World

South African man of God dies trying to imitate Jesus Christ

6, August 2016

South African man of God dies trying to imitate Jesus Christ 0

A popular South African pastor died after attempting dry fasting which the Prince of Peace did for 40 days.  The South African pastor reportedly told his followers that he would match Jesus Christ by depriving himself of food and water in the bush for 40 days.

Pastor Alfred Ndlovu, aged 44 in an attempt to break the record of Jesus Christ who fasted for 40 days, left home for the bush on June the 17, 2016.

Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered he starved himself just for 30 days and traveled to the land of his ancestors. His body was found by a passer-by who informed the police.

By Chi Prudence Asong (Cameroon Intelligence Report)

Muslims and Christians have taken part in Friday prayers in tribute to elderly priest killed in France

30, July 2016

Muslims and Christians have taken part in Friday prayers in tribute to elderly priest killed in France 0

Muslims and Christians have taken part in Friday prayers at a mosque in the northern Normandy region to pay tribute to an elderly priest who was recently killed by terrorists.

The service was held at the Yahya mosque in the town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, with a sign holding outside the house of worshipping hall reading “Mosque in mourning.”

Anouar Kbibech, the head of Franc’s main Muslim organization, the CFCM, attended Friday’s gathering, calling on Muslims to visit churches on Sunday to show solidarity with Christians as they pray.

On July 26, two knife-wielding assailants, identified as Adel Kermiche and Abdel-Malik Nabil Petitjean, interrupted a service at the St. Etienne church.

They forced the 85-year-old parish priest, Father Jacques Hamel, to his knees and slit his throat. Two nuns and an elderly couple were also held hostage until the attackers were shot dead by police.

Presstv

The Holy Father in pain and horror over the barbaric murder of a priest in France

26, July 2016

The Holy Father in pain and horror over the barbaric murder of a priest in France 0

Pope Francis expressed his “pain and horror” Tuesday after two knife-wielding men in northern France took a number of people hostage at a church and killed a priest.

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said the leader of the Roman Catholic Church had been particularly appalled by the “barbaric killing” that happened in a sacred place.

“The pope… participates in the pain and horror of this absurd violence,” media outlets quoted Lombardi as saying, adding that the attack created “immense pain and worry.”

The Tuesday attack hits particularly hard “because this horrific violence took place in a church, a sacred place in which the love of God is announced, and the barbaric murder of a priest and the involvement of the faithful,” the Vatican spokesman stated.

Lombardi described the attack “more terrible news that adds to a series of violence in these days that have left us upset, creating immense pain and worry.”

Presstv

Nigeria: An appeals court rules against a ban on Nigerian Muslims girls to wear headscarf

24, July 2016

Nigeria: An appeals court rules against a ban on Nigerian Muslims girls to wear headscarf 0

An appeals court in Nigeria has ruled against a ban on Nigerian Muslim girls to wear the headscarf to schools in the southwestern state of Lagos. The appeals court in Lagos overturned an earlier ruling in 2013 that had banned the right to hijab in government schools in the state. The new ruling “has restored hope in the judiciary,” said Ishaq Akintola, the director of the Muslim Rights Concern group. Also, in the southwestern state of Osun, the High Court ruled last month that any harassment of girls exercising their choice of hijab constituted an infringement on their rights.

Nigeria has an estimated population of about 170 million people and is almost equally divided between a mainly-Muslim north and a predominantly-Christian south. Secretary-General Ishaq Oloyede of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs in Nigeria has suggested that the anti-hijab campaign in some parts of the country’s Christian-dominated areas is an effort by religious extremists to force Muslim girls into an unacceptable choice between schooling and religion.

 

Presstv

Chaldean Catholic Priest charged with gambling away refugee funds

16, July 2016

Chaldean Catholic Priest charged with gambling away refugee funds 0

A Catholic priest in Canada has been legally charged with theft and gambling away more than 500,000 Canadian dollars (US$380,000) in donations for the resettlement of Syrian and Iraqi refugees arriving in the country.

The 51-year-old clergyman of the Iraq-based Chaldean Catholic church, identified as Amer Saka, had allegedly collected the funds from over 20 donors under the pretext of providing support for the refugees, Canadian police authorities said.

“This investigation spanned throughout the province of Ontario, the United States and other countries where refugees were attempting to come to Canada,” police in London, Ontario, said in a statement.

