John Hagee - Senator McCain & The Catholic Church
from CNN-freeusevideo
Excerpts from the "Catholics Come Home" Website!
http://www.catholicscomehome.org
INFO:
Here is the evidence [LIE] that the need for Catholics Come Home is [great]: ???????
In 2005, Catholics accounted for nearly 23% (64.8 million) of the U.S. population,
yet according to the CARA Catholic Poll (CCP),
only 33% of U.S. Catholics attend Mass on a weekly basis.
That means that approximately 42.7 U.S. Catholics are not even regular worshipers!
The number of Americans identifying themselves as non-religious/secular increased 110% from 1990 to 2000.
It is now 13.2% of the total population.
Comparing this statistic with the previous one,
non-religious-secular individuals outnumber active,
Mass attending Catholics by 58% (13.2% vs. 7.59%).
Imagine the negative impact these individuals have on culture and public policy?
As many as 100,000 baptized Catholics in the U.S. drift away from Church each year.
One-third to one-half of Catholic marriages now ends in divorce.
72% of Catholics have not tried to win a convert to Christ.
For every four Protestants (Predominantly Baptists), there is one convert.
For Catholics, the numbers were 250 to one.
That is about one convert for every 807 Catholics.
If every Catholic brought one person into the Church each year,
it would only take only three years to be a totally Catholic society.
Imagine seeing inspiring Catholic messages on prominent programs every day,
every year, and on primetime TV shows, major sports events, popular cable programs.
and cable channels where millions of un-churched souls are watching.
Imagine 3,000 inactive Catholic parishioners returned to church
in a three week multi-media campaign, at a cost of only $10 per soul!
Soon afterward, the Catholics Come Home video resources were shared with other parishes
and diocese across the United States, then with other countries.
This campaign helped countless inactive Catholics
rediscover the Catholic faith and return home.
Today, our team at Catholics Come Home, Inc. combines the effectiveness of mass media outreach, with the ease of web-based fulfillment, to create a highly effective evangelism effort never before seen in our country!
After viewing our inviting and inspiring television commercials,
viewers are directed to visit the catholicscomehome.org website
to learn more about the Catholic faith, and help them find a local parish and return home.
IN THE CATHOLIC NEWS!!!
Jerusalem patriarch sends strong message to Palestinian Christians
By Judith Sudilovsky
Catholic News Service
JERUSALEM (CNS) -- A Palestinian Christian must be prepared to witness to the faith
by submitting to daily difficulties "or even by sacrificing his or her life,"
said Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah of Jerusalem
in a pastoral letter marking the end of his patriarchal ministry.
In his most strongly worded comment to date on growing Palestinian Muslim extremism,
the patriarch likened such an era of [Christian martyrdom] to that
suffered by first-century Christians under the Roman Empire and said it would
"purify life in all of society."
"It would strengthen the believers in their faith and would again give a new face to all society,"
the patriarch added in his letter,
dated March 1 2008 and released to the press March 6 2008. On March 19, 2008...
Patriarch Sabbah turns 75 and, according to canon law, must submit his resignation to Pope Benedict XVI.
In the 40-page letter, Patriarch Sabbah noted that while good relations exist between
Muslim civil and religious authorities and "there is good secular coexistence,"
the situation "becomes explosive" when issues of dogma and family are involved.
Mediation is needed, he said.
"But it should also be said that relations between
Muslims and Catholic Christians have not yet reached their perfect equilibrium.
This is a matter of a long and slow path that must be perfected every day," he said.
Moderate Muslims and Catholic Christians must work together
to counter the increasingly rigid worldview of Islamic political extremism, he said.
He admonished Christians not to give up on their faith even if
dialogue proves to be futile and to continue to demand their rights as citizens
and proclaim their Christian faith.
It is vital, however, to look at why such extremism is increasing,
he said, noting that it tends to be a reaction to poverty and injustice
within Arab and Muslim society as well as an invasion of Western values and morality.
