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Today I saw Angela Logan from Teaneck, New Jersey, on a newscast. I was as impressed with her story. Angela is a 55-year-old mother who faced hard times. She is an actress, a former dancer, a substitute teacher and currently attends a community College studying to be a Nurse. She was doing everything she could do to pay her mortgage, care for herself and her family and move forward in life. Sadly, a number of misfortunes placed her family in peril of losing their home in these economically troubling times. That is when her story really began. She tells it...

This post is being updated as additional links become available. Vatican Radio has just announced this news in German. If an English version becomes available, I will provide it. Thanks to Richard Chonak at Catholic Light, we have at least a rough translation of the decree above in which a priest - Fr. Tomislav Vlasic - a central figure in the alleged apparitions at Medjugorje, has been laicized. You can read about the "severe canonical sanctions" taken last year against Fr. Vlasic by the Holy See in this link - Medjugorje: Canonical Status of Fr. Tomislav Vlašić, OFM. The...

When Pope Benedict XVI broke his wrist in the middle of the night last week, the world was reminded rather suddenly of his age (82), his potential frailty, and the possibility that, some time in the not too distant future, the Roman Catholic Church could be looking once again to choose a new Successor of Peter.Thankfully, for many Catholics, the accident was pretty minor. The pope apparently fell in his bedroom during the early hours Friday morning, getting up in the dark to use the bathroom. Characteristically, he didn't make a fuss and didn't call his assistants but went straight...

Pope Benedict XVI's social encyclical, Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth), is a complex and occasionally obscure document, replete with possible implications for the future development of Catholic social doctrine. Sorting those implications out will take much time and even more careful reflection. Along the information superhighway, however, careful reflection hit a few potholes in the early going, as sundry partisans sought to capture Caritas in Veritate as a weapon with which to bolster the Obama administration's economic, health care and social welfare policies. Thus in the days immediately following the encyclical's July 7 release, we were treated to the...

The papacy is among the most misunderstood and therefore wrongly hated institutions in all the world, much like the Catholic Church. I typically cringe when a Protestant pastor or leader decides to step up and call out or denounce the Pope for no good reason, simply on Protestant principal, objecting to the office as they do more so than the man himself, or any sin on his part. Certainly the man who holds the office is not beyond sin, or legitimate criticism, but the criticisms of modern day Popes tend not to be made on the basis of his personal...

...Newsweek eagerly published a hit piece by...Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, in which she sees fit to lecture Mother Church in the person of the Holy Father...[I]t is a mostly rambling and predictable litany of the accusations against the Church by one who is obviously outside of it.

Recently after contradicting established U.S. policy about Jeruslam with a complete about face comment about east Jerusalem being given to the Arabs, Hillary Clinton broke her right arm. Psalms 137:5, If I forget thee O Jerusalem, may my right hand wither [“lose its cunning"].... The original Hebrew: "Im aishkachaich Yerushalayim, tishkach yemini....” The Pope on his recent visit to Israel, went to visit the Dome of the Rock and made a similar ridiculous statement about east Jerusalem being given to the Palestinian Arabs. Well guess what happened to the Pope on Friday? Yep--he was operated on his right arm! The...

If you consult the Mainstream Media (MSM), you’d swear that all Benedict (aka “God’s Rottweiler/The Enforcer/Former Hitler Youth”) did is concoct new Rules and then “lash out” or “crack down” on people for not keeping them.Given this view of the Faith, discussions in the press often break down into babble about mortal and venial sin. Little lists are bandied about and we are told, in the words of one MSM magazine: “Mortal sins are those that the sinner knows are serious but nonetheless decides to perform. They include the seven deadly sins as well as countless others, like witchcraft or...

    Pope Benedict XVI's latest encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, was published on July 7. With the appearance of a new papal document, various factions in the Church, as well as some outside, eagerly attempt to score points on their own behalf. This is particularly true of Caritas in Veritate, since both its length and the variety of its content allow plausible misreadings supported by selective citations.     The 'Progressive' Reading   As everyone should know by now, "progressive" is the term of preference liberals apply to themselves and what they claim for their own. The progressive reading...

