WHAT’S UP WITH CERTAIN CATHOLIC NEWS MEDIA, NCR, AMERICA AND CRUX, PRAISING NETFLIX’S “WAKE UP DEAD MAN: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY”?

The NcR, America and Crux all have commentaries praising the Catholic content/ethos of “wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery”! 

I watched it on Saturday. It’s horrible!

First it’s unbelievable even if fiction. It is not a good, modern “film noir” at all.

The only thing that is believable is that the young parochial vicar who socks a deacon in the jaw breaking his jaw. What priest hasn’t wanted to do that to a deacon!

But then the parochial vicar is punished by his bishop for doing the violent act and sends him to a cult-leader of a pastor in Chimney Rock. The only chimney Rock I know is in the Diocese of Charlotte, but the bishop was black and the only bishop in my Province who is black is my place of residence bishop, the Bishop of Charleston, for whom I pray at Mass every day.

No this Chimney Rock is in New York. But the film is filmed in England and it looks like England from the church, to the pubs to the country side! What a joke!

And they make one big mistake. They film a car departing a scene and it is clear that the car has a European license plate, which is more oblong than USA plates!

And this is not a movie I would want to watch with my mother or my children.

There is crass potty humor about masturbation by the pastor who goes to confession to his young parochical vicar. Who wants to hear that stuff outside of confession and with your family gathered with you watching it!

None of the characters are believable.

The whole premise is ridiculous.

And the movie is way, way, way too long. A half hour or more could have been left on the cutting room floor and should have been, especially the explicit confession of the pastor to his parochial vicar.

And for the most part, they don’t get the Catholic things correct from where the altar missal is placed (although the altar is ad orientem). It is clear too that the church used appears to be a closed Anglican Church in England, not a Catholic Church.

This is a movie not worth watching on a number of levels. It is stupid, incipid and just plain too long, boring and predictable! 

OH MY! THE NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER CROWD IS REALLY GRIEVING WHAT NO LONGER IS! THEY REPORT A NEWSTORY ABOUT THE POPE PLANNING THE HOLY YEAR OF 2025!

 There is no indication that this front page (front and center, btw)  on-line story in this morning’s on-line NCR is a retrospect. At first I thought they meant that Pope Leo was planning a new Holy Year, which I think is going to be 2033 for the death and resurrection of Our Lord and that the NCR just got the year wrong.

But in fact, it is a story they printed in 2021!!!! And it isn’t presented as a retrospect at all!

The NCR and other heterodox Catholics really are trying to relive the past, the past 13 years and are stuck there! Oh my!

Here are screen shots of the story:

JUBILEE FOR PRISONERS ON GUADETE SUNDAY

Saint Gregory the Great Church in Bluffton, SC has Advent Sunday Sung Vespers at 4 pm during the season and this is the cope the priest will use, nice, no?:

This is St.Gregory’s chasuble for Guadete Sunday and I am vested for their 7 AM “golfers’ Mass” meaning it’s a Low Mass, no singing! But I certainly read the Official Introit!

But first Holy Family Church on Hilton Head Island rose chasuble:

Saint Gregory’s chasuble:

Are the chasubles I am wearing nicer than the pope’s?

Pope Leo, please, please, please, we beg you, please, please, please keep the crucifix dead center on the altar! Please, please, please, pretty please! 

I was able to watch live the Pope’s splendid Mass for Guadete Sunday. What an important part of our Catholic Liturgical Spirituality to make sure the entire Mass is used, in particular and especially, the Introit or official Entrance Chant as is normally done at papal Mass and was done this Guadete Sunday Mass.

Even Pope Leo mentioned in his homily the reason for this 3rd Sunday of Advent being called Guadete and His Holiness referenced the Entrance (Introit) Chant!

How many parishes had someones’ taste in music, jettison the official Guadete Chant for something else. Catholics deserve the Mass and its texts and the Entrance and Communion chants!!!

For two Masses in a row now, the central crucifix has returned. Pray God, that it remains in this position. 

I noticed in the live feed of the Mass, that Pope Leo looked at the crucifix at certain points during the Eucharistic Canon. This is reminiscent of the rubrics for the TLM, that the priest look at the crucifix at certain points during the Mass, for example, “Let us Prayer” for the Gloria Patri at the lavabo and other points too. 

