Author Archives: John Lacken

Eternity is a difficult concept for the human mind because we think in terms of time and we cannot really imagine life without time. The expression “from all eternity” is often used. However, this expression is faulty because eternity has neither beginning nor end. Eternity is a Godly concept. When Moses asked God what he should say if the people asked him the name of the God who sent him, he received the reply. “God said to Moses: I AM … Read More

The Emperor’s New Clothes, by Hans Christian Anderson, tells the story of a couple of conmen who convince an Emperor that they can make him some elegant clothes from magnificent thread that is invisible to those who lack intelligence or are stupid. Eventually the Emperor is paraded around in his nude until a little boy shouts out the obvious and the people realise that they have been fooled. Today’s reading in the Latin Mass for the Saturday after the Third … Read More

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar announced on Friday 10th, March, plans to remove the constitutional protections for stay at home mothers. Like many who base their lives on ideology, the Taoiseach is not restricted to being truthful. He does not tell the whole truth and sometimes what he says is not true. The ideology is elevated to the status of infallible truth regardless of whether or not it conforms to known and scientifically observable facts. In his press launch for a referendum … Read More

I hope to launch my first book, The Traditional Catholic Family, throughout Ireland beginning in Limerick on Tuesday 11th, April, 2023. The purpose of the book is to promote and defend Catholic Church teaching on marriage and family life with a view to helping Catholics understand both the importance and greatness of Catholic Marriage. Pope Pius XI in his encyclical Casti Connubii stated: “In order, however, that amongst men of every nation and every age the desired fruits may be … Read More

The Human Tissue (Transplantation, Post-Mortem, Anatomical Examination and Public Display) Bill 2022 is currently making its way through the houses of the Oireachtas in Ireland. This bill intends to deal with the sensitive subject of organ donation. One of the dangers that arises in matters where ethics is of concern, is where legislation is being driven on a ‘needs first’ basis rather than on an ‘ethics first’ basis. The Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly, when introducing the bill at second … Read More

WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW Processing the Baby Jesus to the crib on Christmas Morning – Our family Christmas procession, 16 years apart. The Reason for the SeasonJust over a year ago, I was browsing through some old family videos from when our children were small. I remember writing about one in particular. You see, back in 2005, when our youngest child was just three years old, we decided to give Santa Clause the boot from our house. Over the years, … Read More

There were a few speed issues with the website of late and so the website has been updated to a new WordPress hosting package which should make it more responsive and a little faster. I will now continue to upload Dom Prosper Gueranger’s commentaries and prayers for the season of Advent. Thank you for your patience. May God bless you. John Lacken

In St Lukes Gospel, the Apostles ask Jesus to teach them how to pray. “And it came to pass, that as he was in a certain place praying, when he ceased, one of his disciples said to him: Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. And he said to them: When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we … Read More

We Are Losing The Culture War!“And the Lord said: Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips glorify me, but their heart is far from me, and they have feared me with the commandment and doctrines of men: Therefore behold I will proceed to cause an admiration in this people, by a great and wonderful miracle: for wisdom shall perish from their wise men, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.” … Read More

No Confusion in the Catholic ChurchAs I begin this article I have just come from Northern Ireland where I hosted two talks. One in Omagh and the other in Derry. The talks were well attended, and we had a particularly lively question and answer session in Omagh. As I am fond of repeating, there is no confusion in the Catholic Church because her teachings are crystal clear, but there are many confused Catholics on account of the false prophets and … Read More

Understanding Casti ConnubiiOne cannot understand the encyclical ‘Casti Connubii’, which reaffirms the Catholic Church’s constant teaching against contraception, unless one first understands why ‘Casti Connubii’ was written. In order to understand this, we must look to the years 1920 and 1930 and we must look to the Lambeth Conference of the Anglican church in those years. The Lambeth conference is an international gathering of protestant Anglican bishops and usually meets about every ten years to discuss matters pertaining to that … Read More

Irish Bishops are Harming MarriageThe Irish Bishops are doing serious harm to Catholic marriage and family life with their ‘Amoris’ programme which is being promoted to every parish in Ireland. The key to understanding why this is, comes at the beginning of the programme where it states. “The programme takes, as its starting point, people’s experience of love and their hopes and fears with regard to marriage and family” Situational EthicsThis is the basis for what is called ‘situation’ or … Read More

The Greatest Commandment“And one of them, a doctor of the law, asking him, tempting him: Master, which is the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus said to him: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. And the second is like to this: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments dependeth the whole law and … Read More

A Dark and Evil DayAlthough most people are blissfully unaware of it, the week of Friday 19th January 2018, was one of the darkest and most evil weeks in the history of the Irish nation. Grown men and women, many of them parents of children, all of them elected representatives, stood up in the Irish parliament chamber one after the other, to outline the conditions under which they believed that certain human beings, members of our nation, should be allowed … Read More

The Majesty of God“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him: and without him was made nothing that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” (John 1:1-5) The opening sentences of St John’s Gospel, beautifully and simply … Read More

This Bishop is in DenialThis week, I would like to thank those of you who have written to Bishop Raymond Browne, the Bishop of Kerry, regarding the promotion of the LGBT agenda to the youth of his diocese. I would also like to encourage more of you to get in contact with him. Bishop Browne has responded by saying; “Be assured that the diocese and I uphold fully the Church’s teaching on sexuality. We seek as best we can to … Read More

Those Who Promote Marriage will be AttackedI am conscious that I have been repeating Sr Lucia’s words to Cardinal Caffara regularly in my talks and in my articles. She said that “anyone who works for the sanctity of marriage and the family will always be fought and opposed in every way, because this is the decisive issue.” I have begun lately to notice that we are indeed under attack. The attacks take on various forms. Some are personal in the … Read More

Great ConferenceIt was great to meet up with so many Catholic Voice readers at last Saturday’s conference in Limerick. For those who were unable to attend, I would like to give an extract from my talk in which we made a very important announcement for next year. Today, those who are leading the main attack on Catholic teaching on marriage and family life come from within the ranks of the Catholic church herself, with many senior prelates contradicting the constant … Read More

My 100th Article for Catholic VoiceToday marks another milestone in my journey with the Catholic Voice newspaper. This is my one hundredth article in Catholic Voice. A centenary of articles during the centenary of Fatima! What began as a simple question to Anthony Murphy, “would you be interested in some articles on marriage and family?”, with the reply, “send me in something and we’ll see”, has turned into a journey of faith exploration. In these turbulent times for the Catholic … Read More

Address to Fathers of FamiliesAt last year’s Catholic Voice conference in Limerick, I made the following address to fathers of families. I am not ignoring mothers, but fathers need to be given a wake-up call because the father is the spiritual and physical head of his family. Make Sure You Know What the Catholic Church Teaches“Fathers, make sure that you are fully conversant with what the Church teaches you about your role as Man, Husband and Father. Make sure that … Read More