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VATICAN, November 28, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – One of the highest ranking cardinals in the Vatican has said that the United States is “well on the way” to the persecution of Christians. Cardinal Raymond Burke Cardinal Raymond Burke, former Archbishop of St. Louis and now the head of the Vatican’s highest court, told Catholic News Agency that he could envision a time when the Catholic Church in the U.S., “even by announcing her own teaching,” is accused of “engaging in illegal activity, for instance, in its teaching on human sexuality.” Asked if the cardinal could even see American Catholics being arrested...

House Democrats today filed a brief in support of a legal challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act, the 1996 law that defines marriage as between one man and one woman. The amicus brief filed by 133 Democrats, including the party’s top leaders, maintains that Congress hastily passed legislation during President Bill Clinton’s presidency to limit who can marry and asserts that the law is unconstitutional. The brief was filed in a consolidated court case being considered in the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, although a release said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and other top Democratic leaders...

Dr. Ron Crews, executive director of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty. (AP Photo.) (CNSNews.com) – A national group representing more than 2,000 military chaplains from evangelical Christian and Orthodox backgrounds said on Wednesday that the Pentagon has launched a “direct assault” on marriage, and the chaplains they endorse will not be allowed to perform same-sex wedding ceremonies under any circumstances.Dr. Ron Crews, executive director of the newly formed Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, said his 2,000-plus membership is concerned about a Sept. 30 Pentagon memorandum that authorizes chaplains and military chapel facilities to be used for “any private ceremony,”...

The Peacemakers Institute Author: Rev. Cary K. Gordon A sermon on the spiritual and legal ramifications of “Nature and Nature’s God�, and its direct correlation with what Americanism truly is, outlining what must be done if America is to be saved from its current trend toward ruin. Select here:The Doctrine of Natural Law to watch Rev. Gordon’s opening message for Cornerstone’s “Homecoming 2011″ Convention, preached on August 7th, 2011!

One of the fundamental truths about the founding tenets of this nation is that our ordering principles — the basis of our laws, our conception of rights, the purposes to which government is supposed to obtain — are built upon the acknowledgement of and respect for natural law. Natural law presupposes that there are absolute standards of right and wrong, and carries with it the necessary understanding that this natural law, far from being the product of random happenstance or social consensus, is instead instituted by the Divine authority of a Creator God who formed the world in which we...

Natural Law - The Ultimate Source of Constitutional Law"Man ... must necessarily be subject to the laws of his Creator.. This will of his Maker is called the law of nature.... This law of nature...is of course superior to any other.... No human laws are of any validity, if contrary to this: and such of them as are valid derive all their force...from this original." - Sir William Blackstone (Eminent English Jurist) The Founders DID NOT establish the Constitution for the purpose of granting rights. Rather, they established this government of laws (not a government of men) in order...

1) Divine laws exist that men did NOT make, and these “natural laws� are good. 2) Government is limited by the REALITY of natural laws. 3) Laws exist that men DID make, and these “human laws� are often bad because they deny the REALITY of natural and Divine law. 4) Law is the material necessary for the construction of a human conscience, and every human being has a conscience built with either good or bad law. 5) Government cannot save the human soul, but can encourage either its redemption or damnation, therefore, it must also be restrained by the Divine...

I believe that one of MLK's greatest works is his "Letter from the Birmingham Jail," dated April 16, 1963. This seminal writing established the moral foundations of Natural Law as the basis for the Constitution and eloquently connected it to the non-violent civil-rights demonstrations of the Birmingham campaign. King's letter was a reply to an open letter "A Call For Unity," signed by eight white clergymen of Birmingham published in the Birmingham News on the day he was arrested. The "Call For Unity" was critical of the protests and provocative acts organized in Birmingham by "outsiders" and urged more tolerance,...

5. The Professor of Political Law shall deliver Lectures on Natural and National Law, Political Economy, Metaphysics, Government and History. The Text Book on Natural and National Law shall be Vattel, with reference to Rutherforth's Institutes.

