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Pope Francis will spread his message of hope, faith and unity this November with a new rock LP titled 'Wake Up!' As Pope Francis embarks on his historic visit to the United States, His Holiness will spread his message of hope, faith and unity in the form of a prog-rock-infused album titled Wake Up! this November. The Vatican-approved LP, a collaboration with Believe Digital, features the Pontiff delivering sacred hymns and excerpts of his most moving speeches in multiple languages paired with uplifting musical accompaniment ranging from pop-rock to Gregorian chant. Wake Up! arrives November 27th, with the iTunes pre-order...

Pope Francis Has Put Himself Into America’s Hot-Button Religious Freedom Debates Michelle Boorstein, Sarah Pulliam Bailey. September 26 In addition to immigration and climate change, Pope Francis has spotlighted another topic on his U.S. trip, one that is just as contentious: The debate over what constitutes religious freedom. His fellow bishops in the United States have in recent years selected as their top priority what they call threats to the rights of Americans to freely practice their faith. For them this has meant concern that, among other things, church-affiliated non-profits will have to do abortion referrals or treat gay spouses...

United States and Cuba, the Devil and Holy Water They are the two destinations of the next journey of Pope Francis, at the opposite poles of his geopolitical vision. The enigma of the pope’s silence on the absence of freedom in the regime of Fidel and Raúl Castro by Sandro Magister ROME, September 11, 2015 - The United States and Cuba, or the devil and holy water. The journey that Pope Francis has scheduled from September 19 to 27 will take him to the two opposite poles of his geopolitical vision: to the temple of the “economy that kills” and...

WHEN FRANCIS CAME TO CUBA By Carlos Eire We should cheer any time a pope mingles with sinners. It’s what Jesus did, and what his vicar on earth is supposed to do, too. Sin and evil need to be confronted, not ignored, and those who are unjust should be urged to repent and mend their ways. Unfortunately, there is little to cheer about when it comes to the mingling Pope Francis did with the Castro brothers in Cuba, and with other heads of state in Latin America who praise and emulate their dictatorship. Pope Francis seems much too comfortable with...

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump recently showed up at a gathering of Iowa conservative Christian voters with a copy of the Bible in hand. “See, I’m better than you thought,” he said. Then came a black-and-white photograph from his confirmation to further prove his Christian cred. “Nobody believes this,” he said to laughs. “What went wrong?” As the Republican presidential front-runner and billionaire businessman tries to maintain his lead in early polls with rivals gaining, Trump is increasingly courting a wing of the Republican Party that might seem antithetical to his brand: evangelical Christians. After initially declining the invitation, Trump spoke...

Although Vice President Joe Biden says he is “a practicing Catholic” and believes that life begins at conception -- but he would not “say that” to people who “have a different view” -- his former bishop forbade Biden from speaking at Catholic schools, and the bishop for Colorado Springs has said Biden should not present himself for Communion at Mass. Also, in a document cited by the Wilmington, Del., office of Biden’s former bishop – Bishop Michael A. Saltarelli, who died in 2009 – it states that “Catholic politicians who take pro-abortion legislative positions … should never be put forward...

Latest WORLD survey shows support consolidating behind a handful of candidates. Republican Marco Rubio still holds a commanding lead in WORLD’s third evangelical insiders survey, but GOP rival Carly Fiorina is gaining ground on the heels of another standout debate performance. The findings are part of a monthly survey of 103 evangelical leaders and insiders, 91 of whom participated in September. The results are not scientific or representative of all evangelicals but offer a snapshot of how some well-connected evangelicals are leaning in the 2016 presidential election. This month’s survey took place in the days after last Wednesday’s GOP debate,...

Donald Trump recently showed up at a gathering of Iowa conservative Christian voters with a copy of the Bible in hand. "See, I'm better than you thought," he said. Then came a black-and-white photograph from his confirmation to further prove his Christian cred. "Nobody believes this," he said to laughs. "What went wrong?" As the Republican presidential front-runner and billionaire businessman tries to maintain his lead in early polls with rivals gaining, Trump is increasingly courting a wing of the Republican Party that might seem antithetical to his brand: evangelical Christians....

From the screenplay of A Man for all Seasonssirthomamore William Roper: So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law! Sir Thomas More: Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil? William Roper: Yes, I’d cut down every law in England to do that! Sir Thomas More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned ’round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man’s laws, not God’s! And if you...

Moldova. Orthodox Christians are protesting against the law prohibiting all forms of discrimination    The passage of Moldova’s anti-discrimination law was one of the requirements laid down by the European Union for the visa liberalization with the EU (visa-free travel of Moldovan citizens within the EU). From the outset, the discussion of this law in the Moldovan Parliament was marked by members of the public expressing mass, stormy protest, as they associated it with the legalization of same-sex “marriage” and the adoption of children by homosexuals. Nevertheless, on May 25, 2012, the law was passed and on December 26...