This is while the head of Canada’s Chaldean Catholic church Bishop Emanuel Shaleta told the local London Free Press that Saka had contacted him to confess he had indeed gambled and lost all of the collected funds.

According to the report, the Catholic priest had been involved in a sponsorship program for refugees for a number of years. He was reportedly sacked by the diocese of Hamilton, Ontario, after local police launched a probe into the case back in February.

Presstv

The Holy Father Pope Francis accepts resignation of Brazilian Bishop

8, July 2016

The Holy Father Pope Francis accepts resignation of Brazilian Bishop 0

The archbishop of Paraiba, Monsignor Aldo di Cillo Pagotto, 66, resigned under the article of canon law that allows bishops to retire early for “grave” reasons that make them unfit for office. Francis appointed an administrator to run the archdiocese until a permanent replacement is found. In a farewell letter, Monsignor Pagotto admitted he had made mistakes and that he had accepted into the archdioceses priests and seminarians who had committed “serious errors.”

He blamed his own “merciful ingenuousness” and said he did so because he wanted to give them a second chance. The pope recently issued new procedures to expel bishops who shield paedophiles, amid an outcry from victims’ groups that bishops have long escaped punishment for moving abusers around rather than reporting them to police.

The new procedures do not go into effect until September, meaning Monsignor Pagotto was forced out under existing procedures in place at the Vatican’s office for bishops. Italian news agency Ansa said that in 2015 the Vatican sent an envoy to Paraiba to investigate. As a preliminary sanction, Monsignor Pagotto was prohibited from ordaining priests and deacons or welcoming in any priests or seminarians expelled from other dioceses.

At the time of the Vatican intervention, Brazilian media reported on a letter from a parishioner alleging Monsignor Pagotto had had sexual relations with an 18-year-old man, the Zenit Catholic news agency reported. Zenit said he successfully had the news reports deleted from internet searches. In his farewell letter, Monsignor Pagotto blasted what he called defamatory news reports that, he said, had distorted and divided the church.

He was one of the arch-conservative authors of a question-and-answer booklet released during the 2014-2015 Vatican meeting on the family that insisted on church doctrine on such hot-button issues as homosexuality, marriage and divorce. In a 2015 report on the book, Ansa cited the authors’ response to the issue of homosexuality by saying that gay unions were sinful and “against nature” and telling gays to refrain from sex.

AP

Muslims celebrate end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan

6, July 2016

Muslims celebrate end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan 0

Muslims from across the world, including in Iran, are celebrating Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. Shortly after sunrise on Wednesday, Iranian people turned out en masse throughout the country to take part in Eid al-Fitr mass prayers. Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei led the Eid al-Fitr prayers at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Grand Prayer Grounds (Mossalla).

In his sermons after the prayers, the Leader referred to the International Quds Day rallies, which were held last Friday, and noted that Iranians took part in the demonstrations en masse despite scorching heat in some areas to assert that they continue to be devoted to the Palestinian cause. Ayatollah Khamenei said people from all ranks of the society engaged in self-sacrifice during the holy month of Ramadan, offering Iftar to the needy in various neighborhoods across cities.

The Leader said the auspicious occasion of Eid al-Fitr was turned into a time of mourning in some cities in the world, including in the Iraqi city of Baghdad and the Turkish city of Istanbul, as terrorist attacks killed large numbers of people. Ayatollah Khamenei said the conflicts in certain Muslim countries, including Yemen and Syria, were a result of meddling by super powers in the affairs of the countries.

The Leader noted that enemies seek to get Muslim countries busy with internal issues so the Palestinian cause is forgotten and the atrocities of the Israeli regime go unnoticed. Referring to the issue of high payments to certain executives in Iranian institutions, Ayatollah Khamenei said such disbursements constitute a “sin.”

The Leader said while certain shortcomings have occurred in the past resulting in the issue of salaries, the matter must now be seriously followed on. Ayatollah Khamenei said the president is fortunately involved in probing the issue. The Leader said returning the money that has illegally been taken from the state coffers should be put on the agenda of the administration so people’s trust is maintained.

Eid al-Fitr marks the new lunar month of Shawwal and the end of Ramadan — the ninth month on the Islamic calendar — when Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, smoking, and indulging in anything that is in excess or ill-natured from dawn to dusk. Muslims believe Ramadan to be an auspicious month for the revelations of God to humankind, given the belief that it was in Ramadan when the first verses of the Holy Qur’an were revealed to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Eid al-Fitr was designated by Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) after his migration from Mecca to Medina. Muslims all over the world celebrate Eid al-Fitr by paying Zakat al-Fitr and saying the Eid prayer in a congregation.

