Martel/Milo

Christianity is a strange religion. So strange, in fact, that it may be best not even to call it a religion at all. There is no end to ‘the varieties of religious experience’, as our pragmatic-Protestant culture delights in pointing out. But the treasure of truth safeguarded by the Catholic Church is, at heart, a singular paradox. Man sins, and God dies so that man might live. Nobody, but nobody, saw that coming.

Nobody sees it coming still. It shocks everyone who learns that God is not some lightning bolt-hurling playboy living on top of a mountain or a thousand-armed arhat with knotty hair. God is love, and love to death.

Vatican II Spring Time New Evangelization Update installment 6,876,543. This one comes from an April 29, 2019 article from “Michigan Live” website entitled, “Michigan residents leaving the Catholic Church as many turn away from religion.” The article states:

Between 2000 and 2018, membership in Michigan’s Catholic parishes dropped from 2.2 million to 1.8 million, according to Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), which collects annual data from U.S. Catholic dioceses.

Even more striking in the CARA data are the declines in Catholic sacraments and education. Infant baptisms, down 49% since 2000. Weddings blessed by the Catholic Church, down 54%. First Communions, down 46%. Enrollment in Catholic grade schools, down 49%. Enrollment in K-12 religious education classes, down 48%...

Introduction: A Matter of Credentials?

Having seen quite enough of Pope’s Francis’ theological wrecking ball in operation, and fearing even worse to come, a number of prominent Catholic academics have issued an Open Letter to the worldwide episcopate accusing Francis of “the canonical delict of heresy” and requesting that the bishops “take the steps necessary to deal with the grave situation of a heretical pope.” The authors declare: “We take this measure as a last resort to respond to the accumulating harm caused by Pope Francis’s words and actions over several years, which have given rise to one of the worst crises in the history of the Catholic Church.” 

A Letter from Rome...

Editor’s Introduction: During The Remnant’s recent visit to Rome we had the opportunity to collaborate with the Rome-based Lepanto Foundation’s Professor Roberto de Mattei in a dramatic demonstration, just two days before the Vatican’s sham summit meeting on clerical sexual abuse (see all reports from RTV HERE).  During that visit, I also had the opportunity to interview Professor de Mattei for Remnant TV.

I have been acquainted with Professor de Mattei’s work for many years and, to be quite honest, was honored to stand with him in Rome. He is a first-rate Catholic historian and directs the magazine Radici Cristiane and the Corrispondenza Romana News Agency. After our interview, it occurred to me that it makes no sense for The Remnant not to be collaborating with Roberto De Mattei on a more regular basis, and so I asked him if he’d consider becoming a contributor to these columns.

Seven Martyrs of Shanhsi

Editor's Introduction: Facebook Takes a Page Out of Chairman Mao's Little Red Book

The following is slightly longer than the typical online Remnant article. We're posting it anyway and for two reasons. 1) It's another installment in a 20-year-long series of excellent articles on the history of the Catholic Church in China penned by our longtime correspondent Teresa Moreau, who is simply refusing to let us forget the systematic hate crimes committed against our brothers and sisters in China. If you're not a subscriber to The Remnant, you're missing out on thoughtful research pieces such as this one. So please subscribe today.

2) In light of what happened last week when several prominent conservatives were banished from polite social media society and sent to the E-Gulag, merely for expressing opinions contrary to those held by Facebook, Twitter and Instgram, this article provides sobering parallels to what was going on 70 years ago when one of the most ruthless Communist regime in history was coming to power in China.

New from RTV. . .

From the Remnant Editor's Desk, Michael J. Matt reviews the far-Left pontificate of Francis in light of a new international call to action from mainstream Catholic priests, scholars and theologians, begging the bishops of the world to confront the Pope’s heresy.

In addition, clips of Philip Lawler, Father Joseph Fessio and EWTN’s Raymond Arroyo demonstrate widespread resistance rising among mainstream Catholic leaders.

Archbishop Angelelli (left) in a protest march in La Rioja

Introduction

In June of 2018, Pope Bergoglio approved the “martyrdom” of the leftwing radical Argentine prelate Enrique Angelelli, Bishop of La Rioja, who died in a car crash in 1976.  On April 27, 2019 Angelelli and three others who opposed Argentina’s military regime during the Dirty War (1974-1983) were “beatified” as “martyrs” for the Faith at a ceremony in La Rioja presided over by Cardinal Angelo Becciu, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. 

DrudgeReport headlines scream “Pope Funds Caravan” or “Border Battle: Pope Funds Caravan.” The Vatican wires half a million dollars from Peter’s Pence to aid the illegal immigrant caravan marching over the southern border of the United States.

Attention Catholics!

This year the director of the Lord of the Rings films, Peter Jackson, offered the world a unique look into recent history. Produced to coincide with the 100^th anniversary of the cessation of hostilities in World War I, Jackson created the extraordinary documentary, “They Shall Not Grow Old.” The film features archival footage of soldiers of the Great War, painstakingly remastered using computer technology to show us a glimpse of the war as these young men would have seen it.

The film slows down, cleans up and then convincingly colourises the original footage to show us the kind of young men – many of them only boys – we can easily imagine knowing ourselves. It takes the war out of the realm of remote and quaint lost era of the past, the world of the silent film and comic antics of Charlie Chaplain, to an immediate and humanised reality. 

Monday began for most of us just like it always does. I was late for work, again. Dashed out, forgetting breakfast and to brush my hair, but the kids I teach didn’t seem to notice (or if they did, were cute enough to let it slide). It wasn’t until I was pulling back into my driveway that I got the text.

“I’m devastated! God help us.”

New From Remnant TV...

From the Editor’s Desk, Michael Matt examines the Holy Week symbolism of the French rooster. which the whole world saw plunge into the flames of Notre Dame. Was that an evil omen, or a good one?

Plus, an old and prophetic French holy card surfaces, which depicts the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Cathedral of Notre Dame in flames.