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THERE is a crisis coming—and it is already here—for our Protestant brothers and sisters in Christ. It was foretold by Jesus when He said, …everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. And it collapsed and was completely ruined. (Matt 7:26-27) That is, whatever is built on sand : those interpretations of Scripture that depart from the Apostolic faith, those heresies and subjective errors that have divided Christ’s Church...

>There’s been a lot of attention this week to work that’s been undertaken at New York City’s celebrated Church of Our Saviour parish on Park Avenue—for many years, pastored by Fr. George Rutler. Icons that have decorated the church walls for years were mysteriously removed and some feared a “wreckovation” was about to take place.My blog neighbor Katrina Fernandez has written about this at some length and has been following the story closely.Here’s a photo of the sanctuary from a few years back:Late today, a post appeared on the parish’s Facebook page, offering the pastor’s explanation.  Note the image below, followed...

Writing for The Daily Beast Monday, a former Roman Catholic Priest, who left in November 2014 after "coming out" as homosexual, went on yet another dime-a-dozen rant against Catholic teaching on homosexuality, employing the all-too-common trope that bishops need to stop calling homosexual "love" wrong or sinful while still finding ways to maintain Church teaching, which essentially means "move the goal posts further back until you have nothing left to defend." Every point Bill Dickinson makes as to why the Catholic Church should change up their approach towards the LGBT community serve as basically a trojan horse to lower the...

The Venerable Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774-1824) was a German Augustinian nun of great sanctity. She endured a life of sufferings, bore the stigmata of our Lord and was a seer, who witnessed scenes from the life of Christ with the vividness of one who was there. Those revelations were one of the sources used in making the film The Passion of the Christ. She also foretold future occurrences in the Church. The following are from her visions pertaining to the emergence of a subversive Church of Darkness that would deceive many of the faithful into "complete decadence." May 13, 1820:...

I am alabaster in beauty ; the pearl in your crown , The voice of wisdom ; my words never fall to the ground , My majesty surrounds you for my heart you obey , My kingdom goes before you each and every day , There is no other that you serve , Your feet remain steady ; they never swerve , My heart is the path you joyfully anticipate , I AM your inheritance you pant for yet never need to wait , I AM your Shepherd ; your gateway , the pool of mercy you know , My...

For the past few weeks, the Satanic Temple has been in the spotlight concerning the controversial unveiling of a satanic statue in downtown Detroit. The Temple, by its nature, is a reclusive and shadowy organization, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that even when given center stage it masks and skirts around the true intentions of its agenda: the destruction of the Catholic Church. In an interview that aired earlier this month on WJBK-TV, president of the Detroit chapter of the Satanic Temple Jex Blackmore, in defending her beliefs, played the role of victim, claiming that there is a...

The Fire Next Time: A Meditation on the Glance of God from the Fiery Cloud Msgr. Charles Pope • July 22, 2015 • As we read through the Book of Exodus in daily Mass at this time of year (16th Week of the year) there comes the passage about the crossing of the Red Sea. As God parted the waters, He went on ahead of the people in the fiery column of His presence. And describing the Egyptians pursuit of the Israelites is this passage:In the night watch just before dawn the LORD, through the column of the fiery cloud,...

The July 17 issue of Catholic San Francisco contained a laudatory 1,100 word article on San Francisco’s notorious Most Holy Redeemer parish, as well as its pastor and parochial vicar. The parish, which now describes itself online as “an LGBT affirming parish”— meaning it thinks homosexuality is OK — has a long history of celebrating events and hosting persons utterly in contradiction to the Catholic Church’s teaching on sexuality, marriage, and the family.Recent events include parishioners in 2013 forcing the former pastor Father Brian Costello to remove a portrait of the Pope Benedict XVI from the altar, because of His...

Church leaders must teach the true Faith even if it means "risking execution by the media"DÜSSELDORF, July 21, 2015 (ChurchMilitant.com) - In a recent interview with German newspaper Rheinische Post, retired German cardinal Walter Brandmüller urges the Church to stand up for the Faith against a "perverse lust for self-destruction" among some of Her members. Such a tendency, he observes, often manifests in "undermining the procreation of life in different ways and in putting into question the natural sexual identity of man and woman." Cardinal Brandmüller, former head of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences, says Catholic leaders must reject...

