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Catholic News Agency – Catholic News Agency – Darkness and danger have surrounded and hounded Frodo, the little hobbit ultimately given the mission to destroy the ring, ever since he set foot out of the Shire, the idyllic and safe home he left behind for this quest… “The day comes when (the Hobbits are) called out of their homes and into a great war between good and evil for the soul of the wider world – a war in which they play the decisive role, precisely because they’re small and so seemingly unimportant,” he said.

By Fr. Nnamdi Moneme, OMV, Catholic Exchange – The disciples followed Jesus up the high mountain unquestioningly. They did not ask, “Where are you leading us, Jesus?” In Eucharistic adoration, we approach Jesus too with that humble unquestioning faith that says, “Jesus I don’t completely understand but I believe that you are here present simply because of your word to me. I believe that you are the one drawing me into your presence. I have come to simply worship you. Please help my unbelief.”

Fr. Mike Schmitz, Ascension Press – Fr. Mike discusses four signs that your relationship is falling apart, especially when it comes to stonewalling. Stonewalling, as used in the context of this video, is when we refuse to communicate or cooperate with someone… Psychologist Dr. John Gottman calls it one of the “four horsemen of the apocalypse”, or one of four types of expression that indicate that your relationship is falling apart. The other three are defensiveness, criticism, and contempt.

By Paul Kniaz, Catholic Stand – …I think the reason this section of the Catechism, titled “The Human Community” and subtitled “Social Justice”, is peppered with the word dignity is because it is the key word for navigating social justice and human interactions. However, it’s the Church’s definition of the word that gives it importance. The Catechism explains dignity in these words: Created in the image of the one God and equally endowed with rational souls, all men have the same nature and the same origin. Redeemed by the sacrifice of Christ, all are called to participate in the same divine beatitude: all therefore enjoy an equal dignity. (CCC 1934)

By Benjamin Myers, First Things – Private colleges that want to survive and even thrive must rediscover the pursuit of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. Few “consultants” understand this, but devotion to the summum bonum, to a deeper understanding of human thriving, is the path to healthy academic institutions. It is also good business. The classical education movement in K-12 education is rapidly growing across the country, with many students and parents looking for a more meaningful form of education than the dreary factories we call public schools.

By Philip Schwadel, Gregory A. Smith, Pew Research Center – More than two years into Donald Trump’s presidency, white evangelical Protestants in the United States continue to overwhelmingly support him, according to a new analysis of Pew Research Center survey data. Other religious groups, however, are more divided in their views of the president… Roughly seven-in-ten white evangelical Protestants (69%) say they approve of the way Trump is handling his job as president, according to the Center’s latest polling in January 2019.

By Diane Montagna, LifeSiteNews – Unprecedented times call for unprecedented discussions, and unprecedented discussions require courageous souls… Many Catholics regard Bishop Athanasius Schneider as one of these souls. .. In his latest statement published on March 20, he has taken up questions that more and more people are asking throughout the world: can the Roman Pontiff hold heretical doctrines? If so, what does the doctrine of papal infallibility teach? How should the Catholic world — cardinals, bishops, clergy, and laity — respond to such a situation?

By Msgr. Charles Pope – The well-known story of Lazarus and the rich man was read at Mass this morning (Thursday of the Second Week of Lent). On one level the message of the story seems plain enough: neglecting the poor is a damnable sin. However, there are other important teachings: about death, judgment, Heaven, and Hell. Those teachings are hidden in the details, but the subtlety is part of the story’s beauty. Let’s take a look at some of the teachings, beginning with the obvious one.

By Rev. James V. Schall, S.J., Crisis Magazine – Liturgical thought today seems to downplay the importance of doctrine while elevating the significance of practice. The harmony of lex orandi as the criterion of lex credendi is questioned. Dogma and liturgy seem to have parted company. We have to choose which side we are on: doctrine and its pastoral application together or merely the latter severed from doctrinal truth.

By John Stonestreet, CNSNews – Last summer on BreakPoint, I talked about the violence targeting Christians in what’s known as the “middle belt” of Nigeria. The population of Nigeria is almost evenly divided between Muslims and Christians. That religious split largely follows geographic lines: The northern part of the country is predominantly Muslim, the eastern and southern parts of the country heavily Christian.

By Brittany Hughes, LifeNews – Let’s break down Wen’s claim using actual facts: firstly, the claim that late-term abortions are “rare.”
While not nearly as common as early abortions performed in the first trimester, abortions performed at or after 24 weeks are hardly “rare.” In fact, the CDC estimates that roughly 13,000 of these late-term abortions are performed in the United States every single year. That’s enough unborn babies to fill up about half the L.A. Chargers football stadium.

By Jeanne Smits, LifeSiteNews – In his latest book, Le soir approche et déjà le soir baisse… Cardinal Robert Sarah decided to “speak out” for the “disorientated Catholics” hurting from the deep crisis the Church is going through… “I can no longer remain silent. I may no longer remain silent,” Cardinal Sarah wrote in his opening paragraph. He has taken full measure of the “dark night” of the Church and “She is wrapped and blinded by the mystery of iniquity.”

By George Weigel, First Things – Some years before, Cardinal George had shocked the priests of Chicago by suggesting, almost offhandedly, that while he would die in his bed, his successor would die in jail and that man’s successor would be executed in the public square—after which the martyr’s successor would, as the Church had done so often in the past, help pick up the fragments of a broken civilization and start again. It seems unlikely that, on the night of March 13, 2013, Cardinal George imagined that his hypothetical scenario would be dramatically accelerated, the only difference being that the friend beside him would be the one in jail.

By Joseph D’Hippolito, The Stream – God doesn’t want us to become so focused on our failures and mistakes that we don’t see His love in the midst of them. My friend expressed the concept in his own way… “There has to be a balance between realism and potential,” he wrote. “But I have a habit of being dramatic with my words, and I end up denigrating myself. It has occurred to me that I need to treat myself as a friend, and another child of God.”… That approach can help improve relationships with other people… after loving God with your whole heart, mind and strength — is loving your neighbor as yourself…

By Michael F. Haverluck, OneNewsNow – “The Iron Curtain that once divided Europe may be long gone, but the continent today is split by stark differences in public attitudes toward religion, minorities and social issues – such as gay marriage and legal abortion,” Pew Research reported from its two-year study. “Compared with Western Europeans, fewer Central and Eastern Europeans would welcome Muslims or Jews into their families or neighborhoods, extend the right of marriage to gay or lesbian couples or broaden the definition of national identity to include people born outside their country.”

By Fr. Gerald E. Murray, First Things – The Archdiocese of Baltimore recently announced the finding of credible accusations of sexual abuse of adults committed by two bishops: Michael Bransfield, former bishop of Wheeling-Charleston, WV; and Gordon D. Bennett, retired bishop of Mandeville, Jamaica (and earlier, auxiliary bishop of Baltimore).

By Marc Morano, Daily Signal – Most climate change activists cite the greenhouse gas theory—that man-made gases are causing changes to the Earth’s temperature. Christy noted that this theory predicts an increase in frequency of record-breaking temperatures. Yet the exact opposite is happening in the U.S.—the frequency of those temps is declining.

By William Kilpatrick, Crisis Magazine – Last week, a man who claimed to be defending Western Civilization killed 50 defenseless worshippers in two New Zealand mosques, thereby betraying every good thing that Western Civilization stands for… A supposed foe of jihad terror, the terrorist adopted the savage tactics of jihadists in order to further his twisted ideology. Whatever he was trying to prove, he only proved himself to be every bit as evil as those ISIS terrorists who torture, enslave, and behead.

By Cassy Fiano-Chesser, Live Action News – Last week, the shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand, horrified the entire world… The death toll was 50 people… People almost immediately began sending their sympathies and expressing outrage; Planned Parenthood, the abortion corporation, likewise wasted no time doing the same. In a tweet that earned the abortion corporation many rebukes, Planned Parenthood rightly said that all people deserve to live free from fear and violence. What the company seemed to miss was the terrible irony in its statement….

By Christine Rousselle, CNA – The writers and co-directors of the upcoming film “Unplanned” have spoken of how they prepared for a “spiritual battle” to make the pro-life film in the hopes that it will change hearts and minds through it groundbreaking depiction of the abortion process… “We, from the beginning, knew that it would be spiritual battle, spiritual warfare. It was prophesied over us that this is not a normal movie,” co-director Cary Solomon told CNA in an interview following a screening for press on March 18.

By Bill Hoffmann, NewsMax – David Horowitz argues in his new book “Dark Agenda: The War to Destroy Christian America,” that secularists and leftists want to turn the nation into a godless, heathen society where religion has absolutely no role… Horowitz… is used to taking controversial positions. He is the New York Times best-selling author of “Radical Son and Big Agenda: President Trump’s Plan to Save America.”… “The war on Christianity is real, and it’s right on our doorstep”…

By Jennifer Roback Morse, National Catholic Register – The author, Frederic Martel, is a self-described “French gay atheist.” His overarching theme is that the Church’s stance on homosexuality is hypocritical and harmful. Many priests are living “double lives,” professing Church teaching by day and seeking homosexual sex by night… The solution, in Martel’s mind, is to change Church teaching so that these clergy can live openly homosexually active lives. In this, he, no doubt, has many supporters, both inside and outside the Church.

By Msgr. Charles Pope – The Maryland physician-assisted suicide bill has been passed by the House of Delegates and is now being considered by the state Senate.  The House bill is numbered HB 399, and the bill cross-filed in the Senate is SB 311. We have every reason to be very alarmed by these developments. Other states are considering similar legislation designed to advance, assist, legalize and normalize the suicide of those who no longer see a reason to live.

By Chris Woodward, OneNewsNow – Attorney Greg Baylor of Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) says everyone agrees that everyone should be treated with dignity and respect… “Our laws must respect the constitutionally-guaranteed freedoms that we have, and this Equality Act is a coercive sexual orientation and gender identity law,” Baylor continues. “It really undermines fairness and freedom.”

By Joseph Pronechen, EWTN News – From his television and radio shows to his many writings, Archbishop Futon Sheen shared one prophetic insight after another into the way faith relates to life… He explained the time-bound in terms of the timeless. He did that in a convincing, direct way. Consider the subject of mercy… “As the world grows soft, it uses more and more the word mercy,” he wrote back in 1949. The good bishop found this a “praiseworthy characteristic” on a particular condition: “if mercy were understood aright.”

By Fr. Dwight Longenecker, The Stream – Catholics come first as targets. It is part of a long standing anti-Catholicism in the United States. See Philip Jenkins’ The New Anti-Catholicism, the Last Acceptable Prejudice. Anti-Catholic attitudes have been part of American culture from the Puritan pilgrims through to the founding fathers of the country. Next came the riots of the Nativist movement of the 1840s, the “Know Nothings,” the Ku Klux Klan and bigoted resistance to Catholic politicians.

Msgr. Hans Feichtinger, Crisis Magazine – According to a recent study conducted at the University of Ulm (Germany), the number of minors who suffered sexual abuse within the German Church is much higher than previously assumed. In comparison with other countries, however, this is not surprising, and was to be expected. Even more surprising has been another finding in the study: the number of victims is equally high in Protestant churches….

By Diane Montagna, LifeSiteNews – The “sordid history” of vaccine production using aborted babies began with the eugenics movement and has become a billion-dollar industry that threatens parents’ rights and fills the pockets of pharmaceutical companies and abortion providers, a leading advocate for ethical vaccines has said… “Until our physicians and clergy leaders unite worldwide demanding the moral alternatives, the pharmaceutical industry is not going to change,” Vinnedge insists. “In fact, as history and the current trends are proving, it’s only going to get worse.”

By Fr. Maurice Meschler, Catholic Exchange – It is recorded in Holy Scripture that the people of Israel, in grateful memory of their deliverer and benefactor, took the remains of Joseph with them at their departure from Egypt into the Holy Land, and buried them in the country of Samaria (Exod. 13:19). We, as Christians, must not be less appreciative of our Saint Joseph. We are indebted to him in an infinitely higher degree. Hence, we are to cultivate a heartfelt devotion to Saint Joseph.

By Eric Sammons, Catholic Answers – So what should be the invitation of the Catholic evangelist, if it’s not to pray the Sinner’s Prayer? This will vary, depending on the person we’re evangelizing. Right now, let’s look at evangelization efforts directed only toward fallen-away Catholics. Why? Because they are often the “low-hanging fruit” for evangelization since they already have a connection to the Church. And, sadly, they make up the second-largest religious group in America, so there is a lot of work to do.

By Rachel del Guidice, The Daily Signal – Nineteen times House Democrats have blocked a vote on a bill that would protect babies who survive an abortion… “It is a shocking reality that the majority party in the people’s House refuses to allow a vote to protect the lives of newborn babies,” Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., chairman of the Republican Study Committee, said in a statement… This bill simply affords infants born alive during a failed abortion attempt the same care any other newborn would receive.

By Msgr. Charles Pope – As a kind of follow-up to yesterday’s Gospel of the Transfiguration, we do well to reflect a little further on the Lord’s intention in leading Peter, James, and John up a high mountain. The Church teaches us His purpose in the Preface for the Second Sunday of Lent: For after he had told the disciples of his coming Death, on the holy mountain he manifested to them his glory, to show, even by the testimony of the law and the prophets, that the Passion leads to the glory of the Resurrection.

By Catholic News Agency – A judge blocked a Kentucky law that would prohibit abortion after the detection of a fetal heartbeat, in the latest setback in efforts to expand abortion restrictions in the United States… Federal Judge David J. Hale of the Western District of Kentucky ruled on March 16 that Kentucky’s newly-signed law to ban abortion after the sixth week of pregnancy may be unconstitutional, and delayed its enforcement for the next two weeks.

By Perry West, CNA – Catholic culture is everywhere in New Orleans… in the days leading to March 19, the people of New Orleans take up a Catholic tradition that began in the Middle Ages – they build “St. Joseph altars.”… The tradition began in Sicily, where St. Joseph’s intercession is said to have helped the island through a severe famine almost 1,000 years ago. According to legend, people thanked St. Joseph for his prayers by building prayer altars, on which they placed food, pastries, flowers, wine, and, especially, fava beans.

By Shawn Carney, LifeNews – Today we know of 91 babies saved from abortion by YOUR prayers since March 6…and the fate of one of those children was left to chance… “One couple stood out,” said Tina, who volunteers for the 40 Days for Life campaign in Forest Park, Georgia. “They were playing ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors.’”… “They must have made an agreement that if one of them won, they should go in [for an abortion],” Tina continued. “But if the other person won, they would walk away. It was apparent that one of the two wasn’t happy with the results because they played the game repeatedly.

Posted By Nancy Flory, The Stream – May your faith be strong as a mountain wall,
And subtle as the early morning mists.
May you believe that God’s power conquers all,
And his love through trouble and pain persists.
May your faith soar like a multi-colored bird,
And shine brighter than the blinding desert sun.

By Philip Kosloski, Aleteia – In the Western Church, the feast of St. Joseph wasn’t fixed until the 15th century. According to some traditions, March 19 was the day of Joseph’s death, though there is little evidence to support it, as it is unclear when Joseph died. It is certain that he was present when Jesus was 12 and “lost in the Temple” but there is no mention of him at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, say at the wedding in Cana, when Our Lord turned the water to wine.

By Stephen Beale, EWTN News – Key battleground states include Maryland, New Jersey, New York and New Mexico, where the leading advocate for the bills, Compassion and Choices, is focusing its efforts, according to Sean Crowley, a spokesman for the organization. Other states include: Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Nevada, New York, Rhode Island, Utah and Virginia.

By Patrina Mosley , Family Research Council – Many of us still can’t believe we have to have a debate over whether it’s okay to kill a child up until the day of birth—and now even after birth! It may seem like we are in dark times, coincidently at a time when we have one of the most pro-life administrations ever in office… In the last two years, we have seen significant pro-life turnarounds, and the abortion business feels threatened. As the forces of darkness are emboldening lawmakers, that aggressiveness is also emboldening ordinary Americans and churches to take a pro-life stand.

By Rick Becker, EWTN News – Regardless of how they’re enumerated, the Last Things sketch out for us our journey’s end. If the Four Marks represent the Church militant in motion here on earth, then the Last Things bring us to our common destiny: the threshold of eternity and beyond – the Church suffering (purgatory) for some of us and, eventually (God willing), the Church triumphant (heaven) for all of us. The Last Things provide a framework in which we can understand our whole lives now and what we can look forward to later.

By Micaiah Bilger, LifeNews – An Oregon man won an initial victory against the IRS last year in his determination not to pay taxes because they fund abortions… Michael Bowman, a pro-life Christian, has refused to pay income taxes or file tax returns for more than two decades, National Review reports. He repeatedly has made it very clear why: He believes unborn babies are valuable human beings, and killing them is wrong.

By Stella Morabito, The Federalist – Millennials for Bernie Sanders, Be Careful What You Wish For… So why should we meditate on the gruesome anniversary of Bukharin’s execution 78 years after the fact? Because Stalin’s purges and the reign of terror he invoked throughout Soviet society are actually pretty natural outgrowths of a system that puts too much power in the hands of too few people. That’s why… The current professed yearning for socialism—a system so conducive to corruption, cronyism, censorship, and coercion—just keeps rearing its ugly head.

By Charlotte Pence, Washington Times – If our generation is to be concerned with the disenfranchised, the marginalized, the oppressed and the outsider, the unborn child fits all of these descriptions…. Yes, abortion is a violation of providing life to a human being — but it should also be acknowledged as oppression in its barest form. It ostracizes the weaker members of society, and it places a particular burden on minority communities.

By Edward Pentin, National Catholic Register – March 2013 Victoria police set up “Operation Tethering,” a probe that targeted Pell before any formal allegations of historical sexual offences were made. The investigation turned into an “operation” in April 2015 based on allegations of “inappropriate behavior” by Pell, but no accusations of criminal conduct… September 2013 Cardinal Pell begins work devising statutes and rules for new Secretariat for the Economy.

By Robert P. George, First Things – At the heart of the recent Catholic scandals is infidelity—literally the lack of faith. There are priests, including bishops and even cardinals, who do not believe in God, or whose belief in God is merely notional… they don’t believe what the Catholic Church teaches about morality… or at least they are unwilling or unable to embrace that teaching and embody it in a consistent way in their lives and ministries. So they are unfaithful to, among other things, their vows of chastity and the Church’s teachings about sex and marriage and the duty never to exploit or abuse.

By Anian Christoph Wimmer, CNA – Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising has announced that the Catholic Church in Germany is embarking on a “binding synodal process” to tackle what he says are the three key issues arising from the clerical abuse crisis: priestly celibacy, the Church’s teaching on sexual morality, and a reduction of clerical power.

By Michael Morris., CNSNews – The New York Times is complaining “about China’s declining birthrate.”… “Now, there’s something hilarious about The New York Times complaining about China’s declining birthrate,” stated Ben Shapiro. “The real reason they’re worried about the declining birthrate in China, of course, is because they have a massive social welfare state infrastructure – it’s a communist country. If you don’t have young people, nobody’s paying the bills. And they used a one child policy to completely destroy the future of their country.”

Author Jimmy Akin – On May 13, 1917, the three were again tending their sheep when they perceived what they thought was a flash of lightning. As they hurried home, there was another flash, and they beheld a beautiful woman in a hemlock tree that grew in a field known as the Cova da Iria… “We beheld a Lady all dressed in white. She was more brilliant than the sun and radiated a light more clear and intense than a crystal glass filled with sparkling water, when the rays of the burning sun shine through it”

By Msgr. Charles Pope – The Transfiguration… It is commonly held that (Jesus) did this to prepare His apostles for the difficult days ahead. There’s a line from an old spiritual that says, “Sometimes I’m up, sometimes I’m down, sometimes I’m almost to the ground … but see what the end shall be.” That is what the Lord is doing here: He is showing us what the end shall be. There is a cross to get through, but there is glory on the other side.

