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Alessandro Gnocchi, in his weekly piece for La Riscossa Cristiana in which he responds to letters he has received, calls our attention to this truly lamentable event that clearly shows where most of the Bishops and Cardinals are in terms of their understanding of the Catholic Faith and the immutability of doctrine.

Greater Than the Past Today's Scripture "The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,” says the LORD Almighty. “And in this place I will grant peace…" (Haggai 2:9, NIV) Today's Word from Joel and Victoria God wants to amaze you with His goodness! We are living in a day where God is increasing His favor. Maybe you have seen God’s goodness to a certain degree in the past; but in reality, you haven’t seen anything yet! God has favor in your future that will supersede anything that you’ve seen! The scripture...

Nothing of the Old Life! " If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new —2 Corinthians 5:17 " Our Lord never tolerates our prejudices— He is directly opposed to them and puts them to death. We tend to think that God has some special interest in our particular prejudices, and are very sure that He will never deal with us as He has to deal with others. We even say to ourselves, “God has to deal with other people in a very strict way, but of...

VATICAN CITY - Retired Pope Benedict XVI said dialogue with other religions is no substitute for spreading the Gospel to non-Christian cultures, and warned against relativistic ideas of religious truth as "lethal to faith." He also said the true motivation for missionary work is not to increase the church's size but to share the joy of knowing Christ. The retired pope's words appeared in written remarks to faculty members and students at Rome's Pontifical Urbanian University, which belongs to the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. Archbishop Georg Ganswein, prefect of the papal household and personal secretary to retired Pope...

A Catholic church representative is to probe the 'black sheep' diocese of Albenga-Imperia for alleged sexual harassment of parishioners and involvement in pornography A scandal-ridden Catholic diocese in Italy where priests posted naked photos of themselves on gay websites, raided church coffers and sexually harassed parishioners is to be investigated by a special envoy to Pope Francis. The bishop himself is not accused of any wrongdoing, but is reported to have been overly-charitable in recruiting “black sheep” priests with distinctly chequered pasts, including trainee priests expelled from seminaries for misconduct. They include a priest who was found guilty of organising...

The city of Houston, Texas (Mayor Annise Parker), has issued subpoenas for pastors' sermons... Not surprised at all. To get right to the point without taking up any unnecessary space, who do statists want Separation of A.) Church and B.) State, but not Separation of B.) State and A.) Church? They apparently want the forward of this, but not the reverse. And they want religious folk to butt out of politics, but they seize every opportunity to stick their noses into the affairs of religious folk. In your opinion, why do you think this is; what do the statists want?

Idaho couple Donald and Evelyn Knapp, ordained ministers and owners of the Hitching Post Lakeside Chapel of Coeur d'Alene, are facing thousands of dollars in fines and possible jail time for refusing to host gay wedding ceremonies, which the city claims violates its anti-discrimination ordinance. The couple has since filed their business as a religious organization, which means they might be saved by an Idaho law that protects religious freedom. Jeremy Tedesco, senior legal counsel for the Scottsdale, Arizona-based Alliance Defending Freedom legal organization, told The Christian Post that while Coeur d'Alene has an ordinance saying that under "public accommodation"...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis called for abolition of the death penalty as well as life imprisonment, and denounced what he called a "penal populism" that promises to solve society's problems by punishing crime instead of pursuing social justice. "It is impossible to imagine that states today cannot make use of another means than capital punishment to defend peoples' lives from an unjust aggressor," the pope said Oct. 23 in a meeting with representatives of the International Association of Penal Law. All Christians and people of good will are thus called today to struggle not only for abolition of...

If only he had shaved that morning. Basilios Bessarion grew up in an Eastern Orthodox community in present-day Turkey in the early 15th century. He become a monk, then an abbot, and was eventually appointed to be a metropolitan bishop by the Byzantine Emperor John VIII Palaeologus, with whom he attended the ecumenical Council of Florence with hopes to reunite eastern and western Christianity. Though Bessarion was originally against reunion with Rome, he quickly changed his mind and became the most important Eastern Orthodox advocate for reunion at the council. Pope Eugene IV was so impressed by him that he...

