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Hebrews 4:16 Let us therefore Come Boldly unto the Throne of Grace, That we May Obtain Mercy, And Find Grace to Help in Time of Need.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge…. Proverbs 1:7 What is truly detestable about the state of public schools in this country is how far they have strayed from their historical roots. Most of the schools in this country, as well as many of the prestigious Ivy League universities were founded for the sole purpose of educating the populace in the Scriptures. Noah Webster, one of our nation’s leading educators, said, "In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government ought to...

FOR the first time, a Catholic spokesman has acknowledged that the church in Australia covered up sex abuse, according to a reform group of Catholics. The group praised Francis Sullivan, CEO of the yet-to-be-formed Catholic Truth, Justice and Healing Commission, for admitting to the media this week that he was personally scandalised and disillusioned by the church's history of cover-ups. Peter Johnstone, chairman of Catholics for Renewal, said on Friday the church had previously acknowledged that it had mishandled abuse cases, but not cover-ups. He welcomed this week's announcement of the lay-led Catholic council to advise the bishops about sex...

Denver, Colo., Dec 13, 2012 / 02:16 am (CNA).- In 1968 Joe Mahoney was serving with the Marines in South Vietnam, where he met Father Paul Nguyen Thanh Hoan, whom he always thought was killed when the North overran the region in 1975. Many priests were imprisoned and killed when the South was overtaken, and so Mahoney was “quite confident he was dead” and never looked up Fr. Paul. But earlier this year, he finally discovered that God had preserved Fr. Nguyen, made him Bishop Nguyen, and helped him found a religious community. “He's an amazing guy spiritually, very prayerful....

Brethren, Peace and Good to all of you. As you know, every year during the holiday and Christmas seasons, religion-objectors redouble their efforts at proscribing religious displays on government buildings and other common areas in our cities, towns, and villages. The mainstream media’s (MSM’s) strategy has been to declare that there is no “war on Christmas” but Bill Donohue from the Catholic League already took the MSM to task. Of course, I often share many of Bill Donohue’s observations across many other social platforms including Twitter, and it was in Twitter where I got a couple of respondents who are...

While many families are wrestling with trying to find money to buy their child the latest Xbox, Wii or iPhone, Catholic Charities is working hard to collect food donations to give out hearty and healthy food baskets to their clients for the holidays. Catholic Charities operates food pantries in South Bend and Auburn. “We have a different menu each week made up of 15-20 pounds of food based upon family size. This usually includes about 15 items or enough food for four meals,” said Claire Coleman, the West Region administrator at Catholic Charities. “This might include two canned vegetables, one...

(Reuters) - France will deport foreign-born imams and disband radical faith-based groups, including hardline traditionalist Catholics, if a new surveillance policy signals they suffer a "religious pathology" and could become violent. A French Islamist shooting spree last March that killed three soldiers and four Jews showed how quickly religiously radicalized people could turn to force, Interior Minister Manuel Valls told a conference on the official policy of secularism. His warning came two days after President Francois Hollande announced the creation of an agency to track how the separation of church and state is upheld in this traditionally Catholic country with...

President Barack Obama is the most divisive man to ever occupy the White House –period! Yet, 95 percent of black Americans worship him as if he’s the messiah. Why? Actor and comedian Jamie Foxx recently took the stage at the Soul Train Awards and told the audience, “Thank God, and our lord and savior, Barack Obama!” Foxx called on the audience to stand up and clap for Obama. His outrageous remarks were broadcast on national television, yet not one nationally known black leader repudiated Foxx. Barack Obama’s ability to seduce people is well-known. He can bring his biggest critics into...

Godfather movies are still a huge industry, it seems. By Godfather movies, I do not mean films about gangsters as such, but more the sort of films that have been spawned by Francis Ford Coppola’s great movie. We’ve just been treated to an example of the genre on Channel 4, entitled The Fear. The Fear harked back to The Godfather in several ways. First of all it lifted the plot from The Godfather. Ritchie, our Brighton gangster had two sons, Cal who was rather wild and wanted to go in with the Albanian gangs, and Matty who was altogether more respectable....

LONDON — The British government announced Tuesday that it will introduce a bill next year legalizing gay marriage — but banning the Church of England from conducting same-sex ceremonies. Equalities minister Maria Miller said the legislation would authorize same-sex civil marriages, as well as religious ceremonies if religions decide to “opt in. “I feel strongly that, if a couple wish to show their love and commitment to each other, the state should not stand in their way,” Miller said. “For me, extending marriage to same-sex couples will strengthen, not weaken, this vital institution.” Some religious groups, such as Quakers and...

