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Continuing his string of appeals calling attention to the plight of persecuted Christians throughout the world, Pope Francis employed forceful language Monday in his midday address to the pilgrims gathered in Saint Peter’s Square, decrying violence against Christians and exhorting the international community not to stand by without taking meaningful action.

I'm not exactly a Biblical scholar, so be a little gentle with the flames. I was watching Passion of the Christ yesterday for Easter (my third time seeing it), and a thought occurred to me. Both the movie and the Gospels note that Pilate tried, repeatedly, to not sentence Jesus to death. His wife lobbied for Jesus, he declared "this man has done nothing", he sent him to Herod declaring him not guilty, and he even tried the once-a-year prisoner release gambit. At every turn, the high priests and the crowd pushed for his death. Even after finding him guilty...

Romans 11:22, Job 28:28 A173 In the early part of the 20th century liberalism took mainline Protestant churches by storm. In fact, it might be argued that the first half of the century ushered in the most serious spiritual decline since the Protestant Reformation. Historic evangelicalism,1 which had dominated Protestant America since the days of the founding fathers, was virtually driven out of denominational schools and churches. In a few decades, liberalism virtually destroyed the largest Protestant denominations in America and Europe. Evangelicalism managed to survive and even seemed to thrive for awhile outside the denominations. But it never regained...

 We know who the disciples saw after the empty tomb was found. But what did they see?As Christians we believe that the same person who had died on the cross, Jesus Christ, really appeared in the flesh-and-blood, even with the same body as before, yet in a glorified condition.But last year, the Boston Globe published an interview with a secular theologian (yes, you read that right), Bart Ehrman who offered a ‘new theory’ about what the disciples had seen.His answer: a hallucination. The disciples were so distraught by the death of their savior, so his theory goes, that their...

Featured Term selected at random:SACRAMENT OF THE ALTAR The Eucharist viewed as the body and blood of Christ, which are offered on the altar in the Sacrifice of the Mass. Also the Eucharist as reserved on the altar for adoration by the faithful. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission. 

The Resurrection Appearances “Chronologically” Arranged By: Msgr. Charles PopeToday’s post is a follow-up to yesterday’s blog.When we encounter the resurrection accounts in the New Testament, we face a challenge in putting all the pieces together in such a way that the sequence of events flows in logical order. This is due to the fact that no one Gospel presents all or even most of the information. Some of the accounts seem to conflict. I have opined before (HERE) that these apparent conflicts are usually not in fact true conflicts. Another difficulty with putting all the facts together in a coherent manner is that...

One Saturday last month, Pope Francis celebrated Mass at Ognissanti (All Saints’) Church in one of Rome’s working-class neighborhoods.

In an article entitled Saint Patrick the Baptist?, Stephen R. Button tries to claim St. Patrick for Evangelical Protestantism... or at least disassociate him from Roman Catholicism. Button is hardly alone: you can find similar attempts by Don Boys and others, some of them dating back several decades. The argument tends to work like this. From Patrick, we have (in Button's words) only the “84 short paragraphs that make up both his Confession and his 'Letter to Coroticus.'” Baptist authors then mine these texts for any doctrines that Patrick doesn't mention explicitly, and then claim that he must have held...

In the midst of our busy lives, it is easy to be overwhelmed and to feel overcome by difficult circumstance. For those who strive to pray, Christ risen from the dead allows us to taste this only in order to help us come to spiritual maturity. He himself comes to give us hope, that we might stand firm and not lose heart. This is the great spiritual battle of prayer – our victory is assured because Christ rose from the dead and has not abandoned us. It was along these lines that, to encourage the faithful entrusted to his care,...

Jesus is real to me! A homily for Easter Sunday By: Msgr. Charles PopeNearly all of the Resurrection accounts in the Gospels present the apostles and disciples on a journey to deeper faith. In stages, they come out of the darkness of despair and of this world into the light of faith. Matthew’s account (28:1-10), which is read at the Easter Vigil this year and can also be read at Masses during the day, is no exception. I have also commented on the Johannine Gospel that is often read on Easter Morning (here: From Fear to Faith).Let’s look at...

