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ST. LOUIS (RNS) A 14-foot-long stretch of cloth mysteriously imprinted with a faint, brownish image of a naked man and wounds that mirror those of a crucifixion has inspired decades of debate over whether it could be Jesus’ burial shroud. A 14-foot-long stretch of cloth mysteriously imprinted with a faint, brownish image of a naked man and wounds that mirror those of a crucifixion has inspired decades of debate over whether it could be Jesus’ burial shroud. This weekend, that debate will take center stage in St. Louis. Forty experts, scientists and enthusiasts are introducing the latest research surrounding the...

The four-part series is intelligent, balanced, and features good production values As a professor with an academic specialization in the crusades, I'd like to think that I would be well informed about the existence of a new documentary series on those medieval campaigns (especially when the program features several professors from the institution where I did my graduate degrees). However, if it was not for a few email alerts from my parents earlier this week, I would have been completely unaware of the four-part documentary series, “The Crusades,” that EWTN has been showing over the last several nights. The last...

Featured Term (selected at random:DEO OPTIMO MAXIMO To God, who is the best and the greatest. Motto of the Order of St. Benedict. Also Domino Optimo Maximo, to the Lord, the best and the greatest. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Bill Donohue comments on apologists for Muslim violence:In the wake of an enfeebled attempt by Ben Affleck, Rosie O’Donnell, and Whoopi Goldberg—all Catholic bashers—rising to the defense of Muslims accused of barbarism, we now have the spectacle of Nicholas Kristof, a relentless Catholic critic, saying in the New York Times that Muslims had nothing to do with any bloodbaths in the 20th century.During and after World War I, Muslims murdered 1.5 million Christian Armenians out of a total population of 2 million. In 1971, 2.5 million Hindus were murdered by Muslims in E. Pakistan. Don’t these 4 million innocent men,...

Diabolical disorientation? Oh, yeah baby. We are THERE. (Green text indicates sarcasm or the voice of the liar, as is the form around here. Gotta make that clear. Sigh.) So a friend in Riverville turned me on to a Metaphysics class that I could listen to, and good grief are you people in trouble now! Metaphysics is kind of trippy-wippy as it is, in extremely simple terms, the study of “being”, and not for everyone to be sure. But, amongst all of the tall, dense weeds that one must wade through, glorious clearings open up, and there are truths therein...

Featured Term (selected at random:SCHISMATIC According to Church law, a schismatic is a person who, after receiving baptism and while keeping the name of Christian, pertinaciously refuses to submit to the Supreme Pontiff or refuses to associate with those who are subject to him. The two factors, submission to the Pope and association with persons subject to him, are to be taken disjunctively. Either resisting papal authority or refusing to participate in Catholic life and worship induces schism, even without further affiliation with another religious body. Like heresy, schism is formal and culpable only when the obligations are fully realized....

Last month, I read a truly fascinating book, written by John Entine, titled: "Abraham's Children: Race, Identity, and the DNA of the Chosen People". Entine is a genetics expert, and a fellow of the American Enterprise Institute. http://www.amazon.com/Abrahams-Children-Identity-Chosen-People/dp/0446580635 It mentions that Jews have genetic markers, that can be detected by DNA tests. Of course, genetic markers also exist for Irishmen, Chinese people, Indians, etc. The Mizrahi Jews from the Middle East and the Ashkenazi Jews from Europe, have very similar genes. Genetics research and Archaeology are proving that many of the accounts in the Old Testament are true. Jews have...

Vatican Radio) We ask for a lot of things when we pray, but the greatest gift that God can give us is the Holy Spirit. This was Pope Francis’ reflection Thursday morning at Mass in Santa Marta, commenting on the Gospel of the day, which presents the parable of the man who gets what he needs because of his persistence. Pope Francis began his homily by noting that “God has so much mercy” and observing that in the Collect we begin by asking God for forgiveness and to “obtain what prayer does not dare to hope for”: “This got me...

Featured Term (selected at random:BROTHERS' INSTITUTES Religious institutes of men whose members are either entirely or mainly brothers who are not and do not intend to be ordained. There are more than forty such institutes of pontifical status in the Catholic Church. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

The Lutheran church in the territory of park on Blyukher Street will start being built probably this year. About it the E1.RU portal was told by representatives of a Lutheran community in Yekaterinburg. Documents on granting the territory according to the lease contract are already agreed with MUGISO and underwent all necessary procedures, including public hearings. Now parishioners expect the construction license which will allow to achieve, at last, long dream – to return to residents of Yekaterinburg the Lutheran temple. The area of building – about 400 square meters. - We awaited five years for this decision, - the...

Bullish Outlook Sukkos is a unique Yom Tov in so many ways, one of which is its karbanos (ritual offerings). While the number of rams and sheep sacrificed on each of Sukkos' seven days remained constant (2 rams, 14 sheep), the bulls were offered in varying quantities. Specifically, 13 bulls were sacrificed on day one, 12 on the second day, 11 on the third day, and so on. Over seven days, 70 bulls were sacrificed. Chazal, our Sages of blessed memory, offer a fascinating insight into the "diminishing bulls." There are, according to the Talmud (Sukkah 55b), seventy nations of...

