With no court oversight the Diocese of Manchester paid a six-figure settlement for an expired abuse claim urged on by discredited “trauma-informed consultants.” Now the same lawyers are back with a new claim from nearly 45 years ago, and got another six-figure settlement.
To Fleece the Flock: Meet the Trauma-Informed Consultants — Beyond These Stone Walls
With no court oversight the Diocese of Manchester paid a six-figure settlement for an expired abuse claim urged on by discredited “trauma-informed consultants.”
May 29, 2024 by Ryan A. MacDonald
Editor’s Note: The following post is by Ryan A. MacDonald who has published extensively on the sexual abuse narrative in the Catholic Church. His most recent was a collaboration with Los Angeles writer and researcher Claire Best entitled “The New Hampshire YDC Scandal and the Trial of Father MacRae.”
+ + +
I hear that there is a lot going on in New Hampshire, the “Live Free or Die” State. The State has long operated a juvenile detention facility called YDC — the Youth Development Center. In more recent years it was renamed the “Sununu Youth Development Center” after former Governor John Sununu, father of current Governor Christopher Sununu. They both now seem anxious to have their family name removed from that facility. The “YDC,” as it is commonly called has been at the center of a massive …
From TheMediaReport.com. I highly recommend this.
Clown Show: Rhode Island AG Issues Phony Abuse Report, Boston Globe Goes Wild, Naturally
Bigots: Rhode Island AG Peter Neronha
and Boston Globe editor Brian McGrory
It took over seven years, but he finally got the press conference he always craved.
Back in 2019 (!), we reported how Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha was among several AGs across the country seeking to replicate the public relations triumph that Pennsylvania's AG Josh Shapiro garnered in 2018 with his blockbuster "grand jury report" that gained international attention.
Well, Neronha's day in the sun finally came to pass last week when he released a 284-page tome (pdf) claiming to chronicle abuse by priests in his state in the Diocese of Providence. But to say that Neronha's report was underwhelming would be an overstatement.
Nothing new in the report
Even by Neronha's own admission, his office scoured records dating back "three-quarters of a century" to 1950, when Harry S. Truman was President and Bing Crosby still ruled the charts. In other words, this was a history report by any standard. …
Albert Einstein honored Georges Lemaitre, the priest, physicist and mathematician whose Big Bang Theory is now the scientifically accepted origin of the universe.
Science and Faith Are Not Mutually Incompatible — Beyond These Stone Walls
Albert Einstein honored Georges Lemaitre, the priest, physicist and mathematician whose Big Bang Theory is now the scientifically accepted origin of the universe.
March 11, 2026 by Father Gordon MacRae
In 2016, an issue of the former Catholic newspaper Our Sunday Visitor profiled some eye-opening research in an article entitled “Young People Are Leaving the Faith: Here’s Why” (August 27, 2016). It was an analysis of two national studies conducted by The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) to provide insight into the reasons why a third of “millennials” who were raised Catholic reject the faith of their parents as young adults.
In the CARA studies, “Millennials” are defined as those born in 1982 or later. The majority of the young adults who responded with comments on the research indicated that they left their faith for science, concluding that Catholicism cannot be reconciled with science at the high school and university level. They report finding little in the …
Saint Luke proclaims the Parable of the Prodigal Son as the Gospel for Saturday of the Second Week of Lent. Is there any sin that is beyond the compassion of God?
The Compassion of God: The Parable of the Prodigal Son — Beyond These Stone Walls
Saint Luke proclaims the Parable of the Prodigal Son as the Gospel for Saturday of the Second Week of Lent. Is there any sin that is beyond the compassion of God?
March 4, 2026 by Father Gordon MacRae
“Ecclesiastes calls you the All-Powerful; Maccabees calls you the Creator; the Epistle to the Ephesians calls you Liberty; Baruch calls you Immensity; the Psalms call you Wisdom and Truth; John calls you Light; the Book of Kings calls you Lord; Exodus calls you Providence; Leviticus, Sanctity; Esdras, Justice; Genesis calls you God; man calls you Father; Solomon calls you Compassion, and that is the most beautiful of all your names.”
