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St. Augustine, Florida, is a small city with a lot of “firsts” to its credit. It was the first permanent European settlement in what is now the United States. It was the site of the first Mass in the U.S. It is the place where the first shrine to Our Lady was erected (it stands on the grounds of the Mission Nombre de Dios). It was from here that the first Catholic mission to American Indians was launched. And, now, here comes the surprise — St. Augustine was the site of the first Thanksgiving celebration in America. As you’d...

It’s nearly 30 years since the Vatican condemned Martin Scorsese’s “blasphemous” The Last Temptation of Christ. But now the director’s new Christianity epic Silence has won the Pope’s seal of approval with a premiere screening at the seat of the Roman Catholic church. The Oscar-tipped Silence, the story of two Jesuit missionaries sent into the Japanese jungle in the 17th century, will receive its first public screening at the Vatican, in front of an audience of several hundred Jesuits. Scorsese will present the film and is expected to meet Pope Francis, a film fan who shares a passion for Italian...

WASHINGTON (CNS) — The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops appointed Maronite Bishop Gregory Mansour to be chairman of the board of directors of Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops' overseas relief and development agency.Bishop Mansour heads the Eparchy of St. Maron in Brooklyn, New York. His appointment is for a three-year term. He succeeds Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City, whose three-year term as chairman ended during the U.S. bishops' annual fall general assembly, held Nov. 14-16 in Baltimore."Bishop Mansour's long-standing service in every area of the work of CRS is completed by his pastoral concern for...

For the first time, a Satanist group has official permission to meet in a public school at the end of the school day. An After School Satan Club (ASSC) meeting was held at Sacramento Elementary School in Portland, Oregon on November 16th, 2016. The previous day, at Parkrose Middle School (also in Portland), the Satanic Temple made a presentation that was supposed to be open to the community and press but was not. The second ASSC is set to meet at Point Defiance Elementary School in Tacoma on Wednesday, December 14th. Approved in September, the ASSC, seeks to provide an...

In an exclusive interview with RT, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, shared his ideas on the difficult situations of Christians in the Middle East, the US presidential election, and European multiculturalism. RT: Your Holiness, first of all, let me congratulate you on your upcoming birthday. Thank you for taking the time to discuss these important –even global ­–issues with us. Let us talk about Christian affairs outside of Russia – specifically, about the Middle East and Northern Africa. As everyone knows, the dramatic events associated with the armed conflicts raging in the Middle East, especially in Syria,...

Pope Francis meets with former prostitutes assisted by the Pope John XXIII Community in Rome Aug. 12, 2016. Credit: L'Osservatore Romano. Vatican City, Nov 20, 2016 / 09:29 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis still remembers meeting with a former prostitute during the Jubilee of Mercy, and hearing how she suffered untold atrocities.In a new interview with Italy's TV2000, the Pope recalled the time he met with a young pregnant woman from Africa who was “beautiful, young (and) exploited.”In telling her story, the woman said she was forced to work until she was nine months pregnant. She ended up giving birth...

An influential seminary affiliated with The Episcopal Church has announced that it will no longer issue degrees starting next year, and is reporting a net loss of $7.9 million in assets since last year. The Episcopal Divinity School of Cambridge, Massachusetts, announced in July that they will stop granting degrees at the end of the 2016-2017 academic year. Last week, the divinity school sent out an update to supporters and members of its campus community wherein they noted that the net assets of the seminary had declined rapidly over the past couple of years. "At our meeting, we also accepted...

VATICAN CITY, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Pope Francis on Monday extended indefinitely to all Roman Catholic priests the power to forgive abortion, a right previously reserved for bishops or special confessors. Francis, who has made a more inclusive and forgiving Roman Catholic Church a characteristic of his papacy, made the announcement in a document known as an "apostolic letter" after Sunday's close of the Church's "Holy Year of Mercy". He said he wanted to "restate as firmly as I can that abortion is a grave sin, since it puts an end to an innocent life" but "there is no sin...

“What should we watch?” I asked.There wasn’t even a pause.“The Ten Commandments! Aren’t we going to watch The Ten Commandments?” their voices rang out in near unison.It was Friday night. And in my house, with my wife, my second- and fourth-grade daughters, that means MOVIE NIGHT. Movie Night means snuggling in oversized chairs wrapped in impossibly comfortable blankets and eating popcorn from cartoonishly large bowls. Over the years, our choices had evolved from Tangled to The Sound of Music to The Lego Movie to The Ghost and Mr. Chicken. If you are wondering about any major child’s classic or animated...

From the Apostolic Letter Misericordia et Misera, 12 -- exactly as we had predicted in our last update yesterday: For the Jubilee Year I had also granted that those faithful who, for various reasons, attend churches officiated by the priests of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X, can validly and licitly receive the sacramental absolution of their sins.[15] For the pastoral benefit of these faithful, and trusting in the good will of their priests to strive with God’s help for the recovery of full communion in the Catholic Church, I have personally decided to extend this faculty beyond...

