John M. Grondelski (Ph.D., Fordham) is the former associate dean of the School of Theology, Seton Hall University, South Orange, New Jersey. He is especially interested in moral theology and the thought of John Paul II. [Note: All views expressed in his National Catholic Register contributions are exclusively the author’s.] Recovering First Friday devotions can be a critical way to restore an awareness of the Eucharist as the “source and summit” of the Christian life. On Sept. 14, I recommended Catholic schools start an effort on Oct. 7 to take school children to Mass on First Fridays through June so that, at …
Category: Current Issues
Our Lady of the Rosary, Our Lady of Victory, or Both?
Kevin Di Camillo is a fourth-generation member of his family’s Di Camillo Bakery, in Niagara Falls, New York. His latest book is Now Chiefly Poetical, and he co-edited John Paul II in the Holy Land: In His Own Words. His work has been anthologized in Wild Dreams: The Best of Italian-Americana, and he was awarded the Foley Poetry Prize from America Magazine. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame, he regularly attends Yale University’s School of Management Publishing Course. While the Rosary is the Catholic devotional par excellence, it’s worth remembering why so many Catholics were praying it during the Battle of …
Soccer Manager-Turned Priest Shares Message of Peace Ahead of World Cup Playoffs
‘Soccer is a universal language that transcends any barrier and eliminates the differences between communities,’ said Father David Jasso. Before he became a priest, Father David Jasso was the manager of a major Mexican soccer club that won two championships, and ahead of this year’s World Cup in Qatar, he had an important message to give. Father Jasso managed the Monterrey Soccer Club in Mexico, known as the “Rayados,” leading the team to local championships in 2009 and 2010. A few weeks before the start of the FIFA (International Federation of Football Association) Soccer World Cup to be held in …
Opinion: The two commandments of tyranny
Noelle Mering is a Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and a scholar at The Institute of Human Ecology. She is the author of Awake, Not Woke: A Christian Response to the Cult of Progressive Ideology (TAN Books, 2021). She is an editor for the website TheologyofHome.com and the coauthor of the Theology of Home book series. When the official narrative you are not allowed to question is later admitted to be not only false but unjust and deleterious then we should start approaching the current official narratives with more skepticism. While away recently for a speaking engagement, I sat down to dinner …
On the Disappointed Catholic
James V. Schall, S.J. (1928-2019) taught political philosophy at Georgetown University for many years until retiring in 2012. He was the author of over thirty books and countless essays on philosophy, theology, education, morality, and other topics. His of his last books included On Islam: A Chronological Record, 2002-2018 (Ignatius Press, 2018) and The Politics of Heaven and Hell: Christian Themes from Classical, Medieval, and Modern Political Philosophy (Ignatius, 2020). Tell me what disappoints you and I will tell you what you are. To be disappointed about something means it did not live up to expectations, to some standard. A football or basketball team may not live …
Reacting to the pontifical academy, theologian says teaching of Humanae vitae can’t change
By Carl Bunderson for CNA Denver, Colo., Aug 8, 2022 / 19:01 pm (CNA). The teaching of Humanae vitae on contraception is an instance of the ordinary and universal magisterium, and as such is irreformable, a moral theologian has said in response to a statement from the Pontifical Academy for Life. Father Thomas Petri, O.P., president of the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C., noted that even critics of the teaching on contraception have “acknowledged that this was always the Church’s teaching” and that nowhere in the Church’s teaching has there been permissiveness, of any form, of contraception. “This suggests that this …
What will be your last words?
Reverend Peter M.J. Stravinskas founded The Catholic Answer in 1987 and The Catholic Response in 2004, as well as the Priestly Society of Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman, a clerical association of the faithful, committed to Catholic education, liturgical renewal, and the new evangelization. Father Stravinskas is also the President of the Catholic Education Foundation, an organization, which serves as a resource for heightening the Catholic identity of Catholic schools. Modern man is terrified of death and has done everything possible to delay the inevitable and to disguise it when it finally hits. Editor’s note: This homily was preached on the feast of St. Lawrence, August …
Blessed Luigi Lenzini, priest and martyr
Dawn Beutner is the author of Saints: Becoming an Image of Christ Every Day of the Year from Ignatius Press and blogs at dawnbeutner.com. Fr. Lenzini, who was murdered on July 21, 1945, spoke publicly against fascism and communism, carefully explaining why these ideologies were unacceptable for Catholics. The diocesan priest Luigi Lenzini was killed for his Catholic faith in 1945, a few months after World War II was over. If he died as a martyr more than seven decades ago, why wasn’t he beatified until 2022? The mysteries of Divine Providence and the idiosyncrasies of Vatican congregations may be difficult for us to …
Heaven on Earth: Liturgical Wisdom from Eastern Christianity
R. Jared Staudt PhD, serves as Associate Superintendent for Mission and Formation for the Archdiocese of Denver and Visiting Associate Professor for the Augustine Institute. He is the author of Restoring Humanity: Essays on the Evangelization of Culture (Divine Providence Press) and The Beer Option (Angelico Press) and the editor of Renewing Catholic Schools: How to Regain a Catholic Vision in a Secular Age (Catholic Education Press). He and his wife Anne have six children, and he is a Benedictine oblate. It is easy to forget that the Catholic Church is composed of 24 self-governing Churches with distinct liturgical rites. We lose sight of this because the …
The Martyrdom of ‘the Most Beautiful Woman in Europe’
K.V. Turley is the Register’s U.K. correspondent. He writes from London. “The Lord found that it was time for us to carry his cross. Let us strive to be worthy of that joy.” Described as “the most beautiful woman in Europe,” she was to marry a prince. And yet that same woman was to end her last days in the service of the sick and the poor, wearing only the plain garb of a nun, eventually, to die in an industrial wasteland as a martyr for her Christian faith. A journey that started for her on the Mount of Olives, …