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Imagine yourself in a 13th-century North African prison where you are being held for refusing to renounce your Catholic faith. Conditions are cruel, and you are losing hope of seeing your family again. You wonder if it wouldn’t be so bad to convert to Islam. Then an angel in white appears at your cell with the jailor, who unlocks the door. All at once, you are free to return to your home in Spain. The angel is a monk from the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy (also known as the Order of Mercy or the Mercedarians), who...

[Catholic Caucus] Vatican document leak reignites Latin Mass debateDocuments have emerged, in what appears a leak at the Vatican, which indicate that the majority of Catholic bishops did not support the move by Pope Francis to restrict the Latin Mass.The texts from the Vatican’s doctrine office were posted online on Tuesday by the Vatican correspondent Diane Montagna, who has followed the Latin Mass dispute since Traditionis Custodes, the apostolic letter issued motu proprio by Pope Francis in 2021 that restricted the celebration of the Tridentine Mass of the Roman Rite.It reversed Pope Benedict XVI's previous permission for the Latin Mass...

Can I promote a book I wrote in this forum? I wrote a book describing how one can date many events during the life time of Jesus, and I am thinking of writing weekly posts describing each event (for example the conception of Virgin Mary by Hanna, the birth of Jesus Christ, the crucifixion if Jesus Christ, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the transfiguration, the martyrdom of Stephen etc. each in an individual post in this forum. Basically excerpts from my books. Is it allowed? Would you guys and gals be interested?

[Catholic Caucus] The Newly Canonized Saints of Compiègne: "To the poorest daughter of Carmel, honor speaks louder than fear."Mother Marie: Sister Blanche...First Commissary: I forbid you to continue...Mother Marie: You have the power to force me to silence, but none to command me to it. I represent here the Reverend Mother Prioress and I shall take no orders from you.A Commissary: Confounded old hag! She cannot be made to hold her tongue, fellow Citizen, but remind her that the Republic has a machine at its disposal that will leave her somewhat short of breath!First Commissary: Enough! I repeat that you...

[Catholic Caucus] The Council of Nicaea and Vatican IIIs there a relationship between the Council of Nicaea, celebrated in the year 325, and the Second Vatican Council, the last of the twenty-one councils recognised as ecumenical, concluded on 8 December 1965?In a letter written on 29 June 1975 to Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who was criticising Vatican II, Pope Paul VI stated that “the Second Vatican Council is no less authoritative, indeed in some respects it is even more important, than the Council of Nicaea” (cf. La Doc. Catholique, 58 (1976) p. 34). The statement left many astonished at the time....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoyepuvRSBc 23:50

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal Burke: Fatima message warns of ‘practical apostasy of our time’'The message speaks about the practical apostasy of our time that is the going away from Christ by so many in the Church and the violence and death which are its fruit,' said Cardinal Burke.The message of Fatima relates to the “practical apostasy of our time,” Cardinal Raymond Burke said this weekend. Offering Mass on Sunday to mark the 108th anniversary of the third apparition of Our Lady of Fatima, Cardinal Burke homilized about the importance of the First Saturday devotions and the import of the message of...

[Catholic Caucus] The Saga of a Cristero FamilyFreedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. It has to be fought for and defended by each generation. – Ronald Wilson Reagan, July 6, 1987.In the hushed, early morning hours, a small group of guerrilla fighters quietly set ablaze several small bridges north and south of the Colima railroad station, razing major access points in and out of the town strangled by criminal caudillos.Celebrating the destruction, Colonel Marcos “Marquitos” Torres Virgen (1899-1928) led his Cristero soldiers, filled with bravado, as they galloped on horseback, tearing – uncontested – through the...

While Lorenzo Sewell was in high school, his dad got incarcerated and his brother got murdered in East Detroit. “I was mentored by murderers. I was a student of the street,” said the former drug abuser, drug dealer and gang leader. But Lorenzo found God in Paul-like conversion in his senior year in 1999 and now pastors the dynamic 180 Church in Pontiac, Michigan. When Donald Trump asked to visit his church to listen to members talk about their issues, Pastor Lorenzo thought it was a prank call. When he subsequently got invited to speak at the Republican National Convention,...

[Catholic Caucus] The Broad Ocean of the Latin Rite: What True Liturgical Diversity Looks LikeRecent years have seen a surge in curiosity about the classic Rome rite, its forms, symbols, and history. Everywhere neophytes can be heard asking cautiously about “the Latin Mass,” while those who are more versed in the traditional Catholic world may be found disputing the merits and shortcomings of the ’62 missal and the Office of St. Pius X, or extolling the glories of the pre-’55 Holy Week.As rumors of an end to the intolerable régime of Traditionis custodes have begun to circulate, the time is...

