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(CNSNews.com) - Lt. Col. Todd Breasseale, a spokesman in the Office of Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, is refusing to say whether the Department of Defense would attempt to stop a civilian Catholic priest, who had been a contract chaplain for the military, from administering the last rites to a serviceman on a U.S. military base. “I feel no particular compulsion to answer outlandish, hypothetical questions in a yes/no fashion nor does the Department, generally, answer hypotheticals at all,” Breasseale said in an email. “Further, it is a matter of long standing Department policy to not address matters that are...

ANN ARBOR, MI, October 15, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Catholic priest in Georgia has filed a lawsuit after he was barred from even volunteering to offer Mass at Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base. Father Ray Leonard, who is contracted to serve as base chaplain, and Fred Naylor, one of Father Leonard’s parishioners and a retired veteran with over 22 years of service, launched the suit Monday in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Priests have been prohibited from offering Mass at military bases in the wake of the government shutdown, despite provisions in the Pay Our...

ANN ARBOR, MI, October 15, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Catholic priest in Georgia has filed a lawsuit after he was barred from even volunteering to offer Mass at Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base. Father Ray Leonard, who is contracted to serve as base chaplain, and Fred Naylor, one of Father Leonard’s parishioners and a retired veteran with over 22 years of service, launched the suit Monday in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

SANTA CLARA -- A decision by Santa Clara University's president to drop health insurance coverage of elective abortions for the Catholic university's faculty and staff has triggered a serious rift at the school. Many faculty members say they were blindsided by the move at an institution that has long prided itself on open communication and governing by consensus. The thorny issue echoes a nationwide debate at Catholic universities over their institutional identities and ability to consider the convictions of those who do not identify with -- or who disagree with -- certain principles the Catholic tradition holds as central. The...

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David Clohessy was out in front of the Chancery of the Archdiocese on Thursday October 10th. The Executive Director of SNAP (Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests) according to his own testimony has done this thousands of times. SNAP has been busy in the Twin Cities of late. They have been drawn here by the media frenzy surrounding the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. There is currently at least one lawsuit pending against the Archdiocese, filed by local lawyer Jeff Anderson. Having worked together before, Clohessy and Anderson’s routine is well known. During the course of the allegations,...

A court in Malaysia ruled on Monday that a Catholic newspaper could not refer to God as "Allah," in a case that has spanned three years. The Herald argued in 2009 that the government ban on the use of "Allah" - the Arabic world for God - was unconstitutional. The challenge to the government's decree was upheld by a court that year and the ban was lifted pending a judicial review. The removal sparked a series of attacks on Christian places of worship in an unusual display of religious tension in the multi-faith country. The review, presided over by a...

October 14, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Viewers all over the globe appreciate the beauty of Miss World, Megan Lynn Young, but the reigning Miss Philippines recently told an interviewer that she appreciates the beauty of the unborn. In August, Young told a Philippines-based broadcaster that she opposes abortion-on-demand, believes in abstinence before marriage, and sees marriage as a lifelong and unbreakable union. “I'm against abortion,” Young told her interviewer flatly.

A task force created by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to investigate clergy misconduct includes a psychologist who works on sex offender management, a computer forensics expert and a former St. Paul police sergeant. Members say their work will be independent of the archdiocese they're investigating. An MPR News investigation has revealed that several priests suspected of sexual misconduct were protected by the Twin Cities archdiocese.

MISSING police files relating to an abuse case against a former Catholic boys home have been destroyed. This has now been admitted after one of the former boys called for an investigation. Mr Damian Chittock won damages from the Catholic Church in 2003 after being abused at St Francis Boys Home in Shefford in the late 1960s. After that settlement a police investigation was held and Father John Ryan, the priest then in charge of the home, was arrested and interviewed.

(Vatican Radio) Thousands of pilgrims were in Saint Peter’s Square Saturday evening to join Pope Francis in venerating the original statue of Our Lady of Fatima. The statue made its journey to Rome as the celebrations for the Feast of Our Lady Fatima, which is October 13. Pope Francis will preside over Mass on Sunday morning, and the recitation of the Rosary before the statue. He will then consecrate the world to Mary’s Immaculate Heart. During the evening’s event, the Pope welcomed the statue, which was processed through Saint Peter’s Square, and led the faithful in reciting the Seven Sorrows...

