On May 13, 1917 "a Lady all white, more brilliant than the sun" appeared to three young children tending sheep in the Cova da lria in Portugal. It was just eighteen months before the end of World War I which had been the bloodiest and most violent war to date.
This was not the first time a supernatural visitor had appeared to the children. Some time earlier an angel called the "Angel of Peace" had come three times. He had given them Holy Communion and had exhorted them to pray and make sacrifices.
Tenderly, the beautiful woman told the children not to be afraid; she would not hurt them. Lucia, the oldest of the three children, asked the woman where she had come from and what was it she wanted. The lovely Lady told her that she had come from Heaven and that she wanted the children to return to this same spot on the 13th of the month for the next six months. At the last visit, she would tell them what she wanted.
And so began the famous and incredible apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima.
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By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
The Vatican has announced that Pope Benedict XVI will grant a plenary indulgence to priests and the faithful during the Year for Priests, which will run June 19, 2009 through June 19, 2010.
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By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
A new at-home test kit to determine the sex of an unborn child at only eight weeks is being made available in Australian pharmacies beginning this week. Doctors and pro-life groups fear the test will be used as a means of sex selection and result in driving up abortion rates.
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by Susan Brinkmann
Staff Writer
Archbishop Rembert Weakland, former head of the Milwauke archdiocese, is releasing his memoirs this June in which he reveals his struggles with being homosexual.
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By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
During a press briefing at the White House yesterday, press secretary Robert Gibbs used inaccurate facts to diminish the scope of the protest being waged against Notre Dame’s invitation to pro-abortion president Barack Obama to speak and receive an honorary law degree at this Sunday’s commencement.
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By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
The renowned Catholic thinker, Dr. Alice von Hildebrand, says Christopher West’s presentations of Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body are irreverent and insensitive to the “tremendous dangers” of concupiscence.
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By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
Are people with homosexual tendencies "born that way?" Not according to the American Psychological Association (APA) which has published a revised opinion on the possibility of a “gay gene” being responsible for same-sex attraction. The organization now says “no findings have emerged” that permit science to prove the existence of a “gay gene.”
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By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
Pope Benedict XVI”s perceived lack of remorse for the Holocaust during a speech on Monday is causing a chorus of criticism from Israelis who think he glossed over the genocide and failed to apologize for what many Israelis believe was Catholic indifference during World War II.
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By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
A new study has found that the abortion drug, RU-486, fails anywhere from 16-23 percent of the time, resulting in an incomplete abortion that can cause major medical problems, including death.
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By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
Pope Benedict XVI politely left an inter-faith meeting in Jerusalem after a leading Palestinian cleric delivered a speech in which he attacked Israel for “killing Gaza’s children”, “bulldozing Palestinian homes” and “destroying mosques.”
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