Here we are, standing before the idol.

It is not 250, but 2012; not Rome or Carthage, but America. Once again, some are prepared to be martyrs, others prepared to easy surrender to avoid discomfort, and still others to be apostate under duress, confident of God’s later forgiveness.

For some, the idol is sex. Having resisted the teaching of Christ and his Church for a generation, it’s an easy compromise: “After all, almost no Catholic believes today that contraception is wrong, and so many have used it, or are using it, with no qualms of conscience.” Catholics are not following the Church, so the Church, and those Catholics who do believe, can be ignored.

For others, the idol is money,...READ MORE

Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan of New York gave this speech Feb. 17 before the Pope and the College of Cardinals: “The Announcement of the Gospel Today, Between Missio Ad Gentes and the New Evangelization.”

Holy Father, Cardinal Sodano, my brothers in Christ:

Sia lodato Gesu Cristo!

It is as old as the final mandate of Jesus, “Go, teach all nations!” yet as fresh as God’s holy word proclaimed at our own Mass this morning.

I speak of the sacred duty of evangelization. It is “ever ancient, ever new.” The how of it, the when of it, the where of it, may change, but the charge remains constant, as does the message and inspiration, “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.”

WASHINGTON — Speaker of the House John Boehner has vowed to pass legislation to remedy the First Amendment concerns posed by a federal law requiring private employers to provide contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs in their health-insurance plans.

Yesterday, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform invited religious leaders to a high-profile hearing, “Lines Crossed: Separation of Church and State. Has the Obama Administration Trampled on Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Conscience?” . The aim was to showcase how the new policy threatened the free exercise of religion, and GOP members of the committee achieved that goal — in part.

Bishop William Lori...READ MORE

6 Quotes of St. Pius X’s Exhortation to Study Aquinas - H. H. Ambrose, Saint Peter’s List

Vatican Should Create Commission on Sacred Music - Jeffrey A. Tucker, The Chant Café

The Black Nazarene - Fr. Joe, Southern Fried Catholicism

Justice Kennedy, Abortion, and Same-Sex Marriage - Carson Holloway, Public Discourse

Catholic Universities: Steps on the Way Back - Dr. Jeff Mirus, Cthlc Culture/On the Culture

The Canon of the Old Testament - Russ Rentler MD, Crossed The Tiber

The Lack of Catholic Identity in Europe - Super Trad Mum, Etheldredasplace

New Fake Rights Trump Old Real Ones - Matthew Archbold, Creative Minority Report

How the Catholic Church Became Cool Overnight - Marc...READ MORE

WASHINGTON (EWTN NEWS)—An amendment providing a religious exemption to the Obama administration’s contraception mandate was prevented from coming to a vote in the U.S. Senate on Feb. 15.

“This is supposed to be a body where we have open discussion, where any member can offer any amendment to any bill at any time,” said Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind.

He criticized the Senate’s majority leader, Harry Reid, D-Nev., for shutting off the opportunity to introduce new amendments to a bill that was under discussion in the Senate.

“I think the American people want more than that,” he said.

Coats is one of several senators who has spoken out strongly against a controversial insurance mandate announced...READ MORE

The end of the world is once again nigh.

Or so claim interpreters of the so-called Mayan calendar.

But Catholics are advised to ignore this year’s end-times fantasy, just as they did regarding last year’s Bible-inspired prediction promoted by Protestant radio-show host Harold Camping.

Regis Martin, professor of theology at Franciscan University at Steubenville, Ohio, and author of The Last Things: Death, Judgment, Hell, Heaven, told the Register that “The surest thing we know about the end of the world is what Jesus said about it: ‘No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.’”

Given that Jesus, “in his divine humanity,” did not...READ MORE

B16: Big Families a Witness to Faith, Source of Wealth & Hope to Nation - Kathleen Gilbert, LifeSiteNews.com

Can This Be the Catholic Moment in the Arts? - Daniel McInerny, High Concepts

Forgiveness Leads To Love - Godwin Delali Adadzie, Ignitum Today

Share the Love of Chant this Lent - Jeffrey A. Tucker, The Chant Café

You Can Look It Up, A Dictionary for Philosophers - Joseph R. Wood, The Catholic Thing

Photo of Pope Pius XI, Consistory - Shawn Tribe, New Liturgical Movement

Newly Designed Ring for Cardinal-designate Dolan - Kathy Schiffer, Seasons of Grace

Santorum: A Brave Heart Needed For What Is Coming His Way - The Ordinary Catholic, Peter’s Barque

Reproductive Medicine...READ MORE

For my testimony today, I would like to tell a story. Let’s call it The Parable of the Kosher Deli.

Once upon a time, a new law is proposed, so that any business that serves food must serve pork.

There is a narrow exception for kosher catering halls attached to synagogues, since they serve mostly members of that synagogue, but kosher delicatessens are still subject to the mandate.

The Orthodox Jewish community — whose members run kosher delis and many other restaurants and grocers besides — expresses its outrage at the new government mandate.       

And they are joined by others who have no problem eating pork — not just the many Jews who eat pork, but people of all faiths —...READ MORE