Saint Clement I, Pope and Martyr

How to Respond When People Say Jesus Had Brothers and Sisters...Kathy SchifferDid Jesus have brothers and sisters? Some people think the Gospel of Mark seems to say so. And not only in the Gospel of Mark. In (Luke 8:19-21), the topic comes up again. While Jesus is speaking to a crowd, someone tells him, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you.” But Jesus... The Sheep Detectives: Agatha Christie Would Be Charmed... The Napa Way: Before We Debate, Let’s Have Dinner Together...Tim BuschAmerica is experiencing a period of profound polarization. Researchers have documented a growing ideological divide over the past several decades, while surveys show that many Americans feel exhausted by the constant conflict that surrounds public life. Social media has amplified this trend. Many of us increasingly receive our information from sources... Pope Leo’s Sunday Angelus: ‘God’s Kingdom Grows Quietly Through Love, Not Force’... Full McGrath Institute Seminary Report: ‘Do You Know Them to Be Worthy?’ [PDF]... Nigeria, Nicaragua, Syria, India Cited in Index of Rising Christian Persecution... World Cup Blues, of a Sort...George WeigelI usually find the quadrennial FIFA World Cup aggravating for the five reasons enumerated below, plus one other: my students here in the Tertio Millennio Seminar on the Free Society are sometimes so obsessed with the competition that it becomes challenging to keep our community of learners focused on the seminar’s deep dive into Catholic social doctrine. The Population Bust Is Coming Sooner Than Anyone Is Prepared For [NYTimes Paywall]... Jesuits in US and Canada to Consolidate 5 Novitiates to 2 in Detroit and LA... Police Cite ‘New Evidence’ as Ann Widdecombe Killing Becomes Terrorism Investigation... St. Margaret of Antioch, the Missing Saint...Thomas McDonaldThe trial transcript for the condemnation of St. Joan of Arc mentions St. Margaret more than 120 times. She’s usually paired with St. Catherine, and sometimes St. Michael. Joan never specified which Margaret and which Catherine, but Margaret of Antioch and Catherine of Alexandria were both saints with wide devotions and popular lives set in verse, so it’s considered likely that she was referring to them... Pope Leo Opens Castel Gandolfo Gardens to 200 Poor Romans: ‘This Is the Church We Want to Be’... This Sunday, Take the Parable of the Sower Test at Mass — and After...Tom HoopesThis Sunday, the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A, Jesus tells the Parable of the Sower, one of those Gospel stories that we feel like we know. After all, Jesus himself explains its meaning in the long form of the Gospel — and to interpret it in any other way is foolhardy. But the application of the parable is another matter... Cardinal McElroy Says Exorcist Msgr. Rossetti’s Removal Was About Confidentiality, Not UFOs... What Went Down with the SSPX...Jimmy AkinThe Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) has ordained new bishops, returned to schism, and incurred excommunication, and the Vatican has announced these facts. The SSPX is a society of priests, founded in 1970 by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. It promotes traditional views and liturgy and critiques certain statements made by the Second Vatican Council, particularly concerning religious liberty and ecumenism... Nobel Prize-Winning Catholic Novelist Sigrid Undset’s Canonization Cause to Open in Oslo... St. Christina the Astonishing, Fireworks, and the News...J.D. FlynnChristina the Astoning wasn’t a magician, though I hope that out there somewhere is a woman working birthday parties and doing card tricks, who has taken the moniker as a kind of quiet homage to the great lady. And Christina was a great lady. She lived almost 900 years ago in the city of Liege, in what is now Belgium. We don’t know much about her early life. Her parents died when was 15; she lived by tending sheep... The Declaration Tells Us Nobody Is a Nobody... In Lampedusa on July 4, Pope Leo urges Christians to provide safe harbor to migrants... How many SSPX laypeople are there? Don’t Hide Your Faith Under a Bushel of ‘Prudence’... Pope Leo XIV Congratulates the US on Its 250th Anniversary... Being Back, a Schism If You Believe It, and World Cup Fever... A Yoke for the Childlike: A Reflection on the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time... The SSPX Again Says No to the Catholic Church... How American Independence Might Have Been Avoided and the World Transformed... Costs Down But No ‘Leo Bounce’: Peter’s Pence Sees Fall in Revenue and Expenses... 5 Heroes of American Catholicism... Religious sister arrested by ICE as she walked to Mass in Texas is released... Cynicism Empties More Pews Than Scandal Does... How Serbia Produces Great Basketball Players Like the Denver Nuggets’ Nikola Jokić... Pope Leo Prays for Venezuela as Quake Death Toll Rises... The Remarkable Coincidence That Linked St. Thérèse and Nietzsche... Vatican Begins 5-Year Restoration of Raphael Loggia, Used by Popes and Presidents... This Sunday, Love Christ More Than Your Family and He Will Love Them More Than You Can... Pope Leo Opens Consistory of Cardinals: ‘I Need Your Freedom, Your Frankness, and Your Loyalty’... St. Mary Magdalene and the Song of Songs...Clement HarroldOne of the most beautiful scenes in the Gospels comes in John 20 when St. Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb of Jesus. The evangelist tells us that Mary set off “early, while it was still dark.” In John’s Gospel, references to darkness and light always carry a symbolic value. In other words, it wasn’t merely the pre-dawn hours that were dark... Doctrines That Shape ‘Calvin and Hobbes’...Terry MattinglyWhenever our grandchildren visit our home there’s a ritual that takes place during the first hour or so. This has happened since the oldest started reading and, no doubt, will continue with the youngest. The rite involves curling up with books, of course, and one giant boxed-set of heavy hardbacks is always in play... ‘Gracias a Dios Siempre!’ Spanish Champions Praise God After World Cup Victory... Going Nowhere, Papal Holidays, and Merchants in the Temple...Ed CondonI am supposed to be going on vacation this evening, through at least next week. I say supposed to be because the plans are a bit up in the air right now. My version of a break consists of repairing to a particular corner of Western Pa., from whence hail my mother’s clan, and spending as much time clustered around a muddy puddle of a lake... New Report Offers 12 Seminary Reforms to End ‘Double-Life Mentality’ and Form Holy Priests... Sherry Weddell’s ‘Forming Intentional Disciples’: The Book That Changed Catholic Ministry...Zelda CaldwellBefore he ascended to heaven, Jesus commanded the apostles to make disciples of all nations. But 2,000 years later, when Sherry Weddell started working in evangelization, she made a shocking discovery: Hardly any Catholics she met even knew what it meant to be a disciple. This was not simply a question of semantics; it was the defining crisis facing the Catholic Church in the West... SSPX Appeals to Vatican Against Schism Decree... New Detroit Data Offer Rare Glimpse Into Pressures Reshaping Catholic Parishes Across America...Ryan BurgeSometimes the doom scrolling really does pay off. I hate to admit it, but flicking through thousands of social media posts a week is a way that I can find interesting stories to write about for Graphs about Religion. And, that’s exactly what happened a few months ago. On my Google Discover feed, I see this headline, “Detroit Catholic archdiocese restructures as Mass attendance drops 40%.” It’s a story from the Detroit Free Press... Catalonia Poll Suggests Young Adults Are Bucking Secular Trend...Luke CoppenYoung people aged 18 to 24 in the Spanish region of Catalonia are more likely to identify as Catholics than those aged 25 to 34, according to new research by a government public opinion research agency. The Center for Opinion Studies, which conducts polls on behalf of the Government of Catalonia, found that 40.9% of surveyed residents aged 18 to 24 identified as Catholic, compared to only 34.6% of those aged 25 to 34. Pope Leo XIV’s Sunday Angelus at Castel Gandolfo: ‘The Power of God’s Love Is Stronger Than Your Weakness’... Understanding the Unforgivable Sin Against the Holy Spirit... Being Free, Private Wars, and Loony Politics... July’s Other Illicit Episcopal Consecration: Who Are the Transalpine Redemptorists, Exactly? Thousands Have Been Healed Through the Prayers of This Shoemaker, the ‘Miracle Man of Notre Dame’... ‘Paint Is Cheaper Than Blood’: This Simple White Line Is America’s Greatest Unsung Innovation... U.S. Ambassador Brian Burch Describes July 4 Dinner With Pope Leo XIV...Andrea GagliarducciPope Leo XIV still has a Peruvian credit card, wakes in the middle of the night and checks soccer results, follows the Chicago White Sox, and uses a cellphone. He is also, according to Brian Burch, the U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, a Pope keenly aware of his role as pastor of the universal Church, careful not to give the impression of being merely an American pope and frustrated that his actions are sometimes interpreted as anti-Trump or anti-U.S. gestures. Pope Leo Praises U.S. Eucharistic Pilgrims, Highlights Country’s ‘Strong Eucharistic Heritage’... Why the American Revolution Brought Liberty — and the French Revolution a Reign of Terror... ‘God Bless America’: Pope Leo XIV Awarded Liberty Medal on Nation’s 250th Anniversary... A Sad Day in Écône... This Sunday, Jesus Rejoices That Only the Little Receive His Rest... The ‘Weight’ of a Nation: St. Augustine, Dante, and the Soul of American Politics... When a Nation Turns Against Itself... Vatican Issues Process for Individual SSPX Priests and Laity to Return to Communion... Vatican Formally Declares Schism of SSPX, Decrees Excommunication of Lefebvrite Clergy and Laity... SSPX Illicitly Ordains Four New Bishops... SSPX Consecrates Bishops in Defiance of Rome’s Schism Warning... Supreme Court Says States Can Ban Men from Competing in Women’s Sports... What Happens When You Divorce Christ from Your Ministry... This Is What a Menu from 1776 Would Look Like... Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul: Pope Leo XIV Bestows Pallium on 35 Metropolitan Archbishops... The Catholic Priest Who Forged a Lifelong Friendship With Harry Truman... Archbishop Paglia’s ‘Paradigm Shift’ in Moral Theology Comes Into Focus... Confession is not supposed to be therapy or spiritual direction. A certain ‘sacramental reserve’ is needed... Pope Leo XIV Convenes Second Consistory Amid Continued Concerns Over ‘Synodal’ Structure... Pope Leo’s Top Priority: Easing Divisions... Get this entire Catholic website as an instant digital download...The full contents of the New Advent website are available as a digital download. It includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more and it's only $19.99... The Complete List of Popes

Click here to see the list of 133 cardinal electors (“WHO WILL BE THE NEXT POPE?”) that appeared in this space before the May 8 election of Pope Leo XIV.

May Saint Clement I, Pope and Martyr intercede for us, and may we imitate today the holiness this Life has shown.