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OKLAHOMA CITY - The much talked about Black Mass was held in downtown Oklahoma City Sunday night. It was sold out event Sunday night at the Civic Center. There were Rock bands and rituals performed inside, much to the dismay of Christian protesters outside the theatre.

Pope Francis celebrates Mass in Mother Teresa Square in Tirana, Albania, Sept. 21. Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA. Tirana, Albania, Sep 21, 2014 / 03:45 am (CNA/EWTN News).- During Mass at Mother Teresa square as part of his one-day trip to Albania, Pope Francis recalled the country's vicious history of anti-religious persecution, saying it is now ready for the Gospel to flourish. “Recalling the decades of atrocious suffering and harsh persecutions against Catholics, Orthodox and Muslims, we can say that Albania was a land of martyrs: many bishops, priests, men and women religious, and laity paid for their fidelity with their lives,”...

One of the lead actors in the hit Christian film "God's Not Dead" recently shared his opinion on why Hollywood tends to make relatively few Christian-themed films. Kevin Sorbo, an actor who played the skeptical professor in the blockbuster film, recently talked with Peter Heck on his radio program about "God's Not Dead" and Hollywood movies. Observing the huge success of "God's Not Dead," Heck noted that there "is a market" for Christian films and asked Sorbo when he thinks Hollywood will "get it." "I don't think it's an 'us vs. them' sort of mentality. But I live in this...

Justin Welby admits he sometimes doubts the existence of God, but he is certain about Jesus. The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby last weekend gave a powerful statement about his recent doubts over the existence of God. Welby disclosed that recently, while he was jogging with his dog near his London home, he asked why God does not intervene to stop injustice in the world. Welby’s statement appeared in a personal interview he gave in front of hundreds of people at Bristol Cathedral last weekend, The Guardian reports. When the interviewer, BBC Bristol’s Lucy Tegg, asked Welby “Do you ever...

Papal and Albanian banners line Albania's streets. Credit Daniel Ibáñez / CNA. Tirana, Albania, Sep 20, 2014 / 01:34 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A Franciscan involved in the preparations for Pope Francis’ trip to Albania said that he hopes for a surprise from a Pope who has made a habit of breaking his routine to visit the sick. “We set the area with young people and sick people in the front, at the right and the left of the altar. Pope Francis will address young people at the beginning of the Mass, but he is not expected to go and spend...

When Pope Francis lands at Mother Teresa Airport outside Tirana, Albania, Sunday, he will find a country still getting used to the concept of democracy—and learning again what it means to believe in God. The Church is "rising," in the words of Father Carlo Lorenzo Rossetti, who has been based in Albania since 2003. But several generations grew up in a society that had tried to erase God from public and private consciousness. Father Rossetti, a Fidei donum priest from the Diocese of Rome, directs the “Redemptoris Mater” missionary seminary and teaches theology at the interdiocesan seminary in Shkoder. He spoke...

>Stories are emerging from Christian communities in Iraq that are vaguely reminiscent of the plight of Jews in Nazi Germany. AINA, the Assyrian International News Agency, reported this week on a dozen Christians helped by a Muslim man in the north of Iraq who has helped Christians escape areas controlled by the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. Those familiar with the history of the Holocaust may be reminded of anti-Nazi Christians who hid Jews and helped them escape persecution. The AINA story details the plight of 12 Assyrian Christians who failed to leave their town of...

The LORD is exalted, for he dwells on high; he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness. He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the LORD is the key to this treasure. (Isaiah 33:5-6)

And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads; and on its horns were ten diadems, and on its heads were blasphemous names. And the beast that I saw was like a leopard, its feet were like a bearÂ’s, and its mouth was like a lionÂ’s mouth. And the dragon gave it his power and his throne and great authority. One of its heads seemed to have received a death-blow, but its mortal wound had been healed. In amazement the whole earth followed the beast. They worshiped the dragon, for he had...

Catholic Church sources have dismissed rumors that Pope Francis is annoyed by an Ignatius Press book critical of Cardinal Walter Kasper’s position on Holy Communion for the divorced and remarried. The French Catholic newspaper La Croix said Sept. 17 that “a senior source close to the Argentine Pope” claimed that Pope Francis would be “annoyed by the publication of this collective work.” However, sources close to the Pope denied this claim, telling CNA that the Pope is not even aware of the book. The book, from Ignatius Press, is titled “Remaining in the Truth of Christ: Marriage and Communion in...

