Free Republic

Martin Luther, Augustinian, to his friend, Herman Tulich, Greeting 1.1 Like it or not, I am compelled to learn more every day, with so many and such able masters vying with one another to improve my mind. Some two years ago I wrote a little book on indulgences, which I now deeply regret having published. For at the time I still clung to the Roman tyranny with great superstition and held that indulgences should not be altogether rejected, seeing they were approved by the common consent of men. Nor was this to be wondered at, for I was then engaged...

Last summer, I received an essay from a friend—a leading Evangelical intellectual—who said that the label Protestant should fade out in favor of the label Evangelical because, in part, Protestant was “negative.” In many people’s minds, it certainly is. It sounds like it is about dissent and disagreement. It evokes images of picketers carrying poorly made signs back and forth in front of a factory. Indeed, it sounds disagreeable. More recently, another friend published an engaging account of his exploration of Catholicism. The book is Jon Sweeney's Almost Catholic, and you can read an excellent review of it on my...

On Salvation Outside the Catholic Church Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J. Monday, January 23, 2006 [originally uploaded on 15 June 1998; from The Catholic Catechism, Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., 1975, 234-236] ***** The Catholic Church makes claims about herself that are easily misunderstood, especially in the modern atmosphere of pluralism and ecumenism. Among these claims, the most fundamental is the doctrine of the Church's necessity for salvation. Not unlike other dogmas of the faith, this one has seen some remarkable development, and the dogmatic progress has been especially marked since the definition of papal infallibility. It seems...

Stemming from this comment >>I think the RCC doctrines are a product of the enemy<< Please tell us where we stand here. Examples welcome, but I'm not sure that actual names can be used when quoting another FReeper, so date and thread title may be better.

Vatican City, May 16, 2008 / 09:53 am (CNA).- Pope Benedict has composed a prayer to Our Lady of Sheshan to celebrate the Day of Prayer for the Church in China, which will be observed on May 24.In a letter written to the Catholic Church in China last year, the Holy Father expressed his hope that May 24, the memorial of Our Lady Help of Christians, who is venerated at the shrine of Seshan in Shanghai, would become a day of prayer for the Church in China. The full text of the English-language version of the Holy Father's prayer...

On the eve of his first Stateside appearance, the hammers have begun to fall on Bishop Geoffrey Robinson, the retired Sydney auxiliary whose controversial tome on power, sex and abuse in the church has seen the reserved, strait-laced canonist publicly taken to task for "casting doubt" on the teaching of Christ and the authority of the Magisterium. In recent weeks, after Robinson wrote courtesy notes to the bishops of the American dioceses where he'd be appearing simply to inform them of his presence, several of the ordinaries reportedly responded by requesting that he cancel his plans. From Rome, the...

Poland paused this week to pay tribute to Irena Sendler -- a Catholic social worker who risked her life during World War II to smuggle 2,500 children from the Warsaw Ghetto, saving them from the ravages of the Holocaust. Sendler died Monday at 98, and after a large crowd flocked to her funeral at a Warsaw church yesterday, Poland's Orthodox chief rabbi offered prayers at her graveside. Yad Vashem chairman Avner Shalev said: "Irena Sendler's courageous activities rescuing Jews during the Holocaust serve as a beacon of light to the world, inspiring hope and restoring faith in the innate...

The armies of female ordination have just taken over Hollywood and are now set to march onto the Vatican. Coming soon to a movie theater near you is a "historical drama" about "Pope Joan." Shooting is set to begin in August, for a planned 2009 release, says Yahoo. You've heard of Pope Joan, right? Pope Joan is the name of a female pope (also La Papessa) who supposedly reigned for less than three years in the 850s, based on a legend that circulated in the Middle Ages. Pope Joan is regarded by most modern historians and religious scholars as fictitious,...

