Catholic Church

By Randall Smith, The Catholic Thing - In an interesting passage in John 9, Jesus and his disciples pass by a man “blind from birth.”  His disciples ask: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”  This is a common question.  People see something bad, even a natural disaster like a hurricane or earthquake, and they wonder: “Whose fault is this?”  After an earthquake, someone wonders why God is “punishing” them... This tendency is not exclusive to Christians.  It was even more common in the ancient pagan world.

By Jules Gomes, Church Militant - Organizers canceled the crucifix from the papal podium because Pope Francis did not want to offend illegal Muslim migrants during the climax of his Malta trip... Instead, recycled plastic bottles with red blobs were used to design the backdrop for the pope's address to migrants at the John XXIII Peace Lab in Ħal-Far on Saturday, a voluntary organization run by leftist Franciscan friar Fr. Dionysius Mintoff.

By Sean Fitzpatrick, Crisis Magazine - When Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising celebrated Mass last month with the rainbow flag draped before the altar to celebrate 20 years of “queer worship” at St. Paul’s parish church, he apologized for the Church’s supposed decades of discrimination against homosexuals—and confirmed for many what they had been wondering about him: that he is a heretic for his radical pressure to overturn the Catholic Church’s teaching on homosexuality.

By Msgr. Charles Pope - This Sunday’s Mass features the well-known Gospel of the woman caught in adultery. In it, the Lord intimates to the men of His day that the severe punishment they want to mete out to this woman may be unwise given that they themselves must prepare for their own judgment... Before we examine the details, let’s consider a few background texts that may help us to better understand what Jesus is teaching. After each verse, I provide a brief commentary in red.