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As the home of some of the greatest works of art produced by humanity, the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City is a popular tourist destination (to put it mildly). If you’ve been one of the 4 million visitors to the famous landmark each year, you’ve probably learned of one aspect of the room filled with Michelangelo’s beautiful, biblical frescos that tends to come as a surprise to first-time guests. There’s no photography or video allowed in the Sistine Chapel. Yes, despite the rules that encourage quiet contemplation of the fantastic, eye-popping art that adorns nearly every inch of the walls and ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, visitors to the chapel will find their experience peppered with terse shouts of “No photo! No video!” from security guards. The prohibition again...

I was praying in a New York apartment on an afternoon during the spring of 2008. I’d been baptized at a non-denominational church less than a year before that, and had been in a financial strain for most of that time since. It was a grace to learn, early on, that much of what Prosperity Gospel books and hokey Christian films taught about the “abundant” Christian journey wasn’t all that accurate. But learning it didn’t feel much like grace at the time. My situation was becoming rather desperate, driving me to pray a lot. It was during a silent prayer that I saw something, much like a dream, though I hadn’t fallen asleep: Three fierce dogs, leashed back by chains, were barking and snarling, standing on their hind legs in their eagerness to pounce upon the globe that was before them. The chai...

Presumptive President-elect Joe Biden is fulfilling predictions that his administration will be the most militantly pro-abortion of any in American history. His nomination of California Attorney General Xavier Becerra for Secretary of Health and Human Services is an expression of Biden’s commitment to force extreme, oppressive abortion policy on the American public. As California AG, Becerra has been a tool of the abortion industry. Biden has rewarded the pro-choice lobby’s support of his candidacy by appointing Planned Parenthood’s unofficial spokesman and advocate. The Becerra pick has nothing to do with health care policy in the United States, and everything to do with enforcing a radical abortion agenda. With a BA in economics and a law degree from Stanford University, Becerra has no c...

St. Michael’s Catholic Church stands like its namesake sentinel over a city that needs the church’s presence. For the faithful who cross the threshold, the doors of this neo-Gothic church open wide to reveal a pageant of color and light.  Around the Rochester, New York, sanctuary and upon the altar are the statues, which, despite the passage of decades, have been renewed in splendor by a local artist and longtime parishioner.  “I’ve been doing this for 18 years and really got into it by accident,” Arlene Miller told the Register. A number of beautiful statues were sold by another city parish, and rather than let them be carted off, a group from St. Michael’s bought them to adorn their cathedral-like parish, and Miller was asked to restore their beauty and help add richness to the...

Mastercard and Visa said they had prohibited the use of their cards on the adult website Pornhub, after the New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof reported that the platform included videos of child abuse and rape. Both companies had started investigations this week into their financial ties with MindGeek, the parent company of Pornhub. Mastercard said in a statement on Thursday that the investigation “confirmed violations of our standards prohibiting unlawful content on their site,” which prompted the company to terminate the acceptance of its cards on the site. In a separate statement, Visa said, “We are instructing the financial institutions who serve MindGeek to suspend processing of payments through the Visa network,” pending the completion of its investigation. Nearly seven millio...

By Fr. Victor Feltes This week, on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception and the 150th anniversary of the proclamation of St. Joseph as patron of the Universal (that is, the entire) Church, Pope Francis declared this “The Year of St. Joseph” through December 8th, 2021. The Holy Father also published an apostolic letter about Jesus’ beloved foster-father entitled “Patris Corde” (or “With a Father’s Heart”). In it, Pope Francis writes about Christian devotion to this great saint and mentions how the phrase “Go to Joseph” has an Old Testament origin. These are five of my personal reflections on St. Joseph. Go to Joseph In the Book of Genesis, during a time of famine across the known world, the Egyptians begged their pharaoh for bread. He in turn replied, “Go to Joseph and do whatever he ...