— Bishop Bienvenu in Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, 1887
During Lent a few years back, I wrote “A U.S. Marine Who Showed Me What to Give Up for Lent.” Among the multiple characters appearing in that post was my friend, Martin. At the time I wrote it, I had been living in a hellish environment in this prison. My dismay at living there grew deeper on the day …
A story out of time for our time: The Prophet Isaiah wrote of Cyrus, King of Persia (now Iran) who knew not God but was chosen by God to restore freedom to Israel.
Iran, by Another Name, Was Once the Savior of Israel — Beyond These Stone Walls
A story out of time for our time: The Prophet Isaiah wrote of Cyrus, King of Persia (now Iran) who knew not God but was chosen by God to restore freedom to Israel.
June 25, 2025 by Father Gordon MacRae
It is hard for me to NOT write about some developments especially when they fall within the realm of human rights and religious freedom. If I fail to address what seems to engulf the attention of entire nations, then I feel as though I am overlooking the elephant in the sacristy. The world was riveted to events in Iran, Israel, and the United States on Saturday, June 21, 2025. There is a backstory that rises up out of ancient times in the same place where nuclear Armageddon was possibly prevented on that day.
This post is about Cyrus the Great, the Sixth Century BC conqueror and King of the Persian Empire in what is now modern day Iran. King Cyrus is the subject of a reading from the Prophet Isaiah (45:1):
“Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped to …
Moses and the Prophet Elijah are present for the Transfiguration of Christ. They represent the Law and the Prophets, the two pillars of Israel's faith and ours.
The Law and the Prophets and the Transfiguration of Christ — Beyond These Stone Walls
Moses and the Prophet Elijah are present for the Transfiguration of Christ. They represent the Law and the Prophets, the two pillars of Israel's faith and ours.
February 25, 2026 by Father Gordon MacRae
“Nothing new in the Holy See.” I hear these words from our Editor every week as she reviews with me a global traffic report for this blog. Being blind behind these stone walls to everything going on with a post after it leaves my archaic typewriter, this opportunity to know that someone out there is actually reading is vaguely comforting to me. We cannot know who is reading any particular post, but we can see where they are, and how many they are.
Our call always ends with “Nothing new in the Holy See.” It means that no one there has stopped to look from Beyond These Stone Walls. There is a sadness in that. There is a lot of controversy in Rome these days, and because I have a stake in it, I am both anxious about it and anxious to have a voice in it. I look intently at the affairs of …
The Gospel according to St Luke tells the story of Jesus, revealed to be Son of God, led into the desert to be tested by the devil who does not give up easily.
Christ in the Desert: A Devil of a Time — Beyond These Stone Walls
The Gospel according to St Luke tells the story of Jesus, revealed to be Son of God, led into the desert to be tested by the devil who does not give up easily.
Ash Wednesday, 2026 by Father Gordon MacRae
Many of our readers are aware that the Church follows a three-year cycle for Sunday Scripture Readings. As Ordinary Time now gives way to the Season of Lent, I explore the Gospel for the First Sunday of Lent. Being in the “A Cycle,” the Gospel from Saint Matthew (4:1-11) seemed very familiar. Like much of Scripture, I knew that I had read about this passage, but I also felt certain that I had written about it. It is the story of Jesus following the revelation that he is the Son of God revealed at his Baptism in the Jordan. In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus is led into the desert by the Spirit to face Satan and a series of temptations for which, if he failed, his redemptive mission would end before it even began. All three of the Synoptic Evangelists, Matthew, Mark and Luke, tell the same …
In the scene above, Mary Magdalene is a witness to the Risen Lord (John 20:15-18). This is the journey of Aloonsri Paokumhang who clings to the Lord even in exile.
My Journey to the Traditional Latin Mass — Beyond These Stone Walls
In the scene above, Mary Magdalene is a witness to the Risen Lord (John 20:15-18). This is the journey of Aloonsri Paokumhang who clings to the Lord even in exile.
February 11, 2026 by Aloonsri Paokumhang
“Our duty as Catholics is to know the truth; to live the truth; to defend the truth; to share the truth with others, and to suffer for the truth.”
— Father John Hardon, SJ
I am a parishioner in the Diocese of Charlotte, North Carolina. Although I was baptized into the Catholic faith during college, I fell away for several decades to the lies of the Protestant movement. It is only after having lost my beloved mother that I returned to the Catholic Church. Covid was a scary and confusing time for many, but it was during this time that I was stripped of most of my material belongings by abusive and culturally insensitive people and the corrupt systems that supported them. I firmly believe that my mother and grandfather sent some beautiful saints of our faith to rescue me as I was trying …
Citing unity, the Bishop of Charlotte, North Carolina imposed a ban on altar rails and kneeling and severely further restricted access to the Traditional Latin Mass.
