News

By Stacy Trasancos, The Catholic Thing - This disregard for the human soul lies at the heart of many modern problems. The human person is biological, for sure. Enormous resources and ingenuity are poured into understanding, curing, and manipulating the body. The human brain is a powerful computer made up of neurological systems. But we are not just bodies. We are body and soul. The most sophisticated physics, chemistry, or biology can never explain the soul because the soul is spiritual. How do we understand the soul then?... To understand ourselves, we need God.

By Donald DeMarco, Crisis Magazine - A mediator is someone who is situated between two parties and seeks to bring them into accord. The mediator does have a particular position of his own but operates in a completely unselfish manner. A medium, in the sense of a psychic, refers to one who establishes contact with the supernatural world. All three senses refer to a middle through which two things are brought into contact with each other… In Catholic Mariology, Mary is given the title “Mediatrix” to indicate that she, as Mother of God, is the medium through which flow all God’s graces.

By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture - Since the beginning of this month, the Lepanto Institute has been releasing a series of damaging reports about Catholic Relief Services (CRS), the official overseas charity of the US bishops’ conference. The reports show fairly conclusively that CRS supports a web site that promotes contraception, and partners with organizations that provide abortion referrals in Africa. In fact it seems clear that CRS has actively recruited the participation of such organizations into a network designed to aid needy women in Nigeria.

By Catholic News Agency - The miraculous crucifix at which Pope Francis prayed Sunday for an end to the coronavirus has been taken down from its altar and transported to St. Peter's Square, so it can be present on Friday during the pontiff's benediction "Urbi et Orbi."… The crucifix was removed from the Church of San Marcello al Corso by Vatican personnel Wednesday evening, and is expected to be installed temporarily at St. Peter’s Square on Thursday, according to Vatican journalist Francesco Antonio Grana… The crucifix was venerated as miraculous by Romans after it was the only religious image to survive unscathed from a fire that completely gutted the church on May 23, 1519… Less than three years later, Rome was devastated by the "black plague."