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The Pope said that 'the Church loses its pastoral nature' when Communion is denied to pro-abortion Catholic politicians and that 'it causes a political problem.'VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) – Pope Francis has broken his silence on the U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which grants states the power to outlaw abortion, saying that bishops must be “pastoral” with pro-abortion politicians. In a 90-minute interview with Reuters’ Vatican correspondent Philip Pullella, published Monday, the Pope said that while he respected the court’s decision to overturn the landmark 1973 ruling which imposed abortion on all 50 states, he cannot “speak...

This year my parish re-themed Lent to address the Climate CO2 Crisis. It’s apparently a “wholesale” international push (by Global Catholic Climate Movement, a “collective” of diocesan offices and international NGOs inspired by Laudato Si and Catholic Climate Covenant, the USCCB-related entity) with local “retail” distributors, embodied in miniature in our parish JPICs (Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation groups.) [snip] I find the Catholic Climate Crisis Lent deeply misplaced, but I have no representation at the parish, diocesan, national, or Vatican level. Well, there is my little circle: we talk about these things. What we all agree on...

This is the famous Symphony #6 by Beethoven. It evokes a day in the country, hence its nickname, The Pastoral Symphony" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2VY33VXnrQ There were lots of versions on You Tube. This one is Leonard Bernstein's interpretation. I was raised on the Von Karajan version, but this one is very nice too. I notice a few little nuances of dynamics, but that is what makes it interesting to listen to different conductors. I know I missed last Saturday, so I hope this makes up for it! Enjoy.

A German cardinal has publicly opposed the words of two other German bishops who have suggested that the nation’s Church can form its own policies without direction from Rome. Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes published a letter earlier this month objecting to the pronouncements of prominent leaders of the Church in Germany that the nation's bishops' conference will pursue its own program of pastoral care for marriages and family regardless of the outcome of October's Synod on the Family. At a Feb. 25 press conference following the German bishops' plenary assembly, Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising, who is president...

…….and I must say, he does so perfectly. Via Vox Cantoris, the highly influential Fr. Tom Rosica, whose career has really taken off since March 2013, had this to say about how doctrine can evolve. It is as good an encapsulation of the modernist mindset as I have seen: Will this Pope re-write controversial Church doctrines? No. But that isn’t how doctrine changes. Doctrine changes when pastoral contexts shift and new insights emerge such that particularly doctrinal formulations no longer mediate the saving message of God’s transforming love. Doctrine changes when the Church has leaders and teachers who are not...

Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke emerged from the recent, tempestuous Extraordinary Synod on the Family as a champion of orthodox Catholic sexual morality just as Pope Francis has removed him from the Church’s most senior canon law posting. However, if you sit across the Church leadership’s widening cultural gap from the former archbishop of St. Louis, as Alicia Ambrosio, producer and host of Vatican Connections on Canada’s Salt and Light Television, evidently does, you see him as stuck in “an ivory tower” cut off from “the messiness of life” that homosexual Catholics contend with. Now a testimony from one of...

Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke emerged from the recent, tempestuous Extraordinary Synod on the Family as a champion of orthodox Catholic sexual morality just as Pope Francis has removed him from the Church’s most senior canon law posting. However, if you sit across the Church leadership’s widening cultural gap from the former archbishop of St. Louis, as Alicia Ambrosio, producer and host of Vatican Connections on Canada’s Salt and Light Television, evidently does, you see him as stuck in “an ivory tower” cut off from “the messiness of life” that homosexual Catholics contend with. Now a testimony from one of...

by Russell Shaw Other Articles by Russell ShawContact this Author Benedict’s Refresher Course 04/07/06 "Nowadays especially, with the complexity of our problems, Christianity often becomes so complicated for us that we can no longer see the forest for the trees. It is a matter of being led back to the simple heart of it, not to anything else, but to the essentials, to conversion, to faith, hope, and love." Pope Benedict XVI said that a couple of years before becoming pope. With the first anniversary of his election coming up April 19, he appears to be living it out. People have...

"Differing from Other Councils..." by Peter W. Miller "Indeed, it would be most unfortunate if, for lack of sufficient information, or for lack of discretion and objectivity, a religious event of this importance [Vatican II] should be presented so inexactly as to distort its character and the very goals which it has set for itself." 1 - Pope John XXIII As the Catholic Church finds itself forty years removed from the commencement of the Second Vatican Council, there still today exists a significant degree of confusion as to exactly what the famous Council was, both in its intention and result....

According to a Catholic World News article, the following are the names of the Bishops who are calling for the Plenary Council: Archbishops Oscar Lipscomb of Atlanta, Georgia; John Vlazny of Portland, Oregon; Daniel Cronin of Hartford, Connecticut; and James Keleher of Kansas City, Kansas. Also signing were Bishops Raymond Burke of LaCrosse, Wisconsin; Robert Morlino of Helena, Montana; Daniel DiNardo of Sioux City, Iowa, and Detroit auxiliary Allen Vigneron. What do we know about any of these guys? I don't see Bishop Bruskewitz on here, so I'm immediately suspicious.