Category: English

Eduardo Verástegui convinced a couple not to abort

17 years ago, Mexican Catholic actor Eduardo Verástegui convinced a couple not to abort their child. That child whose name is Bella is now 17. Two years ago during an event entitled ‘International Forum on Pregnant Women in a Vulnerable State,’ at the Mexican senate, Eduardo invited her to the stage. At the stage, Bella told Eduardo “Godfather, thank you for saving my life,”to which he replied “Goddaughter, thank you for saving mine.” The Guadalupe clinic in Los Angeles, which was started by Eduardo in 2011, saved 600 unborn babies from abortion within one year after its inaguration.

The center of the Bible

What is the shortest chapter in the Bible?

Psalm 117.

What is the longest chapter in the Bible?

Psalm 119.

Which chapter is in the centre of the Bible?

Psalm 118.

There are 594 chapter befor Psalm 118. There are 594 chapter after Psalm 118. Add these number up and you get 1188.

What is the center verse in the Bible?

Psalm 118,8.

Does this verse say something significant about God’s perfect will for our lives?

“It is better to trust in the Lord then to put confidence in man.” (Psalm 118,8)

Some news for the October 2023 Assembly

This synodal process, initiated by the Holy Father, the ” visible principle and foundation of unity” of the whole Church (cf. LG 23), was possible because each Bishop opened, accompanied and concluded the phase of consultation of the People of God. In this way the synodal process was at the same time an act of the entire People of God and of its Pastors, as “the visible principle and foundation of unity in their particular churches, fashioned after the model of the universal Church, in and from which churches comes into being the one and only Catholic Church” (LG 23).
— Leggi su www.synod.va/en/news/some-news-for-the-october-2023-assembly.html

DPP formally announces candidate for 2024 Taiwan presidential election | Taiwan News | 2023-04-12 15:41:00

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) —Taiwan’s Vice President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) has been formally nominated as the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) candidate for the 2024 Taiwan presidential election.

At the party’s Central Executive Committee meeting on Wednesday (April 12), Lai announced he would become the official nominee, per CNA. Lai has served as DPP Chairperson since the DPP’s massive 2022 electoral defeat, which caused President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to step down as chair.
— Leggi su www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4861715

Hong Kong, Jimmy Lai’s trial postponed: No from pro-Beijing authorities to his British lawyer

Slated to open today, the trial has been adjourned until 13 December. The local executive has asked the National People’s Congress to prevent Lai from being defended by Timothy Owen. Former associates of the Catholic tycoon prepared to testify against him. The former British colony risks a further blow to its judicial independence.

— Leggi su www.asianews.it/news-en/Hong-Kong,-Jimmy-Lais-trial-postponed:-No-from-pro-Beijing-authorities-to-his-British-lawyer-57229.html

2022 Ratzinger Prize goes to theologian and to professor of law

Michel Fédou, SJ, and Professor Joseph H.H. Weiler are the winners of the Ratzinger Prize 2022, the prestigious award that is given to scholars who stand out for their scientific research in the theological field.
By Linda Bordoni
On 1 December next, Pope Francis will award the Ratzinger Prize 2022 to Professor Michel Fédou, SJ, and to Professor Joseph Halevi Horowitz Weiler during a ceremony in the Apostolic Palace’s  Clementine Hall.
The prestigious award is assigned – according to what is recommended by the Ratzinger Foundation’s Statutes – to “scholars that stood out for their publications and/or scientific research”.
It was launched in 2011 to recognize scholars whose work demonstrated authentic and meaningful contributions to theology, much like Pope Benedict XVI had throughout his life. In the past few years, the prize has also been given to academics, composers, artists, and writers who have made notable contributions to the world of arts related to Christianity.
— Leggi su www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2022-10/ratzinger-benedict-xvi-foundation-prize-fedou-weiler.html

Another Pontifical Academy for Life member criticizes overturning Roe v. Wade – Catholic World Report

Roberto Dell’Oro, a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life, has criticized the Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade’s strong protections for legalized abortion.

Dell’Oro is a moral theology professor and holds the O’Malley Chair in Bioethics at Loyola Marymount University, a Jesuit institution. He contends that the Supreme Court’s June 24 decision in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization abortion case violates norms of democratic personal freedom and respect for women’s basic autonomy in a way that verges on the “totalitarian.”

His views suggest a split between pro-life Catholic opinion in the U.S. and members of the pontifical body originally set up with a strong pro-life mission. Last week an economist who is an outspoken advocate for abortion rights, Mariana Mazzucato, was appointed to the pontifical academy.

Dell’Oro, speaking at an Oct. 12 event at the Loyola Marymount University campus in Los Angeles, did voice support for banning abortion as early as the first trimester or, minimally, at the point at which the unborn child can feel pain, about 16 weeks into pregnancy.

