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... I suggested in Evangelical Catholicism, the Church of the 21st century must be a “culture-forming counterculture,” committed to converting the ambient public culture, not merely “engaging” it. The evangelical Catholics who will contribute to that mission are those who are constantly being converted to Christ in the Church. Evangelical Catholicism, as I understand it, is quite clear on the effects of sacramental regeneration in Baptism, and evangelical Catholics celebrate that gift of grace throughout their lives. But Evangelical Catholicism also understands that that regeneration is not the end of the story of one’s conversion to Christ, one’s incorporation into...

Imagine me in 2003, a younger and certainly a thinner chap, on the point of completing the translation of the biography of Archbishop Lefebvre (ABL from now on). It was a huge task which I still feel honoured to have undertaken, for however one disagrees with ABL, he was for most of his life an undoubtedly great servant of the Church. His errors, when they were errors, were made out of love for the Church. It was about this time that Fr Paul Aulagnier, the very first seminarian to ask ABL for help in the late 1960s, and these days...

One of the things I am beginning to like about Francis is that he challenges me, he makes me ask questions, especially about mercy. "Am I merciful? How far mercy should be extended? Is there a limit to it? Where does it end?" The test came with the celebration of a Requiem Mass for the murderer and war criminal Erich Priebke, who was responsible for the deaths 335 Italian civilians and who himself admitted to personally shooting two people. Pope Francis' Vicar for Rome, Cardinal Agostino Vallini, had forbidden every priest in the diocese to offer a Requiem for him....

Give Your Faith a Voice Today's Scripture “And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, ‘I believed and therefore I spoke,’ we also believe and therefore speak.” (2 Corinthians 4:13, NKJV) Today's Word from Joel and Victoria Every believer has been given a measure of faith. In order to see the promises of God come to pass in your life, you have to give your faith a voice. You must declare what God says about you in His Word. Those seeds of faith inside you are activated when you speak them out into...

The Key to the Master’s Orders "Pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest" —Matthew 9:38 The key to the missionary’s difficult task is in the hand of God, and that key is prayer, not work— that is, not work as the word is commonly used today, which often results in the shifting of our focus away from God. The key to the missionary’s difficult task is also not the key of common sense, nor is it the key of medicine, civilization, education, or even evangelization. The key is in following the Master’s orders—...

Tuesday night, I had the opportunity to go the highly anticipated, highly exciting argument between Michael Voris of ChurchMilitant.TV and Mark Shea of Catholic and Enjoying It! sponsored by the Argument of the Month Club of St. Augustine’s in South St. Paul, MN. For those of you who do not know who either of these are, Michael Voris runs an online apostolate called ChurchMillitant.TV in which he posts daily news stories. Voris is known for being more traditional and incredibly blunt. Mark Shea is probably what you could call a “neo” Catholic, in that he is not going to get...

FULL TITLE: OJ Simpson 'wants to host a religious tv show after getting out of prison where he has converted his white supremacist cellmate to Christianity' OJ Simpson’s religious rebirth behind bars has seen him counsel fellow inmates and convert a white supremacist to Christianity – and now he wants to take his show on the road for television. Simpson, 66, has always been religious, but his five years behind bars have given him time to focus on religion and have brought him closer to God, MailOnline has learned. Expecting to be out of prison by Christmas, he plans to...

2013-10-17 L’Osservatore Romano At the General Audience on Wednesday, 16 October, in St Peter's Square, the Holy Father spoke about the Church handed down through the centuries, like a river, and the source is and always Christ himself. Thus, the topic of his reflection was the Apostolic nature of the Church, continuing the catechises on the Creed. The following is a translation of the Pope's discourse, which was given in Italian.Dear Brothers and Sisters, Good Morning! When we recite the Creed we say “I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church”. I don't know if you have ever...

What is REAL and REALITY today in American politics? Well... that a good question, but in all honesty who will really hear ETERNAL REALITY?? The common denominator across the American political spectrum is the rejection of Almighty God's Heavenly summons to repent and to be saved (John 8:24, Acts 4:12, 17:30-31, 1 Tim. 2:3-4). Though many across this spectrum may claim to "know" Almighty God, they personally reject Him and the simple Biblical message of salvation in Spirit and TRUTH (Matt. 7:21-23, John 4:24, 5:38-47, 8:24, 16:2-3, Rom. 10:2-4, 1 John 4:1-5). No matter what political party you belong to...