Caritas Internationalis emergency response efforts are underway in Myanmar's Ayeyarwady division and Yangon districts, two of the areas hardest hit by Cyclone Nargis, for an estimated 40,000 people who will receive vital relief, including food, shelter, water, medical care and psychological support. Catholic Relief Services is supporting Caritas Internationalis and partners on the ground after one of the worst cyclones to hit the region in decades struck this delta region on May 2. To date, 1,000 people have received food, and another 16,000 people are expected to receive relief supplies in the coming days. More than 100 local volunteers have...

May 16, 2008                                 Friday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time       Reading 1Responsorial PsalmGospel Reading 1Jas 2:14-24, 26 What good is it, my brothers and sisters,if someone says he has faith but does not have works?Can that faith save him?If a brother or sister has nothing to wearand has no food for the day,and one of you says to them,“Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,”but you do not give them the necessities of the body,what good is it?So also faith of itself,if it does not have works,...

Ioannes Paulus PP. IIRedemptoris MaterOn the Blessed Virgin Maryin the life of the Pilgrim Church 1987.03.25 Blessing Venerable Brothers and dear Sons and Daughters, Health and the Apostolic Blessing. INTRODUCTION 1. The Mother of the Redeemer has a precise place in the plan of salvation, for "when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!'"...

MIANYANG, China (CNS) -- Sister Zhang Yimei expressed gratitude to God for protecting her younger brother, a priest, during the recent earthquake, but is concerned for the well-being of the family of another nun serving in her parish. "My brother, Father Francis Zhang Yiqiang, was preparing for the centenary of the former seminary in Bailu town and just happened to be out buying things for the celebration when the church building collapsed," she told the Asian church news agency UCA News. The siblings serve in different parts of the Chengdu Diocese, near the epicenter of the magnitude 7.9 earthquake that...

Des Moines, IA (LifeNews.com) -- Iowa-based St. Ambrose University, a Catholic college, is under fire from pro-life advocates in the Midwestern state for honoring an abortion advocate. The school awarded what one pro-life group called "one of Iowa’s most notorious abortion activists" with an honorary degree. At the St. Ambrose graduation ceremony on Sunday, school officials handed an honorary degree to Margaret (“Maggie”) Tinsman, a former state senator in Iowa from 1989-2006. Tinsman received an “Honorary Doctor of Public Services” by the St. Ambrose Board of Directors. That came despite a strongly pro-abortion voting record, including opposing a measure that...

When Obama's Catholic supporters attacked Catholic League president Bill Donohue for his criticism of their candidate, they did not mention Obama's support for infanticide. The question will inevitably arise for the distinguished group of Catholics supporting Obama as to how they can defend his preference for infanticide in cases where a child survives a botched abortion. The fury Obama's Catholics vented toward Donohue will only force them to face that question sooner than they may have expected.  It's clear to me how it will be answered: It won't. Obama's Catholics are already attempting to reframe the abortion issue in their favor....

Writing in the Vatican newspaper, the astronomer, Father Gabriel Funes, said intelligent beings created by God could exist in outer space...........

In the beginning of the church (first ten years) all the believers were Jews. The church began and was established in Jerusalem where Jesus did a good portion of his preaching and was crucified and raised. The gospel went out from Jerusalem "you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth" Acts 1:8 Luke 24:47-48 that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. (see Acts 10:36-37) It wasn’t until years later that the gospel went to the Gentiles...

May 15, 2008                            Thursday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time       Reading 1Responsorial PsalmGospel Reading 1Jas 2:1-9 My brothers and sisters, show no partialityas you adhere to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.For if a man with gold rings and fine clothes comes into your assembly,and a poor person with shabby clothes also comes in,and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothesand say, “Sit here, please,”while you say to the poor one, “Stand there,” or “Sit at my feet,”have you not made distinctions among yourselvesand become judges with evil designs? Listen, my...

On Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite "He Has New Relevance as a Mediator in Dialogue With Theologies of Asia" VATICAN CITY, MAY 14, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave today at the general audience in St. Peter's Square. * * * Dear brothers and sisters: In the course of the catechesis on the Fathers of the Church, I would like to speak today about a very mysterious figure: a theologian from the sixth century, whose name is not known, and who wrote under the pseudonym of Dionysius the Areopagite. With this pseudonym, he alluded to the...

