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From the deepest recesses of South American Jungles to the coldest corners of Siberia, native people groups everywhere are rejoicing over the latest announcement that the English-speaking world will be spending millions of dollars for yet another English translation of the Bible. The excitement erupted after Zondervan Publishers announced that it would be making a major revision and update to its New International Version, first released in 1978 "Our goal is to put the NIV into modern English so that people born after 1988 can understand the Scriptures," said Ronald Overbeck, head of research at Zondervan. "We're going to spare...

Sister Sobodka said: "Several times he (Pope John Paul) would put himself through bodily penance. "We would hear it – we were in the next room at Castel Gandolfo. You could hear the sound of the blows when he flagellate himself. He did it when he was still capable of moving on his own." The flagellation is also confirmed by another bishop who has given testimony. Emery Kabongo was a secretary for Pope John Paul. "He would punish himself and in particular just before he ordained bishops and priests," he said. "I never actually saw it myself but several people...

Why I Left Anglicanism I'm often asked why I left the Anglican Church to become a Catholic. Was it women's ordination or some other issue? Well, the debate over women's ordination was an influence. It made me re-examine the question of authority in the church. I have written about my conversion several places, and these articles can be found on my website under the 'articles' tab. However, the more I think about the reasons for my conversion, the more I realize that the real problem was not women's ordination, nor was it, at depth, the question of authority in the...

Let's stay with this rebirth. What is the Church supposed to be? What kind of body is she meant to be? Her nature is always specified as being apostolic and catholic. What does that mean? Apostolic signifies the horizontal cross-connection of the Church through all the ages. She is first of all fixed to the historical origin in the eleven men whom Jesus chose (eleven were left, plus Matthias, who was elected to the office). This is not just some mythology or other, an invented piece of ideology, but is truly anchored in the historical events concerned with Jesus...

John 10:27-29 My Sheep hear My Voice, and I Know them, and they Follow Me: And I Give unto them Eternal Life; and they shall Never Perish, Neither shall Any Man Pluck them out of My Hand. My Father, Which Gave them Me, is Greater than All; And No Man is Able to Pluck them out of My Father's Hand.

A group of prominent Christian leaders and scholars unveiled a manifesto Friday declaring firm opposition to current and future laws infringing upon the sanctity of life, marriage, faith, and liberty. The 4,700-word "Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience" was drafted by Dr. Robert George, Dr. Timothy George and Chuck Colson and signed by more than 125 Orthodox, Catholic and evangelical Christian leaders, including Focus on the Family Dr. James Dobson and National Association of Evangelicals president Leith Anderson. 15 Roman Catholic bishops, including Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York and Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C., were among the...

A new homosexual website, ChurchOuting.org, is intent on publicly disclosing who the gay priests are in the Archdiocese of Washington. The goal of this outing is to intimidate gay priests, as well as heterosexual priests who may be "romantically involved," into voicing objections to the Catholic Church's opposition to gay marriage. This initiative is the work of Phil Attey, self-described as "Liberal-Gay-Ardent Obama Supporter"; he was active in the Obama Pride Metro-DC campaign. According to one news report, "Attey is going to approach priests he thinks are gay, and warn them that they better stop lobbying against gay people, seeing...

1. Gospel and legal mortification differ in their principles from which they proceed. Gospel mortification is from gospel principles, viz. the Spirit of God [Rom. 8. 13], 'If ye through the Spirit mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live'; Faith in Christ [Acts 15. 9], 'Purifying their hearts by faith'; The love of Christ constraining [2 Cor. 5. 14], 'The love of Christ constraineth us.' But legal mortification is from legal principles such as, from the applause and praise of men, as in the Pharisees; from pride of self-righteousness, as in Paul before his conversion; from the fear...

Thanksgiving is coming! For most people, despite what the media try to tell us, the day is just that – a day to give thanks to God for all of the blessings we have enjoyed over the past year. Every year Thanksgiving is tough on some people who are facing tough times and this year that may be especially true with many Americans separated by war, some who grieve for the loss of loved ones because of that war, others without jobs and always for those who are alone. Most of us will at least offer a prayer for our...

Those disaffected Anglicans in England and Wales who think they can take up Pope Benedict’s offer and switch to Rome with a “pick and choose” attitude should think again, the Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols has said. Many Anglicans unhappy with women’s ordination and gay clergy cannot just convert to Roman Catholicism as a way out, but must accept Catholic doctrine wholeheartedly, he said. “Nothing is envisaged in this provision that the Pope has put in place is a kind of minimalist approach to picking bits of the Catholic faith that I like and then seeing myself as it...

