Free Republic

Catholic League president Bill Donohue wrote the following letter today to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell regarding the controversy over Harrison Butker. Please contact his communications chief: Brian.McCarthy@nfl.com May 17, 2024 Mr. Roger Goodell, Commissioner National Football League 345 Park Avenue NY NY 10154 Dear Mr. Goodell: NFL senior vice president Jonathan Beane addressed the commencement speech by Kansas City Chiefs’ player Harrison Butker as follows: “Harrison Butker gave a speech in his personal capacity. His views are not those of the NFL as an organization. The NFL is steadfast in our commitment to inclusion, which only makes our league stronger.”...

Gracie Hunt, daughter of the Kanass City Chiefs owner, is defending Harrison Butker from the woke mob after his pro-life Christian graduation speech. Her remarks on Fox News appear below: Steve Doocy: “America would like to know the reaction from the Hunt family regarding the kicker, Harrison Butker.” Gracie Hunt: “I can only speak from my own experience, which is I had the most incredible mom who had the ability to stay home and be with us as kids growing up. And I understand that there are many women out there who can’t make that decision but for me in...

CV NEWS FEED // The FBI’s response to a Catholic pro-life group’s requests for information related to FBI surveillance of Catholic churches has raised “serious concerns” that the government agency is targeting traditional Catholics, according to a recent news release. Priests for Life stated in a May 16 news release that it requested information from the FBI under the Freedom of Information Act, to which it received several heavily-redacted documents and a transcript of Attorney General Merrick Garland’s Senate March 2023 testimony about a leaked internal FBI memo. CatholicVote reported at the time that Garland was asked several questions about...

CV NEWS FEED // CatholicVote President Brian Burch has called on the NFL’s leaders to clarify whether Catholics are welcome in the NFL in light of their statement denouncing the commencement speech given by Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker at a Catholic college in Kansas. “In that speech, for which he received a standing ovation, Butker called on Catholics to live up to the high ideals of our Faith, including the defense of the dignity of every human life, the foundational role of the family, and the gift of motherhood,” Burch wrote on May 16 to NFL Commissioner Roger...

ROME — Pope Francis told CBS anchor Norah O’Donnell that conservatives are willfully blind and manifest a “suicidal attitude” in their narrowmindedness. In an interview set to air Sunday on 60 Minutes, the pope asserts that a conservative “is someone who clings to something and does not want to see beyond that. It is a suicidal attitude.” “One thing is to take tradition into account and consider situations from the past but quite another is to be closed up inside a dogmatic box,” he adds. The Pope addresses his conservative critics in the church. “Conservative is one who clings to...

Daily Readings from the USCCB“Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” He said this signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. And when he had said this, he said to him, “Follow me.” John 21:18–19On this, the third time that Jesus appeared to His disciples, Jesus enters into a threefold discourse with Peter. Each time that Jesus...

17 May 2024 Friday of the 7th week of Eastertide Basilica di Santa Restituta, Naples Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: B(II).First readingActs 25:13-21 ©'I ordered Paul to be remanded until I could send him to Caesar'King Agrippa and Bernice arrived in Caesarea and paid their respects to Festus. Their visit lasted several days, and Festus put Paul’s case before the king. ‘There is a man here’ he said ‘whom Felix left behind in custody, and while I was in Jerusalem the chief priests and elders of the Jews laid information against him, demanding his condemnation. But I told...

Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker's commencement address at a private Catholic liberal arts school in Kansas over the weekend has drawn strong reaction. But amid the reaction, demand for Butker's Chiefs jersey seems to have spiked. As of Thursday, Butker's jersey appears to be among the most in-demand fan gear on NFL.com. Chiefs star quarterback Patrick Mahomes' jersey is also listed among the league's bestselling jerseys.

Daily Readings from the USCCBLifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed saying: “I pray not only for these, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me.” John 17:20–21Over the past couple of weeks, we have been continually reading from Chapter 14–17 of John’s Gospel. These chapters contain Jesus’ Last Supper Discourses and provide us with Jesus’ last sermon, so to speak. Chapter...

CV NEWS FEED // Pro-life advocate Lauren Handy has been sentenced to 57 months in prison, followed by three years of supervision for protesting the murder of late-term unborn children at a notorious abortion clinic in Washington, D.C. “Handy, a Catholic, is a well-known pro-life voice on the political left. She was the primary organizer and leader of the peaceful protest that led to the ongoing court cases,” CatholicVote previously reported: Last year, [Handy and her eight co-defendants] were found guilty of violating the controversial Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. They each face a sentence of up...

