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By Dorothy Cummings McLean, LifeSiteNews – American Catholic bishops showed today that the current pontificate has divided them on fighting abortion as a social justice priority, voting 143-69 to keep the issue “pre-eminent.”… the bishops debated, and voted upon, a letter based on the USCCB’s document on political life, “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizens.”… The bishops were asked to vote to approve the text as presented by Gomez. Of the bishops, 143 voted yes, and 69 voted no. Four bishops abstained… Strickland tweeted, “Thank God the USCCB voted to uphold the preeminence of the Sanctity of the life of the unborn. It is sad that 69 voted no.”

By Jules Gomes, Church Militant – The Rockefeller Foundation, notorious for promoting abortion and the LGBT agenda, is sponsoring a two-day Vatican conference under the auspices of Pope Francis and the Pontifical Academy of Sciences… The conference, titled “Reduction of Food Loss and Waste,” is being held at the Casina Pio IV on Nov. 11–12 and includes speakers from other pro-abortion bodies including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation… Nestlé, recently criticized for using aborted fetal cell lines to test artificial flavor enhancers in partnership with biotech firm Senomyx, is also a participant at the conference.

By Martin M. Barillas and Pete Baklinski, LifeSiteNews – Guinean Cardinal Robert Sarah, the Vatican’s Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline, strongly criticized LGBT ideology that he said is overrunning governments and education centers while tracing the ideology to the root of the widespread acceptance of contraception about seven decades ago… “The first link in the process involved women,” Cardinal Sarah continued: “In fact, the contraceptive mentality that has extended strongly after 1950 has made possible a profound disconnection between the woman and her body, a disconnection that has radically changed the way of understanding human sexuality, marriage, filiation and of course education.”

By Matt Hadro, CNA – Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia rose to say that he did not oppose the inclusion of the full statement of Pope Francis and added that teaching that abortion is a “preeminent” issue is not contrary to the magisterium of Pope Francis… “I am certainly not against quoting the Holy Father’s full statement. I think it’s a beautiful statement. I believe it,” he said… “But I am against anyone stating that our stating it [abortion] is ‘preeminent’ is contrary to the teaching of the Pope. That isn’t true. That sets up an artificial battle between the bishops’ conference of the United States and the Holy Father, which isn’t true,” Archbishop Chaput said.

By C C Pecknold, Catholic Herald – Francis Cardinal George suffered greatly throughout his life. Nearing the end, dying of cancer, he said “The lord strips things away from us, sometimes even good things, until there is nothing left but the love of God.” This is the Christian who can teach us how to offer ourselves completely to God, even our suffering, so that we can truly bear joyful witness to Jesus Christ who makes holy our oblations. At the center is always Jesus, the only one who truly gives strength to the weak, who raises up the broken hearted, who gives evangelical hope to the hopeless — and who can set our world on fire with divine charity.

By Janet E. Smith, National Catholic Register – Among other scandals, we know of cardinals who have abused seminarians and been swept off to positions of power in the Vatican… The confusion surrounding the pachamama has been unsettling: Is it a pagan idol that has no place in a Catholic church or a benign expression of gratefulness of the gifts of the Earth?… All of that seems to be the tip of an iceberg — or the oozing up of a toxic black mold that has corroded what held up the façade and has shown us the rot behind the façade… This exposé seems to be the work of the Holy Spirit, who surely has a reform plan in mind and possibly even in place…

By Katrina Trinko, Managing Editor, The Daily Signal – When she was 21 years old, Claire Culwell found out a huge secret about her past: her biological mom had tried to have an abortion when she was pregnant with Claire and her twin. While Claire’s twin didn’t survive, Claire did — and that revelation changed her life. “I knew that I couldn’t stand for what abortion does. And so, I chose to take a stance and to speak out,” she says. Listen to her interview on the podcast, or read the lightly edited transcript of our conversation, pasted below

By Ed Condon, CNA – During the second day of the USCCB Fall General Assembly in Baltimore, divisions among the bishops bubbled briefly to the surface, with bishops exchanging sharp interventions on the “preeminence’ of abortion as a social concern… Bishop Robert McElroy told the conference this language was “discordant with the pope’s teaching, if not inconsistent,” and implied that a failure to accept Cupich’s proposed language was tantamount to a breach with the Holy Father’s magisterium… “It is not Catholic teaching that abortion is the preeminent issue that we face as a world in Catholic social teaching. It is not.”

By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture – Insofar as Archbishop Pierre’s speech is influenced by this theory, the American bishops should usher him back to reality…. As a matter of fact the American bishops should do their utmost to steer the entire Vatican leadership back toward reality. As they report to Rome for their ad limina visits, they should show their loyalty to the Holy Father by informing him honestly about the crisis that faces the Church. They should remind the Pontiff that it is not subversive to seek clarity, nor is it pastoral to allow confusion.

By Casey Chalk, Crisis Magazine – PBS NewsHour anchor and managing editor Judy Woodruff in a November 1 interview sympathetically asked Biden if he was “offended” by Fr. Morey’s actions. Biden responded by explaining that while it was “a private matter… it’s not a position that I’ve found anywhere else, including from the Holy Father, who gives me Communion.” In a later statement, Biden further explained: “I practice my faith… but I’ve never let my religious beliefs, which I accept based on Church doctrine… impose that view on other people.”

By Joseph Pearce, Crisis Magazine – One of the most encouraging developments in the Church in recent years has been the emergence of good, solid prelates from Africa. One thinks of Cardinal Arinze, whom many had thought might become the first African pope, and now there is the indomitable Robert Cardinal Sarah, whose forthright and courageous stance against much of the nonsense besetting the Church and the world has come as a breath of fresh and orthodox air amidst the choking fumes of modernity and modernism.

By Patti Armstrong, EWTN News – In the aftermath of the Amazon Synod, many Catholics are still disturbed about the Pachamama statues which were bowed down to at Vatican events and later thrown into the Tiber River by a Catholic convert… But in the land where Pachamama is still worshiped, going head to head with the false idol is no contest for the Blessed Mother. In Scripture, when God says to the serpent, “She shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel” (Genesis 3:15), it is the Blessed Mother of whom he speaks. Pachamama is the imaginary fertility goddess in Inca mythology, still worshiped in the Andes mountain range which covers Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile, Peru and northern Argentina. These countries also have devotions to the Blessed Mother.

By John Zmirak, The Stream – Every Veteran’s Day since I moved to Dallas, I devoutly attend the city’s parade. That was easy, my first few years. I lived downtown on Main Street and it marched right past my building. But things happen, life goes on, and you rescue beagle twins who get you evicted… You know how it goes. Now I live miles away. It will mean a special effort to get down to the parade. But I’m going to make it. And I hope you make it, too, to your local celebration. Just a few thoughts today on what it means.

Media Editors, Patriot Post – Trump puts on a spectacular display of message dominance while drowning out the mainstream media… Does this consummate entertainer — this pop president — get something that even Ronald Reagan could not? Have Americans changed in the intervening years so that Reagan couldn’t cut it today?… Patriot Post partner Bill Whittle and Scott Ott discuss.

By Maike Hickson, LifeSiteNews – An international group of 100 priests and lay scholars published a statement today to protest the pagan worship of Pachamama that took place last month during the Amazon Synod in Rome with Pope Francis’ active participation and apparent support. They called upon the Pope to “repent publicly and unambiguously of these objectively grave sins” and asked bishops’ around the world to “offer fraternal correction to Pope Francis for these scandals.”

For many years, National Right to Life and its state affiliates have labored intensively and diligently to elect pro-life candidates, who then enacted pro-life laws– only to see Planned Parenthood, the Center for Reproductive Rights, or a local abortion facility challenge those laws in court. Far too often, the challenges were successful, because some judges legislate from the bench rather than follow the U.S. Constitution.

By Msgr. Charles Pope – Jesus was urgent in warning us to be ready for judgment. He did this in many ways, but most notably in the parables. In this post let’s ponder His teachings and hear His urgency… Most casual readers of the Bible tend to view the parables as merely interesting, entertaining stories. While that is so, they are deadly serious as well; they powerfully portray the drama of human life, the need to make decisions, and the consequences of those decisions. The parables carry weighty messages and substantial warnings. Do not misconstrue their creative, pithy, memorable qualities as signs of superficial teaching.

By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture – When the US bishops met in Baltimore one year ago, the American people were clamoring for effective action on the sex-abuse scandal, which had erupted anew last summer with revelations that Pope Francis had known of, and done nothing about, the criminal history of Theodore McCarrick… Now, a year later, American Catholics are still waiting for that explanation, still waiting for bishops to be held consistently accountable—and now also waiting for an investigation into the financial scandals that have re-emerged this summer, bearing new evidence that this pontificate has failed utterly to produce reforms.

By Dr. Jeff Mirus, Catholic Culture – Every seriously committed Catholic who is paying attention to Pope Francis has to figure out a way to deal with him both in their own minds, and in speaking about the Church with others. There may be as many different approaches to this problem as there are serious Catholics, but there are certainly several broad categories of response. This is evident from the reactions we receive to our own commentaries on contemporary Church problems.

By Lianne Laurence, LifeSiteNews – The apostolic nuncio to the United States told the American bishops to get in line with the Holy Father and show they are taking steps to hand on the “Magisterium of Pope Francis” to their flock… “The pastoral thrust of this pontificate must reach the American people,” Archbishop Christophe Pierre told attendees at the opening of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) fall general assembly… “Especially,” he added, “as families continue to demand of parishes and diocese the accompaniment envisioned by Amoris Laetitia.”

By Msgr. Charles Pope – This is the fourth in a series of articles on the Four Last Things: Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell… We turn our attention now to the judgment that awaits us all. Scripture speaks in the Book of Hebrews speaks rather plainly to this day for us all: It is appointed for us to die once, and after that to face judgment (Heb 9:27)… For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil (2 Cor 5:10).

By Dr. Jeff Mirus, Catholic Culture – Insofar as my own approach meets with criticism, it comes primarily in two forms. First, there are those who believe any criticism of a pope is too much criticism, a failure in our filial duty. Second, there are those who believe any acknowledgement of good things Francis has said and done is a betrayal of the Faith, either because the good things are only apparent (not real) or because recognizing them could lead the faithful to trust Francis more than they should….

Zenit, Sept. 11, 2019 – I would like to repeat what the Doctrine of the Church says about this: When we acknowledge international organizations and we recognize their capacity to give judgment, on a global scale – for example, the international tribunal in The Hague, or the United Nations. If we consider ourselves humanity, when they make statements, our duty is to obey. It is true that not all things that appear just for the whole of humanity will also be so for our pockets, but we must obey international institutions. That is why the United Nations was created. That’s why international courts were created. 

By Susan Jones, CNSNews – The always-colorful Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana is among the Republicans who say Democrats are being unfair to President Trump by limiting the witnesses they may call and by selectively leaking portions of the testimony they’ve heard privately, before releasing transcripts pertaining to Trump’s Ukraine dealings… “If you try to assess how a trial is going for a defendant, you don’t just listen to the lawyers’ opening statements and you don’t just read the transcript,”… “You sit there and listen to all the testimony, the cross-examination, and the context….

By JD Flynn, CNA – The U.S. bishops’ conference fall meeting is unlikely to offer any surprises to Church observers watching to assembly. In fact, while the meeting will begin Monday, its only real surprise came weeks ago, when the list of candidates for the conference presidency and vice presidency was published… The bishops will elect a new president Monday, almost certain to be Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles, the conference vice president. The uncertain question is who they’ll elect as vice president, but Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City and Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the military archdiocese are largely considered the front-runners, and one of them is likely to win.

By George Neumayr, The American Spectator – A measure of this pontificate’s farcical dysfunction is that its leading chronicler is Eugenio Scalfari, a doddering apostate, atheist, and communist to whom Jorge Bergoglio routinely confides his heretical thoughts. Scalfari is the pope’s favorite interviewer… The pope is so fond of their exchanges that he had the Vatican publishing house issue an early batch of their interviews as a book… The fact that the pope continues to grant interview after interview to a journalist whom the Vatican press office has said for years “misquotes” him indicates the pope is perfectly happy with Scalfari’s reconstructions and the confusion that they cause.

By Patriot Post, Publius – We set aside Veterans Day to honor the sacrifice of generations of Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and Coastguardsmen who have carried forward the banner of Liberty since the first shots were fired at Lexington and Concord… Millions of American Patriots have, for generations, honored their oaths “to support and defend” the Liberty that was “endowed by our Creator” as affirmed in our Declaration of Independence and enshrined in our Constitution.

By Jane Clark Scharl, Crisis Magazine – This month, the question of how to deal with the rapid spread of gender dysphoria among young children reached a breaking point. In Texas, a jury ruled that Jeffrey Younger could not do anything to prevent his seven-year-old son James from undergoing irreversible hormone-replacement procedures, which can cause infertility and significant health issues if used through puberty. The jury said that because the child’s mother Anne Georgulas (the parents are divorced) asserts that James is actually a girl, Mr. Younger could not prevent Ms. Georgulas from facilitating hormone replacement.

By Thomas F. Farr, Public Discourse – In the 130 years since John Henry Newman’s death, few concepts have been more misunderstood and distorted than “conscience.” The danger is greater today than when the great saint wrote. The distorted view of conscience that Newman described as oriented to self and not to God has penetrated Western culture and religion. For many, the obligation to follow one’s conscience has been embraced, but fidelity to truth has been set aside. This untethered and counterfeit “freedom of conscience” has led to a widespread subjectivism that Newman saw emerging within modern European society, even in his own day.

U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Chieko Noguchi or Miguel Guilarte – The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) will gather for the 2019 Fall General Assembly in Baltimore, November 11-13. During the assembly, the bishops will elect a new president, vice president, and six committee chairs. They will also discuss and vote on seven action items… The assembly will begin with an address by the Papal Nuncio to the United States, Archbishop Christophe Pierre. The bishops will also hear from Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo, Archbishop of Galveston-Houston as he gives his final address as USCCB president upon completion of his three-year term.

By Diane Montagna, LifeSiteNews – The female indigenous leader who planted a tree alongside Pope Francis in the Vatican Gardens ahead of the Amazon Synod was clear from the beginning about the syncretistic and pagan meaning of the act… In an October 4 statement that went under the radar during the Synod itself, Ednamar de Oliveira Viana, of the Maués region in Brazil, says of the Vatican Garden tree-planting ceremony: “To plant … is believing in a growing and fruitful life to satisfy the hunger of Mother Earth’s creation. This brings us to our origin by reconnecting divine energy and teaching us the way back to the Creator Father.”

By Claire Dwyer, EWTN News – Sunday’s readings begin with the book that closes the Old Testament. In a dramatic and moving account of courage, the seven brothers in the Second Book of Maccabees choose to undergo torture and death at the hands of their pagan oppressors rather than violate the Jewish law… Before he dies, one brother proclaims, “You are depriving us of this present life, but the King of the world will raise us up to live again forever.” His brother says the same: “It is my choice to die at the hands of men with the hope God gives of being raised up by him; but for you, there will be no resurrection to life.”

By Casey Chalk, Crisis Magazine – The result of the initial celebration, in Cordileone’s words, was “a moment of great sacredness and communal joy.” Now, in taking the Mass “on the road” as part of a “Marian unity tour,” the Benedict XVI Institute follows in the footsteps of the Renaissance and Counter-Reformation, says Cordileone. The Mass contributes to broader efforts of “creating beautiful new works in the great high sacred music tradition of the Church and moving them through the great cathedrals and churches to find new audiences where people will be moved to deeper prayer and greater faith.”

By Diane Montagna, LifeSiteNews – In a renewed and enthusiastic endorsement of globalism, Pope Francis has announced he is hosting an initiative for a “Global Pact” to create a “new humanism.”… According to a Vatican statement issued on Thursday, Sept. 12, the Pope is inviting representatives of the main religions, international organizations and various humanitarian institutions, as well as key figures from the world of politics, economics and academia, and prominent athletes, scientists and sociologists to sign a “Global Pact on Education”… “A global educational pact is needed to educate us in universal solidarity and a new humanism,” Francis said in a video message to launch the initiative.

By Diane Montagna, LifeSiteNews – With so much attention focused in recent weeks on the violation of the first commandment, further attacks on the fifth and sixth commandments have gone unnoticed in Vatican City… In the middle of the Amazon Synod, a smaller but not insignificant gathering was also organized by the Holy See and the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), directed by pro-abortion globalist and sustainable development guru, Jeffrey Sachs… Founded by former U.N. Gen. Sec. Ban Ki-moon in 2012, donors and partners of SDSN include the pro-abortion, pro-gender theory Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. One of Sachs’s biggest supporters over the years has also been far-left financier George Soros, who donated $50 million to his Millennium Villages Project.

By Msgr. Charles Pope – Consider the commercial below. It says a lot about how we can conceive of Christ and of the desire of some to refashion Him. Perhaps we do well to look at it by analyzing the dramatis personae (cast of characters) and weaving in the plot… As the scene opens, three women come upon a car belonging to one of them. The car has been damaged, and this little crisis sets the stage for the different notions of the sort of savior who is needed. Let’s look at each person in the drama and see what we can learn…

By Susan Ciancio, Human Life International – Sanger eventually went to nursing school, then married and had three children. She and her husband became immersed in the bohemian world of Greenwich Village, where they lived. It was at this time that she joined the Women’s Committee of the New York Socialist’s Party and began to advocate for the sexual education of women. Though she never finished nursing school, Margaret began working as a nurse in a poor immigrant section of NYC, where she grew to believe in—and teach—the importance of birth control. She also began to write about these beliefs in a column entitled “What Every Girl Should Know.”

By Roxanne King, Denver Catholic – Last week the Archdiocese of Denver served as a launch-pad for a movement to rally Catholic laity and clergy in rekindling their zeal for holiness and evangelization in response to the controversies and abuse crisis dominating media headlines about the Church.“The Faithful Echo movement … is directed to drawing clergy and the lay faithful in ever closer unity to combat the darkness of the present confusion, error and division in the Church,” Cardinal Raymond Burke told more than 200 laity and priests attending the Faithful Echo Dinner

By Chad Groening, Jody Brown, OneNewsNow – According to The Washington Post, the outcomes in three of the DA races “were powered to a significant degree” by George Soros, whose Justice and Public Safety PAC poured nearly $2.1 million into the primary and general election campaigns of those progressive candidates in Fairfax, Arlington, and Loudoun counties. The Post says the winner of the contest in Prince William County didn’t receive in-kind contributions from Soros.

By Maike Hickson, LifeSiteNews – The evil, Bishop Schneider explains, “wants to reach always its culmination.” The evil is to deny that there is “one truth,” he explains; and  relativism is therefore “like a virus.” “When you don’t resist it, it will by time conquer the entire body,” Schneider explains more and then refers back to the Second Vatican Council. This “doctrinal relativism, doctrinal ambiguity” he states, can already be found “partly in some expressions of the Second Vatican Council.”

TheRemnantvideo, YouTube – You think it’s all about Pachamama? Think again—it’s even worse! Michael J. Matt calls our attention to an event which received precious little media attention… an event which took place in the Vatican the day after the close of the Amazon Synod, at which key Synodal Fathers partnered with known socialists to pledge fidelity to the Sustainable Development Goals championed by the likes of George Soros, Jeffery Sachs, and Bernie Sanders. The “Church with an Amazonic Face” emerges as the New World Order religion based on the principles of Freemasonry and the creed of Naturalism rather than Christianity. Spread the word. It’s time for the fight of our lives.

By Fr. Matthew Schneider, EWTN News – Recently, a citation from Walter Wink has been quoted with approval by two well-known Catholic priests, Franciscan Father Richard Rohr and Jesuit Father James Martin. This is problematic as this quotation argues that homosexual behavior is morally acceptable, that the Bible is wrong, and that the Church should no longer call it immoral. We need to love people who struggle with these temptations and even those involved in these actions, but we cannot deny the moral teaching of 2,000 years of Christianity.

By Jason Scott Jones, LifeSiteNews – This basic difference between the hierarchy and the laity has been completely forgotten as the USCCB has become hopelessly embroiled in countless prudential issues. The bishops need to take a strong, prophetic stand in the secular sphere on non-negotiable issues such as abortion, same-sex “marriage,” and the protection of our children’s innocence. The USCCB’s over focus on promoting leftist liberal causes does nothing but pit the faithful against each other, and weaken the Church’s defense of life and family. Beyond the non-negotiables, the bishops are just another group with an opinion.

By Fr. Regis Scanlon – Fifty years ago, if you told Catholics that “cardinals would oppose cardinals and bishops would oppose bishops” in the Catholic Church, few would believe it. Now (it) has come true.  Bishops and cardinals questioning teachings held since the beginning of the Church. What’s even harder to believe, it was all predicted in two separate Marian apparitions. One is the famous Fatima apparition to the three shepherd children, Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta,  in 1917 at Fatima, Portugal and  the other an apparition to Sr. Agnes Sasagawa at Akita, Japan in 1973.

By Hans Boersma, First Things – Martha has made a comeback. Today, her frenetic busyness increasingly wins her admiring followers, while Mary and her otherworldly ilk are treated like people from a bygone age. From what I can tell, this reversal of biblical priorities is an outcome of modernity. Or, more likely, modernity is a by-product of our neglect of contemplation… Modernity unmistakably prioritizes the active life. Technological time-savers such as laptops and smartphones were supposed to relieve our schedules; instead, they have made our lives more hectic than ever before.

By Lauretta Brown, National Catholic Register – Shortly before he exited the 2020 Democratic presidential field, former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke asserted that churches and other faith-based organizations should lose their tax-exempt status if they oppose same-sex “marriage.”… “There can be no reward, no benefit, no tax break for anyone, or any institution, any organization in America, that denies the full human rights and the full civil rights of every single one of us,” O’Rourke commented at CNN’s “Equality in America” town hall last month.