As teachers throughout the country introduced the new Common Core curriculum—the federal standards for mathematics and English Language Arts—in their classrooms this fall, most parents had no idea this radical change in their children’s education was coming. Some might have noticed over the past month that there were dramatic changes in the textbooks and tests that their children were bringing home. Others may have noticed that in language arts, their children are now being introduced to some very different kinds of books—texts with more emphasis on technical or informational material, and less emphasis on classical literature. It would be...

Ever since the Protestant Revolt in the 16th century, the Catholic Church has been accused of ignoring, opposing, hiding and even destroying the Bible in order to keep it from the people. Allegedly, copies of the Bible were chained to the walls of churches during the Middle Ages so that people could not take them home to read. Supposedly the Church during the Middle Ages also refused to translate the Bible into the various tongues of the common people, the vernacular languages, in order to further hinder personal Bible reading. Furthermore it is claimed that the Church even went as...

The toddler wore a pink hoodie with pink pants that ended atop a pair of purple-splotched Dora the Explorer sneakers. Her brown eyes sparkled, especially when she managed an occasional smile between broods for a cell phone, bracelet and small book. Behavior patterns placed her months shy of those “terrible two’s.” Expecting mother, grandmother and child attended a Diocese of Trenton “Justice for Immigrants: a Journey of Hope” Mass Friday where Bishop David M. O’Connell delivered an plea for religious intervention regarding millions of undocumented residents awaiting U.S. immigration reform. O’Connell explained that Catholic involvement in immigration issues originate from...

CROOKSTON, Minn. – The lists exist, but whether they will be made public is now up to a judge. Steven Aggergaard, an attorney representing the Diocese of Crookston, argued there is no concrete harm in keeping a list of priests accused of sexual abuse private. The statement came Wednesday in Polk County Judge Tamara Yon’s courtroom. She must now decide whether the diocese is legally required to release its list as part of a lawsuit filed in June by St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson.

Anglican Episcopal Church 1269. I was taught by my parents that the Church of England has always been a distinct Church on its own right from the second century. Your parents apparently belonged to that school of Anglicans which refuses to admit that the Church of England originated only at the time of the Protestant Reformation. Those who belong to that school of thought persuade themselves that the present Anglican Church is one and the same as the Church which was established in England by the first Christian missionaries to that country. But this theory cannot stand the test...

The Archbishop of Birmingham, the Most Rev Bernard Longley, signalled that restrictions, which can be traced back to the Reformation, might be “reconsidered” as a result of “deeper sharing” between the two churches. Although he insisted that he was expressing a “personal view”, the Archbishop’s comments will be closely watched as he is the senior Catholic cleric responsible for dialogue with the Anglican churches. His remarks were warmly welcomed by leading figures in the Church of England who said it was time for closer ties.

The Synod of bishops proposes a different pastoral approach to marriage: Less bureaucracy, speedier processes and above all, universal access to causes for the annulment of marriages ANDREA TORNIELLI vatican city Shock declarations, such as the ones contained in the document issued by the Diocese of Freiburg which offers recommendations on communion for remarried divorcees end up complicating rather than facilitating reflection on the issue. Pope Francis’ intention is for this issue to be discussed at an Extraordinary Synod in October 2014. The Synod will be broken down into various sessions and could be followed by another meeting involving a...

My friends know that I appreciate candor, and that I can be frank to a fault. I don’t tolerate it well when everyone in the room is desperately trying to ignore the proverbial eight-hundred pound gorilla sitting in the corner. Author Sherry Weddell does not tolerate this well either. And she would like us – “active” and presumably committed Catholics, lay, religious, consecrated and clergy – to focus on one rather large gorilla sitting in the corner of our contemporary Church: the reality that a disturbingly large proportion of Church-going Catholics fail to live as disciples of Jesus – as...

October 11, 2013 Friday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time    Reading 1 Jl 1:13-15; 2:1-2 Gird yourselves and weep, O priests!wail, O ministers of the altar!Come, spend the night in sackcloth,O ministers of my God!The house of your God is deprivedof offering and libation.Proclaim a fast,call an assembly;Gather the elders,all who dwell in the land,Into the house of the LORD, your God,and cry to the LORD! Alas, the day!for near is the day of the LORD,and it comes as ruin from the Almighty. Blow the trumpet in Zion,sound the alarm on my holy mountain!Let all who dwell in...

