Striking report describes religious persecution before Covid
The Pew Research Center has released its report on religious freedom in the world. The data refer to 2019 and is similar to that recorded in 2018. As many as 57 countries impose "high" or "very high" restrictions on religious practice. But that was before the fateful 2020 arrived with its national lockdowns, providing opportunities for religious persecution also in the West.
French Church abuse, secularisation is the problem not the solution
Sexual abuse is a serious problem for the Catholic Church and just asking for forgiveness doesn’t suffice. It is essential to understand the causes but in accordance with the criteria of the Church, not the world’s. Instead, the church is headed in the opposite direction, promoting the very secularisation that is the cause of the collapse of morality.
China’s war games against Taiwan, test the West
The repetitive air strikes that China has conducted in recent days in Taiwan's airspace, are the signal of a dangerous military escalation which involves all countries in the region and the United States. While an all out war between China and Taiwan is unlikely at the moment, the risk of the Chinese conducting lightning operations against Taiwan-controlled islands is instead a real danger to test whether the US and the West intend to fight for Taiwan.
German Synod attempts to abolish the priesthood
The Synodal Way has given the green light, with the majority of only one vote, to a further revision of the text "Priestly Existence Today", practically leaving open the debate on the abolition of the priesthood. For Cardinal Cordes this is a confirmation of the "heretical thrust". And a threat of schism that the Pope is called to face.
Who lost the war in Afghanistan? The blame game proceeds
Top American military brass has admitted defeat in Afghanistan. According to General Milley, the Biden administration bears political responsibility, while General McKenzie blames Trump for signing agreements with the Taliban in Doha. But it was Obama who first announced U.S. plans for withdrawal.
Jerome, a saint with a difficult character
He was impetuous and often argumentative, but he gave so much to Christianity through his life and writings. He was responsible for the first official Latin translation of the Bible, the so-called Vulgate. And his greatest teaching, as Benedict XVI has said, is "to love the Word of God in Sacred Scripture".
Bergoglio vs. Francis. A new concept of the papacy
Today the dominant Catholic theology holds that the Christian faith and the life of the Church is a historical process and that all life in the Spirit does not come from outside but passes through the concreteness of history. Remaining Bergoglio is therefore essential to being pope, because the papacy is not something that is "above" or "beyond" the man Bergoglio, but the Spirit opens up avenues of self-communication precisely from within that personal history.
Repentant trans belies pro gender psychiatrist
In 2019 she stopped taking testosterone. And now Sinead Watson criticises the Stanford psychiatrist, who according to her is guilty of unilaterally embracing the "sex change" practice and of being contemptuous of those who have abandoned the "transition". Her testimony reminds us of the damage caused by the transsexualist ideology.
The Legion of Mary, a legacy to be rediscovered
A hundred years have passed since the native Irish Frank Duff founded the Legion of Mary, a lay organization that today has over ten million members all over the world. Marked by a strong Marian spirituality, Duff's legacy is still evident in the works of mercy it provides to prisoners, prostitutes, the homeless, drug addicts. His idea of the mission of the laity in the Church both anticipated and was taken as a model by Vatican II. Yet Ireland and even Catholic circles seem to have forgotten this.
Euthanasia for newborns is (already) the norm in Belgium
The term "euthanasia" is never used to describe these cases. And yet in just one year, between 2016 and 2017, 24 children from a few days old to 12 months of age were euthanised. The reason: because they would have had no "hope of a bearable future." Such cases are never talked about because the childrens' parents consented. When we hear about "sweet death," do we really know what it is?
Civil unions "contrary to the common good". Signed Benedict
In his latest article - published in the collection “The True Europe. Identity and Mission”, with an introduction by Pope Francis - Ratzinger underlines the gravity of the legal approval of homosexual unions, which produces consequences "contrary to the common good". Laws to this effect clear the way for a concept that debases the dignity of man, reducing him to a "product", and is therefore against "the ecology of man", created in the image and likeness of God, and therefore sacrosanct. This text by the Pope Emeritus recalls the truth always taught by the Church, but forgotten in Bergoglio's recent in-flight press conference on his return from Slovakia.
