Father James Valladares, PhD, a friend to Father Gordon MacRae and this blog, is a priest, psychologist, and noted author from Mumbai, India and Adelaide, Australia.
Antependia (altar frontals) are decorative liturgical textiles placed on altars. They correspond to specific liturgical days or seasons, focus attention on the altar, and enhance the appearance of sanctuaries. The article presents before-and-after examples from UK-based Penson Ecclesiastical Arts, showing how altar frontals can noticeably transform church interiors. They are presented as a relatively inexpensive way to improve altars and liturgical spaces.
Before and After (Antependia Edition) with Penson Ecclesiastical Arts
1 Corinthians 3:18-23 "You belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God." Let us remain in the joy of God's heart. Luke 5:1-11 "They left everything and followed Jesus." Letting go of what is unnecessary is already being with Jesus. Biblical texts: NAB-RE Normand Thomas.
A Traditional Latin Mass actually took place in a private home in Hanoi in early August 2026, celebrated by a visiting priest. Young Vietnamese Catholics attended using bilingual missals.There are small organized communities of young Catholics interested in the old Mass, including one led by Joseph Christopher Nguyen Thien Tuan Hoang. Participants are mainly in their 20s and 30s.
Cloudflare Radar data suggest that Gloria.tv is the only major Catholic website dentified in the global Top 10,000. Other major Catholic domains, including Vatican.va, VaticanNews.va or EWTN.com, appear only in the Top 100,000. The datasets do not provide ranks beyond the Top 100. The Top 10,000 and Top 100,000 are unordered buckets and domains in the downloaded files are listed alphabetically. Catholic Websites Between the Top 10,000 and Top 100,000 vatican.va - Holy See vaticannews.va - Vatican News ewtn.com - EWTN usccb.org - U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops aleteia.org - Aleteia aciprensa.com - ACI Prensa / EWTN hallow.com - Catholic prayer app opusdei.org - Opus Dei lifesitenews.com - LifeSiteNews Catholic Websites Between the Top 100,000 and Top 1,000,000 ewtnnews.com - EWTN News ewtnvatican.com - EWTN Vatican catholicnewsagency.com - Catholic News Agency / EWTN infovaticana.com - InfoVaticana ncregister.com - National Catholic Register / EWTN wordonfire.org - Word on Fire …More
Pope Leo XIV’s prayer intention for the month of September is for the care of water. “Water is a symbol of your grace and love that renews us through Baptism. We beg forgiveness that it has been turned into a commodity, forgetting that it is a universal gift, a right without borders," the Holy Father expressed in his prayer released September 1 on the occasion of the Season of Creation. He added a plea to become “pilgrims of the essential, capable of living simply, denouncing waste and pollution, and defending the right of every person to drink without fear and without inequality.”
Cardinal Cupich has allowed heterodox Fr. Michael Pfleger, who has conducted homosexual ‘blessings’ and endorsed ‘women’s ordination,’ to return as senior pastor of a Chicago parish
Rev. Michael Pfleger, 77, was reinstated effective August 24 after the Archdiocese of Chicago's Independent Review Board completed its investigation. He is known nationally for his progressive activism. Cardinal Blase Cupich, 77, said the board, assisted by the Office of Child Protection and outside investigators, concluded there was “no reason to believe” Pfleger was guilty of the allegation. Cupich accepted the recommendation and returned him to ministry at St. Sabina. According to the Chicago Sun-Times reporting, a woman alleged that Pfleger sexually abused her when she was a girl attending St. Sabina's school sometime between 1993 and 1995. The allegation surfaced this July, and Pfleger was removed from ministry on July 11 while it was investigated. Rev. Pfleger denied it emphatically from the outset, calling it an “absolute lie.” Under archdiocesan policy, the allegation was reported to police, and the accuser was offered assistance through the church's Victim Assistance Ministry. …More
The Dawn of a New Era September 3, Memorial of Saint Gregory the Great Dear brothers and sisters, after the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476, Italy was ravaged by the Greco-Gothic War. The capital of the Western Roman Empire had been moved to Ravenna, and Rome was abandoned to its fate. What had once been the capital of the world, besieged, destroyed, and sacked first by the Visigoths in 410 and then by the Vandals in 455, had shrunk from 100,000 inhabitants to just 30,000, afflicted by hunger and epidemics. Gregory was born in 540 to an ancient noble family. Gifted with great intelligence, at just 33 years of age he became prefect of the city, but the Lord called him to other endeavors. Fascinated by the life of Saint Benedict, in 573 he renounced his possessions and donated them to the poor. Having become a Benedictine, he transformed his home on the Celian Hill into a convent and became its abbot. He was torn from his life of silence, prayer, and study by Pope Pelagius II, who …More
Enzo Bianchi, founder of the Monastic Community of Bose, died at the Molinette Hospital in Turin at the age of 83 after kidney failure led to a metabolic coma. Bianchi was a monk but never became a priest. A prolific author, he wrote extensively on Scripture, spirituality and contemporary Christianity. He addressed Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox audiences and became a regular interlocutor of secular intellectuals and non-believers. Bose: From Farmhouse to a Center of Ecumenism Bianchi was born on March 3, 1943, in Castel Boglione, Piedmont. His mother died when he was eight, and he grew up with his atheist and communist father. After studying accounting and beginning economics studies, he chose a different path. In 1965, he settled in a farmhouse at Bose, near Magnano in the province of Biella, arriving on December 8, the final day of the Second Vatican Council. Three years later, others joined him. The community included men and women, Catholics and Protestants. Initially viewed with …More
catholicculture.org/news/index.cfm The Vatican has not approved the German bishops' planned synodal meeting to make policies, where most of the voting participants would not be bishops. Therefore, it has been cancelled, at least for the moment. I explain in German synodality stalled. Hot air cooling? Phil Lawler reflects on an odd historical situation, which also involves one of his commentaries from five years ago: Revisiting: Why early Church debates were more exciting. Fr. Jerry Pokorsky offers a beautiful commentary on Outwitting Human Suffering. Thomas Mirus coninues his series on Pope Leo XIII: St. Leo the Great’s Teaching on Petrine Primacy— available as a written commentary and in podcast form. IN PODCASTING: Note that we are now adding transcripts to our podcast pages, for those who would rather read than listen, or who simply want to be able to refer back to the text. The transcripts appear at the bottom of the show notes. The first example of this is the latest …More
The “chain of evidence”