Amandus of Maastricht, patron saint of vinegar producers
Vinegar is the drink that was given to Jesus on the cross: a gesture of mercy, not torture, because water mixed with vinegar (posca) was used by Roman soldiers as a thirst-quenching drink. Along with ‘posca’, ‘sapum’, the forerunner of balsamic vinegar, was also used in ancient Rome. And vinegar producers have as their patron Saint Amandus of Maastricht, a hermit, later a missionary and bishop, who evangelised Belgium and northern France.
- THE RECIPE: EASTER SALAD WITH POACHED EGG AND BALSAMIC VINEGAR
Hans Küng, the theologian who sowed the seeds for Vatican III
The Swiss theologian Hans Küng has died. His name often made front page headlines when he fired hard at Catholic doctrine. A Hegelian by training, Küng wanted the ecumenical and democratic reform of the Church. While he sowed in silence, there are fruits we reap today: many think that we are already in the era of the Vatican Council III that he dreamed of.
“John Paul II and I, what joy the cause for his sainthood”
“Among the witnesses there were both lay people and priests, they all spoke of Wojtyla as ‘our Pope’. It is striking that they were people from all walks of life and from all over the world, but with a deeply rooted opinion of his saintliness.” The Compass interviews Monsignor Sławomir Oder, returning to Poland after 36 years in Rome and well-known postulator of the cause for canonisation of John Paul II, whose 16th anniversary of death fell on 2 April.
God saved us from Covid. He is better than any vaccine
Vaccines have become part a new religion. It is a religion with its own sacraments (hygiene, social distancing), saints (vaccinated people), commandments (Thou shall immunize thyself; Thou shall not covet your neighbor’s vaccination). Yet it is a false religion. This is the opinion of a person – a nun – who was on oxygen for a month and a half with very severe Covid-related pneumonia. Yet, her entire Shalom Community was saved thanks to the prayers and assistance of a volunteer nurse. Let everyone choose freely whether or not to get vaccinated, but leave us free to live our faith and, especially, not to adhere to any deviant form of faith.
Saint Honoratus, patron of bakers and pastry chefs
A man full of faith, one of the youngest bishops in the history of the Church, Saint Honoratus of Amiens is known (along with other saints) to be the patron saint of bakers and pastry chefs. His name is linked to one of the most popular confectionery preparations: the Saint-Honoré cake, invented around 1850 at the Parisian patisserie Chiboust.
- THE RECIPE: SAINT-HONORÉ CAKE
Good has triumphed: Christ is risen!
The Resurrection is the event that assures us that human life is journeying towards another life: journeying towards the Promised Land! Today we are as if on a bridge: we cannot build our house on the bridge, we cannot base everything on today, rather we must live journeying; we must live warming ourselves with the hope of expectation. Without the Resurrection of Christ, it is not possible to explain what happened around Christ and after Christ.
In the night a Light is turned on
Life is this passage from darkness to light: a passage that we are all experiencing. A message has come to us, a piece of news: Christ has told us that life leads to God who is the Father. But if Christ is risen, life has a whole new meaning. Every day is Easter: because every day is a journey towards God; every day something old in us dies and we take a step towards life.
Saying yes to the love that redeemed the world
Who then is the Christian? The Christian is a person who lives by faith (cf. Rom 1:17), that is, who has regulated their entire existence on the only possibility opened up to him by Jesus Christ, obedient for us all even to the cross (cf. Phil 2:8): the possibility of participating in the obedient yes that redeems the world. The mystery of Christ passes into the Christian, who must have within him the Spirit of Christ that impels him to offer himself freely and unconditionally for the salvation of the world accepting serenely persecution and division.
'Green' Church at the service of eugenics
The Vatican’s formal presentation of its "Pastoral Orientations on Climate Displaced People" marks the total subjugation of Church leadership to an ecological ideology, one that is anti-human at its core. While done in the name of defending the poor, it is actually a bullhorn for those who seek their elimination.
We shed the tears that Judas did not want to
At the Eucharistic celebration, we return to this very question and it is God who awaits our response: a response of actions, gestures and decisions. Let us sincerely recognize that pride is the poison of human history from all time. However, for Jesus, Judas is still the long-awaited friend and lost son of the Father's heart.
Birth control, a war against the poor
Contraception, abortion and euthanasia are not conquests of civilisation but weapons in a war against the poor. This is what emerges in a recently published book, Exterminating Poverty by Mark Sutherland. His book tells the story of the legal battle between his grandfather, the Scottish doctor Halliday Sutherland, and Marie Stopes, founder of the first family planning clinic over her eugenic plan to get rid of the poor. The Daily Compass spoke to the author
