Free Republic

While in 2014 the days of throwing Christians to wild beasts in the arena may be behind us, the persecution of Christians around the world isn't. In fact, the number of our brothers and sisters subjected to imprisonment, torture, and death for their faith in just the last twelve months dwarfs the number who suffered during the entire tenure of Nero. As a new report from a leading ministry to the persecuted church shows, last year was one of the most violent on record for believers worldwide—and 2015 could be worse. Open Doors International released its World Watch List earlier...

The US Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal of a Louisiana ruling that would force a Catholic priest to disclose what he heard in a sacramental confession or face imprisonment. Last May, the Supreme Court of Louisiana ruled that the confessional seal does not apply if the penitent waives the right to confidentiality. The Diocese of Baton Rouge appealed the decision, saying that violation of the confessional seal “cuts to the core of the Catholic faith.” By declining to hear the appeal, the US Supreme Court let the Louisiana decision stand. The case involves a lawsuit brought by...

I read the Newsweek article on the Bible and of course noted all the falsehoods in it. I pray for the writer Kurt Eichenwald, but also hope to respond to the falsehoods and that he and Newsweek won't succeed in further undermining the Bible. http://www.newsweek.com/2015/01/02/thats-not-what-bible-says-294018.html This is a partial response to the article's falsehoods in the section on Christians and the question of keeping the Mosaic law or not. From the article: >>When they heard about the goings-on in Antioch, a debate ensued: Did gentiles have to become Jews first (like Jesus) and follow Mosaic Law before they could be...

It was announced yesterday on the Bulletin of the Holy See that the Holy Father has erected the Eritrean Catholic Church to sui juris status as a Metropolitan Church, separating its territory from that of the Archeparchy of Addis Ababa (the capital of Ethiopia). The 23rd sui juris Church, which follows the Alexandrian liturgical tradition, will comprise four eparchies, covering the entire territory of the nation of Eritrea: the Archeparchy of Asmara, seat of the new Metropolitan and the national capital, and the Eparchies of Barentu, Keren and Segheneity. The Pope has nominated as the first Metropolitan His Excellency Mons. Menghesteab Tesfamariam, who...

Bishop Oliver Dashe Doeme of Maiduguri said that military intervention was the only viable option for combating the IslamistsA bishop whose diocese in north-east Nigeria has suffered at the hands of Boko Haram wants the West to send in military forces to defeat the militants. Describing how Boko Haram was now recruiting from countries across north Africa, Bishop Oliver Dashe Doeme of Maiduguri said that Western military intervention was the only viable option in the fight against the militants. In an interview with Aid to the Church in Need, the Catholic charity for persecuted and other suffering Christians, the bishop...

In a revival of a centuries-old American tradition this month, a Wisconsin pastor offered a powerful election sermon to Montana lawmakers at the legislature urging them to do their biblical duty by standing up to escalating federal tyranny. Citing a broad array of Scriptures from the Bible and what is known as the “doctrine of the lesser magistrate,” Pastor Matt Trewhella told state legislators that they have more than just the right to protect citizens from growing lawlessness, tyranny, and wickedness in government — they have a moral and Christian obligation to do so. Increasing defiance of God’s law “is...

Calif. priests must return to Iraq.The following comes from a Jan. 15 story in the Los Angeles Times. Intervention by Pope Francis has apparently not solved the schism between a prominent Chaldean priest in eastern San Diego County and the head of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Iraq. At issue is a demand by Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako that Father Noel Gorgis and several other Chaldean priests in the U.S. return to Iraq or face, in effect, excommunication. In an interview with Aleteia, a Rome-based Catholic news agency, Sako said that the survival of the church was at stake...

Today we remember the great civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr. Nearly universally respected, King is particularly commended by secular liberals. This is highly ironic because King, a baptist minister, embodied many of the things that secular liberals today dislike the most about “conservative” Christians. If you actually read what King wrote and said, you might be surprised (or not surprised) to find that he regularly appeals to God, the Bible, and even the natural law. Put any of these words in the mouth of a conservative Christian today and liberals would probably label the person a “fundamentalist,” sound...

In the Gospel of John, we read a story where a group of Jewish Torah teachers and Pharisees (members of a legalistic sect of Judaism) bring to Jesus a woman whom they caught in adultery, asking Him what punishment He thinks the woman deserves. Masterfully — as He always did — Jesus answers the scholars with a simple, yet profound statement: “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her” (John 8:7, NIV).Recently, Newsweek featured a cover article on the Bible in which author Kurt Eichenwald — not a Biblical scholar...

Pope Francis greets pilgrims in St. Peter's Square before the Wed. general audience on April 16, 2014. Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNA. Manila, Philippines, Jan 18, 2015 / 12:56 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Archbishop Bernardito Auza – a member of the organizing committee for Pope Francis’ upcoming visit to the U.S. – has revealed details of the proposed schedule, which includes visits to three cities. “He would arrive on the 22nd and he would leave the evening of the 27th. It’s really a full six days, plus the travel, so it’s really one week,” Archbishop Auza told CNA/EWTN News in Manila on Jan....

