Some recent news highlights...
* With "overwhelming support", a group of Anglicans in Canada have voted to enter the Catholic Church under the provisions of Anglicanorum Coetibus
* Persons with an active arrest warrant in New Mexico can surrender at a Catholic parish in Las Cruces (Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church) until 7/31, between 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., in exchange for "favorable consideration" from the court
* Some controversy has erupted over payments pilgrims are expected to make in order to attend papal events during the Holy Father's U.K. trip this September. A Vatican spokesman has responded that the payments are "contributions" not fees and that payment will not be required for those who cannot afford to contribute. The contributions are needed to help cover costs associated with the papal visit
* Pro-lifers are planning to protest at a Catholic hospital in Durango, Colorado over the facility's keeping of a PP abortionist on staff. A pro-life representative noted that "Catholic parents...have a right to expect that their child will be received by the hands of a physician who holds all life sacred - not the hands that earlier that week held the instruments of abortion to destroy the life of some other innocent baby." The pro-lifers are calling for the abortionist to either resign from the hospital or stop performing abortions
* Two sisters of a deceased Catholic woman who suffered from cerebral palsy are suing organizers of a pilgrimage to Lourdes after the disabled woman fell from a hoist during a pilgrimage. The wheelchair-bound woman had hoped for a miraculous healing at Lourdes, but instead returned home with two broken legs after a fall of about four feet. She later died and her family now claims they are "trying to get justice." They claim the woman would still be alive if not for the fall. The matter is reportedly "in the hands of insurers"
* A federal judge has set a "very dangerous precedent" by ruling in favor of a public university which expelled a graduate student from a counseling program over the student's opposition to homosexuality. The Michigan based university claimed the student "violated school policy and the American Counseling Association code of ethics" by refusing to counsel homosexual clients ("the university determined that she would never change her behavior and would consistently refuse to counsel clients on matters with which she was personally opposed due to her religious beliefs – including homosexual relationships"). Some have called the case - which will be appealed - "a warning to Christians attending public schools" [Related: The End of Freedom in America?]
* Here we go again: A liberal 'Catholic' publication has published an article on the supposed "terrible position" of women religious who may fear "the likely possibility that religious life in the United States will be re-engineered in secret by the men in the Vatican" and that "the soul of a project rooted in and encouraged by the Second Vatican Council would be hollowed out." The article also refers to "an unthinking acquiescence to a male hierarchy" and references "battered wife syndrome." Liberal sisters in the U.S. - who have promoted dissent, radical feminism, anti-clericalism, paganism, New Age practices, witchcraft, and have talked of being "post-Christian" & "moving beyond the Church, even beyond Jesus" - have criticized the Vatican's (long overdue!) investigation of female religious, while orthodox, conservative sisters have embraced the investigation. While the article laments supposed "hypocrisy", "duplicity", "unseemly politics", and "a shameful betrayal of trust", no references were found concerning the necessity of Catholic female religious maintaining doctrinal orthodoxy or actually adhering to the Catholic faith. [Related: Rebellious Women Religious]
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