Free Republic

Influential Catholics—many of them supporters of Barack Obama—are advancing a proposition that may have the result of sullying the reputations of Catholic conservatives and those Catholics arguing for a robust market economy.They couch their arguments in Catholic Social Teaching; the common good, political community, love for the poor, subsidiarity. They compare this over against libertarianism; a radical individualism where each man sets and makes his own course that—damn all the rest—leads to his flourishing unless the heavy hand of the state interrupts it. Above all—to radical individualists—the State is the Enemy. Except some of what these people call libertarianism,...

S.F. Archbishop's Imposition Of Morality Clause At Schools Outrages Many By LEE ROMNEY San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone sparked a protest last summer when he ignored pleas from public officials to cancel his plans to march in Washington, D.C., against same-sex marriage. Now Cordileone has prompted fresh outrage in the liberal Bay Area by imposing morality clauses on teachers, staff and administrators at the four high schools under his control in San Francisco, Marin and San Mateo counties. A newly released handbook asks the nearly 500 school employees to "affirm and believe" that "adultery, masturbation, fornication, the viewing of...

The federal government is stepping into the void of decades of inattentiveness to religious identity at several Catholic colleges. The chapel at St. Mary's College of California in Moraga is seen in a 2009 photo. (CNS photo/courtesy St. Mary's College of California) While many Catholics have been concerned for decades about professors at Catholic colleges denying core Church teachings on theological issues, as well as about disputes over women’s ordination, same-sex marriage, and abortion on Catholic campuses, few Catholic college leaders have been willing to enforce the requirements of Ex Corde Ecclesiae, which mandates that Catholic college faculty teach in...

The Irish are a people known for their pithy proverbs. Well, here’s one the committee that organizes the New York City St. Patrick’s Day parade should take to heart: There’s nothing so bad that it couldn’t be worse.As part of a well-publicized “compromise,” the committee has said it will allow both a gay advocacy group and an explicitly pro-life group to march in this year’s parade. The gay advocacy group was selected back in September. The 2015 parade is five weeks away. As of this writing, the identity of the pro-life group remains a mystery.Last fall, the parade gave...

President Obama, during his National Prayer Breakfast speech, Thursday: "No god condones terror. No grievance justifies the taking of innocent lives or the oppression of those who are weaker of fewer in number." All people at all times and locations have the right to defend themselves from terror. Despite Obama's words that have clearly angered people, we can see the following as an example: Christians within the confines of the Byzantine Empire had a right to defend themselves from Muslims who terrorized them, but we all know that Pope Urban II could in no way possible know that anyone who...

FULL TITLE: On Losing Streak in Courts, Obama Administration Goes After Nuns’ TV Network with Abortion Drugs Mandate ATLANTA — In the latest federal court case impacting abortion policy, last Wednesday the voice of the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) was finally heard as they presented oral arguments against the Obama Administration at the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. The face of the Obamacare juggernaut, HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell, is set on enforcing the highly-contested contraceptive services provision, which mandates coverage of abortion-inducing drugs — despite the federal government racking up a series of recent Supreme Court losses on...

UK Minister's Car Insurance Says Jesus Bumper Stickers Violates Policy, Could Lead to Canceled Coverage An elderly British minister was warned by her car insurance company that her auto coverage could be voided because of the Jesus-phrased decals that she put on her vehicle. The Rev. Wena Parry, a 75-year-old minister of Independent Congregational Church in South Wales who loves to drive around with phrases like "Christ is My Lord," decaled onto her car, told BBC that she was informed in a letter from her insurance provider, Age UK Insurance, that putting such "modifications" on her car violated her auto...

LOS ANGELES – Much of the audience attending the Grammy Awards on Sunday donned light-up devil horns for the opening performance of the annual event—a presentation of the AC/DC hit “Highway to Hell.” “Party time/My friends are gonna be there too/I’m on the highway to Hell,” the Australian rock band blared out as flames blazed on the jumbotron behind them, along with pyrotechnic effects. “Hey Satan/Payin’ my dues … I’m on the highway to Hell/Don’t stop me.” The group had been introduced by rapper LL Cool J, as the audience stood to their feet. “To kick off the 52 second...

One Sunday, Robert Latimer carried his 12-year-old daughter to the family pickup truck parked in the barn. He placed the girl, disabled by cerebral palsy, in the vehicle and started the engine. He closed the doors and asphyxiated Tracy to death. Latimer become something of a hero among many Canadians, supported as a loving father for murdering his daughter, for which he served time in prison. Now the child killer has come out in support of the recent Canadian Supreme Court decision that will bring doctor-facilitated death to Canada’s disabled, elderly, dying, and mentally ill despairing citizens. From the CKOM...

