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VATICAN CITY (AP) — An international family rally the Catholic Church is hosting in Ireland will feature workshops on hot-button issues facing Catholic families, including protecting children from clergy sexual abuse, weathering divorce and ministering to lesbian and gay faithful. Pope Francis will join the Aug. 21-26 World Meeting of Families for the last two days and preside over the final Mass in Dublin. Organizers on Monday unveiled the pastoral program leading up to Francis' arrival, and it includes some surprising entries. Perhaps none is more surprising than the inclusion of the Rev. James Martin, an American Jesuit scheduled to...

June 5, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – A few of you might remember a horrific case in the United Kingdom a few years ago, where a Family Court judge ordered what amounted to a medical rape, sending a “mentally incompetent” teenage girl to get an abortion against her will. The girl was firmly opposed to the abortion. Experts in the trial testified that an abortion would “cause considerable harm to this young girl.” But, the judge responded that because he felt she should have an abortion, it was better to leave “to one side her own wishes and feelings” and conclude—as he...

COUNTY DOWN, Northern Ireland, June 7, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – A Catholic priest had his good name smeared in public after he indicated to a couple in Northern Ireland that the groom’s publicly expressed pro-abortion views might make the Church’s involvement in their wedding “inappropriate.” Shaunagh Griffin, 36, and Kevin McAteer, 32, of Newry hope to marry almost two years from now, on May 22, 2020. For over a week they have kept media updated on their thoughts following a private message they received from the priest they had asked to celebrate their wedding. After reading pro-abortion sentiments McAteer, an ex-Councillor...

BROWNSBURG, Ind. -- The Brownsburg Community Schools board voted to accept the resignation of an orchestra teacher who refused to call transgender students by their preferred names. John Kluge attempted to rescind his resignation before it was accepted after claiming that he was forced to resign because of the school’s transgender policy. Dozens of students and parents gathered at the school board meeting Monday evening to share their support and concerns regarding Kluge's job and the school board's decision.

Three Insights of Pope Leo XIII That Diagnose Our Cultural Malaise Msgr. Charles Pope • June 11, 2018 • Pope Leo XIII penned an insightful analysis of three trends that both alarmed him and pointed to future problems. He wrote of these three concerns in 1893 in the Encyclical on the Holy Rosary entitled Laetitiae Sanctae (Of Holy Joy). The Pope laid out these three areas of concern and then offered the Mysteries of the Rosary as a remedy. Let’s look at how he described the problems and then consider what he proposed as a solution. His teaching is...

Proverb 12 (NKJV) The House of the Righteous Shall Stand 01 Whoever loves instruction loves knowledge, 00 But he who hates correction is stupid. 02 A good man obtains favor from the LORD, 00 But a man of wicked intentions He will condemn. 03 A man is not established by wickedness, 00 But the root of the righteous cannot be moved. 04 An excellent wife is the crown of her husband, 00 But she who causes shame is like rottenness in his bones. 05 The thoughts of the righteous are right, 00 But the counsels of the wicked are...

June 5, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – The Christian soccer player who bowed out of the U.S. women’s national soccer team last year has confirmed it was because her faith conflicted with wearing a jersey celebrating gay “pride.” “I just felt so convicted in my spirit that it wasn't my job to wear this jersey,” the player, Jaelene Hinkle, said in a new interview with the 700 Club. “I gave myself three days to just seek and pray and determine what [God] was asking me to do in this situation.” Hinkle told the 700 Club that she wrestled with her Christian faith...

Bishops in Poland have said the Church needs to serve “people living in irregular relationships according to the pastoral criteria proposed by Pope Francis: Acceptance, accompaniment, discernment and integration.” The statement came in a set of pastoral guidelines issued for Francis’s 2016 document on the family, Amoris Laetitia. During their June 2017 plenary assembly, the Polish bishops issued a statement saying Amoris Laetitia had not changed Church doctrine on the practice of forbidding Communion to the divorced and civilly remarried, citing Pope John Paul II’s exhortation Familiaris Consortio. However, the bishops in 2017 said they would be producing official guidelines...

God Has His Seven Thousand: A Word of Encouragement from the Life of Elijah Msgr. Charles Pope • June 10, 2018 • This week in daily Mass we read of the struggles of Elijah the Prophet, who spent his life fighting the influence of the Canaanite god Baal in Israel. Up on Mt. Carmel, Elijah was strong and fearless, but he also had moments of deep discouragement.Many of us today are discouraged in these times of cultural confusion, times when so many Catholics have fallen away from the practice of the faith or so easily dissent. It makes me...

Proverb 11 (NKJV) The Folly of Wickedness01 Dishonest scales are an abomination to the LORD, 00 But a just weight is His delight. 02 When pride comes, then comes shame; 00 But with the humble is wisdom. 03 The integrity of the upright will guide them, 00 But the perversity of the unfaithful will destroy them. 04 Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, 00 But righteousness delivers from death. 05 The righteousness of the blameless will direct his way aright, 00 But the wicked will fall by his own wickedness. 06 The righteousness of the upright...