October 4, 2013 Memorial of Saint Francis of Assisi    Reading 1 Bar 1:15-22 During the Babylonian captivity, the exiles prayed:“Justice is with the Lord, our God;and we today are flushed with shame,we men of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem,that we, with our kings and rulersand priests and prophets, and with our ancestors,have sinned in the Lord’s sight and disobeyed him.We have neither heeded the voice of the Lord, our God,nor followed the precepts which the Lord set before us.From the time the Lord led our ancestors out of the land of Egyptuntil the present day,we have been disobedient to...

Q: My sister stopped practicing her faith, and married a Greek Orthodox man in his church in Greece. Now their marriage has ended, and she has returned to the Church. She might want to remarry…. We both assumed that she could easily get an annulment, because she wasn’t married in a Catholic ceremony, and so her first marriage wasn’t valid. But her parish priest is insisting that it was! He says if she wants an annulment, she has to “find other grounds.” What is the best way to resolve this, should she join a different parish, or try to reach...

The longer I write the more I realize how much writing is like prayer. Writing is something that connects me with God and allows me to hear His voice. Like prayer, writing is a habit that has to be developed over time and like prayer sometimes it doesn’t come easily. Both actions are disciplines of the spirit and both can help us to grow in holiness. Being holy means being the person God intends you to be. Writing helps me to use a gift He gave me and to use it to glorify Him. Like prayer, writing requires preparation and...

Featured Term (selected at random):EXARCHA title originally used by civil and ecclesiastical rulers. An ecclesiastical exarch was a metropolitan with jurisdiction beyond his own province, the most important of whom were those of Ephesus and Caesarea. "Vicar Apostolic" in the West has replaced the title "Exarch." The name today is given to the heads of the Russian and Greek Catholics of the Byzantine Rite, and to the Melkite patriarchal vicar of Jerusalem. Some Ukrainian bishops in North America today are called exarchs. (Etym. Latin exarchus; from Greek exarchein, to begin, take the lead.) All items in this dictionary are...

The archdiocese of Freiburg recently signalled a willingness to allow remarried divorcées to receive communion. While far from revolutionary, the move reflects a desire to change doctrine long considered out of touch with reality. ... Catholic laity have long pressured the church to rethink its doctrine on several issues, and remarriage often lands near the top of the priority list. A dialogue with church leaders was praised on both sides, but there was no chance of real reform under Pope Benedict XVI and the conservative-dominated leadership of German Catholicism. But now discussion is brewing again in Freiburg, but this time...

October 10, 2013 Thursday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time    Reading 1 Mal 3:13-20b You have defied me in word, says the LORD,yet you ask, “What have we spoken against you?�You have said, “It is vain to serve God,and what do we profit by keeping his command,And going about in penitential dressin awe of the LORD of hosts?Rather must we call the proud blessed;for indeed evildoers prosper,and even tempt God with impunity.�Then they who fear the LORD spoke with one another,and the LORD listened attentively;And a record book was written before himof those who fear the LORD and...

October 9, 2013Wednesday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time    Reading 1 Jon 4:1-11 Jonah was greatly displeasedand became angry that God did not carry out the evilhe threatened against Nineveh.He prayed, “I beseech you, LORD,is not this what I said while I was still in my own country?This is why I fled at first to Tarshish.I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God,slow to anger, rich in clemency, loathe to punish.And now, LORD, please take my life from me;for it is better for me to die than to live.�But the LORD asked, “Have you reason...

It certainly makes for a good story: a scrappy kid from Baltimore flunks out of an English class at what is now Loyola University Maryland only to become an international bestselling author. The problem is that the oft-told tale concerning Tom Clancy is just as fictitious as Jack Ryan. “It was an urban legend that just wouldn’t die,” said Carol Abromaitis, the English professor accused of giving Clancy an F in her class. For decades, Abromaitis urged English majors to let others know the truth. Her efforts bore little fruit. “One major said to me, ‘Of course not. It makes...

How about trying this one on for size? Here is the press release headline from Congressman Tim Huelskamp’s office this afternoon: Obama Administration Denies Mass to Catholics Apparently, a priest was denied access to a military chapel this weekend. Father Ray Leonard serves at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay in Georgia but because of the government shutdown, he wasn’t allowed to go to celebrate Mass this past weekend. He is contracted by the Defense Department to meet the spiritual needs of Catholics, but not now. The chapel doors were locked and the sign said, “Shutdown: No Catholic service till further...

