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 Did a religious search help shape Norm Macdonald's haunting humor?
While it may sound strange, I would argue that there are theological "ghosts" hiding inside the great comic Norm Macdonald's most famous joke. This was the "moth" story, of course. Right. This joke wasn't a Saturday Night Live shot at O.J. Simpson or Bill Clinton...
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Francis knows the Church is in a rut. But does he know why?
I haven't written much about Pope Francis' bizarre pontificate for a long time, but I am moved to do so now by the decision to focus the next General Synod of the Church on synodality. In this, clearly, Pope Francis hopes for a vibrant response which will pry the Church out of what we might call the "same old rut" (however defined) so that it becomes more actively evangelical (however defined)...
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This Sunday, Jesus give us a shortcut to greatness...
If serving children makes you great, then a mom is greater than a CEO, a faithful father is greater than a billionaire; and what we do at home far greater than what we do in the office. If what Jesus says is true, it makes openness to life true greatness and makes contraception and abortion our nation's great refusal of God himself.
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Supreme Court poised to hear biggest challenge to Roe v. Wade in 48 years...
Jackson Women's Health Organization, Mississippi's lone abortion clinic, presented its legal argument Monday for why the U.S. Supreme Court should strike down the state's 2018 law prohibiting abortions after the first 15 weeks of pregnancy, setting the stage for a momentous showdown over Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide.
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Will the blood of St. Januarius turn to liquid this Sunday?
Once again on Sept. 19, thousands of people will be waiting to see if the blood of fourth-century martyr St. Januarius will liquefy on his feast day, as it has done almost ceaselessly for hundreds of years. People in Naples, where the saint's body and head along with his blood have been kept for centuries...
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2023 synod faces a credibility and practicality gap...
Six weeks before the Catholic Church-wide consultations for the 2023 synod on synodality are set to begin, the Vatican released a vademecum, or "handbook," that will guide a process that is supposed to occupy every single diocese in the world from October 2021 to April 2022. The most massive set of meetings ever conducted in the history of the Catholic Church was announced only four months ago...
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Pope St. John Paul II brought God into my suffering, just when I need Him most...
It was hot in Phoenix when I got there, mid-September, 1987. Sunny, hot, and dry — just the way I like it. But I wasn't there for the climate or a tan. I was there to see Pope John Paul II on his swing through the southwestern United States — a Catholic convert's pilgrimage to honor the Vicar of Christ, but also a pilgrimage of healing after a string of personal misfortunes.
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Sept. 17 is the feast day of St. Hildegard of Bingen...
St. Hildegard (1098-1179) was born into a noble family and who, because of her visionary gift, was given as a child to be raised by the Church and eventually became an abbess. She is not only a confirmed saint but a Doctor of the Church. Her writing is prolific, covering her extraordinary visions of salvation history, medicine, and even music composition...
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Poland's two new 'blesseds' and Divine Providence...
"Poland, the nation of Mary, the land of saints and blesseds!" Thus Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, concluded his homily at the beatification Mass in Warsaw of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński and Mother Elżbieta Róża Czacka. The Marian dimension was a dominant theme of the beatification...
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Who was the Servant of God Mother Mary Lange?
It's a safe bet that "Mother Mary Lange" is not a household name in most U.S. Catholic circles. That unhappy state of affairs may change, though, thanks to a courageous initiative now underway in Baltimore, one of America's most troubled cities. A few years after her birth on the island of Hispaniola, the child christened Elizabeth Clarisse Lange was taken by her parents to Santiago de Cuba...
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Catholic apologetics begins at home...
Atheism is clearly on the rise—a point brought to light recently when Harvard University appointed an atheist as the school's chaplain. This should not come as a surprise. Atheism has good marketing. Like cigarette smoking in the 1950s and 1960s, atheism is marketed as cool. After all, who doesn't want to be more like atheist Ricky Gervais (comedian)? Or Penn Gillette (famous magician)? Or Daniel Radcliffe (guy who plays a magician on TV)?
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After latest presser, the great game of parsing the pope can roll on...
Pope Francis delivered another of his impromptu airborne news conferences Wednesday on his return flight from Slovakia, and, as ever, it was fascinating. In part, it confirmed the pontiff's reputation for answering questions in a style that's both carefully nuanced and practically imprecise, so that no one party to a debate ever is quite able to claim vindication.