16 May 2024 Thursday of the 7th week of Eastertide St. Brendan the Navigator Parish, Camden, MEReadings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: B(II).First readingActs 22:30,23:6-11 ©'You have borne witness in Jerusalem: now you must do the same in Rome'Since the tribune wanted to know what precise charge the Jews were bringing, he freed Paul and gave orders for a meeting of the chief priests and the entire Sanhedrin; then he brought Paul down and stood him in front of them. Now Paul was well aware that one section was made up of Sadducees and the other of Pharisees, so...

Guilt is universal, starting with Adam and Eve’s original sin. And guilt isn’t all bad. It can be God’s divine gut-check for us, a way to recognize we need to be led back to his mercy. But the term “Catholic guilt” can take on different meanings. It’s a cultural phrase that has seeped into generations of Catholics, parishes and pop culture. The phrase even has its own Wikipedia page. Understanding how guilt can be good or dangerous in our lives can help us open our hearts to God’s mercy.

Daily Readings from the USCCB“I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the Evil One.” John 17:14–15Unfortunately, the evil one is real. He is the highest of the fallen angels who retain their natural spiritual power given them at their creation. God created all angelic creatures with the purpose of serving His holy will. The Scripture reveals that there are nine levels or “choirs”...

15 May 2024 Wednesday of the 7th week of Eastertide Altar of Saint Isidore the Laborer Parish Church in Lucena City, the PhilippinesReadings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: B(II).First readingActs 20:28-38 ©I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, and its powerPaul addressed these words to the elders of the church of Ephesus: ‘Be on your guard for yourselves and for all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you the overseers, to feed the Church of God which he bought with his own blood. I know quite well that when I have...

Daily Readings from the USCCB“It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you.” John 15:16After Judas betrayed our Lord, the Apostles gathered together to pick someone to succeed him. They decided it should be someone who had been with them from the beginning. They prayed for guidance and cast lots “and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was counted with the Eleven Apostles” (Acts 1:26). Little is known about the ministry...

Tuesday 14 May 2024 Saint Matthias, Apostle Feast St. Matthias Catholic Church, Sterling Heights, MIReadings at MassLiturgical Colour: Red. Year: B(II).First readingActs 1:15-17,20-26 ©'Let someone else take his office'One day Peter stood up to speak to the brothers – there were about a hundred and twenty persons in the congregation: ‘Brothers, the passage of scripture had to be fulfilled in which the Holy Spirit, speaking through David, foretells the fate of Judas, who offered himself as a guide to the men who arrested Jesus – after having been one of our number and actually sharing this ministry of ours. Now...

Daily Readings from the USCCB“I have told you this so that you might have peace in me. In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world.” John 16:33What did Jesus tell His disciples that produced the “peace” of which He spoke? He is especially referring to His entire Last Supper Discourse from which we have been reading. The words spoken throughout this discourse are meant to give the disciples, and us, “courage” and the ability to conquer the trouble imposed upon us by the world. Throughout Jesus’ discourse, He especially points to the unity...

Churchgoers thwarted a teenager armed with a rifle from entering a Louisiana church full of children Saturday in a service that was being livestreamed, authorities said. Police were called to St. Mary Magdalen Church in Abbeville, 20 miles south of Lafayette, at 10:35 a.m. when the 16-year-old suspect tried to get in via the back door.

13 May 2024 Monday of the 7th week of Eastertide Basilica of Our Lady of Fatima, Ourém, Portugal Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: B(II).First readingActs 19:1-8 ©The moment Paul laid hands on them the Holy Spirit came down on themWhile Apollos was in Corinth, Paul made his way overland as far as Ephesus, where he found a number of disciples. When he asked, ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?’ they answered, ‘No, we were never even told there was such a thing as a Holy Spirit.’ ‘Then how were you baptised?’ he asked. ‘With...

DOJ’s report on FBI leaked memo on traditionalist Catholics leaves many questions unanswered, omits Biden admin’s targeted persecution of Catholics.In mid-April, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) under the Joe Biden administration released a 10-page report to Congress stating that those who penned an internal memo dated January 23, 2023, likening traditionalist Catholics to violent extremists “failed to adhere to FBI standards” but displayed no proof of “malicious intent”. The memo was subsequently leaked to the public.Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s recent April report to Congress claimed that it found no proof that anyone instructed either of the unnamed authors of...