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Featured Term (selected at random:POVERTY EVANGELICAL A Christian counsel by which a person voluntarily renounces all or part of his right to the ownership of material things. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

By the senior religious correspondent of Italian daily La Stampa, the startling news: those responsible for the intervention of the Franciscans of the Immaculate, after silencing their innocent victims inside the Church, now use the Police to intimidate journalists and bloggers -- and their family members ! -- in Italy. It is probably the most serious attempt by an ecclesial authority to make use of the police forces (and police that are members of the military forces) to limit the freedom of the press or public free speech by laymen in Italy in living memory -- the attempt is based...

A priest looking for advice on how to advance the Church in a fast-paced world so often embroiled in conflict recently approached a well-placed cleric who had been a religious order priest and bishop for many years. In response, the bishop answered, in part, by sharing the following true story: A priest went as a missionary to an area where for years they had no priest, and evangelicals had arrived. He told me that he went to a woman who had been the teacher of the people and then the principle of the village school. This lady sat him down...

Featured Term (selected at random:JEHOVAH-YAHWEH Jehovah is God, the English name for the Hebrew Yahweh. When the latter promised Moses that he would feed Moses' people, he concluded by saying, "Then you will learn that I, Yahweh, am your God" (Exodus 16:12). Jehovah developed into the form used most commonly when he was communicating with the Israelites, whereas God was used where Gentiles were concerned. The admonition "You shall not utter the name of Yahweh your God to misuse it" (Exodus 20:7) ultimately induced the Israelites not to pronounce his name at all but to substitute for it the title...

The three most radical proposals are: 1) A new “pastoral solution” to allow divorce and remarried Catholics to receive Holy Communion; 2) A new “pastoral approach” that permits the baptism of children from same-sex couples, thus indirectly legitimizing these unions; 3) A recasting of natural law in “new language”, which threatens to undermine our entire ethical foundation of true morality. Indeed the Synod’s Working Document further displays the triumph of the New Theology over today’s Vatican; the same new theology that wrought havoc at Vatican II and continues its destructive path to this day.

Featured Term (selected at random:HOLY WELL St. Winifride's Well in North Wales. A place of pilgrimage throughout the year but especially on November 3, the saint's feast day. The legend of St. Winifride, virgin and martyr, is authenticated by two twelfth-century documents. A daughter of a Welsh chieftain, she lived in the seventh century. When St. Beuno came to her father's house, he was hospitably received and instructed Winifride in the Christian faith. So impressed was she that she determined to become a religious. Then followed a series of extraordinary events: Winifride was beheaded, miraculously restored to life, and a...

The Saint of the First Red Cross St. Camillus of Lellis By: Louise PerrottaIf you’ve ever been tempted to think that you’re not cut out for sanctity, consider the case of Camillus of Lellis. Here is a saint—the patron of hospitals, health care workers, and the sick— whose burning love for God effected a widespread reform of patient care.“I’ll never forget the sight,” wrote one person who saw six-foot-six Camillus in action. “When he was attending a sick person, he looked like a hen with her chicks or like a mother at her child’s bedside.”And yet for the first...

Today in America, many Protestant theologians and missionaries continue to believe that Christian apologetics should rely upon the use of sound reason or logic. A Protestant Christian radio program about apologetics even took the name, “Sound Reason.” But Orthodox apologetics is not based upon reason, because Christian faith is actually unreasonable. Christianity is faith in Jesus Christ—or, to be more accurate, being faithful to Christ. Jesus of Nazareth, called the “Christ” or Messiah, manifested Himself as the eternal God in the flesh, the salvation of all humanity through His incarnation, death and resurrection. None of this is “reasonable.” None of...

Featured Term (selected at random:QUIRINAL PALACE Before 1870, a papal residence where conclaves were held. Also used as a summer home. built by Pope Gregory in 1574, it was taken over by the Italian Government at the time of the confiscation of the Papal States. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

"One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic." (Friendly Friday Post, by David Ozab) May 13, 2011 By Kurt Willems I am excited to have a post here by David Ozab. He is a writer and recently converted to Roman Catholicism. While I do not share his convictions, certainly it is beneficial to hear from others outside of our own sphere of experience. I am pleased to have his guest contribution on the blog…—————————————photo © 2005 Jo N | more info (via: Wylio) There was once a guy who was stranded on a deserted island. After many years, a passing ship found him....

