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My friends, I ran into Sarah Palin a week or so ago. Well, not the Sarah Palin — and not comedian Tina Fey, either. Temporarily away from my mission work and visiting old friends at an Irish parish, I was enjoying the (rare) sunshine after Mass, greeting parishioners as they left church, when I noticed a young mother pushing her daughter in a baby carriage. Her child — like all children — was radiant to me, with a shock of orange hair and a smile of beautiful wonderment at just about everything. Her head rolled back and forth as if...

They raise their voices, they shout for joy; from the west they acclaim the LORD's majesty. Therefore in the east give glory to the LORD; exalt the name of the LORD, the God of Israel, in the islands of the sea. From the ends of the earth we hear singing: "Glory to the Righteous One." (Isaiah 24:14-16a)

When I look at the world of today, I am appalled. Luckily enough, I'm also a Lutheran and know what cure there is. I'll tell you about it. My grandfather was rather "well off". Rich enough to hire people to take care of his summer houses in different parts of the country (Sweden), but instead he chose to work on those estates whenever having a little of time off, not out of a miser's love for money, but because the love of how it feels to be truly independent. Church attendence in my part of the world isn't something you'd...

Sign The Declaration! Christians, when they have lived up to the highest ideals of their faith, have defended the weak and vulnerable and worked tirelessly to protect and strengthen vital institutions of civil society, beginning with the family. We are Orthodox, Catholic, and evangelical Christians who have united at this hour to reaffirm fundamental truths about justice and the common good, and to call upon our fellow citizens, believers and non-believers alike, to join us in defending them. These truths are: --the sanctity of human life --the dignity of marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife --the rights...

Our Catholic liturgical year follows a rhythmic cycle. It points us toward beginnings and ends and, in so doing, emphasizes an important truth that can only be grasped through faith. This is the Thirty Fourth or last Sunday in the Western Church year and we celebrate the Feast of the Solemnity of Jesus Christ the Sovereign King. Then, no sooner than we have celebrated the last Sunday of the Year, the feast of Christ the King, we will celebrate the First Sunday of Advent, and begin the time of preparation for the great Nativity of Our Savior. Our Catholic Christian...

Pontius Pilate would feel very much at home in our culture. His cynical question — “What is truth?” (Jn 18:38) — captures the prevailing mindset of our day. It provides a three-word summary of relativism — the view that objective truth does not exist, that there is not objective “right” or “wrong” about human behavior. Relativism refuses to limit or define human behavior. All is relative and depends on the situation, the culture, the person, etc.Although often depicted as a courageous rebellion against forces of intolerance and persecution, relativism is really cowardice. Because truth requires something of us. Pontius Pilate...

www.catholicnewsagency.com USCCB: Senate health care bill 'morally unacceptable' Washington D.C., Nov 20, 2009 / 08:02 pm (CNA).- As the Senate prepares for the discussion of its health care reform bill this weekend, several bishops have sent the Senators a letter on behalf of the USCCB, calling the current version of the health care bill both “a huge disappointment” and “morally unacceptable.”The letter, signed by Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, Chairman of the Committee on Pro-life Activities; Bishop William F. Murphy Diocese of Rockville Centre, Chairman of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development and  Bishop John Wester, Chairman of the...

Cardinal Vinko Puljic, Archbishop of Sarajevo and President of the Bishops’ Conference of Bosnia and Herzegovina denied press reports yesterday which claim that the Vatican is creating a commission to investigate the alleged apparitions of Medjugorje. The cardinal, who is visiting Rome to attend the plenary session of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, of which he is a member, said that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is neither preparing a document nor establishing a special commission to study the Medjugorje apparitions. Cardinal Puljic said that the official position of the bishops of Bosnia and Herzegovina...

In 2005 estimates showed there were about 100 married priests in the U.S. Married priests are quite rare due to long standing Church rule. In mid October 2009, the Vatican announced a new process which will enable Anglican pastors to become Catholic priests, even if they are married. The Anglican rites in recent years has allowed lesbian woman and openly gay clergy to enter its fold as pastors in their churches. The Anglican Church is also giving their blessings to homosexual partnerships. These controversies has stirred up a great deal of opposition from some of it's own Anglican pastors.