Following yesterday’s thwarted funeral, some reaction in Italy: The head of Rome’s Jewish community praised protesters who blocked the funeral of a convicted Nazi war criminal as Italy marked on Wednesday the 70th anniversary of the deportation of Jews from the Rome ghetto.Erich Priebke’s final resting place is now unclear after the protesters forced a suspension of his funeral on Tuesday in the Italian town of Albano Laziale. His body is lying at a military airport near Rome pending a decision from the authorities.The former German SS officer died aged 100 last week in Rome, where he had been serving...

Writing in America Magazine, Auxiliary Bishop Robert McElroy of San Francisco argued that the Church in the United States “must elevate the issue of poverty to the very top of its political agenda, establishing poverty alongside abortion as the pre-eminent moral issues the Catholic community pursues at this moment in our nation’s history.” “Both abortion and poverty countenance the deaths of millions of children in a world where government action could end the slaughter,” he continued. “Both abortion and poverty, each in its own way and to its own degree, constitute an assault on the very core of the dignity...

ST. PETERSBURG — As soon as they pulled into the church lot, Davion changed his mind. ''Miss! Hey, Miss!" he called to his caseworker, who was driving. "I don't want to do this anymore." In the back seat, he hugged the Bible someone had given him at the foster home. "You're going to be great," Connie Going said. Outside St. Mark Missionary Baptist Church, she straightened his tie. Like his too-big black suit, the white tie had been donated. It zipped up around the neck, which helped. No one had ever taught Davion, 15, how to tie one. ''Are you...

The crisis in the Catholic Church in Germany declared itself 45 years ago with the “Königsteiner Erklärung,” a declaration of the bishops regarding Humanae Vitae in 1968. Therein they toned down the Church’s teaching, leaving it up to the conscience of individuals to decide whether to use contraception or not. The Austrian bishops did the same in the “Mariatroster Erklärung.” In 2008 therefore, Cardinal Schönborn, the head of the Austrian bishops’ conference, spoke about this as the “sin of the European episcopate.” These declarations have set the tone for the decades to come, and the faithful have in consequence become...

The head of the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) has denounced Vatican II, described the post-conciliar liturgy as “evil,” and said that he is grateful the group never reached an accommodation with the Holy See. In a provocative address to the Kansas City audience, Bishop Bernard Fellay said: “It is has never been our intention to pretend either that the Council would be considered as good, or the New Mass would be ‘legitimate.’” He said that although the Novus Ordo Mass introduced after Vatican II may be valid, “The New Mass is bad, it is evil.” Bishop Fellay...

WASHINGTON - Americans hoping for an end to the gridlock that's caused a partial government shutdown have an option aside from protesting and rallying in front of the Capitol, according to U.S. Senate Chaplain Barry Black. They can pray.

Flower Fossils 100,000,000 Years Out of Place? by Brian Thomas, M.S. * European scientists have now discovered flowering plant fossils in rock layers supposedly 100,000,000 years older than expected.1 This new finding challenges conventional evolutionary assumptions as scientists struggle to account for what they interpret as an enormous time gap. Publishing in the journal Frontiers in Plant Science, Peter Hochuli and Susanne Feist-Burkhardt described fossil-pollen grains recovered from a drill core in the north of Switzerland.1 They wrote, "In this paper we focus on fossil evidence, presenting the so far oldest angiosperm-like pollen from the Middle Triassic (ca. 243Ma), a...

As superb look at suffering by Dr. Peter Kreeft, courtesy of Prager University. I agree with his division of suffering into what Man causes through our actions, wars are a classic example, and suffering caused by nature, the type of suffering caused by the seizure that took the life of my son Larry on May 19, 2013. He is also correct that when we complain about such suffering afflicted by nature we are appealing to a standard that presupposes a God, since nature cares not a whit about human suffering or the lack whereof. It is only by belief in...

