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The story of the Catholic church in the United States has become a tale of two churches: In the Northeast and upper Midwest, the church is shrinking, and in the South and West, the church is flourishing and membership is increasing, in some cases dramatically. That's the conclusion demographers presented at a conference titled "The Catholic Parish in the 21st Century: Challenges and Opportunities [1]," held at Villanova University in early March. The conference was a joint venture of the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University and Villanova's Center for Church Management and Business Ethics....

Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice have announced that they are preparing to launch a new tour of hit show "Jesus Christ, Superstar." The musical started on Broadway in 1971 and is now being re-launched with an all-star cast featuring JC Chasez, Michelle Williams, and Brandon Boyd. The new production stars Brandon Boyd as "Judas Iscariot," JC Chasez as "Pontius Pilate" and Michelle Williams as "Mary Magdalene." Ben Forster, a relative newcomer to the U.S., takes on the daunting role of "Jesus Christ." The musical offers a unique interpretation of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, with Judas Iscariot,...

The U.S. Supreme Court won't hear a case involving a photography company's refusal to shoot a gay commitment ceremony. The owners of New Mexico-based Elane Photography, owned by Elaine and Jonathan Huguenin, declined the job due to their religious beliefs. The Huguenins said they would "gladly serve gays and lesbians" by taking portraits. But photographing same-sex marriages or commitment ceremonies would "require them to create expression conveying messages that conflict with their religious beliefs," according to their petition to the court.

You probably saw my post Sister explains the situation. Spittle-flecked nutty, bullying, intimidation ensue. Sr. Jane Laurel, OP, gave a talk at a Catholic High School. Hell broke loose. If you want to sample her talks, go HERE. Her talk at the High School was “Masculinity & Femininity: Difference & Gift”. Presentations with that title are on that website. Listen to a few. At the High School, Sister included comments about homosexuality, divorce and single parents. Some people lost their minds. Read more here. I suspect that what happened, to build this up into such a thing, is that parents...

Moscow, April 7, Interfax - The recent disturbances in Kiev can be compared to the events of the October 1917 revolt in Russia, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia said. "Most of us can hardly imagine what revolution is. The latest events in Ukraine, terrible pictures of the revolutionary uprising in the capital, people killed, distraught spiritually and consciously - all this helps us to understand what happened in Russia back then," the patriarch said to a small crowd following a prayer service he conducted near the relics of Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow and All Russia in Moscow's Donskoy...

Pope Francis spent three hours visiting a parish in Rome's Magliana neighborhood on April 6. Before hearing confessions and celebrating Mass, Pope Francis met with different groups from the parish, including youth, the sick and elderly, engaged couples, and parents of the recently baptized. In a meeting with former prisoners and drug addicts, the Pope “lamented the culture of waste, pointing out as an example the killing of unborn children in their mother’s womb,” according to Vatican Radio. During his Sunday evening homily, Pope Francis preached on the raising of Lazarus. “Only the power of Jesus can help us...

Details:   Having worked in Catholic church music ministry for nearly 40 years — basically his entire adult life — Mike McMahon thought he knew the landscape and his place in it. As a gay person, all was fine as long as he was “discreet.”And that worked for him even in the conservative Roman Catholic Diocese of Arlington, Va., where he was employed for about 30 of those years as music director at several parishes. In that time, McMahon, who has three graduate degrees in theology, also served as president of the National Association of Pastoral Musicians, the national body for...

Christians have flocked to defend a church in eastern China after Communist Party officials claimed it was an "illegal construction" and announced plans to demolish it Thousands of Chinese Christians have mounted an extraordinary, round-the-clock defence of a church in a city known as the 'Jerusalem of the East' after Communist Party officials threatened to bulldoze their place of worship. In an episode that underlines the fierce and long-standing friction between China's officially atheist Communist Party and its rapidly growing Christian congregation, Bible-carrying believers this week flocked to the Sanjiang church in Wenzhou hoping to protect it from the bulldozers....

Liturgical Ceremony for the Consecration of the Ukrainian Nation to the Protection of the Most Holy Mother of God After the conclusion of the prayer beyond the ambo and the singing of "Blessed be the name of the Lord" (and the 33nd Psalm), the Priest and concelebrants stands on the ambo. Choir: Tropar (Tone 4) Let us sinners humbly and diligently have recourse to the Mother of God. Prostrate in repentance, let us cry out from the depth of our soul: O Queen, in your compassion, come to our aid! Make haste, for we are perishing from the multitude of...

Sister Jane Dominic Laurel was tossed under the bus so frequently last week that I hope she will be able to get the tread marks out of her habit. A vibrant teacher of Catholic orthodoxy on sexual morality based on Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body, she had given lectures around the country with no controversy until she gave a presentation at the hilariously misnamed Catholic High School in Charlotte, North Carolina, and some parents and their spoiled brats decided to stage a massive hissy fit. The diocese of Charlotte wasted no time in cowardly apologizing for the...