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The politics of being pastoral, and the overview effect...
The Pope's most recent in-flight press conference caused a bit of a stir. Francis rather directly addressed the issue of abortion - again. He compared it - again - to "hiring a hit man to solve a problem." Calling the concept of legal abortion "daily homicide" the pope made it clear that Catholic politicians who adance abortion are "outside" the community of the Church.
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What's next in Afghanistan? Press will have to face issues of religion, culture and gender...
The headline on the National Catholic Register story is simple and timely: "Trapped by the Taliban, Praying for Escape from Afghanistan." The reporting is simple, as well, as long as the journalists involved have established contacts with people inside Kabul who have smartphones and there are functioning cell towers and satellites. The story is built on people describing what they claim is going on around them, especially events affecting their families and friends.
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Father James Altman buys Wisconsin home in La Crosse amid diocesan conflict...
State real estate records in Wisconsin indicate that Fr. James Altman intends to comply with a diocesan order to live in the Diocese of La Crosse, where the priest has made a Vatican appeal against his canonical removal as a parish pastor. Despite speculation that Altman would transfer to another diocese amid ongoing conflict with his bishop, the priest's Aug. 20 purchase of a home in the La Crosse diocese suggests a canonical transfer is unlikely.
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Benedict XVI warns: Legalization of same-sex marriage is a 'distortion of conscience'...
Pope emeritus Benedict XVI has said that the legalization of same-sex marriage in many countries is "a distortion of conscience" which has also entered some Catholic circles. In an introduction to a new anthology of his writings on Europe, Benedict XVI said that "with the legalization of 'same-sex marriage' in 16 European countries, the issue of marriage and family has taken on a new dimension that cannot be ignored."
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The worst prayer you've ever seen...
It's a bad, bad prayer. A servant girl found it clenched in John Ward's hand after his death in the mid-1700s. You will never have heard of him. He did nothing notable in life, though he seems to have tried very hard to make money any way he could. What fame he has is as the writer of a horrible prayer. The English writer Edith Sitwell quotes the prayer in her book English Eccentrics...
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The lies of the devil and the empty promises of the world...
One of the great illusions under which we labor is that if we only get just one more thing from this world, then we will be happy. Perhaps we think that if we just had a little more money, or a better job, or the latest iPhone, or if we were married to so-and-so, or if we lived in a better neighborhood, then we would be satisfied and content at last...
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How to live a meaningful life...
Last week, I had the great good fortune to sit down for a Zoom interview with Jordan Peterson, Jonathan Pageau, and John Vervaeke. As I'm sure you know, Peterson, Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto, is one of the most influential figures in the culture today...
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Is it mortally sinful to stay silent about sin?
Let's look at your two scenarios. In the first, you overheard remarks suggestive of erroneous thinking about expressing gender. In the second, you overheard remarks indicating that a girl dressed in a sexually suggestive way for Halloween. You obviously believe that gender and modesty are important or you wouldn't have asked this question...
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Trapped by the Taliban, praying for escape from Afghanistan...
For two decades, Sher Shah had worked alongside U.S. personnel and Afghans to build a democratic country free from the Taliban and war. He had established a new life with his family in the U.S. with the help of Catholic Charities and a Catholic sponsor family, but briefly returned to Afghanistan this summer to attend his father's funeral. Now, he's a man trying to escape the Taliban and get back home to the United States.
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Our homes give our lives a center that grounds us, and draws us together...
Recently my wife and I were struck anew by a significant aspect of being-at-home, in the physical place. Our lives are given a center that grounds us and draws us together. Of late we have done some travelling, and this following upon an unusually busy summer. By and large the things that called us away from our home, and also demanded that time in our home be focused on things remote from it, were important and worthy of attention...
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What did the Pope just say about abortion and Holy Communion? The Pillar explains.....
During the return flight from his recent trip to Hungary and Slovakia, Pope Francis on Wednesday fielded press questions on the issue of holy communion for Catholic politicians who promote legal protection for abortion. So what did the pope say? What does the Church say? And what's the context? The pope made the comments while discussing the Church's absolute prohibition of abortion, which, Francis said, is always the taking of an innocent human life...
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WWII hero Father Verbis Lafleur — one of St. Landry's most valiant sons...
