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Guidonia (Italy) (AFP) - Pope Francis admitted on Sunday to sometimes having "darkness" cloud his own faith, while warning against "Christian parrots" who pay lip service to the church without acting on its values. "At certain times, I have also encountered moments of darkness in my faith and that faith decreased a lot, but with a little bit of time we rediscover it," the Pointiff told parishioners after saying mass in a village near Rome. "Some days we can't see faith, everything is in darkness. "Yesterday, for example, I christened 13 children in areas devastated by earthquakes and there was...

Vatican officials have mounted an extraordinary challenge to the ancient Order of Malta. But what is the row really about?The Sovereign Military Order of Malta is one of the more improbable success stories of the 21st-century Church. Founded in 1099 to provide hospital care and military defence in the Holy Land, it has retained much of its medieval tradition and ceremony. But it has also, by gradual reform, become a powerhouse of international aid. More than 100,000 members, medical staff and volunteers are offering practically every form of charitable assistance around the world, from handing out sandwiches to the homeless...

As President-elect Donald Trump's campaign manager, Mrs. Kellyanne Conway helped pull off one of the most stunning political victories in U.S. history. So, why do the feminists hate her? Why isn't she being praised as a feminist icon by CNN or the gals from The View? Could it be because Kellyanne Conway is outspokenly pro-life?  And here's another hopeful sign:  President Donald Trump's top advisor will be an Irish-American, happily married Catholic mother of four who makes breakfast every morning for her kids and then goes to Mass. She's a daily communicant! And there's more: Kellyanne Conway reportedly took Donald Trump to meet Father George Rutler, the Anglican...

Ngo Dinh Diem, the first president of the Republic of Vietnam, possessed the Confucian "Mandate of Heaven," a moral and political authority that was widely recognized by all Vietnamese. What is not commonly known is that Diem was a devout Roman Catholic - in fact, he was a third-order Benedictine and daily communicant. Diem was taken down by a military coup sponsored by the U.S. government and ultimately betrayed by the administration of the first Catholic President, John F. Kennedy, which resulted in Diem's brutal murder on Nov. 2, 1963. In his new book, THE LOST MANDATE OF HEAVEN: The...

Cardinal Raymond Burke has insisted that Pope Francis must clarify serious doctrinal doubts arising from his teaching letter Amoris Laetitia, or the Cardinal will be forced to initiate "a formal act of correction of a serious error." In September, four top Catholic cardinals including Burke wrote a private letter to Pope Francis asking him to clarify five serious doctrinal doubts proceeding from his 2016 apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love) concerning Holy Communion for the divorced and remarried, the indissolubility of marriage, and the proper role of conscience. When the Pope failed to reply to the Cardinals' letter,...

This country will soon hold an election in which neither of the candidates is admired by a significant majority of voters. There is a strong demarcation between the values of the two nominees—though not necessarily between the two parties. Wikileaks has published various emails hacked from Hillary’s home computer. Democrats have proclaimed it a Russian plot to get Donald Trump elected. Like most progressive-socialist talking points, this is a lie. A farce. In socialist countries, a government-run media decides what information the public may safely receive. In our country, it’s the major media in collusion with the Democrat Party and...

It’s a common and recurring tendency among conservative Catholics to be complacent regarding the jihad threat because of a desire to see Muslims as allies in a culture war against all-encroaching and authoritarian secularism. This idea is based on ignorance of or indifference to the fact that, with its polygamy, divorce at a word, sexual slavery of Infidel women, allowance for wife-beating, tolerance for early abortion, and more, Islamic sexual morality is hardly akin to Catholic sexual morality. There is also a tendency, which is also found all over the West outside the Catholic Church, to assume that various concepts,...

Many of you know that for more than 4 years, I have been one of the leaders of the team representing religious organizations, mostly Catholic (including Bishop David Zubik, Bishop of Pittsburgh’s Catholic Diocese) in his case which was consolidated in the U.S. Supreme Court with the case brought by The Little Sisters of the Poor and cases brought by others, against the government over Obamacare’s “contraception mandate.” A great number of religious groups of all denominations filed “friend of the Court” briefs supporting our position that while contraception is and could be available to all who choose to use...

One of the more eyebrow-raising revelations from the leaked John Podesta emails is the disparaging language Hillary Clinton's aides used to describe Catholics, language which the Trump campaign has condemned and Paul Ryan has denounced as anti-Catholic “bigotry.”