The gap between the proportion of Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland has narrowed, new census figures revealed today. The percentage of Catholics in the population was up to 45 while Protestant representation has fallen to 48% from the 2001 census. The figures were detailed in the 2011 census, the results of which were published by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency today. Almost half the population (48%) designated themselves as British when asked to select one or more of a number of identities, including Northern Irish or Irish. A total of 29% of the overall population included Northern...

Why aren’t Christians allowed to be offended? We’re reminded of this issue every year at this time as we observe the War on Christmas. And this sensitivity to offense doesn’t stop with Christmas. Why is it that we’re required to be silent while the gay agenda, feminism, multiculturalism, radical environmentalism, and globalism are deified and taught to our children, while the Christian worldview is vilified by the same government officials?

Evangelical pastor and author John MacArthur said that the Democratic Party has “adopted the sins of Romans 1 as their platform." “And as you know,” MacArthur told his Southern California congregation on Sept. 30, “I’m not one to talk about politics as such, but I was essentially amazed that one of the historic parties here in the United States adopted the sins of Romans 1 as their platform. This is a new day in our country. Parties which used to differ on economics now differ dramatically on issues that invade the realm of God’s law and morality.” MacArthur is an...

Last week, a cadet publicly quit the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, citing forced prayer and churchgoing. Republican strategist Shirley Husar, in a debate on HuffPost Live, asserted that West Point is “a religious institute.” Merry Christmas, Shirley, but West Point is not a religious institute—though that’s not for want of trying on the Christian right’s part. The cadet in question is 24-year-old Blake Page, who described being “severely punished” for not going to church while in basic training. “You scrubbed floors for four hours or went on rock flipping detail so the rocks could get an even tan...

US bishops look over documents at a meeting in Baltimore (Photo: CNS) Since the presidential election, I havenÂ’t been watching the American news channels much, I havenÂ’t had the heart. The US appears to be about to go over something they are calling the fiscal cliff because of ObamaÂ’s triumphalistic behaviour: he won, so heÂ’s not compromising with congressional Republicans who want much-needed public spending cuts, and heÂ’ll blame them if they do all go over this cliff (there are, I understand, other analyses of what is happening, but I like this one best). This cliff may not seem...

The founder of an international group of advocates for the equality and rights of Coptic Christians is appealing to the leaders of democratic nations to cut any ties with Egypt. The Voice of the Copts is attempting to thwart President Mohamed Morsi's regime from implementing a primarily Islamic-based constitution. "We demand that world leaders withdraw their recognition of Egypt's phony 'pro-democracy' leader, Mr. Morsi, who is backed by the illegal Muslim Brotherhood party," states Dr. Ashraf Ramelah, president of Voice of the Copts, in an open letter sent Monday. "Freeze your political relationships with Egypt, halt all investments and aid...

Russia's Orthodox Church has pledged "solidarity and support" for the Catholic Church in France in its campaign against a bill to allow same-sex marriage by the Socialist Government of President Francois Hollande. In a letter, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, the Moscow Patriarchate's external relations director, praised Cardinal André Vingt-Trois, president of France's bishops' conference, for his "consistent and uncompromising" opposition to same-sex marriage which represented "the truly Christian view" on the issue. He told the cardinal the Moscow Patriarchate was ready to work with French bishops "to protect the Gospel's ethical values". The Russian prelate added: "It is gratifying that...

...gambling, rock music, etc, etc? Now, this thread isn't about debating what is sin and what isn't or what constitutes sin or doesn't. Please don't hijack this thread over the issues that I listed. Thank you. This thread is about our changing culture - and let's face it, more and more denominations/churches are ever so slowly moving towards tolerance and/or acceptance of homosexual marriage. The rest in the list (following gay marriage) that I included in the thread were put there to show that if you look back far enough at various denomination's church bylaws some churches were once against...

In Quod Apostolici Muneris (1878), Pope Leo XIII deplores those who “under the motley and all but barbarous terms and titles of Socialists, Communists, and Nihilists, are spread abroad throughout the world,” striving in alliance for “the purpose long resolved upon, of uprooting the foundations of civil society at large.” It may sound odd to our ears, that socialists, whose prescriptions for society are many and comprehensive, should be united with nihilists, who by definition believe in nothing. But Pope Leo, beginning as always from a rich view of human nature grounded in reason and elevated by relevation, sees the...

Psalm 33:18 Behold, the Lord's Eye is upon those who Fear Him [Who Revere and Worship Him with Awe], Who Wait for Him, And Hope in His Mercy and Lovingkindness.

