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Popular American evangelist Joel Osteen is promoting the warrior mentality among Christians, telling them not to be weighed down by their problems because all things are possible with Christ. "If you'll have this warrior mentality and do what you can do, God will help you do what you cannot do. Remember, God has armed you with strength for every battle. Keep praying, keep believing, keep pressing through because with God, you will tap into strength you didn't know you had!" he said.

Archdiocese releases statement on church teachings, practice in high schools February 4th, 2015 The following document, titled “Statement of the High Schools of the Archdiocese of San Francisco Regarding the Teachings and Practice of the Catholic Church,” will be included in the faculty handbook Aug. 1. We, the Archdiocesan High Schools, affirm that we are educational institutions of the Catholic Church, and as such strive to present Catholic doctrine in its fullness, and that we hold, believe and practice all that the Holy Catholic Church teaches, believes and proclaims to be true, whether from the natural moral law or by...

In the modern world many people rather casually assume, or assert, that the Apostle Paul was a misogynist based upon his teachings concerning the differing roles of men and women in the church and in marriage in the early church. What such critics fail to realize is that they are reading the Apostle Paul through the lens of a 21st century perspective, rather than the 1st century world to which Paul wrote originally. In the first century A.D., women were considered their husband's property, not their partner, and they had very few rights or protections. In that first century context,...

A homeless man has been buried in the exclusive Teutonic Cemetery within the Vatican.... His burial in a cemetery normally reserved for senior German clerics was funded by a donation from a German family.

Down with the Struggle or Up with the Cross? A Word to Priests, Catechists, and Parents By: Msgr. Charles PopeSome forty years ago, the Venerable Bishop Fulton J. Sheen admonished the priests of his day with these words:We become real priests when we empty ourselves, and no longer seek our [own] identity, and where we are lifted up to the cross, not going "down to people" Too many of us today feel we have to be loved $B!D (J [thinking] the young will not love us unless we talk like them, eat like them, drink like them, clothe ourselves...

Both Kath.net and Edward Pentin are reporting that Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, head of secretariat of the synod of bishops, ordered the interception of over a hundred copies of the book Remaining in the Truth of Christ, which had been mailed to participants in last October’s Extraordinary Synod... ...Pentin further reports that the books were apparently destroyed after being taken... ...Third, it raises serious questions about the motives and leadership of Cardinal Baldisseri, who has already gone on record with some contentious statements apparently aimed at those defending Church teaching on marriage, divorce, remarriage, and Communion. A month ago, he made...

Helena Lobato, of the diocese of Setúbal (Portugal), has been invited by Pope Francis to be baptized at the Easter Vigil this year in the Vatican, after writing to him for answers she couldn’t find in advice columns. “I saw the great causes he had embraced, and the results in the lives of people who had been touched by him. Suddenly I put aside my paints and brushes and found myself writing a letter to the Pope,” the woman told the news agency, Ecclesia. Helena Lobato, an artist and painter, remembers that it all started at a time in...

WASHINGTON – For years, top Catholic bishops have argued for stronger federal oversight of the Internet superhighway. The alternative is intolerable, they said; big cable companies will force noncommercial religious speakers to pay more or assign them to slower lanes. On Thursday, the bishops saw their dream move one step closer to reality after the Federal Communications Commission voted for strict network neutrality or “open Internet” rules. Bishop John C. Wester, chairman of the communications committee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), endorsed the FCC’s approval in a statement.  “From the inception of the Internet until the...

I have sometimes offered that, were I Pope, I would create two new dicasteries (while axing a bunch of others). Firstly, there would be a Sacred Congregation for the Dusting of the Holy Doors. After all, the major basilicas all have Holy Doors, to be opened in Jubilee years. They get dusty. This would be a great role for prelates from around the world who have proven their worth in their previous posts. Secondly, We would create a Sacred Congregation for Thinking Stuff Through Before Doing It. The brief of this SCTSTBD is pretty straight forward. You will remember the...

The annual “Status of Global Christianity” survey published by the International Bulletin of Missionary Research is a cornucopia of numbers: some are encouraging; others are discouraging; many of them are important for grasping the nature of this particular moment in Christian history. This year’s survey works from a baseline of 1900 A.D., and makes projections out to 2050. Within that century and a half there’s some good news about the global human condition that ought to be kept in mind when remembering the bad news of the 20th century and the early 21st. For example: in 1900, 27.6 percent...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem Character Studies From The Bible Moses New International Version (NIV) …10and Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly before the rock. And he said to them, "Listen now, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?" 11Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came forth abundantly, and the congregation and their beasts drank. 12But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Because you have not believed Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel,...