By Sean McDowell, The Stream – Our culture is at the point where we are failing to protect the most vulnerable among us. And we even celebrate their destruction. Are we really any morally superior to Roman-era paganism in which people practiced “infant exposure,” involving the abandonment of unwanted babies on a trash-heap for death or slavery?…Darkness is overtaking our culture. The culture of death is fast upon us.

By Micaiah Bilger, LifeNews – The New Mexico Senate rejected a radical pro-abortion bill Thursday that would have kept abortions legal for any reason up to birth in the state… The vote was 18-24. It was a tough fight for pro-life advocates after the bill passed the House in February and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who claims to be Catholic, said she would support it… Pro-life advocates celebrated the victory and praised the Republican and Democratic lawmakers who helped to defeat the bill.

By Kevin Jones, CNA – The deeply influential Open Society Foundations has announced that Tom Perriello – a former congressman, pro-abortion rights gubernatorial candidate and co-founder of controversial Catholic political groups linked to John Podesta amid speculation of a “Catholic Spring” revolution against the bishops – will oversee grantmaking and advocacy for the U.S. programs branch of financier George Soros’ philanthropy network.

By Billy Ryan, uCatholic – When Pope Venerable Pius XII addressed the Roman people in Saint Peter’s Square in light of the Mindszenty’s imprisonment, he describes a Church that has given into the demands of the Secular State, and what “is expected as the price for her tolerance and her problematic recognition” that some would say are seen as prophetic warnings.

By Claire Chretien, LifeSiteNews – The City Council of Roswell, New Mexico passed a resolution Thursday declaring its jurisdiction to be in support of “fetal life,” something local pro-life activists say makes Roswell a “sanctuary city for the unborn.”… In a seven to one vote, with one council member abstaining, the City Council passed Resolution 19-28, which declares “that innocent human life, including fetal life, must always be protected and that Society must protect those who cannot protect themselves.”

By Rev. Jerry J. Pokorsky, The Catholic Thing – The traditional Communion rail has functional and sacramental purposes.  It distinguishes the sanctuary from the nave and the priest from the people.  The architectural logic of the Communion rail symbolizes the sacred (“set apart”) and ministerial priesthood with the priest offering Mass as a mediator in Christ the Head.

By Phil Lawler, CatholicCulture – Cardinal Danneels was Archbishop of Brussels for more than 30 years. In all that time, did he do nothing more memorable than serve as president of the episcopal conference and participate in Synod meetings? And why does the Pope make a special mention of those very controversial Synod meetings in 2014 and 2015? If Cardinal Danneels made any noteworthy statement during those sessions, it escaped my notice.

By Fr. Dwight Longenecker – When we are fully baptized in the Holy Spirit, the malignancy is healed and we are driven not by an inner resentment and rage, but by the Spirit of Christ himself… How can you tell the difference?.. By their fruit you shall know them… The symptom of the malignancy is hatred, anger, restlessness, impatience, rudeness, suspicion, selfishness, violence and tantrums… The fruit of the Spirit is different… “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”

By Fr. John A. Perricone, Crisis Magazine – Euphemisms are de rigeur for revolutionaries. Communist states call themselves “people’s republics.” When they instigate conflicts, they are called “wars of liberation.” Abortionists call their abattoirs “pregnancy centers” and their executions “terminations.” Most currently, surgeons call sexual mutilation “gender reassignment.” All of this a clever strategy to stave off natural human revulsion so that after a sufficient passage of time the moral sense is deadened.

By Msgr. Charles Pope – However, all of these are earthly deadlines. Sadly, one of the most fundamental deadlines facing all of us is among the most ignored. It is a deadline in the most literal sense of the word: each of us will die one day. With few exceptions, the exact moment and manner of our death is unknown to us and outside our control.

By Jeanne Smits, LifeSiteNews – “(Jesus’) third temptation is about love. We always need to know just how far those who love us are capable of going because of that love. Tempting God is not having confidence in Him and putting Him to the test. Jesus will not tempt his Father, even in the paroxysm of anguish. At Gethsemane, at the heart of the most profound dereliction, Jesus will ask His Father to spare Him the horrible suffering of the cross. Yet He ends his prayer in trusting abandonment: ‘Still, not my will but yours be done’ (Luke 22:42).

By Mark C. McCann, Catholic Stand – Recently I joined with some friends to help prepare a parsonage for an assistant pastor and his wife who were coming to their new church… I often allow these types of experiences to serve as metaphors for my life. This one was especially meaningful as I entered into the season of Lent. It reminded me that this sacred time issues a call to believers to do our own spiritual housecleaning as we prepare to celebrate the resurrection of the Lord.

By John Stonestreet, CNSNews – A chilling quote is often attributed to Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin: “One death is a tragedy. One million deaths are a statistic.” Stalin is alleged to have said this in the days leading up to one of the largest man-made disasters and mass-murders in history: the 1932 Ukrainian famine… Anyone who wants to truly communicate the horror of killing needs to do more than cite statistics. They have to tell stories. This holds true for any atrocity, including one that has claimed more lives than even the highest estimates of Stalin’s regime.

By Patrick J. Buchanan – Yet, allegations of dual loyalty against ethnic groups, even from statesmen, have a long history in American politics… In 1915, ex-President Theodore Roosevelt, at a convention of the Catholic Knights of Columbus, bellowed: “There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism … German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English-Americans, Scandinavian-Americans, or Italian-Americans… “There is no such thing as a hyphenated American who is a good American. The only man who is a good American is a man who is an American and nothing else.”

By Dr. Robert Royal, The Catholic Thing – When at certain seasons, I try to encourage people to get away, for a while, from the culture wars in the Church and the world, and the politicization of everything – and instead to read, look, or listen to something soul-enlarging – I often get one of two responses… On the traditionalist side, I’m told – who knew? – “we’re at war…” … On the progressive side, people also lecture me – about ivory-tower intellectualism – as if being interested in truth means you probably never DO (or care about) anything else. …

By Micaiah Bilger, LifeNews – A group of international scientists is calling for a global moratorium on the genetic engineering of human beings as fears about parents creating “designer babies” grow… Their open letter, published in Nature on Wednesday, urges countries to ban the practice after reports surfaced late last year about a Chinese scientist who genetically altered the DNA of twin girls before they were born in November. The letter noted that the widely-condemned experiment highlighted the “growing interest in proposals for genetic enhancement of humans.”

By John Zmirak, The Stream – Is the Vatican an SNL Skit?.. I’m waiting for God to do something like that for all of us. Because the past few years in Church and State really have felt like some kind of weird reality show. Or at best, the worst kind of improv…. Catholic conservative activist Elizabeth Yore came to the latter conclusion recently. She wrote on Twitter: Vatican is an SNL skit. Bishop under investigation for sexual misconduct is on spiritual retreat with Pope Francis….

By James Robison, Founder and Publisher of The Stream – The once subtle but now radical move toward Socialism in America will prove to be an all-out assault on freedom itself. It replaces trust in Nature’s God and Nature’s Law with idolatrous trust in a source other than God; an idol requiring more slavish devotion than Pharaoh, Caesar, or any wicked king, dictator or emperor. Already we see those who do not honor this freedom-diminishing trend secular deity are demonized in every possible way.

By David Nussman, Church Militant – Now, there is a website called “Caxit” that calls for Catholics to abandon the Democratic Party… Church Militant reached out to Dori Belmonte, the person behind Caxit, and asked about the purpose of the site. She said that, in addition to encouraging Catholics to leave the Democratic Party, she also has intentions to “give a voice to conservative Catholic parishioners and priests who experience prejudice from the liberal Church hierarchy” and to “shed light on how liberal ideologies have poisoned the Catholic Church from within.”

By Stephen P. White, The Catholic Thing – Now, just this week, Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston announced that his archdiocese would be putting in place a similar program for bishops’ accountability using the same third-party system. As in Baltimore, the Boston system will use an existing reporting infrastructure to handle allegations against bishops, which can then be sent to the nuncio or law enforcement.

By Msgr. Charles Pope – In the Gospel reading from Thursday, the Lord teaches the need to persist in prayer… Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened (Matt 7:7-8)… Seeking and knocking indicate persistence. While we might look for something briefly and then give up if we don’t find it, seeking implies an ongoing, perhaps lengthy search.

Fr. Patrick Briscoe, OP, Aleteia – Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband; and I heard a great voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away” (Rev. 21:1-4).

By Philip Kosloski, Aleteia – During the first few centuries of the Church, Christians were often persecuted and it was difficult for the bishops of the Church to create an all encompassing liturgical calendar. In general, bishops were entrusted with a local church and it was up to them to lead the Christian people in the worship of God. This resulted in an early disparity in how Christians celebrated Lent.

By Christina Vazquez, LifeNews – Abby Johnson, the former Planned Parenthood director-turned pro-life advocate, recently shared her story of how she left the abortion industry and now helps others leave as well… Despite growing up in a pro-life household, Johnson was drawn to Planned Parenthood after a representative on her college campus spoke of ideas like women empowerment and healthcare, The Blaze reported… “I really didn’t know anything about the organization, so I think I was just really naive and really ignorant to what they were truly selling,” Johnson said. “I wasn’t working from a well-thought out position.”

By Fr. Mike Schmitz, Ascension Presents – In a previous video, Fr. Mike discussed four questions to ask yourself when discerning God’s will for your life. When presented with a new door (or big decision), ask yourself: Is it good?… Is it open?… Is it wise?… Is it something I want?… Now when applying this discernment process to a relationship, you have to remember that the other person is likely asking him or herself the same questions. The hardest heartbreak, though, comes when the first three questions check out but the fourth question—Is this something I want?—does not.

By David La Mar, Those Catholic Men – “Why was Christ crucified?”… So often the typical response to this question is “to save us from our sins.” This is true. But there is more to consider here. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), there are six other reasons with which we need to be familiar in order to better understand the implications and ramifications of the incarnation, passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And, just as importantly, to be able to articulate them for others when we are asked. So why did the Word become flesh?

By Michael F. Haverluck, OneNewsNow – According to the U.S. Census Bureau, approximately half of noncitizens living in America are in the country illegally, and researchers from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) explained that even though the Trump administration has taken many measures to reduce immigrants’ reliance on the U.S. welfare system, they still receive a great majority of free benefits dished out by federal and state governments – at taxpayers’ expense… “Sixty-three (63) percent of non-citizen households access welfare programs – compared to 35 percent of native households”…

By Ed Condon, CNA – On Wednesday, Cardinal George Pell was sentenced to six years in prison following his conviction on five charges of sexual abuse of minors. He will be eligible for parole in three years and eight months… While the passing of sentence normally marks the end of a case, Pell’s situation is far from resolved. Although he remains in prison, his appeal is expected to be heard in June. Meanwhile in Rome, a canonical process is due to be held to examine the same charges against him.

By Jeremy A. Kee, Crisis Magazine – The Roman Empire had fallen, and the Enlightenment had not yet begun. It was a period of social and cultural darkness. When one looks at the great works done by the Church during this time—a deeply humane work, one laughs at the label of a “dark” age. Were it not for the Church, there would have been no Enlightenment, as it was the Church that worked tirelessly to preserve the wisdom of the ancient world. Dark, indeed.

By Inés San Martín, CRUX – Though Pope Francis has faced questions and even criticism for his overall handling of the clerical sexual abuse scandals in Catholicism, few cases touch the pontiff quite as directly as that of Argentine Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta, who was brought to Rome at the pope’s personal initiative and who now stands accused of abuse… Appointed by Francis to the northern Argentine diocese of Oran, when the bishop resigned at the age of 53 in 2017 he said the move was for “health reasons.” A few months later, Francis named him Assessor to the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See….

By Msgr. Charles Pope – Why does Jesus call us wicked?… First let’s make sure that the translation from the Greek is a good one. The Greek expression used is πονηροὶ ὑπάρχοντες (poneroi hyparchontes). Poneroi is defined “bad, of a bad nature or condition,” but it is also defined as “full of labors, annoyances, hardships.” Hyparchontes is defined as “from the very beginning” or “being inherently.”… Thus, the translation “you who are wicked” is likely accurate. However, there is a sort of sympathy contained in it as well, implying that this wickedness comes from the fact that we have inherited a fallen nature…

By Stephen P. White, The Catholic Thing – It’s one thing for the USCCB to discuss plans for implementing mechanisms of accountability for bishops. It’s another thing for the archbishop of a major archdiocese to put them in place. It’s yet another thing for the President of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors to take these steps in his own archdiocese… If Archbishop Lori deserves credit for taking this action before any of his brother bishops, Cardinal O’Malley following suit sends a strong signal to any other bishops who might still be worried about pursuing reforms that might be perceived as stepping on Roman toes. Expect more dioceses to follow suit.

By Darian Carrow, The Stream – Essure, a sterilization device for women, isn’t safe. At least that’s what the evidence suggests, with thousands of women reporting being harmed by the devices. Regardless, Bayer AG kept the device on the market until December 2018. America was the last country that sold the device… Many women have filed lawsuits against Bayer because of the side effects caused by Essure. Some of the side effects include tears of the uterus or fallopian tubes and migrating devices.

By Christine Rousselle, CNA – In his statement, Gomez said that he believed the moral arguments for ending the death penalty were clear… “Every human life is precious and sacred in the eyes of God and every person has a dignity that comes from God. This is true for the innocent and it is true for the guilty. It is true even for those who commit grave evil and are convicted of the most cruel and violent crimes,” said Gomez.

By Patrick Goodenough, CNSNews – Pushing back against accusations that women’s rights have been excised from annual reports on human rights, a senior State Department official said Wednesday the term “reproductive rights” has been dropped because some advocates interpret the term as incorporating a “right to abortion” – even though U.S. administrations of both parties have not done so.

By Fr. Edward Looney, Catholic Exchange – I had the privilege of spending 10 weeks in the Holy Land during my time in seminary. Three of those weeks were spent in Bethlehem as our home base. We traveled throughout the area on day trips, returning each night to the monastery where we stayed. On days when there was no travel, we had class, and free time to read, study, and pray in the city of Bethlehem.

By Micaiah Bilger, LifeNews – The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals granted a major victory to Ohio taxpayers Tuesday when it ruled that the state may defund the abortion giant Planned Parenthood… Ohio lawmakers tried to cut off the abortion group’s taxpayer funding after it was caught in multiple states allegedly selling aborted baby body parts. Then-Ohio Gov. John Kasich signed the pro-life bill into law in 2016, but Planned Parenthood challenged it in court… The Sixth Circuit ruling, written by Judge Jeffrey Sutton, a George W. Bush-appointee, argued that Planned Parenthood does “not have a Fourteenth Amendment right to perform abortions.”

By Chad Groening, OneNewsNow – A legal scholar says it’s clear that Democrats are trying to eliminate the Electoral College without going through constitutional amendment process… Many Democrats are still incensed that Hillary Clinton, their presidential candidate in 2016, won the popular vote but lost where it counted – in the Electoral College. Democrats have long opposed the Electoral College because with overwhelming margins of victory in high-population states like California they could dominate future presidential elections based on the popular vote.

Catholic News Agency – Paula Davis… (of) Catholic Charities of Baton Rouge, told CNA that the agency saw a need for adoption services north of Baton Rouge and expanded to fill that need… “I think one of the values [of being a Catholic-based adoption service] is that we are mission-based, so we’re providing services, whether its domestic or international, based on the needs of the child, but also with respect for life,” Davis said… She also said that they are looking for families not only for infants, but for “all children who are in need of a loving, stable home.”

By Jason Surmiller, Crisis Magazine – The formation of the Catholic bishops’ political mindset begins in the late 1800s with Archbishop John Ireland of Minneapolis and his goal to Americanize the Church. He, along with many of his brother bishops, hoped to strip the parish churches of their ethnic identity and persuaded their followers to become fully American. The bishops realized until that happened, Protestant America would look at Catholics as immigrant outsiders, best barred from the country.

By Joseph Shaw, LifeSiteNews – George Cardinal Pell is, according to reports, spending 23 hours a day in solitary confinement. He is unable to celebrate Mass. He is due to be sentenced this week and is likely to receive a term of ten years. He has appealed against his conviction, but this appeal may not be heard for a year. It is impossible to say how long a further trial will last. And because of the peculiarities of the legal system, an eventual acquittal could well look like he was being released on a technicality….

By Micaiah Bilger, LifeNews – The Food and Drug Administration issued warning letters last week to two abortion groups that are selling dangerous abortion drugs to American women over the internet… The groups are putting women at “significant health risks,” according to the agency. They allow women to buy the drugs online without ever seeing a doctor, though abusive partners or parents could easily buy the drugs as well… It noted that approved abortion drugs in the U.S. are dangerous even when provided legally, writing, “… the drug carries a risk of serious or even life-threatening adverse effects, including serious and sometimes fatal infections and prolonged heavy bleeding …”

By Kathryn Jean Lopez, The Stream – His birth mother continued: “The reason I am going into all of this is because I want you to try to love him without any reservation. You see, he has my love, but he won’t know that firsthand. I have had to trust many people in this past year that I never would have met if not for my pregnancy, and though I am a trusting person, this is different. This tiny life was in my care until just over two months ago. Now he is with people I don’t even know. The separation is difficult, but the worry is worse. I am trusting him to you…..

By Fr. Nnamdi Moneme, OMV,  Catholic Exchange – Only true lovers fight till the very end. The same is true in our spiritual lives. Only true lovers — those who know they are loved by God and who are likewise truly committed to respond to that divine love in action and continuously growing in it — would fight sin and temptation to the very end of their lives. We easily lose the battle against sin when our faith in God’s love for us or our commitment to love Him begins to fade.

By Msgr. Charles Pope – Here, then, is a deeper meaning of the sign of Jonah: if Israel will not repent, then God will take their power and strength and give it to a foreign land that knows Him not. These foreigners will shame and humiliate Israel, inflicting God’s punishment on them… This is humiliating to Israel on two levels. First, a pagan country would repent while God’s own people would not. Second, they are conquered by a foreign and unbelieving people.

By Dr. Jeff Mirus, Catholic Culture – The book is divided into five sections: God and Man; Christ and His Church; Sin; Sacraments; and World, Soul, and Things. The last section requires some explanation. It engages in a brief survey of the nature of the commandments and explores the four Last Things, but it also covers the mystery of sex, the evil of birth prevention, and marriage problems. The book closes with lessons on the feminine principle in religion, prayer, and “world, soul and things”—which essentially explores the nature of true human fulfillment.

By Catholic News Agency – It was the cardinal’s second trial, as a jury in an earlier trial had failed to reach a unanimous verdict. The first jury were deadlocked 10-2 in Pell’s favor… His appeal will be made on three points: the jury’s reliance on the evidence of a single victim; an irregularity that kept Cardinal Pell from entering his not guilty plea in front of the jury; and the defense not being allowed to show a visual representation supporting his claim of innocence.

By Paul Fuchs, LifeSiteNews – Well into the final third of this earthly life, I am focused on the ultimate goal, the saving of my soul and the souls of my children and grandchildren. Eyes on the Prize. When I asked Mom if this email was too much, she replied: “If their house was on fire, would we tell them? . . .  and the spiritual threat to them is so much greater.” So here goes. Please forgive the length.

By K. Albert Little, Patheos – My pastor, and good friend, is well-known for encouraging us to “make Sunday matter.” It’s a bit of a catchphrase of his, and it is catchy. Sundays, he rightly insists, are given unto the Lord. They’re for our rest, and respite, and recollection that we are God’s people. But it’s also an admonition to go out and live our Sunday promises—our Sunday obligations—all week long. To make our Sundays mean something we need to live in the spirit of Sunday throughout the rest of our week.

By Della Hasselle, The New Orleans Advocate – When Archbishop Gregory Aymond heard three stories in one week about children and adults in the New Orleans archdiocese becoming addicted to pornography, he decided to take action… He assembled a team to develop a plan to give Catholic clergy, families and schools the tools to help them talk about the “elephant in the room,” according to David Dawson, director of the archdiocese’s Office of Marriage and Family Life.

