Archbishop of Canterbury Urges Anglicans to Adopt the “Enormously Powerful” Practice of Confession

The Archbshiop of Canterbury Justin Welby is an admirer of Pope Francis Photo: AP

The Most Rev Justin Welby advised churchgoers that it could be an “enormously powerful” experience to unburden themselves to a confessor, even if it was not always a “bunch of laughs”.

His comments came as he addressed the heads of other churches – including the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England Wales, the Most Rev Vincent Nichols – about divisions between Christians. 

Read more at The Catholic Herald >>

Queen Elizabeth Launches Commonwealth Games 2014 Baton Relay

"The Relay unites two billion citizens of the Commonwealth in a celebration of sport, diversity and peace."

Like the Olympic Torch, the Queen's Baton Relay will travel 118,000 miles, through more than 70 countries, uniting the 54 nations of the Commonwealth.  The Relay will culminate at the 2014 Commonwealth Games to be held in Glasgow, Scotland from July 23 to August 3, 2014.

No One Wants To Admit That There’s A War On Christians

Even western Christians turn a blind eye to the worst persecution of our times

A displaced young woman prays in the makeshift Catholic chapel in Sudan (CNS)

Back in 1997, American author Paul Marshall said that anti-Christian persecution had been “all but totally ignored by the world at large”. To be sure, the situation has changed in the 16 years since Marshall’s classic work Their Blood Cries Out. A cluster of advocacy groups and relief organisations has emerged, and from time to time anti-Christian persecution has drawn coverage in major news outlets such as the Economist, Newsweek and Commentary. On the whole, however, the war on Christians remains the world’s best-kept secret. As recently as 2011, Italian journalist Francesca Paci – who writes for the Italian media market, which probably pays more attention to Christian topics than almost any other culture on earth, given the massive footprint of the Vatican – said about the fate of persecuted Christians in places such as Iraq, Algeria, and India: “We ignore too many things, and even more indefensibly, we pretend not to see too many things.”

In 2011, the Catholic Patriarch of Jerusalem, Fouad Twal, addressed the crisis facing Arab Christianity in the Middle East during a conference in London. He bluntly asked: “Does anybody hear our cry? How many atrocities must we endure before somebody, somewhere, comes to our aid?” Those are questions that deserve answers, and understanding the motives for the silence about the global war on Christians is a good place to begin.

Read more at The Catholic Herald >>

Is the Conflict Between Us Irreconcilable?

By Patrick J. Buchanan

One way or another, the battle of the budget and the debt ceiling will be over by All Hallows’ Eve.

Yet, as one looks deeper, at the irreconcilable conflict behind the present clash, only a roaring optimist would imagine we shall ever know again the tranquility and unity of the Eisenhower-Kennedy years.

Consider the bile dumped upon Tea Party Republicans by Barack Obama, Harry Reid and their camp followers in the national press.

What did the Tea Party do to deserve this? Answer: These extremists shut down the U.S. government, they’re holding America hostage, and they’re inflicting terrible suffering on innocent people.

But is this true?

Peter Schiff Warns of Economic Collapse, Civil Unrest and Martial Law

From Inforwars.com

American investment broker, businessman, author and financial commentator Peter Schiff warns us that we are in worse shape now economically than we were just before the 2008 financial crisis, which we still have yet to recover from.

“I think the U.S. has been in a depression or a recession for the entirety of the Obama presidency,” Schiff said. “I think there’s going to be a depression, but I don’t think it’s going to be global.”

“When the dollar collapses and when the rest of the world stops wasting their resources, propping up our economy, buying our debt, selling us products that we can’t pay for, I think you’re going to have a global economic boom outside of the United States.”

“I just hope that one day we’re smart enough to jump in on it by adopting free market principles.”

“I hope we can reclaim our former glory,” he continued. “But to do that’s we’re going to have to reclaim the values that we have abandoned and those are the ones that our Founding Fathers wrote into our Constitution, not the ones that we’re following now.”

Newman Society Publishes 2014 Guide to Faithful Catholic Colleges and Universities

The Cardinal Newman Society today published the newest editions of The Newman Guide to Choosing a Catholic College and My Future, My Faith magazine, including updated information and new online resources. These new editions make searching for and getting advice on faithful Catholic colleges and universities easy for Catholic families. Both publications are available to read online for free, and printed copies are also available to be ordered at TheNewmanGuide.com.

“Because every Catholic college is unique, families need more than simple checklists or government-collected data to make decisions,” said Patrick J. Reilly, President of The Cardinal Newman Society. “Whereas most other guides rely on the same data, The Newman Guide digs deeper and draws upon our 20 years of promoting and defending faithful Catholic education.”

Roger Kimball: The Anglosphere and the Future of Liberty

A few days ago, The New Criterion and London’s Social Affairs Unit hosted a one-day conference about the future of the “special relationship” between Britain and the United States, with special reference to the contributions of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher in maintaining that filiation. It was a jolly and informative convocation. Among the participants were John O’Sullivan, a close advisor to Margaret Thatcher, and Peter Robinson who drafted Reagan’s famous “Mr. Gorbachev-Tear-Down-This-Wall” speech. Other paper-givers included Daniel Hannan, a conservative, euro-sceptic member of the European Parliament for southern England, Douglas Carswell, a eurosceptic MP for Claxton, and Keith Windschuttle, the historian editor of Australia’s best cultural magazine, Quadrant. If I am counting correctly, this was the twelfth such collaboration between these two organizations. Our stated purposed is to enhance and strengthen the transatlantic conversation on such subjects as limited government, individual liberty, and the the constellation of values adumbrated by the word “Anglosphere.”

What is the Anglosphere? I’m not sure who coined the term, but it was James Bennett, another participant, whose book The Anglosphere Challenge: Why the English-Speaking Nations Will Lead the Way in the Twenty-First Century that gave the word currency. As the title suggests, it is an optimistic, or at least an upbeat book. (Dr. Pangloss was an optimist, but somehow was always a source of gloom.) If the 19^th century was preeminently the British century in world affairs (and it was), the 20^th century belonged to the United States. And going forward? “If the English-speaking nations grasp the opportunity,” Bennett wrote at the end of his book, “the twenty-first century will be the Anglosphere century.”

Read more at PJ Media >>