Jeanie Hannaman

By Simon Caldwell, Catholic Herald - Catholics have accused the Vatican of betraying Jesus by substituting the term “Before Christ” for “Before Common Era” in official documentation... The traditional term BC was replaced by BCE in the English translation of a July letter by Pope Francis on the role of literature in Christian formation... Ann Widdecombe, a convert to the Catholic faith... “If the Vatican is doing that then it is a complete betrayal,” said Miss Widdecombe... “If the Vatican is removing the name of Christ from official documentation it’s a complete betrayal.”

By John M. Grondelski, The Catholic Thing - As Labor Day approaches, it’s worth thinking about something that is inevitably a phase of everyone’s life: retirement. Discussions about retirement these days often devolve into talk about the pending crisis of Social Security. That’s an important question, of course, but shifting what should be a reflection of the years of life after work into worries about the Social Security system’s economic health masks a deeper issue.

By Jonathan Liedl, National Catholic Register - The West used to send Africa the Gospel. Now, African Church leaders are warning that Western nations and individuals are spreading a far different message throughout the continent, in what they describe as a warped form of proselytization... From Kenya to Cameroon, Ghana to Tanzania, local archbishops tell the Register that Western aid workers, government officials and even tourists are advancing secular understandings of sexuality and the human person that are incompatible not merely with African cultural values, but with the timeless teachings of the Catholic faith.

By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture - At his regular weekly audience on Wednesday, Pope Francis once again prompted howls of protest when he said that efforts to repel immigrants were “a grave sin.”... The angry reactions were understandable, because the Pope’s remarks were inflammatory. But most of the protests were off-target, because they missed the main thrust of the Pope’s Wednesday talk. If we are hoping for a serious debate on the crisis of migration, and we deplore the Pope’s incautious rhetoric, we should ourselves be careful to dispute what he said—not what he did not say.