Speaking personally, having the crucifix on the altar facing me as I celebrate the Liturgy of the Eucharist keeps my eyes focused on the altar and crucifix and not on those sitting before me in the nave. 

Finally, the Holy Father gave a splendid homily and as usual, he always includes God’s personal relationship to us in Christ and the eternal salvation in heaven that Christ has won for us—not to be imposed on us but graciously received by us through God’s grace. The theology of salvation is called soteriology. Pope Leo is a soteriological pope to the hilt!

You can read the homily HERE.

But this is the Holy Father’s homily conclusion:

The Lord, however, beyond all this, continues to repeat to us that only one thing is important: that no one be lost (cf. Jn 6:39) and that all “be saved” (1 Tim 2:4). Let no one be lost! Let all be saved! This is what our God wants, this is his Kingdom, and this is the goal of his actions in the world. As Christmas approaches, we too want to embrace more strongly his dream, while being steadfast and faithful in our commitment (cf. James 5:8). We know that even in the face of the greatest challenges, we are not alone: the Lord is near (cf. Phil 4:5), he walks with us, and with him at our side, something beautiful and joyful will always happen.

GUADETE!

 Guadete, Jubilee for prisoners 

Guadete Sunday 5 pm Saturday Vigil Mass at Holy Family Church, Hilton Head Island. The vestment is rose, 🌹, not pink… 

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, reJoIce. Let your forbearance be known to all
men. The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious over anything; but in all manner of
prayer, let your requests be made known unto God. Lord, you have blessed
your land; you have put an end to Jacob's captivity.

BLUE VESTMENTS FOR IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

 Saint Anne, Richmond Hill…

POPE LEO SPEAKS NOT A WORD ABOUT THE FALSE GOD OF SYNODALITY, NO, HE SPEAKS OF THE CENTRALITY OF CHRIST AND HIS SALVATION AND NOT SOWING CONFUSION AMONGST THE LAITY IN A VERY CONFUSING TIME—THEY MUST KNOW CHRIST AND HIS DIVINE LAW—THE TREASURY OF THE CHURCH! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, POPE LEO! WHAT A BREATH OF FRESH AIR!

 Be sure to read Pope Leo’s marvelous, stupendous elocution to Latin American priests, religious and seminarians. What a breath of fresh, crystal clear air! God bless you Pope Leo!

But before you read Pope Leo’s message to Latin American clergy, religious and seminarians, read the last part of his homily on the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe Mass at St. Peter’s. Not a word, during His Holiness’ homily about the false god of synodality or that the Holy Spirit, through the manipulation of the development of doctrine, will change his teachings as we discover the Holy Spirit’s will do to so walking together in synodality and manipulating the entire Church by doing so by blaming all the confusion on God:

Pope Leo closed his homily asking that Mary intercede for him in his role as the Successor of Peter, that he would be able to “confirm on the one path that leads to the blessed fruit of your womb, all those entrusted to me.”

“Remind this son of yours, ‘to whom Christ entrusted the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven for the good of all,’ that those keys serve ‘to bind and loose and to redeem all human misery,’” he said.

Leo prayed that, with Mary’s protection, believers might “advance ever more united, with Jesus and among ourselves, toward the eternal dwelling place He has prepared for us and where you await us.”

MESSAGE OF THE HOLY FATHER 

TO PARTICIPANTS IN THE MEETING 
OF LATIN AMERICAN PRIESTS, 
RELIGIOUS SISTERS, RELIGIOUS BROTHERS, 
AND SEMINARIANS 
WHO ARE STUDYING IN ROME

__________________________________________

Dear brothers and sisters,

When Jesus Christ called his disciples, he almost invariably used the words “follow me”. In those few words we can find the deepest purpose of our lives, whether as seminarians, priests or members of consecrated life.

If we reread the Gospel texts about the calling, the first thing we notice is the Lord's absolute initiative. He calls them without any prior merit on their part (cf. Mt 9:9; Jn 1:43), seeing rather that the vocation to which he calls them is an opportunity to bring the Gospel message to sinners and the weak (cf. Mt 9:12-13). In this way, his disciples become instruments of God’s plan of salvation for all people (cf. Jn 1:48).

