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While the number of Catholics worldwide slightly increased from 2021 to 2022, new statistics show that the number of priests continues to decline. The Vatican released the 2024 Pontifical Yearbook and the 2022 Statistical Yearbook of the Church earlier this month. Edited by the Vatican Secretariat of State's Central Statistical Office, the publications are being distributed in bookstores and published by the Vatican Printing Press.The publications highlight "statistical data to assess the main trends affecting the evolution of the Catholic Church worldwide," reports Vatican News.The latest edition of the Statistical Yearbook shows the number of baptized Catholics in the world...

When Israel was attacked two weeks ago, Saul Teplitsky leaped into action, trying to help Israel from his home in the Bronx. Like many others, he donated money to emergency efforts at resupplying Israel. But like so many others, he felt that whatever he did was simply not enough. On Sunday, eight days after the horrific attack, Saul put out a Whatsapp message to his community calling on people to donate necessary items and received an overwhelming response. A young man in the community, the son of a friend, was traveling to Israel to serve in the IDF and Saul,...

Cartels mutilate, cut throats, torture, off fingersAttacks against priests in Mexico have risen to an unbearable level. Organized criminals have turned to hunting down and maiming parish clergy to rise up the ranks of drug cartels and shut out the pastoral work they do in their communities. At least 70 priests have been killed — officially recognized — in recent decades, which makes Mexico the most dangerous country in the world to be a priest. The Centro Católico Multimedial keeps track of murdered priests (diocesan and religious) from 1990 to this year. In addition to murders, desecrations of temples have...

THE GREAT SIN OF PRIESTS TODAY is to preach what they believe people want to hear instead of what people need to hear to follow Jesus with the cross and arrive to heaven for all eternity. Priests who do not spend at least one hour in church before the tabernacle, with our Eucharistic Lord each day, very often suffer from loneliness and thus do not want to lose their friends or offend anyone. Thus there are very few priests who have the courage to do as the saints, such as Saint John the Baptist, the “greatest born of women” (Mt...

The U.S. Marine Corps went full woke on Wednesday, marking the first day of “Pride Month” with a celebratory image featuring rainbow bullets. “Throughout June, the USMC [U.S. Marine Corps] takes #Pride in recognizing and honoring the contributions of our LGBTQ service members,” the U.S. Marine Corps said in a statement posted to social media. “We remain committed to fostering an environment free from discrimination, and defend the values of treating all equally, with dignity and respect,” it added, using the hashtags #PrideMonth and #USMC. The statement is accompanied by an image of a Marine helmet adorned with six bullets,...

[Catholic Caucus] French Mothers (of Traditional Priests): Francis Will Shake Hands With ThemFrancis will welcome the mothers of Roman Rite priests at the end of their pilgrimage to Rome after his May 4 general audience, the mothers' association LaVoieRomaine.com (April 21) announced.The mothers are walking from Paris to the Vatican asking Francis to preserve the Roman Mass.They are bringing with them hundreds letters from Roman Rite Catholics in order to show to the Holy See that the faithful who attend the Roman Mass are “very diverse.”

Full title: Judicial Watch: Court Forces Release of Clinton WikiLeaks Discussion Email that Confirms State Department Knew About Her Email Account 'She guards it pretty closely'(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that the State Department provided a previously hidden email which shows that top State Department officials used and were aware of Hillary Clinton’s email account. On December 24, 2010, Daniel Baer, an Obama State Department deputy assistant secretary of state, writes to Michael Posner, a then-assistant secretary of state about Clinton’s private email address: Baer: “Be careful, you just gave the secretary’s personal email address to a bunch...

CARDINAL REINHARD MARX WITH POPE FRANCIS A prominent Roman Catholic Church leader in Germany has said that he believes priests should be allowed to get married, opposing centuries of mandated celibacy for clergy. Cardinal Reinhard Marx, the archbishop of Munich and a reformist ally of Pope Francis, told the German publication Sueddeutsche Zeitung that he supported clerical marriage as part of reforms to battle sex abuse. “For some priests, it would be better if they were married — not just for sexual reasons, but because it would be better for their life and they wouldn’t be lonely,” stated Marx, as...

The following email was sent to the more than 150 priests of the diocese of Perugia, Italy, on December 24, 2021. Dear fellow priest, With the coronavirus, we see each other seldom, and with the social distancing, we speak with each other very little! Thus we share very little of our thoughts as priests in the same diocese! I would like to, at least in this occasion of Christmas, to share with you some of my thoughts that are very much on my heart. (Note: When pasting this document into Free Republic, it seems that most of the special formatting...

Tribunal convicts Mexico City cardinal, ex-cardinal of GuadalajaraAttacked for dissent on abortion, LGTB and for asking voters to prayTwo Mexican cardinals, a bishop, and three priests have been convicted of constitutional violations for warning the public against the ruling party’s opposition to the values of human life and family, their advocacy of the LGBT agenda, and their promotion of socialism.The convictions have caused alarm in Mexico regarding their implications for freedom of speech and the right to criticize the socialist ruling party “Morena,” which is accused of undermining Mexican civil liberties.Among the convicted were the Cardinal Archbishop of Mexico City,...

