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The only one chosen by US bishops to attend synod who was not invited by Rome The following comes from a Sept. 15 posting on Rorate Caeli. Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco is not only a known “culture warrior” but is also the Chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage. Not surprisingly, he was elected by his fellow US bishops in November 2014 as one of two “alternates” for the four USCCB delegates to the Synod of 2015. The other alternate was Blase Cupich, at that time the Archbishop-elect of...

One would think that Catholic priests like Chicago’s Rev. Michael Pfleger, an early supporter of Barack Obama and his push for gun control, would not be bearing false witness against one of his neighbors. Yet there he was standing in front of Chuck’s Gun Shop in suburban Riverdale, Illinois, to blame it, and other legal businesses like it, along with the National Rifle Association, for the murder spree in the gun-controlled progressive worker’s paradise of Chicago. Standing with the camera-shy Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence president Dan Gross in front of the gun shop,...

The archbishop of the Twin Cities and a deputy bishop have resigned after prosecutors charged the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis with having failed to protect children from unspeakable harm from a pedophile priest. The Vatican said Monday that Pope Francis accepted the resignations of Archbishop John Nienstedt and Auxiliary Bishop Lee Anthony Piche. They resigned under the code of canon law that allows bishops to resign before they retire because of illness or some other "grave" reason that makes them unfit for office. Earlier this month, Ramsey County prosecutors charged the archdiocese as a corporation with having "turned...

A solid new school chaplain takes over today at a San Francisco Catholic community that's recently been targeted by the media for its pastor's altar boys-only policy. Star of the Sea School, part of the same community as Star of the Sea parish, will now be ministered by Fr. Vito Perrone of the Contemplatives of St. Joseph, who's described as "a priest of impeccable orthodoxy." The parish's pastor, Fr. Joseph Illo, co-founder of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri, has been under attack since last November, when he announced the parish will only be training boys to serve at the...

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone at a press conference for the 2012 USCCB Fall General Assembly, Nov 13. Credit: Michelle Bauman/CNA. San Francisco, Calif., Apr 17, 2015 / 04:13 am (CNA).- A group of Catholics promoting a full-page advertisement asking Pope Francis to remove Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone don’t represent San Francisco Catholics and misrepresent the facts, the archdiocese has said. “The advertisement is a misrepresentation of Catholic teaching, a misrepresentation of the nature of the (archdiocese’s) teacher contract, and a misrepresentation of the spirit of the archbishop,” the San Francisco archdiocese said April 15. “The greatest misrepresentation of all is that the...

A look at some of the signers of the open letter to Pope Francis.Escalating the attacks on Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco for continuing to uphold Catholic teachings, 100 self-described “Catholic leaders” have signed an open letter to Pope Francis, calling for the archbishop’s removal. In a full-page ad in the San Francisco Chronicle on Thursday, the petitioners claim that Cordileone has “fostered an atmosphere of division and intolerance” by asking K–12 Catholic-school teachers in the Bay area to “violate their individual consciences by accepting a morality code” based on the Church’s teachings.“Instead of your famous words, ‘Whom am...

Background:San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, well-known for his uncompromising defense of orthodox Catholic teaching and pro-life and pro-family values, urgently needs your help!Gay activists, politicians and dissident Catholics have launched an all-out media attack campaign against the archbishop after he recently announced that he wants to codify a long-standing, commonsense expectation that Catholic schoolteachers in his diocese uphold and display public integrity regarding Catholic teachings on a wide variety of topics.This includes Catholic teaching on controversial issues like abortion, contraception, chastity, and same-sex “marriage,” as well the Eucharist and the teaching authority of the Church.Opponents of the archbishop are...

Yesterday, Archbishop Blase Cupich began his tenure as the Archdiocese of Chicago’s 9th prelate. My wife and I were blessed a few weeks ago to attend one final young adult “Pub Night” with the archbishop before he vacated his seat as Bishop of the Diocese of Spokane, where he spoke on the Pope’s encyclical “Joy of the Gospel” and took questions from the audience on anything and everything. Lots of people have been saying lots of things about Pope Francis’ recent selection – good and bad, Christian and un-Christian, smart and dumb – but at the end of the day,...

Justin Welby admits he sometimes doubts the existence of God, but he is certain about Jesus. The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby last weekend gave a powerful statement about his recent doubts over the existence of God. Welby disclosed that recently, while he was jogging with his dog near his London home, he asked why God does not intervene to stop injustice in the world. Welby’s statement appeared in a personal interview he gave in front of hundreds of people at Bristol Cathedral last weekend, The Guardian reports. When the interviewer, BBC Bristol’s Lucy Tegg, asked Welby “Do you ever...

A stolen consecrated host that was at the center of a lawsuit filed by Archbishop Paul S. Coakley and intended for use at a planned Satanic “black mass” in Oklahoma City has been returned. According to the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, an attorney representing the head of the satanic group presented the host to a Catholic priest the afternoon of Aug. 21. With the return of the host and an accompanying signed statement from the satanic group leader that the group no longer possesses a consecrated host, nor will they use a consecrated host in their rituals, the Oklahoma City...