The Pope never mentioned Jesus by name once at the UN. "Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. 11This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. 12Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."

US 'pilgrimage' coincides with state visits by Pope Francis, Xi JinpingThree bishops from the government-sanctioned bishops' conference in China have traveled to the United States to "seek reconciliation with the universal Church," religious observers say. The trip also coincides with visits to the U.S. by Pope Francis and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Conference President Bishops Joseph Ma Yinglin and his two vice presidents, John Baptist Yang Xiaoting and Vincent Zhan Silu, are in the U.S. for 10 days at the invitation of several universities and Church congregations. The Holy See does not recognize the bishops' conference. Bishops Ma and Zhan...

September 23, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) -- A new biography about Cardinal Godfried Danneels, former primate of Belgium, alleges that he “congratulated” Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt when same-sex “marriage” was made legal in the country in 2003. The book, which is coming out this week, says that while the cardinal was opposed to calling homosexual unions “marriages,” he expressed satisfaction over the disappearance of “discrimination” against LGBT couples. In an article presenting the forthcoming book by Jürgen Mettepenningen and Karim Schelkens about Cardinal Danneels, who headed the Catholic Church in Belgium from 1979 to 2010, De Standaard quoted their allegation in its...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Pope Francis beseeched Americans to end hostility toward immigrants in a historic speech before the U.S. Congress on Thursday, weighing in forcefully on a divisive issue that is stirring debate in the 2016 presidential campaign. Bringing a message that America's power and wealth should be used to serve humanity, the 78-year-old pontiff said the United States must not turn its back on "the stranger in our midst." "Building a nation calls us to recognise that we must constantly relate to others, rejecting a mindset of hostility," Francis told the Republican-led Congress in Washington a day after he...

Not once was the name or Our Lord Jesus Christ proclaimed aloud. Not even a subtle illusion. Not even a blessing. Even at St. Patrick's Church later, not even a formal blessing to Catholics. Is the Pope embarrassed to be Catholic? Is he even? Not once was the word "abortion" used. There were references to protecting "human life at every state of development." Yes, the Pope opposes abortion. But that weak statement could mean anything to anyone. To me it could mean from conception to natural death; to someone else it can mean birth until life has no dignity. It...

EDITORIAL WASHINGTON, D.C., September 24, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) -- In his historic address at the US Congress today Pope Francis focused on immigration, human dignity, poverty and the environment. Speaking before all senators hours before they vote on defunding Planned Parenthood, at no point did he mention abortion by name. He spoke to Congress of “money that is drenched in blood, often innocent blood,” but was referring only to the sale of weapons. “In the face of this shameful and culpable silence, it is our duty to confront the problem and to stop the arms trade,” he said. Prompting palpable joy...

I don’t want to spend a great deal of time on the text of the speech. You can read it for yourself. But there are a few of points I want to highlight and ask questions about. First, I said in my post yesterday morning that the White House address was a missed opportunity to talk about abortion in a week when Congress was duking it out over defunding Planned Parenthood. People got angry with me. I said at the end of the post, “Here’s hoping that in the Congressional address tomorrow, our modern holocaust gets more than a passing...

Christian refugees in Mar Elia parish centre in the Ankawa, Erbil, Iraq. Credit: Aid to the Church in Need. Denver, Colo., Sep 23, 2015 / 03:59 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The plight of Christians in the Middle East was the focus of an educational and fundraising event in Denver on Friday, in which two Christian refugees from a city near Mosul told of their escape from Islamic State militants. The Sept. 18 Assembly of Hope and Mercy was hosted by Regis University. A young Iraqi woman recounted her Aug. 14, 2014 escape from Bakhdida, 20 miles southeast of Mosul, when Kurdish...

Pope Francis greets Sister Marie Mathilde, 102 years old, at the Jeanne Jugan Residence in Washington, D.C., Sept. 23, 2015. Photo courtesy of the Little Sisters of the Poor. Washington D.C., Sep 23, 2015 / 08:39 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis paid a short visit to the Little Sisters of the Poor community in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday to support them in their court case over the contraception mandate, the Vatican's spokesman revealed. It was a “short visit that was not in the program,” Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See Press Office, said at an evening press conference...

Forgive me, I promised not to be negative, but then I woke up to this. A welcoming speech by the President (well, by his speechwriter) that made me choke a little. I thought I'd take a few excerpts of the speech and add some words that Obama surely inadvertently omitted (in red, with links to evidence provided)... Photo: AP/Pablo Martinez Monsivais ...all Americans, from every background and of every faith, value the role that the Catholic Church plays in strengthening America. From my time working in impoverished neighborhoods with the Catholic Church in Chicago to my travels as president, I’ve...