President Obama took to the podium of the National Prayer Breakfast to criticize the “terrible deeds” . . . committed “in the name of Christ” throughout the pass two thousand years or so. "And lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ," he said. "In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ." While the president is right that slavery supporters often sought out validation in...

The internet blinked in disbelief today after a BBC programme held a serious discussion on whether Jesus and Buddha were aliens from other planets. The 23-minute segment on the BBC's The Big Questions TV show tackled the question: "Have beings from other planets guided our religions?" The discussion on Sunday included the head of the Aetherius Society, which believes that Buddha, Jesus and Krishna came from outer space. (snip) "It will be no surprise to the followers of those religions who've long believed that life - possibly not as we know it - exists elsewhere in the galaxy. Life which...

During Thursday’s National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, NASCAR great Darrell Waltrip shared his Christian testimony with the thousands gathered, including Barack and Michelle Obama and the Dalai Lama, stating that he thought he was once a pretty good person, but “good people” go to Hell without Christ. Waltrip, a NASCAR Hall of Fame recipient with 84 wins, spoke about the importance of coming to Christ and becoming a new creature before approximately 4,000 attendees, which hailed from 170 countries worldwide. He spent most of his talk sharing his story of how God changed his life from being a man that...

DEARBORN, Mich. – A former contractor for Ford Motor Company has filed a religious discrimination complaint, alleging that he was fired for speaking against the company’s support of homosexuality. Thomas Banks has worked as a design and release engineer for Ford since 2011—that is until last August when he was fired on an accusation that he had violated the company’s “anti-harassment” policy for responding to an email employee newsletter from the company. The newsletter contained an article regarding the 20th anniversary of Ford’s Gay, Lesbian Or Bisexual Employees advocacy group (GLOBE). Banks replied with a comment to express disagreement.

Washington D.C., Feb 7, 2015 / 05:09 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The U.S. bishops and several other Catholic and pro-life groups are asking Congress to nullify two new Washington, D.C. laws that they say could choke their ability to operate according to their religious beliefs. The legislation amounts to “unprecedented assaults upon our organizations,” the coalition of groups stated in a letter to all members of Congress. “Both laws violate the freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of association protected by the First Amendment and other federal law.” After a bill is signed into law by the D.C. mayor,...

A father in Armenia says that he is refusing to give up his down syndrome son even though his wife has divorced him over his decision to keep the baby. Samuel Forrest told reporters this week that in Armenian culture, children with down syndrome are viewed as bringing shame upon a family. So when his wife, Ruzan Badalyn, gave birth last month to a baby boy with the condition, she would have nothing to do with him. According to Forrest, Badalyn wouldn’t touch or even look at the baby, who has been named Leo. “What happens when a baby like...

The heart-wrenching yet inspiring story of Jong-rak Lee, a pastor who has made his life's mission to save abandoned babies left on the streets of Seoul, South Korea, is coming to theaters on March 3rd by way of a Focus on the Family documentary titled The Drop Box. Since 2009, Pastor Lee has taken society's most vulnerable members--unwanted babies--into his home through a "Drop Box," where the infants could be dropped off rather than left on the streets to die. The Drop Box is equipped with lights and a heater and reads in Korean, "Please don't throw away unwanted or...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - About 100 people attended a vigil outside the Roman Catholic cathedral in San Francisco on Friday to protest the local archbishop's move to require teachers at four Catholic high schools to lead their public lives inside the classroom and out in accordance with church teachings on homosexuality, birth control and other hot-button issues. The protest, which also included songs and prayers, came as Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone was holding mass for teachers from parochial schools throughout the three-county Archdiocese of San Francisco and then meeting with high school teachers to answer questions about changes he wants to...

Bill and Susan—not their real names—are foreign missionaries out in the field. Prior to this, Bill ministered as a pastor in the US. Married for 12 years and with 4 children, their work has been thriving and included the planting of a new church. However…. Last year, things took a turn for the worse—both in their marriage and ministry....

A few years ago, people exploring caves outside Jerusalem came across the find of a lifetime: an ancient burial cave containing the remains of a crucified man. This find is only one in a series of finds that overturns a century-old scholarly consensus. That consensus held that the Gospels are almost entirely proclamation and contain little, if any, real history. The remains belonged to a man who had been executed in the first century A.D., that is, from the time of Jesus. As Jeffrey Sheler writes in his book Is the Bible True? the skeleton confirms what the evangelists wrote...

WEST WYOMING — In a voice soft with contrition, Father Leo McKernan confessed. “Poor judgment on my part,” he said when we spoke on the phone. Now the good people of the parish of St. Monica must decide whether to forgive this man known for his rabid anti-abortion views and dedication to what the church calls “pro-life.” The Roman Catholic priest from the Diocese of Scranton admitted he was wrong to approve the showing of a 14-minute “movie” to a religious instruction class of 11-year-olds, sixth-grade innocents who will shape the soul of the Church for generations to come. No...