Above America's original sin of slavery and our existential sin of abortion, I call our greatest international sin exporting democracy around the world rather than republicanism founded under Natural Law, which was the original intent of the framers... Imagine Muslim caliphates in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Libya; communism and state socialism in South America, China, Russia, Europe; Marxist unionism exploding in Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, California, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey. While circumstances are different, the ends are inevitably the same: Absent a republic under Natural Law and the Bible, democracy = mobocracy = genocide.

Dr. Robert George asked a question which provoked a response being labeled as a sign of a division in the "conservative" movement in America. ..."Is conservatism a three-legged stool or not?" Dr. George used the imagery of the late Ronald Reagan...I am a great admirer of the late Ronald Reagan. Like many other Catholics... The three legs are social conservatives, foreign policy conservatives and economic conservatives. The late President Reagan built an alliance of these three groups of conservatives which changed the political landscape of the Nation. The American Conservative Union (ACU) is the sponsor of the annual Conservative Political...

I knew I was inviting a headache from the moment I saw the title. "Cairo Sunshine All Around the World" is a Huffington Post article by Raffi Cavoukian, the Egyptian-born Canadian singer who brought us "Baby Beluga" and "Bananaphone" under the mononym Raffi. Are we witnessing the emergence of a new fundamental human right -- the right of citizens to connect via social media -- the digital right to communicate? Does any nation that disrupts or suspends the people's right to communicate by this most democratic of means thus not suspend its own legitimacy? Further on, he discovers another emergent...

Benedict XVI to the New Ambassador from Hungary: Legislative initiatives which value alternative relationships and family models, will promote the relativization of legislation and awareness of values in society. Rome (kath.net/as)This morning Pope Benedict received in audience the new Ambassador of the Republic of Hungary to the Holy See, Gábor Győriványi. In his German address, the Holy Father recalled the reinstatement of diplomatic relations with the Holy See and the Hungarian Republic in 1990 and expresse the hope, "that the deep wounds of the materialistic conception of man, which after 45 long years years will strengthen and heal the heart...

I wish to undertake a critical analysis of the incomplete works of attorneys Orly Taitz, Phil Berg, and Mario Apuzzo, concerning the meaning and definition of "natural born Citizen" within the political context and intent of Article II. It is my contention that none of the attorneys working on exposing the illegal usurper known as Barack Obama have described any valid theory of law that properly explains why Obama cannot possibly qualify to be President under Article II. I will show what I believe are their mistakes and limitations and expose their incomplete efforts as failed hypotheses rather than valid...

What makes some laws worth obeying, while others demand to be overturned? In Part 4, Bill examines the difference between Natural Law and Political Law.

- Catholic Exchange - http://catholicexchange.com - Two in One Flesh: Marriage in Nature, in the Church and in Civil SocietyPosted By Francis Cardinal George, OMI On October 7, 2010 @ 12:00 am In The Bishops Speak | No Comments In the Archdiocese of Chicago, on Sept. 19, about 350 couples renewed their marriage vows during the annual Mass to celebrate the anniversary of those married 50 years. In reflecting on their 50 years together, some couples wrote that the best part of being married was the companionship of a husband or wife who could always be counted on, in good...

Bashing Blackstone: The Reconstructionists’ Attack in America’s Culture War [An initial version of this article was published in Rare Jewel Magazine, March-April 2005] Sir William Blackstone, the eminent Eighteenth Century English law professor and author of Commentaries on the Laws of England, has wielded incalculable effects on law in America for the past 225 years. His Commentaries were the law textbook in Great Britain and the United States well after their initial publication. “Bashing Blackstone” is an invisible but critical dimension of the Reconstructionists (liberal/activist) attack in American’s Culture War. We Constitutionalists must therefore arm ourselves with a basic knowledge...

