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Amoris Laetitia opens a new door that goes beyond Familiaris Consortio and does away with unnecessarily harsh requirements from the Catholic Church with regard to chastity, according to a recent presentation on the Apostolic Exhortation by Bishop Marcello Semeraro in Spain. Semeraro spoke at the Jesuit University of Comillas in Madrid at the presentation of a new edition of Amoris Laetitia in Spanish with an introduction he wrote. The university rector, Cardinal Lluís Martínez Sistach, who is the Archbishop Emeritus of Barcelona, as well as Jesuits Pablo Guerrero and Carmen Magallón, both professors at the university, were also present. Semeraro...

The following is from an article published in the September 2016 edition of Central California Catholic Life by Fr. Jim Rude, SJ, Co-Editor: I’m getting to be an old man, brushing the mid eighties, and I find that in these past few years, I have been doing a lot
 of reminiscing, thinking of people, places, events. I remember the theology we were taught in the early days, a theology that was rather simple, and in a way, rather sad. For there was not a great deal of explanation. I went to Mass every Sunday with my family, wouldn’t miss it,...

Officials at a Jesuit-run high school in Phoenix have banned a school alumnus from commenting on their Facebook page after he dared criticize Tim Kaine’s public support for abortion. Brophy College Preparatory, a Jesuit high school in Phoenix, Arizona and part of the California Province of the Society of Jesus, posted a USA Today column on its Facebook page highlighting Tim Kaine’s Jesuit education.

In a state ruled by a former Jesuit, perhaps we should not be shocked to find ourselves in the grip of an incipient state religion. Of course, this religion is not actually Christianity, or even anything close to the dogma of Catholicism, but something that increasingly resembles the former Soviet Union, or present-day Iran and Saudi Arabia, than the supposed world center of free, untrammeled expression. Two pieces of legislation introduced in the Legislature last session, but not yet enacted, show the power of the new religion. One is Senate Bill 1146, which seeks to limit the historically broad exemptions...

Blasphemy was committed on a Catholic university campus: An employee at the "Catholic" school stated her belief, rooted in Catholicism, that there are only two genders. An unnamed employee at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles has been suspended and is currently being investigated for a “hate crime” by the university’s Bias Incident Response Team and the LAPD for “denying transgenderism” when she stated that there are only two genders, reports The College Fix. On April 14, the employee engaged in a “dialogue” with three students who were hanging up posters for “Rainbow Week” on campus. Cosette Carleo, who identifies...

Police and school investigating incident as a hate crimeLOS ANGELES (ChurchMilitant.com) - A Los Angeles Jesuit university has fired an employee for telling students there are only two genders — male and female. In April, Catholic Loyola Marymount University (LMU) allowed LGBT Student Services (LGBTSS) to hold LGBTQ+ Awareness Week, also known as Rainbow Week. Posters were put up throughout campus, but on April 14 three members of the club noted some were taken down and placed behind a garbage can. They retrieved the posters and put them back up, claiming an unnamed employee of the Alumni Relations office approached...

"What does the Jesuit master reveal about the Jesuit Bishop of Rome's intention. Are we on the verge of heresy and schism?" Journalists have had unprecedented access to the Pope. It is a disgraceful and utterly contemptible reality that old men with decaying minds from a lifetime of atheism such as Scalfari and Jesuits with burning errors steeped in modernism and heterodoxy are able to communicate that which is in the mind of Jorge Bergoglio better than faithful Catholic media or better still, faithful cardinals and bishops! The Jesuit Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi tried to walk back the Scalfari report,...

Some Michigan high school students are redefining the term "extracurricular activity." In addition to club meetings, band practices and football games, University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy teens are also signing up to serve as pallbearers for homeless veterans. Six students recently volunteered to be pallbearers for three dead homeless veterans. Senior Joshua Gonzales is one of the student leaders who helped develop the program. He said this new opportunity for students is "meant to help dignify and respect the human being." The students' initial plan was to carry the caskets for homeless individuals, said the Rev. Karl...

A law professor at Jesuit-run Fordham University in New York is appealing for an end to the institution of marriage in America, which he describes as “religious, gendered, and bourgeois.” Ethan J. Leib published his essay in the Fordham Law Review. The article, titled “Hail Marriage and Farewell,” says Leib was “elated” when the U.S. Supreme Court made same-sex marriage the law of the land on June 26, 2015, a ruling he described as “a victory for rights, for open-mindedness, for love, and for the future.” The decision, in fact, made him feel, at least for a moment, as if...

The Episcopalian marriage of Fordham University’s theology chairman to his same-sex partner, just one day after the Supreme Court’s marriage ruling, begins a new flood of challenges to Catholic identity that most Catholic colleges and universities are unprepared to face, warns Cardinal Newman Society President Patrick Reilly.“Even if a Catholic college leader wants to uphold Catholic teaching on marriage, the persistent embrace of dissent and opposition to the Church at many Catholic universities makes it highly unlikely that the law will now permit them to uphold moral standards for professors,” Reilly said.“The fact that a theology chairman at a...

