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The Reception of Holy Communion in the United States

May 21, 2015 World News Comments Off on The Reception of Holy Communion in the United States

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the close of the Second Vatican Council. Pope Francis has decided to mark the occasion with the “Year of Mercy.” Despite much happy-talk and positive papal press, it is a time of foreboding in the Church. The anxiety over the coming Synod on the Family is substantial and growing, with the German bishops’ recent moves to formally ignore the Church’s teachings on sexual morality and the family. Their corruption, and the decayed state of the Church in Europe, is a source of much distress.

‘Eleven Christians Killed Every Hour,’ Says Irish Bishop

May 20, 2015 World News Comments Off on ‘Eleven Christians Killed Every Hour,’ Says Irish Bishop

According to Bishop John McAreavey, the Chair of the Council for Justice & Peace of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference, statistics show that the situation of Christian persecution in the world is far more dire than most people understand. The bishop called the breadth and scale of the suffering of Christians “unprecedented.” At least 100,000 Christians are killed every year because of their faith, which amounts to 273 per day, or eleven every hour, McAreavey said, without mentioning those who are “being tortured, imprisoned, exiled, threatened, excluded, attacked and discriminated against on a widespread scale.” In a sobering presentation before the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade this past week, McAreavey said that Christianity is the most oppressed religion in…Continue Reading

Africa’s experience of family life must be heard at synod, Pope tells Togo’s bishops

May 15, 2015 World News Comments Off on Africa’s experience of family life must be heard at synod, Pope tells Togo’s bishops

Pope Francis received Togo’s bishops in audience on May 11 as part of their quinquennial ad limina visit to Rome. The West African nation of 6.8 million is 20% Muslim, 15% Protestant, and 14% Catholic, with approximately half of the population retaining indigenous beliefs. “It is important that the positive aspects of the family that are experienced in Africa express themselves and be heard” at the upcoming Synod of Bishops, Pope Francis said in his message to the bishops, citing African families’ openness to life and respect for the elderly

The eco-encyclical won’t commit the Church to unsettled science

May 15, 2015 World News Comments Off on The eco-encyclical won’t commit the Church to unsettled science

By the time the environment encyclical of Pope Francis is released, it will be anti-climactic. Not anti-climate change to be sure, as the Holy See is certainly enthusiastic about the issue. Actually, it is against climate change, but enthusiastic about entering the debate firmly on the side of those who believe that climate change is real, that it is caused by human activity, that the consequences are catastrophic, and that only massive state action, co-ordinated internationally, is sufficient to stop it. At least that is how the Holy See, led by the Holy Father himself, has advertised the enviro-encyclical, soon to be released.

“America’s Changing Religious Landscape.”

May 13, 2015 World News Comments Off on “America’s Changing Religious Landscape.”

The Pew Research Center just released its latest study on “America’s Changing Religious Landscape.” The subtitle tells the story: “Christians Decline Sharply as Share of Population; Unaffiliated and Other Faiths Continue to Grow.” For our purposes, I want to focus on the Catholic numbers. Anyone who has been paying attention, either to these studies or at the local parish, will not be surprised by the results of the report. It is an unavoidable fact that the Catholic Church in America is in decline. I wrote about this a few months back (“How Great We Aren’t: The Catholic Church in America Today”), and this report only further confirms that decline. Let’s look at a few important findings from the report (although…Continue Reading

Vatican cardinal sees no change in family teachings at synod

May 10, 2015 World News Comments Off on Vatican cardinal sees no change in family teachings at synod

VATICAN CITY (AP) — A senior Vatican cardinal predicted Saturday that there will be no change in the Catholic Church‘s practice and teaching about marriage, divorce and the reception of Communion at an upcoming meeting of bishops on family issues. Cardinal George Pell told a gathering of conservative, anti-abortion Catholic activists in town for an annual “March for Life” that he believed the October synod “will massively endorse the tradition” of the church. “I don’t anticipate any deviation from that at all,” Pell told the few hundred people gathered in a Vatican audience hall.

Synod Leader: Don’t Expect Changes in Catholic Church Policy

May 10, 2015 World News Comments Off on Synod Leader: Don’t Expect Changes in Catholic Church Policy

Hungarian Cardinal Peter Erdo, who is playing a key role in the Catholic Church’s upcoming Synod of Bishops on the family, said there will be no changes in church policy coming as a result of the summit. There has been talk of revisions on policy such as communion for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics, and even on broad matters such as contraception, Erdo told the Catholic publication Crux, but that has come from “a pressure with no foundation to change Church teaching.” Read Latest Breaking News from Newsmax.com http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Catholic-Church-synod-family-Pope-Francis/2015/05/08/id/643521/#ixzz3ZkaX5lWa Urgent: Rate Obama on His Job Performance. Vote Here Now!

Germany’s bishops vote to allow Church employees to publicly defy Catholic teaching

May 6, 2015 World News Comments Off on Germany’s bishops vote to allow Church employees to publicly defy Catholic teaching

WURZBURG, Germany, May 6, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) — On April 27 in Würzburg, the German bishops approved with more than a two-thirds majority a reform of the Catholic Church’s Labor Law in Germany, allowing some Church employees to publicly defy Church teaching, such as by living in a homosexual union. As the official website of the German Bishops’ Conference states: “The Catholic Bishops in Germany want, in the majority, a more liberal Labor Law of the Church.” As it says in the official press release:

Archbishop Cupich Getting Comfortable With Pro-Aborts On Immigration Reform

May 5, 2015 World News Comments Off on Archbishop Cupich Getting Comfortable With Pro-Aborts On Immigration Reform

True to his claim that immigration reform is “God’s agenda,” Chicago Archbishop Blase Cupich has been cozying up to pro-abortion Democrats to get his social justice initiatives underway.  On Sunday, the Archbishop joined Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Il), a dissident Roman Catholic with a 100 percent rating from Planned Parenthood and NARAL on abortion issues, at the Temple Jeremiah synagogue in Northfield, Illinois, to discuss how people can support the cause of immigration reform. Democrats hope reform will translate into largely Catholic Hispanics voting for pro-abortion/pro-gay marriage Democrats in order to gain citizenship.  Speaking before an audience of 300 people, Cupich urged everyone to speak with friends and neighbors about the issue, and to stand up to bullies wherever they…Continue Reading

Pope’s doctrine chief under attack as he takes strong stand for marriage and family

May 1, 2015 World News Comments Off on Pope’s doctrine chief under attack as he takes strong stand for marriage and family

ROME, May 1, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Pope Francis’ top advisor on Catholic doctrine is coming under attack as he continues to defend the Church’s teaching on marriage, family, and sexuality amid a campaign by a “progressive” faction of prelates. On March 29, the French Catholic daily newspaper, La Croix, published an interview with Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In this important interview, Cardinal Müller explained once more the CDF’s position on the question of a possible loosening of the Church’s moral teaching concerning the admittance of “remarried” divorcees to the Sacraments, especially Holy Communion. Müller declared: