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For the first time since the Marxist revolution, a new Roman Catholic church is being erected in Cuba.The BBC reports: Its attitude to religion has softened since the fall of the Soviet Union, but this is the first Catholic church to be built for more than 50 years. Cuban seminarians The island nation has been communist since the overthrow of Fulgenico Batista in the Marxist revolution of 1959. (From that time until 1992, Cuba’s constitution said that the country was officially atheist.) Revolutionaries under Fidel Castro entered into a power struggle with the Catholic Church–accusing the clergy of defending the...

A document obtained by The Associated Press on Friday shows Pope Benedict XVI defrocked nearly 400 priests over just two years for molesting children. The statistics for 2011-12 show a dramatic increase over the 171 priests removed in 2008 and 2009, when the Vatican first provided details on the number of priests who have been defrocked. Prior to that, it had only publicly revealed the number of alleged cases of sexual abuse it had received. The document was prepared from data the Vatican had been collecting to help the Holy See defend itself before a U.N. committee this week in...

(Vienna) in Austria in 2013, there were more than leaving the church than in 2012. Nearly 55,000 Catholics have left the Catholic Church as a corporate body under public law. Thus more Austrians left the Church in the first year of the pontificate of Pope Francis, than in the last year of the pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI. The church leaders wonder about this phenomenon, which they had not expected. "We would have expected better numbers," said the Bishop of Linz Vicar William Viehböck. Following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI. there was relief heard from not a few official...

Pope Benedict Defends Religious Liberty   PoliticsFebruary 23rd, 2012 Rebecca Ryskind Teti Bishops from the dioceses of Baltimore, Washington and Military Services were in Rome this month, making their requisite ad limina visit to Rome to pray at the tomb of St. Peter and renew their allegiance to his successor.It was a religious duty they were observing, but the Pope chose to speak to them not of prayer or sacraments, but about threats to religious liberty, the proper relations between Church and State and the role of the Catholic citizen in a secular nation.His appeal to all Catholics to defend...

I often think we haven’t done a very good job in setting forth the doctrine of Eternal Life. For most people the concept seems a rather flat one, namely, that we shall live for ever and ever and ever…. And frankly for many such a concept seems rather unappealing even if the place of it is heaven. Heaven too is often poorly understood. It is reduced to a rather egocentric notion of a place where I will be happy. I’ll have a mansion, I’ll see my mother again, I won’t suffer…. But most moderns in their description never get around...

Cardinal Wuerl shared with the priests of this Archdiocese (at the Chrism Mass last month) the full remarks of Pope Benedict that were given during the ad limina visit by bishops of this region. I had seen excerpts, but never the full set of remarks. They are powerful and ought to receive careful consideration by us all.To that end, I would like to share substantial excerpts and offer a few reflections of my own. As is usual the original text is in bold, black italic text. My own comments are in red plain text.For her part, the Church in the...

Along with many of you, I am reading Pope Benedict’s latest book, volume 3 of Jesus of Nazareth, on the infancy narratives. I was very moved at a very brief reflection that he made on Mary, as the Angel Gabriel left her. His remarks consider on her faith in a very touching manner. I must say that I have always been moved by the faith of the Blessed Mother and intrigued too, for she is a woman wrapped in silence. The Pope’s words capture both her faith and the mystery of her. Here is what the Pope says:I consider it...

Stephen Hawking is wrong, Pope Benedict XVI said Thursday - God did create the universe.The pope didn't actually mention the world-famous scientist, who argues in a book published last month that the laws of physics show there is no need for a supreme being to have brought the world into existence.In fact, Benedict specifically praised - and blessed - science and scientists in an address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.But he also made clear that part of the role of science is to reveal God in the universe."Scientists do not create the world; they learn about it and...

Nov19, 2010 Getting Personal With the Word of God – A powerful reflection by Pope Benedict on the true Reality of the Word of GodBy: Msgr. Charles Pope Many people think of the Word of God as an “it” when in fact, the Word of God is a person, Jesus Christ. Jesus did not come merely to give us information and exhortation. He came to give us his very self. He is the “Word made Flesh.” Pope Benedict makes this point in his most recent document, the Post Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, Verbum Domini. I want to give an excerpt and...

I’ve been asked by a few readers of this blog to record a few thoughts about the events surrounding the resignation of Pope Benedict. Over the weekend especially, many rumors circulated, regarding a seedy backstory to the resignation.I am not surprised to read of such rumors in secular media sources, but I must admit I was surprised to read some of these things reported in Catholic sources.As for me, it remains a rumor, and rumors are best unrepeated.I prefer simply to take Pope Benedict at his word. He indicates that, given the effects of age, he thinks is best step...

