Church Militant (a 501(c)4 corporation) is responsible for the content of this commentary. If you also seek the truth, then please consider joining Church Militant today by supporting our work. Sign up for a Church Militant Premium account or simply make a donation. Feel free to contact Church Militant with your questions, comments, or concerns, at anytime. And now, let's begin with The Download...

Our Lord's circumcision and His Holy Name.

January 1 is the Feast of Mary, Mother of God. It is a holy day of obligation — though some bishops' conferences might rescind the obligation when it falls on a Monday. It's also the day when Catholics remember Our Lord's circumcision. Baby Jesus would have been circumcised about a week after His birth. Meanwhile, the Holy Name of Jesus is celebrated at Mass either on Jan. 2 or Jan 3 — depending on whether it's the Traditional Latin Mass or the Novus Ordo. In this episode of The Download, hosts Bradley Eli, Rodney Pelletier and Kyle Kopy discuss Our Lord's circumcision, Mariology, martyrdom and various other topics.

Join us for our winter Retreat At Sea!

Please consider Church Militant Evening News for daily hard-hitting news and analysis through an authentic Catholic lens, covering the latest developments in the Church, across the nation and around the world.

Church Militant (a 501(c)4 corporation) is responsible for the content of this commentary. If you also seek the truth, then please consider joining Church Militant today by supporting our work. Sign up for a Church Militant Premium account or simply make a donation. Feel free to contact Church Militant with your questions, comments, or concerns, at anytime. And now, let's begin with The Download...

Midnight, dawn and daytime.

The liturgical books for Christmas give us three different Masses — one for Mass offered at or around midnight, one for Mass offered around the time of sunrise and one for Mass offered during the day. In this episode of The Download, hosts Bradley Eli, Rodney Pelletier and Kyle Kopy unpack the theological significance of the gospel readings from the three Masses.

Join us for our winter Retreat At Sea!

Please consider Church Militant Evening News for daily hard-hitting news and analysis through an authentic Catholic lens, covering the latest developments in the Church, across the nation and around the world.

Church Militant (a 501(c)4 corporation) is responsible for the content of this commentary. If you also seek the truth, then please consider joining Church Militant today by supporting our work. Sign up for a Church Militant Premium account or simply make a donation. Feel free to contact Church Militant with your questions, comments, or concerns, at anytime. And now, let's begin with today's Vortex...

Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.

In the ninth century, the Church's first-ever Eucharistic controversy arose between two French monks in the same monastery. It wasn't as controversial as it has later been painted, because it was really a "word war," each of them using the same words but assigning the words different meanings.

They had each written a book on the subject, with the Emperor Charles the Bald being the impetus because he wanted to better understand the Church's teaching. When the men had each died, the controversy died with them. Ah, but their books remained, and when we fast-forward to the 11th century, now the fun begins.

Another French monk/priest, Berengarius of Tours, who was well respected for his intellect as well as his simple piety, essentially held the position that Our Lord is really present in the Eucharist, just not fully. It was the theory that the Protestant reformers, especially John Calvin, would seize on 500 years later to deny transubstantiation.

...

Berengarius' stubbornness is not so much the important part here, but rather, that in seeking to have him admit his error, various councils and ecclesiastical gatherings were forced to clearly lay out, in short form, what the Church had actually believed for the first 1,000 years.

In fact, so clear had these various compositions been regarding what the Church holds and teaches about the Eucharist and the Real Presence (body, blood, soul and divinity), that a thousand years later, Pope Paul VI referred back to them and used them as sources in his own Eucharistic encyclical.

The Church has always believed in the Real Presence, even if it took some controversies and historical clashes to ink it down in precise theological language.

Please consider Church Militant Evening News for daily hard-hitting news and analysis through an authentic Catholic lens, covering the latest developments in the Church, across the nation and around the world.

