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Franciscan Media Image: House of Loreto | J L Buchner | photo by unknown Blessed Anthony Grassi Saint of the Day for December 18 (November 13, 1592 – December 13, 1671)  Blessed Anthony Grassi’s Story Anthony’s father died when his son was only 10 years old, but the young lad inherited his father’s devotion to Our Lady of Loreto. As a schoolboy, he frequented the local church of the Oratorian Fathers, joining the religious order when he was 17.Already a fine student, Anthony soon gained a reputation in his religious community as a “walking dictionary,” who quickly grasped Scripture...

Washington D.C., Dec 17, 2018 / 06:05 pm (CNA).- Following the conviction of Cardinal George Pell in the Australian state of Victoria last week, new details have emerged about the nature of the crimes for which he has been found guilty. Pell was found guilty Dec. 11 on five charges of sexual abuse of minors, following accusations that he sexually assaulted two former members of the Melbourne cathedral choir. A sweeping court injunction prevents the nature of the accusations, the progress of the case, or the even the result of the trial from being discussed by the media in Australia....

December 18, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Asia Bibi will still be in protective custody in Pakistan over Christmas, her British spokesman has said. Asia Bibi, 53, is the Catholic Pakistani woman who was acquitted of blasphemy by Pakistan’s supreme court on October 31. Following her acquittal, there was mass unrest in Muslim-majority Pakistan, led by an Islamist political party. Dashing hopes that the woman and her family would soon find refuge abroad, the Pakistani government signed an agreement with the extremists, preventing Asia Bibi from leaving the country. The extremists hope to overturn Bibi’s acquittal and ensure her execution. Meanwhile, she,...

The court ruled that the secret of confession could not be used as a defenseA Belgian court convicted a Catholic priest of failing to seek help for a man who confessed to him that he was contemplating suicide, reported Reuters. The court issued Fr. Alexander Stroobandt a suspended one-month jail sentence, after ruling that he could not use the secrecy of confession as a defense in the case. Stroobandt had counseled a man, who was an acquaintance, about his struggles with depression. The man went on to commit suicide by inhaling car exhaust fumes. When the victim’s wife discovered that...

December 17, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Two prominent evangelical organizations have formally endorsed federal legislation that would ostensibly protect homosexual Americans from discrimination without infringing on religious exercise, but social conservative leaders warn that the stated principles could still be exploited by pro-LGBT activists. The boards of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) and National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) have passed motions endorsing the addition of sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) language to federal nondiscrimination law, WORLD reported. In October, the NAE Executive Council unanimously passed a motion that affirms “God created human beings in his image as...

Viganò and Bux: A coordinated effort? On September 27, 2018, Archbishop Viganò issued the second in his series of three testimonies (thus far) that featured a “special appeal” to Cardinal Marc Ouellet; calling on the Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops to “bear witness to the truth” by releasing “key documents incriminating McCarrick and many in the curia for their cover-ups.”On October 7, Cardinal Ouellet responded with an open letter of his own; disparaging Viganò while also (perhaps inadvertently) confirming that documents do in fact exist relative to the restrictions that were placed against McCarrick.Six days later, on October 13, well-known Italian...

A Letter to Archbishop Viganò: TEMPUS ADEST -- The Time has Come ARCHBISHOP VIGANÒ:  TEMPUS ADEST!  THE TIME HAS COME! Dear Archbishop Viganò: I, as a priest of the Roman Catholic Church. write this letter to you during the season of Advent, this time of waiting, of expectation, this time of violet that asks us to ponder the meaning of the coming of Jesus Christ into this world of sin and death, to ponder these things in the darkest part of the year when the darkness seems to overwhelm the light.  This is the liturgical season in which John...

Where ever you go now during this "holiday" season, Christmas music is playing and many of the Christmas songs have a sound Biblical message of salvation. What Child is This?, O Little Town of Bethlehem, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, O Holy Night, O Come Emanuel, Go Tell it on the Mountain, O Come All Ye Faithful, The First Noel, Angels We Have Heard on High, O Come Let Us Adore Him, Joy to the World etc.. are all screaming the wondrous TRUTH that a Savior is born! However... as these songs play with their saving message they sail far...

Defending “True Devotion to the Chair of St. Peter”: A Response to Professor Douglas Farrow This article appears in the current issue (Dec. 2018) of Catholic Family News (click HERE to subscribe; current subscribers can access the E-Edition HERE).*****On Nov. 10, 2018, Professor Douglas Farrow published a long article on the website of the Catholic World Report entitled, “The Conversion of the Papacy and the Current Church Crisis,” in which in a friendly manner he criticizes several theses which I proposed on the occasion of the Catholic Family News Conference in Deerfield, Illinois, on April 8, 2018, speaking on the theme, Tu es Petrus:...

