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he other day I ate some rather extraordinary Thai food for lunch and, on my way out, grabbed a fortune cookie. I cracked it open and read a silly little proverb meant to inspire, I suppose. I wish it had said “Brisk uphill walk after all-you-can-eat Thai is a bad idea.” Never mind. As I waddled my way home, regretting that last bowl of curry (so delicious…), I thought “This fortune sounds like something Joel Osteen would say.” And then it struck me—there is very little difference between Joel and those fortune cookies (except that the cookies are delicious, of...

I was recently sent a link to a page about the Nuns on the Bus tour taking place. This is effort run by Sr. Simone Campbell of the lobby group NETWORK to sign up as many people who will vote for democrats (the pro-abortion party) as possible.Here is a video about their luxury bus. Inside the 'Nuns on the Bus' Rockstar Tour Bus

A Canadian archbishop visited the Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., diocese last week on behalf of the Vatican to investigate the leadership of Bishop Robert Finn, the first Catholic prelate to be found criminally guilty of shielding a priest in the ongoing clergy sexual abuse crisis. Ottawa, Ontario, Archbishop Terrence Prendergast visited the Midwestern diocese for several days last week, interviewing more than a dozen people about Finn's leadership, several of those interviewed told NCR. According to those who spoke with Prendergast, the main question he asked was: "Do you think [Finn] is fit to be a leader?" The communications officer...

The forced resignation of a Catholic church music director who married his longtime same-sex partner apparently won’t be challenged in court. Jamie Moore, who was music director at St. Victoria Parish Catholic Church for more than 17 years before he quit at the request of church leaders, decided Friday not to pursue legal action against Archbishop John Nienstedt, according to his former lawyer. “I think he was in a very good position to challenge the termination because of the reason that was given, and that was marital status,” Clayton Halunen said Sunday, explaining that Minnesota churches are allowed to discriminate...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- With so much spiritual, social and moral suffering in the world, the church has "no right" to stay locked up in an ivory tower, engaging in "byzantine" philosophical reflection, Pope Francis told members of the Focolare movement. "We have to go out! So that -- I've said this before -- the church seems like a field hospital," where the first order of the day "is heal the wounds, not measure people's cholesterol. That comes later. Got it?" he said to applause. The pope met at the Vatican with 500 people from 136 countries; they were attending...

Bishop of Buckingham claims as many as a dozen of his colleagues could be trapped in the “episcopal closet” because of power wielded by tiny “reactionary clique” in Church of England A serving bishop has issued a stinging public denunciation of “duplicity and hypocrisy” in the Church of England over homosexuality – claiming that around as many as one in 10 of his fellow bishops could be secretly gay but unwilling to speak publicly. The Rt Rev Dr Alan Wilson, the Bishop of Buckingham, accused the current episcopate of preaching a 1950s “Janet and John” image of human relationships while...

(CNA/EWTN News).- Bishop Rogelio Livieres Plano has accepted in obedience Pope Francis’ decision to remove him from governance of the Ciudad del Este diocese, though he says the action resulted from a flawed apostolic visitation and that his country is in vital need of Christian renewal. “As an obedient son of the Church, I nevertheless accept this decision, despite considering it to be unfounded and arbitrary,” Bishop Livieres said in a Sept. 25 letter to Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops. “Despite so much discourse about dialogue, mercy, openness, decentralization, and respect for local Churches, I haven’t...

Last week, we brought you 11 Maps to Help You Make Sense of World Religion. This week, we’re zooming in on the grand ‘ole United States of America. What are the major religious groups? And where are they located? Scroll through these awesome maps, and you’ll see some interesting patterns emerge. You can click on any map to enlarge it. Enjoy

In light of recent firings of gays and lesbians from Catholic institutions, Benjamin Brenkert has left the Catholic church after 10 years of pursuing priesthood in the Jesuit order. "I can't be a Jesuit priest because I can't be a member of the Catholic church right now," Brenkert told NCR. "I can't be an openly gay Jesuit discerning priesthood in the Catholic church if LGBT employees are being fired from Catholic institutions." Brenkert said the last straw for him was when a food pantry worker was fired from St. Francis Xavier Parish in Kansas City, Mo., after her marriage to...

...and the Pastor Nervously Sweating What one church recently did with $160,000 during a Sunday morning service absolutely stunned parishioners: 320 members were each given a $500 check to spend as they wish. ... Traux, who aid that the money came from a decades-old real estate deal, first told her congregation that active members would be receiving the sizable checks. ... The move came after Traux and church elders decided to give back $10 percent of the $1.6 million LaSalle Street Church reportedly made from the real estate deal - a sum that adds up to the $160,000 figure members...