By Daniel Walters, The Inlander – “The very men who are supposed to be the heroes, by their behavior, are the villains,” Daly said. “The very people who are supposed to lead people to Christ are harming it.”.. And that’s the stance that Daly took in November at the bishop’s conference in Baltimore, when he stood up on the floor and condemned some of his fellow bishops for their role in the latest series of abuse scandals, arguing some bishops were morally compromised while others were so obsessed with climbing up the “ecclesiastical escalator” that they’d turned a blind eye to evil and degeneracy.

By Fr. Dwight Longenecker, The Imaginative Conservative – That ominous Monopoly card and the man peering from behind the bars in the corner of the board echoes in my mind every month when I drive through the South Carolina countryside to celebrate Mass for the inmates at one of our high-security prisons… In this modern age, the towering walls and barred windows of old-fashioned prisons have been exchanged for tall chain link fences and razor wire. Lots of razor wire. Skeins of razor wire. There are security checks, steel doors, bulletproof glass and inside, men who have committed serious crimes.

By Fr. George Rutler, Catholic Herald – The real problem is what seems to be the latest fad of groups joining hands during the Our Father. Blame that on various liturgists who would remedy the failure of some forms of prayer to be real worship by inventing gimmicks. They stripped altars, then gave us pianos and guitars, felt banners, balloons, clowns, sand in place of Holy Water during Lent, baptismal fonts that look like latrines, scary Big Puppets, and semi-Vestals dancing with bowls of incense.

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman, LifeSiteNews – An Argentinean bishop and personal friend of Pope Francis who suddenly resigned and fled his diocese after being accused of the sexual abuse of seminarians and who now holds a high-ranking post in the Vatican, is currently participating in a private spiritual retreat with Pope Francis and other senior Vatican officials, according to an article published today in the Catholic Herald.

By John Waters, First Things – The Taoiseach (to outsiders, Ireland’s prime minister, Leo Varadkar) recently responded to a call for crucifixes to be removed from the walls of Irish hospitals: Charities and religious bodies that run hospitals and such should have regard for the fact that in modern Ireland there’s now diversity of views on religion and so on. It is the 21st century; a lot of patients, a lot of kids aren’t religious, maybe aren’t Roman Catholic and the ethos of a publicly funded institution should reflect the public.

By Thomas Gallatin, The Patriot Post – The Democrat-controlled House passed bill HR 1 Friday — the dubiously named “For the People Act1.” The purpose of the bill, according to Democrats, is to “expand Americans’ access to the ballot box, reduce the influence of big money in politics, and strengthen ethics rules for public servants.” However, far from “expanding Americans’ access to the ballot box,” the bill instead runs roughshod2 over Americans’ constitutional rights and states’ rights, diminishing the power of citizens’ votes by failing to prohibit noncitizen voting.

By Patrick J. Buchanan, CNSNews – Hence the grand strategy of the left: to enlarge and alter the U.S. electorate so as to put victory as far out of reach for national Republicans as it is today for California Republicans, and to convert the GOP into America’s permanent minority party… In the Golden State, Democrats control the governors’ chair, every elective state office, both U.S. Senate seats, 46 of 53 U.S. House seats and three-fourths of each house of the state legislature in Sacramento…. How does the left expect to permanently dispossess Middle America?

By Peter Darcy, Catholic Stand – What is difficult to understand is the “conspiracy of silence” from the pulpits of our Church on the issue of contraception. If the faithful have been ignorant of the teaching of Christ on this issue, it is primarily due to the refusal of the Catholic clergy (deacons, priests, bishops) to address it in a consistent and realistic way in their preaching. Clergymen, however, have a moral obligation to do so.

By Rob Schwarzwalder, The Stream – The Democratic party has become like Dr. Frankenstein’s creature.  A collection of parts and pieces with no natural relationship. It includes both anti-Semites and true friends of the Jewish people. Business people and anti-capitalists. People who make their living attacking “Wall Street” but who hold fundraisers at Goldman Sachs. At some point, the tensions become too great and the mutual snarling becomes public. It lives and breathes but its very being is strange.

By James V. Schall, S.J., The Catholic Thing – In the Prologue to John’s Gospel, even before Creation itself, the plan had an earlier “beginning” in a Word that was with God; that was God. Within this plan, the race of men was given “dominion” over other existing things. That precise word, “dominion,” did not mean some fancy ecological enterprise to save the planet for as long as possible from the activities of men themselves.

By Fr. Roger Landry, National Catholic Register – At the same time — and it hurts to say this, but out of love for the Church and to prevent future victims, it must be said — Rome 2019 repeated some of the most serious mistakes of Dallas 2002… The U.S. bishops in Dallas didn’t have the courage to address what the data clearly showed was the main part of the crisis: the culture of tolerance for unchastity in the clergy that made it both easier to abuse and harder for Church leaders to eradicate it.

By Micaiah Bilger, LifeNews – A New York lawmaker who voted to legalize abortion for basically any reason up to birth is being rebuked by Catholic leaders in his district… For his pro-abortion vote, state Sen. James Gaughran no longer is invited to the Irish-American Catholic St. Patrick’s Day parade in Huntington, New York, according to The Deacon’s Bench. The local Catholic organization also asked Gaughran to resign from its membership.

By Msgr. Charles Pope – Among the struggles that many face in their spiritual lives is one in which we at times feel angry with God. While the sources of this anger can be varied, they tend to be focused in three areas: the existence of evil and injustice in the world (which God seems to permit), God’s seeming delay in answering our prayers, or some personal setback or trial in our life… The knowledge that God can prevent bad things often leads to the expectation that he should.

By Msgr. Charles Pope – Today the gospel train pulls into “Temptation Station” and we are asked to consider some of life’s temptations. The three temptations faced by Jesus are surely on wide display in our own times. What are these temptations and how do we resist them?… In this desert scene, the Lord Jesus faces down three fundamental areas of temptation, all of which have one thing in common: they seek to substitute a couch for the cross… In a way, the devil has one argument: “Why the cross?” His question is a rhetorical one. He wants you to blame God for the cross, and in your anger, to reject Him as some sort of despot.

By Sam Guzman, The Catholic Gentleman – When we think of Lent, it rarely calls to mind feeding our desires. Rather, for those who fast or engage in other penitential practices, Lent feels like a a seasons of denying our hunger and of mortifying desires. Perhaps it is even a season where we feel physically hungry for the first time in a long time. This is well and as it should be… But I would argue there is a hunger we should feed this Lent: The hunger for God.

By Fr. George W. Rutler, Church Militant – Lent is an invigorating time for truth. The Truth Himself spent 40 days in the wilderness combatting the Prince of Lies. He did it as our “champion.” A champion is more than someone who gets his face on a cereal box for having won contests. Go back to the 13th century and you will see that the word meant a combatant who fights on behalf of others… Since humility is honesty, and the Sacrament of Reconciliation is the declaration and manifestation of humility, sacramental confession, preferably frequently in Lent, is at the heart of Lent.

Fr. Mike Schmitz, Ascension Presents – Fr. Mike mentions three popular mentalities that prevent us from sainthood: Our hearts want instant gratification, while becoming like Christ is a process. Fr. Mike’s advice is learn to love the process…. We like keeping our options open, but instead we should be giving everything to Christ… We lack a fighting spirit. A saint needs a willingness to fight the good fight, especially when the spiritual battle is hardest.. Fr. Mike makes it abundantly clear that the only thing preventing us from sainthood is ourselves, because God’s grace is enough.

By Jonah McKeown, CNA – In what is believed to be the first case of its kind in the United States, an attorney will represent the estate of an aborted child, after the father filed a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of the six-week old fetus… Court documents allege that a then-16-year-old Alabama woman obtained a medication abortion in February 2017, despite the protestations of her boyfriend, who says he is the father of the child… The man subsequently sued the Alabama Women’s Center for Reproductive Alternatives in Huntsville last month, saying that he had wanted to keep the child.

By Roger Helle, Patriot Post – We all remember President Barack Obama’s first meeting with Republican leaders after his election. He stated, “Elections have consequences. I won!” We all know how well that worked. Americans elected someone to unite us but we got a divider. Well, elections do have consequences and the Republican Party can take much of the blame for losing the House this past election.

By Fr. Jeffrey Kirby, The Catholic Thing – As we started the penitential season of Lent on Ash Wednesday, we heard the solemn words: “Remember, you are dust and to dust you shall return.” To be frank, there’s not a whole lot of wiggle room in that admonition. It’s stark – and sobering… Life has come and life will go. We are dust and we’re going to return to dust. What does that mean for us? Are the ashes just some morbid way to make fun about death? Or is there something deeper – and even charitable – in the devotional practice of ashes during Lent?

By Jordan Bloom, Catholic Herald – Archbishop Joseph Naumann, the chairman of the US bishop’s pro-life committee and Archbishop of Kansas City (pictured), has issued a clear statement that politicians who support abortion should not present themselves for Communion, “for the protection of many others from moral confusion”… “Recent efforts to perpetuate and expand abortion in state laws have illuminated the deplorable actions of some Catholic public officials and advocates,” Naumann said in a statement posted on the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

By William Kilpatrick, Crisis Magazine – This reminded me for the umpteenth time that the pope has far more radical ideas than most people realize. Like Bernie Sanders, the pope is a socialist. He has had many unkind words about capitalism (“the dung of the devil”)… Like Sanders, his ideas about economics were shaped by Marxist thinkers and activists… Meanwhile, as the Democratic Party becomes more like a church, the Church, under Francis, is becoming more like a leftist political party… Francis’s increasingly “humanistic” Church seems less concerned with the salvation of souls and more concerned with the creation of an egalitarian utopian society here on earth.

By Micaiah Bilger, LifeNews – Rhode Island House lawmakers passed a radical pro-abortion bill late Thursday night that would legalize abortions for basically any reason up to birth… The pro-abortion bill passed in a 44-30 vote, and now awaits action by the state Senate… State Senate Bill 152 is similar to the new abortion law in New York. It would allow abortions for basically any reason up to birth, even if Roe v. Wade is overturned, and strike down modest abortion restrictions in the state

LifeSiteNews staff – The theme for this year’s conference is: “City of God vs. City of Man – Global One World Order vs. Christendom.” 2019 marks the fifth anniversary of the event, which is hosted by Voice of the Family… The conference comes at a tumultuous time in not just the Catholic Church but also in the world. Populist and nationalist movements are rising up in opposition to liberalism and multiculturalism. During his pontificate, Pope Francis has welcomed to the Vatican radical environmentalists and population control activists from the United Nations….

By Donald DeMarco, EWTN News – For Dawson, the dominant faith of the succeeding century was liberalism, which lived off the capital it inherited from Christianity. It emphasized rights but not duties, freedom but not responsibilities, justice but not truth, conscience without principles, sex without procreation and compassion without real love. But liberalism, one-sided as it is, cannot sustain itself and inevitably tends toward a form of uniform or monolithic secularism.

By Aliya Kuykendall, The Stream – Being out in the cold and rain pays off. “We always see more babies saved per campaign in the spring campaign than in the fall, even though we have more campaigns in the fall,” Shawn Carney, head of 40 Days for Life, said Monday. 70 Christians had gathered at a Lutheran church for a kick off rally for the 40 Days for Life vigil in Lewisville, Texas… Why is that? “The only explanation — that comes from the Midwest, where we have a huge presence in the spring — is the weather,” Carney explained. “There is an instant respect for somebody being outside in miserable weather.

By K.V. Turley, LifeSiteNews – As Lent begins so does the pro-life initiative 40 Days for Life… This year there will be pro-life vigils organized by 40 Days in 377 participating cities across 31 countries, with now over 150 cities outside of North America. In the United Kingdom alone there will be 10 campaigns running… This will be 40 Days for Life’s largest ever Lent campaign… Recently, I met up with two people involved in 40 Days for Life here in the United Kingdom. Robert Colquhoun is a veteran of 40 Days campaigns as befits his role as the organization’s Director of International Campaigns.

By Anthony Esolen, The Catholic Thing – Scholars like to make work for themselves.  It’s always easier to posit a second and unknown author, an assertion that cannot be demonstrated, than to bring into one comprehensive vision works whose differences puzzle or dismay you, but perhaps did not puzzle their author long ago.  For the former, you speculate.  For the latter, you need have both breadth of vision and penetration into the subtleties of the author’s thought.

By Msgr. Charles Pope – A brief observation of the first two days in Lent reveals militaristic, even violent imagery in the battle against sin and the unruly passions of the flesh. The Collect (opening prayer) of Ash Wednesday provides an image of troops mustering for battle: Grant, O Lord, that we may begin with holy fasting this campaign of Christian service… so that, as we take up battle against spiritual evils, we may be armed with weapons of self-restraint.

Fr. Mike Schmitz, Ascension Presents – Fr. Mike explains, the Israelites did not believe the Lord could bring them into the Promised Land because it was inhabited by a people much more powerful and larger than Israel—they didn’t trust him even after he delivered them from slavery to the largest civilization on the planet, Egypt… We can be the same way… We think God can’t give us the strength to overcome this or that sin or habit. But purpose of Lent is to set aside time for us to trust God completely so we can see that he is all we need.

By Chad Chisholm, The Imaginative Conservative – Stories convey wisdom about ourselves, our culture, and human nature. The existence of Bigfoot or the Abominable Snowman is more believable than the existence of a civilized people who have no need of poets or sages… Whatever I teach, I teach storytelling because it is an expression of human creativity that provides perspective. Stories help us understand our world by showing us that random events surrounding our lives only seem random, but are in fact connected.

By Victor Davis Hanson, Townhall – America is such a huge and diverse country, and so abundantly endowed with natural and human resources, that it is capable of achieving unprecedented scientific, economic and technological breakthroughs even as its social fabric is tearing apart… Or, put another way, while the media highlights crime, protests, grievances and civil disorder, a majority of Americans still go to work unbothered each day… And in a rare society with a free market, constitutional government and individual freedom, people continue to do amazing things even amid the utter chaos around them.

Associated Press – A meeting of House Democrats turned contentious Wednesday as some new members who helped deliver the House majority confronted leaders over a resolution implicitly rebuking Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota over her comments on Israel… In the party’s weekly closed meeting, Democrats protested the way Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other leaders tried to rush out a resolution this week responding to Omar’s latest remark about Israel. Omar last week suggested the Jewish state’s supporters are pushing lawmakers to pledge “allegiance” to a foreign country.

By Marybeth Hagan, Crisis Magazine – Anyone who’s been around the pro-life movement for a while knows that some babies are born alive during late term abortions. Doctors and others determine whether to resuscitate or to lay the infant on a table until he or she dies, as pro-life advocate and nurse Jill Stanek witnessed and has long testified. Pro-lifers also know that some aborted babies, like pro-life advocates Gianna Jessen and Melissa Ohden, survive being aborted and live to address the issue.

Catholic News Agency – ‘The verdicts are unreasonable and cannot be supported,’ the appeal application says… An Australian court announced on Wednesday that Cardinal George Pell’s application for leave to appeal his conviction of sexual abuse will be heard on June 5-6…. Pell, 77, was convicted in December on five counts of sexual abuse stemming from charges that he sexually assaulted two choirboys while serving as Archbishop of Melbourne in 1996. He has maintained his innocence.

By Joan Frawley Desmond, EWTN News – Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago received a respectful hearing from Church leaders at the Vatican summit as he outlined his updated plan for deploying metropolitan bishops to investigate bishops accused of sexual abuse and negligence… Back home, however, there are strong indications that his proposal faces a hard sell, as Church leaders and lay experts weigh reforms designed to restore the bishops’ credibility in the wake of the McCarrick scandal.

By Jeanne Smits, LifeSiteNews – Homosexuality, not clericalism, is at the root of the abuse crisis the Catholic Church is facing, and especially the “Obama-era” style of thought that adult homosexual relations are not sinful: this is the gist of an interview given by a prominent Vatican theologian, Monsignor Nicola Bux, to the Italian daily La Verità.

By Tony Perkins, CNSNews – Democrats don’t want a vote on infanticide, they explain, “because they know the rest of the country doesn’t agree with them – 77 percent of Americans support protections for abortion survivors and 62 percent oppose late-term abortion.” But there’s a way around Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) “iron grip” in the House, the men write. It’s called the discharge petition. “If a majority of the Members of Congress sign the discharge petition on the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, the Speaker will be forced to bring it to the floor for a vote.

Gospel Reading: Luke 9:22-25 – “The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third  day be raised.” And he said to all, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake, he will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?

By Msgr. Charles Pope – As a boy, I remember wondering why so many people liked to rush to Church to get ashes smudged on their foreheads. Frankly, I had some revulsion at the idea. I didn’t like it at all and would secretly rub them off when no one was looking. Today, though I’ll admit I still don’t like it too much, I behave myself and don’t rub them off!… I pray that this doesn’t seem impious, but I still marvel at how many people pack into the church to get ashes on their foreheads. Sadder still, some who come don’t seem to want Holy Communion nearly as much.

By Doug Mainwaring, LifeSiteNews – Late-term abortionist LeRoy Carhart broke a decade of silence to condemn the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, saying that the bill’s sponsor – fellow Nebraskan Sen. Ben Sasse – is “ignorant and doesn’t understand what he is talking about, or even worse, he’s lying.”… This was Carhart’s first television interview in nearly ten years.

By Melanie Arter, CNSNews – House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) is calling on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from the House Foreign Affairs Committee over her latest anti-Semitic remarks… Speaking at a town hall event in Washington, D.C., last week, Omar suggested that Israel demands allegiance from U.S. lawmakers… “I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country,” Omar said at the event that was also attended by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.).

By Jay W. Richards, Ph.D., The Stream – It’s a silly argument. Just because something isn’t named in the Bible, it doesn’t follow that Christians should avoid it. On the contrary, a practice could still very well be grounded in Christian theology and history. It could still have great spiritual benefit that has stood the test of time. And it could help Christians work together for a common good… Lent, which starts on Ash Wednesday and ends just before Easter, is surely at the top of the list of such practices. Christians have been observing this long period of fasting and penance before Easter for many, many centuries.

By David Mills, Human Life Review – She tried the “Where do you draw the line?” argument. A young Facebook friend reported that she’d just got home from a college class that had taken up abortion. Most students treated it as self-evidently good… If aborting an unborn child is all right, she asked them, what about killing a five-year-old? Classmates argued that yes, if a mother found her five-year-old too difficult to raise, killing him would be “more humane.” More humane, apparently, than letting him live with imperfect parenting. Or giving him to a family who wanted him.

Catholic News Agency – What is Lent?… After Jesus was baptized, according to the Gospel of Matthew, the Holy Spirit descended upon him “like a dove,” and a voice from heaven said “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”… People were amazed, but Jesus immediately went away by himself into the desert. There he fasted and prayed, and while he was there, Satan appeared to him three times, tempting him.

By Bl. John Henry Newman, The Catholic Thing – The season of humiliation, which precedes Easter, lasts for forty days, in memory of our Lord’s long fast in the wilderness. . . .We fast by way of penitence, and in order to subdue the flesh. Our Saviour had no need of fasting for either purpose. His fasting was unlike ours, as in its intensity, so in its object. And yet when we begin to fast, His pattern is set before us; and we continue the time of fasting till, in number of days, we have equalled His.

By John G. Brungardt, Crisis Magazine – “Don’t immanentize the eschaton!” was William F. Buckley’s popularized version of an idea taken from the political philosopher Eric Voegelin. Buckley later made it a political slogan: “Don’t let them immanentize the eschaton!” With apologies to Voegelin scholars, what Buckley meant was:“Don’t let ideologues try to create heaven on earth, because they’ll deprive us of freedom and make things a lot worse.”

By Micaiah Bilger, LifeNews – The Girl Scouts’ support of abortion is growing increasingly apparent in the information age… Its materials, social media accounts and more point to the organization’s pro-abortion bias. One of the groups exposing it, MyGirlScoutCouncil.com, posted more evidence Friday on its Facebook page… Breitbart reports the group discovered that the Girl Scouts of Southern Arizona recently honored a teen for her volunteer work on “reproductive health justice” – an umbrella term that includes abortion on demand.

