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SALEM, Mass. —It’s a hot summer night, and leaders of the Satanic Temple have gathered in the crimson­-walled living room of a Victorian manse in this city renowned for its witch trials in the 17th century. They’re watching a sepia-toned video, in which children dance around a maypole, a spider crawls across a clown’s face and eerie, ambient chanting gives way to a backward, demonic voice-over. The group chuckles with approval.On Monday, the group plans to introduce its After School Satan Club to public elementary schools, including one in Prince George’s County, petitioning school officials to allow them to...

You Can’t Take It with You, But You Can Send it on Ahead! Five Teachings on Wealth Msgr. Charles Pope • July 30, 2016 • The Gospel today is not merely a warning against greed; it is an instruction on income and wealth given by Jesus to help us root out greed. As the Gospel opens, the problem of greed is presented. Following that, a prescribed perspective on wealth is offered. Let’s take a look at both parts of this Gospel. I. The Problem that is Portrayed – The text begins, Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher,...

Katherine Haik’s one-year reign as Miss Teen USA ends Saturday evening in Las Vegas. An active member of her youth group at First Baptist Church in Franklinton, Louisiana, in 2015 Katherine became the youngest-ever contestant to win the pageant. Alas, the then 15-year-old high school freshman did not earn her victory without making a certain compromise – disregarding the Scripture advising that “women should adorn themselves in respectable attire, with modesty and self control.” Well, one needn’t be prudish to wonder whether sashaying across a stage in high heels and a teensy bikini fits the Biblical definition of “modesty.” Especially,...

Yes, Bergoglio said this to young people, many of whom are wrestling with all sorts of temptations right now. For the record, saying God wants us to be morally weak is a vicious and damnable lie. From Catholic News Agency: God prefers us weak, Pope Francis says off-the-cuff to youth Krakow, Poland, Jul 30, 2016 / 09:28 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The weaker we are, the more God's mercy can transform our lives. Pope Francis made these impromptu remarks on Saturday to crowds of young people gathered outside of Krakow’s St. John Paul II shrine. “Today, the Lord wants us to...

BATON ROUGE - A win for the Roman Catholic Church for the Diocese of Baton Rouge today in a legal case that centered around a church doctrine prohibiting a priest from revealing what is said inside a confessional. A state appeals court affirmed that Father Jeff Bayhi does not have to reveal any conversation between him and a woman who claims she was sexually abused by a now deceased parishioner. Rebecca Mayeux claimed in a lawsuit against the Church that she told Bayhi about the alleged behavior in 2008 and that those statements between the two should be included during...

KRAKOW, Poland, July 29, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – The head of the Polish bishops conference says that in a private meeting this week Pope Francis held with the country’s bishops, he spoke of allowing local bishops conferences to make decisions about the controversial practice of giving Communion to those who are divorced and remarried. “The Holy Father says that general laws are very hard to enforce in each country, and so he speaks about decentralization,” Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki told reporters after a July 27 closed-door meeting with the Pope in Krakow. The pope had traveled to Poland for World Youth Day....

The diocese of San Jose is saying its LGBT ministry will not "elaborate" on Church teaching on "sexual morality, conscience, and personal sin," while claiming that gay people can't change their sexual orientation. The document "Guidelines for the Catholic LGBT Ministry Council" bears the name of Bp. Patrick J. McGrath and is the guide by which Catholic parishes are to deal with LGBT people. It maintains from the outset that the guidelines "do not presume any particular social or psychological analysis of sexuality in our society, except for a generally accepted premise that individuals do not choose and cannot change...

Canadian Catholic journalist Lianne Laurence has written a profile offering new insight into the role that Fr. Antonio Spadaro, SJ — editor of the Italian Jesuit magazine, La Civiltà Cattolica — plays in divulging the mind of his close friend, Pope Francis. In a new interview at World Youth Day, Fr. Spadaro gives details on his relationship with Francis that help paint a picture of how attuned he is to the mind of the pope. The fortnightly journal is reviewed by the Vatican’s secretary of state before publication, and is seen as reflecting the “official” views of the Holy See....

The more liberal Francis was always going to have a problem with Poland's more traditionalist Catholic hierarchy Poland plays a waiting game: how senior clergy are biding their time for a more conservative pope. The Polish bishops will have given Pope Francis a suitably polite welcome on his arrival in Krakow this week. But behind the scenes, they are determined to ignore most of what he says and sit out his papacy in the hope of getting a more conservative successor.

A Planned Parenthood affiliate in Utah is facing public backlash after it integrated a Mormon trademark phrase on its new condom packages. KLS News in Utah reports the condom packages showed the letters “CTR” against a pink shield, a reference to a popular Mormon hymn and symbol used in youth religious education programs. On Monday, the abortion group posted a photo of the condoms on its Facebook page, but deleted it later that day after the public began to complain, according to the report. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints issued a statement saying it has a registered...