February 27, 2015Friday of the First Week of Lent    Reading 1 Ez 18:21-28 Thus says the Lord GOD:If the wicked man turns away from all the sins he committed, if he keeps all my statutes and does what is right and just,he shall surely live, he shall not die. None of the crimes he committed shall be remembered against him;he shall live because of the virtue he has practiced. Do I indeed derive any pleasure from the death of the wicked?says the Lord GOD. Do I not rather rejoice when he turns from his evil waythat he may...

Rome, Italy, Feb 26, 2015 / 07:13 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The number of ISIS hostages in Syria has increased to at least 250 after continued attacks on Christian villages, and civilians fleeing to the Turkish border have been stranded when not allowed to cross. “There are 200 families who were running away and trying to escape to Turkey, but the border is closed for Syrians. No Syrian can cross into Turkey,” Archbishop Jacques Behnan Hindo told CNA Feb. 26. Archbishop Hindo oversees the Syrian archdiocese of Hassake, which is located in the Al-Hasakah region of Syria. The region sits between...

The German Bishops Conference addressed itself to a long process of talks about marriage and family by giving plenty of room for the local church. The chairman of the German Bishops' Conference, Cardinal Reinhard Marx (Munich-Freising) underlined in the context of the Family Synod in autumn the efforts of the bishops for "new approaches" and to "help ensure that doors are opened". In the universal Church, there is "a certain expectation" of Germany. He hoped that some issues would be addressed before the Synod, Marx told journalists n Hildesheim on Tuesday. The Archbishop of Munich and Freising assumes after the...

Family of Bishop Shi Enxiang, who spent more than half a century in detention for refusing to renounce Pope's authority, told by a village official last month that he had died, aged 93In a living room plastered with pious images, the Shi family flicked through timeworn pictures of a wizened man with tortoiseshell glasses and bright eyes, the oldest bishop of China’s underground Catholic church. Almost a month ago, they were passed word that Bishop Shi Enxiang – who spent more than half a century in detention for refusing to renounce the authority of the Pope – had died, aged...

In a mother’s womb were two babies. One asked the other: “Do you believe in life after delivery?” The other replied, “Why, of course. There has to be something after delivery. Maybe we are here to prepare ourselves for what we will be later.” “Nonsense” said the first. “There is no life after delivery. What kind of life would that be?” The second said, “I don’t know, but there will be more light than here. Maybe we will walk with our legs and eat from our mouths. Maybe we will have other senses that we can’t understand now.” The first...

Tonight Live (February 26) - Paul McGuire 8 p.m. Eastern Time 7 p.m. Central Recorded (February 19) - Jonathan Cahn

Today is the 7th of the month of Adar on the Jewish (Torah) calendar. It is the birthday of Moshe Rabbeinu (Moses) and also the anniversary of his passing. On this exact day four years ago, Hosni Mubarak, then President of Egypt, was forced to resign. What made the already incredible timing extra significant, is that every few years there are 2 months of Adar (a Biblical "leap year") and Moshe/Moses was actually born on the 7th of the first month of Adar. Four years ago, that was the case, it was the 7th of Adar I. The reverberations of...

THE WORLD HAS DIVIDED MEN into two classes, the stupid good people and the clever wicked ones. This false classification runs through much of the literature of the last centuries from the classics to the comic strip, from Shakespeare's Polomus, who furnished his son with a set of good but dull moral platitudes, to Capp's Li'l Abner, who would never knowingly do a wrong act but who would rather fall on his head than on his feet because there is more feeling in his feet than in his head. In the Holy Scriptures things are quite the opposite. There righteousness...

Assyrian Church in Beirut Islamic State militants have reportedly executed 15 Christians who have been captured in villages in northeastern Syria since Monday. A priest who has been feeding reports to Christian aid agencies around the world, including Aleteia partner Aid to the Church in Need, said today that a Christian Assyrian lawyer in the city of Hassakah told him that about 15 young Assyrians "are martyred. Many of them were fighting to defend and protect the villages and families." Archimandrite Emanuel Youkhana of CAPNI, the Christian Aid Program in Iraq, said that in the Christian village of Tel Hormizd: 14...