By R. Emmett Tyrrell, Patriot Post – What does the future have in store for us if Congress succeeds in impeaching President Donald Trump, the president who presides over the best economy America has had in the last 50 years? I think you can look to South America for a glimpse of the great republic that will be vouchsafed us by the congress girls from what is called “the Squad” and from the most foulmouthed field of Democratic candidates ever to run for the presidency. Already the Democratic National Committee has asked the candidates to avoid crude back-alley language in their debates…

By Jules Gomes, Church Militant – In a new series of troubling revelations, Italian journalist Eugenio Scalfari has quoted Pope Francis as denying the bodily resurrection of Jesus in stating that the crucified Christ emerged from the tomb as a spirit rather than as a body… In a front-page article in Tuesday’s La Repubblica, Scalfari expands on his earlier quote from Pope Francis, where the Holy Father is interpreted as rejecting the divinity of Jesus while on earth, and dovetails that statement with Francis’ alleged denial of Christ’s bodily resurrection.

By Dorothy Cummings McLean, LifeSiteNews – The offering of a mysterious bowl of plants believed to be linked to the pagan goddess Pachamama — that was received by Pope Francis during the closing Mass for the Amazon Synod and placed on the altar — was featured on the cover of the Spanish version of the Vatican’s official newspaper this week… The cover of the Spanish edition of L’Osservatore Romano for November 1, 2019 presents a photograph of Marcivana Rodrigues Paiva, a member of the indigenous Satere-Mawe people of Brazil, holding a black bowl containing earth, green plants and red flowers.

Posted on Complicit Clergy – Just a coincidence: right?… November 5, 2019: EWTN’s Fr. Mitch Pacwa discusses Pachamama idol worship and a 1970 earthquake incident in Peru… November 7, 2019: Rome is rocked by a mighty 4.4 magnitude earthquake, just a few days after the Pachamama Synod.

By Al Perrotta, Managing Editor, The Stream – Flipping back and forth I go between coverage of the impeachment drama and whatever Hallmark Christmas movie happens to be running. Impeachment. Hallmark Christmas. Impeachment. Hallmark Christmas. Back and forth like a game of Pong. The two could not be more different. One’s a wholly fictional, entirely predictable, poorly plotted pile drivel loaded with bad actors. The other features lots of snow, Christmas trees and holiday cheer.

By Msgr. Charles Pope – Yesterday we pondered the fear of death and some understandable reasons for it, but we also considered how a lack of lively faith can lead to a fear of death that is unchristian. As St. Paul admonishes regarding death, We do not want you to … grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep (1 Thess 4:13-14).

By David Warren, The Catholic Thing – For we are a kingdom, not a republic or democracy. We are united under the Kingship of Christ, and our government is a hierarchy descending from Him… In the Catholic view, in Christ is our freedom… The pope, on this view, is head of the Church on this planet, but under Christ, not vice versa… Rome has become a town in which they hold lots of meetings, and something is expected to come of them. Calling them “synods” somehow makes it worse, and filling them with clerics who have an “agenda” makes it worse still… these synods are called to propose “developments of doctrine” – using that phrase of Saint John Henry Newman in a sense precisely opposite to the way he used it.

By Michael Pakaluk, Crisis Magazine – “Considered in itself, idolatry is the greatest of mortal sins.” So begins the old Catholic Encyclopedia’s entry on the topic. I was surprised to read that this is the greatest of all mortal sins. Was it worse than murder? Worse even than the sexual abuse of minors?… “For it is, by definition,” the entry continues, an inroad on God’s sovereignty over the world, an attempt on His divine majesty, a rebellious setting up of a creature on the throne that belongs to Him alone. Even the simulation of idolatry, in order to escape death during persecution, is a mortal sin, because of the pernicious falsehood it involves and the scandal it causes.

By Diane Montagna, LifeSiteNews – Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò is urging the re-consecration of St. Peter’s Basilica, in light of what he calls “the appalling idolatrous profanations” that have been committed in its walls through the veneration of the Pachamama statue… In a new interview on the Amazon Synod with LifeSiteNews, Archbishop Viganò has said: “The abomination of idolatrous rites has entered the sanctuary of God and has given rise to a new form of apostasy whose seeds, which have been active for a long time, are growing with renewed vigor and effectiveness.”

By Stephen Wynne, Church Militant – Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò is shedding new light on the disappearance of Emmanuela Orlandi, the daughter of a lay Vatican Bank official, who on the evening of June 22, 1983, vanished after leaving her home inside Vatican City to attend a music lesson across the Tiber… At that time, Viganò, a member of the Vatican diplomatic corps, was stationed at the Secretariat of State. He told Valli that not long after Orlandi’s disappearance, he was contacted by Fr. Romeo Panciroli, director of the Vatican Press Office, who notified him that Orlandi had been kidnapped and that specific demands were being set for her return.

By Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle, Catholic Exchange – In the hundredth-anniversary year of the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima, Fr. Andrew Apostoli was scheduled to be the spiritual director on a pilgrimage I was leading to Fatima, Portugal. As the pilgrimage drew near, Fr. Andrew told me that his superiors informed him that he could not go; it would be much too strenuous for him. His health had begun to deteriorate in the few months prior.

By Tessa Longbons, The Stream – Pro-lifers hailed some good news recently: The rate of abortions in the United States has fallen to a record low, according to a recent report from the Guttmacher Institute… But the report also included some bad news. Of the more than 860,000 abortions in the U.S. in 2017, chemical abortions increased 25% from 2014 and now account for nearly 4 in 10 abortions in the U.S… And that doesn’t include self-induced abortions, which the report indicates are going up.

By Fred Lucas, Daily Signal – President Donald Trump reminisced Wednesday about the 2016 campaign, when not every conservative trusted him to name Supreme Court justices and other federal judges… “People knew me very well, but they didn’t know, ‘Is he liberal, conservative? Who are your judges?” Trump recalled in the White House East Room, celebrating his success in appointing judges… Trump so far has appointed 157 judges who have won Senate confirmation, and that is expected to be 161 by the end of the week.

By John Grondelski, EWTN News – November, by tradition, is the month when the Church shines particular focus on praying for the faithful departed. As the last month in the liturgical year, the readings at Mass—both Sundays and weekdays—take on a decided eschatological tone… It’s a paradox that as the culture of death acquires an ever-greater grip on modern people, the discussion of death grows ever more mute. That silence is not unique to secular culture: the “four last things”—death, judgment, hell and heaven—have been AWOL from preaching for a long time.

By Charles Coulombe, Crisis Magazine – The Catholic cybersphere has recently exploded, first with a video showing Pachamama statues being dumped into the Tiber, and then the video’s sequel, in which 26-year-old Alexander Tschugguel explained that he threw the statues in the river because he felt their presence in a Catholic church violated the First Commandment. It turns out Alexander and I attend the same parish in Vienna. Despite his unpardonable sins of being much younger and far taller than I, he has always impressed me as a sane, measured individual.

By Msgr. Charles Pope – For the faithful, the day we die is the greatest day of our life on this earth. Even if some final purifications await us, the beatific vision for which we long lies just ahead; our exile in this valley of tears is ended… Is calling the day we die the greatest day of our life too strong a statement? I have seen some fellow Christians wince at this statement. In this age of emphasis on worldly comforts, medicine, and the secular, we rarely speak of Heaven—or Hell for that matter.

By Nate Jackson, Patriot Post – ABC News isn’t the first network to spike a story for political reasons, but this one’s a doozy. The network admitted sitting on a 2016 interview with Virginia Robert Giuffre, who had accused the late Jeffrey Epstein of sexual assault. But it was the connections to Bill Clinton, Great Britain’s Prince Andrew, and Epstein attorney Alan Dershowitz that sent the interview to the dustbin.

By Micaiah Bilger, LifeNews – Monica Cline used to be a Planned Parenthood volunteer educator who taught sex education to students and young adults… Cline said Planned Parenthood is targeting younger and younger children through its sex education programs in public schools… In early October, for example, Planned Parenthood wrote on Twitter, “Abortion is health care — and it needs to be included in conversations about sex and sexual health at home and in the classroom.”

By Msgr. Charles Pope – You are going to die and you don’t get to say when or how. I say this at every funeral, both to those present and to myself. This solemn reminder is hard to process. It is one thing to assent to this obvious truth intellectually, but it is another thing to internalize it in our depths and really know what it means… What is death? Some speak of heartbeats that stop or brain waves that cease, but that is not what death is. The cessation of vital indicators is the effect of death, not death itself.

By Father Roger J. Landry, EWTN News – Family members and friends whom we know and love are no longer practicing or believing… At a personal level, however, they occupy a great deal of the minds and hearts of parents, grandparents, godparents, spouses, siblings, sons, daughters and friends, as they pray for their loved ones whose choices have helped establish those trends. Many are discouraged. Many don’t know what to do or to say. Many lament that their prayers and interventions do not seem to be bearing any fruit.

By Tony Perkins, Patriot Post – The Trump administration couldn’t agree more. And on Friday, the first day of National Adoption Month, HHS kicked off the celebration by announcing a change years in the making. For the first time since Barack Obama, adoption agencies won’t have to violate their faith — or parents’ wishes — in placing kids. Under a new rule proposed by the president’s team, faith-based providers will be able to continue to serve their communities in a manner consistent with their religious beliefs.

By Stephen E. Strang, The Stream – As we approach the 2020 election, and with impeachment news daily in the headlines, there are Christian leaders who prophesy that Donald Trump will indeed win. It is an untold story of prophecies and spiritual signs that is off the radar screen of the secular media, which would never cover it except to ridicule. Yet many Christians believe God still actively guides us not only through the Bible, but through the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts.

By Dr. Robert Moynihan, Inside the Vatican – Alexander Tschugguel, 26, the young Catholic man from Vienna, Austria, who tossed five Pachamama images into the Tiber River in Rome on the morning of October 21… Tschugguel revealed in a video this morning that he was, in fact, the man, unidentified up until now, who took the images from the Church of St. Mary in Traspontina.

By Ed Condon, Catholic News Agency – A 50 million euro loan request to secure the purchase of a bankrupt hospital was vetoed by Cardinal George Pell and financial authorities at the Institute for Works of Religion, commonly called the Vatican Bank, before it was approved by the Holy See’s central bank, APSA, where the loan breached international regulatory agreements… According to several Vatican officials, in late 2014 two cardinals requested that the IOR, the Vatican’s commercial bank, grant a 50 million euro loan to a for-profit partnership between the Holy See’s Secretariat of State and a religious order, which intended to purchase a bankrupt Italian hospital, then in government-administered bankruptcy.

By Molly Sheahan, Public Discourse – Over the last two years, I noticed my Facebook and Instagram feeds filling with ads urging me to donate my eggs or to become a surrogate. At first I laughed it off. But the more ads I saw, the more concerned and uncomfortable I felt… It troubled me that women were portrayed as Easter Bunnies; that their ovaries were compared to egg cartons; and that the donors, especially Asian women, were fetishized as exotic, smart, sexy finds, ideal for making a baby… These fertility companies ask young women like me to make a choice―somehow simultaneously altruistic and lucrative―either to sell their eggs for up to $10,000 per ovulatory cycle, or to serve as a surrogate for a couple who just wants a child of their own (for upwards of $75,000).

By Fr. Shenan J. Boquet, Human Life International – Consider the following: Progressives claim to believe in “tolerance” above all else. But it is they who have proved to be the worst offenders when it comes to demonizing and vilifying those who deviate one iota from the shape-shifting progressive orthodoxy. The same progressives who incessantly talk about the value of “dialogue” are those who have spawned so-called cancel culture, in which mobs of their confreres conscientiously strive to drum out of polite society anyone who dares say – or believe – anything that is less than 100% “woke.”

By Michelle Malkin, The CNSNews – The Refugee Act of 1980 created the Office of Refugee Resettlement and office of U.S. Coordinator for Refugee Affairs and raised the annual ceiling of admissions to 50,000… Under Obama, that number soared to nearly 100,000 annually. The idea that we’ve abandoned our humanitarian leadership role because of this refugee resettlement reduction is ludicrous. Overall, since 1975, the U.S. has resettled more than 3 million refugees. Under Trump, the U.S. still accepted more refugees than any other country in both 2017 and 2018.

By Donald DeMarco, Crisis Magazine – On the night of October 29, 2019, Meghan Murphy, a freelance writer, spoke at a Toronto library to an audience of roughly 100 people, mostly women. Her topic, entirely unwarranted just a few years ago, was “Gender Identity: What Does It Mean for Society, The Law, and Women?” Her main point was that “allowing men to identify as women” endangers and undermines women’s rights. Murphy identifies herself as a feminist and her presentation was hosted by a group called, “Radical Feminists Unite.”

By Michael Pakaluk, The Catholic Thing – (M)y general impression is of a deep disaffection with Christendom as it has existed for centuries, and an attempt to replace it with a different structure, located in the Amazon, at least at first. This structure will have its own rite, its own seminary, with its own curriculum, and its own cadre of married priests and woman deacons… The document at times speaks as though, in a spirit of pluralism, it is proposing an additional thing, which will exist side-by-side with the old.

By Martin M. Barillas and Matthew Cullinan Hoffman and Dorothy Cummings McLean, LifeSiteNews – Essential matters of Christianity, such as supernatural grace, the truths of divine revelation, freedom from idolatry and superstition, the importance of traditional family values and sexual morality, salvation from sin, and eternal life with God, are mentioned only briefly and in passing, or entirely omitted. They are largely replaced with an agenda that conforms closely to eco-socialist and cultural diversity ideologies, displacing distinctly Christian values with an alternative set of concerns.

By Bishop Joseph Strickland, The The Wanderer Newspaper – When I reflect upon my episcopal ordination and my last seven years as bishop, I often hear and read Paul’s words to Timothy as though he were speaking directly to me when he says, “Guard this rich trust with the help of the Holy Spirit that dwells within us” (2 Tim. 1:14 NABRE). St. John Paul II’s opening sentence of his 1992 Apostolic Constitution, Fidei Depositum (Deposit of Faith), underscores the importance of the Apostle Paul’s admonition to Timothy. It captures the wisdom and understanding of the early church.

By Msgr. Charles Pope – In my attendance at missions, meetings, and functions, it has become clear to me that many people are hungering for clergy—especially bishops—who will uphold the faith more boldly and defend the flock against heresy and error. Too many clergy, they say, either remain silent or are vague in addressing sin; instead, when they see the wolf approaching, they neither warn the flock nor chase him away. Some seem to welcome the wolf and introduce him to the sheep!

By Fr. Jonathan Mitchican, First Things – Since former Vice President Joe Biden was denied Communion at a Catholic church in South Carolina last week, I have heard the same objections that my fellow seminarians and I once raised: Denying Communion is cruel, it is not what Jesus would do, it is not loving. I make no claim for whether or not the denial was appropriate in this instance. The Church leaves it up to individual bishops to set policy for their clergy. But to say that it is always unloving to deny Communion is simply false. In some cases, it is the most loving thing to do.

By Micaiah Bilger, LifeNews – Last week, (The Trump administration) insisted on removing ambiguous abortion references in a United Nations Security Council resolution about supporting women in crisis and conflict, according to C-Fam. The pro-life organization described the move as a “victory” for human rights… “It is a victory for the Trump administration, which has been pushing to eliminate the phrase ‘sexual and reproductive health’ from UN documents,” the pro-life organization stated. “It is a blow to Europeans who insist that abortion be funded as humanitarian aid.”

By George Neumayr, Church Militant – Father James Martin, the leading propagandist for LGBT causes in the Church, met in late September with Pope Francis at the Vatican. The 30-minute meeting itself generated headlines and photos, but the content of the conversation between Martin and the pope was not revealed — until now… “(The Pope) asked me not to go to the press, because journalists might twist the conversation,” said Martin Sunday night at a talk before “Out at St. Paul,” a LGBTQ group at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle on the Upper West side of Manhattan.

By St. Thomas Aquinas, The Catholic Thing – As Augustine says, “There never seems to have been a law that was not just.” Thus it has the force of law insofar as it is just. In human affairs, something is said to be just insofar as it is right according to the rule of reason. The first rule of reason is, however, natural law. Thus every human law has the nature of a law insofar as it is derived from natural law. If it conflicts with natural law in any way, then it is not law but a corruption of law.

By Edward Pentin, EWTN News – The Pontifical Academy of Sciences, governors from the Pan-Amazon region, and officials from the United Nations were among those who signed a declaration of commitment to sustainable development in the Amazon at the Vatican on Oct. 28… Such meetings are not rare for the pontifical academy, which has held 13 conferences on environmental issues since 2013, often bringing in people with views diametrically opposed to key Church teachings but with concerns about the environment. “The Vatican these days seems more concerned with saving the world than saving souls,” said one source close to the Holy See.

Fr. Gerald E. Murray, The Catholic Thing – Athanasius Schneider, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of St. Mary in Astana, Kazakhstan has recently published an important book… Schneider tackles the present crisis in the Church with profound wisdom and supernatural frankness. He tells the truth with charity. His defense of the doctrine of the Faith is welcome and spiritually refreshing, given the undermining of Catholic dogma and morality by certain clerical and lay advocates of revolution in the Church.

By John-Henry Westen, LifeSiteNews – The man who tossed the infamous Pachamama statue into the Tiber River has revealed his identity today in a video explaining why he removed the “pagan idol” from Santa Maria in Transpontina church near the Vatican last month… Alexander Tschugguel, 26, of Vienna, Austria, spoke to LifeSite co-founder John-Henry Westen, telling him, “for me, it was really bad, because I saw in those statues and in those idols…a break of the First Commandment.” He says he was motivated simply by the desire to “bring pagan things out of a Catholic Church.”

By Lauretta Brown, National Catholic Register – The election of a new president and vice president will top the agenda at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ fall assembly… Meeting in Baltimore Nov. 11-13, the bishops will also vote on seven action items, which include supplementing documents on faithful citizenship ahead of the 2020 U.S. presidential election and voting on changes for a sixth edition of the “Program of Priestly Formation.”…

American Life League – American Life League president Judie Brown issued the following statement today regarding the Ninth Circuit Court’s recent decision to uphold the block on birth control exemption for religious employers: The Ninth Circuit has once again trampled on religious freedom. Forcing groups to cover birth control for their employees when these groups have religious objections to such coverage is a violation of the Constitutional protection afforded to those who believe in God and embrace their faith as part of their corporate policy. Even though the Ninth Circuit Court is growing ever colder to the reality that God does exist, we know better.

By Fr. Bill Peckman, ChurchPop – How did we get here?.. The major error was ditching the transcendent. We domesticated God… It means we act as if Jesus was merely human, that He is a guru, self-help teacher, social worker extraordinaire… By ripping out the transcendent heart out of worship, we reduced Mass. It is little wonder that belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist plummeted. It is little wonder that priestly vocations plummeted. While the generation that ushered these things love them, the subsequent generations fled in droves… With worship emptied of the transcendent, Catholic life soon followed.

By Fr. Mark Goring, Companions of the Cross, November 4, 2019 – WATCH VIDEO

By Most Rev. Robert James Carlson, Catholics United for the Faith, March 1999 – (Written in 1999) The next Synod of Bishops endeavors to examine the role and importance of the episcopacy throughout the world. At a time of renewal and tremendous outpouring of grace from the Holy Spirit, we are invited as we approach the brink of the new millennium to take a courageous, honest, hopeful, and challenging look at Catholic leadership and the prominent place held by the Bishop in carrying forth the Gospel mandate to bear the light of Christ to all nations… In the pages which follow, we shall briefly reflect upon some of the most important duties of the Bishop, particularly in light of the contemporary challenges inevitably facing every Bishop.

The Remnant Video – Michael Matt sits down with Bishop Athanasius Schneider to discuss everything from the Amazon Synod to Freemasonry in the Church, the Second Vatican Council, Sedevacantism and the necessity of remaining faithful to the Church despite Revolution at the highest levels of the Church. Bishop Schneider’s outspoken critique of the Amazon Synod is followed by a beautiful explanation of why deserting Mother Church at this her darkest hour is simply not an option, and how all the men and women of Christendom are called to come to the defense of the Bride of Christ.

By Michael Warren Davis, Editor of Crisis Magazine – I thought of (St. John of the Cross) as I read Robert Cardinal Sarah’s new book, The Day is Now Far Spent. It is dedicated to two very different pontiffs: Pope Benedict XVI (a “peerless architect of rebuilding the Church”) and Pope Francis (a “faithful and devoted son of Saint Ignatius”). Yet it is Sarah himself, I think, who lays out the finest blueprint we’re likely to see for ecclesial reform—or perhaps I should say counter-reform… Today, the word “reform” drips with innuendo, just as it did in the time of St. John of the Cross. It signifies a desire to change the permanent teachings of the Church as a solution to institutional corruption. It uses a temporal crisis as an excuse to propagate spiritual errors.

By Craig Bannister, CNSNews – “By restricting ads, Twitter can further limit the ability of conservatives to get their message heard,” Media Research Center (MRC) President warned Thursday… In a statement reacting to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s announcement that the social media giant will stop accepting both political ads and “issue ads,” Bozell called Twitter’s rationale “laughable”: “To pretend Twitter is taking the moral high ground in banning political ads is laughable. Twitter sees the backlash Facebook has received for embracing free speech in advertising and with this ban, hopes to force their hand into doing the same.”

By Fr. Bill Peckman, ChurchPop – People who willfully exempt oneself from Mass on a Holy Day carry the consequence of being in mortal sin. It is the same exact consequence for those who willfully exempt themselves from going to any Sunday Mass… That’s right: to willfully exempt yourself from Sunday Mass is mortally sinful. Period… Just because I have so busied my life with building earthly kingdoms through work and sports, or find pleasure more to my taste does not exempt me from Mass. God isn’t something else I fit into the schedule: He is the first priority.

Father Thomas Petri, Opinion contributor, USA Today – Former Vice President Joseph Biden was denied Holy Communion at a parish in South Carolina last week due to his public support for abortion. This is apparently the policy of the bishop in South Carolina… This is always distressing to everyone involved. The situation is worsened in the Church’s view when a person is publicly obstinate in grave sin and insists that there’s nothing immoral about what they do. Canon 915 of the Church’s Code of Canon Law requires those “obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to Holy Communion.”

