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There is a long list of women* who have amassed personal fortunes by divorcing rich husbands — and as far as I can tell, they deserved every penny. This week Sue Ann Hamm joined it when a court ordered her ex-husband, Harold Hamm, the Oklahoma oil man, to pay her some $1 billion in cash and assets, or about $38 million per year of a 26-year marriage. Ms. Hamm plans to appeal on the grounds that the award grossly undervalues her share of the wealth accumulated during the marriage, Reuters reported on Thursday. If Ms. Hamm gets anywhere near half...

The day my soul became Catholic was the day I found out that as a divorced and remarried woman I could not receive Communion. Tears of sorrow and joy flowed. Sorrow because I had by then grasped the truth of transubstantiation, only to find I couldn’t consume, and joy because at last we found the ground of real authority—his Church, the one he founded, the one tasked to keep all he taught her Apostles. I came to Catholicism from Calvinism. That’s a tough row to hoe if there ever was one. It was that prescient and beautiful encyclical Humanae Vitae...

After ecstatically going to the bank to pay off his alimony check for the last time, this man could not put into words how excited he was.

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis said the institution of Christian marriage has never been attacked so much as nowadays where a temporary or throw-away culture has become widespread. He said marriage should not be seen just a social rite and urged priests to stay close to couples and especially children experiencing the trauma of a family break-up. The Pope was replying to questions put to him on a range of topics during an audience with more than 7000 pilgrims belonging to the Schoenstatt movement, an international Marian and apostolic organization that is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its founding in Germany....

In his writings and talk on marriage, Cardinal Walter Kasper remains ambiguous but, or rather therefore, untrustworthy. He writes like a man trying to pull a fast one. Steven J. Kovacs notes in a New Oxford Review review of Kasper’s book The Gospel of the Family (the emphasis is mine): Cardinal Kasper correctly notes that someone in such a situation requires the sacrament of penance before receiving Holy Communion. Our Lord Himself said, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery” (Mk. 10:11-12). The Church...

While Francis I has nether denied not sought to change any doctrine, Cardinal Burke is correct. The pope has “done a lot of harm.” He has created confusion among the faithful and is soon going to have to speak with clarity on the unchanging truths of Catholicism. In his beatification of Paul VI on Sunday, Pope Francis celebrated change. “God is not afraid of new things,” he said, “we are making every effort to adapt ways and methods … to the changing conditions of society.” But among the social changes since Vatican II and Paul VI have been the West’s...

A half-century after the historic changes of the Second Vatican Council, Pope Francis is showing his intent to drive a comparably ambitious agenda for the Roman Catholic Church in the 21st century. The current synod of bishops in Rome, called by Francis to encourage reform and modernization, set a ringing tone of compassion this week with an opening call for a more welcoming attitude toward gay people, unmarried couples, divorced Catholics who remarry, and children in these unions. The bishops’ report on their first week of private discussions did not immediately change church doctrine. But it signaled the pope’s determination...

Breaking News From Rome: Burke Confirms He’s Been Ousted! Pope Harming The Church Pope Francis is doing great harm to the church. Those words in public interview from Cardinal Raymond Burke. Cardinal Raymond Burke is the prefect of the Apostolic signatory of or at least he was he has also confirmed for the first time in public the rumor that he has been ousted by Pope Francis

Oct 17 20147 Comments By Church Militant TV News Headlines BREAKING: Pope Harming the Church Cardinal Burke: Pope is harming the Church by not making his position clear. To read the entire interview with Cardinal Raymond Burke, click here! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLS3cOxfkJw

If someone in Germany who is divorced and civilly remarried can receive Communion without being expected to change his lifestyle, why can’t someone in Africa who is “married” to two women do so as well? That’s the question that Cardinal Wilfrid Napier, the archbishop of Durban, South Africa, asked in a recent interview with Catholic News Service. Napier added that a better way forward for the Church than the recommendation made by the German Cardinal Walter Kasper is to recommend the traditional Christian practice of fortitude in the face of suffering; the carrying of the cross. “Jesus didn’t say ‘I...

FULL TITLE: "[Catholic Caucus] World Over - 2014-10-09 – Cardinal Raymond Burke on the Synod on the Family with Raymond Arroyo" RAYMOND CARDINAL BURKE, prefect of the Holy See's Apostolic Signatura at the Vatican, on the Extraordinary Synod of Bishops for the Family currently underway in Rome and his chapter in the new book, Remaining In the Truth of Christ (Ignatius Press), on the indissolubility of marriage and his thoughts on Walter Cardinal Kasper's recent proposals to harmonize "fidelity and mercy" in the Church's pastoral approach to divorced and remarried Catholics and the Sacrament of Holy Communion.