Disgraced former national evangelical leader Ted Haggard brought his message of forgiveness to the House of Praise church on Route 9 Sunday, peppering an hourlong talk in front of a congregation of 200 people with some ear-raising nuggets — like how God has specifically used people like Oprah Winfrey to assist in his resurrection from personal despair and public shame. Haggard, the former president of the National Association of Evangelicals and leader of a mega-church in Colorado, was forced to abandon both posts in 2006 after a male prostitute publicly said Haggard paid him for sex for three years and...

“I don’t have to go to church — God comes to me. He’s with me and around me wherever I am.” Those words, offered by a mother to her son, contributed to the apparent self-actualization of best-selling author — I’m talking been-on-the-New York Times-bestseller-list-for-hundreds-of-weeks-best-selling — Neale Donald Walsch. His books, which all revolve, in one form or another, around the very appealing premise of “Conversations with God,” speak to people in ways that apparently rival Sacred Scripture; however, Sacred Scripture they are not. This prompts the question: How do millions of Christians get duped into believing the ramblings of New...

The Jesus Story always ends in overcoming the enemy. Always. Then appropriate that overcoming-yet-to-be in the present tense by exclaiming "Thank you, Jesus."

Featured Term (selected at random):PASCHAL CANDLE A large candle in which five grains of incense have been incased as a symbol of Christ's wounds. It is blessed on Holy Saturday in a special service and is symbolic of the Risen Savior, Light of the World. It is then used in the blessing of baptismal water and remains during the Paschal season in the sanctuary, where it is lighted during liturgical services. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

The vicar of an Anglo-Catholic has received a threatening phone call warning him of violence if his parish goes over to Rome – and his church noticeboard has been defaced with the words “C of E No Pope” daubed across it in white paint. Fr David Waller of St Saviour’s, Walthamstow, discovered the vandalism on Sunday morning as he prepared for Mass. Then he found the a message waiting for him on his answering machine threatening him with physical violence. But, when I spoke to him a few minutes ago, he didn’t sound remotely intimidated. “The message was distorted –...

The Roman Catholic bishops of England and Wales have set up a task force to help the possible exodus of tens of thousands of disaffected Anglicans into their church. The move was announced as Anglican leader Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, protested to the Pope in the Vatican over its plans to receive Anglican converts en masse. Pope Benedict XVI was last month accused of attempting to poach Anglicans unhappy about decisions taken in their church to ordain women and sexually-active homosexuals as priests and bishops. In response to requests from about 30 Anglican bishops around the world...

Pope John Paul II regularly whipped himself in a sign of "remorse for his sins", a nun has claimed. The Pope, who died five years ago, is being considered for sainthood by the Catholic Church. As part of the Vatican's investigation thousands of documents have been collected and examined by officials from the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Among them is the testimony of Tobiana Sobodka, a Polish nun of the Sacred Heart of Jesus order, who worked for Pope John Paul in his private Vatican apartments and at his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo near Rome. Sister Sobodka...

Offer Praise Continually Today's Scripture "Therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance to his name" (Hebrews 13:15, NLT) Today's Word from Joel and Victoria Praise is a powerful weapon. Many times in the Old Testament when God's people would go into battle, they would send the worshipers out first. That's because praise precedes the victory. When you live a life that offers Him continual praise, you are setting yourself up to see continual victory. Praise is more than just singing songs in church on Sunday. In fact, praise isn't even...

The Distraction of Contempt "Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us! For we are exceedingly filled with contempt" —Psalm 123:3 What we must beware of is not damage to our belief in God but damage to our Christian disposition or state of mind. "Take heed to your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously" ( Malachi 2:16 ). Our state of mind is powerful in its effects. It can be the enemy that penetrates right into our soul and distracts our mind from God. There are certain attitudes we should never dare to indulge. If we...

In the past five years - before our very eyes - we have seen the nearly complete erosion and virtual extinction of conservative policies and programs in US politics. It seems that The United States is increasingly becoming more like a secular socialist State than the Representative Republic of "In God We Trust" that it was founded upon. Our Judean-Christian heritage, morality and values do not dominate our culture and society as they once did. Another reality is that many have never known any other kind of society than what presently exists. Accountability, responsibility and virtue are “hisses and by-words”...

