BERLIN — As the papal plane touched down Sept. 22, slightly ahead of schedule on a sunny and breezy autumn morning in Berlin, the atmosphere was a palpable mix of trepidation and eager anticipation.

The Pope’s first state visit to his increasingly secular homeland, the “country of the Reformation,” drew a good deal of controversy in the months preceding it. Would this nation, which has long struggled to understand the Catholic faith, welcome him with warmth and respect?

As if to show how much the Christian faith is being sidelined by the German people, one national newspaper listed the backgrounds of the key dignitaries welcoming him to Berlin: a divorced and remarried Catholic...READ MORE

LANSING, Mich. (EWTN News)—Paul Long, head of the Michigan Catholic Conference, is praising the Michigan Legislature for passing a bill to ban partial-birth abortion. He called the measure “the most commonsense policy a civilized society could enact.”

“There is no place in our state for those who seek to terminate the life of an unborn child partially delivered from his or her mother,” Long said on Sept. 21. “Today Michigan should stand proud in following the lead of dozens of other states and the federal government by prohibiting this most heinous and gruesome practice.”

One bill passed the Senate by a vote of 29-8, while the House passed its version by 75-33. The bills would allow...READ MORE

Hearing from a Pulpit Near You: Help the Poor & Jobless - John Norton, Our Sunday Visitor

The King’s Good Speaker - Andrew Haines, First Things/On the Square

Angelic Warfare & Muscular Catholicism - Rich Leonardi, Ten Reasons

B16 Wants a “Truly” Catholic Church, Not “More” - Jean-Marie Guénois, La Stampa

Cardinal Piacenza on Celibacy - Fr. Simon Henry, Offerimus Tibi Domine

First Tonsure, Minor Orders, & Eye Infections - Fr. John Zuhlsdorf, WDTPRS?

Sunday Mass at Beijing’s North Church - Anthony E. Clark PhD, Ignatius Insight

The Five Faces of Christ - Fr. Dwight Longenecker, Standing on my Head

By Grace Alone: An Introduction to Catholic Theology - Brad Birzer, Catholic Vote

...READ MORE

WASHINGTON (CNA/EWTN News)—Archbishop Timothy Dolan, president of the U.S. Catholic bishops’ conference, urged President Obama and his administration to end their attack on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and the religious freedom of those who support it.

Archbishop Dolan warned in his Sept. 20 letter that by continuing its current course of action, the administration would “precipitate a national conflict between church and state of enormous proportions and to the detriment of both institutions.”

In an accompanying analysis, the bishops’ conference said it is concerned that if the administration continued its fight to redefine marriage, Catholic individuals and institutions would face...READ MORE

Who tells the story of the Catholic Church — secularists, the faithful, ideological opponents, or cultural allies?

These days, the question is not a purely academic one. Catholic leaders struggle to counter negative media stereotypes and present a rich vision of faith and life that transcends the clergy abuse scandal and remains unafraid of engaging the modern world.

Revelation presents the Church’s own story of its pilgrimage through history, a narrative once ingrained in Western culture, from the arts and literature to social tradition and medical ethics.

But as many drift away from the stories of Abraham and Sarah, of the Incarnation and Lazarus, a revisionist narrative has been imposed,...READ MORE

In 1998, a former gang biker named Sam Childers joined a church mission trip to the Sudan to help repair huts damaged in the Second Sudanese Civil War. Most of the people on that trip finished their charitable labors and left Africa behind, but Sam didn’t — not completely.

While in the Sudan, Sam came across the mutilated body of a child killed by a land mine. The experience shattered him, and Sam made a pledge to God to do whatever he could to help the children of the Sudan.

In spite of war-zone conditions, Sam embarked on a project that locals considered impossible: He built an orphanage near the Ugandan border. A dozen years later, over 1000 children have been sheltered in Sam’s...READ MORE

After his arrival at the Berlin Tegel International Airport on Sept. 22, the Holy Father made a courtesy visit to Bellevue Castle, where he was formally welcomed by the Federal President Christian Wulff. Here are the Pope’s words in reply.

Mr. President of the Federal Republic,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Dear friends,

I am honored by the kind welcome which you have given to me here at Bellevue Castle. I am particularly grateful to you, President Wulff, for inviting me to make this official visit, which marks the third time I have come as Pope to the Federal Republic of Germany. I thank you most heartily for your cordial words of welcome. I am likewise grateful to the representatives of the...READ MORE

ROME (EWTN News) — The president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko, recently explained the “three laws” proposed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger — Benedict XVI — for the process of evangelization.

Cardinal Rylko emphasized that the world urgently needs evangelization. His remarks were published in the Sept. 21 edition of L’Osservatore Romano.

He referred to a speech by then-Cardinal Ratzinger on Dec. 10, 2000, at a congress for catechists and religion teachers. It was there that the present-day Pope explained the three laws.

Cardinal Ratzinger spoke about the “crisis of God” in the world, in which “Christians often live as if God did not exist.” On the basis...READ MORE