Brian Fraga 🇺🇸 🇵🇹 🇻🇦
@BrianFragaNCR
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Staff reporter for @ncronline covering news in the Catholic Church. Portuguese-American (Açores), US Army veteran, Boston sports fan. Repost≠endorsement. AMDG
Massachusetts
Joined June 2011
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One bishop called him "evil." Another bishop said he was "stupid." The archbishop of Washington D.C., once described him as "a cafeteria Catholic" on national television.
ICYMI: My story for
@ncronline
examining Joe Biden's legacy as a Catholic president
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Do most Catholic homes still have drawers full of broken rosaries, torn scapulars, ripped sacramentals, etc?
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We did not deserve Tom from MySpace
do people still use MySpace? maybe we should pivot back to MySpace
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My five year old daughter woke up this morning and when I reminded her that she has no school for MLK Day, she proceeded to tell me - in her own way - about MLK, Jim Crow laws like segregated schools, water fountains, different bus seating and how that was wrong. Kindergarten.
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My latest for
@NCRonline
"Fr Bryan Massingale and other Black Catholics told NCR that they were appalled at how Gomez framed today's social justice activism, including the anti-racist movement in the United States..."
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My home icons of the Sacred Heart and Immaculate Heart. Aren't they great?
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Actually, that looks like a vibrant parish on fire with love for Jesus, celebrating the liturgy and worshipping God in its culture. I'd love to attend Mass there sometime.
#CatholicTwitter
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My story today in
@NCRonline
, reporting that many Americans who participated in the synod on synodality want a welcoming church that reaches out to the marginalized, especially the LGBTQ community, and that allows women to exercise leadership…
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More than a decade since the new English translation of the Mass took effect, I still find myself on occasion saying the old phrases (“And also with you,” “of all that is seen and unseen,” etc.). It’s amazing how the brain holds things in storage, and how they sometimes surface.
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If you are so inclined, please say a prayer for an old friend of mine, a former seminarian I met years ago in the Catholic young adult scene in southwestern Connecticut. He recently died by suicide, leaving behind a family. You never know what someone is going through.
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Well, the Catholic Twitter Inquisition has come for me. Achievement unlocked.
Brian - yes or no. Do you fully support the Church’s teaching on homosexuality? Just Yes or No. pretty simple.
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Today's big news: I'm a new staff reporter at
@NCRonline
. I'm very excited to join the NCR team, which does great journalism. I couldn't be happier. I'm also very grateful to
@OSV
for the last three years for having me as a contributing editor. Thank you.
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You gotta be kidding me. My father, who grew up in Salazar's Portugal, remembers the dictator's picture in classrooms, poverty, not learning about the Holocaust in school, seeing critics of the government disappear, and loved ones being drafted to fight in unjust colonial wars.
NEW from Michael Warren Davis: Neither a fascist nor a communist, the benevolent dictator was practical, and his cornerstone was "depoliticization." Portugal's 20th-century philosopher-king may be the ideal model of a leader for our times.
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Moments ago,
@POTUS
told reporters outside the White House that Pope Francis "is right" to ask for prayers & fasting to end the conflict in Ukraine. Also receiving ashes this morning from
@WashArchbishop
, Joe Biden said he and the cardinal "both prayed for the people of Ukraine."
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Random Sunday observation.
My parish communion line is a pretty good display of catholicity: people old & young; some in suits, others in shorts; some women in mantillas, others with tattoos, some with mantillas AND tattoos; most receiving in hand, a few on tongue. All Catholic.
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@amconmag
My father, who grew up in Salazar's Portugal, remembers the dictator's picture in classrooms, poverty, not learning about the Holocaust in school, seeing critics of the government disappear, and loved ones being drafted to fight in unjust colonial wars. Delete your account.
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On my walk tonight; Catholic piety in my still predominantly Portuguese-Catholic, working-class neighborhood.
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My local bishop censured a priest on Cape Cod for spreading misinformation about
#Covid19
vaccines during his homilies. The bishop made the priest read the letter from the pulpit.
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Took a look at my wife's DVR and it's all "Fatal Vows," "Wives with Knives," "Who the Bleep Did I Marry," "Deadly Women," etc., and I don't know what to make of it. 😳😨
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My parish had a Eucharistic holy hour after Mass this evening to pray for the Ukrainian people. What did your church do?
