Free Republic

White Double A FRAGRANCE OF HOLINESS is wafted today across the dark Ocean, renewing the youth of the Old World, and winning for the New the good will of heaven and earth. A century before the birth of St. Rose, Spain, having cast out the Crescent from her own territory, received as a reward the mission of planting the Cross on the distant shores of America. Neither heroes nor apostles were wanting in the Catholic kingdom for the great work; but there was also, unhappily, no lack of adventurers who, in their thirst for gold, became the scourge of...

White Semidouble MAGDALENE THIS TIME was the first to meet our Lord. Scarcely a week had elapsed since her glorious passage, when she repaid her sister’s former kind office and came in her turn saying: “The Beloved is here and calleth for thee.” And Jesus preventing her, appeared himself and said: “Come, my hostess; come from exile, thou shalt be crowned.” Hostess of the Lord, then, is to be Martha’s title of nobility in heaven, as it was her privileged name on earth. Into whatever city or town you shall enter, said the Man-God to his disciples, inquire who...

Red Double THE HOLY POPES of the primitive ages of the Church abound during these last days of our Paschal Season. Today, we have Felix the First, a Martyr of the persecution under Aurelian, in the 3rd Century. His Acts have been lost, with the exception of this one detail; that he proclaimed the dogma of the Incarnation, with admirable precision, in a Letter addressed to the Church of Alexandria—a passage of which was read, with much applause, at the two Œcumenical Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon. We also learn from a law he passed for those troubled times...

White Double FELIX WAS CALLED in his youth to dwell in the desert; and he thought to die there, forgotten by the world he had despised. But our Lord had decreed that his old age should yield fruit before men. It was one of those epochs which may be called turning points in history. The first of the great active Orders was about to be raised up in the Church by St. John of Matha; others were soon to follow, called forth by the new requirements of the times. Eternal Wisdom, who remaining herself the same reneweth all things,...

Gillian Anderson has split from her longtime partner Mark Griffiths. The duo, who never got married, share sons Oscar, five, and Felix, three and spent six years together. A representative for the actress told Us Weekly magazine: "Gillian Anderson and her partner Mark Griffiths have amicably separated after six years together." 'The X-Files' and 'House of Mirth' actress has been married twice before. She and film art director Clyde Kotz, with whom she shares daughter Piper, 17, divorced in 1997. The star and documentarian Julian Ozanne were married for two years before parting ways in 2006. Last month Gillian revealed...

MSNBC might want to put some of its graphics producers through basic physics classes again.   During a brief report on Sunday’s epic Felix Baumgartner sky-dive from the stratosphere, during which the native Austrian broke the sound barrier, the cable network mistakenly labeled his feat as having traveled “faster than the speed of light.”    Despite the mistaken chyron, host Andrea Mitchell correctly reported that “Fearless Felix” was the first human to travel faster than the speed of sound without being inside a craft of some sort.

Daredevil Felix Baumgartner this morning landed from his 18-mile dive back to Earth from the edge of space, in a plummet that reached a speed of more than 500 mph. Mission Control gave the go ahead this morning for the launch, saying "God Speed Felix" from Roswell, N.M., where the mission is being hosted. Baumgartner, an Austrian national, was lifted in a capsule carried afloat by a huge helium balloon. Click Here for Pictures: Felix Baumgartner's Dive The balloon took 90 minutes to get to 90,000 feet. The crane holding the capsule went up as fast as it could to...

LAWRENCE - A Lawrence man has been ordered held without bail after pleading not guilty to slashing his grandmother’s throat and robbing her of $20. Rouluis Felix was arraigned Wednesday in Lawrence District Court and faces a number of charges including armed robbery and assault and battery on a person over age 60. Police said that the 22-year-old attacked his 66-year-old grandmother last week at her Lawrence apartment.

A 3-year-old boy, hit Saturday morning in South Fairmount while walking in the crosswalk with his mom, has died Police say 24-year-old Rodolfo Jose Temaj Felix of Newport, Kentucky, disregarded a traffic signal at the intersection of Westwood and Grand Avenue and ran over 24-year-old Niya Taylor and her son, Skakir West, while they were walking in the marked crosswalk.

Audio file interview of Robert Felix who is the author of Not By Fire, But By Ice and founder of Ice Age Now, one of the biggest climate sites on the web. He discusses the findings that underscored Magnetic Reversals & Evolutionary Leaps, a study in the relationship between climate, pole shifts, and the evolution of species.

