Free Republic

After the Supreme Court issued its ruling on gay marriage Friday, President Obama gave a speech in which he said Americans need to change their religious views to be accepting of gay marriage, the Daily Caller reported. To that end, he encouraged gay marriage supporters to "help” people overcome their deeply-held religious views.“I know that Americans of goodwill continue to hold a wide range of views on this issue,” he said. Initially, he exhibited a bit of respect for those who oppose same-sex marriage. "Opposition in some cases has been based on sincere and deeply held beliefs,” he said. “All...

...“As your bishop — and from the perspective of the Church — nothing has changed. Even though same-sex marriage is ‘legal,’ no blessings will be given to any priests to conduct same sex-marriages in our parishes. Those who are in same-sex marriages conducted by their respective states, who are unrepentant, will not be communed.

For my non-Catholic readers you may find that title surprising, for some of my Catholic readers you may find it scandalous. However I suspect most of you will know exactly what it means. As you know by now, the Supreme Court of the United States of America in a 5-4 vote decided that two men or two women have the constitutional right to enter into a legal marriage. What a lie. What utter poppycock. As for the comments by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' President, you're a little late. You did this. You and your colleagues and your...

By, Naraj Warkioo – Detroit professor and legal adviser to the Vatican says Catholics who promote gay marriage should not try to receive holy Communion, a key part of Catholic identity. And the archbishop of Detroit, Allen Vigneron, told the Free Press Sunday that Catholics who receive Communion while advocating gay marriage would “logically bring shame for a double-dealing that is not unlike perjury.” The comments of Vigneron and Edward Peters, who teaches Catholic canon law at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, are part of a polarizing discussion about gay marriage that echoes debate over whether politicians who advocate...

According to recent statistics, in the United States alone, there are 327,717 Protestant churches and 19,863 Catholic churches. However, despite the numerous individual congregations here and throughout the world, there’s really only one true Church. Even though many churches have differences in doctrinal opinions or other characteristics, every church which is based on Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord is a part of the true Church. Amazingly, there are thousands of different denominational and independent Christian churches who, for the most part, agree on the basic fundamentals of Christ, but who maintain their separate groups for relatively minor issues. They...

Voting Republican and other failed culture war strategies are not going to save us now.No, the sky is not falling — not yet, anyway — but with the Supreme Court ruling constitutionalizing same-sex marriage, the ground under our feet has shifted tectonically. It is hard to overstate the significance of the Obergefell decision — and the seriousness of the challenges it presents to orthodox Christians and other social conservatives. Voting Republican and other failed culture war strategies are not going to save us now. Discerning the meaning of the present moment requires sobriety, precisely because its radicalism requires of conservatives...

Our nation, which was founded on the Laws of Nature and Nature's God has now fully apostatized and our doom is sure with the "Supreme" Court's legalization of sodomy marriage. O godless judges, leaders and nation, will you overthrow the Almighty and His ETERNAL absolutes of RIGHTEOUSNESS and design? O godless dreamers, are not your days but as a smoking flax and at the end of your vanity will you not give an account to the ETERNAL SUPREME JUDGE and CREATOR of the earth and ETERNITY (Acts 17:30-31, Phil 2:9-11, Rev. 20:11-15)! No nation has ever survived the embrace of...

“The joys and hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the women and men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ” ("Gaudium et Spes," no. 1). With this now-famous line, the Second Vatican Council opened its “Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World” (1965). This passage immediately came to mind this morning as I heard of the U. S. Supreme Court decision (Obergefell v. Hodges) that upheld the constitutional right to same-sex marriage. My personal response was...

June 25, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) – Following a declaration by the Mexican Supreme Court nullifying state laws prohibiting “marriage” to people of the same sex, Nuevo Laredo Bishop Gustavo Rodríguez Vega has issued his own declaration along with the clergy of his diocese, assuring the faithful that he will suffer imprisonment rather than cooperate with such unions. “They can’t require an institution like this Church to go against its principles,” the archdiocesan clergy are quoted as saying in various local and national news reports. “Let the Supreme Court send the bishops and the priests to jail, whomever they want, but the...

With same-sex marriage declared constitutional in all 50 states, some Supreme Court justices worry that religious freedom will face unprecedented challenges in coming years. In his dissent, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote, “Today’s decision, for example, creates serious questions about religious liberty. Many good and decent people oppose same-sex marriage as a tenet of faith, and their freedom to exercise religion is — unlike the right imagined by the majority — actually spelled out in the Constitution.”In his decision, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote that those who object to same-sex marriage because of religious beliefs still enjoy constitutional rights to “advocate”...

