As Pope Francis begins a trip to the Holy Land on Saturday with a rigorous schedule that could be challenging even for the healthiest person, Vatican insiders are raising questions about the pontiff's health.
Some in the Holy See are beginning to openly discuss concerns about Francis' condition and asking if the Holy Father is overtaxing himself.
As a young boy in Argentina, before the advent of advanced antibiotics, the Pope suffered an infection which led surgeons to remove most of one lung.
He has appeared to cope with that well through the years, but recently the Pope has canceled a number of papal appointments, citing health reasons.
Some close to the Pope have said they notice he has difficulty breathing, and during the 14 months of his papacy has gained a significant amount of weight, perhaps as much as 20 pounds.
"It's a very serious condition," Dr. Peter Hibberd told Newsmax in discussing the Pope's single lung.
"If you are 20 years old and have one lung, you wouldn't notice it …More

That pretty much sums up Bishop Paprocki’s response to a local Catholic woman’s recent attempt to get ordained.
The woman in question is Mary F. Keldermans of Springfield. Bishop Paprocki wrote to her last month asking her to reconsider her plan, but evidently she ignored him and tried to be ordained a priest at a Unitarian church on May 5.
The bishop also issued this statement to his diocese:
Please be advised that Ms. Mary F. Keldermans of Springfield, Illinois, has attempted to be ordained a priest for “Roman Catholic Womenpriests, Inc.” in a ceremony at the Abraham Lincoln Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Springfield on May 5, 2014. As a result, she has incurred an automatic excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See.
More at Catholic Vote

Simpsons' Protestant Vs. Catholic Heaven
Catholicism’s Protestant future is already in its past. I am referring, of course, to the Second Vatican Council. The Rad Trads have a point: consciously or not, Vatican II was a Protestantizing of Catholicism.
Beyond the fact that Vatican II was the starting gun of the Church’s launching into the ecumenical endeavor, the doctrinal emphasis of Vatican II was, so to speak, a ressourcement of Catholicism drawing, among other sources, from the best of Protestantism.
Worship in the vernacular. The re-emphasizing of the “meal” dimension of the Mass and, perhaps, a de-emphasis on the sacrificial dimension of the Mass. An affirmation of the centrality of Scripture in the life of the Church. A “re-kerygmatisation” of the theological life of the Church. An emphasis on the necessity of grace and Christ in the salvation story. A re-emphasizing on the dimension of the Church as the People of God, the people of the baptized.
The incipit of this section is …More

Abubakar Shekau, leader of the Islamic militant group Boko Haram, has made it clear that the recent abduction of nearly 300 mostly Christian schoolgirls in Nigeria is not merely about denying education to women but a war against the damaging effects of Christians and Christianity in Nigeria.
In a translation of a nearly 1-hour video by Sahara Reporters, he explained how wars were waged against countries like Iraq and Afghanistan in the name of Christianity and now there is a plan in motion to do the same in Nigeria.
“To the people of the world, everybody should know his status, it is either you are with us Mujahedeen or you are with the Christians. The likes of Obama, Lincoln, Clinton, Jonathan, Aminu Kano. They are your fathers of democracy, the likes of Tafawa Balewa. It is Usman Dan Fodiyo that is our own,” he continued.
“We know what is happening in this world, it is a Jihad war against Christians and Christianity. It is a war against western education, democracy and constitution,…More

Photo ~ "Price tag" attack on Church property in Jerusalem (Photo: AFP)
When Pope Francis sets foot in the Holy Land at the end of the month, he'll be treading on diplomatic eggshells at virtually every stop.
Israeli-Palestinian politics are just one of the many sensitive issues Vatican officials are navigating. Other sore points are incidents of anti-Christian vandalism in Israel, lingering tensions between the Holy See and the Jewish community, historic disputes with rival Christian denominations and closed-door real estate negotiations with Israel.
Vandals in Israel have recently scribbled anti-Christian graffiti on several Christian holy sites and properties. Israel's internal security agency says it fears there could be more such attacks, and local Vatican officials have urged Israel to safeguard Christian holy sites ahead of the pope's visit.
The vandalism "poisons the atmosphere of coexistence" surrounding the pope's visit, said Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal, the top Roman Catholic …More

Click for larger image
The Pew Research Center asked people in 40 countries about what is morally unacceptable, morally acceptable or not a moral issue. The issues included: married people having an affair, gambling, homosexuality, having an abortion, sex between unmarried adults, drinking alcohol, getting a divorce and using contraceptives.
Extramarital affairs widely seen as morally unacceptable.
People see using contraceptives as a morally acceptable practice.
People in countries surveyed are more split on premarital sex and alcohol usage.
Americans see extramarital affairs as unacceptable, but are more accepting on other issues. (Homosexuality, Divorce, Contraception)
Pew Research Center

