2016-09-30T15:53:27-05:00

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 3:53 pm   By

Archbishop John Nienstedt will return to his post as head of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis after being exonerated of all charges in an abuse case. The archbishop had called charges against him “absolutely and entirely false” but stepped aside temporarily in December 2013, pending officials’ investigation of charges that he had touched a young man’s buttocks during a group photo on May 5, 2009, following a Confirmation ceremony at the Cathedral of St. Paul. According to a... Read more

2016-09-30T15:53:28-05:00

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 3:53 pm   By

The Archdiocese of Seattle has issued an urgent warning after hackers hit one of its databases, stealing confidential information regarding up to 90,0000 employees and volunteers at parishes, schools and agencies throughout the archdiocese. The hackers have used personal information, including names and Social Security numbers, to file fax tax returns.  Already more than a dozen victims in the Chancery office and parish offices have learned that fraudulent tax returns were filed in their names; it is not yet known... Read more

2016-09-30T15:53:28-05:00

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 3:53 pm   By

    Stratton, Ohio’s Mayor, John Abdalla, is ending his struggle with Freedom From Religion Foundation lawyers by reversing his initial decision not to remove several historic crosses from the village’s municipal center this week, reports The Herald Star.   The mayor says he hates the decision, but thinks it’s in everyone’s best interest to avoid the prolonged court battle that would have resulted if he’d decided to keep the crosses where they’ve stood for decades, reports The Blaze.  ... Read more

2016-09-30T15:53:28-05:00

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 3:53 pm   By

Three years after the earthquake and tsunami which afflicted Japan in 2011, Rome remembers with music. Organized with the support of the Japanese embassy to the Holy See, “Mozart’s Requiem for Japan from the Vatican” will be held today in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside-the-Walls.  The Gioacchino Rossini Symphony Orchestra of Pesaro and the San Carlo choir, also from Pesaro, will perform Mozart’s Requiem under maestro Daniele Agiman. The tsunami which flooded Japan’s eastern coastal regions cost the lives of... Read more

2016-09-30T15:53:28-05:00

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 3:53 pm   By

Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s tyrant leader, has imposed a death sentence on 33 Christian missionaries who are believed to be working alongside South Korean Baptist missionary Kim Jung-wook, who has established as many as 500 underground churches in the communist country. The Washington Times reports that the pudgy dictator claims the 33 are attempting to overthrow the government.  That same accusation led to the machine gun execution of Kim’s uncle, Jang Song-thaek, and the assassination of all of his relatives... Read more

2016-09-30T15:53:28-05:00

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 3:53 pm   By

The pastor of Sweden’s largest non-denominational megachurch shocked Christians in his own community and around the world this weekend, by announcing that he is entering the Roman Catholic Church. *     *     *     *     * Several times in the last month, I wrote about bold initiatives in ecumenism, most notably the exchange of greetings and blessings between Pope Francis and evangelical pastor Kenneth Copeland, brokered by Anglican Bishop Tony Palmer. Perhaps I spoke... Read more

2016-09-30T15:53:29-05:00

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 3:53 pm   By

Last September, I told you about the Syrian attack on the scenic Catholic village of Maaloula, near Damascus. According to a report from Breitbart, Islamic rebels associated with al Qaeda burst into the town, shooting or beheading Christians who refused to convert to Islam. More than a dozen Greek Orthodox nuns were kidnapped from their monastery of Mar Thecla by militants from the Nusra Front, al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria.  The nuns, who were mostly Syrian and Lebanese and who worked in... Read more

2016-09-30T15:53:29-05:00

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 3:53 pm   By

Philip Wood worked on the other side of the world; but last week, he returned home to Keller, Texas to spend time with his family before moving from Beijing to a new home in Kuala Lumpur. Now it appears that his loved ones may never see him again.  Wood, an IBM executive, was aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which lost contact with air traffic control and disappeared this weekend over the South China Sea. There will be other stories emerging... Read more

2016-09-30T15:53:29-05:00

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 3:53 pm   By

Dom Sebastian Moore, Benedictine monk, moral theologian and poet, died on February 28 at the age of 96.  His funeral will be held March 14 at Downside Abbey. A controversial figure in the Church, Moore was an avowed homosexual; he disagreed openly with Pope John Paul II’s thought-provoking body of writings which, collectively, are known as “The Theology of the Body.”   He made it his habit to write a sonnet every day–and frequently, his poems took pot shots at... Read more

2016-09-30T15:53:29-05:00

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 3:53 pm   By

A New York church is holding a unique giveaway:   As part of a special “Give Back Program” on March 23 honoring gun owners, the independent Grace Baptist Church in Troy, New York–about two and a half hours north of Manhattan–is giving away a semi-automatic rifle. According to the church website, the giveaway is not raffle, and is not a fundraiser for the church.  In order to be eligible to take home the rifle, an individual must be present and... Read more

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