The Speaker of the House visited the Vatican and received Holy Communion during the papal Mass, in open defiance of Bishop Cordileone, who had personally forbidden her Communion for her open support of abortion.

Pope Francis' decision to make Bishop Robert McElroy a cardinal continues to cause debate across the Atlantic. The US Bishops' Conference coldly dismisses Francis' decision, which is instead praised by Father James Martin, who calls the new cardinal a "friend of the LGBTQ community".

At the press conference for the presentation of the World Meeting of Families (Rome 22-26 June), the concept of an "Amoris Laetitia family" was used in opposition to the natural family, to clear the way for an approach that welcomes any form of union, homosexual first and foremost. It is a decisive break from what has always been the Church's teaching.

There are about six hundred documents, approved by the Popes, condemning Freemasonry, in any form. Freemasonry "denies in principle the value of revealed truth", rejecting all faith in the dogmas taught by the Church. The religious indifferentism of Freemasons is characterised by "a deistic conception", incompatible with the Catholic conception. The Daily Compass interviews Father Zbigniew Suchecki, one of the leading experts on the complex relationship between the Church and Freemasonry.

It is important to recall some parts of the interview given by Msgr. Georg Bätzing, president of the German Bishops' Conference. Of course, ecclesiastical celibacy, the ordination of women priests, and homosexuality are also mentioned. But, as Benedict XVI said, these are points on which the German Church shows all its weakness.

Today, on May 15, an original apostle of the Gospel is proclaimed a saint in St Peter's Square. He burned with the desire to make "his" Jesus known and loved, living among the Touareg people in the Algerian Sahara,: "I reside here, the only European... Happy to be alone with Jesus, only for Jesus". The long hours each day before the tabernacle: "The Eucharist, it is Jesus, it is all Jesus".

The ecumenical relations crisis between the Holy See and the Patriarchate of Moscow due to varying positions regarding the war in Ukraine: “it is the failure of an ecumenism based upon highly publicised encounters attempting to diminish the significance of our differences. John Paul II, on the other hand, focused upon establishing the roots of various cultures and traditions in order to insist upon the unity found in their origins: Christ and His Gospel”. “The work of the Church is not to fight for the environment or for peace, but rather to evangelise, because only Jesus can change a person’s heart. And if their heart is changed, the world will be changed”. The theologian Monsignor Nicola Bux speaks out.

“Every war is the offspring of original sin; the weapons of Christians are prayer and the proclamation of the Gospel of Peace”. “It is absurd that Putin would call himself Christian, then give orders to kill other individuals - the very image of God; and it is inconceivable that a Christian Church become an instrument of Nationalism”. “Providing assistance to Ukraine is one issue, but to use it for other political interests is an entirely different issue”. “The sending of arms is an extremely delicate question. A point of equilibrium must be found in order to avoid an escalation, as well as the possibility that Putin threaten other countries”. So speaks Cardinal Gerhard L. Müller, Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in this Daily Compass interview.

The German Synod has provided us with a pretext for returning to the discussion of the looming Schism within the Church, but over the past years, both the Magisterium and theology itself have evolved in such a manner that the confine between that which is true and immutable and that which is unacceptable, has been breached. The China-Vatican agreement, the alteration of the Catechism regarding the death penalty, the abolition of ‘intrinsic evil’ in Amoris Laetitia, are all three, decisive passages which threaten the intrinsic Truths upon which the Church was founded.

The basis upon which Charity resides is the Will, which tends towards God in the sense that God is the Supreme Good. It is found in humankind exclusively by the will of God, but in humankind there is also a receptivity towards it. Charity may increase within an individual: not by addition, but rather by its intensification within the subject. Venial sin neither destroys nor diminishes Charity, but it does predispose the sinner to its loss.

“In Germany, Cardinal Marx and Bishop Bätzing represent a current that wants to attack Ratzinger.” “Sexual abuse is not a crime committed by the Church, they are crimes committed by people. These reports that go back 100 years are not a search to clean up, but a trial against the Church.” “Someone wants to use the abuses to change the teaching of the Church.” The Archbishop of Prague speaks out.

We do not follow Jesus because we like the Cross, or because we enjoy suffering. We do not do so simply out of self-abnegation or desire to obey the Commandments, but rather because Christ gives us what no publicity can. Only Christ Jesus keeps His promises: He saves, gives new life, completely purifies us of our sins, and provides a sense to the suffering of illness and death, because He has raised us to Eternal Life.