A  document  preparing the groundwork for this fall’s synod asks some hard-hitting questions about homosexuality: How can the Christian community give pastoral attention to families with persons with homosexual tendencies? What are the responses that, in light of cultural sensitivities, are considered to be most appropriate? While avoiding any unjust discrimination, how can such persons receive pastoral care in these situations in light of the Gospel? How can God’s will be proposed to them in their situation? Joseph Prever At the end of August, Ignatius Press will publish a book-length treatment of those questions entitled  Living  the Truth in Love . Based on a recent Courage International conference held in Plymouth, Michigan, the book will include a contribution from Joseph Prever, a celibate, gay Catholic who blogs at  gaycatholic.com . Prever is known for his prominent role in an April 2014 documentary about gay Catholics entitled  The Third ...

Dr. Janet Smith Shows Real “COURAGE” : 'via Blog this'

Ever since then we have been fascinated by pleasure, money and power—and by playing on this weakness, “the devil has acquired a certain domination over man” says the Catechism (No. 407).

Gay porn actor left it all for Jesus after ‘possession,’ terrifying near-death experience | News | LifeSite : 'via Blog this'

In a  report released this week , there were found more than 60 instances of Catholic college ties to Planned Parenthood through counseling and medical referrals, internship and job referrals, faculty, staff, and leader appointments, or honors and platforms.  Now if a Catholic college cares about its faith identity, there is no reason for it to be associated with an organization that directly opposes Church teachings and values. Thankfully, there are actions that colleges can take to stand up for the dignity of life and faithful Catholic colleges who do care about their mission are doing so through thriving student groups and academic programs..    

Speaking the Truth in Love: Courage Helps Frame Synod’s Homosexuality Discussion | Daily News | NCRegister.com : I have had the distinct blessing to have met and heard Fr. John Harvey, founder of Courage, speak, as well as read all of his books. People with same-sex attraction have no greater friend than Fr. Harvey and his organization, Courage , now headed by Fr. Paul Check. Check them out! 'via Blog this'

Many Pro-life Catholics/Christians object to too much specificity in telling the story o f the Planned Parenthood infanticide, arguing that they "get it" without all the graphics.... I humbly disagree. To change the hearts and minds of many who are morally neutral on the subject of killing babies, this is a sine qua non- - so watch  this and weep.

Ad for Tinder Mark has a point in his FB share below, but I would go him one further when it comes to the breakdown of sanctity in traditional marriage: the part played by employment of artificial contraception, as JPII reminded us in Familiaris consortio: When couples, by means of recourse to contraception, separate these two meanings [procreative and unitive] that God the Creator has inscribed in the being of man and woman and in the dynamism of their sexual communion, they act as "arbiters" of the divine plan and they "manipulate" and degrade human sexuality-and with it themselves and their married partner-by altering its value of "total" self-giving. Thus the innate language that expresses the total reciprocal self-giving of husband and wife is overlaid, through contraception, by an objectively contradictory language, namely, that of not giving oneself totally to the other. This leads not only to a positive refusal to be open to life but also t...

BREAKING: Most Disturbing Video Exposé Yet : 'via Blog this'

A recent survey specifically targeting U.S. Catholic men, reaching large numbers of practicing Catholic men across age groups and zip codes suggests large numbers of faithful Catholic men are frustrated with the lack of engagement by priests, who do little for them in the area of equipping them to be fishers of men. This has resulted in large numbers of lukewarm Catholic men who do not know and practice the faith, and a mass exodus of Catholic men from the Church. The survey also demonstrates that priests who make it a personal priority to evangelize Catholic men have a significant impact on the faith lives of these men. Also hopeful, most current priests have the personal leadership characteristics that men respect; men are prepared to follow priests who take the initiative to lead.  What is required is not dramatic new spending or programs, but the commitment of bishops and priests to personally engage men on a regular basis, a remedy first suggested in the Vatican II...

The transgender suicide epidemic: is accepting their confusion really the answer? | News | LifeSite : 'via Blog this'

I have witnessed the reality in the United States, where we are conditioned by a spirit of modernity to view religion as a private matter, where far too many Catholics grow uncomfortable with the call to evangelization and deep conversion of mind and heart. This is significant, for only from a personal relationship with Christ can effective evangelization develop. For Catholics like myself, there is a burning need to recover the certainty that we have the Truth urgently needed for the redemption of mankind.  Why evangelize? When we evangelize, we act on baptismal grace “to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.” “To evangelize means: to show this path [toward happiness]—to teach the art of living.” If we are serious about our sonship in Christ Jesus then let us be not afraid to make the new evangelization the top priority in our lives. Here is a wonderful little book which can help should you be willing to take your baptismal grac...

.... as serious sin, in Paul’s thinking became the occasion and the effect of interference by the “hidden enemy who sows errors,” who undermines our moral equilibrium — the Devil.   In Paul’s teaching The Devil is the clever tempter who makes his way into man through the sensual, the libido, a “crack” through which the Evil One attempts to prevail ....                                       -from The Smoke of  Satan  in the  Temple  of God “ Some people still catch feelings in hook-up culture.” Of all the depressing lines spoken by young adults in the article  “Tinder and the Dawn of the ‘Dating Apocalypse’  in the September issue of Vanity Fair, that one takes the cake. Meredith, a sophomore at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Ky., explains that “It’s not like just blind f—ing for pleasure and it’s done; some people actually like the other p...