Featured Term (selected at random:JOY In spiritual literature, the feeling aroused by the expectation or possession of some good. One of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Joyful emotions affect the body, but they are essentially in the higher faculties of the soul. Differs from pleasure, which may affect the human spirit but originates in some bodily sensation. Thus joy is possessed by angels and human beings, and its source is the rational will. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

In an interview with the German newspaper Die Welt published today, Cardinal Walter Kasper reiterates in a less controversial form his comments on Africa. He says: It’s different in Africa than it often is in Europe. Everyone knows that. What I wanted to say was: I would never involve myself in Africa, and conversely African bishops are not able to judge the situation in Europe as we ourselves are.Kasper’s viewpoint was also taken up by Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich, who said in the Synod: What the Catholic Church is trying to do is a sociological adventure. . . Finding...

Patriarch says moves to the US were never approvedSAN DIEGO - The head of the Chaldean Catholic Church has suspended 10 priests, including one from El Cajon. Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Sako issued a decree a month ago, demanding the priests return to Iraq or be suspended. Wednesday was the deadline. The priests, though, are refusing to leave and are now waiting on Pope Francis to tell them what to do next. Dozens of devout Chaldean Catholics attended an emergency mass Wednesday at St. Peter Chaldean Catholic Church in Rancho San Diego, to pray for the 10 priests who have...

A Silent Priest is a Dead Priest – A Meditation on a Teaching of St. Gregory the Great By: Msgr. Charles PopeA former Archbishop of Washington was known to often remark, “There’s nothing deader than a dead priest.” Some wondered as to the meaning of this expression, and those who knew him the best explained that it was a sort of version of the old Latin expression Corruptio optime pessima (The corruption of the best is the worst thing of all).Of all the men on the planet who need to be alive, vocal, clear, and active, the priest is...

Pray For Our American Heroes and Our Nation Stand Firm New International Version (NIV) Psalms 18:31-36 For who is God, but the LORD? And who is a rock, except our God?—the God who equipped me with strength and made my way blameless. He made my feet like the feet of a deer and set me secure on the heights. He trains my hands for war, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You have given me the shield of your salvation, and your right hand supported me, and your gentleness made me great. You gave a wide place for my steps under...

In light of new comments from Hillsong’s head pastor, Brian Houston, I wanted to add some additional thoughts to the critical comments I made on Friday. On Saturday, the Christian Post reported the following statement from Brian Houston: I encourage people not to assume a media headline accurately represents what I said at a recent press conference. Nowhere in my answer did I diminish biblical truth or suggest that I or Hillsong Church supported gay marriage. I challenge people to read what I actually said, rather than what was reported that I said. My personal view on the subject of...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem Jobs In The Bible Landowner (New International Version (NIV) 20 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius[a] for the day and sent them into his vineyard. 3 “About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5 So they went. “He went out again about noon and...

ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani clerical panel has endorsed polygamy, saying a woman cannot object if her husband remarries. The body that advices the government on religious affairs has long been condemned for its retrograde and misogynist outlook. "A woman cannot demand a divorce over a second, third or fourth marriage of her husband. Islam has given a woman right to separate from her husband, but another marriage could not be a valid ground for doing so," local media reported Islamic Council of Ideology (CII) chairman Shah Ahmed Sheerani as saying. He observed the Muslim Divorce Act, 1939, was against the Sharia....

October 23, 2014Thursday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time    Reading 1 Eph 3:14-21 Brothers and sisters:I kneel before the Father,from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,that he may grant you in accord with the riches of his gloryto be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner self,and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith;that you, rooted and grounded in love,may have strength to comprehend with all the holy oneswhat is the breadth and length and height and depth,and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge,so that you...

To the dismay of California’s people of faith, the California Department of Managed Health Care has reclassified abortion as a “basic health service” under the Affordable Care Act and ordered all insurance plans in the state to begin covering surgical abortions immediately. Even churches are not exempt from funding abortions. Operation Rescue opposes this policy that forces men and women who deeply oppose abortion on religious grounds to fund surgical abortion in violation of their faith, and encourages others to oppose it as well. “Since Obamacare was first introduced, we warned that the day could come when Christians would be...