the opportunity to meet the deadlines next year. If your children are in Catholic grade school, or you homeschool them and you are not registered in the CCD program, please register today. Check the Parish CCD website for the link or type in: https://membership.faithdirect.net/events/details/5141
Weekday Masses are reinstated! But please check this site for updates, or click here for email notifications on the Mass schedule. Although the regular weekday Mass schedule is solidly in place, since this is a one-priest parish, there may be times when Mass cancellations are necessary. Please register here if you attend weekday Masses and want to receive cancellation notifications. We will not abuse your contact information. When the weather is questionable, you're in doubt, and you haven't received an email, your computer may have directed an email from us to spam.
Defining Racism (02.17.21) Since the definition of “racism” is elusive, some suggest that using the traditional vocabulary of sin is the better path. But there are too many racist examples to ignore (e.g., the burning of crosses by the Ku Klux Klan and the Nazi “Master Race” ideology). We need an accurate and just definition to help us ensure that proposed solutions do not wreak greater havoc.[continue reading]
Happy Warriors (01.18.21) --With fighting words, our nation’s new political leaders have promised to initiate and accelerate the institutional violation of the Ten Commandments. So let us have an honest conversation about the uncertainties and anxieties they have caused believing Catholics, and let us consider a few timeless Gospel responses. [Continue reading]
No Sympathy for the Devil -- Friends come and go, but enemies accumulate. As we advance in years, this joke becomes more amusing. Jesus teaches us to love our enemies. Good parents teach their kids never to hate people and to use the word with precision. Hate is a dangerous sentiment and can risk one’s salvation. But we are not sentimentalists. As we love the sinner, our religion teaches us to hate sin. That is a healthy distinction. The only being God permits us—even encourages us—to hate is the Devil. [Continue Reading]
Taking Pride in Our Humility -- The testimony of John the Baptist allows us to consider the virtue of humility. Jesus identifies John as the greatest man born of women. But his greatness, ironically, is his humility. He is not the Christ; he is not Elijah, nor the Prophet. He is: “…the voice of one crying out in the desert, ‘make straight the way of the Lord.’” For “…he who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie” (Jn. 1:27). John is humble. Humility is a virtue that recognizes reality and our relationship to reality. [Continue reading]
Virtual Indulgences? Up until the Covid-19 pandemic, we went to Mass, celebrated the sacraments, supported the Church with our contributions, and hoped to go to heaven when we died. After the shutdown of the Masses, we entered into the bizarre virtual reality of the internet. Today we have virtual Masses livestreamed on the web, virtual sacraments, and perhaps, one speculates, a virtual heaven. Alas, the Vatican is finding it difficult to reconcile the new virtual reality with the sacramental life of the Church.[Continue reading]
In 1943, there was an uprising against the Nazi occupiers in the Jewish ghetto in Częstochowa, Poland, which the SS quickly crushed, killing many Jews. Many more were sent to death camps. Those who remained in Częstochowa worked on as slave laborers, until the Red Army liberated the city, by which time it was, as the Nazis would have proudly proclaimed, almost completely Judenfrei. [Continue reading]
Spiritual Strategic Planning -- There is clarity in brevity. Isaiah’s prophecy is clear and punchy: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.” General Grant won the Civil War using simple directives. We see the precision and brevity of his masterful command in his famous order: “Lee’s army will be your objective point. Wherever Lee goes, there you will go also.” Despite their defeat in the Wilderness in 1864, his soldiers cheered when they turned south and continued their pursuit of the Confederates. Military and business schools study, repackage, and teach the proven management techniques of great leaders. Perhaps we could apply to the spiritual life the practical wisdom of their best practices. [Continue reading]
Glorifying God in Your Body -- The season of Advent is a season of spiritual preparation to meet Jesus. We will meet Him in the manger on Christmas Day; we will meet him in Holy Communion at Mass; we will meet Him when we enter eternity. We need to prepare ourselves spiritually, acknowledging our sins with a good Confession during these days. But caring for our bodies also binds in conscience: “You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” (1 Cor. 6:19) [Continue reading]
The Continuing Scandal of the McCarrick Doctrine -- Students of Catholic moral teaching discover what the most simple of faithful Catholics intuitively know. There is an impressive, coherent, logical unity to God’s law as we know it through Church teaching. Failures of vigilance and strict adherence to principle quickly shatter that unity. The scandal of Theodore McCarrick’s fall extends beyond his sexual crimes. It continues with an immoral policy legacy that continues to influence the hierarchy. [Continue reading]
Giving a damn (about work, life, and faith) -- Remove modern cultural sentimental accretions from the Catholic faith, and a muscular Church Militant emerges from the Catholic tradition. We are in an epic, life-long battle for the salvation of souls. Hence, military metaphors are particularly useful in helping us understand the interrelationship of faith and life. Not long ago, I celebrated a funeral Mass for Major General Victor Hugo, Jr., the great-grandson of the celebrated French author. General Hugo was a legendary U.S. Army soldier, a leader of men. As he trained his Special Forces, his operating catchphrase was “Think, work, and give a HOOT” [expletive deleted]. Whether he knew it or not, the motivational slogan applies to every life, including our life of faith.[Continue reading]
Most regular visitors to this site would probably agree that our culture is broken. When did it break? Maybe we lost the culture in 1973 when the Supreme Court presumed to make the “right to abortion” the law of the land. Perhaps the sexual revolution of the 1960s marked the beginning of the end. But our cultural decline may have begun as far back as 75 years ago, in the skies over Hiroshima when the Americans dropped history’s first atomic bomb on that city. Continue reading.
From "David Brinkley: A Memoir," pp. 177-178: "And a story Johnson [LBJ] liked so much he told it to me at least three times: When he ran for the Senate for the first time he gathered a group of friends one night and led them all into a graveyard to take names off the tombstones and to enter them on the voting rolls and, on election night, show them as having voted for Johnson. They moved down the rows of the tombstones copying off the names until they came to a stone so old and overgrown with moss it was difficult to read. A member of the group said to Johnson, 'This one is hard to read. I'm going to skip it.' Johnson responded, 'You will not skip it. He's got as much right to vote as anybody in this cemetery.'"
Invoking the Ten Commandments: "God gave Moses the Ten Commandments He engraved on two stone tablets, setting forth the basic principles governing the lives of the Israelites. We cannot repent of our sins unless we know when and how we violate God’s law. We cannot begin to transform the culture without the moral clarity of the Commandments. Good Christians know the Ten Commandments by heart: There is one God, do not abuse His name, go to church on Sunday, obey your parents, and don’t murder, commit adultery, steal, lie, lust, or covet...." Continued: https://cnsnews.com/commentary/father-jerry-pokorsky/time-start-invoking-ten-commandments-political-debate