 

Presstv

 

Cardinal Sarah says Poverty is a Christian value

2, July 2016

Cardinal Sarah says Poverty is a Christian value 0

His Eminence Cardinal Sarah recently opined that Poverty is a Christian value. In his book God or Nothing, the Cardinal stressed that ambiguities on doctrine can lead to dangerous opinions. The book as reviewed by Lifesitenews contains excellent teachings for our times. It is indeed a MUST READ!!

Clearly Cardinal Sarah’s comments here address the very misguided, heavily politicized and ideological efforts of many Catholic international aid agencies as well as government and other agencies that tend to emphasis elimination of the poor through contraception and destroying family cultures.

He says:

p.140 I remember being disgusted when I heard the advertising slogan of a Catholic charitable organization, which was almost insulting to the poor: ”Let us fight for zero poverty” .… not one saint – and God alone knows the tremendous number of saints of charity the church has brought forth in two thousand years – ever dared to speak that way about poverty and poor people.

– Jesus himself had no pretension of the sort. The slogan respects neither the gospel nor Christ. Ever since the Old Testament, God has been with the poor; and Sacred Scripture unceasingly claims “the poor of Yahweh”. A poor person feels dependent on God; this bond is the foundation of spirituality.

– Yes, poverty is a Christian value. The poor person is someone who knows that, by himself, he cannot live. He needs God and other people in order to be, flourish, and grow. On the contrary, rich people expect nothing of anyone. They can provide for their needs without calling either on their neighbors or on God. In this sense, wealth can lead to great sadness and true human loneliness or just terrible spiritual poverty. If in order to eat and care for himself, a man must turn to someone else, this necessarily results in a great enlargement of his heart. This is why the poor are closest to God and live great solidarity with one another;

p.141 The church must not fight against poverty but, rather, wage a battle against destitution, especially material and spiritual destitution. It is critical to make a commitment so that all men might have the minimum they require in order to live. “The spirit of poverty and charity is the glory and witness of the Church of Christ”

– But we do not have the right to confuse destitution and poverty, because in doing so we would seriously be going against the gospel. Recall what Christ told us: “The poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me” (Jn 12:8) Those who want to eradicate poverty make the son of God a liar. They are mistaken and lying.

p.142 The language of the UN and of its agencies, who want to suppress poverty, which they confuse with destitution, is not that of the church of Christ. The Son of God did not come to speak to the poor in ideological slogans! The Church must banish these slogans from our language. For they stupefied and destroyed peoples who were trying to remain free in conscience

Truth is charity

Below he addresses the many influential or small-minded critics who insist that we must just pray and remain silent about the damaging programs and statements we see and hear and not speak out in order to protect life, family, faith and truth.

p.143 It is a lack of charity to shut one’s eyes. It is a lack of charity to remain silent in the face of confusing words and slogans!

The atheistic West is endangering the whole world

Cardinal Sarah is aware of the great dangers to the entire world of today’s situation in especially the European Union, the United States and Canada.

p.146 I think that the immense economic, military, technological, and media influence of a godless West could be a disaster for the world. If the West does not convert to Christ, it could end up making the whole world pagan; the philosophy of unbelief feverishly seeks followers in new parts of the globe. In this sense, we are facing an atheism that is proselytizing more and more. The pagan culture is determined to extend the domain of its struggle against God. In order to bring about their rebirth, the former countries of the old Christian tradition need to re-energize by embarking on a new evangelization.

P.148 Following Benedict XVI, I am convinced that one of the most important tasks of the church is to make the West rediscover the radiant face of Jesus. If the Old Continent cuts itself off from its roots definitively, I fear that it will cause a major crisis for all mankind, and I see some beginnings of it here and there.


The absolute need to defend the traditions and doctrines of Catholicism

p.147 we have an urgent obligation, says St. Athanasius, to study “the ancient tradition, teaching and faith of the Catholic Church, which was revealed by the Lord, proclaimed by the apostles, and guarded by the Fathers. For upon this faith the church is built, and if anyone were to lapse from it, he would no longer be a Christian either in fact or name.”