Los Angeles, Calif., Oct 7, 2013 / 04:44 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles applauded a new California law that will allow undocumented migrants to receive state driver’s licenses, while calling for greater federal reform. “Driving is one of the basic necessities of life. So this new law is going to make a big difference for millions of people in their everyday lives,” Archbishop Gomez told participants of an Oct. 3 rally at Los Angeles City Hall. “It will make it easier for them to get to work, to go to school, to go the store,...

Father Ray Leonard, a Catholic priest who serves a Georgia military base, was not allowed to celebrate mass at the Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay this weekend. “Shutdown: No Catholic service till further notice,” a sign posted on the chapel said. Leonard — who is contracted with the Department of Defense to minister the military on the base — is not allowed to work on the base during the federal government shutdown. In fact, the general counsel for the Archdiocese for the Military Services USA has warned that — under current law — some military priests under contract could even

A majority of Catholics in the United States who attend Mass weekly support same-sex marriage and the ordination of women to the priesthood, according to a Quinnipiac University survey released October 4. The survey found that 56% of Americans, 53% of Catholics who attend Mass weekly, and 65% of Catholics who attend Mass less frequently would support “a law in your state that would allow same-sex couples to get married.” Support was stronger among Catholics of ages 18-49 (64%) than ages 50-64 (62%) or 65+ (46%). According to the survey, 72% of Catholic women back same-sex marriage, while 49% of...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis, like Islam's Sufi mystic theologians and poets, "is trying to do good for the sake of the Good One, motivated by love and compassion," said the president of the Islamic Affairs Council of Maryland. Mohamad Bashar Arafat, a Syrian who has lived in the United States for more than 20 years, was visiting the Vatican and speaking to groups in Rome in early October as a guest of the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See as part of the U.S. State Department's international speakers program. In an interview with Catholic News Service, Arafat said...

Twin Cities Catholics reacted with surprise, disappointment and forgiveness Sunday morning after hearing parish leaders discuss reports that church officials may have covered up evidence that a Hugo priest kept child pornography on his computer. The latest controversy surfaced last week, when the second highest prelate in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis resigned amid contentions that he covered up evidence of child pornography found on a priest’s computer.

FULL TITLE: Girl, 16, on the run after vicious hammer and knife attack on another female student at their Catholic high school Authorities in Nebraska are searching tonight for a 16-year-old student who allegedly slashed another girl in the face with a knife and beat her across the head with a hammer today. Lincoln police said that Pius X student Sarah Piccolo attacked 17-year-old Ellen Kopetzky in the bathroom of the Catholic high school just before 9.45 a.m. (CDT). The school immediately went into lock-down following the shocking event and Piccolo is said to have fled the scene in a...

ASSISI, Italy, Oct. 4, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Pope Francis urged youth today to have the “courage” to get married and have children despite a culture that emphasizes “individual rights” over family. The pope made the remarks in Assisi during an energetic question and answer session with a number of young people. "Don't be afraid of taking definitive steps, like that of marriage," the pope told the crowds assembled in the square outside the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels, according to CNS. The pope pointed out that marriage is a "real vocation, just like priesthood and religious life are....

Arise, Children's Community Health Plan, Common Ground Healthcare Cooperative, Molina, United, Unity, WEA Insurance Corp The above health insurance plans include Planned Parenthood as an in-network provider.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 10/04/2013 Attention Editors:                It has come to the attention of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA that contrary to earlier reports, Masses will in fact be held as scheduled this weekend at Marine Corps Base Quantico. In spite of the government shutdown, the terms of his contract allow the priest there to perform his pastoral duties because of the way the contract is funded. Nonetheless, many Masses at other installations remain cancelled due to the shutdown. The op-ed issued by the archdiocese on Oct. 3 is thus revised...

1. Salmagundi is a type of salad that contains a little bit of everything. 2. I have added several more essays to the “The One About…” page, including the one about Sharia Finance, the one about Jesus and Guns and the one about Jesus Christ: Economist. I’ll try to get some more up today. 3. YES, I SAW THAT THE OBAMA REGIME is threatening to arrest any priest chaplain who says Mass. Obviously, every Catholic priest chaplain should IMMEDIATLY go offer the August and Unbloody Holy Sacrifice in the most public way possible every single day and then force the...