Spurgeon's Morning & Evening - November 23 -------------------------------- Morning Devotional "Fellowship with him." - 1 John 1:6 When we were united by faith to Christ, we were brought into such complete fellowship with him, that we were made one with him, and his interests and ours became mutual and identical. We have fellowship with Christ in his love. What he loves we love. He loves the saints-so do we. He loves sinners-so do we. He loves the poor perishing race of man, and pants to see earth's deserts transformed into the garden of the Lord-so do we. We have fellowship...

At the bustling Church by the Glades in Coral Springs, pastor David Hughes usually preaches the gospel, the good news. But Sunday, the news was bad. ``There is brokenness, anger and a lot of hurt. This is an ugly story,'' Hughes told a sanctuary packed with several hundred worshipers for the 11:15 a.m. service. The story broke Saturday when Coral Springs police arrested one of the church's youth pastors, Russell Dion Lewis, 28, and charged him with custodial battery and 10 counts of lewd and lascivious molestation. Police said Lewis molested a 14-year-old girl and tried to rape her. Investigators...

Homosexual behavior has been successfully marketed as a "rights" issue. For instance, if you dare to oppose homosexual marriage, even though the vast majority of Americans do and have demonstrated in referendum after referendum, those in the public eye run the risk of vilification and ostracism for articulating such positions. On Friday, more than 150 Christian leaders, most of them conservative evangelicals and traditionalist Roman Catholics, issued a joint declaration reaffirming their opposition to homosexual marriage on the basis of protecting religious freedom. While I agree that government's granting of special "rights" based on aberrant sexual behavior is a religious...

The Martyrdomof Blessed Miguel Pro, S.J. A picture is worth a thousand words. One of the things that brought the attention of the world to the anti-Catholic persecutions in Mexico was the distribution of the photographs of some of the executions. Una imagen vale más que mil palabras. Una de las cosas que atrajo la atención del mundo a la persecución anticatólica en México fue la distribución de fotografías de algunas de las ejecuciones. In Father Pro's case, Plutarco Calles wanted the execution to be a "big show" and had instructed his underlings to invite representatives from all the...

The Angelus 1428. Why do Catholic Churches ring bells at daybreak, noon, and sun set. The ringing of these bells is to remind Catholics to say the Angelus, a short devotion in honor of the incarnation of Christ. Three rings are given three times separately, and then nine rings, according to an ancient custom. The devotion is called the Angelus because the first words of the prayers to be said begin as follows, "The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary." The Angelus, therefore, reminds us of the message of the Angel Gabriel who brought the good news of the...

November 23, 2009                                     Monday of the Thirty-fourth Week                                      in Ordinary Time     Reading 1Responsorial PsalmGospel Reading 1Dn 1:1-6, 8-20 In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah,King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon cameand laid siege to Jerusalem.The Lord handed over to him Jehoiakim, king of Judah,and some of the vessels of the temple of God;he carried them off to the land of Shinar,and placed the vessels in the temple treasury of his god. The king told Ashpenaz, his chief chamberlain,to bring in...

Traditional Holy Mass Propers † Twenty-Fifth and Last Sunday after Pentecost † † Feast of Saint Cecilia † Missa Dicit Dóminus: Ego, cóglto cogitatiónes pacis, et non afflictiónis ( "The Lord saith: I think thoughts of peace, and not of affliction" ) 22 November 2009 Anno Dómini "....there shall be then great tribulation, such as hath not been found from the beginning of the world until now...." "Nothing is so consoling, so piercing, so thrilling, so overcoming, as the Mass, said as it is among us.I could attend Mass forever, and not be tired.It is not a mere form...

Yesterday, the Helpers of God's Precious Infants of Michigan held it's fourth and final prayer vigil of 2009. Holy Mass It began with 7:30am Mass at St. Joan of Arc in St. Clair Shores, celebrated by Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron of the Archdiocese of Detroit. The parish children's choir had practiced for weeks to provide the music.  On this Feast of the Presentation of Mary, the archbishop told the roughly 650-700 in attendance that Mary, "stands with us in our work to serve the gospel of life".  At the conclusion of Mass, Archbishop Vigneron told the crowd how proud...

So there are a few things happening in the news lately. Apparently, Pope Benedict and the Vatican is contemplating the search for alien life. European Union leaders are ever closer to choosing the next President of Europe. People are dying in the West Ukraine regions from a “cocktail of three flu viruses which are reported to have mutated into a single pneumonic plague, which it is believed may be far more dangerous than swine flu.” We are facing a nuclear Iran, which stands to threaten Israel. One of the most influential and powerful people in the world (Mr. Obama) is...

