Free Republic

One of the things I am beginning to like about Francis is that he challenges me, he makes me ask questions, especially about mercy. "Am I merciful? How far mercy should be extended? Is there a limit to it? Where does it end?" The test came with the celebration of a Requiem Mass for the murderer and war criminal Erich Priebke, who was responsible for the deaths 335 Italian civilians and who himself admitted to personally shooting two people. Pope Francis' Vicar for Rome, Cardinal Agostino Vallini, had forbidden every priest in the diocese to offer a Requiem for him....

What is REAL and REALITY today in American politics? Well... that a good question, but in all honesty who will really hear ETERNAL REALITY?? The common denominator across the American political spectrum is the rejection of Almighty God's Heavenly summons to repent and to be saved (John 8:24, Acts 4:12, 17:30-31, 1 Tim. 2:3-4). Though many across this spectrum may claim to "know" Almighty God, they personally reject Him and the simple Biblical message of salvation in Spirit and TRUTH (Matt. 7:21-23, John 4:24, 5:38-47, 8:24, 16:2-3, Rom. 10:2-4, 1 John 4:1-5). No matter what political party you belong to...

Writing in America Magazine, Auxiliary Bishop Robert McElroy of San Francisco argued that the Church in the United States “must elevate the issue of poverty to the very top of its political agenda, establishing poverty alongside abortion as the pre-eminent moral issues the Catholic community pursues at this moment in our nation’s history.” “Both abortion and poverty countenance the deaths of millions of children in a world where government action could end the slaughter,” he continued. “Both abortion and poverty, each in its own way and to its own degree, constitute an assault on the very core of the dignity...

WASHINGTON - Americans hoping for an end to the gridlock that's caused a partial government shutdown have an option aside from protesting and rallying in front of the Capitol, according to U.S. Senate Chaplain Barry Black. They can pray.

The girl’s Muslim parents forced her into the marriage when she was fourteen. Her mother tried to put a good face on a bad situation, enticing the girl with a picture of marriage as a never-ending party: her husband, she said, would treat the girl to ice cream and lollipops and take her to movies and amusement parks. Reality turned out to be a bit different: her husband imprisoned her inside their home and forced her to watch violent videos featuring jihad attacks against soldiers from Western countries. He also raped her and beat her frequently. The girl went to...

ANN ARBOR, MI, October 15, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Catholic priest in Georgia has filed a lawsuit after he was barred from even volunteering to offer Mass at Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base. Father Ray Leonard, who is contracted to serve as base chaplain, and Fred Naylor, one of Father Leonard’s parishioners and a retired veteran with over 22 years of service, launched the suit Monday in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Priests have been prohibited from offering Mass at military bases in the wake of the government shutdown, despite provisions in the Pay Our...

Article may not be posted per FR posting rules (Gannett). Link to the article here. Synopsis: The linkage was yet another example of an over-eager National Guard EEO briefing.

<p>The man who tried to kill staff members at a conservative think tank in Washington D.C. has been sentenced to a prison term of 25 years. The judge in the case publicly praised an unarmed employee of the group for taking on the gunman and likely stopping a massacre.</p>

Genesis 25 - The First Wrestling Match in Recorded History In Biblical History, which is arguably the most accurate history in the world, a woman named Rebekah was pregnant with two boys; Jacob and Esau. While in the womb the two boys moved and kicked very often, almost seeming to wrestle with each other. Like many historical stories in the Bible, all of us are like one of these two little wrestlers. Rebekah prayed and asked God why this was happening. The Lord answered her and said that she was pregnant with two great nations. The older would serve the...

Today the lawless and lazy American victicrats hide behind the title "the poor". These individuals masquerade as victims and seek sympathy from the American people so they can pursue their narcissistic ambitions. The TRUTH and REALITY of this matter is that these have reaped upon themselves the horrific consequences of their LAWLESS and LAZY lifestyles (Rom. 1:18-32, Gal. 6:7). These masses have been oppressed by their compounded acts of lawlessness and violence and are never held responsible or accountable to society by the Left and Moderates in Washington. Those who try to overcome this decadent and lawless social wasteland and...

More than 1.5 million people converged on the Philippine capital on Monday for a powerful Christian sect's evangelical event, causing traffic chaos that shut down large parts of the megacity. The gathering of the secretive and politically influential Iglesia ni Cristo (Church of Christ) in the historic district of Manila forced all schools and some government offices to close. See your ad here The Supreme Court, as well as some basketball games in the highly popular college league, were also suspended, while Manila's governing authority urged private employers to give their staff a paid day off to avoid the traffic....

"Technocracy is nothing new. It hasn’t just come up in the last two decades. It has been around for the last 400 years. Technocracy is a very strange animal, it has many different facets. It has a very colorful history. It’s very difficult to actually define it, however, the main idea behind Technocracy is that it is a political as well as an economic system. As a political system, it is a pure dictatorship, it is a pure totalitarian system. Those who rule in a technocracy are not democratically elected politicians, they are appointed in some way, or they appoint...

In the wake of the government shutdown, despite provisions in the Pay Our Military Act, Catholics at Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base in Georgia are being denied religious services. The Catholic priest who serves this community has been prohibited from even volunteering to celebrate Holy Mass without pay, and was told that if he violated that order, he could be subject to arrest. Protestant services continue to take place. Only Catholic services have been shutdown.

Just a little chill went down my spine as I read this hour's headline on the DR. Curious if anyone felt likewise.

A city mayor in Spain has refused to bow to intimidation by Muslims in response to the breaking up of property illegally being used as a mosque. The city offered another property to Muslims for religious properties, but was refused."The rules of the city and the country are mandatory for everyone, and Mollet del Vallès will be uncompromising toward any kind of radicalism or blackmail." — Josep Monràs, Mayor of Mollet del Vallès, Spain Police in Spain have forcibly removed Muslim activists from an illegal mosque in a small town in Catalonia, an autonomous region in northeastern Spain that is...

