Free Republic

[Catholic Caucus] Amid funeral controversy, will Dolan watch the pitch?When he sat down for his satellite radio show this week, Cardinal Timothy Dolan likely knew exactly what he’d be asked about. As he talked about Lenten fish fries and the Kansas City Chiefs’ Harrison Butker, he probably knew what was coming next. But when he was eventually asked about a controversial funeral at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dolan seemed to hope he could skip the topic. “[People] are sick of hearing about it, aren’t they?” he asked his co-host. “I don’t [know], what do you do?” he continued.By most accounts, the...

For basically the entire Biden presidency, the corporate media have been trying to sell Americans on the idea that the economy is as good as it could possibly be, given the circumstances. But the messaging hasn’t resonated with voters, and the President’s poll numbers on the economy remain well underwater. In response, Biden’s frustrated media allies have started complaining about voter ignorance and bemoaning that he has been denied “credit” for the “fantastic” economy. Unfortunately for these self-appointed Biden surrogates in the media, telling voters not to believe their lying wallets is not a winning campaign strategy. If Americans continue...

There are numerous reports today quoting an anonymous Hamas official in Qatar as saying that Hamas estimates only 6,000 terrorists killed, not the 12,000 Israel estimates.Who is telling the truth?Let's look at the full Reuters quote in context:Furthermore, according to Hamas, the total victory promised by Netanyahu won't be quick or easy.A Hamas official based in Qatar told Reuters that the group estimated it had lost 6,000 fighters during the four-month-old conflict, half the 12,000 Israel says it has killed.Gaza's ruling group can keep fighting and is prepared for a long war in Rafah and Gaza, said the official, who...

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre made a bizarre and false claim that Joe Biden, who doesn’t know where he is most of the time, “does more in one hour than most people do in a day.” Reporters began questioning Biden’s mental acuity after Special Counsel Robert Hur released a report describing the president as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” The report read: “We have also considered that, at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a...

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre defended President Joe Biden to reporters, who asked if there is a “different sort of level of vigor that is perhaps not as visible” in the 81-year-old president. A reporter asked the White House press secretary if there is, perhaps, a different level of “vigor” displayed by Biden behind the scenes — a level the American people are not seeing. This theme is on everyone’s minds following the damning report from special counsel Robert Hur, who essentially concluded that they will not prosecute Biden in his classified documents case, repeatedly pointing to his deteriorating...

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) suggests that Russian influence has manipulated opponents of a border compromise that could usher in 5,000 or more migrants per day.Parroting similar talking points about Russian influence to Hillary Clinton’s failed 2016 presidential campaign, Rounds seems to suggest that Russian disinformation about the border components or a broader deal, including aid to Ukraine, is to blame for the yet-unseen deal’s opposition.Rounds said Wednesday, “I suspect that a lot of the internet rumors are very well coming from overseas, where they would love to see this shut down because some people would rather not see funding for...

[Catholic Caucus] Statement From Suspended Kentucky TLM Priests As some readers may be aware, two Missionaries of Saint John the Baptist priests who celebrate (exclusively) the TLM at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Park Hills, Kentucky, had their faculties removed by the bishop of Covington.I met both of them a few years ago, impressed these former Fathers of Mercy were able to start a new religious community that -- unlike the Fathers of Mercy -- uses the traditional Latin books, while preserving the parish mission and homiletics apostolate their former community is known for within the conservative novus ordo...

There’s something wrong with previous U.S. jobs reports. The government quietly erased 439,000 jobs through November 2023, a closer look at the numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows. That means its initial jobs results were inflated by 439,000 positions, and the job market is not as healthy as the government suggests. Since the government wiped out 439,000 jobs after the fact, the total percentage of jobs created by the government last year is even higher. Increased government hiring has been driving the jobs numbers higher. This matters because U.S. jobs reports move the markets and U.S. Treasury yields....

A report by the OECD indicates Ireland had no excess deaths during the pandemic years 2020 to 2022, suggesting many of the thousands who died “with COVID” would have died anyway. The Irish government, notorious for its panicked approach to the coronavirus, targeted its religious citizens for some of its harshest antivirus measures, outlawing going to church for more than a third of the year 2021. Ireland’s ban on in-person religious worship went into effect in late 2020 and endured until May of 2021, despite widespread criticism.

The lies coming from Biden and the press will come fast and furious in the coming months as the false promises of “Bidenomics” become more apparent. Joe Biden has a New Year’s resolution for the media: “Start reporting the right way” on the economy. You would never guess from Biden’s admonition that news coverage of “Bidenomics” has been overwhelmingly positive—in fact, borderline sycophantic. What Biden was upset about was the media noticing—with a patronizing glance—that voters are unhappy. And unfortunately for Biden, that’s just a fact. Perhaps Biden can draw on his reserves of “decency” and “empathy” to put himself...