Rome, May 12, 2008 / 02:08 pm (CNA).- In an interview with the Catholic organization “Early Christians,” Giovanni Maria Vian, director of L’Osservatore Romano, explained why Pope Benedict XVI is dedicating his Wednesday catechesis to the lives and witnesses of the early Christians.During the interview, Vian called the early Christians “a light that comes from afar,” as Paul VI called them, and explained that they constitute “the Christian tradition, and this is the reason for the Pope’s decision to speak about them in the weekly meetings he has with the faithful and with visitors.” He has chosen to speak “first...

Aberdeen, SD, May 14, 2008 / 01:08 am (CNA).- Presentation College in Aberdeen, South Dakota has withdrawn an invitation to a commencement speaker because of her views on legalized abortion.State Senator Nancy Turbak-Berry was scheduled to deliver the commencement address at the college on Saturday.  According to the Associated Press, she said she was told on Friday that she could not speak there because of her views on abortion.  She had accepted the invitation to speak in January.College officials reportedly said they had made an “administrative decision” to withdraw the invitation because her pro-abortion views were incompatible with Catholic...

Q. If the Catholic Church has such good reasons for calling Mary the Mother of God then why did the Protestants stop using this title?A. It is not known when the Protestant churches dropped this title for Mary or by what authority they did so since all of the principle reformers vigorously affirmed and defended this doctrine. Martin Luther: “In this work whereby she was made the Mother of God, so many and such good things were given her that no one can grasp them…Not only was Mary the mother of Him who is born in Bethlemem but of...

The archbishop of Kirkuk asks the West to welcome and incorporate those who have been forced to flee, but at the same time to give concrete help to those who have decided to remain. The West must welcome and make room for Iraqi Christians who have left their country, but at the same time it must apply political pressure on United States and the government of Baghdad to allow those who decide to remain in their country to do so in security and with respect. The Christians of Iraq are, in fact, a richness of for the universal Church, and...

May 14, 2008                                     Feast of Saint Matthias, Apostle       Reading 1Responsorial PsalmGospel Reading 1Acts 1:15-17, 20-26 Peter stood up in the midst of the brothers and sisters(there was a group of about one hundred and twenty personsin the one place).He said, “My brothers and sisters,the Scripture had to be fulfilledwhich the Holy Spirit spoke beforehandthrough the mouth of David, concerning Judas,who was the guide for those who arrested Jesus.Judas was numbered among usand was allotted a share in this ministry.For it is written in the Book of Psalms: Let...

Pilgrims sing the praises of Latin The Tridentine Mass is being revived by young Catholics while walking to Chartres Cathedral Greg Watts Religion may well be in decline among European youth but it is by no means dead. This weekend about 6,000 young Catholics will set off on a 75-mile walk from Paris to Chartres Cathedral — and as they walk they will all be praying and singing in Latin. Pope Benedict XVI’s decision last year in his apostolic letter, Summorum pontificum, to revive the Tridentine Latin Mass, was seen as a turning back of the clock by some liberal...

ROME, MAY 13, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Answered by Legionary of Christ Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum university.Q: I noticed that the Holy Father is carrying a new processional cross. Can you tell us about that new cross and perhaps why the Holy Father made the decision to carry this new cross rather than the one that he has carried for the past several years -- the same one that Pope John Paul II carried? Are there norms and guidelines for what type of shepherd's staff the Holy Father can carry? -- B.D., Columbia City, IndianaA: I...

ROME, MAY 13, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Most journalists covering the Church have a hard time grasping its scope, and its real nature "slips through their fingers," said an organizer of a seminar that aims to give the press tools for reporting on Catholicism.John Wauck explained to ZENIT the difficulties journalists have when they are assigned to report on the Church and he spoke about the seminar he is helping to organize. Wauck is the president of the organizing committee for "The Church Up Close: Covering Catholicism in the Age of Benedict XVI," offered by Rome's Pontifical University of the Holy Cross.The...