"These religious tendencies will end up by imposing themselves,
if the policies within the Arab countries do not succeed in creating more just and secure societies,
and if Islam does not succeed in renewing itself from within
so as to respond to the religious need of the believers
and to prevent the extremists from transforming religion into fanaticism and a source of violence,
and if world politics do not end the various ways in which peoples are colonized," he said.
Patriarch Sabbah urged Christians in the Holy Land
not to remain spectators in the Israeli-Palestinian arena,
but to take an active, nonviolent role in leading them toward peace in light of their Christian beliefs.
"To find freedom again, to pay the price and to resist,
all that is certainly an obligation, but we also believe in the commandment to love," he said.
He urged "a nonviolent resistance,
but one that is capable of leading the two peoples to enjoy in equal ways their freedom,
their sovereignty and their security."
The patriarch condemned the use of violence as a form of resistance,
warning against being transformed into "an oppressor or a terrorist."
Although the Christian vision maintains that the land belongs to two peoples,
it first belongs to God, he said.
"The history that human beings make here with blood and hatred or with dialogue and collaboration is made ...
under the watchful eyes of God, the master of history,
who gave this land a particular sanctity," he said.
"In a land belonging to God, only the ways of God will lead to a resolution of the conflict."
He called on the Christians to follow in the footsteps of Jesus and see the face of God in every human,
no matter his or her religion or nationality.
"It is God whom we love in the friend or the enemy.
When we love, we are imitating God in his love for all creatures," he said.
"Such love is stronger than violence ...
it can drive back the hostility and end the oppression that is exerted over him."
All of God's children should live together in the same land, he said,
but in order for that to happen all must be considered
"equal with the same rights and obligations."
Christian catechesis must give a clear message that "the other is not the enemy," he said.
Addressing the small local Christian community,
Patriarch Sabbah noted that Jesus and his followers also remained small in numbers.
"To be small in this land is simply to live as Jesus lived here.
That does not mean having a diminished life on the margins or a life made up of fear and perplexity," he said.
"We know why we are small, and we know what place we should occupy in our society and in the world.
We are part of the mystery of Jesus and we remain with him on Calvary,
strong and supported by the hope and the joy of the resurrection."
Christians must remain steadfast in their faith, he said,
reminding his parishioners that Jesus told his followers they could move mountains with their faith.
"The state says with technology,
with a quantity of weapons and of men, it can ...
open roads and level mountains,
but it remains incapable of finding peace.
As for us, we keep meditating on the word of Jesus: '
If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain,
"Move from here to there," and it will move. ...
Nothing will be impossible for you,'
" he said, quoting the Gospel of St. Matthew.
He also urged Christians to accept their vocation of a difficult life
in the Holy Land and to resist the temptation of emigrating to other countries.
Reflecting on the events during his time as Latin patriarch of Jerusalem,
Patriarch Sabbah welcomed the growing ecumenical and interfaith movements in the Holy Land.
He noted the role of Bethlehem University in the education of local Christians,
the importance of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem
and made special mention of the important
and long-standing role the
Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land has played in the holy sites.
Still, he said, there is a "need for renewal,
for better insertion in the diocese and for dialogue ...
in order to be better incarnated in the church of God which they serve."
He specifically greeted the Hebrew-speaking community,
saying he accompanied the community with his prayers.
"I wish it growth in the faith God wants for it,
so that it might be a witness to Jesus in the Israeli society and that,
with the whole church of the Holy Land in the political conflict that is tearing it apart,
it might be an agent of reconciliation based on forgiveness, justice, peace and equality among all," he said.
Alluding to Christian Zionist and evangelical groups,
he said these new Christian movements have become a part of the local Christian and political reality,
creating more divisions by using biblical arguments to support Israel
and confusing the faithful by "exploiting their material and spiritual poverty."
"This is another reminder to the Christians that they become more aware of the
wealth and the demands of their faith and to the pastors
that they respond better to the religious thirst of their faithful," he said.
He reminded parish priests not to lose sight of their main duty
of ministering to their parishioners by being overwhelmed by buildings and projects.
Priests must remember their work is in the service of God and they must go where they are called, he said.
He expressed his gratitude to his parishioners,
priests and all those he has worked with during his 20 years as patriarch.