In his fall he has shown us a heart which is humble, human and beating with the Heart of Jesus Christ. On the Lord’s Day, he came out to meet the faithful. He raised his hands to greet the faithful who had gathered in this mountain village. He showed them the cast. He then spoke with simplicity and true humanity "As you see, because of my accident, I am a bit limited in my movements, but my heart is fully present, and I am here with you with great joy!" As he had done in the hospital he showed both...

The Pope leaves hospital with a cast on his right arm. (CNS/Reuters) Pope Benedict XVI insisted on waiting his turn behind another patient when he was admitted to the hospital today for an X-ray and operation on his broken right wrist. The Italian news agency ANSA quoted hospital sources as saying that he let a peritonitis patient awaiting surgery go ahead of him. He spent most of the day in the hospital, but has now been released. The Pope’s operation under local anesthesia was “a complete success,” reports say, and the Holy Father will return to his summer vacation Alpine...

Pope Benedict’s new encyclical, Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth), may not be the kind of encyclical that everybody needs to read. It is an incremental addition to the Church’s social teaching with the stated purposes of observing the fortieth anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s great social encyclical, Populorum Progressio, and of bringing it up to date with respect to global developments since the 1960’s. Unlike her dogmas of Faith, the Church’s social teaching operates at the intersection of faith, natural law and specific contemporary conditions. As such it is very much part of a larger conversation. Not everyone...

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI broke his right wrist in a fall during his vacation in the Italian Alps, officials and the Vatican said Friday. A hospital spokesman confirmed the pope was undergoing surgery to reduce the fracture. The pope, 82, fell in his room in a chalet overnight and despite the accident, celebrated Mass and had breakfast before going to the hospital, a Vatican statement said. Tiziano Trevisan, a spokesman at the Umberto Parini hospital in the nearby town of Aosta, said doctors had taken an X-ray of the pope's right wrist and found a small fracture. "The pope will...

Adam Smith, 18th-century author of The Wealth of Nations, might easily be a struggling, under-employed hack in today’s cultural milieu. People are not interested in the “invisible hand” of self-interested capitalism. They want very visible hands—the big, boorish, bear claws of government—to fix the global economic crisis. Free markets are a fool’s errand, we are told, a playground for corporate predators. Into this cultural moment arrives the latest encyclical from Pope Benedict XVI, “Caritas in Veritate” (Charity in Truth). Its large themes are economic development, globalization, environmental protection, and the culture that promotes a more humane economic system. Anyone hoping...

VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican spokesman says Pope Benedict XVI has been taken to a hospital in northern Italy after slipping and falling during his vacation in the Alps. The Rev. Federico Lombardi says Benedict "slipped and got hurt" but that "it doesn't seem to be serious."... The ANSA news agency reported that Benedict walked into the hospital with an aide.

VIDEO HERE.

Kathleen Kennedy Townsend Washington D.C., Jul 14, 2009 / 05:54 am (CNA).- Former Maryland Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend’s recent Newsweek editorial claiming President Barack Obama represents U.S. Catholics better than Pope Benedict XVI has been attacked by one Catholic critic as “bogus and embarrassing.”Townsend, the eldest child of Robert F. Kennedy, in a July 9 Newsweek column claimed that the Catholic hierarchy ignores women’s equality and “gays’ cry for justice” because they cannot admit they are wrong.She endorsed dissent from Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical “Humanae Vitae,” which upheld traditional Christian teaching on the immorality of contraception. She...

The events of this past week really gave clarity as to why I remain ‘sans political party’. Having once been a staunch Democrat, I could never quite bring myself to become a Republican, even as a business owner. Consequently, I’ve since been a registered Independent voting almost entirely, as much as it was possible, Republican/Conservative. To prove my point, today was the first time in at least ten years I’ve ever agreed with anything written in the New York Times, 'The Audacity of the Pope'. Not only did I agree with Ross Douthat , he was spot on! But Benedict’s...

