ROME (CNA) — The Bishops’ Conference of Spain has warned of the dangers of sexually charged ads and the promotion of the sex industry.

The Internet, they said in a May 25 message, cannot be a place devoid of any ethical or moral considerations with regards to human communication, nor can it throw aside “the most basic norms of decency in personal and social relationships, based on the dignity of the person and the common good.”

The same could be said of certain sections of newspapers, such as the classified ads, the bishops continued. 

They support efforts to rid the press of advertising for the sex industry, “which not only constitutes an attack on the dignity of the person, especially...READ MORE

JUBA, Sudan (CNA/EWTN News) — Sudan’s north and south have reached a deal to avoid returning to war over the disputed oil-producing city of Abyei, which is due to come under temporary joint administration next month. But the agreement comes too late for tens of thousands who fled the city as northern troops invaded in May.

“The south is very unhappy that the north has occupied the area,” said Stephen Hilbert, the U.S. Catholic bishops’ foreign-policy advisor for Africa. “Now that they occupy it, they are basically allowing people to come in and loot the place.”

“It’s very unfortunate, and it’s very destructive to the peace deal,” Hilbert told CNA on June 2.

South Sudan’s government says...READ MORE

Only Beauty Will Save Us - Sandro Magister, Chiesa

Migraines and Mental Illness: A Blessing in Disguise? - Kay Anne Kelly, Catholic Lane

Saint Norbert & the Premonstratensian Order in England - Stephanie A. Mann, Supremacy and Survival

. . .Catholic Lane: Saint Norbert, Bishop. . .

. . .Ars Orandi: Collect of the Day: Saint Norbert. . .

Anna Arco Leaves the Catholic Herald - Anna Arco, Catholic Herald

Benedict to Christian Bloggers: Proclaim the Truth Undiluted - Dylan Parry, A Reluctant Sinner

Pope Chooses Abbot as Bishop of Aberdeen - Catholic Herald

. . .Bearsden Herald: new bishop of Aberdeen announced. . .

Cardinal Pell on Australian Church’s Struggle Against Secularism -...READ MORE

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (CNA/EWTN News) — The situation of earthquake victims in Haiti continues to improve, but cholera is still a problem, and the upcoming hurricane season poses a “major threat.”

“Historically, we know that Haiti is disproportionately vulnerable to hurricanes and that even tropical storms or just heavy rain can cause serious damage — in areas unaffected by the earthquake as well as in the camps, which are acutely vulnerable,” Jean Daniel Lafontant, Catholic Relief Services’ Haiti communications officer, told CNA on June 3.

In late April, unexpected heavy rains and strong winds flooded parts of metropolitan Port-au-Prince, damaging or destroying more than 1,550 emergency...READ MORE

ROME (EWTN NEWS) — The Vatican’s representative to the United Nations in Geneva says that 30 years after the discovery of AIDS, international relief agencies and faith-based groups are beginning to show an openness to the Catholic solution for the illness.

“We are at the beginning of a convergence in the sense that functionaries of international institutions and organizations and people from faith-based groups are talking across the lines and coming to respect each other a bit more,” Archbishop Silvano Tomasi told EWTN News.

Archbishop Tomasi’s comments come three decades after the first medical paper recognizing the illness was published in the U.S.

Based on a study of homosexual men...READ MORE

ZAGREB, Croatia — During his 33-hour visit, Pope Benedict addressed Croatian civil society, met with young people at a prayer vigil, addressed families at a Mass for more than 400,000 in the capital city of Zagreb, and prayed at the tomb of the great Croatian hero and martyr, Cardinal Aloysius Stepinac, just before his departure.
Europe is doomed if it doesn’t rediscover the true meaning of conscience, warned Pope Benedict XVI on the first day of his visit to Croatia, June 4.

“If, in keeping with the prevailing modern idea, conscience is reduced to the subjective field to which religion and morality have been banished, then the crisis of the West has no remedy and Europe is destined to...READ MORE

In the aftermath of the media blitz in 2002 exposing sexual abuse by Catholic priests, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) commissioned researchers from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice to study what happened. In 2004, the first studied the nature and scope of the problem, covering the years 1950-2002. Its latest study addresses the causes and context of abuse.

Both studies report that the crisis extended from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s, peaking in the 1970s. This was a time of increased levels of deviant behavior in society, and the authors properly cite the role played by the sexual revolution in shaping the environment.

This is not a justification — it is an...READ MORE

God Bless the Brewers of the World: The Feast of Saint Boniface - Brad Birzer, Catholic Vote

. . .Catholic Lane: Saint Boniface, Bishop, Martyr. . .

The Other Seminary Success in Lincoln, Nebraska! - Father Simon Henry, Offerimus Tibi Domine

Abbot Hugh Gilbert is Appointed the New Bishop of Aberdeen - Dylan Parry, A Reluctant Sinner

. . .Father Tim Finigan comments here. . .

Brick by Brick in Croatia - Father John Zuhlsdorf, WDTPRS?

The Role of the State - Nicholas C. Hosford, The Distributist Review

Not Whether to Help the Poor, But How - Father Robert A. Sirico, Acton Institute

Catholic Identity and the NLRB - Father Robert J. Araujo S.J., Mirror of Justice

WHO-Approved Drug...READ MORE