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It's that time againWinter's done, the garden's been started, the week is over ...Let's go listen to a love letter read from Dad Time For Church

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone at a press conference for the 2012 USCCB Fall General Assembly, Nov 13. Credit: Michelle Bauman/CNA. San Francisco, Calif., Apr 17, 2015 / 04:13 am (CNA).- A group of Catholics promoting a full-page advertisement asking Pope Francis to remove Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone don’t represent San Francisco Catholics and misrepresent the facts, the archdiocese has said. “The advertisement is a misrepresentation of Catholic teaching, a misrepresentation of the nature of the (archdiocese’s) teacher contract, and a misrepresentation of the spirit of the archbishop,” the San Francisco archdiocese said April 15. “The greatest misrepresentation of all is that the...

U.S. Supreme Court. Washington D.C., Apr 18, 2015 / 04:25 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The U.S. Supreme Court has continued its trend of decisions stopping enforcement of a federal contraception mandate against religious employers with moral objections. On April 15, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito issued an order barring the federal government from enforcing the mandate against Catholic Charities affiliates, Catholic schools and social service organizations in the dioceses of Erie and Pittsburgh. “Every time a religious plaintiff has gone to the Supreme Court for protection from the government’s discriminatory mandate the Court has protected them,” Lori Windham, senior counsel for...

Fr. Joseph Illo and Fr. Patrick Driscoll, Star of the Sea Catholic Church (Photo from Facebook)When Fr. Joseph Illo, the pastor at San Francisco’s Star of the Sea Catholic Church, announced his decision to train only boys to be altar servers, some parishioners and others protested.  Amidst the hullabaloo, the media jumped at the chance to criticize both Fr. Illo and his beleaguered bishop, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone.Religion News Service quoted Fr. Illo, who explained his reasons for enacting the policy: The first…is that “boys usually end up losing interest (in altar service) because girls generally do a better job.”The second and...

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston / Flickr Francis Cardinal George, former Archbishop of Chicago, passed away today. Born in 1937, he was 78 years old. He had been fighting cancer for almost a decade.Widely admired for his insight and courage, he will be greatly missed.[See also: 6 Fascinating Videos from the Papacy and Death of St. John Paul II]A person’s death can be a good time to reflect on the person’s life. So here are 7 things you probably didn’t know about Cardinal George:1) He had polio as a kid – and it almost prevented him from becoming a priest He contracted the disease in...

As Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life (CICL), Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz of Brazil is responsible for overseeing the brutal destruction of one of the few flourishing institutes of consecrated life in the Church today, the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, on the direct orders of Pope Francis. Because the order founded by the saintly Father Stefano Manelli, lauded by both John Paul II and Benedict XVI, had dared to take advantage of Benedict’s liberation of the Latin Mass from its unjust imprisonment, it had to go. To recall Pope Francis’ words during the bizarre celebration...

San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone’s effort to ensure that Catholic schools are Catholic has led one-hundred San Franciscans who describe themselves as “committed Catholics inspired by Vatican II,” to take out a full page ad in the San Francisco Chronicle asking Pope Francis to force Cordileone's resignation and appoint in his place an archbishop committed to “our values and your teachings.” It is worth asking to what extent those “values” and “teachings” align. Francis, who has spoken strongly in the past against gay marriage and transgender ideology, has also called for a church that is “poor and for the poor.”...

But you, O God, are my king from of old; you bring salvation upon the earth. It was you who split open the sea by your power; you broke the heads of the monster in the waters. It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan and gave him as food to the creatures of the desert. It was you who opened up springs and streams; you dried up the ever flowing rivers. The day is yours, and yours also the night; you established the sun and moon. It was you who set all the boundaries of the earth;...

He (Sir Thomas More) gave up life itself, deliberately; he accepted violent death as of a criminal, not even for the Faith as a whole, but on one particular, small point of doctrine—to wit, the supremacy of the See of Peter. (Hilaire Belloc, “The Witness to Abstract Truth”) Saints die for all sorts of reasons and in all sorts of ways. Some are thrown to the lions or crucified; others die in bed. Some affirm the Real Presence, others the Trinity. We sometimes think that it might be nobler to die upholding the truth of the Incarnation than in upholding,...

Did you read the news? The Vatican caved in! No, wait, the sisters caved in! Or did they both win? Well, something happened! Pope Francis meets with representatives of the U.S. Leadership Conference of Women Religious in his library in the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican April 16. The same day the Vatican announced the conclusion of a seven-year process of investigation and dialogue with the group to ensure fidelity to church teachings. The outcome resulted in revised statues approved by the Vatican. (CNS photo/L'Osservatore Romano) "In journalism," stated Abp. Fulton Sheen 60 years ago in Thinking Life Through, "the...

