Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus on December 25. But that date was already popular among the Romans as the “birthday of the sun.” So, was Jesus actually born on December 25? Ancient tradition says “yes.” The importance of Christ’s death in correlation to his birth is revealed by another ancient tradition: that Christ was [...]
On November 8, Benedict XVI met with members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences at the Vatican and spoke on the need for “faith” and “science” to cooperate. Dialogue and cooperation between faith and science are urgently needed for building a culture that respects people and the planet Earth, Pope Benedict XVI told his own science [...]
Why do so many American Catholic thinkers openly dissent from magisterial teaching on social and economic issues? Is it because the Americanist heresy will not die? There is an intriguing irony in the contrast between the way certain teachings contained in the earlier social encyclicals by Leo XIII and Pius XI were accepted in the [...]
October Wednesday 10 POPE ON VATICAN II TEXTS Though they were written a half-century ago, the documents that came out of the Second Vatican Council are indispensable for helping today’s Christians navigate their way in a stormy world, Benedict XVI said at his weekly general audience. Unfortunately, the Council’s sixteen landmark documents have been buried under [...]
In the early part of the Middle Ages the pious custom began of a novena of preparation before Christmas, but only in Spain and France. The Theatine Father Piscara Castaldo, in a book approved in 1525 by the author’s Father General, gives complete directions for the celebration of the Christmas Novena with Exposition of the Blessed [...]