Church Militant (a 501(c)4 corporation) is responsible for the content of this commentary. If you also seek the truth, then please consider joining Church Militant today by supporting our work. Sign up for a Church Militant Premium account or simply make a donation. Feel free to contact Church Militant with your questions, comments, or concerns, at anytime. And now, let's begin with today's Vortex...

A fearless Catholic man submits to legitimate authority.

Michael gives a speech to Catholic men at Sweetest Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Detroit, urging them to submit to the Church when it's exercising its God-given authority.

Please consider Church Militant Evening News for daily hard-hitting news and analysis through an authentic Catholic lens, covering the latest developments in the Church, across the nation and around the world.

Church Militant (a 501(c)4 corporation) is responsible for the content of this commentary. If you also seek the truth, then please consider joining Church Militant today by supporting our work. Sign up for a Church Militant Premium account or simply make a donation. Feel free to contact Church Militant with your questions, comments, or concerns, at anytime. And now, let's begin with today's Vortex...

The Church has authority over you.

Michael Voris gives his second talk about "staying on board the ship" at the 2023 Church Militant Strength and Honor Conference.

Please consider Church Militant Evening News for daily hard-hitting news and analysis through an authentic Catholic lens, covering the latest developments in the Church, across the nation and around the world.

Church Militant (a 501(c)4 corporation) is responsible for the content of this commentary. If you also seek the truth, then please consider joining Church Militant today by supporting our work. Sign up for a Church Militant Premium account or simply make a donation. Feel free to contact Church Militant with your questions, comments, or concerns, at anytime. And now, let's begin with today's Vortex...

There are better options for learning the Faith.

In case you haven't heard, the U.S. bishops launched a national Eucharistic revival campaign, which will culminate next summer (July, specifically) in Indianapolis. They are concerned now, not decades ago, with a decided lack of belief in the real presence of Our Blessed Lord in the Eucharist. Recent polls continue to show most Catholics either don't know that teaching or do know it and reject it.

That's what 60 years of talking about social justice and moving the tabernacle out of the center and having old ladies in their finest jeans and T-shirts distribute Holy Communion accomplishes. It's also what allowing hundreds and, over the years, thousands of supposedly Catholic politicians who support killing children to receive does. Why believe something when practically everyone, including the leaders, doesn't?

Let's get into the plan of the bishops a little bit here for perspective, a plan being billed as the reigniting of belief in the Eucharist. Remember, this whole thing came up because faithful Catholics were demanding the bishops do something and take a stand and stop allowing Joe Biden, as well as many others, to receive Holy Communion.

Please consider Church Militant Evening News for daily hard-hitting news and analysis through an authentic Catholic lens, covering the latest developments in the Church, across the nation and around the world.

Church Militant (a 501(c)4 corporation) is responsible for the content of this commentary. If you also seek the truth, then please consider joining Church Militant today by supporting our work. Sign up for a Church Militant Premium account or simply make a donation. Feel free to contact Church Militant with your questions, comments, or concerns, at anytime. And now, let's begin with today's Vortex...

Coming out of the grave.

As you might imagine, given the work we do here at Church Militant (thanks to your continuing support for it), we come across lots of people of goodwill who simply haven't heard the glory of Catholicism expounded in any meaningful way.

Every now and then, we run into spurts, if you will, where we are heavily engaged in multiple offline conversations with poorly catechized Catholics or goodwill Protestants. We are in one of those spurts right now, as I and others here are spending an unusual amount of time, compared to normal, speaking with such folks over private dinners, emails, phone calls and even "DMing" on Twitter.

And blessed be God for the opportunity to be engaged like this.

It's evangelization in the trenches — much like we imagine would have been the case in the early days of the Church and various periods throughout the past 2,000 years. We're sharing these behind-the-scenes, away-from-the-cameras scenarios with you for one reason: to help you with such activity in your own lives.

