“Lies, Corruption, and Scandal”: Live Action’s New Exposé of Planned Parenthood

May 29, 2014 By Kathy Schiffer

Live Action, Lila Rose’s new media movement dedicated to building a culture of life and ending abortion, has taken on Planned Parenthood again today. In a new campaign aimed at encouraging legislators to end all taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Live Action has just released a “damning investigative report” on the abortion giant that details shocking activity within the organization’s walls, including the sexual abuse of children, facilitating taxpayer-funded sex-selective abortion against girls in the womb, and manipulative... Read more

You Send Your Children to Catholic Schools to: (A) Become More Inclusive; or (B) Learn Church Teaching

May 28, 2014 By Kathy Schiffer

Why do you send your children to Catholic schools? Is it to: (A) Learn tolerance and inclusiveness, accepting all ideas and lifestyles equally, regarding all as on an even playing field. (B) Learn from their drama teacher how others feel by play-acting their lifestyles on “Rainbow Appreciation Day.” (C) Learn from their social studies teacher that all religions have something to offer, and all are equally true. (D) Learn from their science teacher that religion is bunk. (E) Learn from... Read more

Feline Spirituality: Lessons Learned from Christopher’s Cat

May 28, 2014 By Kathy Schiffer

“For he purrs in thankfulness when God tells him he’s a good cat.” Eighteenth-century English poet Christopher Smart was a complex man. A gifted poet and writer, a successful magazine editor and composer of music for the theatre, Smart was nonetheless known for excessive drinking and reckless spending. He suffered from a religious mania that compelled him to continuous prayer. His good friend, poet Samuel Johnson, commenting on that aspect of his personality, wrote, “My poor friend Smart showed... Read more

ANOTHER FIRE in a Jerusalem Church on the Heels of Pope’s Visit

May 27, 2014 By Kathy Schiffer

And this one appears to be vandalism. A man set fire to a prayer book in Dormition Abbey, the church which marks what is said to be the final resting place of Mary. Pope Francis had, according to reports, just finished celebrating Mass at the Cenacle, the Upper Room where Jesus is believed to have celebrated the Last Supper. A man who is described by Israeli police as “non-Jewish” in appearance, and who was not wearing a skull cap, is... Read more

OH NO! Hours After Pope Francis Departs, Church of the Nativity Is Damaged by Fire

May 27, 2014 By Kathy Schiffer

A fire broke out early Tuesday in the Church of the Nativity, on the traditional site of Jesus’ birth. Pope Francis visited the Bethlehem church on May 25. The pope had left the Holy Land only hours before the fire was discovered at 4:30 a.m. Tuesday by a security guard who smelled smoke. Apparently, the fire was accidental–starting when an oil lamp fell over, damaging some fabric wall hangings insid the Grotto of the Nativity itself. The Lebanon Daily Star... Read more

Future Priests? Around the World, Children Playing “Mass”

May 27, 2014 By Kathy Schiffer

Perhaps you saw this: The YouTube video of Catholic author Brandon Vogt’s three-year-old son Isaiah “celebrating Mass” with his new mass kit was a hit on YouTube in 2012. Young Isaiah Vogt was demonstrating what he’d learned in church, watching his pastor celebrate the Latin Rite Mass. * * * * * Meanwhile, across the world, children are more familiar with the Sacred Mysteries, the Eastern Rite liturgy. I recently ran across... Read more

The Pope Goes Home Today….

May 27, 2014 By Kathy Schiffer

Pope Francis has returned to Rome. On May 26, the last day of his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, the Holy Father stopped to pray at two sacred sites in Jerusalem: the Western Wall, where he left the Our Father in Spanish tucked into one of the cracks; and Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, a memorial to Israeli victims of terrorism. There, he met with survivors of the Holocaust. As a flame was lit, Pope Francis prayed the following prayer: “Adam,... Read more

Cardinal Seán Nails It: Harvard’s “Black Mass” Was Wrong

May 26, 2014 By Kathy Schiffer

Cardinal Seán O’Malley, archbishop of Boston, got a little lesson in using an electric screwdriver this week. “During my visit with the workers,” he wrote of the experience, “I had an opportunity to get acquainted with an electric screwdriver for the first time. I discovered I am much more adept at the manual variety!” (Photo: The Boston Pilot/Cardinal Seán’s Blog) * * * * * His Eminence wrote on his blog this week about... Read more