June 5, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Using contraception is an “intrinsic evil” in all circumstances because it “cuts off one of the goals of marriage which is an openness to life,” Kansas City Archbishop Joseph Naumann told LifeSiteNews. Any question on this issue lies on the level of moral culpability for those who do use it, he added. “Circumstances can affect the culpability, [but] it doesn't affect the rightness or wrongness of the act,” he said. Speaking exclusively with LifeSiteNews, the incoming chair for the U.S. Bishops’ pro-life committee said further that following the Church’s teaching on contraception is an attainable...

he Australian state of New South Wales recently passed legislation banning pro-life protesters from coming within 150 meters of abortion clinics (almost 500 feet). The legislation passed with a vote of 61 to 18. The law even makes it a crime to attempt “a communication that relates to abortions, by any means.” Legislators’ overwhelming support is surprising given these draconian provisions, which the Sydney Morning Herald described as “the creation of a broad communication offense.” The penalties under the law are significant with the first offense carrying a penalty of up to six months in jail, and up to 12...

A resolution submitted to the Southern Baptist Convention for its annual meeting in Dallas, Texas, has called on the nation's largest Protestant denomination to reject "homosexual identity politics" and state bans on conversion therapy. Titled "On Ministry and Counseling to Lead People from Homosexuality to Heterosexuality," the resolution, among other things, asks the SBC to "offer loving assistance to people suffering from same-sex attraction, so that they may turn from homosexuality to heterosexuality" and to reject "as heresy any claims that God makes people homosexual." "... the movement against so-called 'conversion therapy' poses an immediate threat to Christian obedience to...

Proverb 10 (NKJV) A Wise Son and a Foolish Son01 The proverbs of Solomon: 00 A wise son makes a glad father, 00 But a foolish son is the grief of his mother. 02 Treasures of wickedness profit nothing 00 But righteousness delivers from death. 03 The LORD will not allow the righteous soul to famish, 00 But He casts away the desire of the wicked. 04 He who has a slack hand becomes poor, 00 But the hand of the diligent makes rich. 05 He who gathers in summer is a wise son; 00 He who sleeps in...

The Passing of Things as Seen on Television Msgr. Charles Pope • June 8, 2018 • Below is a link to a commercial that must have taken weeks to film. Regardless of its intent (selling home insurance), there is something of an admonition in both the visuals and the music, that life and the things of life slip away.While the music sets forth the theme, “Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow; don’t stop, it’ll soon be here,” the objects in the house start to get up and leave the house and its owners. The owners themselves begin to be swept...

Proverb 9 (NKJV)The Way of Wisdom Wisdom's Invitation01 Wisdom has built her house, 00 She has hewn out her seven pillars; 02 She has slaughtered her meat, 00 She has mixed her wine, 00 She has also furnished her table. 03 She has sent out her maidens, 00 She cries out from the highest places of the city, 04 "Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!" 00 As for him who lacks understanding, she says to him, 05 "Come, eat of my bread 00 And drink of the wine I have mixed. 06 Forsake foolishness and live, 00...

Archbishop Prowse criticised new mandatory reporting laws which include the sacrament of ConfessionAn Australian archbishop has warned that a new local law could penalise priests who refuse to break the seal of Confession in cases relating to child abuse. The legislative assembly of the Australian Capital Territory has expanded regulations on abuse reporting to include information divulged in the confessional. In an article for the Canberra Times, Archbishop Christopher Prowse of Canberra and Goulburn, supported the effort to protect children but said that “breaking the sacred seal of Confession won’t prevent abuse”. Archbishop Prowse said that the law would be...

In the most recent edition of that dreadful “Pope Video” series, wherein Jorge Bergoglio plays himself (a non-Catholic humanist), the star of the show (stage name, “Francis”) encourages the following:A lengthening of horizons, a widening, for so many people…Immense possibilities for encounter and solidarity…A place not of alienation … a concrete place, a place rich in humanity…Inclusiveness which respects others for their differences… Is it merely coincidental that the so-called “Pope Video” installment for June – or what gay activists call “Pride Month,” a worldwide 30 day public celebration of homo-debauchery – employs a host of LGBT buzzwords?Maybe. Then...

Poop Video - Nuanced Nod To Gays? AKA-Catholic asks a very good question of this month's Poop Video: Did Pope Francis toss a bone to the gays? This is "pride month", after all. Listen to all the gay-appropriated buzz words: "inclusiveness", "respect for differences" During his pontificate, we have seen many examples of Poop Video - Nuanced Nod To Gays? AKA-Catholic asks a very good question of this month's Poop Video: Did Pope Francis toss a bone to the gays?  This is "pride month", after all.  Listen to all the gay-appropriated buzz words: "inclusiveness", "respect for differences" During his pontificate,...

The late Pope Saint John Paul II did not equivocate or placate over the implications of a sizable celebration of homosexuality conducted in Rome during the Catholic Church’s Jubilee Year of 2000 – saying it was an “offense” to Christian values and an insult that commanded acrimony. ''In the name of the church of Rome, I cannot not express bitterness for the affront to the Grand Jubilee of the year 2000 and for the offense to the Christian values of a city that is so dear to the hearts of Catholics across the world,'' he told pilgrims in a Sunday...