This year has been an important one for the Church. For example, Pope Benedict XVI was extraordinarily active over the last 12 months (Kevin Clarke/Zenit.org/Catholic.net): Five foreign trips, including a ground breaking one to England to beatify Cardinal Newman (Fr. Richard J. Shiefen/CatholicInsight.com), the Year of the Priest and the canonization of several saints (NewsAhead.com) were only a few of the visible accomplishments. He continues to right the direction of the Church, speak out against evil, and rejuvenate the flock. 

Year-ends allow us to reflect and ponder, and look forward with renewed vigor. It’s good for all of us to take some time off and recharge and renew. Whether you are one to make resolutions or not, it is important to refocus and approach our lives with a new vigor. That includes our spiritual lives, which requires consistent introspection.

From Brother John, myself and the team at RealCatholicBlog and RealCatholic.com, our online Catholic book an merchandise store, have a blessed, safe, healthy, prosperous and joyful New Year. Until we return shortly after the New Year, we leave you with this commentary on the meaning of the Christmas season and how to act upon it: The Word made flesh, Emmanuel, God Among Us. It is important that not only do we renew ourselves through Mass and the sacraments this New Year, but to bring others with us. We are called to God’s Grace but also, as Jesus tells us, to be a reflection of Him and win souls to him for their salvation.

Please view this video from Michael Voris of RealCatholicTV.com (no connection), who is at his most eloquent:

Cooperate with His Grace To be restored to the heights of Heavenly Communion with our infant savior  . . . is the quintessential gift. …

Not only is Great Britain the country where so much damage was done to Christianity in centuries long past, its unfortunate cultural and moral decay has influenced Western and, specifically, English speaking countries. It bares it share of responsibility for the this era’s moral and cultural decline. Pope Benedict’s visit was a bucket of cold water across the faces of the purveyors of coarse culture and moral relativisim — the thousands of ignorant as well as purposeful protestors who fruitlessly demonstrated during his time there.

If he made them uncomfortable, good. Their anger, then, was less about the Pope than  against their self-installed dictatorship of relativism, an intangible tyrant that tortures their souls. It’s a pain the unfaithful find sufferable in order to experience a false sense of freedom and pleasure, despite the harm to their spiritual health.

Pope Benedict addressed this. He spoke politely, but emphatically — or, as Michael Voris puts it, he was cheeky, giving the Brits more than enough to reflect on.

Oh, Henry! The cheeky pope had a historic and successful mission in the land of Henry VIII .

(Bishops) need spiritual discernment and not just political calculation of the risk of the possibility of the message being received. … We have to dare to speak to the deep heart, where the Spirit of the Lord is touching people beyond what we can calculate.

It makes perfect sense: How can anyone think they can gain more souls for the Lord by circumventing His Word? There is no way to comprehend His plan and how He touches peoples’ hearts. Our bishops are to ensure their flocks are getting and comprehending His Word and not worry about what people think of it. God will take care of the rest.

Come to think of it, this is applicable to priests at the parish level as well. Michael Voris of RealCatholicTV has the rest:

Cardinal Marc Ouellet tells the bishops to end calculation and return to The Truth. Stop telling the people what you think they want to hear and tell The Truth, for it is The Truth and The Truth alone that saves.

It’s important for Catholics to understand why this is happening. While many of our dioceses went through (or are still in) a period of “hipness” to ”attract” young people, that’s exactly what drove them away — a lack of substance. While trying to be “relevant” to the young (and even not so young) the Church watered down the Mass and its emphasis on certain Church teachings. While evangelicals got a bump for a number of years by its sheer emotional pull, people soon find out that after a service, when the “alleluias” are over, there isn’t much there, there.

The American Church must never forget the substance and challenge of The Faith. For too long “Modern” Catholicism focused on emotion, not substance. But emotion does have a place — as a tool, not an end. It’s a lesson the Church in America has had to learn the hard way. Sadly, some still have not learned. Perhaps, this new exodus from the evangelical movement will give Catholic dioceses an opening to present the Truth to those so desperately seeking it.

As usual, Michael Voris at RealCatholicTV gets to the heart of the matter. Please take a view and let us know what you think.

Can the Catholic Church learn from the exodus of many from evangelical “mega churches”? 

 Four priests and the power of The Faith saved lives at an abortion center.

Not all bombs are massive, obvious things. Sometimes they are very small and deceptive, but with much bigger impact. This one is quiet, but no less devastating; actually more so. No one speaks about it much, which adds to its insidiousness. That’s why it is up to The Church, especially its bishops, to reinvigorate its role in promulgating the the sanctity of life that is the basis for a truly stable and sustainable culture.

Size can be deceiving: The bomb killing the West is very small indeed.

So it is nice to see him more upbeat and positive this week as he is reporting from the Vatican. He reports a first hand look at some of the changes Pope Benedict is making — a counter revolution as Mr. Voris terms it. It also is nice to hear him acknowledge that there is a movement of traditional Catholicism that has been afoot for some time now, something, that if I were to critique him, he does not exult enough, if at all.

He wisely recounts that in times of need Christ always raises up saints and he believes Pope Benedict is one. The changes going on now are not perceptible, just as when an aircraft carrier starts to turn. But once it picks up speed, watch out. For right now, though, please watch the short video below and let me know what you think of it.

Captain Saint Benedict? The Holy Father is turning the Church around, as a captain turns around a large ship, and doing so when Christ needs saints to save the Church.

Victory will come when we each take responsibility to learn more about The Faith and become more engaged in our parishes.

If some says he or she is a “progressive Catholic,” he or she is no Catholic at all. 

By the numbers: We, as Catholics, are not doing our job and progressives are the major roadblock.

This week, the founder of RealCatholicTV.com started a series on progressives within The Church and goes into detail about their history, their aims and their motivation. They’ve already brought certain Christian denominations into irrelevancy, thus the schism we’ve seen in the Episcopal Church and the flight of many to the Evangelical movement. Now they want the Catholic Church to turn into nothing more than a social or community club that mires itself in moral equivalency.

For another lane on the same road, read George Neumayr’s piece in the latest issue of The American Spectator. It reveals the media and the political left’s assault on The Church and the Pope. 

Please watch the first two parts of the series. Think about what he says. Then, let me know what you think.

In the begining . . . . Progressives were innocuous.

Now, they have infested themselves in The Church for the purpose of ending it as we know it.