The election of 2012 fused principles of state and church demanding Americans follow one distinct path. The country chose to follow a path that is fiscally illogical, covetous of private property, dismissive to personal initiative, mythological towards freedom, repentant to a planet, subjugating of the religious to the secular, deadly to the unborn, disrespectful to the sick and aged, encouraging to the sexually deviant, and destructive to family. So how could our nation, so strongly and freely steeped in Judeo-Christian principles, have chosen such a path willingly? First, let us quickly address the Judeo portion of our heritage. Quite simply,...

News of Newhall seniors protesting the removal of a Christmas tree from their community room this week because, they said they were told, it was a religious symbol prompted a national outcry -- a collective bah humbug from Christmas defenders. It was, many said, another example of the so-called "war on Christmas" and political correctness run amok. The issue isn't new, but the debate over appropriate public demonstrations of traditionally religious holidays has now spread beyond blatant symbols like the cross and Nativity scenes to the unassuming Christmas tree. Chalk it up to the melting pot, experts say. "The country...

Around 1985, current al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri fled his homeland of Egypt, presumably never to return. From his early beginnings as a teenage leader of a small jihadi cell devoted to overthrowing Egyptian regimes (first Nasser's then Sadat's) until he merged forces with Osama bin Laden, expanding his objectives to include targeting the United States of America, Zawahiri never forgot his original objective: transforming Egypt into an Islamist state that upholds and enforces the totality of Sharia law, and that works towards the resurrection of a global caliphate.This vision is on its way to being fulfilled. With Islamist political victories,...

THE tensions between Church and state have provoked their fair share of war and bad blood over the centuries. But an infuriated Catholic bishop in Scotland, appalled over social reforms being carried out by David Cameron, has taken things to a whole new level. In an intemperate two-page letter to the Prime Minister, Bishop Joe Devine of Motherwell has accused him of being “out of his depth” and suggested he is “devoid of moral competence” over his attitude to Christianity. Not only that, he also tells Cameron that he is responsible for a political culture in which “words mean nothing”...

David Cameron will risk a major battle with his party next week by backing gay weddings in churches, the Evening Standard can reveal. He will go further than ever in his modernising drive by saying religious groups should be allowed to host same-sex civil weddings in churches, synagogues and other religious buildings if they choose. Organisations that reject gay marriage, such as the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church, will have legal protection from being forced to host ceremonies against their wishes, the Prime Minister will pledge. Tory MPs will have a free vote on a Bill next...

Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee for president this year, received the lowest level of support among evangelicals of any Republican presidential candidate since Bob Dole in 1996, according to a report by Barna Group, a Christian polling organization. Romney received the support of 81 percent of evangelicals, compared to 88 percent for John McCain in 2008, and 83 percent and 85 percent, respectively, for George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004. Only Dole received a lower level of evangelical support at 74 percent in Barna's polling. Barna's results differ from other polls showing Romney received a higher proportion of the...

Jamie Foxx caused some controversy when he referred to President Barack Obama as "our lord and savior" at the 2012 Soul Train Awards, but the Academy Award-winning actor is defending his actions. Foxx, 44, drew criticism from the likes of Bill Donohue, President of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, and Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in California. Donohue has been vocal about protesting Obama's policies like the HHS Mandate and released a statement calling Foxx's remarks "startling." "It just goes to show that even though Obama did not succeed in stopping the oceans from rising (as...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- New rules issued by Pope Benedict XVI for the governance of Catholic charities will not prevent such charities from accepting government funding, so long as the funding does not entail conditions that conflict with church teaching, said the second-highest official of the Vatican office in charge of applying the new legislation. Msgr. Giovanni Pietro Dal Toso, secretary of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, spoke to Catholic News Service about the pope's apostolic letter on the "service of charity," issued "motu proprio" (on the pope's "own initiative") Nov. 11, and released by the Vatican Dec. 1. The...

Lawsuit threat cancels Christmas concert HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - A threatened lawsuit had put a halt to what's become a Christmas tradition for members of the Moanalua High School orchestra. For the past six years, the award-winning group and volunteers from the New Hope Church have raised more than $200,0000 for a charity that treats poor people in Hawaii. But that all came to a halt on Monday when the Department of Education decided to cancel the concert just four days before the event. In a letter to the Department of Education, Mitch Kahle, founder of the Hawaii Citizens for the...

Havana, Cuba, Dec 4, 2012 / 12:07 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Local Catholics say that the reinstatement of Christmas as a national holiday in 1997 after decades of being outlawed has brought enormous good “to the life of the nation,” but that its deeper meaning still needs to be understood. “Once again Christmas proves to be a source of happiness: however, we cannot forget that this beneficial aspect of Christmas has its roots and its nature in the religious event of the birth of Jesus Christ,” wrote editors from the Diocese of Pinar del Rio's magazine titled Vitral. “The more Christmas...