Though the Dobbs decision allows those state-level bans and returned abortion law to the states, for Dell’Oro the decision was still flawed.

“In the potential conflict between a woman’s claim to autonomy and a state’s right to determine the future of her pregnancy, the Dobbs decision sides with the latter over the former, rejecting any space of ‘personal liberty’ for women, even in cases of rape or incest,” Dell’Oro said at the O’Malley Chair lecture “Confronting the Dobbs Decision: A Conversation About the Legality of Abortion.”
— Leggi su www.catholicworldreport.com/2022/10/21/another-pontifical-academy-for-life-member-criticizes-overturning-roe-v-wade/

“Do this in remembrance of Me”: Memory, Culture, Sacrament – Catholic World Report

Our theme today is the Eucharist and the words of Jesus in Luke 22: Do this in remembrance of me. Do this in memory of me. So I want to focus my remarks on three simple things: the importance of memory; the place of remembering in our particular American culture; and the role of the Eucharist in reminding us who God is, who we are, and why we’re here.

Memory is a curious thing. Most animals remember and seek to avoid danger. But human memory is unique and acute. It’s one of the defining gifts of our creaturehood. We’re the only species to bury our dead and mark their graves. And we do that out of reverence for the part they played in the world we share, and to keep the deceased alive in our memory.

When we forget the past, we steal something precious from our own humanity because the past created and informs the present. The people we are — in large measure — is the work of those who came before us. We add to the human story with our own lives, but we never start from an empty page. Scripture itself is simply the recorded memory of God’s work over time, carried out through his Chosen People. When Jesus tells the Samaritan woman in John 4 that “salvation is from the Jews,” he’s compressing into a few words a sacred drama, passed down through generations of God’s people.

God chose the Jews to be a light to the nations. He delivered them from slavery in Egypt. He set them apart from other nations. He promised them a land of their own rich in good things. And his covenant with the Jewish people is irreversible. It continues today. As Christians, we’re grafted into a story that precedes the birth of God’s son by hundreds of years and prepares his way. Which is why the books of the Old Testament are not really “old” for us at all. They’re evergreen, and always new, in the remembered lessons they hold for us here and now.

One of those lessons is this. Just as we humans have a miraculous gift for remembering, we have an equal and opposite talent for forgetting. We may be homo sapiens, man the wise. We may imagine ourselves to be homo deus, man the god. But in practice we’re homo oblitus, man the forgetful. The evidence is overwhelming. And also perilous, because when we forget the past, we sooner or later forget who we really are.
— Leggi su www.catholicworldreport.com/2022/10/22/do-this-in-remembrance-of-me-memory-culture-sacrament/

The heart and place of prayer – Catholic World Report

Prayer is one of those mysterious actions that everyone knows about—how many people can honestly say they’ve never uttered a prayer?—but is strangely elusive when it comes to being defined. There are so many aspects of prayer, both external and internal, that the heart of prayer is often best glimpsed through indirect means, such as parables.

The parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector is about prayer, and it certainly reveals something vital about it. But it is also about place and purpose; in fact, we see that prayer is very much about place and purpose. What do I mean? This parable, St. Luke writes, was addressed by Jesus “to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else.” Put another way, the parable was meant for listeners in a specific place—not externally, but within their souls. Those listeners had placed themselves in a position of equality with God and superiority over other people. They existed, then, in a place called Pride.
— Leggi su www.catholicworldreport.com/2022/10/22/the-heart-and-place-of-prayer/

Vatican renews China deal for second time – Catholic World Report

The Vatican announced Saturday it has renewed its 2018 deal with China on the appointment of Catholic bishops for an additional two years.

“After appropriate consultation and assessment, the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China have agreed to extend for another two years the Provisional Agreement regarding the appointment of Bishops,” the Vatican said in an Oct. 22 press release.

“The Vatican Party,” it continued, “is committed to continuing a respectful and constructive dialogue with the Chinese Party for a productive implementation of the Accord and further development of bilateral relations, with a view to fostering the mission of the Catholic Church and the good of the Chinese people.”

The provisional agreement between the Vatican and China was first signed in September 2018 and renewed for another two years in October 2020. The terms of the deal have not been made public.

Pope Francis said in July that he hoped the agreement would be renewed for a second time.

In an interview with Reuters published July 5, the pope defended the Vatican-China deal against its critics, saying, “Diplomacy is the art of the possible and of doing things to make the possible become a reality.”

He compared today’s critics and those who spoke negatively about the Vatican’s diplomatic decisions during the Cold War, when the popes struck deals with Eastern European communist governments in an attempt to protect the interests of the Catholic Church.

“Diplomacy is like that. When you face a blocked situation, you have to find the possible way, not the ideal way, out of it,” the pope said.

Speaking to Vatican News Oct. 22, Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said the Vatican-China deal is “still in the experimentation phase.”

