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Efforts to redefine marriage will ultimately, and always, fail, and as in the case of Elton John and David Furnish, will be revealed as folly. As Gamaliel warned the Sanhedrin concerning the Apostles of Jesus, “[I]f their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God. (Acts 5:38b-39)” As liberals work to hold onto their perverse legal redefinition of marriage, they are not merely battling conservatism, but God Himself, and that is always a losing proposition.

John Haller's weekly Prophecy Update for Sunday, November 27, 2016: "Really Speeding Up". A look at some issues arising from the recent US

The most senior Chinese Catholic has slammed a potential rapprochement between the Vatican and Beijing, saying it would be “betraying Jesus Christ”, amid a thaw in more than six decades of bitter relations. Talk of a deal between the two sides has been building for months, with some saying the diplomatic coup for Pope Francis would be resolving the highly controversial issue of allowing China’s Communist government to have a hand in selecting bishops. But Cardinal Joseph Zen, the 84-year-old former bishop of Hong Kong, has been an outspoken critic, saying any agreement where Beijing would have a hand in...

Countless Americans who woke up on the morning after the election sensed their prayers had been answered and a calamity had been averted. If we have been given this reprieve, then we should use it to turn back to God… To those Americans concerned about the moral state of the nation, the immediate reaction to the November 8 elections was one of enormous relief. It was as if a colossal amount of pressure was suddenly released. There was the thrill of something entirely unexpected. People were overjoyed beyond words. Adding to the intense drama, there was the sensation that a...

At 6 pm EST begins the live broadcast of the annual gathering of Chabad emissaries-- rabbis "stationed" in college campuses and cities all over the world. The live broadcast of the gala banquet includes the famous roll-call, with countries as far as Chabad of Napal to as close to home as Park Slope in Brooklyn. Tune in, celebrate, and dance with the chassidim of the Rebbe, as they aspire and inspire each other to "turn over the world" for G-d.

Two weeks ago, four cardinals published a so-called dubia — a set of questions, posed to Pope Francis, requesting that he clarify his apostolic exhortation on the family, “Amoris Laetitia...” Francis offered no reply... ...he produced a document, the as-yet-unclarified Amoris, that essentially talked around the controversy... This indirectness matters because within Catholicism the pope’s formal words, his encyclicals and exhortations, have a weight that winks and implications and personal letters lack. They’re what’s supposed to require obedience, what’s supposed to be supernaturally preserved from error... Francis...continued his practice of offering interviews and sermons lamenting rigidity and pharisaism and possible...

Pope Francis said the death of Cuba's revolutionary leader Fidel Castro was "sad news" and that he was grieving and praying for his repose. Francis expressed his condolences in a Spanish-language message to Fidel's brother, President Raul Castro on Saturday. The pope, who met Fidel Castro when he visited Cuba last year, said he had received the "sad news" and added: "I express to you my sentiments of grief."

Washington D.C., Nov 25, 2016 / 03:59 am (CNA).- When the Democratic Party makes its decisions about leadership at the end of the month, the House Minority Leader will be a self-proclaimed “pro-choice Catholic.”Both current House minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, and her challenger, Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), profess to be Catholic but also support legalized abortion.Pelosi (D-Calif.) has been a member of the U.S. House of Representatives since 1987. She has consistently advocated in favor of legal abortion, and has earned high ratings from pro-abortion groups including Planned Parenthood Action Fund and NARAL.Ryan represents a district in Northeast Ohio...

In my email a Communiqué of the Holy See Press Office Today, November 25, 2016, the first meeting of the Study Commission on the Diaconate of Women took place. This commission was established by the Holy Father on August 2 with the purpose of doing an objective study on the situation in the early Church. Chaired by Archbishop Luis Ladaria Ferrer, S.J., Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Commission members will meet in morning and evening sessions over two days in the offices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. So, their slow...

(Vatican Radio) The Vatican announced on Friday that the newly established commission for the study of the female diaconate was holding its first meeting at the offices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The two day meeting brings together the 12 members of the commission, under the presidency of Jesuit Archbishop Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer, who also serves as Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. During the morning and afternoon sessions, members will study the situation of women deacons in the early centuries of Church history. Pope Francis announced the setting up of...

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Norway’s official statistics agency says the country’s Roman Catholic and Muslim communities have added tens of thousands of members in recent years while the state Lutheran Church is declining. Statistics Norway said Friday the number of Catholics has jumped 42 percent since 2012, to 145,000 this year.