Prayer is the tool to reform the world

p.150 Prayer is the greatest need of the contemporary world; it remains the tool with which to reform the world.

p.153 The start of the reform must concentrate on Catholic schools and seminaries.

 

3, June 2016

Anti-Catholicism in our time: Myth or Reality 0

There is in our time a certain wave of anti-Catholicism that seeks to drown the Holy Roman Catholic Church in a sea of guilt for its past mistakes and moral failing. It does not seem to matter how often the Roman Catholic Church at all levels may show its repentance, there never seems to be any recognition of this in the constant and mounting wave of criticism that much of the time rises to a form of snide vilification beyond justification. It does no good to remind people that though the Roman Catholic Church on earth is divinely instituted, it is at the time humanly constituted and will always carry with it traces of the evil it tries to counter. A characteristic of this wave of anti-Catholicism is that it so often attributes to the Roman Catholic Church beliefs or stances it does not hold. It has become so politically correct in some quarters to knock the Roman Catholic Church that accuracy, truth and justice seem to go out the window. An example of this phenomenon is the way the Roman Catholic Church is often attacked for its position on the family.

When the Roman Catholic Church affirms the notion of family as that of the stable relationship between two parents-man and woman and their children, the response is often a vicious attack on two fronts. The first front makes it seem that this notion is in some way the creation of the Roman Catholic Church and not to be taken too seriously, somehow out of date. This is common with many prominent members in the Parish Councils in Cameroon who are polygamists. And who are aware the Roman Catholic Church needs their money to function and can only refuse them Holy Communion in return. This completely ignores the fact that the Roman Catholic did not invent marriage or the family. These two institutions are natural to human beings and are deeply imbedded in human experience. These two institutions are the basic elements of human society. The contribution of the Roman Catholic Church is to endeavor to refine and uphold what is an essential feature of human existence. The family is the natural basic unit of any society. If you break this down anywhere in the world, the consequences will be a break down of that society no matter what religious beliefs are in place. What this writer is saying is simply that the stable family unit of parents and children was not invented by the Roman Catholic Church or Cardinal Tumi but by nature.

The second front on which the Roman Catholic Church has been attacked in this family matter is that the Holy Roman Catholic Church is lacking in compassion for the single parent family. The Roman Catholic Church on earth remains the only establishment that cherishes and supports single parent family. The Roman Catholic Church support for single parent family is matchless, without qualification, without strings and above all and in the words of Archbishop Cornelius Esua, without judgment. I learnt from my own mother that single parent family nurture their families with no less dedication and success than two parents families will achieve. She demonstrated to me that the struggle of the good single parent family will be harder than the struggle of the good two parent family.

My time in Mamfe, the chief town in Manyu Division in Cameroon tells me that being a two parent family is no guarantee of success and dysfunctional families are of all sorts and also, problem children are of many backgrounds. But when all that is said and without being judgmental or critical of anyone, the best chance for all in the world, is the norm of the stable two parent family-father, mother and children. It is a curious feature of our time that when there is failure to conform to the norm, whether it is in the area of marriage or celibacy or chastity, then the cry goes out to do away with the norm. When a principle becomes too difficult to sustain or is widely ignored, then the cry goes out————do away with the principle. I remember with passion the story of my mother who gave all her time on earth to the Roman Catholic Church as a teacher but was given a disgraceful and forceful retirement by a heartless priest call Father Charles Leke. I attempted to use the pages of the The Herald newspaper at the time in Yaounde, Cameroon to put up a fight against this outrageous man call Father Charles Leke and my mum prevented it.

The same Charles Leke escaped to the USA on lame and ridiculous reasons that the followers of Rev. Father Ettiene Khumbah wanted to kill him. In the USA, he has been a prominent and successful failure and a complete disgrace to the Roman Catholic Church in Cameroon and his American Bishop has expelled him from his Parish. This is an example of ——do away with the principle!! When we continue to do away with the principle, we should all remember that we are heading towards the road to chaos!!

When God decided to enter into our humanity in the person of Jesus Christ, that humanity was nurtured in the arena of the family. In the stability of the relationship of a man and a woman and a child, we are told in scripture, he grew in age and wisdom. We Roman Catholics celebrate that in the feast of the Holy Family. To celebrate this is in no way to diminish the value or dignity of any person. To celebrate this is simply to say that the norm should not be diminished or downgraded either, and it certainly should not be abandoned. The Roman Catholic Church did not invent marriage and the family. The Roman Catholic Church along with many other institutions affirms and supports what nature and human experience selected as the norm.