By Cathy Burke, NewsMax – Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., says there’s “no guarantee” President Donald Trump will be treated fairly once the impeachment inquiry goes before the House Judiciary Committee… In an interview aired Sunday on ABC News’ “This Week,” the House Minority Whip pointed out that “both sides” were allowed to call witnesses during impeachment proceedings against President Bill Clinton… But, he insisted, “there’s no guarantee” that Trump’s lawyers will be allowed to ask questions when the matter goes before the judiciary panel.

By Jeffrey Cimmino, Washington Examiner – Traditional Catholic parishes run by one society of priests are growing in the United States, defying the trend of decline in the broader American church over previous decades… Over the past year, parishes run by the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, a society of priests dedicated to celebrating the traditional Latin form of the Catholic liturgy, have reported large increases in Sunday Mass attendance. The traditional liturgy that draws attendees is the form of the Mass celebrated before the reforms instituted at the Second Vatican Council, a meeting of the church’s bishops in the 1960s.

By George Weigel, Denver Catholic – Even the greatest enthusiasts of the present pontificate might not assert that Pope Francis has an inspiring liturgical style. Like the old-school Jesuit he resembles in many ways, the Holy Father is rather flat liturgically: typically expressionless, sometimes downright dour, he gets through the business at hand in a workmanlike way. Yet at the consistory for the creation of new cardinals on October 5, Francis showed real emotion when, after bestowing the red biretta and cardinalatial ring on the emeritus archbishop of Kaunus, Lithuania, Sigitas Tamkevicius, SJ…

By Msgr. Charles Pope – The Gospel today features the endearing story of Zacchaeus, a man who climbs a tree because he is too short to see Jesus. By climbing this tree (of the cross), he encounters Jesus and is changed… Zacchaeus is physically short, so short that he cannot see the Lord. Do you think that this detail is provided merely to describe his physical stature? I don’t. As a preacher, I’m counting on the fact that there is more here than meets the eye.

By Martin M. Barillas, LifeSiteNews – Bizarre lights shows were once again projected on the fronts of some of Rome’s most famous Catholic churches for two weekends in October, the last weekend corresponding with the closing of the Amazon Synod which rocked the Catholic Church worldwide for its use of pagan rituals during official events at which Pope Francis was present.

By Patti Armstrong, EWTN News – The deathbed is the final battlefield where eternal destiny is decided: heaven or hell… It is the reason the Catholic Church offers the sacrament of last rites, to fortify souls with the sacrament of penance, anointing of the sick, and viaticum — Holy Communion as food for the eternal journey. Likewise, accounts of deathbed victories, such as those that follow, can serve as powerful food for thought and inspiration among the faithful — and for those open to the truth.

By Micaiah Bilger, LifeNews – A federal court ruled against South Carolina leaders’ efforts to defund the abortion chain Planned Parenthood again this week… The decision came from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, the latest news in a years-long effort to protect state taxpayer dollars from subsidizing the killing of unborn babies in abortions… In 2018, Republican Gov. Henry McMaster signed an executive order instructing the state Department of Health and Human Services to “terminate abortion clinics as Medicaid providers.” Planned Parenthood challenged the order in court, and a judge blocked the state from enforcing the order a few months later.

By Dr. Maike Hickson, LifeSiteNews – With regard to both themes, Bishop Voderholzer asked, “does the Christian message bring something new or does it merely confirm and sanctify that which is already present and tradition?”… He asked whether it is the right thing to “carry into the realm of the Church pagan statues” without them being transformed into Christian symbols – as it happened with the Thor Oak that Boniface chopped down and carved into a cross. Concretely, Bishop Voderholzer referred to “our case of the veneration of natural fertility in the form of the personified Mother Earth, the ‘Pachamama’.”

By Elizabeth A. Mitchell, The Catholic Thing – In an abandoned cell, inside the now derelict Auschwitz Prison Block 11, is an image of the Sacred Heart, etched by a prisoner’s hands… Those who suffered for their beliefs in these places of infamy, including the Tyburn martyrs and St. Maximilian Kolbe, have long since gone before us. Silenced for their beliefs by regimes much stronger than their poor capacity to resist, their voices should have been extinguished forever. These simple markers should be the only remnant of their overpowered and seemingly futile witness.

By Father Raymond J. de Souza, National Catholic Register – A venerable phrase kept occurring to me during the last days of the Pan-Amazon synod: sollicitudo omnium ecclesiarium. It means the “care for all the Churches” and refers to the governance of the entire Church universal. Had this necessary care for the welfare of the Church as a whole been sufficiently present, I wondered, throughout the synod’s controversial deliberations?… The Amazon synod, which closed Oct. 27, highlighted the need for all bishops to recover a fuller sense of their sollicitudo omnium ecclesiarium in the pastoral care of the entire flock of Christ…

By Msgr. Charles Pope – The commercial in the video below pokes fun at the horror movie genre, saying, “If you’re in a horror movie, you make poor decisions. It’s what you do.” As I watched, it occurred to me that this is a pattern we also follow too easily… The Christian version might go something like this: “When you’re a fallen creature living in a fallen world governed by a fallen angel, you make poor decisions. It’s what you do.”.. Of course, the insurance company behind this clever ad wants you to stop making bad decisions by purchasing their product.

By David Torkington, Catholic Exchange – Prayer is a process of continual inner conversion that involves gently trying to turn, open and surrender the heart to God. As the process is practiced, the heart of man is made accessible to the heart of God, and his love shafts down to purify and empty it so that Christ can come to birth again in all of us… I don’t want to start hair-splitting, but I think it is very important to distinguish between what is the essence of prayer and what are the means to prayer…

By Lianne Laurence, LifeSiteNews – Pro-LGBT Jesuit priest Fr. James Martin is claiming his private meeting with Pope Francis in September was “a public sign” of the pontiff’s “support” for his work — which the American Jesuit describes as “ministering with LGBT Catholics” but which critics say is an indefatigable campaign to change Catholic teaching on homosexuality and other deviant sexual behaviors.

By Christine Niles, M.St. (Oxon.), J.D., Church Militant – In 2017, Cdl. George Pell was at the center of serious reform of Vatican finances, only to be abruptly let go to stand trial for historic sex abuse offenses in Australia… Some say his removal was convenient — just as he was exposing financial corruption in the Vatican… While Pell sits in an Australian prison appealing his conviction, it’s a worthy reminder that it was his veto in 2015 that led to the blocking of a 50 million-euro loan from the Vatican bank to a scandal-ridden Rome Hospital, indicted in 2016 for money laundering, embezzlement and tax fraud to the tune of nearly 1 billion euros.

By OneNewsNow.com Staff – The Trump administration is set to announce plans to protect faith-based adoption agencies and foster care providers from Obama-era rules that sided with homosexual activists over religious beliefs… CBN reporter David Brody broke the story in a Nov. 1 report that quotes an unnamed White House official who said Health and Human Services will announce the rules today, which would allow those religious agencies to apply for federal funds while maintaining their religious beliefs…

By Jonah McKeown, CNA – The mother of a Michigan teenager who was recently declared brain dead is asking for prayers and support, after a judge ordered a hospital to continue life support until a Nov. 7 court hearing on her son’s health status… “We feel that human life doesn’t have an estimable value, and it’s invested with the highest dignity by God…To me, it’s very important that we allow for him to continue fighting,”

By Dr. Christopher Manion, Ph.D., Church Militant – Bishop Seitz finds himself in a world wrought by hatred and violence. He focuses on what he perceives to be the focus of the evil behind both: racism, specifically the hatred that whites have for minorities… In dealing with Seitz, one wonders: Are we addressing a thoughtful critic worthy of analysis, or just another raving ideologue? After all, Seitz has long vilified whites, including his own state attorney general, as “hypocrites” and “Pharisees” for defending the rule of law as described in the Catholic Catechism’s paragraph 2241.2.

By John-Henry Westen, LifeSiteNews – Bishop Schneider continued: “It would be good for all true Catholics, first and foremost bishops and then also priests and lay faithful, to form a worldwide chain of prayers and acts of reparation for the abomination of the veneration of wooden idols perpetrated in Rome during the Amazon Synod…The first in the Church who should condemn such acts and do reparation is Pope Francis.”

By Michael Warren Davis, Daily Caller – Prelates serving in the Amazon itself were rightly offended by the suggestion that native peoples are sexually incontinent. Bishop José Luis Azcona, who for years has braved death threats for denouncing the rights of the indigenous people, said that “it’s not the indigenous culture that finds insurmountable difficulties in understanding celibacy.”… Rather, it’s that there was not a real inculturation of the Gospel… Ask a Catholic from the Amazon, and they’ll tell you just how to solve the crisis of faith….

By Msgr. Charles Pope – It’s one of the stranger dialogues that occurs in the Gospel. We read it last week in daily Mass and it is difficult not to rejoice in Jesus’ aplomb… Some Pharisees, likely disingenuous in their motives, approach Jesus and warn Him to leave immediately: Go away, leave this area because Herod wants to kill you. Jesus, more likely speaking to them than to Herod, says the following: Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and I perform healings today and tomorrow, and on the third day I accomplish my purpose’ (Lk 13:32).

EWTN News – THE PAPAL POSSE…FR. GERALD MURRAY, canon lawyer and priest of the Archdiocese of New York and ROBERT ROYAL, editor-in-chief of TheCatholicThing join us from Washington, DC for a complete recap of the Amazon Synod. MOST REV. ATHANASIUS SCHNEIDER, Auxiliary Bishop from Kazakhstan joins us to discuss his new book-length interview with Diane Montagna, Christus Vincit: Christ’s Triumph Over the Darkness of the Age.

By Bob Kellogg, OneNewsNow – A student who sued her college after administrators barred her from handing out Valentine’s cards with a Christian message has won her First Amendment case. .. Campus authorities stopped Northwest Wisconsin Technical College student Polly Olsen from handing out her homemade cards on Valentine’s Day last year, Fox News recalled in its recent story, but the paralegal student sued to fight for free speech… She was represented by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty.

By C C Pecknold, Catholic Herald – Yet the exception to this rule here is powerful: “except for some open cause.” St. Thomas very explicitly teaches that the Eucharist must be denied to public sinners. He writes, “Holy Communion ought not to be given to open sinners when they ask for it.” He teaches that the Eucharist was “instituted as a means of salvation,” yet when pastors allow public sinners to receive the Eucharist unworthily, they allow the sinner to drink judgment upon themselves, not salvation. So to allow public sinners to receive the Eucharist is not being non-judgmental, but is, in fact, knowingly heaping burning coals of judgment upon a soul.

By MacAoidh, The Hayride – There was a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives today – by a 232-196 margin, with no Republicans crossing the aisle – to move forward with impeachment proceedings. It’s a complete farce, and it exposes the Democrats in charge of the House as the worst kind of thugs; they’re building on a thoroughly illegitimate closed-door proceeding hidden from the American people, with “whistleblowers” who turn out to be Democrat operatives embedded in military and intelligence jobs doing everything they can to sabotage the Trump administration.

By Bonnie Cohen and Howard Sachs, American Thinker – The woman said (paraphrased), “Even though you’re getting close to complete government control of health care, you American’s don’t know how good you still have it here. If you really want to know, come to Canada, where the state now runs everything. It’s ugly and scary.”… She elaborated. She told me the tragic story of her sister, who had worked as a nurse in a hospital. She experienced some serious symptoms that needed further tests. She was put in a long queue to have an MRI. Her sister worked as a nurse. She could have pulled strings to get ahead of others waiting in the long line. She chose not to take advantage. Finally, seven months later, the scan was performed. The test revealed a cancer that was no longer treatable.

By Msgr. Charles Pope – Today is the Feast of All Saints. Some saints of the Church have a particular day on the calendar associated with them and are commonly recognized by name. Many more, though not as familiar to us, are still known by God and have been caught up with Him to glory. Today is their day, the day of the countless multitude who have made it home to glory by God’s grace and by their “Amen” to the gracious call of God. Let’s consider these saints under three headings, based on today’s readings.

By Martin M. Barillas, LifeSiteNews – Appearing on Fox & Friends on Thursday, Cardinal Dolan was asked for his reaction to news that a priest in South Carolina had denied the Eucharist to Biden, who was accompanying Mrs. Biden to Mass at St. Anthony Parish in Florence during a campaign stop on Sunday… “Did the South Carolina priest do the right thing?” interviewer Steve Doocy asked. At length and after some cross-talk, Dolan finally responded, “I wouldn’t do it.”

By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture – As Condon reports, Father Franco Decaminada—the priest with the investments in African oil exploration—has now been imprisoned and laicized. But notice that he “had a reputation” for carrying shoeboxes full of cash—which means that his neighbors and colleagues noticed that habit. Anyone who saw the shoeboxes—to say nothing of anyone who was asked to invest tens of millions of dollars—should have known that something was terribly wrong. But the scheming continued for months, and in their ham-handed attempts to cover up their misdeeds, Vatican officials committed even more outrageous blunders.

By John P. McCarthy, Crisis Magazine – Ireland, particularly its government, is now in the strange position of being simultaneously hostile and indifferent to Catholicism… An indication of the seemingly indifferent attitude toward the Catholic Church by Irish officialdom occurred in connection with the recent canonization of John Henry Cardinal Newman. Newman was the founding rector (or president) of University College Dublin. Yet the University had not initially planned to send a representative to Rome for his October 10th canonization, nor had the Irish government.

By Joseph Pronechen, EWTN News – With death and judgment leading the list, Sheen sets the scene, noting how Our Lord gave us the Eucharist, his flesh and blood, which implies the resurrection of the body. First, we face the Four Last Things… The route begins early. “A happy death is a masterpiece, and no masterpiece was ever perfected in a day,” Sheen said. People fear death chiefly because they “are not prepared for it.” On the other hand, “Death is a beautiful thing for him who dies before he dies, by dying daily to the temptations of the world, the flesh and the devil.”

By Franciscan Media – The Story of the Solemnity of All Saints – The earliest certain observance of a feast in honor of all the saints is an early fourth-century commemoration of “all the martyrs.” In the early seventh century, after successive waves of invaders plundered the catacombs, Pope Boniface IV gathered up some 28 wagon-loads of bones and reinterred them beneath the Pantheon, a Roman temple dedicated to all the gods. The pope rededicated the shrine as a Christian church. According to Venerable Bede, the pope intended “that the memory of all the saints might in the future be honored in the place which had formerly been dedicated to the worship not of gods but of demons”

By Thomas D. Williams, PH.D., Breitbart – Gathered for the Vatican’s Pan-Amazonian Synod, Brazilian governors as well as regional governments of other Amazon countries held a special summit at the Pontifical Academy for Sciences Monday, in which they insisted that the Amazon is a natural carbon sink that releases oxygen for the whole world and they deserve compensation for it… “Science points to a great risk of climate change on the planet and there is a need to address this issue more swiftly,” Mr. Dias said. “Brazil, as a country that captures carbon dioxide and emits oxygen, has an estimated $30 billion in receivables.”… At the end of Monday’s summit, the regional leaders published a declaration, which they also sent to Pope Francis, outlining their proposal for the “sustainable development of the Amazon.”

By William Mahoney, Ph.D., Church Militant – Cardinal Joseph Tobin’s new senior associate for operations in the archdiocese of Newark is a devoted LGBTQ leader… Originally from Houston, Texas, Sean Ryan is a consultant for McKinsey & Company, who in October began an assignment with the archdiocese as the cardinal’s senior associate for operations… In his LinkedIn profile, Ryan describes himself as an “[a]ctive leader in McKinsey’s LGBTQ network, GLAM, with national-level leadership in LGBTQ and other diversity recruiting.”

By Msgr. Charles Pope, EWTN News, July  23, 2019 – While I would like to see the eastward orientation restored, I am aware that many, even among doctrinally strong Catholics, are uneasy about the move. Further, many bishops remain unconvinced of its merits and see the push from individual priests as hostile to liturgical unity in their diocese. That a priest is permitted by the norms to say Mass ad orientem is beyond dispute, but bishops must often field complaints and do have an interest in ensuring that liturgical practice in their diocese not become divided by numerous idiosyncrasies.

By Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse, The Stream – My organization, the Ruth Institute has a special interest in this study. These results are completely consistent with the results of Fr. Paul Sullins’ second report, Receding Waves: Child Sex Abuse and Homosexual Priests since 2000. Fr. Sullins is no slouch. He holds a doctorate in sociology and taught at Catholic University of America. He finds that recently ordained clergy are less likely to be abusers, and less likely to have male victims. Priests ordained within the last 10 years of his data collection are more likely to be orthodox, faithful and chaste.

By Fr. Richard Heilman – We have been exposed to historic evil since October 5, 2017. Many feel this is “new evil.” It is not. This is evil that was allowed to flourish and grow under the cover of darkness … until now! And, I believe this “panicked evil” is now “firing back” with everything it has. In other words, it is “overreaching!” This is exposing it even more, and causing Satan to self-destruct… As I said, Satan is throwing everything at us in order to regain the power he feels he is losing. Will he regain it? That’s where you and I come in. This is happening under our watch. This is the hand you and I have been dealt. God is calling us to fight!

By Chris Woodward, OneNewsNow – Following a court case that gained national attention, a state legislator in Texas is vowing to introduce legislation prohibiting the use of puberty blockers for children… The promise from state Rep. Matt Krause comes after a custody battle over 7-year-old James Younger, who reportedly wants to be a girl according to his mother. But his father, however, claims that is not true and blames the mother for pushing the boy to become a girl named “Luna.”

By Fr. Mike Schmitz, Ascension Presents – Knowledge is always good, but St. Thomas Aquinas said curiosity—or the fickle pursuit of unnecessary knowledge—can be a vice. What he meant, and what Fr. Mike means here, is that the methods by which we feed our curiosity, and our motivation for feeding it, can lead to vice if we just want to know something instead of pursuing what we need to know…

By Michael Stechschulte, Detroit Catholic – Speaking during the Call to Holiness conference at Athena Hall in Roseville, Cardinal Burke sought to reassure the 800 Catholics in attendance that while some in the Church today might call for doctrinal change in certain areas, “Jesus Christ is the same today, yesterday and forever.”… The former archbishop of St. Louis and patron of the worldwide Order of Malta was the keynote speaker during the near-annual conference, whose purpose, according to its website, is “to defend and support the magisterium, the teaching authority of the Catholic Church, through prayer, education and evangelization.”

By Fr. Dwight Longenecker, The Stream – The Bible has several stories that recount the appearance of departed souls in the physical realm. When Jesus was transfigured on the mountain, Moses (who had died centuries before) appeared to him and his apostles… In the Old Testament, the story is told of the dead prophet Samuel appearing to King Saul. Some people think it was not Samuel, but a demon, because it was summoned by a necromancer. Even if it wasn’t Samuel, the story is evidence of the belief in ghosts from Old Testament times.

By Maike Hickson, LifeSiteNews – Further commenting on the Amazon Synod, Cardinal Brandmüller repeated his critique of the “group of ideologues” who “do not wish to understand the ‘celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven.’”… These wish to “bring down celibacy,” he said. According to the German prelate, these people “have been working for this for decades.” The fact that they “merely speak about a special exception for the Amazon, is just a dirty, but obvious trick. It is not about the Amazon – everything is at stake.”

By Sandro Magister, L’Espresso – With the synod for the Amazon filed away, the anticipation is now over what Pope Francis will decide, on the basis of the votes delivered to him in the final document… To judge by the improvised speech in Spanish that Jorge Mario Bergoglio gave in the synod hall at the end of the sessions, on the afternoon of Saturday October 26, his decisions will not take long. And in essence they are already written… To identify them it is enough to go over step by step this speech by the pope, in its verbatim transcription.

By Dr. Jeff Mirus, Catholic Culture – Hence, for example, so much talk about ecology and so little about reclaiming souls for God. If we want to understand why the Amazon (along with much of South America) has drifted away from Catholicism and into various Protestant sects, we need look no farther than the difference between Western Catholics who adhere to a comfortable, mainstream form of liberation theology—call it secularism—and more or less pentecostal Protestants who can still preach at least a dim variant of the Gospel as Christ and the apostles proclaimed it from the first.

By Nicole Winfield, AP – Pope Francis has declared that the Vatican Secret Archive isn’t so secret after all… Francis on Monday officially changed the name of the Holy See archive to remove what he said were the “negative” connotations of having “secret” in its name… From now on, the vast trove of documents, manuscripts and papyrus of popes past will be officially known as the “Vatican Apostolic Archive.”…

By Jacques Gauthier and Luc Adrian, Aleteia – Middle age is a period of transition, the end of a second adolescence, a crisis of desire when one becomes aware of the finiteness of life. It can play out differently between spouses but, whether it be the man or the woman, the symptoms are unmistakeable: a feeling of loneliness, disillusionment about your limitations and those of your spouse, doubts, lack of self-confidence, depression, lack of pleasure doing the things you’ve always done, indifference to life, ambivalence, difficulty knowing what you want, boredom, an awareness of death, and a great need for introspection.

By Chris Woodward, OneNewsNow – “I’m a Christian, and I’ve been working on religious freedom cases for over a decade at Becket,” says attorney Luke Goodrich, author of Free to Believe: The Battle Over Religious Liberty in America. “I have four Supreme Court victories and lots of victories in the lower courts, and I realized after doing this for a decade that a lot of Christians don’t have a deep knowledge of religious freedom. And a lot of Christians aren’t aware of what is coming in our culture.”

By R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr., Washington Times – It has taken a long time, but finally the Justice Department is training its guns on what heretofore was unthinkable, unless you are a career civil libertarian. For years the civil libertarians have been warning us that the intelligence community posed a threat to democracy, as we know it in these United States. Every so often they would point to some excess of the FBI or the CIA and tell us that the lights were going out in democratic America.

