Mary is the Eucharistic woman, we should imitate Her
«The Mother of God is the first living tabernacle in history. She carried Jesus in her womb and handed him over to men, as their path to holiness and nourishment in their lives.... Modern man is lost precisely because he no longer dedicates time to prayer, particularly to silent prayer... Let’s ask Jesus in the Eucharist to fill us with His presence and to make us tabernacles of His body in our daily lives, just as the Virgin Mary was». Excerpts from an homily at the International Eucharistic Congress in Budapest.
9/11: 20 years later, the moral surrender of the West
Twenty years after September 11, we remember the day 'that changed the world', as many commentators write. But, actually, what we should try to understand is why 9/11 did not change the world at all. Al Qaeda is still there, Isis was born, jihadism is still expanding, even the Taliban, defeated then, are back in power. What has happened? The US and its allies have never suffered military defeats. It is politics that has decided to stop fighting. And it has done so driven by three real powers of contemporary thought: materialism, relativism and Third Worldism.
"Listen", but to whom? The Synod’s empty words
The next synodal phase exploring ‘synodality’ has just published two documents. Key words scattered throughout the Vadenecum handbook (listening, inclusion, participation, dreaming, hope, novelty, change, stereotypes, prejudices, dialogue, reconciliation, sharing, peripheries, discernment, accessibility, equity, co-responsibility) are words that are so empty, being void of any specific significance, that they are fillable with any potential meaning. For example, do ‘inclusion’ and ‘dialogue’ also regard heresy? Is ‘sharing’ a value in itself regardless of the content being shared? Do ‘stereotypes’ and ‘prejudices’ also concern elements of doctrine?
Catherine of Siena, a saint who craved love and justice
Determined to do God's will, Catherine overcame various difficulties in her family in order to join a religious order. Finally she was accepted into the Mantellate, Dominican tertiaries. She helped her fellow human beings and wrote over three hundred letters, assisted by the 'beautiful brigade'. She fought to bring the Pope back to Rome, offering continuous fasting and penance, until she returned to the Father at the age of 33.
- THE RECIPE: CRESPEOU D'AVIGNON
Foetal cells, the Trump-Biden difference
Before Trump intervened to curb the use of tissue from aborted babies, experiments were being carried out on 'humanized mice'. Then Biden reversed his predecessor's measures, refinancing research based on foetal cells. This barbarity has become systemic, affecting many therapies, including vaccines, and cannot ethically be dismissed.
The Afghanistan that persists: tribal practices adopted into Islamic religion
The Taliban might allow women to study, but their husbands of arranged marriages, will forbid it. The Taliban could also not impose the burqa by law, but families will require it to be worn. The Taliban might refrain from reintroducing the stoning of adulterous women, but it will be their families to kill them. These are the ancient, tribal traditions that Islam has reinforced in Afghan society.
Horror film Gothic depicts the first sexual revolution
The British director's film recounts the first sexual revolution in history, which - not by chance - ends in death and gives birth to horror literature. It all revolves around the stay of five English people at Villa Diodati on Lake Geneva in Switzerland in the summer of 1816. Among them were the poets Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord George Byron....
As Big Tech censures Christians, Europe winks
Europe, invaded by the overwhelming power of the Big Tech lobbies, knowingly winks at all lobbies opposed to the Christian vision. Alarm bells have been sounded by intellectuals, legal experts, and heads of NGOs who have drawn up a number of defensive measures to overcome Big Tech censorship.
Biden bragging about the withdrawal from Kabul is indefensible
Joe Biden publicly boasts, he’s ended the war in Afghanistan, even though the scenes of the disastrous withdrawal are there for all to see. Biden has probably made use of the behavioral scientist Sunstein, theorist of the "nudge" to tailor his rhetoric. But, the Americans are not fooled and the president has lost credibility.
John of Capistrano, icon of the Battle of Belgrade
At the invitation of Pope Callistus III, St John of Capistrano recruited 35,000 Hungarian Christians, ordinary citizens, to fight the Turks besieging Belgrade. Joining the soldiers led by John Hunyadi, on 22nd July 1456, they defeated a much larger army. And the evening before, John had blessed a meal....
- THE RECIPE: GOULASH
