JERUSALEM — Salim Manarious, a retired former school headmaster, believes there will be a sovereign Palestinian state in his lifetime.

“I believe it because I’m a Palestinian,” the 72-year-old Orthodox Christian said Sept. 23, the day Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas applied for full membership in the United Nations.

Palestinians currently have observer status at the U.N.

The United Nations Security Council is scheduled to hold preliminary talks today on the Palestinian application. The United States has pledged to veto the proposal if it comes up for a vote in the Security Council. The U.S. has called for a return to Israeli-Palestinian negotiations as a way to...READ MORE

Peter Kreeft: Twelve Things to Know about Angels - Carl Olson, Ignatius Insight Scoop

Where are the Archangels Among the Choirs of Angels? - Fr. Ryan Erlenbush, New Theological Movement

When Where the Angels Created? (Saint Augustine) - Taylor Marshall, Canterbury Tales

Ten Tips for Catholic Dating - Julie Rodrigues, VirtuousPla.net

Mother of the Unborn - Gregory Pfundstein, The Catholic Thing

Peter Seewald: B16 Triumphed Over the Media War in Germany - Catholic News Agency

Report: Funding P.P. has Zero Effect on Unintended Pregnancy - Eric Scheidler, LifeSiteNews.com

Quæritur: What if Someone Walks away with a Host? - Fr. John Zuhlsdorf, WDTPRS?

Romans 2 - Melinda Selmys, Sexual...READ MORE

Jose Guadalupe Martin Rabago, the archbishop of Leon, Mexico, has called on Catholics to dress respectfully when attending Mass. He made the request while speaking to reporters this summer after he was asked why posters were placed at the entrances of Leon parishes requesting that women not enter wearing miniskirts, sleeveless shirts or low-cut blouses. The archbishop said, “If you have any respect for [a church], dress appropriately. This is not a misogynist attitude of any sort. I am simply asking for the dignity and decorum that this place calls for, that is all.”

He added that men, too, need to be respectful in their choice of dress before entering a house of worship.

Bishops in other...READ MORE

WASHINGTON — The Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA reported a sharp jump this year in the number of seminarians interested in serving as military chaplains. As the 2011-2012 academic year begins, there are 31 military-affiliated seminarians nationwide, up from three just three years ago.

The seminarians are participating in the Chaplain Candidacy Program for one of the branches of the armed forces and must be co-sponsored by a diocesan bishop. Once ordained, the priest must serve three years in a civilian parish and return to his diocese of sponsorship when he retires from active military service.

Conventual Father Kerry Abbott, director of vocations for the archdiocese,...READ MORE

WASHINGTON (EWTN News/CNA)—The U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce has launched an investigation into the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and its affiliates to determine whether the organization is violating regulations on taxpayer funding or failing to report criminal activity.

“The committee has questions about the policies in place and actions undertaken by PPFA and its affiliates relating to its use of federal funding and its compliance with federal restrictions on the funding of abortion,” said Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, in a Sept. 15 letter to Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards.

The committee...READ MORE

What Every Catholic Needs to Know about Funerals - Brian Fraga, Our Sunday Visitor

Sociology and the Life of Virtue - Aaron Urbanczyk, The Catholic Thing

Does Council of Nicea Reject Women’s Ordination to Diaconate? - Joe Heschmeyer, Shameless Popery

Scalia on Natural Law - Donald R. McClarey, The American Catholic

“Enough of the Unnecessary Recourse to the Death Penalty” - Lorenzo Albacete, Ilsussidiario

160 Catholic Scholars Call for End to Death Penalty in America - Cardinal Newman Society/Campus Notes

A More Visible Witness - Trista Garttner, VirtuousPla.net

Christianophobes: Herod’s Modern Offspring - The Ordinary Catholic, Peter’s Barque

Breaking the Spell of Planned...READ MORE

ONTARIO, Canada (EWTN News/CNA)—Joseph Maraachli, the terminally ill 20-month-old known affectionately as “Baby Joesph,” died peacefully at home with his family in Windsor, Ontario, on Sept. 28.

“It seemed like a relaxing breath, like he was okay. It didn’t seem like he struggled,” Joseph’s mother Sana Maraachli told Canada’s CBC News.

Baby Joseph, who suffered from a severe and fatal neurological disorder called Leigh syndrome, was considered to be in a vegetative state by Canadian doctors, who recommended that he have his feeding and breathing tubes removed.

A private funeral service was scheduled for Sept. 28. Baby Joseph was to be buried beside his sister Zina, who passed away from...READ MORE

WASHINGTON — Though crafted for his secularized countrymen, the muscular defense of Catholicism and natural-law principles that defined Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Germany resonates with American Catholics.

During his four-day state visit, Pope Benedict took every opportunity to openly engage a skeptical culture that questions the very existence of objective truth, repudiates Germany’s Christian heritage as irreparably tainted, and discourages the faithful from advancing the mission of the Church.

The acceptance of secularism and an attendant hostility toward religious authority must be re-examined, he warned, before the nation loses its way, courting a reprise of the neo-pagan ideology...READ MORE