By Steve Skojec, OnePeterFive – “Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, receive through the hands of the Immaculate Mother of God and Ever Virgin Mary from our contrite heart a sincere act of reparation for the acts of worship of wooden idols and symbols, which occurred in Rome, the Eternal City and the heart of the Catholic world, during the Synod for the Amazon. Pour out in the heart of Our Holy Father Pope Francis, of the Cardinals, of the Bishops, of the priests and lay faithful, your Spirit, who will expel the darkness of the minds, so that they might recognize the impiety of such acts, which offended your Divine majesty and offer to you public and private acts of reparation.

By Todd Starnes, The Stream – The sex and gender revolutionaries have officially taken over the Austin ISD without firing a single shot… In spite of overwhelming opposition from parents and pastors, the district’s trustees voted early Tuesday morning to implement a pornographic sex education policy that includes instruction on unnatural sex acts and condom-applying techniques… The father of a fifth grader demanded to know who gave the school district the right to impose such vulgar lessons on his child… “Who gave you the right, Austin ISD? You have overstepped,” the rightfully frustrated dad said.

By Ed Condon, CNA – Multiple sources in the US and in Rome have confirmed to CNA that then-Archbishop Becciu was responsible for organizing a concerted effort by other Vatican officials and American cardinals – including then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick – to pressure the board of the U.S.-based Papal Foundation to approve a grant of $25 million in 2017… sources in the Administration for the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA) and the Papal Foundation told CNA that the true purpose of the loan was to help remove a 50 million euro debt from APSA’s books.

By Catholic News Agency – A group of pro-life leaders is calling on the Trump administration to finalize a rule that would require abortion to be billed separately from other services in taxpayer-funded health-insurance plans… The letter asked HHS to further these efforts by implementing a rule removing the ability for insurance companies to create “hidden abortion surcharges,” through which “enrollees … are unknowingly paying into plans that subsidize elective abortion.”

By Dave Andrusko, LifeNews – If you are wondering why the nation’s largest single-issue pro-life organization is getting involved in this matter, the answer is simple. Our pro-life president has been under attack since he won election in 2016, and the explanation for a large part of that assault is his unswerving pro-life position… Donald Trump has done more for unborn children than most people could have imagined… Let’s review just some his Administration’s actions….

By Stephen P. White, The Catholic Thing – The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) will meet in Baltimore next month (November 11-13) for their general assembly. This will be their third meeting in Baltimore since the tsunami of the McCarrick case and the Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report washed over the American Church last summer. The abuse crisis will undoubtedly loom over the conference once again, but the frantic urgency of the moment will be lessened… The bishops cannot afford to fall into complacency, thinking that between Pope Francis’ May motu proprio on handling abuse, Vox estis lux mundi, and their own directives passed in June, that the whole unpleasant episode is behind them.

By Anthony Esolen, Crisis Magazine – Yet it is hard to imagine anything more social in its effects, and more determinative of what kind of a society we will have, than our customs and laws regarding sex, marriage, and the raising of children. For sex results in children. Have we forgotten this? Catholic teachings regarding sex and Catholic teachings regarding society are the lungs of one body. Sexual morality is for the protection and promotion of the natural (biological) family, and of adoptive families that affirm the natural by exemplar. The family is both the cradle of society and one of the great ends for which we form societies in the first place.

By Lauretta Brown, National Catholic Register – Pro-life activist David Daleiden is in the middle of a federal civil jury trial facing charges brought by the nation’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, over his undercover videos, initially released in 2015, which allegedly show the organization trafficking in unborn baby body parts… Over the course of the civil trial this month, gruesome details about the harvesting and sale of unborn baby body parts have been highlighted, despite attempts by the judge to avoid discussion of the content of the undercover videos.

By Fr. Shenan J. Boquet, Human Life International – I don’t watch much TV, but when I do, I am often frustrated by how many major network programs are pushing pets – HGTV, Hallmark, Food Network, etc. This is even from networks that have nothing to do with pets. Recently, I was watching a documentary program on electrical engineering, but the commercials mostly showed images of people with pets – no children. Indeed, everywhere we look – TV commercials, billboards, social media, movies, etc., we are bombarded with images of the “new family” – singles and couples, young and old raising “fur-babies.”

By Chad Groening, OneNewsNow – (I)n the past several days, congressional Republicans have rallied against the closed-door impeachment proceedings conducted by California Congressman Adam Schiff (D) against President Donald Trump… some 30 Republican members “stormed” into one such meeting Wednesday, bringing it to a halt… “I love it. I think it’s long overdue,” comments Richard Viguerie, chairman of Conservative HQ. “There’s a lot of things that people at the grassroots would like, but nothing more so than a backbone. I think it’s just wonderful, exciting that finally, late in the game, the Republicans in Congress are showing some backbone, and I wish more would join them.”

By Steven Ertelt, LifeNews – The Catholic Church says a cemetery it owns and runs may be allowed to be used as a burial site for the 2,411 aborted babies that late abortionist Ulrich Klopfer kept as trophies on his property… The Roman Catholic Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend said it will make its cemeteries available, though there is no word yet on whether the babies will be buried there.

By Eric Mack, Newsmax – Because of his pro-choice abortion stance, Former Vice President Joe Biden was denied Holy Communion on Sunday in Florence, South Carolina, Saint Anthony Catholic Church confirmed… “Sadly, this past Sunday, I had to refuse Holy Communion to former Vice President Joe Biden,” Father Robert E. Morey of Saint Anthony Catholic Church confirmed to the Morning News in an email. “Holy Communion signifies we are one with God, each other, and the Church. Our actions should reflect that. Any public figure who advocates for abortion places himself or herself outside of Church teaching.”

By Catholic World News – The prayer, described as a “prayer to Mother Earth of the Inca peoples,” reads: Pachamama of these places, drink and eat this offering at will, so that this earth may be fruitful. Pachamama, good Mother, be favorable! Be favorable! Make that the oxen walk well, and that they not become tired. Make that the seed sprout well, that nothing bad may happen to it, that the cold may not destroy it, that it produce good food. We ask this from you: give us everything. Be favorable! Be favorable!

By Michael Warren Davis, Crisis Magazine – Nobody was under any illusions about the stakes at the Synod on the Amazon. Ostensibly, the synod was convened to help the Pope address concerns about the Amazon in consultation with Amazonian church authorities. It was evident from the very beginning, however, that synod would serve instead as a staging-ground for progressively-minded bishops to challenge Church teachings that have stood unquestioned for millennia. Given that a well-known ally of liberation theology like Cláudio Cardinal Hummes was chosen as relator general….

By Msgr. Charles Pope – Yes, creation itself eagerly awaits the day when God will say (in the words of an old spiritual), “Oh, Preacher, fold your Bible, for the last soul’s converted!” Then creation itself will be set free from its bondage to death and decay and will be gloriously remade into its original harmony and the life-possessing glory that was once paradise… Hence, when Christ from His judgment seat shall finally say, “Behold, I make all things new” (Rev 21:5), and when with John we see “a new heavens and a new earth” (Rev 21:1), I have little doubt that animals will share in that recreated and renewed kingdom where death shall be no more (Rev 21:4).

By Steven Mosher, LifeSiteNews – I wonder if, in the long history of the Catholic Church, any pope has ever before blessed an idol, as Pope Francis did in the Vatican gardens a few days ago. That was after the assembled “congregants” had bowed and prayed before that same idol, mind you… I rather suspect not… In fact, I am pretty sure that Catholics — popes, bishops, and laity alike — have done precisely the opposite down through the ages. Wherever they have found idols, they have spoken out against them, not only urging their destruction, but often destroying them with their own hands.

By  Jennifer Roback Morse, Ph.D, EWTN News – A recent study reported, “only 6% of seminarians report sexual harassment.” The McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame produced this path-breaking survey. One optimistic conclusion people might draw from this report is “Sexual abuse in the Catholic Church is no worse than in any other institution of society. People who keep talking about sexual abuse are just bashing the Church.” In my opinion, comparing sex abuse in the Catholic Church with that in other institutions can serve a valid purpose. …

By Christine Niles, M.St. (Oxon.), J.D., Church Militant – The Department of Justice has been conducting an ongoing investigation into Bransfield’s spending “as part of a lawsuit that accuses the hospital of defrauding the federal government of millions of dollars by filing false claims for Medicare reimbursement.”.. The hospital denies any wrongdoing… Tax filings and hospital audits show that a total of $21 million were funneled from Wheeling Hospital through the diocese or various non-profits, eventually to wind up in the Bishop’s Fund, and a chunk of it ultimately landing in Bransfield’s own bank account… The transfers were a deliberate attempt to get around the Internal Revenue Service.

By Micaiah Bilger, LifeNews – Kanye West slammed abortion and pro-abortion Democratic politicians last week in an interview promoting his first Christian album, “Jesus is King.”… “Democrats had us voting Democrat for food stamps for years, bro…What you talking about? Guns in the ’80s, taking the fathers out of the home, Plan B, lowering our votes, making us abort our children…. I can’t tell y’all how to feel. But what I can tell you honestly is how I feel.”… It appears West is beginning to realize the truth.

By Jeanne Smits, Paris correspondent, LifeSiteNews – “Today with Bergoglio we have the impression that they want to get their hands on doctrine in some way. The pope is the guardian of the depositum fidei. After the Council, the three great popes Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict XVI greatly modernized the spirit with which to read and live out the Gospel, but they never permitted themselves to touch the doctrine,” he said.

By Msgr. Charles Pope, EWTN News – I, like many of you, feel overwhelmed by the events of the past month in Rome. Many an evening, late into the night, I have come before the Lord in the rectory chapel in lament for the confusion and chaos in the Church, the Lord’s beautiful bride and our mother. Oftentimes too in the fourth watch of the night, between 3 and 4 a.m., I return to the chapel, for with my cares I cannot long rest… Reported from Rome are terrible and seemingly impious things at worst, and confusing and ambiguous things at best….

By E. Jeffrey Ludwig, American Thinker – Contempt for the family is part of the communist program going back to 1848. The voices of hateful anti-America protests continue to promote communism as the answer to our society’s issues. America is now in disintegration mode despite President Donald Trump’s desire to reinstate some respect for our institutions after decades of neglect… How did we arrive at this point of social and political disintegration?.. The voices of socialist potentiality began to move with greater confidence during the New Deal, but they had not wrested total control over the Democratic Party.

By Fr. Mike Schmitz, Ascension Presents – God may want you to be spontaneous, but he also wants you to be disciplined. How does that work? Well, unless you just want to have no control over you impulses like a dog chasing a squirrel, discipline is a necessary prerequisite to being spontaneous… Spontaneity requires a schedule, Fr. Mike says. God can only introduce new and exciting things into your day once you’ve done the things he put on your path in the first place.

By John Zmirak, The Stream – President Trump was right to crow about this accomplishment. And he was right to speak scornfully of Baghdadi even in death, noting that he died like a coward. Remember that this “austere scholar” oversaw rape camps, sex trafficking, and the burning of prisoners alive in metal cages. The group he led, ISIS adopted all the most barbaric practices of early Muslim conquerors in the seventh and eight centuries. They reasoned that this constituted a return to primitive, “pure” Islam.

By Mr. Jason Craig, Those Catholic Men – When Donald Trump was elected a whole new group of people and their history came into focus. Essentially, the globalizing and liberalizing elite had for decades taken over all meaningful debate and decision, and the lower strata of the country suffered for it. And they went dismissed and unseen until Trump. Their places and cultures had been decimated. All of these forgotten people came into focus when someone saw them and spoke to them. I am by no means endorsing Trumpism here.. but my point is in the wake-up Trump has given to the elites of this country. The people whose backs were broken to build your towers just got tired of being ignored.

By Courtney Mares and Hannah Brockhaus, CNA – The Amazon synod final document, published Saturday, laid out the need to define “ecological sins” while calling the Church to walk new paths of “integral conversion.”.. “We propose to define ecological sins of commission or omission against God, one’s neighbor, the community and the environment,” paragraph 82 of the final document states. “They are sins against future generations and are manifest in acts and habits of pollution and destruction of the harmony of the environment.”.. “No believer, no Catholic can live their life of faith without listening to the voice of the earth,” Bishop David Martínez de Aguirre Guinea..

By Steven Ertelt, LifeNews – A Catholic priest in Northern Ireland says pro-abortion politicians should not present themselves for Holy Communion because it’s “impossible” for them to be Catholics “in good standing.” His comments come on the heels of pro-abortion politicians boycotting an appearance at the Northern Ireland Legislative Assembly that could have stopped Britain from imposing legalizing abortion on Northern Ireland.

By Michael Pakaluk, Crisis Magazine – What would Newman say about the Pachamamas?.. That’s not actually a question which anyone who studied Newman carefully would ask. It reflects a lack of understanding of the workings of practical intelligence, which Newman took great pains to delineate—as if one could take a proof text out of Newman, and that would give you the answer. Newman would not even allow proof texts for the Bible, of course.

From the Encyclical Letter of Pope Pius XI, Quas Primas; December 11, 1925 – Since the Holy Year has provided more than one opportunity to enhance the glory of the kingdom of Christ, we deem it to be in the highest degree in keeping with our Apostolic office to accede to the prayers of many Cardinals, Bishops, and faithful, made known to us both individually and collectively, by closing this very Year with the insertion into the ecclesiastical liturgy of a special feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ the King.

By John-Henry Westen, LifeSiteNews – (Listen-15 minutes) – This Special Edition of The John Henry Westen Show is a bit of a role reversal. John-Henry was interviewed by the young men who run a blog called Cream City Catholic. They asked me if I thought Pope Francis was “a bad Pope.”

Catholic News Service – Bishop Robert W. McElroy talks about the debates that will follow the Synod for the Amazon

By Cardinal Gerhard Müller, National Catholic Register – The Catholic faith draws on the word of God. We know God and his truth not in the light of our own reason — created, finite and limited — but in the light of his Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:3). He has communicated it to us so that in Christ, the Word of God made flesh (John 1:14; Hebrews 1:1-3; Romans 8:3; Philippians 2:7), we may recognize the authority of God by placing all our trust in God alone. In view of the mystery of the Eucharistic Presence of Jesus Christ, we do not ask unbelievingly how it might be possible that we eat his flesh and drink his blood (John 6:22-59).

By Brad Miner, The Catholic Thing – It’s a remarkable thing that the visions of a 25-year-old Polish nun would, after years of suppression by the Vatican, become what is now a major feast day in the Catholic Church: Divine Mercy Sunday… Sister Maria Faustyna Kowalska (born Helena Kowalska in 1905) was a nun of the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Plock, Poland when she began receiving instructions from our Lord, including that she arrange for a painting of Him as she saw Him in her visions that would include the phrase “Jezu, ufam Tobie” (“Jesus, I trust in you”).

By Diane Montagna, LifeSiteNews – Bishop Athanasius Schneider has today issued an open letter forcefully condemning the use of the Pachamama statue at the Amazon Synod in the Vatican… In the Oct. 26 open letter, Bishop Schneider is also calling on all Catholics — bishops, priests and laity — to offer acts of reparation, protest and correction for the use of the Pachamama statues, which he calls a “new golden calf.”… Bishop Schneider writes: “Syncretism and paganism are like poisons entering the veins of the Mystical Body of Christ, the Church.”

By Christine Niles, M.St. (Oxon.), J.D., Church Militant – Burke said, “There is no question that the Church is currently experiencing one of the greatest crises She has ever known,” began the cardinal in his 45-minute talk… “The working document, the Instrumentum Laboris, that the special assembly of the synod of bishops for the Pan-Amazon is a frightening manifestation of the gravity of the situation,” he continued… “The document in question constitutes an apostasy from the apostolic faith by its denial of the unicity and universality of the redemptive incarnation of God the Son.”

Complicit Clergy – Pope Francis announced that the Pachamama idols that had been removed from the Church of Santa Maria in Traspontina and thrown into the Tiber earlier this week have been retrieved. He issued a formal apology stating, “As bishop of this diocese, I apologize to those who have been offended by this act.” He also suggested that the pagan idols would be present at the closing Mass for the Amazon Synod in St. Peter’s Basilica on Sunday…
For the first time since the idols appeared at the opening ceremony for the Amazon Synod, Pope Francis himself today confirmed the identity of the idols as the pagan goddess Pachamama.

By Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, National Catholic Register – We should be sad, but not surprised, if we recall the wisdom of the well-known maxim that the way people worship will determine what they believe (lex orandi, lex credendi). With the reforms of the Mass enacted half a century ago, many centuries-old practices meant to safeguard and reinforce belief in the Real Presence were suppressed, such as the Eucharistic fast from midnight and receiving Holy Communion kneeling, on the tongue, and only from the consecrated hands of a priest… Certainly, such a change in practice would have required a more robust catechesis in order to prevent a deterioration of faith; regrettably, instead, catechesis itself deteriorated right at this same time, and with similar rapidity.

By Charlie Butts, OneNewsNow – Lynda Bell of Florida Right to Life tells OneNewsNow it’s wrong to leave parents in the dark… “Your child may have a special blood factor problem [or] there may be some other conditions that the abortionist does not know about,” she argues. “You cannot get your ears pierced, you cannot get a tattoo, you cannot even get an aspirin from the school without parental consent – but you can have an abortion, a surgical abortion? I mean, this is crazy.”

By Christine Niles, M.St. (Oxon.), J.D., Church Militant – Questions continue to swirl over the Vatican’s mishandling and misappropriation of hundreds of millions of euros… Days after newly leaked documents revealed the Vatican’s Secretariat of State misused hundreds of millions of euros in charitable donations for speculative business investments in the oil industry and luxury commercial real estate, a curial official has admitted to using American grant money to write off a questionable multi-million-dollar loan to a scandal-ridden Rome hospital.

By C C Pecknold, Catholic Herald – Obergefell not only brought the age of liberal neutrality to an end, but it gave birth to a party which now seeks to punish. As Harvard’s Mark Tushnet put it, “you lost and we won.” There is no point in being nice about it. Dissent will not be permitted. Beto O’Rourke has only been the most outspoken in insisting that those who do not acquiesce will be punished. Now proceduralism will be used not for viewpoint neutrality but to punish the vanquished with the whips of a new kind of religious fervor. Professor George called it a new paganism.

By Edward Pentin, EWTN News – The revision’s purpose was to incorporate more fully the teaching of the Second Vatican Council on the nature of the diaconate which Pope John Paul II had already updated in the Catechism… Benedict’s revision emphasized the distinction between diaconal and priestly ministry, that deacons do not act in the person of Christ through the celebration of Mass. But significantly, he left intact canonical wording which reflects the unity of the sacrament of orders for all three grades of deacon, priest and bishop.

By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture – By the end of the week Vatican officials were stretching for an explanation of the affair. Paolo Ruffini, the prefect of the dicastery for Communications, made the astonishing claim that “there was no ritual, no prostration took place”—despite the clear photographic evidence. Pope Francis simply declared that the statues were displayed “without blasphemous intentions.” Yet in the same statement, the Pontiff clarified that the statutes were representations of the Pachamama—which, again, is a fertility goddess.

By Michael W. Chapman, CNSNews – President Trump’s good friend Paula White told Wead, “He had watched hours of Christian television [since the 1980s]. And not just watched it, but really listened to the messages. He had retained what he had heard. He could bring it back and repeat it to me. He would say what it meant to him.”

By Dan Hitchens, First Things – Pope Francis has affirmed Church teaching on an all-male priesthood, and said he is reluctant to reform the discipline of priestly celibacy. Yet the men he has empowered at the Amazon Synod are dissenters from Catholic doctrine who intend to utterly transform the priesthood and the Church. That last sentence may sound like hyperbole. But every part of it can be demonstrated beyond question.

By Msgr. Charles Pope – There’s an old saying that goes, “Faults in others I can see, but praise the Lord, there’s none in me.” One is snared in sin by the very act of claiming to have no sin! In fact, it’s the biggest sin of all: pride… In the Sunday Gospel, the Lord illustrates this through the parable about two men who go to the temple to pray. One man commits the sin of pride and leaves unjustified. The other, though a great sinner, receives the gift of justification through his humility. Let’s look at what the Lord teaches us.

By Steven Ertelt, LifeNews – Think a president can’t make much of a difference when it comes to abortion? Think again… A new report indicates President Donald Trump has been responsible for de-funding almost 900 facilities that either perform or promote killing babies in abortions… Last May, the Trump administration published a new proposal for Title X that would prohibit Planned Parenthood and other abortion businesses from receiving any of those tax dollars unless they completely separate their abortion businesses from their taxpayer-funded services.

By John-Henry Westen, LifeSiteNews – The story was first broken by I.MEDIA in France, whose reporter was present in the meeting hall of the synod this afternoon and overheard the pope’s remarks. National Catholic Reporter’s Josh McElwee confirmed the report with a tweeted video where the pope’s voice can be heard but not clearly. He cites NCR’s Brian Roewe for recording it… McElwee tweeted: “It’s very hard to make out fully what Pope Francis said about the throwing of indigenous statues in the Tiber, but the pope clearly said to the #AmazonSynod bishops: ‘As bishop of the diocese [of Rome], I ask forgiveness.’”

http://By Maike Hickson, LifeSiteNews – Cardinal Gerhard Müller has issued a strong statement against the erection of “idols” in a Roman church for the Amazon Synod… In a short excerpt published tonight of a longer interview with Raymond Arroyo for his The World Over show on EWTN, Cardinal Müller states that “to bring the idols into the Church was a grave sin, was a crime against the divine law.”… Müller is the former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

By Carrie Gress, Ph.D., Catholic World Report – The absence of women as the heart of the family has led to a sharp decline in personal happiness among men, women, and children, while abuse, neglect, suicide, divorce, consumerism, and narcissism have increased… A closer look at the historical Catholic family looks a lot more like Jean-François Millet’s famous mid-19th-century painting The Angelus, which depicts a man and his wife, who have been working together in the field, stopping to pray when the church bells ring.

By Jackson Elliott, Daily Signal – Abortion clinics can change the viewpoint of entire communities, a pastor who is working to outlaw abortion locally says… “It’s a view of life as a whole,” Dickson told The Daily Signal in a phone interview. “If we can say a child is not worth living because they may be born in a poor environment, or a child is not worth living because their mother was raped, that encourages the idea that situations devalue us as human beings.”

