Friday 19th April 2019

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Dispute Over Papal Foundation’s $25 Million Grant Approval Continues

April 19, 2019 Featured Today Comments Off on Dispute Over Papal Foundation’s $25 Million Grant Approval Continues

By KEVIN JONES VATICAN CITY (CNA) — Scrutiny continues for the U.S.-based Papal Foundation, amid questions of whether some of its grant activity was motivated by a desire to secure leniency for disgraced former cardinal Theodore McCarrick. The ongoing controversy surrounds the foundation’s decision to make an unprecedented grant to a leading Italian hospital whose former leadership had faced accusations of massive embezzlement and financial misconduct. Donald Cardinal Wuerl, the outgoing archbishop of Washington, D.C., made “false and misleading” statements about the grantee to the foundation board, said Matthew B. O’Brien, a Philadelphia-based writer, in an April 12 essay for First Things. O’Brien cited several people involved with the Papal Foundation who spoke on background and provided copies of foundation…Continue Reading

First Time In 300 Years… Rome’s Holy Stairs Are Uncovered

April 18, 2019 Featured Today Comments Off on First Time In 300 Years… Rome’s Holy Stairs Are Uncovered

By HANNAH BROCKHAUS ROME (CNA) — The bare, white marble of Rome’s “Scala Sancta,” which are believed to be the stairs trod by Christ on the day of His trial and death, are now exposed and visible to pilgrims for the first time in almost 300 years. The stairs, encased in wood since the 1700s, will be uncovered for veneration from April 11 to June 9, the Feast of Pentecost. During this time, pilgrims may ascend the marble steps on their knees. “We thought this opportunity was important,” Paolo Violini, the head of the restoration of the staircase, told EWTN. He said the idea to open the Holy Stairs to the public came when they removed the wood to restore…Continue Reading

A Book Review . . . St. Peter Of Alcantara Tells Us How To Pray And Meditate

April 17, 2019 Featured Today Comments Off on A Book Review . . . St. Peter Of Alcantara Tells Us How To Pray And Meditate

By DONAL ANTHONY FOLEY Treatise on Prayer and Meditation, by St. Peter of Alcantara (212 pages, TAN Books & Publishers Inc., paperback and Kindle). Visit www.tanbooks.com, or call 1-800-437-5876. St. Peter of Alcantara (1499-1562) was born in Spain, and became a Franciscan friar in a strict observance friary. He was ordained in 1524, and went on to become a well-known preacher. He lived an extremely austere life and developed a reputation for great holiness, and for miraculous powers and prophetic insights. Later on, he lived a stricter eremitical life, and became one of the spiritual directors of St. Teresa of Avila, encouraging her in her Carmelite reforms. He lived during the tumultuous times when the effects of the Reformation and…Continue Reading

Liberty Counsel Says Counseling Ban Violates Free Speech

April 16, 2019 Featured Today Comments Off on Liberty Counsel Says Counseling Ban Violates Free Speech

ATLANTA — Liberty Counsel filed a brief April 11 in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, in an appeal challenging the constitutionality of ordinances enacted by the City of Boca Raton and Palm Beach County, which prohibit minors from receiving voluntary counseling from licensed professionals to reduce or eliminate unwanted same-sex attractions or behaviors, or gender confusion. The appeal is from an order signed by U.S. District Court Judge Robin Rosenberg denying a preliminary injunction blocking the ordinances which was sought by Liberty Counsel on behalf of Dr. Robert Otto, LMFT, Dr. Julie Hamilton, LMFT, and their minor clients. These licensed therapists provide life-saving counseling to minors who want to conform their attractions, behaviors, and gender identities to their sincerely…Continue Reading

Talking About Pro-Life Progress

April 15, 2019 Featured Today Comments Off on Talking About Pro-Life Progress

By FR. SHENAN J. BOQUET (Editor’s Note: This article is reprinted with permission of Human Life International, www.hli.org. It first appeared at www.hli.org on April 8, 2019. Fr. Boquet is the president of HLI.) + + + “To claim the right to abortion, infanticide and euthanasia, and to recognize that right in law, means to attribute to human freedom a perverse and evil significance: that of an absolute power over others and against others. This is the death of true freedom: ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin’” (John 8:34) — Pope St. John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, n. 20. + + + To anyone who’s been paying attention, it’s clear that…Continue Reading