Ever since Sarah Palin entered the national political arena last summer as the Republican VP nominee, she has caused sheer panic in the hearts and minds of the Leftist Liberals in America. Accordingly, the Leftist media is hell-bent on doing all they can to discredit Palin’s accomplishments and destroy her character at any cost. Even now, much effort and energy is being expended to deceive the American people regarding her considerable achievements. Her popularity among conservatives is astounding, and many believe that she will get the 2012 endorsement for the presidency. The Left and its State-Run Media Minions are now...

Blessed is the man whom You instruct, O LORD, And teach out of Your law, that You may give him rest from the days of adversity, until the pit is dug for the wicked. For the LORD will not cast off His people, nor will He forsake His inheritance. But judgment will return to righteousness, and all the upright in heart will follow it. (Psalm 94:12-15).

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A masked gunman entered a church and murdered a Russian Orthodox priest who had received death threats for converting Muslims to Christianity and criticizing Islam, prosecutors and church officials said Friday. The killing could threaten delicate relations between the powerful majority Russian Orthodox Church, which has close ties to the Kremlin, and the country's growing Muslim minority of about 20 million. The gunman approached priest Daniil Sysoyev, 34, in St Thomas Church in southern Moscow Thursday night, checked his name and then opened fire with a pistol, a spokesman for the investigating committee of the Prosecutor-General's office...

I was so moved reading this last night. Ballad of the White Horse is Chesterton's poem about the English King Alfred, who fought the Danes in 878. "But it is also the story of Christianity battling against the destructive forces of nihilism and heathenism" (Alquist comments). The Blessed Virgin has appeared to King Alfred right before the battle; he queries her as to the outcome of the battle. "If he fail or if he win/ To no good man is told," she tells him. And continues: The men of the East may spell the stars, And times and triumphs mark,...

Citing the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s call to civil disobedience, 145 evangelical, Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christian leaders have signed a declaration saying they will not cooperate with laws that they say could be used to compel their institutions to participate in abortions, or to bless or in any way recognize same-sex couples. “We pledge to each other, and to our fellow believers, that no power on earth, be it cultural or political, will intimidate us into silence or acquiescence,” it says. The manifesto, to be released on Friday at the National Press Club in Washington, is an...

I was recently delighted to learn that Ave Maria University was the recipient of a Four Million dollar ($4,000,000.) gift from a man named Tom Golisano. The first words which came into my heart upon reading the news were from St. Paul, “Rejoice with those who rejoice…” (Romans 12:15) I am convinced that the most important work being done in this new missionary age is the preparation of the next generation of faithful, well educated young Catholic men and women, prepared to respond to the call to every Christian vocation and to participate in the mission of the Church. It...

Part 1: June Crain and Wright Field, 1942 - 1952 © 2009 by Linda Moulton Howe “He brought in ‘two little men (non-human).’ He called them ‘little green men.’ Then he described them as a ‘greenish-blue.’ And they were 4-feet-tall. And they were dead.”  - June Crain, Secretary, Air Material Command, Wright Field, Ohio, 1942-1952 November 19, 2009  Olympia, Washington - Recently in Las Vegas at Ryan Wood's UFO Crash Conference, a former police detective shared a tape recorded interview he did on June 27, 1997, with a 72-year-old woman who had worked as a secretary for the War...

In a powerful echo of the Biblical story of the patriarch Abraham, a Mumbai doctor smashed his father's idols and eventually decided to become a Jew in the Land of Israel. Dr. Aharon Abraham, left his position as Director of the ICU Medical Center at British Kennedy in Mumbai, India after terrorists murdered his spiritual guide and his wife, Rabbi Gabi and Rivky Holtzberg one year ago. Abraham was born Vagirds Frads to a Hindu cleric who worshipped idols, and a mother who prepared food for them. As did the Biblical Abraham, young Vagirds could not understand how his father...

The 15-year-old daughter of well-known Egyptian convert Maher el-Gohary has written a letter appealing to President Obama to help her father who is in danger of being murdered or imprisoned for becoming a Christian. Dina el-Gohary, who also converted from Islam to Christianity, has been on the run and living in hiding with her father, who is the second Egyptian to legally request to change his religious status. In her handwritten letter in Arabic, posted on Coptic Web sites, she writes: “Mr. President Obama, we are a minority in Egypt. We are treated very badly. You said that the Muslim...

Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand. -- Romans 5:1-2a November 19, 2009 Sisters and brothers in Christ of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, I greet you with the words of the apostle Paul to the Romans: "Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand" (Romans 5:1-2a). Where does the Evangelical Lutheran Church in...