Novelist Lars Walker — a friend of this blog and an insightful reviewer of some of my own novels — makes a trenchant comment in the Elizabeth Smart post below. I know it’s trenchant because I was about to make basically the same comment but Lars beat me to it! In the comment, he makes a delightfully concise reference to “the Osteenian view that suffering is always a sign of God’s displeasure.” This, of course, refers to popular preacher Joel Osteen, who has been promoting his new book at the Blaze and other places. He basically preaches that God wants...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem Children and Families In The Bible John 16 19 Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, “Are you asking one another what I meant when I said, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me’? 20 Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. 21 A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time...

We live in a time that has tended to reduce holiness to merely being nice and agreeable. In this manner of thinking holiness tends to be variously thought of as: getting along well with everyone, being kind, agreeable, helpful, likable, generous, pleasant, mild mannered, amiable, good humored, middle of the road, even tempered, placid, benevolent, friendly, forbearing, tolerant, thoughtful, and the like. It can all be summed up by saying that “so-and-so” is “basically a nice person.” And thus the goal seems more to be nice than holy.If you think this isn’t so, listen to how people talk at funerals....

The girl’s Muslim parents forced her into the marriage when she was fourteen. Her mother tried to put a good face on a bad situation, enticing the girl with a picture of marriage as a never-ending party: her husband, she said, would treat the girl to ice cream and lollipops and take her to movies and amusement parks. Reality turned out to be a bit different: her husband imprisoned her inside their home and forced her to watch violent videos featuring jihad attacks against soldiers from Western countries. He also raped her and beat her frequently. The girl went to...

There have been a number of articles published recently, following a show in Moscow, of carved icons of a Russian couple Rashid and Inessa Azbuhanov (their website is here and h/t Deacon Paul Iacono of the Fra Angelico Institute for bring these to my attention). These are exquisite works and are of interest to me particularly because I have to admit I have never seen anything quite like them. I am told that they are re-establishing the tradition of carved icons. These portray form through a combination of color and relief and in this sense are a halfway house between...

For the past two Sundays, hundreds of Pakistanis of all faiths have formed human chains in front of churches during mass – first in Karachi, then in Lahore. This solidarity movement was launched in reaction to the terrorist attack that killed 81 worshippers at a church in Peshawar, making it the deadliest ever perpetrated against the country’s Christian minority. Militant groups linked to the Pakistani Taliban said they carried out the September 22 bomb attack in response to US-led drone strikes. Christians have been targeted for their faith before, but previous attacks have usually taken the form of mob violence...

I doubt that Pope Francis has heard of Ernie Banks, the Hall of Fame shortstop. But like “Mr. Cub,” whose love for baseball led him to exclaim “Let’s play two!” before Sunday doubleheaders in the 1950s, the pope from the end of the world seems to think that papal canonizations are better in tandem: hence the Sept. 30 announcement that Blessed John XXIII and Blessed John Paul II will be canonized together on Divine Mercy Sunday, April 27, 2014. Predictably, the decision caused some unhappiness in some quarters. Some Poles wanted John Paul II canonized by himself. Some who welcomed...

ANN ARBOR, MI, October 15, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Catholic priest in Georgia has filed a lawsuit after he was barred from even volunteering to offer Mass at Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base. Father Ray Leonard, who is contracted to serve as base chaplain, and Fred Naylor, one of Father Leonard’s parishioners and a retired veteran with over 22 years of service, launched the suit Monday in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Priests have been prohibited from offering Mass at military bases in the wake of the government shutdown, despite provisions in the Pay Our...

Job | The Great Unknown

Say What He Says Today's Scripture “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” (Genesis 1:3, KJV) Today's Word from Joel and Victoria When God created the worlds, He didn’t just think them into being. He didn’t just believe there would be light and land and oceans and animals. He had it in His heart, but nothing happened until He spoke. He said, “Let there be light,” and light came. His thoughts didn’t set it into motion; His words set it into motion. It’s the same principle today. You can believe all day long and not...

The Key to the Missionary’s Work (2) "He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world" —1 John 2:2 The key to the missionary’s message is the propitiation of Christ Jesus— His sacrifice for us that completely satisfied the wrath of God. Look at any other aspect of Christ’s work, whether it is healing, saving, or sanctifying, and you will see that there is nothing limitless about those. But— “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!�— that is limitless (John 1:29). The missionary’s message...