And here is a major tip: Get straight to the Eucharist first, closely followed by Scripture. All the other stuff — statues, "worshiping" Mary, confessing to a priest — while certainly worthy of discussion, can easily become distractions to the major, central theme of the Church, the Holy Eucharist, because every single other thing or topic in the Church rises or falls on this single truth. Either that it's actually the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ, or it is not.

As the teaching goes, the Eucharist, the real presence of Jesus Christ, hidden under the appearance of bread and wine, is both the source and summit of the Faith.

Please consider Church Militant Evening News for daily hard-hitting news and analysis through an authentic Catholic lens, covering the latest developments in the Church, across the nation and around the world.

Church Militant (a 501(c)4 corporation) is responsible for the content of this commentary. If you also seek the truth, then please consider joining Church Militant today by supporting our work. Sign up for a Church Militant Premium account or simply make a donation. Feel free to contact Church Militant with your questions, comments, or concerns, at anytime. And now, let's begin with today's Vortex...

The Mass for dummies.

Today's Vortex features a look back to January 2013, following the Vatican's efforts to recoup the losses inflicted upon the Church by secularists and cultural Marxists. Today, the Church's failure to promote Catholic identity has come to a head — proving its damage-control efforts have, unfortunately, failed.

Please consider Church Militant Evening News for daily hard-hitting news and analysis through an authentic Catholic lens, covering the latest developments in the Church, across the nation and around the world.

Church Militant (a 501(c)4 corporation) is responsible for the content of this commentary. If you also seek the truth, then please consider joining Church Militant today by supporting our work. Sign up for a Church Militant Premium account or simply make a donation. Feel free to contact Church Militant with your questions, comments, or concerns, at anytime. And now, let's begin with today's Vortex...

Needed more than ever.

The Catholic identity has been so watered down throughout the West that, with rare exceptions, virtually no Catholics have any sense of duty to the Church, to Christ. In fact, the very opposite is often encouraged by the clergy. And at the very least, there's no other message Catholics could reasonably conclude other than, there's no big deal about being Catholic.

This is best demonstrated by looking at what's called the walkaway ratio. The walkway ratio measures the number of people who leave a religion compared to the number of people who convert to it. To their everlasting shame, the U.S. bishops own the highest walkaway ratio of any religion in America. No one else is even close.

When this apostolate began in 2006, the walkaway ratio was 4-to-1, meaning for every convert to the Church, four were leaving. In 2018 — five years ago — the ratio jumped to 6.5-to-1. In raw numbers across the population,13% of the U.S. population are former Catholics; only 2% have come into the Church.

But those numbers, as we said, are five years old, and some early estimates for more recent years put the number even higher at eight walkaways for every convert. The percentage of Catholics relative to the overall population has fallen from its traditional level of 25% to barely over 20%. One out of four used to be Catholic; now it's one out of five — and falling. So, a little examination of conscience is necessary here.

...

In fact, there is hardly ever a peep from Catholics of any sort in the world of the culture wars, certainly compared to Protestants of a more conservative stripe. Given that, it's hardly surprising that the half of Catholics who walk away, walk to socially conservative Protestant congregations. But regardless of what may be attractive socially and culturally, or even emotionally or psychologically, one thing is absolutely certain: Theologically, it's a shipwreck.

No one who understands Who the Catholic Church is could ever walk away from Her. In fact, to do so would be to ensure damnation, as plainly stated in the catechism:

"He himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and Baptism, and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through Baptism as through a door. Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it." (CCC ¶ 846)

No Church, no salvation — for those who know. But, there's more: For Catholics who "stay" in the Church, but not with the sincerity of charity, it's hellfire for them, as well. From the same document:

"All the Church's children should remember that their exalted status is to be attributed not to their own merits but to the special grace of Christ. If they fail moreover to respond to that grace in thought, word and deed, not only shall they not be saved but they will be the more severely judged."

Please consider Church Militant Evening News for daily hard-hitting news and analysis through an authentic Catholic lens, covering the latest developments in the Church, across the nation and around the world.