Dr. George Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, has changed his mind about euthanasia. Once an opponent, he announced last week that he now supports the killing of some terminally ill persons as a means of avoiding “needless suffering.” Carey released his statement in defense of an assisted dying bill which is scheduled for debate in the House of Lords on Friday, July 18. The bill, which had been introduced by former Labour lord chancellor Lord Falconer of Thoroton, would... Read more
This morning I was flummoxed to read in The Tablet a list of twelve women who supposedly “helped shape Christianity.” Numbered among this august group, according to writer Peter Stanford, are a prostitute, an excommunicated ex-nun, and an imaginary heroine who never even existed. Where on the list, I wondered, is St. Catherine of Siena, who had the political boldness to “speak truth to power” and who counseled Pope Gregory XI to return to Rome from Avignon and resume... Read more
Of all the images of the Supermoon of July 12, 2014, perhaps this is the most dramatic: the moon low in the sky, behind Rio de Janeiro’s iconic 130-foot statue of “Christ the Redeemer.” A “supermoon” occurs when the moon is full on the same night that it’s at the closest point in its orbit. Saturday’s supermoon was the first of the season, but there’s another on the way August 10. Photo: Getty Images Read more
Everybody’s got to get into the act! By now you’ve seen countless YouTube videos of people dancing to Pharrell Williams’ hit tune “Happy.” According to some reports, thousands of videos have been recorded featuring the song, which was originally recorded for the movie Despicable Me 2. What’s become a social media cliche takes on new interest, though, when the dancers are a community of French religious sisters. The Sisters of St. Mary Spawn in Tarbes (Hautes-Pyrénées) recorded their own version... Read more
There will be no more religious processions in the southern Italian region of Calabria, after hundreds of people defied Pope Francis by making an unscheduled stop during a Marian procession to bow in front of the home of a Mafia godfather. According to The Tablet, Bishop Francesco Milito of Oppido Mamertina-Palmi said that those who bowed outside the house of Giuseppe Mazzagatti, an 82-year-old convicted murderer whose clan fed a man alive to pigs, “are clearly far from even... Read more
Ah, Summertime! Time to kick back, forget to set the alarm clock, enjoy a leisurely breakfast over the morning paper…. BUT WAIT! The clock is ticking…. and if you don’t hurry, you’ll NEVER make it to Mass on time! What, you can pray as well out in nature, you say? Blah, blah…. But here’s the thing: God told us, in the Third Commandment, to “Keep Holy the Lord’s Day.” That’s “holy” as in “pray.” Devote that... Read more
You remember the lovely ladies from FEMEN, don’t you? They’re the unseemly Ukraine-based feminists who consider it their personal mission to strip naked in demand of abortion. They especially hate the Catholic Church for its defense of traditional morality and its opposition to abortion and same-sex “marriage.” So at the 10:00 a.m. Mass in Germany’s Cologne Cathedral on Christmas Day 2013, they staged a protest–desecrating the altar before being hauled off by the ushers and the police. And in... Read more
News footage has emerged, showing a member of the Islamic State terror group ISIS wearing a balaclava and black mask, smashing centuries-old tombs in Mosul–including the tomb of Jonah the Prophet. Jonah is revered by both Christians and Muslims; but Muslim law prohibits special veneration of tombs. It’s reported that the tomb of the Prophet Seth was also demolished. In the same week, 50 blindfolded bodies were discovered in Baghdad, gunshot wounds to their heads. * * ... Read more
In May 2014, an archaeological dig in St. Augustine, Florida, uncovered what experts believe may be the foundation of a 17th century church and friary, the oldest in the United States.The discovery on the grounds of the historic Mission Nombre de Dios (“Name of God”) dates back to the 1670s, when the Spanish governor of Florida ordered a church to be erected near the site of a fort which was under construction at the time, the Castillo de San Marcos.... Read more
Social media is drowning out God. Young people need to find silence away from the constant “noise” of social media in order to encounter Him. That’s the warning from Archbishop Salvatore Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization. Speaking to youth at Invocation 2014, a British discernment retreat for young people on July 4-6, the archbishop said: “Today there is so much noise, with social media, we don’t understand the value of silence…. We go away... Read more
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