The Holy See has declared that, if the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) proceeds with the ordination of bishops in July without a papal mandate, those involved in these illicit ordinations are automatically (latae sententiae) excommunicated – that is, excommunicated by their own acts.

Fifty years ago, a young Dominican friar from Baltimore stepped forward to place his life into the hands of the Church. In doing so, Father D. Reginald Whitt did what every priest does at ordination: he offered not simply his talents or ambitions, but his very self. Half a century later, countless former students, colleagues, parishioners and friends can testify that the gift he offered has multiplied beyond measure.

There is a lot of handwringing going on about the state of manhood these days. Maybe this Father’s Day, we can focus on what’s good about men who are fathers.

“Non-Catholic wedding” is a very broad term that can refer to a number of scenarios. In some of these scenarios, there is no reason why a Catholic, even a Catholic priest or deacon, should feel the need to decline an invitation to attend as a guest. But other “non-Catholic weddings” would be more of a concern.

God often has something else up his sleeve. And he likes to make sure we know that he sees us and that he’s walking right by our side.

The favors of the Lord are not exhausted, his mercies not over and done; every morning they are renewed, so great is his faithfulness (Lam 3:22-23).

Longtime fans of Karina Fabian’s “Rescue Sisters” stories will be quick to point out that the review of this month’s novel is a decade overdue. To them one can only reply that, after all, Christ gave the full day’s pay to the latecomers in his parable of the vineyard workers, and this reviewer is similarly grateful to have discovered such an excellent work of speculative fiction, even if a bit belatedly. Discovered, of course, being the operative word, as in any good work of science fiction.

I know there are people who say that a child learns best when they need to deal with the consequences. But I think there are enough hard consequences in life. The lessons I want to teach my children are to respond with compassion.

What can his fellow Catholics do for Jimmy Lai at the moment? We can hold him in prayer every day. We can urge the Administration to continue to press for Jimmy’s release and we can urge our representatives and senators to press the Administration to keep pressing the Chinese regime.

If the original marriage is presumed to be a true and binding one, then living as a married person with a new spouse is technically committing adultery — even if most divorced and remarried people wouldn’t subjectively experience it this way.