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It was Nick’s golden birthday. He turned seventeen-years-old on October 17th, and we celebrated in style. My wife made a special teriyaki chicken dinner at Nick’s request. The decorations were Notre Dame football — Nick’s favorite team. The plates, napkins, tablecloths, and helium balloons were Fighting Irish top to bottom. The cake, naturally, featured a Notre Dame endzone scene complete with goalposts. Amid all the party goodies and celebration, my wife and I were thankful for our pro-life family and attitudes toward the sanctity of life that had given us Nick. As the festivities progressed, the conversation around the table became boisterous. Along with a small cache of wrapped presents, the premier gift for Nicky was that two of his older siblings made it home from college for his big ...

. > Italiano> English> Español> Français > All the articles of Settimo Cielo in English * “Aware that hearing a pope return to this topic will annoy many….” It is with this caveat that Pope Francis introduces the tough words he dedicates to abortion in his latest book “Let Us Dream,” which on December 1 hit store shelves all over the world. And that’s the way it is. Whenever he touches on this subject, Francis by no means enjoys good press. On the contrary, he is systematically ignored. And yet just recently the pope has spoken out not once but several times against abortion, prompted by his Argentina, where the current president, the Peronist Alberto Fernandez, aims to pass a law that would liberalize the killing of the unborn child. The law was approved by the chamber of d...

This Sunday is traditionally called Gaudete Sunday, based on the Introit for the day: Gaudete in Domino semper, iterum dico, Gaudete (Phil 4:4) (Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say, Rejoice). Today, this theme is developed most fully in the 2nd reading, which is from 1 Thessalonians. It also begins with the salutation and imperative, “Rejoice always.” Let’s take a closer look at that reading and what is meant by the admonition to “rejoice.” The text begins, Rejoice always. The Greek word translated as “rejoice” is χαίρετε (chairete). However, more is intended than merely rousing ourselves to some sort of the emotional state of joy or happiness. Note that the root word charis (within chariete) refers to grace. Hence chairete means to delight joyfully in and by God’s grace, to experience...

ROME – For more than twenty years, no matter where travels may take me the rest of the year, I’ve always made a point of being in Rome for Christmas and New Year’s. You’d think nothing about the holiday season in the Eternal City would surprise me anymore, yet somehow I always manage to be blindsided when the annual fracas over the Vatican’s nativity set breaks out. It’s as predictable as the rising and setting of the sun, really. Whenever the display is unveiled we’re in for a new round of snark and pique, and this year certainly hasn’t broken the mold. The presepe currently standing in St. Peter’s Square features rather abstract pillar-shaped figures crafted by a high school class in the Abruzzo region of Italy sometime between 1965 and 1975 (oddly, no one seems to remember precisely whe...

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The Catholic Church in the nation’s capital filed a federal lawsuit against Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser on Friday evening. The lawsuit argued the 50-person limits in any house of worship constitute “arbitrary” coronavirus restrictions. The suit alleged that the rules “violate the rights of more than 650,000 D.C.-area Catholics, who — at the end of this most difficult year — now face the chilling prospect of being told that there is no room for them at the Church this Christmas.” The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Washington, represented in part by the religious liberty-focused Becket firm, filed a 31-page lawsuit with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against Bowser herself and the district. “From the start of the pandemic, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Washin...

December 10, 2020 President-elect Joe Biden “certainly has no interest in following the Church’s teaching on anything. Even to the extent that it might coincide — some of his positions — with Catholic Church teaching, it’s not informed by Church teaching, it’s informed rather by [the] Democratic Party platform,” said Ken Craycraft, author of the recent First Things article, “What Christians can expect from Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.” Craycraft, an attorney, was recently named the James J. Gardner Family Chair of Moral Theology at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary & School of Theology in Cincinnati. Follow him @kcraycraft on Twitter. Join Our Telegram Group : Salvation & Prosperity  

There is a passage read at yesterday’s Mass (Thursday of the Second Week of Advent) that is complex, to say the least. A footnote in the Ignatius Study Bible calls a phrase in it, “nearly indecipherable.” So, let’s wade into the text and see what we find.  For the record, the brief passage is, as follows:  Jesus said to the crowds:“Amen, I say to you,among those born of womenthere has been none greater than John the Baptist;yet the least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than he.From the days of John the Baptist until now,the Kingdom of heaven suffers violence,and the violent are taking it by force.All the prophets and the law prophesied up to the time of John.And if you are willing to accept it,he is Elijah, the one who is to come.Whoever has ears ought to hear.” (Matt 11:11-1...

After years of producing apologetics, I recently learned something new about evangelizing others.

As a dogsledder, one of the biggest misconceptions I’ve encountered is that I must be made of sterner stuff than other people, or that I simply don’t mind being cold. In fact, I am a baby. I like soft and comfortable things, and my circulatory system is decidedly average. But staying warm in deep cold—or even, say, shallow cold—isn’t something that most people are born good at; it’s a skill that anyone can improve, and it opens up a whole season of outdoor possibilities.  Maybe you spend your winters pining for spring, dreaming of long weekends outside again. Maybe you’ve just moved to a colder place and you have no idea how the locals do it. Or maybe you’re looking for ways to get out of the house safely, without violating social-distancing guidelines. Have no fear! Here are ten prin...

If we have suffered wounds from rampant infidelity to Christ, we won’t resolve them by a different sort of infidelity to him. The division between orthodoxy and ideology among Christians has reached a new level of obstinacy. Both sides fear the other poses an existential threat to their core values. And in a way both are correct. By Noelle Mering There is a recurring movie scene, some version of which might be familiar to most, where a woman, fed up and visibly disgusted, gets in a car and tells the driver to take her anywhere but here. Her aversion to what she is leaving behind is palpable and her destination is irrelevant.  It’s a funny encapsulation of that feeling of having had enough with such intensity that we are consumed by the thing we are rejecting. But in reality, of course...

This is amazing news! 🙌 Pope Francis declared the new liturgical year as the Year of St. Joseph. The year begins Dec. 8, on the 150th anniversary of Pope Bl. Pius IX’s declaration of St. Joseph as patron of the Catholic Church. It is also the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. Pope Francis establishes this year “in which every faithful following [St. Joseph’s] example can daily strengthen their life of faith in the full fulfillment of God’s will.” “All the faithful will thus have the opportunity to commit themselves, with prayers and good works, to obtain with the help of Saint Joseph, head of the celestial Family of Nazareth, comfort and relief from the serious human and social tribulations that today grip the contemporary world,” the decree states. The decree comes after Fr....