With the EXPONENTIAL growth in technology and media Satan is more powerful than ever in peddling his godless demonic kool-aid (John 8:44, Eph. 2:1, 6:12, 1 Peter 5:18) and mankind is more sold out today than ever to do lawlessness and to hear his voice. Thank God that there are some websites and bloggers out there who give great political insight and news commentary of the day, and they also always include Almighty God's ETERNAL gospel message of hope in our nation's darkened hour such as World Net Daily and the American Clarion and their writers. There was a time...

If the song isn't about Jesus, it's not a Christmas song!

"I urge you, brethren, bear with this word of exhortation" (Heb. 13:22). Invitations to salvation must provide both exhortation and warning. Hell is undoubtedly full of people who did not actively oppose Jesus Christ, but simply drifted into damnation by neglecting to respond to the gospel. These are the kinds of people the writer challenges in Hebrews 2:1-4. They were aware of the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ, but weren't willing to commit their lives to Him. As a result, they were drifting past the call of God into eternal disaster. The Word of God always demands a...

“God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name” (Philippians 2:9). Christ is exalted as Prophet, Priest, and King. Jesus’ exaltation was the reversal of His humble incarnation. He who was poor became rich; He who was rejected became accepted; He who had learned obedience returned to a position of power that calls all others to obey Him. Commentator William Hendricksen wrote, “As king, having by his death, resurrection, and ascension achieved and displayed his triumph over his enemies, he now holds in his hands the reins of the universe, and rules all things...

On the Necessity of Prayer Msgr. Charles Pope • December 17, 2018 • To say that something is “necessary” is to declare that it is so essential that to be without it causes grave if not deadly harm. The word comes from Latin: ne– (not) + cedere (to withdraw, go away, yield). The root sense is that what is necessary is something from which we cannot stray, something from which there is no withdrawal, something we cannot evade. There is an expression in Latin, sine qua non, which literally means “without which not.” Its fuller meaning expresses something so...

Sawing off the branch on which he sits: Experts question Francis attack on popes over death penalty ROME, December 17, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) — Pope Francis has incited further controversy in a recent address expounding on his reasons for changing the Catechism of the Catholic Church on the death penalty. As LifeSite reported earlier, Pope Francis told a delegation from the International Commission against the Death Penalty in a Dec. 17 address that popes “in centuries past” ignored “the primacy of mercy over justice” in using the death penalty, which he called an “inhuman form of punishment” that is now “always inadmissible.”  Insisting that the change to n. 2267 of the Catechism is...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem The Acts of the Apostles 
 (New Testament) Acts 21 Paul’s Farewell to the Ephesian Elders 13 We went on ahead to the ship and sailed for Assos, where we were going to take Paul aboard. He had made this arrangement because he was going there on foot. 14 When he met us at Assos, we took him aboard and went on to Mitylene. 15 The next day we set sail from there and arrived off Chios. The day after that we crossed over to Samos, and on the following day arrived at Miletus. 16 Paul had...

If you regularly check the headlines, then you may have read about the Vatican's efforts to revise a particular verse in what is commonly called "The Lord's Prayer." Led by Pope Francis, Rome wants to change the wording of a long-standing translation that has brought a mixture of comfort and confusion to many. The verse in question can be found in Matthew 6:13 and Luke 11:4, and in the eyes of the Pope and the leaders of the Roman Catholic institution, they believe that "lead us not into temptation" should be reworded to something like "abandon us not when...

The God of Christianity is not a frivolous God. He is not given to caprice or arbitrary acts of violence. His actions are not irrational expressions or whims. We do not know why at a given place or a given time natural catastrophes take place. Easy equations of guilt and disaster are ruled out by statements in the book of Job and the ninth chapter of John’s gospel. When inexplicable disasters occur, we must say with Luther, “Let God be God.” When Job cried out, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the...

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for PRESIDENT TRUMP and VICE PRESIDENT PENCE and for AMERICA: Government, Family, Military, Business, Education, Churches, and the Media. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 1 JOHN 5:14 Religion Forum threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind. For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the...

December 18, 2018 Tuesday of the Third Week of Advent Reading 1 Jer 23:5-8 Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD,when I will raise up a righteous shoot to David;As king he shall reign and govern wisely,he shall do what is just and right in the land.In his days Judah shall be saved,Israel shall dwell in security.This is the name they give him:“The LORD our justice.” Therefore, the days will come, says the LORD,when they shall no longer say, “As the LORD lives,who brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt”;but rather, "As the LORD...