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ROME — Pope Francis has changed Catholic Church teaching to fully reject the death penalty, the Vatican announced Thursday, saying it would work to abolish capital punishment worldwide. The change addresses several sentences of the catechism, the compendium of Catholic teaching, but it sharply amplifies the church’s opposition against one of the world’s most debated policies. The church’s updated teaching states that capital punishment is “inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person.” Previously, the church allowed for the death penalty in very rare cases, only as a means of “defending human lives against...

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy met with Vatican officials that helped draft Pope Francis’ climate-related encyclical on Friday, The Associated Press reports.An encyclical, a letter from the pope addressed to faithfuls worldwide when he feels he needs to reach them, is set to be published in June and might make environmentalism a Catholic doctrine like Pope Pius IX’s encyclical about infallibility. It might also be a simple condemnation of human destruction of the environment like Pope Pius XI’s encyclical against Italian Fascists. The visit was aimed at showing the Holy See that the Obama administration share similar thoughts on...

Although papal infallibility is commonly found in popular conversation, how well the term is understood is another matter.“Christ giving Peter the keys of the kingdom” by Pietro PeruginoAs Danny Garland, Jr., pointed out in his recent article on “The Development of the Dogma of Papal Infallibility,” the term “papal infallibility” has a centuries-old history that stretches from Peter John Olivi, in the thirteenth century, through John Henry Newman, in the nineteenth century, and down to the present. 1In addition to being a well-known term with a lengthy history, “papal infallibility” is also highly symbolic: for Roman Catholics, it has often...

Did Martin Luther Act Infallibly in Defining What Books Belong in the Bible? If Luther did not act infallibly: - How can Protestants be certain that they have an infallible collection of Books in Holy Scripture? - How can the Bible be the sole rule of faith, if no one knows with certainty which books belong in the Bible? If Luther acted infallibly: - How do you know?

Michael J. Fox In Town To Campaign For Dems Fox Addresses Rush Limbaugh's Accusations Mike Puccinelli Reporting (CBS) WHEATON Actor Michael J. Fox was in town Tuesday to campaign for Democratic candidates, but he spent a lot of his day responding to derogatory comments made by radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh. CBS 2 West Suburban Bureau Chief Mike Puccinelli reports it has to do with Fox's support for stem cell research. More than 200 people rose to their feet to greet Tammy Duckworth and Michael J. Fox. The "Back to the Future" star and Parkinson's sufferer was in Wheaton...

Vatican, Dec. 30 (CWNews.com) - The following is a corrected version of a story that appeared on CWNews.com earlier this week, in which a crucial error in translation caused a serious misinterpretation of the news. CWNews apologizes for the error. Vatican, Dec. 28 (CWNews.com) - The Vatican newspaper has denounced a decision by Sri Lanka to reject emergency aid offered by the Israeli government. Sri Lanka declined the Israeli aid because it would have been furnished by a military team. Calling for "a radical and dramatic change of perspective" among people "too often preoccupied with making war," L'Osservatore Romano chastised...

The principal subject in the verses which are to be before us is the same as that which has engaged the apostle throughout this 7th chapter, namely, the pre-eminent excellency of the great High Priest of Christianity. That which he is setting forth is the superiority of our Lord’s High Priesthood over that of the Levitical. The various proofs may be expressed thus. First, because Christ is called of God after the order of Melchizedek, Hebrews 5:10. In enlarging upon the fact, here in chapter 7, the apostle did three things: evidenced the superiority of Melchizedek over the order of...