By Sandro Magister, L’Espresso – In fact, both the conception of this synod and its aims – the ordination of married priests and new ministries for women – were already “in a nutshell” at the April 4 2014 audience between Pope Francis and the emigrant Austrian bishop in Brazil Erwin Kräutler… We now know the details of the unfolding of that audience, thanks to a book that Kräutler himself published on the occasion of this synod…

By Nancy Flanders, Live Action – How are these prices determined? One “20/20” producer went undercover as a potential investor to meet Dr. Miles Jones, a Missouri pathologist whose company, Opening Lines, obtains fetal tissue from clinics and ships it to research labs. “It’s market force,” Dr. Jones told the producer about how he sets his prices. “It’s what you can sell it for.” He says he hopes to run his own abortion clinic in Mexico where he says he could get a greater supply of fetal tissue by offering cheaper abortions: “If you control the flow — it’s probably the equivalent of the invention of the assembly line.”

By Alessandra Bocchi, American Conservative – “There is a total lack of perspective in my generation’s way of approaching life. They don’t see a future for themselves beyond the present moment,” Giubilei said. “Furthermore, there’s the added factor of our provincial, rural areas disappearing into our cities. Our youth moves to study or to build work opportunities in a city, but the family isn’t factored into this equation. Many of them end up living individualistic lives with no proper direction beyond their careers.”

By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture – As always, Father Martin is being clever with this Tweet, carefully preserving his own “plausible deniability.”… Father Martin is consistent in his own way: always challenging the Church’s authoritative teaching obliquely, always encouraging others to question or to ignore that teaching, yet always innocently protesting that he is merely raising “interesting” questions, not answering them. He uses studied ambiguity to undermine orthodoxy. And now, when challenged, he takes refuge behind the authority of other, more powerful prelates—who are using the same subversive technique.

By Christine Niles, M.St. (Oxon.), J.D., Church Militant – A Texas bishop is denouncing Fr. James Martin, S.J. for dissenting with Scripture on homosexuality… “I know you have lots of support but you are challenging the Deposit of Faith that I promised to defend,” tweeted Bp. Joseph Strickland of the diocese of Tyler on Wednesday. “As a bishop I’ll keep defending it.”… The bishop’s remarks came in response to a tweet by the celebrity Jesuit questioning the inerrancy of Scripture.

By Msgr. Charles Pope, EWTN News – When Jesus referred to the bread as his flesh, the Jewish people hearing him grumbled in protest. They understood him to be speaking quite literally… But Jesus did not change to reassure them or to insist that he was speaking only symbolically. Rather, he became even more adamant by shifting his vocabulary from the polite form of eating, (phagete, in Greek meaning simply “to eat”) to the impolite form, (trogon, in Greek meaning “to munch, gnaw or chew”).

By Robert R. Reilly, Crisis Magazine – Attorney General William Barr was excoriated by the mainstream press and the social media offenderati for his speech at the (Roman Catholic) University of Notre Dame last week. Yet the A.G. was simply spelling out the reality of life in modern America: here is what we have lost, here are the reasons why, and here’s what’s happening as a result. We won the American Revolution, but we lost the sexual revolution—with all its attendant debasement.

By Tony Perkins, LifeNews – As Secretary Pompeo observed when appearing with me Wednesday on Washington Watch, “what we’re hoping to do is to take this idea of rights, which sometimes becomes confusing or turns into simply personal or political preferences, and reground it — reground it in the history and tradition of the United States so that we are moored to something more than someone’s fancy of the moment and we come to understand that these incredible cherished, fundamental rights are at the very core of the American experience.”

By Father Roger J. Landry, EWTN News – In Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asked who people said he was, and his two polls showed that only one person — Peter — said he believed Jesus was who he truly was, the Messiah and Son of God… In July, the Pew Research Center asked U.S. Catholics who or what they understood the Eucharist to be. The response, like the one Our Lord received in Caesarea, was sobering… Only 50% of U.S. Catholics said that they knew the Church’s teaching that, after the consecration, the bread and wine are totally changed into Jesus’ Body and Blood…

By Fr. Dwight Longenecker – Slippery Jim and Margery must be using the same playbook: Don’t challenge church teaching openly. Just pose a question. That tactic has been around for a long time. Check Genesis 3.1… Let’s be plain. This is a tactic to move opinion in favor of accepting homosexual activity. As I have said before, this post is not about the homosexual condition, nor is it about homosexual actions per se. I have no opinion on these matters other than the teaching of Sacred Scripture and the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture – Emboldened by an unmistakable sign of papal support, Father James Martin is now escalating his war on the Church’s perennial teaching that homosexual acts are immoral. In his latest foray, the popular Jesuit questions the authority of Scripture, with a deliberately provocative Tweet: Interesting: “Where the Bible mentions [same-sex sexual] behavior at all, it clearly condemns it. I freely grant that. The issue is precisely whether the biblical judgment is correct. The Bible sanctioned slavery as well and nowhere attacked it as unjust…”

By John Zmirak, The Stream – In fact, events in my church echo quite a good apocalyptic novel. The Lord of the World, by Robert Hugh Benson, depicts an end-times scenario. In it, a global leader rises promising peace. And coexistence among religions. The sustainable development of natural resources. And above all, humanitarian progress. Secular elites, media, institutions, and globalist power brokers? They love him to death… The only fly in his ointment? Pesky orthodox Christians of every church. They won’t join his “Religion of Man” which venerates creation instead of the Creator.

By Chris Woodward, OneNewsNow – As part of an effort to say “we’re all in this together,” Kellogg’s has combined several of its cereals into one package to support an LGBTQ “anti-bullying” campaign… In support of last year’s “Spirit Day” – described by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) as “the most visible anti-LGBTQ bullying campaign and united show of support for LGBTQ youth” – Kellogg Company launched the special edition “All Together” Cereal. The variety pack includes Frosted Mini Wheats, Froot Loops, Frosted Flakes, Raisin Bran, Rice Krispies, and Kellogg’s Corn Flakes, packaged in a purple box ….

LifeSiteNews – Jason Jones was not the “typical” young man who finds out his high school girlfriend is pregnant; he was willing to take responsibility, make money, and care for her and the baby.… In his early days of educating himself and getting involved, Jones was still an atheist. He was filled with passion, energy, and anger. His closest friends didn’t understand why he was so passionate, but it was the ’80s and ’90s, and no one was sharing his story. “It was weird. You’re not a Christian. You’re not a right-wing guy. We don’t understand this obsession of yours with abortion.”

By Cheryl Sullenger, LifeNews – The secretly constructed Planned Parenthood facility in Fairview Heights, Illinois, is set to open officially on Wednesday, October 23, 2019, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and a schedule full of abortion appointments… The PP facility, which is not new construction but a $7 million renovation of an old brick structure, was opened in Illinois to take advantage of its newly relaxed abortion safety laws… In June, 2019, the Illinois state legislature passed a law expanding protections for abortion facilities (but not for women) and ensuring that Illinois will remain an abortion state should Roe v. Wade fall…

By Michael Voris, Church Militant – It’s becoming more apparent that these various synods held in Rome aren’t really synods at all, not in the authentic sense of what a synod is supposed to be, anyway. In the real world of synods, some pressing issue in need of deliberation and thinking and discussing and praying over is brought before a somewhat large number of bishops and, after some time, they provide the Holy Father with some consultation on how to address or approach whatever the given issue is.

By Fr. Ed Broom, OMV, Catholic Exchange – Saint James warns us that we should be slow to speak and quick to listen. The Imitation of Christ asserts that few have ever regretted refraining from speaking. On the other hand, many regret having opened their mouths when they should have kept them shut. Still more, Jesus warns us that every word that comes forth from our mouth we will be judged; and Jesus says: “From the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.”

By Msgr. Charles Pope – As I have written here before, Catholics should be aware that radical environmentalists, including climate change extremists, have “solutions” that no Catholic can countenance. Many of them are advocates of abortion, euthanasia, and forced sterilization. They support government involvement in the economy in ways that contravene the principle of subsidiarity, violate the natural rights of the human person, and disproportionately harm the poor and developing nations.

By Robert Royal, The Catholic Thing – With the staggering amount of fake news that makes its way around the Internet and social media these days, it’s difficult not to be sympathetic to critiques of journalists. Yet in the grand tradition of shooting the messenger, there have been some truly stunning efforts recently, by various figures in and around the Vatican, to make it appear that criticisms of Pope Francis and some of his dodgier moves during the current Amazon Synod are simply the scurrilous tactics of so-called “journalists without ethics.”

By George Weigel, Catholic Herald – Perhaps the most successful example of a thoroughly effective inculturation in Latin America is the tilma of St. Juan Diego with its image of Our Lady of Guadalupe: a manifestly indigenous Mother of God whose vesture is replete with indigenous symbols. (That the Guadalupana has gotten far less attention at Synod-2019 than the “Pachamama” Incan idols that some bold souls took from the Church of S. Maria in Traspontina, conveyed to Gianlorenzo Bernini’s “Angel Bridge” as Castel Sant’Angelo, and tossed into the Tiber says….something. )

By Steve Warren, CBN – A federal civil trial now underway in San Francisco could be the biggest pro-life case in the last 20 years… Planned Parenthood, the country’s largest abortion provider, is suing Center for Medical Progress founder David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt for their involvement in producing undercover videos. The videos, which showed Planned Parenthood officials discussing the procurement and sale of fetal tissue, sparked national outrage and congressional investigations.

By Madeleine Jacob, LifeSiteNews – The governor of Texas tweeted today that the state will be investigating the case of a mother who is trying to orchestrate a gender “transition” for her seven-year-old son against the wishes of his father… This evening, Republican Governor Greg Abbott tweeted that the Texas Attorney General’s Office and the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services will be looking into the James Younger case…. “FYI the matter of 7 year old James Younger is being looked into by the Texas Attorney General’s Office and the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. #JamesYounger”

Catholic News Agency – The writings of newly-canonized St. John Henry Newman offer important reflections for contemporary society on freedom of conscience and the duty to search for truth, said a leading figure in international religious freedom… “Newman prefigured the Church’s 1965 Declaration on Religious Freedom, Dignitatis Humanae,” said Thomas Farr, president of the Religious Freedom Institute… Farr said that Newman’s well-known phrase, “Conscience has rights because it has duties,” offers an important reminder that we are obliged to form our consciences in truth, recognizing that “our freedom does not give us a moral right to do what is wrong.”

By Dr. Maike Hickson, LifeSiteNews – Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the former prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has declared his approval of a strong critique of the Amazon Synod and its working document which was published last week by Professor Douglas Farrow in First Things. While praising Farrow’s article as “very fitting,” the Cardinal went on to lament Church leaders who seem not to realize that the borders to the “old paganism” of “idolatry and superstition” are currently being crossed.

By Fr. Dwight Longenecker – The current Amazonian synod is a reminder that the struggles of Catholic missions to indigenous peoples is nothing new. Today is the memorial of St John deBrebeuf and his companions. The Jesuit missionaries to North America endured the most amazing hardships to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to tribal people who were locked in superstition, in bondage to repulsive demons and trapped in a cycle of revenge, torture cannibalism and violence of the most unimaginable kind.

By Dan Hitchens, National Review – The Church continues to hit new, dysfunctional lows — and the faithful are noticing.In the last 48 hours there have been two big Vatican stories. First, revelations about the Holy See’s financial crisis; second, and more bizarrely, a furious dispute over statues being thrown into the Tiber. But really it’s all one story, the big story of contemporary Catholicism: a disastrous failure of leadership at the top of the Church.

By Jules Gomes, Church Militant – The Vatican is considering pressing criminal charges against the “new iconoclasts” who removed the pagan “Pachamama” statues from the Church of Santa Maria del Traspontina and dumped them in the River Tiber Monday morning… Synod leader Cdl. Claudio Hummes, has condemned the act “of violence” in a statement… “We deeply regret and at the same time denounce that in recent days we have been victims of acts of violence, which reflect religious intolerance, racism, oppressive attitudes, which affect above all indigenous peoples, a refusal to build new roads for the renewal of our Church,” the statement read.

Patriot Post – LifeSiteNews reports on a horrific story of child abuse: “A jury in Dallas, Texas has ruled against Jeffrey Younger, the father who is trying to protect his seven-year-old son, James, from chemical castration via a gender ‘transition.’ This means James’ mother, Dr. Anne Georgulas, will be able to continue ‘transitioning’ him into ‘Luna,’ and now has full authority to start him on puberty blockers and eventually cross-sex hormones.”

By Catholic News Agency – Cardinal Christoph Schönborn explained Monday that the final document at the Vatican’s Synod of Bishops on the Amazon will be written principally by a team chaired by the synod’s general relator, Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes… “The word ‘drafting committee‘ is not very clear, in fact, the drafts are from the principal relator and his team. The role of the drafting committee is to give immediate approval of the work the relators do. So we, the drafting committee, don’t write the text,” the Austrian archbishop said at a press conference held Oct. 21 in the Vatican press room.

David G Bonagura, Jr., The Catholic Thing – Christian morality is further strengthened when believers strive to acquire virtues, habits of performing good actions. We become virtuous from repeatedly performing acts of virtue, ingraining them into our very being. Truly virtuous persons no longer require negative prohibitions because they are always motivated to do the right thing in every situation. Virtuous persons rise to a higher level still when they are in love with Jesus Christ.

By Edward Peters, JD, JCD, Ref. Sig. Ap. – A few days ago men removed some female figurines.. from a church and tossed them into the Tiber River. Vatican spokesman Paolo Ruffini dismissed the act as a “stunt”. Regardless of how one assess this act, however, I think it not accurate to describe it as a mere “stunt”… Removing these figures from a church and tossing them into the Tiber does not simply call attention to the problem of setting up such objects in a church it also removes the statues from the church and thus solves the problem of having them set up in a sacred place. Such an act, good act or bad, is more than a “stunt”, it is form of direct action against a problem.a

By Kevin Wells, Crisis Magazine – So much of the Catholic Church has fallen prey to effeminacy. Rather than owning its problems or its identity as the unfiltered light of Christ, it has chosen comfort and softness. The consequence of this effeminacy is that rather than fighting today’s grave disorders, the Church is choosing the path of least resistance. It is mute… Perhaps the greatest problem facing today’s Church is that in its comfort it has repeatedly chosen the path of least resistance. Lying low when dealing with transgender story hour and gay clergy retreats is easier than engaging in real missionary work.

By Peter Jesserer Smith, National Catholic Register – Five years into building disciples of Jesus Christ with a slow and steady pace, St. John Nepomuk Church in Yukon, Oklahoma, has started to see remarkable changes… At this Catholic parish in the heart of the Bible Belt, Eucharistic adoration is growing, parish fellowship is strengthening, and Catholics who may have felt like an island in a sea of Protestantism are now going forth with confidence to carry out the Gospel… The parish’s ongoing transformation comes at a time when the Catholic Church in the U.S. is faced squarely with the problem that most Catholics do not believe in what the Church means by the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.

By Deacon Keith Fournier – In an address given during that 1976 Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia for the bicentennial celebration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Cardinal Karol Wojtyla spoke some words which I believe were prophetic: “We are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has ever experienced. I do not think that the wide circle of the American Society, or the whole wide circle of the Christian Community realize this fully. We are now facing the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-church, between the gospel and the anti-gospel, between Christ and the antichrist….

By Cardinal Jorge Urosa, National Catholic Register – We are now nearing the end of the Pan-Amazon synod. We have already seen the results of the various circuli minores (small working groups), most interesting and challenging; some quite innovative. These proposals will, of course, need to be subjected to the final vote. No matter what the result of this will be, I would like to point out in this article the key point of importance for the revitalization of the Church in Amazonia… The synod must clearly announce that the fundamental mission of the Church is to proclaim Jesus Christ as our Savior.

Veritas Monk, YouTube – In this dramatic video, at least two persons enter Santa Maria in Traspontina Church near St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, remove several replicas of the controversial statue displayed for the Amazon Synod, proceed to the Castel Sant’Angelo and greet St. Michael the Archangel, before chucking the statues into the Tiber River. “And Asa did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, as did David his father: And he took away the effeminate out of the land, and he removed all the filth of the idols, which his fathers had made.” (3rd Kings 15 – Douay-Rheims).

By Fletch Daniels, American Thinker – But even as it became increasingly obvious that unborn humans are alive to more and more Americans, Democrats staked out increasingly radical positions… The “safe, legal, and rare” language that Democrats used in the ’90s has given way to the current Democrat platform of abortion on demand up to and even after birth. Abortion is portrayed no longer as a tragic choice, but as something to be celebrated… The only Democrat candidate still running who sanctions any restrictions on abortion is Tulsi Gabbard, who believes that it should be illegal in the third trimester.

By Roberto de Mattei, Corrispondenza Romana, – The Revolution is advancing, but like every Revolution it is destined to devour its own children. For now, its victims have been the Girondins, who deluded themselves into thinking they could distinguish between Vatican II and its bad interpreters. Whose turn will it be tomorrow? The hermeneutic of continuity was tried by the liberals during the French Revolution in order to fight 1793 in the name of 1789, but the result was The Terror. And faced with The Terror that is advancing, only the Counter-revolution is possible. “But the Counter-Revolution – as Count Joseph de Maistre said – is not a Revolution in the opposite sense, it is the opposite of the Revolution.”…

By Gretchen R. Crowe, Simply Catholic Blog – It wasn’t long after his Oct. 16, 1978 election that the new Pope John Paul II — the former Polish Cardinal Karol Wojtyla — began promoting Mary and the Rosary as one of the best ways to proclaim Christ to the world. In a General Audience on Oct. 28, less than two weeks after his election, Pope John Paul II declared the Rosary to be “my favorite prayer.” He also called it a “marvelous prayer — marvelous in its simplicity and in its depth.”

By Michael W. Chapman, CNSNews – Commenting on reports that money used to fund some of the groups participating in the Vatican’s Amazonian synod came from the pro-abortion Ford Foundation — whose Board members include former Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards — Bishop Joseph Strickland, head of the Diocese of Strickland, Texas, said, “Uncertain about where the truth is? Follow the money!!! … Money associated with PP [Planned Parenthood] is blood money.”… It’s “Diabolical!” he added in his Oct. 19 tweet.

By di Sandro Magister, L’Espresso – German Hans Joachim Schellnhuber is not a Catholic or even a believer, but he is among the favorites of Pope Francis, who in 2015 appointed him as an ordinary member of the pontifical academy of sciences and chose him as one of the official presenters of the encyclical “Laudato Si’.”… So then, among the “special guests” at the synod on the Amazon, together with former UN secretary Ban Ki-moon and the Malthusian economist Jeffrey D. Sachs, Pope Francis wanted none other than Schellnhuber.

By Jules Gomes, Church Militant – A leading atheist climate scientist who advocates a one-world government and is asking countries to relinquish national sovereignty in favor of supranational institutions was the keynote speaker at the Amazon Synod on Monday… Professor Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, a significant contributor to Pope Francis’ eco-encyclical Laudato Sí, addressed synod fathers on the alleged climate crisis facing humanity, reporters were told at Monday’s press briefing.

By Doug Mainwaring, LifeSiteNews – In a short video published just before the 102nd anniversary of Our Lady’s final apparition at Fatima on Oct. 13, 1917, a U.S. bishop issued a call to participate in what is being referred to as the “Marian blue wave,” which he described as “a refocus on the beautiful gift of the Rosary, and the call to prayer that the Blessed Virgin Mary has given us so many times.”“The Rosary is a rather simple prayer,” said Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, “repeating a basic message of devotion to our Lord Jesus Christ, seeking the will of the Father, and asking Mary to intercede for us, the people of God.”

By Msgr. Charles Pope – This Sunday’s readings speak to us of the power of persistent prayer. The first reading (Exodus 17:8-13) in particular depicts prayer quite powerfully. In it, we can discern six fundamental teachings on prayer… I. The Problem for Prayer – In those days, Amalek came and waged war against Israel. None of us like problems, but one good thing about them is that they help to keep us praying. Israel was at war and her enemies were strong; it was time to pray.

By Michelle Terry, American Center for Law and Justice – In our lawsuit against Planned Parenthood, more troubling information has been revealed in the testimony of both a defendant and a Planned Parenthood abortionist… One of the defendants was asked to read an email received from one of the investigative journalists soon after a meeting with senior Planned Parenthood officials. The email was admitted into evidence and read directly to the jury. The contents of the email regarding Planned Parenthood’s practices are particularly disturbing.

By Scott S. Powell, American Thinker – With a second term, Trump is likely to become a historically consequential political realignment leader — what Andrew Jackson was to the Democrats and Abraham Lincoln was to the Republicans.  He has already broadened the base of the Republican Party, and with a little more political jujitsu he can easily make more inroads and gain support from minorities and other constituencies who feel they’ve been neglected, or worse — have been used as political pawns by the Democrat Party elites, election cycle after election cycle.

By C C Pecknold, Catholic Herald – Nearly a decade ago, Andrew Cherlin, a sociologist at the Johns Hopkins University, published a book called The Marriage-Go-Round which brought thirty years of research to bear on the state of marriage in America. One of his several dramatic findings was that Americans no longer saw marriage as something foundational for their lives but rather as a “capstone” to a successful life. Because of contraceptive technology, the sexual urge no longer propelled people into marrying young as it once did…

by Christine Henzig, Church Militant – The Milwaukee Chapter of Catholics United for the Faith (CUF) — which has blown the whistle on the local Catholic hierarchy for green-lighting LGBTQ activities within the archdiocese — has given its highest annual award to the Catholic Church’s most prominent whistleblower of late: Abp. Carlo Maria Viganò… Archbishop Viganò, a former papal nuncio to the United States who has accused “the very top of the Church’s hierarchy” of covering up systematic homosexual predation, was honored Saturday by 100 attendees of the Milwaukee CUF chapter with an award recognizing “zeal for the priesthood, leadership of the laity and fidelity to the Magisterium.”