To Mock A Killing Bird

April 14, 2019 Featured Today Comments Off on To Mock A Killing Bird

By DONALD DeMARCO I was chatting with a high school English teacher recently and asked what she was using at the moment in her classroom. “To Kill a Mockingbird,” she answered, “and the students love it.” Harper Lee’s 1960 novel has been immensely successful. It won a Pulitzer Prize for its author and the film version won three Academy Awards, including best actor for Gregory Peck. In 2005 the British Institute included it in its list of the 50 films you should see by the age of 14. Atticus Finch, the protagonist, played by Peck, is widely considered as the most convincing cinematic image of racial heroism. Perhaps, I suggested, the novel is even better suited for a class in…Continue Reading

A Book Review . . . St. Peter Of Alcantara Tells Us How To Pray And Meditate

April 13, 2019 Featured Today Comments Off on A Book Review . . . St. Peter Of Alcantara Tells Us How To Pray And Meditate

By DONAL ANTHONY FOLEY Treatise on Prayer and Meditation, by St. Peter of Alcantara (212 pages, TAN Books & Publishers Inc., paperback and Kindle). Visit www.tanbooks.com, or call 1-800-437-5876. St. Peter of Alcantara (1499-1562) was born in Spain, and became a Franciscan friar in a strict observance friary. He was ordained in 1524, and went on to become a well-known preacher. He lived an extremely austere life and developed a reputation for great holiness, and for miraculous powers and prophetic insights. Later on, he lived a stricter eremitical life, and became one of the spiritual directors of St. Teresa of Avila, encouraging her in her Carmelite reforms. He lived during the tumultuous times when the effects of the Reformation and…Continue Reading

Buttigieg’s Dishonesty Is Astonishing

April 12, 2019 Featured Today Comments Off on Buttigieg’s Dishonesty Is Astonishing

By BILL DONOHUE (Editor’s Note: Catholic League President Bill Donohue commented April 4 on presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg.) + + + South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg is being hailed in some quarters as an honest man who would make a good president. Picking up on this image, he is now selling himself as a committed Christian, one who is much more broad-minded than Christian conservatives. When asked by Kirsten Powers the past week about his favorite Bible verses, his first response was to cite a passage from Matthew: “Whatever you did for one of the least of these . . . you did for me.” Who would qualify as being among “the least of these”? Surely those who are…Continue Reading

Neither Left Nor Right, But Catholic . . . The Proper Response To The College Admissions Scandal

April 11, 2019 Featured Today Comments Off on Neither Left Nor Right, But Catholic . . . The Proper Response To The College Admissions Scandal

By STEPHEN M. KRASON (Editor’s Note: Stephen M. Krason’s Neither Left nor Right, but Catholic column appears monthly [sometimes bimonthly]. He is a professor of political science and legal studies and associate director of the Veritas Center for Ethics in Public Life at Franciscan University of Steubenville. He is also cofounder and president of the Society of Catholic Social Scientists and a lawyer. (Among his books are: Liberalism, Conservatism, and Catholicism; The Transformation of the American Democratic Republic; Catholicism and American Political Ideologies, and a Catholic political novel, American Cincinnatus. This column originally appeared in Crisismagazine.com and is reprinted with permission. The views expressed here are his own.) + + + The college admissions scandal that hit the news a…Continue Reading

Priest Of The Diocese Of Tulsa… Celebrated Mass On The Set Of Unplanned

April 10, 2019 Featured Today Comments Off on Priest Of The Diocese Of Tulsa… Celebrated Mass On The Set Of Unplanned

By JONAH McKEOWN STILLWATER, Okla. (CNA) — When a film crew arrived in the small college town of Stillwater, Okla., last spring, few residents realized exactly what kind of movie the crew was making. The film, which residents soon learned was called “Redeemed,” was rather vaguely described as being “based on a true story of a woman’s journey and God’s redeeming love and forgiveness,” according to local media. The most tightly controlled and top secret film set in the town, however, offered some clues about the film’s subject matter. The film crew transformed a nondescript building on the edge of downtown into a replica of a Planned Parenthood abortion facility. Fr. Brian O’Brien, pastor of St. Francis Xavier Church in…Continue Reading