When Pope Francis consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on October 13th, he followed a tradition of pontifical consecrations established by Pope Pius XII and continued by Pope John Paul II, each of whom made the consecration twice. These consecrations are certainly occasions of grace, even if many in the world have no wish to be so consecrated. The official use of the term “consecration” in this context will, I hope, give pause to some who insist the word cannot be used properly except in direct reference to God. While as a precise theological term, “consecrate” does...

Article may not be posted per FR posting rules (Gannett). Link to the article here. Synopsis: The linkage was yet another example of an over-eager National Guard EEO briefing.

By Mary Wisniewski, Reuters Pope Francis' comments that the Catholic Church should not focus so much on homosexuality, abortion and contraception have met with strong approval from U.S. Catholics, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released on Friday. Sixty-eight percent of American Catholics agree with comments the Pope made to that effect in an interview published last month in the Jesuit magazine Civilta Cattolica, while 23 percent disagreed, according to the poll. There was little difference in opinion between observant and less-observant Catholics, women and men, and among age groups, the poll found. There was little difference in opinion between...

Also, three Evangelical NT scholars from North America will participate in symposium sponsored by Joseph Ratzinger Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation >Although he might not be well known outside of certain theological circles, Dr. Hans Boersma is one of the finer young Evangelical theologians writing today. He is the J.I. Packer Professor of Theology at Regent College, one of the best Evangelical schools in Canada, and he is the author of some books that engage deeply and thoughtfully with Catholic theology, notably Nouvelle Théologie and Sacramental Ontology: A Return to Mystery (Oxford, 2009), and Heavenly Participation: The Weaving of a Sacramental...

Most of us who are Catholics eventually get asked, “Why do you Catholics worship Mary?� More often than not the question is not a real question it is a rhetorical question. For a few of you who might not know what is meant by the expression “rhetorical question,� it refers to a “question� whose purpose is not to seek an answer, but, rather, to make a (usually hostile) point. For example the expression “Who do you think you are!?� is in the form of a question but it does not seek an answer. Instead it is meant as a rebuke....

Pope Francis praised Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone for his “attitude of unconditional faithfulness and absolute loyalty to Peter,” as the Italian prelate stepped down from his position as Vatican Secretary of State. In a short ceremony at the Vatican on October 15, Pope Francis said that he was “profoundly grateful” to Cardinal Bertone for his service, and added that he was also speaking for Pope-emeritus Benedict XVI, who had appointed Cardinal Bertone to the Vatican’s #2 post in 2006. “Seven years of hard work, lived with great generosity and in the spirit of service,” the Pope remarked, as he thanked the...

<p>The man who tried to kill staff members at a conservative think tank in Washington D.C. has been sentenced to a prison term of 25 years. The judge in the case publicly praised an unarmed employee of the group for taking on the gunman and likely stopping a massacre.</p>

ANN ARBOR, MI, October 15, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Catholic priest in Georgia has filed a lawsuit after he was barred from even volunteering to offer Mass at Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base. Father Ray Leonard, who is contracted to serve as base chaplain, and Fred Naylor, one of Father Leonard’s parishioners and a retired veteran with over 22 years of service, launched the suit Monday in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

Several dozen U.S. Army active duty and reserve troops were told last week that the American Family Association, a well-respected Christian ministry, should be classified as a domestic hate group because the group advocates for traditional family values. The briefing was held at Camp Shelby in Mississippi and listed the AFA alongside domestic hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan, Neo-Nazis, the Black Panthers and the Nation of Islam. A soldier who attended the briefing contacted me and sent me a photograph of a slide show presentation that listed AFA as a domestic hate group. Under the AFA headline is...

SANTA CLARA -- A decision by Santa Clara University's president to drop health insurance coverage of elective abortions for the Catholic university's faculty and staff has triggered a serious rift at the school. Many faculty members say they were blindsided by the move at an institution that has long prided itself on open communication and governing by consensus. The thorny issue echoes a nationwide debate at Catholic universities over their institutional identities and ability to consider the convictions of those who do not identify with -- or who disagree with -- certain principles the Catholic tradition holds as central. The...