Cardinal DiNardo gave the keynote at today’s session of the National Catholic Youth Conference in Kansas City, while Kansas City, Kansas Archbishop Joseph Naumann led Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and Benediction at Sprint Center. Kansas City – St. Joseph Bishop Robert W. Finn then led 22,000 High School students through his See City from Sprint Center to the Kansas City Convention Center. At some point, I should probably explain why there is an Archbishop of Kansas City who isn’t the Bishop of Kansas City. Here are some pics – story later – Be sure to see the last pic....

There are some pretty scary statistics contained in AlterNet’s 15 Signs American Society Is Coming Apart at the Seams. A sample: 1) The inequality of wealth in the United States is soaring to an unprecedented level. The U.S. already had the highest inequality of wealth in the industrialized world prior to the financial crisis. Since the crisis, which has hit the middle class and poor much harder than the top 1 percent, the gap between the top 1 percent and the remaining 99 percent of the U.S. population has grown to a record high.[...]10) Although the government’s official figure...

Kansas City, Mo., Nov 21, 2009 / 02:14 pm (CNA).- A community of Benedictine sisters living in the Diocese of Kansas City - St. Joseph have released a Christmas CD titled “Christmas at Ephesus.” Proceeds from their new CD, comprised of traditional carols as well as the sisters' compositions, will go toward the building of a new monastery. The Benedictines of Mary Queen of Apostles are still new to the Kansas City Catholic community, invited by Bishop Robert W. Finn in 2006. A traditional monastic community of women who desire to emulate the Blessed Virgin Mary by living in quiet...

The outcome of the health care reform legislation in the House demonstrates that while the Republicans don't have the votes to stop it, the Catholic Church has the votes to pass it. Could the same thing happen in the Senate? On Nov. 7, Catholic lobbyists working for the church's bishops finalized a deal with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. An anti-abortion amendment by Rep. Bart Stupak, a Catholic Democrat, was offered and passed. The bishops then came down officially in favor of a bureaucratic plan that could spell the end to freedom of choice in health care. The turn of events...

OVER 4,000 Anglican priests all over the world, including married ones, are expected to join the Catholic Church, Bishop Matthias Ssekamanya announced on Friday. Ssekamanya, who doubles as the chancellor of Uganda Martyrs University, said this does not mean that the Catholic Church is removing the requirement for priests to remain unmarried. “We are not becoming soft on celibacy for Catholic priests. We shall also not tolerate homosexuals and polygamous marriages in the Catholic Church,” he added. He was officiating at the 15th graduation ceremony of the Nkozi-based university. Vatican officials announced that married Anglican priests would be allowed to...

In light of the Senate vote yesterday and the Red Democratic Party's victory in passing health care reform legislation in the House of Representatives. The cry and mantra we’re now hearing from the Obama administration and the Leftist Secular controlled Democratic Party is that we have to have a National Health Care bill passed and in place before the beginning of the summer congressional recess. The urgency and subtlety of this bill is quite telling. Some common tactics used by the Left are camouflage, deception, manipulation, connivery and demagoguery to get the agenda that they want. It is the Left’s...

Cardinal DiNardo gave the keynote at today’s session of the National Catholic Youth Conference in Kansas City, while Kansas City, Kansas Archbishop Joseph Naumann led Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and Benediction at Sprint Center. Kansas City – St. Joseph Bishop Robert W. Finn then led 22,000 High School students through his See City from Sprint Center to the Kansas City Convention Center. At some point, I should probably explain why there is an Archbishop of Kansas City who isn’t the Bishop of Kansas City. Here are some pics – story later – Be sure to see the last pic....

There is a young baby in a room in pediatric ICU next to the one that my granddaughter Emma is in. She was born with a cleft lip and a heart condition. They are working very hard to help this little baby and could use our prayers. We don't know the baby's name so we are calling her "Baby Heart". Thank you.

WASHINGTON — Providence Bishop Thomas J. Tobin has forbidden Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy to receive the Roman Catholic sacrament of Holy Communion because of his advocacy of abortion rights, the Rhode Island Democrat said Friday. “The bishop instructed me not to take Communion and said that he has instructed the diocesan priests not to give me Communion,” Kennedy said in a telephone interview. Kennedy said the bishop had explained the penalty by telling him “that I am not a good practicing Catholic because of the positions that I’ve taken as a public official,” particularly on abortion. He declined to say...