Now, let us begin this short visit back into the year of 1803 and the wisdom & patriotism of Thomas Jefferson from his time in the Virginia state legislature… But are there no inconveniences to be thrown into the scale against the advantage expected from a multiplication of numbers by the importation of-foreigners ? It is for the happiness of those united in society to harmonize as much as possible in matters which they must of necessity transact together. Civil government being the sole object of forming societies, its administration must be conducted by common consent. Every species of government...

The art of interpretaing the Constitution & the original intent of the founders is not rocket science. As Justice Joseph Story stated, it’s mostly just good ole plain & obvious common sense: In the first place, then, every word employed in the constitution is to be expounded in its plain, obvious, and common sense, unless the context furnishes some ground to control, qualify, or enlarge it. Constitutions are not designed for metaphysical or logical subtleties, for niceties of expression, for critical propriety, for elaborate shades of meaning, or for the exercise of philosophical acuteness, or juridical research. They are instruments...

The Rule of Law We’ve lost the original definition of “Rule of Law.” Republicans abused it badly during the Clinton impeachment trials, but both parties bear responsibility for the perversion of this important concept. Hayek gives us the classical definition: “Government in all its actions is bound by rules fixed and announced beforehand--rules which make it possible to foresee with fair certainty how the authority will use its coercive powers in given circumstances and to plan ones individual affairs on the basis of this knowledge." He explains that the Rule of Law should not be ad hoc, but it should...

Letter to the Editor by Beth Rogers EDITOR'S NOTE: Beth Rogers is a frequent contributor to RFFM.org and a pro-family political activist. Rogers, who hails from Springfield, Illinois, is one of the most influential socially conservative leaders in the state. Proponents of "gay" rights have said many times what others do in their bedroom doesn't affect anyone else and is no one's business. The recent circumstances at the University of Illinois prove otherwise as a university professor shared his beliefs on natural moral laws and then was fired for his opinion. Professor Kenneth Howell's firing is only one example of...

"Teaching a student about the tenets of a religion is one thing. Declaring that homosexual acts violate the natural laws of man is another." Here in one simple sentence is the real danger this whole matter exposes. This is PRECISELY the Catholic claim! Homosexual sexual acts violate the Natural Law. Catholics insist that there is such a Natural Law, "present in the heart of each man and established by reason." This law "is universal in its precepts and its authority extends to all men. It expresses the dignity of the person and determines the basis for his fundamental rights and...

Over the course of American history, there has been no greater conflict of visions than that between Thomas Jefferson’s voluntary republic, founded on the natural right of peaceful secession, and Abraham Lincoln’s permanent empire, founded on the violent denial of that same right. That these two men somehow shared a common commitment to liberty is a lie so monstrous and so absurd that its pervasiveness in popular culture utterly defies logic. After all, Jefferson stated unequivocally in the Declaration of Independence that, at any point, it may become necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected...

“A miracle is a violation of the laws of nature; and as a firm and unalterable experience has established these laws, the proof against a miracle, from the very nature of the fact, is as entire as any argument from experience can possibly be imagined” (David Hume). That quote, taken from the Scottish philosopher David Hume, would summarize what the average person believes about miracles. Miracles are impossible because they violate laws of nature, and the very nature of these laws dictates that they are inviolable. Certainly in discussing the Christian faith with unbelievers the Christian evangelist often encounters this...

VATICAN CITY, DEC. 16, 2009 (Zenit.org).- A 12th-century scholar has a lesson for today on what makes for fair and equal treatment in law, Benedict XVI says.The Pope proposed today during the general audience the teaching of John of Salisbury, an English theologian and philosopher who served as bishop of Chartres, France, from 1176 until he died in 1180.The Holy Father explained how John taught that "there also exists an objective and immutable truth, whose origin is God, accessible to human reason. This truth regards practical and social actions. This is a natural law, from which human laws and political...