So you are the bishops of England and you've got a moral problem. Scientists of the "Hey! We've got Funding! We *Have* To Do it!" school of post-Christian ethic in the UK are champing at the bit to commit brand new sins that cry out to heaven for vengeance by creating human-animal hybrid embryos. A bill legalizing this monstrous evil is submitted. What do you do? Well, the first thing you do is say "most of the procedures covered by the bill should not be licensed under any circumstances. They argue that this is because they violate human rights." So:...

May 13 - Homily - Fr Bonaventure: Our Lady of Fatima Our Lady of Fatima speaks of our modern times and the many errors that would be spread. Listen as Fr. Bonaventure outlines the fulfillment of this prophesy in the many modern errors, especially communism, and what is needed for the triumph of the Immaculate Heart. Ave Maria! This is a 31 minute video and it is excellent! http://www.airmaria.com/?sn=080513&vp=1448&prefx=hmly&plyrnb=1&ttl=Homily

Mary Magnifies the Lord by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J. Prayerful reflection on Mary’s Magnificat is always in order. It is the longest discourse we have recorded of the contents of Mary’s heart. Totally inspired, it is the perfect prayer of humility. It is a sublime prayer of humble adoration. The Magnificat has been a part of the Church’s liturgy since the first century. Ancient monks and hermits recited it daily and it might well be said to be The Prayer of Religious. As all the Church Father and the great biblical masters of the ages have affirmed, there are...

Pastor John Hagee sent a letter today [Copy Here] to Catholic League president Bill Donohue that effectively ends the dispute the two men have had. Donohue comments as follows: “After weeks of meeting with various Catholic leaders, and accessing scholarly literature on Catholic-Jewish relations, Pastor John Hagee has demonstrated an improved understanding of the Catholic Church and its history. In his letter to me, Hagee says, ‘I want to express my deep regret for any comments that Catholics have found hurtful.’ He specifically cites his emphasis of ‘the darkest chapters in the history of Catholic and Protestant relations with the...

Pope Benedict XVI holds a rosary on the occasion of a Rosary prayer inside the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, in Rome, Saturday, May 3, 2008. Vatican City - A recording of Pope Benedict XVI reciting the Rosary in Latin is to go on sale as a four-CD box set, the Vatican announced Tuesday. "It was born as an answer to listeners and from several Catholic radio stations," Vatican Radio director, Father Federico Lombardi, said explaining the initiative. Benedict's predecessor, John Paul II, on several occasions recited the Rosary live on Vatican Radio, providing the faithful with "great consolation"...

This is great. AP is carrying this story about a group of Religious Sisters who couldn't vote yesterday in Indiana because they lacked proper I.D. The best part is that the one who turned them away was another Sister! (emphases added) About 12 Indiana nuns were turned away Tuesday from a polling place by a fellow sister because they didn't have state or federal identification bearing a photograph. Sister Julie McGuire said she was forced to turn away her fellow members of Saint Mary's Convent in South Bend, across the street from the University of Notre Dame, because they had been...

At Fatima, Our Lady gave a basic message: conversion or chastisement. Conversion is not happening, and we are living in a moral crisis that is a real chastisement. But we are also experiencing a chastisement in the form of natural disasters. The disasters are also invitations to conversions. St. Alphonsus Liguori, tells us how God uses natural calamities such as floods, tornadoes, and earthquakes, to warn people to change their ways, rather than as punishments. He show proves that God uses these disasters to warn us to change our ways. Here are the facts: -- Mother's Day brought a devastating...

What in heavens is going on with WJMJ? The radio station, heard at 88.9 FM in the Hartford area, is owned by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford but offers air time to programming from other religions. Earlier this month, Protestant leaders were informed that most or all of their programming would be dropped as the station went to a more Catholic format. The Rev. John Gatzak, executive director of the archdiocese's Office of Radio and Television, said last week that the station would become more active in Catholic evangelization. He said it was becoming an affiliate of EWTN Radio,...

