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On this episode of the Pelican Brief Daily, Murray Rundus looks at the controversy with Medjugorje and Bishop Eckman’s shutdown of the TLM in Pittsburgh.

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On this episode of the Pelican Brief Daily, Murray Rundus looks at the controversy surrounding Pope Leo’s change to Vatican City law and some comments from the Belgian bishops on married priests.

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On this episode of the Pelican Brief Daily, Murray Rundus looks at the latest desecrations in France and the US along with a religious shutdown in Europe.

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On this episode of the Pelican Brief Daily, Murray Rundus looks at the latest crisis in the Ceuta and a change to the Vatican City State

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On this episode of the Pelican Brief Daily, Murray Rundus looks at the latest defacing of Medjugorje and two remarks from prelates on the TLM.

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On this episode of the Pelican Brief Daily, Murray Rundus and Michael Haynes break down the latest interview from Cardinal Roche suggesting Pope Leo will not return to the TLM.

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On this episode of the Pelican Brief Daily, Murray Rundus looks at the latest controversy from China and a German Bishop’s comments on a pride celebration tragedy.

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On this episode of the Pelican Brief Daily, Murray Rundus looks at the controversy surrounding non-Catholic religions becoming involved with the Synod and is joined by Michael Haynes to discuss Pope Leo's return from vacation

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On this episode of the Pelican Brief Daily, Murray Rundus looks at the Transalpine Redemptorists and the latest moves in Rome.

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On this episode of the Pelican Brief Daily, Murray Rundus looks at the controversy with Cardinal Reinhard Marx and the German priests in his diocese and the latest discourse surrounding homosexual men in the priesthood.

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On this episode of the Pelican Brief Daily, Murray Rundus looks at the latest statements from the German bishops and is joined by Michael Haynes for an update on the Rupnik story

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By the early second century, however, Greco-Roman writers began to notice the existence of the new sect. We start to get passing references in works like Suetonius’s Lives of the Twelve Caesars or the Annals of Tacitus. What did early Romans think of Christianity? How did they situate it within what they knew of the religious landscape of the Mediterranean in the second century AD?

The earliest Roman comments on the Church are revealing. Roman knowledge of Christianity at this time was certainly superficial, yet beneath the misunderstandings lay a surprisingly accurate grasp of several essential aspects of Christian life. Historian of early Christian Robert Louis Wilken explains it thus:

These first [Roman] comments, though perfunctory and indifferent, and often based on hearsay, are significant, for they give us clues as to how Christianity was perceived at the time it was first coming into public view…Appearances, it is sometimes said, are deceiving. Knowledge based on what one sees and hears is thought to be superficial, for what one see and hears is never the sum of things. Yet is it not equally true that how something appears, how it is perceived by others, is an aspect of what it is?^[1]

When Pliny the Younger wrote his famous letter to Emperor Trajan about Christianity in Bithynia in the year 112, Pliny tells the emperor that he had ordered the Christian community to cease gathering because “in accordance with your instructions, I had forbidden political associations.”^[2] The phrase “political associations” is hetaeria, which means something like “club,” “association,” or “brotherhood.” The hetaeria was not an unusual institution in ancient Rome. They were fraternal associations organized around the trades and generally under the patronage of a certain god. Most members were drawn from the artisan classes and contributed to a common purse out of which they provided fraternal benefits to members. In this sense, they were not unlike the later medieval trade guilds.

These fraternal associations were not intrinsically political. For example, Pliny uses the word hetaeria to describe a fireman’s association in Nicomedia.^[3] They nevertheless retained the potential to become political under the right conditions (students of latter Roman history will recall that politicized charioteering clubs almost brought down Emperor Justinian in the Nika riots of 532). Trajan feared the factionalism and unrest such organizations could foment and therefore banned any political organization. The empire thus allowed the hetaeria to carry on their business so long as they confined themselves to fraternal activities and kept far away from politics.

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Pliny believed the Christians were some sort of new hetaeria that had become dangerously subversive to the political order. But why did Pliny make this connection? What was it about Christianity, as he understood it, that led Pliny to consider the Church as a kind of fraternal association? To answer that, we need to learn a bit more about the benefits that membership in a hetaeria conferred.

