Pat Cross cartoon on news item: Jesuit Superior General: Satan is a ‘Symbolic Reality’

We’ve talked before about the bizarre Hollywood phenomenon of Twin Films – essentially films with near identical premises inexplicably released around the same time – and all of the machinations that can lead to them existing. Today, rather than focusing on an industry wide trend, we’re going to discuss a specific example of something similar- the bizarre tale of the time two comic artists based in the UK and US respectively somehow both created Dennis the Menace at almost the same time...

The superior general of the Society of Jesus said Aug. 21 that the devil is a symbol, but not a person. The devil, “exists as the personification of evil in different structures, but not in persons, because is not a person, is a way of acting evil. He is not a person like a human person. It is a way of evil to be present in human life...

As the new school year gets under way, it’s a good time to be thinking about the quality of education that our children are getting, or in all too many cases the education that they are not getting. The first test of what constitutes a good education is the way that one of the most important questions is asked and answered. It is Pilate’s famous question to Christ: Quid est veritas...

The Tiber River cuts through Rome in the shape of a serpent, splitting the ancient city in half. On one side is the Vatican, home to the Catholic Church with the large dome of St. Peter’s Basilica looming over the city’s skyline. Directly across from the Vatican is Palazzo Montecitorio, seat of the Italian parliament. It is a place many Italians despise because it houses bickering politicians...

She rises at dawn to lace up her running shoes, logging hard-won miles in the gray light of morning. She is up before the sun with a sick baby, a nursing baby, an anxious kindergartener, making toast and oatmeal and gestures of comfort. She is still asleep at dawn because the baby nursed four times last night. She leaves the house by seven to get the kids to school...

The existence of the devil as a personal reality, and not merely as a symbol of evil, is an article of faith (Ott, Fundamentals 126-131; CCC 395, 2851). Denial of an article of faith is an element of the canonical crime of heresy (1983 CIC 751), an act punishable by measures up to and including excommunication, dismissal from the clerical state...

The “ring of truth.” The two justices who denied the appeal of Cardinal George Pell Aug. 21 said that the complainant’s testimony had the “ring of truth.” If so, they were able to detect the tinkle of a sanctuary bell, even though contradictory evidence was pouring forth from the cathedral organ at top volume, with all stops pulled...

Up to this point, the ire of those who believe Cardinal George Pell is innocent of the charges of child sexual abuse brought against him in his home country has been directed largely at the Australian judiciary, most recently at a Victoria appeals court that upheld his conviction on Wednesday in a 2-1 split decision. Assuming that ruling holds up...

Calling Mary the “Queen of Heaven” seems to most non-Catholics a title too far. How can the simple girl from Nazareth be “Queen of Heaven”? Isn’t that a pagan term? In fact, isn’t the “Queen of Heaven” actually condemned in the Bible? In Jeremiah 44 the Hebrews are blamed for turning back to false gods and they admit that they were making cakes and burning incense to the Queen of Heaven...

Pope Pius XII established Aug. 22 as the Memorial of the Queenship of Mary in 1954; but Mary’s role as queen over the universal Church finds its roots in the Scriptures. At the Annunciation, the archangel Gabriel announced that Mary’s Son would rule forever on the throne of David. At the Visitation, Elizabeth called Mary the “mother of my Lord...

If you have followed international news about abortion and demographics, you are used to seeing headlines such as the following in the New York Times, focusing on a side effect of China’s infamous one-child policy. That headline: “Teenage Brides Trafficked to China Reveal Ordeal: ‘Ma, I’ve Been Sold’.” Selling brides...

Pope Francis allowed a girl suffering from an undisclosed illness to move around undisturbed clapping and dancing on the stage for most of his general audience on Wednesday, delighting the crowd. The girl, wearing a pink T-shirt reading “Love,” slipped away from her mother at the front of the audience hall and reached the big marble stage...

Although Australian Cardinal George Pell’s appeal of a conviction on child sexual abuse charges was rejected Wednesday, that ruling may not be the end of the legal road. As of this writing, Pell’s attorneys were still weighing whether to file a final appeal to Australia’s High Court. Those attorneys told reporters that Pell continues to maintain his innocence...

Pell was charged with sexually abusing two thirteen-year-old choirboys on two occasions—in 1996 and 1997. Only one of those boys is still living. The other was asked by his mother in 2001 whether he had “ever been interfered with or touched up.” He answered no. The one still living claimed that Pell found the two boys drunk on communion wine in the sacristy of the Melbourne cathedral immediately after Mass one Sunday and forced them to fellate him...

There will be much more to be said in the weeks and months ahead about the rejection of Cardinal George Pell’s appeal of his conviction for “historic sexual abuse,” by the 2-1 vote of a three-judge panel of the Supreme Court of Victoria. For the moment, this astonishing, indeed incomprehensible, decision calls into the gravest doubt the quality of justice in Australia—and the possibility of any Catholic cleric charged with sexual abuse to receive a fair trial or a fair consideration of the probity of his trial...

One of the three Court of Appeal judges who heard George Pell's appeal believes there is a "significant possibility" the cardinal did not commit the child sex crimes he's in jail for and would have acquitted him. Justice Mark Weinberg said he was not convinced by the victim's evidence and could not exclude the possibility that some parts of the former choirboy's testimony were "concocted"...

Bishop Robert Barron and others working hard to evangelize the “Nones” — young adults without religious conviction — tell us that a major obstacle to a None embracing Christianity is the cultural assumption that Science Explains Everything. And if science explains it all, who needs God, revelation, Christ, or the Church...

Never presume that the world and the prince of this world, the devil, love you or are pleased with you. You are just a tool for them to use; when you do connive with them, you are not loved or respected but rather regarded with contempt because you are so easily manipulated. Once you are no longer useful, you will be thrown out and trampled underfoot...

In the height of daytime on Monday, the sky suddenly blackened, and day became night in Sao Paulo. Sure, smog is bad in the Western Hemisphere's largest city, where traffic jams can stretch for dozens of miles. But not this bad. What was going on? Was the end near? "Apocalypse!" one person cried on Twitter. "The final judgment is coming...