Stop me if you've heard this one before: The Biden administration misled the American people about a major foreign policy issue. According to a new report, the claim that the infamous Chinese spy balloon was blocked from transmitting data as it flew across the mainland United States was false. Astonishingly, the balloon was allowed to connect to a domestic telecommunications service. That connection was then used to send "burst transmissions" back to China, and it's unlikely it was transmitting take-out orders.The balloon connected to a U.S.-based company, according to the assessment, to send and receive communications from China, primarily related...

Officer Byron Evans and seven black Capitol Police Officers sued Brandon Straka and several Trump supporters under the KKK Act for “racist” attacks on him and seven other police officers on January 6, 2021. Officer Evans sued Brandon Straka and Roger Stone who was not even at the US Capitol that day along with leaders of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys and others. Brandon Straka released video on Wednesday of Officer Byron Evans admitting he was watching the January 6 protests on a TV in a room in a secure location. CNN let the cat out of the bag

Presidential historian Michael Beschloss said Saturday on MSNBC’s “American Voices” that former President Donald Trump intentionally uses language that “led to the Holocaust.” Beschloss said, “Absolutely, and provide Hitler with an easy way to blame the many ills of Germany 1924 after World War I, one group which was Jewish people as well as some others but it was mainly Jews. And for Donald Trump as a former president and possible future president to use that language, knowing that that language led to the Holocaust, he knows what he’s doing, and he thinks it works.”

CNN anchor Jake Tapper said Sunday on his show “State of the Union” that it was “stunning” former President Donald Trump was quoting Russian President Vladimir Putin on persecution of political rivals. Saturday, at a rally, Trump said, “Vladimir Putin, of Russia, said that Biden’s persecution of his political rival is very good for Russia because it shows the rottenness of the American political system, which can not pretend to teach others about democracy.”

President Joe Biden is unlikely to attempt to ratify the pledge his administration made at the recently-concluded United Nations (U.N.) climate summit to transition away from fossil fuels, Republican lawmakers and legal experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation. The U.S. joined nearly 200 other countries in committing to a pledge to transition away from fossil fuels and embrace green energy on Wednesday, the last day of the conference. Republican lawmakers and legal experts told the DCNF that Biden will not bring the pledge to the Senate for a ratification vote, criticizing its underlying rationale and the administration for unilaterally...

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal Gregory: "Tradition dies a slow death, sometimes a bloody death"On Wednesday 6 December, the Archbishop of Washington, Wilton Cardinal Gregory, took part in an event at the Catholic University of America as part of their Presidential Speaker Series, entitled "Celebrating Diversity" (h/t Diane Montagna). The full video can be found below, as well as on YouTube. In this talk, His Eminence notes that "even our American Catholic comfort zone can be rattled by the vastness of God's family of cultures, languages, and expressions of Catholic worship; so much diversity can throw some people off balance and quite...

House report: FBI continues to consider issuing a warning about ‘radical traditionalist Catholics’‘The FBI still apparently desires to convey that some Catholic Americans with traditional beliefs pose a domestic terror threat to our country,’ the House Committee noted.A House Weaponization Committee report published Monday reveals that FBI employees are still discussing how to disseminate a bureau-wide memo identifying so-called “Radical Traditionalist Catholic Ideology” as a magnet for “violent extremists.”The House Judiciary Committee yesterday shared the findings of its investigation in a bombshell memo issued by the FBI Richmond, Virginia Field Office earlier this year that targeted Catholics who attend the...

With a foreign aid package scheduled to hit the Senate floor as early as this week, eleven Senate Democrats issued a joint statement to demand that any agreement to tighten U.S. asylum laws and improve border security also include an amnesty for illegal aliens. The Democrats who signed the statement included Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Alex Padilla (D. Calif.), Chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship and Border Safety. They were joined by Senators Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Edward Markey (D-Mass.), Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Jeff...

[Catholic Caucus] Milwaukee response to clergy complaint raises questionsWhile Pope Francis has urged diocesan bishops to take more seriously the canonical discipline of clerics, the outgoing chairman of the U.S. bishops’ canonical affairs committee has not taken steps to address canonically reports of public cohabitation by a senior-ranking official in his archdiocese. A spokesperson for Archbishop Jerome Listecki of Milwaukee told The Pillar that the archdiocese has “spoken with” judicial vicar Fr. Mark Payne, who hired as a parish schoolteacher last year a layperson with whom he had maintained a public romantic relationship, and with whom he has shared a...

[Catholic Caucus] Bishop Strickland responds to accusations of diocesan mismanagement that led to his removalOn this week’s episode of The Bishop Strickland Show, Bishop Joseph Strickland tells his side of the story in response to the accusations of mismanagement surrounding his dismissal as bishop of Tyler, Texas.On this week’s episode of The Bishop Strickland Show, Bishop Joseph Strickland addresses the allegations of mismanagement surrounding his dismissal as bishop of Tyler, Texas, discusses the concept of reverence, and offers brief commentary on the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) meeting in Baltimore that took place earlier this month. Strickland begins...