The Boston Globe won a 2003 Pulitzer Prize for covering the Catholic Church's decades-long cover-up of priests who sexually abused children. There is a Pulitzer Prize waiting for the reporter who can figure out why the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church, considered by Catholics the personal representative of Jesus Christ, has emerged as an advocate of one of the most corrupt and non-Christian organizations on the face of the earth-the United Nations. The U.N. has been rocked by scandals involving U.N. "peacekeepers" who sexually abuse women and children, the failure to protect populations in danger of genocide, and financial...

Brian Griffiths, Lord of Fforestfach and vice-chairman of Goldman Sachs International, says Pope Benedict's Caritas in Veritate offers the single best analysis of the current global economic crisis. The language may be dense, but the message is sufficiently rewarding. The encyclical analyses modern capitalism from an ethical and spiritual perspective as well as a technical one. As a result it makes the Government’s White Paper on financial reforms published two days later look embarrassingly one-dimensional and colourless.It is highly critical of today’s global economy but always positive. Its major concern is how to promote human development in the context of...

This extraordinary encyclical letter will take years to unpack. It has the potential to do the same as the feeding of the 5000 did for many in our age. Building on previous Social Teaching it brilliantly analyzes the underlying malady behind the symptoms of our economic crisis and offers a way forward, an economy of communion and gratuity. The universe did not begin with a transaction; it began with a gift and was re-created through gift in the Incarnation, saving life, death, resurrection and ascension of the Lord. “God so loved the world that He gave…” (John 3:16). Giving and...

Benedict XVI returns to the principal themes of his social encyclical reaffirming the need for a global commitment to development, to eliminate "social inequality and structural injustices that are no longer tolerable." The social question has become an "anthropological” issue which implies a way of conceiving man in truth, body and soul. Prayers for Honduras and a farewell ahead of holidays in Les Combes (Aosta Valley). Vatican City (AsiaNews) - "The absolutism of technology, which finds its clearest expression in certain practices contrary to life�, could "draw dark scenarios for the future of humanity": Benedict XVI returns to warn against...

When President Obama, Ed Markey, Henry Waxman, Nancy Pelosi, Al Gore and most Leftwing politicians speak of the "global economic crisis," or of "global climate change" they actually are interested in exercising control over your life. It also happens that they are pursuing some sort of socialist world government. No, I am not one of those kooks who sees "black helicopters" outside every window. Nor am I one who perceives the hidden hand of "Bilderbergers," "the Rothschilds," "the Trilaterals," "the Illuminati," "the Council on Foreign Relations," "Skull and Bones" or even the Masons behind every assassination, crisis, or change in...

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - "The absolutism of technology, which finds its clearest expression in certain practices contrary to life”, could "draw dark scenarios for the future of humanity": Benedict XVI returns to warn against a development that is only concerned with technological progress, bringing with it the manipulation of embryos, abortion, euthanasia, sterilization, birth control under the pretext of wanting to promote human development. At today's Angelus address the pontiff reiterated the views expressed in his recently published social encyclical, Caritas in Veritate. "Acts that do not respect the true dignity of the person - said the pope - even...

After Pope Benedict XVI met today with the Prime Minister of Canada — the Pope's last private audience before his summer vacation — I was able to meet with the Pope for a few moments   A day after US President Barack Obama met with Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican, the Pope  received the Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, and his family: his wife Laureen, and his two children, Benjamin and Rachel.   Harper, coming off the Group of Eight world economic summit in nearby Aquila, Italy, was the fifth national leader to meet the Pope, following leaders...

Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned. President Obama had his first audience with the pope yesterday -- one day after he got caught up in an international "tail"-gate incident involving a saucy photo, his wandering eyes, and the shapely rear end of a teenage Brazilian girl. Obama created the booty brouhaha at the G8 summit Thursday, when he appeared to sneak a free peak at the backside of a 17-year-old junior delegate named Mayara Tavares just moments before an official photo was taken. Yesterday, Obama got a chance to discuss the Seven Deadly Sins -- including lust -- when...

