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[SNIP] ...he reportedly got in trouble while visiting the Vatican earlier this month, CTV reports. While on a private after-hours tour, the Biebs allegedly kicked a soccer ball around the halls and was promptly yelled at by the staff. While the Vatican reportedly will not comment on the incident — and Bieber hasn’t mentioned it either — he did Instagram a picture of himself holding a soccer ball outside of the historic site. Yikes. Beliebers, what do you think of Justin Bieber’s ... reported Vatican mishap?

Really? Is there anything that doesn’t provoke Muslims?Dogophobia hits moderate Muslim Malaysia as a dog petting event stirs up controversy. Why? Because Mohammed hated dogs and ordered them to be killed.Also Muslims consider dogs and women to be unclean. And it’s hard to get a dog to wear a Burqa. It’s another episode in the long-running Islam Show where everyone is crazy. (The Religion of Peace) The “I Want To Touch A Dog” event should not have been held in Muslim-majority Malaysia as viral images of Muslims petting dogs have caused great uneasiness and public discomfort, an Utusan columnist claimed...

Today, 21st October, is the Feast Day of the Blessed Charles (or Karl) of Austria, beatified in 2004 by the pope Saint John Paul the Great....While devout to be sure, the young Archduke Karl von Habsburg (1887-1922) was also endearingly earnest as he studied his every sequentially-bestowed dynastic honour as though he was a medieval knight-errant preparing to seek the Sacred Grail....Over fewer than two years in power, he outlawed brutal army punishments and stopped submarines from attacking civilian shipping. Inspired by Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Rerum Novarum, he established sweeping domestic reforms including the world’s first governmental department of...

When: September 18, 2014 @ 7:30 pm - 9:00 pmWhere: Albrecht Auditorium Claremont Graduate University The Claremont Colleges,925 North Dartmouth Avenue,Claremont,CA 91711 USA Title: “Zombies, Vampires, and the Book of Mormon” Abstract: Zombies and vampires bend the rules of time. Death arrives for them but, even after its arrival, their lives continue. They die but, rather than passing on to the next world, they continue in this one. In this sense, zombies and vampires model an important aspect of Christian life: the Christian’s preemptive abandonment of their own life (their willingness to be crucified with Christ), in order to begin...

Every few years the debate over reforming Islam bubbles up from the depths of a culture that largely censors any suggestion that Islam needs reforming.

Like antifreeze that drips from a car and poisons cats, the statements exuded by the Vatican Synod on the Family are sweet. It is tempting to lap them up, to welcome the Church’s new proposed stance of apologizing to sinners and obscuring the nature of sin. There is no other way to describe the moral revolution proposed in the Synod’s preliminary report, which was produced by the bishops whom Pope Francis handpicked to manage the meeting. Rather than speaking prophetically in defense of the uniqueness and holiness of marriage, the task of Christians today includes “recognizing positive elements” in “imperfect”...

Blessed is the Nation whose God is the Lord (Ps.33:12)

Is it not sobering and very curious that Israel, even when they are totally out of the will of Almighty God are still the scourge of the nations (Deut. 28-32, Lev. 26)? This in its self is a testament to the fulfillment of the Word of the Lord and Bible prophecy and a sign to all nations and to the Jews that Israel is Almighty God's people. It will be after the destruction of Gog's confederacy that Almighty God will reveal this very point (Ezek.39, 7, 21-26). The nation of Israel at present - though back in the land -...

No doubt many of my readers know about the encounter about Islam [1] between Ben Affleck, the Hollywood actor, and Sam Harris, the “New Atheist” writer and neuroscientist, on Bill Maher’s show. I do not know Ben Affleck’s work as an actor, so I don’t know whether he is commonly cast in comic roles. He was pretty funny, in a slightly deranged sort of way, on Bill Maher’s show, but perhaps that is his usual modus operandi. I propose to leave the substance — if “substance” is the correct word — of Mr. Affleck’s effusions to one side. His performance...

There is a point where decision on contentious, difficult issues is unavoidable. With respect to homosexual conduct, the American Evangelical church has reached that point. There is no ignoring the determination of the gay and lesbian activists to insist upon complete social and legal normalization of homosexual conduct; from the adoption of children by same-sex couples to the judicial recognition of same-sex unions as marriages every bit as complete as those enjoyed by heterosexual couples. Thus, Christians cannot avoid the need to decide which side they are on. The Supreme Court's decision earlier this month to allow current judicial rulings...

