Author: S&P
4 ways of thinking that will drive you (and other people) crazy…
If insanity can be defined as not having a complete grip on reality, then I think all of us (except the saints) are at least a little bit crazy some of the time and some of us are crazy a lot a lot of the time, and a few of us are crazy all the time. Remember that it is only the ones who have lost total grip on reality who are confined to a hospital or prison somewhere. Most of the rest of us craz...
At private ad limina meetings, Pope Francis talks euthanasia with U.S. bishops, says “he felt he’d been used” after Fr. James Martin photo op…
Dome of St. Peter’s Basilica. (Shutterstock) US Bishops: Pope Francis Talks Fr. James Martin, Euthanasia, At Private Meeting Fr. Martin met with Pope Francis shortly after a Sept. 19 column by Archbishop Charles Chaput criticized “a pattern of ambiguity” in Fr. Martin’s work, which Chaput said “tends to undermine his stated aims, alienating people from the very support they need for authenti...
What is the unforgivable sin in Matthew 12:31-32
Matthew 12:31-32 teaches about forgiveness and the unforgivable sin. What is this sin? How is it committed? And how can you know you have not committed it? These are the sorts of questions I attempt to answer in this study of Matthew 12:31-32. Note that this study is an excerpt from my Gospel Dictionary online course. This course considers 52 key words of the Gospel and thousands of biblical texts...
Is there really good to be found in false teaching?
It’s been almost three months since our viral video with Doreen Virtue released on YouTube. We have heard from hundreds upon hundreds of people from literally all over the globe through social media and emails. A majority of the communication has been extremely encouraging and positive, which has blessed us in so many ways, knowing that God has used us as a mouthpiece of truth to be abl...
How rapidly is the universe expanding? The growing crisis in cosmology…..
ADVERTISEMENT Sign Up for Our free email newsletters How rapidly is the universe expanding? Since Edwin Hubble first discovered in 1929 that galaxies are getting farther apart over time, allowing scientists to trace the evolution of the universe back to an initial Big Bang, astronomers have struggled to measure the exact rate of this expansion. In particular, astronomers want to determine a number...
Do not underestimate the power of your love to do something real in the people you love…
“The beloved is said to be in the lover, inasmuch as the beloved is in the lover’s affections… [even] in the absence of the beloved, because of the lover’s longing towards…the good he wills to the beloved with a love of friendship.”“… in the love of friendship, the lover is in the beloved, inasmuch as he reckons what is good or evil to his friend, as being so to himself.”Thomas Aquinas The power o...
Assisted suicide bills are driven by contempt for disabled people…
NH is again considering passing a physician assisted suicide bill. HB1659 will get a hearing on March 4. It says: “This bill allows a mentally competent person who is 18 years of age or older and who has been diagnosed as having a terminal disease by the patient’s attending physician and a consulting physician to request a prescription for medication which will enable the patient to control the ti...
Storms over the Emerald Isle…
On the weekend of February 8, 2020, a storm ripped through Ireland. Storm Ciara was one of the worst of its kind for many years. Its winds, snows, and driving rains caused havoc with landslides and flooding. At the same time, a political storm ripped through the Irish political landscape. Sinn Féin up-ended the political consensus and sent shock waves through the political establishment by winning...
A test for pridefulness…
None of us likes to think we are prideful. It’s always someone else; that guy over there is the arrogant one. One way of gauging is to ponder how well we accept being corrected. Consider the following verses from Proverbs: He who corrects an arrogant man earns insult; and he who reproves a wicked man incurs opprobrium. Reprove not an arrogant man, lest he hate you; reprove a wise man, and he ...
Diocese of Harrisburg files for bankruptcy amid new sex abuse lawsuits…
Harrisburg, Pa., Feb 19, 2020 / 05:30 pm (CNA).- The Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania announced Wednesday that it is filing for bankruptcy. A landslide of clergy abuse lawsuits have been filed against the diocese after a watershed Pennsylvania grand jury report on clerical sexual abuse was released in August 2018 and a change to state law allowed new litigation on old cases. “This deci...
A diagram of the 100 most-spoken languages in the world…
Hello! Nĭ hăo! Namaste! Hola! Bonjour! There are so many ways we as human beings can express ourselves, as one can see in our list of most-spoken languages. Around the world, there are more than 7,000 regularly spoken vernaculars, but we decided to show off the top 100 most common languages in our linguistic infographic. World languages list varied origins, with some branching off from the same an...
Bari trip gives Pope a chance to help save Christianity in the Middle East…
ROME – During the Roman Empire, the entire Mediterranean region was known as Mare Nostrum, “Our Sea.” It was an imperial assertion of dominance, of course, but it also reflected the idea that the peoples of the Mediterranean are linked by geography and destiny, sharing a common fate. In a nutshell, that’s the same intuition that will carry Pope Francis to the Italian costal city of Bari on Sunday,...