Are We Really in a War? We are in a war. Learn how to be fully prepared for combat in this first message by Dr. Jeremiah from the series, Spiritual Warfare: Armor of the Believer.

MOSCOW, January 18 (Sputnik) – The Patriotic Europeans against the Islamification of the West (PEGIDA) cancelled its anti-Islam and anti-immigration rally in the German city of Dresden scheduled for Monday after one of its leaders allegedly received a death threat from the Islamic State. "Please, don’t come tomorrow to Dresden, friends," the group said in a post on its official Facebook page. "Unfortunately we must cancel our 13th meeting due to security concerns. According to the police, there is a specific threat against a member of the organizing team," the group explained. PEGIDA claimed that the threat was issued by...

"Between 6 to 7 million" attended the final big mass in the Philippines on the feast of the Santo Niño. In his homily, the Pope said: “the devil hides behind the allure of being ‘modern’, ‘like everyone else’. Francis also met the father of the volunteer who died in Tacloban yesterday “God created the world as a beautiful garden,” “but man has disfigured that natural beauty”, creating social structures which perpetuate poverty, ignorance and corruption”. Rain poured down on the millions of faithful that gathered in Rizal Park in Manila to attend the mass celebrated by Francis on the final...

Today in America we have no shortage of fools. That is an obvious no-brainer. A fool is - in the Biblical sense - a stupid, wicked (especially impious), or vile person; fool (-ish, -ish man, -ish woman). A scoffer, blockhead or reprobate, a despiser of Almighty God and all that is truly good. The secular definition of fool is: one who is deficient in judgment, sense, or understanding. In both cases we see that the fool is a sound rejecter of the Laws of Nature, and of Nature's God. What is Foolishness to Whom? Conservatives, conservatism, and the adherence to...

On a recent busy evening in one of the Philippines’ top malls, shoppers wandered through luxury brand shops while prostitutes sat expectantly at a bar and a priest gave a sermon at a chapel. The scene may appear an unlikely combination but in the Philippines the Catholic Church has successfully set up shop where millions increasingly spend their leisure time. As a visit by Pope Francis to the Philippines this week shines a spotlight on the nation’s vibrant brand of Catholicism, local Church leaders said he would endorse the mixing of faith with consumerism. “It was Jesus who went to...

Pope Francis met with street children during his visit to the Philippines on Jan. 16, 2015. Credit: ANSA/OSSERVATORE ROMANO. Manila, Philippines, Jan 17, 2015 / 03:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Deviating from his schedule of events in the Philippines, Pope Francis had a brief but emotionally intense encounter with former street kids in Manila yesterday. “I saw a sense of paternity from the Pope, also physically in his embrace, his caress, his affection that the kids immediately noticed. So all of them wanted to be in contact with him,” Father Antonio Spadaro S.J. told CNA on Jan. 16. “It was a...

Veteran journalist Cliff Kincaid interviews Mark Musser on his America’s Survival TV to first talk about his book entitled, "Nazi Oaks" that exposes the green connections to National Socialism, but then how dialectical Marxism has fed into the same beast by adopting environmentalism as one of its tropes, and what is the important difference between conservationism and environmentalism, before ending on why a spiritual renewal is necessary for America to get back on its feet.

Pope Francis took the opportunity during an address to families in the Philippines to praise Blessed Pope Paul VI’s encyclical opposing contraception and affirming Church teaching on sexuality and human life. The Pope spoke Friday to families gathered at the Mall of Asia Arena in Manila during his Jan. 15-19 visit to the Philippines. After discussing various threats to the family, including “a lack of openness to life,” he deviated briefly from his prepared remarks, transitioning from English to his native Spanish in order to speak from the heart about the subject. “I think of Blessed Paul VI,” he said....

In points he’s made before in other settings, Pope Francis on Friday criticized what he called the “ideological colonization of the family,” language that many took as a reference to gay marriage, and also defended a previous pope who upheld the Church’s ban on contraception. “The family is threatened by growing efforts on the part of some to redefine the very institution of marriage, by relativism, by the culture of the ephemeral, by a lack of openness to life,” Francis said. A Vatican spokesman confirmed Friday evening that, at least in part, the pope had gay marriage in mind. The...

Every year, usually at Christmas time, a so-called "mainstream" magazine takes up the topic of Christianity or the Bible. Often, Christians who believe the Bible get a fair hearing—other times, not so much. This latest time, it was Newsweek and journalist Kurt Eichenwald doing the "honors." Here's the title: "The Bible: So Misunderstood It's a Sin." Actually, this piece is so ill-informed that it's a sin—not just against God but against good journalism. Al Mohler had this to say: "[Eichenwald's] article is a hit-piece that lacks any journalistic balance or credibility. His only sources cited within the article are from...