By Walter E. Williams, CNSNews – If you need an accurate update on some of the madness at the nation’s institutions of higher learning, check out Minding the Campus, a nonprofit independent organization… John Leo, its editor in chief, says that the organization’s prime mission is dedicated to the revival of intellectual pluralism and the best traditions of liberal education at America’s colleges and universities. Leo’s most recent compilation of campus madness leaves one nearly breathless.

By Robert Royal, The Catholic Thing – The Synod on the Amazon resumes today for its third and final week. Things slowed down over the weekend, so today’s synod report will be brief; we wait to see what will develop as the last days unfold… The ultimate outcome is not much in doubt, owing to the fact that the main lines were baked into the Working Document. In addition, the people selected to participate are almost exclusively of a certain orientation that’s not only Latin American, but even from the “peripheries” of Latin America.

By Courtney Mares, Catholic News Agency – At least four of the 12 language groups at the Amazon synod overtly propose the ordination of married men to the priesthood in summary reports published by the Vatican Friday, with the majority of the discussion groups expressing openness to the idea… “We ask, Holy Father, that you accept, for the Pan Amazon region, men to the priestly ministry and women to the diaconate, preferably indigenous, respected and recognized by their community, even if they already have a constituted and stable family, in order to assure the sacraments that accompany and sustain the Christian life of the community”…

By Diane Montagna, LifeSiteNews – In this dramatic video, titled “the journey of the Pachamamas,” at least two persons enter Santa Maria in Traspontina Church near St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome (apparently in the early morning hours), remove several replicas of the controversial carved statue of an unclothed female statue from the side altars where they had been displayed, proceed to the Castel Sant’Angelo and greet St. Michael the Archangel, before chucking the statutes into the Tiber River.

By Courtney Mares, Catholic News Agency – Pope Francis said that in the museum one should feel that God’s art has the same value and is treated and preserved with the same passion that is reserved for Renaissance masterpieces or for Greek and Roman sculptures… “Since works of art are the expression of the spirit of peoples … one must always look at each culture, at the other, with an open mind and with benevolence,” he said.

By Doug Mainwaring, LifeSiteNews – “In an interview, an accuser told The Washington Post that many of the boys knew one another. They often would travel together with McCarrick on fundraising trips to churches and the homes of donors nationwide, where the abuse allegedly would occur,” wrote Boorstein… “It wasn’t until late last year, however, after allegations involving two other boys became public, that the man said he and other accusers contacted officials.”… Victim: ‘We came forward to defend the truth … to defend the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ.’

By Kyle Drennen, LifeNews – On Friday, CBS This Morning was fearful of pro-life legislation passed in Louisiana that would require abortion doctors have admitting privileges to hospitals. The coverage sounded the alarm about the move potentially “regulating abortion out of existence” in the state and fretted over the upcoming Supreme Court decision that would determine whether the new law violated Roe v. Wade… “CBS News has learned that Louisiana could become the first state in the country without access to abortion as soon as next year,” co-host Gayle King proclaimed at the top of the segment

By Russell Shaw, The Catholic Thing – And indeed that list of ten bishops nominated by their peers for the top offices in the bishops’ conference will be probed for its meaning by people who’ve been following the twists and turns in the relationship between Rome and the Church in the United States… But the list’s most striking feature isn’t the names that are there but the names that aren’t. Missing are the three members of the American hierarchy generally regarded as closest to Pope Francis – Cardinals Blase Cupich of Chicago and Joseph Tobin of Newark, and Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego.

By Mathew Clark, LifeNews – A Planned Parenthood abortionist was just forced to admit under oath in our trial that she did in fact say, “I want a Lamborghini,” in relation to “what I would receive in compensation” for “fetal tissue” procurement – i.e. aborted babies’ body parts… We recently told you how, despite their legal efforts to keep certain evidence out of court, Planned Parenthood’s own legal team has opened the door, and disturbing evidence continues to mount. Now, a Planned Parenthood abortionist is “prying” the door open even further (to use the judge’s words).

By Msgr. Charles Pope – In today’s blog, though, I’d like to concentrate on the original: “The perfect is the enemy of the good.” In striving for the perfect thing, we can miss the good. We live in a fallen world, less than perfect. Likewise, you and I are incomplete, unfinished, imperfect. Yet this does not mean that we lack anything good at all or that this imperfect world has nothing to offer.

By Catholic Culture – A new study by the Pew Forum finds a steep decline in the number of Americans who identify themselves as Christians, and a similar drop in the number of Americans who identify themselves as Catholic… “65% of American adults describe themselves as Christians when asked about their religion, down 12 percentage points over the past decade,” according to the report. 43% of Americans now identify themselves as Protestants, 20% as Catholics, and 26% as atheist (4%), agnostic (5%), or “nothing in particular” (17%).

By Jane Clark Scharl, Crisis Magazine – If we have learned anything in the four years since Obergefell v. Hodges made same-sex “marriage” legal across the nation, it’s that identity theory is nothing less than a cult. Identity theory claims that each person’s most basic responsibility—and his only path to happiness—is to explore and live out every element of his “identity,”  his desires, as freely as possible. This claim is not merely a lifestyle choice: it has religious power and scope, and it cannot tolerate the existence of rival cults or creeds.

By Eric Patterson, The Catholic Thing – When one thinks of places where public expressions of faith are constrained, the Western Hemisphere does not typically come to mind. The United States has a religiously feisty population. Latin America is adorned with the art and architecture of Catholicism. But, on closer examination, anti-religion trends – and even outright persecution – can be seen in many Latin American cities… There are at least two main types of religious persecution.

Translation by LifeSite’s Dr. Maike Hickson, LifeSiteNews – Cardinal Walter Brandmüller – a respected Church historian and one of the two remaining dubia cardinals – warns against the replacement of the Catholic faith by “a pantheistic natural religion of man.”… With regard to the Amazon Synod’s working document (Instrumentum Laboris), the German cardinal makes it clear that it is essentially eclipsing all of the Church’s magisterial documents from the Second Vatican Council onward, while nearly exclusively relying on quotations from a regional episcopal conference, the Latin American Conference of Bishops in Aparecida, Brazil, in 2007. Here, he warns against a “spectacular breach with the dogmatically binding tradition.”

By Chilton Williamson, Jr., Crisis Magazine – The Amazon synod touches directly or indirectly on many issues that will have repercussions far beyond the river basin. Among them is democracy and its relationship to the Church of Rome… The current Vatican regime claims that the principle of “synodality” in ecclesiastical government is both legitimate and valuable. Bishops are in closer contact with the laity than the Eternal City is; they are therefore better able to represent the man in the pew. Or so the argument goes… I don’t know whether there is evidence for this position or not. What’s certain is that the Church was founded by Christ as a spiritual institution, not a political one.

Fr. Mark Goring, Companions of the Cross – Watch Video

By Edward Pentin, EWTN News – A missionary council for indigenous peoples run by the Brazilian bishops’ conference has received almost $2 million from the pro-abortion Ford Foundation since 2006, a Brazilian journalist has revealed… (also) two other organizations participating in the synod have also received funding from the foundation, which has actively lobbied for abortion rights and gender ideology… All are members of the Pan-Amazon Ecclesial Network (REPAM), an organization set up by the bishops’ conference of Latin America (CELAM) and Caritas, which has played the leading role in organizing the Amazon Synod that runs until Oct. 27.

By Brad Miner, The Catholic Thing – he abuse scandals in the Roman Catholic Church haunt us, and not just in the United States. No nation with Catholic churches has been spared. True, the worst of the actual crisis – of priests sexually abusing little boys, teens, and young men – appears to be all but over. But have the right lessons been learned? Is the storm over? Or are we simply in the eye of the hurricane?.. I have no answer, but Pope Benedict XVI tried to give one in 2005 in his instructions concerning seminary education. We may hope those guidelines are being effectively implemented.

By Douglas Farrow, First Things – The Synod of the Amazon is a sign of the times. So its Instrumentum laboris says. Who could disagree? And what times these are! Some are saying hopefully that the Synod of the Amazon will change the Church forever, that the Church will never be the same again. Others are saying that the Synod is an instrument of apostasy. In the grim humor of Dom Giulio Meiattini, “if there is still something Christian in this Instrumentum laboris, that is, a few words and expressions here and there, there is no need to worry: it is undoubtedly biodegradable!”

By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture – Questioned about the Pachamama icon that has become the most visible symbol of the Amazon Synod, Father Giacomo Costa told reporters that it was an image of “an indigenous woman who brings life.” The Synod spokesman added: “Nobody said it was the Virgin Mary.”… I beg to differ. Browsing the internet during the past week, I have seen dozens of people defending the use of this apparently pagan symbol—the Inca goddess of fertility—by saying that it was a representation of the Blessed Mother. The woman who presented the image to Pope Francis said that it was “Our Lady of the Amazon.”

By Kody Wayne Cooper, Public Discourse – Before (the Jokers) release and since, discussion of the film has been obsessed with the debate over whether the portrayal of a disaffected white man violently lashing out at society might bleed over into real life by breeding copycats or if such suggestions are the overreach of woke culture. Major reviewers have judged the film to be “empty,” “foggy,” and a “bad movie,” that “leaves you numb.” But critics have missed what seems to me a central message of the story: the descent into madness begins with the breakdown of the family.

Catholic News Agency – Leaders in the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops applauded the National Council on Disability for its recent research on the risks of assisted suicide for people with disabilities… “Every suicide is a human tragedy, regardless of the age, incapacity, or social/economic status of the individual,” said Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, and Bishop Frank Dewane of Venice, Florida… Naumann is chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, and Dewane heads the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development.

By Fr. Richard Heilman, Roman Catholic Man – Did you know that only a handful of corporations, 6 to be exact, control over 90 percent of the media? That means nearly everything we hear on the radio, read in the news, and see on television (including ‘news’). I’m talking about General Electric (GE), News-Corp, Disney, Viacom, Time Warner, and CBS… More and more people are expressing their concern that what we see in the media is nothing short of brainwashing. Weren’t we once, just 40 years ago, horrified about the thought of killing babies?

By Fr. Roger Landry, National Catholic Register – In the U.S., 30 million people define themselves as ex-Catholics, one out of every 11, constituting the second largest religious group behind those identifying as Catholics… There are many U.S. dioceses in which priests ride circuits of several hundred miles every Sunday to try to bring Christ to people. One of the most troubling worries of many middle-age parents and grandparents concerns family members who have stopped going to Mass and living according to Christian faith and morals.

By Steven Ertelt, LifeNews – Evangelical leader Franklin Graham minced no words in a recent interview when it comes to how Christians should vote. The Christian pastor made it very clear that Christians have a Biblical obligation to vote pro-life… He said every Christians needs to vote in 2020 against the “godless, socialist agenda” of the abortion industry… He added that Christians need to defend religious liberty and support “god-fearing judges,” if our nation is to survive… “Obedience to God’s Word brings blessing,”… “Disobedience brings chastisement and ultimately eternal punishment in Hell away from the majesty and presence of God.”

By Bree A. Dail, National Catholic Register – Cardinal Müller called on the faithful to resist error by educating themselves in the truths of the Catholic faith… “In the face of growing confusion about the doctrine of the faith, many bishops, priests, religious and laypeople of the Catholic Church have requested that I make a public testimony about the truth of revelation,” the former prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith writes in the introduction to his document, published in February. “It is the shepherds’ very own task to guide those entrusted to them on the path of salvation. This can only succeed if they know this way and follow it themselves.”

By Lee Edwards, Daily Signal – Socialists are fond of saying that socialism has never failed because it has never been tried. But in truth, socialism has failed in every country in which it has been tried, from the Soviet Union beginning a century ago to three modern countries that tried but ultimately rejected socialism—Israel, India, and the United Kingdom…

By Stephen Wynne, Church Militant – As the Amazon Synod neared its midpoint on Tuesday, the Vatican revealed that the drafting committee for its final document is being assembled, with confirmed members leaning decidedly to the left… Over the next week and a half, the committee will compile the recommendations of various small groups into a final document, which will then be voted on by synod fathers on Oct. 26… If the document passes with a two-thirds majority, it will be forwarded to Pope Francis for use in compiling a new apostolic exhortation on the Amazon.

By James E. Hartley, Public Discourse – Attempts to discover the effect of immigration on government budgets are highly susceptible to the decisions economists make about how to measure all those benefits and costs and how to account for the effects on the indigenous population. The quick answer to “What is the effect of immigration on government budgets?” is “It depends on how you measure it.”

By Stephen P. White, The Catholic Thing – Since last summer, much of the discussion about the abuse crisis has focused on justice for victims, accountability for bishops, and the role laypeople can and must play in renewing the Church. There are obvious reasons for these emphases. Yet in a somewhat ironic twist, there has been less attention paid to the ways in which our priests have experienced the crisis… For many of the priests I’ve spoken to, the last year has been a double trial. …

By Hannah Brockhaus, Catholic News Agency – Fr. Giacomo Costa, a communications official for the Amazon synod, said Wednesday a wooden figure of a nude pregnant woman, which has been present at events related to the synod, is not the Virgin Mary, but is instead a female figure representing life… The wooden figure of a pregnant woman has been described as both a Marian image and as a traditional indigenous religious symbol of the goddess Pachamama, or Mother Earth.

By Kharen Martinez Murcia, CNSNews – In Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, the March for Life Education and Defense Fund announced the theme for the 2020 March for Life, which takes place on Jan. 24. The theme is “Life Empowers, Pro-Life is Pro-Woman.” March for Life President Jeanne Mancini said the upcoming march will seek to “evoke confidence rather than fear” about unplanned pregnancy and motherhood, and advocate for community support for unexpected pregnancies.

By Father Carter Griffin, Catholic Exchange – Like many conversion stories, my path to Rome began with the witness of faithful Catholics, the reading of good books, and the fits and starts of a life of prayer. I was in college at the time. At the end of one of our sessions, the priest who was giving me instructions said, almost in passing, that perhaps I would join him at the altar one day… At this point, mind you, I was not even Catholic; I wasn’t even sure I wanted to be Catholic; and I was very certain that I would never be a celibate priest. I went away stewing on what he said; I was appalled at the very idea of becoming a priest, and frankly thought it rather brazen of him to suggest it.

By Micaiah Bilger, LifeNews – A federal judge permanently blocked an Obama administration rule Tuesday that could have forced medical facilities and doctors to abort unborn babies… The rule from President Barack Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) defined “discrimination on the basis of sex” to include abortion in Obamacare. In doing so, it could have forced medical facilities, doctors, nurses and other medical workers to abort unborn babies against their beliefs.

By Stephanie Foley, Relevant Radio – The U.S. Supreme Court is back in session, and has determined it will hear arguments in a case from Louisiana that could be a bellwether of how the Court will determine abortion cases moving forward… The case, June Medical Services v. Gee, involves a Louisiana law that requires any doctor performing an abortion to have admitting privileges at a hospital nearby. The law is similar to a Texas law that was struck down (Whole Woman’s Health vs. Hellerstedt) by the Supreme Court three years ago. But both pro-life and pro-choice Americans are watching to see if the outcome will be different with two new justices, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.

By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture – When the police raid on Vatican offices was followed by the resignation of the Vatican’s top police official. We still don’t know what happened but it’s abundantly clear that another “turf war” has begun— or perhaps I should say “escalated”— inside the Vatican, precipitated by an investigation into questionable financial deals… In the National Catholic Register, Edward Pentin provides an excellent summary of what we know and what we can readily infer.

By Msgr. Charles Pope – In Tuesday’s Mass there was a reference to the wrath of God: The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness… What is God’s wrath? It is spoken of often in Scripture but is a concept with which we must be careful. On the one hand, we cannot simply dismiss it as contrary to the fact that God is love, but on the other, we cannot deny that God’s wrath is unfit in terms of His love….

By Josef Pieper, Crisis Magazine – Some people claim that St. Thomas is the apostle for our era. They say he is the person we must turn to in order to solve the problems of contemporary culture. Others claim that St. Thomas was meant to be an important voice in the Church prior to Vatican II and that the neo-Thomistic revival brought with it some good things, but now there is a new era in the Church and we don’t need to rely on St. Thomas as much as before. What do you think?… Pieper: It depends on what you want to learn from St. Thomas. What I have always been interested in is what idea of man he has: not what he thinks a man should do, but what a man should be.

Father Rodriguez, The Fatima Center – Fr. Michael E. Rodríguez was born in 1970, in the border city of El Paso, TX. He is the third in a family of six children, and was raised in a devout Catholic home. He entered the seminary for the Diocese of El Paso, attended major seminary at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, and completed his theological studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University. Fr. Rodríguez was ordained a priest in 1996 and early in his priesthood he served as the Vocation Director for the Diocese of El Paso.

By Roberto de Mattei, LifeSiteNews – In Christus Vincit, Bishop Schneider quotes this beautiful passage from St. Hilary of Poitiers, the Athanasius of the West: “In this consists the particular nature of the Church, that she triumphs when she is defeated, that she is better understood when she is attacked, that she rises up, when her unfaithful members desert her”. And, we might add, she triumphs when her faithful members fight for her.

By Tony Perkins, Family Research Council – If getting noticed was Beto O’Rourke’s goal, he succeeded. Getting nominated, on the other hand, remains downright impossible. The Texas politician, who vowed to take Americans’ guns, promised last Thursday to take something else: churches’ tax-exempt status. In what even his own side is calling “the worst idea of the Democratic primary,” O’Rourke stood out all right — for all the wrong reasons.

By Josh Shepherd, The Stream – It’s a message that flies in the face of popular media narratives and rhetoric on debate stages. On Tuesday, four female pro-life leaders unveiled “Life Empowers” as the theme for the 47th annual March for Life. It will take place on January 24, 2020… Jeanne Mancini, president of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, noted the theme intentionally invokes the 100th anniversary of a women’s right to vote… “All of the early suffragists were pro-life,” said Mancini in an interview. “We want to educate about that this year in a particular way and show how being pro-life is being pro-woman.”

By Brian Fisher, The Stream – The abortion industry has taken its gloves off and come out swinging. It’s not just a political battle. It’s a clash of worldviews… It has its political side, no doubt. This past July, Planned Parenthood fired its new president because she wanted the organization to look like a legitimate health care provider. In reality, Planned Parenthood is an abortion business… Politicians also play politics with human lives. Every Democratic presidential candidate supports abortion on demand. They refer to abortion as a human right, and even “reproductive justice.”

By Jeannie Ewing, Catholic Exchange – When someone suffers a devastating loss, it’s not always clear as to what will help them grieve. We are all called to accompany one another through trials and hardship, but it’s awkward and difficult to be direct and ask, “What do you most need?” In fact, this question can often overwhelm the griever, because it’s such an open-ended one that hardly anyone can answer it with confidence in the hours or days following death or loss.

By Philip Kosloski, Aleteia – He cannot contain his love and desires to pour it out upon us all… When we think about God’s love, we don’t always use the word “passion.” Yet, those were the exact words Jesus used when describing his love for humanity in a private revelation to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, a religious visionary of the 17th century.It was during the first revelation about devotion to Jesus’ Sacred Heart, and this is how the vision began. The saint recounts…

By Msgr. Charles Pope – The first reading from Mass for Tuesday of the 28th week of the year is rich in meaning for us today. Scripture is a prophetic interpretation of reality, showing us what is really going on from the perspective of the Lord of History. It describes not only the current of the times but the end to which it is tending. It is important for us to read Scripture carefully with the Church and to submit our understanding to the rule of faith and the context of Sacred Tradition.

By Catholic News Agency – Pro-life advocates in Jackson, Mississippi have filed a lawsuit against a new city ordinance that would restrict protesters’ ability to approach people and demonstrate outside abortion clinics… The appellants, who are volunteers for a national organization called Sidewalk Advocates for Life, often congregate outside the state’s last abortion clinic, the Jackson Women’s Health Organization. That facility performs abortions up to 16 weeks…

By Patrick Chisholm, Crisis Magazine – “These liberation theologians are promoting the idea that the Indians who still live in a primitive way are very happy, living in paradise,” said Macuxi tribal chief Jonas Marcolino Macuxí, referring to bishops at the pan-Amazon synod. “But that’s not true.”… He’s right. The myth of the noble savage is alive and well at the synod, as the assembly of bishops discuss how best to evangelize the indigenous peoples of the Amazon rainforest, as well as “let ourselves be evangelized by them,” in the words of Pope Francis. The Pope wants the Catholic Church to listen to and learn from those peoples who live in “harmony with oneself, with nature, with human beings and with the supreme being,” as quoted in the synod’s working document.

Christian Medical Association, Christian Newswire – The Christian Medical Association, the nation’s largest faith-based professional medical organization, responded today to their victory in federal court for the conscience rights of medical professionals. The case, Franciscan Alliance v. Azar, sought relief from a 2016 federal regulation that threatened to drive religious doctors out of practice if they would not perform gender-transition procedures that violate their medical judgment and beliefs. Today’s ruling struck down the rule.

By Sandy Fitzgerald, Newsmax – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday after meeting with the House Democratic caucus that there will not be a vote at this time to launch formal impeachment proceedings or to formalize the ongoing inquiry against President Donald Trump… “There’s no requirement that we have a vote, and so at this time we will not be having a vote,” Pelosi told reporters… “We’re not here to call bluffs. We’re here to find the truth, to uphold the Constitution of the United States. This is not a game for us. This is deadly serious.”

By Edward Pentin, National Catholic Register – Yet his departure comes after months of talk in Rome that the former Italian Secret Service officer was “on his way out” and some surprise that he had kept his job for so long… “The reason why he has resigned is fake,” said an informed source. “They could not find a good reason to dismiss him, they did not want to disclose the internal reasons for doing so, and so used this story as an easy instrument to get him out.”… Anonymous sources cited a number of reasons, one in particular being that he was too closely allied to the “old guard” and involved in resistance to clearing out financial and other corruption in the Vatican.