By Fred Lucas, Daily Signal – Colorado baker Jack Phillips is 2-0 now after state officials dropped their second attempt to coerce him into baking products that violate his beliefs… Phillips, in turn, dropped a federal lawsuit… “I have and will always serve everyone who comes into my shop; I simply can’t celebrate events or express messages that conflict with my religious beliefs,” Phillips said in a statement Tuesday.

By Michele Chronister, Catholic Exchange – One of the ways that I use social media is to gain insight into the perspectives of people whose lives and beliefs are radically different. Recently I came across a video that was titled something like, “Egg Donor is Reunited with Babies!” Curious, I clicked on it. That video led to another, and another, and to insight into a complicated family system with beliefs radically contrary to my beliefs as a Catholic.

By Stephen Kokx, LifeSiteNews – Born in 1911 and 1916 respectively, Robinson and Willock co-founded Integrity magazine in October 1946 in New York City. Their mission, according to Alex Barbas, founder of Arouca Press, was to synthesize religion and daily life… “Integrity warned against complacency in the living of the faith in the modern world and often criticized American Catholics’ penchant for compartmentalizing their faith,” Barbas said in a phone interview with LifeSiteNews…

By Shawn Carney, President, 40 Days for Life – The baby was supposed to be killed and is now alive. He or she is on the table, moving, crying, looking around. I have seen my seven children come into the world; the last thing any halfway sane person who is looking at the baby is thinking is “Let’s NOT give her what she needs.” But, then again, my wife and I usually just have my sweet mother-in-law in the delivery room and not Virginia Gov. Northam.

By Cecilia Pigg, Aleteia – On the Fat Tuesdays of my youth, my parish always hosted a party. There would be food, a live band, and lots of colorful necklaces. That was always fun, especially the culminating moment when the song, “When the Saints Go Marching In” would play, and all the kids and adults would form a huge conga line that would wrap around the church basement. Look around to see if there are any churches nearby who offer something like this.

By Deacon Michel Bickerstaff, Integrated Catholic – Fasting and other forms of self-denial, as spiritual practices of materially subduing and controlling the physical appetites of the body, help us, by God’s grace, to enable the soul to more perfectly and freely pray.  This leads to a deeper union with God and thus we become better stewards of the gifts God has given to us, freeing us to more effectively care for our neighbor, especially those in greater need than we. Thus, we have the connection between prayer, fasting and almsgiving—the three pillars of Lent.

By Perry West, CNA – Fat Tuesday celebrations have included parades, carnivals, and parties. But have you ever heard of a pancake race?
Olney, England, and Liberal, Kansas, will compete against each other March 5 in the International Pancake Race, a 415-yard competition involving pancakes, skillets, and some serious flipping skills… This is the 70th race since the friendly feud began in 1950. Last year, Liberal beat Olney with the victory of Gaby Covarrubias, a local parishioner at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church…

By Fr. Jerry Pokorsky, CNSNews – Sophie Scholl was a German college student and underground anti-Nazi activist.  The Nazis executed her and her brother Hans in 1943 after they were caught distributing subversive flyers.  Oblivious to Nazi propaganda, they saw the lies, the contempt for human life, the manipulative hold on the citizens, and the useless murderous wars.  The magnificent 2005 German historical film, “Sophie Scholl – The Final Days,” tells her story.

By Andy Puzder,  Prager University – Venezuela, once the richest country in South America, is the most recent example of socialism driving a prosperous country into an economic ditch. Maybe you think it’s an unfair example. I’m not sure why, but okay. We’ll ignore the fact that leftist activists celebrated it as a great socialist success–right up until it wasn’t… Capitalism leads to economic democracy. Socialism leads to the economic dictatorship of the elite. Always. And everywhere.

By Dr. Jared Staudt, Those Catholic Men – Most people use envy and jealousy interchangeably. Is there a difference between these terms and why should we care? For one, we should use words knowingly and deliberately, understanding what we mean by them! Secondly, I will show that there is a theological importance to getting them right.

Catholic News Agency – In 1973, the Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade found that a woman had a constitutional right to abortion throughout pregnancy. This, the bishops noted, created a legal precedent that must be considered when framing legislation that seeks to restrict abortion… The bishops cited similar laws in other states that were passed, but never went into effect because of legal challenges. In those cases, the laws were found to be unconstitutional, and the state was forced to pay significant sums of money to the lawyers representing the pro-abortion challengers to the laws.

By Stephen M. Krason, Crisis Magazine – The extent to which one of our two major political parties—the Democrats—has embraced the anti-life, pro-killing ethic is breathtaking. Not only are the Democrats in the House of Representatives so sweepingly pro-abortion that it’s said that on any given vote one can count on only Congressman Dan Lipinski of Chicago and perhaps one or two others in that party to be on the pro-life side. Now we see a Democratic filibuster in the Senate of a bill to protect babies born alive after failed abortions—in effect, a filibuster to protect infanticide.

By Kathryn Jean Lopez , The Stream – “We are living in perilous times, when the hearts and souls of men are sorely tried. Never before has the future been so utterly unpredictable; we are not so much in a period of transition with belief in progress to push us on, rather we seem to be entering the realm of the unknown, joylessly disillusioned, and without hope.”… Reading these words from a 1935 address from Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, who would become one of the most well-known preachers of American history, gave me some consolation. Every time has its tests. Will we meet ours, though?

By Steven Ertelt, LifeNews – New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is pushing a radical pro-abortion bill in her state while claiming to be Catholic… “Opponents have expressed fear that, somehow, this legislation would facilitate murder,” said Lujan-Grisham. “Elected officials have no business making a woman’s choices for her. Neither do faraway federal judges who have, in some cases, made a career out of antagonizing marginalized groups, not the least of all women.”

By Vincent Weaver, EWTN News – So, if we say birth control is the answer to avoiding the consequence of abortion, we’re saying people aren’t capable of self-mastery. We’re saying they are simply animals who cannot control their urges. We’re saying they really don’t have dignity and should not be expected to avoid any temptations that come their way. None. “Choices” are actually just an illusion.

By Catholic News Agency – In face of the sex-abuse scandals in the Church, Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix issued a column this month asking the question: “What went wrong in priestly formation?”… Bishop Thomas Olmsted highlighted in his Feb. 17 column at The Catholic Sun three factors that contributed to the clerical sexual-abuse scandal: the sexual revolution, weak seminaries and clericalism… He said the sexual revolution, which in the 1960s challenged the ethics of sexual behaviors in the West, had sought to promote a false idea of “free love.”

By Dave Andrusko, National Right to Life – The beauty of being a genuine grassroots movement is that often times some of the very best ideas come from pro-lifers motivated by the pro-abortion actions of their governmental officials and love for their children… Nichole Rowley wrote to NRLC’s Jacki Ragan about what is called “Me …Still Me,” a delightful way to show everyone, including pro-abortionists, there is perfect continuity between a baby in the womb and the baby born after 40 weeks.

By Christine Rousselle, CNA – Pro-life and pro-abortion advocates have responded to a bill introduced Thursday which would radically transform health care in the United States and provide government funding for abortion services through Medicare expansion… The Medicare for All Act of 2019 was introduced February 28 by Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Debbie Dingell (D-MI). The bill is co-sponsored by more than 100 House Democrats. Jayapal is also the co-chair of the House Progressive Caucus.

By Stephen Beale, Catholic Exchange – It is comforting to know that God has a plan for our lives that is part of His grander plan for all of creation. What is odd about it is how different His thoughts are from ours. Usually we find comfort in knowing someone is thinking on the same page as us. We want our business partners, coworkers, teammates, and spouses to be thinking about things the way we do. But not so with God: His thoughts are not our thoughts. And, in a way, that is comforting.

By K. Albert Little, Patheos – Well, if somebody insisted on inviting you to Mass and you insist on going allow me to at least provide a short, yet exceptionally handy, guide to a Roman Catholic Mass. I can’t cover everything—there are some great resources for that—but I can give you a few insider tips to help you get the most out of your experience… The Mass is a Foretaste of Heaven…

By Fr. Mike Schmitz, Ascension Press – Fr. Mike knows the tricks we can play on ourselves when it comes to picking something for Lent. So he gives a straightforward guideline: Don’t pick something that’s arbitrary. Pick something that is necessary… In other words, don’t say you’re giving up watermelon when you know you will hardly eat watermelon anyway; and don’t give up hot showers if you know cold showers actually won’t help you grow in holiness. We can easily fool ourselves into thinking strictness equates to holiness. Likewise, we can fall into the trap of thinking that the easiest thing will be the most helpful.

By Chris Woodward, OneNewsNow – It’s been described as “the most radical abortion bill in the country,” and it’s up for debate in a hearing Saturday (March 2) before the Senate Public Affairs Committee of the New Mexico legislature…. House Bill 51, titled “Decriminalize Abortion,” not only keeps abortions up to birth legal, it also would force medical professionals and institutions to participate in abortions… “We’re asking folks to really take an opportunity to start speaking up about this issue,” says Elisa Martinez of New Mexico Alliance for Life….

By Dr. Taylor Marshall – Ray, a reader of this blog, gets to the heart of the question: We are encouraged [in Belize] to eat fish or seafood on Fridays. The odd thing is that seafood is more expensive than say chicken, so I wonder whether it is really sensible to have fish or seafood which would really be even more luxurious fare than the normal chicken or beef. Shouldn’t the spirit of abstinence necessitate that any sort of luxury food be given up? Also, why would warm-blooded creatures be restricted in the first place?

By Ken McIntyre, Daily Signal – Dear Daily Signal: As a retired registered nurse in a neonatal intensive care unit who attended a thousand deliveries in her career, my response to Rachel del Guidice’s report is to say that many babies born alive (even those born at term) often need resuscitation… Resuscitation may mean anything from stimulation and brief oxygen treatment of some sort to full-blown CPR with medications. No NICU nurse or neonatologist I know would stand there and wait for a mother to make a decision as to whether the baby should be resuscitated.

Staff Reporter, Catholic Herald – A video of Cardinal Pell’s first police interview over 1996 abuse allegations has been released, showing him describing them as a “completely false, madness”… Although Pell did not take the stand at his trial in Melbourne, the footage was shown to the jury at his trial.

Catholic News Agency – President Donald Trump has accused Democratic politicians of pursuing an “extreme” abortion agenda that would lead to the “execution” of newly born children. The president joined prominent pro-life activists Saturday to address the annual CPAC… In a nearly two-hour long speech, Trump accused the Democratic party of taking a “radical” position on life issues… “Democrats are embracing open borders, socialism, and extreme late-term abortion,” said Trump, to a chorus of boos from the reported crowd of more than 9,000.

By Dr. Jeff Mirus, Catholic Culture – Contempt for chastity makes sexual abuse pandemic for the simple reason that, in matters of sexual temptation, it is precisely the virtue of chastity which provides the remedy. Extending beyond our personal struggles, chastity also becomes an important element in the glue that holds entire societies together, which enables men and women to form cohesive cultures oriented toward the good, and which empowers citizens to make virtuous laws……

By Dr. Michael Brown, The Stream – A colleague of mine, himself a fellow-believer in Jesus, recently faulted me for calling out the Democrats for voting against the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. In his view, as a minister of the gospel, I should not be taking political sides. Rather, I should be asking how Jesus would address the difficult subject of abortion.

By Msgr. Charles Pope – What we say reveals a great deal about us—more than we imagine. Speech is among our greatest gifts, yet self-mastery in speech is among the rarest. Some of the most common sins we commit are related to speech: gossip, idle chatter, lies, exaggeration, harsh attack, and uncharitable remarks. With our tongue we can spew hatred, incite fear, spread misinformation, tempt, discourage, promote error, and ruin reputations. With a gift capable of bringing such good, we can surely cause great harm!

By Laurettea Brown, LifeNews – House Democrats on the Energy and Commerce Committee sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar Thursday demanding justifications for the recent rule change that would bar federal Title X family planning funds from going to facilities that provide abortions or give abortion referrals… The rule requires “clear financial and physical separation between Title X funded projects and programs or facilities where abortion is a method of family planning.”

By Terence P. Jeffrey, CNSNews – The Department of Health and Human Services says it has granted a second 90-day extension to a contract it has with the University of California at San Francisco that requires UCSF to make “humanized mice.”… These creatures are made by implanting mice with human tissues taken from late-term aborted babies… The HHS’s multi-million-dollar contract with UCSF that requires the construction of these “humanized mice” creates a demand–driven by federal tax dollars–for tissue taken from late-term aborted babies.

By Micaiah Bilger, LifeNews – Catholic Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann issued a strong warning to Catholic political leaders who support infanticide and abortion up to birth… Naumann, the chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Pro-Life Activities and archbishop of Kansas City, Kansas, said those who refuse to repent for supporting the killing of babies are putting themselves on “a path to Hell.”… “While we can object to the actions of these public officials, we are not able to judge their souls. At the same time, we know there will be a Judgment Day,”

By Liberty McArtor, The Stream – The world’s smallest baby boy to survive a premature birth went home Tuesday after several months in a Tokyo hospital… The boy was born at 24 weeks gestation. That’s a little over five months into a pregnancy, usually considered the age of viability in the U.S… Doctors determined his life was in danger after he failed to continue growing in-utero, the Japan Times reported. He was born via emergency cesarean section in August.

By Tina Griffin, CNSNews – I’ve been a pro-life advocate for over two decades, but nothing prepared me for what I saw this past Saturday night at a private screening of the upcoming, life-altering movie “Unplanned.” Starring Ashley Bratcher, who reenacts Abby Johnson’s story to a “T,” this moving film shares about the eye-opening journey of the youngest Planned Parenthood clinic director in history, who went from her “my body, my choice” mindset… to one of the top anti-abortion advocates in the country.

By Lauretta Brown, EWTN News – He elaborated on that by referencing the tagline of the Napa Institute, whose conferences aim to equip Catholics for “the next America.”… Holdenried said that term, coined by Archbishop Charles Chaput, was “a warning to American Catholics regarding a growing trend toward secularization in American culture and which meant that Catholics would be facing dwindling relevance, threatening Catholics’ ability to be heard in the public square.”… “What the Napa Legal Institute recognizes now,” he said, “is that the next America is now here.”

By Dr. Michael Brown, The Stream – With the subject of abortion ever on my mind these days, I recently tweeted, “We’re told that ‘fetus’ is just the proper term for the baby while in the womb. Why, then, doesn’t a pregnant woman say to her husband, ‘Honey, the fetus is kicking a lot today,’ or, ‘I heard the fetus’s heartbeat at my doctor’s appointment’?”

By Daniel J. Mahoney, The Catholic Thing – There is not much good news coming out of Rome today. The “Franciscan” Church is marked by immense moral and theological confusion (some of it deliberately sown by the present pontiff) and a tendency to “kneel before the world,” as Jacques Maritain strikingly put it in The Peasant of the Garonne… in February came news that ought to warm the hearts of all the faithful and people of good will… Joszef Cardinal Mindszenty (1892-1975), one of the anti-totalitarian titans of the twentieth century, has been named “Venerable.”

By Star Parker, The Patriot Post – The Trump administration has taken another critically important step in strengthening the moral health of our nation, and hence our future… The Department of Health and Human Services has issued the Protect Life Rule, stopping the flow of Title X federal funds to family planning clinics that perform abortions or do abortion referrals… It also requires that clinics receiving Title X funds be “physically and financially” separate from any entity providing abortions… This puts a stop to organizations like Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, from claiming that, although they perform abortions, Title X funds they receive are used for other purposes.

By St. John of Avila, Catholic Exchange – May God bless you during this Lent and grant that you may receive the ashes upon your forehead at the beginning of this holy season with such fitting dispositions as to preserve constantly that holy humility in your heart. He to whom God gives light to understand and to sorrow for the state he was in while he lived apart from his Creator is delivered from the total blindness of pride and is made capable of receiving all fitting spiritual graces.

By Pope St. John Paul II – The word of God which the liturgy offers us on today’s Solemnity of St. Joseph is very rich. It presents to us the words of the Gospel of St. Luke but, at the same time, it draws from the great treasury of the Old Testament, in particular from the Second Book of Samuel and the Book of Psalms. There is an intimate bond between the Old and the New Testament, which is illustrated clearly and profoundly by St. Paul in the passage from the letter to the Romans proclaimed a short while ago.

By Julia Meloni, Crisis Magazine – Meanwhile, the synodal machine prepares to churn out revolution on the mafia’s other “knots,” including the “shortage of ordained ministers,” the “role of woman” in the Church, and the “need to revive ecumenical hopes.” Shortly before the 2013 conclave, Murphy-O’Connor said the issue of ordaining married men to the priesthood “very well might come up,” though it wouldn’t be “first on the agenda” (21:38). Now, Pope Francis has said he’s “open” to the practice—presaging the agenda of this year’s Amazon synod.

By Gretchen Filz, GetFed – The First Friday devotion and the First Saturday devotion are both reparatory devotions in the Catholic Church that arose from separate private revelations. The First Friday devotion is associated with the Sacred Heart of Jesus, while the First Saturday devotion is associated with the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Incidentally, these are two of the most widely popular devotions to Jesus and Mary.

By John Hittinger, Crisis Magazine – Drawing upon so many resources to make his case—the literary, the theological, philosophic, and phenomenological—John Paul II is rightly praised by his successor Pope Benedict as offering “a way of thinking in dialogue with the concrete, founded on the great tradition, but always in search of confirmation in present reality. It is a form of thought that springs from an artist’s gaze and, at the same time, it is guided by a pastor’s care….

By Charlie Butts, OneNewsNow – Louisiana Right to Life recently wrote to the State Board of Medical Examiners concerning abortionist Kevin Work… Solicitor General Liz Murrill tells OneNewsNow that Work, who had been on probation, was doing abortions in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, and had failed to pass an obstetrics and gynecology reinstatement exam… “We wanted to know what he had done to demonstrate his competency and whether he was, in fact, competent to be performing those procedures… because the Medical Licensing Board records showed that his license had been revoked and only reinstated to provide wound care.”

Fr. Raymond de Souza, Catholic Herald – Cardinal Reinhard Marx, one of the Holy Father’s closest advisers, spoke frankly about records not being kept, or even being “destroyed” to cover up abuse. That it happened is by now well known, but that it was said openly by such a senior voice is new. That too cannot be unsaid… What will come of the summit? Here the contradictions arise, which does not mean that nothing will happen, but rather that it is not yet clear.

By Joy Pullmann, The Federalist – Democrats aim to nationalize not only the economy, but also families. Presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris have both publicly endorsed socialized child care… Warren’s plan is supposedly funded by (what else) wealth confiscation — but only from “the rich,” so don’t worry, everybody. It’s okay to use government force to take money from people who have more than you and use it to employ people.

By Donal Anthony Foley, World Apostolate of Fatima – Next week will see Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent and the 40-day period of preparation for Easter and the Resurrection of Christ. Lent gets its name from the old English word lencten, which means Spring, the season in which it occurs from medieval times… However, the 40-day period of penance really comes from Scripture, namely the 40-day fast undertaken by Christ before He began his public…

By Michael W. Chapman, CNSNews – Although the Catholic bishop of Richmond, Va., the Most Rev. Barry C. Knestout, denounced Sen. Tim Kaine’s (D-Va.) vote against providing medical help to infants that survive abortions as “appalling and beyond comprehension,” he would not say whether Kaine, a pro-abortion Catholic, should present himself for Communion at Mass in the Diocese of Richmond.

By Fred Lucas, The Daily Signal – “For people that only practice their faith on weekends, I try to remind them: Things that you only do on weekends are called a hobby,” says Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., in remarks Thursday at the the Conservative Political Action Conference… “One of the greatest challenges we have to religious liberty in this modern day is people that actually claim a faith and don’t live a faith,” Lankford said. “Having a culture that is a vibrant culture of faith for people that not only have a faith, but they choose to live it, matters in our culture.”

By Eric Sammons, CatholicVote – I haven’t even addressed a less charitable possibility: that some pro-lifers call everything a pro-life issue because they want to minimize the importance of abortion. They don’t believe abortion is really that bad (and might even be necessary sometimes), so by lumping everything under the pro-life label, they make abortion just one of many issues. And as we’ve often seen, it becomes an issue that never rises to the top in terms of priority.

