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They are coming for the Doctrine. 1600+ years ago, when noxious Arian heresies were proposed to a group of bishops, they bishops didn’t just politely sit their awaiting their turn to vote, they did not wait for a mid-term report to be released, they went on the attack, to the extent of St. Nicholas breaking Arius’ jaw. They would not listen to the heresies (as Saint John advised), pandemonium broke out in the hall (in the presence of the Emperor of all the civilized world), and the orthodox bishops stormed out. I pray our bishops get some of the zeal...

The day my soul became Catholic was the day I found out that as a divorced and remarried woman I could not receive Communion. Tears of sorrow and joy flowed. Sorrow because I had by then grasped the truth of transubstantiation, only to find I couldn’t consume, and joy because at last we found the ground of real authority—his Church, the one he founded, the one tasked to keep all he taught her Apostles. I came to Catholicism from Calvinism. That’s a tough row to hoe if there ever was one. It was that prescient and beautiful encyclical Humanae Vitae...

I begin with a piece, spotted by Fr Tim Finigan and reported in his indispensable blog The Hermeneutic of Continuity, which had been published in Sandro Magister’s blog—not his English one, Chiesa, but his Italian language blog for L’Espresso, Settimo Cielo.A few days ago, Magister told the story of a parish priest in the Italian diocese of Novara, Fr Tarcisio Vicario, who recently discussed the question of Holy Communion for the divorced and remarried. This is how he explained the Church’s teaching on the matter: “For the Church, which acts in the name of the Son of God, marriage...

WARSAW, Poland (AP) -- President Barack Obama's administration has taken the U.S. gay rights revolution global, using American embassies across the world as outposts in a struggle that still hasn't been won at home. Sometimes U.S. advice and encouragement is condemned as unacceptable meddling. And sometimes it can seem to backfire, increasing the pressure on those it is meant to help.With gay pride parades taking place in many cities across the world this weekend, the U.S. role will be more visible than ever. Diplomats will take part in parades and some embassies will fly the rainbow flag along with the...

Still trying to figure out what President Barack Obama’s foreign policy doctrine is? Search no more. The White House has got you covered. “For those pining for an Obama Doctrine victory for the president, here it is: ‘Don’t Do Stupid Sh-t,’” Politico’s Mike Allen wrote in his daily tip sheet, the Politico Playbook, Saturday. “Playbook rarely prints a four-letter word — our nephews are loyal readers. But we are, in this case, because that is the precise phrase President Obama and his aides are using in their off-the-record chats with journalists.” Allen went on to point out all the places...

... What is needed from Washington is not a heroic exertion of American military power but rather a sustained effort to engage with allies, isolate enemies, support free markets and democratic values and push these positive trends forward. The Obama administration is, in fact, deeply internationalist — building on alliances in Europe and Asia, working with institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the United Nations, isolating adversaries and strengthening the global order that has proved so beneficial to the United States and the world since 1945. ... A Democratic Advisory Council committee headed by Acheson called Eisenhower’s foreign...

From an interview with Cormac Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor, Archbishop Emeritus of Westminster, published on Vatican Insider: Q. Do you foresee that there could be a change in relation to the question of the divorced and remarried? A. I don’t know. The Church does not change, it develops. By that I mean the doctrine of the Church develops by going out in a different direction. That is to say, it changes in an indirect way. And it could develop in the question of the divorced and remarried. His remarks on Pope Francis as representing "radical change" and how his election "made people...

After this last Sunday's sermon at the church I attend, I got to thinking about something. My pastor has started a series on the book of Philippians, focusing on the joy of the Lord. During one of his points, he spoke of how some people get discouraged and do not think that the Lord cares about them. He referenced Isaiah 40: 26-29 which reads... Isaiah 40:26-29 (NLT) 26 Look up into the heavens. Who created all the stars? He brings them out like an army, one after another, calling each by its name. Because of his great power and incomparable...

Vatican II, "Gaudium et spes" A man and a woman, who by the marriage covenant of conjugal love ‘are no longer two, but one flesh’, render mutual help and service to each other through an intimate union of their persons and of their actions. Through this union they experience the meaning of their oneness and attain to it with growing perfection day by day. As a mutual gift of two persons, this intimate union, as well as the good of the children, imposes total fidelity on the spouses and argues for an unbreakable oneness between them.

The United Methodist Church’s division over homosexuality grew heated Friday (Nov. 15), as the denomination’s Council of Bishops called for charging retired Bishop Melvin Talbert with presiding at the Oct. 26 wedding of two men, which the church forbids. The council asked its president, Bishop Rosemarie Wenner, and Bishop Debra Wallace-Padgett of the North Alabama Conference, to file a complaint accusing Talbert of undermining the ministry of a colleague and conducting a ceremony to celebrate the wedding of a same-gender couple at Covenant Community United Church of Christ in Center Point, Ala. Talbert, who served as bishop of the San...