A Manhattan attorney who was unsuccessfully prosecuted for advising 10 nurses that they could quit their jobs at a Long Island nursing facility has joined the nurses in filing a federal civil rights suit against the operator of the facility and Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota. The suit was filed in the Eastern District on Wednesday and claims that a March 2007 criminal indictment brought by Mr. Spota's office violated the constitutional rights of attorney Felix Vinluan and his clients, including freedom of speech and due process. Mr. Spota had accused Mr. Vinluan and the nurses of conspiring to...

BERLIN – Usain Bolt got the birthday present he wanted from his teammates at the world championships on Friday, and Allyson Felix spoiled the party by ending Jamaica's sprint domination. After the Jamaican relay team qualified for the 4x100 final without Bolt on the track, Felix glided to the finish with an elegance reminiscent of a long distance runner to win her third straight 200-meter world title. With a raised fist and little more than a smile at the finish, Felix broke the Jamaican hold on sprinting going back to the Beijing Olympics. She held off an early charge from...

ACAPULCO, Mexico — Gunmen killed six people, including a local police chief, in a series of attacks Monday in mountain towns in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero. The police chief of Pungarabato was repeatedly shot while driving his red Mustang on a highway near the small town early Monday, Guerrero state public safety department said in a news release. Five other men were found gunned down in different towns in the isolated mountainous zone known as the Tierra Caliente, or the Hot Land, the state police said. In the border city of Tijuana, soldiers detained 60 people at a...

A top lieutenant in the Arellano Felix drug cartel was sentenced to 30 years in prison Monday for his role in the notorious cartel's reign of murder, torture and drug smuggling along the border. Manuel Arturo Villarreal Heredia had pleaded guilty in September to charges of racketeering and conspiracy to invest drug profits. He also agreed to forfeit $5 million. Villarreal pleaded guilty along with Javier Arellano Felix, who pleaded guilty to operating a criminal enterprise and was sentenced to life in prison. At one point both men faced the possibility of the death penalty, but former Attorney General Alberto...

Asking forgiveness in two nations, Mexican drug lord Francisco Javier Arellano Felix was sentenced Monday to life in prison for running a criminal enterprise and conspiring to launder money. In a letter, translated in English and read by his lawyer, Arrellano Felix asked people on both sides of the border to forgive his "wrongful decisions and criminal conduct."

A judge has sentenced one of seven brothers behind Mexico's Arellano Felix (ah-RAY'-ah-no FAY'-leeks) drug cartel to serve six years in a U.S. prison. Fifty-seven-year-old Francisco Rafael Arellano Felix is the eldest of the clan. He was extradited to the U.S. after serving a decade in a Mexican prison on weapons violations. Arellano Felix's sentencing Monday follows his guilty plea in June to charges that he sold about a half-pound of cocaine to a San Diego undercover police officer in 1980. His younger brother, Francisco Javier Arellano Felix, pleaded guilty last month to laundering money and running a criminal enterprise....

Does your cat always seem to end up in the lap of the one visitor to your home who's allergic? Or maybe it's the one visitor who doesn't like cats? Why is it that, very often, your cat-loving visitors get passed over for the one person who doesn't want to interact with Fluffy? Most cats are friendly to everyone who comes through the front door, but other cats are very concerned with potential territorial intrusion. These cats don't necessarily want somebody barging right over to pick them up and interact. So while your cat-loving visitors may be just trying to...

Tropical Storm Felix has formed near the South American A tropical storm watch remains in effect for the northern coast of Venezuela from Cumana to Pedernales including the island of Margarita. Public Advisories Updated every three hours. Tropical Storm Discussion Updated every six hours Three Day Tracking MapStorm Track Archive Nice animated progression of 5 day forecast tracks Buoy Data East Caribbean Buoy Data West Caribbean Storm Model Tracks Satellite ImagesVisible Satellite Still ImageIR ImageWV Image Additional Resources:Central Florida Hurricane CenterHurricane CityCayman One Radio Nice music mix, and hourly news Puerto Rico Long Range Radar Category Wind Speed Barometric Pressure...

The Law: We doubt anyone's facing worse charges in U.S. courts than drug lord Francisco Javier Arellano Felix. So why is the Justice Department hesitating to suggest the death penalty? To put it delicately, this guy's a monster. Apprehended in August by the Drug Enforcement Administration in international waters off Baja California, Arellano was charged in U.S. federal court in San Diego on Wednesday in a string of grotesque crimes on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border. The seven-count indictment covers crimes mostly connected to operating a continuing criminal enterprise. He's also charged with murder. But that seems only to...