[Catholic Caucus] The Rise and Fall of the Cristeros | Part 2Part 1Previously published in an earlier edition of Catholic Family News. Full article on https://catholicfamilynews.locals.com/By Mark Fellows“The Torch of Faith flickers, the sign of redemption is hidden, and the cries of the impious suffocate the voices of good men and the clamor of religion. Save us Lord, for we are dying!” Mexican Bishop Ruiz y Flores, a published prayer prayed on the last day of religious services in Mexico, July, 1926.The 1857 Laws of Reform sought to separate the Church in Mexico from the State. The 1917 Constitution sought...

St. Peter and St. Paul are two of the most well-known saints and are often spoken of as the two men most responsible for spreading the Christian message in the days of the early church. As to why they are celebrated on the same day, legend has it that they were executed on the same day under the command of Emperor Nero and buried in Rome. (Although historical accounts cite Peter being martyred in 64 AD and Paul in 67 AD.) Because of his Roman citizenship, Saint Paul was beheaded. St. Peter was reportedly crucified upside down because he said...

[Catholic Caucus] Why Ambiguity Was the Most Lethal Weapon of Vatican II’s ArchitectsEvery single ambiguity of Vatican II tended to undermine Catholic teaching in precisely the way against which the pre-Vatican II popes emphatically warned. This is not mere coincidence. Moreover, the presence of so much ambiguity fundamentally undermines the Catholic Church’s role as truth-teller. The Church obviously knew how to speak clearly and unambiguously on all of the matters that have become so contentious after the Council.In his 2024 book Flee From Heresy: A Catholic Guide to Ancient and Modern Errors, Bishop Athanasius Schneider provided the following question and...

The modern state of Israel often stirs intense debate, especially among Christians navigating its place in biblical prophecy and today’s geopolitics. Some equate the modern government of Israel with the biblical Israel of old, demanding unwavering support — a conversation that has been trending on social media as of recent, due to a fiery Tucker Carlson/Ted Cruz face-off. Others veer into antisemitism, demonizing Jewish people as a whole.Both extremes miss the mark. Scripture, particularly Romans 9–11, offers clarity: the modern Israeli government is not biblical Israel, but God’s covenant with the Jewish people endures, and hatred toward them is sin....

Catholic Zionism differs from the forms of Protestant Zionism that require a literalist exegesis of Revelation 20:2, which describes a thousand-year period of Messianic rule during which Satan is “bound” and his power restrained. Catholic Zionism does not see the creation of Israel in 1948 as inaugurating the end times. The death and resurrection of Jesus did that. Catholic Zionism does not support an “apocalyptic” showdown in the Middle East… Catholic Zionism shares one central feature of Protestant Zionism, however: It affirms that the promise made to Abraham in Genesis matters in our time. The foundation of the State of...

The top spot on my rankings of Civil War movies alternates between two classics: Clint Eastwood's The Outlaw Josie Wales, and Glory, which features an all-star cast including Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman, Carey Elwes and Matthew Broderick. We re-watched both within the past week. Of the two, I think Glory is the more intriguing if only because it portrays the deeds of true Civil War heroes: Col. Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts Regiment. After watching it this time, I was inspired to dig a little deeper on Shaw to see what made him tick. What made a Boston...

(Fresno, California: the hometown of Free Republic. Fresno: "ash tree")Exodus 21 And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi. 2 And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. 3 And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink. 4 And his sister stood...

The Cyrus Cylinder is an ancient clay artifact from the 6th century BCE, associated with Cyrus the Great, founder of the Achaemenid Empire. It is considered one of the most significant inscriptions from the ancient Near East and is often regarded as a declaration of enlightened rule. The language is Akkadian. The script is Cuneiform. Akkadian was the diplomatic and administrative language of the region, even though Cyrus himself was Persian. The use of Akkadian ensured the text would be understood across Babylon and other parts of Mesopotamia. The Cyrus Cylinder was created after Cyrus’s conquest of Babylon in 539...

Throughout the Bible, we encounter individuals who faced deep doubt but emerged with renewed devotion.

Could artificial intelligence solve one of the Bible’s biggest mysteries? A team of researchers used AI-powered statistical modeling to analyze the authorship of the Hebrew Bible and made surprising discoveries about ancient narratives. Credit: Shutterstock A multidisciplinary team of researchers is using artificial intelligence to unravel the authorship of the Hebrew Bible’s earliest books. Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing everything from healthcare to filmmaking to finance. So, why not apply it to one of the most ancient and influential books in history—the Bible? That’s exactly what an international team of researchers set out to do. Among them was Shira Faigenbaum-Golovin, an...