Hosanna! Lutheran, the Lakeville mega-church that made headlines this month with its pending decision to leave the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, isn’t alone. Community of Hope in Rosemount, which was launched in 2002 by four local congregations, ended its ELCA affiliation on Nov. 1. According to the St. Paul Area Synod of the ELCA, those were the only of its churches to pull out as of Nov. 12. But the action that preceded the defections – the ELCA’s August decision to allow ordination of gay clergy people living in committed relationships – continues to stir debate. “Our church is...

Horrified by the deadly shooting at a Tel Aviv gay and lesbian center in August, Robert Goldstein felt compelled to do something.A Jew helping his fellow Jews?Don’t be fooled by his name. Goldstein serves as pastor of St. Francis Lutheran Church in San Francisco. His church recently donated $2,000 to the Jerusalem Open House, one of Israel’s leading LGBT organizations. He says a similar donation to the Israel Gay Youth Organization, the target of the attack, will follow.The impetus for the gifts came after Goldstein, 65, and some of his congregants visited Israel on a 2008 tour sponsored by the...

The White House has a curse upon it. It is real. It is powerful. It will not go away until a particular act takes place. The curse came upon the White when President George W. Bush placed the Koran with great aplomb in the White House library.

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” Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- To really see the Sistine Chapel, it's more important to have a Bible in your hands than mini-binoculars, said Msgr. Roberto Zagnoli, an official of the Vatican Museums.The Italian monsignor is the principal author of "The Painted Word," a new series of books published by the Vatican Museums and the Italian financial newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore. In the four-part series, the Italian monsignor quotes and explains the biblical passages that inspired the famous frescoes in the Sistine Chapel. The first volume focuses on Michelangelo's work on the Sistine ceiling. "Fascinating the eyes and the spirit,"...

M-O'M DISCLOSURE CAUTION: CLICK ON ANY OF THE LINKS IN YOUR ARTICLE AT YOUR OWN RISK.A new Web site hopes to use the oldest trick in the book to combat the Catholic Church’s opposition to same-sex marriage: A good, old-fashioned forced outing!At ChurchOuting.org, you’re invited to scroll through a list of every Achbishop, Bishop, and Reverend in the Archdiocese of Washington, zero in on one you know is gay, and then submit your “detailed account of how you know the priest in question is being hypocritical through his silence.” (Alternately, get at them via Twitter or Facebook).ChurchOuting.Org is the brainchild...

Speaking at a press conference in Rome, a Syrian Catholic archbishop told reporters that persecution and discrimination suffered by Iraqi Christians is ultimately rooted not in governmental actions but in a culture inspired by the Qu’ran. Archbishop Jules Mikhael Al-Jamil, the auxiliary bishop of Antioch, added that he opposed the creation of a Christian enclave around Nineveh and that “the Church must be the presence of Christ in the country. If we Christians flee when the situation is difficult, then we don't give that necessary witness. And if the generations are uprooted, then they will never return.”

PRINCETON — Yesterday’s scheduled speech by controversial author and human rights activist Nonie Darwish at Princeton University was canceled after the student groups sponsoring the event withdrew their support. Darwish, founder of Arabs for Israel and Former Muslims United, has written critically of radical Islam, and many opponents argue her views extend to the religion overall. Her speeches have been met with protests on several other college campuses.

At Medfield’s Montrose School, in BC grad’s book, women cite positive role served by Catholic group"Opus Dei" means work of God in Latin. At the Montrose School in Medfield, it means educating girls to be leaders with “faith, character, and vision,’’ said the independent Catholic institution’s head, Karen E. Bohlin. For Mary Brennan, a Franklin mother of six, it is a search for divinity in everyday life as she cares for her children and works part time. “It’s faith in practice,’’ said Brennan, who prays several times a day, using a rosary, Latin readings, and the New Testament. “As Catholics,...

BALTIMORE (CNS) -- Despite the concern voiced by some bishops about the document's pastoral tone and content, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops approved a pastoral letter on marriage Nov. 17. Nearly 100 changes in two rounds of amendments preceded the 180-45 vote in favor of "Marriage: Love and Life in the Divine Plan" during the bishops' fall general assembly in Baltimore. Two-thirds of the USCCB membership, or 175 votes, was required for passage. There were three abstentions. An effort by retired Archbishop Francis T. Hurley of Anchorage, Alaska, to remand the document to the Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family...