Photo ~ Father Jose Maniyangat, associate pastor of St. Catherine of Siena Church in Orange Park, Fla., anoints a parishioner. Father Maniyangat survived a motorcycle crash in 1985. Courtesy photo
Because the diocese could not afford a car for Father Maniyangat, his bishop gave him a motorcycle for his use. But on April 14, 1985, when the priest was traveling to a parish mission to celebrate Mass, he was struck head-on by a drunk driver.
“I didn’t miss my body one bit,” he said. “I didn’t feel tired or get hungry or thirsty.”
He met his guardian angel upon his death, a figure that was “bright, beautiful and radiant. It was so magnificent I can’t begin to describe it.”
His angel told him that he was going to meet God, but that first he wanted to show him hell and purgatory.
Hell
Hell, he said, was a sea of “unquenchable fire,” with demons “like monsters” and lost souls that were “dirty, filthy and ugly.”
He was able to see the souls, and they saw him, but they could not communicate with …More

A 21-year-old sociopath-in-training was arrested yesterday for kicking a kitten. And the police caught up with him because the video—which shows Andre Robinson grinning like a tough guy (and his friends laughing hysterically)—was posted on Facebook.
The video shows Robinson kicking the cat very hard; “According to the arrest report, the cat flew about 20 feet — and a veterinarian confirmed to cops the brutal blow likely caused serious injury,”
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Here’s a more “positive” viral video story.
Emily Letts, an abortion counselor in New Jersey, said she wasn’t ready to have a baby, even though she was pregnant, and decided that the best solution for her would be to have an abortion — and film it.
“I found out I am pregnant,” the 25-year-old said in the video she uploaded onto YouTube. “I’m not ready to have children.”
“[I want to] show women that there is such thing as a positive abortion story,” The Blaze reported.
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Thank heaven this is not one of ours.
Article can be read at Creative Minority Report.

GENEVA, Switzerland, May 5, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – During hearings that one participant described as “surreal,” United Nations representatives today suggested that the Catholic Church's opposition to abortion in the case of rape and incest constitute a violation of the UN Charter Against Torture.
Felice Gaer, the director of the American Jewish Committee's Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights, said the Catholic Church's 2,000-year-old doctrinal teaching on abortion may be responsible for nine-year-old rape victims giving birth.
“This committee has found repeatedly that laws that criminalize the termination of pregnancy in all circumstances can violate the terms of the convention" on torture, she said.
U.S. pro-life observers criticized Gaer's interpretation of the global document.
“From what I am reading, this is no more than UN propaganda trying to make the Catholic Church seem 'extreme' for not advocating for abortion in the case of rape or sexual assault …More

In the early church, infants received Communion. The practice is noted by Augustine, who preached in one of his sermons: “Yes, they’re infants, but they are his members. They’re infants, but they receive his sacraments. They are infants, but they share in his table, in order to have life in themselves.”
For the first thousand years or more, the rites of initiation (baptism, first communion and confirmation) were given all at one time to children. (The only people not present for the Eucharist in the early church were catechumens and penitents.) Parents brought their children up with them to receive the body and blood of Christ. To this day, this remains the practice in the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic rites, as well as in many Reformed churches and some Anglican ones.
In the Middle Ages, receiving communion became more rare as many people were in such awe of the consecrated host that they preferred to pray before it, rather than consume it. Lay people tended to receive infrequently …More

Photo ~ Pope Francis surprised the 40,000 or so participants in Italy’s third annual March for Life (2013) by greeting them as they gathered just outside St. Peter’s Square following the march.
Rome, Italy, May 2, 2014 (CNA).- The Italian March for Life expects tens of thousands of attendees at its fourth march to support what organizer Virginia Coda Nunziante called “the first right for a human being.”
“If a human being doesn’t receive life, he won’t receive any other rights,” Coda Nunziante told CNA April 23.
The march will begin May 4 at Rome's Piazza della Repubblica. Participants will begin to gather at 8 a.m. ahead of the March for Life’s launch at 9.
Coda Nunziante credited the U.S. March for Life for inspiring its Italian counterpart.
Italian pro-life organizers found that going regularly to the Washington, D.C. event was “an extraordinary occasion to meet pro-life people,” she said. That march gave them the idea of “doing something similar in Italy.”
The 2013 march drew 40,000…More

Photo ~ Muslims perform the Friday Prayer of Jumma in the housing estate London
New research claims that the global numbers of Christians has remained stagnant, while Islam has skyrocketed as a worldwide religion reports Christianity Today.
Dick
Slikker of Christian mission consultancy group Project Care, assembled a report comparing numbers of Christians and Muslims from 1900 to 2010.
According to Slikker’s report, Christianity has remained about the same, but Islam has almost doubled in members.
The statistics of the report are as follows:
Christians made up 34.5 percent of the world’s population in 1900, but fell to 32.9 percent in 2010.
Muslims made up 12.3 percent of the world’s population in 1900, but rose to 22.5 percent in 2010. In the 1980s, there were most Muslims than Roman Catholics Christianity had the greatest rate of growth in Africa, increasing 37 percent Christianity had the greatest drop in Western Europe, decreasing 30 percent Slikker believes the declining numbers …More

