Category: Blog

Your good old-fashioned blog, It’s where I reflect on (but not exactly “review”) a variety of movies and where I post my thoughts on different issues as it seems necessary.

Pope Pius XI

Posted on by Father Albert
From the bulletin of July 18, 2021      Pope Benedict XV died in January of 1922. His successor and the next person in our journey through Papal documents is Pope Pius XI who reigned from 1922 to 1939.      Pope Pius’ birth name was Abroglio Damiano Achille Ratti. He was born in Milan in 1857 to Francesco and Teresa. His father owned a silk factory. Ambroglio Ratti was ordained a priest in 1879 and went on to be something of an academic in the Church, ultimately earning three doctoral degrees in Rome and becoming a professor at the seminary in...Read More

Pastor Column: Dante

Posted on by Father Albert
From the bulletin of July 11, 2021      After a long hiatus, I’d like to return to our journey through the writings of various popes. You may remember that we last looked at Pope Benedict XV (1914-1922) and his encyclical on preaching the Word of God. Today, we’ll take a look at a timely letter of his on the famous poet Dante Aligheri.      Dante was an Italian poet who lived 1265-1321. He is most famous for a long epic poem called The Divine Comedy. It consisted of three parts: The Inferno, The Purgatorio, and The Paradiso. It is a...Read More

Pastor’s Column: Liberty

Posted on by Father Albert
From the bulletin of July 4, 2021      As we celebrate our Independence day, it is a fitting time to learn a little about the one Catholic who signed the Declaration of Independence: Charles Carroll of Carrollton. He was also the cousin of Archbishop John Carroll, who was the first Archbishop in the United States.      Born in 1737 in Annapolis, Maryland, Charles was a very well-to-do, very well-educated citizen of the English colonies despite the fact that he was originally born out of wedlock. His parents married in 1757 and after his education, his father entrusted Carrollton Manor to...Read More

Pastor Column: Being Together

Posted on by Father Albert
From the bulletin of May 30, 2021      With the restoration of the Sunday Obligation, I have decided to end livestreaming of Masses. June 6 will be the last streamed Mass. On certain special occasions, we may sometimes record and/or stream, but not on a weekly or daily basis. The reason for this is simple: I want to incentivize and prioritize us being together for Mass. Our attendance is barely more than half of what it was during the pandemic and, quite frankly, I miss seeing my people. The Lord misses them too.      With a year’s worth of experience,...Read More

Pastor Column: St. Jerome and Scripture II

Posted on by Father Albert
From the bulletin of May 16, 2021      Pope Benedict XV points us to some pieces of advice that St. Jerome offers on knowing scripture. Not surprisingly the fist thing St. Jerome says is to “exercise your mind, feed it daily with Holy Scripture… to read Holy Scripture assiduously.” I’ve often heard that Catholics of a certain generation were told not to read the bible because they weren’t qualified to interpret it. Enemies of the Church sometimes say the Catholic Church explicitly forbid people from reading the bible on their own. Well, this was written in 1920 and comes from...Read More

Pastor Column: St. Jerome & Scripture I

Posted on by Father Albert
From the bulletin of May 9, 2021      Our next encyclical from Pope Benedict XV is title Spiritus Paraclitus, which is translated to “The Holy Spirit, the Paraclete.”  “Paraclete” is a fancy word that means a combination of helper, advocate, consoler, and defender. While the title focuses on the Holy Spirit, the actual document actually focuses on St. Jerome, who is a doctor of the Church because of his efforts to translate and understand scripture. Indeed, the pope even calls him the “Greatest Doctor” because his work was so directly involved in making scripture accessible to the whole Church.     ...Read More

Pastor Column: Preaching the Word of God

Posted on by Father Albert
From the bulletin of May 2, 2021      Our first encyclical from Pope Benedict XV is called Humani Generis Redemptionem, published in 1917. Translated, that title means “the Redemption of the Human Race.” The pope begins the encyclical by quoting St. Paul (Rom 10:17), “ Thus faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.” This sets up the primary theme of the letter, which in proper preaching of the Gospel to the world. Right away, Pope Benedict notes that there are more preachers of the word than ever before, but that the “state...Read More

Pastor Column: Benedict XV

Posted on by Father Albert
From the bulletin of April 25, 2021      Returning now to our journey through the teachings of recent popes, we come to Pope Benedict XV, who reigned from 1914 until his death in 1922, which was of course during World War I. Pope Benedict XV called the war the “suicide of Europe,” and made a concerted effort to bring peace and understanding. Though prominent in his papacy, the war was not his only focus. But first, a little history of this man who became pope.      Born in 1846, Giacomo Paolo Battista della Chiesa grew up in Genoa, Italy as...Read More

Pastor Column: Modernism II

Posted on by Father Albert
From the bulletin of March 28, 2021      Continuing our look at the heresy of Modernism, we come to how they view the Church’s authority. Since Modernists say that Christ is only human and that all religion is the product of a vague internal “religious sense,” they go on to reject the idea that the Church has real authority coming from God. They see the Church’s authority as the product of the “collective conscience” of all believers. In other words, they argue that the Church should be democratic about it’s beliefs because it’s authority is really based on the opinion...Read More

Pastor Column: Modernism I

Posted on by Father Albert
From the bulletin of March 21, 2021      Continuing with the documents of Pope St. Pius X, we come to one of his better known encyclicals, Pascendi Dominici Gregis, subtitled “On the Doctrine of the Modernists,” published in 1907. “Modernism” is the name that the pope uses to describe a collection of erroneous beliefs which were becoming popular at the time. As the pope, he sees it as his responsibility to point out and correct these errors as directly as possible.      The first error he tackles is what he calls “agnosticism.” This refers to the belief that human reason...Read More