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Pope Francis Says . . . Lent Is A Time Of Pruning And Reconciliation

February 12, 2016 Featured Today Comments Off on Pope Francis Says . . . Lent Is A Time Of Pruning And Reconciliation

By ELISE HARRIS VATICAN CITY (CNA/EWTN News) — In his Ash Wednesday homily, Pope Francis said that Lent is the perfect time to let go of selfish and indifferent attitudes, returning to God with the help of prayer, penance, and acts of charity. “Lent is a beneficial time of pruning from falsity, from worldliness, from indifference: to not think that everything is OK if I am OK; to understand that what counts is not approval, the pursuit of success or consensus, but purity of heart and life,” the Pope said February 10. It’s a time to rediscover one’s Christian identity, “which is love that serves, not selfishness that uses,” he said. Pope Francis celebrated Ash Wednesday Mass in St. Peter’s…Continue Reading

Bloomberg Vs. Trump?

February 11, 2016 Featured Today Comments Off on Bloomberg Vs. Trump?

By PATRICK J. BUCHANAN The morning of the New Hampshire primary, Donald Trump, being interviewed on Morning Joe, said that he would welcome his “friend” Michael Bloomberg into the presidential race. Which is probably the understatement of 2016. The three-term mayor of New York and media mogul whose fortune is estimated at $39 billion, making him one of the richest men on Earth, told the Financial Times on Monday, February 8 that he is considering a run. Bloomberg had earlier confided he was worried about Hillary Clinton’s ability to turn back the challenge of Bernie Sanders, regards Trump’s rise with trepidation, and is appalled by the pedestrian character of the campaign rhetoric. “I find the level of discourse and discussion…Continue Reading

A Potpourri . . . To Be Is To Give, And Other Matters

February 10, 2016 Featured Today Comments Off on A Potpourri . . . To Be Is To Give, And Other Matters

By GEORGE A. KENDALL The most fundamental question for all of is: What are we for? What is life about? What is selfhood about? Are we here to aggrandize ourselves with things like power, wealth, brilliance? Or are we here to give ourselves? We think that by working to add to the self, we increase it, but in reality we shrink it as it turns inward on itself, becoming a kind of black hole approximating more and more to an infinitesimal point, closely approaching nothingness. But paradoxically, when we regard the self as a gift given to us only so that we may in turn give it, we receive it back with increase. What we need to understand is that…Continue Reading

Blessed José Sanchez Del Rio… Miraculous Cure Of A Baby Leads To His Sainthood

February 9, 2016 Featured Today Comments Off on Blessed José Sanchez Del Rio… Miraculous Cure Of A Baby Leads To His Sainthood

MEXICO CITY (CNA/EWTN News) — The miraculous cure of a baby with brain damage through the intercession of Mexican martyr Blessed José Luis Sanchez del Rio has been approved by the Vatican, completing the final step for the teen’s path to sainthood. Pope Francis signed the decree January 21, verifying the inexplicable recovery of a baby who doctors said had “no hope of survival” due to multiple health problems, including brain damage caused by a stroke, as a miracle attributed to José Luis Sanchez del Rio, a teenager who was martyred for his faith during the Cristero wars of the 1920s. Ximena Guadalupe Magallon Galvez was just a few weeks old in September 2008 when her parents took her to…Continue Reading

Begging For Mercy

February 8, 2016 Featured Today Comments Off on Begging For Mercy

By DONALD DeMARCO When we do not hear another person’s words correctly we say, “I beg your pardon.” A moderator appears on stage and apologizes for a momentary inconvenience by saying to the audience, “I beg your indulgence.” These words flow easily from our lips, usually without much reflection. They have become automatic responses, polite gestures, clichés. On reflection, however, they identify the speakers as “beggars.” Now, we think of beggars as unfortunates with whom we do not identify. And yet, in the eyes of God, we are all beggars, beggars for mercy. We are prone to dividing people by class, wealth, ability, station, and pedigree. Yet, despite our proclivity for feeling superior to others, the one common denominator that…Continue Reading

