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‘Is the Pope a Catholic?’ The rhetorical question that’s losing axiomatic power(Pope Francis kisses the hand of the Grand Imam of Istiqlal Mosque Nasaruddin Umar after an interreligious meeting with religious leaders at the Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta on September 5, 2024.) “Is the Pope a Catholic?” is old and well-used rhetorical repartee. It doesn’t require and answer. Or it didn’t until recently.After Pope’s Francis recent remarks about inter-religious dialogue in Singapore, theologians and laity are questioning whether what he said was authentically Catholic.As so often, when the Pope shoots from the hip, he causes either excitement or chaos depending...

During a three-day visit to Singapore, Pope Francis declared that “all religions are a path to God,” sparking backlash among religious leaders in the U.S. The statement was made at an interreligious meeting with young people at a Catholic junior college shortly before his departure back to Rome. Departing from his prepared remarks, Francis spoke off the cuff, stating that different religions are like “different languages” to reach God. “If you start to fight, ‘my religion is more important than yours, mine is true and yours isn’t,’ where will that lead us?” he asked,” according to Crux Now. “There’s only...

Francis: Sedevacantism is a Way to Arrive at God Some Traditional Catholics, including sedevacantists, believe that Francis believes in and practices a new religion separate and distinct from the Catholicism they themselves practice. As sedevacantist bishop, Bp. Donald Sanborn has stated:The sedevacantist position is the only Catholic position in response to the Modernist takeover of Catholic institutions. It squarely declares that Vatican II and its reforms are a substantial change of the Catholic religion. It is a whole new religion which has replaced the Catholic religion in all buildings which were once Catholic.n addition, the late great Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre...

[Catholic/Anglican Caucus] Catholic college allows female Anglican ‘priests’ to celebrate ‘Eucharist’ inside basilicaSt. Vincent College, a Benedictine school in Pennsylvania, allowed the Anglican Church in North America to hold on campus its 2024 Provincial Assembly, which included 'Eucharistic' services with women 'priests' inside St. Vincent Basilica.A Catholic college in Pennsylvania allowed a group of Anglicans, including women “priests,” to celebrate an “Anglican Eucharist” inside a historic basilica.Back in June, St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, permitted the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) to hold on campus its 2024 Provincial Assembly, which included “Eucharistic” services inside St. Vincent Basilica.Hundreds of...

Jewish Scholars Say Amazing Things About Islam - COMPILATION

Do Jewish prophecies point to Jesus? | Answering Jewish Objections to Christianity (Part 1) In this first part of a series, we explore how Christians understand the Messiah in light of Jewish prophetic tradition. Many Jews believe Jesus doesn't fulfill the prophecies, but is there more to the story? Join us for a respectful conversation about the Messiah and delve into the Scriptures together.

I am a Catholic. I am proud of that fact. I am also fervently against Kamala Harris. The Biden/Harris administration has consistently ruled against Christians. Our country is a Judeo-Christian country with morals and values that must be kept. Please join with me to put a stop to the assault against our core values. I stand strong and will do my best to prevent further degradation of our country's moral compass. I say - Catholics against Kamala!

I often wonder what my grandmother—Mamaw, as I called her—would have thought about her grandson becoming Catholic. ...My first real exposure to an institutional church would come later, through my father’s large pentecostal congregation. But I knew a few things about Catholicism well before then. I knew that Catholics worshipped Mary. I knew they rejected the legitimacy of Scripture. And I knew that the Antichrist—or at least, the Antichrists’s spiritual adviser—would be a Catholic. Or, at the time, I would have said, “is” a Catholic—as I felt pretty confident that the Antichrist walked among us. ...Catholics didn’t, it turned out,...

Metaxas's Counterfeit Bonhoeffer: An Evangelical Critique Review of Eric Metaxas, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy: A Righteous Gentile Vs. the Third Reich (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2010) by Richard Weikart Eric Metaxas's Bonhoeffer biography has won many accolades from evangelicals, not only because Metaxas is an excellent writer, but also because he serves up a Bonhoeffer suited to the evangelical taste. Many evangelicals admire Bonhoeffer and consider him a fellow evangelical. Metaxas's book confirms this image. In an interview with Christianity Today Metaxas even made the astonishing statement that Bonhoeffer was as orthodox theologically as the apostle Paul. As orthodox as...

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. This is Bishop Mari Emmanuel addressing our beloved faithful. Whoever you are and wherever you are, we need to understand that we need to be always thankful to our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. For whatever trials and tribulations we go through, we are carrying the cross. Let us not forget that at all. The Lord Jesus said to us, if you do not carry your cross every day and follow me, you are not worthy to be my disciple....

