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A United Nations special climate report suggests a tax on carbon dioxide emissions would need to be as high as $27,000 per ton at the end of the century to effectively limit global warming. For Americans, that’s the same as a $240 per gallon tax on gasoline in the year 2100, should such a recommendation be adopted. In 2030, the report says a carbon tax would need to be as high as $5,500 — that’s equivalent to a $49 per gallon gas tax. If you think that’s an unlikely scenario, you’re probably not wrong. However, it’s what the Intergovernmental Panel...

The Vatican is Taiwan’s last remaining diplomatic ally in Europe. The self-ruled island has formal relations with 16 other countries, many of them small, less-developed nations in Central America and the Pacific. “Communist China remains committed to making the Taiwan people irrelevant to the United Nations and to excluding Taiwan from playing a meaningful role both in the United Nations family and in the international communities." Matthew Lee, Taiwan’s envoy to the Vatican, made the dig in a speech during a reception marking Taiwan’s national day that was attended by Vatican officials, including several directly involved in the negotiations with...

A major Roman Catholic magazine is calling for withdrawal of Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. The editors at America, a Jesuit publication and the only Catholic weekly in North America, previously endorsed Kavanaugh, citing the possibility that he would make up a court majority to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion. Its reversal this week came amid emotional and grueling testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee by Kavanaugh, who is a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, and Christine Blasey Ford, a Palo Alto., Calif., psychologist who has...

It was a surreal moment in the middle of a surreal news cycle. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) and his Republican challenger, Scott Wagner, sat on stage, their faces frozen and their hands clasped. And Alex Trebek, the “Jeopardy!” host and the moderator of Monday night’s debate, let loose, joking that the only thing with a lower approval rating than the Pennsylvania legislature was the Catholic Church. Polite laughter from the audience quickly turned to boos. Trebek, dressed in a purple flowered tie with a matching pocket square, looked out at the crowd watching the two candidates face off at...

Catholic University’s president suspended a dean whose comments on social media this week questioned allegations of sexual assault against Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh. John Garvey, the president of the university, said Friday evening in an email to the campus that the remarks “demonstrated a lack of sensitivity to the victim.” Will Rainford, the dean, had issued a written apology Thursday evening for a remark he made on his university Twitter account that he said “unfortunately degraded” one of the women who have accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault. Julie Swetnick, the third woman in recent weeks to accuse Kavanaugh...

For the last century control of the United States has cycled between the 19th Century Democratic and Republican parties. Voters choose between the old ideas of the Democratic Party and the old ideas of the Republican Party. The two parties are mired in the same old partisan conflicts election after election. The Democrats in particular seem more interested in playing partisan political games than in dealing seriously with the nation's problems. Republicans are increasingly following their example. Millennials need to decide whether they want to continue the politics of their grandparents' generation or replace the 19th Century parties with 21st...

ATLANTA, Ga., September 25, 2018, (LifeSiteNews) – Pro-LGBT Jesuit priest and Vatican advisor Fr. James Martin is suggesting that those who oppose his message of affirmation to homosexuals are not only going against the "Vatican," but they are not “orthodox.” In a tweet sent out on Monday, Martin criticized dozens of Catholics in Atlanta, Georgia for protesting Archbishop Wilton Gregory’s invitation to the pro-LGBT priest to speak at two local parishes next month. Martin trotted out three arguments as proofs of his orthodoxy, attempting to turn the tables on those who object to his efforts to normalize homosexuality within the...

A note from the Patriotic Association of Chinese Catholics and the Council of Bishops of the Church of China (bodies not recognized by the Holy See) comments on the "historic agreement" on episcopal appointments: "We remain on the path that leads to socialism". "Heartfelt" appreciation for the signature between the Vatican and Beijing.Beijing (AsiaNews) - The Chinese Catholic Church "will continue to operate independently. We love the country and the Church, we will carry forward the principle of independence and the concept of the sinicization of religion while remaining on the path that leads to socialist society ". This was...

Critics of the long-waited agreement between China and the Vatican on the appointment of bishop are merely a “loud minority,” a Vatican bishop said Friday. “They are very strong in their position. They are loud, but there are not very many of them. They are a loud minority,” said Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, also chancellor of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences. He made the remarks when asked to comment on a reported deal between China and the Vatican on the appointment of bishops, which critics say is a deal that “sells out” the Holy See. “In our interpretation, the...

LANSING, Mich. --The Michigan Attorney General’s office says it’s launched an investigation into alleged sex abuse and assault of children in all seven dioceses in Michigan. Michigan Catholic Diocese Map by Madeline Ciak on Scribd Ads by ZINC The attorney general’s office says it’s investigating allegations dating back as far as 1950. The investigation will also include any allegations related to the cover up of sexual abuse or assault.

Days after it was revealed that the Rev. Paul Kalchik of Avondale’s Resurrection Catholic Church burned a rainbow banner that once hung in the church, Cardinal Blase Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, has removed him from his role as head of the North Side church. “For some weeks now, I have become increasingly concerned about a number of issues at Resurrection Parish,” read a letter, signed by Cupich, to parishioners and staff at the church. “It has become clear to me that Fr. Kalchik must take time away from the parish to receive pastoral support so his needs can be assessed.”...