The Infant of Prague Fr. William Saunders Q: My grandmother has always had a statue of Jesus as a child dressed up like a little king with a crown. She even has different outfits for him which are very elaborate. Can you tell me anything about this?From the description given in the question, the statue is one of the Infant of Prague. Devotion to the Holy Child Jesus is a long-standing tradition in our Catholic spirituality. The early Church Fathers, like St. Athanasius and St. Jerome, had a special devotion to the Holy Child Jesus. Some of the later great...

Featured Term (selected at random:WORLD WITHOUT END The terminal phrase of many prayers, equivalent to "eternal" or "everlasting." In the doxology of the Gloria Patria it means that God, who has always existed, is now being praised by a human being who hopes to continue praising God forever in heaven. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Featured Term (selected at random:ANTIOCHENE RITE A ritual used throughout the Patriarchate of Antioch. The pure Antiochene, in its oldest form, eliminated the Pater Noster and the names of the saints in the Mass. This form was early displaced by the Liturgy of St. James from Jerusalem, which became the ritual of all Western Syria. Originally Greek, the Liturgy of St. James was later translated into Syriac. The Greek version is now used twice a year by the Orthodox; the Syriac version by the Jacobites in Syria and Palestine and by the Syrian Catholics. A Romanized form of this liturgy...

Over the last several years I have encountered a fair number of Christians who claim they are “spiritual but not religious.” In other words, they do not identify with a particular Christian denomination, using the Bible alone to guide their faith. It’s an ideology that says religious institutions are outdated and unnecessary. People may reach this conclusion for a multitude of reasons. Some are disillusioned by what they perceive to be corruption and hypocrisy in religious institutions. Others may feel like they are not being “fed.” Others yet may feel that these intuitions teach something contrary to their beliefs regarding...

Featured Term (selected at randomKOIMESIS The feast of the "Falling Asleep" of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or Mary's Dormition, as celebrated in the Byzantine Liturgy. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Featured Term (selected at random:THE UPPER ROOM This was the room in which Jesus and his Apostles shared the Last Supper the night before he was crucified. According to Mark it was a large chamber furnished with couches and suitable for a dining room (Mark 14:14-15). It may have been a room erected on the roof, because most homes were one-story structures. Possibly it became a meeting place, because after the Ascension of Jesus, Luke reports that the Apostles and Mary returned to Jerusalem and "went to the upper room where they were staying" (Acts 1:12-14). According to tradition, the...

One of the most exasperating bits of exegetical trendiness to afflict first-world Catholics for the past 30 years or so has been the endless recirculation, like a bad penny, of the “True Meaning of the Miracles of the Loaves and Fishes” homily. It goes like this: Jesus found himself in the wilderness with a crowd of 5,000 people who were two millennia less smart than we suburban Americans. When people started getting hungry, Jesus took five loaves and two fishes and gave them to a couple of people around him. Suddenly, inspired by a wave of warm fuzziness emanating from...

Featured Term (selected at random: CALUMNY  Injuring another person's good name by lying. It is doubly sinful, in unjustly depriving another of his good name and in telling an untruth. Since calumny violates justice, it involves the duty of making reparation for the foreseen injury inflicted. Hence the calumniator must try, not only to repair the harm done to another's good name, but also to make up for any foreseen temporal loss that resulted from the calumny, for example, loss of employment or customers. (Etym. Latin calumnia, a false accusation, malicious charge; from calvi, to deceive.) All items in...

The Prodigal Father: Benedict XVI on Fathering July 18, 2014 Dave McClow The “prodigal father” is the story of our time.  It is the story of fatherlessness in our families.  Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is and has always been highly aware of the crisis of fatherhood and its implications for society (see my previous blog).  He knows that when fatherhood is gutted, “something in the basic structure of human existence has been damaged” (The God of Jesus Christ, p. 29).  But he is also supremely insightful about what happens in the family, both positively and negatively, because of fathers! Let’s start...

Denver, Colo., Jul 18, 2014 / 12:03 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The conversion from atheism to Catholicism was a rewarding journey full of triumph and trial for Jennifer Fulwiler, as outlined in her recent book, “Something Other Than God.” Fulwiler told CNA that “before we were Catholic, we were caught up in a very selfish worldview.” Although they were not trying to be selfish, she explained, atheism contained “a worldview where the self was the center of everything.” Today, Fulwiler lives in Texas with her husband and five children. She runs a personal blog, ConversionDiary.com, and also blogs for the National...