Photo ~ Pro-life leaders announce the declaration May 3rd. From right: Virginia Coda Nunziante, Marcia per la Vida; Colleen Bayer, Family Life International New Zealand, John-Henry Westen, LifeSiteNews.com; Joseph Meaney, Human Life International.
VATICAN CITY, May 3, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) - At the first annual Rome Life Forum in Vatican City today, fifty-two pro-life leaders from sixteen nations called on the bishops of the Catholic Church to deny Holy Communion to pro-abortion politicians in a spirit of love and mercy.
The leaders signed a declaration noting that it is out of concern and indeed love for those same politicians that the pro-life leaders ask for this wake-up call to invite pro-abortion politicians back to authentic faith.
Speaking at the public portion of the Rome Life Forum, Cardinal Raymond Burke, prefect of the Vatican’s Apostolic Signatura, reflected on "the grave scandal caused by legislators, judges, and political leaders who profess to be Catholic and who present …More

Reporting from Vatican City—
Contraception, cohabitation, divorce, remarriage and same-sex unions: They're issues that pain and puzzle Roman Catholics who want to be true to both their church and themselves.
Now those issues are about to be put up for debate by their leader, a man who appears determined to push boundaries and effect change.
On Pope Francis' orders, the Vatican will convene an urgent meeting of senior clerics this fall to reexamine church teachings that touch the most intimate aspects of people's lives. Billed as an "extraordinary" assembly of bishops, the gathering could herald a new approach by the church to the sensitive topics.
The run-up to the synod has been extraordinary in itself, a departure from usual practice that some say is a mark of the pope's radical new leadership style, and a canny tactic to defuse dissent over potential reforms.
Within a few months of his election last year, Francis directed every diocese in the world to survey local attitudes on family …More

DETROIT, April 29, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A pro-life Catholic in Detroit says she is fed up after three years of pressing a Catholic-affiliated hospital to sever ties with four abortionists and stop offering sterilizations and abortion-causing drugs, to no avail. Now, she’s calling on Archbishop Allen Vigneron to use his moral authority to force Providence Park Hospital to adhere to Catholic standards when it comes to the dignity of human life – or else strip them of their Catholic affiliation.
Providence Park Hospital, which is part of the St. John Providence Catholic health care system, allows four abortionists to maintain admitting privileges at their campus. They are:
Moon Paik and Leon Hochman of Physicians Abortion Services, a facility estimated to rake in about $1 million a year;
Michael Roth, an independent abortionist with a lengthy track record of botched abortions and malpractice suits who once told the New York Times he has “no ethical problems” with gendercide because …More

TEL AVIV, APRIL 30 - ''A wave of anti-Christian violence and vandalism by Jews'' was registered last Sunday in Galilee, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said in a statement by the Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land condemning with ''grave concern'' incidents which took place during ''a very meaningful day for the universal and local Church, for the canonization of two popes and one month from the visit of Pope Francis to the Holy Land''.
In the statement, the Catholic Ordinaries then listed the facts that occurred, starting from an incident in the ''holy place of Tabgha on lake Tiberias, kept by Benedictine fathers'' by ''a dozen youths, aged 13 to 15, dressed like 'Orthodox Jews' who hailed from the 'source of Job'; a ''letter with threats'' also arrived at the patriarchal vicarage of Nazareth, signed by a local rabbi who was later arrested by police. Finally, ''an assault on the Orthodox church of Al-Bassah, in north-west Israel, during a baptism'' was reported. ''Christians in …More

Photo ~ View from top of the John Hancock Center- Chicago
Video I
Video II

Photo ~ Reverend Edward Belczak, a popular Catholic priest in Michigan, has been indicted for allegedly stealing nearly $700,000 from a church in Troy. (Photo : Twitter)
A Catholic priest in Michigan has been charged with stealing thousands of dollars from a church in Troy, including money donated by the family of a dead parishioner.
Reverend Edward Belczak and another church administrator were indicted for theft of $700,000 from the St. Thomas More Church in Troy and the Archdiocese of Detroit between 2004 and 2012, The Detroit News reported. The pair allegedly concealed the theft by forging documents to the Archdiocese that showed the parish's expenses to be a lesser amount than it really was.
The money included donations given on Mother's and Father's Day, as well as a $350,000 donation to the church from the relatives of a parishioner who passed away.
The priest reportedly used some of the stolen funds to pay for a $500,000 condominium in Wellington, Florida several years ago.
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