At the same time, the Gospel exhorts us to be aware of the commitment that responding to this vocation entails. It speaks to us of certain demands that we can identify in the frustrated call to the rich young man (Mt 19:21): the demand for the absolute primacy of God, the only good (v. 17); the requirement of the urgent need for theoretical and practical knowledge of the divine law (vv. 18-19); and the requirement of detachment from all human security, with the consequent offering of all that we are and all that we have (v. 21).

Saint Ambrose, in his exegesis of the surprising passage about the young man whom Jesus does not allow to bury his father (Lk 9:59), assumes that in this demand to leave everything behind—even things that are in themselves just – the Lord does not intend to evade natural duties, sanctioned by God's law, but rather to open our eyes to a new life. In this new life, nothing can take precedence over God, not even what we had previously known as good, and it implies the death of sin and the old worldly man. All this “so that we may be one with Almighty God and see his only begotten Son” (Treatise on the Gospel of Saint Luke, 40).

For Ambrose, this indispensable union with Jesus, far from separating us from our brothers and sisters, leads us back to communion with others. We do not walk alone; we are part of a community. We are not united by bonds of sympathy, shared interests or mutual convenience, but by belonging to the people whom the Lord redeemed at the price of his Blood (cf. 1 Pet 1:18-19). Our union tends towards an eschatological value that will be verified when we imitate “the unity of eternal peace with an unbreakable harmony of souls and in an endless alliance” and fulfil “what the Son of God promised us when he raised this prayer to his Father: ‘May they all be one, as we are one’ (Jn 17:21)” (Treatise on the Gospel of Saint Luke, 40).

Finally, in the Gospel of Saint John, Jesus repeats the words “Follow me” twice to the Apostle Peter. He does so in a very different context, the Resurrection, just after Peter's thrice-repeated confession of love in reparation for his sin. Even though he confessed his love, the Apostle did not fully understand the mystery of the cross, but the Lord already had in mind the sacrifice with which Peter would give glory to God and repeated to him: “Follow me” (Jn 21:19). When, throughout our lives, our vision becomes clouded, as it did for Peter in the middle of the night or during storms (Mt 14:25, 31), it will be the voice of Jesus that sustains us with loving patience.

The second time Jesus says to Peter, “Follow me”, he assures us that the Lord knows our frailty and that, often, it is not the cross that is imposed on us, but our own selfishness that becomes a stumbling block in our eagerness to follow him. The dialogue with the Apostle shows us how easily we judge our brother and even God, without docilely accepting his will in our lives. Here too, the Lord repeats to us, with constancy: “What is that to you? Follow me!” (Jn 21:22).

Brothers and sisters, since we live in a society of noise that distracts us, today more than ever we need servants and disciples who proclaim the absolute primacy of Christ and whose voice is clear in our ears and hearts. This theoretical and practical knowledge of divine law is achieved above all through reading the Holy Scriptures, meditating in the silence of deep prayer, reverently welcoming the voice of legitimate pastors, and attentively studying the many treasures of wisdom offered to us by the Church.

In the midst of joys and difficulties, our motto must be: if Christ went through this, it is also our duty to live what He lived. We must not be driven by applause because its echo is short-lived; nor is it healthy to dwell only on the memory of days of crisis or times of bitter disappointment. Let us rather see that all this is part of our formation and say: if God has willed it for me, I also will it (cf. Ps 40:8). The deep bond that unites us to Christ, whether as priests, consecrated persons or seminarians, is similar to what is said to Christian spouses on their wedding day: “in sickness and in health, in poverty and in wealth” (Ritual of Marriage, 66).

May the Blessed Virgin Mary of Guadalupe, Mother of the true God through whom we live, teach us to respond with courage and to keep in our hearts the wonders that Christ has accomplished in us, so that we may go forth without delay to proclaim the joy of having found him, of being one in the One and living stones of a temple for his glory. May Mary Most Holy watch over your journey through Rome and intercede for you, so that everything you learn in Rome may be fruitful in your mission. God bless you.

