John B. Manos

Bellarmine on Hell-Bound Popes. Our Patron’s Feast today.

Today is the feast of St. Robert Bellarmine, the patron of the Bellarmine Forum/Wanderer Forum Foundation. It is the perfect opportunity to illustrate one of the many, many, many examples from his life of why he is the perfect saint for our time in America.  The trouble is that there are so many reasons! We could discuss…

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7 Secrets Fr. Hardon Observed about Saint Mother Teresa’s Power

Although many people think Mother Teresa was already canonized, some thinking it happened several times already, today it was official.  Some news services are calling her Saint Teresa.  Even Pope Francis said it was going to be difficult to change how we refer to her, from “Mother Teresa” to “Saint Teresa.”  I think, mostly because…

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Back to School Challenge: Find these 5 ideas in your child’s catechism!

Ahh, back to school time…  I remember having to make book covers out of old grocery bags, and then needing to promptly doodle, draw, and/or write on the covers to immediately identify them.  Then, I’d scan the book for pictures and see just what was in this new thing. It’s the time of year and…

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5 Things to Consider on the Beheading of John the Baptist Compared to Today

Today is the feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist. All great eras have to come to a head — a pinnacle where all the threads of plot swirl in wild tempest to resolution. Of all the stories in the old testament, I think the end of John the Baptist is a lot like Our…

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Act Like You Know the Queen: Fr. Hardon Explains The Queenship of Mary

When I read about the variety of things Pope Pius V did in bringing Mary to a higher place of honor in the Roman Church, I’m often amazed that he wasn’t able, or perhaps, it was not yet time, for the apparent conclusions.  Just consider this short list of changes he made: He added the…

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Image of the Blessed Mother inset in a circle with floral flourishes to each side. John B. Manos

Consecration to the Immaculate Heart and the Trial of the West by Islam?

In the wake of Mohammedism’s (Islam’s) initial spread over the middle east, an African bishop penned a consecration to the Blessed Mother’s Immaculate heart. The Bishop of Toledo wrote one as well. We know that Spain was run over by Islam for a time, but it got me wondering… August is traditionally devoted to focusing on devotion to the…

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What Hamish Fraser Saw About Your Children Thirty Years Ago

I’ve been going back and listening to some old cassettes lately. I ran across one quote that is harrowing. I mean it. The insight some of these people had peering into the state of the day reaches across decades to today and is fresh, if not terrible. I can’t help it — anyone who has listened to Fr….

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The Church in 10 Years: Guitars, Speaking in Tongues, Women Priests?

I was listening to a sales person the other day and one thing they kept telling me to do is imagine my life down the road with this product. How much easier it would be to do this, and how fast I’d see results down, and just how great life would be. Infomercials do this a lot,…

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Numbstruck over Fatima: If you are blaming the Pope, you’re doing it wrong

Yesterday was First Saturday and the Feast of the Transfiguration. I tend to have a post on First Saturday, and I missed it yesterday, but it gave me a chance to consider something. Things are awful today — in the Church and without. Just look at politics and the shenanigans of the candidates. Worse, look at the inane things…

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Continued Abuse of Extraordinary Ministers Proves Cardinal Sarah’s Ad Orientem would be No Different Even Had the Pope Signed off

Subtitle for the Liturgically impaired:  Ad Orientem means “towards the east” or in ICEL dynamic equivalence “facing the east”. I love listening to the radio, and many programs I like are available on podcast. Sometimes I listen to a podcast again, even though I heard the live show, because I pick up things I didn’t hear…

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