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The construction of Cuba's first Roman Catholic Church since 1959 is set to begin in the village of Sandino in the province of Pinar del Rio. Cuba has recently experienced warming ties both with the U.S. and the Vatican. "There is money to begin, building materials to begin, and we have the permissions to start, so everything is ready," said Jorge Enrique Serpa Pérez, the bishop of Pinar del Río, according to Breitbart News. It is a significant development in the largely Catholic country, which had exiled and jailed a number of priests belonging to the Vatican following the 1959...

rogressive friends wonder why I’m not a fan of Pope Francis, who—according to these friends, the mainstream media, and pretty much every progressive Catholic I’ve spoken to—is clearly progressive. The short answer: He is not. The long answer starts in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. * * * A poor 13-year-old Dominican boy needed epilepsy medicine, so an archbishop gave it to him in exchange for sexual acts. The archbishop would go on to abuse the boy for four more years. In 2013, minors interviewed by the police admitted to masturbating and having oral sex with the same archbishop...

Excerpt - Federal prosecutors charged Raffaello Follieri, an Italian entrepreneur and former business partner of California billionaire Ron Burkle, with funding a lavish lifestyle by using money from a real-estate venture that was supposed to capitalize on his alleged Vatican ties to redevelop surplus Catholic Church properties. ~ snip ~ A criminal complaint filed by the U.S. attorney in Manhattan Tuesday alleged that Mr. Follieri stole hundreds of thousands of dollars of investor money to pay for a $37,000-a-month New York apartment where he lived for a time with Ms. Hathaway; private jet travel; expensive restaurants and clothes; medical expenses,...

I will let each one of you reach your own conclusions regarding the Cuban pact and the role played by the Catholic church in this dark chapter of history There are a few topics or subjects in life which you just don’t care to discuss as, invariably you will always tap unto someone else’s wrong chord whenever you do; probably awakening, if you will, all kinds of passionate responses - at times outright anger. Needless to say, I refer to religion as one of those subjects if not [the] subject, habitually known for stirring more controversies than any other. To...

VATICAN CITY, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- After speaking out against statements of Pope Francis that appear to be very lenient toward homosexuals in the church, Cardinal Raymond Burke has been removed from his position as leader of the Vatican's highest court. The pope has worked on a draft of the synod of bishops that included welcoming homosexual people into the Catholic church, to some degree. That part did not make it to the final draft, but it did stir things up in the church. Around this time, Cardinal Raymond Burke told Buzzfeed "the pope is not free to change the...

Cardinal Raymond Burke, the Prefect of the Sacred Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, the highest court of the Catholic Church, said in an interview with CNSNews.com recorded Friday that he sees “a very serious responsibility to try to correct as quickly and as effectively as possible the scandal caused by the midterm report” that was published during the synod of bishops discussing the family that met in Rome earlier this month.

<p>NEW YORK — Elton John has called Pope Francis "my hero" for his compassion and push to accept gays in the Catholic church, at his annual AIDS benefit.</p> <p>John hosted the event, "An Enduring Vision: A Benefit for the Elton John AIDS Foundation," Tuesday night in New York City. He says Francis is pushing boundaries in the church and told the crowd: "Make this man a saint now, OK?"</p>

Elton John called Pope Francis "my hero" for his compassion and push to accept gays in the Catholic church, at his annual AIDS benefit. John hosted the event, "An Enduring Vision: A Benefit for the Elton John AIDS Foundation," Tuesday night in Manhattan. He said Francis is pushing boundaries in the church and told the crowd: "Make this man a saint now, OK?"

The mental image of a thoroughly Communist Dorothy Day, who remained committed to Marxist notions of the overthrow of government, might be shocking.... [Yet] she maintained her Communist and anarchist views, promoted them, and brought them into the Church Christ founded.... Her goal... was to contribute to the eventual overthrow of the American government, and ... of the Catholic Church hierarchy..... I still remember trying to understand how [Day’s periodical, "The Catholic Worker"] could be both Communist and Catholic.... by the 1970s the FBI dossier on the Catholic Worker Movement was some 581 pages long. The list of Communist revolutionaries,...

While Francis I has nether denied not sought to change any doctrine, Cardinal Burke is correct. The pope has “done a lot of harm.” He has created confusion among the faithful and is soon going to have to speak with clarity on the unchanging truths of Catholicism. In his beatification of Paul VI on Sunday, Pope Francis celebrated change. “God is not afraid of new things,” he said, “we are making every effort to adapt ways and methods … to the changing conditions of society.” But among the social changes since Vatican II and Paul VI have been the West’s...