(CNSNews.com) – Amel Shimoun Nona, the Chaldean Catholic archbishop of Mosul, Iraq, who is now living in exile, warned that his diocese is now run by radical Muslims and that “liberal and democratic principles are worth nothing here,” adding that “Islam does not say that all men are equal,” and if Westerners “do not understand this soon enough, you will become the victims of the enemy you have welcomed into your home.” The Chaldean Catholic Church is an Eastern Rite church, under the authority of Pope Francis. In an interview with Corriere della Sera, Archbishop Amel Nona, now living in...

The Roman Catholic archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis says he won’t resign despite criticism over the archdiocese’s handling of sexual abuse claims involving priests. Archbishop John Nienstedt made his comments in in a column that will appear in Thursday’s archdiocese newspaper, The Catholic Spirit. He says he’s bound to stay in office as long as Pope Francis wants. …

San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone has responded that, despite criticism from political leaders in his home state, he will attend the March for Marriage this week, because his position requires him to act as a defender of the Catholic faith. In a letter released today, Cordileone wrote that he is required “as a bishop, to proclaim the truth—the whole truth—about the human person and God’s will for our flourishing ... especially the truth about marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife,” Cordileone wrote. “That is what I will be doing on June 19th.” Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone Political figures...

Church officials say they will “combat evil” by hosting a positive worship service to counter a Harvard group’s Satanic mass planned for Monday evening. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston will host a Eucharistic procession from MIT to a nearby church for an hour of prayer, The Boston Globe reports. The religious procession will end up at St. Paul’s Parish in Harvard Square, just a 10-minutes walk from the Queen’s Head Pub in Memorial Hall the Harvard Extension Cultural Studies Club is set to hold a “black mass.” A black mass is a ritual performed as a parody of the...

Those in authority become weary of perpetual demands for cash from worthy causes. They include the Head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, Archbishop Vincent Nichols. So you would think Nichols might understand why the Coalition government, which is faced with a public sector net debt of over £1.2 trillion, has been pressing ahead with its plans to reform and if possible reduce the welfare bill. Not a bit of it: in an interview over the weekend, marking the Vatican’s announcement that he was to be made a cardinal, Nichols, while accepting the need for savings, said it...

Calling the Obama administration “the most tone deaf to religious liberty issues in recent memory,” Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput warned that religious freedom in the U.S. is “at risk,” and that “the more government mandates evil action, the more likely civil disobedience becomes.” Last February, Chaput urged his fellow prelates to take the “right action…whatever the cost” regarding the Health and Human Services’ contraceptive mandate, which requires nearly all insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act to pay for sterilization, contraceptives, and abortion-inducing drugs. …

The Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. Diarmuid Martin, has said that some people in the Catholic Church may be homophobic. The teaching of the church could be used “in a homophobic way”, he told RTE. He said that the Church had to be very careful that this was not done in the forthcoming debate on the same-sex referendum. […] “Anyone who grew up in Ireland would have told jokes that were pointed at the gay community; at Travelers; it is part of the culture we grew up in, but we have to grow out of it,” he said. He said church...

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, January 27, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – At a Mass held just hours before the 10th annual West Coast Walk for Life, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone praised young pro-life activists, but asked them to “look around and notice those who are your elders here in this church.” “They are the first generation of pro-lifers,” said Cordileone. “It is no understatement to say to you, my beloved young people, that you are here because of them.” Standing in front of at least 3,500 pro-life activists at St. Mary's Cathedral, the Archbishop compared today's pro-life efforts to those of 40...

(Vatican Radio) The head of the Anglican Communion, the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, said he hopes to “produce a few surprises” with Pope Francis in terms of ecumenical relations between the two churches, but declined to disclose any details. The archbishop made the comment in an interview with Vatican Radio’s Philippa Hitchen at the 10th Assembly of the World Council of Churches, currently underway in Busan, South Korea. Listen to the full interview: RealAudio MP3He also reflected on the challenges and concessions that need to be made for the sake of Christian unity. The longer Christians “exist in different...

Alexander K. Sample installed as Portland's 11th archbishop Archbishop Sample's Installation Mass held at Chiles Center Today, Archbishop Alexander K. Sample was installed as the eleventh Archbishop of Portland in Oregon at the Chiles Center. He was appointed on January 29th, 2013 by Pope Benedict XVI.  By Nancy Haught, The Oregonian   on April 02, 2013 at 2:25 PM, updated April 02, 2013 at 6:28 PM     Enlarge Beth Nakamura, The Oregonian April 2, 2013 - The Most Reverend Alexander K. Sample was installed as the Archdiocese of Portland's 11th archbishop Tuesday afternoon at the Chiles Center at the...