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January 25 2021 The Conversion of Saint Paul, Apostle Basilica of St. Paul outside the walls, Rome, Italy Lectionary 519Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: White.First readingActs 22:3-16 ©'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?'Paul said to the people, ‘I am a Jew and was born at Tarsus in Cilicia. I was brought up here in this city. I studied under Gamaliel and was taught the exact observance of the Law of our ancestors. In fact, I was as full of duty towards God as you are today. I even persecuted this Way to the death, and sent women as well as...

Biden attends first Sunday Mass as PresidentPresident Joe Biden attended Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Washington, DC's Georgetown neighborhood, his first time attending Sunday Mass since taking his oath of office.Biden is the second Catholic president in US history, and weekly Mass is expected to be a fixed part of his schedule. That's a level of devotion to regular religious services not seen from recent presidents, who were professed Christians but intermittently attended church or worshipped privately while in office.Biden's Catholic faith will be on full display as the first publicly churchgoing president in decadesAnd while it's unclear whether he...

Joe Biden, the pope and the looming schism in America's Catholic ChurchThere is much enthusiasm around the world for the 46th US president — and considerable interest in his faith. Joe Biden is a Catholic and a friend of Pope Francis. But he is also under pressure from fundamentalists. Joe Biden is a devout CatholicOn his inauguration day, Joe Biden's first stop was Catholic Mass. During his inauguration ceremony, it was a Jesuit priest who invoked God's blessing, and in his first address as president the 78-year-old led prayers for the more than 400,000 coronavirus dead in the US. And...

Biden’s Catholic Praetorian Guard Cardinal Cupich and company didn’t want him criticized on inauguration day.Franciscardinal Cupich The Biden presidency is already exposing fissures within the Church. On inauguration day, his Catholic apologists bathed him in praise and took bitter issue with Archbishop José Gomez for daring to criticize his anti-Catholic stances. Gomez, president of the U.S. bishops’ conference, issued a tame statement, offering prayers and good wishes while noting, “Our new President has pledged to pursue certain policies that would advance moral evils.” But that was too much for Cardinal Blase Cupich, who declared Gomez’s statement “ill-considered.”Other members of the...

Pope Honorious I was declared to be an invalid Pope posthumously over the issue of monothelitism, and later primarily for failure to even try and stop it. Have other Popes been Anathematized? Can Popes still be Anathematized posthumously or even in real time?

Pope Picks Non-Canonical Seven Deadly SinsFrancis to pontificate on 'politically correct' vices in new TV series PADUA, Italy (ChurchMilitant.com) - Pope Francis is brushing aside the Catholic Church's canon of the seven deadly sins, opting instead for a "politically correct" version of vices in a new series for Italian television.The pope's alternative list of seven cardinal sins for the seven episodes on Nove TV excludes lust, pride, avarice, greed and sloth as laid down in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.Giotto's virtues-vices on lower panels leading to judgement The newer catalog of Francis' capital sins substitutes five of the canonical...

January 24 2021 Memorial of St. Francis de Sales Parish of St. Francis De Sales, Lake Geneva, Wisconsin Lectionary 68Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Green.First readingJonah 3:1-5,10 ©The people of Nineveh renounce their evil behaviourThe word of the Lord was addressed to Jonah: ‘Up!’ he said ‘Go to Nineveh, the great city, and preach to them as I told you to.’ Jonah set out and went to Nineveh in obedience to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was a city great beyond compare: it took three days to cross it. Jonah went on into the city, making a day’s journey....

CNA Staff, Jan 22, 2021 / 01:00 pm MT (CNA).- Public Masses will be suspended in Portugal from Saturday, the country’s bishops have announced. The Portuguese Episcopal Conference said on Jan. 21 that it was taking the step due to the “extreme gravity” of the coronavirus crisis, reported ACI Digital, CNA’s Portuguese-language news partner. “Being aware of the extreme gravity of the pandemic situation that we are living in our country, we consider that it is a moral imperative for all citizens, and particularly for Christians, to have the maximum sanitary precautions to avoid contagion, contributing to overcoming this situation,”...

Protects Catholic sisters, doctors from covering transgender surgeryBISMARCK, N.D. (ChurchMilitant.com) - On the day before self-identifying Catholic Joe Biden was inaugurated president, a federal court came down on the side of a Catholic religious order seeking to do its work in alignment with its faith. On Monday, the U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota blocked an Obama-era requirement known as the Transgender Mandate, part of Obamacare, which forced doctors to perform gender transition procedures on patients, including children, even if the doctor believes the treatment or hormone therapy could harm the patient. The term "gender-transition procedures" in...

75 Days After Election . . . USCCB Finally Confronts Biden On AbortionOn the morning of January 20, USCCB President José Gomez released a statement on the inauguration of Joe Biden, promising prayers and repeating many of the conference’s familiar buzzwords regarding its Social Justice agenda. Pope Francis, never a fan of President Trump, had also sent a warm message to Biden, and we expected that Gomez would continue in the same vein on his own. But after his generic greeting, the archbishop of Los Angeles made what must be seen as a stunning departure from the Conference’s usual aversion...