At the beginning of August, I traveled to Grand Coteau, Louisiana, to preach some conferences to the seminarians of the Diocese of Lafayette. I always love to go to Lafayette, not just because I have several priest and lay friends there but because within the diocese there's a county felicitously called "St. Landry Parish"...
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Pope gets lucky as this Hungary/Slovakia trip offers an unplanned chance to reassure Jews...
In college I had a history professor who insisted that the principal blind spot of his profession is that it won't accept dumb luck as an explanation. He'd once wanted to write an academic paper, he said, on how Meade simply got lucky against Lee at Gettysburg, but he was told it wouldn't do because it would be tantamount to admitting historians can't explain everything.
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Exorcist tells what CNN got wrong in story about ghostly encounters...
Can loved ones contact us from beyond the grave? CNN recently considered the possibility focusing on communication from people who died from COVID-19. A secular look at the supernatural, however, leaves gaping holes where religion belongs. In "They Lost Their Loved Ones to Covid; Then Again, They Heard From Them," CNN reported on experiences referred to in the psychological field as...
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What awaits the Pope in October...
In Pope Francis' trip to Budapest, there is an issue that must make us reflect. Pope Francis wanted to go to Hungary for a pastoral visit only, without even meeting the government. This choice also betrayed some hard feelings towards the executive headed by Viktor Orban, whom the Vatican also targeted for its migration policies...
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The 5 biological sisters who joined the religious life in just two years...
The story of five biological sisters who became nuns in a period of just 2 years has drawn attention in Spain, their home country. The family includes a total of 7 adult children — six sisters and one brother. All 5 sisters joined the same Spanish contemplative religious community, Iesu Communio, founded in 2010 in Burgos, in the north of the country...
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Today is the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, and this is the Tuesday Pillar Post...
Pope Francis is visiting Slovakia today, after a seven-hour visit to Hungary for the closing Mass of the Church's International Eucharistic Congress. The pope will be in Slovakia until Wednesday afternoon. On Monday, The Pillar brought you a quick run-down of where he's been, what's he's said, and where he's going next. Also, ast week, Cardinal Wilton Gregory told journalists that theologians...
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700 years after his death, the great Dante still has lessons to impart...
I have heard that after Dante's Inferno had been made public, boys in the streets of Verona tagged after Dante, crying, "Look at the man who went to hell! Look at the man who went to hell!" Some things never change. Perhaps those merry children would grow up someday and see that if you do not draw near to the darkness of suffering or confront the emptiness of your own sin, you will do much to make a hell on earth...
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Count Dracula and the Holy Cross...
Ninety years ago, Count Dracula came to haunt America. Released in 1931, Dracula, the film adaptation of the celebrated 1897 novel, starred Bela Lugosi. On account of the film's success, its eponymous lead actor became an international movie star overnight. A respected stage performer, Lugosi's life thereafter was transformed...
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In Slovakia, Pope Francis calls for freedom in both civil society and Church...
Speaking to the civil authorities of Slovakia, a country that for decades was under one-party Communist rule, Pope Francis warned against the "single-thought" system of consumerism and ideological colonization. He also said that it's his hope that Slovaks won't allow the rich "flavors of your finest traditions" to be ruined by the "superficiality of consumerism and material gain"...
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Archbishop Cordileone and Archbishop Gomez in the WSJ: 'Don't Slander St. Junípero Serra'...
California lawmakers have passed legislation to replace a statue of St. Junípero Serra at the Capitol in Sacramento with a new monument honoring the state's native peoples. The Serra statue has been in storage since it was torn down by protesters in July 2020. A humble 18th-century Franciscan priest, Serra would surely approve of a new monument honoring the indigenous Californians he spent his life serving.
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St. John Chrysostom and the plank in your eye...
St. John Chrysostom (349-407) was known as the "Golden-Tongued one." This Father of the Church was an eloquent preacher and, ultimately, a real pastor of souls. The patristic texts he composed were not meant for a classroom as a lecture, but as a father in faith engaging with his spiritual children, and he had to deal with practical problems that perennially perplex the People of God.
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I love you more than I love my sins...
An acquaintance who wasn't particularly affiliated with any faith tradition once asked me how the Catholic Church defines love. I asked him what his view or interpretation of love was. He explained that his limited understanding of love revolved around a willingness to help someone in need. A genuine act of love I said, is simply placing the other persons needs before your own and expecting nothing in return...
