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Protesters against SB175 gather outside the Colorado State Capitol in Denver on April 15, 2014. Credit: Peter Zelasko/CNA. Denver, Colo., Apr 16, 2014 / 12:32 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Archbishop of Denver on April 15 rallied opposition to a Colorado bill he says is “both extreme and dangerously ambiguous” in its ban on all abortion regulations and other pro-life laws. “Coloradans are not against common sense regulations on abortions, and they should have the opportunity to be able to debate and pass those regulations,” Archbishop Aquila Samuel J. Aquila said to a crowd of hundreds at an assembly and prayer...

ROME — Bypassing strapped government funding, a community of Franciscan friars in Rome was able to raise more than a quarter of a million dollars in 30 days through the crowd-funding platform, Kickstarter.The small cell where St. Francis of Assisi used to sleep when he came to Rome. (Screengrab from the Franciscans’ Kickstarter webpage) The Franciscans in charge of the Church of St. Francis at Ripa will be using the money to restore the darkened, crumbling cell where St. Francis of Assisi stayed during his visits to Rome.More than 1,100 people, mostly from the United States, contributed to the Franciscans’...

President Barack Obama has announced the names of the members of the presidential delegation to the April 27 Mass of canonization of Blessed John XXIII and Blessed John Paul II. John Podesta, current Counselor to the President and White House Chief of Staff under President Bill Clinton, will lead the delegation. The other members of the delegation are Rep. Xavier Becerra, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, and Katie Beirne Fallon, Assistant to the President and Director of Legislative Affairs. According to Vogue, Fallon was a leading strategist in the effort to garner political support for the HHS mandate. Additional...

It is available in abundance to everyone if only we would embrace it. It is an endless and unfathomable gift that flows most profusely on the Sunday after Easter. It is the devotion of the Divine Mercy and it offers each of us a wonderful chance to begin anew through the Divine Mercy Chaplet Novena. Begun on Good Friday and completed on Divine Mercy Sunday, this powerful novena offers us a chance to change our lives forever! It is also a powerful way to intercede for our loved ones and the entire world by bringing all before the merciful...

The Easter Triduum:Holy Thursday, Good Friday, the Easter Vigil Meditations on the Triduum by Victor Hoagland, C.P. The Easter triduum, marking the days of Jesus’ passion and resurrection, is the most important time of the church year. It begins with the evening Mass of Holy Thursday, reaches its high point in the Easter Vigil, and closes on Easter Sunday evening. Prepared by the days of Lent, Christians celebrate on these holiest of days the saving work God has accomplished in Christ. From the events remembered these days, so sorrowful and so joyful, the church learns the deepest lessons. In...

Featured Term (selected at random:ROSMINIANISM A system of philosophy formulated by Antonio Rosmini-Serbati (1797-1855), founder of the Institute of Charity. Encouraged by Popes Pius VII, Gregory XVI, and Pius IX, he undertook a renewal of Italian philosophy, ostensibly following St. Thomas Aquinas. But the influence of Descartes, Kant, and Hegel shifted his thinking. He came to hold that the human mind is born with the idea of "being." In time it analyzes this basic idea to discover in it many other ideas, which are identical with those in the mind of God. Rosmini also taught that reason can explain the...

As we continue to ponder some of the texts of the Matthean Passion Narrative, we turn to the difficult case of Judas. To many modern readers Judas is something of a sympathetic character. Some of this is due to our (rather flawed) moral reasoning which places exaggerated emphasis on subjective issues (such as intentions, feelings etc) and almost no emphasis on the actual or objective moral act. Granted, both elements are important, but our modern emphasis creates a rather skewed tendency to easily evade personal responsibility and to overlook the objective harm of sin.But, to be fair, the biblical text...

WAY OF THE CROSSAT THE COLOSSEUMLED BY THE HOLY FATHERPOPE FRANCISGOOD FRIDAY Rome, 18 April 2014 “The Face of Christ,the Face of Man”MEDITATIONS by H.E. Msgr. Giancarlo Maria Bregantini,Archbishop of Campobasso-Boiano  INTRODUCTIONHe who saw this has testified so that you also may believe. His testimony is true, and he knows that he tells the truth. These things occurred so that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “None of his bones shall be broken”. And again another passage of Scripture says: “They will look on the one whom they have pierced” (Jn 19:35-37).Loving Jesus, you went up to Golgotha without hesitation, in...

April 16, 2014Wednesday of Holy Week    Reading 1 Is 50:4-9a The Lord GOD has given me a well-trained tongue,That I might know how to speak to the wearya word that will rouse them.Morning after morninghe opens my ear that I may hear;And I have not rebelled,have not turned back.I gave my back to those who beat me,my cheeks to those who plucked my beard;My face I did not shieldfrom buffets and spitting. The Lord GOD is my help,therefore I am not disgraced;I have set my face like flint,knowing that I shall not be put to shame.He is near...

By Douglas Cramer In 1945, a Paschal Liturgy like no other was performed. Just days after their liberation by the US military on April 29, 1945, hundreds of Orthodox Christian prisoners at the Dachau concentration camp gathered to celebrate the Resurrection service and to give thanks. The Dachau concentration camp was opened in 1933 in a former gunpowder factory. The first prisoners interred there were political opponents of Adolf Hitler, who had become German chancellor that same year. During the twelve years of the camp's existence, over 200,000 prisoners were brought there. The majority of prisoners at Dachau were Christians,...

