In remarks delivered today to Miguel Diaz, the new U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, Pope Benedict XVI indicated to President Barack Obama that he’s monitoring America’s health-care reform debate closely.

The Pope’s message to the president, though indirect and couched politely in diplomatic phrasing, is identical to the one delivered repeatedly and forcefully by the U.S. bishops: There must be no funding for abortion in the health-care reform initiative, and the conscience rights of pro-life medical personnel must have strong protection.

The Holy Father’s signal about the Church’s position on the matter came in the second-to-last paragraph of the remarks he made to Diaz in...READ MORE

As the Daily Blog noted in our previous post, Oct. 1 is the feast day of St. Thérèse of Lisieux. But this day is also fraught with a secular significance: It’s the 60th anniversary of the Communist seizure of power in China.

According to Register correspondent Father Raymond J. de Souza, the six decades of existence of the People’s Republic of China is something that merits no celebration. In an Oct. 1 National Post column titled The Great Failure Goes On, Father de Souza encapsulates the disastrous first 30 years of Communist rule under Mao Zedong as follows:

During the first thirty years of its existence, the PRC was arguably the worst place on Earth to live. Grinding poverty...READ MORE

Today is the feast day of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, the “Little Flower,” who is recognized as a doctor of the church courtesy of the profound insights she communicated in bequeathing her “little way” of Christian faith to Catholics following her death in 1897 at the age of 24.

Father Dwight Longenecker blogs today about the saint’s traveling relics and about the “extraordinary influence” he says they are having as they continue their international pilgrimage.

St. Thérèse, pray for us!

The Government of the Republic of Cyprus announced today that Pope Benedict XVI will visit the Mediterranean island nation in June 2010.

Details of the announcement are available here, at terrasanta.net. The website reports, “According to informed sources, the main purpose of the visit, to take place 4-6 June, will be to deliver to Church leaders from across the Middle East a summary of issues to be discussed at the Special Synod of Bishops on the Middle East. The summary is otherwise known as an Instrumentum Laboris. The synod is scheduled to take place in Rome 10 - 24 October 2010.”

The Cyprus trip is the third papal visit for 2010 to be disclosed in recent weeks. Though details...READ MORE

At his blog Journeys in Alterity, Kyle Cupp has posted this Eulogy to Vivian Marie Cupp. It’s a tribute to his infant daughter who died Sept. 24 only 15 hours after she was born, due to the congenital disorder of anencephaly that was diagnosed while she was in the womb.

The grieving father’s eulogy is a true love story, one that communicates how precious is the gift of every human life and every moment of each life no matter how short or long. And it’s a pro-life love story that serves as a testament on behalf of Kyle and his wife Genece’s decision to welcome Vivian into this world with all the love in their hearts, despite knowing that their daughter was fated to die so soon after her...READ MORE

Noted Catholic apologist Scott Hahn is introducing the Catholic faith to a younger audience, by authoring a children’s coloring book that was released this week by the Thomas More College of Liberal Arts.

The book is titled God’s Covenant with You. Below is the text of a Sept. 30 press release from Thomas More College about the book:

THOMAS MORE COLLEGE RELEASES BOOK BY SCOTT HAHN,
ARTIST DAVID CLAYTON TO DISCUSS BOOK ON EWTN

Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich and his wife Callista are working on a documentary about Pope John Paul II’s historic pilgrimage to his native Poland in June 1979.

The project is called “Nine Days That Changed the World,” and more information about it is available at the project’s website.

Says the website:

George Weigel, author of Witness to Hope, the Biography of Pope John Paul II, describes these nine days as the pivot upon which the entire 20th Century turned. It is an extraordinary claim, yet well supported by what transpired in the years after Pope John Paul II’s triumphal return to Poland in June of 1979.

Some critical things to know about the nature of acts of sexual abuse committed by priests, its prevalence among Catholic clergy compared to its incidence among other groups, and the response of the Church to the sexual abuse crisis:

    • While many speak of child abuse, i.e. pedophilia, it would be more correct to speak of ephebophilia, being a homosexual attraction to adolescent males. Of all priests involved in the abuses, 80% to 90% belong to this sexual orientation minority which is sexually engaged with adolescent boys between the age of 11 and 17 years old.