By Sandro Magister, L’Espresso – While the world’s attention is riveted by the ordeal of Cardinal George Pell (in the photo), one must not leave by the wayside a surprising passage from the speech with which Francis concluded the summit of February 21-24 on sexual abuse against minors. It is where he says that “in people’s justified anger, the Church sees the reflection of the wrath of God.”… It is rare, extremely rare for the “wrath of God” to be evoked in the words of the current pope, which are rather an unending downpour of divine mercy.

By David Warren, The Catholic Thing – There are prophetic writers who have visions. There are journalistic writers who have obsessions. The latter may confuse these with the former: be warned… A prophetic vision is not visual, or necessarily visual: the author could be blind. Nor can it be communicated in language alone. A painter might convey it pictorially; and we’ve all heard of Bach.

By Tom Nash, EWTN News – One member expressed disappointment that my video clips were from the cinematic classic “The Exorcist,” as well as “The Exorcism of Emily Rose,” instead of footage from actual exorcisms. I reaffirmed that both movies are based on real-life cases, and that my clips demonstrate the Catholic Church (1) rules out medical causes before administering the Rite of Exorcism, and (2) seeks evidence that points to demonic involvement, including fluency in unstudied languages; clairvoyance; and sustained preternatural strength.

By Steven Ertelt, LifeNews – On Thursday, three days after Senate Democrats voted to block a bill to stop infanticide, House Democrats blocked a request by Republicans to vote on a similar bill to require medical care and treatment for babies who survive abortions… This is the 12th time Congressional Democrats thwarted an attempt by Republicans to vote on a bill that would provide medical care and treatment for babies who provide survived failed abortions — 10 times in the House and twice in the Senate.

By Msgr. Charles Pope – The Gospel from Thursday’s daily Mass featured one of Jesus’ lesser-known teachings: Everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good, but if salt becomes insipid, with what will you restore its flavor? Keep salt in yourselves and you will have peace with one another (Mark 9:49-50)… Let’s begin with a few observations about salt in those times…

By Peter Jesserer Smith, National Catholic Register – When bishops administer confirmation in the United States, they are conferring a sacrament on far fewer Catholic youth today, and many who show up for the rite have already “checked out” of believing. According to new research, the middle-school years comprise the median age when many young people abandon the Catholic faith… These realities have driven Bishop James Wall to restore the sacraments of initiation to their traditional order of baptism, confirmation and Holy Eucharist in the Diocese of Gallup, New Mexico.

Late in the afternoon on February 25, extremist Senate Democrats voted in favor of legalized infanticide… The bill would require a health-care provider to “exercise the same degree of professional skill, care, and diligence to preserve the life and health of the child” who survives abortion as he or she would to “any other child born alive at the same gestational age.”… Network coverage of this vote in the first 24 hours? Zero on ABC, CBS, and NBC….

Catholic News Agency – The rule is expected to strip Planned Parenthood of about $60 million in federal funds… “I applaud the Trump Administration for reaffirming that abortion is not family planning. Abortion ends the lives of families’ most vulnerable members, as well as damaging the spiritual, mental and physical health of mothers,” said Archbishop Joseph Naumann in a Feb. 27 statement.

By Stephen P. White, The Catholic Thing – Last week’s summit in Rome did not address the problem of clergy harassing and abusing adults. It did not address the issue, which Pope Francis has acknowledged, of gay subcultures among the clergy. It did not say much about the virtue of chastity. What the summit in Rome did focus on was protecting minors from sexual abuse by members of the clergy: the most glaring and widely acknowledged facet of the current crisis and the primary source of the Church’s loss of credibility with the faithful.

Walmart has launched a “gay dating” video as part of an advertising campaign – a corporate move that the American Family Association says likely has Walmart founder Sam Walton “rolling over in his grave.”… The retail giant has posted an online video that normalizes homosexual relationships. The video – posted on Facebook – is part of an ad campaign called “Love is in the aisle: A dating show at Walmart.” The ad features “Pat” and “Andy,” two homosexual men on a “blind date” as they meet at the store, embrace, and then shop together…

By Msgr. Charles Pope – See to it, brothers, that none of you has an unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.  But exhort one another daily, as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness (Heb 3:12-13)… When most of us read a text like this, we think only of obvious and dark cases. For example, someone’s tendency to lash out at others leads him to increasing violence and cruelty, or someone’s desire for possessions leads him to increasing stinginess and unkindness, or someone’s lust leads him to sexually promiscuity that is more and more debased and perverse.

By Thomas Ascik, Crisis Magazine – I can’t find anyone—including Planned Parenthood and the pro-abortion media—who disagrees about what science has to say about the beginning of human life… What, you say that the March for Life caused the publishing of several public statements and articles that lambasted the “junk” and “debunked” science of pro-lifers and offered “existing science” as a substitute?

By Fr. William Saunders, Catholic Exchange – Lent is a special time of prayer, penance, sacrifice and good works in preparation of the celebration of Easter. In the desire to renew the liturgical practices of the Church, The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy of Vatican Council II stated, “The two elements which are especially characteristic of Lent — the recalling of baptism or the preparation for it, and penance — should be given greater emphasis in the liturgy and in liturgical catechesis.

By Lisa Bourne, LifeSiteNews – Democrats tried to obscure the issue from the Senate floor as well, Sasse said… “We heard, I think, six floor speeches from opponents of my legislation,” he said, “and I think four of them were filled with just this blatant nonsense that had nothing to do with anything that was in the text of the bill.”… Ohden addressed this in her conversation with the Fox News network Tuesday morning… “And the Democrats continue to say things like this [law] is unnecessary,” she said. “I’m living proof that this is necessary.”

By Jennifer Roback Morse, Ph.D, National Catholic Register – Dear priests: We need you to be holy, first and foremost. We need you to be celibate and honor your vow of chastity. And way down the list of your self-understanding, our understanding of you, comes your identity as ‘gay.’… Let us be clear: Men who have been sexually active with other men have caused a lot of problems in the Church. Conspicuously absent from the “sad gay priest” genre is an honest acknowledgement of this fact. Clergy sexual abuse is just one problem. Here are some other problems a homosexualized clergy has caused….

By Edward Pentin, National Catholic Register – (T)his is a silence which cries out to be broken, because therein lies the real problem… We’ve said all that needs to be said. It all depends on what will be done now, but the silence about homosexuality is a real problem. We have written our letter as observers from the outside; neither Cardinal Burke nor myself are involved… Discussing the problem of homosexuality would have become dangerous for them, because it’s evident there is a network of homosexuals within the Vatican. That’s the problem, there’s no question.

By Kathy Schiffer, EWTN New – A Marist Poll released Monday, Feb. 25, shows a dramatic shift in Americans’ attitudes toward abortion within the last month, with 47 percent of respondents now self-identifying as “pro-life.” The most dramatic change has been among Democrats, who moved from 20 percent pro-life in January, to 34 percent in the most recent study.

Complicit Clergy – The Senate in an evening vote Feb. 25 failed to advance a measure sponsored by Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Nebraska, that would have required babies born alive after an abortion to be given medical attention and “the same protection of law as any newborn.”.. The vote to bring the Born-Alive Survivors Protection Act forward was 53-44. Sixty votes were needed to invoke cloture and cut off a filibuster of the measure, which Sasse’s press office said was co-sponsored by half the Senate.

By Liberty McArtor, The Stream – It’s now clearer than ever that “safe abortion care” and “constitutionally protected rights” are really about the ability to kill unwanted offspring, plain and simple… By the abortion camp’s own accepted definition, this baby is no longer a “fetus” or a “pregnancy.” It’s a human being, because it’s been born. And who could argue refusing medical treatment to that tiny, helpless human being?

By Steven Ertelt, LifeNews – President Donald Trump took to Twitter late Monday to criticize Senate Democrats for blocking a bill to stop infanticide… “Senate Democrats just voted against legislation to prevent the killing of newborn infant children. The Democrat position on abortion is now so extreme that they don’t mind executing babies AFTER birth,” he tweeted. “This will be remembered as one of the most shocking votes in the history of Congress. If there is one thing we should all agree on, it’s protecting the lives of innocent babies.”

By The Editorial Board, New York Times – The main body of the church has long shifted away from the United States and Western Europe, and the faithful in Africa, Asia and Latin America have not yet confronted the blight of predatory clergymen and institutional deafness to the extent of Americans or Europeans… That is likely to be the explanation given by the Vatican for the lack of concrete measures to combat the crisis after a meeting heralded as a mighty counterattack by hierarchy and its activist pope against the evil ravaging their church….

By Msgr. Charles Pope – Accept whatever befalls you, when sorrowful, be steadfast, and in crushing misfortune be patient; For in fire gold and silver are tested, and worthy people in the crucible of humiliation. Trust God and God will help you; trust in him, and he will direct your way; keep his fear and grow old therein… This world, then, is a place of trial and testing for us. It is a crucible, an exile, a valley of tears. Worldly victories are not promised, but heavenly ones are, provided we persevere to the end.

By Randall Smith, The Catholic Thing – “Where would a young adult male go today,” my friend wanted to know, “to find an adult to hang out with so he could mature? Who in public life seems like an adult by your lights? I would pit any of my three sons, including the 22-year-old socialist and the 15-year-old baby of the family who has a lot of growing up to do, against virtually ANY teacher they have encountered in grammar or high school for Christian virtue and manliness.”

By Devin Rose, ChurchPop – St. Joseph wasn’t the only thing I had wrong about Jesus, but by God’s grace, I was in my early twenties when I discovered the Catholic Church and left my Southern Baptist church for the fullness of the truth in Catholicism… I had graduated college, had just started my career, and was going to a parish in the city, when I met an older Catholic husband and father at daily Mass… I got to know this man, Mr. K, who had five children of his own. I would watch him at Mass to see how he cared for his children, how he taught them the Faith….

By Jonathan B. Coe, Crisis Magazine – The laity has received much advice in recent months on what to do in our day of scandal and crisis. The three most important things are pray the Rosary, pray the Rosary, pray the Rosary… Petitions can be started that strongly urge certain prelates to resign, money can be denied their corrupt dioceses, articles can be written and investigative shows broadcast that to expose their malfeasance, protests can be held outside certain events like the recent sex summit.

By Lila Rose, PragerU – What does Planned Parenthood really do? What do they actually stand for? President and founder of Live Action, Lila Rose, lays out everything you need to know about Planned Parenthood.

By Dr. Gregory Popcak, Catholic Exchange – If you’re looking for something a little different I have a small suggestion that will not only be a great spiritual exercise, it will also improve your marriage 100 fold.  What is it?  This Lent, I suggest that you give up loving your comfort zone more than you love your spouse… A “comfort zone” represents a person’s preferred ways of being and acting.  My comfort zone keeps me on familiar ground and helps me feel safe.  This isn’t a bad thing by itself.

By Dr. Michael Brown, The Stream – There is no spin that can be put on this. No justification. No explanation that softens the blow. On February 25, 44 Democrat senators, including all 6 declared presidential candidates, voted against the Born Alive Protection Act. Put another way, they voted for infanticide.

By Doug Mainwaring, LifeSiteNews – Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence, Rhode Island did not mince words as he expressed his horror, calling his senators’ denial of medical aid and human kindness to infants “thoughtless, cruel and indefensible.”.. One of the Rhode Island senators, Jack Reed, is Catholic… “Eternal shame on Senators Reed and Whitehouse of R.I. for opposing this bill which would protect infants already born. Their vote has nothing to do with promoting women’s health or ‘reproductive freedom,’” said Bishop Tobin. “Their stance is thoughtless, cruel and indefensible.”

By Msgr. Charles Pope, EWTN News – A tremendous opportunity to restore credibility to the Church was missed in failing to review and criticize the structures and decisions that allowed Theodore McCarrick to advance, failing to identify and call to account those responsible for it, and failing to discuss specific credible charges related to the overall sexual abuse crisis in any substantial way.

By Robert Royal, The Catholic Thing – Great winds – the venti russi (“Russian Winds”) – blew through Rome the last day of the summit on the protection of minors. They knocked down branches and toppled trees, killing several people. Many Catholics around the world – to judge from my correspondents – were also hoping that some great winds or flaming fire from the Holy Spirit would sweep through the Vatican and, in Old Testament fashion, carry away the timeservers and corrupt prelates who have given us Theodore McCarrick and his ilk.

By Cari Donaldson, Catholic Exchange – Lent is a penitential season, centered around an imitation of Christ. The Catechism states that “By the solemn forty days of Lent the Church unites herself each year to the mystery of Jesus in the desert.” (CCC 540). During Lent, we are invited to draw closer to Jesus as He prepared for His ministry, leaving the pleasures and comfort of civilization behind and journeying into the wilderness for forty days.

By Rachel del Guidice, Daily Signal – The Senate voted 53-44 in favor of legislation that would protect survivors of abortion, falling short of the necessary 60 votes to proceed as Democrats blocked the bill when only three of them joined Republicans… Sens. Doug Jones of Alabama, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, and Bob Casey Jr. of Pennsylvania were the only Democrats to vote for the bill. All other 44 Democratic senators voted against the bill.

By Nick Hallett, Catholic Herald – Inés San Martin, who is one of the most respected journalists in the Vatican press corps, asked Archbishop Charles Scicluna at a press conference after the abuse summit: “We know there is a bishop in Argentina, Zanchetta, who had gay porn on his phone involving young people… “How can we believe that this is in fact the last time we’re going to hear ‘no more cover-ups’ when at the end of the day, Pope Francis covered up for someone in Argentina who had gay porn involving minors?

By Marina Medvin, TownHall – The idea that we should sacrifice children for improved weather is nothing new. Before the advent of abortion, ancient Mesoamericans would savagely sacrifice their young children in the belief that the killings would appease the weather gods. Aztecs, Mayans, and Incas all sacrificed children throughout Mexico, Peru and Columbia. These civilizations believed that the barbaric executions would result in weather change.

By Stacy Trasancos, EWTN News – Once I understood the bigger supernatural picture, I understood that the real goal of parenting is to lead children to heaven, which can be difficult. On one hand, we teach children to use their God-given intellect and think for themselves. We dive right into the hardest questions about life, death and humanity. On the other hand, children raised to think will do just that. Children also have free will, which means they will try to think things through for themselves and push the boundaries.

By Shawn Carney, Townhall – It’s official: The Unplanned movie has been rated R… Unplanned tells the beautiful story of her journey out of the abortion industry. The movie is entertaining, fast-paced, educational and well done, but the journey does not, as the media and many politicians do, ignore the barbaric nature that is abortion. It shows not one but two abortions.

By Dorothy Cummings McLean, LifeSiteNews – The “Complicit Clergy” blog allows readers to explore McCarrick’s connections to other high-ranking churchmen and to examine the nature of these relationships… In a press release for the group, spokesman Michael Hichborn said there appears to be a “code of silence” among American bishops and cardinals when it comes to the sexual abuse of minors and young adults…. “Faithful Catholics are completely fed-up,” he said. “The clergymen closest to McCarrick would have us believe that everyone knew about McCarrick except for them. No way!”

By Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, National Catholic Register – Of course that decision to trust demands not just real love, and not just real courage, but also real faith. We can’t trust a God we don’t believe in. Faith matters because hope and love can’t bear the weight of the suffering in the world without it. Faith matters because it reminds us that there’s good in the world, and meaning to every life; and that the things that make us human are worth fighting for.

By Anthony Esolen, Crisis Magazine – In Fra Angelico’s Final Judgment, the saints in bliss turn their adoring eyes toward the risen Christ. He is the source and end of their unity. They are not looking at each other. But in the church by committee, it is hard to look toward Christ, because you are busy noticing and being noticed. Your eyes are directed toward a variety of democratic masters of ceremony. 

By Cong. Bob Latta, LifeNews – there are a few times where a comment from a member of Congress or a governor has stopped me in my tracks. That happened recently when I heard Virginia Governor Ralph Northam talk about what would happen to a baby born after a failed late-term abortion. He said, “The infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired. And then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother.”

“Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his […]

By Fr. Mike Schmitz, Ascension Press – The value of a new parishioner introducing him or herself to parish life and just asking the priest, “How can I help?” is priceless… When entering a new community, we may have all of these ideas about what we can do to help, but to listen and simply tell the leaders that you are available shows humility and understanding… Fr. Mike knows firsthand about all of the different types of parishioners who are on fire for the Faith, and want to do something to enrich parish life.

By Tom Gilson, The Stream – When four Notre Dame professors led a pro-abortion discussion on campus last month, they weren’t just putting forth a doctrine of death. One of them, at least, was claiming the rights and powers of a god… My stomach lurched when I read this from Professor Karen Graubart at that meeting: I decided that I needed to have a baby. … I went to a sperm bank, which is like the center of eugenics.… I was able to get myself pregnant, have a baby, and then create a life for myself using that….

Catholic News Agency – Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, has promised “unyielding vigilance” and an intensification of the Dallas Charter following the Vatican summit on the sexual abuse of minors.
“We owe survivors an unyielding vigilance that we may never fail them again,” DiNardo said. “How then to bind the wounds? Intensify the Dallas Charter.”

By James V. Schall, S.J., The Catholic Thing – We read in 2 Thessalonians 1, that “He will come in flaming fire to impose the penalty on all who do not acknowledge God and refuse to accept the Good News of our Lord Jesus. It will be their punishment to be lost eternally, excluded from the presence of the Lord, the glory of his strength on that day when he comes to be glorified among his saints.” Talk about a counter-cultural passage!

By Micaiah Bilger, LifeNews – The Vermont House passed a radical pro-abortion bill Thursday that would keep abortions legal and unrestricted for basically any reason up to birth… Vermont House Bill 57 passed overwhelmingly in a 106-36 vote. Lawmakers also rejected 12 amendments that would have allowed some minor, common-sense abortion regulations, including parental notification for minors and counseling

By Kevin Tierney, Catholic Exchagne – In light of all the controversies and scandals that rocked the Church in 2018, many Catholics attempted to answer the question “why are you still Catholic?”  There is every indication that these controversies and scandals will continue and increase in 2019, so the question remains.  While it is good for Catholics to answer this question, it is also good for us to consider how strong those answers are. Are they really getting at the crux of the matter?

By Chris Woodward, OneNewsNow – It’s tax season again – and as the saying goes, you can’t please everybody… For the first time in a century, Americans are limited in the amount of state and local taxes (SALT) they can write off to $10,000 – and in states like New Jersey, California, and Maryland, which have high income and property taxes, that can take a chunk out of a federal refund.

By Msgr. Charles Pope – Are you a Christian? Before you answer, consider these other questions: Do you love your enemy? Do you do good to them who hate you? The honest answers to these questions are at the very heart of Christianity and represent what distinguishes a Christian from others. Let’s follow Jesus’ teachings in several stages. In so doing, we can learn our truest identity and how He seeks to transform us.

By Christopher Altieri, Catholic Herald – Alazraki’s remarks were a frank challenge and a moral lesson that cut through the mystifying jargon that has dominated so much of the talk over the past three days, and she delivered them in words a child could understand… “We journalists know that abuse is not limited to the Catholic Church,” Alazraki said, “but you must understand that we have to be more rigorous with you than with others, by virtue of your moral role.”… In case it was needed, she illustrated the point. “Stealing, for example, is wrong, but if the one stealing is a police officer it seems more serious to us, because it is the opposite of what he or she should do, which is to protect the community from thieves.”…

By Diane Montagna, LifeSiteNews – Decades of widespread homosexuality in US seminaries had “nothing to do with the sexual abuse of minors,” a key organizer of the Vatican abuse summit said on Friday… At today’s summit press briefing, LifeSite asked Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, adjunct secretary for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and papal appointee to the summit’s organizing committee, a follow-up to a question posed yesterday by Italian journalist Sandro Magister.

By Diane Montagna and Doug Mainwaring, LifeSiteNews – There were tense moments at the close of the Vatican’s four-day summit on the sexual abuse of minors this Sunday. Following pledges from the assembled prelates to complete transparency, a journalist challenged these promises, suggesting that Pope Francis himself had recently covered up for a bishop friend who was found to have had gay porn on his phone involving young people.