He said he would remain in Jerusalem and,
though freed of his administrative responsibilities,
would "continue to accompany the sufferings and the hopes of the men and women of this land,
of all the believers, of all religions, who dwell in it," he said.
END
Copyright (c) 2008 Catholic News Service
POPE-MIDEAST Mar-10-2008 (270 words) With photos. xxxi
Pope expresses alarm at Holy Land violence, urges dialogue for peace
By John Thavis
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) --
Pope Benedict XVI expressed alarm at a new wave of violence in the Holy Land
and urged Israelis and Palestinians to set aside the logic of revenge.
"In recent days, violence and horror have once again bloodied the Holy Land,
feeding a spiral of destruction and death that seems to have no end,"
the pope said at his noon blessing March 9 2008.
On March 6, 2008 a Palestinian gunman killed eight Jewish seminarians and wounded 11 others.
The attack came after an Israeli military assault on Gaza left more than 100 Palestinians dead.
The pope prayed for the innocent victims of the attacks
and expressed his condolences to the families of the dead and wounded.
He asked everyone to pray for peace in the region.
"I ask everyone, in the name of God,
to leave the twisted paths of hatred and revenge
and to responsibly take up the paths of dialogue and trust," he said.
In particular, the pope encouraged Israeli and Palestinian authorities
not to give up on a negotiated settlement that can bring
"a peaceful and just future for their peoples."
The pope also appealed on behalf of victims of violence in Iraq,
including Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho of Mosul,
who was kidnapped Feb. 29 2008 in an attack that left his driver and two bodyguards dead.
The pope had earlier urged the bishop's release.
The pope said so many Iraqis "continue to suffer from blind and absurd violence,
which is certainly against God's will."
END
Copyright (c) 2008 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
CNS · 3211 Fourth St NE · Washington DC 20017 · 202.541.3250
Vatican statement on baptisms not meant to cause panic, priest says
-By Carol Zimmermann
Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON (CNS) --
A week after the Vatican announced that baptisms are invalid if they were not administered with the words
"in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,"
the pastor at Christ the King Parish in Haddonfield, N.J., said he had "not been inundated with questions from his parishioners".
"Not too many people know about it,
" Father Joe Wallace told Catholic News Service March 7 2008.
But he was sure that as word spread about the Feb. 29 2008
statement from the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,
not only would Catholics have questions, but so would people from other faiths.
Father Wallace, who is also director of ecumenical and interreligious affairs for the Diocese of Camden, N.J.,
said the Vatican statement is hardly promoting a new idea
and he also said it was not meant to cause panic among those who wonder
if their baptisms were performed with the right words.
Instead, he said the Vatican statement was meant to clarify
what the church has always believed and ensure that future baptisms
use language that is clear and "unambiguously Trinitarian" revealing the three persons of the Trinity.
A statement explaining invalid baptisms was published by the
Vatican's doctrinal congregation as a brief response to questions about formulas
using the words "in the name of the Creator and of the Redeemer and of the Sanctifier"
or "Creator, Liberator and Sustainer."
These words, used to avoid referring to the Trinity with masculine names,
not only make the baptism invalid,
but invalidate subsequent sacraments as well.
Father Wallace said he didn't think this clarification
would bring about a flood of requests for the sacraments to be re-administered.
He said church teaching points to the validity of baptisms performed in other Christian churches.
He said these baptisms will still be considered valid for those
entering the church through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults,
unless the baptized person has doubts about the wording of his or her baptism,
in which case a conditional baptism will take place in a private ceremony.
For Catholics who were baptized as infants,
he said that unless someone videotaped the ceremony
and can point to the use of another formula in the baptismal rite
or an observer recalls feeling uncomfortable with the wording used,
there is no need to question the validity of one's baptism.
"If someone knows for a fact they were baptized with another formula,"
they should say something, said Susan Wood,
a theology professor at Marquette University in Milwaukee.
But if they don't know the wording used,
they shouldn't be anxious, she told CNS.