“As is always the case, such difficult and delicate situations require adequate time for implementation in order to then be able to verify the effectiveness of the result and identify possible improvements,” he said in the new interview.

After the China deal was signed in 2018, state officials in different regions of China removed crosses and demolished church buildings, and underground Catholics and clergy have reported harassment and detention.

A 2020 report from the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China found that Chinese Catholics suffered “increasing persecution” after the agreement came into effect.

While introducing more restrictive rules on religious practice, China’s President Xi Jinping has been outspoken about his goal of the “sinicization” of religions.

Chinese authorities have sought to diffuse “religious theories with Chinese character” into the five official religions supervised by the government, including the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association. This has included instructing Christian churches to remove images of the Ten Commandments and replace them with the sayings of Chairman Mao and Xi.

Parolin said “Pope Francis — with determination and patient foresight — has decided to continue along this path not under the illusion of finding perfection in human rules, but in the concrete hope of being able to assure Chinese Catholic communities, even in such a complex context, of the guidance of pastors who are worthy and suitable for the task entrusted to them.”

The provisional agreement with China on the appointment of bishops is “a limited but significant part,” Parolin said.

“Of course,” he continued, “we do not hide the numerous difficulties that affect the concrete life of the Catholic communities, which enjoy our utmost attention, and for the good solution of which new steps forward are necessary in a collaborative relationship that has multiple protagonists: the Holy See, the central authorities, the bishops with their communities, and the local authorities.”

“The ultimate goal of this journey is for the ‘little flock’ of Chinese Catholics to advance in the possibility of living serenely and freely their Christian life,” he said.

Cardinal Joseph Zen, retired bishop of Hong Kong, has been an outspoken critic of the Vatican’s China deal.

The cardinal, 90, was arrested in May along with other democracy activists under Hong Kong’s strict national security law.

He is standing trial for failing to properly register a fund to provide legal aid to pro-democracy protesters. The trial is scheduled to resume Oct. 26.
— Leggi su www.catholicworldreport.com/2022/10/22/vatican-renews-china-deal-for-second-time/

Lesser-known facts about the incomparable Saint Thérèse of Lisieux – Catholic World Report

Marie Françoise-Thérèse Martin, the Little Flower, Doctor of the Church—whatever you call her, Saint Thérèse of Lisieux is one of the most popular Catholic saints in the world. If a given Catholic church has any statues of saints at all, Saint Thérèse is probably depicted by one of those statues.

Because of Thérèse’s popularity, most Catholics know the basic outlines of her life story.

Thérèse was born in 1873 in Alençon, France, into a middle class, devout family. Her mother died of breast cancer when she was only four years old, but she was raised by her loving father and four older sisters. Thérèse recognized God’s call to religious life when she was still a teenager, and she entered the Carmelite monastery of Lisieux when she was only fifteen years old. She became a Carmelite nun and spent the rest of her short life in that monastery until her death from tuberculosis at the age of twenty-four. Her autobiography was published posthumously, and innumerable Catholics have called upon her to fulfill her deathbed promise, that is, that she would “send down a shower of roses from the heavens” to those who asked for her intercession.

What more is there to say about a woman whose autobiography has been a bestseller since a few years after her death in 1897?

One of the best-kept secrets about Thérèse is that her autobiography is not the only document that was examined during her canonization process. Her poems, plays, prayers, and letters, as well as records of the final conversations she had with other nuns before her death, were all studied and are now available in print. Her letters to family members show her loving concern for them, as well as her humility, cheerfulness, intelligence, and, yes, her holiness.
— Leggi su www.catholicworldreport.com/2022/10/01/lesser-known-facts-about-the-incomparable-saint-therese-of-lisieux/

The surprising rise and victory of Giorgia Meloni: A view from Italy – Catholic World Report

Some remarkable things happened in the recent Italian elections. Not only is the winner—and therefore the prospective Prime Minister—a woman, but she is the head of an unabashedly right-wing party, the first such party to claim victory since the National Fascist Party won the elections in 1924.

On the other side, equally surprising is the fate of the Partito Democratico (Democratic Party), heir to the powerful Italian Communist Party, which was shunned by the working-class electorate while attracting the bourgeois, industrial, and college-educated vote.

Added to this upside down scenario, or rather because of it, are the fevered, nightmare visions of a return to fascism in Italy, fed to the outside world’s mainstream media by the unseated Left and their networking partners across the globe. All are greatly worried that a resounding success of the right-wing in Italy, a crucial lynchpin in their globalist strategies, coming immediately after a turn to the right in Sweden (of all places), could spell trouble for their hegemony over the European Union.

Inside of Italy, however, the idea of a return to fascism is laughable, seen as a knee-jerk reaction that some politicians regularly resort to whenever at a loss for how to best label and smear their opponents.
— Leggi su www.catholicworldreport.com/2022/10/01/the-surprising-rise-and-victory-of-giorgia-meloni-a-view-from-italy/