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Four days after a Great Falls priest called for a boycott of Mayfair, the Billings Catholic School’s annual fundraiser, Bishop Michael Warfel of the Great Falls-Billings Diocese weighed in on the controversy.Warfel both wrote a letter that will be distributed to parishes and missions throughout the Eastern Montana diocese and he spoke to a reporter Saturday.The bishop’s 1 ½-page letter was spurred by an incident last week in which the Rev. Ryan Erlenbush, priest at Corpus Christi Church, advocated on Facebook for the boycott after learning that a gay couple comprise two of the six co-chairs for the event.The annual...

–Sialkot’s Rizwan Gujjar torched Asma using petrol after she refused to renounce her faith and marry himLAHORE: A Christian girl was set ablaze by a Muslim man in Sialkot for “refusing to renounce her faith and marry him”, Pakistan Today has learnt. According to the girl’s father Yaqoob Masih, his 25-year-old daughter Asma used to work as a domestic help at the house of Saeeduz Zaman in Mohalla Pakpura area in Sialkot.“On April 17, my son Maqsood and I went to Zaman’s house around to meet Asma and to inquire after the health of Zaman’s mother. We were sitting in...

A male friend from my community has a shared custody arrangement of his son who at 10 years old is similar in age to my own son. The father and I have known each other for seven years and we have developed a friendship. This is a summary of events the father has shared with me over the past several years. He is pretty closed lip but knows I can be trusted to keep his personal matters private. We share a lot as our boys are often in the same activities together like baseball, karate, biking. I try to be...

LIVERPOOL, England, April 20, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – A nurse who worked at Alder Hey children’s hospital until this month has published on social media what he says is a scan of Alfie Evans’ brain along with the message that the baby “deserves” to die. “Up, Alfie’s brain. Down, same age healthy boy,” the nurse wrote about the brain scans of two children that he posted to Facebook this week. “Sad reality, but IT’S THE REALITY. He deserves to go, he has had enough,” states the message from the nurse who described himself online as a “PICU Staff Nurse at Alder...

Mayor claims pro-life display violates 'civil rights'Roman authorities have removed from a busy street near the Vatican the largest pro-life poster in the history of Italian pro-life activism. The huge poster, spanning three stories, features the image of an 11-week-old unborn child, and was part of a chain of demonstrations promoted by pro-life group ProVita Onlus to recall 40 years of legal abortion in Italy. The poster, which had been legally granted a permit to be posted from April 3–15, was taken down by Mayor Virginia Raggi after a mere three days. ProVita Onlus is used to censorship. The group...

The U.S. Supreme Court Monday turned down a First Amendment challenge to a noise provision of Maine’s civil rights law used to police abortion clinic protests. Though the denial is a temporary victory for the state, the case is likely to return to the Court at a future juncture. The Maine Civil Rights Act makes it unlawful to create noise audible within a health care facility meant to interfere with the safe and effective delivery of medical services. Pro-life groups say the provision is a poorly-disguised attempt to suppress the speech of anti-abortion protesters, and asked the high court to...

Proverb 22 (NKJV) The Value of a Good Name 01 A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, 00 Loving favor rather than silver and gold. 02 The rich and the poor have this in common, 00 The LORD is the maker of them all. 03 A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself, 00 But the simple pass on and are punished. 04 By humility and the fear of the LORD 00 Are riches and honor and life. 05 Thorns and snares are in the way of the perverse; 00 He who guards his soul...

On April 16, 2018, the administrators of the Facebook group ‘One Million Connected Catholics’ did not publish my post: “How many Catholics today could answer simple questions such as the following? … “Who Decides The Truth?” (http://spir-food.blogspot.it/2014/06/who-decides-truth.html). (See below for the complete post.) In the Description for the group ‘One Million Connected Catholics’, we find: “Dan Burke established One Million Connected Catholics. … You can ALWAYS post things from the National Catholic Register and any EWTN News outlet…” “EWTN’s Raymond Arroyo: ‘Good Catholics’ can’t ignore controversy over Pope Francis” https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/ewtns-raymond-arroyo-good-catholics-cannot-ignore-the-controversy-surroundi (Note: When pasting this document into Free Republic, it seems...

Henry Sire says he wrote the book The Dictator Pope because he felt it necessary to uncover the “gap” between what he says is the media “facade” of Pope Francis and the “reality as it is known in the Vatican.” In a March 26 interview with the Register (see video below), Sire says that Francis is essentially a “politician who relies on public relations,” a “maverick pope” who manipulates the media and falls short of acting in a collegial manner with bishops. Pope Francis doesn’t deal with bishops “in a collegial spirit at all,” Sire says, despite the Holy Father’s...

Pope Francis on April 21, 2018, sent a message to the participants in the meeting of heads of youth pastoral ministry in Cuba.Video Message of the Holy FatherDear young people,I encourage you to fall in love with Jesus and to be ever more committed in a concrete way to the service of the Church in this real Cuba of today, without fear of hearing the call of God in the situations that are presented every day. Good patriots, love your land, love your country! Be generous and open your heart to the Lord!May the next World Youth Day in Panama,...

