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	Facebook Twitter Newsletters Email Video News Catholic Life Shopping Saints Bible Prayers Mary Headlines Homosexual Marriage at the Dusk of Liberty By Fr. Johannes L. Jacobse | August 29, 2013 In the long run, Christians won't be prosecuted for objecting to homosexual marriage as such. They will be prosecuted for denying that the State has the power to define what is morally licit under the legal rubric of civil rights. We are one step closer to the catacombs. Bishops, priests and deacons need to take special note because they will become the first targets of the coming hostility in order to demoralize the faithful. Clergy who today still hope for compromise with the homosexual cultural agenda must recommit to the moral tradition and bear the scorn that comes with defending it. Continue Reading... THURSDAY HOMILY: Passion of St.John the Baptist Calls Us to Freedom and Courage By Deacon Keith Fournier | August 29, 2013 The last prophet of the Old Testament, the forerunner of the Messiah, was killed by a corrupted King who gave in to lust, pride and grandiosity. John never stopped bearing witness to the truth. He had the eyes to see that Truth was fully revealed in Jesus, the one whom he proclaimed the "Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." (John 1:29) St. John the Baptizer was a simple man, not a member of the elite. He was stirred by conscience and the Holy Spirit to throw convention to the wind.He paid dearly for it. As Christians we inherit the abundant fruit of his daring and liberating choices. The way he exercised the great gift of his human freedom instructs us in exercising our own. Continue Reading... Obama Administration Considers Military Action: Pray for the Christians of Syria and Pray for Peace By Deacon Keith Fournier | August 29, 2013 As Catholics we need to be very careful as we watch the news reports concerning the situation in Syria. The Chaldean Bishop of Aleppo, Antoine Audo, S.J. told Vatican Radio that "If there is an armed intervention, that would mean, I believe, a world war. That risk has returned." Metropolitan Hilarion, the head of the Department for External Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate offered sobering words concerning what appears to be the impending military action by the US in Syria stating "Once again, as was the case in Iraq, the United States is acting as an international executioner. Once again, thousands of lives will be sacrificed on the altar of an imaginary democracy." He warned that among them will be "Christians, about whose fate no one cares." We must be numbered among the ones who do care about their fate. Pray for the Christians in Syria. Pray for peace in Syria. . Continue Reading... Sophistry Slouching Toward Apostasy: Response to the Commonweal Essay of Joseph Bottum By Deacon Keith Fournier | August 28, 2013 I read the 9,000 word essay entitled The Things We Share: A Catholic's Case for Same-Sex Marriage last weekend. It was written by Joseph Bottum for Commonweal magazine. In fact, I read it several times. Each time, it broke my heart at an even deeper level. The first thing I did was to pray about my response. I decided to wait until I could let my emotional reaction to it calm down a bit. I knew the utter despair that this essay would generate in the broader, faithful Christian community. Continue Reading... Tuesday Homily: Giving Ourselves, Together With the Gospel By Fr. Roger J. Landry | August 27, 2013 It was because of Monica's ceaseless prayers and tears that not only did her son "not perish" but became the great Saint Augustine. But it was also because of her persevering prayers and tears for both her son and her husband that she became the great Saint Monica. Continue Reading... Decoding the Encyclical Letter 'Lumen Fidei', Light of Faith By Fr Dr Santhosh Sebastian Cheruvally | August 27, 2013 Lumen Fidei categorically states that faith illuminating life means Christ affecting our life and our convictions. Indeed a christification of our life and commitments, convictions and values are called for. It is in this sense, "Faith in Christ brings salvation because in him our lives become radically open to a love that precedes us, a love that transforms us from within, acting in us and through us." (Cf. Chapter 1, no. 20.) The encyclical is clear: What is communicated in the Church, what is handed down in her living Tradition, is the new light born of an encounter with the true God, a light which touches us at the core of our being and engages our minds, wills and emotions, opening us to relationships lived in communion Continue Reading... MONDAY HOMILY: Blessings and Woes By Fr. Stephen B. Reynolds | August 27, 2013 Jesus gives great importance to the virtue of sincerity. To be sincere is to live in the truth, and the source of all truth is God. To be sincere involves living as God would have us do, so that our desires, words, and actions are authentic and all spring from the same source. The visible forms of the faith serve to cultivate and reinforce an interior disposition of belief, conversion, and worship. Continue Reading... Abp. Chaput on Why Faith Matters: Belief As a Cornerstone of What it Means to be Human By Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap. | August 26, 2013 When Christians talk about "the dignity of the human person" and "the sanctity of human life," we're putting into words what all people instinctively know. Unique in nature, and unlike any other creature, something elevated and sacred in men and women demands our special respect. When we violate that human dignity, we do evil. When we serve it, we do good. And therein lies one of many modern ironies. We live in a society that speaks piously about protecting the environment and rescuing species on the brink of extinction. But then it licenses the killing of unborn children and the abuse of human fetal tissue as lab material. (Archbishop Chaput) Continue Reading... SUNDAY HOMILY: The Happy Priest - Passion for Heaven By Fr. James Farfaglia | August 26, 2013 The same Jesus that Pier Giorgio Frassati loved with so much passion is calling you to live that same authentic Christian life that he lived. Continue Reading... Most Popular Comfortable in our Catholic Skin: Reject Triumphalism, Embrace the Call to Christian Unity Read More   War On the Horizon: Why is this Obama employee promoting a race war? Read More   Worldwide Christian Persecution Reveals the Rise of Evil and Grace Read More   Poster Couple for an Anti-Theology of the Body Read More   Sophistry Slouching Toward Apostasy: Response to the Commonweal Essay of Joseph Bottum Read More     News | Catholic Life | PRWire | Encyclopedia | Bible | Prayers | Vocations | Saints & Angels © Copyright 2012 Catholic Online. This e-mail is never sent unsolicited. You have received this Catholic Online e-mail because you subscribed to it or someone forwarded it to you. To opt out, see the links below. TO ADVERTISE For information on advertising at Catholic Online, please contact Advertising Sales. TO SUBSCRIBE If this email has been forwarded to you and would like a subscription, please sign up for Catholic Online Newsletters. 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