Free Republic

In his Palm Sunday homily, Pope Francis held up persecuted Christians as modern heroes because of their faithfulness to God even in the midst of hardships. They are the ones who follow Jesus on his path of humiliation, Francis said.

A former co-star of Christopher Reeve's ripped the "Superman" actor in a recent interview, according to TMZ. Jack O'Halloran, the actor who played the mute villain Non in "Superman II," said some harsh things about his late co-star when a TMZ cameraman ran into him recently in Southern California, calling Reeve a prima donna who "believed his own publicity."

Congressman Trey Gowdy (R-SC) who is leading the investigation into the Benghazi fiasco confirmed to America today that Hillary Clinton is indeed a slimy and likely criminal malcontent. It seems that Mrs. Clinton no longer has any of the emails she sent or received during her time as Secretary of State, but don't worry, unlike the folks at the IRS, her computer didn't crash... No, Hillary lost her emails the good ol' fashioned way. She DELETED them. ALL OF THEM. And she did this AFTER the State Department asked her to return all of her work documents, emails and other...

The Church, I’ve been hearing, has to change, if she is going to have any leverage with men and women of our time. What that means, of course, is that they would like a sexual permission slip. It’s the only thing they care about. What’s it to them, after all, if the Church does not change her teachings, even if she could? They don’t obey them anyway. But perhaps they are setting their revisionary sights too low. Why change the Bride of Christ, when you might as well go for Christ Himself? Why trick out the bride in lingerie from...

CAIRO — The Arab states said on Sunday that they had agreed to form a combined military force to counter both Iranian influence and Islamist extremism, a gesture many analysts attributed in large part to their drive for more independence from Washington. The agreement came as American and other Western diplomats in Lausanne, Switzerland, were racing to beat a self-imposed deadline of Tuesday to reach a deal with Iran that would restrict its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of economic sanctions. In response, Saudi Arabia and other American allies in the region have made clear that they are...

William A. Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. (Photo courtesy of CL: www.catholicleague.org) William A. Donohue is a New York-based author, sociologist, and political activist who has been president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights since 1993. He holds a PhD in sociology from New York University and is an adjunct scholar at the Heritage Foundation. He is the author of several books, including the 2012 best-seller Why Catholicism Matters: How Catholic Virtues Can Reshape Society in the 21st Century and the just published The Catholic Advantage: Why Health, Happiness, and Heaven Await...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)If Fox News tries to sell Ted Cruz as the conservative Barack Obama, are they damning him or helping him? There are so many laugh-out-loud moments in this clip it's hard to know where to begin. Dorothy Rabinowitz hails Cruz as a magnificent orator, hard-liner on foreign policy, and one who can inspire the conservative base to action. But overall, this is an on-air attempt to damn Cruz with faint praise, just as they did in an editorial earlier this week. It's clear both from the WSJ editorial and Peggy Noonan's pile-on the next day that Cruz is hardly their...

Saudi Arabia accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of hypocrisy on Sunday, telling an Arab summit that he should not express support for the Middle East while fuelling instability by supporting Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad. In a rare move, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced that a letter from Putin would be read out to the gathering in Egypt, where Arab leaders discussed an array of regional crises, including conflicts in Syria, Yemen and Libya. "We support the Arabs' aspirations for a prosperous future and for the resolution of all the problems the Arab world faces through peaceful means, without any...

Most of the trouble in our world takes place either when civil and ecclesiastical powers marry or merge, or when civil power takes it upon itself to completely stop religion. Not all religion is legitimately pointing to the Creator God, so it goes without saying that this statement does not include all religions in the most general sense of the word, but only those ordained by the Creator of mankind. Biblical illustration of Book of Revelation Chapter 21 (Source: Jim Padgett, courtesy of Sweet Publishing, Ft. Worth, TX, and Gospel Light, Ventura, CA) Biblical illustration of Book of Revelation Chapter...

