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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...

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, March 31, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Speaking with LifeSiteNews about the matter of worthiness to receive Holy Communion last week, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone said that Church teaching on the matter “has been very clear and consistent from literally the very beginning." The Church's teaching goes "all the way back to St. Paul who writes in 1 Corinthians that anyone who does not receive the Eucharist worthily, that is if they are in a state of sin, blasphemes the body and blood of the Lord," the archbishop explained. The leader of San Francisco’s 444,000 Catholics noted that those...

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, March 31, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Speaking with LifeSiteNews about the matter of worthiness to receive Holy Communion last week, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone said that Church teaching on the matter “has been very clear and consistent from literally the very beginning." The Church's teaching goes "all the way back to St. Paul who writes in 1 Corinthians that anyone who does not receive the Eucharist worthily, that is if they are in a state of sin, blasphemes the body and blood of the Lord," the archbishop explained.

Moscow, March 28, Interfax – Russia has a special calling in the world, and the country has to prove it both to Russians and foreigners, head of the Synodal Department for Church and Society Relations Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin said. I think we have a chance to say the word of God’s truth in the context of all this struggle of ideas. In various fields," the priest said in his interview to the Zavtra paper speaking to its editor-in-chief, famous wrighter Alexander Prokhanov. According to Father Vsevolod, in the economical field we have to say that money-lending is "a sinful thing...

http://www.noahthemovie.com/

Pope Francis greets attendees at an audience for the deaf and blind March 29. Credit: Lauren Cater / CNA. Vatican City, Mar 29, 2014 / 10:44 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis held an audience with the blind and deaf on Saturday, encouraging them to become witnesses of Christ and to build a culture of encounter rather than exclusion. “We think of the many whom Jesus wanted to meet, above all people marked by illness and disability, to heal them and to restore their full dignity to them. It is very important that such persons become witnesses of a new approach,...

Hollywood Movie 'Noah' starring Russell Crowe and Anthony Hopkins premiere in the theaters on March 28. The movie has largely received negative reviews from Christian audiences because of the liberty that director Darren Aronofsky took to veer from the Biblical text. Just before the debut of the Hollywood movie, Ray Comfort, President of the Living Waters Publications, released a biblical version of the Noah movie on Youtube to warn about God's judgement of the last days. Comfort said he wants to provide another option for the Christian viewers. The 30-minute documentary entitled Noah-- And the Last Days was released on...

I'm the "little guy" who wrote a blog post critiquing an early draft of the Noah script because of my own research into the subject matter. Well, when things went south in the studio screenings of the movie with religious audiences, the blood hound media scoured the internet for negative quotes, found my post, and it went viral. I thus became Satan for Paramount and its elitist director of dark unsympathetic sick and twisted heroes, Darren Aronofsky. I finally saw the movie. And now I know why Paramount and its hired Christian marketers would not let me into an early...

Editor’s note: A shorter review of Noah appeared on Friday. The movie review below is a much more detailed examination of the new Hollywood film. On Thursday evening, a team of researchers from Answers in Genesis viewed the new Noah film. Based on reviews from trusted friends of the ministry who had seen the movie, including a staff member, we were hesitant to spend any money on watching this unbiblical picture. But AiG had already received hundreds of inquiries about our position on the film even before it was released, so we believed it was necessary for AiG’s research team...

Conor Burns, chair of a parliamentary committee on Vatican relations, says he feels he cannot take Holy Communion at his local church following comments by the Bishop of Portsmouth on same sex marriage One of Britain’s most senior Roman Catholic MPs says he feels unable to take Holy Communion in his local church after his bishop suggested that politicians who voted for same-sex marriage should be denied the sacrament. Conor Burns, who co-chairs a parliamentary committee on Vatican relations, said the remarks by the Bishop of Portsmouth, the Rt Rev Philip Egan, whose diocese includes his Bournemouth West constituency, were...

The Kasper controversy (with the attempt by Cardinal Kasper, invited by the Pope as the keynote speaker, to undermine and destroy the Catholic dogma of the indissolubility of the matrimonial bond) dominated the consistory discussions of February. Some had given the impression that all were quite pleased with the views presented by Cardinal Kasper - Cardinal Müller (see notes at the end) had been quite clear about the issue since the second half of 2013, but the first member of the College of Cardinals to speak up clearly in public following the consistory was Cardinal Caffarra, followed by Cardinal Burke....