World War II Veterans denied access to their memorial is appalling. But, Catholic priests denied the opportunity to celebrate Mass, even as volunteers, leaves me speechless. Read below from the general counsel of the Archdiocese for Military Services as he explains priests that defy the governments orders may even face arrest. "If the government shutdown continues through the weekend, there will be no Catholic priest to celebrate Mass this Sunday in the chapels at some U.S. military installations where non-active-duty priests serve as government contractors." "Military personnel enjoy, like all Americans, the First Amendment guarantee of the 'Free Exercise' of...

Dr Mark Hobart has reported an abortion specialist to the Australian Medical Board for providing an abortion to a couple who wanted a boy instead of a girl. Source: News Limited A DOCTOR risks being deregistered because he allegedly refused a referral for an Indian couple who wanted to abort a healthy unborn baby girl at 19 weeks, simply because they wanted a boy. Dr Mark Hobart, 55, has been under investigation by the Medical Board of Victoria for five months, accused of having committed an offence under the state's controversial Abortion Law Reform Act of 2008.His patient and her...

FULL TITLE - "Obama Eviscerates Troops’ 1st Amendment Rights: Threatens Catholic Priests With Arrest If They Minister To Them" Unreal. He’s a monster. The Catholic priests need to come out and challenge this. It’s not enough that Obama is strategically punishing each and every American civilian, he’s going after our troops, too. Obama took the time to make sure Camp David stays open during the shutdown and he had time to pose for a portrait on the third day of the shutdown. Meanwhile, Sunday is near and the military has no priests to perform Sunday service or hear confessions. In...

Charlie Ess GUEST COLUMN By CHARLIE ESSCatholicAnchor.orgWith pain comes perfection, Christ taught. Thanks to the gift of the Catholic Church we are able to reach this perfection through a glorious journey. But for too many years this was not the way for me.My parents planted the hope of salvation and the reality of heaven within me during the impressionable years of adolescence. Practice in faith and good works as a cradle Catholic included a few years as an altar boy and a strong sense of compassion as I worked my way through the lower grades in a Catholic school.Five decades...

In a stunning development, some military priests are facing arrest if they celebrate mass or practice their faith on military bases during the federal government shutdown. “With the government shutdown, many [government service] and contract priests who minister to Catholics on military bases worldwide are not permitted to work – not even to volunteer,” wrote John Schlageter, the general counsel for the Archdiocese for the Military Services USA, in an op-ed this week. “During the shutdown, it is illegal for them to minister on base and they risk being arrested if they attempt to do so.”

Our government is out of control. First, it was the World War II veterans who had to break down barriers to see the open air, un-attended memorial erected in their honor. ... But now there’s a story just coming to light that takes things even further. According the Archdiocese for Military Services, GS and contract priests (who are paid by the federal government as independent contractors in places where there aren’t enough active-duty priests to meet the needs of Catholics in military service) are being forbidden from celebrating Mass, even on a volunteer basis. If they violate this restriction, they...

Our government is out of control.First, it was the World War II veterans who had to break down barriers to see the open air, un-attended memorial erected in their honor.  A memorial which is on public land but is supported – including the National Park Service fee – with private funds. This week there was more security surrounding this memorial — just to keep elderly veterans out — than there was at our embassy in Benghazi the night it was attacked.And for what? To inflict as much pain as possible through this government shutdown. It’s called Washington Monument Syndrome, and it’s...

He has unveiled the true program of his pontificate in two interviews and a letter to an atheist intellectual. With respect to the popes who preceded him the separation appears ever more clear. In words and in deedsROME, October 3, 2013 – The first meeting, in these days, of the eight cardinals called to consultation by Pope Francis and his visit tomorrow to Assisi, the city of the saint whose name he has taken, are acts that certainly characterize the beginning of this pontificate. But even more characterizing, in defining its approach, have been four media events of the month...

The Catholic Church tried to strike an agreement with New South Wales Police that would have helped shut down investigations into paedophile priests and placed police in breach of the Crimes Act. Police records, accessed under freedom of information laws by Greens MP David Shoebridge, show two attempts were made to finalise memorandums of understanding (MOUs) between police and the church over how to deal with complaints of sexual and physical abuse by Catholic Church personnel.

Top bishops from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops have spoken out on the recent government shutdown by suggesting that moral criteria should guide budgetary decisions, and insisted that the poor and needy should come first. "We write as pastors and teachers, not experts or partisans, to bring both moral principles and everyday experience to this discussion. The Catholic community defends the unborn, feeds the hungry, shelters the homeless, educates the young, welcomes refugees, and cares for the sick, both at home and abroad. In many instances, the government is a partner with the Church and its ministries in...