Our founders saw religion as the most powerful civilizing institution which could provide and sustain that moral base upon which our republic could be successfully built and without which, it would ultimately collapse like the Greeks before them. Consequently, they believed it to be imperative to encourage and support religion and did not see any 1st Amendment problem with governmental support of religion. Rather than depending upon external legal constraints and force to maintain order and peace, they had to rely upon individual self-restraint and self-control. But they realized that it is only reasonable to expect people to act that...

Notes of a Course of Lectures on Vattel's Law of Nations (1891) Author: James Houston Gilmore , Emer de Vattel Publisher: J. Blakey] Year: 1891 Possible copyright status: NOT_IN_COPYRIGHT Language: English Digitizing sponsor: Google Book contributor: University of Virginia Collection: americana http://www.archive.org/details/notesacourselec00vattgoog ___________________________________________________________________ The law of nations; or, Principles of the law of nature, applied to the conduct and affairs of nations and sovereigns. From the French of Monsieur de Vattel ... From the new ed. (1855) Author: Vattel, Emer de, 1714-1767; Chitty, Joseph, 1776-1841, ed; Ingraham, Edward D. (Edward Duncan), 1793-1854, ed Subject: International law; War (International law) Publisher:...

A Collection of Papers, which Passed Between the Late Learned Mr. Leibnitz ... (1717) Author: Samuel Clarke , Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Publisher: printed for James Knapton Year: 1717 Possible copyright status: NOT_IN_COPYRIGHT Language: English Digitizing sponsor: Google Book contributor: Oxford University Collection: europeanlibraries Notes: A gentleman of the University of Cambridge = John Bulkeley http://www.archive.org/details/acollectionpape00leibgoog

America's news media have enormous opinion-shaping power. Therefore it's vital for Catholics to understand how the media work, and especially how they work on us. As part of a White House press strategy to create good will before the president met with Pope Benedict XVI on July 10, President Obama met with a variety of Catholic journalists and editors. His goal was a sensible one: to favorably influence American Catholic opinion through their Catholic publications. One of the more curious questions President Obama got came from a Catholic editor who asked if the president was ready to "write off" America's...

The relations among nature, reason, and revelation are mysterious for both Protestants and Catholics. Consider John Paul II's remark that “the primary and definitive source for studying the intimate nature of the human being is the Most Holy Trinity.” Read carelessly, this might seem to imply the utter futility of philosophizing about the constitution of the human person; nothing would be left but ­theology. Not so, for revelation shines at least five different kinds of light on nature. First is the light of precept: God commands or forbids something that the mind itself can recognize as right or wrong. Certain...

By applying positivism instead of natural law, 19th century courts burdened American racial history to this day. When Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence that "all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness," he could not have meant then what we understand these words to mean today. When the framers of the government wrote in the Constitution that "No person shall be...deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law," and that the Constitution is "the supreme...

Pope Benedict XVI strongly reaffirmed the position of the Catholic Church that there is a Natural Law and that this Natural Law can be known by all men and women through the exercise of reason. He affirmed that this Natural Law has also made known to all men and women the existence of fundamental human rights which are binding upon all Nations and for all time: “The Church has always affirmed that fundamental rights, above and beyond the different ways in which they are formulated and the different degrees of importance they may have in various cultural contexts, are to...

(Note: David MacDonald is a Christian singer/artist who recently revealed that prior to his conversion he had been heavily involved in the gay lifestyle. Read his testimony here: www.GayTestimony.com) I hate to quote statistics, but Canada's largest gay paper XTRA recently reported that, "A group of six Canadian queers is taking on homophobia in Canada's healthcare system by filing a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission." Gens Hellquist, one of the complainants, is the executive director of the Canadian Rainbow Health Coalition. She explained at length her concerns about the health status of homosexual men and women in Canada,...

Cardinal Bertone says 'God is source and guarantor of all rights' Madrid, Feb 7, 2009 / 12:04 am (CNA).- The Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, said this week, “When the Magisterium of the Church speaks about human rights she does not forget to base them on God, the source and guarantor of all rights, nor does she forget to root them in the natural law.” During a speech marking the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at the offices of the Bishops’ Conference of Spain in Madrid, the cardinal recalled, “The source of rights is...