Wood, who is currently writing a book on the ecumenical and systematic theology of baptism,
said she was pleased with the Vatican announcement,
noting that there has been a change in baptismal practice in recent years,
primarily in Protestant churches but also in some Catholic churches that use gender-neutral terms to refer to the Trinity.
"Hopefully this will bring attention to it and bring a return to the more traditional formula," she said,
adding that the pastoral response should be "to be aware of what's correct and why and move forward,
honoring the tradition of the church."
Wood pointed out that an attempt to
"avoid male language for God ends up creating more serious problems for Trinitarian theology,"
because the wording takes away the relationship that each member of the Trinity
has with the other and ends up reducing members of the Trinity to their functional roles.
"The personal relationship gets lost"
in the attempts to "be politically correct," she said.
Quoting another church tradition, Wood said,
"We believe according to how we pray,"
meaning that prayer formulas influence what one believes.
In the case of gender-neutral language for the Trinity,
she said, it takes away the unique relationship among the
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
and provides an incomplete understanding that could
"seriously affect the faith life of the church."
Ann Riggs, former director of the National Council of Churches Faith and Order Commission,
noted that some Protestant churches refer to the Trinity
with the gender-neutral terms in baptism while others use the traditional
"Father, Son and Holy Spirit."
She also said there has been considerable discussion about baptism among Christian churches worldwide,
grappling with the words used,
the appropriate ages for baptism and whether water is necessary.
Riggs said the recent Vatican statement on "unacceptable wording" for Catholic baptisms,
has caused disappointment among some Christian church leaders,
because it "frustrates some hopes people had toward coming to greater unity."
But she also noted they were grateful that
the Catholic Church presented its position carefully and in an
"ecumenically sensitive way."
Riggs, a member of the Christian and Interfaith Relations Committee of
Friends General Conference, knows how passionately people feel about baptism.
She said the discussion among Quakers
about whether to use water in baptism
to bring their practice closer to that of other Christians
has been going on for more than 100 years.
END
Copyright (c) 2008 Catholic News Service
Pope, Orthodox patriarch meet privately, pray together
By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) --
Pope Benedict XVI and Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople
spent almost half an hour speaking privately March 6 2008
before going into a small Vatican chapel to pray together.
Although it was the patriarch's first visit to the Vatican since Pope Benedict's election
and the funeral of Pope John Paul II in April 2005,
the visit was not a formal, orchestrated affair.
The pope and the patriarch did not exchange speeches,
but instead sat across a table from each other talking.
And instead of participating in a liturgy,
they walked into the tiny Chapel of Urban VIII near the papal library,
stood in front of a painting of the Nativity and prayed silently [PRAYING TO IDOLS].
After a few moments, the two began reciting the Lord's Prayer in Latin.
When the prayer was finished, the pope turned to his guest --
as if to see if he was ready to leave --
and the patriarch began reciting the Hail Mary in Latin.
The pope joined in.
When the prayer was finished,
the two turned to their aides and together blessed them.
Pope Benedict and Patriarch Bartholomew held their first formal meeting in Turkey in 2006
and met for less formal discussions in October in Naples, Italy.
The patriarch was in Rome to help mark the 90th anniversary of the
Jesuit-run Pontifical Oriental Institute,
where he earned his doctoral degree.
The patriarch delivered a lecture on "theology, liturgy and silence,
" focusing on how the spiritual experience of Eastern Christianity can promote
Christian unity and respond to the needs of modern men and women.
Patriarch Bartholomew praised the Oriental Institute's commitment
to promoting the study of the Orthodox and Eastern Catholic churches
and its contributions to Christian unity, particularly by highlighting the
Eastern tradition in the heart of the Catholic Church.
"The church fathers were primarily pastors, not philosophers," he said.
"They were concerned first with reforming the human heart and transforming society,
not with refining concepts or resolving controversies."
The patriarch said that at the center of their pastoral work was a recognition that humanity is
"called to know and to become God,"
the call to holiness which the Orthodox term "deification."
When Christians keep in mind the possibility that
every human being and all of creation can be transformed in Christ
by the power of the Holy Spirit,
then they will meet every person and every situation
with an attitude of awe and anticipation
rather than judgment or fear, he said.