You might think that the enthusiastic support Pope Francis has offered for environmentalism, open borders, and the normalization of homosexual behavior would buy him support from liberal media. But Der Spiegel, the most important weekly magazine in Europe, has turned against the Roman Catholic Prelate with a cover story that proclaims (auf Deutsch) the Ninth Commandment: “Thou shalt not lie,” with a subhead: “The Pope and the Catholic Church in their greatest crisis.” Der Spiegel’s online English-language website has not yet published a translation of its new cover story, but via the website Rorate Caeli, we get a partial translation...

With rising unilateralism challenging its very existence, the United Nations convenes its annual meeting of world leaders Monday and will try once more to tackle problems together as a community of nations, addressing threats ranging from Mideast conflicts to the effects of global warming — and also encouraging the glimmer of hope over the nuclear standoff in North Korea. This year, 133 world leaders have signed up to attend the General Assembly session, a significant increase from last year’s 114. Secretary-General António Guterres called the expected large turnout “eloquent proof of the confidence of the international community in the United...

After many years of sex scandals in the Catholic Church, someone finally blew the whistle in a way that could not be ignored. Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganó, a retired Vatican envoy to the United States, said on August 22nd that Pope Francis should resign because he had failed to discipline a major sex offender, former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, D.C. Archbishop Viganó accused McCarrick of having preyed upon Catholic seminarians for many years. He said that Pope Francis “must be the first to set a good example for cardinals and bishops who covered up McCarrick’s abuses.” The Pope, he...

Eighty-five years ago, on July 20, 1933, a concordat defining the legal position of the Catholic Church in the Third Reich was signed by Vatican secretary of state Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli (later Pope Pius XII) and German vice chancellor Franz von Papen. The Reischskonkordat was then ratified by the Nazi-dominated German parliament some six weeks later, on September 10. Pope Pius XI, under whose authority Cardinal Pacelli had negotiated this treaty, was under no illusions about German National Socialism; he detested its racial ideology. And unlike some Vatican diplomats who seem to have imagined that the Third Reich would be...

Singapore should not repeal Section 377A, which criminalises sex between men, under present circumstances, Archbishop William Goh said on Tuesday (18 September). In a pastoral letter posted on the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Singapore’s website, he also wrote that he would not object to a repeal of the law “if it were merely aimed at removing all potential criminal penalties against homosexuals”. “However, until and unless Parliament puts in place a formulation that more perfectly encapsulates the spirit of the law, guaranteeing the protection of the rights of the majority who favour the traditional family, and that no further demands...

In a controversial move, China and the Vatican are preparing to sign a landmark deal this month allowing each side a voice in choosing the church's bishops in China, reports the Wall Street Journal. The details: Pope Francis will recognize excommunicated Chinese bishops that were approved without the Vatican's green light, and China will acknowledge the Pope as leader of the nation's Catholics and allow the Vatican a voice in bishop selection moving forward. The deal comes with controversy as China's current regime is largely atheist and authoritarian. The agreement is also seen as China recognizing religious autonomy — something...

ATLANTA (ChurchMilitant.com) - Celebrity Jesuit Fr. James Martin is heading to Georgia, courtesy of pro-gay Abp. Wilton Gregory of Atlanta, Georgia. On Friday, Martin announced on Twitter that Abp. Gregory has invited him to speak in October at two Atlanta-area locations. "Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Atlanta has graciously invited me to his archdiocese to speak," Martin tweeted, "so I will be speaking at St. Thomas More Parish (the Jesuit parish) on Sat. Oct 20 and at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on the morning of Sun. Oct 21." Gregory's personal invitation comes as no surprise to faithful Catholics, as...

Will he announce a plan to sideline any prelate who openly supports gay orientation? Will he finally cite homosexuality as the root of the pedophile problem in the Church? On Thursday a delegation of U.S. bishops met with Pope Francis at the Vatican to discuss the ensuing sexual-abuse crisis in America, and while the USCCB issued a statement saying that the bishop’s meeting with Francis “was a lengthy, fruitful, and good exchange,” the matter of Cardinal Vigano’s 11-page testimony detailing cover-up allegations against Francis and 32 other high-ranking church officials—the very crux of the issue—was never addressed, nor has the...

LGBT flag once hung over sanctuary of gay parish, displayed at Cdl. Bernardin's MassParishioners of Resurrection Parish in Chicago, Illinois, held a rainbow flag-burning event last week, cutting up and setting on fire an LGBT flag that once hung in the sanctuary at the parish's first Mass. The event was originally scheduled for Sept. 29, the Feast of St. Michael and the Archangels, but the Chicago archdiocese — heeding complaints by gay activists — called the pastor, Fr. Paul John Kalchik, and ordered him not to hold the event. A handful of parishioners took things into their own hands and...