About ninety percent of faculty and administrators from America’s top Catholic universities who contributed to presidential campaigns in 2012 gave to President Obama, a Campus Reform investigation has revealed. The strong support for President Obama from Catholic schools came despite Democrats’ controversial health care legislation which could force employers to provide contraception for employees even though it is explicitly forbidden under Catholic doctrine. A Campus Reform investigation revealed that faculty and staff at Catholic universities gave overwhelmingly to President Obama's reelection campaign. The findings, based on official Federal Election Commission data made available by the government transparency site OpenSecrets.org, revealed...

An excerpt from How Close Are We?The Blessed Hope With Christ’s I will come again! still fresh in memories, the early Christians eagerly waited and watched for their Lord’s return. He had said that they were not of this world, but that He had chosen them out of it. Paul would soon write under His Lord’s inspiration: “For our conversation [citizenship] is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body” (Philippians 3:20,21). The world held little interest for...

* Disclaimer: The following should not be considered legal, financial or tax advice. Every individual situation is unique and you are encouraged to consult with your tax and financial advisor before year end. There's a lot of hype, confusion and speculation related to the so-called "fiscal cliff" America is facing as the calendar rolls over from 2012 to 2013. At the Presbyterian Lay Committee, we're getting questions from donors and churches alike about what they might anticipate in terms of the impact on charitable giving. The answer all depends on what happens between now and the end of the year...

Pope Benedict XVI. (Credit: Anne Hartney) Vatican City, Dec 2, 2012 / 01:07 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict XVI has released an apostolic letter on charitable activities that asks bishops to improve their supervision of local charities and ensure that these groups’ work does not contradict Catholic teaching. The Pope’s six-page letter, released Dec. 1, notes the duty of the diocesan bishops and parish priests to see that in charitable service the faithful “are not led into error or misunderstanding.� Bishops and parish priests “are to prevent publicity being given through parish or diocesan structures to initiatives which, while...

Throughout history, religious reformations have changed the way people look at the concept of faith and a higher power. Denmark has been no exception in this respect. In the last 1,100 years, the country has experienced two major religious reformations that have changed the course of its history. And today, with church attendances dwindling and calls growing for a separation of church and state, the country would appear to be on the verge of a third. While the first reformation took place when King Harald Bluetooth embraced Christianity in the 10th century, it is the second − which saw a...

Offertory, 1st Sunday in Advent (Tridentine Rite) Psalm 24 1-3. Ad te levávi ánimam meam: Deus meus, in te confído, non erubéscam: neque irrídeant me inimíci mei: étenim univérsi, qui te exspéctant, non confundéntur. To Thee have I lifted up my soul: in Thee, O my God, I put my trust, let me not be ashamed: neither let my enemies laugh at me: for none of them that wait on Thee shall be confounded.

Psalm 5:11 Let All who Take Refuge in You be Glad, Let them Ever Sing for Joy; And May You Shelter them, That those who Love Your Name May Exult in You.

On Usury By Hilaire BellocTaken from ESSAYS OF A CATHOLIC, Usury does not mean high interest. It means any interest, however low, demanded for an unproductive loan. It is not only immoral [on which account it has been condemned by every moral code-----Pagan-----Mohammedan-----or Catholic] but it is ultimately destructive of society. It has only been the rule of our commerce to take usury since the breakup of Europe following on the Reformation. Usury will destroy our society, but meanwhile there is no escape from it. We are coming near the end of its maleficent action, not through awaking to its...

In a Nov. 20th memo obtained by The Cardinal Newman Society, Gonzaga University President Thayne McCulloh has announced to faculty and staff that in response to the HHS mandate it will begin covering contraceptives starting next month. While many Catholic colleges and dioceses are battling the HHS mandate on religious liberty grounds in court, Gonzaga, a Jesuit University, announced to faculty and staff that even while they vow to clearly communicate the Church’s position on contraception, they are “compelled by the federal government to fulfill our legal obligation under the mandate.” According to the memo, the university will begin covering...

Imagine a demographic that has doubled its share of the population over the past two decades, is up by 25 percent over the past four years, and now accounts for as many as one in five Americans. Imagine that this demographic votes disproportionately for one political party—to the tune of 70 percent for Obama versus 26 percent for Romney in the 2012 election. Sounds like a demographic that ought to be of interest to politicians, journalists, and activists, right? That demographic consists of people who describe themselves as atheist, agnostic, or religiously unaffiliated—the “nones,” as they’re sometimes called. And it...