Pope Francis. Credit: David Ibanez / CNA. Vatican City, Apr 5, 2014 / 11:39 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis is remembering in his prayers two Italian priests and a Canadian religious sister who were kidnapped in Cameroon Friday night. Vatican Radio reports that Pope Francis “hopes for a rapid and positive solution to the affair.” He “remains in constant contact with the nunciature.” The two priests and religious sister were kidnapped by armed persons around midnight on April 4. The identity of the kidnappers is unknown at this time, although the Islamic militia Boko Haram has been known to operate...

When asked about the conviction of David Yonggi Cho, founder of world's largest Pentecostal congregation in South Korea, for embezzling $12 million from his church, popular pastor John Piper took the opportunity to warn pastors in the U.S. who might "love money," in a recent message."With every public dishonoring of Christ, every public dishonoring of His Word and His Gospel, and His Church, it makes me angry and it makes me sorrowful," said Piper in a recent episode of Ask Pastor John.Yonggi Cho who pastors Yoido Full Gospel Church and oversees a network of churches numbering 800,000, was found...

[SNIP] First, it is difficult to overstate the effect of the generation gap. A decade ago, when most of these same-sex marriage bans were passed across the South, the vast majority of today’s Millennials were neither counted in public-opinion surveys of adults nor eligible to vote. Their attitudes strongly diverge from their parents and grandparents. Nationwide, nearly seven in 10 (69 percent) Americans ages 18 to 33 favor same-sex marriage, compared to just 37 percent of Americans ages 68 and older. This generation gap is evident in virtually every subgroup in America, including among southerners. Today, nearly two thirds of...

Between the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest biblical texts in the world, and this microfilm, which contains the Bible and traveled to the moon on board Apollo 14, there is a 2,000-year span. Both pieces are intended to show the uniqueness of the Bible. They're part of the "Verbum Domini” exhibit, which includes 150 other precious artifacts. CARY L. SUMMERS Museum of the Bible, Oklahoma City (USA) "The technology that we have today that didn't exist many years ago, we're able to look at the writing underneath writings, For example in this collection, it's called the Climaci Rescriptus, and in...

Details: A city board on Thursday gave a Muslim group the go-ahead to remove six crosses from the roof and spires of a century-old former Catholic church so the now-vacant Gothic structure can be used as a mosque.More than 200 people had signed an online petition calling on the Syracuse Landmark Preservation Board to deny an application by North Side Learning Center, the church’s new owner, to remove the crosses and build a six-foot chain-link fence.Before the vote to allow the church alterations, Chairman Don Radke said the board cannot interfere with a decision that involves religious freedom.About a dozen...

FULL TITLE: Archbishop Gregory will sell $2.2 million residence: “I want to thank those who brought this issue to light” Details from the Associated Press: Trying to appease angry parishioners, the archbishop of Atlanta said Saturday that he will sell a $2.2 million mansion just three months after he moved in.Archbishop Wilton Gregory announced the decision following a closed-door meeting with members of several church councils at his headquarters north of Atlanta. He publicly apologized Monday for building the Tudor-style residence and offered to move elsewhere.“I have decided to sell the Habersham property and invest the proceeds from that sale...

Within the context of keeping the Syrian jihad alive, it seems there is no end to the attempts of some Islamic clerics to legitimize otherwise forbidden behavior in order to gratify the sexual urges of the jihadis and keep them fighting Syrian president Bashar Assad. First, there was the now infamous “sex-jihad” fatwa, which holds that any Muslim woman who willingly allows her body to be used by the sexually-deprived jihadis becomes herself a jihadi, if not a “martyr,” deserving of all the honor and rewards associated with those titles. (Much has been written about the sex jihad, including videotaped...

Within the context of keeping the Syrian jihad alive, it seems there is no end to the attempts of some Islamic clerics to legitimize otherwise forbidden behavior in order to gratify the sexual urges of the jihadis and keep them fighting Syrian president Bashar Assad.

The Universities Minister unveils plans for ‘Sharia-compliant’ student loans amid fears Muslims are being put off degree courses by the higher education finance system A new system of “Sharia-compliant” student loans is to be launched to allow more Muslim students to go to university, it has been announced. David Willetts, the Universities Minister, said an alternative financial model was being created to satisfy Islamic law that forbids Muslims taking out loans that make interest. Under the system, students would apply for taxpayer-backed loans but repay them into a mutual-style fund that would be ring-fenced to provide future finance to other...

LONDON, April 2, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales assured Catholic Members of Parliament this week that there are “no plans” to refuse them Holy Communion after they voted to support the “gay marriage” legislation that came into effect yesterday. Greg Pope, head of parliamentary relations at the conference and a former Labour Party MP, wrote to MPs assuring them that comments by the bishop of Portsmouth, Philip Egan, on the Church’s Code of Canon Law forbidding Communion to “manifest grave sinners,” would not be applied to them. Today the media office of the bishops’...