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People with Down syndrome are not often valued in society; they are often discriminated against and targeted for death. But one religious order in France, the Little Sisters Disciples of the Lamb, aims to give women with Down syndrome a community, where their sense of worth is acknowledged and celebrated. Down syndrome Little Sisters Disciples of the Lamb The order was founded when Mother Prioress Line met a girl named Veronique, who has Down syndrome, but also felt a calling to religious life. Mother Prioress Line knew it would be difficult — if not impossible — for Veronique to...

“I want to believe God cares about me; I really do,” she told me, wiping tears from under her darkened, bloodshot eyes. Under the harsh fluorescent lights of the hospital corridor, Marci barely resembled the vibrant girl I remembered, that kid I’d watched grow up in our youth group at church. When she was a teenager, Marci was outgoing, fun-loving, and full of life, even as she was growing more and more serious about her faith, coming early to youth group and staying late. No one loved to worship and talk about God more than Marci.Then, in her early 20s,...

WHEN Pastor Jimmy Parade took over at Indonesian Reformed Evangelical Church in Bandung, on the island of Java, five years ago, around 180 people came to services each week. Now the church—in a nondescript building in an outdoor shopping complex—is packed with around 450 each Sunday. “People keep coming,” Mr Parade shrugs. Some 1,000 miles away, up several sets of escalators at a shopping mall in Singapore, thousands of people take part in a two-hour service on a Saturday evening at the City Harvest Church, which has a weekly attendance of just under 16,000. The service involves a rock...

ROME - “We need for the Church to understand that those of us who come forth are not the enemy. We want to help the Church clean itself, so there are no other Mauricios drugged and raped in the seminary, so there are no other Sebastians forced to massage a bishop so he feels pleasure, so there’re no other Marcelos forced to receive oral sex, and so there’re no other Johns raped by their spiritual directors.” The stories are real. They belong to Mauricio Pulgar, Marcelo Soto, Sebastian del Rio and a fourth person, who will be described as “John...

Oh my beloved, my heart rejoices greatly when I think about my Heavenly Father’s wondrous love towards you and me; sinners saved by His ETERNAL grace and mercy (John 3:16-17, 1 John 3:1-4)! To all of us that know God the Father by means of Jesus Christ our Savior, we are called His sons or children (John 1:12, Rom 8:14-19, 1 John 3:1-3)! Such wondrous truths cannot even begin to be fully comprehended by His redeemed ones (1 Cor. 2:9)! It will take all of FOREVER just to begin to experience and enjoy the PERFECT LOVE of our Heavenly Father!...

In response to ex-seminarians' testimony of widespread homosexual cultureBOSTON (ChurchMilitant.com) - Cardinal Sean O'Malley is launching an investigation into alleged homosexual activity at St. John's Seminary, after ex-seminarians went public with disturbing revelations. "The allegations made this week are a source of serious concern to me as Archbishop of Boston," he said in a statement released Friday, announcing that he had placed the rector, Msgr. James P. Moroney, "on sabbatical leave for the Fall Semester, beginning immediately." On Wednesday, Church Militant published an article written by John Monaco, former seminarian at St. John's Seminary in Brighton, which he attended from...

Monks and nuns of the Coptic Orthodox Church, no one excluded, have a month to shut down their personal accounts and any blog they manage on social media, such as Facebook and Twitter. Within that time frame, they will have to take leave of the forms of communication considered unsuitable for monastic life. Any failure to comply will result in canonical penalties. Among the 12 rules ratified by the patriarch Tawadros II, this is the decree that more than others will raise a clamour. The regulations were ordered for all those who live in the monastic condition inside the Coptic...

FULL TITLE: Pro-‘Gay’ ‘Church’ Sells Building, Plans to Open Brewery in New Facility, Donate Profits to Planned Parenthood SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — The pro-homosexual Greater Purpose Community Church in California says that it has sold its former building and plans to open a public brewery in the now-closed Logos Bookstore in Santa Cruz. The brewery, which will also be used as meeting space for Sunday services, will donate part of the proceeds to Planned Parenthood, among other organizations. “We decided to sell the building, because for us a church is a community and a movement,” leader Chris VanHall told NBC...

GREENVILLE, South Carolina, July 31, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – A U.S. parish priest was planning to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Humanae Vitae on the weekend by preaching on the great encyclical, but then the scandal of ex-Cardinal McCarrick made him change his plan. So instead Fr. Jay Scott Newman gave a must-hear homily blasting priests and bishops who have rejected Humanae Vitae, both by teaching false doctrine and through their own “evil conduct.” “The treason of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick is a damnable abomination,” he said, “but while McCarrick’s sins are appalling, they are merely the crimes of one man…. Worse...

Iran's maneuvers in the Straits of Hormuz and Bab Al Mandeb, to restrict oil flow and distract from their problems. Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt and others are now considering eliminating the UN anti-Israel UNRWA eternal-refugee status as part of their peace plan. The proposal for the U.S. and Europe to fund the reconstruction of Syria. The Israeli military strike on the Iranian facility at Hama yesterday. Clarification of the presence of Russia on the Israel-Syria border. And more on censorship of the social media.