One of the most common services provided by the hetaeria was the burial and commemoration of deceased members. The statutes of an association from Lanuvium during the reign of Hadrian show that it was “licensed” by the Roman Senate with the following decree:

These are permitted to assemble, convene, and maintain a society; those who desire to make monthly contributions for funerals may assemble in such a society, but they may not assemble in such a society except once a month for the sake of making contributions to provide for the burial of the dead.^[4]

This Lanuvium decree was carved on a column, which also contains by-laws for the association, explaining the obligation of members to contribute funds for the maintenance of the society, details for arranging the burial of members, and other procedural matters. One of the chief activities of the association was hosting commemorative banquets in honor of the deceased, the silicernium, held at the graveside on the day of burial; additional dinners were held on a fixed calendar throughout the year on important days. For example:

Aug 13: Birthday of the goddess Diana and founding of the society
Nov 27: Birthday of Antinous (deified companion of Emperor Hadrian)
Dec. 14: Birthday of Caesennia (the club’s wealthy patron)

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On this episode of the Pelican Brief Daily, Murray Rundus looks at a contradiction from Mayor Zohran and the controversy surrounding the Church in China.

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A report from the reliably-sourced Messa in Latino (MIL) attested that Rupnik might soon be acquitted at the conclusion of the Vatican trial into him. “We have learned from persistent and highly credible sources that the criminal trial currently underway in the Vatican against Father Marko Ivan Rupnik has reportedly concluded with a favorable outcome for him,” MIL wrote.

So great has been the suspicion of maneuvers made to enable Rupnik to evade any legal scrutiny, that MIL commented they believed that their sources had leaked the information “to ensure that the Vatican can’t cover it up.”

For Pelican readers happily unfamiliar with the Rupnik saga a brief recap is first necessary. The highly influential priest and co-founder of the Loyola Community has been based in Rome for some decades, operating out of his Aletti Center, which is the operational base for the infamous mosaics he produces.

His controversial work has been installed in nearly every major shrine throughout the world, and given pride of place inside the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace. He personally gave an image to Pope Francis who displayed it in his office, visible during videos recorded by Vatican News.

But it is the alleged abuse which has placed Rupnik into the Catholic media world since December 2022, when news broke – heavily led by MIL – of serial abuse reportedly committed by the priest.

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On this episode of the Pelican Brief Daily, Murray Rundus looks at yet another canonist who says that the SSPX's confessions are valid and is joined by Michael Haynes for the latest on Father Rupnik.

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On this episode of the Pelican Brief Daily, Murray Rundus looks at the concerns regarding a bistro in the Vatican and the SSPX’s letter to the faithful who attend the SSPX

On this episode of the Pelican Brief Daily, Murray Rundus covers the story surrounding Bishop Mata and President Trump’s speech

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Today on the Pelican Brief Daily, Murray Rundus looks at the latest tragedy in French legislation and is joined by Michael Haynes to discuss the latest from Cardinal Burke.

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On this episode of the Pelican Brief Daily, Murray Rundus looks at a disturbing surrogacy case and the TLM shutdown in the diocese of Camden.

NOTE FROM MURRAY: I have personally confirmed this shutdown with the Parish. After July there will be no TLM. As mentioned on the screen, for those in the Atlantic City area, your closest option for the TLM is Mater Ecclesiae Roman Catholic Church (still in the Diocese of Camden) there are also options in Philly. The reason given by the diocese has been that the TLM was celebrated by the retiring pastor, but I have also confirmed myself that the new young pastor knows the TLM but can't celebrate it because of the lack of permissions. This shows a repeated pattern of how the TLM is restricted and shutdown. If the TLM is not taught in seminaries, is not granted new indults, and can't be advertised, it cannot grow. For Catholics, it should not be enough nor an excuse that the TLM is "still celebrated in one church within the diocese", the TLM community should be encouraged. Pray for the young new pastor there and hopefully the Bishop may come to a realization that Tradition ought to be encouraged within the Church!

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