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March 08 2021 Memorial of St. John of God, religious Sacred Heart Church, Bahrain Lectionary 236Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Violet.First reading2 Kings 5:1-15 ©There were many lepers in Israel, but only Naaman, the Syrian, was curedNaaman, army commander to the king of Aram, was a man who enjoyed his master’s respect and favour, since through him the Lord had granted victory to the Aramaeans. But the man was a leper. Now on one of their raids, the Aramaeans had carried off from the land of Israel a little girl who had become a servant of Naaman’s wife. She said to...

Five Exceptions to “Thou Shalt Not Kill”The Fifth Commandment forbids willful murder, abortion, suicide, fighting, quarreling, scandal, bad example, anger, hatred, and revenge. As stated by Canon Francis Ripley in This is the Faith: “Life is man’s greatest good, so God wishes to safeguard it against attack. God alone is the author of life; He alone may take life — apart from the circumstances of a just war, the execution of a criminal, and legitimate self-defense.” There are five primary exceptions to the universal prohibition against killing: the killing of animals, capital punishment, a soldier killing in a just war,...

(ANALYSIS) Germany’s Catholic bishops embarked on a series of conversations in 2018 aimed at reforming church teachings. It was an ambitious, if not audacious, effort on everything from homosexuality, priestly celibacy and the ordination of women. Conservative Catholics across the world decried the prospect. The tensions that arose at that time — and still simmering today — even caused some to warn that a permanent split could occur. Indeed, the dreaded “s-word” — schism — can be used to describe the current moment. It was just last year that a high-ranking prelate argued that pushing such changes could lead to...

Inspired by the pope's encyclical, Uijeongbu Diocese has kicked off a seven-year environmental action planA Catholic diocese in South Korea has launched a seven-year ecological movement inspired by Pope Francis’ groundbreaking environmental encyclical Laudato Si. Uijeongbu Diocese, about 20 kilometers north of capital Seoul, officially launched the “7 Years Journey Action Plan” that includes a range of programs and activities for environmental conservation for a sustainable planet in February. The diocese, which has about 300,000 Catholics, has adopted the “special pastoral guideline” with a long-term pastoral plan prepared by the Korean Catholic Bishops' Conference on the fifth anniversary of the...

The Irish Bishops’ Conference is planning a national synod for the Irish Church “in the near future”, The Tablet has learned. The revelation was made by two members of the Irish hierarchy following an online address, The Synod on Synods, by Jesuit theologian, Fr Gerry O’Hanlon, hosted by the Association of Catholic Priests. A subcommittee of six bishops within the conference is already working on the initiative and has met with and received advice from Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary general of the Synod of Bishops. Speaking to more than 200 participants who listened to Fr O’Hanlon’s talk, Bishop Paul Dempsey...

[Catholic Caucus] A different compendiumYesterday, I posted about Socci’s views on who the true Pope may be. HERE. A couple days ago, I posted about the new highly critical Compendium about the odd teachings of Francis, HERE. In that post, I said that, if someone had a contrary view let him come up with his own compendium favorable toward Francis.Today I received a link to a blog called Roma Locuta Est written by Steven O’Reilly, which has a compendium not about how wonderful Francis is (the challenge I issued) but rather responding to the claims of Socci and our friend...

Could Cardinal Joseph Tobin be the first Irish-American pope?The choice of Cardinal Joseph Tobin of New Jersey to the key Vatican Congregation of Bishops committee which is responsible for selecting bishops all over the world is a clear sign that Pope Francis may have greater things in store for the Irish American cardinal.Indeed, like as there was with Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley during the last papal election, the notion of Tobin becoming a strong candidate to succeed Francis as pope is clearly seen as a possibility.The pope and Tobin are very close having first met at a 2005 Synod on...

ABORTED BABY VACCINES: Why Doesn't Francis Care?If the Vatican is willing to instruct the faithful to passively cooperate with abortion derived vaccines, then the Vatican will likely disown their failure to resist immoral research. As more light is shed upon this depravity of the Vatican, it will become clear that the conflicts of interest prevent the Vatican from offering any credible guidance regarding the grave sin of murder derived vaccines. Along with the multiple scandals tied to the Dermatopathic Institute of the Immaculate (IDI), the IDI is responsible for various experiments with HEK 293. In light of the murdered child...

Viganò on Italy's New PM (Arrivederci, Catholic Italy)Super aspidem et basiliscum ambulabis, et conculcabis leonem et draconem. (On the asp and the viper you will tread, And trample the lion and the dragon.) -Ps. 91:13ET CONCULCABIS LEONEM ET DRACONEMUp until the last century in Italy, free thinkers could spread ideas that were imbued with Masonic principles and rhetoric, because the social body was not liberal. They could stand in front of church on Sunday mornings and spread their lies, even while their own wives and children went to Mass, received catechism lessons, and were instructed by the Church and the...

A priest reflects on the morality of abortion-tainted COVID-19 vaccinesI propose to demonstrate that the COVID-19 vaccines still do not conform to the moral liceity principles and required conditions invoked in these Vatican documents – that is, when the moral argument is properly framed, understood, and applied.Editor’s note: The author of this article is a priest who uses a pen name to keep his identity anonymous for the sake of prudence given various circumstances at this time, and to keep the focus upon the content of the article, rather than having distracting attention be given to the author.March 5, 2021...