Latin Mass and Altar Rails Are Under Siege in North Carolina — Beyond These Stone Walls
Citing unity, the Bishop of Charlotte, North Carolina imposed a ban on altar rails and kneeling and severely further restricted access to the Traditional Latin Mass.
February 11, 2026 by Father Gordon MacRae
In its “Year in Review” feature dated December 28, 2025, the National Catholic Register published “The Top 25 Register Stories of 2025.” AI tools were used to generate summaries and rank the stories based upon online page views, which were then reviewed by an editor. The result was a visually striking account of Catholic interests over the previous year. Two of the entries were perplexing, however.
Item #17 on the list featured a photo of Charlotte, North Carolina, Bishop Michael Martin with the headline, “Charlotte Liturgy Controversy Heats Up After Bishop’s Proposed Ban of Latin, Altar Rails Leaked.” The segment was written by Register Columnist Jonathan Liedl who added, “The Charlotte Diocese ignites a firestorm in 2025 as Bishop Michael Martin’s leaked proposal to ban …
Discoveries like the Higgs boson build bridges between science and faith, inviting us to marvel at the universe’s wonders.
Higgs Boson, God Particle, Science and Faith — Beyond These Stone Walls
Discoveries like the Higgs boson build bridges between science and faith, inviting us to marvel at the universe’s wonders.
February 6, 2026 by Grok
QUERY:
Can you please provide an overview for this post: The Higgs Boson God Particle: All Things Visible and Invisible?
GROK:
Overview of “The Higgs Boson God Particle: All Things Visible and Invisible”
This thoughtful blog post by Fr. Gordon J. MacRae, a Catholic priest with a keen interest in science, beautifully explores the discovery of the Higgs boson — often dubbed the “God particle” — and its harmony with faith. Written from his unique perspective, Fr. MacRae draws on his background to bridge the worlds of physics and spirituality, showing how science illuminates the “how” of creation while faith addresses the deeper “why.”
Key highlights:
Scientific Context: The Higgs boson, theorized by Peter Higgs in 1964 and confirmed at CERN in 2012, explains how particles gain mass in the early universe, solving a core puzzle in the …
In 2012, scientists at the Large Hadron Collider detected the elusive Higgs boson, a subatomic particle dubbed the “God Particle” explaining the origin of matter.
The Higgs Boson God Particle: All Things Visible and Invisible — Beyond These Stone Walls
In 2012, scientists at the Large Hadron Collider detected the elusive Higgs boson, a subatomic particle dubbed the “God Particle” explaining the origin of matter.
February 4, 2026 by Father Gordon MacRae
“Two Higgs boson particles walked into a bar. Over drinks one said, ‘I hear Stephen Hawking bet $100 that we don’t exist. What if he’s right?’ The other replied, ‘No matter!’ ”
Get it? No matter? Get it? Well, hopefully you will in a few minutes. I didn’t get it either until I did some heavy-duty reading.
If this post is creating a touch of déjà vu, a sense that you have seen it before, it’s because you probably have. Something quite unusual happened here at this blog in recent weeks. In the earliest days of this blog in 2010, I was contacted by a reader in Australia about a new book by physicists Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow entitled The Grand Design (Bantam Books, 2010). The letter writer was concerned that media outlets in Australia and around the world were citing …
The Gospel at Mass on February 2 is the story of the Presentation of Jesus and the ritual Purification of Mary required 40 days after the birth of a male child.
February Tales — Beyond These Stone Walls
Candlemas, the Mass of Candles, is celebrated 40 days after Christmas on the 2nd of February. Today, we call this The Presentation of the Lord recalling Mary bringing Jesus to Simeon in the Gospel of Luke (2: 22-35). It was the fulfillment of a tenet set down in the Book of Leviticus (12: 2-5). Forty days after bearing a male child, a Jewish woman had to present herself in the temple for a rite of purification. Thus, Candlemas, once also called the Feast of the Purification, was set forty days after Christmas. It may even have been the other way around.
In the time before Christ in ancient Rome, February marked the Roman feast of Lupercalia. It was a pagan fertility festival celebrated in honor of Lupercus, the mythological Roman god of flocks and shepherds. The legend began with the mythical founders of Rome, the twin brothers, Romulus and Remus.