#UkraineWar
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On Sept. 11, 2001, my cousin Leah Oliver died in the World Trade Center. Twenty years later, I've taken a look back and written this reflection on Medium to honor her memory.
#September11
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"Despite pushback in some Catholic quarters, the pope is not deterred, using his Jan. 28 address to again double-down on his pro-vaccination message and praise Catholics who are doing their part to provide accurate information to others."
via
@NCRonline
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In my latest for
@OSVNews
, I interviewed
@frjohnhollowell
, a young Indiana priest diagnosed with a brain tumor. Father Hollowell talks about his diagnosis, the medical treatment ahead and why he sees all this as an answer to a prayer.
#CatholicTwitter
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After burning the phone lines for weeks, getting my congressman involved, a little bit of luck, and some heavenly intercession, I just got my passport two days before I’m scheduled to fly to Portugal cover the World Youth Day event with Pope Francis in Lisbon.
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So a certain far-right personally-conflicted Catholic alt-media personality's random hate tweet last night increased my followers by 70+, and got us some good pageviews on a story I wrote in January. To quote
@djkhaled
, "Congratulations, you played yourself." 🖐🎤
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Teaching 8th grade CCD this year. My class is five kids. Five kids.
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"Priest Ice Skating", 1954, Detroit, by John Dominis.
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Martha Hennessy, the granddaughter of Servant of God Dorothy Day, addressing the National Eucharistic Congress. She quoted from several writings of her famous grandmother, whose cause for canonization is ongoing.
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The Catholic bishop of Tyler, Texas, promoting an anti-vaxxer event in Washington DC.
I’m glad people from across the spectrum are uniting to say no to tyranny. People must be free to make decisions based on their own informed conscience.
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One day your kid’s born. Next thing you know, it’s already their first holy communion Mass 😭
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Sisters of Life out there ballin'
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The bishop of Covington has rescinded permission for two priests to minister in his diocese after they publicly dismissed the post-Vatican II Mass as "irrelevant," and motivated by hatred towards traditional Catholics and the ancient liturgies of Rome.
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.
@MichaelSWinters
today writes, "The situation in Fort Worth is very different from that in Tyler, but the remedy to both situations is the same: It is time for an apostolic visitation in both dioceses." via
@NCRonline
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“Homeless Jesus” sculpture in Youngstown, Ohio.
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The George Santos story is going to make a great documentary one day.
I don’t know what’s more ridiculous: that George Santos surprised his boyfriend with non-existent tickets to Hawaii and then stole his cell phone, or that an 18-year-old was able to quickly discover Santos was wanted by Brazilian police using a search engine.
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Peace be with you too, Michael. 🤗
Shut up you wimp. Answer the question - or - have you ALREADY? You reject Church teaching and LIE about being a Catholic. You’re no more Carholic than Nancy or Joe.
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In an interview with
@FoxNews
,
@BishopBarron
suggests that too much emphasis was put on the temporal works of charity and justice after Vatican II, at the expense of theology and doctrine...
#FoxNews
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In a letter to priests, my local bishop (
@FRDiocese
) says religious exemptions will NOT be granted to Catholics regarding the
#COVID19
vaccination.
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Just saw this headline from a Catholic news blog, "Does the Church need mental health screenings for bishops?" I can only imagine the responses....
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Reporting thread 🧵
Reactions and responses to today’s news that Bishop Joseph Strickland has been removed from his position in the Tyler, Texas diocese.
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Pope Francis: “To truly say 'no' to war and violence, it is not enough just to silence weapons and stop the aggressors. It is necessary to uproot the roots of wars and violence, which are resentment, envy and greed."
via
@NCRonline
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Jesus calls us to be faithful, not reckless. Church leaders implementing safety precautions amid the
#CoronavirusOutbreak
, including the suspension of public Masses in highly-impacted areas like Rome, does not indicate a lack of faith, but rather prudence.
#CatholicTwitter
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Thread 🧵
Reactions to today’s news about who from the United States will participate at the Synod on Synodality this October in Rome. The participants include noted LGBTQ advocate Jesuit Fr. James Martin and all four U.S. cardinals created by Pope Francis.
