CNS—At the request of retired Pope Benedict XVI, his name will be removed as co-author of a book—From the Depths of Our Hearts: Priesthood, Celibacy and the Crisis of the Catholic Church—defending priestly celibacy, said Cardinal Robert Sarah, the Vatican official who coordinated work on the book. “Considering the polemics provoked by the publication of…
A dismaying aspect of the 2019 March for Life in Washington D.C. was major media’s abrupt burial of the March’s message that “all life matters.” Last year’s mainstream news coverage of the march focused on an unexpected minor side story, in which a Catholic high school student wearing a MAGA cap was confronted by an…
Christine Watkins is a remarkable woman who has become one of today’s most important Catholic authors. “The Warning: Testimonies and Prophecies of the Illumination of Conscience” is her seventh book and is a top bestseller in Mysticism and Catholic Theology. Her primary interest is spiritual transformation, which is rooted in her own transformation, a story…
January 6, 2020
This article was originally posted December 29, 2015 yet it is especially relevant today after recent (Sunday, December 27, 2020) kidnapping at gunpoint of Bishop Moses Chikwe, Auxiliary Bishop of Nigeria’s Archdiocese of Owerri, and his driver, both of whom were released two days ago by Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram. 12/29/15—Nigerian Bishop Oliver Dashe…
I remember it well! At home our little manger of the nativity was always set up in our front sitting-room. In the candle-lit darkness I would gaze into it for hours-on-end and the whole Christmas story came really alive for me. Seeing Mary and Joseph, the babe, the shepherds, the cows, donkey and sheep made…
CNA—The White House hosted dozens of Catholic leaders on Monday afternoon for an internal briefing on life and religious freedom issues. The off -the-record briefing, held in the Indian Treaty room of the Executive Office Building, focused on “life, religious freedom, and other issues pertinent to the Catholic faith community,” according to an invite provided…
CNA—The House on Tuesday passed two large spending bills that were stripped of pro-abortion language, ultimately satisfying pro-life advocates. “This should never have been a problem in the first place. The main reason it was, was because the Republicans allowed it to get into the underlying bill,” Tom McClusky, president of March for Life Action,…
There is a lot of confusion about the nature and scope of the charism of the Pope’s infallibility. Many Catholics with average religious instruction think the Sovereign Pontiff is infallible in everything he says or does. However, this is not what Catholic doctrine affirms. Two Different Concepts That Are Often Confused Thus, most Catholics confuse…
St. Basil the Great (born in Turkey, 329-379 A.D.) has much to say to Catholic business men and women of today, enmeshed as we are in a very secular and increasingly anti-Christian world and work culture. Before sharing St. Basil’s exhortation to the faithful of his day, a time that was not unlike our times…
CNA—Bishop James Conley announced Friday that he is taking a medical leave of absence from his ministry as Bishop of Lincoln, Nebraska. “I have been medically diagnosed with depression and anxiety, along with chronic insomnia and debilitating tinnitus, which is a constant ringing of the ears,” Conley wrote in a Dec. 13 letter to Catholics…
CNA—A new film opening this weekend tells the story of Blessed Franz Jagerstatter, whose refusal to fight for the Nazis in World War II led to his imprisonment and death. Franz was beatified by the Catholic Church in Austria in 2007. His wife, Franziska, was present at the beatification. She died in 2013 at the…
Christmas is my favorite holiday and season of the year. Music adds so much to the magic of Christmas. We know that the first Christmas was the miracle of Christ’s birth to the Virgin Mary for the salvation of souls – God’s gift to the whole world of His only son Jesus Christ. Music lifts…
January 1, 2019 marked the beginning of legalized abortion in Ireland, drawing dismay from Irish pro-life groups, who campaigned extensively against the reform. Once a majority-Catholic and pro-life contingent, voters in Ireland last May voted to repeal the Eighth Amendment to their constitution, which had banned abortion. The repeal was officially enacted by President Michael…
CNA—In its 2019 roundup of the biggest lies of the year (dubbed the biggest ‘Pinocchios’), the Washington Post included a false but oft-repeated claim that “thousands” of women died while undergoing illegal abortions before the legalization of abortion in the United States. This statistic was frequently cited this year by Dr. Leana Wen, who was…
According to a Wall Street Journal exposé series by Francis X. Rocca, not only does the Vatican use donations for the poor to plug its budget deficit, but only 10% of donations to the Vatican’s Peter’s Pence collection go to charitable works. Although sources of information are not always named and generic resources such as…
As a rather observant child, I made a mental note of the fact that my maternal grandmother would ask me to “make a light” instead of asking me to switch it on. When she was a child, no one switched lights on. At night, light was not had without effort, not in her English town nor…
If you ask my family what I’m like during the holidays, they’ll tell you that I tend to go a little overboard. The get-togethers, the gifts, the good times with loved ones and treasured friends — I can’t get or give enough during this special season. My wife and kids make fun of me for…
Fifteen years ago, in 1999, Pope St. John Paul II declared that the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe would be celebrated in every Church in the Americas, because, he said, she is the Patroness, the Evangelizer, and the Mother of the Americas. John Paul said that through her intercession, the new evangelization in America…
As reported in TIME magazine, AP—The Supreme Court on Monday left in place a Kentucky law requiring doctors to perform ultrasounds and show fetal images to patients before abortions. The justices did not comment in refusing to review an appeals court ruling that upheld the law. The American Civil Liberties Union had challenged the law…
In reflecting on this season of the year, I have often wondered how a Martian reporter would do a story on Christmas in the United States. If one only had the dominant cultural icons of TV, movies, news media and retail stores, my guess is that the Martian viewing audience wouldn’t have a clue as…