2, June 2016

The 2014 Synod of Bishops: The Anatomy of a crisis 0

The October 2014 Extraordinary Synod of Bishops dedicated to the theme of the Pastoral Care of the Family in the context of the New Evangelization was truly extraordinary, and in many ways! For the records, it set out to present the beauty of the Christian family amidst present-day threats to family life across the globe, but more acute in the Western world. It almost ended up saying too little, too late, about what this Christian family means and how we as a Church could support those families that are heroically living out the Christian model of family life.  Catholicism suddenly found itself in an unanticipated doctrinal storm: was the Catholic Church, the only surviving institution that had rejected the ethos of the sexual revolution unleashed in Europe in the 1960s, finally conceding that the post-modern Freudians were right, after all, and the Barque of Peter wrong?

To think about this whole cloudy October of 2014 is quite frankly, irritating. How did Peter’s barque found itself in a situation in which the BBC, CNN, MSNBC, New York Times, et cetera, quickly intercepted their programs to read a new headline: Catholic Church Changes Teachings on Gays and Divorce? I disagree with those who want to blame the secular media. We gave them the headlines! I think the media was far serious about what they wanted to report to the world as coming from the Synod. Watching Cardinal Erdo and his team present the mid-term report and listening to the questions posed by the journalists present left any objective onlooker with the feeling that the media men and women sitting in that Vatican Press Office genuinely wanted to know whether Rome meant what the words in the Synod document meant!

To compound matters, the Vatican had imposed a blackout on the individual interventions of the bishops at the Synod. That left the media with only the filtering lens of Fr. Lombardi and Cardinal Erdo’s Secretariat. The media was therefore under-starved by the Synodal process. Come to think of the fact that these are men and women paying hotel bills to live in Rome! They wanted information to convince their editors that they deserved their paychecks for being in Rome for two weeks. Consequently, the so-called mid-term report – Relatio post Disceptationem, was the first real, substantial encounter that the media had with the Synod world. Who will blame them for the excitement that finally, Catholicism had caved-in into the dreams of the hostile secularists and often times, atheistic media halls? Who will blame the media for celebrating the triumph of the Eiffel ToweroverNotre Dame? Their moment had come, but only for a while! I pray and hope so!

How did we get to this position? It all started February 20th2014, when, at the behest of Pope Francis, Cardinal Kasper delivered a lengthy two-hour lecture to the Consistory of the College of Cardinals on the question of the pastoral care of the family. The most outstanding novelty of the lecture was Kasper’s proposal that couples that are divorced and civilly remarried could, after a period of penitence, be allowed to receive the Eucharist without an ecclesiastical annulment. From the post-consistory news bits, it would seem Kasper’s proposal was not warmly received by many of the Cardinals present. It is on record that Kasper got angry by the many Cardinals who spoke after his presentation, raising objections to such a proposal that clearly had no foundation in Tradition and Scripture. However, Pope Francis publicly praised Kasper, calling the lecture a “profound” theology, a theology done on one’s knees, a theology done with the feeling of the Church – sentire cum ecclesia!

Thereafter, Kasper seemed to have been let loose! It would seem his moment had arrived! He had not only delivered a lifetime lecture to the most elitist club of Roman Catholicism, but had won the public approval and endorsement of the Pope! What more could be desired? The press crowned him “the Pope’s Theologian.” Not even the profound theological objections raised by his brother Cardinals amounted to anything to Kasper. Kasper went on to produce his address to the Cardinals in a book entitled The Gospel of the Family.In fact, when he came to Boston College for one of his post-consistory numerous global lectures and interviews, he made a side-comment to a professor of Boston College that those Cardinals who objected to his proposal did not understood him, implying their arguments were of a straw-man nature! His brother Cardinals showed Kasper that they understood his arguments, and that he was wrong!

Shortly before the Synod, three publications emerged, all championed by members of the College of Cardinals: The Hope of the Family by Gerhard Cardinal MULLER, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; The Gospel of the Family– as if to challenge Kasper’s book with the same title,led by George Cardinal Pell, Secretary of the Secretariat of the Economy of the Vatican; and the most expansive, Remaining in the Truth of Christ, by Walter Cardinal BRANDMULLER, Raymond Cardinal BURKE, Carlo Cardinal CAFFARRA, Velasio Cardinal DE PAOLIS, and others. (I will encourage the bishops of the Bamenda Ecclesiastical Province to subsidize these three books for all major seminarians and priests of our province). In a word, these books bring alive the rich patrimony on marriage that Catholicism could offer the world. One gets the feeling that the Catholic teaching on marriage is our “best-kept secret”!

