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Spanish-speakers are fueling growth in the local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which recently opened new worship space on Tucson's predominantly Hispanic South Side. Many local Mormon worshippers, like 47-year-old Juan Arroyo, converted to the faith from Catholicism while living in their native countries. Arroyo, a roofer who has four children, joined the church when he lived in Guadalajara, Mexico. He's been in the United States for seven years. "I was missing something, and my life changed greatly after meeting the missionaries," he said in Spanish. Nationally, the number of Spanish-speaking congregations in the Mormon church grew by...

CHAPTER X THE EVIDENCE OF EARLY GENTILE WRITERS So much, then, for the information we can gather from early Jewish writings; we turn now to the Gentiles. The first Gentile writer who concerns us seems to be one called Thallus, who about AD 52 wrote a work tracing the history of Greece and its relations with Asia from the Trojan War to his own day. He has been identified with a Samaritan of that name, who is mentioned by Josephus (Ant. xviii. 6. 4) as being a freedman of the Emperor Tiberius. Now Julius Africanus, a Christian writer on chronology...

Vatican Galileo statue to be installed at the Vatican Galileo Galilei Vatican City, Mar 6, 2008 / 07:10 am (CNA).- The Vatican plans to erect a statue of the 16th century scientist Galileo in the Vatican gardens, the Times reports.The statue will stand near the apartment in which the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei was incarcerated while awaiting trial in 1633.  He was charged with advocating heliocentrism, the theory of Copernicus that the Earth revolves around the Sun.  Though he was not tortured or executed, as some believe, he was forced to recant by the Roman Inquisition. Nicola Cabibbo, a nuclear physicist...

The Times March 6, 2008 That Martin Luther? He Wasn’t So Bad, Says Pope Richard Owen in Rome Pope Benedict XVI is to rehabilitate Martin Luther, arguing that he did not intend to split Christianity but only to purge the Church of corrupt practices. Pope Benedict will issue his findings on Luther (1483-1546) in September after discussing him at his annual seminar of 40 fellow theologians — known as the Ratzinger Schülerkreis — at Castelgandolfo, the papal summer residence. According to Vatican insiders the Pope will argue that Luther, who was excommunicated and condemned for heresy, was not a heretic....

On St. Leo the Great VATICAN CITY, March 5, 2008 The General Audience today took place once again in two places. First, the Pope greeted the faithful inside St. Peter's Basilica, including Italian students belonging to two national associations. Afterwards, he proceeded to Paul VI Hall where he delivered his Wednesday catechesis and greetings to various pilgrim groups. Here is a translation of the catechesis: Dear brothers and sisters, Continuing our journey with the Fathers of the Church, true stars who shine from afar, today we come to a Pope who was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by Benedict...

Following up on our discussion of the Pew survey on the American religious landscape, I have a few thoughts as to what plagues American Protestantism, particularly of the evangelical variety, and it has to do precisely with the “catholicity” of Protestantism. To the extent that people are leaving Protestantism, or are searching for another denomination within the broadly Protestant camp, I think there are at least two connected precipitating causes. (A caveat: there are many, many individual and anecdotal exceptions to the generalizations I will make below, and I think they serve to highlight rather than to undermine this basic...

Jesus as Rabbi 6: Bringing Up Talmidim27 February 2008 You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. This is my command: Love each other. Jesus as Rabbi: Part 1: What is...

CHAPTER IX THE EVIDENCE OF EARLY JEWISH WRITINGS I. The Rabbinical Writings When the city of Jerusalem fell in AD 70, together with the temple, the dominion of the priestly families and the supreme court of the Sanhedrin fell with them. The only party in Judaism which was capable of undertaking the necessary work of reconstruction was that of the Pharisees, and this they did, not on a political but on a spiritual basis. Led by Yohanan the son of Zakkai, they made their headquarters at Jabneh or Jamnia, in the southwest of Palestine. Here they reconstituted the Sanhedrin as...

There are few people still alive who knew St. Katharine Drexel. Philadelphia’s beloved saint has been dead 53 years and for 15 years before that she was an invalid mostly confined to her room. But Blessed Sacrament Sister Ruth Catherine Spain, who served as director of the Blessed Katharine Drexel Guild before the saint’s canonization, met the revered foundress of her congregation twice. She cherishes those memories. The first time, in 1951, she was a young novice. While she was cleaning the infirmary corridor at St. Elizabeth’s convent, the infirmarian asked whether she would like to wish the order’s reverend...

ROME, March 3 (Reuters Life!) - The body of the mystic monk Padre Pio, one of the Roman Catholic world's most revered saints who died 40 years ago, has been exhumed to be prepared for display to his many devotees. The body of the Capuchin friar, who was said to have had the stigmata -- the wounds of Christ's crucifixion -- on his hands and feet -- is to be conserved and put in a part-glass coffin for at least several months from April 24. A Church statement said the body was in "fair condition", particularly the hands, which Archbishop...

