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We often hear from atheists how religion is dying out as mankind comes to see the clear light of reason. Atheist “intellectuals” speak disparagingly about religion and predict that mankind is on the cusp of a new age in which religion will simply disappear as science, technology and reason are in the ascendant. The facts indicate exactly the opposite. It is religion which continues to grow around the world while the statistics indicate that agnosticism and atheism are dying out. [See also:11 Maps to Help You Make Sense of World Religion] [See also:24 Crazy Facts About Global Christianity in...

What Ever Happened to the Spiritual Works of Mercy? By: Msgr. Charles PopeDuring daily masses at this time we are beginning to read through John Chapter 6. There of course is a glorious focus and teaching of the Lords true presence in the Most Blessed Sacrament.However, there is also another important teaching given at a critical moment in chapter 6 that is important for us to lay hold of today. It is a call to recover a greater awareness of the importance of the spiritual works of mercy. We will list what they are in the moment, but for now, consider that, despite living in rather...

For the past five years I have been absolutely fascinated about how little is stated about the Two Witnesses' ministry of Revelation (Rev. 11:3-12), but also have been absolutely blown away with how much in that little given one could write a novel on! The Divine POWER and AUTHORITY given unto them by Almighty God is inconceivable but by faith we must believe it to be so. The key is knowing where they fit into Almighty God's final outworking of Biblical prophecy before the return of the Messiah (Rev.19:11-21). These two Lamp Stands of Revelation's chief ministry for 1260 days...

Your Holiness: I recall with pleasure and gratitude my visit to the Vatican in November and your moving address to our Colloquium on the Complementarity of Man and Woman in Marriage. There, gathered with leaders of the world’s great religious traditions, East and West, you reaffirmed the Church’s doctrine of marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife and spoke movingly of the right of every child “to grow up in a family with a father and mother.” Here in the United States we are blessed with many bishops who join you in bearing witness to these profound and...

Francis considering visit to island during America tripPope Francis is considering a trip to Cuba in September to tie in with his visit to the United States, a move that could further improve diplomatic relations between the US and Cuba. The Vatican spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, said that Francis “is considering the idea of a Cuba leg” but that discussions about the visit are at a preliminary stage. According to Associated Press, he added that it was too early to say that a decision has been taken or that operational planning was underway. In what will be the Pope’s...

I call on all the readers here to pray and offer fasting and alms for the spiritual defense of Archbishop Cordileone of San Francisco.Will San Francisco be the Alamo of the Church in these USA?Today, in the ultra-liberal San Francisco Chronicle there is a full page ad from 100 “Prominent Catholics” calling on Pope Francis to remove Archbp. Cordileone. Prominent? Why? Because they support sodomy and they have money? Catholic? How?What will happen across these USA if the liberals and homosexualists succeed in bringing down Archbp. Cordileone?Think about it. The libs and the haters of the Church and homosexualists with...

Feeling trapped and miserable in the gay lifestyle, Joseph Sciambra found freedom in the love of Christ. Now he helps others to find it, too. Visit a street fair in San Francisco’s Castro district and you’re likely to meet Joseph Sciambra, 45, wearing a “Jesus loves you” t-shirt and handing out copies of his book, Swallowed by Satan. It tells the story of how, as a boy growing up in a lax Catholic family in Napa, California, he became addicted to pornography. Sexually confused at age 18, Sciambra made his way to the Castro, a “gay mecca,” and immersed himself...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (SAN FRANCISCO, April 15, 2015) Regarding the paid advertisement in the San Francisco Chronicle slated for publication April 16 the Archdiocese of San Francisco responds: The advertisement is a misrepresentation of Catholic teaching, a misrepresentation of the nature of the teacher contract, and a misrepresentation of the spirit of the Archbishop. The greatest misrepresentation of all is that the signers presume to speak for “the Catholic Community of San Francisco.” They do not. The Archdiocese has met with a broad range of stakeholders. Together, we have engaged in a constructive dialogue on all of the issues raised...

Sandro Magister has published excerpts from a new book—an interview of Cardinal Robert Sarah of Guinea—titled, "Dieu ou rien" [God or nothing], by French journalist Nicolas Diat. The Cardinal is quite candid and direct: There is now no mistake when one realizes that there exists a form of rejection of the dogmas of the Church, or a growing distance among men, the faithful and dogmas. On the question of marriage, there is a chasm between a certain world and the Church. The question is ultimately very simple: is it the world that must change its attitude, or the Church its...

If same-sex vote carried, the church’s view on marriage and that of State radically different Ireland’s Catholic bishops spokesman has said the church may no longer perform the civil aspects of weddings if marriage is extended to same-sex couples. The move would mean the tens of thousands of couples who get married in Catholic churches each year would have to go elsewhere to have their marriage legally recognised by the State. At present, the signing of the Marriage Registration Form – a civil document required by the State in order to recognise a marriage – takes place after the wedding...