BALTIMORE (AP) -- Fallout continues from the spring controversy over the University of Notre Dame awarding an honorary degree to President Barack Obama, who supports abortion rights. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops went behind closed doors at their fall meeting Wednesday to discuss, among other issues, what action they should take to increase oversight of the nation's more than 200 Roman Catholic colleges and universities. Chicago Cardinal Francis George, president of the bishops' conference, revealed this week that he had formed a task force charged with reviewing the issue. Its research included a look at what church law says...

On Europe's Cathedrals "Beauty Is a Privileged ... Way to Approach the Mystery of God" VATICAN CITY, NOV. 18, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of Benedict XVI's address today during the general audience, which was held in Paul VI Hall. * * * Dear brothers and sisters, In the catecheses of recent weeks I have presented some aspects of Medieval theology. However Christian faith, profoundly rooted in the men and women of those centuries, did not only give origin to masterpieces of theological literature, of thought and of faith. It also inspired one of the loftiest artistic creations of...

NEW BRIGHTON, Minn. – The split over gay clergy within the country's largest Lutheran denomination has prompted a conservative faction to begin forming a new Lutheran church body separate from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Leaders of Lutheran CORE said Wednesday that a working group would immediately begin drafting a constitution and taking other steps to form the denomination, with hopes to have it off the ground by next August. "There are many people within the ELCA who are very unhappy with what has happened," said the Rev. Paull Spring, chairman of Lutheran CORE and a retired ELCA bishop...

Too many political conservatives with biblical values as their base have inadvertently turned their zeal into a religion without realizing it. What happens when political conservatives turn their social activism into a religion?

This in depth Bible study will fortify and lock in the unchangeable teachings of the absolute security of the one who has put their trust in Jesus Christ, Almighty God's Savior to all men. Bring your Bible and dig in!

Vatican City, Nov 18, 2009 / 03:51 pm (CNA).- The Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano (LOR) published several articles in its November 17 edition which commemorated the 50th anniversary of the movie “Ben Hur.”  The film, which was released on November 18, 1959 and starred Charlton Heston, became the first movie to receive 11 Oscar awards. In an article entitled, “Hollywood in Rome For A Christian Story,” LOR explained that the movie was filmed in the studios of Cinecitta by director William Wyler, who created a screenplay free of much of the heaviness of the original novel written in 1880...

BALTIMORE — Fallout continues from the summer controversy over the University of Notre Dame awarding an honorary degree to President Barack Obama, who supports abortion rights. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops went behind closed doors at their fall meeting Wednesday to discuss, among other issues, what action they should take to increase oversight of the nation's more than 200 Roman Catholic colleges and universities. Chicago Cardinal Francis George, president of the bishops' conference, revealed this week that he had formed a task force charged with reviewing the issue. Its research included a look at what church law says about...

AN EXPLOSIVE internal report has exposed widespread racism in the Catholic Church in South Africa. The Sunday Times has obtained a copy of the 31-page report called Racism and the Catholic Church, produced by the church's Justice and Peace Department after a two-year investigation into race relations among the church's leadership and its three-million-strong congregation. The hard-hitting report found that the dominance of bishops who "come from the European cultural perspective" in the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference ensured that "white European perspectives and interests always set the agenda of the church". The report says that Catholics "come into the...

The pillars of heaven tremble, And are astonished at His rebuke. He stirs up the sea with His power, And by His understanding He breaks up the storm. By His Spirit He adorned the heavens; His hand pierced the fleeing serpent. Indeed these are the mere edges of His ways, And how small a whisper we hear of Him! But the thunder of His power who can understand?” (Job 26:11-14)

Our founders saw religion as the most powerful civilizing institution which could provide and sustain that moral base upon which our republic could be successfully built and without which, it would ultimately collapse like the Greeks before them. Consequently, they believed it to be imperative to encourage and support religion and did not see any 1st Amendment problem with governmental support of religion. Rather than depending upon external legal constraints and force to maintain order and peace, they had to rely upon individual self-restraint and self-control. But they realized that it is only reasonable to expect people to act that...

