Monday Morning Catholic

31/07/2026

How has your experience of this been? We’re curious! Let us know in the comments.

For the original posting of this article, head over to our website: https://praytellblog.com/index.php/2012/12/03/re-reading-sacrosanctum-concilium-article-19/

30/07/2026

When 23andMe went through bankruptcy, the court allowed customer genetic data to be treated as a sellable asset. Fifteen million people had agreed to a privacy policy that turned out to be only as durable as the company holding it.

That is worth sitting with. Genetic data cannot be revoked the way a password can, and a test result says things about relatives who never consented to anything.

There is real good here too. Adoptees find families. Descendants of slavery recover records that a courthouse fire destroyed. Joanne Mercier's own advice is not to avoid it, but to go in knowing what you might find, and to remember the rule genealogists work by: do no harm, and do not tell people things they are not ready for.

Digitize Your Family Memories Before They're Gone - Secrets of Technology: https://starquest.fm/TEC354

29/07/2026

29/07/2026

Saints Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, pray for us!

25/07/2026

Several U.S. bishops in recent months have tightened diocesan funeral policies, emphasizing stricter adherence to the Order of Christian Funerals (OCF) amid evolving popular practices at funerals that depart from Church norms and concern visitations, eulogies, and cremated remains, among others.

‘Liturgical anomalies’
In a video message and accompanying letter, Bishop Thomas Paprocki’s new rules for the Diocese of Springfield, Illinois, which went into effect on July 1, address what he described as “irregular practices” and “liturgical anomalies.”

‘The Order of Christian Funerals does not envision a viewing in a church building’
Meanwhile, Bishop David J. Bonnar of Youngstown, Ohio, issued a decree in October 2025 ending funeral visitations in church buildings effective December 2025. Bonnar said holding a visitation or viewing in a church compromises the sacred space “by noise and activity unbecoming of the reverence due to the Blessed Sacrament.”

‘It is the body whose hands clothe the poor and embrace the sorrowing’
Bishop Robert McManus of Worcester, Massachusetts, issued a decree in May reinforcing the intact burial of cremated remains while emphasizing the Church’s preference for bodily burial.

Cemeteries are ‘places of Christian hope’
In the Diocese of Charlotte, North Carolina, Bishop Michael Martin promulgated the decree “Diocesan Norms for the Governance and Stewardship of Cemeteries and Columbaria” on March 19, the solemnity of St. Joseph, patron of the dying.

Read More: https://www.ewtnnews.com/world/us/u-s-bishops-tighten-funeral-policies-after-growth-of-irregular-practices

23/07/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BXyUf1Q7P/

Everybody has the box. Photo prints, VHS tapes labeled in somebody's handwriting, a canister of Super 8 film, a drawer of MiniDV cassettes that nothing in the house can play anymore.

Here is the uncomfortable part: it is degrading right now, while you read this. And the real deadline usually is not the media at all. It is the hardware. Joanne Mercier's VCR finally died last year, and replacing one now means gambling on a stranger's eBay listing.

Dom Bettinelli and Joanne Mercier lay out how to actually get through the box.

Digitize Your Family Memories Before They're Gone - Secrets of Technology: https://starquest.fm/TEC354

22/07/2026

Article 48 of Sacrosanctum Concilium encourages full participation in the liturgy. What a good and necessary challenge for all faithful. How do we show up to Church or Mass? How involved in our parish community are we? How do we treat strangers? How much of His unconditional love is coursing through and informing our lives today?

Just a little food for thought on this Feast of Mary Magdalen. May her intercessions inspire and embolden our apostolic spirit!