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As the fallout from Amoris Laetitia continues to settle, it is difficult to imagine a more illuminating exercise than to compare recent statements by San Diego’s Bishop Robert McElroy and Cardinal George Pell. Bishop McElroy’s new policies invite the divorced and remarried to discern for themselves whether or not they should receive Communion. But Cardinal Pell emphasizes that “the idea that you can somehow discern that moral truths should not be followed or should not be recognized is absurd.” Meanwhile, the dean of the Roman Rota, Archbishop Pio Vito Pinto, noted that Pope Francis could, if he so chooses, discipline...

November 30, 2016 Feast of Saint Andrew, Apostle Reading 1 Rom 10:9-18 Brothers and sisters:If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lordand believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,you will be saved.For one believes with the heart and so is justified,and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.The Scripture says,No one who believes in him will be put to shame.There is no distinction between Jew and Greek;the same Lord is Lord of all,enriching all who call upon him.For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But...

Q: What is this controversy among Catholics and Pope Francis about?A: It concerns the appearance that Pope Francis is trying to change a perennial Catholic doctrine.Q: Why would he do that?A: You’d have to ask him. I was the English language editor of his first book, but I couldn’t make head or tails of what he was saying. Francis makes no pretense of being a systematic thinker. So it’s sometimes hard to tell if he’s simply speaking (and writing) imprecisely, or is using imprecision as a cover for doctrinal change.Q: You’ve got cardinals asking the pope to clarify his teaching, with other bishops condemning...

Pope Francis has issued a climate change challenge directly to President Elect Trump. The Pope, in thinly veiled speech, urged Trump not to withdraw the U.S. from the United Nations Paris agreement reached in 2015. The UN treaty has been said by critics to be “history’s most expensive treaty’,” with a “cost of between $1 trillion and $2 trillion annually.” Pope Francis warned of the “crisis of climate change.” “The ‘distraction’ or delay in implementing global agreements on the environment shows that politics has become submissive to a technology and economy which seek profit above all else,” Francis said, in...

Fr Spadaro said the dubia had already been addressed in depthFr Antonio Spadaro has said that the questions raised by four cardinals following the publication of Amoris Laetitia, have already been answered. The editor-in-chief of La Civilta’ Cattolica, was commenting on the dubia submitted to the Pope by Cardinals Raymond Burke, Carlo Caffarra, Walter Brandmüller and Joachim Meisner in September, which the Pope has not yet answered. In an exclusive piece for CNN, Fr Spadaro said that the apostolic exhortation had created an “open and honest debate.” He said: “During the Synod, all of the necessary responses were given and...

COMMENTARY: Among the worst of Castro’s crimes and legacies, consider what he did to religious faith in this once-great Catholic nation.

Refugee resettlement is a lucrative business for many religious charities. Like heroin, these charities have become addicted to the revenue. It must stop.I would like to know who paid for Abdul’s university education. It’s you and me, I am sure. Catholic Charities Resettled Muslim Who Waged Jihad at Ohio State University By Creeping, November 29, 2016 Source: Ohio State Suspect Had Tie to Dallas | NBC 5 Dallas-Fort WorthIt was June 5, 2014 when a young teenager named Abul Razak Ali Artan arrived in Dallas with his mother and six siblings.A little more than two years before he was the...

With all the talk from the Bishop of Rome about the evils of rigidity, it comes as quite notable that he thinks differently when ti comes to "saving the planet." Pope Francis calls on scientists to create a "regulatory system," with "inviolable limits." We all need an "ecological conversion." Heaven forbid we have a regulatory system with inviolable limits on sin and sacrilege. Not a word about conversion to Our Lord Jesus Christ. What irony and hypocrisy.VATICAN CITY Humanity does not own God's gift of creation and has no right to pillage it, Pope Francis said. "We are not custodians of...

San Diego Bishop Robert McElroy is calling on his city's priests to embrace "LGBT families," and to allow divorced and remarried Catholics to receive Communion in certain cases. Following a much-hyped diocesan synod on the family last month, Bishop McElroy encouraged priests to publish a diocesan notice in their bulletins saying the Church will "assist those who are divorced and remarried and cannot receive an annulment to utilize the internal forum of conscience in order to discern if God is calling them to return to the Eucharist." "The Synod proposed a spirituality of family life which is deeply inclusive," and...

A Prayer for the Internet from the 1946 Roman Ritual? Sure, and It’s Wonderful! Msgr. Charles Pope • November 28, 2016 • The old Roman Ritual (published in 1946) is a magnificent collection of blessings and prayers. It has some of the most amazing little blessings of things it would never occur to you to find in such a collection. Along with the blessings of expected objects (e.g., statues, religious medals) are blessings, often elaborately laid out, for things such as seismographs, typewriters, printing presses, fishing boats, fire engines, stables, medicine, wells, bridges, archives, lime kilns, automobiles, mountain-climbing equipment,...