SAMARA, Russia, July 28, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) — An American clergyman in the Ukraine was deported for planning to officiate a gay wedding. Jim Mulcahy, pastor of Metropolitan Community Church, was arrested at the LGBT center Avers in Samara. The Kremlin’s Vesti News Channel reported that Mulcahy intended to marry LGBT couples and engage in gay propaganda, a violation of his tourist visa. Mulcahy is the Metropolitan Community Churches' Eastern Europe Coordinator. His arrest was videotaped by state-controlled television (NTV). He denies planning to officiate a gay "marriage" but reportedly performed "unspecified ceremonies for homosexuals." Sodomy is no longer illegal in...

Fr. Jacques Hamel (+2016) At the online site of the excellent Regina magazine there is a good piece about the rock and the hard place, the Scylla and Charybdis, the fire and the frying pan, the deep blue sea and the devil, betwixt which we find ourselves. A Catholic Caught Between Jihad and the AgendaISIS has made its intentions clear: “the Christian community… “will not have safety, even in your dreams, until you embrace Islam. We will conquer your Rome, break your crosses, and enslave your women….”It happened yesterday, but it could have been the 700’s. Yesterday, Pere Jacques Hamel,...

Announcement highlights tensions between Francis and Polish hierarchy after closed door meeting last night A senior bishop has said that the Church in Poland will refuse communion to divorced and remarried Catholics despite the landmark family document from Pope Francis which opened up the possibility. Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki, the President of the Polish Bishops’ Conference, said that giving communion could not be allowed following a period of pastoral discernment - something which Francis has advocated - adding that if remarried divorcees had a valid first marriage they cannot receive the eucharist. His remarks came just hours after the Pope’s arrival...

"More souls go to hell because of sins of the flesh than for any other reason," Our Lady of Fatima warned the three young seers in 1917. But this message, unfortunately, is entirely absent from the Vatican’s newly released sex-ed program for teens. Instead, sexual sins are not mentioned at all. The 6th and 9th commandments are ignored while sexually explicit images and immoral videos are used as springboards for discussion.

Another election, another pro-abortion “Catholic” on the democrat ticket. Hillary Clinton has named Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia as her vice-presidential pick, making this the fourth consecutive election to see a Catholic nominated to one of the top two spots by the democrats.  Of course, like almost every other democrat who claims to be Catholic and aspires to any political office higher than deputy street cleaner, Kaine has removed his soul, slapped a “personally opposed” label on it, and sold it outright to Satan. Oh, that crosses the line does it?  How dare I judge someone’s soul? You know...

There are few sins God hates as much as shedding innocent blood, especially the blood of children. Seeing that Hillary Clinton is a radically pro-abortion candidate and seeing that the Democratic platform reinforces those radical views, can a Christian vote for Hillary in good conscience? In Jeremiah 19, God explained why the people of Judah were about to go into exile: It was because they worshiped idols and because they "filled this place [speaking of Jerusalem] with the blood of the innocent. They have built the high places of Baal to burn their children in the fire as offerings to...

Tears of Joy, and of Reparation By Dr. Brian Kopp on July 5, 2016 1P5 BlogEditor’s note: in March, we shared the news with our readers that 1P5 contributor Dr. Brian Kopp had suffered a series of debilitating strokes that were, at the time, life-threatening. By God’s grace, Brian pulled through, and is making progress in his physical recovery. This is his first contribution since that time. Please pray for his continued healing. I went to my parish for the Traditional Latin Mass today. It was the first time I went there with a pair of forearm crutches instead of...

Pope Francis is set to arrive Wednesday in Poland, but the homeland of Saint Pope John Paul II – Francis’ most popular modern-day predecessor -- is not rolling out the red carpet for the pontiff whose social agenda has alienated many in the conservative nation. Francis will be in Krakow to celebrate World Youth Day, the event initiated more than 30 years ago by Pope John Paul II in which hundreds of thousands of young people from all over the world gather. But unlike the favorite son the Eastern European nation sent to the Vatican, Francis has received a chilly...

RICHMOND, Virginia, July 26, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – Pro-abortion Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Senator Tim Kaine received a standing ovation at his parish on Sunday and several Catholic priests praised his nomination. Meanwhile, as Catholics call for Kaine to be denied Communion in accord with the Church’s laws, his bishop in the Diocese of Richmond has issued a statement saying that Catholics have a duty to determine their own worthiness “through an upright and informed conscience.” Kaine and his wife were “like every other married couple going to church on a Sunday morning — if every other couple were met by...

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 25, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) — A Catholic priest asked that pro-abortion Vice Presidential nominee Tim Kaine “do us both a favor” and not show up in his Communion line. “I take Canon 915 seriously. It'd be embarrassing for you & for me,” tweeted Dominican Father Thomas Petri, the vice president and academic dean of the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception at the Dominican House of Studies. Canon 915 of the Code of Canon Law instructs that those “persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to Holy Communion.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches,...