MODERN LOVE. COHABITATION ON RISE IN U.S.: DEMOGRAPHIC TRENDS

LEADING AUSTRALIA WEDDING MAGAZINE SHUTS OVER GAY SNUB

USCCB IMPOTENCE . . . PRESSED BETWEEN PATRIARCH AND PROPHET

IT IS TIME FOR A RENEWED CHURCH TO EMERGE

THE VATICAN’S GRIEVOUS BLOW TO AMERICANS’ FAITH

IF YOU HATE YOUR HUSBAND, JUST ASK THE FRANCISBISHOP TO HELP YOU GET RID OF HIM

PROFESSIONAL FRANCISCATHOLIC STEPHEN COLBERT AND EVIL FRANCISPRIEST FR. JAMES MARTIN GET VERY DEEP TOGETHER

MSGR. BUX’S AS YET IGNORED CALL TO EXAMINE THE VALIDITY OF BENEDICT’S ABDICATION PUBLISHED BY THE SAME JOURNALIST WHO HELPED ABP. VIGANO.

ITALIAN BISHOPS TAKE AIM AT SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM, WANT TRADITIONAL MASS ABROGATED

EVIL CRUXMAG SMEARS FAITHFUL, POPULAR FR. MINUTELLA, WHO WAS EXCOMMUNICATED BY HIS PRO-GAY FRANCISBISHOP; CLAIMS PRIESTS SHOULD STAY OFF SOCIAL MEDIA

NOTORIOUS ROBERT MICKENS BLAMES MOTHER ANGELICA, WHO FREED THE CHURCH FROM THE GRIP OF BAD CATECHESIS, FOR THE CONTEMPT CATHOLICS HOLD FOR FRANCIS AND HIS PERVBISHOPS

SCULPTURES IN CREEPY:  PREVIOUS WORKS BY THIS YEAR’S FRANCISNATIVITY SAND ARTIST

ST. GERTRUDE THE GREAT WAS NO FRANCISNUN

TRUMP PROPOSES A NEW WAY AROUND BIRTH CONTROL MANDATE: RELIGIOUS EXEMPTIONS AND TITLE X

BUT OF THAT DAY AND HOUR NO ONE KNOWETH:…(DOUBLE HERESY SUNDAY)

CALIFORNIA FIRE: NUMBER OF MISSING SOARS PAST 1,000 AS DEATH TOLL HITS 71

ABORTION DEBATE INTENSIFIES AFTER AMENDMENTS PASS REMOVING ABORTION PROTECTIONS IN 2 STATES

HARVARD STUDENTS HOLD CATHOLIC SEX WEEK TO EXPLAIN CHURCH TEACHING

ST MARY’S CATHOLIC CHURCH IN DUBAI CONTINUES YEAR OF ZAYED CELEBRATIONS?

MINN.: DAMASCUS ABP. NASSAR DESCRIBES SYRIA CATHOLICS’ PLIGHT

ST. MARY NATIVITY COLLECTION BASKET THIEF ARRESTED: JOLIET POLICE

RECKONING OVER ALLEGATIONS OF SEXUAL ABUSE IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH REACHES ALASKA

ALASKA ABP. ETIENNE APPOINTED INDEPENDENT SEX ABUSE COMMISSION

SD CHURCH LEADERS CHANGE COURSE ON HOUSING ACCUSED PRIEST NEAR SCHOOL

MOTHER JONES ON FR. JAMES MARTIN: MEET THE OUTSPOKEN PRIEST WHO’S REVOLUTIONIZING THE CATHOLIC CHURCH’S APPROACH TO QUEER RIGHTS!

FORT WORTH PRIEST REMOVED AFTER BEING ACCUSED OF GROPING MAN AT PARK NEAR HIS CHURCH

VORIS: AT THIS RATE, IT IS FAR LESS THAN THE CONFERENCE OF U.S. BISHOPS, IT WOULD BE MORE ACCURATE TO DESCRIBE IT AS THE CUPICH CONFERENCE AND SOME OTHER BISHOPS JUST HANGING OUT

USCCB FRANCISBISHOPS: “PATHETIC LOSERS IS THE MOST CHARITABLE PHRASE TO APPLY TO THEM.”

CARDINAL LEVADA’S CLERICALISM

CUPICH AND WUERL COLLABORATED ON ALTERNATIVE SEX ABUSE PROPOSAL

CUPICHCHURCH: CREEPY FRANCIS WANTS BISHOPS LIKE MCCARRICK TO POLICE BISHOPS LIKE MCCARRICK

MS. OCCASIONAL-CORTEX SPEAKS

DOES YOUR BISHOP SUPPORT AN INVESTIGATION OF CARDINAL MCCARRICK OR NOT?

BREXIT: FINALLY, THE VOICE OF THE MOGG IS HEARD IN THE LAND.

RICO TIME?

Fr. George William Rutler

11.17.18

On the day after Thanksgiving, the Church rejoices in the intercessions of Pope Saint Clement of Rome. New Yorkers have a special reason to think of him, two millennia later.

Clement probably was made a bishop by Saint Peter himself and became the fourth Bishop of Rome after Linus and Cletus. He was the first after Saint Peter to leave a written record. Like Saint Paul, he wrote to the Christians in Corinth, leaving us a clear exposition of the early church structure of Holy Orders, with bishops and priests and deacons.

The emperor Trajan exiled Clement and sentenced him to death. Tied to an anchor and tossed off a boat, his body was delivered to Rome several centuries later, still with its anchor, by Saint Cyril of Egypt. About a dozen years after Clement’s martyrdom, Trajan commiserated with the governor of Bithynia in northern Turkey, Pliny the Younger, about how to better control the Christians:

“You observed proper procedure, my dear Pliny, in sifting the cases of those who had been denounced to you as Christians. For it is not possible to lay down any general rule to serve as a kind of fixed standard. They are not to be sought out; if they are denounced and proved guilty, they are to be punished, with this reservation, that whoever denies that he is a Christian and really proves it—that is, by worshiping our gods—even though he was under suspicion in the past, shall obtain pardon through repentance. But anonymously posted accusations ought to have no place in any prosecution. For this is both a dangerous kind of precedent and out of keeping with the spirit of our age.”

The foundations of the present church of Saint Clement in Rome are a timeline of the progress of the Faith. The lowest chamber was a second-century shrine for the dark and mysterious cult of Mithras, dear to soldiers. Above that is a secret fourth-century house church. The present upper church was completed before 1100. It contains the relics of Saint Cyril who, along with his brother Saint Methodius, evangelized the Slavs and created the Glagolitic alphabet, precedent to the Cyrillic script that Russians still use.

In the eighteenth century, the church and its friary were given to Irish Dominicans, one of whom, Father Richard Concanen became the first bishop of New York, but never left Italy because of a Napoleonic blockade. Another Dominican from Saint Clement’s, Father John Connolly, became the first resident bishop of New York, whose diocese covered all of the state and part of New Jersey, with just three churches and four priests. He traveled over one thousand miles on horseback, ministering to his flock.

If the bones of Saint Clement could speak, they’d explain perfectly well why these New Yorkers were bishops and what they were doing in the name of Christ.