Genesis 25 - The First Wrestling Match in Recorded History In Biblical History, which is arguably the most accurate history in the world, a woman named Rebekah was pregnant with two boys; Jacob and Esau. While in the womb the two boys moved and kicked very often, almost seeming to wrestle with each other. Like many historical stories in the Bible, all of us are like one of these two little wrestlers. Rebekah prayed and asked God why this was happening. The Lord answered her and said that she was pregnant with two great nations. The older would serve the...

Today the lawless and lazy American victicrats hide behind the title "the poor". These individuals masquerade as victims and seek sympathy from the American people so they can pursue their narcissistic ambitions. The TRUTH and REALITY of this matter is that these have reaped upon themselves the horrific consequences of their LAWLESS and LAZY lifestyles (Rom. 1:18-32, Gal. 6:7). These masses have been oppressed by their compounded acts of lawlessness and violence and are never held responsible or accountable to society by the Left and Moderates in Washington. Those who try to overcome this decadent and lawless social wasteland and...

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Rattled by Pope Francis’s admonishment to Catholics not to be “obsessed” by doctrine, his stated reluctance to judge gay priests and his apparent willingness to engage just about anyone — including atheists — many conservative Catholics are doing what only recently seemed unthinkable: They are openly questioning the pope The wary traditionalists became critical when, in an interview a few weeks ago, Francis said Catholics shouldn’t be “obsessed” with imposing doctrines, including on gay marriage and abortion. Then earlier this month, Francis told an atheist journalist that people should follow good and fight evil as they “conceive” of them. These...

Pope Francis sent a message of thanks and held a farewell ceremony for the Vatican’s Secretary of State emeritus, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, SDB, on Tuesday. The 78 year-old Cardinal Bertone served in the office from his appointment by Benedict XVI in June of 2006. In remarks to the gathered officials and staff of the Secretariat of State of the Holy See, the Secretary emeritus remembered the seven years’ service and more with his collaborators, who, he said, “[served with] dedication and sometimes with sacrifice.” He thanked Pope Francis for his benevolence and offered best wishes to his successor as Secretary,...

I read at Rorate about a strong speech given by SSPX Bp. Bernard Fellay which is effectively a denunciation of Pope Francis and Pope Benedict and – yawn – you know the rest. Here is a sample: ----- “The situation of the Church is a real disaster, and the present Pope is making it 10,000 times worse.” [Bp. Bernard Fellay] said this in an address at the Angelus Press Conference, the weekend of Oct 11-13 in Kansas City. ... Bishop Fellay alluded to the SSPX/Vatican drama of 2012: “When we see what is happening now we thank God, we thank...

Idolatry and hypocrisy do not spare even the Christian life. Pope Francis put us on guard against both these vices in his homily at this morning’s Mass at the Casa Santa Marta. In order not to give in to the dangers of these sins, he said, it is necessary to put into practice the commandments of love of God and love of neighbour. Once again, the liturgy of the Mass elicits from Pope Francis a reflection on the traps that punctuate the life of faith: To become an apostle of one’s own ideas, or a devotee of one’s own well-being,...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem Children and Families In The Bible John 8 1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do...

“You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of Heaven’s Armies—the God of the armies of Israel” . . . For the battle is the LORD's 1 Samuel 17:45 / 47

At 12 o’clock this morning, the Holy Father Francis received in audience -- in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Vatican Palace --, the participants in the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization.Here is a translation of the Pope’s address to those present.* * *THE HOLY FATHER’S ADDRESSDear Brothers and Sisters,I greet you all and thank you for what you do at the service of the New Evangelization, and for the work for the Year of Faith. My heartfelt thanks! What I would like to say to you today can be summarized in three points:...

The Virgin of the Navigators is an alterpiece painted in 1536 by Alejo Fernandez for the chapel at the House of Trade in Seville. Under the protection of the Virgin are depicted King Ferdinand II of Aragon, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, and, kneeling on the viewer’s right are Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci and one of the Pinzon Brothers. In the background are gathering the peoples of the New World. The painting was made five years after the appearance of Mary as Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico in 1531, and I wonder if word of this miracle had made...