VATICAN CITY ? The curiously apt World Cup final match between Argentina and Germany (plus a slowish news day) means Twitter is aflitter with funny memes and hashtags for #PopeCupSunday.

Thu Jul 3, 2014 - 5:08 pm EST. This past Monday marked the second time in a couple of weeks Pope Francis has raised the specter of Christian persecution in the West. As you'll read below, Pope Benedict XVI did the same even more blatantly at the conclusion of his pontificate. The sense of this reality is in the air, we can all feel it; heck there?s even a new movie about it. On July 18 the film PERSECUTED will open in theatres across America.

Vatican City, June 27, 2014, Luca Marcolivio -- In order to restore to Christians the beauty of the family, the Church must first of all become credible again. Speaking with journalists, at the end of the press conference to present the Instrumentum laboris, in view of the forthcoming Extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the subject The Pastoral Challenges on the Family in the Context of Evangelization (October 5-19), Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, Secretary of the Synod of Bishops, clarified some aspects regarding this widely debated and greatly awaited event.