Catholic Church

By Fr. John Zuhlsdorf, OnePeterFive - The Catechism of the Catholic Church 2084 ff. elaborates what the 1st Commandment involves.  Quickly, it forbids idolatry, such as the worship of any creature, and of “demons … power, pleasure, race, ancestors, the state [and] money”.  Specifically prohibited: superstition, polytheism, sacrilege, atheism, and all practices of magic and sorcery, astrology, palm reading, and consulting horoscopes or mediums.  Today, “graven images” could perhaps also be translated into too much attachment to a sports team.

By George J. Marlin, The Catholic Thing - At the end of the Second World War, Pope Pius XII was universally acclaimed for his courageous leadership. The Jewish historian Pinchas Lapide acknowledged that the Church saved the lives of 850,000 Jews in Slovakia, Croatia, Romania, and Hungary. Rome’s chief rabbi, Israel Zolli, converted to Catholicism. To thank and honor Pope Pius XII, he took the name Eugenio, after Eugenio Pacelli, the pope’s birth name.

By Lisa Zengarini, Vatican News - Pope Francis responds to a letter from Fr. James Martin, SJ, whose pastoral ministry involves the LGBTQ community, and encourages Catholics to foster a “culture of encounter” that “shortens distances and enriches us with differences.”... Referring to LGBTQ Catholics who experience rejection from the Church, the Pope reiterated that: “The Church is a mother and calls together all her children.” A “selective Church, one of ‘pure blood’,  is not Holy Mother Church, but rather a sect,” he said.

By David Carlin,  The Catholic Thing - You often hear Catholics lament that present-day American society is theologically “pagan” or “neopagan” – and morally “hedonistic.”... Maybe so. But that’s not how I see it. Paganism is a form of religion – the wrong kind of religion, but still a form of religion. A worship of too many gods.