Our Lady to Don Stefano Gobbi tells us that the great apostasy (2Thess 2:3) began with the priests. "These priest-sons of mine, who have BETRAYED THE GOSPEL in order to second the great satanic error of Marxism... It is especially because of them that the chastisement of Communism will soon come and will deprive everyone of all they possess. Times of great tribulation will unfold. Then it will be these poor sons of mine who will begin the great apostasy. Watch and pray, all of you, priests who are faithful to me!" (“To the Priests, Our Lady's Beloved Sons”; July...

In an age of an evangelical church culture fraught with scandals, we must continually remind and ground ourselves in the biblical criteria for leadership, otherwise, we will lose our credibility within our churches and before the world. The following are some of the ethical and ministerial standards related to priests, kings, and New Testament elders. These are qualifications that we can still apply in principle to today’s Church.Old Testament Standards for the Priests (Leviticus 21):Initially, all the children of Israel were to serve as priests of the Lord (Exodus 19:6). Among the many laws related to the standards for the...

Two weeks before Don Stefano Gobbi died, he said to two priests with him, to read the message of October 18, 1975, which describes what we are living today. From the book, “Don Stefano Gobbi – Testimonianze” (https://cibo-spir.blogspot.com/2018/12/don-stefano-gobbi-testimonianze.html), we read: “But the book that he (Don Stefano Gobbi) always had with him was the ‘Blue Book” (http://our-lady-priests.blogspot.it/) which, more than just reading it, he meditated, so as to contemplate the wonderful designs of God by way of the Creature most loved by God (Mary). Also when we met and we talked about some event or problem, rather than offering his...

As I write, a Franciscan priest I know is in a courtroom in Ohio. Father Fidelis Moscinski was charged with criminal trespass for walking into an abortion facility in Cuyahoga Falls. It's called a Red Rose Rescue: He goes inside, offers women roses, and when asked to leave, says he's happy to -- once the doctor performing abortions does. In other words, once the abortions stop. So the police wind up getting involved. The pain of abortion can be a miserable cross to bear, not just for a woman but for all in her life. Death creates distance, especially when...

The evangelical indie rock scene of the 1990s can be difficult to explain. A rebellious, unhinged underground movement that emerged from megachurch basements and religious colleges? A generation of musicians who broke ties with conservative Christianity but maintained a fan base built through youth groups and Young Life? You kind of had to be there. Perhaps no band typifies the many paradoxes of this scene and its fallout than Luxury, formed in small-town Georgia in the early 1990s and still together today. The band itself is also hard to describe: maybe Morrissey fronting Fugazi, with sad Radiohead piano, English-major allusions,...

Fifteen prominent North American seminaries have committed to meeting a series of sexual misconduct policy benchmarks in hopes the move will inspire others to follow suit, and to reinforce policies already in place. The five benchmarks were announced by the University of Notre Dame McGrath Institute for Church Life in November. Tuesday, the institute launched a website that details the benchmarks, outlines the seminaries that endorse it, and identifies the team of laity, priests and bishops that collaborated on the effort. “[It’s important] to be proactive and not to wait for some sort of crisis or problem to react,” Monsignor...

President Joe Biden urged local pastors and priests on Monday to promote the coronavirus vaccines to skeptical supporters of President Donald Trump. During a White House event on coronavirus relief, Biden was asked by a reporter how to get more Republicans and supporters of President Trump to get vaccinated.

The following email was sent to the more than 150 priests of the diocese of Perugia, Italy, on December 24, 2020. Dear fellow priests, With the corona virus, we see each other much less, and we talk among ourselves much less, unfortunately. (Note: When pasting this document into Free Republic, it seems that most of the special formatting is lost, such as bold, italics, underlined words and embedded links. To read the document with the formatting and embedded links go to the link of the document.) At least I want to wish you a Holy Christmas with Baby Jesus in...

LAKE GEORGE - It was a choppy afternoon on the lake and Jimmy MacDonald from Albany was paddling in a kayak. As Jimmy tells it, he drifted away from his wife and stepkids because he was taking pictures with his new smartphone "and not really paying attention." As he tried to make his way back, the water got choppier and he paddled harder before he tipped over and lost his paddle. He was in about 30 feet of water, his ill-fitting life jacket coming up over his head and he was holding onto the kayak with one hand and his...

HARRISBURG — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg filed for bankruptcy Wednesday, becoming the first diocese in the state to seek protection from financial claims in the aftermath of a 2018 grand jury report that revealed decades of sexual abuse and cover-up by the church’s top leaders. And, said a lawyer for the diocese, it’s not likely to be the last. Citing the fallout from that probe and recent court decisions that opened new avenues for some victims with time-barred claims to sue, attorney Matt Haverstick said Harrisburg, like each of the state’s eight other Catholic dioceses, faces the prospect...