Pope Francis recently released a new encyclical. Portions of it deal with environmentalism, global warming, and climate change. Naturally, this has prompted controversy. It’s noteworthy that Francis didn’t merely make a passing comment on global warming during this or that sermon, but that he issued a papal encyclical on the matter. Encyclicals are much more formal and significant than remarks made during mass. They are letters written by a pope and sent to bishops all around the world. In turn, the bishops are meant to disseminate the encyclical’s ideas to all the priests and churches in their jurisdiction, so that...

Societies across the globe are engaged in conversations to redefine marriage. Media debates, election-day balloting, and governmental court rulings have provided the platform for this redefinition. We believe a biblical view of marriage involves a monogamous, covenantal relationship between a man and a woman. Jesus said, “At the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one...

Statement by the Chancery of the Diocese of Chicago and Mid-America on the Issue of Homosexual Marriage to the Clergy and Flock of the Diocese Statement from the Diocesan Chancery on the Contemporary Question of Homosexual Marriage to the Clergy and Flock of the Diocese March 16/29, 2013 Martyrs Sabinus and Papas Updated November 8/21, 2014 Archangel Michael and All the Bodiless Powers Updated June 13/26, 2015 Martyr Aquilina of Byblos in Syria Today the United States Supreme Court ruled that homosexual marriage is a constitutional right in the United States of America. Given the ubiquitous coverage the news media...

Texas Senator and Presidential Candidate Ted Cruz said 2 Supreme Court rulings were so wrong they constitute one of the “darkest periods” in US history. I can not even begin to understand the blinders you’d need to wear to make such a callous statement as this. Slavery. Lynchings. Trail of Tears. Triangle shirtwaste factory. Hiroshima. Nagasaki. My Lai. Kent State. 9/11. Hurricane Katrina. When we first learned about Abu Ghrab. 115 migrants dead in the Texas borderlands in 2014. Even Charleston just last week. These were dark days folks. People dying is a dark day. People dying because we killed...

Armenian Catholic Patriarch of Cilicia Nerses Bedros XIX passed away Thursday, June 25 after suffering a heart attack, media reported, according to The Daily Star. The renowned Egyptian patriarch, who resided in Lebanon, was widely known for serving the Armenian community and promoting its interests. The patriarch had visited Armenian communities in Europe, the Middle East and the U.S. to boost Armenian catholic schools. At his request, the archbishop of Mardine Ignace Maloyan, martyr of the Armenian Genocide of 1915, was proclaimed blessed by Pope John Paul II at St. Peter's Square in Rome. The Catholicos Patriarch also sent the...

On June 27, 2015 five out nine Supreme Court Justices redefined the definition of marriage for the entire country. This video discusses the areas in which this decision affects the Catholic Church. REFERENCES FOR MATERIAL USED IN VIDEO: - http://www.davidlgray.info/blog/2015/06/gay-marriage

Please see link I'm not good at posting text And no humble gunner it's not my blog

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)A U.S. bishop says homosexuals will be able to attend a global meeting of Catholic families in Philadelphia during a visit by Pope Francis. About 15,000 people are expected to attend lectures and take part in workshops during that five-day event in September, aimed at strengthening sacred family bonds. The pontiff will visit during the last two days of the meeting. Same-sex parents are becoming a reality despite religious and civil laws. The Catholic Church has firmly opposed same-sex marriages, but Pope Francis has expressed more tolerance for homosexuality than his predecessors. On Thursday, a U.S. bishop visiting the Vatican...

<p>Homosexuals can attend a Catholic family congress in Philadelphia during Pope Francis' U.S. visit this year but won't be allowed to use it to attack Church teachings, the city's archbishop said on Thursday.</p> <p>"We don't want to provide a platform at the meeting for people to lobby for positions contrary to the life of our Church," said Archbishop Charles Chaput. The Catholic Church teaches homosexuality is not sinful but homosexual acts are.</p>

As I write this, the Supreme Court has handed down what will be the “Roe v. Wade” of marriage, redefining marriage in all 50 states. This is a sober moment, and I am a conscientious dissenter from this ruling. The Court now has disregarded thousands of years of definition of the most foundational unit of society, and the cultural changes here will be broad and deep. So how should the church respond? First of all, the church should not panic. The Supreme Court can do many things, but the Supreme Court cannot get Jesus back in that tomb. Jesus of...