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The idyll between Francis and the followers of Luther. The alarm of cardinals and bishops against the “Protestantization” of the Catholic Church. But also the distrust of authoritative Lutheran theologians by Sandro Magister ROME, July 22, 2016 - In the alarmed letter that thirteen cardinals from five continents were preparing to deliver to Pope Francis at the beginning of the last synod, they were warning him against leading the Catholic Church as well to “the collapse of liberal Protestant churches in the modern era, accelerated by their abandonment of key elements of Christian belief and practice in the name of...

Concerns are growing for the future of Christians in Turkey, the birthplace of St Paul, in the wake of the failed coup. Two churches in eastern Turkey in places already known for historic murders of Christians were vandalised during the attempted coup, reports Middle East Concern. In Trabzon on the Black Sea, ten people attacked the Catholic church of Santa Maria where Catholic priest Father Andrea Santoro was murdered in 2006. Muslim neighbours intervened and drove them away. In Malatya, where three Christian workers were murdered in 2007, there was an attempt to smash the windows of the Protestant Church....

Amid heightened tensions over ISIS-fueled terror attacks and anti-Muslim rhetoric, a prominent U.S. cardinal says Islam “wants to govern the world” and Americans must decide if they are going to reassert “the Christian origin of our own nation” in order to avoid that fate. Cardinal Raymond Burke, a Rome-based prelate known as an outspoken conservative and critic of Pope Francis’ reformist approach, said in an interview on Wednesday (July 20) that Islam is “fundamentally a form of government.” While Catholic teaching recognizes that all Abrahamic faiths worship the same God, Burke criticized Catholic leaders who, in an effort to be...

(RNS) Amid heightened tensions over ISIS-fueled terror attacks and anti-Muslim rhetoric, a prominent U.S. cardinal says Islam “wants to govern the world” and Americans must decide if they are going to reassert “the Christian origin of our own nation” in order to avoid that fate. Cardinal Raymond Burke, a Rome-based prelate known as an outspoken conservative and critic of Pope Francis’ reformist approach, said in an interview on Wednesday (July 20) that Islam is “fundamentally a form of government.” While Catholic teaching recognizes that all Abrahamic faiths worship the same God, Burke criticized Catholic leaders who, in an effort to...

Could The Time Be Ripe for The Great Monarch? Is He Here Among Us Now? by Sandra Airey I'm a Catholic born in 1947, raised in a family with many devout Catholics, and taught by pre-Vatican II nuns for 12 years. My life has been unusual for more than one reason. I was born the second child to a woman with Rh negative blood and a severe heart defect. I ended up with minimal brain damage ( causing partial seizures affecting awareness ) and connective tissue disease. My mother knowing about the circumstances of my birth was aware that I...

Even as Pope Francis wins the applause of the world for giving Catholicism a friendlier face, critics have started to grumble. On social media and in opinion columns, they have drawn up a list of grievances. While they approve of his pastoral outreach, they are concerned that he is leaving the Church unprepared to face the challenges of our age. They admire many of the men he has promoted, but fret that he has also empowered bishops who want to lead the Church on a dangerous, radical course – and may well do so once he departs. No, these critics...

New details have emerged about the letter 45 theologians sent to every Catholic patriarch and cardinal asking them to petition Pope Francis to fix a list of erroneous propositions in Amoris Laetitia. The group’s spokesman Dr. Joseph Shaw, a University of Oxford academic and chairman of the Latin Mass Society, told LifeSiteNews that the list of signatories is not in any way limited to theologians who are viewed as liturgical traditionalists, thus showing that there is wide concern about Amoris Laetitia across the world of Catholic academia. Upon the announcement of the existence the letter, Shaw said, “Numerous propositions in...

Our Most Primal Fear and the Source of Our Bondage Msgr. Charles Pope • July 20, 2016 • Let’s ponder a significant yet often overlooked text from Hebrews, which describes our most basic and primal fear. Our inordinate fear of what people think of us is rooted in an even deeper fear, one which is at the very core of our being. The Hebrews text both names it and describes it as being the source of our bondage. In order to unlock the secret of the text, I want to suggest to you an interpretation that will allow its...

July 21, 2016 Thursday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Jer 2:1-3, 7-8, 12-13 This word of the LORD came to me:Go, cry out this message for Jerusalem to hear! I remember the devotion of your youth,how you loved me as a bride,Following me in the desert,in a land unsown.Sacred to the LORD was Israel,the first fruits of his harvest;Should any presume to partake of them,evil would befall them, says the LORD. When I brought you into the garden land to eat its goodly fruits,You entered and defiled my land,you made my heritage loathsome.The priests asked...

The Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano has published a front-page essay by Rocco Buttiglione, the Italian political leader and adviser to St. John Paul II, supporting the argument of Amoris Laetitia that Catholics who are divorced and remarried might, under some circumstances, be allowed to receive Communion. Buttiglione argues that the Catholic Church has always recognized the possibility that individual circumstances determine whether or not someone is in a state of sin. He writes: The path that the Pope proposes to divorced and remarried is exactly the same that the Church proposes to all sinners: Go to confession, and your confessor,...

