Catholic Family News

Catholic Family News January 2025 Edition

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Dear Friends of Catholic Tradition,

One of the many wonderful practices cast aside by the Novus Ordo is the tradition of honoring the most important feasts of the year with an Octave.  The message is that these feasts are so important and so rich in their matter for meditation that a single day is insufficient to do justice to the feast.  In the Middle Ages, the holy day would extend through the entire eight days with a suspension of military conflicts and much menial work.  The days were honored with a mixture of spiritual and liturgical activities and feasting and celebration.  Every day of the Octave should be treated like the first day of the feast.  Thus, when secular people, who observe the de-Christianized version of Christmas, are taking down their snowmen and Grinch decorations, Catholics should be only at the beginning of their Christmas revelries. Even if modern necessities force us back to work during the Christmas Octave we can still keep Christmas in our hearts and homes.  In fact, even though the Octave ends today, the 12 Days of Christmas carry on until the Epiphany on January 6.  Although less elaborate in observance the season of this great joy actually continues until February 2, the Feast of the Presentation. Is the modern world better off having reduced the traditional 40-day celebration to just one?

Even before the radically reconstructed calendar of 1969, the liturgical agitators had already succeeded in reducing the number of Octaves in the liturgical year.  Now it is true that the circumstances of the modern secular world make the full observance of all Octaves impractical for most people.  Yet, their complete elimination is a great loss.

Today as we the faithful of Tradition honor the Circumcision of Our Lord let us give thanks that God in His inscrutable providence chose to open our eyes and hearts to the beauty of Catholic Tradition.  We at CFN look forward to spending another year with you through this paper, our videos, blog posts, and our 2025 Conference, March 1 and 2. We hope to see as many of you as possible in Orlando for what we hope will be a memorable conference.  Within the first 100 days of the Trump presidency, we will turn to the insightful work of Father Denis Fahey who so clearly diagnosed the great global struggle between Christ and Satan in his six-point plan.  We are assembling speakers from across the country to explain various aspects of this struggle so that we can fairly, intelligently, and prudently judge the successes and failures of the new administration in light of the wisdom of Father Fahey. 

We hope to see you in Orlando.

In Christ the Newborn King,

Brian M. McCall

Editor-in-Chief

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Brian McCall

With degrees from Yale University, the University of London, and the University of Pennsylvania, Mr. McCall is a member of the faculty of the University of Oklahoma College of Law. Mr. McCall became Editor-in-Chief of Catholic Family News in 2018. He is the author of numerous books and articles on law, politics, and Catholic Social Teaching and has made frequent speaking appearances at academic and Catholic conferences on these topics. He and his wife are the parents of six children.

Brian McCall

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With degrees from Yale University, the University of London, and the University of Pennsylvania, Mr. McCall is a member of the faculty of the University of Oklahoma College of Law. Mr. McCall became Editor-in-Chief of Catholic Family News in 2018. He is the author of numerous books and articles on law, politics, and Catholic Social Teaching and has made frequent speaking appearances at academic and Catholic conferences on these topics. He and his wife are the parents of six children.