Welcome to the Weekend Roundup! – News & Views – 3/20/21

• New book upcoming from Leonardo De Chirico

In this era of accommodating ecumenism, books that point out the anti-Biblical teachings of Roman Catholicism are becoming fewer and farther between. I was searching at Amazon the other day and was delighted to stumble upon a new book forthcoming from Leonardo De Chirico titled, “Same Words, Different World: What Makes Roman Catholicism Differ from the Gospel?” (photo above), which is due out May 31, 2021. De Chirico is director of the Reformanda Initiative and has already penned two excellent short books on Catholicism; A Christian’s Pocket Guide To The Papacy: Its origin and role in the 21st century and A Christian’s Pocket Guide to Mary: Mother of God?.

• Can St. Joseph sell a house? Skip burying statue, priests say

Spring begins today and the housing market is gearing up once again. Some priests may pooh pooh the tradition, but Roman Catholics regularly bury small statues of St. Joseph in the yard when selling a house in the belief that it will expedite the sale. And you thought Catholic-Voodoo syncretism was only found in New Orleans and Haiti? See my post on the topic, here.

• Prominent Evangelical Beth Moore Announces Split From Southern Baptists

Beth Moore is wildly popular among evangelical women, but she teaches such dangerous things as contemplative (mind emptying) prayer and embraces the Roman Catholic church as a Christian institution.

• Luis Palau, international evangelical pastor who worked with Billy Graham, dies

Evangelist Luis Palau was often referred to as the “Billy Graham of Latin America.” Like Graham, Palau embraced Roman Catholicism as a Christian entity and he also counted fellow-Argentinian Jorge Bergoglio aka pope Francis as a personal friend. See here.

• Most Catholics don’t use Natural Family Planning

The Roman Catholic church teaches that using any form of artificial birth control, even non-abortifacients, is a mortal sin and only endorses the unreliable rhythm method aka natural family planning. In defiance of their church, 98% of Catholic women of reproductive age who have ever had sex have used a method of contraception other than natural family planning (Guttmacher Institute, 2011). What do you call an institution when all of its members flout its mandatory rules? A sham.

• Survey: One in three Catholics in Germany thinking of leaving Church
• German Catholic bishops call for change to Catechism on homosexuality

Progressive German Catholic prelates are trying to radically liberalize their national church in an effort to retain increasingly disaffected members who must pay 8-9% of their annual tax bill to remain on the church’s rolls.

• Catholic Family is Asking Fulton Sheen’s Intercession for a Second Miracle

Former Catholic media pioneer, bishop Fulton J. Sheen (d. 1979) was on the fast-track to being canonized, but the process hit a brick wall when the dioceses of Peoria, Illinois (Sheen’s birthplace) and New York City battled in court for the rights to his cadaver. When the dispute was settled in Peoria’s favor in 2018, canonization appeared imminent, but was then put on hold indefinitely after fallout from 2019 investigations in Rochester, New York into priest sexual abuse and cover-up implicated Sheen, the former bishop of that city from 1966 to 1969.

• Catholic priest James Martin stands by retweet of post calling God ‘Her’

Jesuit priest, James Martin, is progressive pope Francis’ point man in the crusade to wear down resistance to full acceptance of practicing gays and lesbians within the RCC.