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 The following article appeared in the April 2014 edition of The Limbaugh Letter. Reprinted with permission from The Limbaugh Letter, ©2014 Premiere Networks, Inc.For additional information, or to subscribe to The Limbaugh Letter please visit www.thelimbaughletter.comMy Conversation with Bill Donohueby Rush LimbaughA privilege to speak with this religious freedom warrior, president of the Catholic League, a bold presence on television, the author of many books, including Secular Sabotage: How Liberals Are Destroying Religion and Culture in America and Why Catholicism Matters: How Catholic Virtues Can Reshape Society in the 21st Century: Rush: Dr. Donohue, this is great. I have wanted...

Darren Aronofsky’s cinematic re-telling of the story of Noah has certainly stirred people up. While quite a few reviewers, both religious and non-religious, have given the film high marks, many Christians, both Evangelical and Catholic, have registered a far less than enthusiastic reaction. One prominent Catholic blogger and movie reviewer opined that “Noah” is “embarrassingly awful” and “the stupidest film in years.” Most of the religious critics have complained that the film plays fast and loose with the Genesis account, adding all sorts of distracting and fantastic elements to the well-known story. In the midst of all of this—and no...

Featured Term (selected at random:IMMURATION A shutting up, an enclosing. The symbolic closing of the door of a cloistered cell, voluntarily done, by a religious who attends the religious services through an opening in the chapel wall. In some cases, rare nowadays, food, light, and air are received through a window of the hermitage that is built adjoining the chapel proper. It also refers to a method of burial by which bodies are enclosed in chambers and vaults of solid masonry, for example where the native soil is impracticable for burial. Mummified bodies recovered from such places were falsely exhibited...

The Real Presence and Perpetual AdorationFr. John A. Hardon, S.J.Errors regarding the Real Presence crept into the Church starting in Europe about 30 years ago. By now it has had a devastating effect all over the world. The work of the Evil Spirit has been phenomenally successful during this period. Re-conversion by natural means is not just inadequate, but absolutely impossible. The more convinced we are that human beings cannot solve the problem, the more we will wake up to the truth that God became man to help us cope with, and like St. Michael the Archangel, conquer this...

The cardinal’s case is based on a doubtful interpretation of a tiny number of textsOn February 20 last, Cardinal Walter Kasper gave an address, “The Gospel of the Family”, to the extraordinary consistory on the family called by the Holy Father, much of it concerned with outlining current difficulties – massive mobility, immigration, costs of childrearing, aging populations, individualism, alienation of urban life, civil divorce, etc – faced by Catholics entering the married state. A married Catholic such as myself might suppose that these prevailing circumstances suggest, rather than a relaxation of the rules debarring from Communion the divorced and...

The new film "Noah" stars Russell Crowe as the man chosen by God to collect pairs of Earth's animals on a massive ark to save them from a global flood. The film, which opened March 28, is sizing up to be a Biblical blockbuster, replete with star power and stunning special effects. But how realistic is it? While many people consider the story of Noah's Ark merely an instructive myth or parable about God's punishment for man's wickedness, others believe that the story is historically accurate. To them, Noah's tale describes events that really happened only a few thousand years...

Just in time for Easter, from The New York Daily News: Two historians claim the search for the Holy Grail is over.The famous cup used by Jesus Christ during the Last Supper was identified in a book written by Margarita Torres Jose Manuel Ortega del Rio, titled “Kings of the Grail” and published last week, as the jewel-encrusted goblet on display at the San Isidro Basilica in the northwestern Spanish city of Leon.News of the discovery caused masses of people to flock to the historic church to view the precious chalice – forcing the operators of the museum to pull...

Perpetual Adoration, True Peace in the WorldFr. John A. Hardon, S.J.We begin by making a simple statement. The true peace about which we are speaking is peace of heart.There is no need to explain why we should talk about peace of heart. If there is any single recommendation, and even mandate, that His followers received from Christ, it was to be at peace.Before the birth of Christ, Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, was filled with the Holy Spirit to prophesy the Benedictus, which he concluded with the promise to us that “the rising Sun will visit us,...

Featured Term (selected at random:ZEITGEIST Spirit of the times. Used especially to explain why many people are so skeptical of the supernatural and so demanding that Christian faith and morals conform to the modern mentality. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

What if Protestantism were true? What if the Reformers really were heroes, the Bible the sole rule of faith, and Christ's Church just an invisible collection of loosely united believers? As an Evangelical, Devin Rose used to believe all of it. Then one day the nagging questions began. He noticed things about Protestant belief and practice that didn't add up. He began following the logic of Protestant claims to places he never expected it to go—leading to conclusions no Christians would ever admit to holding. In The Protestant's Dilemma, Rose examines over thirty of those conclusions, showing with solid evidence,...