"The transmission of human life is a most serious role in which married people collaborate freely and responsibly with God the Creator. It has always been a source of great joy to them, even though it sometimes entails many difficulties and hardships." The words of Paul VI are like the background music for the Extraordinary Synod on the Family that is wrapping up in Rome. The opening words of the 1968 encyclical "Humanae Vitae" continue: "The fulfillment of this duty has always posed problems to the conscience of married people, but the recent course of human society and the concomitant...

While the cultural commissars keep throwing praise and awards at raunchy shows on trendy Internet streaming channels, CBS has a series of highly-rated traditional police or military shows that get no attention or respect. "NCIS" keeps spinning off shows -- this year in New Orleans -- and "Blue Bloods" is a consistent Top 20 performer despite airing on Friday night. You won't see its star Tom Selleck at Emmy awards time. "Blue Bloods" deals with an Irish-Catholic family of cops, headed by New York police commissioner Frank Reagan, played by Selleck. Some Catholics became fans of the show as a...

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- A fight for the soul of the Catholic Church has broken out, and the first battlefield is a document on family values that pits increasingly alarmed conservatives against more progressive bishops emboldened by Pope Francis' vision of a church that is more merciful than moralistic.

ROME (CNN) – Using strikingly open language, a new Vatican report says the church should welcome and appreciate gays, and offers a solution for divorced and remarried Catholics who want to receive Communion. “Regarding homosexuals, it went so far as to pose the question whether the church could accept and value their sexual orientation without compromising Catholic doctrine,” said John Thavis, a former Rome bureau chief for Catholic News Service. The Rev. James Martin, an author and Jesuit priest, called the report's language on gays and lesbians "revolutionary." “Homosexuals have gifts and qualities to offer to the Christian community. Are...

Pope Francis, cardinals and bishops from around the world have gotten an unexpected lecture on the joys of sex, from a Catholic couple brought in to talk about what makes a marriage last. Ron and Mavis Pirola, parents of four from Sydney, Australia, told a Vatican gathering of some 200 prelates that sexual attraction brought them together 57 years ago and that sex has helped keep them married for 55 years. "The little things we did for each other, the telephone calls and love notes, the way we planned our day around each other and the things we shared were...

A few weeks ago New York City’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee (SPDC) made a cynical and politically correct decision to allow Gays to march in the parade under a banner proclaiming they are proud sodomites. No one else in the parade is allow to advertise their particular sin; there have been no demands from groups to march under a banner saying “Proud Irish burglars.” But none of this means much to the SPDC. Those of us who have loved this parade and have fond memories of watching it and marching in it held our collective breath and waited for...

While a prisoner of Islamic terrorists, Steven Sotloff faked illness so that he could observe Yom Kippur. It is said that he would also covertly pray facing Jerusalem. As with James Foley, another American journalist beheaded by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Sotloff's religious faith was reportedly important to him. "He was no hero," his family emphasized in a statement. "He was a man who tried to find good in a world full of darkness." Very far away from where national headlines tend to be made, about 250 Catholic scholars gathered in Bismarck, North Dakota, over...

Painting the Catholic Church as "out of touch" is like shooting fish in a barrel, what with the funny hats and gilded churches. And nothing makes it easier than the Church's stance against contraception. Many people, (including our editor) are wondering why the Catholic Church doesn't just ditch this requirement. They note that most Catholics ignore it, and that most everyone else finds it divisive, or "out-dated." C'mon! It's the 21st century, they say! Don't they SEE that it's STUPID, they scream. Here's the thing, though: the Catholic Church is the world's biggest and oldest organization. It has buried all...

I’ve always been a great fan of Pope St. Leo XIII’s whose moves to protect the working man during the Industrial Revolution resulted in the rise of labor unions. It saddens me to see how unionism has fallen under totalitarian rule with the leaders thriving on power rather than the welfare of the workers – or the survival of the companies that employ them. More than one union has committed economic suicide by demanding pay and benefits beyond what an industry can support. They forgot it wasn’t only solidarity, it was also subsidiarity – well-stated in Pope Benedict XVI’s “Caritas...

I have a brilliant idea. Let’s sell the White House to help pay off the debt. It’s valued at more than $300 million and that would make a significant contribution. The Obamas could move into a nice townhouse, probably in the $300,000 range, within commuting distance of Washington, D.C. I suppose some complications would arise from this plan. For security purposes, they would probably have to buy the surrounding houses or even the whole block. The president’s entourage would likely back up traffic as he is commuting downtown every day. They would also have to purchase new office space for...