— Pope Francis on Thursday forcibly removed a conservative Paraguayan bishop who had clashed with his fellow bishops on ideological grounds and promoted a priest accused of inappropriate sexual behavior. The removal of Bishop Rogelio Ricardo Livieres Plano, a member of the conservative Opus Dei movement, marks the second time Francis has kicked out a conservative bishop for the sake of keeping peace among the faithful and unity among bishops. In March, he ousted the "bling bishop" of Limburg, Germany, whose 31-million-euro ($43-million) new residence complex caused an uproar among the faithful. Livieres was named bishop of Paraguay's second city,...

Lewistown, Montana, Sep 25, 2014 / 04:50 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The denial of Holy Communion to a same-sex couple who obtained a marriage license is in line with broader Church teaching on public grave sin and the Eucharist, explained a prominent canon lawyer. The provision that supports this pastor’s action is Canon 915, which “directs ministers of holy Communion to withhold the sacrament from those who ‘obstinately persist in manifest grave sin’,” Dr. Edward Peters told CNA. The case in question involves Fr. Samuel Spiering of St. Leo the Great parish in Lewistown, Montana, where a same-sex couple who volunteered...

From a reader (who has sent queries before about a writing project): I’m sorry if I’m been annoying at all in the past. But I have another question this one is for a writing project that might never get off the ground, but in case it does. Could water that is extratrestrial in origin e.g from a comet or another planet be valid matter for baptism? I parried back: Water is water. H2O. Right? And I went about my day, self-assured in my concise response.The inquirer reposted: Yep, essentially. But there exist other types of water like D2O [which everyone...

Five years ago, a group of atheist and agnostic students launched a campaign to hire a nonreligious chaplain at Tufts University. With the recent addition of a university-funded “humanist in residence,’ it appears their prayers—or lack thereof—have finally been answered.The new position is believed to be the first-ever university-funded campus chaplain catering to atheist, agnostic and nonreligious students, according to Religion News Service.In early September, Walker Bristol, a former intern of Harvard’s Humanist Community, was hired as the first humanist chaplain at the private, Massachusetts-based university. Bristol previously served as a student leader of Tufts’ Freethought Society, a group of...

The first woman bishop in the Church of England could be in the Gloucester diocese, a senior clergyman has said. The archdeacon of Cheltenham's comments came during an open meeting where some 70 people shared their views on what qualities the new bishop should have. The Venerable Robert Springett said he felt the likelihood was "really pretty high" as the diocese could now pick the best person regardless of gender. The Right Reverend Michael Perham, stepped back as bishop in August. He had been due to retire in November. He was interviewed by the Metropolitan Police investigating two allegations of...

Now that he has been named archbishop of Chicago, many people have expressed interest in Bishop Blase Cupich’s time as bishop of the Diocese of Spokane. I should make clear that I barely know Bishop Cupich on a personal level. I am only a Catholic layman in the diocese of Spokane. I do, however, hold an endowed chair in “Christian Philosophy” at Gonzaga University, serve as academic advisor to Bishop White Seminary (an undergraduate college seminary at Gonzaga), and am a former director of Gonzaga’s small Catholic Studies Program. Gonzaga University is, primarily, a school of approximately 4800 undergraduates that...

One of the wisest clerics in the traditional Catholic world, Father Claude Barthe, wrote a short note for the highly regarded French Catholic periodical L'Homme Nouveau on the Holy See communiqué on the meeting between Cardinal Müller and Bishop Fellay yesterday. He paid attention to the key words, as well as to words that are missing, and how they represent a high point in the evolution of relations between the Apostolic See and the Society of Saint Pius X. Father Barthe, by the way, is the main chaplain of the remarkable Populus Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage to Rome, taking place a...

As crazy as it is may now sound, perhaps Pope Francis is the one who can reconcile the SSPX.I’ve floated this idea before. I don’t have any illusions that Francis likes much of anything about the SSPX. The other day I had a chat with a South American journalist who agreed with my suspicions that then-Card. Bergoglio’s impressions of the SSPX in Argentina were not favorable in large part because of Bp. Williamson and Bp. de Galaretta. Not hard to believe at all.But… just maybe… could Francis be the one to get the job done?I saw at VIS that SSPX...

Judging by the media reports on the Extraordinary Synod to be held in Rome this October, the bishops present will be mainly concerned with issues such as the admission to the Eucharist of divorced and remarried persons, the speeding up of annulment processes, and the possible revision of the Church’s teaching on contraception. Implicit in most of the reports is the view that a liberalization or “relaxation” of the Church’s present discipline in these matters could help to ameliorate the pastoral problem or concern that the Synod is called to examine. What could be said about this view?First, it...

NEW YORK (RNS) Redeemer Presbyterian Church, one of the most influential evangelical churches in the country led by author and speaker Tim Keller, has partnered with a Mississippi-based school to form a seminary campus in New York City in 2015. The partnership between Redeemer and Reformed Theological Seminary fits in with the desire of evangelicals to plant their flag in large cities such as New York. It also reflects the influence of Reformed theology on evangelical thinking, as well as the impact of megachurches on theological education. And while many seminaries are still suffering declining revenues since the economic crisis...