Haunted houses that go way too far | New York Post : 'via Blog this'

At morning Mass in the Casa Santa Marta in the Vatican, Pope Francis reflected on a gospel reading in which Jesus speaks forcefully on the influence of Beelzebul, the “prince of demons” (Luke 11:15-26), and urged diligent care and discernment for Christians in the face of eternal conflict: “temptations always return,” said the Pontiff, because “the Evil Spirit never tires.” In the gospel reading, Jesus delivers a man from the clutches of a demon, and among the crowd some see his good action as a sign that he, himself is a servant of evil. “Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste, and house will fall against house,” Jesus tells them, before warning about the necessity of diligent awareness of the evil all around. Said Pope Francis, of the scene, “[some] did not appreciate him and sought to interpret Jesus’ words and actions in a different way, against Jesus. Some, for envy, others for doctrinal rigidity, others because they were afraid that the Romans would come ...

There is indeed a great battle being played out in that three-week meeting that is rightfully being followed and reported on by all the world’s media. Society is reaching a climax in the war against the family.  In the above video,  hordes of women, many of them masked and half naked, violently assaulted a group of young men who stood outside the Cathedral of Mar de Plata, praying. One Peter Five has written: Over the past three weeks, Catholic Church leaders from around the world have gathered for the Ordinary Synod of the Family in Rome, the second in a two-part session that began in October 2014. The meeting was a perfect opportunity for bishops to discuss how to strengthen the family in the midst of serious challenges — issues such as contraception, abortion and chastity in a sexually licentious culture. Instead, it has become mired in debates over long-settled teaching on sexual mores, with agendas advanced by progressive and controversial...

Catholic World News  - October 23, 2015  The Synod of Bishops spent Friday, October 23, discussing a proposed final statement, which will come up for a vote, paragraph by paragraph, on Saturday. The statement was presented to the bishops on Thursday evening, with Cardinal Peter Erdo, the relator general of the Synod, introducing the text. Because the statement was available only in Italian, some Synod participant were unable to read it, and there was an angry outcry when they were told-- by Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, the secretary-general of the Synod-- that no copies of the sensitive document could be taken out of the Synod Hall. Eventually Cardinal Baldiserri relented, and allowed bishops to take the text home, but insisted that they could not show the document to outside translators. For a summary:

News Briefs/Rss | Catholic World Report - Global Church news and views : 'via Blog this'

VATICAN CITY, October 15, 2015 ( ChurchMilitant.com ) - The smoke of Satan was trying to enter last year's Synod on the Family. So said Abp. Tomash Peta of Kazakhstan in  his three-minute address  to the Synod Fathers on Saturday. Blessed Paul VI said in 1972: "From some crack the smoke of Satan has entered the temple of God." I am convinced that these were prophetical [sic] words of the holy Pope, the author of Humanae Vitae . During the Synod last year, "the smoke of Satan" was trying to enter the aula of Paul VI. According to Abp. Peta, this devilish infiltration was primarily evident in the proposal to let divorced adulterers receive Holy Communion and in the attempt to see the normal, positive elements in homosexuality and premarital cohabitation. The archbishop then warns that one can still perceive "the smell of this infernal smoke" at this year's Synod. Some Synod Fathers have not understood correctly the appeal of Pope F...

Gay Boy Scout Leader Sentenced in Child Porn Case : 'via Blog this'

Fr. Longenecker writes of Marcellino D’Ambrosio’s new book  When the Church Was Young : ….an excellent introduction to the lives and teachings of the Fathers of the Church. His section on the Arian controversy is especially good—dealing with fascinating characters, a complex plot line and abstruse theological arguments in a down to earth and compelling way. In reading it, I was reminded of how relevant the events of the first millennium of the church are to this new millennium. Fr. Goes on to say: Today Arianism takes a different form, and comes to us in the guise of humanism. By “humanism” I mean that belief system that takes man as the measure of all things. This humanism is a conglomeration of different modernistic beliefs, but the summary of it all is materialism—that this physical world is all there is. There is no spiritual realm, no heaven or hell, and therefore the advancement of the human race in this physical realm is the only thing fighting for. Ros...

Jimmy Akin: “Remarks made by a key official at the opening of the current Synod of Bishops seem cool to the idea that there will be a change in the Church’s doctrine and practice regarding the divorced and civilly remarried. This comes as heartening news to supporters of the Church’s historic doctrine and discipline.” Read More .

As Synod Starts, Pope Affirms Marriage Between a Man and a Woman Is the Foundation of the Family | Daily News | NCRegister.com : 'via Blog this'

Ten people were killed and nine were injured Thursday, after a 26-year old gunman went on a shooting rampage at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon. I see where the father of one of the wounded told   CNN , that the gunman singled out Christians. Before going into spinal surgery, Anastasia Boylan told her father the gunman entered her classroom firing.“I’ve been waiting to do this for years,” the gunman told the professor teaching the class. He shot him point blank. Apparently, everyone in the classroom dropped to the ground. The gunman, while reloading his handgun, ordered the students to stand up and asked if they were Christians. “And they would stand up and he said, ‘Good, because you’re a Christian, you’re going to see God in just about one second,'” Boylan’s father, Stacy, told CNN, relaying her account. “And then he shot and killed them.” One law enforcement official told the  New York Times , “He appears to be an angry young man wh...

Exposed for garnering the organs of aborted fetuses for profit – often in the most grotesque and inhumane ways conceivable — Planned Parenthood has recently been trying to garner support on social media with a new hashtag stunt called  #shoutyourabortion . The point is to encourage women to talk about their abortions, preferably in positive ways. #Shoutyourabortion proponents want to downplay abortion by defiantly celebrating it. Perhaps we should should #shouttheirabortion —because the life of an unborn child is worth proclaiming. If parenthood is refused in abortion, its reality is no less true:   an unborn child has parents. Proclaiming the child brings the child’s life forth as a human reality, beloved of God. Let us pray that this realization may be an unforseen consequence of Planned Parenthood’s #shoutyourabortion campaign.