Culture Of Life 101 . . . “How Dissenters Attack The ‘Holiness’ Of The Church”

February 7, 2016 Featured Today Comments Off on Culture Of Life 101 . . . “How Dissenters Attack The ‘Holiness’ Of The Church”

By BRIAN CLOWES Conclusion (Editor’s Note: Brian Clowes has been director of research and training at Human Life International since 1995. For an electronic copy of the book Call to Action or Call to Apostasy, consisting of a detailed description of the current forms of dissent and how to fight them, e-mail him at bclowes@hli.org.) + + + “Here it is well to note at once that, given this doctrine of experience united with that of symbolism, every religion, even that of paganism, must be held to be true. . . . Modernists do not deny, but actually maintain, some confusedly, others frankly, that all religions are true” — Pope St. Pius X, encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis (“On the Doctrine…Continue Reading

Neither Left Nor Right, But Catholic . . . The New Literalism And Fundamentalism

February 6, 2016 Featured Today Comments Off on Neither Left Nor Right, But Catholic . . . The New Literalism And Fundamentalism

By STEPHEN M. KRASON (Editor’s Note: Stephen M. Krason’s Neither Left nor Right, but Catholic column appears monthly [sometimes bimonthly]. He is 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 co-founder and president of the Society of Catholic Social Scientists. Among his books is The Transformation of the American Democratic Republic, and most recently two edited volumes, Child Abuse, Family Rights, and the Child Protective System, and The Crisis of Religious Liberty. (This column originally appeared in Crisismagazine.com. All rights reserved.) + + + Catholics — even more so liberal Catholics — are usually quick to criticize anyone who seems to…Continue Reading

Sources, Methods, And Lives

February 5, 2016 Featured Today Comments Off on Sources, Methods, And Lives

By JUDGE ANDREW P. NAPOLITANO This has not been a good week for Hillary Clinton. She prevailed over Sen. Bernie Sanders in the Iowa Democratic presidential caucuses by less than four tenths of one percent of all votes cast, after having led him in polls in Iowa at one time by 40 percentage points. In her statement to supporters, standing in front of her gaunt and listless looking husband, she was not able to mouth the word “victory” or any of its standard variants. She could barely hide her contempt for the Iowa Democrats who deserted her. Sanders isn’t even a Democrat. According to official Senate records, he is an “Independent Socialist” who votes to organize the Senate with the…Continue Reading

Is A New Era Upon Us?

February 4, 2016 Featured Today Comments Off on Is A New Era Upon Us?

By PATRICK J. BUCHANAN Whoever wins the nominations, the most successful campaigns of 2016 provide us with a clear picture of where the center of gravity is today in both parties and, hence, where America is going. Bernie Sanders, with his mammoth crowds and mass support among the young, represents, as did George McGovern in 1972, despite his defeat, the future of the Democratic Party. That Hillary Clinton has been tacking left tells you Sanders is winning the argument. Should she avoid indictment in the email scandal, and win the nomination and the election, Clinton would be a placeholder president. Yet, should Sanders win the nomination and election — highly improbable — he would become a frustrated and a failed…Continue Reading

Fire From Ice

February 3, 2016 Featured Today Comments Off on Fire From Ice

By DONALD DeMARCO One of the most improbable ways of getting a fire started is by using ice. That’s right, using ice. No survivor’s manual would be complete without describing how this can be accomplished. First, one finds some clear ice and then shapes it into a disk that can be used as a lens. The lens serves as a magnifying glass that captures rays of sunlight which can be directed to dry leaves, kindling wood, or some other kind of tinder, and presto — a fire is started. This method serves as an example of how resourcefulness can overcome a situation that seems utterly hopeless. Inconvenience can be irritating. But inconvenience comes in degrees. On Saturday, January 23, 2016,…Continue Reading