Dawn Eden, featured from time to time on this blog, comes to Michigan to speak on "My Tangled Road to Rome" in the Wege Ballroom at Aquinas College, Grand Rapids, MI, 7 p.m., as part of the  Catholic Studies Speaker Series . The Dawn Patrol: UPCOMING TALKS & MEDIA APPEARANCES : 'via Blog this'

In a letter written on his behalf last week, Pope Francis expressed, "Today, when the institution of marriage is under attack from powerful cultural forces (LGBT lobbying groups, others) the faithful are called to bear witness to this basic truth of biblical faith and natural law, which is essential to the wise and just ordering of society. In meeting the moral, social and political challenges of the present hour, great wisdom and perseverance will be required of them – “the patience of the saints, who keep the commandments of God and hold fast to their faith in Jesus” (Rev 14:12)."

Vigneron softens tone on Communion for Catholic gay supporters : Freep : Vigneron’s softened language comes at a key time, just weeks after the   U.S. Supreme Court overturned state bans on gay marriage   and just weeks before Pope Francis, who has displayed a more welcoming, inclusive attitude about gay Catholics, is to visit the U.S. in September.  Fact Check:   Francis has declared same-sex “marriage ” a diabolical effort of “the Father of Lies” to “destroy God’s plan … and deceive the children of God.” He said then—only four years ago—that gay “marriage” discriminates against children “in advance,” depriving them of “their human development given by a father and a mother and willed by God.” At stake, said Cardinal Bergoglio, was “the total rejection of God’s law engraved in our hearts” and the very survival of the  human family, with Satan at work.   Linda Karle-Nelson in FREEP:  i nterpreted ArchbiVigneron’s most recent comments to ...

The Absurdity of Transgenderism: A Stern but Necessary Critique | Public Discourse : 'via Blog this'

In his Smoke of Satan" homily, Paul VI warned that those who do not think with the mind of the Church may be exposed to “the influence of ‘the mystery of iniquity” in evidence when “the spirit of the Gospel is watered down or rejected…” The reason behind this disregard of the authority of the documents of divine revelation was the neomodernists'’ assimilation of the principles of modernity. Fr. Jonathan Robinson has shown how various Enlightenment themes have played a role in the formation of the modern consciousness as it has impinged most directly on the Church. To cite one example of this, Fr. Hans Urs von Balthasar criticized the Enlightenment’s understanding of religion in an analysis of its influence on Karl. Rahner’s anthropocentric theology: The Enlightenment was the change from a theocentric to an anthropocentric viewpoint; for religion . . . this means the change from a positive historical religion to a religion valid for man in general, who is essentially re...

I recently took issue with the Benedictine Sr. Joan Chittester's age-old anti-life mantra. It is nice to see that David Koyzis has joined  me in  You're Not Really Pro-Life Because . . .' | David T. Koyzis | First Things : 'via Blog this'

What Is the Source of This Darkness of Our Times? |Blogs | NCRegister.com : What prompted me to write a book about the current spiritual war ongoing in the world in which we live?  Stumbling upon this quote by the Pope of the  council,  Pope Paul VI : We have the impression that through some cracks in the wall the smoke of Satan has entered the temple of God: it is doubt, uncertainty, questioning, dissatisfaction, confrontation. And how did this come about? We will confide to you the thought that may be, we ourselves admit in free discussion, that may be unfounded, and that is that there has been a power, an adversary power. Let us call him by his name: the devil. We thought that after the Council a day of sunshine would have dawned for the history of the Church. What dawned instead was a day of clouds and storms, of darkness, of searching and uncertainties .  I am an avid reader of Msgr. Charles Pope, who has written recently on this our adversary in ...

Pope Francis on August 5, 2015 gave a general audience in which he discussed the situation of those who have divorced and remarried without an annulment. Here is the translation of the Italian. Francis explained that divorced and remarried couples are not at all excommunicated—as such, they are always part of the Church. Remember that the Church does not let people who have divorced and remarried without an annulment receive communion (unless they are living as “brother and sister”), but this is not the same thing as excommunication. Excommunication does not cancel one’s membership in the Church, and divorcing and remarrying without an annulment does not gain excommunication. An exerpt: [ T]oday I would like to focus our attention on another reality: how to take care of those that, following the irreversible failure of their marital bond, have undertaken a new union. The Church knows well that such a situation contradicts the Christian Sacrament. However, her look of teacher d...

When the Obergefell ruling came down in late June, extending the right to marriage to members of the same sex in all 50 states, some observers felt that the Catholic Church was fairly immune to any requirements that it would have to allow same-sex weddings before her altars.  Now, though, calls for the Church to allow such nuptials are bubbling up. How far they will get is another question. The issue was raised Tuesday by a report in the   New York Times  that featured “gay and transgender Catholics” who are making noises with the approaching visit to these shores of Pope Francis. And the noises are not exactly joyful .Read all about it in  Gay and Transgender Catholics Urge Pope Francis to Take a Stand - The New York Times : 'via Blog this'

The Smoke of Satan offers an accounting of the sophistry of neomodernists theologians pitted against the magisterium which influenced most Catholics’ views in the face of the “sexual revolution” of the 1960s. In reading several of the more notable examples of this deceptive reasoning, remember that in Catholic teaching the Tempter is a “consummate deceiver” whose real designs are concealed behind what may seem to be divinely inspired, but are in reality instigated by him. Here is an example in the form of an icebreaker prior to a talk given by one under the influence of neomodernist  thought: Did you ever believe in Santa Claus?  And do you believe in Santa Claus now?   Did you ever believe that God was a man living in Heaven?  And do you believe that now? Did you ever believe that Heaven was a place that existed above us?  And do you believe that now? Did you ever believe that God created the universe in s...