While Pope Francis continues his silence, the Jesuit General has commented on the Dubia (doubts), the controversial post-synodal Letter Amoris laetitia of four cardinals Brandmüller, Burke, Caffarra and Meisner. On 14 October, Arturo Sosa Abascal was selected 31 Superior General of the Jesuits. The Venezuelan Jesuit has now entered into the public for the first time and does so with a defense of Pope Francis, who also belongs to the Jesuit Order. So far, the new "Black General", as the Father General of the Jesuits is also called, has only been known for statements from the distant past. This includes...

Archbishop Pio Vito Pinto, Dean of the Roman Rota, told a conference in Spain that Cardinal Burke and the three cardinals who submitted the dubia to Pope Francis "could lose their Cardinalate" for causing "grave scandal" by making the dubia public. The Dean of the Roman Rota went on to accuse Cardinals Raymond Burke, Carlo Caffarra, Walter Brandmüller and Joachim Meisner of questioning the Holy Spirit. Archbishop Pio Vito Pinto made his astounding accusations during a conference to religious in Spain. Archbishop Pio Vito's indictment against the four cardinals, and other people who question Pope Francis and Amoris Laetitia, was...

The cardinal said that conscience must refer to revealed truth and the moral lawCardinal George Pell has said that “a number of regularly worshipping Catholics” are “unnerved by the turn of events” in the Church.In a talk at St Patrick’s Church, London, Cardinal Pell said one cause for concern was false theories of conscience and the moral law.Cardinal Pell was giving a talk on St Damien of Molokai as part of St Patrick’s series of talks for the Year of Mercy. But he also reflected on Catholicism today. He said that while Pope Francis has “a prestige and popularity outside...

This was translated with Google Translate: Mons.Pío Vito Pinto, Dean of the Roman Rota, the highest authority of the Catholic Church in cases of nullity, has delivered a lecture at the San Dámaso Ecclesiastical University in Madrid. In a strong tone and in a strong tone, he said that the four cardinals who have written to Pope Francis, asking him to clarify some doubts about his apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, have incurred a serious scandal in making this letter publicly through the media Communication. (Confidential Religion) Pio Vito, speaking to Confessional Religion, has made clear that these four cardinals, like...

November 29, 2016 Tuesday of the First Week in Advent Reading 1 Is 11:1-10 On that day,A shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse,and from his roots a bud shall blossom.The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him:a Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,A Spirit of counsel and of strength,a Spirit of knowledge and of fear of the LORD,and his delight shall be the fear of the LORD.Not by appearance shall he judge,nor by hearsay shall he decide,But he shall judge the poor with justice,and decide aright for the land’s afflicted.He shall strike the ruthless with the...

"Proselytism among Christians, therefore, in itself, is a grave sin,” said Pope Francis. The journalist then asked, “Why?” “Because it contradicts the very dynamic of how to become and to remain Christian,” he said. “The Church is not a soccer team that goes around seeking fans.” It would be hard to conceive of a more superficial, more puerile, remark on relations with other Christian denominations. How much lower can the papacy sink - in terms of both cheap jibes that demean and dishonor the supreme office of Christ's Vicar on earth (lambasting an opposing position with a crude straw-man caricature...

The Polish Pope’s former spokesman said the late Fidel Castro “wanted to know everything there was to know about John Paul II”"Fidel Castro kept me talking for six hours. He was fascinated by John Paul II and although he was jealous of his inner life, I sensed he wanted to delve deeper… I told him he was a lucky man because the Pope prayed for him every day. For once he was silent.” On the occasion of Wojtyla’s visit to Cuba in January 1998, the role of Joaquín Navarro-Valls, John Paul II’s spokesman, went far beyond his official duties as...

Christians returning home to the Syrian town of Al Qaryatayn have said that even though the Islamic State terror group destroyed the monastery of fourth century saint Mar Elian, his relics survived, and will be restored. In Mar Elian, we have always hoped to welcome everyone. Mar Elian was really a sign of hope for the Syrian people," Father Jacques Mourad, a priest who was previously captured by IS, told Catholic News Agency. Everything changed when I was taken hostage. But we can still build something. We must, however, await the end of this war." Mourad said that Mar Elian...

The Pope said vocations exist, but need to be proposed in the right wayPope Francis has said the next synod will discuss the decline in priestly vocations. In a conversation with Jesuits published by the Jesuit journal La Civiltà Cattolica, the Pope said: “With regard to local vocations, I say that the vocational decline will be spoken of at the next Synod. I believe that vocations exist, you just have to know how to propose them and how to attend to them.” The next Ordinary Synod will be held in October 2018, on the theme of “Youth, Faith and Vocation”....

Full title: "For the record - In latest interview, Pope attacks "rigidity" in seminaries and in priestly formation. Are seminaries soon to be targeted for "reform" by Francis?" It is extremely difficult to keep up with the unending barrage of words from Pope Francis. One interview after another, press conferences, speeches, letters, phone calls, off-the-cuff remarks, daily homilies... the endless flow of words results in people knowing not so much what the Pope has exactly said on this or that topic, but rather the general run of this Pope's thinking and the main themes of his stated policies. Rather than...