The current debates on marriage seem to fall within the milieu of moral theology. A closer examination from these books reveals a broad Catholic base:dogmatic theology considers marriage from the point of view of sacramentality and attendant qualities: indissolubility, monogamy, fruitfulness and education of children in the faith; moral theology is about the anthropology of human sexuality and parenthood; canon law views marriage from legitimacy and its pathologies; the role of pastoral theology is to promote the plan of marriage and how to live out this vision in a pluralistic and complex world; finally, spiritual theology is about the Christian life of witnessing, marriage as the domestic church, lived out in prayer, worship, sin and grace, falling and rising in our marital commitment, et cetera.

With such a rich patrimony, the mid-term report could not have been more shocking, even to the secular media world. As the head of the Polish Bishop’s Conference, ArchbishopStanislaw Gądecki told Vatican Radio on October 13th 2014, the Relatio Post Disceptationem was a marked departure from our patrimony, especially the magisterium of St. John Paul II! To Cardinal Burke, the Relatio had little or no foundation in Scripture and Tradition.

I have already written about how this infamous Relatio came to be and its eventual demolition in the Triumph of Orthodoxy. Needless repeating myself here. The Final Report– RelatioSynodi, was a marked improvement of the mid-term report, in the minds of many, thanks to bishops standing up for orthodoxy. Where do we go from here? How do we prepare for the 2015 Ordinary Synod? What lessons have we learnt as Church worth keeping in mind as we prepare for 2015? Two suggestions from a simple and young mind:

Firstly, bishops, priests and the laity should foster a rediscovery of the Catholic teaching of the grammar of sexuality that is built into our experience and understanding of creation. The problematic paragraphs of the mid-term report showed that Catholicism was throwing away its understanding of the sexual language of Creation Theology, an understanding that is accessible to both faith and reason: What does creation, male and female, teach Catholicism and the world about the sexual act? What does the female and male anatomy teach Catholicism and the world about the sexual act? Does reason have a place in the sexual act, or is the sexual act an exclusive domain of feelings and emotions? If we follow emotions alone, where do we draw the line? What happens when a mother says, as we heard recently in the news in the US, that she and her daughter have sexual feelings for each other and have decided to “marry”? More pointedly, and this is what Catholic bishops must ask themselves in all honesty: does God have a place in the sexual act? Can God still speak to humans, created male and female, about sex? Should revelation as contained in Scripture be allowed into the sexual act? In the final analysis, the crisis about sexuality is a crisis about God. Is sex an area that is exclusively human, or can God say a word? Should God be allowed to?

Put differently, the greatest omission of the 2014 Extraordinary Synod was the total snubbing of John Paul II’s Theology of the Body! Bishops should encourage formative seminars on the Theology of the Body. May be the bishops themselves need lessons on the Theology of the Body, urgent ones, to spare Catholicism the kind of embarrassment we faced from the mid-term report, which was a work that came from a meeting of bishops! Sexuality and Creation are the big themes for 2015. A friend of mine chided me for still believing in bishops to hand on the orthodox faith! Do we have any other option? I am sure, hope and pray, that Athanasius, Cyprian, Augustine, Ignatius, Basil, Gregory, Ambrose, Borromeo, will still inspire their successors in 2015!

Secondly, why should Catholicism care about marriage and the family? How can we rediscover and represent our Catholic goods of marriage in 2015: the good of exclusive, reciprocal fidelity (bonumfidei); the good of fruitfulness and education of children (bonumprolis); and the good of the indissolubility symbolized in the indissoluble bond between Christ and his Church (bonumsacramenti), are Catholic goods worth rediscovering and presenting to the world, come October 2015. What does allowing Catholics who are divorced and civilly remarried without an annulment say about the Catholic teaching of the reception of Eucharist by those in objective state of grave sin, which adultery clearly is? What is the difference between simultaneous polygamy, a man having many wives at once, and subsequent polygamy, a man or woman divorcing and remarrying, first marriage, second marriage, and even third, without an annulment? If the latter could be allowed to receive the Eucharist, why not the former?

The drama continues!

 

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