Is capitalism Catholic? A priest defends free-market economics By Francis X. RoccaCatholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Father Robert Sirico has been courting controversy for most of his adult life. In the early 1970s, he was a radical activist in California, campaigning for left-wing causes with the likes of Jane Fonda and her then-husband, Tom Hayden. Later in the decade, he returned to the Catholic faith of his childhood and eventually became a priest. But if he found inner peace, he did not cease stirring things up. He had, by then, discovered the works of Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich...

The term Islamism was coined to differentiate Islam as modern ideology from Islam as a faith. It became necessary to make this distinction after the Iranian revolution of 1979, which gave rise to the popular use of the term: "Islamic fundamentalism." The use of fundamentalism to describe Islam spread so fast that by 1990, the Concise Oxford English Dictionary defined fundamentalism as "the strict maintenance of traditional Protestant beliefs" and "the strict maintenance of ancient or fundamental doctrines of any religion, especially Islam." Ironically the more the media embraced Islamic fundamentalism as a term, the more scholars of Islam looked...

Pic de Bugarach, a small mountain in southwest France, is rumored to be the only spot on earth that will be saved from the Mayan Apocalypse predicted for Dec. 21, 2012, says a Latinos Post report dated Nov 27. According to doomsday theorists, the mountain will open up and reveal an alien spaceship ready to whisk humans away to safety. That is, if humans can access the mountain. French officials have banned access to the mountain to New Age enthusiasts, sightseers and journalists, says Daily Mail in a Nov. 19 report. Access to the small village with the same name...

For over seventy years, white blue-collar Catholics who have lived and worked in America’s once great industrial states were the voting bloc that provided the margins of victory for Franklin Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Reagan, and the two Bushes. The 2012 election results, however, indicate these Catholics no longer have that kind of clout at the ballot box.Why? First of all, they are an aging group whose numbers are declining every year. About 650 Catholic World War II and Korean War veterans die every day. That translates into 950,000 in the last four years. Add spouses and the number...

An Oklahoma senator has released a report outlining what he believes is some of the Pentagon’s most wasteful spending. Among a number of odd items includes a workshop on how Christianity would be affected if aliens were proven to exist. Senator Tom Coburn is known to be the “waste-watcher” on Capitol Hill, as he investigates unnecessary spending in various branches of the government. On Thursday, he issued what some consider to be a laughable list of Defense Department expenditures that have nothing to do with defense. In addition to $1.5 billion being spent on a plan to invent roll-up beef...

(To see Cal Grondahl’s cartoon that goes with this post, click here) A key difference between Latter-day Saints and many other Christian churches is that Mormons believe that there are various post-judgment kingdoms in the outskirts of heaven. There’s the Telestial Kingdom, for anyone from Hitler to that lawyer who’s cheating on his wife. There’s the Terrestrial Kingdom, for those decent folks who said “not now” when the missionaries came by the door. And then there’s the Celestial Kingdom, the jackpot prize. But even the Celestial Kingdom comes in degrees. According to Joseph Smith, there are three degrees of glory...

On this day in 1095 Pope Urban II made a speech.The setting was the Council of Clermont in France.Urban, indeed all of Europe, was alarmed at the aggression of the Turks in the East, who had taken the Holy Land and were invading the Eastern Roman Empire. Urban therefore addressed the Council asking them to help their Christian brethren in the East. As Robert the Monk recorded, Urban put it, apparently, this way: “Deus vult!… God wills it!�Thus began the First Crusade.In another version of Urban’s history-shaping speech recorded by one Fulcher of Chartres, Urban also addressed corruption in the...

In Why Tolerate Religion? Brian Leiter, author of the Leiter Reports blog and a law professor at the University of Chicago who has an interest in philosophy, asks why Western democracies have sought to promote and protect religion—and religious liberty—in both law and culture.He explores this question because he’s puzzled by it. As he sees things, “no one has been able to articulate a credible principled argument for tolerating religion qua religion … why, as a matter of moral principle, we ought to accord special legal and moral treatment to religious practices” (emphases throughout are original). He argues that there...

My open letter to my black Christian friends, written out of respect and solidarity, generated an extremely high number of email responses. They ranged from commendation to condemnation, with one email informing me that neither “you nor I are going to alter prophecy, these things are foretold, we have to pray now GOD will get us out of here before masses get destroyed!” Espiritus offered a unique perspective: “The Black, Youth and Latino ‘vote’ is being used [by the Chinese] for the outcome [of the] 2012 election. . . . Under Komrad Obama, America’s military will be emasculated, our nuclear...