The list is rather long: refugees and immigrants, those affected by violence, the economic crisis, unemployment, exploitation. They're just a few of topics the Pope will reflect on during the Way of the Cross on Good Friday, at Rome's Colosseum. The author of the meditations is the archbishop of Campobasso-Boiano, Giancarlo Bregantini. For the 14 meditations along the procession, the archbishop sought to highlight some of gravest sins and injustices that humanity carries out in the 21st Century. This list also includes topics like torture, or a justice system "drowning in a sea of bureaucracy.” But Archbishop Bregantini also addressed...

The final week of Jesus' life, a chronology Father Ryan Erlenbush Mach 2012  As the Church prepares to enter into Holy Week, we do well to consider the final week of Jesus’ life, from Friday to Friday. In a later post, we will look at the last twenty-four hours (from the Last Supper to the death of Jesus on the Cross) in greater detail.It will be helpful to review the Gospel accounts given by Sts. Mark and John, the two who offer the most explicit chronology of Holy Week. See Mark 11:1 – 15:37 and also John 11:54 –...

U.S. President Barack Obama. Washington D.C., Apr 15, 2014 / 12:20 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Speaking at the 2014 Easter Prayer Breakfast at the White House, U.S. President Barack Obama reflected on his recent meeting with Pope Francis, whom he described as an inspiration. “I’ll tell you, I felt this spirit when I had the great honor of meeting His Holiness, Pope Francis,” the president said, recalling his March 27 meeting with the Holy Father at the Vatican. “I think it’s fair to say that those of us of the Christian faith, regardless of our denomination, have been touched and moved...

orn in Sahuayo, Michoacan, 28 March 1913, son of Macario and Maria Sanchez del Rio, Jose Luis was murdered on 10 February 1928, during Mexico's religious persecution known as The Cristero War.The Cristeros were a large group Mexican Catholics leveled against the oppression of the regime of Plutarco Elías Calles. A year before his martyrdom, José Luis had joined the forces' Cristero »General Prudencio Mendoza, nestled in the town of Cotija, Michoacan. The martyrdom was witnessed by two children, one of seven years and the other nine, who later became founders of religious congregations. One of them is the Rev....

Featured Term (selected at random:NIMBUS A circle or ornamented disk depicted around the head of a saint. In pre-Christian times it represented power and majesty. The Church adopted the custom and made the nimbus symbolic of virtue. The square nimbus was once used with portraits of the living as emblems of human greatness, round circles reserved for saints as a symbol of grace bestowed on them by God. Related to nimbus are the halo and aureole. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

A British Catholic journalist has said she was astonished when major world news outlets mistook an Vatican April Fool’s report she wrote for a genuine news story. The Guardian, which this week won a Pulitzer Prize for its reporting of Edward Snowden’s National Security Agency leaks, was one of the organisations that reported the hoax story that the Vatican employed a hawk called Sylvia to protect the doves periodically released by the Pope. Other outlets to reproduce the story include Agence France-Presse and the Washington Times.

Continuing to look at some of the text from the Passion according to St. Matthew, we come to the trial of Jesus before Caiaphas the high priest.Having heard false and conflicting testimony from various witnesses, Caiaphas turns to Jesus, and here is what we pick up the text: The high priest rose and addressed him, “Have you no answer? What are these men testifying against you?” But Jesus was silent. Then the high priest said to him, “I order you to tell us under oath before the living God whether you are the Christ the son of God.” Jesus said...

April 15, 2014Tuesday of Holy Week    Reading 1 Is 49:1-6 Hear me, O islands,listen, O distant peoples.The LORD called me from birth,from my mother’s womb he gave me my name.He made of me a sharp-edged swordand concealed me in the shadow of his arm.He made me a polished arrow,in his quiver he hid me.You are my servant, he said to me,Israel, through whom I show my glory. Though I thought I had toiled in vain,and for nothing, uselessly, spent my strength,Yet my reward is with the LORD,my recompense is with my God.For now the LORD has spokenwho formed...

Benôite. Photos: ND du Laus In May 2008, Bishop Jean-Michel di Falco Leandri, the bishop of Gap in the French Alps, celebrated a special Mass to announce the Vatican’s approval of Marian apparitions in that diocese that occurred between 1664 and 1718. Although the location of the apparitions to Venerable Benôite (Benedicta) Rencurel and the shrine founded there have been drawing pilgrims since the late 17th century, Our Lady of Laus is relatively unknown outside of France. The website for the shrine is available only in French and Italian, for example, and the nearest airport is in Grenoble, about 60...

Holy Week Preparation By Jennifer Gregory Miller   Apr 09, 2014 Holy Week is one of the busiest weeks of the year for our family. Preparing for Christmas, especially when we have to plan celebrations for both sides of the family and possible travel is also busy, but it never reaches the level of planning as Holy Week. I think the main difference is that we are participating in the liturgy of the Church throughout the whole Triduum, so there is less time at home to “do” things.My father was in the Carmelite seminary in his younger years and...