Bill Donohue comments on several campaigns against Catholic schools:We never hear of attempts by outsiders to dictate to Jews how to run their yeshivas. The same is true of the increasing number of Islamic schools: no one tells Muslims what their employment policies should be. The same is not true of Catholic schools. In San Francisco, outsiders have spent an enormous amount of money seeking to pressure the Archdiocese to change its prospective handbook for faculty.Outsiders, driven by the media, put Iowa Governor Terry Branstad on the firing line: they forced him to comment on Dowling Catholic High School’s decision...

Cardinal Francis George of Chicago. Chicago, Ill., Apr 17, 2015 / 12:20 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Cardinal Francis George, the Emeritus Archbishop of Chicago, passed away Friday morning after a long batter with cancer. Archbishop Blase Cupich, who currently heads the archdiocese, remembered Cardinal George as “a man of peace, tenacity and courage.” At an April 17 press conference, Archbishop Cupich lauded the cardinal for his bravery in overcoming challenges, which included a battle with polio as a teenager that left his legs permanently weak. “Cardinal George was a respected leader among the bishops of the United States,” Archbishop Cupich noted,...

Cardinal Francis George, the first Chicago native to serve as the local archbishop and a man who during that 17-year tenure became the intellectual leader of the American church, died Friday morning at his home after a years long struggle with cancer. He was 78.

The U.S. Catholic bishops could take a lesson from Mormon leaders on how to deal with religious liberty and gay rights. The Mormons have been strong allies of the Catholic bishops in the fight against gay marriage and the protection of religious freedom. But when the Mormons saw they were on the losing side in this fight, they were willing to compromise to protect what they considered essential. Like the Catholic church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints respects tradition and does not change teaching easily. But Mormons do have a pragmatic side. With the entire nation aligned...

Hillary Scott says she was asleep in the back of the bus when a fire started nearby and eventually destroyed the vehicle. Her fast-acting bus driver got everyone off the bus safely, but that’s not the reason the Lady Antebellum singer is walking away with a deeper faith in God.

The Rev. Franklin Graham warned on Holocaust Remembrance Day on Thursday that another holocaust might become a reality, pointing to the influx of Muslim immigrants into Europe and the United States, who he said are "bringing their hatred of Jews and Christians with them." "Could the holocaust be repeated? I'm afraid so. Anti-Semitism is at the highest levels since the late 1930s. This is coming from the influx of Muslim immigrants to Europe, the United States, and other Western countries over the past few decades, and they are bringing their hatred of Jews — and Christians — with them," Graham...

We often hear from atheists how religion is dying out as mankind comes to see the clear light of reason. Atheist “intellectuals” speak disparagingly about religion and predict that mankind is on the cusp of a new age in which religion will simply disappear as science, technology and reason are in the ascendant. The facts indicate exactly the opposite. It is religion which continues to grow around the world while the statistics indicate that agnosticism and atheism are dying out. [See also:11 Maps to Help You Make Sense of World Religion] [See also:24 Crazy Facts About Global Christianity in...

For the past five years I have been absolutely fascinated about how little is stated about the Two Witnesses' ministry of Revelation (Rev. 11:3-12), but also have been absolutely blown away with how much in that little given one could write a novel on! The Divine POWER and AUTHORITY given unto them by Almighty God is inconceivable but by faith we must believe it to be so. The key is knowing where they fit into Almighty God's final outworking of Biblical prophecy before the return of the Messiah (Rev.19:11-21). These two Lamp Stands of Revelation's chief ministry for 1260 days...

Your Holiness: I recall with pleasure and gratitude my visit to the Vatican in November and your moving address to our Colloquium on the Complementarity of Man and Woman in Marriage. There, gathered with leaders of the world’s great religious traditions, East and West, you reaffirmed the Church’s doctrine of marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife and spoke movingly of the right of every child “to grow up in a family with a father and mother.” Here in the United States we are blessed with many bishops who join you in bearing witness to these profound and...

Cruz's strong Zionism combined with traditional views on social issues is a 'natural fit' for Orthodox Jews in the U.S.Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz, a hardline conservative and practicing Southern Baptist, is carving out a niche with Orthodox Jews — a "potentially winnable slice of an otherwise deeply Democratic demographic," Politico website reports. “I share a great many values with the Jewish community and the Orthodox community,” Cruz told Politico in a phone interview. “Chief among them is a passionate dedication to strengthening our friendship and alliance with the nation of Israel.” Combing a strong Zionist approach with traditional views...