“Jesus loves you.” #JN3:16 #Easter #risn“Pray. Hope. Don’t worry.” #faith #believe“Preach the Gospel at all times” #Francis #peace #prayalwaysTwitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest and countless other platforms are filled with almost empty Christian one-liners and other messages.  Oftentimes trite sayings are re-tweeted or shared along with some kind of exhortation to “spread the word.”  Since you’re a Christian, you can feel guilted into supporting this sort of thing, to do your share of evangelization.  Believe me, I’m committed to building up a Christian culture, but sometimes I can be downright ashamed of that content.  In the most extreme cases it...

A Swedish priest who claimed that gay people have a psychological disorder that can be cured has apologised after his comments outraged gay rights campaigners. Priest Ingvar Fogelqvist, who was preaching at the Catholic parish of Arkeangeln Sankt Mikael in the southern town of Vaxjo, said in a confirmation class in front of 2,000 worshippers that gay people had a “psychological disorder that could be cured”, but claimed other types of homosexuality were incurable. Fogelqvist told the students in attendance that gay people, and people who suffer from health problems or impotence, should not be permitted to live a “normal”...

A campaign is under way to have the Catholic priest who stayed on RMS Titanic instead of fleeing on a lifeboat made a saint. Father Thomas Byles, of St Helen's Church, Chipping Ongar, Essex, boarded the ship at Southampton to attend his younger brother's wedding in New York. But when it sank in 1912 he twice refused to join a lifeboat and instead remained with passengers to pray. The current priest at St Helen's Church said Father Byles should be canonised. Father Byles, educated in Fleetwood, Lancashire and Oxford, had been rector at St Helen's for eight years when he...

He slipped His fingers in the man’s ears. Spitting, He touched the man’s tongue. Then He looked up to heaven and groaned.“Ephphatha!” Jesus said.So goes the account of the healing of the deaf man near the Sea of Galilee, as told in Mark.The word is one of a handful of words in Aramaic—believed to be the vernacular language of Jesus—that survived into the Greek New Testament. We don’t have to find an Aramaic dictionary to discover the meaning of this word. Mark readily supplies a definition: Be opened! Immediately, then, we are told that the man’s ears were “opened”...

The word apostle has a dynamic quality. The Greek apostolos means “one who is sent.” It describes an agent or vicar, an emissary or ambassador. More than a messenger, an apostolos is a representative. Scholars believe the word is a direct translation of the Hebrew shaliah; and the ancient rabbis pronounced that “a man’s shaliah is as himself.”The Apostles were first known as the Twelve — a number rich with meaning. For a Jew of the first century, it recalled the twelve tribes of Israel, the tribes now dis­persed among the Gentiles and assimilated into other peoples. The gathering...

Pope says Holy Year of Mercy is 'a time to offer everyone the way of forgiveness and reconciliation' Mercy is what makes God perfect and all-powerful, Pope Francis has said in his document officially proclaiming the Holy Year of Mercy.“If God limited himself to only justice, he would cease to be God, and would instead be like human beings who ask merely that the law be respected,” the Pope wrote in Misericordiae Vultus (“The Face of Mercy”), which is the bull of indiction calling a Holy Year to begin on December 8.Standing in front of the Holy Door of St...

Something pleasant about Sunday in the springtime

SOMERVILLE, NJ, April 10, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- A teacher suspended from a Catholic school for using Facebook to defend traditional marriage has been reinstated. Almost one month ago, Patricia Jannuzzi was suspended from Immaculata High School in Somerville, New Jersey, after she made what became controversial comments about same-sex relationships. Over the next several weeks, she was told that the suspension was effectively a release from her job, as she would not be rehired for the 2016 school year. Jannuzzi was also told that she had lost her pay and benefits for the current school year. The scandal was compounded...

LONDON – An employment tribunal in the United Kingdom has ruled against an occupational therapist who was suspended for nine months after her Muslim co-worker alleged that she was trying to convert her. Victoria Wasteney, 38, had developed a friendship with her colleague Enya Nawaz, 27, as they worked at the St. John Howard Center in London. The two had discussed Islam and Christianity, and Wasteney had talked to Nawaz about her church’s efforts to fight human trafficking. “The whole basis of our conversations around faith started with her telling me that she’d had an encounter with God, that she...

Vatican City, Apr 9, 2015 / 05:08 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A top African cardinal says that German cardinal Walter Kasper – who's stirred controversy over his views promoting Communion for the divorced and remarried – does not necessarily represent Pope Francis' theological stance. He also rejected efforts to claim the Pope for either side of the debate ahead of the upcoming synod on the family. South Africa's Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier dismissed a news report's label of Cardinal Walter Kasper as the “Pope’s theologian,” saying, “I believe Pope Francis is a theologian in his own right. So he does not...