If someone in Germany who is divorced and civilly remarried can receive Communion without being expected to change his lifestyle, why can’t someone in Africa who is “married” to two women do so as well?That’s the question that Cardinal Wilfrid Napier, the archbishop of Durban, South Africa, asked in a recent interview with Catholic News Service. Napier added that a better way forward for the Church than the recommendation made by the German Cardinal Walter Kasper is to recommend the traditional Christian practice of fortitude in the face of suffering; the carrying of the cross. “Jesus didn’t say ‘I want...

 I'm a Catholic who is doing some print layout work for my friend who is faithful at the World Assemblies of God. We are each convinced that Jesus Christ has given us Faith in our own particular creed. I don't know if I can speak exactly for my World Assemblies of God friend—I assume he is like me in this—but if I were convinced that the World Assemblies of God presented the fullness of Jesus Christ's Truth—which is Himself—I would go there. However, I'm convinced that the Catholic Church presents the fullness of Truth, as my friend is convinced that World Assemblies of...

NEW YORK (MYFOXNY) - Stephen Collins, the actor who played the father and pastor in the hit TV series, '7th Heaven,' is under investigation by the New York Police Dept. for allegedly molesting and exposing himself to at least three underage girls years ago...

Public Discourse recently published a very important essay titled “Breaking the Silence,” in which Janna Darnelle wrote with heartbreaking candor of what she and her children have suffered since her ex-husband abandoned their marriage, married another man under state law, and obtained joint custody of their children. When Darnelle’s essay was published, I had just finished reading Anthony Esolen’s new book Defending Marriage: Twelve Arguments for Sanity. As I read her essay, I realized that her story encapsulated nearly every one of the book’s arguments. Anthony Esolen is well-known to readers of Public Discourse, and his writings adorn many other...

"The 'Relatio Post Disceptationem' produced at the end of the first week will form the basis for the work that will follow in the second week in the 'circuli minores' and which the Synod Fathers will examine before the concluding 'Relatio Synodi' document is published. This final document will be sent to the Holy Father," the Tuscan cardinal said. The 'Relatio Synodi' differs from the concluding messages usually published at the end of every synodal assembly (this time Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi has been asked to write the message). It replaces the proposals ... the Synod Fathers usually sent the Pope...

Traditionally, social conservatism has enjoyed the support of Catholicism, whose body of teaching on morals is a mother lode of ideas and arguments that retain much of their force even apart from their theological context. Rumors that the Church is poised to relax its position on the indissolubility of marriage are therefore troubling or encouraging, depending on which side you stand in the culture war. Tomorrow, a synod of bishops will convene in Rome to discuss the family. It’s a big topic, but what has developed as the headline item on the agenda is a question that on its face...

Married couples who met online are three times more likely to divorce than those who met face-to-face, a study has found. Online daters are also 28 percent more likely to split from their partners within the first year, new figures from Michigan State University in the US suggest. A study of more than 4,000 couples found that relationships were far more stable if couples met in traditional ways such as introductions by friends or through work, hobbies or socializing. Couples who meet online are also less likely to get married and generally have a poorer relationship quality that those who...

This week my denomination, through its executive committee, voted to "disfellowship" a congregation in California that has acted to affirm same-sex sexual relationships. This sad but necessary move is hardly surprising, since this network of churches shares a Christian sexual ethic with all orthodox Christians of every denomination for 2,000 years. One of the arguments made by some, though, is that this is hypocritical since so many ministers in our tradition marry people who have been previously divorced. The argument is that conservative Protestants already embrace a "third way" because we've done so on divorce. Couples divorce, sometimes remarry others,...

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis has ordered a review aimed at simplifying the Church's procedures for annulments, the Vatican said on Saturday, a move that could make it easier for Catholics to end marriages. A statement said Francis had appointed an 11-member commission of canon lawyers and theologians to propose reform of the process, "seeking to simplify and streamline it while safeguarding the principle of the indissolubility of marriage". An annulment, formally known as a "decree of nullity," is a ruling that a marriage was not valid in the first place according to Church law because certain pre-requisites, such...