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On the 30th annual World Day of Prayer, Pope Francis met with leaders of the world’s religions to pray for peace, insisting that “God is a God of Peace.” “There is no god of war,” Francis proclaimed during morning Mass, celebrated in the chapel of his residence in the Vatican. War is the work of the “Evil one, the devil, who wants to kill everyone,” the Pope said in preparation for a day dedicated to praying for peace.

DAY 37 – MARY, HELP OF CHRISTIANS, PRAY FOR US SET THE WORLD ABLAZE The word “courage” actually derives its meaning from a Latin root word “cor” which means “heart.” It means we are never more courageous than when we “have the courage of our convictions,” that is, when we live from the heart, remaining true to who we really are. Lombardi was courageous because he simply yielded to his raison d‘être, his reason for existence. St. Catherine of Siena put it this way: “If you are what you should be, you will set the whole world ablaze!” Who are...

One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic, and Organized! A Biblical Picture of the Early Church in Miniature Msgr. Charles Pope • September 19, 2016 • I’d like to return to a brief Gospel that was read last week at daily Mass (Friday of the 24th Week of the Year). Though terse to the point of leaving a preacher wondering what to say, it actually paints a beautiful picture of the Church. Here is that short passage, followed by some commentary.And it came to pass that Jesus journeyed throughout the towns and villages, preaching and proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom...

(Note: When pasting this document into FreeRepublic, it seems that most of the special formatting is lost, such as bold, italics, underlined words and embedded links. To read the document with the formatting and embedded links go to the link of the document.) Forbidden To Speak About Sin On September 14, 2016, at the monthly formation of the clergy of the diocese of Perugia, my cardinal said: “I would like to say something that I forgot to tell you, but I feel it is important. Because I myself had to reflect a lot on this to convince myself. When you...

September 20, 2016 Memorial of Saints Andrew Kim Tae-gŏn, Priest, and Paul Chŏng Ha-sang, and Companions, Martyrs Reading 1 Prv 21:1-6, 10-13 Like a stream is the king’s heart in the hand of the LORD;wherever it pleases him, he directs it. All the ways of a man may be right in his own eyes,but it is the LORD who proves hearts. To do what is right and justis more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice. Haughty eyes and a proud heart–the tillage of the wicked is sin. The plans of the diligent are sure of profit,but all rash haste...

A U.S. Catholic bishop has explicitly refused to allow parents to opt their kids out of a diocesan-run school’s sex-ed program deemed by parents to be “erotic” and “salacious,” calling the program a “legitimate requirement” for graduation. Instead of listening to the parents’ concerns, the bishop has cited the Vatican’s newly minted and problematic sex-ed curriculum as a way to evaluate the school’s program. In a letter dated September 2, Bishop David Choby of the Catholic Diocese of Nashville, Tennessee, told parents opposing the sex-ed program that while he “wholeheartedly support[s]” their right as “primary educator,” nevertheless, when they send...

Speaking on September 16 at a meeting of a joint Catholic-Orthodox theological commission, the chief ecumenical officer of the Russian Orthodox Church said that the activity of the "Uniates"-- the Eastern churches in communion with Rome-- is the greatest obstacle to greater unity between Catholics and Orthodox. The statement by Metropolitan Hilarion was a familiar complaint from the Moscow patriarchate, which has frequently criticized the Eastern-rite Ukrainian Catholic Church, accusing that body of fueling tensions in Ukraine. The Russian Orthodox Church regards Ukraine as its "canonical territory"-- a claim that the Holy See does not accept.

I was really dumbfounded when Jeff Mirus said: "In this case, the continuing sins involved in the irregular union on the part of the repentant spouse would seem to be venial—on the grounds that full consent of the will to the moral evil of continued sexual relations is lacking. The sins would be rendered venial by either a very real confusion about the best course or the compulsion inherent in the particular situation, or both " So if your husband wants you to break one of the ten commandments, you're only committing venial sin because you're breaking them to keep...

Death of a Society Destroying Marriage & the Family: An Essential Principle in the Culture of Death. Homily from 2008 before the election on the culture of death in our land. Father speaks of a story of an assisted suicide vote then brings in how the culture of death has attacked marriage & sex. For more please go to http://www.romans10seventeen.org/ & please say 3 Hail Marys for the priest Marriage provides a proper structure for family, and family is the unit cell of society. Society is made of families. Family is the building block of society. Changing the nature of...

The Church Must Be Light, That the World May See Msgr. Charles Pope • September 18, 2016 • In the Gospel today (Monday of the 25th Week of the Year) the Lord says,No one who lights a lamp conceals it with a vessel or sets it under a bed; rather, he places it on a lampstand so that those who enter may see the light (Lk 8:16).In other words, the Lord lit the light of the Church in order to give light to the world and to be seen. The world is in darkness; the moral darkness of these...

