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Events that happened Today in Church History

Today is the 1,470th anniversary of the death of one Pope and the election of the 55th successor of Peter, Pope Saint Boniface II on this date in 530 A.D. His two year pontificate would end on October 17, 532. He was elected the same day his predecessor Pope Saint Felix IV passed away. Felix had ruled four years and had been elevated to the throne by the Gothic King Theodoric for the latter's own political gains, but St. Felix showed an intense loyalty to his role as Shepherd of the Church and this infuriated the Gothic ruler who repudiated the Pope and exiled him. St. Boniface also was a Goth and many Romans resented him, calling him a "barbarous foreigner." This swell of nationalism prompted a rival faction to elect their own antipope Dioscoros and the Church was thrown into confusion until the latter's death. St. Boniface is credited with giving the go ahead to build a monastery on the old ruins of the temple of Apollo in the Italian hills. It became the famed Benedictine monastery Monte Cassino that withheld constant barrages and attacks until it was heavily bombed by the Allies in the Second World War. Since then it has been restored after considerable reconstruction. For other time capsule events that happened Today in Church history, see MILLENNIUM MILESTONES AND MEMORIES
Sincere Honesty and Insincere Honesty
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but the words of Bishop Fulton J. Sheen have been known to launch a thousand images in one's mind, one of the ways this late luminary did so much to evangelize the faith. Because of the urgency of the times and because few there are today who possess the wisdom, simplicity and insight than the late Archbishop who touched millions, we are bringing you daily gems from his writings. The good bishop makes it so simple that we have dubbed this daily series: "SIMPLY SHEEN".
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Abraham Lincoln once said, 'If, in your judgment, you cannot be an honest lawyer, resolve to be honest without being a lawyer.'
It has often been said, 'Honesty is the best policy,' on the grounds that it will keep you out of trouble and make you admired. Someone has remarked concerning it, 'He who acts upon this principle is not an honest man.' It would seem however, that there is some decline in honesty, for there is now one major crime committed in the United States for every sixty persons. In the last ten years, the crime rate in the United States has been exploding at a rate four times as fast as the rate of the growth of our population."
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