Link only: http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/jeb-bush-ted-cruz-poll/2015/03/29/id/635137/#ixzz3VncIuLew

Villagers in a rural district of Kenya are getting a helping hoof to adapt to climate change. A newly introduced breed of "supergoat" is cutting the number of months per year that villagers in the district of Nyando go hungry. Galla goats are tough, but loving. They tolerate heat and drought and have great teeth (which means they rarely need to be culled due to worn-down chompers). The goats also produce a lot of nutritious milk and mature more quickly than the old straggly looking breeds that the Nyando farmers are used to keeping. And the females are really good...

more than two weeks, public debate in South Africa has been dominated by a statue. Students at the University of Cape Town have been demonstrating to have the bronze figure of British colonialist Cecil Rhodes removed from its central position on campus. Rhodes bequeathed the land on which the university was built, but he also slaughtered Africans by the thousands in colonial conquest and helped lay the foundations of apartheid in South Africa.

The Texas Republican's devotion to principle – or an unyielding insistence on getting his way – could propel him to the front ranks of Republican contenders for president or render him unelectable.Ted Cruz looked out over a sprawling audience of Iowa farmers and agri-business leaders, people who rely on federal subsidies of ethanol, and the man who would be president stuck it to them. “I know you’d like me to say I’m for the renewable fuel standard” – that’s the subsidy of their product – “that’d be the easy thing to do,” he said. “But I’m going to tell you...

Ayaan Hirsi Ali should be the perfect feminist hero. In theory, she fits the role on multiple levels: She’s an escapee from an abusive patriarchy. She’s an African immigrant who made her own way in a Western country, the Netherlands. She’s a fierce advocate for women’s rights. She’s a target for deadly violence by angry men who want to shut her up. She left her religion and became a scourge of its repressive practices. Except for the blemish on her record: Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a dissident from the wrong religion. Raised a Muslim in Somalia, subjected to genital mutilation...

Descent into a New Dark Age The Muslim Marxist in the White Mosque continues, on a daily basis, to exceed our expectations. Just when you think he can’t get any more lawless, or corrupt, or incompetent, or traitorous, he does. But like he claims to be the case with American’s achievements, he doesn’t do it alone. He’s had massive assistance from the “mainstream” media, the Democrat Party, and to the disgust of patriotic Americans nationwide, the Republican Establishment. In spite of it being so obvious that his “executive amnesty” scam is blatantly unconstitutional - and therefore blatantly illegal – so...

UN human rights chief Zeid Raad al-Hussein told the Security Council that “the Islamic State is more accepting of ethnic diversity than the western governments that are making war on them.” “Islam is open to persons of every race, color, or ethnicity,” Zeid pointed out. “It doesn’t matter if a person is black or white. As long as he accepts Allah as his master he can be a full member of the umma. This stands in contrast to a long history in which western governments have oppressed and even enslaved persons because of the color of their skin.” In support...

Former CEO and potential Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina said Sunday the probability she’ll formally start a 2016 campaign is “higher than 90 percent” and that she will likely announce in early April or mid-May. . . . Fiorina was consistent in her criticism about Clinton’s legacy as secretary of state, saying, “flying is an activity, not an accomplishment.”

The beleaguered New York City Housing Authority said it faces a $98 million budget gap this year that will grow to $400 million by 2025 ... the "financial model for pubic housing is unsustainable." Meanwhile, the Daily News also reported that NYCHA sold off supplies that were needed for repairs and cleanup at its complexes across the city.

Four years ago, when the charity-minded Women of Quail Creek collected baby shower items for military wives and active military moms-to-be, the event was so graciously welcomed that they’ve continued the event every year since. This year, the event has been moved from August to April 18 so winter visitors can participate. Idea originator and 30-year Army retiree Peggy McGee said the first event was held at the Army National Guard in Tucson with successive showers at the Air National Guard with the Army invited. For this shower, 28 moms-to-be are expecting 29 babies, and 13 are active members of...

Nothing entertains me more than Limousine Liberals the likes of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Elizabeth Warren who religiously decry income inequality - pardoning celebrity donors of course - only to discredit those quintessential American ideals that create independence and wealth: self-reliance, hard work, commerce, innovation, and competition. And yet it is these universal necessities of a strong and robust economy that progressives suffocate with endless regulation and taxation in order to erect a socialist utopia defined by dependence and division. Inciting voters by demonizing those more fortunate, those who toiled for their blessings, is absurd when you’re the one...