It is clear that Christianity in Africa is the Christianity of the twenty first century. The African Church is young, vibrant, growing and demographically dominant. Here are some statistics: With 171.9 million faithful, sub-Saharan Africa represents 16 percent of Catholics worldwide, a third the number in Europe and more than double that in the United States. [...]
Over on X someone posted a quote from the media "scientist" Bill Nye that observes the seeming insignificance of human beings in relation to the vastness of space: ""We are just a speck, on a speck, orbiting a speck, in the corner of a speck, in the middle of nowhere." OK. This is elsewhere called the [...]
Yesterday after our Solemn Mass at 10:30 an older couple visiting from Pennsylvania stopped to talk with me. They were amazed at the packed church, the number of altar boys, the beautiful singing of the girls' choir, the reverence and focus on worship. "In our diocese" they said, "they are closing schools and merging parishes. The [...]
At Our Lady of the Rosary in Greenville the Mass is celebrated in a traditional style with the priest offering the sacrifice of the Mass facing the same direction as the people. The Novus Ordo Mass is enhanced with the Gloria, Sanctus, Agnus Dei and Paternoster all in Latin and sung to Gregorian chant. The choir [...]
I'm not concerned now, after more than ten years of a messy papacy, to "explain" Pope Francis. I am, however, interested in trying to understand his point of view. I think one of the ways to make sense of his opinions is that he is from Argentina and from an Italian immigrant family to Argentina. He [...]
This week during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity Anglicans were not only invited to conduct Choral Evensong in St Peter's Basilica, but the Archbishop of Canterbury celebrated a communion service in a Catholic Church in Rome. While these gestures are diplomatic, they don't mean much more than window dressing for what is now a [...]
The Essenes were a monastic group who observed celibacy, maintained strict religious rules and were intrigued by apocalyptic and Messianic prophecies. Because they were persecuted by the other Jews, the Essenes were scattered across Judea. “Josephus said the Essenes lived in ‘large numbers in every town.’ and had a network to support members when they travelled.” [...]
This is the fourth in a series of blog posts on Traditional Catholic Worship One of the marks of traditional Catholic worship is kneeling to receive communion on the tongue. This started to become the norm in our parish in Greenville pretty much on its own. We found that as we emphasized reverence in worship an [...]
Yesterday on 'X' I commented on a discussion about Biblical literalism observing that it was possible to hold to a historical Adam and Eve while acknowledging that the Genesis account was "essentially mythological" This comment that Genesis was "essentially mythological" sparked further comments from folks for whom the word "myth", when associated with the Bible, is [...]
This is the fourth in a series of blog posts on traditional Catholic Worship Some folks have noticed that we only have boys serving the altar at Our Lady of the Rosary, Greenville. Why is that? Girl altar servers are permitted. Are we trying to oppress girls? Are we misogynists? Don't we believe in equality of [...]