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Texas Gov Greg Abbott will sign a new restrictive voting bill into law today. The state's Catholic bishops conference has said nothing about it, continuing a pattern seen in other states like GA and FL. I recently wrote about this trend for
@NCRonline
.
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A Merry Christmas to all the
@dunkindonuts
employees who are working today serving coffee and donuts. You all deserve raises and time with your families.
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ICYMI
Catholic nonprofits in 2020 received hefty donations from Donors Trust, has been described as a "dark money ATM" for the political right and has provided funding to groups linked to white supremacist and anti-democratic elements...
via
@NCRonline
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A key argument in this MSW opinion column is that +Barron seems to conflate faithfulness w/intellectual formation. Fwiw, I know my rosary-saying/Mass-attending grandparents never read Aquinas or studied theology.
What are your thoughts? Keep it clean...
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A group of about 70 cardinals, bishops and theologians gathered privately for two days in Chicago, March 25-26, for conversations focused on how the U.S. Catholic Church can better support the agenda of Pope Francis. via
@NCRonline
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I see Catholic Twitter outrage is still active during World Youth Day.
This treatment of our Eucharistic Lord at World Youth Day is inexcusable!
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*Peeks to see what some traditionalists are talking about on Facebook these days. Closes browser. Has a drink.*
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Reminder: There is an active, Vatican-sponsored apostolic visitation in the Tyler, Texas, diocese.
Archbishop Fernandez needs to read Genesis 19:15-29, “The Lord God rained down sulphurous fire upon Sodom & Gomorrah” and Romans 1. Pray that he returns to the Catholic faith.
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Did your priest at Mass today mention the Olympics opening ceremony?
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Just noticed the leading Catholic integralists have all blocked me on this platform. Does this mean there’s no room for a free press in the imagined integralist Catholic state? 🤔
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While conservative Catholics, especially in the Anglophone world, see Our Lady of Fátima through an eschatological and violently apocalyptic lens, the Portuguese people by and large understand Fátima as a message of hope and triumph over evil, connected to a God of consolation…
Praying in Fatima on the eve of the anniversary of the apparition of May 13. Pray that the world will follow the Immaculate Heart of Mary deeply into the Sacred Heart of her Son Jesus. Santa Maria Ora pro nobis.
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Right-wing Catholic views on the Covid-19 pandemic, which has killed more than 1 million Americans since 2020, mirrors the country's political fault lines. This is the editor in chief of a right-wing Catholic publication.
Do you remember the pandemic of 2020, when hypochondria swept the nation?
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The co-founder and managing editor of the far-right
@LifeSite
has written a column sympathetic to Vladimir Putin's reasons for invading Ukraine.
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“Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here. He is risen.”
Happy Easter, everyone.
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A day after announcing her conversion to Catholicism, the controversial conservative commentator Candace Owens is a listed speaker at an upcoming “Catholic Identity Conference” featuring a lineup of right-wing Catholic personalities who have been vocal critics of Pope Francis.
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I will not be so easily controlled
If you have a loved one named Brian, please make sure they're okay.
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My story for
@NCRonline
"For nearly two hours, Pope Francis listened to Catholic university students from across the Americas who shared with him their personal experiences, insights, frustrations and ideas pertaining to climate change and migration."
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Just saw this outside at the National Eucharistic Congress, on my way to talk on polarization in the church and the country
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My story today for
@NCRonline
, reporting on the running narrative in conservative and right-wing Catholic media outlets that presents the synod on synodality as an ecclesial boondoggle at best, and a mortal threat to the Catholic Church at worst.
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SCOOP, via
@NCRonline
In two letters to New Ways Ministry this year, Pope Francis commended the organization for its outreach to the LGBTQ community and referred to one of its co-founders as "a valiant woman" who had suffered much for her ministry...
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My young daughter - who turns 7 tomorrow - just made an argument that to be liturgically correct , we should start celebrating her birthday tonight. Kids today….
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Happy Feast of St. Joseph, everyone. E Feliz Dia dos Pais.