By Carl R. Trueman, First Things – Is the Catholic Church a cage? The language of a recent New York Times article on the number of gay men in the Roman Catholic priesthood certainly implies that it is. The precise quotation comes from Father Bob Bussen, a priest in Utah: “Life in the closet is worse than scapegoating,” he said. “It is not a closet. It is a cage.”

By Father Roger Landry, National Catholic Register – The sexual-abuse crisis in the Church has many contributing causes, each of which must be studied, addressed and eradicated… Among them, one of the most important is the lack of spiritual fatherhood shown in the crises’ three main aspects: the sexual abuse itself, the failure to confront and eliminate it, and the scandal to lie about it and cover it up… Then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger — the future Pope Benedict XVI — said in a March 2000 speech in Palermo, Sicily, “The crisis of fatherhood we are experiencing today is an element, perhaps the most important element, threatening man in his humanity.”

By Carter Griffin, MercatorNet – “If I had one hour to save the planet,” Albert Einstein reportedly quipped, “I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute resolving it.”… It has now become excruciatingly clear that we have a problem in the clergy of the Catholic Church. Stories of clerical sexual abuse and episcopal negligence seem to be endless. We want the problem fixed, and we are all tempted to seize on the nearest shifty suspect. To many, that shifty suspect is priestly celibacy….

Courageous Priest – Before the drift in process, it seems that the difficulty is reduced to that of the abuse of minors, a horrible crime, especially when it is perpetrated by a priest, which is, however, only part of a much greater crisis. The plague of the homosexual agenda has been spread within the Church, promoted by organized networks and protected by a climate of complicity and a conspiracy of silence. The roots of this phenomenon are clearly found in that atmosphere of materialism, of relativism and of hedonism, in which the existence of an absolute moral law, that is without exceptions, is openly called into question.

By Emily Ward, CNSNews – The pro-life film ‘Unplanned’ has received an R rating from…the MPAA for “some disturbing/bloody images,” leading the film’s directors to note that the rating reinforces the position that abortion is violence… The directors of ‘Unplanned,’ Cary Solomon and Chuck Konzelman, told Movieguide that “UNPLANNED is an ‘R’ rated film which has no MPAA cautions for profanity, nudity, sex or violence … except for violence directly associated with the abortion process.”… “Ironically, the MPAA seems to be indirectly endorsing the pro-life position: namely that abortion is an act of violence,” the directors added.

By Steven Ertelt, LifeNews – President Donald Trump today finalized an administrative rule that would partially defund the Planned Parenthood abortion business and deprive it of as much as $60 million in taxpayer dollars. This action adds to President Trump’s record of defunding the Planned Parenthood abortion company.

By Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council – ….this week, when an “exclusive report” from NBC News said, “The Trump administration is launching a global campaign to end the criminalization of homosexuality.” There’s just one problem. Besides the ambassador, it doesn’t seem that President Trump — or anyone else in the administration — authorized this “campaign.”

By Kathryn Jean Lopez, The Stream – Abby was a clinic director of a Planned Parenthood in Texas, and through a series of events — the pivotal one being a participant in an ultrasound-guided abortion — felt compelled to leave her job. Unplanned, which will be in theaters at the end of March, will naturally attract pro-life people familiar with Abby’s story. But it should draw a wider audience — it’s a love story full of hope.

By Anthony Esolen, The Catholic Thing – The other day at Thomas More College I had an experience I’d never had, in my thirty-four years of teaching college students. I had stayed in the room after class, chatting with several of the students, who didn’t have to get anywhere fast, because the class was over at 11:00 and Mass wouldn’t begin until 11:30. One of the students, the only one in a class of twenty-five, had spent two years in a public high school…..

By Cheryl Sullenger, Operation Rescue – “Pretty much everyone who had anything to do with the trafficking of aborted babies is gone from Planned Parenthood, including their CEO Cecile Richards,” said Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue… “This isn’t something that happened right after the videos came out. Planned Parenthood wields a great deal of political power, which probably helped them think they could withstand the negative press, but now that it is clear that some of that shielding influence is waning. Resignations are still taking place.”

By Br. Joseph Martin Hagan, O.P., Catholic Exchange – Dominican friars aren’t always known for humility, yet St. Thomas Aquinas has left us quite a rich inheritance on the subject. Thomas fundamentally roots humility in a true knowledge of reality, of one’s strengths and weaknesses. He details humility’s opposition both to pride, the queen of all vices, and indirectly to vainglory, pride’s first lieutenant.

By Michael Voris, S.T.B., ChurchMilitant – This summit has been assailed as a phony sideshow by homosexual clerics attempting to hide their own homosexual network, chief of which had been Theodore McCarrick, who the network protected for decades and in many ways is the entire reason for this meeting… But there now appears to be much more to this story than just the homosexual angle, as large as that still looms.

By Catholic News Agency – A state senator in California introduced a bill Wednesday which would seek to force priests to violate the sacramental seal of confession in suspected cases of child abuse or neglect. Clergy are already mandatory reporters in the state of California, but there is a legal exemption for material disclosed in the confessional.

By Victor Davis Hanson, The Daily Signal – The reinvention of vocabulary can often be more effective than any social protest movement. Malarial swamps can become healthy “wetlands.” Fetid “dumps” are often rebranded as green “landfills.”… Global warming was once a worry about too much heat… Yet in the last 30 years, record cold spells, inordinate snow levels, and devastating rains have been common. How to square that circle?… Substitute “climate change” for “global warming.”

By Alexa Moutevelis Coombs, LifeNews – Planned Parenthood President Dr. Leana Wen absurdly tries to claim the pro-life mantle, saying, “Our nurses and our clinicians are all here because we believe in life. Being pro-choice is being pro-women. It’s being pro-family. It’s being pro-community. It’s being pro-life.” What she really means is they are pro-certain types of life. Only life that has no flaws or possible abnormalities, or that arrives at the perfect maternal age, home situation, or financial time, or is wanted, or whatever other reasons a woman may come up with.

By Janet Smith, National Catholic Register – Ours is a deeply wounded Church, one in desperate need of healing. Catholics are leaving the Church; those who stay are withholding donations; parents who have long hoped for a son to become a priest are dissuading their sons from going into seminary… The Catholic laity are in a state of shock in respect to the extent of the depravity we are discovering in the clergy, low and high. Our default position is now one of a lack of trust.

By Msgr. Charles Pope – As the summit on sexual abuse begins in Rome, the prelates of the Latin Rite of the Church are reading from the Book of Proverbs in the Office of Readings of the Liturgy of the Hours. Some of the proverbs listed in today’s reading are particularly appropriate to the task at hand… He who winks at a fault causes trouble, but he who frankly reproves promotes peace (Prov 10:10).

By Stephen Kokx, LifeSiteNews – Last Friday, the president of the U.S. bishops’ conference, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, and the chairman of the committee on migration, Bishop Joe Vásquez, unsurprisingly rebuked President Donald Trump for declaring a national emergency in order to build a wall on America’s southern border.

By Nancy Flory, The Stream – Focus on the Family is hosting a major pro-life event in Times Square on May 4th called “Alive in New York.” A 12-week campaign called “See Life Clearly” will lead up to the event. On that date, in one of world’s most iconic locations, the organization will broadcast live ultrasounds of babies in the womb.

By Diane Montagna, LifeSiteNews – We cannot avoid seeing as a sign of Providence that you, Pope Francis, and brother Bishops representing the entire Church have come together on the very day on which we celebrate the memory of St. Peter Damian. This great monk in the 11th century put all his strength and apostolic zeal into renewing the Church in his time, so deeply corrupted by sins of sodomy and simony….

By John Horvat II, Crisis Magazine – Consider the fact that the American economy is booming by all major indicators. Unemployment is down to record lows. Inflation is minimal. Consumer confidence is up. We have not seen times like this for decades. Admittedly, wages are still low, and debt levels are off the charts… Indeed, for some, never in recent memory have we been so prosperous. However, at no time in postwar history have we been so divided, unhappy, or lonely.

Pete BaklinskI, LifeSiteNews – A number of Catholic laity from prominent organizations made statements at a press conference during the event, outlining concerns they have about the abuse summit. Links to the full statements are included below… “If this Synod limits itself to discussing only the problem of the abuse of minors, saying nothing about the plague of homosexuality which infests the Church, this Synod will betray its mission,” the International Coalition of Laity stated in a press release.

By Rose Folsom, Catholic Exchange – For a Time Such as This – In 2002, St. John Paul II asked “Catholics to stay close to their priests and Bishops, and to support them with their prayers at this difficult time.” Because of the crimes of a few and the cover-up of those crimes, these “difficult times” continue… As the world’s bishops meet in Rome, lay people have a chance to bring sunlight to disinfect what episcopal passivity has festered. Jesus reminds us, “You are light for the world (Mt. 5:14).”

By Philip Kosloski, Aleteia – The USCCB gives a succinct explanation: Catholic peoples from time immemorial have set apart Friday for special penitential observance by which they gladly suffer with Christ that they may one day be glorified with Him. This is the heart of the tradition of abstinence from meat on Friday where that tradition has been observed in the holy Catholic Church.

By Brian Isenbarger, Those Catholic Men – St. John Paul II… “Jesus implies that the message of salvation is in fact himself: “Since the ‘Good News’ is Christ, there is an identity between the message and the messenger, between saying, doing and being”… In other words, the message of healing and salvation is not primarily found in the external act of having particular ailments cured of infirmity, but rather in the communion with the One who is salvation Himself. It is from this source alone that our bodies and souls can actually be restored to health.

By Hannah Brockhaus, CNA – They don’t need our story, they need to take action and they need to take action now,’ one survivor said
About a dozen victims of clergy sexual abuse met Wednesday with the organizing committee of the Vatican sex abuse summit, expressing their desire that the week’s meeting yield action on the part of Church leaders.

Dr. Robert Royal, Editor-in-chief, The Catholic Thing – And then there’s the recent naming of Irish-American Cardinal Kevin Farrell to the position of camerlengo, the official who declares the pope officially dead and then runs the Vatican, with limited powers, during the interregnum… Farrell lived for six years in the same residence with then-Cardinal McCarrick and claimed – to widespread skepticism – that he had no knowledge of, had never even heard rumors about, McCarrick’s outrages.

By Fr. Gerald E. Murray, The Catholic Thing – Now that the initial excitement has died down some, it’s a good time to take a calmer look at Cardinal Gerhard Mueller’s recently published Manifesto of Faith. He begins by quoting Our Lord: “Let not your hearts be troubled.” (Jn 14:1) Troubled, indeed, are the faithful in these days. The doctrinal and moral chaos in the Church is manifest and grave.

By Mark Alexander, The Patriot Post – Until now, discussions about using the “25th Amendment6” to remove our duly elected president from office, originally attributed to then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, as well as Rosenstein’s own suggestion that he could wear a wire to entrap Trump, had been dismissed as facetious… But McCabe says no. Rosenstein “raised the issue” of the 25th Amendment and “offered to wear a wire7 into the White House.” McCabe says Rosenstein added: “I never get searched when I go into the White House. I could easily wear a recording device. They wouldn’t know it was there.”

By Tom Collingwood, Catholic Stand – In that context I have always searched for what may be the root causes of why would a priest, bishop or any member of the clergy perform abusive acts, discount them, condone them, or hide them. The sacred vows of a priest have been ignored, violated and corrupted by some. Why? It’s a timely question to ask before the Bishops conference called by the Pope meets in February.

By Marcus Roberts, Mercatornet – The video below from Radio Free Europe tells of a school in the village of Shapy, in the Smolensk region of western Russia. It was on the brink of closing a dozen years ago owing to the shortage of students. Then three teachers adopted five children, and the rest of the village has followed their example. Now, over 70 children have been adopted and the school is flourishing.

By David G. Bonagura, Jr., Crisis Magazine – On the eve of the Vatican summit on The Protection of Minors in the Church, the Times, in a panic that homosexuality will be blamed as the cause of the crisis, has decided to go on the offensive to discredit celibacy instead… The Times has long been America’s doyen of the Sexual Revolution, using its pages to push the bounds of accepted sexual practice for decades—recently added to the mainstays of abortion on demand and homosexuality have been attempts to normalize transgender living and open marriages.

By Steven Ertelt, Micaiah Bilger, LifeNews – Attorneys for Sandmann filed the lawsuit Tuesday, accusing the Washington newspaper of engaging in a “modern-day form of McCarthyism.” The lawsuit also blames CNN and NBC, “among others,” for taking part in the smear, but it does not take direct legal action against those outlets… “The Post wrongfully targeted and bullied Nicholas because he was the white, Catholic student wearing a red ‘Make America Great Again’ souvenir cap on a school field trip to the January 18 March for Life in Washington, D.C., when he was unexpectedly and suddenly confronted by Nathan Phillips, a known Native American activist, who beat a drum and sang loudly within inches of his face,” the lawsuit says.

By George Weigel, Denver Catholic – The plague of sexually abusive clergy manifests itself in different ways in different ecclesiastical contexts. In the so-called developed world, the plague seems to have largely involved the sexual abuse or exploitation of young men; but there are many other ways in which a subset of Catholic clergy, both priests and bishops, lead duplicitous lives in violation of the promise of celibate chastity they made to God and the Church.

By Martin Rothweiler, EWTN – Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, the archbishop of Cologne, spoke with EWTN TV German-language program director Martin Rothweiler Feb. 13 about the Church in Germany and the worldwide abuse crises… The German cardinal is committed to keeping God alive in the modern world and preserving Church teaching on Communion and other doctrinal matters, including sexual morality and the dignity of human life. He also finds hope in the witness of young Catholics.

By Edward Pentin, National Catholic Register – Cardinal Raymond Burke and Cardinal Walter Brandmüller have written an open letter to the presidents of bishops’ conferences attending this week’s Vatican summit on clerical sex abuse, calling on them to end their silence and return to upholding the divine and natural law… they argue that the abuse crisis is only part of a wider and much deeper problem that owes itself to a society that openly calls into question an absolute moral law, and Church leaders who have “gone away from the truth of the Gospel.”… “A decisive act now is urgent and necessary,” the cardinals say, and call for an end to the “plague of the homosexual agenda” in the Church, organized networks of protection, and a “climate of complicity and a conspiracy of silence.”

By Lesli White, BeliefNet – The final time the archangel Michael is referenced in Scripture appears in Revelation 12:7. During the tribulation, “war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and his angels fought back.” Michael and the forces of heaven defeat the dragon (Satan) and the devil is hurled to the earth. There, enraged, Satan “went off to wage war against…those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus” (Revelation 12:7).

By Walter E. Williams, Daily Signal – Frederic Bastiat, a French economist and member of the French National Assembly, lived from 1801 to 1850. He had great admiration for our country, except for our two faults—slavery and tariffs… He said: “Look at the United States. There is no country in the world where the law is kept more within its proper domain: the protection of every person’s liberty and property.”… If Bastiat were alive today, he would not have that same level of admiration. The U.S. has become what he fought against for most of his short life.

By Steve Jordahl, OneNewsNow – If the idea of a “Christian abortionist” makes your head spin, you may want to take the opportunity this week to listen to a debate between abortionist Willie Parker and pro-life author Mike Adams… Self-described “Christian abortionist” Willie Parker has spent a good portion of his career trying to synthesize his zest for killing the unborn and his professed embrace of a Christian tradition. But the Bible is true: a man cannot serve two masters. Dr. Jeff Myers is president of Summit Ministries, which is sponsoring the Parker-Adams debate this week.

By Kathleen Beckman, Catholic Exchange – Authentic soul-wisdom is offered by a saint who intimately experienced the physical and interior sufferings of the pierced Sacred Heart, battled with demons, and attained the victory of love. St. Pio of Pietrelcina, more familiarly known as “Padre Pio”, was an Italian Capuchin priest and should be considered a trusted guide through the Lenten season when the Church’s liturgy presents the opportunity to intimately ponder Christ’s passion, slay our dragons and strive harder to be a faithful lover of our Redeemer.

By Thomas D. Williams, Breitbart – Too many Christians shy away from the social gospel, Pope Francis said Monday, because they are afraid the Church will end up looking like the communist party… “We ease our conscience a little by giving alms, as long as it does not hurt too much,” he said, because we fear that “with these social things the Church ends up looking like the communist party and this bothers us. Fine, but it was the Lord who said, ‘Where is your brother?’ Not the party, the Lord.”

By Ryan M. Williams, Crisis Magazine – Contrary to the idea that celibacy is a “lack” of something, the Church sees it as a gift given to certain individuals by God that permits them to act more effectively in certain ways. The discipline of celibacy is a way to express the virtue of chastity (a virtue everyone is called to cultivate). The first point to note is that celibacy is not “chosen” by anyone, but rather, it is received as a special charism as a way to live out the virtue of chastity.

By David Torkington, Catholic Stand – When a young priest told me that in seven years of training no one ever spoke about the importance of personal prayer, I found it hard to believe. But over the first few years of my tenure I found that far from being the exception to the rule, virtually everyone, priests and religious men and women described a similar experience.

By Emily Ward, CNSNews – In New York City’s Times Square, on May 4, the pro-life group Focus on the Family (FOTF) will present a live, 4D ultrasound of an unborn baby as part of the pro-family event Alive from New York… At the event, which will also include speakers and live music, a doctor will perform the 4D ultrasound – four-dimensional images – which allows viewers to see a baby moving around in his mother’s womb and potentially kicking, sucking his (or her) thumb, yawning and even smiling.

Dr Taylor Marshall – Why do we have corrupt bishops? Why are they compromised? Follow the money. Dr Taylor Marshall interviews Dr John Zmirak about how bishops receive funds directly from the secular governments and how this dependency creates corruption in places like the United States and Germany. They also discuss “green theology”, Pope Francis, and other topics related to this Catholic problem.

By Dennis Prager, Contributor, The Stream – Why does the left lie?… One is that leftists deem their goals more important than telling the truth… The second reason is leftism is rooted in feelings, not reason or truth. From Karl Marx to Bernie Sanders, left-wing preference for socialism over capitalism is entirely rooted in emotion. Only capitalism creates wealth. Socialism merely spends what capitalism creates. Do leftists not know this? Even if they know it, the emotional pull of socialism prevails.

By K.V. Turley, LifeSiteNews – On the trolley in the middle of the room was a woman prepared for the medical procedure. Into the room came another woman, the person tasked with carrying out that procedure… As the visitor watched, she was struck by two things: the fact that no one spoke to the woman lying on the trolley in the middle of the room; and that the darkness all around was intended to conceal the identity of the other woman whom the visitor assumed was a doctor… Then it began: the noise of the suction machine, followed by a sickening thud as human remains hit the tubing and passed into a large glass jar.

By Msgr. Charles Pope – Although St. Paul tells the Thessalonians that they know what is holding back the lawless one, we moderns struggle to know. Some scholars say that Paul is referring to the Roman government (which I doubt). Others say that it is the power of grace and God’s decision to “restrain” the evil one and thereby limit his power for the time being. Of course, if Satan is limited now, what horrifying things will be set loose when he is no longer restrained! Can it get any worse? Apparently, it can!

By Micaiah Bilger,LifeNews – The U.S. Supreme Court granted a victory to Texas Catholic bishops on Tuesday after an abortion chain attacked them for offering to bury babies killed in abortions… The lawsuit by Whole Woman’s Health, a Texas abortion chain notorious for health and safety violations, involves a Texas law that requires abortion facilities to bury or cremate aborted babies’ bodies. The law helps ensure that abortion businesses are not selling aborted babies’ bodies for profit.

By Micaiah Bilger, LifeNews – Catholic Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier slammed political correctness and called abortion “THE hate crime of our era” on Monday… Napier, the archbishop in Durban, South Africa, wrote the comment on Twitter while following the raging abortion debate in America… “Is there any good reason, other than political correctness, why abortion is not defined as & declared immoral & illegal, as THE hate crime of our era?” Napier wrote…. “It’s unbelievable that we still have to be discussing the question of whether an unborn child is human!