On the plane, on the way back from Brazil, the journalist Gianguido Vecchi, of Corriere della Sera asked Pope Francis the following question. “Holy Father, during this visit … you have frequently spoken of mercy. With regard to the reception of the sacraments by the divorced and remarried, is there the possibility of a change in the Church’s discipline?”. That elicited the following response. “This is an issue which frequently comes up. Mercy is something much larger than the one case you raised. I believe that this is the season of mercy. This new era we have entered, and the...

The shock waves are reverberating throughout the Church and around the globe. Pope Francis has insisted that the Church founded by Jesus Christ must focus beyond "small-minded rules" or it may very well "fall like a house of cards." Translation: Doctrinal truths which the world finds offensive must be watered-down or pretty much ignored to accommodate the zeitgeist. Doctrinal truths constitute "small-minded rules"? Dr. Germain Grisez, in a talk entitled "Legalism, Moral Truth and Pastoral Practice" given at a 1990 symposium held in Philadelphia, had this to say: "Theologians and pastors who dissent from received Catholic teaching think they are...

Have head that tomorrow, September 8, parish priests, on order from their dioceses, will give homilies that unabashadly advocate amnesty for illegal aliens, that is, support the Obama administration's policy in this area. Last week's homily was, in my church, a taste of this; the priest worked (snuck?) the subject of immigration and immigrants into the homily. Since I've returned to the faith from a somewhat lapsed status over 4 years ago, I've endeavored not to miss any days of obligation. But I remember way back in 1982 when a priest gave an over-the-top homily supporting the nuclear "freeze" movement....

Are saints who have physically died “dead saints” or are they alive with God?A friend named Leonard Alt got tired of being hammered by anti-Catholic Fundamentalists on this issue so he decided to write this article. I thought you might enjoy it too, so here it goes…Leonard writes: I wrote this note after several days of frustration with people, on Facebook, saying that saints can’t do anything, because they are dead. They seem to be leaving out the fact that the souls live on. ENJOY! Dead and gone? Where is his soul-his person? An antagonist named Warren Ritz asked,...

I belong to an evangelical Christian church. I subscribe to its tenets. Among them, that there is but one true God. That He created man in His image. That man sinned against his Creator and is, therefore, fallen. That God so loved the world He gave His only begotten son, our Lord Jesus Christ, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Yet, there is one doctrine of the church with which I have long struggled: That once someone is “saved,” they are always saved. That if a person but calls upon the name of the...

In the history of Roman Catholic dogma, one can trace an evolution in the theory of tradition. There were two fundamental patristic principles which governed the early Church's approach to dogma. The first was sola Scriptura in which the fathers viewed Scripture as both materially and formally sufficient. It was materially sufficient in that it was the only source of doctrine and truth and the ultimate authority in all doctrinal controversies. It was necessary that every teaching of the Church as it related to doctrine be proven from Scripture. Thomas Aquinas articulated this patristic view when he stated that canonical...

Relaxed and at ease, Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller returns a week after his appointment as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to the Diocese of Regensburg. A series of interviews for journalists are on the agenda for Friday: liberation theology, the SSPX and the situation of divorced and remarried. Minefields for an ecclesiastic, who has moved to third place in the Vatican's ecclesiastical pecking order. Archbishop Mueller, first of all, congratulations on the new job. Since when did you know about your appointment? I definitely knew it on 16 May, when the Holy Father has summoned...

At the April (2012) General Conference of the Mormon Church, Apostle D. Todd Christofferson told the congregation, “…we must admit there has been and still persists some confusion about our doctrine and how it is established. That is the subject I wish to address today.”In his remarks, Apostle Christofferson explained, “The President of the Church may announce or interpret doctrines based on revelations to him (see, for example, D&C 138). Doctrinal expression may also come through the combined council of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (see, for example, Official Declaration 2)… At the same time it...

Featured Term (selected at random):DOCTRINE Any truth taught by the Church as necessary for acceptance by the faithful. The truth may be either formally revealed (as the Real Presence), or a theological conclusion (as the canonization of a saint), or part of the natural law (as the sinfulness of contraception). In any case, what makes it doctrine is that the Church authority teaches that it is to be believed. this teaching may be done either solemnly in ex cathedra pronouncements or ordinarily in the perennial exercise of the Church's magisterium or teaching authority. Dogmas are those doctrines which the Church...

Mormon scripture: God curses bad races with black skin2 Nephi 5:21"And the Lord had caused the cursing to come upon them, yea, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity. For behold, they had hardened their hearts against him, that they had become like unto a flint; wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them." Alma 3: 6"And the skins of the Lamanites were dark, according to the mark which was set upon their fathers, which...