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By Dr. Jeff Mirus ( bio – articles – email ) | Jan 10, 2020 Today’s news about the minimal approval for a subsidy hike for the USCCB merits reflection. The Conference of Catholic Bishops in the United States—as in other countries—is funded by assessments on each diocese. These assessments are controlled and imposed in the United States by a two-third majority vote of all of the bishops, which I presume to be typical. Proposed increases do not always pass, but in this case, a three percent increase failed inconclusively at the annual November meeting among those present. In other words, while the two-thirds majority was not quite achieved at that time, it was still thought to be possible if all the absent bishops could cast votes. As it turned out, the more complete vote conduct...

> Italiano> English> Español> Français> All the articles of Settimo Cielo in English * Six days after the killing in Baghdad of Iranian general Qassem Suleimani (in the photo, with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei), there was great anticipation over what Francis would say in the traditional beginning of the year speech to the diplomatic corps. The pope expressed himself in this regard with these words, revisiting what he said before at the Angelus of January 5: “Particularly troubling are the signals coming from the entire region [of the Middle East] following the heightening of tensions between Iran and the United States, which risk above all compromising the gradual process of rebuilding in Iraq, as well as setting the groundwork for a vaster conflict that all of us would want to av...

The hot weather that meant Douglas and other family members survived the initial sinking, however, would now become their enemy. “If it’s pretty warm then you are going to lose about half a litre of fluid a day, through the skin,” says Tipton. The Robertsons had two other immediate sources of water beyond their meagre bottled supplies – rainwater and condensation. With a canopy over the top of the dinghy, sweat and water vapour breathed out by the family would condense on it. “Having a way of collecting that is essentially a way of recycling body fluid.” What anyone hoping to survive must never do, however, is drink seawater or urine. “Urine is about 4% more concentrated than standard body fluid,” says Tipton. “So, you’d need to be diluting it by an enormous amount. You’r...

ROME – From the beginning, two things have been true about the clerical sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic Church. The first is that the Church failed, and failed miserably, in its duty to protect children and vulnerable adults entrusted to its care. Unearthing those failures, and doing justice for them, is a long-term challenge that’s far from over. The second is that despite those failures, the Catholic Church also carries generations of wisdom about raising children successfully, about parenting and education and formation, but it’s been difficult to get any of that across in a context in which you put the words “children” and “Church” into a sentence. For most people the third word that automatically comes to mind is “abuse.” On Thursday, Pope Francis may just have unveiled a strate...

“Children are the future of the Church.” How often are such truisms used to explain the extensive focus on a single demographic group within a parish? From youth ministry to religious education to Catholic schools, most Catholic parishes direct a large amount of their limited resources toward young people. After all, if our children fall away, the future of the Church will be dire indeed. Of course, the future of the Church is dire, demographically speaking. In spite of all this focus on young people, we see them flocking for the door once they reach adulthood. The problem isn’t bad or incompetent youth ministers; I’ve known many good and sincere Catholics involved in youth outreach, who work long hours and are committed to bringing kids to Christ. Yet, to repeat, it’s not working. Once fr...

There is a marvelous chapter in the Book of Proverbs that ought to be studied by every young person who must live in this lustful world. It sets forth plainly the stance that any son or daughter of God should have regarding the lust so often celebrated by this age. Many preachers and teachers wince at the Book of Proverbs on this topic since it tends to portray seduction and lust as coming from women. However it must be recalled that Proverbs features a father speaking to his son. So the context is that of a young man experiencing seduction from a certain class of women (not all women)! The silence of this chapter of Proverbs on the problem of men seducing women should not be taken as a denial of this problem; it is simply not the context of the discussion. Any woman ought to be able ...

Hong Kong bishop Joseph Zen (Facebook photo) Hong Kong bishop Joseph Zen (Facebook photo) TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Former Hong Kong bishop and human rights campaigner, Joseph Zen (陳日君), has sent a letter to the College of Cardinals seeking protection for churches in China from Chinese Communist Party (CCP) persecution. On Wednesday (Jan. 8), Rome’s largest newspaper agency, Il Messaggero, revealed Zen’s letter, which was dated Sept. 27, 2019. In his letter, the 87-year-old bishop emeritus protested that Pope Francis has stayed silent despite promising to tackle religious oppression in China. Zen said he was “begging on his knees” for help from his fellow cardinals and criticized the Vatican for inking agreements with the Beijing government. He pointed out a document s...

EL TUKUKO, Venezuela — The Rev. Nelson Sandoval’s repeated clashes with Socialist officials, Marxist rebels and tribal chiefs have earned him both loyal followers and bitter enemies in a remote and neglected Indigenous village in the rainforest of western Venezuela. To some of the community’s 3,500 residents, he is “the Devil.” His supporters know him as their “second father.” For the last 15 years, Father Sandoval has been working to bring education and health care to the village, El Tukuko. His allies say this has made him the main lifeline keeping El Tukuko afloat amid Venezuela’s unprecedented economic crisis, underlining how the fortunes of entire communities can hinge on single individuals in a disintegrating country. His detractors, however, “tell me I will go to hell,” said Father ...

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...

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...

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 ...

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...