El Paso diocese labels move to send troops to border ‘morally irresponsible’

Last updated on: April 5, 2018 at 4:49 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

A diocesan migration commission called President Donald Trump’s decision to deploy National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border “morally irresponsible and dangerously ineffective.” “We’re literally deploying troops against moms and children and people fleeing some of the worst violence in the world, and that’s just morally perverse,” Dylan Corbett, founding director of the Hope Border Institute and one of the letter’s signers, told NCR. The April 4 statement from the Commission on Migration of the Diocese of El Paso was released the... Read more

The purge continues: China pulls the Bible from online stores

Last updated on: April 5, 2018 at 12:38 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

Disturbing news: The Bible appears to have been removed from online marketplaces in China, as Beijing clamps down on how its citizens practice religion. China has always controlled sales of the Bible, only allowing it to be distributed and printed by state-sanctioned churches, but in recent years it had been available to buy online. That loophole now appears to be firmly closed. Searches for “Holy Bible” did not return results on JD.com, and results on Amazon.cn did not include the... Read more

German bishops protest proposal for intercommunion, ask Vatican to intervene

Last updated on: April 5, 2018 at 7:37 am By Deacon Greg Kandra

From the National Catholic Register: The recent proposal by Germany’s bishops to allow some Protestant spouses of Catholics to receive Holy Communion under certain conditions is meeting serious resistance in Germany, as well as opposition from some Church leaders elsewhere. On April 4, the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger newspaper reported that seven German bishops — including Cardinal Rainer Woelki of Cologne — have written an urgent appeal to the Vatican in protest against the proposal. According to German media, the seven bishops said in their letter... Read more

Prayer request: Seminarian who carried cross at pope’s Easter Mass dies suddenly

Last updated on: April 7, 2018 at 1:05 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

From CNS: Friends and fans called him a “gentle giant,” a faithful “prayer warrior” and a Clark Kent whose superman power was helping people grow in holiness and faith. “I believe I truly knew a saint,” one friend wrote. The written comments were among the hundreds of condolence messages, prayers and stories submitted to an “in memoriam” page on the RegnumChristi.org website for Legionary of Christ Br. Anthony Freeman of Houston. The U.S. seminarian, who was a third-year theology student... Read more

50 years later, remembering the death of Martin Luther King, Jr. and one of the great speeches of the 20th century

Last updated on: April 4, 2018 at 10:39 am By Deacon Greg Kandra

It is the speech Robert F. Kennedy delivered in Indianapolis following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. You can read the full text here. The background: Robert F. Kennedy‘s speech on the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. was given on April 4, 1968, in Indianapolis, Indiana. Kennedy, the United States senator from New York, was campaigning to earn the 1968 Democratic presidential nomination when he learned that King had been assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. Earlier that day Kennedy had spoken at the University of Notre... Read more

Welcome home: Founder of ’40 Days for Life’ joins Catholic Church at Easter

Last updated on: April 4, 2018 at 8:26 am By Deacon Greg Kandra

From CNA: David Bereit, the founder of 40 Days for Life, entered the Catholic Church on Easter, giving thanks for the inspiration of influential Catholics, including his wife and children. “After years of prayer, discernment, and a whole lot of wrestling with God, I was received into full communion with the Catholic Church at last night’s Easter Vigil,” wrote Bereit in an April 1 Facebook post. Bereit celebrated Easter with his family at St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Church... Read more

5 takeaways from ‘Paul, Apostle of Christ’

Last updated on: April 3, 2018 at 1:17 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

My wife and I spent Easter Monday evening with St. Paul in a Roman prison. It was a much better experience than I expected. The occasion, of course, was the movie “Paul, Apostle of Christ,” and there’s a lot about the movie I liked. Here are five quick impressions: 1. It is very much a movie for our time. The film concludes with a dedication to persecuted Christians—and, indeed, persecution is an insistent theme. While the story focuses on an... Read more

Muslims converting in Europe: ‘They’ve found Muslim immigrants to be much more open to the message of Christianity’

Last updated on: April 3, 2018 at 11:22 am By Deacon Greg Kandra

This development continues a trend that has been building for a couple years: The refugee crisis played into the hands of the Catholic Church in Austria: the country recorded a significant number of Muslims who converted to Christianity Three quarters of the 750 baptized adults in 2017 are immigrants from Muslim countries, DW reports citing the agency dpa and the official spokesman for the Archdiocese of Vienna. Only in the Austrian capital, 260 people representing 15 different nations have been... Read more

Los Angeles issues sweeping pastoral guidelines for Native Americans

Last updated on: April 3, 2018 at 8:33 am By Deacon Greg Kandra

From Catholic News Agency: Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles has signed 17 new protocols recognizing the Native Americans of California as the “First People of the Land” and offering guidelines for pastoral service toward their communities. “Today we commit ourselves to going forward on a path of mutual respect, recognition and dialogue,” said Archbishop Gomez at a signing ceremony at the Museum and Cultural Center at Kuruvungna Springs last week. “We honor the rich contributions that the ‘first peoples’... Read more

‘Almost unheard of’: Father and son both preparing for ordination to the priesthood

Last updated on: April 3, 2018 at 5:10 am By Deacon Greg Kandra

Details: Andrew Infanger is talking about his path to the priesthood. He went to Mass every Sunday, studied at parochial schools and spent part of several summers at a camp run by Benedictine monks. He earned his bachelor’s degree in theology at a small Catholic university. Still, he never really considered himself a model Christian or pious enough to become a member of the clergy. He made other career plans. “I sometimes think I was the last person you would’ve expected... Read more