Vatican, 9 December 2025. Memorial of Saint Juan Diego

LEO PP. XIV

BOMBSHELL OR FIRECRACKER? POPE LEO HAS A PRIVATE AUDIENCE WITH GEORGE WEIGEL!

What does it mean? What does it mean? Oh! What does it mean or does it mean anything? We all know that Weigel was not happy about Pope Francis’ canceling St. Pope John Paul II or Pope Benedict XVI. And look who is in the center of the above photo, Archbishop Gaenswain who challenged Pope Francis’ treatment of Pope Benedict and willingly paid the price.

IT APPEARS POPE LEO IS IN CONTINUITY WITH POPE BENEDICT WHEN IT COMES TO THE ARTS..

 This is the second concert in a little over a week for Pope Leo and only an hour or so after his Guadalupe Mass…

CAN YOU FIND ARCHBISHOP GAENSWAIN IN THE AUDIENCE NEAR THE POPE AND NEXT TO POPE BENEDICT’S PRESS SPOKESMAN, JESUIT FATHER FEDERICO LOMBARDI, SJ:

 

IS THE PAPAL MC TRYING TO KEEP US OR THE POPE ON OUR TOES? THE DANCING CRUCIFIX RETURNS TO THE CENTER OF THE ALTAR! BUT FOR HOW LONG? IT’S LIKE THE ELF ON A SHELF!

 At today’s papal Mass for Our Lady of Guadeloupe :

STUNNING RESTORATION OF THE GERMAN MAYER STAINED GLASS WINDOWS OF THE CHURCH OF THE MOST HOLY TRNITY IN AUGUSTA, GEORGIA!

In the late 1990’s when I was pastor of The Church of the Most Holy Trinity in downtown Augusta, Georgia (1991-2004), we completely restored the interior of the church using Conrad Schmitt and Company. 

We also removed and completely restored the three oldest stained glass windows in the church, the ones above the altar, which were in place when the church was consecrated in April of 1863, while the Civil War was still being waged! 

The side windows by Mayer and Company from Munich Germany, were not installed until about 1917 or so, during the height of World War I! 

The three oldest stained glass windows above the altar are from another company, and many believe these are Tiffany windows. These three are of a different style than the Mayer windows, but spectacular in their own right too. 

The central panel painting of the crucifixion scene, above the altar is original artwork in place for the 1863  consecration of the church. It was restored by Conrad Schmitt who added the side panels to complement it.

Recently, the Mayer windows were removed to be completely restored and are now installed again. These are huge Mayer windows and spectacular in brilliance and of the typical style of Mayer stained glass windows. 

You can watch the facebook video of their re-installation by way of a slide show HERE! IT IS WELL WORTH WATCHING.

The slide show is accompanied by the church’s historic Jardine Pipe organ, also restored in my time as pastor there. It dates back to 1863 but because of the northern blockade of the south, it sat on a dock in New York until the war was concluded. It was shipped to the church in 1866 and installed then. 

THE WAR BY SOME BISHOPS ON THEIR FAITHFUL, INCLUDING THE BISHOP OF ROME WAGING THIS PECULIAR WAR…

Fr. Roberto Pasolini, OFM cap offered Pope Leo and the Curia a curious mediation on diversity in the Church, unity within diversity.

Below the quotes from Fr. Roberto, are my most humble but extremely astute comments in red.

Vatican City – This morning, in the Paul VI Hall, Fr. Roberto Pasolini OFM Cap, Preacher of the Pontifical Household, offered the Roman Curia and the Holy Father the second Advent 2025meditation, on the theme: “Rebuilding the Lord’s house. A Church without oppositions.” A reflection that brought into focus the ecclesial responsibility to welcome grace not only as individuals, but as a body, avoiding the shortcuts of uniformity and the polarizations that render discernment sterile.

Babel: unity sought as uniformity

To respond, the Preacher retraced the account of the tower of Babel: a project born of the fear of dispersion and presented as a “reasonable” operation, but in reality concealing a logic of control. The key phrase of the biblical text, taken up in the meditation, is: «Come… let us make a name for ourselves, so that we may not be scattered». Here unity does not arise from the composition of differences, but from homogenization: identical “bricks” in place of irregular stones, quick consensus instead of real confrontation. Pasolini then brought the temptation of homogenization into the present: yesterday totalitarianisms, today subtler dynamics - from information bubbles to standardized language - even reaching the Church when it confuses the unity of faith with the uniformity of expressions and sensibilities.