“There needs to be a Catholic Spring, in which Catholics themselves demand the end of a middle ages dictatorship and the beginning of a little democracy and respect for gender equality in the Catholic Church

Scurry out and buy two copies of John “Bad Catholic” Zmirak’s The Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism. Keep one for yourself, and give the other to your priest or clergyman (despite the title, this book is for all Christians). Be quick: get it to him before the election. If you have a clergywoman, buy three copies, because she might throw the first one out the window.

Saudi Arabia has deported 27 Lebanese Maronite Christians, including women and children, for celebrating the feast of the Assumption of Our Lady in their home. Saudi Arabian authorities justified the deportation by claiming the Christians participated in "un-Islamic prayer" and that they possessed the "Gospel". The religious police raided a house in the Aziziyah neighborhood of Al Khafji, in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia, and arrested 27 people, including children. The Christians claimed that as the Koran esteemed the Blessed Virgin Mary, their prayers caused no insult. In 2006 the Saudi government gave the undertaking to stop interfering with...

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...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVqkUNJYS_E This is the history of persecution during Japan's medieval period during and following the Sengokujedai(Age of the country at war)period and during the Tokagowa shogunate. Also features segments on the Shinabara Christian rebellion, St Francis Xavier and The shoguns of Japan. In additon, an epic recreation of the Shimabara rebellion using Shogun 2 Total war, the battle of the last stand of persecuted Christian Samurai. WARNING! CONTAINS VIOLENT BATTLE SCENES AND SCENES OF CHRISTIANS BEING ASSASSINATED AND TORTURED TO DEATH! VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED! SIGN IN ON YT TO VIEW VIDEO!

A Sterling woman accused of sacrificing up to 15 chickens a week for religious purposes will still be legally allowed to own live poultry-- as long as she completes a course in how to humanely sacrifice animals. .... Gro Mambo Danthoula Novanyon Idizol, a high priestess and the executive board secretary of the National African Religion Congress (NARC), testified Carrion is a member of her organization. She said Carrion underwent an extensive initiation process to become a high priestess in Santeria, a pantheistic Afro-Hispanic religion that incorporates elements of Catholicism.

A teenage boy was arrested Sunday for assaulting a priest and a 69-year old woman who were praying outside a Ukiah church after finding satanic graffiti in the facility’s breezeway, Ukiah police said. The 16-year-old boy, who yelled satanic slurs during the Sunday attacks, could face a hate crime charge, police said. He was arrested on suspicion of public intoxication, battery and elder abuse, police said. He was not identified because he is a juvenile. According to police, the incident occurred about 7:30 p.m. Sunday at Saint Mary of the Angels Catholic Church on Oak Street. The priest told police...

Pope Francis does a disservice to his followers and world leaders, who would look to him for the confidence and moral backing to call out Islamic terrorism and face it head-on. --------- On Sunday, Pope Francis responded to questions from reporters about why he won’t call out Islamic violence or reference Islamic terrorism when responding to terrorist attacks like the one that took the life of French priest Jacques Hamel last week. The pope denied any associations between Islam and violence and said “If I speak of Islamic violence, I should speak of Catholic violence.” By speaking this way, he...

And with Sweet Sleep Mine Eyelids - A Meditation on a Beautiful Hymn of the Night Msgr. Charles Pope • July 25, 2016 • One of the great night prayer hymns, “All Praise to Thee My God This Night,” appears in numerous hymnals of the English tradition. Sadly, it is not in our current breviary, but I hope that the new one might feature it. It was written by Thomas Ken in 1709 and is most often sung to the beautiful tune of Tallis’ Ordinal, which you can hear in the video below.Ideally, night prayer should include acts of...

An elderly priest has been killed in a hostage situation in a church south of Rouen, Normandy, northern France this morning by alleged Islamist attackers. His killers, who are understood to have been shot dead by French police. UPDATE 1320 — Islamic State claims responsibility, French President François Hollande confirms terrorist attack Media sources associated with the Islamic State have claimed the Rouen terror attack as their own, remarking that two of their own “soldiers” were responsible. Shortly beforehand the French President François Hollande told press that it was an act of terrorism and that both attackers had proclaimed their...

The Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne has issued greetings to Muslims on the occasion of the feast of Eid al-Fitr. The Very Reverend Denis Stanley, Episcopal Vicar for Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations for the Melbourne Archdiocese, wrote: The Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne would like to extend its best wishes to the Muslim community in Victoria and Australia on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, the Feast of the Breaking of the Fast, celebrated at the end of the sacred month of Ramadan. The Holy Qur'an was first revealed in the month of Ramadan and had a special purpose: "And We sent down...