Ever since Sarah Palin entered the national political arena last summer as the Republican VP nominee, she has caused sheer panic in the hearts and minds of the Leftist Liberals in America. Accordingly, the Leftist media is hell-bent on doing all they can to discredit Palin’s accomplishments and destroy her character at any cost. Even now, much effort and energy is being expended to deceive the American people regarding her considerable achievements. Her popularity among conservatives is astounding, and many believe that she will get the 2012 endorsement for the presidency. The Left and its State-Run Media Minions are now...

Nazi Germany celebrated Christmas without Christ with the help of swastika tree baubles, 'Germanic' cookies and a host of manufactured traditions, a new exhibition has shown. The way the celebration was gradually taken over and exploited for propaganda purposes by Hitler's Nazis is detailed in a new exhibition. Rita Breuer has spent years scouring flea markets for old German Christmas ornaments. She and her daughter Judith developed a fascination with the way Christmas was used by the atheist Nazis, who tried to turn it into a pagan winter solstice celebration.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments as follows: Getting Nancy Pelosi to accept a health care bill that bans federal funds for abortion was the greatest victory scored by U.S. bishops in a generation. It also unleashed an unprecedented attempt to censor them. Their latest enemy is Geoffrey Stone writing in the Huffington Post. Stone finds it troubling that the bishops are so vocal. He yearns for a time when JFK was president, a time when separation of church and state met his approval. Perhaps the Chicago law professor forgot about Rev. Martin Luther King, the minister who took to...

On Friday, EWTN's Raymond Arroyo hosted, on his The World Over program, representatives of Reform CCHD Now, a coalition of Catholic groups calling for reform of the USCCB's domestic anti-poverty arm, Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD). Arroyo and his two guests presented strong evidence that the CCHD is funding groups that are subverting Catholic teaching. The interview was aired only 9 days before American Catholics will be asked to contribute to the annual CCHD collection on November 22nd. The effort to reform the CCHD began this year with a report in August from the Bellarmine Veritas Ministry (BVM), which...

Rumors about gun confiscations. Angry protests about the government's tax policies, replete with Nazi comparisons. A resurgent militia movement. Rage at the election of a president deemed to be illegitimate and threatening. Distrust and anger toward the government fueled by paranoia and conspiracy theories. They are among the crosscurrents of anger and hostility that have swept certain sectors of the country since President Barack Obama took office nearly a year ago. And they are contributing to "a toxic atmosphere of rage in America," according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which today issued a report looking at the various sources that...

Printer Friendly Format Nation Monks’ thriving coffee business helps attract young men to monastery By Sheila Archambault Posted: 11/16/2009 WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A small Carmelite monastery in Clark, Wyo., has seen its coffee sales take off in the last couple of years, and the growing awareness of its coffee business has brought an added benefit to the community -- more members. "In the past two years, the monks themselves have grown from six to 15 monks and all the new monks are under 25, some right out of high school," said Susie George, a neighbor of the monks who...

Rabbi Yaakov Levi had moved to Sunshine, Florida, a small town near Miami, to bolster the Jewish community in the area. Rabbi Levi, whose nickname was Yankee, was twenty-four and slim, with a full, dark beard. His soft brown eyes were magnified by a pair of thick glasses. He was accompanied by his young wife, Rebecca. She was warm-hearted, and generous, but not at all shy about speaking her mind. Together they started a synagogue, Congregation Bais Simcha. The small congregation loved their young rabbi and rebbetzin. By the end of their third year in Sunshine, Rebecca had given birth...

Not in a concert, but in a Mass. It will be conducted by Domenico Bartolucci, the most brilliant interpreter of Palestrina's music alive today. He was removed as head of the Sistine Chapel choir twelve years ago, but now, with Pope Benedict, has finally been rehabilitated. (he probably means 'restored') ROME, November 16, 2009 – Among the arts to be represented in the Sistine Chapel next Saturday, November 21, at the highly anticipated meeting with Pope Benedict XVI, music is perhaps the one that has suffered the most from the divorce that has taken place between artists and the Church....

Because modern life is so marked by prosperity for the greater portion of the earth, we rarely grasp the full impact of our spiritual position as a people, nation, or global family. Tragedy and evil seem so removed simply because it does not dwell in our own homes, or does not seem to.The reality of evil is eerily similar to the reality of holiness. It is hidden in the clothes of daily life, so that its horror is disguised, and the evil that seeks entrance is casually allowed and even ignorantly embraced by those who would resist it if they...

Today's divine mercies are keeping the globe spinning upon its axis. God loves this globe. "For God so loved the world. . ."