Free Republic

You have to read it to believe it. Here is the opening of today’s editorial on the front page of “L'Osservatore Romano”: “We know that Aleppo cannot be freed with bombs. Aleppo and Syria still need to be set free from misery, from the climate change that a few years ago drove men and women to migrate from the rural areas, that destabilized the demographic equilibrium and triggered the first Syrian revolts and then the war.” The author of this mind-boggling analysis of the Syrian crisis is Carlo Triarico. But the readers of the pope’s newspaper are not told that...

“To stay together and to know how to love each other for ever is the challenge Christian married couples face,” Pope Francis said during an unusual meeting on February 14—Valentine’s Day—with more than 10,000 engaged couples. The meeting, organized by the Pontifical Council for the Family, drew a far larger audience than Vatican officials had expected. Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, whose office arranged the day’s events, conceded that “numbers are not everything,” but was clearly happy with the attendance of so many young couples, telling L’Osservatore Romano that “their enthusiasm says a lot.” The day’s events began with a series...

Why is Vatican paper reviewing Avatar, the Simpsons? L’Osservatore Romano, the famously staid semi-official mouthpiece of the Catholic Church, has been seeking to remake its image, panning the blockbuster 'Avatar' but praising Homer Simpson and forgiving John Lennon for his 'more popular than Jesus' comment.

President Barack Obama Vatican City, Nov 30, 2009 / 11:46 am (CNA).- L’Osservatore Romano (LOR) published an article last week reminding U.S. President Barack Obama that the number of Americans who oppose abortion continues to be on the rise. This was recently demonstrated by the nearly 200,000 signatures to the "Manhattan Declaration," a document drafted by various Christian leaders in defense of life, marriage, the family and religious freedom. LOR said: "The political and spiritual weight of the Manhattan Declaration is thus evident" as "this is a crucial moment for the Obama administration since the president's credibility is at...

Imagine that you are creating a fabric of human destiny with the object of making men happy in the end, giving them peace and rest at last — but that it was essential and inevi­table to torture to death only one tiny creature . . . and to found that edifice on its unavenged tears, would you con­sent to be the architect on those conditions? Tell me, and tell the truth — The Brothers Karamazov. + + + A dangerous and divisive precedent is being set by the hi­jacking of L’Osservatore Romano, at the hands of its editor, Giovanni Maria...