A Priest Life ((((,,))))

Thursday, November 5, 2026

The vibrant Church in Scandinavia

Bishop Erik Varden

Mark Lambert @sitsio:

You can't deny that it is interesting that this is happening in one of Europe's most secularised regions.

Catholic leaders in Scandinavia are reporting growing interest in conversion to the Faith. I didn't have the Nordic countries becoming a hopeful story for Catholic evangelisation in my predictions for 2026!

According to OSV News, Catholic communities in Norway and Denmark are seeing increased interest from adults seeking to enter the Church. Immigration accounts for much of the wider growth in Catholic numbers, so we should resist declaring a great religious revival just yet. Nevertheless, there is something fascinating about people discovering Catholicism in societies which have spent generations treating Christianity as an increasingly irrelevant historical inheritance. Perhaps secularisation has not eliminated the fundamental human questions about truth, meaning, morality and our ultimate purpose. It has simply left many people without convincing answers.

Interestingly, some Catholic leaders have cautioned that younger converts may initially be attracted by the Church's opposition to prevailing cultural trends. That may be a starting point, but it cannot be the destination. Catholicism is not simply a conservative alternative to progressive secularism. It is a claim about reality, founded upon the person of Jesus Christ.

People may first encounter the Church through traditional liturgy, beauty, moral clarity or the intellectual coherence of Catholic theology. But genuine conversion ultimately requires an encounter with Christ and a willingness to be transformed by Him.

I wonder whether there is a lesson here for the wider Church. We spend enormous energy discussing how to make Catholicism more accessible to modern society, sometimes appearing embarrassed by precisely those teachings which make it distinctive. Yet perhaps some people are seeking the Church because she offers something fundamentally different from the culture around them. If people are rediscovering Catholicism in societies which have largely forgotten it, surely our responsibility is not to dilute what they are discovering, but to help them encounter its fullness.

The Nordic experience does not yet prove that secularisation is reversing, but it certainly challenges the assumption that Europe's religious future has already been decided.

Wednesday, November 4, 2026

Scripture for today: “Behold an affliction is come”

And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

And thou son of man, thus saith the Lord God to the land of Israel: The end is come, the end is come upon the four quarters of the land.

3 Now is an end come upon thee, and I will send my wrath upon thee, and I will judge thee according to thy ways: and I will set all thy abominations against thee.
4 And my eye shall not spare thee, and I will shew thee no pity: but I will lay thy ways upon thee, and thy abominations shall be in the midst of thee: and you shall know that I am the Lord.

5 Thus saith the Lord God: One affliction, behold an affliction is come.
6 An end is come, the end is come, it hath awaked against thee: behold it is come.
7 Destruction is come upon thee that dwellest in the land: the time is come, the day of slaughter is near, and not of the joy of mountains.
8 Now very shortly I will pour out my wrath upon thee, and I will accomplish my anger in thee: and I will judge thee according to thy ways, and I will lay upon thee all thy crimes.
9 And my eye shall not spare, neither will I shew mercy: but I will lay thy ways upon thee, and thy abominations shall be in the midst of thee: and you shall know that I am the Lord that strike.

10 Behold the day, behold it is come: destruction is gone forth, the rod hath blossomed, pride hath budded.
11 Iniquity is risen up into a rod of impiety: nothing of them shall remain, nor of their people, nor of the noise of them: and there shall be no rest among them.
12 The time is come, the day is at hand: let not the buyer rejoice: nor the seller mourn: for wrath is upon all the people thereof.
13 For the seller shall not return to that which he hath sold, although their life be yet among the living. For the vision which regardeth all the multitude thereof, shall not go back: neither shall man be strengthened in the iniquity of his life.

- Lesson from the book of Ezekiel

Ezek 7:1-13

“Surely the fuss surrounding the twelve Catholic bishops who visited the White House and prayed with President Trump is totally ridiculous?”

N.B. If it was Biden would the reaction be the same? He was an actual scandal: a baptized Catholic who supported the legal murder if unborn humans and officiated a simulated marriage ceremony with two men at the DC VP residence. I had more of a problem with fraud Paula White inserting herself in the middle of legit clergy for a photo op.

Mark Lambert @sitsio:

Surely the fuss surrounding the twelve Catholic bishops who visited the White House and prayed with President Trump is totally ridiculous? I don't think they were wrong to meet him, and they certainly weren't wrong to pray with him. Bishops should engage with political leaders, particularly when important moral questions are at stake. The problem, of course, is that the photographs and video were subsequently circulated, in a deliberate attempt to give the impression of episcopal support for Trump ahead of the midterms. Several bishops have since expressed regret, saying their meeting was exploited for political purposes. I'm not sure I like that they did that & it shows, in a way, how terrified they are of their image & they know what they were doing and why, the fact that they can't articulate that clearly seems to me to be a sort of lack of faith.

But here's what I find rather amusing.

Most enthusiastic Trump supporters I know are deeply suspicious of the USCCB, particularly over immigration and what they see as its progressive tendencies. Meanwhile, Catholics who enthusiastically support the bishops' positions on those issues are hardly Trump's natural constituency! Of course, these twelve bishops weren't officially representing the USCCB, but the irony remains.

The Catholic Church doesn't fit neatly into American party politics, and nor should she. Republicans may appreciate her teaching on abortion while disagreeing with her approach to immigration. Democrats may applaud her advocacy for migrants while rejecting her teaching on abortion and sexual morality.

I suspect the bishops were a little naive about how their visit might be presented, but I certainly wouldn't want them to stop engaging with political leaders. The Church must be able to speak to those in power, challenge them when necessary and pray for them without being treated as an endorsement of their politics. Surely that's something Catholics on both sides of the political divide ought to understand?