Venerable Fulton J. Sheen discusses the Devil's incessant attempts to turn our heats away from God. May we never forget that Satan, the father of lies, is a cruel deceiver of men whose only desire is our destruction. Below is a partial transcript of Venerable Sheen's remarks.The Devil - Venerable Fulton Sheen Starting at 4:43: I thought perhaps you might be interested in hearing about the Devil from a sound philosophical and theological point of view. I'm going to describe to you the Devil, first from the psychiatric point of view, and secondly from the biblical. First the psychiatric....

EWTN Global Catholic Network’s live coverage of World Youth Day 2016 airs July 26-31 from Kraków, Poland with three of the best-known and most popular youth speakers in the country. Expect the unexpected from the Network’s in-country team including Fr. Mark Mary Cristina, MFVA (”Life on the Rock”); internationally acclaimed Author and Speaker Chris Stefanick (“Real Life Catholic,” “The Gospel Unplugged”); and “Chastity Project” and “Totus Tuus Press” Founder and Speaker Jason Evert. The team will be bringing viewers the sights and sounds of Kraków, along with their sure to be entertaining interviews with young people attending WYD, to both...

Arrived last night in Berlin for first stop of World Youth Day Tour. I'm with about 150 attendees from Los Angeles Diocese that includes many smaller groups of teens, young adults and chaperones. Also includes four priests and a really great nun that has been to every WYD. Attended Mass this morning then toured Reischstag, Brandenburg Gate, Olympic Stadium and CheckPoint Charlie. Excellent learning experience for the teens and young adults. We will also be visiting Potsdam, Dresden, Prague and Auschwitz before getting into Krakow for start of formal WYD events. The Diocese wanted the youth to experience some history...

Pro-government mob groups attack religious in the aftermath of the attempted coup in Turkey, a democratic watchdog reports. Reportedly, in some cases Muslim citizens reacted against the mobs to protect their fellow citizens. The attacks by Islamist mobs begun on Saturday evening, that is, the evening after the attempted coup had been averted. Attacks were reported at the Catholic Church of Santa Maria in Trabzon; a second attacks was reported on a Protestant Church in Malatya. In Trabzon a mob of 10 people attacked the Catholic Church, throwing stones drawn from the pavement. The mob also carried sledge hummers. Fortunately,...

Fatherhood and Mercy Msgr. Charles Pope • July 19, 2016 • Last weekend I was out in Anacortes, Washington (about a hundred miles north of Seattle) preaching at the Faith on Fire conference. One of the talks I gave was entitled “Mercy and Fatherhood.” In it, I spoke about how a father can show mercy to his children. What follows is my notes for that talk. What does a priest know about being a father? Why don’t you read this post and then tell me? Remember that I have been the son of my father, I have two brothers,...

She was a 7-year-old kid while he was there even before history.She loved him since she woke up to life, watching stories of him on TV, mainly on special occasions, but didn’t know him, as no one around her knew him. Those around her refused to get to know him or recognize him.She grew up and he entered her life again, without permission. She betrayed him a lot but he forgave her each and every time and she adored him even more. When her family members knew about her love story, they refused and condemned it. But she insisted on wearing...

July 20, 2016 Wednesday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Jer 1:1, 4-10 The words of Jeremiah, son of Hilkiah,of a priestly family in Anathoth, in the land of Benjamin. The word of the LORD came to me thus: Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,before you were born I dedicated you,a prophet to the nations I appointed you.“Ah, Lord GOD!” I said,AI know not how to speak; I am too young.” But the LORD answered me,Say not, “I am too young.”To whomever I send you, you shall go;whatever I command you, you...

Be forewarned. This photo (immediately below) speaks volumes about this papacy and its collaborators. Know them by the radical company they keep. Clout affords him heightened access to the Pope, as he sits prominently at the speaker’s dais when Pope Francis addresses the Pontifical Academy’s Human Trafficking Judicial Conference in early June 2016. He smiles and listens as Francis acknowledges and thanks “a number of prestigious external collaborators—to whom I offer my heartfelt thanks—have engaged in important activities in defense of human dignity and freedom in our day.” He nods knowingly because he ranks foremost as the Pope’s ‘prestigious external...

At the Last Supper, Jesus commanded the 12 Apostles to “do this in remembrance of me.”The “this” is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, also called the Divine Liturgy by Eastern Rite Catholics.When Christianity was new, misunderstood and outlawed, Saint Justin Martyr, one of the first Christian philosophers who understood Greek thought and Christian doctrine to be compatible, defended Christian doctrine and liturgical practices from secular political power, claiming Christians should not be persecuted. In his Apology, a detailed written defense of Christianity, one of the earliest descriptions of the Catholic Mass is found. “And this food is called among us...

Do you ever feel bored at Mass?Don’t worry, I’m not judging. When I first returned to Mass after a time away, I found the Mass boring. But Jesus’ presence in the Eucharist drew me in. And eventually, his presence in the Mass instructed me in the ways of heaven, helping me to develop a greater love for the Mass. I realized that the Mass was the most important prayer that I could pray in any day.As Blessed James Alberione once said, the Mass is “the daystar of prayer.” In other words, nothing else we do to get closer to...