  Benedict's Third Encyclical: A Summary t | t | t | t     by Dr. Jeff Mirus, July 9, 2009 Pope Benedict’s new encyclical, Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth), may not be the kind of encyclical that everybody needs to read. It is an incremental addition to the Church’s social teaching with the stated purposes of observing the fortieth anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s great social encyclical, Populorum Progressio, and of bringing it up to date with respect to global developments since the 1960’s. Unlike her dogmas of Faith, the Church’s social teaching operates at the...

Without a Doubt Why Barack Obama represents American Catholics better than the pope does. By Kathleen Kennedy Townsend Jul 9, 2009 Tomorrow Pope Benedict XVI and President Barack Obama meet for the first time, an affair much anticipated and in some circles frowned upon by American Catholics in the wake of Obama's controversial Notre Dame commencement speech in May. Conservatives in the church denounced Obama's appearance as a nod by the premier Catholic university to a conciliatory politics that heralds the start of a slippery moral slope.

U.S. President Barack Obama delivered a letter from Senator Edward Kennedy to Pope Benedict on Friday and asked the Roman Catholic pontiff to pray for the senator, who is suffering from an incurable brain tumor. Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough said the Pope and the president concluded their half-hour meeting with a discussion about Kennedy, whose brother John F. Kennedy was the first Roman Catholic president of the United States. "The president delivered a letter from Senator Kennedy to the Holy Father. He also asked that the Holy Father pray for ... Kennedy, who as we all know is...

However, the real story was broken by Cindy Wooden of the Catholic News Service. She reported that Pope Benedict XVI gave his own gift to the U.S. President, a copy of the extraordinary document entitled “Dignitas Personae” (”The Dignity of a Person”). This instruction is a passionate defense of the dignity of every single human life from the moment of conception until natural death. ...Wooden reports that she was in the Vatican bookstore prior to the arrival of the President of the United States and, in her own words “While I was trying to pay, the cashier was interrupted by...

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - President Barack Obama promised Pope Benedict on Friday that he would do everything possible to reduce the number of abortions in the United States, the Vatican said. Obama and Benedict held private talks for about 40 minutes in the pope's frescoed study in the Vatican's apostolic palace and the Vatican said bioethics and life issues were a central part of the discussion. In a surprise move, the pontiff gave Obama a booklet explaining Vatican opposition to practices such as abortion and embryonic stem cell research, which Obama supports. "Obama told the pope of his commitment to...

Vatican City, Jul 10, 2009 / 11:37 am (CNA).- Pope Benedict XVI received President Barack Obama this afternoon in his private library, and after 36 minutes of private conversation, the pair emerged without providing any details about their topics of conversation. Nevertheless, the Holy See revealed that the Pope gave Obama an “unannounced gift”--a Vatican document on bioethics and the right to life. "The G8 has been very productive, 20 billion dollars have been allocated [to poor countries]; that's something concrete," President Obama told the Pope when he asked about the summit, as photographers and journalists were ushered out...

Chatter abounds around the web about a paragraph calling for a “world political authority� in Pope Benedict’s new encyclical, Caritas in Veritate. John Zmirak writes that it is the only paragraph that he finds troubling. George Weigel concludes that this section and...other statements he finds unacceptable are the result of...the influence of the supposedly ideology-driven Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. Weigel suggests that statements influenced by PCJP (as identified by “those with advanced degrees in Vaticanology�) are inconsistent with the rest of the “Benedictine� text. The implication is that we can ignore passages some might find troublesome, such as the...

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama meet with Pope Benedict XVI, Friday, July 10, 2009, at the Vatican.(AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

U.S. President Barack Obama (L) greets Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican July 10, 2009. Obama arrived at the Vatican on Friday for his first meeting with Pope Benedict and what the White House says will be frank discussions on issues they agree and disagree on. U.S. President Barack Obama, his wife Michelle Obama meet with Pope Benedict XVI (C) at the Vatican July 10, 2009.

