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Featured Term (selected at random:WHOLE CHRIST Christ in the fullness of his human and divine natures present in the Holy Eucharist. This means that the same Christ numerically is now present in heaven and in the Blessed Sacrament. There is nothing objectively lacking in the Eucharist of what constitutes Christ. He is there entirely. The only deficiency is the subjective one on the part of the believer, who cannot perceive him with the senses or even reason to his presence, but can only assent on faith that what seems to be bread and wine is really Jesus Christ. Moreover, Christ...

The Santa Rosa Diocese’s contract addendum by which teachers at Catholic schools will affirm their acceptance of Catholic teaching is reportedly still on track for implementation.“There is no intention not to do this [and] it will happen at some point,” said the communications director for the Santa Rosa diocese, Brian O’Neel, according to Petaluma 360.Last year, diocesan Bishop Robert Vasa announced plans to have all parochial elementary and high school teachers within the diocese sign an agreement in their revised contracts to “bear witness” and affirm Church teaching. The moral addendum will reportedly include acknowledgement that contraception, abortion, homosexual marriage,...

Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick offered Islamic religious phrases and insisted that Islam shares foundational rules with Christianity, during a Sept. 10 press conference in D.C.“In the name of God, the Merciful and Compassionate,” McCarrick said as he introduced himself to the audience at a meeting arranged by the Muslim Public Affairs Council. That praise of the Islamic deity is an important phrase in Islam, is found more than 100 times in the Koran, and is akin to the Catholic prayer, ”In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”McCarrick next claimed that “Catholic social...

September 13, 2014Memorial of Saint John Chrysostom, Bishop and Doctor of the Church    Reading 1 1 Cor 10:14-22 My beloved ones, avoid idolatry.I am speaking as to sensible people;judge for yourselves what I am saying.The cup of blessing that we bless,is it not a participation in the Blood of Christ?The bread that we break,is it not a participation in the Body of Christ?Because the loaf of bread is one,we, though many, are one Body,for we all partake of the one loaf. Look at Israel according to the flesh;are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar?So...

According to Latter-Day Saints (LDS, Mormon) President Orson Hyde, Jesus was married to several women, including Mary Magdalene, and had biological children. "..[In John 2,] Jesus was the bridegroom at the marriage of Cana of Galilee, and he told them what to do. Now there was actually a marriage; and if Jesus was not the bridegroom on that occasion, please tell who was. ... We say it was Jesus Christ who was married, to be brought into the relation whereby he could see his seed, before he was crucified. ... I do not despise to be called a son of...

Displaced Iraqi Christians pray at a refugee camp in Irbil (Photo: CNS) Sister Marie Claude Naddaf, provincial leader of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd for Lebanon and Syria, is still shaken by what she witnessed visiting Irbil, Iraq.Sister Marie Claude accompanied Catholic Near East Welfare Association on its mission to the capital of the Kurdish region in Iraq last week.More than 100,000 Christians and other minorities sought refuge in the region following attacks by Islamic State militants. Many were given less than half an hour to flee their houses.“I was not at all expecting to see that much misery,...

“When will the Catholic Church come into the twenty-first century?” As a Catholic theologian, I often hear this question posed by non-Catholics and Catholics alike. One of the most important questions facing the Church today, it implies a set of issues that are known to all: same-sex “marriage,” contraception, and divorce (to name only a few), which Pope Benedict XVI has called “the canon of issues.” Because the teachings of the Church on these issues are at odds with our modern secular culture, non-Catholics—and even many Catholics—are left scratching their heads and wonder why the Church doesn’t finally come...

Brendan Gleeson stars in a scene from the movie "Calvary." (CNS photo/Patrick Redmond, Twentieth Century Fox) St. Pope John Paul II said that a priest should have the heart of Christ the Good Shepherd. Far too many saccharine paintings of effeminate Jesuses in the midst of delicate lambs are conducive to a misconstrual of the image as something sentimental and harmless. But shepherds not only had the smell of their sheep (to use Pope Francis’ language), but they also wielded a stick, meant to bring back strays and to fend off threats. Real shepherding was, and is, a dirty...

Featured Term (selected at random:JUBAL The son of Lamech and Adah in the line descended from Cain. He is described in Genesis as "the ancestor of the lyre and the flute." In modern parlance he might be called the Patron of the Musical Arts (Genesis 4:21). All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Bishop Sarhad Yawsip Jammo, the head of a Chaldean Catholic eparchy based in San Diego, will travel to the White House with a list of 25,000 Iraqi Catholics who seek entry into the United States. “Requests have been made to White House for an increase in the number of visas issued, to be granted to those who wish and desire to leave Iraq,” reported a California-based Chaldean news site. “In response to a request from the White House, St. Peter's Diocese has been compiling a list of names for our brothers and sisters in Iraq that want to escape persecution.”...