An important letter, from Pope Francis to Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, has just been published. It includes the following: “With these lines I wish to be close to you and join myself to the act of presentation of the book 'Pontifical primacy and epicopate: from the first millennium to the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council.' [The book is a collection of essays, some by Archbishop Marchetto, in his honour]. I beg you to consider myself spiritually present [there]… “You have made your love for the Church manifest in many ways… above all it is manifest in all your purity in the...

Vatican, Apr. 06 (CWNews.com) - The funeral Mass for Pope John Paul II (bio - news) will be held in St. Peter's Basilica on Friday morning, April 8, at 10. The details of the unique ceremony-- which is expected to last 3 hours-- are laid out in the apostolic constitution, Universi Dominici Gregis , promulgated by Pope John Paul in 1996. That document, setting the procedures for the burial of one Pontiff and the election of a successor, stipulates that a Pope's funeral, should be held between 4 and 6 days after his death. Pope John Paul died in the...

The Sunday after the Epiphany is the Sunday of the baptism of Jesus. And on each of these Sundays, year after year, Benedict XVI administered the first sacrament of Christian initiation to a certain number of children, in the Sistine Chapel. Each time, therefore, he had occasion to pronounce the formulas supplied by the rite of baptism in effect since 1969. But two of the words in this rite never entirely convinced him. And so, before renouncing the chair of Peter, he ordered that they should be changed in the original Latin, and as a result in the modern languages...

VATICAN CITY — Archbishop Georg Ganswein, retired Pope Benedict XVI’s longtime personal secretary, said a story about the pope resigning after a “mystical experience” was completely invented. “It was invented from alpha to omega,” the archbishop said Aug. 24 in an interview on Italy’s Canale 5 television news. “There is nothing true in the article.” In a report Aug. 19, the Italian service of Zenit, a Catholic news agency, said someone who had visited Pope Benedict “a few weeks ago” had asked him why he resigned. “God told me to,” the retired pope was quoted as responding before “immediately clarifying...

Which Pope Said What? Take The New York Times Challenge August 2, 2013 By Frank Weathers The Gray Lady wants to test your knowledge of the Pope’s unique voice. So they put together a little multiple choice quiz asking readers to differentiate between the sayings of Popes John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis.Give it a try below.How Recent Popes Differ on Key Issues. Choose the Pope who said each quote on seven critical issues. 

FULL TITLE Relevant: Benedict XVI finishing the encyclical on Faith to be signed by Pope Francis New encyclical on the poor: "Beati Pauperes"? Following his recent visit ad limina with the bishops of his region, the Bishop of Molfetta (Apulia, Italy), Luigi Martella, spoke of the conversation they had with the new Pope, including the following: Then, he spoke to us about Benedict XVI with such tenderness: "When I met him for the first time in Castelgandolfo, I noticed that he had a very lucid memory - he said -, even though physically challenged. Now he is clearly better." In...

The Vatican (LifeNews.com) The Catholic Church has made it clear in the past that it strongly opposes abortion and wants pro-abortion politicians to rethink their views or consider refraining from taking communion. Pope Benedict XVI stepped up those warnings Wednesday saying pro-abortion politicians have excommunicated themselves. He also said he elected officials who support abortion would be prevented from receiving communion. The pontiff was asked about the topics in reference to a threat from the Catholic bishops in Mexico to excommunicate members of the Mexico City legislative assembly who recently voted to legalize abortion in the nation’s capital. “Yes, this...

In 1977, a frail, reluctant, 50-year-old college teacher was pressed by his confessor to accept appointment as Bishop of Munich. The job would take him from his beloved students and embroil him in ecclesial and political struggles for which he had little taste. Reluctantly, that good scholar, Fr. Joseph Ratzinger, accepted the appointment.Unnoticed by most people, on the coat of arms that he created for his service as bishop Fr. Ratzinger included a puzzling symbol: a bear with a pack on its back.Just four years later, Pope John Paul II summoned Bishop Ratzinger to Rome. There, for a quarter of...

NY Times' op-ed contributor and Georgetown professor Paul Elie says the reign of Pope Benedict has been "all bad news, all the time." Really? Vocations, globally, are up 70% since the mid-70s. The number of diocesan priests is at an all-time, and growing faster the number of Catholics, or the global population. The population of Catholics in the world is growing faster than the global population, (1.5% to 1.3% per year) despite being centered in industrialized nations. Conversions to the Catholic church are at an all-time high. The number of students in Catholic high schools has doubled globally since the...

The pope's retirement means his famous Swiss Guards get a few days off before they have to protect the new guy. Stern-face and standing as erect as the halberds they grasp, Swiss Guards rarely betray emotion on duty. Â But their storied history has its early roots in a bloody drama.