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How to stay Catholic in high school and college...
Whether you are in high school or college, secular or Catholic, private or public, your faith and morals will be challenged in the coming school year. Even if you are not in school but into any mix of people from various backgrounds and belief systems, you will face objections to your worldview. In standing up to the ideas brought against Catholicism, there are two key questions you can ask...
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Christian, go home, and live like Jesus...
She was peeved. A friend had come across a quote from a "motivational speaker." "There are too many people who would rather get home than get ahead," he had said. They only want to get by. He had it backwards, she said. She got by in a hard time and then got ahead by going home. It's the kind of glib line a "motivational speaker" would use. But not innocent. It expresses an inhuman and unchristian idea of what matters in life. It's a very worldly line.
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When my friend cussed in front of Mother Teresa, this was her surprising (and funny) reaction.....
You know, we should always watch our mouths because God is always listening. But have you ever let a curse fly out of your mouth in front of the wrong person? Kind of humiliating, isn't it? Imagine what would happen if you cussed in front of ... I don't know, say ... Mother Teresa of Calcutta. I have a friend who did just that! And what happened gives you an insight into one of the great souls of modern times...
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You may be a glutton. Screwtape knows how.....
It's a half of this and a touch of that, a quarter of this and slightly less than a third of that. A young friend who works in a coffee shop showed me an online order with about fifteen ingredients, each very specific. The order wasn't that unusual, nor the worst she had seen. Customers want their coffee just so, and getting it just so requires more precision than running a nuclear power plant.
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A generation of American men give up on college: 'I just feel lost'...
Men are abandoning higher education in such numbers that they now trail female college students by record levels. At the close of the 2020-21 academic year, women made up 59.5% of college students, an all-time high, and men 40.5%, according to enrollment data from the National Student Clearinghouse, a nonprofit research group. U.S. colleges and universities had 1.5 million fewer students compared with five years ago, and men accounted for 71% of the decline.
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In the Vatican as elsewhere, dialogue is always easier outside the fold...
Pope Francis today is in Hungary, where he'll be welcomed by Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Given that the two leaders have several well-known differences, the encounter is a reminder of the Vatican's longstanding diplomatic commitment to keeping channels of communication open even, perhaps especially, with one's foes.
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They lied about J.R.R. Tolkien. One more reason to be careful with memes you really, really like...
The editor rejected J.R.R. Tolkien's draft of The Fellowship of the Ring because Tolkien had used "dwarves" instead of "dwarfs." So said a meme that popped up a lot on my Facebook page. A pastor I know posted it with the note, "Which he did." Very quickly 29 of his friends shared it. Who knows how many dozens or hundreds of times friends shared it on. According to the meme, the editor appealed to the Oxford English Dictionary, saying that...
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Do you want to give your children a lifelong gift? Give them the gift of more siblings.....
My parents were in over their head. They couldn't maintain any illusion of order or control as they welcomed 8 kids via C-section in 13 years. The last few deliveries became increasingly fraught, such that when they announced my mom was pregnant at Christmas, my curmudgeon teen comment was a sigh. "There goes the summer." After that baby, to their sadness and relief, their run of fertility ended...
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This atheist went from mocking Jesus to worshiping Him...
I was baptized Christmas Eve 2001. I was six years old, and my family was very active in our local Baptist church in Largo, FL. We were members of a homeschooling co-op group in our church, so we were often there multiple times each week. At home and in our Sunday school class, the stories of Scripture were recounted to me, and I was taught to memorize important Bible verses...
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How close can baptism bring us to God? Much closer than a 'personal relationship,' it can bring true union with Him.....
In the book, "Christ Alive in Me," Father David Vincent Meconi recalls an encounter with a street preacher. She asked him, "Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ?" His answer: "I do, but I don't want one." She was shocked. He was shocked. This answer sprung from his mouth without prior planning. "With you and with friends," Meconi continued, "I want a relationship. But with Jesus Christ, I want something else. I do not want a relationship; I want something mor...
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Grandma won't die from Alzheimer's — unless we kill her...
Several months ago, I heard an ad that got me muttering. It was for a non-profit Alzheimer's research fund. "The first person to survive Alzheimer's disease is out there," said the lady in the voiceover. "Wait - what?" I asked out loud. "Everybody survives Alzheimer's!" It's true. Alzheimer's itself is a devastating disease but it does not directly attack vital bodily functions...