FULL TITLE: Satanists Sell Out Controversial Oklahoma 'Black Mass' Event, Will Stage Exorcism Despite Christian Protests (Photo: Facebook/The Satanic Temple) Satanic rights activists outside Harvard Square, after the "black mass" was cancelled by Harvard.The Satanist group that will stage a controversial "black mass" at an Oklahoma City civic center has said that all 88 tickets for its Sept. 21 event are sold out. The co-founder of the group revealed that the ritual will go ahead despite strong Christian protests and will feature a satanic exorcism, but will be "toned down" to comply with state health laws."One of the dictates of...

Back in my seminary days my liturgy teacher, Fr. Quinn, often reminded us that we prayed many of the psalms more in hope than as true claims about ourselves. For indeed many of the psalms make almost boastful claims: LORD, my heart is not proud; nor are my eyes haughty (Psalm 131:1).They have almost made an end of me on earth; but I have not forsaken thy precepts (Psalm 119:88).The deceitful and bloodthirsty man the Lord detests. But I through the greatness of your love have access to your house. I bow down before your holy temple, filled with awe...

September 12, 2014Friday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time    Reading 1 1 Cor 9:16-19, 22b-27 Brothers and sisters:If I preach the Gospel, this is no reason for me to boast,for an obligation has been imposed on me,and woe to me if I do not preach it!If I do so willingly, I have a recompense,but if unwillingly, then I have been entrusted with a stewardship.What then is my recompense?That, when I preach, I offer the Gospel free of chargeso as not to make full use of my right in the Gospel. Although I am free in regard to...

Pope Francis greets Salvatore D'argento on Sept. 10, 2014. Credit: Alan Holdren/CNA. Vatican City, Sep 10, 2014 / 04:53 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A man paralyzed from the neck down made his way to Pope Francis' general audience, saying he took the massively risky move because he wanted to experience for himself the pontiff's uniqueness. Salvatore D'argento spoke with CNA Sept. 10 saying that he came to the audience because of “the personality of Pope Francis. He's not a common pope.” Confined to a bed from the age of 24 due to an accident while practicing judo, the now 42 year-old...

For out of town readers unfamiliar with Boston media publications, Margery Egan is a Boston Herald journalist who has spent the last few decades publishing articles that encourage Catholic women to sleep around, take contraception and kill their own children. Over the last decade, she added encouraging sexual activity and promiscuity to same sex attracted Catholics. Anytime there was an opportunity trash Church teaching, bash Catholics striving to practice their religion with fidelity or paint every priest as a pedophile, Mags was all over it. God only knows how many souls died in their sin, empowered by articles written by...

There are one billion Roman Catholics worldwide, one billion people who are subject to the Pope’s authority. How, one might ask, did all of this happen? The answer, I believe, is far more complex and untidy than Catholics have argued. First, I will give a brief explanation of what the Catholic position is, and then, second, I will suggest what I think actually took place. The Catholic Explanation The traditional Catholic understanding is that Jesus said that it was upon Peter the church was to be built (Matt. 16:18−19; see also John 21:15−17; Luke 22:32). Following this, Peter spent a...

It is a relief to see that the Liberal Supremo of the Americanist Church, Jesuit Thomas Reese, is "disappointed" with the "composition" of members of the upcoming Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. The problem, of course, is that, since "Progressives" are unimpeded by shame or any qualms of conscience (let us call it the Modernist Taqiyya*), we never know if they mean what they say, or if they mean something quite different and just wish to gain new ground. For instance, Reese's ideas are certainly over-represented in the Synod by such luminaries as Kasper or Danneels, but...

The Catholic historian, A. Dufourcq, called the papacy of 1447 to 1527, la papauté princière, “the papacy of princes.”[1] This trenchant appellation conveys Fr. Maurice Sheehan’s meaning when he says “these popes were more men of culture or rulers than popes.”[2] Regardless of the scandalous particulars of their military extravagances, personal profligacy, or political intrigues, what is common to these popes is that “they had other interests, other things on their minds besides being pope.”[3] Therein lies the problem. In explaining how the Renaissance Papacy was a cause of the Reformation, we should not fall into a monism, as if...

Although the topic of violence in Islam is a controversial one, Benedict XVI placed it at the center of his treatment of our knowledge of God within his often misunderstood and misrepresented Regensburg Lecture, given eight years ago, on September 12, 2006. Put simply, false views of God’s nature can lead to religiously motivated actions, such as terrorism and violent persecution, which are contrary to the nature and will of God.

Featured Term (selected at random:FATALISM Belief in the inevitability of all events, whether caused or uncaused. It differs from fate in that it provides for the inevitability on the basis of cause and effect relationship. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.