The death of Christ and His magnificent resurrection are the most important truths in the entire Bible. In this message, Dr. Stanley explains that without these realities, the gospel would have no power to save souls. There is no greater security in this life than knowing that Christ has made a way for us to live forever with our heavenly Father in the next. Watch video - 17 minutes 23 seconds.

The Resurrection is the Defining MomentIt is the resurrection that separates Jesus from all other good teachers, intelligent gurus and world leaders in history! The resurrection proved that Jesus was and is God, and demonstrated the fact that all of us will have a life after this one. Jesus is the one man who died and then came back to life to tell us about the other side. Even Paul was careful to tell us that without the truth of the resurrection, there is nothing special or powerful about Christianity: 1 Corinthians 15:12-19But if it is preached that Christ...

Pope St. John Paul II said many times during the 26 years of his pontificate that we are living at the time of the greatest battle between good and evil that the world has ever seen. He would often make the observation that one of the worst things about this spiritual battle is that relatively few people even seemed to know that it is even taking place, precisely because the spiritual blindness so characteristic of this age is so pervasive, growing wider and deeper with every passing year. The late Father John A. Hardon, S.J., whose cause for canonization has...

All seems lost. On Good Friday, we experienced and celebrated Christ’s Passion and Death, and now the Sabbath has come and gone and there is still no sign of Him. Now darkness has fallen, and it seems that the night of death has overcome the Lord of life. As despair prepares to enthrone itself, a large fire is prepared outside the church. The clergy and faithful have gathered together under the stars. Despair will not take the throne after all, for here in the night, at the beginning of the first day of the week, the Great Paschal Vigil...

Biblical Conspiracies 3 of 4 Secrets of the Crucifixion

The History Channel's 2013 series "The Bible" was a surprising, massive hit, drawing 13 million viewers and eventually producing a movie adaptation, Son of God, that grossed nearly $60 million. This Easter Sunday NBC will be airing the first of 12 episodes of the follow-up series "A.D.: The Bible Continues," which focuses on the events recorded in Acts 1-10. The producers, Mark Burnett and his wife, Roma Downey, told Christianity Today that the new series takes "a deeper dive into the book of Acts so we can really explore the stories and really dig deeper into the characters. You’ve got...

It looked like a scene from year 200 BCE, or the end of days – yet it all played out just two days ago, on Monday, not far from the Temple Mount. Kohanim in authentic attire blessed the excited crowd, Levites sang hymns, and a young lamb was offered up as a Passover sacrifice in keeping with all the dictates of the ancient ritual. This "dress rehearsal," staged every year by members of the Temple Mount Faithful movement, is designed to present the public with an accurate rendition of the ritual that was in practice during the time of the...

Where Is Jesus Between His Death and Resurrection? By: Msgr. Charles PopeWhere is Christ after He dies on Friday afternoon and before He rises on Easter Sunday? Both Scripture and Tradition answer this question. Consider the following excerpt from a second century sermon as well as this meditation from the Catechism of the Catholic Church.Ancient Homily for Holy Saturday (ca. 2nd century A.D.):Today a great silence reigns on earth, a great silence and a great stillness. A great silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up...

ABSTRACT: Jesus of Nazareth underwent Jewish and Roman trials, was flogged, and was sentenced to death by crucifixion. The scourging produced deep stripelike lacerations and appreciable blood loss, and it probably set the stage for hypovolemic shock as evidenced by the fact that Jesus was too weakened to carry the crossbar (patibulum) to Golgotha. At the site of crucifixion his wrists were nailed to the patibulum, and after the patibulum was lifted onto the upright post, (stipes) his feet were nailed to the stipes. The major pathophysiologic effect of crucifixion was an interference with normal respirations. Accordingly, death resulted primarily...

Featured Term selected at random:IMPANATION  A heretical doctrine or theory of the Eucharist presence, taught by some of the Protestant Reformers. It claims that the words of consecration do not change bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. Rather the substance of bread and wine remains, along with some kind of indefinable presence of Christ. Originally taught by Osiander (1498-1552), a disciple of Luther, it was one of the many attempts of the Reformers to retain some kind of "real presence" in the Eucharist while denying transubstantiation. (Etym. Latin in-, in + panis, bread.) See Also:...