July 23, 2015   Thursday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Ex 19:1-2, 9-11, 16-20b In the third month after their departure from the land of Egypt,on its first day, the children of Israel came to the desert of Sinai.After the journey from Rephidim to the desert of Sinai,they pitched camp. While Israel was encamped here in front of the mountain,the LORD told Moses,“I am coming to you in a dense cloud,so that when the people hear me speaking with you,they may always have faith in you also.”When Moses, then, had reported to the LORD the...

Sadly, for President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party, Planned Parenthood's policy of "harvesting" and selling the tissues and organs of aborted babies is a virtuous act of heroism by women, who have generously donated parts of their bodies, so that they can be sold by abortionists for medical research. After all, as Dr. Josef Mengele, the "Angel of Death" at Auschwitz, pointed out, they were going to be killed anyway. So why not make some extra money from their deaths? And Catholic "pro-choice" politicians correctly point out that many bishops continue to acquiesce to their contention that the Eucharistic...

In the wake of the Supreme Court decision creating gay “marriage” nationwide, the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., is leaving it unclear for now whether they intend to allow employees in same-sex “marriages” and offer them same-sex spousal benefits. In a blog post on June 26, the day of the ruling, Cardinal Donald Wuerl indicated the archdiocese is struggling over the issue.“On a very practical level, there is a concern about the new definition of ‘spouse’ and its legal ramifications,” he said. “In this area for example, we must find a way to balance two important values, the provision of appropriate...

Gallup has conducted a poll on the Pope's popularity, two months before he is due to visit New York, Washington and Philadelphia. Francis’ favourability rating in the US has dropped since February 2014 He is still popular, but not super-popular as he was a year ago. This is the picture that emerges from a poll conducted in the US between 8 and 12 July by consulting company Gallup. The results were published on Wednesday 22 July, just two months before Francis is due to arrive in the US, where he will be visiting New York, Washington and Philadelphia after his stop-over...

Things about to go nuclear with #PlannedParenthood. One unreleased video may show talk of 'racial characteristics'

Pope Francis is not as popular a pontiff as he used to be in the United States — especially among conservatives — according to a new Gallup survey out Wednesday. A larger share of American Catholics say they don’t have a favorable view of their church’s spiritual leader. A little more than seven in 10 (71 percent) have a favorable image of Francis, a drop of 18 percentage points from last year.

God Still Has His Seven Thousand – A Meditation for Those Who Feel Alone and Discouraged Msgr. Charles Pope • July 21, 2015 • Last week in the Office of Readings we read of the struggles of Elijah the Prophet, who spent his life fighting the influence of the Canaanite god Baal in Israel.Every now and again in times like these, times of cultural confusion, times when so many Catholics have fallen away from the practice of the faith or are so breezily dissenting, I think of the prophet Elijah at his lowest moment. He was in a cave, anxious...

Archbishop Georg Gänswein has questioned why some bishops-- particularly in his native Germany-- are proposing the admission of divorced and remarried Catholics to Communion, when that step is "not possible." The prefect of the pontifical household, who has worked closely with both Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis, also spoke about the similarities between the two in an interview with +1, a publication of the International University of Catalonia. Archbishop Gänswein said that speculative theories about the resignation of Pope Benedict, which point to some pressure or motivation beyond the outgoing Pope's brief resignation statement, are "altogether devoid of foundation."...

July 22, 2015 Memorial of Saint Mary Magdalene Reading 1 Ex 16:1-5, 9-15 The children of Israel set out from Elim, and came into the desert of Sin,which is between Elim and Sinai,on the fifteenth day of the second monthafter their departure from the land of Egypt.Here in the desert the whole assembly of the children of Israelgrumbled against Moses and Aaron.The children of Israel said to them,“Would that we had died at the LORD’s hand in the land of Egypt,as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread!But you had to lead us into this...

The most common Bible verse used against the very Catholic and very biblical doctrines concerning mortal and venial sin is James 2:10-11: For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” said also, “Do not kill.” The argument is made from this text that all sins are the same before God. Is this true? Two Points in Response: First, the context of James 2 reveals St. James to have been talking about showing partiality for the first nine verses leading up to verses...

Sanders’ full remarks, reprinted below and are worth reading, but in addition to global warming he said he and the pope agree that “casino-type capitalism” and income inequality are a scourge on society, that senior citizens are too often abandoned and alone, and that young people are losing hope because they have few concrete prospects for a full life.