Biden’s Band of Pro-Abort CatholicsWolves in sheep's clothingNew president Joe Biden is surrounding himself with like-minded pro-abortion Catholics.President Biden has nominated cabinet members who identify as Catholic but embrace policies that directly contradict essential doctrine on sexuality, human life and gender. This is according to reports by Catholic News Agency and National Catholic Register.Biden picked so-called Catholics to lead the departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, Commerce and Agriculture. He also chose self-described Catholics to lead the departments of Energy, Veterans Affairs, Defense — and as Ambassador to the United Nations.Faithful Catholics note the religiosity of these nominees is...

January 23 2021 Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary Iglesia de Santa María Magdalena – Mondéjar, SpainLiturgical Colour: Green.First readingHebrews 9:2-3,11-14 ©He has entered the sanctuary once and for all through his own bloodThere was a tent which comprised two compartments: the first, in which the lamp stand, the table and the presentation loaves were kept, was called the Holy Place; then beyond the second veil, an innermost part which was called the Holy of Holies. But now Christ has come, as the high priest of all the blessings which were to come. He has passed through the greater, the...

If passed, law would make Spain sixth country to allow "mercy killing."Don’t leave home without it. That’s the message, basically, from the Catholic Bishops of Spain, who are renewing their longstanding invitation for concerned citizens to draft a living will to protect against being involuntarily killed under a government-backed euthanasia law. In December, Spanish lawmakers voted in favor of a law decriminalizing euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. If the Senate gives it final approval, Spain would be Europe’s sixth country to allow active euthanasia. “This proposed law says euthanasia cannot be applied if the person has previously signed a document with...

‘In the past four years, reproductive health, including the right to choose, has been under relentless and extreme attack. We are deeply committed to making sure everyone has access to care — including reproductive health care.’WASHINGTON, D.C., January 22, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — President Joe Biden, who calls himself Catholic, marked the 48th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision that brought legal abortion to all of America with a pledge that he will make sure that “everyone” who wants it has access to the procedure of killing their preborn children. “In the past four years, reproductive health,...

Pro-life Mass in Columbus cathedral disrupted by pro-abortion protestersThe activists were displaying posters with messages that read: ‘Fund abortion, not cops,’ and, ‘Abortion on demand, end Hyde now.’The activists were displaying posters with messages that read: ‘Fund abortion, not cops,’ and, ‘Abortion on demand, end Hyde now.’ During Mass, which was celebrated by local Robert J. Brennan, eight activists paraded around the pews inside the cathedral, displaying posters with messages that read: “Fund abortion, not cops,” and, “Abortion on demand, end Hyde now.”The Hyde Amendment is a legislative provision barring the use of federal funds to pay for abortion, with...

Archbishop Cordileone’s Response to Speaker Pelosi’s Comments About Pro-Life VotersMost Rev. Salvatore J. CordileoneJanuary 21, 2021On Monday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi criticized prolife voters who voted for Donald Trump on the abortion issue, saying their votes cause her “great grief as a Catholic” and accusing them of “being willing to sell the whole democracy down the river for that one issue.” Most Reverend Salvatore J. Cordileone, Archbishop of San Francisco, issued the following statement in response: “To begin with the obvious: Nancy Pelosi does not speak for the Catholic Church. She speaks as a high-level important government leader, and as...

Will The Catholic Church Pass the Joe Biden Test?The U.S. bishops’ collaboration with the new administration on areas of common ground cannot be accompanied by actions that spread confusion over Catholic teaching in other areas.When Joe Biden took the oath of office on Jan. 20, he became only the second Catholic president in U.S. history. The first, John F. Kennedy, was frequently and famously questioned over whether he was, in fact, a servant of the pope. With Biden, a different question must be asked, one that is focused less on the commander-in-chief and more on the Church: How will...

January 22 2021 Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, Assisi, Italy Lectionary 315Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Green.First readingHebrews 8:6-13 ©The first covenant is already oldWe have seen that Christ has been given a ministry of a far higher order, and to the same degree it is a better covenant of which he is the mediator, founded on better promises. If that first covenant had been without a fault, there would have been no need for a second one to replace it. And in fact God does find fault with them;...

The Vatican News website has said in response to the UN declaring February 4th as the International Day of Human Fraternity that Pope Francis' encyclical 'Fratelli tutti' and the ‘Document on Human Fraternity,’ signed by Pope Francis and the grand imam of Al Azhar last year, 'have found a strong echo in the halls and corridors of the United Nations'AnalysisJanuary 21, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) –Shortly before Christmas, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution declaring February 4th as the International Day of Human Fraternity, with immediate effect. In a fortnight, the 193 members of the UN; as well as “relevant...

Washington D.C., Jan 21, 2021 / 05:00 am MT (CNA).- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused pro-lifers of putting their opposition to abortion over the tenets of democracy in a recent appearance on former Sen. Hillary Clinton’s podcast. “I think that Donald Trump is president because of the issue of a woman’s right to choose,” Pelosi said on the Jan. 18 episode of “You and Me Both with Hillary Clinton,” blaming pro-life voters for boosting Trump into office. “When you take the greed of those who want their tax cuts, that’s probably a small number [of voters], but nonetheless a number,”...