Free Republic

Homosexual Blessings. The Pope Takes Back the Ban, When Instead in the Year 2000...The halt announced on March 15 by the congregation for the doctrine of the faith to blessings of same-sex couples has sparked a widespread outbreak of rebellion in the Church, with its epicenter in Germany and Belgium, where even leading bishops have publicly rejected and derided the decision from Rome.But as of Sunday March 21, the main unknown is now another. And it regards the pope.Does or does not Francis share this “Responsum” of the congregation that watches over the correct doctrine of the Church?The document bears...

[Catholic Caucus] Stockholm Syndrome Part 2We’ve already covered a kind of Stockholm Syndrome being brought on by the State here. Now we will look at the Church.This week, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) answered in the negative to the question Does the Church have the power to give the blessing to unions of persons of the same sex? This might seem an orthodox response (and it is) but the CDF ironically quoted Amoris Laetitia (the 2016 document allowing divorced and remarried to receive Holy Communion without confession or annulment) by then saying, “There are absolutely...

COVID, Woke Science—and DeathIn this brave new world of ours, will we be pruning back the elderly altogether by credentialed “ethicists,” whether because of their longevity or race?Since March, the Left has proclaimed itself the guardian of science in dealing with the COVID-19 epidemic. Its champions are the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Dr. Fauci. All in the past have rendered valuable service to the public, and often life-saving aid.Yet the mixture of COVID-19, the first national quarantine, and Trump Derangement Syndrome have combined to give us reason to question their judgment. These authorities variously have...

EWTN’s ‘World Over’ show criticizes Pope’s Amazon exhortation for lack of ‘clear answers’ Robert Royal, Father Gerald Murray, and Raymond Arroyo honed in on lack of straightforward answers from the Vatican during Thursday’s show. February 14, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – Raymond Arroyo, host of “The World Over” on EWTN, questioned on his show yesterday why Pope Francis’ post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation “Querida Amazonia” does not give “clear answers.” “And the other thing, we keep hearing this term. The liturgy should be incarnate. Care for the environment should be incarnate,” Arroyo said, asking, “I’m not quite sure what that means, but why...

[Barf Alert] Pope shares with U.S. bishops his frustration with reaction to Amazon text VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis told a group of U.S. bishops that, like them, he is accused of not being courageous or not listening to the Holy Spirit when he says or does something someone disagrees with — like not mentioning married priests in his document on the Amazon.“You could see his consternation when he said that for some people it was all about celibacy and not about the Amazon,” said Bishop William A. Wack of Pensacola-Tallahassee.“He said some people say he is not courageous...

In a stunning sequence of events, the Russian military opened fire then seized three Ukrainian navy vessels in an unprovoked attack on the Black Sea last Sunday. In the melee, several Ukrainian sailors were wounded and 24 captured. Moscow followed up this flagrant act of war by parading the sailors on Russian television to give clearly coerced confessions of guilt. This attack is but the latest escalation in the ongoing Russian war against Ukraine that has been churning since 2014. It’s also the first great test for the Trump administration regarding Russia and one that will have lasting consequences on...

Pope Francis Says ‘No’ Then ‘Maybe’ to Married Priests On the papal plane back from Panama, the Holy Father said he is personally opposed, but then recommended the radical ideas of a missionary bishop who supports ordaining untrained older married men of proven virtue. Edward Pentin During his inflight press conference from Panama, Pope Francis gave conflicting signals about the ordination of married men in the Latin rite, on the one hand saying he was personally opposed to it while at the same time open to considering possible radical exceptions.

Most of the commentators on Pope Francis’ attempt to declare the death penalty immoral per se recognize that his utter novelty is a blatant contradiction of Sacred Scripture (both the Old and New Testaments) and the constant teaching of the Church for two millennia.  A few, however, such as this one, argue that Francis’ revised § 2267 of the Catechism of John Paul II is merely “a distressingly ambiguous text which will certainly tend to create an impression of rupture,” but that “it need not be read that way.”Really? But where is the ambiguity? According to Francis, quoting only himself...

When Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love) was released in April, it was already clear that an unusual moment in the life of the Church had been reached. The September disclosure of guidelines formulated by Argentinian bishops — and explicitly endorsed personally by the Holy Father himself in a very peculiar manner — has served to reinforce [this]. Pope Francis clearly wanted to change the Church’s practice on the admission of the divorced and civilly remarried to holy Communion, but could not get the synod of bishops to agree. It was an example of the Holy Spirit guiding the magisterium...

<p>Just like countless other exercise fanatics, Chloie Jonsson wanted to test herself in a CrossFit strength competition. The increasingly popular fitness events culminate each summer with the crowning of the "Fittest Man and Woman on Earth."</p> <p>But Jonsson, who is a transgender woman, was told she would have to register as a man.</p>

Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul said the Republican Party has to embrace a message of optimism and “look like the rest of America” to win again. “If we want to win again, if we want to be a bigger party, not only do we have to be a party that looks like the rest of America—black, white, brown, with tattoos, without tattoos, earrings, without earrings—we have to look like the rest of America but we also have to have a party that has the message of optimism,” said Paul in his keynote address at the American Principles Project gala on...

Editor: some of you will recall this Bishop from the time he tried to destroy a traditional parish in his diocese which resulted in the "Revolt of Thiberville". His unnatural taste for such destruction continues. This summer a French Bishop showed what it means , in contrast to the Society of St. Pius, to remain in "full communion" with the Pope.[kreuz.net] Bishop Christian Nourrichard (62) of Evreux has participated in the ordination of eleven men and 13 women to Anglican orders. This was reported by the French District Superior of the Society of Pius X, Father Regis de Cacqueray, on...

When St. Paul was talking about a "light on the hill" this wasn't what he had in mind. Rather, it's the kind of edifice that says something very definitive in an ambiguous way about what the Priests of the Archdiocese have long said about the importance of "sexual orientation". Instead, they tell us that there are other issues that are more pressing, like their heavily subsidized "social justice" ministries.

Amphiboly The fallacy of amphiboly occurs when one is arguing from premisses whose formulations are ambiguous because of their grammatical construction. The word "amphiboly" is derived from the Greek, its meaning in essence being "two in a lump," or the "doubleness" of a lump. A statement is amphibolous when its meaning, is indeterminate because of the loose or awkward way in which its words are combined. An amphibolous statement may be true in one interpretation and false in another. When it is stated as premiss with the interpretation that makes it true, and a conclusion is drawn from it on...

A 27-year-old electrician, de Menezes was by all accounts totally unconnected to terrorism. But through his behavior and cruel coincidence, de Menezes gave police good reason to think he might be planning to detonate a bomb. In the age of terrorism, police can kill an innocent man and still be doing the right thing. This strange new reality makes us all players in a film-noir existence. Film noir refers to the eerie postwar movies in which characters grope through a world of dark menace and unanswered questions. They don't know what's going on, only that danger hovers. Here in Grand...

(07-03) 10:02 PDT VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- Focusing on Israel's open secret, the head of the U.N. atomic watchdog agency is expected to push the Jewish state this week for at least tacit acknowledgment that it has nuclear weapons or the means to make them. Israeli policy is to neither confirm nor deny it has such arms, and the International Atomic Energy Agency will not comment on how hard IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei will press officials during his two-day visit starting Tuesday. ...snip.... "We assume that Israel has a nuclear weapons capability, if not the weapons themselves," Gwozdecky said. ElBaradei...

Seeing George W. Bush joined by Ariel Sharon and Mahmoud Abbas in Aqaba discussing the need to put an end to terror and violence and moving toward peace, could not but remind one of the scene on the White House lawn, 24 years ago, when Jimmy Carter, Menachem Begin, and Anwar Sadat sealed the Israel-Egypt peace agreement with a three-way handshake. But of course, another more recent handshake on the White House lawn springs to mind - Bill Clinton, Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat - the deal that led to such disastrous results. But let's leave memory lane and concentrate...

China denies Indian report on stand-off BEIJING, May 30: An official spokesman for the Chinese Foreign office on Thursday denied the report published in Times of India that Chinese President Jiang Zemin had assured a US Congressional delegation that China would not favour Pakistan in the existing tension , the spokesman said: "The report is not based on facts". The spokesman told APP that the Chinese President, during the meeting with the delegation on Wednesday, hoped and wished that the two countries would take steps to ease the tension and hold talks to resolve their disputes. Earlier, the spokesman told...