In a historic decision, Pope Francis has appointed three women—two Italians and one Belgian—as consultants to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith as part of his ongoing effort to give a greater role to women in the work of the Roman Curia offices, the central administration of the Catholic church.

Strasbourg, France 9 April 2018 On Wednesday 21st March 2018, the Archbishop Paul R. Gallagher, Secretary for the Holy See’s Relations with States, informed Mr Thorbjørn Jagland, Secretary General of the Council of Europe of the Holy See’s accession to the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Cultural Routes, registered as of the 21st March 2018. The Holy See becomes the 32nd member State of the EPA. We should like to thank Msgr. Paolo Rudelli, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the Council of Europe for his support during the accession process, and look forward to welcoming the Holy See to...

Even officially recognized churches and religious communities across Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Daoism are not immune Moves by China's all-powerful Communist Party to gain tight control over religion have been ramped up in the Pengyuan district of the populous central province of Henan. On April 4, local authorities posted a notice that demanded those who follow the official religions to register with the residents' committee. Followers of Buddhism, Daoism, Islam, Catholicism and Protestantism should register, the notice from the committee read. Authorities in Henan, which has an estimated 300,000 Catholics, have been noticeably tightening their grip since September 2017. It...

“The proposal is an aggressive assault against our Catholic community.”Stockholm — Christianity came to Sweden in the person of St. Ansgar (AD 801–865) when he visited Birka in AD 828–829 where he was given permission to build a church. However, the rising alarm and ire against Muslim immigrants has threatened to dislodge Christianity as the foundation upon which Swedish culture is based. In fact, the Pew Research Center points out that practicing Muslims will make up 20-30 percent of the Swedish population within 30 years. This nationalist ire is now being directed toward Catholics and their children. Sweden’s school system...

Pope Francis was tasked on Sunday with answering a challenging question by a little boy, who asked whether his late atheist father, described as a "good" person, is in Heaven. According to Catholic news site Aleteia, the encounter took place when the Vatican leader was meeting with parishioners of St. Paul of the Cross before celebrating Mass. A boy identified only by the name Emanuele was invited to whisper a question he had for Francis, which he did, but was too overcome with emotion to repeat it in public. The pontiff then shared with the parishioners what Emanuele had whispered...

Gentleman’s Quarterly has proposed refashioning contemporary culture by unmooring it from the past, a feat that can be accomplished — in part — by updating lists of required reading. First among these “overrated books” is the Bible, for which the GQ editors reserve some particularly choice epithets.... It is “repetitive, self-contradictory, sententious, foolish, and even at times ill-intentioned,” or, in a nutshell, “certainly not the finest thing that man has ever produced.” The core of the GQ proposal is the surgical excision of books that serve to keep traditional values alive. As simple as it is straightforward, GQ’s plan follows...

Proverb 20 (NKJV) Wine Is a Mocker 01 Wine is a mocker, 00 Strong drink is a brawler, 00 And whoever is led astray by it is not wise. 02 The wrath of a king is like the roaring of a lion; 00 Whoever provokes him to anger sins against his own life. 03 It is honorable for a man to stop striving, 00 Since any fool can start a quarrel. 04 The lazy man will not plow because of winter; 00 He will beg during harvest and have nothing. 05 Counsel in the heart of man is like...

Proverb 19 (NKJV) The Fear of the Lord Leads to Life 01 Better is the poor who walks in his integrity 00 Than one who is perverse in his lips, and is a fool. 02 Also it is not good for a soul to be without knowledge, 00 And he sins who hastens with his feet. 03 The foolishness of a man twists his way, 00 And his heart frets against the LORD. 04 Wealth makes many friends, 00 But the poor is separated from his friend. 05 A false witness will not go unpunished, 00 And he who...

Catholics in China’s Henan province have been warned that venues will be closed if they do not adhere to the revised regulations on religious affairs. Ucanews.com reported that a clampdown on religious freedom has intensified in the province in recent months, with crosses removed from churches, minors banned from entering churches, church-run kindergartens closed and children expelled from Mass.Now Henan Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association and Henan Catholic Administration Commission have jointly issued a circular, warning worshippers to take the new rules seriously.It warned people to follow “the principle of religion and education separation” and the revised regulations on religious affairs....

Cardinal Joseph Zen (Getty) has accused the Vatican of 'selling out the Church in China'When Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected supreme pontiff in March of 2013, the world seemed to expect a softening of Pope Benedict XVI’s crystalline, intellectual style. At first, the new Pope Francis’ many gaffes and faux pas seemed part of this more relaxed approach to the papacy. I and many others pigeonholed Francis as a theological and mental featherweight, an affable simpleton whose papacy would be much more about embracing children and washing the feet of the faithful, and much less about issuing encyclicals and wading...