The best evidence yet that the drumbeat against public support of pro-abortion Catholic pols at Catholic institutions is having an effect appears in the Boston Globe of all places. The Globe tells us how the personally opposed prevaricators are just not getting the choice commencement invites from Catholic Institutions to which they had shamefully become accustomed. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is one of the nation's most powerful Catholics, but this year the only commencement address she gave was at one of the eight campuses of Miami Dade College. Senator John F. Kerry is headlining three commencements this year - the...

CMR is happy to give its readers a preview of a remarkable shrine in Chicago, the Sanctuary of the Divine Mercy, now in its final planning stages. The Sanctuary grows from the vision of Fr. Anthony Bus, the pastor of St. Stanislaus Kostka Church in Chicago, who tells the story of the sanctuary in his book A Mother's Plea. The project's architect, James McCrery of Washington, DC, a specialist in classical architecture, drew the sketches shown here (click the pictures for larger images). The sanctuary is understood as a refuge in the heart of the city, with a large exterior...

[The following joyful announcement is lifted from the Rorate Ceali blog. --PP] The Chaldean Catholic Diocese of St. Peter and Paul has formally received into its fold, those members of the Assyrian Catholic Apostolic Diocese who, under the leadership of Mar Bawai Soro (pictured above), had asked to be reconciled with the Catholic Church last January 17, 2008. One bishop (Mar Bawai himself), six priests, 30+ deacons and subdeacons and an estimated 3,000 faithful were received into full communion during liturgical celebrations for the Feast of Pentecost. Mar Bawai Soro has long advocated the Primacy of the See of Rome....

Vatican, May. 12, 2008 (CWNews.com) - Humanae Vitae (doc), the landmark encyclical of Pope Paul VI "became a sign of contradiction" because it upheld the Church's traditional condemnation of contraception, Pope Benedict XVI (bio - news) told a Roman audience on May 10. The encyclical was a significant show of courage, the Holy Father told participants in a conference held by the Pontifical Lateran University to prepare for the 40th anniversary of the document's release. The passing years have helped to underline the importance and power of the encyclical. "The truth expressed in Humanae Vitae does not change," Pope Benedict...

Albert Einstein described belief in God as "childish superstition" and said Jews were not the chosen people, in a letter to be sold in London this week, an auctioneer said Tuesday. The father of relativity, whose previously known views on religion have been more ambivalent and fuelled much discussion, made the comments in response to a philosopher in 1954. As a Jew himself, Einstein said he had a great affinity with Jewish people but said they "have no different quality for me than all other people". "The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of...

Catholic Mariology, Authority, and Various Other Qualms of Protestants Considering Conversion Tuesday, January 31, 2006 [originally uploaded on 11 February 2004] [Derived from actual correspondence with one such person (without violating any confidences): hence the use of first-person address] If you consider yourselves actually out of the Protestant position, then I will simply have to help persuade you of the Catholic one, so you can get out of this limbo. I know you are the type of people who want to be really sure of what you believe. That's good, and I admire it. I advise folks in this...

May 13, 2008                             Tuesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time       Reading 1Responsorial PsalmGospel Reading 1Jas 1:12-18 Blessed is he who perseveres in temptation,for when he has been proven he will receive the crown of life that he promised to those who love him.No one experiencing temptation should say,“I am being tempted by God”;for God is not subject to temptation to evil,and he himself tempts no one.Rather, each person is tempted when lured and enticed by his desire.Then desire conceives and brings forth sin,and when sin reaches maturity it gives...

Women's Ordination Was Non-Negotiable When the Church of England’s General Synod voted to allow the ordination of women to the Anglican priesthood in 1992, it caused a seismic row in the Anglican church. A number of clergy, including five bishops, eventually left to join the Catholic Church. Among them was Fr. Peter Geldard, who, as chairman of the Church Union, led the opposition to the ordination of women and opened the debate by speaking against the then-Anglican archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey. The debate took place not merely in the synod itself but throughout the media in the days and...

