Free Republic

--- snip --- Specifically among US Catholics, his ratings have fallen from 83% favorability a year and a half ago to 63% now -- a 20-point drop.

As of yesterday there are "New measures" for the control of online religious activities. Live streaming of religious ceremonies banned, as well as prayers, preaching and burning of incense. Permission required to set up religious websites that must be 'morally healthy and politically reliable'. Conversions banned as well as the dissemination of religious material. But the religious awakening in China is now unstoppable.Rome (AsiaNews) - From now on, all online evangelization is forbidden. The state administration for religious affairs yesterday issued rules on religious activities via the internet that forbid the streaming of religious ceremonies (live on the internet), including...

It’s rare that BCI finds ourselves in agreement with the Boston Globe, but here’s once where we do mostly agree: their editorial in today paper, Probe of St. Johns Seminary needs independence. The editorial is excellent–it says the the allegations of “immoral unprofessional misconduct by faculty and students” and a “toxic culture” of bullying and threats need to be properly examined, but the group brought together by Cardinal O’Malley has conflicts of interest: it’s stacked with St. Johns Seminary board members, including Sr. Janet Eisner and Assumption College president Francesco Cesareo, and the other members of the group also have...

Prompted by exposé on nuns' torture at orphanageMONTPELIER, Vt. (ChurchMilitant.com) - The Vermont attorney general is announcing an investigation into child abuse cover-ups in the Catholic Church. Following a Buzzfeed article that discussed disturbing allegations of physical and sexual abuse at St. Joseph's Orphanage in Vermont, the state's attorney general office is announcing an investigation into sexual abuse by Catholic clergy and religious. Vermont Attorney General Timothy J. Donovan said on Sept. 7, "We'll do an investigation." "Certainly it will be about the allegations specifically about St. Joseph's," he added, "but my sense is we will also look at some...

All the presidents of the world's bishops conferences will meet in February 2019Pope Francis has called for all the presidents of the Catholic bishops’ conferences of the world to meet at the Vatican in February to discuss the issue of sexual abuse of minors. A statement from the pope’s cardinal advisory board Sept. 12 said, “The Holy Father Francis, hearing the Council of Cardinals, decided to convene a meeting with the Presidents of the Bishops Conferences of the Catholic Church on the theme of ‘protection of minors.’” The summit will take place at the Vatican Feb. 21-24, 2019. According to...

WASHINGTON, September 11, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – In a letter released today to priests of the Archdiocese of Washington, Cardinal Donald Wuerl has informed them that he intends, “in the very near future, to go to Rome to meet with our Holy Father about the resignation I presented nearly three years ago, November 12, 2015.” "It was clear that some decision, sooner rather than later, on my part is an essential aspect” of moving forward, the letter said. The embattled Cardinal of Washington has been under the spotlight since the revelations of sexual abuse of his predecessor Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. Cardinal...

September 11, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Pope Emeritus Benedict’s personal secretary and the head of the papal household has commented on the abuse crisis that is rocking the Catholic Church, stating that if the Church does not achieve renewal in its wake, civilization is “at stake.” “If the Church this time does not achieve a renewing of herself with God's help, the whole project of our civilization is again at stake. For many, it already seems as if the Church of Jesus Christ could never recover from the catastrophe of her sin which right now seems nearly to swallow her,” Archbishop...

Article cannot be posted due to copyright issues but click HERE to read.

‘Keep your nerve and draw closer to the Person of Jesus’: Bishop Philip Egan considers a response to the clerical sex-abuse scandal. Bishop Philip Egan, the eighth bishop of Portsmouth, England, lent his voice to the chorus of Church leaders appalled by the burgeoning clerical sex-abuse scandal and cover-up Aug. 22, when he wrote a letter to Pope Francis requesting that he convene an extraordinary synod of bishops to address the scandal in the United States, Chile, Honduras and elsewhere. “Clerical sex abuse seems to be a worldwide phenomenon in the Church,” Bishop Egan’s letter said. “As a Catholic and...

Cardinals Wuerl and Cupich have offered notably different reactionsSince Pope Francis’s election, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops has increasingly reflected the Pontiff’s own priorities. But this may change after the “testimony” of Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò. The former US nuncio claimed that Benedict XVI attempted to quietly remove Theodore McCarrick from public ministry after hearing reports that he preyed on seminarians and young priests. Viganò accused Francis of rehabilitating McCarrick upon succeeding Benedict and, despite being aware of accusations against him, making McCarrick a “kingmaker” for appointing American bishops. Among those McCarrick supported, Viganò claims, was Cardinal Blase Cupich of...

The historical evidence I have presented in this book shows that Jesus was born in the year 3 B.C.E. It appears most probable that a late summer birth in 3 B.C.E. has the best credentials. I need not rehearse my reasons for this, but they are very strong. Indeed, the evidence from the priestly courses alone suggests that a September nativity is the most likely. This gives a pretty close approximation that most scholars would probably accept as reasonable. But now, we come to the nitty-gritty! To propose an early evening birth on September 11, 3 B.C.E. appears almost impossible...