CNA Daily News, October 14, 2019 – “It’s a good thing, a vital thing, to consider what we’re willing to die for,” Chaput said in a lecture given to the Constitutional Studies Program at the university on Oct. 11… “To even ask that question is an act of rebellion against a loveless age. And to answer it with conviction is to become a revolutionary; the kind of loving revolutionary who will survive and resist—and someday redeem a late modern West that can no longer imagine anything worth dying for, and thus, in the long run, anything worth living for.”

By Josh Shepherd, The Stream – “Love is to speak the truth that people don’t want to hear,” said Tony Perkins, president of Family Research Council Action, while interviewing a panel of abortion survivors… Notably, Melissa Ohden of the Abortion Survivors Network joined Josiah Presley and Claire Culwell on-stage. Each shared their stories of being born after unsuccessful abortion procedures… “Our purpose is to educate the public that abortions fail and children can live,” said Ohden in an interview. “We give people a glimpse into what our humanity looks like….

By Fr. Shenan J. Boquet, Human Life International – The brother of an innocent man murdered in cold blood has reminded the world of the “scandal” of the Gospel… Botham Jean, a 26-year-old accountant, was gunned down in September 2018 as he sat on the couch in his Dallas apartment, eating ice cream. His killer was Amber Guyger, a 30-year-old off-duty police officer who says she mistakenly entered Jean’s apartment, thinking it was her own, and then opened fire after taking Jean for an intruder…

By Fr. Jerry Pokorsky, Catholic Culture – We all have an abiding desire for maternal affection. The history books of the American Civil War are replete with touching accounts of dying soldiers in agony calling upon their mothers like little boys. Even the toughest among us grasp for the love of a mother at the hour of death. Prayers composed by the Church in honor of Our Lady honestly recognize a primordial need for a mother’s love.

By Guest Writers, EWTN News – In, the last 50 or 60 years or so, the Catholic Church has done a poor job of engaging with and attracting young people… There are two main reasons for this failure. The first is a fear of “pushing young people away.” This loosely translates to “I don’t want to offend anyone.”.. The second reason for failure is an inability to communicate to young people in the place where they are spending the vast majority of their time and attention. Namely, digital media.

By Michael Matt, Remnant News – From Rome, Michael Matt reports on a major event that happened this evening just across from the Vatican Press Office, when Bishop Schneider and Diane Montagna announced a comprehensive work that covers Bishop Schneider’s thoughts on everything from Pope Francis to the Society of St. Pius X to Freemasonry. Cardinal Raymond Burke spoke, as did Roberto de Mattei and ‘Papal Posse’ star, Father Gerald Murray.

By CNSNews, Staff – “In a free republic, those restraints could not be handed down from above by philosopher kings,” Barr said. “Instead, social order must flow up from the people themselves, freely obeying the dictates of inwardly possessed and commonly shared moral values… “And to control willful human beings with an infinite capacity to rationalize, those moral values must rest on authority independent of men’s wills,” he said. “They must flow from the transcendent Supreme Being.

By Ed Condon and JD Flynn, CNA – According to Financial Times, Vatican police and prosecutors are investigating the possibility of improprieties in a 2014 $200 million investment made through Athena Capital, a Luxembourg investment fund, which financed a stake in the development of a luxury apartment project in London. That investment, along with a nearly $50 million 2018 investment in the same property, has raised questions about the internal control of Vatican money held in international banks and investment vehicles, especially after repeated efforts to bring financial practices into line with international practices and standards.

By Lianne Laurence, LifeSiteNews – Testimony from a longtime pro-life advocate about the grisly reality of the abortion industry riveted jurors in the Planned Parenthood baby body parts RICO trial now taking place in San Francisco… Planned Parenthood Federation of America brought the suit after the Center for Medical Progress released undercover videos in 2015 exposing the abortion giant’s trafficking in aborted baby body parts… PPFA and 10 affiliates are now accusing five individuals connected with CMP of committing wiretapping, conspiracy, trespassing, breach of contract, and violating the Racketeer-Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO)….

By Michael Voris, Church Militant, Oct 19, 2015 – Many believe the Freemasons are simply a centuries-old charitable fraternity. However, the Catholic Church has consistently condemned Freemasonry more than any other error in its history because it promotes indifferentism, naturalism, communism, and other dangerous philosophies…..

By St. John Henry Newman, The Catholic Thing – The Psalmist says, “We went through fire and water”; nor is it possible to imagine trials fiercer or more various than those from which Catholicism has come forth uninjured, as out of the Egyptian sea or the Babylonian furnace… First of all were the bitter persecutions of the Pagan Empire in the early centuries; then its sudden conversion, the liberty of Christian worship, the development of the cultus sanctorum, and the reception of Monachism into the ecclesiastical system…

By Msgr. Charles Pope – Another one occurred in the readings this past Sunday (28th Sunday of the Year) and it is worth a look, as it puzzles some who read it.
This saying is trustworthy:
If we have died with him, we shall also live with him;
if we persevere we shall also reign with him.
But if we deny him he will deny us.
If we are unfaithful he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself (2 Tim 2:11-13).

By Donald Demarco, Crisis Magazine – In 2018, the once-popular chain Toys “R” Us closed all of its 735 stores in the United States… Ironically, a chain that was dependent on parents having children was also a long-time donor to Planned Parenthood… In its bankruptcy proceedings, Toys “R” Us cited declining birthrates as one of the reasons for its declining sales… According to one researcher, the fact that “Toys ‘R’ Us executives failed to connect the dots between the number of babies and its bottom line is staggering.” By supporting Planned Parenthood, Toys “R” Us was eliminating its future customer base.

By Msgr. Charles Pope – One of the great human inadequacies is our inability to give proper and adequate thanks to God. Perhaps the biggest problem is that we don’t even realize the vast majority of what He does for us; it is hidden from our eyes… A further problem is that in our fallen condition we seem to be wired to magnify our problems and minimize or discount the enormous blessings of each moment. God sustains every fiber of our being and every atom of creation. God’s blessings are countless and yet we get angry if our iPhone malfunctions or if a few of His myriad blessings are withdrawn.

By Lianne Laurence, LifeSiteNews – Closing arguments filed by the California attorney general for the criminal preliminary hearing of pro-life journalists David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt signal the state considers that infanticide is not a crime in the context of abortion, says one of Daleiden’s lawyers… “The abortion paradigm is changing,” says Tom Brejcha of the Thomas More Society… For abortion advocates, birth has been “the defining landmark,” he told LifeSiteNews. “One moment the fetus is zero, the next moment it’s a person in the eyes of the law, entitled to due process and constitutional protection. Yet they blur that line here.”

By Fr. Shenan J. Boquet, Human Life International – “The Internet Is Overrun With Images of Child Sexual Abuse,” states the title of a New York Times investigative article, published last week, exposing the epidemic of child porn. According to the Times, in 1998 there were some 3000 reports of images depicting child sex abuse. A decade later, that number grew to over 100,000. By 2014, the number of reports broke one million, before ballooning to over 18.4 million by last year. Those reports, says the Times, “included over 45 million images and videos flagged as child sexual abuse.”

By Rita Dunaway, The Stream – They lobbied to make abortion legal for those rare, tragic situations when a woman seemed to have no other options. This way, they said, we can ensure the safety of that rare, unfortunate woman who must reluctantly undergo an abortion and then face the painful consequences… Maybe that was really what they wanted back then. It is no longer nearly enough. The evolution in abortion activists’ advocacy offers a lesson in how to make evil not merely permissible, but fashionable — in 3 steps.

By Corporate Communications Staff, Knights of Columbus – When founding the Knights of Columbus, Father Michael McGivney picked Christopher Columbus as a namesake for the organization because in a time when anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant feeling ran rampant, the American public embraced this famous explorer… Father McGivney and his Knights understood that using Columbus as their Order’s namesake asserted an important truth: that not only was there a place for Catholics and immigrants within American society, but that such a person had already played a part in creating the young, free world around them.

By Fletch Daniels, American Thinker – There comes a point when a nation has raced over the cliff, but it may take years before that reality becomes obvious to everyone… This (Titanic) movie scene was on my mind heading into election night in 2016. All indications were that Hillary Clinton was going to be elected. Based upon the math, America as a nation appeared doomed. Clinton was eyeing the White House like a ravenous wolf and relishing the opportunity to cast misery across America.

By Philip Kosloski, Aleteia – In 1886 Pope Leo XIII instituted what would later be known as the “Leonine Prayers” after Mass.. These prayers include the well-known Prayer to St. Michael… it is believed by many historians that Pope Leo had a profound vision that sparked its creation… A cardinal at the time who knew the pope’s private secretary explains that “Pope Leo XIII truly had a vision of demonic spirits, who were gathering on the Eternal City (Rome). From that experience … comes the prayer which he wanted the whole Church to recite.”…

By Hannah Brockhaus, Catholic News Agency – Cardinal John Henry Newman, who will be canonized Oct. 13, is more often associated with Birmingham than Rome, but his four visits to the Eternal City mark significant moments in the life of this soon-to-be saint… An exhibit hosted by the Venerable English College and the British Embassy to the Holy See in Rome Oct. 10-14 demonstrates the significance of Newman’s time in Rome, where he was ordained a Catholic priest, celebrated his first Mass, and discovered the Oratory of St. Philip Neri.

By Robert Royal, The Catholic Thing – So who needs an “ecological conversion”? That’s a major theme of the current Amazon Synod and among the well-intentioned people, but they don’t give the impression of understanding many key details, to say nothing of the big picture, though they talk about how “everything is connected to everything else.”… A banal example: In Rome, where I am temporarily residing and this Synod is taking place, simple garbage collection is a painful process. There are three categories of garbage: organic waste, aluminum and other solids, plastic and glass.

By George Neumayr, American Spectator – The pope says the synod must reject the “colonialist” prejudices and dictates of the past, even as he christens a new and far more disfiguring neocolonialism under the United Nations. Papal dilettantes, German liberation theologians, and UN bureaucrats are teaming up to foist upon the hapless Amazonians the moral and political schemes of the global elite… The old colonialists took pagan idols out of the Indians’ hands and put rosaries in them; the new colonialists hand them condoms and birth control pills, all the while purring about their refreshingly “natural” and “non-modern” modes of living.

By Christopher Ortega, Crisis Magazine – “I am so for this!” exclaimed a Facebook friend, linking to a headline about the Los Angeles City Council’s vote to replace Columbus Day with “Indigenous Peoples’ Day.” On its face, this may seem like an innocent change. Who would be against celebrating the indigenous peoples of the Americas?… Alas, the movement to strip our first Catholic “Founding Father” of his public honors is anything but innocent. It’s imperative that all American Catholics understand this effort to abolish the holiday, and that we continue to celebrate the man himself: Christopher Columbus.

By Fr. Nicholas Sheehy, Catholic Exchange – Modern man can be so focused on the earth, that he forgets to look up to heaven. The miracle of Fatima on October 13, 1917 reminded man that he is heaven-bound… This was going to be the telling day for the three shepherd children who had claimed to see the mysterious lady appear at Cova da Iria, near Fatima, Portugal. After coming to receive the message of the lady every month since May, their word was going to be put to the test when 70,000 pilgrims showed up looking for the promised miracle.

By Joseph Pronechen, National Catholic Register – Years later, Sr. Lucia wrote: “Everyone knows perfectly well that we went through one of the most critical moments in human history, when the great, mutually hostile powers planned a nuclear war that would have destroyed the world, if not the whole world, then the greater part of it. And what would have remained? What chances of survival? And who could have dissuaded those arrogant people, surrounded by their war plans…? Who, if not God.”

By Micaiah Bilger, LifeNews – “(Sandra) Merritt’s answer was that her main reason for participating was to see if Planned Parenthood was engaged in criminal activity,” according to her lawyers. “She said that she went undercover to see if abortionists were really willing to alter the abortion procedure in order to profit from the sale of human body parts, such as performing partial-birth abortion. She also wanted to see if any other laws were being violated.”

By Stephen Wynne, Church Militant – In the course of (Daleiden’s) research, he came across the book Beyond Abortion: A Chronicle of Fetal Experimentation, which documents experiments performed on unborn babies, as well as the removal of organs from infant abortion survivors… In Beyond Abortion, Daleiden found an article titled “Artificial Placenta,” which described “obtaining live fetuses as old as 24 weeks from unnamed abortionists and keeping them alive in a machine for study but letting them drown in the machine after obtaining data.”… (Also) Daleiden discovered that StemExpress required “tissue procurers to service 48 universities and 8 private entities with fetal organs and tissues.”

By Joseph Pearce, Crisis Magazine – The canonization of John Henry Newman in Rome on October 13 will be a triumph for the light of life and love amidst the gloom and darkness of the Culture of Death. It will signify the way in which the Church transcends and outlives the evil forces that assail her, whether such assailants are the enemies without or the traitors within. As for Newman himself, there are two ways of assessing and understanding his life and legacy. The first is to see the influence he had on his own times; the second, to see the influence he has had in the 130 years since his death.

By Steven Ertelt, LifeNews – California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed into law a radical bill that would force colleges to provide free abortions on campus… The pro-abortion bill, which passed the state legislature in September, mandates that all public colleges and universities provide abortion drugs for free to students up to 10 weeks of pregnancy starting Jan. 1, 2023. The bill promotes abortion instead of providing young women with pregnancy support and options.

By Michael Pakaluk, First Things – Pius IX defined the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception about ten years after Newman’s book. Was that definition a development of doctrine? Did anyone think it so? Perhaps. And yet, notably, the Holy Father used these words in describing its status: “This doctrine always existed in the Church as a doctrine that has been received from our ancestors, and that has been stamped with the character of revealed doctrine. For the Church of Christ, watchful guardian that she is, and defender of the dogmas deposited with her, never changes anything, never diminishes anything, never adds anything to them.”

By Edward Pentin, National Catholic Register – Part of the causes of this is the initial enthusiasm that followed Vatican II that exalted what was called the “spirit of Vatican II,” with little close attention paid to what it actually said. There were some significant pastoral and strategic changes made by Vatican II as well as a doctrinal clarification of questions concerned with the salvation of those outside the Catholic Church that I believe was an authentic development of doctrine.

By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture – Last week it was the police raid on the Vatican’s Secretariat of State. This week it was the stunning claim, by an influential Italian journalist, that “Pope Francis conceives of Christ … Eugenio Scalfari, the founder and editorial analyst of La Repubblica, has dropped this sort of bombshell in the past. On the basis of exclusive interviews with the Pontiff, he has reported that the Pope does not believe in the existence of hell, and that he thinks Communists are true Christians.

By James Stansbury, American Thinker – Sadly, the truth contained in Tony’s video will never overcome the emotion-fueled political advantage of having a simple, taxable villain like CO2. No wonder politicians, media, academia, and the green energy industrial complex will protect this lucrative fantasy at all costs. Nevertheless, I recommend watching the video, here or below. Then you decide.

Catholic News Agency – The first Marian apparition in history appeared to Saint James the Apostle, the brother of Saint John the Evangelist, on the bank of the river Ebro in Saragossa, Spain. Unlike every other recorded apparition, this one took place during the earthly life of the Mother of God… According to tradition, she had promised Saint James that when he needed it most in his difficult mission to the pagans in today’s Spain, she would appear to him to encourage him.

By Peter Kreeft, Catholic Exchange – To “pray without ceasing,” as St. Paul tells us (1 Thess. 5:17). To blend prayer with everything else. To make work a prayer. To overcome the separation between religion and life, the unfortu­nate idea we all have that “religion” is something different from life, something “pious” or “for religious people” or only for special times and places; something that ordinary sinners and cynics and selfish people dismiss.

By Deborah M. Piroch, Human Life International – The Institute for Family Studies reports, “In general, men are more likely than women to cheat: 20% of men and 13% of women reported that they’ve had sex with someone other than their spouse while married.”… “A person’s political identity, family background, and religious activity are also related to whether or not they cheat. Overall, Democrats, adults who didn’t grow up in intact families, and those who rarely or never attend religious services are more likely than others to have cheated on their spouse.

By George Neumayr, American Spectator – “This is about bringing the Vatican and the United Nations closer together,” (a seasoned Vatican observer) says. “The German bishops don’t care about Amazonian Indians, and they certainly don’t care about people not receiving the sacraments. Just look at Germany and how few people even frequent the sacraments there. What the German bishops care about is that the Church is more and more incorporated into the work of the United Nations.” The subject of suffering Amazonians is just an excuse, he says, for the “United Nations to treat the Church as one of its instruments,” with the complete backing of the Vatican.

By Lianne Laurence, LifeSiteNews – Almost four years in the making, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America vs. Center for Medical Progress lawsuit pits those who practice, advocate for, and profit from unthinkably cruel and barbaric acts on the tiniest of humans against a few individuals who had the tenacity, courage, resourcefulness, and faith to walk into the heart of darkness to expose trafficking in the brains, hearts, livers, lungs, and limbs of pre-born babies.

By John-Henry Westen, LifeSiteNews – Pagan idol worship in the Vatican or a nude statue of Our Lady… An event last week with indigenous people from the Amazon along with Pope Francis in the Vatican Gardens caused social media to explode. And rightfully so. We were either witnessing pagan idol worship in the Vatican with the seeming approval of the pope, or else it was a scandalous portrayal of the Mother of God in a crude nude statue. Frankly, I don’t know which is worse, but either way, it’s totally outrageous.

By Michael Voris, Church Militant – Following up on yesterday’s Vortex where we talked about Vatican Secretary of State Cdl. Pietro Parolin and his apparent covering up of at least a $13 million theft from the U.S.-based Papal Foundation — now there’s more… various workers in the Vatican Secretary of State diverted — or ripped off — approximately 400 million euros; that’s almost $500 million from the account which administers Peter’s Pence… Let that sink in: half a billion dollars stolen.

By Christine Niles, M.St. (Oxon.), J.D. , Church Militant – According to Vatican News, at Wednesday’s general congregation, the second working day of the Amazon Synod, various synod fathers weighed in about the need for “ecological conversion,” a phrase frequently bandied about in the Instrumentum Laboris (working document) as well as by synod leader Cdl. Claudio Hummes and others… “A desire was also expressed for an ‘ecological conversion’ that would allow people see the gravity of sins against the environment as sins against God, against our neighbour, and against future generations,” states Vatican News…

By Austin Ruse, The Stream – But, in this book about the sexual abuse crisis, Barron does not make it clear, even remotely, that the present crisis was caused mainly by homosexuals acting homosexually. In this book urging Catholics to stay in the Church and fight for Her, he does not mention the principle threat during the sex abuse crisis has been predatory homosexuals… According to the CDC, homosexuals make up a mere 1.6% of the population. And yet, according to the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, more than 80% of the priest victims were male. 100% of the priest perpetrators were, naturally, male… Barron seems uneasy talking about this.

By Msgr. Charles Pope – To begin, recall that the divinity of Christ is a dogma of the Faith (de Fide). The divinity and divine Sonship of Jesus are expressed in all of the creeds. It is perhaps most clearly stated in the Athanasian Creed (Quicumque): … we believe and confess that Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He is God and man. He is God begotten of the substance of the Father before all ages and man born in time of the substance of His Mother. He is Perfect God and perfect man.

By Micaiah Bilger, LifeNews – Former pro-life Congressman Sean Duffy and Fox News contributor Rachel Campos Duffy welcomed their ninth child into the world with great joy last week… Valentina Stella Maris Duffy has Down syndrome, but her pro-life parents did not see her condition as any less of a reason to celebrate her life… “Valentina was also born with an extra chromosome, which means she also has Downs Syndrome. That extra chromosome certainly made her EXTRA cute. Life is wonderful!!” her mother announced on Facebook.

By Fr. Peter M. Stravinskas, Crisis Magazine – As Newman was ever the realist, it’s well that we begin this study of his views on the priesthood with his Discourse 3 to Mixed Congregations, with its very realistic title, “Men, not Angels, the Priests of the Gospel.” He explains the divine rationale: Had Angels been your Priests, my brethren, they could not have condoled with you, sympathized with you, have had compassion on you, felt tenderly for you, and made allowances for you, as we can… Therefore did [Christ] send you men to be the ministers of reconciliation and intercession.

By Diane Montagna, LifeSiteNews – LifeSite asked Archbishop Viganò: “In what sense was Ruffini’s further clarification insufficient, given that he explicitly referred to Jesus as “true God and true Man?”… “In the sense that Christians expect a clear answer from the Pope himself. The thing is too important; it is essential: Yes, I believe that Christ is the Son of God made Man, the only Savior and Lord,” Archbishop Viganò replied… “All Christians await this clarification from him, not from others, and by virtue of their baptism have the right to have this response.”

By Julia Meloni, Crisis Magazine – We now have “two religions within the Catholic Church,” according to historian Roberto de Mattei. The first is “traditional Catholicism”; the second is “the Amazonian religion,” he argues, charging that the synod’s working document endorses “pantheism and polytheism.”… At a hard-hitting roundtable of Catholic leaders, de Mattei pointed out that revolutions historically have long incubation periods but move dizzyingly fast once they explode. He believes that the current Church revolution has been simmering for 50 to 60 years and that now “it is possible that all will explode very, very rapidly.” The passage from a material schism to a formal schism “could be dramatic and happen very, very, very rapidly.”

By Patty Knap, EWTN News – Captivating scenes include Faustina’s call from Jesus to enter the convent; her relationship with Fr. Michael Sopocko, the priest sent by Christ to help her carry out her mission; the often-frustrating process of creating the Divine Mercy image, as Jesus had requested; her and Fr. Sopocko’s trust in Christ amid the many spiritual trials; and the handing off of key Divine Mercy documents to a Marian priest, Fr. Joseph Jarzebowski, who escaped to America to fulfill his promise to promote Divine Mercy.

By Terence P. Jeffrey, CNSNews – Judging by the argument that one lawyer made to Justice Neil Gorsuch, Tuesday must have been an interesting day in the restrooms at the U.S. Supreme Court… “There are transgender lawyers in this courtroom today,” attorney David Cole told Gorsuch… “Of course, there are,” said Gorsuch… Cole was in the court to represent a biological male who decided in 2013 that he “identified” as a female — and who then fought a family-owned Michigan-based funeral home all the way to the Supreme Court because it fired him as a funeral director when he indicated that he intended to start dressing as a female at work.

