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American Bible Society State of the Bible Research conducted among U.S. adults February 2017 Practicing Protestant, practicing Catholic: practicing Christians are those who identify as either Protestant or Catholic , who at tend a religious service at least once a month and who say their faith is very important in their lives. [See note on first comment.] Adults who read the Bible daily account for 16% of the total adult population, followed by 14% who read several times a week, 7% do so once a week, 7% about once a month, and 6% read it three to four times a...

As if he weren’t already committed enough to foolish false charity and willful ignorance regarding the jihad threat, Pope Francis on Wednesday met in the Vatican with Dr. Muhammad bin Abdul Karim Al-Issa, the secretary general of the Muslim World League (MWL), a group that has been linked to the financing of jihad terror.

Even in Europe and among Catholic communities, there is "repression and rejection of migrants", "signs of intolerance, discrimination and xenophobia" in some parts of the continent. The warning comes from Pope Francis as he received the national directors of pastoral care for migrants, attending the meeting promoted by the Council of European Bishops' Conferences (CCEE) being held in Rome. Francis noted that this "unease" should be recognized and understood in the light of a historic moment marked by the economic crisis, which has left deep wounds. This unease has also been exacerbated by the scale and composition of migratory flows,...

The situation in Vatican City continues to deteriorate, as news abounds of alliances not quite in harmony with Church teaching. Most recently we learned that “Chile’s president Michelle Bachelet, who sponsored a bid to allow legal abortion, will be one of the speakers at a November conference organized by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.” At the same time, we are learning more about the newly appointed members of the Pontifical Academy for Life. One of them is a defender of remarried Catholic divorcees living in adultery. Her name is Professor Anne-Marie Pelletier, a biblical theologian who also defends homosexual marriages....

Some days ago, Vatican police ejected the homeless, who had established themselves underneath the Colonnades of Saint Peter with the explicit permission of Pope Francis, who provided them with showers, toilettes and even a special barbershop. According to Italian media reports the homeless were surprised when the police woke them up around 6.00 a.m. and moved them out. They had been living there for months. Italian media explain this turnaround of Pope Francis with a video showing a homeless urinating and defecating underneath the Colonnades in broad daylight. The video went viral and caused considerable scandal. However, the media explains,...

THE PAPAL POSSE...FR GERALD MURRAY, canon lawyer and priest of the Archdiocese of New York and ROBERT ROYAL, editor-in-chief of The Catholic Thing, discuss Pope Francis' new motu proprio on the liturgy, Magnum Principium, and all the latest news from the Vatican. I think this is one of the most helpful programmes on what is going on in the Church currently. On the Pope's liturgical moto proprio, the main question seem to me to be: why do this now? Robert Royal says the danger of Magnum Principium is that the many polarising elements will cause a dissolution of our unity....

When Honor Eclipses Truth Msgr. Charles Pope • September 21, 2017 • Every year at about this time we read St. Augustine’s sermon “On Pastors” in the Office of Readings of the Liturgy of the Hours. As you know, priests are required to read the Divine Office daily; St. Augustine’s sermon extends over the better part of two weeks. It amounts to a stern warning for priests who too easily live off the sheep instead of shepherding them rightly.There are tender moments in the sermon as well. At one point, commenting on a passage from Ezekiel rebuking bad shepherds...

White Double IN 1517 a cruel blow fell upon the great Augustinian family; Luther, one of its members, raised the cry of revolt which was to be echoed for centuries by every passion. But the illustrious Order, which had unwittingly nurtured this child of evil, was none the less acceptable to God; and He deigned, before long, to demonstrate this, for the consolation of institutes whose very excellence exposes unworthy subjects to more dangerous falls. It was at the First Vespers of All Saints that Luther broached, at Wittenburg, his famous theses against indulgences and the authority of the...

September 22, 2017 Friday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 1 Tm 6:2c-12Beloved:Teach and urge these things.Whoever teaches something differentand does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christand the religious teachingis conceited, understanding nothing,and has a morbid disposition for arguments and verbal disputes.From these come envy, rivalry, insults, evil suspicions,and mutual friction among people with corrupted minds,who are deprived of the truth,supposing religion to be a means of gain.Indeed, religion with contentment is a great gain.For we brought nothing into the world,just as we shall not be able to take anything out...

f you’re looking for a Catholic priest who inspires people - and makes them laugh and think - James Martin, SJ, is your guy.  At the Ignatian Solidarity Network’s annual conference, he’s greeted like a rock star by swarms of young Catholics who devour his books and remember him as Stephen Colbert’s “chaplain” on the Colbert Report. To say this is unusual is an understatement. Millennials are leaving the church in droves, turned off in part by an institution that has made opposition to same-sex marriage central to Catholic identity in the public square.This generation of Catholics remains inspired by the...