By Dan Burke, Spiritual Direction – “The soul has only one will, and if it occupies itself or encumbers itself with anything, it will not remain free, solitary, and pure, as is required for divine transformation” (Ascent of Mt. Carmel I, 11,6). This teaching of St. John of the Cross is in perfect harmony with the fundamental precept of Jesus: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with all thy strength and with all thy mind”…

By Luke Heintschel, St. Philip Institute of Catechesis and Evangelization – Academic discussions can seem disconnected from and irrelevant to our daily lives, but perhaps I can briefly attempt to persuade otherwise… Many of the problems in the world today in some sense trickle down from academic discussions into everyday life. Research at universities is taught to those who teach at elementary, middle, and high schools, both public and private. The formation priests receive in seminary directly impacts their preaching and other facets of their ministry.

By Rev. James V. Schall, S.J., Crisis Magazine – “Can a woman forget her nursing child that she should have no compassion for the son of her womb?” ∼ Isaiah, 49:15… …. Man was willed by God in a specific way; not just as a creature that is ‘there,’ but as a creature that knows him, not just as an idea that he thought, but as a creature that can, in turn, think of him.” ∼ Joseph Ratzinger, 1977

By Cortney O’Brien, TownHall – All around good guy Benjamin Watson, who finished out his football career last year with the New Orleans Saints, made a moving donation to a New Orleans pregnancy center. Along with his family, Watson donated an ultrasound machine to the New Orleans-based ministry of Baptist Community Health Services (BCHS) in the fall.

By Micaiah Bilger, LifeNews – A senator for Washington state since 1992, Murray’s biggest campaign donors include pro-abortion groups. In fact, EMILY’S List, a group dedicated to electing pro-abortion women to Congress, is Murray’s biggest campaign donor, with contributions totaling $610,621, according to Open Secrets… Additionally, Planned Parenthood’s PAC gave Murray a total of $48,033 in the past two decades, according to Open Secrets. This includes $13,391 in 2016, $200 in 2014, $10,249 in 2010, $1,250 in 2008, $1,200 in 2006, $11,750 in 2004 and $9,993 in 1998.

By Michael Warren Davis, Catholic Herald – Every theology enthusiast – I would never use the term dork – has, at some point, identified himself with one of two factions: the Thomistic Aristotelians or the Augustinian Platonists. Granted, the whole debate is kind of dumb. Reading Aquinas’s commentary on Boethius, one realizes pretty quickly that the Angelic Doctor himself is as much an Augustinian as the more “Platonic” theologians like Bonaventure.

By Edward Pentin, EWTN News – Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago and Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta — two members of a four-member preparatory committee for the Feb. 21-24 meeting — also told reporters Monday that the meeting will not focus on abuse of vulnerable adults or seminarians, nor on the role homosexuality plays in such abuse or its cover-up… Instead, they emphasized what follows the meeting in sharing good practices and implementing measures will be the “essence” of the gathering, so the Church “can be a safe place for minors again.”

By Terence P. Jeffrey,  CNSNews – Cardinal Joseph Zen, bishop emeritus of Hong Kong, gave an interview to CNSNews.com on January 28 in which he discussed his new book, “For Love of My People I Will Not Remain Silent—On the Situation of the Church in China.”… In the interview, Cardinal Zen discussed the agreement that the Holy See made last September with the government of the People Republic of China on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China.

By Msgr. Charles Pope – Original sin is that first sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, committed when they ate the forbidden fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (Gen 3:1-7). While it clearly involved them both, Scripture and Tradition refer to it formally as the “Sin of Adam” or “Adam’s Sin,” not the “Sin of Adam and Eve.” It is also described as coming to us “through one man,” not “through one man and one woman.”

By Patti Armstrong, National Catholic Register – When bishops gather for the summit in Rome this week to address clerical sex abuse, they will have the perspective of thousands of U.S. Catholic women. The Catholic Women’s Forum (CWF) sent three documents to Pope Francis, all the archbishops and bishops throughout the United States, and other key participants, to help in their efforts to restore the Church’s credibility and promote healing.

By Tom Gilson, a Sr. Editor, The Stream – But there really was a child who was born by His own consent. His parents never guaranteed Him any property. In fact He never owned any at all, to the day He died. His parents didn’t guarantee Him a good life, either; no such luck. This was a man who had “no place to lay His head.” He was constantly under pressure from enemies who wanted Him killed. In the end, though, it was a friend, of all people, who betrayed Him. He died horribly, painfully, humiliatingly at a very young age.

By Doug Mainwaring, LifeSiteNews – A Vatican press conference this morning displayed the pent up frustration of journalists—and millions of Catholics worldwide—over the Holy See’s insistence on addressing only the sexual abuse of minors while ignoring the elephant in the room: the preponderance of homosexual clergy in the Church… A two-hour-long press conference consisting of a panel of Church luminaries took an abrupt turn once journalists were free to ask questions, revealing a stark divergence between the preferred narrative of the hierarchy and the universal concern of multitudes of Catholics in the pews.

By Marissa Mayer,  Alliance Defending Freedom – That’s why, ever since the Supreme Court created a constitutional right to abortion in 1973, abortion activists and the pro-life movement have been locked in an endless legal debate over everything related to abortion. Informed consent, safety regulations, ultrasounds, parental notification, fetal pain, first trimester abortions, webcam abortions, second trimester abortions, fetal viability, partial-birth abortions, freedom of conscience for doctors and nurses, pro-life speech, insurance plans and abortion-inducing drugs, taxpayer-funded abortions… and the list goes on and on.

By John Horvat, Imaginative Conservative – At some point this past month, America crossed a Rubicon that dramatically threw our society into a disorder manifested by the denial of reality and truth. However, the unmasking of disorder in all its hideousness has produced more intense longings for a return of a moral order by those who grieve for the nation and who truly love God…

Pope St. John Paul II – It seems that Michelangelo, in his own way, allowed himself to be guided by the evocative words of the Book of Genesis which, as regards the creation of the human being, male and female, reveals: “The man and his wife were both naked, yet they felt no shame” (Gn 2:25). The Sistine Chapel is precisely – if one may say so – the sanctuary of the theology of the human body.

By William Kilpatrick, The Catholic Thing – After providing evidence for the existence of widespread corruption in the hierarchy – corruption that, he claims, Pope Francis knew about and enabled – Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò called on Pope Francis to resign:  “He must acknowledge his mistake and. . .must be the first to set a good example for cardinals and bishops who covered up McCarrick’s abuses and resign along with all of them.”

By John Zmirak, The Stream – In your new book, Cult City, you unfold a very strange world. The San Francisco of the 1970s. It was a ferment of radical ideas and movements. Radical activists, conmen, and former left-wing terrorists rubbed shoulders with the establishment. The mayor of the city, the editor of its main newspaper, and gay activists held a fundraiser for the Rev. Jim Jones.

Catholic News Agency – The mother, 26-year-old Bethan Simpson, learned during a routine 20-week scan late last year that Elouise had spina bifida, a condition that affects the spinal cord and backbone and can lead to many complications, including an inability to walk… Her doctors spoke with her about her options; abortion was one of them… “I physically couldn’t bring myself to consider termination…”

Publius, Patriot Post – Contrary to popular opinion, no action by Congress or order by any President has changed ‘Washington’s Birthday’ to ‘Presidents’ Day.‘”… Furthermore, to call the day “Presidents’ Day” not only diminishes George Washington but elevates presidents like Barack Obama. Whereas Washington sought to keep his oath to “support and defend” the Constitution, Obama undermined it at every turn.

By Gary Bauer, Patriot Post – President Trump has every legal right to issue this emergency declaration… But, as he conceded during his press conference Friday, there will be a flurry of lawsuits. And he will probably lose in lower left-wing courts still dominated by Obama appointees. I expect the administration to fast-track its appeals to the Supreme Court, where I also expect Trump will prevail, just as he did on the travel ban.

Fr. Dwight Longenecker, The Imaginative Conservative – A good reason for reading church history is that it gives one hope, helping one navigate the stormy waters of yesterday’s news with a calm hand on the tiller. And not only does it put present turmoil into perspective, but it helps one realize that things have often been bad, but despite all the death sentences pronounced on Christians and Christianity, the church has survived…

By Steven D. Greydanus, EWTN News – Jesus brings bad news as well as good news. He comes to comfort the afflicted, but also to afflict the comfortable. He sets before us two ways, two paths. The way of beatitude — of blessedness, of God’s favor and supreme happiness, culminating in heaven. And the way of woe, of misery and doom, culminating in hell… Each of us, every day of our lives, is on one of these two paths: the easy way that leads to destruction, as we read in the Sermon on the Mount, or the hard way that leads to life. There’s no third way, no in-between.

By Marcellino D’Ambrosio, Ph.D., Catholic Exchange – Beatitude, according to Webster, means perfect blessedness or happiness.  But when you read the beatitudes, you seemingly find anything but.  It is the poor, the hungry, the weeping and the persecuted who are blessed.  In Luke’s gospel (Lk 6:20-26), Jesus even adds woes for those who are rich, full, mirthful and popular… I once heard a preacher say that many of God’s people look more liked they’ve been baptized in pickle juice than in water.  Is this holiness?  Is piety all about being miserable and glum?  What are we to make of these alarming words of Jesus?

By Rachel Del Guidice, LifeNews – Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., praised Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., for green-lighting a Senate roll call vote on Feb. 25 for Sasse’s legislation protecting abortion survivors… “I want to thank the majority leader for scheduling this vote so that every American can know where their senator stands on the issue of infanticide,” Sasse said in a statement released Thursday.  “A lot of senators spend a lot of time telling people how they fight for the little guy. Well, here’s the chance for them to prove it.”

By Msgr. Charles Pope – The Gospel passage this Sunday is Luke’s version of the Beatitudes. Being paradoxical, they are difficult to understand. We do not usually refer to the poor as blessed, but rather the well off; we do not typically call those who mourn blessed, but rather the joyful… The word “beatitude” itself means “supreme blessedness.” In ancient Greek, makarios (blessed) referred to a deep, serene, and stable happiness largely unaffected by external matters. It also corresponds to the Hebrew word asher, which is more of an exclamation.

By Kathryn Jean Lopez, The Stream – In so many ways, it really is that simple. Mother and child. New life. Expectation. Abortion isn’t a political issue; it isn’t a women’s issue. It’s about our basic humanity, the most precious resource there is… I haven’t gone in to ask, but I assume the people who run Hatch on Bleecker Street aren’t trying to make a bold pro-life statement in their window. But they couldn’t have a healthier message. Mama. That’s what the woman is. She has a baby. And that’s now the focus. That’s what we need to rally around.

By Hannah Brockhaus,  CNA – Pope Francis and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith ordered this week the laicization of Theodore McCarrick, a former cardinal and archbishop emeritus of Washington, and a once powerful figure in ecclesiastical, diplomatic, and political circles in the U.S. and around the world… The decision followed an administrative penal process conducted by the CDF, which found McCarrick guilty of “solicitation in the Sacrament of Confession, and sins against the Sixth Commandment with minors and with adults, with the aggravating factor of the abuse of power,” according to a February 16 Vatican communique.

By Micaiah Bilger, LifeNews – New Yorkers will be given the chance to see the value of life in the womb this May when Focus on the Family hosts a live, 4D ultrasound display in Times Square… Jim Daly, president of Focus on the Family (said) he hopes the powerful image will help people realize the radical political “overreach” of New York’s new pro-abortion law… “I think what’s happened in New York and Virginia has prompted a response,” Daly said. “These politicians that have overreached, in our opinion, when it comes to reshaping the abortion debate.”

By Shawn Carney, President, 40 Days for Life – Somehow, Ralph Northam is still the governor of Virginia… Abortion advocates rushed to defend Northam after he endorsed infanticide on a recent radio interview. But when racist photos from his medical school yearbook page hit the internet, even staunch supporters called for his resignation… The connection between racism and abortion is nothing new. After all, Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger was a notorious racist who even appeared at a speaking engagement for…the KKK.

By Maike Hickson andJohn-Henry Westen, LifeSiteNews – Professor Roberto de Mattei, a leading defender of orthodoxy in the Church, has condemned Martel’s book as a “fiasco” seeking to “disqualify the Churchmen faithful to Tradition; to prevent the debate on the scourge of homosexuality in the Church, especially at the next summit.” Prof. de Mattei adds, however, that “the LGBT support to Pope Francis will certainly not help” the Pope in an agenda to liberalize the Church. The “cardinals and bishops demonized in the book will come out stronger after this attack so badly conducted,” he adds.

By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture – Cardinal Farrell was a controversial choice, of course, because he is a protégé of the disgraced former cardinal, Theodore McCarrick. Cardinal Farrell has insisted that he knew nothing about McCarrick’s conduct, although he lived with him and served as his vicar general. He has also said that he knew nothing about the misconduct of the late Father Marcial Maciel, although he also worked closely with Maciel in his days as an official of the Legionaries of Christ.

By William Kilpatrick, Crisis Magazine – It’s often been said of Pope Francis’s bridge-building initiatives with Islam that the traffic over the bridge goes only in one direction—away from Rome and toward Mecca… This also seems to be the case with the pope’s “historic” trip to the United Arab Emirates last week. Although the resulting document requires concessions on the part of both sides, it’s unlikely that the Muslim parties will stick to their end of the bargain. On the other hand, it’s quite likely that Catholics will be strongly encouraged to yield a point or two of doctrine.

By Steven Ertelt, LifeNews – President Donald Trump today marked the birthday of pro-life women’s suffragist leader Susan B. Anthony. In his proclamation, Trump said her pursuit for equal rights and equality for women also included respect for all human life — including unborn children…. “Today, we commemorate the birthday of Susan B. Anthony, an American champion of civil liberties and women’s rights. Susan B. Anthony was a steadfast advocate for the founding principles of our Nation. She advocated tirelessly for life, liberty, and equality for all Americans….”

By Peter Wolfgang, The Stream – “All eyes and ears will be on the Vatican during an unprecedented gathering Feb. 21-24,” reports Catholic News Service, “to discuss the protection of minors in the Catholic Church.” That’s true — unfortunately, because the gathering is going to be a bust… The Catholic sex-abuse crisis is not primarily heterosexual or pedophiliac. The Catholic crisis is primarily homosexual. The gathering is going to be a bust because it is only about “the protection of minors in the Catholic Church.”

Msgr. Charles Pope – People oversimplify Original Sin in various ways. Some reduce it to the mere eating of a piece of fruit rather than the act of disobedience, mistrust, and ingratitude it really was… Others miss the subtle but important difference in the descriptions of Adam’s sin compared to Eve’s. Of Eve’s sin, Eve herself is a witness. She said, The serpent tricked me and so I ate it (Gen 3:13). But of Adam’s sin God said, Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it …’ (Gen 3:17).

By Fr. Dwight Longenecker, EWTN – Everything is connected, and it may sound absurd to link contraception with economics, but think about it: History will look back and decide that artificial contraception was the most radical invention ever devised by mankind. When the link between the sexual act and procreation was broken it not only changed our sexual behavior, it changed everything… Most importantly, it changed the way we think about ourselves and our actions…

By Cardinal Gerhard Müller, EWTN – The root cause of this evil is disregard for the Sixth Commandment. Without chastity, piety and strict discipline, priestly life cannot succeed. Only he who lives according to the commandments of God can be a good shepherd and a model for the flock. When it comes to a path toward healing with respect to episcopal accountability, some bishops and their propagandists, particularly in Germany and the United States, do not want to admit at any price that the sin of unchastity is the root of the problem.

By Dorothy Cummings McLean, LifeSiteNews – Archbishop Carlo Viganò said he is “praying intensely” for the success of the abuse summit happening next week at the Vatican, but he fears that there is “no sign” that Pope Francis, along with organizers, is willing to “attend to the real causes” of the clerical abuse crisis… In a Feb. 10 essay published by the National Catholic Register as part of its “Abuse and the Way to Healing” symposium, the former Nuncio to the United States offered some questions that he says reveals a lack of “genuine willingness” to address the crisis.

By Bishop J. Strickland, Diocese of Tyler – God’s plan is for Glorious Chastity to always guide sexual desires along a path of accompaniment with His Divine Plan and the wondrous gift of participating in His creation. He has created us in His image. In His awesome love, He has opened the door for a man and woman to channel their natural attractions through His will to cooperate with Him in continuing His creative love in the world. The glorious beauty of God’s plan allows a man and woman, committed to each other in the marital bond, to be open to God’s creativity…..

By Msgr. Charles Pope – I will use the following passage from the Book of James to help frame our reflections: Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death (James 1:13-15).

By Janet Meyer, Catholic Stand – Shortly after the shooting at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, a friend on Facebook posted a concern. She asked, in light of this kind of violence, how are we supposed to welcome strangers in our parishes?… I understand her fear. While worshiping this weekend in a downtown parish in a major city, I heard police sirens at least twice. They were very close. I wondered if they were on the same block as the church. The first time it happened, I looked around, assessing how to escape if necessary.

By Patrick J. Buchanan, CNSNews – Both of America’s great national parties are coalitions… But it is the Democratic Party that never ceases to celebrate diversity — racial, religious, ethnic, cultural — as its own and as America’s “greatest strength.”… Understandably so, for the party is home to a multitude of minorities… It is the domain of the LGBTQ movement. In presidential elections, Democrats win 70 percent of Hispanics, Jews and Asian-Americans, and 90 percent of African-Americans… Yet, lately, the party seems to be careening into a virtual war of all against all.

By Christine Niles, M.St. (Oxon.), J.D. , ChurchMilitant – As Abp. Theodore McCarrick’s laicization looms, Pope Francis has appointed Cdl. Kevin Farrell to a key Vatican role.
According to Italian Vaticanista Marco Tossati, the announcement appointing Farrell as Cardinal Camerlengo (“Chamberlain”) was made Thursday morning, and is a position “central to the hierarchy of the Catholic Church.” In addition to playing a key role in formally pronouncing the end of a pope’s reign and directing preparations for the conclave, the camerlengo also becomes the de facto ruling sovereign of the Church until a new pontiff is elected.

By Lisa Bourne, LifeSiteNews – Stanek discussed the fallout in a recent interview with LifeSiteNews, where she also recalled her experience of learning that the faith-based Chicago-area hospital where she worked in the late 1990’s was leaving children born from botched abortions to die… It was while she was a registered nurse at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn in 1999 that she discovered the hospital was involved in late-term abortions, Stanek recounted… “Sometimes babies survived the abortion procedure,” she said, “and if they survived, they were allowed to die without any medical intervention whatsoever.”…

En.news – The cardinal reminds that the reason for man’s existence is to live in conformity with the laws of God. If man loses this reason “he wanders like a rudderless ship, and will sooner or later run into the reefs of selfishness and indifference.”… Sarah points out that this happened to the old Roman Empire, “For the West it may take twenty years, fifty years, even a century, but it will happen, do not doubt it, unless the West converts.”

The Catholic Herald – The text – essentially a gloss on the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) – is intended as a positive proclamation of the Catholic faith. But it gives a negative judgment on the new approach to the Eucharist fostered by Pope Francis. “From the internal logic of the sacrament,” Cardinal Müller argues, “it is understood that civilly remarried divorcees, whose sacramental marriage exists before God, as well as those Christians who are not in full communion with the Catholic Faith and the Church…..

By Paul Kengor, American Spectator – I wrote here last week about the reaction to President Trump’s condemnation of socialism in his State of the Union. He said something indisputably factual and indubitably obvious to most Americans: “Here, in the United States, we are alarmed by new calls to adopt socialism in our country. Tonight, we renew our resolve that America will never be a socialist country.”

Associated Press – President Donald Trump will sign Congress’ border security compromise, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday. The announcement removed the last ounce of suspense over the fate of a bill that would provide just a sliver of the money Trump wants to build a wall with Mexico but also would avoid a new government shutdown… But McConnell also said Trump would quickly declare a national emergency. The president has said that move would give him power to divert money from other budget projects into wall building.

By David Warren, The Catholic Thing – I believe in reason, because it seems to work, but more fundamentally I believe in it as a matter of faith. This is because I am a Catholic, a religion fairly unique in its insistence not only that God exists, transcending all natural existence (“supernatural” is the term the atheists mock), but that the universe He created has a natural order… Moreover, that within our natural limitations, we can make sense of it.