As you know, not to long ago Bp. Howard Hubbard was retired from his looooong tenure as Bishop of Albany. He was succeeded by Bp. Edward Scharfenberger.Recently Bp. Scharfenbeger gave a speech to an interfaith group in Albany. At least one Protestant didn’t like what he had to say.From the Times Union of Albany, NY. Rev. Sam Trumbore First Unitarian Universalist Society of Albany [Unitarian Universalist... what is that, I wonder.]Bishop Scharfenberger’s after dinner speech last night at the Capital Region Theological Center Fall fundraising dinner seriously missed his audience and likely ruffled a few feathers in the interfaith, largely...

Featured Term (selected at random:KEVELAER Place of pilgrimage in North Germany, not far from the Dutch border. A Marian shrine where many disabled and sick children have been healed. In 1641 a trader on three successive nights heard a voice telling him, "Build a sanctuary in my honor here." Simultaneously his wife had an apparition of a lovely lady, and recalled an itinerant soldier selling a cheap paper picture of the Madonna. The soldier was found and the picture was bought, but because of the crowds it attracted to her small cottage she gave the picture to the village church....

The social teaching of the Catholic Church is a sizeable cloak of many colors. Its lineage is ancient and sacred, arising as it does from Biblical instruction and most emphatically from JesusÂ’ own words and example. These scriptural passages have been elucidated over many centuries by Church fathers and doctors and, since the late nineteenth century, by encyclicals or other formal papal statements. Inasmuch as the Church has been functioning (as Thomas Babington Macaulay famously put it) since cameleopards and tigers bounded in the Flavian amphitheater, the body of putatively authoritative social teaching is, as one might imagine, not merely...

(Martin Rhonheimer, a brave Christian. More of them, please!) Translation via 10news. For more translation, newsletter and support: 10news.dk. Where is the border between Islam and Islamism? The media says that the two are different as night and day; Islam is a religion of peace, and the Islamists have stolen the name. Others believe that Islamism represents the traditional, pure Islam, true to the Koran. This latter view is advanced, remarkably enough, by a theologian Martin Rhonheimer from a university endorsed by the Pope. He is a professor at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome and wrote...

For months leading up to the Battle of Lepanto, fought on this day 443 years ago, Pope Pius V urged the faithful to pray for military victory against Muslim forces aiming to storm Italy from its Adriatic coast. Specifically, he enjoined Catholics in Europe to pray daily the most holy rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Christian navy prevailed, and on the Roman calendar October 7 was dedicated to Our Lady of Victory. Victory—what a golden word. Christians in earlier times appreciated its value. ICXC NIKA, they wrote. Christus vincit. Christ is victorious. Or, in English more colloquial: Christ...

Featured Term (selected at random:OIL OF THE SICK The olive oil blessed by the bishop of a diocese for use in the sacrament of anointing of the sick. Commonly abbreviated O.I. (oleum infirmorum, oil of the sick) on oil stocks used by priests. Until 1874, when Pope Paul VI published the new Order of Anointing the Sick, olive oil was prescribed for the valid administration of the sacrament. This is no longer necessary. Any oil from plants is permissible in case of necessity; and the blessing by a bishop, though ordinarily required, may now be supplied by a duly authorized...

While Cardinal Godfried Danneels of Belgium is in Rome for the synod on the family, I hope that he has a chance to visit Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. The retired prelates may wish to reminisce about synods past, especially the 1985 extraordinary assembly on the 20th anniversary of the closing of the Second Vatican Council. St. John Paul had called the special synod in January 1985 to assess how Vatican II had been received in the life of the Church, examining both achievements and failures. In 1985, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was still in his first years as John Paul’s doctrinal...

THE SEIGE OF MALTA History's bloodiest siege used human heads as cannonballs By JAMES JACKSON 07 July 2007 A hot and fetid June night on the small Mediterranean island of Malta, and a Christian sentry patrolling at the foot of a fort on the Grand Harbour had spotted something drifting in the water. The alarm was raised. More of these strange objects drifted into view, and men waded into the shallows to drag them to the shore. What they found horrified even these battle-weary veterans: wooden crosses pushed out by the enemy to float in the harbour, and crucified on...

In my last article, I explained the Judeo-Christian understanding of the Antichrist, and that he will somehow be intertwined with Israel, and more specifically, Jerusalem.Because Islam borrowed a great deal from Judaism and Christianity, it is not surprising that they too have a figure with a messianic complex—the Mahdi, or the Guided One.Muslims see the Mahdi as a savior who will lead a global revolution and establish a worldwide Islamic empire. The Mahdi will rule the earth as the final Caliph of Islam (a caliph is both a political ruler and a spiritual representative of Allah on earth).Muslims revere Jesus...