As Barack Hussein ObamaHussein Obama, Marxist Muslim, continues to gather about him anti-Christian cohorts, particularly as czars in his shadow government, Christians do what Jesus told them to do.

Bishop Tobin has released a response to Congessman Kennedy's earlier statements on not being allowed communion because of his position on abortion. Statement of Bishop Thomas Tobin in Response to Congressman Patrick Kennedy's Published Interview of November 22, 2009 Bishop Tobin says: I am disappointed and really surprised that Congressman Patrick Kennedy has chosen to reopen the public discussion about his practice of the faith and his reception of Holy Communion. This comes almost two weeks after the Congressman indicated to local media that he would no longer comment publicly on his faith or his relationship with the Catholic Church....

The Roman Catholic bishop of Rhode Island says he asked Rep. Patrick Kennedy to stop receiving Holy Communion in 2007 because of the lawmaker's stand on what he called moral issues. Kennedy told The Providence Journal in a story published Sunday that Bishop Thomas Tobin "instructed" him not to receive Communion because of his abortion rights stance. Kennedy said diocesan priests have been told not to give him Communion, but he did not explain how he knew that. Tobin said in a statement Sunday that he "has never addressed matters relative to public officials receiving Holy Communion with pastors of...

Hurt by the recession and decisions by some Lutheran congregations to withhold their support, the Chicago-based Evangelical Lutheran Church in America acted last Sunday to reduce its budget by 10 percent and eliminate more than 40 full-time positions. Many Lutheran congregations, including some in Rowan County, have redirected their mission support to the ELCA in protest of the national organization's recent vote to allow gays and lesbians to serve as clergy. In October, about 450 Lutherans met at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Rowan County to discuss the ELCA's change in ministry policies. Those assembled approved a resolution to form...

What is this world coming to? Another day brings another definition of love, marriage, religion, truth, civil rights and the church. Can anyone remember when there was more confusion? Only in a culture bombarded by "tolerance" could these issues be debated with any seriousness. It has been said loudly and proudly that gay marriage is a civil-rights issue. If that's the case, then gays would be the new African-Americans. I'm here to tell you now, and hopefully for the last time, that the gay community is not the new "African-American" community. In fact, I think Christians are the new Negro...

A Vatican researcher claims she found nearly invisible text on the Shroud of Turin that includes the words “Jesus Nazarene” and mention of a death sentence. Barabara Frale, who makes the claim in a new book, says the faint writing emerged through a computer analysis of photos of the shroud, which is not normally accessible for study. Frale believes the text – a jumble of Greek, Latin and Aramaic – was written on a document by a clerk to identify the body and that the ink had seeped into the cloth. Despite the historian’s claim, skeptics, not surprisingly, were quick...

Isaiah 6:3 Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts; The Whole Earth is Filled with His Glory.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas Tobin has banned Rep. Patrick Kennedy from receiving Communion, the central sacrament of the church, in Rhode Island because of the congressman's support for abortion rights, Kennedy said in a newspaper interview published Sunday.

Washington – The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, today responded to the “Manhattan Declaration” produced and released by 145 evangelical, Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christian leaders indicating that they will not cooperate with laws that conflict with their beliefs, including those recognizing same-sex couples. The document also references the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) as a threat to religious liberty. Yet ENDA – which prohibits workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity – broadly exempts religious organizations. The declaration also argues that religious groups that receive public funds...

Although provoked by the indulgences peddled by Johannes Tetzel, the very first proposition which Luther offered for public debate in his Ninety Five Theses put the axe to the root of the tree of medieval theology: "When our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, said 'Repent,' he meant that the entire life of believers should be one of repentance." From Erasmus' Greek New Testament, Luther had come to realize that the Vulgate's rendering of Matthew 4:17 by penitentiam agite ("do penance") completely misinterpreted Jesus' meaning. The gospel called not for an act of penance but for a radical change of mind-set...

I Corinthians 10:1-13 1 For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. 2 They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 They all ate the same spiritual food 4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. 6 Now these things...

.....A closer look at Belgium, the laboratory of Europe, shows, however, that the country lacks more than patriotism. It also lacks democracy, respect for the rule of law, and political morality..... ....I am not sure what happened next, however. Maybe word had reached the leadership of the Christian Democrat Party that Herman, a brilliant economist and intellectual, was considering leaving politics; perhaps they made him an offer he could not refuse........ Our paths crossed at intervals until 1990, when the Belgian Parliament voted an extremely liberal abortion bill. The Belgian King Baudouin (1930-1993), a devout Catholic who suffered from the...