Pope Francis greets pilgrims in Saint Peter's Square during his General Audience on Dec. 4, 2013 Credit-Kyle Burkhart/CNA Vatican City, Mar 28, 2014 / 07:14 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In a speech given to priests and seminarians attending a course on the Sacrament of Confession, Pope Francis spoke about the mercy of God, stating that it is the most important aspect of their ministry. “Confession is not a court of condemnation, but an experience of forgiveness and mercy!” the Pope expressed in his March 28 speech to those attending the annual Course on the Internal Forum. The Internal Forum part of...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2Wf2w1HnBA

Controversial billboards in Columbus, Ohio, reading "Jesus is Muslim" and "Mohammed is in the Bible" are drawing protests from local Christians who say Muslims are "hijacking" the name of Jesus. "Although we support the Islamic community's right to free speech, as well as their right to post messages on billboards, we do not support the hijacking of the name of Jesus Christ in their attempt to lure uninformed Christians into their religion," Coach Dave Daubenmire of Pass the Salt Ministries said in a statement Thursday. Daubenmire is hosting a prayer vigil on Saturday alongside the Rev. Rusty Thomas of Operation...

"A life of religious devotion without kindness is not a spiritual life." -Emanuel Swedenborg This video expands on Swedenborg's assertions about what's at the root of organized religion's problems. Lyrics: Peace, please believe, that there's a lot of human need And a lot of hungry bellies that could do without human greed And a lot of people packing churches looking for a seed hoping for a higher love to patch up where we all bleed they're there to learn, it's a perfect opportunity to say hey we're all God's children and pump love and aid into the community but what...

Sunday mornings at All Souls Charlottesville are fairly common for an Anglican congregation. The Book of Common Prayer and the Revised Common Lectionary are standard, creeds are spoken together, the Eucharist is the central focus of the liturgy and the minister blesses the congregation before it scatters back into the world. But the Charlottesville, Va., congregation isn’t an Episcopal church. It’s Baptist — in fact it’s a plant of the Baptist General Association of Virginia and is celebrating its fifth anniversary in 2014. This isn’t a Baptist church in the Charleston tradition, a structured expression of worship often distinguished from...

In his weekly general audience, Pope Francis talked about the Sacrament of Holy Orders.  He explained that priests are ordained to serve, therefore, a Bishop doesn't own his diocese, just like a priest doesn't own his parish. Rather, the Pope explained, it all belongs to the Lord.  To not lose this call to service, the Pope asked all priests and Bishops to nurture their vocation through prayer and the Sacraments.  SUMMARY OF CATECHESIS IN ENGLISH:  Dear Brothers and Sisters:  In our catechesis on the sacraments, we now turn to the sacrament of Holy Orders.  Building on the vocation received in...

Left: Bishop James D. Conley after being installed the ninth bishop of Lincoln in November 2012. (CNS photo/Kevin Clark, Southern Nebraska Register) Right: Bishop Paul S. Loverde of Arlington, Va., at the Congregation for Catholic Education during his "ad limina" visit to the Vatican in January 2012. (CNS photo/Paul Haring) Earlier today, Bishop James D. Conley of Lincoln, Nebraska, issued a pastoral letter, "The Language of Love", which was addressed "to the Catholic families and healthcare providers of the Diocese of Lincoln". Of course, it has gotten attention outside of the Diocese of Lincoln, in part because contraception is...

The evangelical group Catholics Come Home has launched a new web site, GoodConfession.com, encouraging more frequent use of sacrament of Reconciliation. "Whether you frequent the Sacrament of Reconciliation or you have been away from Confession for years, we are here to provide you with easy-to-read and easy-to-use resources," the web site announces. Tom Peterson, the president of Catholics Come Home, said: "If we truly desire holiness in our Church and in our personal lives, there must be an effort to make Confession a regular habit again."

Lincoln, Neb., Mar 24, 2014 / 08:06 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Bishop James Conley of Lincoln hopes his new pastoral letter on the sacrificial “language of love” and the disruptive immorality of contraception will be received “with open hearts and open minds.” “My hope is that people, Catholic couples especially, and also Catholic physicians and pharmacists, will be willing to look at this issue again,” he told CNA March 20. “The Language of Love” is Bishop Conley’s pastoral letter on the sacrificial nature of love and on contraception, officially promulgated March 25 -- the feast of the Annunciation, when the Church...