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Some media in favour of a deal speak in "disgusting" ways. Those who oppose it are not against an agreement or against diplomatic relations, but are against reaching one at any cost. "[W]here does the Church truly exercise her rights?" The author is a priest in the underground Church in eastern China.Beijing (AsiaNews) – As a simple believer, it is useless to say anything with regard to what is happening in China-Vatican relations. However, someone has suggested that, as a member of the Church, one has to express one’s opinion on Church affairs so as to guide people who do...

Paris’s Notre Dame Cathedral is in a dismal state of disrepair and needs $70 million for urgent renovations, according to Michel Picaud, head of Friends of Notre Dame de Paris. One possible solution for the famous church and other religious monuments is to ask patrons to pay an entrance fee, but so far the Church has been against that. Taking a tour of the decrepit parts of the cathedral (its construction began in the 1100s), is a long, breathtaking and dispiriting experience. Around the back of the cathedral, Picaud points to a collection of stones – including finely worked pinnacles...

I am currently in the midst of a fiery trial. The events of the past six months have tested my faith like never before. I had always heard about people going through storms like this one; I just never realized how bad it could get. Thanks be to God, all is not lost. I am not lost. The wind and the waves are finally abating. And I am thankful for the many valuable lessons I have learned throughout the ordeal. One of these important lessons has been on the importance of silence. Have you ever tried being silent for a...

Political activism is seeking to exclude religion and religious expression from the public domain, according to the Bishop of Portsmouth, Philip Egan. Bishop Egan also said it is urgent to argue the case for theology in a university, and for religious education in schools. Otherwise, he warned, religiously illiterate law-makers and policy-makers will place "ever more draconian restrictions" on religious freedom.” In a lecture at St Mary’s University in Twickenham, based on Cardinal John Henry Newman’s "The Idea of a University", Bishop Egan said the book touched on such contemporary questions as, "What makes a Catholic school Catholic?" He said...

A judge in Britain justified his decision to remove a baby from a ventilator, against the wishes of his Catholic parents, by citing a recent controversial address given by Pope Francis. The parents of Alfie Evans, a 21-month-old baby with a mysterious illness, received a devastating blow from a high court on February 20 as Justice Anthony Hayden ruled that the baby’s ventilator is to be turned off. Kate James, 20, and Tom Evans, 21, have been battling Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool since June 2017.  After being admitted to the hospital in December 2016, baby Alfie’s condition began...

Cardinal Joseph Tobin, who famously welcomed an “LGBT pilgrimage” to his cathedral, has deleted and apologized for a tweet saying, “nighty-night, baby. I love you.”

Fake Republicans in Texas are losing, and the Catholic bishops seem ready to sacrifice a faithful pro-life leader to defend them. On Thursday, the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops issued a rebuke to Texas Right to Life, warning parishes "not to participate in their activities or allow the organization to use parish sites." Texas Right to Life, headed by outspoken Catholic Jim Graham, has openly, consistently criticized the "soft push" of GOP Establishment leaders who have obstructed pro-life legislation. The bishops, meanwhile — members of the Church Establishment — are cozy with Texas RINOs (Republicans in Name Only). Free clip from CHURCH MILITANT Premium WATCH MORE LIKE...

The teaching of the apostolic exhortation Amoris laetitia has been the subject of a great deal of debate since the promulgation of that document. Various interpretations of this teaching have been presented, and the differing interpretations have been used both to denounce the document as heretical and to defend it as in harmony with the teaching of the Church. Pope Francis has recently acted to clarify the meaning of the most contentious section of Amoris laetitia through a statement in the October 2017 issue of the Acta apostolic sedis, the journal that publishes the official acts of the Holy See...

The Seven Deadly Sins: Greed Msgr. Charles Pope • February 22, 2018 • One of the more underreported sins is greed. It is easy to conclude that greed is something manifested by “that other person,” who has more than I do. Yes, that rich guy over there, the one who earns a dollar more per hour than I do; he’s greedy, but I’m not.Honestly, does any one of us ever come to a point in our life when we say, “I earn more than enough money. I’ll just give the rest away”? Not on your life!Almost never would such...

The U.S. bishops are proclaiming February 26, National Catholic Call-In Day to Protect Dreamers, after legislation to protect dreamers failed to pass the Senate last week. A joint statement from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) announced Monday: "[W]e will be asking the faithful across the nation to call their Members of Congress next Monday, February 26, to protect Dreamers from deportation, to provide them a path to citizenship, and to avoid any damage to existing protections for families and unaccompanied minors in the process." The Senate failed on February 15 to pass a bipartisan measure that included a...

