29 March AD 2024

TVESDAY EDITION

Bitter Easter in China, In the Game With Rome, a Blowout for Beijing

The Chinese regime is also applying its agreement with the Holy See this way. With the bulldozer that under police escort razes to the ground on April 4 the building of a parish in Qianyang, which had on its top floor a room for the Mass & on the ground floor a free clinic for the poor, run by nuns. ☩ Sandro Magister at Settimo Cielo via L'Espresso

Christus Vivit: The Good, the Banal, & the Exasperating

The recently released Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation contains many good things, but is also filled with passages that are overwrought, exaggerated, & lacking. ☩ Fr. Peter M.J. Stravinskas at The Catholic World Report

The Veils of Passiontide

In the traditional Roman liturgical calendar, the final two weeks before Easter Sunday are known as Passiontide and a beautiful tradition unfolds at this time whereby statues and other sacred images are veiled. ☩ Shawn R. Tribe at Liturgical Arts Journal

Do Congregations Dwindle Because “People Don’t Understand What’s Going On”?

At the often amusing & generally tendentious blog called PrayTell, Msgr. M. Francis Mannion offered readers a theory about why liturgy must be in the vernacular. In short, unless people can understand the words of the rite, attendance is sure to dwindle at an alarming rate! ☩ Peter A. Kwasniewski, Ph.D., at New Liturgical Movement

How Socialists Will Usher In a New Hell on Earth

Americans are a generous people ready to lend a hand to those in need. When God blesses us with prosperity, we naturally want to practice acts of charity to help the less fortunate. However, this charitable spirit is now threatened. ☩ John Horvat, II, at Crisis Magazine

Building Catholic Culture (Podcast)

☩ Joseph Pearce & Jared Staudt at Faith & Culture

Tithing: What, Why, Where

☩ Susanna Parent at Blessed is She

St. Francis de Sales shares his secret to fundraising

☩ Brice Sokolowski at CatholicFundraiser.net

Franciscan University President Resigns

Father Sean Sheridan will remain in the post until a successor is found. ☩ Ed Condon, J.C.L., at Catholic News Agency via National Catholic Register

Abortion extremism triggers major backlash across America

Politicians are helping Planned Parenthood advance a more radical abortion agenda ☩ Sheila Liaugminas at Mercatornet

Who is this “We” You Speak Of (John Allen?)

One of the more irritating aspects of contemporary pop public discourse is the obsession with the first person plural as a propaganda and marketing tool that manipulates the reader into a bemused, concerned & totally false community. . . ☩ Amy Welborn at Charlotte Was Both

‘You’re a hater’: the fashionable slander

It shuts down all dialogue and turns good people into pariahs ☩ Michael Cook at Mercatornet

“Unplanned” Movie Stays in Top 10 With Surprisingly Strong 2nd Week at Box Office

The film earned an estimated $3.2 million after expanding to 1,515 screens. The controversial film about Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood clinic director-turned-pro-life advocate, beat industry predictions again with a per screen average of $2,111. ☩ Steven Ertelt at Life News

Pete Buttigieg & The Religious Left

So, it looks like the Religious Left might have found its candidate ☩ Rod Dreher at The American Conservative

Beto O'Rourke & the eating-holy-dirt story is actually about a Catholic shrine in New Mexico

The story began to filter out a few weeks ago: How failed U.S. Senate (for Texas) and now U.S. presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke went off to find himself earlier this year and, in the process, imbibed “magical dirt” in New Mexico. ☩ Julia Duin at Get Religion

The downside of paid family leave: Denmark

As Republicans unveil plans for compulsory paid family leave, they would be well instructed to see how such policies have hurt women’s employment prospects. ☩ Rev. Ben Johnson at Transatlantic Blog via Acton Institute

An Accounting

☩ Noel Ethan Tan at Ignitum Today

The Safe World: Protection & Dignity for All

☩ Paul Kniaz at Catholic Stand