Donald and Evelyn Knapp at the Hitching Post Wedding Chapel in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Photo courtesy of Alliance Defending Freedom. Boise. Idaho, Oct 20, 2014 / 12:28 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Two Christian ministers in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, could face legal punishment or be forced to sell their nearly 100-year-old wedding chapel for declining to perform same-sex “wedding” ceremonies. “Many have denied that pastors would ever be forced to perform ceremonies that are completely at odds with their faith, but that’s what is happening here – and it’s happened this quickly,” Jeremy Tedesco, senior legal counsel with the legal group Alliance...

Cardinals pray together at a Feb. 22, 2014 consistory. Credit: Lauren Cater/CNA. Vatican City, Oct 20, 2014 / 10:41 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Monday's consistory of cardinals focused on the plight of Christians in the Middle East, especially in light of the rise of the Islamic State, and it also decided on two causes for canonization. Cardinals and patriarchs from the Middle East together with top officials of the Vatican Secretariat of State and interested dicasteries attended the Oct. 20 summit with the Pope, which was called a ‘public ordinary consistory’. A consistory is a meeting of cardinals which can be...

People say America is one of the most religious countries in the world. But is it religious in the way that you think it is? You’re bound to learn something new in this list:

...Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight books...featuring atypical vampires and werewolf champions are allegories...a re-telling of the Garden of Eden drama—with a Mormon twist. Here, the Fall is a good thing, even the key to salvation and divinization, just as Joseph Smith...the Latter-day Saint prophet, said it was... The key word in...Meyer’s dream is not “vampire”...but “meadow.”...“Mountain Meadows,”...means something much less pastoral and positive and much more visceral and painful to...LDS. ...2003 saw the publication of three books...focused on the 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre, in which...Mormon faithful in Southern Utah executed...120 men, women, and children on their way to California from Arkansas. All...

Full transcript of the BuzzFeed interview with Cardinal BurkePosted on October 19, 2014 by Catholicism Pure & Simple As an update to the post on the BuzzFeed telephone interview with Cardinal Burke, here is the full transcript of that interview:At the request of many readers, BuzzFeed News has published a full transcript of its interview with Cardinal Burke in which he confirms his removal from the Catholic Church’s highest court.posted on Oct. 18, 2014, at 12:30 p.m.BuzzFeed News reporter J. Lester Feder spoke with Cardinal Raymond Burke Friday morning via Skype to discuss the Extraordinary Synod on the Family and...

<p>"VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis on Sunday, as he beatified Pope Paul VI who implemented the Second Vatican Council's vast changes, called on the church to adapt to "changing conditions of society."</p>

Professor Odon Vallet is an expert in the history of religions and civilizations and, since he is deemed a strong and radical "Progressive", he is a favorite in the French media to speak as a secular-friendly voice on Catholic issues. He was interviewed by popular daily "20 Minutes" on the results of the 2014 assembly of the Synod of Bishops: In what sense did the provisional text [the Forte relatio] signal an important step? The provisional text included two overtures. One regarding the remarried divorcees. The other regarding homosexuals. It was not a revolution, but an evolution. It was not...

"I Am the Pope, And I'm Here" – In the Aula, Francis Brings Down the Curtain... And Lowers the Boom While the vote on this Synod's final report (Italian fulltext) was the expected business at tonight's closing session, even the crucial summary text was overshadowed by one last speech from the Pope, containing some of his strongest language to date as he reflected on the several "temptations" he saw at play over the last two weeks. A full English translation still in the works, again, Page Three has the live blow-by-blow – the text will be posted here once...

Bishops Reject Shift in Tone for Gay, Divorced Catholics Bishops Reject Language Highlighting ‘Precious Support’ Committed Gay Couples Lend Each Other DEBORAH BALL Oct. 18, 2014 ROME—Catholic bishops voted Saturday to water down a report earlier this week that advocated a significant shift in the church’s approach to gays and divorced Catholics, reflecting a deep split within the church’s leadership. In a vote Saturday evening, an assembly of nearly 200 bishops, who have been discussing issues concerning the family at a special meeting known as a synod, took their final vote on a working document released Monday. That document, released...

All of these are from the Things Jesus Never Said Facebook Page.