(At the link, click again for video or MP3.) -- For centuries, the idea that human beings have an inherent sense of right and wrong has intrigued political and religious thinkers. The notion of a “natural� moral law has been a key driver of much Christian political thought in the west. It has helped shape the development of religious freedom and the concept of rights, and its influence on America’s Founding Fathers was fundamental. In today’s post-modern society, however, the concept often prompts confusion and controversy. Even critics who might accept the reality of a moral law in theory wonder...

The church has always emphasized human rights, he continued, because “they are a universal given, since they form part of the very nature of humanity.” It is the natural law, which is “inscribed by the Creator in human consciousness,”

Pope Benedict asserted that natural law is "the authentic guarantee" of freedom and the defense against "any form of ideological manipulation..."

Updated 11/7/08 I have been bombarded lately with requests to revisit the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendments “subject to the jurisdiction thereof� language. Some desire confirmation whether the language simply implies temporary obedience to laws, while others want to confirm whether it requires something more direct and substantial. I’ll spare the reader a lengthy treatise by making this short and to the point. Perhaps the first most important thing to understand about national birthright is that there was no written national birthright rule until the year 1866. One will look in vain to find any national law on the subject...

Why are so many in conservative media so wilfully ignorant regarding the most significant challenge(s) to Barack Obama's status as a presidential candidate?  The question keeps getting asked and perhaps there are numerous answers.  Here are the answers right out of the horse's mouth, from one conservative pundit. I'll post below a running email conversation I've had with a conservative talk radio host, since I let him know about the "Ron Polarik, PhD." allegations about the Obama BC and about Leo Donofrio.  He is a local broadcaster, somewhere in the United States.  I'll call him "Chip Program." It is astounding...

We at American Vision are hearing rumblings from a number of people in the Christian community that Christians are being told not to engage the culture with a distinctly biblical approach to social and political issues. So what standard is a Christian to follow when evaluating the moral boundaries of society? Some Christians will claim that we aren’t to bother with what goes on in the world. Let the world go to the devil. Others claim that it’s just not the church’s calling. Abortion may be bad, but it’s not our job to say so to anyone outside the church....

A recent AP news report has concluded, after compiling the results of numerous studies over the years, that there is a strong and disturbing link between severe child abuse and non-traditional family environments. In the article' words: "[Scholars and caseworkers] note an ever increasing share of America's children grow up in homes without both biological parents, and say the risk of child abuse is markedly higher in the nontraditional family structures."  Examples of "nontraditional family structures" include: o  Children living in homes with unrelated adults (these children are "50 times more likely to die inflicted injuries as children living with biological parents"); and...

Vatican City, Oct 5, 2007 / 09:42 am (CNA).- This morning Pope Benedict XVI spoke with great force about how the study of natural law guarantees freedom and guards the dignity of all people. He also pointed out that contrary to the modern perception, majorities are not always right, but rather, that the natural law should prevail over pluralities as the measure of what is best for the common good. Speaking to Cardinal William Levada and the rest of the members of the International Theological Commission, who just completed their annual meeting, Benedict XVI pointed out the importance of their...

by Steven ErteltLifeNews.com EditorOctober 4, 2007Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A Catholic bishop who made national headlines yesterday with comments saying he would deny communion to pro-abortion Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani has gone further. Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis says the nation's Catholic bishops should establish guidelines for a national policy.Burke expressed his views in an essay that appeared in Periodica De Re Canonica, published by the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.The Catholic leader says parish priests should ensure that everyone takes communion in a worthy manner, with no one taking it if they have publicly stood against the...