Franklin Graham, who has called Islam ‘evil’, is due to speak at a festival in BlackpoolBritain’s leading Muslim organisation has called on the Home Office to refuse a UK visa to a prominent US evangelical preacher with links to Donald Trump and a track record of Islamophobic and homophobic statements. Franklin Graham, the son of the evangelist Billy Graham, has been invited to preach at a Christian festival in Blackpool this month. The preacher, who said Trump’s election victory was evidence that “God’s hand” was at work, has called Islam “evil” and “wicked”, claimed Barack Obama’s “problem is that he...

The young man studying at Mundelein Seminary to become a Catholic priest seemed anguished as he vented to Cardinal Blase Cupich about the clergy sex-abuse scandal that threatens to topple Pope Francis and drive more people away from the faith. “I’m hurting, I can’t sleep, I’m sick,” the seminarian told Cupich during an Aug. 29 gathering at which the cardinal spoke to about 200 future priests enrolled at the seminary, according to another person who was there and spoke with the Chicago Sun-Times but asked not to be identified. The seminarian told Cupich he was a young boy during the...

Moscow, September 8, Interfax - Church diplomacy has exhausted itself in the dialogue with the Church of Constantinople over the Ukrainian issue, the Moscow Patriarchate said. "Apparently, means of the church diplomacy have by now been exhausted," Metropolitan Hilarion, the head of the Synodal Department for External Church Relations, told the television channel Rossiya-24 on Saturday. A few days ago Patriarch Kill travelled to Istanbul to meet with Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, he said. "On the outside, it was quite a civil, polite and even fraternal meeting. But unfortunately the Constantinople side not only failed to heed our arguments, but...

An Illinois priest accused of patronizing a male prostitute in the 1990s and misappropriating $40,000 from a parish in 2005 has now been removed from ministry for “immoral activity” that could involve child pornography, and allegedly misspending up to $29,000 at two parishes he oversaw in the Diocese of Springfield. The Rev. Barry J. Harmon, 55, was removed from ministry and will apply for laicization, Springfield Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki wrote in a Sept. 5 email to diocesan priests. Harmon has agreed to make restitution for the misappropriated funds, Paprocki said. Harmon was initially placed on medical leave Oct. 30,...

CINCINNATI, Ohio, September 7, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) — The archbishop of Cincinnati has called for the Vatican’s dossier on McCarrick to be opened so that Archbishop Viganò’s allegations can be verified. Appearing on Holy Spirit Radio at the end of August, Archbishop Dennis Schnurr told Annie Mitchell of the SonRise Morning Show that without looking at the documents in the case, the bishops are left with a “he said - she said situation.” “It seems to me that the only way to get to the bottom of the entire situation is to open the McCarrick file,” Schnurr said. “There’s got to...

Top advisers to Pope Francis said on Monday that the Vatican is preparing an official response to accusations that the pope helped cover up an American cardinal’s sexual misconduct. The statement from the “C-9,” the nine cardinals who advise Francis on Church matters, came on the first day of a three-day meeting with the pope, one of several throughout the year. The Holy See’s planned response will address accusations by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò — former Vatican ambassador to the United States — that Pope Francis covered up sexual abuse by now-disgraced former cardinal Theodore McCarrick. Viganò roiled the Church...

We have many friends around the world, including in the dear Argentine Republic. And we asked a cherished friend, Marcelo González, of Panorama Católico Internacional, who knows the Church of Argentina as well as the palm of his hand to send us a report on the new pope. Here it goes: The Archbishop of Buenos Aires kneels down to receive the "blessing" of Protestant ministers and Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa - Buenos Aires, 2006 The Horror! Of all the unthinkable candidates, Jorge Mario Bergoglio is perhaps the worst. Not because he openly professes doctrines against the faith and morals, but because,...

At Fishwrap, which is ever devolving into the delusions they have fomented over the years, you can read about the devious Jesuit promoter of sodomy – I know, I know – James Keenan. Weigel’s notes on Keenan’s antics are helpful. Keenan penned a patently sycophantic piece about making women cardinals. He provides eight candidates! After you stop laughing, take a look at his list. It’s a hoot. You’ll laugh until you stop! Included among The Keenan 8™ are the likes – I promise I am not making this up – of the heretical Srs. Elizabeth Johnson and Margaret Farley. Margaret,...

Well-organized and highly motivated Team Francis has rallied the MSM and circled their obfuscating wagons around their base camp position: It’s not about homosexuality, it’s clericalism. THAT’s the problem! Clericalism… clericalism… clericalism. Their other tactic is to distract with the good, but altogether incomplete, mantra about protection of children and minors. Minors… okay. But the vast majority of “minors” were male and older minors, post-puberty. On the other hand, we read at CWR the horrific story from Illinois about a priest in the Diocese of Springfield whom Bp. Paprocki has moved to laicize. An Illinois priest accused of patronizing a...