Columnist: Msgr. Charles Pope
What’s At Stake? Not Much, It Would Seem, In Many Modern Parishes
In the West we are living through times where the Church seems largely irrelevant to most people. And we, the leaders and members of the Church have largely made it ...
A Homily for the Feast of the Holy Family
Whatever the personal failings of any of us in this present evil age (cf Gal 1:4), our strategy must be to preach the undiluted plan of God for sexuality, marriage, ...
Decide Now Whom You Will Fear: A Homily for the 12th Sunday of the Year
The Lord speaks to us today of one of the most central struggles in our life: fear. Yes, fear is one of our deepest drives and though it has a ...
Msgr. Charles Pope: A Must-Read Book
I am very pleased that Dr. Ralph Martin has published A Church in Crisis: Pathways Forward. It is a revised and updated version of a critically important book he first ...
A Warning From The Prophet Amos Explains a Lot of Our Current Decline
Continuing this small series on the decline of culture, a word from the Prophet Amos in today’s reading (Thursday of the 13th week of the year) paints a brief picture ...
Have You Found the Perfect Gift Yet?
Jesus said many paradoxical things. For example: Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it (Mat 10:39). For whoever wants ...
Msgr. Charles Pope: U.S. Bishops Must Clear Up This Communion Confusion
If one in a state of mortal sin — no matter what the sin — has not sacramentally confessed and been absolved, he must not receive Holy Communion. There are ...
Monsignor Charles Pope: The Silence of the Church Deafens the World
Catholics cannot avoid responsibility for the current moral morass. No one is exempt from the duty to repudiate error and speak the truth. The books of First and Second Maccabees, ...
Pray for a Miracle — An Initial Reaction to the Close of the Synod
Pray for an apostolic exhortation that glorifies and lifts up Jesus Christ as the only way to salvation. I, like many of you, feel overwhelmed by the events of the ...
True Reform Will Come – If You and I Remain Steadfast
Bishop Robert Barron recently published Letter to a Suffering Church: A Bishop Speaks on the Sexual Abuse Crisis. It is an excellent book — a meditation, really. It gives a sobering summary ...
New York Bishops Must Enforce Canon Law for Catholic Politicians Who Supported the Reproductive Health Act
By Monsignor Charles Pope There comes a time when something is so egregious and boldly sinful that it must be met with strong ecclesial and canonical penalties and remedies ...
Fortitude! A Call to Stay Engaged in Resolving the Abuse Scandal
Let there be fulfilled in us the Scripture that says, “Even the anger of man will serve to praise you, O Lord” (Psalm 76:10) Many today rightly speak of the ...
On the Loss of Faith as a Cause of Our Current Crisis
In the Liturgy of the Hours this week, we read a remarkable attributed to St. Macarius, a bishop of the early Church. I marvel at its vivid imagery, and yet ...
The Pope Owns This
The annual Fall Meeting of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), which took place in Baltimore earlier this week, was a disappointment on many levels. Yet there were ...
A Cry of the Heart to Our Bishops: Please Restore Order to the Church!
By Msgr. Charles Pope Our collective cowardice must be transformed into a clear, loving witness that is willing to endure the scorn of the world to reassert the truth of ...
Reflections on Archbishop Viganò’s Courageous Third Letter
In thin-skinned times such as these, Archbishop Viganò’s most recent letter shines forth as a clarion call to Catholics everywhere. As I finished reading Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò’s third letter, I ...
False Teachers – What is a Catholic to Do?
In the first reading at daily Mass for Monday of the 27th Week, St. Paul warns of perhaps the most damaging evil facing the Church: dissension from within. I am ...
An Ominous Warning from the Lord in the Very Liturgy We Celebrate
There is a judgment on the Church today as there was in biblical times. Will we repent before it’s too late? Recent passages in the Office of Readings of the ...
Active Homosexuality in the Priesthood Helped Cause This Crisis
The Sixth Commandment is clear — there is a universal call to chastity, and no one is exempt. There is a line in the Acts of the Apostles that I once ...
In the Midst of Clerical Misdeeds, a Crucial Moment for the Laity
The last four weeks in the Church have borne witness to a growing cauldron of sorrow and anger. God’s faithful are rightly disturbed at the latest explosion of sexual abuse ...