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A letter and petition accusing Bishop Frank Dewane of the Diocese of Venice, Florida, of authoritarian leadership will soon be on its way to Rome, asking Pope Francis to intervene. The campaign has been orchestrated by two liberal groups agitating for a more lay-directed Church. The Southwest Florida chapter of Call to Action wrote the letter, together with the support of the local chapter of Voice of the Faithful. Call to Action, a group pushing for radical reform such as the ordination of women and a relaxing of sexual ethics, has accused Bishop Dewane of employing scare tactics including bullying...

Father Federico Lombardi gives a press briefing in Tirana, Albania. Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA. Tirana, Albania, Sep 21, 2014 / 06:58 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In a press briefing Sunday the Vatican's spokesman downplayed worries over Pope Francis' safety in Albania, also noting that Muslims gathered in an important Tirana mosque to pray for the pontiff's visit. Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See Press Office, told journalists that the Sept. 21 papal visit has been welcomed with joy by all the Albanian religious communities. On why Pope Francis did not stop the popemobile as he often does to greet children...

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis has ordered a review aimed at simplifying the Church's procedures for annulments, the Vatican said on Saturday, a move that could make it easier for Catholics to end marriages. A statement said Francis had appointed an 11-member commission of canon lawyers and theologians to propose reform of the process, "seeking to simplify and streamline it while safeguarding the principle of the indissolubility of marriage". An annulment, formally known as a "decree of nullity," is a ruling that a marriage was not valid in the first place according to Church law because certain pre-requisites, such...

Organizers of the so-called People’s Climate March expect more than 100,000 people to fill the streets of midtown Manhattan on Sunday, demanding action on global warming. It promises to be one of the largest cult gatherings in U.S. history. And it will take place two days before President Obama and world leaders gather for an “emergency” climate summit at the United Nations. The march is the brainchild of Bill McKibben, a celebrated environmental activist. In May, he issued a “call to arms” in a jeremiad published in Rolling Stone magazine, which exhorted climate change cultists to descend on New York...

As proof of their bravery, rebels fighting against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad are suspected of sabotaging a batch of measles vaccinations, leading to the deaths of up to 50 young children. If true, it's a new low in an especially discouraging chapter of modern history.LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Dozens of infants in the rebel-held cities of Jarjanaz and Sinjar in Idlib province fell ill and died after being given the drugs. The causes of death has not yet been established. Officials reportedly suspect the vaccines may have been tampered with while left unguarded in a storage facility in...

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...

Ex-La Jolla Synagogue Executive Gets 18 Months In Embezzlement The former executive director of Congregation Beth El synagogue in La Jolla has been sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to embezzling more than $540,000 from the synagogue over five years, federal prosecutors said Monday. Eric Levine, 37, had control of the synagogue's bank account and credit card from 2008 to 2013, overseeing the synagogue's annual budget of nearly $2 million. Eric Levine, former executive director of the Beth El Synagogue in La Jolla, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for embezzling more than $500,000. (Eric Levine)...

And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.(Matthew 24:11-13)In view of the recent collapse of the Synagogue of all Nations church, led by the (False) prophet TB Joshua, which led to the deaths of at least 70 South Africans, I thought I would reprint this 2001 letter I sent to a major newspaper in Johannesburg South Africa, printed in March 2001, after they printed a positive review of the dangerous false prophet.Unfortunately thousands...

>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...

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...

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...

ROME, Italy – Security has been tightened in Saint Peter's Square after intelligence services intercepted a possible plan to attack the Vatican, Italian media reported on Saturday, September 20, increasing fears that Pope Francis could be in danger. A foreign security service alerted Italy this week after intercepting a conversation between two Arab speakers which referred to "a demonstrative act, Wednesday, at the Vatican," Il Messaggero daily reported. Wednesday is the day the pope holds his weekly general audience in the square in front of Saint Peter's Basilica. Checks by Italy's anti-terrorism unit revealed that one of the speakers passed...

Archdiocese of Boston Ever since he first learned of a local satanic group's plans to use a public theater to perform a "black mass," Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City has been urging public officials to cancel the event and asking Catholics to pray for that intention. He has been unsuccessful, and this Sunday, the Dakhma of Angra Mainyu will take to the stage in an 88-seat theater within the Oklahoma City Civic Center Music Hall to reenact a ritual that is an inversion of the Catholic Mass. Though they were forced to hand over what they claimed was...

< [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...

On Sunday, Sept. 21, a local satanic sect apparently will be allowed to conduct a public act of blasphemy in the form of a so-called black mass at the Civic Center in Oklahoma City. In spite of an overwhelming outcry of alarm from around the world, our city leaders will allow this outrage to take place in a publicly supported facility. They will not accede to the reasonable requests of local citizens to stop this outright mockery of the Catholic Mass nor the reasonable concerns of so many that this satanic ritual invokes powers of evil and invites them into...

September 17, 2014 Explaining My Decision to Serve as Grand Marshal I haven’t been in this much hot water since I made the comment, right after I arrived as your archbishop five-and-a-half years ago, that Stan Musial—my boyhood hero of my hometown St. Louis Cardinals—was a much better ballplayer than Joe DiMaggio! Now I’m getting as much fiery mail and public criticism over my decision to accept the honor of Grand Marshal of this year’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade. According to the critics, I should have refused, due to the Parade Committee’s decision to allow a group of self-identified Gays...

These are the days of Elijah.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the family will not open until Oct. 5, but some of its most prominent members are already publicly debating what is bound to be one of its most controversial topics: the eligibility of divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to receive Communion. In an interview published Sept. 18, a proponent of changing church practice to allow such Catholics to receive Communion answered criticism from some of his fellow cardinals, suggesting they are seeking a "doctrinal war" whose ultimate target is Pope Francis. "They claim to know on their own what truth...

VATICAN CITY, September 17, 2014 – The “revolution” of Pope Francis in ecclesiastical governance is not losing its driving thrust. And so, as happens in every self-respecting revolution, the heads continue to roll for churchmen seen as deserving this metaphorical guillotine. In his first months as bishop of Rome, pope Bergoglio immediately provided for the transfer to lower-ranking positions of three prominent curial figures: Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, Archbishop Guido Pozzo, and Bishop Giuseppe Sciacca, considered for their theological and liturgical sensibilities among the most “Ratzingerian” of the Roman curia. Another whose fate appears to be sealed is the Spanish archbishop...