White Double IT IS THE FEAST of the austere reformer of the 11th century, Peter Damian, the precursor of the holy Pontiff Gregory the Seventh, that we are called upon to celebrate today. To him is due a share of that glorious regeneration which was effected at that troubled period when judgment had to begin at the House of God. The life he had led under the Monastic Rule had fitted him for the great contest. So zealously did he withstand the disorders and abuses of his times that we may attribute to him, at least in great measure,...

Violet Simple THE STATION is in the Basilica of the Twelve Apostles; it is one of the grandest of the Churches of Rome, and is enriched by the Bodies of the two Apostles, St. Philip and St. James the Less. COLLECT Esto, Domine, propitius plebi tuæ: et quam tibi facis esse devotam, benigno refove miseratus auxilio. Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum. Amen. Be propitious, O Lord, to thy people and mercifully strengthen those by thy aid whom thou fillest with devotion to thee. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. EPISTLE LECTIO EZECHIELIS PROPHETÆ. LESSON from EZECHIEL the PROPHET. Cap....

The Francis Effect meeting the German Heresiarchy leads to an explosive decision of cataclysmic consequences. Naturally, this Rome will not reject this aberration. This Vatican will welcome it. This pontificate will rejoice in it. Report and translations from CNA/EWTN:

February 23, 2018 Friday of the First Week of Lent Reading 1 Ez 18:21-28 Thus says the Lord GOD:If the wicked man turns away from all the sins he committed, if he keeps all my statutes and does what is right and just,he shall surely live, he shall not die. None of the crimes he committed shall be remembered against him;he shall live because of the virtue he has practiced. Do I indeed derive any pleasure from the death of the wicked?says the Lord GOD. Do I not rather rejoice when he turns from his evil waythat he may...

The Nicene Constantinopolitan Creed (381 AD) professes that we believe in One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.  Each mark, in its fullness, must be properly conceived and articulated, and yet only together, in their perichoretic relationship, do they form the theological foundation of the Church’s authentic self-understanding.  Without them the Church’s own self-identity would become opaque, possessing no discernable defining character, and so would be exposed to any and every imposed guise – either by herself or from without.  Moreover, these four ecclesial marks are most fully expressed and most abundantly nurtured within the Eucharist liturgy.In this talk I will...

Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney and Bishop Vincent Long Van Nguyen of Parramatta have both criticised as a "relentless" campaign a series of newspaper articles last week by Fairfax, publisher of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, about the Catholic Church, its purported wealth and its response to victims of child sexual abuse by Church personnel. Archbishop Fisher, in an article in The Sydney Morning Herald on 12 February, wrote that given its many works, it was inevitable that the Church would have lots of "assets", but the works were done as a non-profit organisation. "To compare this with...

Preparatory video titled "God's Mercy: No One Excluded" normalizes homosexualityDUBLIN (ChurchMilitant.com) - Pro-gay activists in the Church are hijacking the World Meeting of Families. A recent video for the 2018 World Meeting of Families (WMOF) in Dublin, Ireland, promotes the sin of homosexuality. The 13-minute "preparatory catechesis" video features individuals talking personally about their family situation. The first person on camera is a lady speaking about her father, who passed away rather young. The pro-gay propaganda starts soon after. The second person in the WMOF video begins, "The fact that I'm gay has never been a huge problem in my...

Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem II remains hopeful that his people can eventually return to the Nineveh Plain.Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch Ignatius Aphrem II celebrates Holy Qurobo Mass over the ruins of the (Syriac Orthodox) Virgin Mary Church in Deir ez-Zour, Syria.Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch Ignatius Aphrem II became patriarch in 2014 as Syria was in the throes of war. Several months later, Syriac Orthodox were among the 100,000 Christians driven out by the Islamic State from the Nineveh Plain in Iraq. A native of Qamishly, Syria, the 53-year-old patriarch previously served as archbishop and patriarchal vicar of the Archdiocese...

Forty ‘miraculously’ preserved, consecrated hosts have been discovered in a church that was destroyed by a large earthquake in central Italy in 2016. The hosts, recovered from a tabernacle recently retrieved from the ruins of the parish church of Arquata del Tronto, have no bacteria or mold, as usually happens to hosts after a few weeks, according to the Italian bishops’ newspaper Avvenire.

[CATHOLIC CAUCUS] The head of the Vatican department overseeing liturgy is summoning the Catholic faithful to return to receiving Holy Communion on the tongue and kneeling. In the preface to a new book on the subject, Cardinal Robert Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, writes: “The most insidious diabolical attack consists in trying to extinguish faith in the Eucharist, by sowing errors and fostering an unsuitable way of receiving it. Truly the war between Michael and his Angels on one side, and Lucifer on the other, continues in the hearts of the faithful.” “Satan’s target is the Sacrifice...