Updated January 5, 2001 3:10 pm PST
We recommend refreshing periodically to update the latest breaking news today
 
A Spiritual Giant of the 20th Century has left us...and because of what Father John Hardon, S.J. left to us, we are much the better for it!
With the close of the Jubilee Year tomorrow, we introduce today a new look to this Daily publication. We ask your patience in this transition as we strive to streamline everything to make it easier for you, the reader, to navigate on the DAILY CATHOLIC and to seek more ports in 2001 without having to leave the safe harbor of this site. Speaking of safe Harbors, that is where Father John Anthony Hardon, S.J. has sailed to be welcomed into the loving arms of God the Father for his outstanding fiat to His little ones. In our first commentary for 2001, we look back with fondness on a true luminary of the Church who succumbed to cancer last week in Detroit at the age of 86. For more, see CATHOLIC PewPOINT
 
Three Holy Doors in Rome close today with St. Peter's on tap tomorrow to close out landmark Jubilee Year
Three down, one to go. We're talking of the Four Major Holy Doors as Cardinal Legates simultaneously close the doors at St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major and St. Paul Outside-the-Walls in Rome today before the Holy Father officially closes the main Holy Door at St. Peter's tomorrow to officially bring this historic Jubilee Year to a close. He will also issue a closing document entitled "Novo
millennio ineunte." For more, see News from the Holy See
ALSO:
 
Archbishop McCarrick installed as head of nation's capital
Archbishop Theodore McCarrick, who many believe will be named in the upcoming Consistory to receive the red hat, was officially installed yesterday as head of the See of Washington D.C. at the National Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. For more, see USA News
ALSO:
 
Russian Patriarch still putting foot in his mouth
While many are looking anxiously toward the Holy Father's visit to the Ukraine this June, the Russian Patriarch Aleksei is doing all he can to throw cold water on the Papal visit by lashing out at the Church for trying to proselytize Orthodox in the Ukraine. Never mind that evangelizing has always been the main purpose of the Roman Catholic Church as Christ commanded. For more, see Global News
ALSO:
 
There is a very necessary need to tweak the conscience before you go to Confession
Sister Mary Lucy Astuto continues her sharing a special Examination of Conscience with all as today she features the Fourth and Fifth Commandments, two that are greatly violated and many times out of total ignorance as to the severity of both for both have undermined God's natural law and seek to whittle away at the Sanctity of Life. For the second part of her column Acute Awareness in Examining Our Consciences, see GETTING TO THE HEART OF THE MATTER
 
Feast of Saint John Neumann, First U.S. Bishop to be canonized
Today we celebrate the Feast of Saint John Neumann. The practice of Forty Hours Devotion in the United States can be attributed to a Czechoslovakian in the nineteenth century who came to our shores to become a Redemptorist priest and foster Catholic schools and education throughout the U.S.A. St. John Neumann was born on March 28, 1811 and ordained in 1936. In 1852 he was appointed bishop of Philadelphia where he worked tirelessy to establish the Catholic school system in America. For more see, Daily LITURGY
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White vestments
Friday January 5:
Feast of Saint John Neumann
First American Bishop
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First Reading: 1 John 3: 11-21
Psalms: Psalm 100: 1-5
Gospel Reading: John 1: 43-51
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Opening Prayer for Today's Mass honoring Saint John Neumann
Father, You called St. John Neumann to labor for the gospel among the people of the New World. His ministry strengthened many others in the Christian faith: through his prayers may faith grow strong in this land.
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"Amen, amen, I say to you, you shall see Heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man." John 1: 51
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THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS TRADITION
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Twelfth Day of Christmas
"On the twelfth day of Christmas my True Love gave to me, twelve drummers drumming."
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So many have misinterpreted the Twelve Days of Christmas with a secular meaning, but they fail to realize that, in fact, they were a "secret catechism code" sung by persecuted Roman Catholics from the Protestant Reformation through the French Revolution. It was their way of communicating their faith much in the same manner the early Christians did with symbols such as the fish. The twelve drummers drumming represented the Twelve Points or Articles of Belief in the APOSTLES' CREED It's interesting that Catholics chose drummers for their symbolism for to keep reminding each other of the twelve points of the solid creed known as the Apostles' Creed for this was their profession of faith and there was a constant need to keep hammering home this point or should we say "bang the drum" so fellow Catholics would get the "beat" and get into a rhythm of their religion, encouraged by all Jesus promised and professed in the Creed.
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Anniversary of historic visit to River Jordan
Today is the 37th anniversary of Pope Paul VI's visit to the River Jordan. He was the first Sovereign Pontiff to do so since Saint Peter. Thirty-six years later His Holiness John Paul II became the third during his historic Jubilee Journey last March. For other time capsule events that happened Today in Church history, see Daily TIME CAPSULES in Church History
There is never a singular pleasure by and of itself!
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but the words of Bishop Fulton J. Sheen have been known to launch a thousand images in one's mind, one of the ways this late luminary did so much to evangelize the faith. Because of the urgency of the times and because few there are today who possess the wisdom, simplicity and insight than the late Archbishop who touched millions, we are bringing you daily gems from his writings. The good bishop makes it so simple that we have dubbed this daily series: "SIMPLY SHEEN".
"Pleasure is very peculiar: to possess it one must not seek it directly, but rather seek it through something else. Not even an avid coctail drinker takes a cocktail to have pleasure; rather, he has pleasure because he takes a cocktail. Pleasure does not caust itself, but is caused by the possession of some good or the attainment of some purpose."
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January 5, 2001 volume 12, no. 5
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