Ready for the Next Scandal? Francis’ Next Plane Press Conference Is ImminentReturning from Baghdad on March 8, Francis will give his 32th plane press conference.IlSismografo.Blogspot.com (March 3) noticed that over 15 months have passed since Francis spoke the last time to the media “without a prior agenda.”“This is a huge period if one remembers the relevance of these meetings with journalists in Francis' pontificate.”Since then “many very important and serious things” have happened which have remained unexplained “because either Francis speaks or no one else does,” because Francis is “the real spin doctor of his pontificate,” the blog writes.For IlSismografo...

Biden and the Disunited Catholic FrontCracks in it keep growing. Joe Biden’s renegade Catholicism is nothing if not bold. It is a distressing and hubristic jumble, an admixture of everything from transgenderism to Marianism. At one moment, Biden is advocating for abortion and dissolving differences between the sexes; in the next moment, he is gushing about Our Lady of Guadalupe and his devotion to the rosary. The media, of course, loves this erratic style of non-threatening religiosity and has rewarded Biden with flattering coverage of his faith. “Not a ‘cardboard politician’: Biden’s faith forges bond with Mexico,” read a recent...

3rd Sunday of Lent St. John the Baptist Catholic Church – New York City, NY First readingExodus 20:1-17 ©The Law given at SinaiGod spoke all these words. He said, ‘I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. ‘You shall have no gods except me. ‘You shall not make yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything in heaven or on earth beneath or in the waters under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I, the Lord your God,...

Australia’s senior cleric lauds report calling for Church governance by lay womenAustralia's bishops commissioned a task force, which included liberal theologian Massimo Faggioli among its international advisors, and the group produced a report called, 'The Light from the Southern Cross.' Faggioli believes the report should form the basis of a worldwide reform of the Church.AUSTRALIA, 4 March, 20201 (Famlily Life International) – An Australian document designed to undermine orthodox Catholicism may soon become the model for governance of the universal Church. The document is being hailed by head of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, Mark Coleridge, and is being promulgated...

PARIS — The first eight oak trees destined to replace the destroyed spire of Paris’s scorched Notre Dame cathedral have been selected from the Bercé forest in the French Loire region, church officials said on Friday. The iconic, 315 foot spire was completely destroyed in the fire that ravaged the Paris monument in 2019. It was made by architect Viollet-le-Duc in 1859. “It is a source of pride for the foresters of the National Forestry Office to participate in the rebirth of Notre-Dame de Paris,” said Forestry Office Director Bertrand Munch.

Vatican City, Mar 3, 2021 / 01:00 pm MT (CNA).- Pope Francis said on Wednesday that he was “delighted” to learn that a Muslim group had overseen the translation of his latest encyclical into Russian. In a message released by the Holy See press office on March 3, the pope said it was “a beautiful and joyful surprise” to hear that the encyclical Fratelli tutti had been translated into Russian and presented at a cultural center in the capital, Moscow. “In this way, it will be made available to a large number of men and women of goodwill who wish...

The place of Blessed Michael McGivney’s tomb and the birthplace of the Knights of Columbus suffered damage from Saturday’s vandalism.On Saturday, Feb. 27, St. Mary Church in New Haven, Connecticut, was the victim of a vandal or vandals. The parish church is also renowned with a shrine of the Infant of Prague and known as the birthplace of the Knights of Columbus. Blessed Michael McGivney, founder of the Knights, is entombed in a sarcophagus in the church. ​“Someone either punched or used some object to punch in the center doors’ stained glass windows,” Dominican Father John Paul Walker, the pastor,...

Priest Would Refuse Joe Biden Communion Because He’s Pro-Abortion: “Over My Dead Body, Not Until He Repents”In a deeply emotional message to his congregation, an Arizona priest mourned how President Joe Biden, a supposedly devout Catholic, is working to expand the killing of unborn babies in abortions.Father William Kosko of St. Henry’s Parish in Buckeye, Arizona, said he would welcome Biden to attend Mass but not to participate in communion unless he repents, The New American reports.“Over my dead body; not until he repents,” Kosko said. “He’s a public figure. He needs to publicly repent, and we need to pray...

Enzo Bianchi, the Pope, and “That ‘Fox’ Herod”Ten months after the papal decree that sentenced him to exile from the monastery of Bose that he founded, Enzo Bianchi still has not obeyed, and continues to live in a hermitage on the monastery grounds.But many knots also remain untangled on the part of those who judged him. Bianchi’s conviction was never made public in its entirety. Neither the accusations nor the faults ascertained in the apostolic visitation ordered by Rome are known, except for a vague “tense and problematic situation in the community regarding the exercise of authority by the founder,...

No Jews, No Jesus at Pope’s ‘Abrahamic’ EventNASSIRIYA, Iraq (ChurchMilitant.com) - Jesus and the Jews were both conspicuously missing from Pope Francis' Saturday interfaith service at the Plain of Ur — publicized by the Vatican event as the birthplace of Abraham.Pope Francis met with Shia Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani In his lengthy address, Francis did not mention "Jesus" even once, and the prayer concluding the event did not use the standard trinitarian formula or end in "the name of Jesus."The pope avoided naming the Hebrew prophet "Isaiah" in his speech while citing the prophecy of nations beating "their swords into ploughshares...