The New Instrumentum Laboris Shows Why Catholics Aren’t Welcome in the Synodal Church “Ecumenical dialogue is fundamental to fostering an understanding of synodality and the unity of the Church. Above all, it drives us to imagine authentically ecumenical synodal practices, including forms of consultation and discernment on shared and urgent concerns.” (Synod on Synodality, Instrumentum Laboris for the Second Session (October 2024)) Although we have already seen more than enough to unequivocally condemn Francis’s Synod on Synodality as a blasphemous assault on the Catholic Church, it is worth considering how the newly released Instrumentum Laboris refines the Synodal Church’s anti-Catholic...

Rome Takes Historic Step Towards ‘Full Communion’ with Conservative AnglicansThe Vatican is taking historic strides towards achieving “full communion” with Anglicans who do not ordain female priests. It is doing so by recognizing Anglican holy orders and churches, but not requiring them to merge with or convert to Roman Catholicism.“We are scheduled to begin our talks at the Vatican this coming September 26-27,” Bishop Ray Sutton, presiding bishop of the Reformed Episcopal Church in the U.S., announced in an Ecumenical Relations Task Force Report of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) College of Bishops.The ACNA bishops, who oversee 128,000...

Pope Francis approves new document elevating ecumenism and synodality above papal primacyThe new ‘study document’ from the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Promotion of Christian Unity emphasizes an intimate link between papal primacy and synodality, advocating for decentralization, granting more authority at regional levels while enhancing ecumenism.This article was originally published by PerMariam: Mater Dolorosa.VATICAN CITY (PerMariam) — The Vatican has unveiled a pivotal document on the papacy, which contains numerous calls to fundamentally alter the understanding of the practice of papal primacy and authority in order to aid ecumenism and synodality.Titled “The Bishop of Rome. Primacy and Synodality in the...

The Synodal Church is Shaping Up to be Protestantism in Union with a Bishop of Rome In his 1928 encyclical on religious unity, Mortalium Animos, Pope Pius XI wrote that Christian unity can only be achieved through the process of non-Catholics returning to the “one true Church”:“[T]he union of Christians can only be promoted by promoting the return to the one true Church of Christ of those who are separated from it, for in the past they have unhappily left it. To the one true Church of Christ, we say, which is visible to all, and which is to remain,...

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The writings Sulayman al-Ghazzi (or Solomon of Gaza) are one of the great hidden gems of Arab Orthodoxy, though not a word of them is yet available in a western language. I'm doing a little work on them for a different venue, but would like share something about him on this blog. I'll do another post soon about his life in more detail, but he was an Orthodox bishop in Palestine in the 11th century, during the persecution of Christians under the Fatimid Caliph al-Hakim bi-Amrillah. He is the first Arabic-language poet whose poetry was entirely dedicated to Christian religious...

The Vatican on Monday issued a new document approved by Pope Francis stating that the church believes that gender fluidity and transition surgery, as well as surrogacy, amount to affronts to human dignity. The sex a person is assigned at birth, the document argued, was an “irrevocable gift” from God and “any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception.” People who desire “a personal self-determination, as gender theory prescribes,” risk succumbing “to the age-old temptation to make oneself God.” ....Cardinal Fernández made clear, drawing a distinction between the...

Assessing ‘Fiducia Supplicans’: The First 100 DaysMarch 27 marks 100 days since the Vatican published Fiducia Supplicans, an instruction on blessings of persons in irregular unions. And while the controversy it stirred in the Church in the West has somewhat abated, opposition to the document and how it was implemented continues apace.Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, who drafted a pan-African bishops’ statement in January rejecting “blessings for same-sex couples in the African Churches,” has not relented in his criticisms, going so far as to say in a March 17 interview that the continent saw...

Biden hosts papal nuncio Christophe Pierre, Fr. James Martin at White House St. Patrick’s Day brunchPapal nuncio Cardinal Christophe Pierre, homosexual Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, and left-wing Jesuit Fathers James Martin and Thomas Reese joined President Joe Biden at the White House yesterday for a St. Patrick’s Day brunch.Pierre, who as papal nuncio is the pope’s ambassador to the U.S., delivered an invocation and led grace before the meal.“We gather on St. Patrick’s Day to pay tribute to the Catholic leadership in this country, especially the fields of charity and social engagement. And so, we give thanks to God...

[Catholic/Orthodox Caucus] The Anti-Ecumenism of Pope FrancisFiducia Supplicans causes the Coptic Orthodox to suspend their ecumenical dialogue with Rome, citing the declaration's change to the Catholic Church's position on homosexuality.So much for the “big brotherhood” Pope Francis invited Catholics to share during his first speech from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica (unless there is another Big Brother that Pope Francis bends the knee to). If the white flag is a form of courage—as Francis said, urging Ukraine to surrender to Russia and earning himself some blistering criticism—Francis has been brave regarding the social justice ideologies of the day. But...