Blogposts

Science? Yes. Green Ideology? It’s Not Part of the Catholic Faith

07-27-2025Weekly ReflectionFr. Leonard F. Villa

Is Pope Leo XIV a supporter of this ideology? The harmony to which the Pope and Saint Augustine refer is antithetical to that of the green ideology. Right reason and divine Revelation teach us that man, created in the image of God, stands at the top of the hierarchical scale of creation. Nature is a means given by God to man to achieve his supernatural end. Man must respect nature and its laws, which are not only physical and chemical, but also religious and moral.

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Our Lady of Good Counsel of Genazzano

07-20-2025Weekly ReflectionNelson Ribeiro Fragelli

At the borders of Europe, people awaken: Albanians return to the Church! (Edited)

It should be remembered that Albanians are direct descendants of the Illyrians, an Indo-European people evangelized in the early centuries. In his Letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul writes: "From Jerusalem to Illyricum I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ" (Rom. 15:19). This is one of the first testimonies of the Christian presence on the European continent.

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Saint Junipero Serra and Those Who Attack him

07-13-2025Weekly ReflectionFr. Leonard F. Villa

The feast of St. Junipero Serra was on July 1st. This saint has been attacked by anti-Catholics with a false narrative. Bill Donohue of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights reported about one such attack: NEW YORK TIMES SMEAR OF ST. SERRA STANDS On September 30, (2020) the New York Times ran a front-page story that smeared St. Junipero Serra. Repeated attempts to have the paper correct the record have failed.

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Beleaguered Christians Have No One to Defend Them…. And Their Enemies Know it

07-06-2025Weekly ReflectionFr. Leonard F. Villa

A prayer chamber destroyed at St Mary Tahira in Qaraqosh, Iraq, where Islamic State militants took over it and used the courtyard as a firing range.

Today, persecution of Christians is as brutal and vicious as that experienced by Christians in the early church. “If one member suffers, all suffer together” 1 Corinthians 12:26 St. Paul tells us. On May 24, 2025, Fulani militants attacked the villages of Tse-Ubiam and Tyolaha in Benue State, killing ten people.

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Young Americans (and beyond) are flocking to the Catholic Church

06-29-2025Weekly ReflectionFr. Leonard F. Villa

Earlier this year, The Pillar reported a surge in the number of prospective Catholics looking to join the Church at Easter. The Diocese of Lansing, Michigan, reported a 30 percent increase over the previous year to 633 converts, the highest number in a decade. Father Ryan Kaup of the Catholic Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln baptized 20 students himself— “the most ever”—and performed initiation rites for 50 others from different Christian denominations and now, of course, we have an American pope, Leo XIV, who church leaders hope will further boost the country’s Catholic boom.

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True Shepherds

06-22-2025Weekly ReflectionFr. Leonard F. Villa

Government Interrogator (to the Cardinal under arrest): You see, you represent a religion ...... which provides an organization outside the state. In your pulpit you are more dangerous than a politician. ... you're a national monument. You are outside the party, and that monument must be ... The Cardinal: Destroyed? Interrogator: Defaced. Dialog from the movie The Prisoner 1955

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The Sacred Heart - Prefer Nothing to the Love of Christ

06-15-2025Weekly ReflectionFr. Leonard F. Villa

The Heart in Scripture: In Hebrew thought the heart means the entire interior life of the person. It is the center of the person’s identity and the center of understanding and free will. Tradition: The Fathers and theologians from St. Augustine and St. Cyril of Alexandria down to St. Peter Canisius speak of the fountain of living waters of divine love as taking their source in the side of Christ. By this the Fathers meant that the Holy Spirit was poured forth on mankind because he who possessed the Holy Spirit in all his fullness had sacrificed his own Heart. As a direct result the Church and all that it effects, her sacraments and the life of grace flow out from the Heart of Christ as the work of the Holy Spirit.

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Church-Amnesia on Communism, Its Roots, and Cure

06-08-2025Weekly ReflectionFr. Leonard F. Villa

This just so happens is not a cash-and-carry business, you’re not dealing with the A&P now. These are cannibals, Mr. Leatherby, headhunting bloodthirsty cannibals who are out to eat us up.
Lt Colonel Van Dyke schools naïve American Mr. Leatherby on the nature of the Soviets in the movie Night People 1954. To update you can paste in for Soviets “the communist government of China.”

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Why is IVF morally wrong?

06-01-2025Weekly ReflectionFr. Leonard F. Villa

The current administration in Washington is unfortunately promoting and is in favor of IVF, in vitro fertilization, popularly called test tube fertilization. The rationale for this procedure is to help infertile couples have a child. People ask what can be wrong with that?

NOTE: The Church has clearly and unequivocally judged to be immoral in vitro fertilization or IVF. Unfortunately, most Catholics are not aware of the Church's teaching, do not know that IVF is immoral, and some have used it in attempting to have children.

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Despite What You Have Heard, Even at Funerals, Everyone Does Not Go Straight to Heaven

05-25-2025Weekly ReflectionFr. Leonard F. Villa

You may have heard at funerals that a deceased is in heaven. Does that reflect Catholic teaching? The answer is no. The deceased may be in heaven but funerals are not canonizations and hence no one can say with certainty any deceased is in heaven except baptized infants and canonized saints. In the confusion following the close of the Second Vatican Council many Catholic teachings were ignored or denied especially those on death and what happens after death.

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The Athanasian Creed

05-18-2025Weekly ReflectionFr. Leonard F. Villa

Also called the Quicumque-vult (‘‘Whoever wills [to be saved]’’) or for short, Quicumque from its opening words in Latin; a profession of the Catholic Faith in 40 rhythmical sentences. The Athanasian Creed is one of the approved statements of the truths of the Faith, dating back to the fourth or fifth century. Modern scholarship indicates that it was not written by St. Athanasius, but its expressions and ideas reflect his influence. Some scholars think it may have been written by St. Ambrose of Milan.

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Holy Mary Mother of God and of the Church intercede for us

05-11-2025Weekly ReflectionFr. Leonard F. Villa

“The Most Important Person on earth is a mother. She cannot claim the honor of having built Notre Dame Cathedral. She need not. She has built something more magnificent than any cathedral -a dwelling for an immortal soul, the tiny perfection of her baby’s body. . . The angels have not been blessed with such a grace. They cannot share in God’s creative miracle to bring new saints to Heaven. Only a human mother can. Mothers are closer to God the Creator than any other creature; God joins forces with mothers in performing this act of creation. .. What on God’s good earth is more glorious than this: to be a mother?” ~ Venerable Jozsef Cardinal Mindszenty

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The Past Pontificate, the Conclave

05-04-2025Weekly ReflectionFr. Leonard F. Villa

The Conclave to elect the next Vicar of Christ, Successor of St. Peter, will take place on May 7. Prayer is vital for the Cardinal-Electors, those Cardinals under the age of 80. We need to especially ask the prayers of the Blessed Virgin, Mother of the Church, to whose Motherhood May is dedicated, for the Pope we need in these times of fracture, doctrinal confusion, and scandal in the Church, although we should keep this observation of St. John Henry Cardinal Newman in mind as we think about the state of the Church:

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