The chairman of the theology department at Fordham University has gotten married—to another man. The New York Times, which up until a few years ago, declined running wedding announcements involving same-sex couples, reported that J. Patrick Hornbeck II “married” Patrick Anthony Bergquist Saturday at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in Manhattan. The ceremony took place June 27, just a day after the US Supreme Court legalized same-sex “marriage” nationwide. That would not have been necessary legally, since New York State has allowed gay "marriage" since 2011. But the ceremony was conducted before the Episcopal Church in America voted this week...

Who knew that the Society of Jesus, aka the Jesuits, was the go-to religious order for gay men wanting to become priests? In a damaging indictment of the congregational order to which Pope Francis belongs, ex-Jesuit seminarian Ben Brenkert claims that the elitist organization covers up the activities of its homosexual priests. He also avers the official teachings of the Catholic Church are dead wrong on the topic. In the Daily Beast, Brenkert writes: But I saw homosexuality and Catholicism in the most holistic way, and I put my needs for self-preservation last because I wanted to make a difference...

Clash over condoms, gay sex and abortion unfolds at Jesuit university in Connecticut It all started in October with rows of crosses. Pink ones. Nearly 1,000 of them. They were neatly spread along a lawn at Fairfield University – a Jesuit-Catholic liberal arts college in Connecticut. The crosses stood as a representation of the 915 or so abortions that take place daily inside Planned Parenthood’s clinics nationwide. The display was put up by Fairfield University’s Students for Life, and aimed to encourage “students on our campus to turn away from Planned Parenthood’s exploitation and to turn towards life-affirming resources,” according...

An Indian aid worker has been kidnapped in the Afghan city of Herat, Indian and Afghan officials say. The 47-year-old man was visiting a school when a group of unknown gunmen kidnapped him on Monday afternoon. India's foreign ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said the consulate in Herat was trying to get more information. The incident comes just 10 days after the consulate was attacked by gunmen armed with machine guns and grenades. At least four attackers were killed in the firefight with security forces that lasted several hours. Herat lies near Afghanistan's border with Iran and is considered one of...

Even one who is as maladroit as I when it comes to the Internet, profits from “YouTube” with its cavalcade of some of the great people and events of more than a century. Would that it could go back farther, but there are many moving scenes to which we have access. One shows Father Georges LeMaitre, father of the “Big Bang” with Albert Einstein at the California Institute of Technology in January of 1933. Father Le Maitre, priest and physicist, had challenged Einstein’s postulate of a static state universe. Father Le Maitre contended that an expanding universe, exploding from...

BEIRUT — An activist Jesuit priest who spent three years living alongside besieged civilians and rebels in the Syrian city of Homs was assassinated Monday, according to the Vatican, which said he was abducted by unidentified gunmen who beat him before executing him in front of his monastery.Father Francis Van Der Lugt, 75, a Dutch Jesuit priest, came to Syria in 1966 and eventually founded a home for children and adults with mental disabilities outside Homs, where he lived before the three-year-old civil war started. After fighting began, he relocated to the rebel-held neighborhood of Bustan al Diwan in...

(Note that this article is from a LGBT media group's point of view.) Loyola University Chicago changed its guidelines for wedding ceremonies on campus, adopting an official policy ahead of Illinois' equal-marriage law on June 1. The new policy, enacted last December, only allows Catholic weddings in the university's Madonna della Strada Chapel. All other civil or religious weddings, including same-sex unions, are banned from campus facilities. The decision also comes after a Loyola student launched a Change.org petition last September, urging university administrators to allow same-sex ceremonies on campus. Christine Irvine, a Loyola junior studying visual communication, started the...

A popular U.S. Catholic priest and author known for his peace writings and some 75 arrests for civil disobedience actions across the country has been dismissed from the international Jesuit religious order, which says he was "obstinately disobedient" to its directives. Removal of Fr. John Dear caps 32 years in the order for the priest, who has been known for protesting a wide range of issues, including U.S. policies on Latin America, nuclear weapons development, and the cooperation of Jesuit educational institutions with American military recruiting programs such as the ROTC. The dismissal also raises the specter of Pope...

Thoughts on the Holy Father's recent address about "one of the most beautiful educational adventures" Pope Francis reads a speech during a meeting with catechists in the Paul VI hall at the Vatican Sept. 27. (CNS photo/Tony Gentile, Reuters) “If a needy person requires medicine or other help during prayer time, do whatever has to be done with peace of mind. Offer the deed to God as your prayer. Do not become upset or feel guilty because you interrupted your prayer to serve the poor. God is not neglected if you leave him for such service. One of God’s works...

Another day... another gift from above – or, at least, Room 201 at the Domus. Early on in this pontificate, a caller to the editorial offices of Civiltà Cattolica – the authoritative Italian Jesuit journal vetted by the Holy See before it goes to press – asked to speak with the journal's editor, Fr Antonio Spadaro. Spadaro was out, but the Pope tracked him down on his mobile. And now, the priest-scribe – above, with his confrere – has landed a coup for the ages: a 10,000-word interview with Francis published this morning by the 16 journals overseen by...