The Chaldean Catholic Diocese of St. Peter and Paul has formally received into its fold, those members of the Assyrian Catholic Apostolic Diocese who, under the leadership of Mar Bawai Soro (pictured above), had asked to be reconciled with the Catholic Church last January 17, 2008. One bishop (Mar Bawai himself), six priests, 30+ deacons and subdeacons and an estimated 3,000 faithful were received into full communion during liturgical celebrations for the Feast of Pentecost. The announcement by the Chaldean Catholic Church can be found here. The Black Cordelias blog has an earlier article here. Mar Bawai Soro has...

New technology has always played a part in religious polemics and in the sense of identity generated through the heated exchange of opinion - such as we see in cyberspace today. The invention of the printing press in the fifteenth century has been credited by Reformation scholars as an important factor behind the success of sixteenth-century Church reformers. The impact of the new technology was nowhere more apparent than in the career of Martin Luther. In the aftermath of the indulgence controversy of 1517 that ultimately led to his rejection of Roman authority, Luther published numerous tracts that flew across...

May 12, 2008                                   Monday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time       Reading 1Responsorial PsalmGospel Reading 1Jas 1:1-11 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,to the twelve tribes in the dispersion, greetings. Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters,when you encounter various trials,for you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.And let perseverance be perfect,so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.But if any of you lacks wisdom,he should ask God who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly,and he will be given it.But he should ask in faith,...

Domitilla with Nereus and Achilleus Painting by Peter Paul Rubens. Weblink. May 12: Nereus, Achilleus and DomitillaToday, May 12, is the feast day of Nereus and Achilleus who persuaded the Roman lady Domitilla, niece of the emperor Domitian, to reject her betrothed, Aurelianus, in order to keep her virginity. Aurelianus finally does away with both Nereus and Achilleus and decides to marry Domitilla by force, but he dances himself to death at his own wedding! The legend is set in ancient times, and the names of the characters in this story - Domitilla, Nereus, Achilleus - are associated with some...

Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City in Kansas has been dealing with Gov. Kathleen Sebelius  for a while now regarding her scandalous and unrepentant support, as a Catholic, of abortion. He has now taken further action. The Kansas City Star reports: Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius should stop taking Communion until she repudiates her support for the “serious moral evil” of abortion, the Catholic archbishop for northeast Kansas says. Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann, of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas, also criticized the governor Friday for her recent veto of a bill imposing new restrictions on abortion providers. The...

An extraordinary on-line archive, The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, now makes available (and searchable) the records of London's main criminal court from 1674 through 1913. There's a staggering amount of material to play around in. Keyword "Romish" produced 102 records, including the following account of the 1674 condemnation of a Catholic priest. At this Sessions of Oier and Terminer for the City of London, and County of Middlesex, holden at Justice-Hall in the Old-Bayly, begun the Ninth, and continued till the 12th of this Instant December, 1674. Several Bills being found by the Grand Jury, or Inquest. Amongst many...

DID I REALLY LEAVE THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH? The Journey into Evangelical Faith and Church Experience William Webster This article was first published by Moody Press in the book titled, Roman Catholicism: Evangelical Protestants Analyze What Divides and Unites Us in 1994. In light of the recent reversion of Francis Beckwith to Roman Catholicism I felt that perhaps the testimony of one who was Roman Catholic and is now a convinced evangelical Protestant might prove helpful to some. The arguments presented here as to why I could never become a Roman Catholic, based on the truth of Scripture and the...

CNA).- Vitorrio Messori, the most popular Italian Catholic writer has slammed so-called “adult” Catholics who want to minimize the role of the Virgin Mary, just days before the presentation of his new book “Hypothesis About Mary” in Spain. The best-selling author of books such as “Crossing the Threshold of Hope,” addresses who Mary is for believers in his new work, the credibility of apparitions in Lourdes and Fatima and Mary’s role in Christian belief.  The new book has yet to be translated into English.Messori confesses that years ago he was asked to write a book about Mary, but the proposal...