Abandoned at birth, and left — with shades of the story of Moses — to float in a basket down the Tiber River, Romulus and Remus were nurtured …
A Covenant is a kinship bond between two parties. It is the master-theme of Salvation History in which God draws believers into a family relationship with Himself.
Covenants of God from Genesis to the Book of Revelation — Beyond These Stone Walls
A Covenant is a kinship bond between two parties. It is the master-theme of Salvation History in which God draws believers into a family relationship with Himself.
January 28, 2026 by Father Gordon MacRae
“Testament” is the name given to the two principal divisions of the Christian Bible. It is derived from the Latin, “testamentum,” translated from the biblical Greek term, “diathēkē,” which is more properly translated as “Covenant.” In fact, the traditional designations of the biblical “Old Testament” and “New Testament” were inspired by Saint Paul’s distinction between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant in 2 Corinthians 3:6,14:
“Our sufficiency is from God who has qualified us to be ministers of a New Covenant, not in written code but in the Spirit; for the written code kills, but the Spirit gives life … not like Moses who put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not see the end of the fading splendor.”
This cryptic verse from Saint Paul requires some deeper …
Turning Point USA, founded by Charlie Kirk, has been denied a chapter status at St. John’s University.
ST. JOHN’S UNIV. REJECTS TURNING POINT BID - Catholic League
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ST. JOHN’S UNIV. REJECTS TURNING POINT BID
Bill Donohue
Turning Point USA, founded by Charlie Kirk, has been denied a chapter status at St. John’s University. The student government at the Queens, New York campus did not give any reason, requesting that they reapply. But they have already been denied twice, and without cause. This story was first reported by Sam Korkus of the University of Dallas, writing for The College Fix.
There is reason to believe that a political bias may be in play. Allegedly, some student government members startled “giggling” when the request was made by Turning Point club founder Massimo Guerriero. What was particularly disturbing was the nature of exchange. Instead of focusing on whether the club was a good fit at St. John’s, attention turned to how it would respond to a potential backlash on campus.
In other words, the possibility that some might try to cancel Turning Point was given veto power by the student government. They chose the …
Physicist, Stephen Hawking, died on March 14, 2018. His book, The Grand Design, caused many to believe that he widened the chasm between science and faith.
Did Stephen Hawking Sacrifice God on the Altar of Science? — Beyond These Stone Walls
Physicist, Stephen Hawking, died on March 14, 2018. His book, The Grand Design, caused many to believe that he widened the chasm between science and faith.
July 30, 2025 by Father Gordon MacRae
Back in 2010, in the earliest days of this blog, I wrote a post about the late, great physicist, Stephen Hawking. It was among my first posts about the dichotomy between science and faith. A controversial book, The Grand Design, published not long before I wrote about Professor Hawking, caused many to believe that he was an atheist who concluded that there is no reason to believe that God created the Universe or anything else. He attributed all of creation to one overpowering force, gravity. At the time I was pondering a response, I imagined that if I had been on an archeological dig among 15th Century ruins in Rome and found a worn chisel that was known to have belonged to Michelangelo, and used to create the Pieta, what sort of controversy would that entail? Would naysayers suggest that …
The human fascination with finding extraterrestrial life has turned a blind eye to a half century of Roe v Wade. How would we explain Planned Parenthood to E.T.?
The March for Life and the People on the Planet Next Door — Beyond These Stone Walls
The human fascination with finding extraterrestrial life has turned a blind eye to a half century of Roe v Wade. How would we explain Planned Parenthood to E.T.?
January 25, 2023 by Father Gordon MacRae
Note from Father Gordon MacRae: I first wrote this post in this same week in January 2017. It was written for an older version of this blog so we would have to restore it to make it readable again. I decided instead to rewrite it and publish it anew. This post is substantially revised and updated, but we retained the 2017 comments. Please feel free to add to them.
The post was written before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade leaving the battle for the Right to Life to individual states. The annual March for Life took place this week in the nation’s capital and around the country. It capped off a momentous year in the cause for life with the long-sought overturning of Roe v. Wade.
These events also coincide with a renewed interest in the scientific search for extraterrestrial …
“The next time you hear a prosecutor making shocking allegations against the Church, remember the Billy Doe story and the corrupt D.A. who staged a witch hunt.”