Patriarch Bartholomew said the Orthodox tradition calls for silence and humility "
before the awesome mystery of God, before the sacred personhood of human beings
and before the beauty of creation."
He told students and professors of the Oriental Institute and several Vatican officials,
"We must at all times be prepared to create new openings and to build bridges,
ever deepening our relationship with God, with other people and with creation itself."
The patriarch also said theologians and pastors would benefit by remembering
that the early church fathers, recognized by both Orthodox and Catholics,
"never perceived theology as a monopoly of the professional academic or the official hierarchy."
"Orthodoxy," he said,
"was the common responsibility and obligation of all."
And, he said, the liturgy --
a communal celebration --
was the place where the community learned,
expressed and strengthened its faith.
"Whereas the gradual development in the West of a juridical source of authority
led to an understanding of liturgical rites more as external signs,
Eastern Christianity visualized liturgy as an authoritative criterion of faith and ethics,
" seen, for example, in the practice of quoting liturgical texts in support of a theological argument,
the patriarch said.
The importance of the community of believers
in liturgy and in determining orthodoxy, he said,
needs to be reaffirmed today because
"no individual can ever exhaust the fullness of truth in isolation from others,
outside the communion of saints."
Patriarch Bartholomew said it also is essential that as Catholics and Orthodox
work toward restoring their unity neither should undertake
"provocative initiatives" in ministry,
apparently echoing the concerns of some Orthodox churches,
particularly the Russian Orthodox Church,
about the re-establishment of Catholic dioceses in traditionally Orthodox regions.
ARE ROMAN CATHOLICS REALLY CHRISTIANS?
or Here
END
Video
-Warning-
Some Videos May Be Considered Disturbing
or
Considered Offensive by Some!
View at Your Own Discretion!
****************************************************************
Dr Daniel Shayesteh Converted from Islam to Christianity
Now his old religions country leaders
want him to be found, and beheaded
for his conversion, and speaking out against
the principals of his OLD religion.
PRAY FOR HIM!
There Is a Young Jewish Man named Shawn.
He is a converted Jew to Christianity.
This Young Man Understands Who God & Jesus Are.
He is also very knowledabe of the Bible and All of it's Prophecies.
He has created many videos here and all tell in his own way of
many different aspects of both the old & new tesaments of the Bible.
He has much insight also to the coming of Christ and the Antichrist
and who and/or What the antichrist is.
He also has exceeding knowledge of the Creation and Evolution argument.
All his videos are available at the link provided below here.
WARNING!!!
Some of his videos may be addictive!
I LOVE THEM!!!
AND I LOVE THIS YOUNG MAN FOR THE WORK HE DOES FOR THE LORD! Keep checking back on his video page as it updates almost daily!
Here is a sample of a few of Shawns video's
The Video Below Is Real!!!
This Video Really Grabbed My Attention!
The Truth about Satan's Religion - Islam
Shawn Preaching Sin & Salvation in his own little way.
PLEASE PRAY FOR THIS YOUNG MAN'S MINISTRY!!!
NOW...
Click here for Shawn's Own Little Website!!! Here are some
Comments from Islam to Christian Converts
on his video Page!
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Glad to see a Jewish to Christian like yourself which is great.
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May Christ be with you!!!!!!!
Aryanaaryan
I watch this video every single day & thank God cuz
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jpdragon619
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zondervan123
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TNutty
JESUS IS THE ONLY WAY TO HEAVEN...
sritapuff
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731240
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mike
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MAKE SOME MORE VIDEOS!
Longhair6967
Muslims and Islamics Say
"it's OK to Beat your wife"!
America Calls it Domestic Abuse!
Warning this Video My be Disturbing!
PHOTO'S
"Q"uestion - Who is This Man?
"A"nswer - ???
Where Did He Come From and Where Will "He" Take The Whole World?
The Big LIE!!!
Don't BeLIEve Him!!!
Watch This ?Man?...!!!
He is the Seed of Armegeddon!!!
Drop by again as this Islam page will be updated almost daily.