By Diane Montagna, LifeSiteNews – A key organizer of the Amazonian Synod who favors a female diaconate for the region has said it may be the “first step” to ordaining women priests… “Many of the bishops [at the synod] are in favor of women deacons,” Kräutler asserted… As a missionary, Bishop Kräutler spent years in the Amazonian region defending the rights of indigenous people and was the principal author of the synod’s controversial working document [Instrumentum laboris].

By di Sandro Magister, L’Espresso – The previous post from Settimo Cielo on infanticide in the Amazon and on those who defend it in the Church struck a tremendous chord… But there’s something else. It is not true that prominent figures of the synod in progress are unaware of the existence of this practice among some tribes… Such sensational ignorance could in fact attach to Peruvian cardinal Pedro Ricardo Barreto Jimenez, archbishop of Huancayo, Jesuit, vice-president of the pan-Amazonian ecclesial network and co-president of the synod….

By R.R. Reno, Editor, First Things – The Supreme Court heard a group of cases yesterday that will require the justices to decide whether the 1964 Civil Rights Act applies to homosexuals and transgender individuals. The cases concern employment discrimination. The legal issues seem narrow. But the social implications are vast… Over the last fifty years, anti-discrimination law has evolved into an all-penetrating system of social control…

By Chris Woodward, OneNewsNow – Depending on how the Supreme Court rules on cases involving LGBT issues, attorneys say places of worship and other religious non-profits could find themselves in court more often… Justices heard arguments on Tuesday involving three LGBT workers who were fired… At issue is whether “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” (SOGI) are covered by the word “sex” in the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The U.S. Supreme Court will have the final say, most likely in late spring or early summer 2020.

By Msgr. Charles Pope – St. Thomas Aquinas (also from the 13th century) spoke of beauty as consisting of integritas, consonantia, and claritas. He writes, For beauty includes three conditions: “integrity” or “perfection,” since those things which are impaired are by the very fact ugly; due “proportion” or “harmony”; and lastly, “brightness” or “clarity,” whence things are called beautiful which have a bright color [Summa Theologica I, 38, art 8].

By Paul Bois, DailyWire – The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention listed cases of gonorrhea, chlamydia and syphilis at an all-time high across the U.S… “For the fifth consecutive year, combined cases of gonorrhea, chlamydia and syphilis have risen in the United States, according to a Sexually Transmitted Disease Surveillance Report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published on Tuesday,” reports CNN. “A rise in the prevalence and incidence of STDs can come with serious public health consequences and concerns, including infertility, drug-resistant gonorrhea and congenital syphilis, which can cause infant death.”

By Janet E. Smith, National Catholic Register – When the news came out last summer that Theodore McCarrick had been abusing seminarians for decades and that his conduct was widely known, social media was filled with statements of concern by mothers who had been encouraging their sons to consider priestly vocations: Could they entrust their sons to seminaries?… Likely it was such concerns that led distinguished theologian John Cavadini, along with others at …..

Catholic News Agency – The USCCB has released the list of candidates ahead of its presidential and vice-presidential elections. The elections will be held during the conference’s General Assembly in Baltimore, which will be from Nov. 10-13… The candidates were each nominated by their fellow members of the bishops’ conference in line with the conference’s statutes and bylaws… The current USCCB president is Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, Archbishop Gomez has been serving as vice president since the last election in 2016.

By Jason Jones, The Stream – This week President Trump abruptly announced that he would pull U.S. troops a few convenient miles out of Turkey’s way in Syria. (No, he’s not even bringing them home.) This enables Turkish tyrant Tayyip Erdogan’s thugs to bomb and ethnically cleanse our allies the Kurds, and their Syrian Christian comrades. In fact, that has already started. As Reuters reports…

By Micaiah Bilger, LifeNews – Hill did not say how many more bodies were discovered… “Today we were notified by authorities in Illinois that family members this morning found additional fetal remains as they continued to sort through the late doctor’s belongings,” Hill said Wednesday. “We have dispatched investigators to Illinois to gather facts, but we anticipate simply adding these remains into the protocol we have already set up for dealing with these disturbing circumstances.”

By Maureen Mullarkey, The Federalist – Bureaucrats need shoes. The modern Vatican needs The Poor in much the same way that today’s Democrat Party needs a permanent underclass. This year’s designated Poor are in the Amazon. The Instrumentum promises to extend its sympathies to “the other important biomes of our world: the Congo basin, the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor, the tropical forests of the Asia Pacific region ad Guarani Aquifer, among others.”… Between the lines of that promise is admission that the Amazon is simply the first stop on a longer tour.

By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture – Did Pope Francis really really say that Jesus is not God?.. Eugenio Scalfari, who made this sensational claim, cannot be treated as a reliable witness. He is an atheist, a Marxist, not a Christian. Although he has interviewed Pope Francis several times, he has not recorded the sessions or taken notes. He boasts of the ability to reconstruct conversations from memory: a technique that would be inappropriate for any responsible journalist, let alone one of Scalfari’s advanced age (95).

By Martina Moyski, Church Militant – At first glance, the pagan modifications appear to represent indigenous people but, according to faithful Catholics, represent the culmination of “the travesties of the modernist movement.”… For example, the Church of Santa Maria in Traspontina in Rome, dating from the 16th century — and a stone’s throw from St. Peter’s Basilica — has been transformed into a shrine to Amazonian indigenous culture — as well as liberation theology… The ancient Carmelite church displays a magic circle blanket resting atop the ancient marble floor of a side altar and is adorned with indigenous objects of pagan Mother earth worship.

By Dennis Prager, The Stream – A rule of life is that everything the left touches it ruins: art, music, Christianity, Judaism, race relations, male-female relations, universities, high schools, elementary schools, late-night comedy, sports, liberty, journalism, the Boy Scouts, national economies, language and everything else it influences… The left, not liberalism… To this list, we can now add childhood and children… The left robs children of their innocence and has helped produce an unprecedented number of anxious and depressed young people.

By Fr. Mark Goring – (Fr. Mark Goring) is coming out strongly in favor of the Church’s traditional approach to evangelization in the wake of a controversial ritual held in the Vatican gardens before the Amazon Synod that many have characterized as “pagan.”.. In a four-minute video posted to YouTube on Sunday, Fr. Mark Goring of Ottawa said he would not follow those who believe that evangelization involves joining in pagan ceremonies… The video earned an endorsement from Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, who has shared his own warnings and criticisms about the controversial meeting of bishops. The bishop tweeted: “I nominate Fr Mark Goring to speak to all gathered at the Synod…..I fully endorse his message.”

By Jeffrey Mirus, Ph.D., Catholic Culture – In an intriguing new book by Fr. Charles P. Connor, the Catholic position on slavery leading up to and during the American Civil War (1861-1865) is explored in considerable depth. What we learn from it is how much cultural conditioning and competing interests can modify or “slant” the moral positions of bishops within the same Church… The book is Faith and Fury: The Rise of Catholicism During the Civil War.

By Msgr. Charles Pope – Let’s ponder a question that Jesus asked in last week’s Gospel reading… The question comes in Luke 7, when Jesus is dining at the house of Simon the Pharisee. As Jesus reclined at table, a sinful woman came up behind Him; she washed His feet with her tears, dried them with her hair, and anointed them with expensive perfume. The text tells us that Simon thought to himself, “If this man were a prophet, He would know who this is and what kind of woman is touching Him, for she is a sinner”.. A few moments later Jesus asks Simon, “Do you see this woman?”

By Martin M. Barillas, LifeSiteNews – EWTN news host Raymond Arroyo asked U.S. Bishops Michael Sheridan and Joseph Strickland in a joint interview last week about whether U.S. Catholics who are troubled by Pope Francis’ teachings and statements are schismatics or part of a “plot” to “get” the pope… Bishop Strickland of Tyler, Texas said, “I don’t see it.”… “I see people of real committed faith in the Real Presence — those who believe that the bread and wine truly becomes the Body and Blood of Christ — it’s those people who are concerned and asking, and saying ‘Give us the truth of Christ clearly.’

By Matt Hadro, CNA – The bishops of the United States have urged the Supreme Court not to “redefine a fundamental element of humanity” by reinterpreting sex descrimination laws… The bishops’ intervention came as the court heard oral arguments Tuesday in a trio of cases that could decide whether or not federal workplace nondiscrimination law extend to protect sexual orientation or gender identity…

By Scott Ritter, The American Conservative – In one fell swoop, China may have nullified America’s strategic nuclear deterrent, the U.S. Pacific Fleet, and U.S. missile defense capability. Through its impressive display of new weapons systems, China has underscored the reality that while the United States has spent the last two decades squandering trillions of dollars fighting insurgents in the Middle East, Beijing was singularly focused on overcoming American military superiority in the Pacific. If the capabilities of these new weapons are taken at face value, China will have succeeded on this front.

By Christopher M. Reilly, Catholic Stand – Yet consider the headline from a recent article in MIT Technology Review: “Meet the ‘artificial embryos’ being called uncanny and spectacular.” The use of such grand descriptors for an extremely prideful scientific project is a clear sign that the issues surrounding these new beings are already being distorted by researchers’ reckless enthusiasm… As Christians, we need to be clear about what is really going on here, and what we should be doing about it. We need to educate our society about the implications of “creating” artificial embryos… Neither “artificial” nor “embryo” but human…

By Mary Huhn, NY Post – The pill might be bringing the blues to teenage girls… According to a new study, 16-year-old girls taking oral contraceptives reported more crying, sleeping and eating problems than teens of the same age not using oral contraceptives… “Ours is the first study of this scale to dive deep into the more subtle mood symptoms that occur much more commonly than a depression episode but impact quality of life and are worrying to girls, women and their families,” said co-author Hadine Joffe, MD…

By Mother of All Peoples, Catholic Exchange – Up to this point in history, the Catholic Church has proclaimed four “dogmas” or solemnly pronounced doctrines about Mary, the Mother of Jesus. The first Marian dogma is that Mary is the “Mother of God,” that is, the mother of God the Son made man in Jesus Christ… Secondly, the Perpetual Virginity of Mary proclaims that the Mother of Jesus who was virginal before, during, and after the birth of Jesus Christ… Thirdly, the “Immaculate Conception” was infallibly proclaimed by Blessed Pius IX in 1854, declaring that Mary was conceived without original sin. …

American Life League – Our goal is simple: End abortion with the help of the Blessed Mother and her Son. We have spent the last 40 years waiting for laws and politicians to end the senseless murder of innocent preborn children, and what has changed? Absolutely nothing… We would be naive to ignore the fact that abortion goes much deeper than laws and politics. Abortion is a grave evil, and an evil of this magnitude requires the greatest spiritual weapon available to us: the holy rosary… Over the past 10 years, ALL has helped shut down over 227 Planned Parenthood facilities with a similar method to the MBW. The difference is that the MBW will be nationwide.

By Michelle La Rosa, CNA – The idea began in June, at a picnic with families and seminarians in the diocese. Fr. Peter Van Lieshout, one of the co-directors of vocations for the diocese, told them about the Mothers of Lu in Italy, a group of moms in the late 1800s who would gather regularly in their small village and pray for priestly vocations to come from their own families. In the 65 years that followed, more than 300 priests and religious vocations came from among their children.

By Robert Royal, The Catholic Thing – And now here we are at the Amazon Synod. Pope Francis often indicates what he’s thinking more by gestures than words. For instance, he recently received, cordially and in a private audience, Fr. James Martin S.J. – who seems almost schizophrenic advocating for LGBTs while claiming not to be contradicting Church teaching… This right after Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput wrote quite civilly to his flock that Martin’s appearance at Villanova University.. was confusing people about Church teaching.

By Matt Hadro, CNA – The Supreme Court will consider an abortion case this term after it announced on Friday that it will hear a challenge to Louisiana’s abortion law… Louisiana’s Unsafe Abortion Protection Act requires abortionists to have admitting privileges at a local hospital, defined as within 30 miles of the abortion clinic; when then-Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) signed the bill into law in 2014, it was promptly challenged in court… “Abortion activists are more than willing to lower the bar on women’s health in order to expand abortion, but stricter clinic regulations are in the best interest of women,” Jeanne Mancini, president of March for Life, stated on Friday.

By George Weigel. Crisis Magazine – Much of the Catholic Church in Germany (and in other German-speaking lands) is in a de facto state of schism: many of its leaders and intellectuals do not believe what the Catholic Church believes. And because of that, they do not teach what the Catholic Church teaches. Nor does this de facto schism touch on neuralgic moral questions alone. It involves the bottom of the bottom line: Is Jesus Christ the unique redeemer of humanity, such that all who are saved are saved through him (in one fashion or another)?

By Gerhard Cardinal Müller, former Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith – Our Catholic Church is currently suffering an immense trial of scandal and confusion that is causing many people to abandon the one true faith. Countless souls are being lost… Each of us is called by Christ to be His apostle here on Earth, especially in times like these. We are to proclaim the gospel, both in and out of season… A beautiful new short film has just been released which can help us in this mission. It is entitled “Manifesto of Faith: The Movie.” The film is based upon a document by the same name issued in February 2019 by Gerhard Cardinal Müller, former Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith.

By Sandro Magister, L’Espresso – “In Germany,” Müller now says – he a German as well, although he does not govern a diocese and therefore is not part of the episcopal conference – “they almost want to refound the Catholic Church. They think that Christ is just a man who lived two thousand years ago, they maintain that he was not a modern man, they are convinced that he had none of their education. They therefore think that it is necessary to fill in these gaps and that it is up to them to act. In a homily Cardinal Marx asked rhetorically: ‘If Christ were here today, would he say what he said two thousand years ago?’

By Maike Hickson, LifeSiteNews – In light of the October 6-27 Pan-Amazon Synod in Rome, LifeSiteNews reached out to Adveniat and Misereor – the two relief agencies of the German Bishops’ Conference – asking whether, and to what extent, they have funded theologians or institutions of Liberation Theology, especially in Brazil. The German Bishops’ Conference has provided Liberation Theology efforts with about 26 million euros over the past few decades – and during a time when Liberation Theology was censored and heavily criticized by the Vatican.

By Lauren Evans, Virginia Allen, Daily Signal – There’s a case that will be heard by the Supreme Court where a man who identifies as a woman is alleging sex discrimination after being fired from their job at a funeral home. Can you tell us more about this case, Emilie?… Yes. The Harris Funeral Homes case originated when a male employee of a funeral home wanted to start presenting as a woman. He wanted to start dressing as a woman, and the funeral home has a sex-specific dress code, which is legal…. The funeral home owner, Thomas Rost, was very concerned, not only about his employees, his female employees, who might have to share bathrooms with the male employee, but also about the effect on the people whom the funeral homes serve.

By Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, LifeSiteNews – Obedience to the truth must “purify” our souls and thus guide us to upright speech and upright action. In other words, speaking in the hope of being applauded, governed by what people want to hear out of obedience to the dictatorship of current opinion, is considered to be a sort of prostitution: of words and of the soul. The “purity” to which the Apostle Peter is referring means not submitting to these standards, not seeking applause, but rather, seeking obedience to the truth.

By Patrick J. Buchanan – The backstage struggle between the Bush interventionists and the America-firsters who first backed Donald Trump for president just exploded into open warfare, which could sunder the Republican Party… At issue is Trump’s decision to let the Turkish army enter Northern Syria, to create a corridor between Syrian Kurds and the Turkish Kurds of the PKK, which the U.S. and Turkey regard as a terrorist organization…

By Msgr. Charles Pope – Of all the prophets, Jonah is perhaps the most reluctant; his struggle with sin is not hidden. We are currently reading Jonah’s story in daily Mass. In the story we see a portrait of sin and of God’s love for sinners. Psalm 139 says, beautifully, Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy face? If I ascend into heaven, thou art there; if I descend into hell, thou art present. If I take my wings early in the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, Even there also shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me (Ps 139: 7-10).

By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture – … as I heard the words of St. Paul (2 Tim 1”7) that “God did not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power and love and self-control.” The spirit of timidity counsels us to be silent. The spirit of power impels us to speak, and the spirit of love and self-control urges us to help care for the welfare of our neighbors more than we care for our own comfort. We should speak—even if speaking makes us squirm a bit—if by speaking we can move a sinner toward repentance. Yes, we should be merciful toward others—but remember that admonishing sinners is a spiritual work of mercy.

By Auguste Meyrat, Crisis Magazine – Some have noted how seldom Pope Francis invokes the name of Jesus in his public statements. When he draws attention to the plight of the poor, he doesn’t consider the primary causes—which are often spiritual—but only the effects, which are material. This is why he speaks of the struggle of migrants and refugees far more than he speaks of tyranny, social dysfunction, or bankrupt ideologies. For him (and most liberal Christians), the problem begins at the border, not at home.

By Edward Pentin, National Catholic Register – The Catholic Church is heading toward an “internal papal schism” whereby Pope Francis effectively leads two opposing factions, Capuchin theologian Father Thomas Weinandy has warned… These are divided, he said, into one loyal to the papacy yet critical of this pontificate, and the other supportive of him due to his tolerance of ambiguous teaching and pastoral practice… “This is the real schism,” observed Father Weinandy, a former chief of staff for the U.S. bishops’ doctrinal committee, in a commentary published today in The Catholic Thing.

By Shawn Carney, LifeNews – Today, we know of 93 babies spared from abortion since September 25!.. A woman who had accompanied an abortion customer to Planned Parenthood in Wilmington, Delaware approached 40 Days for Life volunteer Elizabeth with the exciting news: “She is not going to do it. She is going to come out!”… Minutes later, the young mom exited the abortion facility, looking relieved… “You did the right thing and you will be prayed for,” Elizabeth promised while her prayer partner ran over with information on crisis pregnancy resources.

By Martin M. Barillas, LifeSiteNews – A Catholic priest is coming out strongly in favor of the Church’s traditional approach to evangelization in the wake of a controversial ritual held in the Vatican gardens before the Amazon Synod that many have characterized as “pagan.”.. In a four-minute video posted to YouTube on Sunday, Fr. Mark Goring of Ottawa said he would not follow those who believe that evangelization involves joining in pagan ceremonies…. The video earned an endorsement from Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, who has shared his own warnings and criticisms about the controversial meeting of bishops…

By John-Henry Westen, LifeSiteNews – The good priests’ friends are the most faithful, while those who seek to destroy the Church by remaking Her in their own images make themselves the good priests’ enemies while that good priest prays for their conversion nonetheless. The faithful know a good priest. We may be fooled for a time but eventually we come to know the truth… All that is not to say that we don’t love Pope Francis. Indeed, it would not be love at all to gloss over these monumental concerns and be silent about them because in them he is harming himself most of all. He will have to answer to Christ at judgment just as we all will. We must continue to pray for the Pope every day. Pray for his conversion.

By Thomas Ascik, Crisis Magazine – There are six main themes in the document (Instrumentum Laboris): colonialism, ecology and environmentalism, the South American Church’s decades-long involvement in liberation theology, syncretism of Catholicism with indigenous religions, the possibility of married priests, and the role of women in the Church. The synod fathers’ declarations on any and each of these issues may have implications for the global Church… The Instrumentum is long on advocacy and accusations but tells us almost nothing substantive. It’s uninformative in general about the Amazon and the local Church.

By Edward Pentin, National Catholic Register – Vatican prosecutors seized documents, computers, telephones and passports and blocked bank accounts in Tuesday’s raid on the administrative section of the Vatican Secretariat of State, the Church’s central governing body… The Vatican’s Financial Information Authority (AIF), which is the Vatican’s anti-money-laundering watchdog, was also raided…

By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture – Police—the Vatican’s own police, acting on directions from the Vatican’s top prosecutor— raided the offices of the Secretariat of State, the most powerful office of the Roman Curia. The raid—which the Vatican acknowledged was prompted by suspicious financial transactions—also covered the offices of the Financial Information Authority (AIF), the office created precisely to stop suspicious transactions… The raids were followed by the suspension of five Vatican employees, including two in key positions…

By Stephen Wynne, Church Militant – The former prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is reiterating Catholic teaching on the male-only priesthood… In a written statement to LifeSiteNews on Thursday, Cdl. Gerhard Müller affirmed that the Church’s ban on female deacons and priests is an infallible dogma of the Faith… “The demand that the Amazon Synod must rule that the Sacrament of Holy Orders — in its first degree, the diaconate — may also be validly administered to women, contains several errors,” observed Müller.

By Steven Ertelt, LifeNews – The Supreme Court has announced it will take up a case concerning a pro-life law in Louisiana… The Louisiana law requires abortion providers to have hospital admitting privileges for patient emergencies. Soon after it became law in 2014, the abortion facility Hope Medical Group for Women and the pro-abortion Center for Reproductive Rights challenged it in court… The case will be a good indication of where Chief Justice John Roberts stands on abortion jurisprudence. Roberts, earlier this year, voted with the four liberal justices to block the enforcement of the Louisiana law in February. A ruling in the Louisiana case is due by the end of June.

By Robert Royal, The Catholic Thing – That troubling meaning of “synod” has been quite evident in past weeks. Before the Amazon Synod even started – the bishops, vested in green, joined the pope for Mass at St. Peter’s yesterday and begin their work today – there was a swirl of passionate claims and counterclaims, the likes of which have probably never been seen in Rome at this kind of an event… On Saturday, Pope Francis along with Brazilian Cardinal Cláudio Hummes and Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri (both leaders of the synod) attended an indigenous ritual, a tree-planting ceremony in the Vatican gardens. Participants danced around a mandala, spread soil from “symbolic places,” and bowed to two female fertility figures. A male figure with erect penis lay nearby…

By Diane Montagna, LifeSiteNew – For if a shepherd fears to say what is right, what else is it but to turn his back in silence? But certainly, if he puts himself before the flock [so as to protect them], he ‘builds a wall for the house of Israel’ against its enemies… Whoever undertakes the priesthood assumes the office of a herald, so that wherever he goes he proclaims the coming of the dread Judge. Therefore, if the priest does not know how to preach, with what voice will such a mute herald proclaim?