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NEW YORK (ChurchMilitant.com) - "Easter is a time for love! No more shedding animal blood!" This was the battle cry of six animal rights activists who interrupted Easter Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York to protest the killing of animals. Brandishing signs featuring pictures of animals and the question "Will You Let Me Live?" the six militants took to the aisles, with one yelling into a megaphone that "only the devil" could create "animals capable of love and joy just so humans can make them suffer and die." The incident occurred about 20 minutes into a Sunday morning...

A fleet of 50 currachs weaved its way toward the shore, where a young Roman Brit and his family walked. His name was Patricius, the 16-year-old son of a civil magistrate and tax collector. He had heard stories of Irish raiders who captured slaves and took them "to the ends of the world," and as he studied the longboats, he no doubt began imagining the worst. The warriors quickly demolished the village, and as Patricius darted among burning houses and screaming women, he was caught. The barbarians dragged him aboard a boat bound for the east coast of Ireland. Patricius,...

Mayor Bill de Blasio will march with a homosexual group authorized to participate under its own banner, but organizers have declined similar permission to pro-lifers.NEW YORK - When the New York City St. Patrick's Day Parade kicks off at 11:30am Thursday, two homosexual groups will be among the hundreds of organizations marching under their own banners. No pro-life organizations, however, will be marching in the annual parade down Fifth Avenue. "You have a gay group in the St. Patrick's Day Parade allowed to march, but the pro-life people are banned? The whole thing is perverse," said William Donohue, president of...

Patricius: The True Story of St. Patrick Before all the festivities focused on shamrocks and leprechauns and good luck wishes, there was truly something to celebrate: a man willing to stand in the gap for Jesus Christ. It was an act of defiance that changed the course of a nation. Patrick lit a fire in pagan 5th century Ireland, ushering Christianity into the country. Who was this man who became the patron saint of Ireland? Ireland was a beautiful island shrouded in terrible darkness. Warlords and druids ruled the land. But across the sea in Britain, a teen-ager was poised...

MARCH 17, around 461 AD, St. Patrick died. As a teenager, the Roman Legions guarding his community in Britain had to be withdrawn to defend Rome, as invading heathen hordes, such as the Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Vandals and Huns, were overrunning the borders. Unprotected, Britain was attacked by raiders, who carried away thousands. Patrick was captured and sold as a slave in Ireland, which was ruled by the Druids, who practiced human sacrifice. For six years Patrick herded animals for a Druid chieftain, as he wrote in his Confession: "But after I came to Ireland---every day I had to tend sheep,...

Up to 40,000 people climb Croagh Patrick every year - a 760m-high mountain in the far west of Ireland - as part of a pilgrimage to honour the country's patron saint. It's one of Ireland's top tourist destinations and has become popular with runners. But not everyone is happy, including the Catholic Church.On a clear day you can see Croagh Patrick from miles away, its near perfect conical shape mirrored against the sky. Originally a site for pagan ceremonies, St Patrick is said to have climbed the mountain more than 1,500 years ago, fasting and praying for 40 days and...

In an article entitled Saint Patrick the Baptist?, Stephen R. Button tries to claim St. Patrick for Evangelical Protestantism... or at least disassociate him from Roman Catholicism. Button is hardly alone: you can find similar attempts by Don Boys and others, some of them dating back several decades. The argument tends to work like this. From Patrick, we have (in Button's words) only the “84 short paragraphs that make up both his Confession and his 'Letter to Coroticus.'” Baptist authors then mine these texts for any doctrines that Patrick doesn't mention explicitly, and then claim that he must have held...

In Boston and New York, persons with same-sex inclinations representing gay activist groups are marching openly for the first time in Saint Patrick’s Day parades after years of lobbying and court battles. In Boston, two LGBT groups have been invited to participate in the parade “honoring” Saint Patrick – Out Vets and Boston Pride. In New York, Out@NBC-Universal will be allowed to march in the parade for the first time.These groups reject Catholic teaching on the immorality of homosexual acts and advocate for same-sex “marriage.” The Church is on the defensive, and Church leaders are concerned about appearing intolerant. Of course,...

Our Catholic friends won’t like this revelation but facts are facts. Patrick (original name was Sucat) was born in Scotland about 375 AD and lived about 85 years dying in 460. As a teen he was captured by marauding raiders and taken to Ireland where he was sold to Milcho, a Druid chieftain and held in slavery for six years. Patrick said that he was hungry and naked during that time. He eventually walked 200 miles to the Irish coast to escape and to find his way back to Scotland. It is my desire to dispel the myths, delusions, superstitions...