Today’s meeting between President Barack Obama and Pope Benedict XVI will bring together two leaders who share a vision for helping the needy of the world and working toward peace, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, said Thursday. Obama’s first meeting with the leader of the world’s 1 billion Roman Catholics follows the release of the encyclical “Charity in Truth” on Wednesday, in which Benedict stated that love of neighbor and justice require the wealthy and powerful nations of the world to help the poor, seek peace and protect the Earth. “He presents a challenge to all political leaders,” DeLauro said...

JULY 10, 2009 The Pope on 'Love in Truth' Anyone seeking a repudiation of the market economy will be disappointed. By ROBERT A. SIRICO In his much anticipated third encyclical, Caritas in Veritate (Love in Truth), Pope Benedict XVI does not focus on specific systems of economics -- he is not attempting to shore up anyone's political agenda. He is rather concerned with morality and the theological foundation of culture. The context is of course a global economic crisis -- a crisis that's taken place in a moral vacuum, where the love of truth has been abandoned in favor of...

A Capitalist or Anti-Capitalist Encyclical? Vatican Aides Present "Caritas in Veritate" VATICAN CITY, JULY 7, 2009 (Zenit.org).- "This is not an anti-capitalist encyclical," affirmed one of the Vatican aides who presented "Caritas in Veritate" today, but it does "condemn capitalism when it becomes totalitarian." That was the estimation offered by Stefano Zamagni, an economics professor from the University of Bologna and a consultor to the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, during a press conference to present today Benedict XVI's third encyclical. The text, Zamagni explained, "looks at capitalism in its historical situation" and reiterates that no economic system is...

When Pope Benedict XVI's third encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, was released on July 7, it sparked world-wide discussion and commentary. Catholic World Report asked a group of leading Catholic intellectuals to reflect on the encyclical, its place in the larger body of Catholic social teaching, and Pope Benedict's vision of a well-ordered and just society.J. Brian Benestad, Francis J. Beckwith, Father Joseph Fessio, S.J., Richard Garnett, Thomas S. Hibbs, Paul Kengor, George Neumayr, Joseph Pearce, Tracey Rowland, Father James V. Schall, and Rev. Robert A. Sirico share their thoughts on Caritas in Veritate, below.  J. Brian Benestad:In 1986 the Congregation...

I, like millions of other Pro-Life people, am sincerely hoping that the Lord will use Pope Benedict XVI to help the American President see the conflict between his claim to respect the Social Teaching of the Catholic Church, most especially as it relates to our obligations in solidarity to give the poor a love of preference. As Blessed Teresa of Calcutta reminded us so clearly, children in the womb are the “poorest of the poor.” Yet, he has stopped his ears to their cry. Throughout his campaign Barack Obama reminded us of our obligation to love our neighbor. He told...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- When President Barack Obama steps into the pope's private library in the Vatican July 10, he will become only the 12th U.S. president to do so. And while the Vatican has a protocol handbook governing visits by heads of state -- a handbook that covers everything, including the number of Swiss Guards and papal gentlemen in tails present -- the way the visit unfolds is determined by the schedules of the pope and his guest. The fact that Obama is coming to the Vatican directly from the Group of Eight meeting in L'Aquila, Italy, and is...

Pope Benedict XVI (C) poses with the wives of leaders of South Africa, Mexico, Sweden, India, the European Commission and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) at the Vatican July 8, 2009. VATICAN CITY, JULY 8, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI was visited today by the wives of some of the presidents and prime ministers in Italy for the Group of Eight meeting; he used the occasion to urge these influential women to help Africa. The audience was in a room adjacent to Paul VI Hall, where the Pope held today's general audience. Filming by the Vatican Television Center showed the...

