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A few days ago, Pope Francis and his spokesman Federico Lombardi directly contradicted the traditional teaching of the Catholic Church on contraception, including directly contradicting the clear words of Pope Paul's 1968 encyclical Humanae vitae. Various "Catholic" individuals and groups quickly lined up to support Francis, including the often heterodox Filipino Catholic Bishops Conference. But a surprisingly large and strong set of Catholics--beyond the expected set of minority traditionalists--has now risen up to resist, as if Francis, after years of this this sort of thing, has now crossed an obvious line. Who knew that line would be you know where....

Dear Pope Francis: I write this letter to you as a priest to the Bishop of Rome and as a son to a father. I write with a heavy heart, and I know that heaviness of heart is shared by many of my Catholic brethren both clergy and laity. I watched the early news one morning last week to find that one of the headlines proclaimed that in an interview on the flight from Mexico to Rome you indicated that the Church's teaching on contraception may be undergoing a change. As in the past, I went to the official translation...

I wanted to briefly mention a few observations of discussions about the Holy Father's latest plane interview. 1. Astoundingly, when Catholics raise concerns about Pope Francis suggestion to women that they can use birth control pills and condoms to prevent perfectly healthy babies from being conceived because of a remote chance of birth defects, I am still seeing Catholics claim the press is misinterpreting what is being said. I will not cite the dozens of examples, suffice it to say that the Father has accountability for his own words and actions. His contradiction of Humane Vitae was as clear as...

From the canonist Ed Peter’s fine blog In The Light Of The Law. He doesn’t have a combox over there and doesn’t mind if we use his stuff here. DO, however, go over there to his place regularly. Emphases are from Peters, comments mine: Misunderstanding the (alleged) 'Congo contraception' caseEven by the standards of his reign, the presser Pope Francis conducted on his return flight from Mexico has provoked an unusual number of questions. [No kidding. You should see my inbox, too!] I wish to address only one of those here.Preliminarily, I note that the burden is not on the...

Two months and two billion box office dollars later, Star Wars: The Force Awakens has reaped huge returns for Disney with its most progressive episode yet. Now that Daisy Ridley’s Rey and John Boyega’s Finn have given the Star Wars franchise its first female Jedi and black lead, respectively, does its fearless director J.J. Abrams see a future for a gay character in the galaxy? “Of course!” Abrams said Thursday night at his Bad Robot HQ, where he hosted the US-Ireland Alliance’s annual Oscar Wilde Awards ahead of Sunday’s Oscars, where The Force Awakens is nominated in five categories. “When...

Appearing as a guest on Friday's Fox and Friends, FNC's Geraldo Rivera touted GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump as "the reasonable man on the stage" at last night's presidential debate, and went on to praise Trump's "unparalleled courage" for taking a position of neutrality on the Arab-Israeli conflict. After acknowledging that the GOP presidential candidate would have to answer for his history of having illegal immigrants doing construction work for him, Rivera brought up Trump's position on Israel as he added: My point, Brian, is that in the big picture this was the reasonable man on the stage. How is...

Abortion supporters attacks pro-lifers as abortion patient is loaded into an ambulance Bakersfield, CA – Bedlam broke out at the FPA Women’s Health abortion facility in Bakersfield as an ambulance arrived to transport a patient suffering a medical emergency. During the incident two abortion supporters assaulted pro-life activists trying to document the incident, which took place on February 23, 2016. As the ambulance arrived, several clinic workers wearing red scrubs surrounded the ambulance with white sheets to impede those who were trying to photograph the incident. As a woman was being prepared for emergency transport, a man and woman began...

A woman has filed a lawsuit against a Florida megachurch after it reportedly did not pay her the promised hush money to keep her alleged affair with a pastor a secret. Church member Arlene Miranda filed the suit against Orlando Baptist Church based in Orange County, saying the church failed to pay the agreed $3,000 so she would keep quiet about her alleged affair with Pastor David Janney, 61, married, and the church's president. "They threatened me. If I didn't sign it, they threatened me," Miranda told WFTV. Miranda denied she filed the lawsuit for the money, saying "I committed...

OTTAWA, February 25, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – All publicly funded institutions – which includes Christian hospitals and nursing homes – must be forced to provide assisted suicide and euthanasia, according to recommendations of the federal parliamentary committee in its report released today.But that “simply cannot happen and must not happen,” says Christian Elia, executive director Catholics Civil Rights League.“It’s very simple, Catholic hospitals can never participate in an intrinsically evil act, they cannot be forced,” Elia told LifesiteNews. “This can never be carried out, and they can expect a fight to the bitter end.”The all-party committee of 11 MPs and five...

Why do Pro-Lifers Focus on Abortion? It is a fair question since we do not self-identify as anti-abortion but rather as pro-life.In India, during one of my speaking tours there, people asked me why not focus your efforts on preventing drug addiction that takes many lives every year or trying to end wars? etc.The answer is simple and convincing. As in every other endeavor, one has to prioritize.Who here knows how many children have died from abortion worldwide last year? (over 40 million)The leading recorded cause of death worldwide, is Heart disease with 7.4 million deaths according to the World...