Catholic prelates and traditionalists from around the world are gathering at St. Madeleine du Barroux monastery in France today for the funeral of Dom Gerard Calvet, the founder of the post-Vatican II traditional Benedictine movement. Father Calvet, whose influence in contemporary Catholic traditionalism trailed only that of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, died Thursday at age 80. His health had been in sharp decline since he suffered a stroke in the late 1990s.

Two and a half centuries ago a stormy dispute surged through the Christian world about the nature of China’s culture. In Rome, the Catholic Church was deeply divided over the nature of Chinese culture. Did the ancient Chinese, long before they encountered Buddhism, Christianity, or Islam, have an understanding of God in a monotheistic sense as creator and sustainer of the universe? The Jesuits, who had an intellectually brilliant and profound impact on China in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, thought they did. So, two centuries later, did Rev. James Legge, translator of the Chinese classics into English and a...

4th Sunday of Lent (Laetare Sunday) The fourth Sunday of Lent is rather unique; like the third Sunday of Advent ("Gaudete Sunday"), the fourth Sunday of Lent is a break in an otherwise penitential season. The vestments for this day will be rose, as they are on Gaudete Sunday in Advent, and flowers may adorn the Altar. This day is called "Laetare Sunday" (also "Rose Sunday" ), and takes its name from the opening words of the Mass, the Introit's "Laetare, Jerusalem":  Laetare Jerusalem: et conventum facite omnes qui diligitis eam: gaudete cum laetitia, qui in tristitia fuistis: ut exsultetis,...

CHAPTER VIII MORE ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE The archeological evidence bearing on the New Testament is not so imposing as that bearing on the Old Testament; but, though less spectacular, it is not less important. We have already considered some of the evidence from inscriptions and papyri; we may look at one or two more examples before passing on to evidence of another kind. The reader of Acts will remember that on Paul's last visit to Jerusalem, a riot arose in the temple because the rumour got around that he had polluted the sacred precincts by taking Gentiles into them.' Gentiles might...

Pope Paul III, born February 29, 1468, 135 leap years young today. It is fitting that in the period of the restoration of the Liturgy of Blessed John XXIII sometimes (in error) called the Tridentine Mass that we celebrate the anniversary of the birth of Pope Paul III in 1468. He is the pope that called the Council of Trent and is largely credited with his inability to effectively deal with the Protestant Reformation as they (the Protestants) like to call it. Born Alessandro Farnese, Paul III was also related to Pope Boniface VIII. Paul III also appointed two of...

I’ve been following with great interest the texts of Pope Benedict’s reflections during his Wednesday morning General Audiences; and it has led to some reflections which many might consider erudite, if not downright snobbish. Nevertheless . . . Popes have routinely used the weekly General Audience to focus on some kind of thematic series. John Paul II, having been pope some twenty years, ran through several themes: the Epistles of St. Paul, the theology of the body, etc. Pope Benedict’s first “flight” of General Audience themes has been a series on the Fathers of the Church, which is still ongoing....

Q:I saw a magazine article that mentioned discrimination against Coptic Christians in Egypt. Are Coptic Christians a separate church or is that just a name for Christians in Egypt. Do they belong to different Christian churches? — Lakesha, Oklahoma City A:The Christian Coptic Orthodox Church is a separate church that is part of the little-known group of Christians called the Oriental Orthodox. Oriental Orthodox churches are not the same as the more familiar Eastern Orthodox group, which includes the Greek and Russian Orthodox churches. Most Americans are aware of the split in Christianity caused by the Reformation led by Martin...

In a recent column, I identified the first pope not to become a saint in either the Western or the Eastern Church. This was Anastasius II, who reigned for two brief years, 496-498. Though Anastasius was hardly a bad sort, he was overwhelmed by heresies and growing tensions between church leaders in Rome and Constantinople. He was preceded a century earlier by St. Anastasius I (who was pope from 398-401) and followed by Anastasius III (911-913) and Anastasius IV (1153-1154), neither of whom attained sainthood. A fifth Anastatius was neither saint nor true pope, and kept his title of antipope...

ELECTION "Election is God's eternal choice of PERSONS unto everlasting life -- NOT BECAUSE OF FORESEEN MERIT IN THEM, but of His mere mercy in Christ - in consequence of which choice they are called, justified, and glorified." How Important is the Doctrine of Election????? This Important IF IT WERE NOT FOR THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION, NO ONE WOULD BE SAVED ! ! ! WHAT ELECTION IS NOT: * Not salvation, but unto salvation. 11 Thes. 2:13, 14; Eph. 1:4; Rom. 8:29, 30. * Not exclusive of means. II Thes. 2:14; Eph. 1:5, 13; II Tim. 2:10; I Pet. 1:2....

Nine-year-old Alice Lambertsen blows out a candle on the tetrapod after noon vespers on Pure Monday (Feb. 4) at St. Nicholas of Myra Byzantine Catholic Church in Anchorage. Pure Monday marks the beginning of the Great Fast for Byzantine Catholics ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Catholic Anchor) - The great main dome at St. Nicholas of Myra Byzantine Catholic Church in Anchorage is the only one of its kind in the world. Built in 1996, the dome contains thousands of tiny holes that allow light to radiates out in unique patterns. The design so distinct it has an official patent. Light radiating...