Maewyn Succat did not have an easy time embracing the Faith. Although his father Calpurnius was a deacon, Maewyn indulged a spirited youthful rebellion against what he had been taught, and it was only after being kidnapped by superstitious people called Druids that he realized the difference that Christianity makes in the souls of men and the character of cultures. This was in the fifth century, and Maewyn, probably born in the Cumbria part of England near the Scottish lands, was roughly contemporary with the bishop Augustine in North Africa who watched the decay of the Roman Empire. Maewyn eventually...

A homosexual organization given permission to march in New York’s Saint Patrick’s Day parade is not merely a “gay identity” group but actively promotes the homosexual political and social agenda, despite assurances to the contrary by parade organizers and the parade’s next “Grand Marshal,” Cardinal Timothy Dolan, LifeSiteNews.com has learned. The organization, “OUT@NBCUniversal” has been billed as a group merely representing NBCUniversal employees with homosexual tendencies. However, its Facebook and Twitter feeds indicate that the group is actively involved in movements and events that legitimize the homosexual lifestyle, including: “celebrating” Harvey Milk, a famously homosexual politician who biographers say enjoyed...

A fun article in the Washington Post. It always amazes me that there are people 'out there' who want to believe "conservative" is the proper term for loving God so intimately you always strive never be unfaithful to Him. I often wonder if they think cheating on their spouse is just 'liberal'. In any event, it would seem Bill Donohue's credibility has finally imploded. The poor man's ministry has been suffering from the effects of needing the seat at the Bishop's swanky events for quite some time. He had to keep lowering the bar to defend the indefensible. Watching him...

NEW YORK, March 19, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The largest American Catholic civil rights organization is taking on the largest brewer of stout beer in the world. The Catholic League’s Bill Donohue has called for a boycott of Guinness after the beer company pulled its sponsorship of New York’s St. Patrick’s Day parade because organizers barred homosexual activists from marching. Guinness is owned by British liquor giant Diageo.

Protestors chanting pro-gay slogans and advocating for equal rights could be heard along Fifth Ave. as the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade proceeded through Manhattan. Mayor Bill de Blasio and other politicians skipped attending the festivity after organizers said gay groups were not allowed to carry gay-friendly signs or openly identify as LGBT. That caused beer brands Guinness and Heineken to drop their sponsorship of the event. Not all Irish eyes were smiling Monday as the city’s annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade kicked off in midtown Manhattan amid a protest over participants carrying pro-gay signs. Half a city block was...

. In honor of St. Patrick's Day, lets remember captives and slaves whose sacrifice made ours lives so much better. Many don't know that Patrick was NOT Irish. He was born in Scotland and captured by the Irish when he was a teenager. Then he spread Christianity to the Irish. In the Bible, Joseph's brother's sold him into slavery. When he was later able to save his family, he told them, "What you meant for evil, God meant for Good." Thousands of years later, Squanto was captived by Europeans and taken away. Years later, after learning English, he made his...

St. Patrick's Confession I, Patrick, a sinner, a most simple countryman, the least of all the faithful and most contemptible to many, had for father the deacon Calpurnius, son of the late Potitus, a presbyter, of the settlement of Bannaven Taburniae; he had a small villa nearby where I was taken captive. I was at that time about sixteen years of age. I did not, indeed, know the true God; and I was taken into captivity in Ireland with many thousands of people, according to our deserts, for quite drawn away from God, we did not keep his precepts, nor...

The dank South Boston warehouse held a chill last weekend when the flatbed arrived, a 20-foot-long landscaping trailer with a wood plank floor stained by dirt. Around the flatbed gathered almost a dozen people — predominantly men from the surrounding blocks — wearing winter coats and work gloves. The job ahead was daunting: transforming the flatbed into a parade float with seven faux cannons. From each cannon would flow a different color of the rainbow — fabric draped over plastic piping — landing in a pot of gold. Randy Foster and Steve Martin had done this before. They built a...

We live in a time of the anti-hero. Too often, the good guys are the bad guys and vice versa. Celebrities are often held up as heroes, until we learn too much about them. But to see a true hero, look at the real St. Patrick, who has a day dedicated in his honor. Unfortunately, many people only observe his holiday, March 17, by drinking themselves silly, which is totally contrary to the spirit of the man who Christianized Ireland. In fact, Patrick shows what God can do through someone who is committed fully to Him. Thomas Cahill, author of...

The death of Ireland’s High King during the famous bloody battle of Clontarf almost exactly 1,000 years ago will be remembered with a special service in his burial county of Armagh next month. Brian Boru (Bóraime) may have been born in County Clare but, as the well-known theme song ‘The Boys from the County Armagh’ notes, his ashes lie in the city, at the Church of Ireland Cathedral. The legendary leader had requested to be buried in Armagh, possibly due to its religious links to St Patrick, and it is said he was brought to the city by the clergy...

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is going against the grain yet again. The newly elected mayor says that he will not take part in this year’s largest St. Patrick’s Day parade because organizers won’t allow participants to carry gay pride signs, CBS New York reports.