One of 300 microfilm Bibles that flew to the moon on Apollo 14 in 1971 Nearly 200 rare biblical texts on parchment and vellum are among the artifacts that will be on display at the Vatican in a new exhibition.The event, which will be called ”Verbum Domini II: God’s Word Goes Out to the Nations”, will run from April 2 to June 22.Along with three fragments of the Dead Sea scrolls and an original copy of the King James Bible, printed in 1611, visitors to the free exhibition will see the microchip Bible that traveled to the moon and back...

Our Supernatural Knowledge of Godby Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.Remember the master theme that we are looking at now is our knowledge of God. We have already seen something of what the Scripture tells us about our natural rational knowledge of God. Why natural? Because, we can acquire knowledge of God by the use of our natural native reason. Through reflection of the works of nature beginning with the sun, moon and stars, the mountains and the seas and ending with the beauty of a small child or the budding of the trees in spring. In the present conference...

A.) When the vote was taken on July 1870, at the First Vatican Council, with 433 votes in favour (placet) and only 2 against (non placet) against defining as dogma the infallibility of the pope when speaking ex cathedra, did those Bishops possess infallibility when (or at least only when) voting? Did any of them keep this infallibility (did it remain with all of them or any of them) after they left and returned home? Did any of these Bishops possess any infallibility at anytime before the vote was cast? B.) Was Mary's (the Mother of Jesus) mother immaculately conceived...

Featured Term (selected at random:FIORETTI The Little Flowers of St. Francis, a classic collection of stories and traditions about St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) and his early companions. Written in the Italian of Tuscany about 1322, it was probably translated from earlier Latin sources including the significant Acts of the Blessed Francis and His Companions. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission. 

Why are we commanded to roast the Passover sacrifice over fire and not cook it in any other way? G-d loves a barbecue?! This class explores the simple, literal explanations and the profound mystical teachings behind this commandment. So, if you have 52 minutes of clean-up and dishes to do, download or stream and enjoy. (IMHO it's the best way to do chores.)

Here is some cheery news. It is cheery in that the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith is doing its job diligently and that justice has been done and that the Faith has been defended. It is sad news, however, that any Catholic priest would be so wicked as to do such a thing. We are pleased that the proper thing has been done, and sad about the sin committed which required such intervention. From Fishwrap (aka National Schismatic Reporter), in mourning, with my emphases and comments:

How to Be a Loyal Catholic Today?By Being Loyal to the Bishop of Romeby Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.  Not too many years ago this would have been a strange title for a lecture, “How to Be a Loyal Catholic Today.” The reason is obvious. Catholics were Catholics. ....But much has happened in the last thirty or so years. Nowadays there are so many people who call themselves Catholic but really are not. There are books published and periodicals; there are conferences given, and symposiums held; there are religious programs and celebrations sponsored, and all professedly Catholic. But so...

“While the promises of the false prophets of this earth melt away in blood and tears, the great apocalyptic prophecy of the Redeemer shines forth in heavenly splendor: ‘Behold, I make all things new.’” – Divini Redemptoris (On Atheistic Communism) When Saigon fell to the Viet Cong on April 30, 1975, the Vietnam War ended, and a typically Communist, systematic program of depopulation, re-education, and redistribution of wealth ensued. In the next two years, a million people left the city for the countryside – or for farther shores.I had been born nine months earlier in a Saigon hospital. By April,...

The Code of Canon LawJohn Paul IIAPOSTOLIC CONSTITUTIONFOR THE PROMULGATION OF THENEW CODE OF CANON LAWSacrae Disciplinae Leges …The code, as the principal legislative document of the Church, founded on the juridical-legislative heritage of Revelation and Tradition, is to be regarded as an indispensable instrument to ensure order both in individual and social life, and also in the Church's activity itself. Therefore, besides containing the fundamental elements of the hierarchical and organic structure of the Church as willed by her divine Founder, or as based upon apostolic, or in any case most ancient, tradition and besides the fundamental principles...

Featured Term (selected at random:WORDS OF INSTITUTION The words of Christ at the Last Supper, recorded by the sunoptic Gospels (Matthew 26:26-29; Mark 14:22-25; Luke 22:19-21); and St. Paul (I Corinthians 11:23-29). Their essential features are: 1. Christ separately consecrated bread and wine; 2. over the bread he said "This is my body" and over the wine "This is the chalice of my blood"; 3. The elements of bread and wine were thus changed into the living Christ; 4. he empowered the Apostles and their succesors to perform the same consecrating action; 5. he bade his followers to partake of...