We know that simply “being pro-life” is not enough to change the culture. Just studying the facts about how much abortion hurts women isn’t enough either. In order to build a culture of life in our society, students must be trained how to use their knowledge of pro-life topics to evangelize their peers. We must take the responsibility of educating the next generation of pro-life leaders, for if we do not help them learn about the threats against human dignity, evils like abortion and euthanasia will only become more widespread. Understandably, parents want to protect their children from the lies and temptations of...

Washington D.C., February 23, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – A Pennsylvania congressman is calling for a controversial contraceptive device to be pulled from the market pending safety studies, saying it is behind the deaths of more than 300 unborn children.Representative Mike Fitzpatrick said Wednesday that the Food and Drug Administration has ignored roughly 303 fetal deaths that were linked to the abortifacient sterilization device Essure.Fitzpatrick, along with the grassroots support group for victims of Essure complications, said the FDA's own data indicates that the device's "adverse event reports" for miscarriages, ectopic pregnancies, and stillborn deaths were feasibly misreported as simple injuries or...

Exclusive Gay Porn Ties, Foam Parties & Shocking Arrest — Marco Rubio’s Racy Past Revealed! 'It was well-known that Rubio frequented gay nightclubs.' Posted on Feb 22, 2016 @ 7:02AM RadarOnline.com has learned that Presidential candidate Marco Rubio is hiding a gay secret in his past! Miami cops busted 18-year-old Marco at a notorious “cruising” spot for gay guys on the prowl for casual sex. And that’s not all! Radar viewed shocking photos — one allegedly showing the 44-year-old Florida senator at a man-fest “foam party” where he splashed about in an embarrassingly skimpy bathing suit. nother pic allegedly caught...

Cardinal Newman Society President Patrick Reilly is calling attention to the many scandals caused at Catholic colleges that don’t hire adjunct faculty in support of their religious mission after the National Catholic Register discovered an adjunct law professor at the Jesuit-run Fordham University will be arguing in support of abortionists before the U.S. Supreme Court this March. “Many Catholic colleges expect little of their professors in advancing a Catholic mission, but the expectations are even lower for adjuncts,” Reilly told the Register this week. “Usually, it’s simply a matter of having no clear understanding and appreciation for Catholic teaching and...

Pope Francis hinted that the use of contraceptives may be morally acceptable as a response to the Zika epidemic, during an question-and-answer session on February 18. Speaking to reporters who accompanied him on his return flight to Rome, after a visit to Mexico, the Pope said that "avoiding pregnancy is not an absolute evil." While abortion cannot ever be justified, he suggested, avoiding pregnancy could be a "lesser evil" in light of the alleged dangers of birth defects. During an interview session that proved controversial even by the standards of this pontificate, the Pope said: * US presidential candidate Donald...

"There are times that lay Catholics have to step forward to say what we as priests cannot." These were the words spoken to me during a time in my life that I felt called as a Catholic to defend my Catholic Church from an assault from within. That time has come again this week. To do so is never easy. For nearly three years now Catholics have defended Pope Francis as being "taken out of context" or "misunderstood" by the media. We have watched and cringed at what has come out of the Vatican, been ignored by the Vatican, and...

SEATTLE, Washington, February 18, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) - A man twice entered the changing room of a swimming pool and began disrobing, once in front of a young girls' swim team, saying transgender policies gave him the right to do so. The unidentified man entered Evans pool in Seattle near Green Lake last Monday, February 8, and began taking off his shirt in front of female patrons. When asked what he was doing, he said, "The law has changed and I have a right to be here." "Seeing this individual in the locker room, parents of swim team members (girls) and...

CHARLESTON, South Carolina, February 18, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – A pivotal member of Marco Rubio's campaign actively encouraged the Supreme Court to impose gay "marriage" on the entire nation by judicial fiat. Senator Rubio's deputy campaign manager, Rich Beeson, signed a legal brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to redefine marriage in last summer's Obergefell v. Hodges case. The amicus curiae brief, which was signed by 300 Republican operatives whose names spill over 24 pages, argued that having the court discover a nationwide right to same-sex "marriage" served "conservative values." The state marriage protection amendments defining marriage as the union of...

PIERRE, South Dakota, February 18, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – In a first for the U.S., a state legislature has passed a bill that bans transgender students from using a bathroom of the opposite sex and requires schools to have "reasonable accommodation" for transgender students through single-person bathrooms and locker rooms, among other methods. The bill now goes to the desk of Governor Dennis Daugaard, who the Argus Leader reports has indicated support for the bill even as he has declined to take a formal position. Daugaard expressed theoretical support in January but has more recently said he needs to better understand...

AUSTRALIA, February 17, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – An Australian Christian organization is warning school principals to keep out of a federally funded Safe Schools program that is pitched as anti-bullying but is actually promoting premature sexual activity and transgenderism. The Australian Christian Lobby says many of the 500 principals who have permitted the Safe Schools program into their schools "are probably not aware of what Safe Schools is really promoting and may be unwittingly acting as agents for rainbow activists." "We are in a battle for the innocence of our children," ACL spokesperson Wendy Francis told LifeSiteNews. The program, which was...