Monthly Archives: September 2025
New Study Suggests Latin Mass Attendees Believe More Strongly in Real Presence
LifeSiteNews speaks of a new study published by Catholic Social Science Review that, in their words, “confirms” that attending the Latin Mass is more strongly tied to faith in the Eucharist than is the Novus Ordo. They are overselling this study.
The study in question, “Liturgy Matters: Traditional Liturgical Practices Predict Belief in the Real Presence,” authored by Natalie Lindemann, can be found here. A quick glance, without even reading the details, shows how LifeSiteNews oversold this. The focus in the article is on the Latin Mass only, while the study examined four different traditional liturgical practices. Latin Mass is the weakest of all the predictors .
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Understanding Catholic Social Teaching
Catholic social teaching can be a very difficult topic, and it’s one that I still personally struggle with.
As you might have gathered from my political posts, I tend to lean more to the right than the left. The party line in the United States is that illegal immigrants are bad and worthy only of deportation. Of course, Catholic social teaching emphasizes something very different than that, asking us to care for the migrant workers.
- “You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.” (Ex 20:21)
- “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God.” (Lev 19:9-11, cf. Num 15:30)
- “You shall have the same rule [of law] for the sojourner and for the native, for I am the Lord your God.” (Lev 24:22)
Bishops Urge Cardinal Cupich to Rescind Award
Cardinal Blase Cupich, the Archbishop of Chicago, has elected to honor Senator Dick Durbin with an award for his work with undocumented immigrants. The problem with that is that Senator Durbin has a strong pro-abortion record; so strong, in fact, that his own bishop has barred him from receiving Holy Communion while in his home diocese.
Senator Durbin, however great his record is on immigration and protecting migrant workers’ rights, support for abortion is absolutely inexcusable and is the preeminent issue of all guides to Catholic voters. The seamless garment of life runs from conception to natural death, and so while all people have the right to exist and to protections under the law, it has to start at conception.1
Much like the Avengers, we don’t trade lives in the Catholic Church. You can’t permissibly support a pro-choice politician even if they work to increase social welfare as a means of reducing abortion. Honoring an outspokenly pro-choice politician is inexcusable.
Read the rest of this entryFractured States of America
Increasingly, we are becoming the Fractured States of America instead of the united ones. It is heartbreaking that we see school shootings in the news with alarming frequency. Gun violence is on the rise, and the problem isn’t the guns. The problem is that America has lost its sense of shared values and moral compass. Instead of unifying, we’re drifting apart.
According to ChurchTrac, since 2000 there has been a steady decline in regular church attendance marked by a similar rise in no attendance.1 Occasional attendance remains the steady. That means we keep the lukewarm, but lose the passionate ones. And the once passionate aren’t coming back.
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Back Rome Again 