The scandals, "There are so many, many ... And always, even in the Church today. They say, 'No, you can not, it's all clear, it's all, no, no ... Those are sinners, we have to turn them away.' Many saints have also been persecuted or suspected. " "The door that leads to encounter with Jesus is recognizing ourselves as we are, the truth. Sinners ".Vatican City (AsiaNews) - "The door that leads to encounter with Jesus is recognizing ourselves as we are, the truth. Sinners. And He comes". "I want mercy and not sacrifices" said Pope Francis at Mass this...

Ironically, these groups, like the website Church Militant, which tout their desire for “traditional” Catholic practices consistently set themselves against bishops and religious superiors. Thus, groups that have zero legitimacy in the Church (and which have often been criticized by Church leadership) are setting themselves up against legitimate authorities. Pope Francis himself, for example, is a frequent target. In this way, such supposedly “traditional” Catholic websites are subverting tradition. As a result of their hateful content, they cause confusion, frustration and contempt. Such campaigns can never lead to the kind of results that St. Ignatius calls indicative of the “Good...

Bishop Athanasius Schneider has said priests have to follow the Church’s constant practice on Communion, even if their bishops and religious superiors command them to do otherwise.In an interview with the website One Peter Five, Bishop Schneider, an auxiliary bishop in Kazakhstan, encouraged Catholics to “remain faithful to the unchanging and constant teaching and practice of the entire Church”.In the aftermath of Pope Francis’s exhortation Amoris Laetitia, bishops’ conferences have released different guidelines on Communion. Some have reaffirmed the Church’s traditional practice, that the divorced and remarried can only receive Communion if they resolve to live “as brother and sister”....

On Jesus’ Merciful Call of St. Matthew, a Great Sinner Msgr. Charles Pope • September 20, 2017 • On this Feast Day of St. Matthew, we must acknowledge a great mercy in Jesus’ call. As a tax collector, Matthew was considered a great sinner. In fact, the term “tax collector” was a biblical euphemism for great sinner. Yet despite this, Jesus called him to be an Apostle.In our times, many set mercy and the fact that we are sinners in opposition to each other, but the Lord Jesus unites these realities together. For the Lord, mercy is necessary because...

The cardinal criticised the Latin American approach to theology, in a thinly veiled critique of the Argentinian PopeThe Vatican’s former doctrine chief has criticised Francis’ papacy for lacking theological rigour, while suggesting he is ready to make a comeback and work in the Roman Curia. During a book presentation in Germany last Friday, Cardinal Gerhard Müller, dismissed from his job by the Pope in July, recalled how the Jesuit Cardinal Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621) told Pope Clement VIII that he did not understand anything about theology. According to reports of the event in Mannheim the German cardinal then pointed out that...

ANSA) - Aboard the papal plane, September 11 - Pope Francis said Monday "why do they tarry in becoming aware of the effects of climate change? A phrase from the Old Testament comes to me, from the Psalm: 'Man is stupid'." Speaking at a press conference on his return from a trip to Colombia, Francis said: "he is stubborn". "Pride...and Mammon too. So many things, so many decisions, so many contradictions depend on money. The pontiff said that those who deny climate change "should go to the scientists and ask them. "They speak very clearly, the scientists are precise. "You...

In the Syrian city of Maaloula (Ma'loula) The Christian Church began to commence services in the Christian monastery of St. Thecla.The pilgrims from all around the world traveled to religious shrines before the war. It was almost completely destroyed and looted by ISIS and Al-Nusra Front. When under pressure from the Syrian Arab army the Retreating Islamists took everything valuable from the temples, including ancient icons, historical manuscripts, icon lamps and altar-cross, church furnishings, tombstones and other valuable items. The militants destroyed everything they could not hastily take along; some of the buildings were burned. After the liberation under the...

Red Double of the Second Class The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the son of Abraham. The Eagle and the Lion have already risen in the heavens of the holy Liturgy; today we salute the Man; and next month the Ox will appear, to complete the number of the four living creatures who draw the chariot of God through the world and surround his throne in heaven. These mysterious beings, with their six seraph-wings, are ever gazing with their innumerable eyes upon the Lamb who stands upon the throne as it were slain;...

The Many Gifts of St. Hildegard of BingenCari Donaldson Abbess. Botanist. Physician. Theologian. Playwright. Composer. Doctor of the Church. In another example of God exulting the lowly, all these titles and more have been given to St. Hildegard of Bingen, who was born the sickly youngest child of minor nobility, and eventually presented as a political offering to the Benedictines.St. Hildegard was born around 1098, in what is today Germany. She entered the monastery at Disibodenberg 1112, and by the age of 38 became Prioress. Due to the rapidly growing increase of vocations under Hildegard, one of her first moves...

Anonimi della Croce wrote on September 16 that Cardinal Raymond Burke disclosed in a private setting during the recent Congress on Summorum Pontificum in Rome, that a "correction" of the controversial Amoris Laetitia is imminent. It will not openly confront Francis but will take the form of letter or document signed by Cardinal Burke and other prelates, who in a magisterial way will correct those parts of Amoris Laetitia that contradict the Catholic Faith.