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Non-Catholic Communities As “Means Of Salvation”

October 2, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on Non-Catholic Communities As “Means Of Salvation”

By FR. BRIAN W. HARRISON, OS Many dissident traditionalists claim that Vatican Council II’s Decree on Ecumenism, Unitatis Redintegratio (UR) is irreconcilable with traditional Catholic doctrine. The passage most commonly singled out in support of this claim is the affirmation in article 3 of the Decree that “the Spirit of Christ has not refrained from using [non-Catholic communities] as means of salvation.” Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and his followers in the Society of St. Pius X, for instance, have for decades denounced this conciliar teaching as heterodox. While SSPX writers acknowledge that non-Catholics can sometimes be saved in their separated communities, they insist that, according to Catholic orthodoxy, no one can ever be saved through, by or because of those communities, as is entailed in…Continue Reading

The Future Is More Of The Past

October 1, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on The Future Is More Of The Past

By DONALD DeMARCO “The outlook on the future is by no means free from anxiety; on the contrary, there are many serious reasons for alarm, on account of numerous and longstanding causes of evil, of both a public and a private nature.” What do we make of this sentence? There is an unmistakable contemporary ring to it. It speaks to anxiety in the future, impending alarm, and the presence of evil on both personal and social levels. These are, indeed, concerns that haunt the present climate. Yet, it is the opening sentence of Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical letter, On Jesus Christ Our Redeemer (Tametsi Futura Prospicientibus), issued on November 1, 1900. The fundamental problems we face are not all that…Continue Reading

Culture Of Life 101 .… “The Homosexual Intimidation Tactic”

September 30, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on Culture Of Life 101 .… “The Homosexual Intimidation Tactic”

By BRIAN CLOWES Conclusion (Editor’s Note: Brian Clowes has been director of research and training at Human Life International since 1995. For a guide on how to organize a pro-family group, e-mail him at bclowes@hli.org. + + + From the homosexual activist’s point of view, simple censorship is even better than retaliation because it makes certain that the pro-family message never sees the light of day in the first place. Once again, this is a hallmark of all repressive regimes or movements, which are deathly afraid that their message will not stand up to public scrutiny. Repression of speech by homophiles is becoming more and more common: The Boyd County, Ky., school district instituted mandatory “diversity training” for all of…Continue Reading

Restoring The Sacred . . . The Complementarity Of Man And Woman In The Spiritual Life

September 29, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on Restoring The Sacred . . . The Complementarity Of Man And Woman In The Spiritual Life

By JAMES MONTI In the Book of Genesis, we read, “Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make a helper fit for him’” (Gen. 2:18). These words herald God’s creation of Eve from the side of Adam. From the very beginning God intended that man and woman should cooperate with each other, should complement each other, in accomplishing His designs. Of course the supreme manifestation of that cooperation and complementarity between man and woman is the Sacrament of Marriage by which man and woman cooperate with God in the very act of creation itself, bringing new human life into existence as the fruit of their union and their love. But…Continue Reading

At California Debate… Fiorina Proves Timorous Consultants Wrong About Facing Abortion Issue

September 28, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on At California Debate… Fiorina Proves Timorous Consultants Wrong About Facing Abortion Issue

By DEXTER DUGGAN If Carly Fiorina ends up as the Republican Party’s presidential nominee in 2016, being the first woman to shatter that particular glass ceiling, it’d be a major achievement for the California business executive, but perhaps not her biggest one. That achievement might have occurred on September 16, at the second GOP presidential hopefuls’ debate, at the Air Force One Pavilion at California’s Reagan Presidential Library, when Fiorina defied many political consultants’ caution. She made a full-throated attack against Planned Parenthood’s viciousness and in defense of innocent preborn babies. Various GOP contenders have made firm pro-life declarations through the years, but this was at a crucial moment in a vital forum, when aspiring presidential neophyte Fiorina had everything…Continue Reading

Alan Keyes… Says Supreme Court Is “Overthrowing Our Government”

September 27, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on Alan Keyes… Says Supreme Court Is “Overthrowing Our Government”

By JACK KENNY The Supreme Court of the United States is engaged in nothing less than the overthrow of the republic and its Constitution, former diplomat and presidential candidate Alan Keyes declared at a September 20 forum on the Constitution in Portsmouth, N.H. “They are in the business of overthrowing our government,” Keyes said of the High Court, making specific reference to this year’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision, requiring the granting of marriage licenses to homosexual couples. The keynote speaker at the 17th annual Constitution Day banquet of the National Heritage Center for Constitutional Studies, Keyes, a former ambassador to the United Nations Economic and Social Council, delivered his address with the bluntness and fervor that once led the Long…Continue Reading

A Late-September Synod Update… African Bishops Criticize Preparatory Documents

September 26, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on A Late-September Synod Update… African Bishops Criticize Preparatory Documents

By MAIKE HICKSON There is much to be reported on the Synod Front these days, since both sides — those who defend the traditional moral teaching of the Catholic Church and those who try to change or liberalize it — are intensely working to strengthen their own positions. On a positive side, in addition to the earlier Eleven Cardinals Book (Eleven Cardinals Speak On Marriage and the Family), Ignatius Press published this month a book written by eleven African prelates — cardinals and bishops — dealing also with the topics of marriage and the family, in preparation for the upcoming October 4-25 Synod of Bishops on the Family in Rome. Christ’s New Homeland — Africa, is the title of the…Continue Reading

Culture Of Life 101… “The Homosexual Intimidation Tactic”

September 25, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on Culture Of Life 101… “The Homosexual Intimidation Tactic”

By BRIAN CLOWES Part 3 (Editor’s Note: Brian Clowes has been director of research and training at Human Life International since 1995. For an electronic copy of all of the “Culture of Life 101” articles that have been published on homosexuality so far, with footnotes, e-mail him at bclowes@hli.org.) + + + “I have never thought, for my part, that man’s freedom consists in his being able to do whatever he wills, but that he should not, by any human power, be forced to do what is against his will” — Jean-Jacques Rousseau. + + + We have seen that homosexual activists frequently use verbal attacks and even physical violence to intimidate pro-family people into silence and inaction. However, these…Continue Reading

Do Charter Schools Work?

September 24, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on Do Charter Schools Work?

By JAMES K. FITZPATRICK One of the obstacles that stands in the way of convincing taxpayers that there are workable alternatives to the current public school system is a lack of data demonstrating that the alternatives work. Something beyond the rhetoric about “teacher union monopolies” and “parental choice in education” is needed to do that, some empirical evidence that demonstrates the wisdom of moving in a new direction with our schools. We now have some data to offer in that debate, specifically regarding charter schools, tax-supported schools that operate independently of local educational authorities and union regulations for teachers. Granted, charter schools do not satisfy the wishes of those who are working for a voucher system or tax credits for…Continue Reading

A Movie Review . . . A Cinematic Visit To Heaven

September 23, 2015 Featured Today Comments Off on A Movie Review . . . A Cinematic Visit To Heaven

By REY FLORES For as long as man has been around, the question of an afterlife has been asked. Of course, as Catholics we believe in Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory; but what do all of these places look like and what would it be like to experience any of them and come back to life and tell the rest of the world all about it? One of my favorite stories is the one St. John Bosco told about having visited a multidimensional Hell in a dream where he saw some of his own living students suffering down there. Needless to say, St. John Bosco came back and did his best to reform these wayward boys. In our times, you would…Continue Reading