Reigning from 1198 to 1216, Pope Innocent III was one of the most influential and important popes of his era. He granted Francis of Assisi and his small band of followers permission to found the Order of Friars Minor; he convened the Fourth Lateran Council which, among other things, dogmatically defined the doctrine of transubstantiation;…
What is Purgatory? Culling directly from the Catechism of the Catholic Church and other documents, Wikipedia authors explain as follows: The Catholic Church holds that “all who die in God’s grace and friendship but still imperfectly purified” undergo the process of purification which the Church calls purgatory, “so as to achieve the holiness necessary to…
Do you want to make a real difference in the world, in your life, and be a super-hero “force for good” this week? You can do it, in spades. And it’s not difficult! As a practicing Catholic, you can gain special indulgences for the faithful departed any time, but especially during the first eight days of…
On September 11, 2001, during the attacks of that day in the U.S., a staggering 2,996 people were killed and more than 6,000 others were injured. Even so, these would just be horrific but faceless numbers were it not for the 24/7 streaming live media coverage of the attacks and, for me, the unspeakably horrific…