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A window into the mindset of the Catholic far right’s political vision, which overlaps in some ways with the emerging ideology of Christian nationalism, which rejects liberal democracy and its separation of church and state.
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"Oh God, I thank you that I am not like these Twitter trolls...."
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The six conservative justices voted to reinstate the death penalty for Tsarnaev. Five of them are Catholic.
Straight party-line vote from the Supremes on execution for Tsarnaev. There’s no justification for this, and good reasons, even if you support the death penalty, not to apply it here. Deeply troubling that not one of the court’s conservatives sees this.
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#CatholicTwitter
can be a real toxic place sometimes. That’s why my “blocked” list is chock full of accounts with saints for profile pics and Latin phrases in bios. Feel better, Fr Jim.
I deleted my tweet about having to cancel Friday faith sharing due to Covid, and encouraging people to stay safe, because I was getting attacked and didn't need that while I'm sick.
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A tweet that's bringing together trads, moderates, conservatives and progressive Catholics for the sake of a ratio. It's quite something.
Mary is the greatest saint and queen of Heaven. But she evangelized ZERO, literally, bc she knew her role
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The Catholic bishop of Tyler, Texas tweeting anti-vaxx videos, again.
I’m with Fr Mark Goring, I’d rather die than benefit from anything produced by using an aborted child……Join the Cause - Fr. Mark Goring, CC via
@YouTube
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My breaking news story today for
@NCRonline
@commonwealmag
, an independent national Catholic magazine, edited an online essay after receiving a threat of legal action from
@WordOnFire
, the Catholic media organization founded by & featuring
@BishopBarron
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You know you're in middle age when you take preemptive ibuprofen before yard work. 🚜
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A follow-up question for
@BishopBarron
could be: “What do you mean by, ‘We’ve dumbed down the faith for too long’? In what ways has that happened?”
"Young people don't want an uncertain trumpet. They want something clear. We've dumbed down the faith too much for too long in order to be relevant... It's tougher being a young person now. We need Christ more than ever."
@BishopBarron
speaking to me at this year's World Youth
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The choice of photo here has Catholic Twitter talking.
Today begins National Natural Family Planning Awareness Week. As Pope Francis writes, “Love is more than a mere feeling” its fruitfulness “allows us to experience the happiness of giving” (AL, 94). Learn about NFP use in marriage here .
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“As
@MaryJoMcConahay
illustrates in Playing God: American Catholic Bishops and The Far Right, the two entities have become, over decades, increasingly dependent on and subservient to each other in a mutual pursuit of cultural influence.”
via
@NCRonline
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"A Catholic church in San Francisco pushed back a visit from Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone scheduled for a Dec. 19 Mass after he recently revealed that he’s unvaccinated."
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I really hope Twitter doesn’t die, because only here can Bug Hall go from “whatever happened to” child actor to Catholic Twitter villain to cancelled account in less than 12 hours.
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Bishop John Stowe tells the conference that Faithful Citizenship needs to be rewritten given everything that has happened since it was last written in 2007, naming Pope Francis and his teachings, post-Dobbs environment and Jan 6, 2021 attack
#usccb2022
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The priest in the video below made headlines in 2020 when he recorded a video declaring Catholics couldn’t be Democrats. Videos of his homilies, one in which he downplayed the severity of racial lynching, were approvingly shared by some prominent conservative Catholics in the US.
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Bishop John Stowe of Lexington, Kentucky
In a rarity, a Catholic bishop joined a protest outside the WH today to call for a Gaza ceasefire and urge Biden, a fellow Catholic, to end weapons shipments to Israel.
He also voiced support for student protesters, but stressed the need to be peaceful.
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Just spoke w/Bishop Edgar da Cunha of Fall River, MA - whose diocese encompasses Martha's Vineyard and Cape Cod. He decried the use of migrants as "political pawns", adding, "That's not the way you deal with human beings."
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My pastor’s column this week in the parish bulletin.
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The Catholic bishop of Tyler, Texas, tells a cardinal to "return to the Catholic faith"
Amen. “Only what is true can ultimately be pastoral”. Cardinal Roche please read anything Pope Benedict wrote. It will help you return to the Catholic faith.
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“I’d like to think hell is empty, but I’ve been on the Internet.” - text message from a friend
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