Brethren, Peace be with all of you in Jesus Christ our Lord, the Church's faithful spouse whom we are called to emulate. There has been some discussion inside and outside the Church about changing the discipline surrounding the Sacrament of Marriage in the name of "mercy," by allowing some Catholics living in irregular unions to receive Holy Communion. Some of the cheer-leading is mere spin by the mainstream media. Other such hand-wringing comes from a senior churchman who then cried "foul" at public criticism of his public stance. My position is with the Church's historical Tradition and teaching regarding the institution...

Lou Everett was one of Jehovah’s Witnesses for more than 14 years. During that time, he served as a full-time minister as well as other major roles within the congregation. Lou’s journey to the Catholic Church was truly a rough road traveled. From Jehovah’s Witnesses to Catholicism: My Journey In 2005, I find myself inside a Catholic church for midnight mass. My future wife, born and raised in the Catholic Church, by my side; silently showing me something that I never thought I’d see or feel. At the age of 31, a realization set in that I never would have...

Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well. (Proverbs 5:15) At first reading, the meaning of this verse seems clear enough. Using images of a cistern and a well to describe your wife, the point is that you are to draw pleasure (water) only from her. Frankly, this interpretation is flawed. It does not sound like something a wise man would say: 1.Only a fool would compare his wife to a cistern. 2.Your wife is not merely there to give you what you want....

This morning I woke up and read an article about the Olsteen Predicament. It was kind of weird because the issue of the prosperity gospel has been coming up a lot lately. I watched the video of Victoria Olsteen’s sermon and wondered why anyone would believe that crap. It is so easy to see that her preaching that our happiness is the ultimate goal of following Christ is completely opposite of what Jesus Himself says in the Gospel. My problems with the Olsteens and people like them such as TD Jakes, Joyce Meyer and so many mega church pastors are...

In his most important decision to-date in the United States, Pope Francis has chosen Bishop Blase Cupich, a talented leader with vision, who is committed to the culture of encounter and to the poor, as the new archbishop of Chicago. Pope Francis has given a new direction to the American Church by appointing the bishop of Spokane, Blase Joseph Cupich, 65, as the ninth archbishop of Chicago. The archbishop-elect is a highly-talented leader, a pastor with vision, together with long, varied and successful pastoral and administrative experience in two dioceses and a college.  He is totally committed to the culture of...

Bishop Blase Cupich, a moderate who has called for civility in the culture wars and has embraced Pope Francis' focus on fighting poverty, will be named the next archbishop of Chicago, The Associated Press has learned. Cupich will succeed Cardinal Francis George... The pope's choice for Chicago has been closely watched as his first major appointment in the U.S., and the clearest indication yet of the direction he will steer American church leaders. Cupich is a moderate and is not among U.S. Roman Catholic bishops who have taken a harder line on hot-button issues. Francis has called for a greater...

On the evening of Sept. 12, 2006, my wife and I were dining in Cracow with Polish friends when an agitated Italian Vaticanista (pardon the redundancy in adjectives) called, demanding to know what I thought of “Zees crazee speech of zee pope about zee Muslims.” That was my first hint that the herd of independent minds in the world press was about to go ballistic on the subject of Benedict XVI’s Regensburg Lecture: a “gaffe”-bone on which the media continued to gnaw until the end of Benedict’s pontificate. Eight years later, the Regensburg Lecture looks a lot different. Indeed, those...

As a student of business and an entrepreneur, I was intrigued that this holy woman spends her time training herself, producing, selling, investing and trading. She even embarks on several new business ventures in the twenty verses that describe her! She “surpasses them all,” we’re told in Proverbs 31:29. She has real estate projects, engages in the operations of crop cultivation, which she trades at market. She’s woven clothing and produced belts for sale, all the while having an apostolate to the poor and needy. What are we supposed to learn from this multi-tasking phenom? This passage is telling us...

< [It] may be that the Oklahoma City satanists, who call themselves the Dakhma Angra Mainyu, believe that the black mass they're holding on Sunday, Sept. 21, at the Oklahoma City Civic Center, is harmless fun, or a deliberate insult to Catholics (since the "black mass" is a perverted parody of the Catholic Mass), or even a serious attempt to call upon dark forces. But according to the beliefs of a priest from the neighboring Diocese of Tulsa, both those putting on the event and those attending--this year's event has sold out all 88 tickets--may be in spiritual peril. Monsignor...