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The Catholic heroes of 9/11...
The story of 9/11, to me, is more about the ordinary virtues of Catholic heroes than it is about terrorism or anything else. A coincidence put the National Catholic Register in an extremely strong position to cover Sept. 11, 2001, and it changed my approach to the way I do my job. I first wrote for the Register when I was in college 32 years ago and I'd been editor since 1999...
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Pope Francis about to make first COVID-era European trip to Hungary, Slovakia...
At the crack of dawn on Sunday, Pope Francis will leave for Slovakia - after first making a seven-hour stop in Budapest, Hungary - for a Sept. 12-15 visit. This will be his first trip since his July colon surgery, and the question in the mind of many is: "Why?" The reasons are plenty: The central one, at least in Pope Francis's mind, is the Eucharist...
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Stage production on life of Venerable Augustus Tolton soon to be a movie...
A one-man show that retells the life of Venerable Fr. Augustus Tolton is picking up where it left off before the pandemic. The show, Tolton: From Slave to Priest, has resumed touring, and the stage production has been filmed for an upcoming release. Since opening in 2017, the show has been faithfully spreading the story of America's first Black Catholic priest. The biographical play follows Fr. Tolton's life from his escape from slavery to his ordination and work as a priest. Fr. Tolton's ...
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What is the difference between Confession and spiritual direction?
The essence of confession is the sacramental grace that Christ gives to our soul through the ministry of his priest. When we open our hearts to him through sincere repentance and honest confession of our sins within the sacrament of reconciliation, we receive an infusion of grace that forgives our sins, strengthens our spiritual weakness, and increases the bond of our supernatural friendship with Christ...
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The strange race to track down a missing billion years from the geological record...
"Fearful disaster," read the headline on the front page of the Chicago Tribune on 3 July 1869. The paper was referring to an incident involving a motley team of explorers led by the one-armed, self-taught geologist John Wesley Powell. Their mission was simple, though not easy — to travel 1,000 miles (1,609km) downstream from the banks of the Green River in Wyoming, cataloguing their finds as they went.
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Father Francis Grogan — The other priest who died on 9/11...
During the meeting of the Mariological Society of America back in May 2019, I had the opportunity to visit Holy Cross Family Ministries and learn more about the life and legacy of the "Rosary Priest," Fr. Patrick Peyton, CSC. Part of our field trip excursion included a visit to the cemetery and the grave of Fr. Peyton on the grounds of Stonehill College...
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September 11, 2001: 20 Years Later, the Nation Has Not Forgotten...
On Sept. 11, 2001, Father Conrad Osterhout of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal was living in St. Joseph Friary in Harlem on 142nd Street as head of the house. "The first alarm for us were the people in the street calling out to us," he told the Register of that tragic day...
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From Flanders to Sicily, contradictions abound on Europe's religious scene...
Having spent most of my adult life and career living in western Europe and covering Catholicism, I've developed three broad observations about the cultural landscape here vis-à-vis the Church. First, the Church is undergoing a long-term transition from a culture-shaping majority to an optional subculture, sometimes in harmony with the broader majority and sometimes at odds with it...
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Repaid in full: 9/11 and the people of Halifax, Nova Scotia...
Twenty years ago, September 11, 2001, amid the the suffering and chaos that was unleashed that day, something else emerged—a torrential outpouring of kindness and charity. To the widowed. To the injured. To the wayfarers. No one expected anything in return. They acted simply because they saw a fellow soul—wounded—and in need of the balm of human kindness.
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A day to remember, a tale of two bishops, and a man named Toad...
Tomorrow is the twentieth anniversary of the September 11 attacks. It will be, for many, many families in this country, a day of profound memory, of grief, and of loving recollection for those who were killed. We have compiled a reader of some of Catholic homilies, stories, and remembrances to mark the day. Some are quite powerful.
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Where is the elite news coverage of tensions between Pelosi and her bishop?
Here is a political science question for you, but it's relevant to an important religion-beat story. The vice president of the United States is No. 2, in terms of the presidential line of succession, just ahead of the Speaker of the House of Representatives. But in terms of real, day-by-day power, who has more clout in America's system of government, the vice president or the speaker?
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“God gives us such a father and shepherd as Cardinal Wyszyński once in a thousand years”...
