The new process is aimed at streamlining the system for granting annulments out of concern “for the salvation of souls” while affirming the longstanding Catholic teaching on marriage indissolubility. Originally announced in September, the changes went into effect Dec. 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception and the opening day of the Jubilee for Mercy.
CatholicAnchor.org Editor’s note: The following is the Thanksgiving proclamation issued by President George Washington, at the request of Congress, on October 3, 1789. Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and…
The ultimate decision in appointing bishops rests with the Pope, and he is free to select anyone he chooses. But how does he know whom to select? The process for selecting candidates for the episcopacy normally begins at the diocesan level and works its way through a series of consultations until it reaches the pope’s desk in Rome.
As part of an effort to inform Alaskans about candidates and their positions on issues important to Catholic voters, the Catholic Anchor solicited responses to a questionnaire from the four candidates running for the U.S. House of Representatives: incumbent Republican candidate Don Young, Democrat candidate Forest Dunbar, Libertarian candidate Jim McDermott and Republican candidate John Cox.
As part of an effort to inform Alaskans about candidates and their positions on issues important to Catholic voters, the Catholic Anchor solicited responses to a questionnaire from the seven candidates running for U.S. Senate: Incumbent Democrat Senator Mark Begich, Republican candidate Dan Sullivan, Libertarian candidate Mark Fish, non-affiliated candidate Ted Gianoutsos, Republican candidate Sean Godfrey, non-affiliated candidate Sidney Hill and Republican candidate John Jaramillo. Only Ted Gianoutsos and Sean Godfrey responded to the questionnaire. Wherever possible, the Catholic Anchor has included the positions of candidates who did not respond to the questionnaire.
Dear brothers and sisters, now we still have one year to mature, with true spiritual discernment, the proposed ideas and to find concrete solutions to so many difficulties and innumerable challenges that families must confront; to give answers to the many discouragements that surround and suffocate families.
There are two basic forms of religious persecution. The first is more subtle and moves by almost imperceptible degrees in an effort to restrict and prohibit people of faith from running charitable outreaches and schools or conducting their business in a manner that reflects and respects their deeply held religious beliefs.
Pope Francis understands the crisis of marriage culture in its multiple dimensions, just as he understands that the family, which begins in marriage, is a troubled institution in the post-modern world; that’s why he’s summoned two Synods on the topic of the family. And that’s why the Synod, fully aware of the gravity of the situation, should begin, continue and end on a positive note, offering the world a pearl of great price: the Christian understanding and experience of marriage.
Alaska’s Orthodox Christian leaders praised Pope Francis and applauded a series of recent high profile meetings between him and Orthodox Patriarch on Constantinople Bartholomew, but they also expressed guarded enthusiasm about whether the encounters constitute significant progress toward uniting the long-divided churches.
CatholicAnchor.org Earlier this year, Father Michael Shields received an invitation to give an eight-day retreat in Rome for nuns of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity congregation. He had no idea that the invite would land him face to face with Pope Francis, in the pontiff’s private chapel. Since the early 1990s Father Shields has served…