The Archbishop of Dublin said it would be 'great' if a meeting could be arranged but that 'time is very tight'Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin has said it is still uncertain whether or not Pope Francis will meet abuse survivors during his two-day visit to Ireland later this month. Archbishop Martin said: “He will obviously speak about various forms of abuse not just clerical abuse, the abuse in the institutions, the laundries and the mother and baby homes. It would be great to meet some of the victims or survivors from that group, but the time is very tight.” According...

AUSTRALIA, July 31, 2018, (LifeSiteNews) – An Australian Catholic archdiocese has produced a working document about the "future of the Catholic Church in Australia” which calls for “women deacons and women chaplains,” “married priests,” and a “more inclusive church” that includes “LGBT people.” The document was put out by the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn, led by Archbishop Christopher Prowse. It is part of the preparation for a countrywide Plenary Council to be held in 2020. The last such council was held 81 years ago. The Plenary Council, what the bishops are calling the “highest form of gathering of local...

Washington D.C., Jul 28, 2018 / 09:54 am (CNA).- A letter sent this week to priests of the Archdiocese of Washington claims that Cardinal Donald Wuerl did not know until recently about settlements made by two New Jersey dioceses in response to allegations misconduct on the part of former cardinal Theodore McCarrick. "Neither the Archdiocese of Washington nor Cardinal Wuerl knew about these confidential settlements until this most recent credible and substantiated allegation against Cardinal McCarrick was made public," said the July 25 letter, sent to Washington priests by archdiocesan vicar general Monsignor Charles Antonicelli. "For clarity, the Archdiocese of...

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras, July 26, 2018, (LifeSiteNews) – One of the Vatican's most influential cardinals, already suspected of looking the other way while gay relationships were conducted in his personal residence, has now admonished fifty seminarians for speaking out against their seminary's rampant homosexual subculture. “Instead of praising the seminarians,” tweeted Ed Pentin, the National Catholic Register (NCR) who broke the story, Cardinal Óscar Rodríguez Maradiaga “accused them of being “gossipers” who wish to portray their fellow seminarians in a bad light.” Maradiaga is the leader of Pope Francis’ Council of Nine cardinals and was entrusted with the Pope’s Vatican reforms....

"Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift each of you like wheat. But I have prayed for you,that your faith will not fail. And when you have turned back, confirm your brethren." Luke 22:31-32 August 2, 2018 Dear Bishop S----, Thank you for your letter and thanks also to S and D and P and R who have also responded to my concerns: I appreciate this, too. But it is not enough. Centuries ago, faithful Catholics didn't ordinarily need to question their Bishop. If he were an honest Catholic, well and good; but if not, it made little difference to...

Twitter and Facebook aren’t the only tech companies accused of downplaying or demoting conservative media. Pastor James MacDonald posted a prayer on Facebook for President Donald Trump just before the new SCOTUS nominee was announced. His podcast, Walk in the Word, vanished from the Top 25 chart completely in a matter of 24 hours. According to CBN News, “In the past the podcast had never dipped below the Top 40, within 24 hours it wasn’t even making the Top 200.” Both CBN News and MacDonald wondered if Apple was“shadowbanning” the podcast. MacDonald told CBN News that he wasn’t “Donald Trump’s...

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for D.C. ruled against a Christmas ad Tuesday that the Archdiocese of Washington wanted to run on the Metro. The Washington Times reports the court ruled that the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority can prohibit religious and political ads, as long as it does so consistently. In 2015, the Metro adopted a policy that prohibits political, religious or advocacy ads on its transportation system. Then, in 2017, it rejected the archdiocese’s Christmas ad, arguing the ad violated its policy. The ad showed the silhouette of three shepherds and sheep facing a bright star, the...

When Kathleen O'Connell Sauline came forward for Communion at St. Luke Parish in Boardman, Ohio, the priest placed a cloth over the bread and said he could not give her the Eucharist. Likewise, a deacon refused to give her the consecrated wine from the chalice. The longtime parishioner and parish volunteer had been expecting it. Eight days earlier, Sauline had been ordained a deacon through the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests, which is part of the international Roman Catholic women priests movement. The Vatican considers the ordinations illicit and has said that the women priests and deacons incur automatic...

ISIS has come back to life in Syria and massacred hundreds of Syrians in the past week, with no reporting by the press. The Turks have broken their promise about returning an American pastor.Beware of the Jerusalem Post, which would like to convince you that Saudi Arabia is not on Israel's side. They are a liberal publication opposed to the conservative point of view. Don't succumb to the campaign against Trump or America is lost forever. Censorship is now rampant in Facebook, YouTube, Twitter. And for a happy note, Amir meets descendants of Lord Balfour in New Zealand! Read your...

Bp. Michael Warfel of Great Falls-Billings wants each parish to give 10% of its savingsThe head of a Montana diocese is asking Catholic laity to reach into their pockets and help cover the costs of a sex abuse lawsuit — and the faithful are outraged. In a letter read aloud to parishes in May in the diocese of Great Falls-Billings, Bp. Michael Warfel explained the need to pay out $20 million in a settlement with 86 victims of priestly sex abuse. The letter starts out quoting a song by John Michael Talbot in which he says, "We are one body,...