Newspapers, blogs, talk-shows on radio and television are full of discussion over Pope Benedict XVI's supposed call for a "new world order" or a "one-world government."  These ideas are, however, neither based in reality nor a clear reading of the Pope's latest encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, the release of which yesterday spawned the heated discussion.The Pope actually speaks directly against a one-world government, and, as would be expected from those who have read his previous writings, calls for massive reform of the United Nations.  Confusion seems to have come from paragraph 67 of the encyclical, which has some choice pull-quotes...

When President Obama meets with Pope Benedict XVI tomorrow, there will be no right-wing Catholic demonstrators upbraiding the pontiff, as they did Notre Dame earlier this year, for conferring the church's legitimacy upon this liberal politician. In fact, whether he is the beneficiary of providence or merely good luck, Obama will have his audience with Benedict just three days after the release of a papal encyclical on social justice that places the pope well to Obama's left on economics. What a delightful surprise it would be for a pope to tell our president that on some matters, he's just too...

Some in the media are calling it just a statement about "economic justice." But Pope Benedict XVI's "Charity in Truth" statement, also known as an encyclical, is a radical document that puts the Roman Catholic Church firmly on the side of an emerging world government. In explicit and direct language, the Pope calls for a "true world political authority" to manage the affairs of the world. At the same time, however, the Pope also warns that such an international order could "produce a dangerous universal power of a tyrannical nature" and must be guarded against somehow. The New York Times...

7 John Lee Hooker/George Thorogood, One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer. Intelligent or regular readers will recognize this tune from Chapter 3 of Breaking the Law of Averages. The original Hooker version can be found here. 6 Bob and Doug Mackenzie, 12 Days of Christmas. By the finish of this merry carol, the boys will have consumed half a case, which is only a meager six pack each, a paltry amount, it being Christmas. I have quizzed recently two people who called themselves natives of the Great White North, yet they claimed never to have heard of Bob and Doug....

Tuesday July 7, 2009 Best Pro-Life Quotes from Pope Benedict XVI's New Encyclical In new encyclical Pope Benedict slams population control, urges openness to life Compiled by John-Henry Westen   ROME, Italy, July 7, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Today the much-anticipated social encyclical of Pope Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate (Truth in Love) was released, after being delayed for a year due to the global economic crisis. The encyclical includes several passages of great interest to those involved in the pro-life movement. The most pertinent and striking passages dealing with the life issues are reproduced below. To read the complete...

Two major wire services- AP and Reuters- cherry picked excerpts from Pope Benedict XVI’s latest encyclical (a teaching document of the Catholic Church) on Tuesday to support left-wing economic and political positions, and all but ignored the pontiff’s traditional stances on the family, bioethics, and the environment. The AP also went so far to bring up “the state of the Vatican’s own [financial] books.” Both Philip Pullella, who regularly writes about the Pope and the Vatican for Reuters, and the AP’s Nicole Winfield zeroed in on paragraph 67 of the encyclical, which is titled “Caritas in Veritate,” or “Charity in...

Supreme Knight Carl Anderson Denver, Colo., Jul 7, 2009 / 03:26 pm (CNA).- The head of the Knights of Columbus, Carl Anderson, has responded to Pope Benedict’s newly-released encyclical, “Caritas in Veritate” (Love in Truth), by denouncing attempts to use it to further political agendas rather than viewing it from the Church’s comprehensive understanding of the human person.In an interview with CNA on Tuesday morning, Carl Anderson, leader of the world’s largest lay Catholic organization, decried the “spin masters who will try to spin the encyclical in one direction or the other” and emphasized that “the Catholic reader should...

The revenge of Justice and Peace (or so they may think). By George Weigel In the often unpredictable world of the Vatican, it was as certain as anything could be in mid-1990 that there would be a 1991 papal encyclical to commemorate the centenary of Rerum Novarum — the 1891 letter of Leo XIII that is rightly regarded as the Magna Carta of modern Catholic social doctrine. The Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, which imagines itself the curial keeper of the flame of authentic Catholic social teaching, prepared a draft, which was duly sent to Pope John Paul II...