With all the hubbub this week surrounding SCOTUS hearing cases on gay marriage, the bishops of New Mexico have offered their thoughts in a statement released today (March 27th), saying that Marriage should be protected against attempts to redefine it. I’ve summarized it here, but to read the entire statement, please visit Santa Fe’s website [...]

I talked with Dr. Mark Labberton last week, he’s the incoming president of Fuller Theological Seminary, which forms evangelical pastors who serve throughout the world. Much of our conversation can be found here, but there was a bit more than just didn’t fit into the article, but I wanted to share with you all. He [...]

Italy’s news agency AGI is reporting that the Holy Father has ensured that 3000 of Rome’s poor will be present at the Mass of the Lord’s Supper which he will celebrate in the evening of Holy Thursday, which is March 28th this year. Caritas of the Diocese of Rome has been given the tickets to [...]

Our new Pope, Francis, was born on Dec. 17, 1936 in Buenos Aires as Jorge Mario Bergoglio. He is 76 years old, and while an Argentinian by birth, his surname betrays his Italian roots. His father was a railway worker who immigrated to Argentina from Italy, and Bergoglio is one of five children. After earning [...]

What’s the deal with Pope Francis’ inaugural Mass tomorrow? He’s already the Pope – canon law tells us that the Roman Pontiff “obtains full and supreme power in the Church” as soon as he accepts his election and is a bishop, which Cardinal Bergoglio did and already was. So his inaugural Mass, being held tomorrow [...]

As I write, we are watching the procession of cardinals into the Sistine Chapel. They are praying the Litany of Saints, and will soon pray the Veni Creator Spiritus. If you care to pray along with them, the booklet containing the prayers is available here from the Vatican. It is all in Latin, so a [...]

Last week EWTN News ran an article notifying you all that Cardinal Dolan has invited us to join him in praying a novena to St. Joseph for the election of the next Pope. The novena starts today and runs through St. Joseph’s feast day, March 19th. Cardinal Dolan has made the novena prayer available on [...]

The other day I looked at the prayers of the ordinary form’s Mass for the Election of a Pope. Today I’ll look at the corresponding Mass in the extraordinary form (Traditional Latin Mass). Today’s blog entry is heavily indebted to this post at Rorate Caeli giving the texts in Latin, as my parish priests gave [...]

While many people, both within and without the Catholic world, are speculating heavily about the man who will become Pope, it can’t hurt to actually pray for that man, since really the choice of only the 115 men who will be locked up “with a key” (cum clave – in the conclave) matters when it [...]

1. Prayer is the most important part – for the cardinals and for the faithful. Before the conclave itself begins, the cardinals say a Mass “For the Election of a Pope” and pray the “Veni Creator,” a hymn calling on the Holy Spirit. John Paul II wrote that during the vacancy, “the universal Church, spiritually [...]