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Don’t be fooled by China’s morality play…
Barely reported outside China, in late October the country’s ruling Communist Party published a 10,000-character document on social mores or, more simply put, morality. It was the latest shot to be fired in leader Xi Jinping’s war against religion that has seen repression, especially against Christianity and Islam, amped up to levels not seen since the dark days of Mao Zedong which culminated in the bloody, murderous and disastrous Cultural Revolution from 1966 until the dictator’s 1976 death. But the new paper, as we will discover, is also a long overdue de-facto recognition of the spiritual vacuum that has been wrought by the officially atheist Chinese Communist Party (CCP), whose legitimacy now rests precariously, not on its original aims of creating an equal society but on the continua...
Don’t be fooled by China’s morality play…
Barely reported outside China, in late October the country’s ruling Communist Party published a 10,000-character document on social mores or, more simply put, morality. It was the latest shot to be fired in leader Xi Jinping’s war against religion that has seen repression, especially against Christianity and Islam, amped up to levels not seen since the dark days of Mao Zedong which culminated in the bloody, murderous and disastrous Cultural Revolution from 1966 until the dictator’s 1976 death. But the new paper, as we will discover, is also a long overdue de-facto recognition of the spiritual vacuum that has been wrought by the officially atheist Chinese Communist Party (CCP), whose legitimacy now rests precariously, not on its original aims of creating an equal society but on the continua...
New documentary offers rare glimpse of “noticeably frailer” Benedict XVI’s life in Vatican Gardens…
The half-hour documentary, which aired Jan. 3 on German television, is dignified and respectful of the 92-year-old Pope Emeritus. Benedict XVI appears mentally alert but noticeably frailer and almost unable to speak in a new German television documentary providing a rare glimpse into his daily life. In the half-hour film aired on Bayerischer Rundfunk (Bavarian state television) on Jan. 3, the 92-year-old Pope Emeritus speaks only three times but in a barely audible voice. “I used to have a great voice, now it doesn’t work anymore,” Benedict says in the program, which was filmed at his Mater Ecclesiae monastery residence in the Vatican. “One sees that his strength isn’t there anymore,” his personal secretary Archbishop Georg Gänswein says in the program. “His voice is simply broken, we...
New documentary offers rare glimpse of “noticeably frailer” Benedict XVI’s life in Vatican Gardens…
The half-hour documentary, which aired Jan. 3 on German television, is dignified and respectful of the 92-year-old Pope Emeritus. Benedict XVI appears mentally alert but noticeably frailer and almost unable to speak in a new German television documentary providing a rare glimpse into his daily life. In the half-hour film aired on Bayerischer Rundfunk (Bavarian state television) on Jan. 3, the 92-year-old Pope Emeritus speaks only three times but in a barely audible voice. “I used to have a great voice, now it doesn’t work anymore,” Benedict says in the program, which was filmed at his Mater Ecclesiae monastery residence in the Vatican. “One sees that his strength isn’t there anymore,” his personal secretary Archbishop Georg Gänswein says in the program. “His voice is simply broken, we...
Secular leftist discovers natural advantages of NFP, says liberals who discredit it are “cruel and paternalistic”…
(Bortonia / Getty Images) Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation, check out our latest issue. Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month! Support Progressive Journalism The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter. Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation, check out our latest issue. Travel With The Nation Be the first to hear about Nation Travels destinations, and explore the world with kindred spirits. Sign up for our Wine Club today. Did you know you can support The Nation by drinking wine? The first time I had sex without a condom, I cried. It wasn’t that I regretted having condomless sex; I regretted not realizing I could have been doing it all along. Ad Policy I’d opted myself out of hormonal birth ...
Silence, conscience, freedom: Terrence Malick’s “A Hidden Life”…
Terrence Malick’s “A Hidden Life” does not drag. Its deliberate pace describing why its protagonist—a Catholic who defied Hitler’s Reich by refusing military service—died is a moving icon, a window into that mystery of why and how silence and conscience lead to true freedom. “There isn’t any twirling, is there?” I asked my former student Emily and her mother. They were emerging from the 4:30 showing of Terrence Malick’s powerful new film about Franz Jägerstätter, an Austrian villager who decided to defy the Reich by refusing military service or even service as a medical orderly if it involved swearing allegiance to Hitler. I was there at the Uptown Theater in Minneapolis for the 8 P.M. showing with my three oldest sons and was a bit nervous since one of my boys kept asking me, “Is this an ...