“Confusion” as therapy: God saves difference

The theological point is decisive: God does not “punish” Babel out of jealousy, but intervenes to prevent a process of death. The text places on the Lord’s lips words that are harsh and at the same time medicinal: «Let us go down, then, and confuse their language». Confusion thus becomes a protection, because it prevents a single voice from imposing itself as an absolute and restores to humanity the possibility of not all being the same. In the background,Pentecost emerges as a “mirror” account: not one single language for all, but a communion in which each person understands “in his or her own language”. Difference safeguarded, not abolished.

MY MOST HUMBLE BUT MOST ASTUTE COMMENTS: Why in the Name of God and all that is holy, did Pope Francis and many bishops, even under Pope Leo, wage war on faithful Catholics who expressed a diversity but within unity when it comes to the crystal clear permissions that St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI gave them to live within the splendid unity of the Church a diversity of ways to offer the Mass and the other Sacraments of the Church?

Why in the Name of God and all that is holy, are orthodox, traditional Catholics marginalized, mocked and ridiculed as if they are heretics, by the Bishop of Rome and even now certain bishops?

Why in the Name of God and all that is holy, are there bishops, even under Pope Leo, banning the use of altar railings in order to kneel for Holy Communion, in the modern Mass, mind you, as well as celebrating the modern Mass ad orientem and in Latin and even in some cases, as is purported from coming from the Diocese of Charlotte in the very Province in which I live, that the Benedictine Altar arrangement with the six candles and central crucifix can not be used in Masses facing the people?

All of these examples are within the unity but in diversity that Fr. Roberto touts as coming from God.

Why in the Name of God and all that is holy, would the Bishop of Rome and any other bishop wage war on faithful Catholics but fail in the primary duty to call sinners, real, actual MORTAL sinners, to conversion, a change of life and lifestyle and picking up their cross and following Jesus in the most personal ways possible? 

Why in the Name of God and all that is holy, would any bishop wage war on faithful Catholics and neglect to wage a spiritual war on doctrinal, spiritual and moral corruption of those under their pastoral care? 

IN THE NAME OF GOD AND ALL THAT IS HOLY, CAN ANYONE EXPLAIN THIS TO ME?

A COUPLE OF RECENT AND CONSPICUOUS REVERSALS OF POPE FRANCIS BY POPE LEO…

 Do you notice any recent reversals of Pope Francis by Pope Leo in these photos?

This is an image of where Pope Francis sat for the annual Vatican Advent Meditations for the Curia:

This is where Pope Leo is sitting and it isn’t in the chapel with Fr. Rupnick’s mosaics:

Pope Francis “attends” a Vatican Concert:

Pope Leo attending a Vatican concert:

SOME EARLIER PHOTOS OF THE BASILICA OF THE SACRED HEART IN DOWNTOWN ATLANTA

 Here are some earlier photos of the Sacred Heart in Atlanta:

Post later 1950’s up to the most recent renovation:

Artist rendering of most recent renovation:

In reality:

The earliest iterations of the sanctuary with its more than likely faux marble (wooden) altar, allows the three arches to be clearly seen. 

The modern reredos, now removed, as well as a temporary canopy over the altar, hides the middle arch.

The newest renovation strives to recover the three arches look. The pedestal throne for the Most Blessed Sacrament is a nice attempt to be more to scale so that the three arches are all exposed, but it misses the mark. Perhaps the reredos for the tabernacle should have been taller so that the crucifix could be placed directly above the tabernacle but fully on the tabernacle’s marble backdrop. Where the crucifix is now placed looks like an after thought and not the right place for it. 

I still think, though, that having the main altar only two steps up from the pews is a disaster of a mistake as the altar cannot be seen from the pews when the church is filled with people. What were they thinking? But this is a common mistake in church renovations and building of new churches. They think it makes the altar look closer to the laity, but in fact, it hides the altar altogether.

I recommend that the main sanctuary be four  to five steps higher than the pews. And that there be a more spacious area in front of the altar, then the altar raised two to three steps higher than that space. 

Just my two cents.