Forty years ago, the massive funeral procession of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński was led by a banner that read, "God gives us such a father and shepherd once in a thousand years." He will be beatified on Sept. 12 in Warsaw and known henceforth as "Blessed Stefan Wyszyński." But in Poland he will remain always the "Primate of the Millennium," as that processional banner acknowledged.
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If you've never read the work of the late Father Paul Mankowski, you should. Here's where to begin.....
In the summer before the Second Vatican Council opened, Pope John XXIII met with Cardinal Leon-Joseph Suenens in the papal residence at Castel Gandolfo. "I know what my part in the Council will be," the Pope told the Belgian archbishop. "It will be to suffer." Pope John was prescient, and not just because the Council's opening weeks would prove contentious; shortly before Vatican II began its work, the Pope was diagnosed with the painful cancer that would kill him in less than a year.
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Stephen Baskerville on what it means to be a gentleman...
"There's always been over the centuries attempts to infuse the definition of a gentleman with new meaning, and it usually means some kind of ethical and moral meaning that is perceived to be lacking," said S.K. Baskerville, Ph.D., author of "A Gentleman's Guide to Manners, Sex, and Ruling the World: How to Survive as a Man in the Age of Misandry - and Do So with Grace" (Sophia Institute Press)...
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New York City's 9/11 Cross is a sign of our enduring hope...
After I moved to New York City in early 2015 to serve the Church at the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations, one of my first excursions was to go to Ground Zero to visit the 9/11 Museum that had opened about 10 months before. Every time I had visited New York over the previous 14 years...
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Why September 11, 2001 was different...
Less than two years before September 11, 2021, I felt like my world had fallen apart. My father, who I trusted and loved as a daughter does to a good father, died suddenly of a heart attack. As the eldest, already working at National Review magazine in my hometown of New York, I had fallen into provider mode, wanting to help my Catholic school principal mother with the seemingly impossible task of putting two children through college alone.
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The ultimate key to vision, and relationship...
We humans are made to see. We are also made to be seen. I think that often what really hurts us in our relationships is that we do not feel understood. Seeing reality takes much cultivation, and likewise if we are really to be seen by others much is required—both on their part and on ours. There is something scary about this dependence on others. What if they just cannot or will not see us? Herein is part of the mystery...
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Exorcist Diary: Angels' voices in our head...
Recently I have been struck by Satan's exploiting our psychological weaknesses, particularly in demonic "obsessions." He is a master at sensing our fears, our desires for control, cracks in our self-esteem, and our vain desires to be held in esteem by others. Then, when these flawed emotions surface, Satan exploits and exaggerates them.
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The exorcistic effect of the Word of God...
Many often think of exorcism only in relation to driving out demons from possessed people using ancient prayers. But, truth be told, we all have afflictions, oppressions, temptations and other negative thoughts and drives that are influenced by demons. Such influences may be direct and personal, but there are also sources of error and negativity that come from the world...
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Jordan Peterson and the search for a meaningful life...
Jordan Peterson's work has not only provoked powerful reactions from defenders of woke orthodoxy, but also reconsiderations by atheists, agnostics, and religious "Nones" about the wisdom of Biblical stories. In our book Jordan Peterson, God, and Christianity: The Search for a Meaningful Life, Matthew Petrusek and I seek to show Peterson's method of reading Scripture is in some ways found earlier...
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The news, and bishops talk 'louder' on abortion. Will it make a difference?
After a three-day weekend I hope you enjoyed, this is the Tuesday Pillar Post. Because yesterday was Labor Day, and the final day to hang out at the pool with my kids, this newsletter is hitting your inboxes just a little bit later than usual. But to make up for it, we've got some pretty interesting stories for you this week. And this picture of St. Cloud, whose feast is celebrated today:
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Vatican issues new guidelines for forthcoming 'synod on synodality'...
Documents for the Church's forthcoming synod on synodality were issued by the Vatican Tuesday morning by the permanent secretariat for the synod of bishops. The secretariat issued its preparatory document and handbook September 7 to assist local dioceses and Churches ahead of the first phase of the multi-year synodal process for the global Church.
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Who is the mysterious Woman Clothed with the Sun in Revelation 12?
The book of Revelation contains a passage in which St. John sees a great sign in the sky. He wrote: And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She brought forth a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne...
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