As release of Vatican report draws near, Theodore McCarrick moves from Kansas friary to undisclosed location…
Denver, Colo., Jan 7, 2020 / 11:00 am (CNA).- The disgraced former cardinal Theodore McCarrick has moved from the Kansas friary where he had been living since 2018. A spokesman for the Capuchin Franciscan Province of St. Conrad told CNA Jan. 7 that McCarrick left St. Fidelis Friary in Victoria, Kansas, just days ago. He has moved to a residential community of priests who have been removed from ministry, senior Church officials told CNA. The former cardinal made the decision to leave the Kansas friary himself over the Christmas period, sources say, adding that his continued presence in the friary had become a strain on the Franciscan community that was hosting him. McCarrick moved to the friary shortly after he was accused in 2018 of sexually abusing minors, seminarians, and young priests. ...
The Medal of Honor winner with a devotion to St. Michael the Archangel…
Washington D.C., Jan 6, 2020 / 01:00 pm (CNA).- On the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception in 2012, a team of Navy SEALs navigated the mountains of remote eastern Afghanistan in darkness, on a daring mission to rescue a captured U.S. doctor. Accompanying the SEALs was Chief Petty Officer Special Warfare Operator Edward C. Byers Jr., a Catholic with a devotion to St. Michael the Archangel. A SEAL since 2001, Byers had already seen seven straight years of combat. He was unaware of the feast day due the gravity of the operation and lack of access to a church. “That is something that gives me chills thinking about,” Byers told Columbia Magazine seven years later in a recent interview. “I don’t believe in coincidences.” Byers is a member of the Knights of Columbus; Columbia Magazine is the m...
At Golden Globes, pregnant actress Michelle Williams attributes her success to an abortion she had…
Please pray for Michelle Williams! Pregnant actress Michelle Williams thanked God for abortion in her 2020 Golden Globes acceptance speech. The former Dawson’s Creek star accepted a 2020 Golden Globe award for her performance in Fosse/Verdon. She expressed gratitude for her right to an abortion, attributing it to her success today. She also concluded her speech with a shout-out to 14-year-old daughter Matilda Ledger and fiancé Thomas Kail, whom she is expecting a child with. “I’m also grateful to have lived in a moment in our society where choice exists, because as women and as girls, things can happen to our bodies that are not our choice,” Williams begins. “I’ve tried my very best to live a life of my own making, not just a series of events that happened to me, but one that I could stand...
After decades of fighting, have United Methodists avoided a visit from the Ghost of the Episcopal Future?
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If you have never done the Epiphany blessing with your family, I encourage you to do so this year…..
Last year the Feast of the Epiphany came and went for my wife and me during our first year of marriage, however, later that day we said to each other that when our child is born next year, we would like to start the tradition of blessing our home each year. Today, just around two hours ago, after getting home from 7:30 AM Mass and eating breakfast, together, with our son in my wife’s arms, we blessed our home with the Epiphany Home Blessing. We said the prayers together, I marked the door frames and the outside door with the inscription (see below) and then went from room to room blessing each space with our small bottle of Epiphany Water. Above our front door If you have never done this short ceremony with your family, I would highly encourage you to do so today or tomorrow, most especial...
The Magi represent Christ’s manifestation to the Gentiles…
“The Magi Journeying” – James Tissot, Brooklyn Museum by Donal Anthony Foley – On Sunday, we celebrate the Epiphany, or manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles, in the persons of the Magi, or wise men, whose presence is one of the most mysterious aspects of the whole nativity story. St. Matthew introduces the Magi in his Gospel as wise men from the East who have come to Jerusalem in search of the newborn King of the Jews. We are not told where they came from or how many they were, but are informed that their arrival caused a stir in Herod, and “all of Jerusalem with him” (Mt 2:3). We also learn that it is Herod who assembles the chief priest and scribes to learn more about where the Messiah is to be born and directs the Magi to Bethlehem. So who were the wise men? The Greek word for “wise ...
