Catholic Church

By Anthony Esolen, Crisis Magazine - These last few years, my wife and I have been restoring an old Victorian house that once was a rectory on our island in Nova Scotia, where we live in the summer. I can draw an analogy to between what we have done so far and what should be done in the Church. We might call it de-novation: the removal of worthless or banal or ugly stuff, once hailed as new, in order to reveal de novo the good things that have been hidden or forgotten....

By JD Flynn, CNA - Three months from now, the bishops of the Amazonian region will meet for a regional synod that has already garnered international attention. The synod is controversial because it has become to some theologians and Churchmen a kind of “proving ground” for theological and canonical agendas that are not directly connected to the Amazon… The recent history of Church synods suggests that the results of the meeting will likely not match the intensity of the rhetoric preceding it.

By Christopeher Manion, The Stream - “Immigration turns red states blue,” writes the Stream’s John Zmirak. How? Well, Hispanics constitute by far the largest group of immigrants in recent years, and they are likely to vote for Democrats. Hispanics, emerging from nations that eschew self-government, “would rather have a bigger government.” Why? It “provides more services than a smaller government which provides fewer services.”

By Courtney Grogan, CNA - Pope Francis approved the miracle attributed to Archbishop Fulton Sheen Friday, making possible the American television catechist's beatification… The Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints promulgated the decree approving Sheen’s miracle on July 6… The miracle involves the unexplained recovery of James Fulton Engstrom, a boy born apparently stillborn in September 2010 to Bonnie and Travis Engstrom of the Peoria-area town of Goodfield. He showed no signs of life as medical professionals tried to revive him. The child’s mother and father prayed to Archbishop Sheen to heal their son.