Regina Nathan - Hail Queen of Heaven, the Ocean Star

Father Rutler: The Indispensable Church

Often have I reflected on a story that an Australian bishop told me, about a man on a railroad platform who said “I am not a Catholic, but there is one thing about the Catholic Church I have never understood.” The prelate replied, “Only one thing? I am a bishop, and there are many things about the Church I do not understand.”

That is how it must be, since mortals did not invent the Church. The countless sects and denominations structured by humans have a certain cogency and predictability because they are fashioned according to natural understanding. The Holy Catholic Church was planned by divine intelligence, and in consequence there are mysterious elements that are unpredictable and often contradictory to limited logic. The “Church Militant,” which exists in time and space, in contrast to the “Church Expectant” of the faithful departed and the “Church Triumphant” of the saints, will be a mix of the best human accomplishments and the bleakest human foibles, but none of that alters the Church’s supernatural character as the living presence of Christ.

An architect knows where each door leads in the house he has designed, but God made the Church, and so we have to find our way around in it by the guidance of Christ who is “the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6). To those who say that they accept Christ but not the institutional Church, the answer is that the Church is an institution because Christ instituted it, and so the Church is indispensable.

With deliberate symmetry, the Lord invoked the pattern of forty days that is threaded through salvation history, spending forty days on earth from his Resurrection to his Ascension. His departure from this world was the means by which he could be omnipresent, no longer confined to one generation in time or one acre of space. His instruction as he ascended was to bring others into his Church: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20).

When I was appointed as pastor here on 34th Street, the question frequently asked was, “How many Catholics are in that neighborhood?” As our Lord was “taken up,” he did not send his disciples into Catholic neighborhoods, because there were none. So the right question must be: “How many Catholics will there be in the neighborhood?”

There will be many things we do not understand about the Church. The one thing that must be understood, because Christ made it so very clear, is that he says of himself, and by so saying says of his Church: “No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

Father Rutler’s book, The Stories of Hymns – The History Behind 100 of Christianity’s Greatest Hymns, is available through Sophia Institute Press (Paperback or eBook) and Amazon (Paperback or Kindle). 

Here's to the Heroes: An Armed Forces Day Tribute

This is dedicated to all the men and women who have fought and continue to fight for our freedoms. Thank you!

Urge Catholic School NOT to Fire Catholic Teacher for Quoting Saint John Bosco on Islam

The Catholic schools superintendent for the Diocese of Orlando has reprimanded and threatened to fire a popular sixth-grade teacher for quoting Saint John Bosco on the deadly cult of Islam.

I have sent the schools superintendent the following message.  

I have signed the petition that has nearly 15,000 signatures on it protesting your censure of a truthful exposition of the cult of Islam, but as a Catholic, I want to personally tell you how disgusted I am. Are you so beholden to the politically correct that the truth and words of Catholic saints must be censured? You won't be forming Catholics zealous to live their faith, much less become saints, with a Catholic-lite curriculum. Your attitude is why so many orthodox Catholic parents choose to homeschool rather than corrupt their children with a faux Catholic education. Is it any wonder so many young Catholics have fallen away from the faith? You have no business running a Catholic school system. Please step aside and let someone who believes what the saints, Church doctors, martyrs and Popes have taught take on the responsibility of forming young Catholics. 

 Please join me and send your own message and by all means, sign a petition in defense of this teacher who was speaking the truth in the words of a Catholic saint.

You can call or E-mail the superintendent:

Mr. Henry Fortier
Superintendent of Catholic Schools
Diocese of Orlando
Phone: 407-246-4905
Email: HFortier@orlandodiocese.org

World’s Top Psychiatrist Says Trump Most BRILLIANT President Ever

No, Donald J. Trump is not crazy.  He’s “crazy like a fox” according to world renowned psychiatrist Keith Ablow.  Donald Trump may do things differently than anyone has ever done things, but it’s not just “off the cuff” as it may look. Trump has a genius mind, and everything he does is by design. Many times the CLM (Crooked Liberal Media) may think they are getting the best of President Trump, but in reality, they are doing exactly what he anticipated. How else do you think a presidential candidate could spend 1/2 as much as his opponent and win?

 “WE’VE GOT A GENIUS IN THE OVAL OFFICE, AND IF WE THINK HE’S GOING TO SUBSCRIBE ENTIRELY TO PROTOCOL AND BE FLAWLESS AND POLISHED, THINK AGAIN!” 

The liberal media is doing everything they can to bring our new president down.  It’s our job to get the TRUTH out on social media.

Father George Rutler: "Only Holiness Evangelizes"

A few blocks north of our church, at 1664 Broadway in the old Warners’ Theatre which was demolished in 1952, the first Vitaphone talking film, The Jazz Singer, opened on October 6, 1927. I have been astonished that some of our bright young parishioners never heard of Al Jolson, but history records, as did Vitaphone, his words, “You ain’t heard nothing yet.” The Lord of History said more monumentally: “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now” (John 16:12).

The Word could finally be heard, having been “made flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). When that Word rose from the dead, he said, in so many human words, “You ain’t seen nothing yet.” The Resurrection was far from a grand finale: it was the start of everything else. As our Lord ascended in glory, he gave the Great Commission: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19).

This commission is called evangelization, for it means to announce the good news. Our Lord structured the organism for this by creating the Church. If half-hearted Catholics do not evangelize, they are not truly Catholic, and if well meaning people try to evangelize without the Catholic Church, they are not truly Evangelical.

In obedience to the Great Commission, the Holy See has a Pontifical Council for New Evangelization. All well and good, even if not clearly defined. But in recent decades there have been numerous committees and programs to evangelize, with little effect, despite all their meetings and conferences and advertising. Christ was meticulous with everything except bureaucracy. Instead, he sent his disciples out with a commission. Only holiness evangelizes.

Cardinal Nguyen Van Thuan, who died in 2002, has recently been declared a candidate for sainthood for his heroic virtues. Beginning in 1975, this coadjutor archbishop of Saigon was imprisoned by communists in Vietnam for thirteen years, nine of them in solitary confinement. He thought he might go mad, in a cell without light or ventilation, and mushrooms growing on his thin mattress. But his serene example kept converting many of his prison guards to Christianity.

The evangelization of souls, without benefit of councils or committees, was all that concerned him. Shortly before he died, he said, “If Jesus took a math examination he would surely fail. A shepherd had 100 sheep; one of them strayed. Without thinking, the shepherd went in search of it, leaving the other 99 sheep. When he found the lost sheep he put it on his shoulders (Luke 15:4-5). For Jesus, 1 equals 99, perhaps even more . . .”

Jesus said, “. . . a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live” (John 5:25). I expect that when Cardinal Van Thuan died, he heard a voice saying: “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

Paul Kengor on the Spiritual Partnership of Pope John Paul II and Ronald Reagan