Young Pastor's Powerful Sermon Encourages Parishioners to Take Part in Life Chain By Steve Jalsevac MANOTICK, Ontario, October 5, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - On Sunday, Sept. 23, a week before Canada's Life Chain Sunday, Fr. Geoff Kerslake gave what was seen as a powerful sermon encouraging his parishioners to take part in the local Life Chain the following Sunday. Fr. Geoff is the young pastor of St. Leonard's parish in Manotick, Ontario, located on the fringe of Canada's capital city of Ottawa. Fr. Geoff's sermon so encouraged one couple who heard it that they had the text re-printed in the bulletin...

VATICAN, October 5, 2007 (CWNews.com/LifeSiteNews.com) - By denying the existence of natural law, secularism is undermining the very foundations of democratic society, Pope Benedict XVI argued in an October 5 private audience with members of the International Theological Commission. Disregard for natural law, the Holy Father said, has caused "a crisis for human-- even more for Christian-- civilization." In response to that crisis, he continued, Church leaders should mobilize "both lay people and followers of religions other than Christianity" to reclaim a common moral tradition. The International Theological Commission had gathered in Rome this week to discuss a forthcoming document...

Canadian Catholic Priest/Politician Says He Supports Abortion on TV Show Also publicly supports homosexuality; local bishop still refuses to discipline priest By Marie-Christine Houle and John-Henry Westen MONTREAL, October 4, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Father Raymond Gravel, the Quebec priest turned federal politician, has once again brought scandal to the Catholic Church by publicly voicing his stand in favour of abortion. On a French-language television show, Gravel was presented as a Catholic priest and Bloc Québécois MP (Member of Parliament) for Repentigny debating an Imam. In an article published in Le Soleil, reporter Richard Therrien reports that the conversation between Gravel...

A Poem Fit for Our Times – ‘Me and My Friends’ Special to LifeSiteNews.com by Dr. John B. Shea, October 3, 2007 'Me and My Friends' For me and my friends To follow the trends Is simply a matter of choice Autonomy rules That all but poor fools Speak loud and speak clear with one voice Some talk of abortion With warning and caution But science has shown very well That it's safe and its normal That it's healthy and moral And that it sends no one to hell Some say that to toke Or to drink or to smoke...

Toronto Catholic School Board Bows to Secularism Commentary on inclusion of "sexual orientation" in Board's Workplace Harassment policy By Fr. Alphonse de Valk, editor Catholic Insight magazineFrom Oct. 2007 edition of Catholic Insight TORONTO, October 4, 2007 (catholicinsight.com) - Just before Catholic Insight went to press with its September edition, on August 15 we learned that in May 2007, the Toronto District Catholic School Board (TCDSB), in its document Workplace Harassment, had moved to prohibit all teachers and staff from complaining or objecting to "same-sex partner status." It turns out that two other unacceptable prohibitions had previously been imposed already;...

Archbishop Burke: Bishops Must Discipline Pro-Abortion Catholic Politicians Calls his brother bishops to task - “To remain silent is to permit serious confusion regarding a fundamental truth of the moral law" By Hilary White ST. LOUIS, September 11, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Writing in the latest edition of the Canon Law journal, Periodica De Re Canonica, Archbishop Raymond L. Burke, bishop of St. Louis, Missouri, has called his brother bishops to task for their silence on the problem of Catholic politicians who support abortion, euthanasia, cloning, embryo research, the homosexual political agenda or other legislation “contrary to the natural moral law.” Burke’s lengthy...

ARLINGTON, Virginia, August 24, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia, Chairman of the bishops’ Committee for Pro-Life Activities, identified the worship of a “a modern-day false idol,” as the greatest modern threat to the unborn. Rigali spoke at the annual conference of directors of diocesan pro-life offices in Arlington, Virginia, on August 2. Reflecting the work of pro-life writers warning against the infiltration of utilitarian “Bioethics” in the medical field, Rigali identified an “idolatrous gospel of total autonomy, sheer utility and false mercy,” as the philosophy pushing new attacks on human life. “Those who have blind faith in...