Catholic Church

By Damian Thompson, Complicit Clergy - Pope Francis is sorry and not sorry. Last week, he was in Canada to deliver an apology for the abuse suffered by indigenous children in schools run by the Catholic Church. He was rewarded with approving headlines — and an even better photo-opportunity involving a spectacular feather headdress. That may strike you as a cynical attitude to the Pope’s “penitential” journey. Then again, you may not be aware that, right now, Francis is protecting the interests of a sex abuser he made a bishop and then hid in the Vatican.

By Kunal Dey, Media Entertainment Arts WorldWide - Battling demons is reportedly a regular duty for Monsignor Stephen Rossetti, a Catholic priest who worked in two parishes in the Diocese of Syracuse for five years. He is now based in Washington, DC, and his team reportedly performs up to 20 exorcisms every week... Speaking to New York Post, 70-year-old Rossetti said exorcisms have "grown exponentially" in the past decade as the United States is "demonically oppressed" and in a moral crisis. “I think this is going to get much worse before it gets better,” he added.

By Alexandra Greeley, Catholic Exchange - James Ennis, , Ex. Director, Catholic American farmers, noted, Pope John Paul II visited Iowa in 1979, and spoke to a crowd of over 300,000 people. “What he said to those people affirmed that all who are involved in agriculture are supported by the Church,” said Ennis. “Catholicism is supportive of this ancient vocation to care and cultivate the land, and to provide food security for the world.”

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.