The Legacy of “Billy Doe” — Beyond These Stone Walls
“The next time you hear a prosecutor making shocking allegations against the Church, remember the Billy Doe story and the corrupt D.A. who staged a witch hunt.”
By Ralph Cipriano | Catalyst (January/February 2019)
With the Catholic Church under legal assault by prosecutors in 14 states, the case of a former Philadelphia altar boy dubbed “Billy Doe” serves as a cautionary tale that not every priest accused of sex abuse is automatically guilty.
The case also shows that crusading prosecutors don’t always play by the rules. And that no matter what the true facts in a sex abuse case are, it won’t matter to a biased news media.
Billy Doe, whose real name is Danny Gallagher, came forward at age 23 in 2011 to claim that back when he was 10 and 11 years old, he was repeatedly raped by two priests and a parochial school teacher. A couple of juries convicted all three attackers and sent them to jail. Also convicted was Msgr. William J. Lynn, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s former secretary …
With strange testimonial ties to the Cardinal George Pell case in Australia a corrupt U.S. prosecutor faced a 23-count indictment of his own and took a plea deal.
Fr Charles Engelhardt’s Indicted Prosecutor Took a Plea Deal — Beyond These Stone Walls
With strange testimonial ties to the Cardinal George Pell case in Australia a corrupt U.S. prosecutor faced a 23-count indictment of his own and took a plea deal.
January 21, 2026 by Father Gordon MacRae
On January 7, 2026 in these pages I exposed a story with new and relevant information about the notorious case of Cardinal George Pell of Australia who became the first Roman Catholic cardinal to be accused, tried and convicted on sexual abuse charges. It was a media event with global coverage that survived two appeals affirming the conviction and sentence until Australia’s highest court reversed the conviction in April, 2020. It was a story I covered here in “From Down Under, the Exoneration of George Cardinal Pell”
When I wrote of his exoneration in 2020, I was not aware of the tentacles of connection between the testimony against Cardinal Pell on trial in Australia, and that of another Catholic priest almost simultaneously on trial in America. As one prominent Australian writer …
As Christmastide gives way to Ordinary Time in the Sunday Mass Gospel, John the Baptist connects the Lamb of God to the time of Abraham 2000 years before Christ.
Behold, the Lamb of God — Beyond These Stone Walls
As Christmastide gives way to Ordinary Time in the Sunday Mass Gospel, John the Baptist connects the Lamb of God to the time of Abraham 2000 years before Christ.
January 14, 2026, Ordinary Time
Note from Father Gordon MacRae: In 17 years writing for this blog I have produced about 850 posts from inside a prison cell with access only to an old typewriter. After I type them, I mail them to be scanned by an editor and then published at Beyond These Stone Walls. Once I mail a post, I have no means to ever see it again except on the rare occasion when I can make a photocopy. Once published, readers can see it but I cannot. So these 850 posts, at least for me, exist only in my mind. It seems inevitable that I would eventually write content that is familiar to readers.
After the Gospel passage about the Baptism of Jesus, the Church’s liturgy enters Ordinary Time. The Sunday Gospel this week, According to Saint John (1:29-34), begins with a declaration of John the Baptist as he saw Jesus coming …
Without knowing, of course, that he was just three days away from his death, on January 10, 2023, Cardinal George Pell preached his last homily at San Giovanni Rotondo.
The Last Homily of Cardinal George Pell — Beyond These Stone Walls
Without knowing, of course, that he was just three days away from death Cardinal George Pell preached his last homily at San Giovanni Rotondo.
January 7, 2023 by George Cardinal Pell | Published by Napa Institute
Homily of Cardinal George Pell to the Caritas in Veritate — Magnificat Dominium Community at San Giovanni Rotondo, January 7, 2023
“We believers know well the blessings we have received in Jesus Christ: we know that “The people who lived in darkness have seen a great light, and those who lived in regions of the shadow of death, there a light has arisen” (Isaiah 9.1).
We know Jesus’ call, through the Baptist, to conversion: “Repent, because the kingdom of God is near” (Mt 4:17), but we older Catholics, or rather, adults, are also blessed because we have lived, in almost forty years, in the time of John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI.
These years have been pivotal for all of history: the papacy of John Paul II, one of the greatest popes in the history of the Church, not only …