What a unique major event the people in the Lafayette, La., diocese are having to close the Jubilee Year of Mercy! But it’s also meant to be inspire new-beginnings. This event is the Jubilee of the Word Marathon  -— an 86-hour public-square reading of the Bible from cover to cover -— Genesis 1 through Revelation 22. The marathon reading began on Thursday, Nov. 17, at 6 am and will continue straight through until finish on Sunday night, the Feast of Christ the King, at 8 pm. It’s all happening right now in the picturesque Square of St. Martinville, La.,...

(Vatican Radio) -- Pope Francis granted an interview to TV2000 and Radio InBlu (both official media outlets of the Italian Bishops’ Conference), which aired on Sunday evening. During the interview, Pope Francis responds to various questions regarding the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy, which he officially brought to a close on Sunday morning with Mass in St. Peter’s Square. A few of the highlights from the broad-ranging conversation was a powerful reiteration of the Church’s constant teaching on abortion, calling the practice a “horrendous crime” and a “very grave sin”. The Pope also spoke of his own opposition to the...

The Lord Jesus Christ Recognized as the King of Poland Radio Maryja (@RadioMaryja) reports that the Bishops of Poland have enthroned, or, to use the bishops' more sober expression, "recognized" Christ as the King of Poland. This was done in the official presence of the President of Poland, Andrzej Duda. Many pilgrims were present in Poland for this event. Today the act will be repeated in all the Polish cathedrals and parishes. This took place yesterday, Saturday, at the Church of Divine Mercy in Krakow . The providential and proximate origin of the act is to be found in...

The “Donald Trump/Mike Pence Prayer Vigil” and “Pray for our American Heroes and Nation” have Combined to Form the AMERICA PRAYER VIGIL Prayer Thread! Join with Fellow FREEPERS to Pray for our President and Vice President-Elect and for AMERICA: Government, Family, Military, Business, Education, Churches, and the Media. 'This is the Confidence we have in Approaching God: that if we Ask Anything According to His Will, He Hears us.' 1 JOHN 5:14 Religion Forum Threads Labeled [Prayer] are Closed to Debate of Any Kind. Psalm 37:30,31 The Mouth of the Righteous Speaketh Wisdom, and his Tongue Talketh of Judgment. The...

Sister Blandina Segale was one of four candidates whose Cause, opened earlier this year, was approved by bishops During the US bishops’ autumn general assembly in Baltimore this week, they approved by voice vote the Causes of four men and women as part of the episcopal consultation in the Catholic Church’s process for possible canonisation.The four candidates are Julia Greeley, a former slave who lived in Colorado; Sister Blandina Segale, a Sister of Charity who served on the frontier; Fr Patrick Ryan, who ministered to those suffering yellow fever; and Mgr Bernard Quinn, who fought bigotry and established a black...

Coolidge was perhaps the 20th century’s most religious president. He saw the hand of Providence involved in America’s destiny and in her day-to-day affairs. He often warmly quoted the Bible in his speeches. He attended church regularly though he never joined a Washington church, worrying that his duties as president might make it difficult to set a good example. “I am inclined to think now that this was the counsel of darkness,” he regretted in his Autobiography. Most of all, he believed, as did his mentor, Charles Garman of Amherst College, that the Golden Rule revealed a new politics, where...

In a time where Christians have very little knowledge of other spiritual beliefs and the occult it seems that we are being challenged to be transformed along with the rest of the world that does not know Christ. The question we need to ask those who are promoting these methodologies: is Christ sufficient or deficient? The newest breakthrough trend on spiritual life/personality casting is ENNEAGRAM, this is supposed to be a tool for discovering more about one’s strength's and weaknesses in our personality. The word 'Enneagram' comes from two Greek words Ennea meaning 'nine' and Grammos meaning 'point'. The Enneagram...

The “Donald Trump/Mike Pence Prayer Vigil” and “Heroes and Nation Prayer Thread” have combined to form the American Prayer Vigil prayer thread. Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for our President and Vice-President-Elect and for America: Government, Family, Military, Business, Education, Churches, and the Media. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. I John 5:14 Religion forum threads labeled “Prayer” are closed to debate of any kind.

Claims that the atrocities of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant have “nothing to do with Islam” are harming efforts to confront and combat extremism, the Archbishop of Canterbury has insisted. Religious leaders of all varieties must “stand up and take responsibility” for the actions of extremists who profess to follow their faith, the Most Rev Justin Welby said. He argued that unless people recognise and attempt to understand the motivation of terrorists they will never be able to combat their ideology effectively. It follows calls from a series of high profile figures for people to avoid using the...

Die Botschaft der Hoffnung (The Message of Hope) Gerhard Ludwig Müller Publisher Herder 280 pages € 24.99 [Editor’s Note: We’ve had this review in the queue since October, but with all that is currently transpiring in Rome, it seemed appropriate to publish it now, insofar as it stands as a witness that Cardinal Müller, whose duty it is to act as the chief doctrinal guardian of the Church, has in fact already made arguments in his recent book that align with the thrust of the dubia put forward by the Four Cardinals. We hope that the good cardinal will stand with them as the...