A very sobering morning-after post-mortem

@WolfBronsky:

I'm going to be totally frank in the moment about where I think we are right now. This isn't a black pill, it's just an honest assessment of how hard everything is about to become. It's me telling you the house is on fire, so you have a chance to save what's most important to you.

You see, the thing about "decline is a choice" is there comes a point, after you've imported or tolerated or indulged so many people who hate you, and so many people who just want to rob or take advantage of you, that the choice is no longer yours. It's theirs. That's what a democracy with indiscriminate suffrage is and ours is entrenched.

Everything is going to start to change, starting right now, as you read these words. This was not an election that Republicans merely lost. This was the implosion of the Republican party and the total discrediting of the MAGA movement as an electoral force. I'm not going to cast blame or point fingers, because it doesn't matter. There's no point in an election post-mortem because you are never again going to get the chance to vote your way out of this anyway. That window closed tonight.

The GOP's current brand is dead. When they rebrand, which they will, because it's a party run by cockroaches, it's going to be surrender packaged in platitudes. From today forward, if you're a normative white person under 60, a right winger, an America First type, you will no longer have viable or serious electoral political representation. They won't let you have it. Neither party. There will be the left moving the center to them and there will be some cuckhold pumping a fake set of brakes from his chair in the corner as he greedily feasts on his last meal.

The takeover of the GOP has failed. We didn't have the critical mass and all rushing the cockpit got us was a smoldering crater in a field and promises of more pain to come. The people who cheered Charlie Kirk getting shot in the neck are in the driver's seat now. They're never going to forgive you for disrupting their great arc of history. They are going to kill, imprison, ruin, and crush you. Then, they're coming for your kids. This is non-negotiable for them. They are going to salt the earth and make sure nothing like MAGA can ever grow here again. I promise you this.

Nothing resembling the America that was is coming back. Everything after after the 120th Congress is seated will be something new and unprecedented. The American nation's continuity with our ancestors will be severed, just like they wanted.

Be ready. Collect friends. Make plans. Execute on them. Nobody is coming to save you.

Tuesday, November 3, 2026

Unprecedented: Leo XIV betrays papacy by voting in US midterm elections

What happens to the wellbeing and unity of Christ’s Church when someone manages to leak a copy of the pope’s ballot?

Via LifeSite:

The news, confirmed by the Vatican, raises a serious question: why is an absolute monarch voting in an American election?

Pope Leo XIV waves to the crowd from the Popemobile as he rides down the Champs-Elysees Avenue to arrive to celebrate a solemn outdoor Mass at Place de la Concorde on September 26, 2026 in Paris, FranceTom Nicholson/Getty Images

(LifeSiteNews) — The Holy See’s announcement that Pope Leo XIV — the first U.S. citizen to be elected to the papacy — has voted in the U.S. midterm elections by mail raises a serious question: why is an absolute monarch voting in an American election?

For the first time in the Church’s 2,000-year history, a pope has cast a ballot, betraying his sacred office as a Catholic monarch.

monarch.

“Pope Leo XIV has exercised his right to vote as a United States citizen, whenever he was eligible to do so,” according to the Vatican statement. “In keeping with this long-standing practice of civic participation, he has submitted his mail-in ballot in Chicago.”

Michael Walsh, a British historian and author who has written books on the papacy, told CNN that Leo XIV is the first pope to vote in a democratic, secular election.

“I don’t think popes have ever voted in a democratic election before,” said Walsh.

“The Holy Father has also confirmed that, during his years of residence in Peru he exercised his right to vote whenever he was eligible to do so,” noted the statement. “The Holy Father expresses his belief in the right and the duty of citizens to participate in democratic processes.”

According to a report by the Chicago Sun-Times, which first broke the story, the chief of staff at the Will County Clerk’s Office confirmed that the Pope, who remains registered as Robert Prevost at a New Lenox, Illinois, address, requested a mail-in ballot on October 3.

Since 2000, Prevost has voted in five primary elections, requesting Democratic ballots twice and Republican ballots three times, according to Illinois State Board of Elections records.

Creepy Ad Tells Grandparents To Get Consent Before Hugging Their Own Grandkids

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

A publicly funded advert from the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre's We-Consent campaign shows grandparents arriving at the front door. One grandchild rushes in for a hug. The other winces and recoils as the older couple lean in. The voiceover declares: "Not everyone wants a hug. Even from the people who love them. Awkward? Maybe. Important? Absolutely."

This is not a measured reminder about bodily autonomy. It is a deliberate attempt to plant suspicion inside ordinary homes, cast grandparents as potential abusers, and train the next generation to treat spontaneous family affection as something that requires official clearance.

The same ideological current that wants to erase the words "mother" and "father," rewrite sex education as social engineering, and replace "husband and wife" with sterile inclusive language is now targeting the simple act of a grandmother putting her arms around a grandchild.

More: https://www.zerohedge.com/political/creepy-ad-tells-grandparents-get-consent-hugging-their-own-grandkids

Monday, November 2, 2026

All Souls’ Day, Memento Mori and sacred vestiture

Some Unique Black Vestments for All Souls Day

by Shawn Tribeon November 02, 2017

All Souls Day is a time of the liturgical year when the laudable custom of black vestments comes into particular focus. To mark this liturgical occasion I wished to share some unique, historical black vestments with you today.

The symbolism found on each of these is particularly striking, featuring skeletons, purgatorial fires, even shovels and coffins. Some might, of course, see such symbolism as "macabre" but that reaction seems to me to come from a modern sensibility which wishes to hide away the realities of death. These are not macabre in my estimation, but they are memento mori -- and perhaps the fact that we wish to tuck away such remembrances and realities shows that we are in particular need of being reminded of them today.