DAY 36 – MARY, COMFORTER OF THE AFFLICTED, PRAY FOR US SUPERIOR IDEAL Among the ways we have just let Coach Vince Lombardi inspire us, let’s focus on the most important one: He went to Mass and received Communion every day of his life. Pope John Paul II said the Holy Eucharist “contains the Church’s entire spiritual wealth: Christ Himself.” Precisely during a time when our culture was becoming disconnected from their True Source, Vince Lombardi remained firmly and wholly connected to his. No matter what Lombardi dedicated himself to, he never abandoned his true self as a child of...

September 19, 2016 Monday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Prv 3:27-34 Refuse no one the good on which he has a claimwhen it is in your power to do it for him.Say not to your neighbor, “Go, and come again,tomorrow I will give,” when you can give at once. Plot no evil against your neighbor,against one who lives at peace with you.Quarrel not with a man without cause,with one who has done you no harm. Envy not the lawless manand choose none of his ways:To the LORD the perverse one is an abomination,but with the...

The sin of a second marriage is not serious enough to justify excluding people of good intentions from the sacraments.Last weekend, Tim Kaine, the Democratic vice presidential nominee and a churchgoing Catholic, briefly escaped obscurity by telling an audience of LGBT activists that he expects his church to eventually bless and celebrate same-sex marriages. In short order, his bishop, Francis X. DiLorenzo of Richmond, Virginia, had a statement out declaring that the Catholic understanding of marriage would remain “unchanged and resolute.” In a normal moment, it would be the task of this conservative Catholic scribbler to explain why the governor...

LAST weekend Tim Kaine, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee and a churchgoing Catholic, briefly escaped obscurity by telling an audience of L.G.B.T. activists that he expects his church to eventually bless and celebrate same-sex marriages. In short order his bishop, Francis X. DiLorenzo of Richmond, Va., had a statement out declaring that the Catholic understanding of marriage would remain “unchanged and resolute.” In a normal moment, it would be the task of this conservative Catholic scribbler to explain why the governor is wrong and the bishop is right, why scripture and tradition make it impossible for Catholicism to simply reinvent its...

An abortion advocacy organization called “Catholics for Choice” (CFC) placed deceptive full-page newspaper ads in multiple cities on September 12 calling for taxpayer funding of abortion in the name of the Catholic faith. As the U.S. Catholic bishops have stated for many years, the use of the name ‘Catholic’ as a platform to promote the taking of innocent human life is offensive not only to Catholics, but to all who expect honesty and forthrightness in public discourse. CFC is not affiliated with the Catholic Church in any way. It has no membership, and clearly does not speak for the faithful....

The Vatican issued a strong ruling about the sanctity of life this week when it said a man’s involvement in performing or helping someone procure an abortion is an obstacle to orientation as a Catholic priest. According to the National Catholic Reporter, the Vatican published the ruling on Thursday after Pope Francis approved the interpretation of church law during a Pontifical Council in May. The Catholic Church considers the sanctity of life “so absolute” that the new ruling even includes men who were not Catholic at the time of the abortion, according to the report. The Catholic Church is a...

DAY 35 – MARY, REFUGE OF SINNERS, PRAY FOR US CATCH EXCELLENCE The desire to enter the fight is a desire to enter into a genuine training in holiness, pursuing the goal of becoming one of God’s champions. St. Paul put it this way: “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a...

Archdiocese of Washington On Being Faithful in a Few Things before Being Ruler over Many Things Capital Catholic Happenings • September 17, 2016 • A Homily for the 25th Sunday of the YearIn today’s Gospel, the Lord Jesus gives a penetrating analysis of the state of the sinner and some very sobering advice to us would-be saints. Let’s look at the Gospel in two stages:I. ANALYSIS OF THE SINNER – In the opening lines of the Gospel, Jesus describes a sinful steward: DELUSION (of the sinner) – Jesus said to his disciples, “A rich man had a steward …” Notice...

September 16, 2016 (C-Fam) – Three powerful UN agencies are sponsoring the release of a document next week that calls for the Catholic Church to change her teachings on contraception, but also mentions that teachings on homosexuality, masturbation and in vitro fertilization should be changed as well. The document was prepared by dissident ex-priest John Wijngaards, who is based in the United Kingdom, and has been signed so far by more than 100 dissenting Catholic academics and a small number of non-Catholics. The document is being released in preparation for the 2018 50th anniversary of the Papal encyclical Humanae Vitae,...

September 18, 2016 Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Am 8:4-7 Hear this, you who trample upon the needyand destroy the poor of the land!“When will the new moon be over,” you ask,“that we may sell our grain,and the sabbath, that we may display the wheat?We will diminish the ephah,add to the shekel,and fix our scales for cheating!We will buy the lowly for silver,and the poor for a pair of sandals;even the refuse of the wheat we will sell!”The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob:Never will I forget a thing they have done! Responsorial Psalm Ps...