Brussels, November 23, Interfax - The European Parliament passed on Wednesday a resolution to combat propaganda hostile to the European Union, which, Brussels thinks, is in particular coming from Russia. As many as 691 MEPs took part in the voting on this advisory resolution. It was passed by 304 votes to 179, with 208 abstentions. The document holds that such propaganda forms part of a 'hybrid war' and seeks "to distort the truth, provoke doubt, divide the EU and its North American partners, paralyze the decision-making process, discredit EU institutions and incite fear and uncertainty among EU citizens." The European...

The Trustees of St. Patrick’s Cathedral will appeal a Nov. 17 ruling by the Supreme Court of the State of New York in favor of the family of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen regarding their request to allow the transfer of the sainthood candidate’s remains to Peoria, Ill., where he was raised and ordained a priest. “The Trustees of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, who oversee both Calvary Cemetery and the crypt beneath the high altar of the cathedral, have decided to appeal the judge’s decision, and will be seeking a stay of the order allowing the transfer of Archbishop Sheen’s earthly remains...

VATICAN, November 23, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – Cardinals Raymond Burke and George Pell will not remain members of the Congregation for Divine Worship, the Vatican has confirmed in a list of the liturgical office's new members. Burke and Pell are known for their Catholic orthodoxy and strongly pro-life and pro-marriage stances. Burke is one of the four cardinals who has formally requested that Pope Francis clarify whether Amoris Laetitia is at odds with Catholic moral teaching. After the cardinals' request went unanswered for two months, the cardinals went public with their concerns. Burke has said cardinals will need to make a...

A week after the election, the Huffington Post published a blog entry in which Progressive Christians suggested what like-minded Christians should do in order to “take back their faith.” Still reeling from the election in which Donald Trump was elected president, several progressive Christians pondered the necessary steps to draw a stronger contrast between their brand of kindhearted progressive Christianity, and the kind of conservative, evangelical Christianity that helped elect Donald Trump. The responses were predictably representative of left-wing Christianity, which centered on re-emphasizing social justice issues and identity politics as the “loving,” compassionate, anti-Trumpian counterpart to the hate-filled Christianity...

After the wonderful news yesterday that Bishop Athanasius Schneider has come publicly to the aid of the courageous Four Cardinals who are challenging Pope Francis over the much-contested post-synodal exhortation Amoris Laetitia, a second Polish Bishop – after Auxiliary Bishop Józef Wróbel of Lublin, Poland – has now raised his voice in a similar way. Bishop Jan Watroba, President of the Council for the Family of the Polish Bishops’ Conferences, has now made a statement where he declares that he believes that the publication of the Four Cardinals Letter is “not reprehensible.” According to the Catholic newspaper Die Tagespost, Watroba...

The community looked after the now destroyed Basilica of St Benedict Eighteen years after founding a new Benedictine community in Italy, US Fr Cassian Folsom has stepped down as prior of the Benedictine monastic community in Norcia, the hometown of St Benedict. “The earthquakes of the past several months have presented us with incredible challenges, which require vigorous, creative leadership,” the 61-year-old Fr Folsom said. “While I am in good health at the moment, I do not have the strength or energy necessary to meet these challenges.” Fr Folsom, a native of Massachusetts, submitted his resignation to the abbot primate...

The Catholic charity, Aid to the Church in Need, has designated today as Red Wednesday. Mancunians know this tag for another reason, but it is being coopted and elevated by ACN to signify the day on which we take time for special remembrance who are persecuted for their faith. We are encouraged to donate if we can, or to pray and ideally to attend Mass, and as a sign to the world, to wear something red today.Given the headlines in the Catholic press and blogosphere the last week or two, it is hard not to think of certain red-clad cardinals....

Abandoning a belief in absolute moral norms would be a catastrophe for the ChurchEveryone is talking about the dubia, and so I will too, not that there is much need, given the already excellent and authoritative commentary that has come from a variety of sources, as, for example the scholar monk Dom Hugh Somerville-Knapman and the much respected Bishop Athanasius Schneider, the prelate who works at the very margins of the Church in Kazakhstan. Indeed, what need is there for commentary at all, when one of the authors of the dubia is Cardinal Caffarra, perhaps the greatest of our theologians,...

Church doctrine and canonical legislation can be complicated to navigate. Dubia seek to end confusion on all sorts of topicsEarlier today, while looking for something else entirely, I came across an interesting sentence on the website of the Liturgy Office of the Bishops’ Conference: Following a request for information the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales submitted a dubium to the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei which confirmed that in the Roman Rite, whichever Form of the liturgy is being celebrated, the Holydays of Obligation are held in common. Note the casual use here of that technical term, dubium. The root...