By Rev. Paul D. Scalia, Christendom College – Most Sundays I celebrate Mass at Saint Raymond of Peñafort Parish in Springfield, Virginia. During the Liturgy of the Word, as the priest is at the chair, I find myself gazing at the enormous, beautiful stained-glass window in the north transept, opposite the priest’s chair. The window depicts the Church triumphant—the Lamb of Revelation and our Lord appearing in glory, surrounded by saints of various times and walks of life….

CNA/EWTN NEWS – The Missouri Supreme Court has rejected a legal challenge against an informed consent abortion law from a self-described Satanic Temple adherent who claimed the state violated her religious beliefs… Chief Justice Zell M. Fischer, writing in a concurring opinion, said that the U.S. Supreme Court “has made it clear that state speech is not religious speech solely because it ‘happens to coincide’ with a religious tenet,” St. Louis Public Radio reports.

By Rachel Lu, National Catholic Register – God likes fleshy beings with precious, rational souls. He wants to shower graces on such beings, not because we’ve earned such blessings, but because we can receive them, and it pleases him when we do. Some sacraments (such as matrimony or holy orders) serve not only as channels of heavenly grace, but also as rites of passage that mark a noteworthy transformation in the recipient’s earthly life here below.

By Jackie and Bobby, Ascension Presents – Jackie and Bobby offer some suggestions on how to spend Valentine’s Day in a Catholic way, whether you’re single, dating, religious, or married… This day is a great opportunity to do a service project, go to adoration, or visit someone who is lonely. You can even do what Jackie and Bobby do and host a game night… The important thing to remember, though, is that this day is about a saint and martyr who was imprisoned and beheaded for his love of Christ; and so the true meaning of Valentine’s Day is to give ourselves to others—whether that be our spouse or a stranger—in a selfless way.

By Arthur Goldberg, Public Discourse – Abortion cannot be allowed on economic, social, or racial grounds—to afford a higher standard of living, for the convenience of uncommitted relationships, or because a minority racial group is involved… When Stacey Abrams lost her bid for Georgia governor last November, she explained away her loss with the common liberal talking point that racism deprived her fellow African-Americans and other minorities of their fundamental right to vote. Her campaign was largely focused on turning out the minority vote.

By Allison Low, The Catholic Stand – Conversations about moral issues today are often fueled with passion. But in many cases I have found that they are also rooted in a great deal of misunderstanding about the idea of freedom. For many people in our modern culture, the freedom to choose is exalted to the point of rejecting truth and any authority outside of one’s self.

By Mark Alexander, Patriot Post – The Democrat Party’s so-called “Green New Deal” (GND), better known as the “Rainbows and Unicorns Resolution of 2019,” is, as I wrote previously, like a watermelon — “green on the outside, but red on the inside.” It’s the ludicrous Millennial effluent of the Leninist “Earth Day” mindset… This behemoth “climate change” charade is, as are all others, about the implementation of socialist economic policies. That consequence is evident in the fact that the absurd mandates of the GND (as outlined in its FAQ document, which was quickly removed from public view) would result in catastrophic worldwide economic collapse.

By Nancy Flory, The Stream – More than any of this, I know I am loved by my Father because of His gift of eternal life through Jesus. Ephesians 2:5 says “because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions.” What kind of love would send a Son to die for others — especially wicked ones? I know I couldn’t do that. But He did. It is because of His great love that I hold onto hope of “abundant life” on earth while looking toward my forever home in Heaven.

By Jim Russell, Crisis Magazine – Mahony’s successor, Archbishop Jose Gomez, has previously declared: “My predecessor, retired Cardinal Roger Mahony, has expressed his sorrow for his failure to fully protect young people entrusted to his care. Effective immediately, I have informed Cardinal Mahony that he will no longer have any administrative or public duties.”… But who is the highest-ranking member of the clergy given a platform to speak at the upcoming Los Angeles Religious Education Congress (REC) to be held from March 21 to 24 and sponsored by the Los Angeles Archdiocese’s Office of Religious Education?

By Stephen P. White, The Catholic Thing – In one sense, laicization would bring McCarrick’s part in the saga of the clerical sex-abuse crisis in the Catholic Church to a deservedly ignominious end. He is an old man now, wretched and pitiable, whatever his crimes. But of course, the bitter fruits of his sins are still ripening to harvest… First, of course, are his victims: those he abused and coerced and harassed… They have suffered the most grievous, life-altering wounds. Suffering can be made redemptive, through God’s grace, but there is no promise that such wounds will ever fully heal.

By Msgr. Charles Pope – Beginning in the mid-sixties, however, weekly Mass attendance by Catholics began to drop. According to some polls, nearly 80 percent of Catholics were regular attendees in the mid-fifties; today, that figure has dropped to as low as 20 percent. Open dissent from Church teaching grew among the faithful and the clergy, especially after Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae, which re-affirmed the rejection of artificial contraception.

By Constance T. Hull, Catholic Exchange – There is nothing in this life that has taught me more about human nature, myself, and the mystery of suffering than the Cross. It is through meditating on and enduring my own Crosses and the Crosses of those around me that God has broken into my life in the most profound ways. Broken in is the right way to describe it, because God has had to break me open and cut me deeply in order to begin transfiguring me into the person He is calling me to be.

By Maike Hickson, LifeSiteNews – Bishop Athanasius Schneider, auxiliary bishop of Astana, Kazakhstan, supports and welcomes Cardinal Gerhard Müller’s new Manifesto of Faith… In a statement to LifeSiteNews, Bishop Schneider said he welcomes this manifesto as “a necessary and a very timely initiative, edifying the Faith and bringing light in the enormous spiritual confusion,” which can bring “to the faithful consolation and encouragement.”

By Fr. Regis Scanlon – Overall, Our Lady of America’s message was twofold. It contained an encouragement of faith but also a warning of terrible times ahead if there was not widespread repentance… First, Mary revealed to Sister Mildred that this country could be a great source for spreading the true faith across the world. Our Lady said: “I desire, through my children of America, to further the cause of faith and purity among peoples and nations.”…

By Lawrence P. Grayson, EWTN News – To meet the Ottoman threat, Pius V organized a coalition of Catholic principalities as the Holy League and put a Christian fleet into action to oppose a powerful Ottoman armada that was seeking to control the Mediterranean. The two navies met in an epic battle at Lepanto in 1571. The Ottomans were overwhelmingly defeated, thus stopping their attempts at expansion for over a century.

By Grace Carr, The Stream – Three abortion survivors told their stories on Fox and Friends Monday morning, and reacted to comments from Virginia’s governor supporting late-term abortion as well as attempts in a number of states to legalize abortion until birth…. Abortion survivors Melissa Ohden, the founder of the Abortion Survivors Network, along with Josiah Presley and Claire Culwelljoined Fox News host Ainsley Earhardt to discuss their personal stories.

By Calvin Freiburger, LifeSiteNews – Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced… “There are fewer and fewer children born in Europe. For the West, the answer is immigration. For every missing child there should be one coming in and then the numbers will be fine,” he declared. “But we do not need numbers. We need Hungarian children (…) this is Hungary’s answer rather than immigration.”

By Fr. Mike Schmitz, Ascension Presents – Yes, you are a burden… We are all burdens, including Fr. Mike, but we are burdens worth carrying… Many of us choose to deal with our problems on our own because we don’t want to bring our mess into other people’s lives… But the very nature of love is to sacrifice for others, and we cannot have any meaningful relationships in our lives if we do not share our burdens and bear some of the weight of other people’s burdens.

By Daniel McCarthy, First Things – We need a conservative agenda fit for the twenty-¬first century, and the closest thing to it is in fact the program that follows through on the themes of Trump’s 2016 campaign with greater clarity and focus than the administration itself has so far done. This is not because Trump now defines conservatism, as his detractors allege when they complain about a cult of personality… Rather, Trump in 2016, whether consciously or not, drew upon what has been the clear policy alternative to the elite consensus in favor of global liberalism since the early 1990s: economic nationalism, and nationalism more generally….

By Sr. Christina M. Neumann, Catholic Stand – Often people wonder how someone can find fulfillment as a consecrated religious without having a family, being a wife or husband, a mother or a father. How can anyone find personal fulfillment when they can’t even make all of their own decisions? Yet, as I stumbled along in my vocation, I have found fulfillment as a religious precisely because…..

By J.M. Phelps, OneNewsNow – Notwithstanding a current legal battle, Louisiana remains one of the most pro-life states in the nation – and a determined attorney general plans to keep it that way… While Chief Justice John Roberts appears to have become the Supreme Court’s new swing vote, he split away last week from the court’s other conservative justices and his previous position on abortion, joining the liberal bloc in halting a Louisiana law that would require abortion providers to have admitting privileges at local hospital facilities.

By Terence P. Jeffrey, CNSNews – The Ehrlichs and Holdren apparently saw abortion as part of this crusade… “An abortion is clearly preferable to adding a child to an over-burdened family or an overburdened society, where the chances that it will realize its full potential are slight,” they wrote… “Those who oppose abortion often raise the argument that a decision is being made for an unborn person who ‘has no say,'” they continued. “But unthinking actions of the very same people help to commit future unheard generations to misery and early death on an overcrowded planet.”

By Randall Smith, The Catholic Thing – We, especially from the 1950s on, have… We created “adolescence,” an absolutely absurd construction of a developmental stage where emerging adults are given all the freedoms of adulthood and none of the responsibilities. And we’re surprised when problems arise?… Instead of doing what wise cultures do, which is to take “young adults” and make sure they spend their time with actual adults so that they can learn the disciplines and virtues they need to take on adult responsibilities and manage adult freedom, we have our young adults spend all their time with other young adults, who are mostly as clueless as they are, doing mostly childish things.

By Grace Carr, LifeNews – Doctor and Kansas Rep. Roger W. Marshall wrote an op-ed saying there aren’t any reasons why a late-term abortion is necessary to protect a woman’s health… “To this day, I can’t think of a single scenario where I thought a late-term abortion would help to improve a woman’s mental health,” Marshall wrote in a Monday op-ed published by Fox News. “Contrary to the pro-abortion movement, regardless of the mother’s underlying medical health, I never saw the scenario where we had to choose between a mom’s life and a baby,” Marshall wrote.

By Fr. John R.P. Russell, Catholic Exchange – In this day and age, when we hear the word “Pharisee,” we think immediately of hypocrisy. Its second definition in the dictionary is, “a self-righteous person; a hypocrite.” When we hear the word “Pharisee,” the admonition of Jesus – “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites” – is always ringing in our ears. To call someone a Pharisee is to insult them.

By Paul Kengor, Crisis Magazine – “All” of these victims, the report declares, “were brushed aside, in every part of the state, by church leaders who preferred to protect the abusers and their institutions above all.” Or as the introduction to the report sums it up, “Priests were raping little boys and girls, and the men of God who were responsible for them not only did nothing; they hid it all.”… Peter Steinfels, of the Commonweal… gets right to the heart of the matter, asking: “Is that true?” The answer, of course, is no, as is clear to anyone who reads beyond the irresponsible introduction and who only read media accounts.

By Joan Frawley Desmond, EWTN News – When Father Bob Dunn read the headlines sparked by his friend Spokane Bishop Tom Daly’s strong corrective for Catholic politicians who promote abortion rights, the New York City priest told his friends, “This is the type of witness we need.”… “Politicians who reside in the Catholic Diocese of Spokane, and who obstinately persevere in their public support for abortion, should not receive Communion without first being reconciled to Christ and the Church,” Bishop Thomas Daly wrote… “Efforts to expand access to abortion, allowing murder of children up to the moment of birth, is evil… For a Catholic political leader to do so is scandalous.”

By Maike Hickson, LifeSiteNews – At least three bishops so far are publicly supporting Cardinal Gerhard Müller after he issued a “Manifesto of Faith” on Friday in the hope of clearing up the growing doctrinal confusion in the Church… Bishops Joseph Strickland, Thomas Tobin, and Marian Eleganti all expressed their gratitude to Cardinal Müller, the former head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, for reaffirming the essential tenets of our Catholic Faith… “Thank God for Cardinal Müller’s strength and fidelity to Christ and his Teaching,” says Bishop Strickland.

Fr. Mike Schmitz, Ascension Presents – Fr. Mike explains how God restores our brokenness, especially when it comes to our bodies. So often, we find that the more precious a thing is, the more fragile it is. And when something precious is broken, we often think it’s become worthless. Like when we break a fragile teacup, we throw it away because it no longer has value. But that’s not the way it is with our bodies. God created us to be temples of the Holy Spirit, something very precious. But we’re not like fragile teacups.

By Stephen Wynne, ChurchMilitant – Grein said he is “delighted” that the hierarchy is at last imposing a measure of justice on the former D.C. archbishop, but pointed out that the crisis is far bigger than just McCarrick. Defrocking the ex-cardinal, he said, is a small first step, but the entire Church must be cleansed… “McCarrick may have started a lot of these things, he may have lived the lifestyle, but he … made so many priests… He was in the pulpit for 50 years, speaking and spewing his doctrine throughout the Catholic Church.”

By Fr. Shenan J. Boquet, Human Life International – “Baby.” “Ripped from the mother’s womb.” “Living, feeling, beautiful babies.” “Innocent life.” Not a single euphemism in sight. What an extraordinary thing to hear the President of the United States highlighting the humanity of the unborn baby, and calling out pro-abortion extremism, in such clear, unambiguous language before all the nation (and indeed the world!).

By James V. Schall, S.J., The Catholic Thing – We cannot do anything about our already given genetic structure. Scientists now seem to want to manipulate our genetic side to eliminate defects or to make us blonds or geniuses. Odds are that we best leave the begetting process alone… When we come to terms with our past, we see that it is made up of many chance encounters that took place because of wars, immigration, or accidents whereby this person met that person. In spite of this background of chance, we hold that the soul of each person is created directly by God.

By Richard A. Spinello, Crisis Magazine – the pope concurs with Wolton’s premise that the most radical message of the Gospel is greed and “money madness.” This message is obscured, however, due to the Church’s preoccupation with sexual immorality and deviance.  In his response to a question about how to refocus the Church on this proper message the pope speaks in generalities that bristle with clues about his true sentiments on chastity along with the import of sexual misconduct among the clergy.

By Chris Woodward, OneNewsNow – A public policy group says it’s highly likely the Supreme Court will review a lower court’s ruling on a Louisiana abortion law that’s been making the rounds in courts for more than four years… The 2014 law in Louisiana sought to require doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. In 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a similar law in Texas, but the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has more recently ruled in favor of Louisiana’s “Unsafe Abortion Protection Act” (Act 620).

By Peter Strickland, Those Catholic Men – Throughout our lives, we walk with uncertainty. We do not have perfect certainty in discernment. Sometimes we choose a path to find great difficulties. Other times, the path we thought God was beckoning us down becomes impossible. In these moments, we must trust that God is doing some good in our lives. We may have to pivot, we may have to accept that we were incorrect in our discernment, but God never abandons

By Patrick J. Buchanan, The American Conservative – After reading an especially radical platform agreed upon by the British Labor Party, one Tory wag described it as “the longest suicide note in history.”.. The phrase comes to mind on reading the resolution calling for a Green New Deal, advanced by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and endorsed by at least five of the major Democratic candidates for president… The Green New Deal is designed to recall the halcyon days of the 1930s, when, so the story goes, FDR came to Washington to enact the historic reforms that rescued America from the Great Depression.

By Msgr. Charles Pope – In this last post we consider the role of the angels at the parousia (the second coming) and the glory that awaits those who have been faithful… The final chapters in the Cardinal’s book, on the eschaton (the last things) and the parousia, are particularly magnificent. I would like to distill them here, adding some material and reworking it just a bit. However, the assembling of the material is fundamentally his. I hope you will be stirred with as much joy and zeal in reading this as I was in preparing it.

By Pete Baklinski, LifeSiteNews – A California judge decided today that the 14 “secret” pro-abortion “Does” named as accusers in 15 criminal charges brought against pro-life advocates David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt in 2017 will remain sealed during the case… Judge Christopher C. Hite of the Superior Court heard arguments today regarding what kind of evidence will be allowed in an upcoming preliminary hearing for Daleiden…

By Bill Donohue, LifeNews – Hobson killed both the woman and her baby. He was immediately charged with two crimes, but the charge for killing her baby was subsequently dropped: it was noted that Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s new abortion law provides no penalties for the killing of unborn children; abortion was removed from the criminal code and inserted into the public health law. Cuomo has not commented on what he has wrought.

By Reggie Littlejohn, The Stream, – At the time, “Best Practices — Infanticide” constituted a compelling testimony against the brutal enforcement of China’s One Child Policy…. Never did I imagine that ten years later, a law in New York, and a proposed law in Virginia, would allow procedures more extreme even than those required by the Chinese Communist Party under the One Child Policy.

By Patti Armstrong, EWTN News – The suffragettes paved the way for women to fully participate economically, socially and politically, but they did not agree with today’s pro-abortion feminists. In a Time opinion piece, Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the pro-life political action group, Susan B. Anthony List, explained that many of the suffrage leaders expressed that the rights of mother and child are inextricably linked and that the right to life and the right to vote are rooted in the inherent dignity of each human person.

By Julie Asher, Catholic News Service – The Tribune is hardly the first media outlet to examine abuse in the nation’s public schools. In December 2016, USA Today published its own series… “Despite decades of repeated sex abuse scandals — from the Roman Catholic Church to the Boy Scouts to scores of news media reports identifying problem teachers — America’s public schools continue to conceal the actions of dangerous educators in ways that allow them to stay in the classroom,” it said.

By Kathryn Jean Lopez, The Patriot Post – I’ve been thinking a lot about the women who get lost in our debates about abortion, and the children of those women. The Democratic Party appears to be doubling down on brutality. If an unborn child survives an attempted abortion and is delivered alive, even then, her life is not worthy of protection? The governor of Virginia – a doctor! – said as much the day before he became embroiled in that state’s blackface scandal.

FOX News, Feb. 10, 2019 – 5:55 – Melissa Ohden, Josiah Presley and Claire Culwell share their abortion survival stories.

By Brian Fisher, Human Coalition – As New York celebrates the impending deaths of defenseless preborn children through the RHA (Reproductive Health Act), help us reach women who are at-risk to abort. Rescue preborn children, and restore our culture to one that values life by donating to Human Coalition… Planned Parenthood and its government allies are working harder than ever to promote abortion. Their most recent annual report shows excess revenues increased to $244.8 million and government funding increased to $563.8 million.

By Joseph Pronechen, National Catholic Register – During his Jan. 26, 1947, radio broadcast, Venerable Fulton Sheen spoke as if he were peering into the 21st century. During that same talk, he also described what he believed the anti-Christ would be like… It might not at all be what many will be expecting the anti-Christ would be like, especially at first… But as we’ve seen in this same talk not long after the end of World War II “From now on the struggle will be… for the souls of men,” he warned. People would begin dividing into two religions as absolutes — “the God Who became man and the man who makes himself God; brothers in Christ and comrades in anti-Christ.”…

By Lauren Enriquez, The Federalist – The new national debate over the legality and morality of infanticide may have just unraveled what was left of the bodily autonomy argument. First, the abortion industry’s most powerful ally—the Democrat Party—has spearheaded legislation that would allow abortion until the point of birth (which is now legal in eight states and the District of Columbia), and sanction infanticide when a so-called unwanted child emerged from her mother’s body.

By Mary Rezac, Catholic News Agency – Mary Rose was humbled… “On my end, working with this couple, I thought I was going to teach and I was going to form, and Ryan and I thought we were going to give everything to them… But when we started listening to them and the husband’s experience of getting to know Jesus at a bible study while he was in jail, and the relationship he had with Jesus, and how he wanted to make things right with God, and how he wanted to have a marriage in the Church and he wanted Jesus to be part of their marriage, it was very humbling…and it really changed the way Ryan and I lived our ministry and lived our faith and lived our marriage.”