When it comes right down to it, President Obama is lawless in the majority of ALL his doings and is as base a man as one can find. This truth could not be seen anymore clearer than current dealings with the government shutdown crisis and his past Planned Parenthood speech in June in which he gave his full support; and "to boot" at the end of his speech asked Almighty God's blessings on the most barbaric organization in the world. The spirit of anti-Christ dominates this man and as time goes by we can see his darkened heart manifesting its...

A nasty Norwegian diplomat at the UN frequently badmouths the Holy See. He wonders why Holy See diplomats are allowed into the room during negotiations. He says outright that the Holy See ought to leave. This has happened more than once.It’s amusing a Norwegian would say such a thing. The development of Norway is rather murky and it is hard to figure when Norway really became Norway. Norwegians might claim it was when Harald Fairhair unified disparate tribes and clans in 872 after the Battle of Hafrsfjord. Even so, it is questionable when the people living there began to...

Our Transition of Faith Everyone knows the story about our political ups and downs, if you don’t you can read back to the beginning of our blog. But what no one knows, and what we didn’t expect to come out at this time is the story about our religious transition. Recently, a door opened that offered Carl an opportunity to run for the Utah State Legislature, a position that he once held and thoroughly enjoyed. My first instinct was to say, “H*ll no!” But, since I don’t use that sort of language, I settled for, “I know you’ll make the...

The country's constitution and guiding principles are everything the EU has labored to abolish. In 1992 the Treaty of Maastricht turned the European Common Market on its head, and replaced the free association of sovereign nations cooperating to achieve their mutual interest—as envisioned in the Treaty of Rome of 1957, signed by France’s Schumann, Italy’s De Gasperi, and Germany’s Konrad Adenauer, Catholics all—with a European Union whose unlimited norms take precedence over national laws. Today, after a gradual and meticulous 20-year-long build-up, the nations of Europe find themselves chained to a convoluted document that goes by the name of the...

As the U.S. government shutdown continues, nonprofit aid groups such as Catholic Charities are feeling an added strain on their work at the national and local levels. “While some may wonder what effect political disagreements in Washington, D.C., could have on people in need across our country,” explained Father Larry Snyder, president of Catholic Charities USA, “the truth of the matter is that uncertainty, furloughs, and limited resources at federal agencies directly hinder the vital work Catholic Charities agencies do every day.” “The impact of this shutdown is being felt in communities across the nation,” he explained in an Oct....

After six years and hundreds of celebratory confections, it wasn’t the economy, the stiff competition, financing, or any of the other usual road bumps of building a new business that caused Sweet Cakes by Melissa—a husband-and-wife bakery in Portland, Oregon area—to close its doors at the end of the summer.Instead, it was the nationwide battle over same-sex marriage.In January, co-owner Aaron Klein had denied a request to bake a cake for a lesbian wedding. “The Bible tells us to flee from sin,” his wife and business namesake, Melissa Klein told a Fox News columnist recently. “I don’t think making a...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)The federal shutdown has found its angry prophet. Senate Chaplain Barry Black is usually a calm, pastoral presence on Capitol Hill, doling out spiritual wisdom and moral counsel to his high-powered flock. But the Seventh-Day Adventist and former Navy rear admiral is mad as hell about the shutdown — and he’s letting the Senate, and the Lord, know about it. “Lord, when the federal shutdown delays payments of death benefits to the families of (soldiers) dying on far-away battlefields, it’s time for our lawmakers to say enough is enough,” Black said in his prayer opening the Senate on Wednesday. “Cover...

New York magazine’s fascinating interview with Justice Antonin Scalia offers much to enjoy, and as Joe Carter has already pointed out, one of the more striking exchanges centers on the existence of the Devil.When asked whether he has “seen evidence of the Devil lately,” Scalia offered the following: You know, it is curious. In the Gospels, the Devil is doing all sorts of things. He’s making pigs run off cliffs, he’s possessing people and whatnot. And that doesn’t happen very much anymore…What he’s doing now is getting people not to believe in him or in God. He’s much more successful...

It certainly makes for a good story: a scrappy kid from Baltimore flunks out of an English class at what is now Loyola University Maryland only to become an international bestselling author. The problem is that the oft-told tale concerning Tom Clancy is just as fictitious as Jack Ryan. “It was an urban legend that just wouldn’t die,” said Carol Abromaitis, the English professor accused of giving Clancy an F in her class. For decades, Abromaitis urged English majors to let others know the truth. Her efforts bore little fruit. “One major said to me, ‘Of course not. It makes...

KRET KROT, Vietnam — A year ago in this poor hill-tribe village, police rounded up members of a small Catholic sect who were accused of trying to create an independent state. The leaders are in jail, followers who escaped have fled into the jungle and officers patrolling the muddy streets warn people to shun that offshoot of the faith. But the crackdown didn't affect activities at the village's church — actually an old lady's house with a white cross fixed to a corrugated iron wall — or a larger church a short hike away, where priests teach young boys math...

It is almost a quarter of a century since she first sang Like A Prayer. But it seems the intervening years have done little to help Madonna decide exactly who she’s praying to. For it appears the queen of re-invention may be on the verge of one of her most startling changes yet, after she revealed she was studying the Koran. The 55-year-old was raised a Roman Catholic, but for the past 17 years she has been a devout follower of Kabbalah, a mystical offshoot of Judaism. Now the singer, whose current partner is a Muslim, has begun investigating Islam....

To follow the news today is to get the impression that public life, in the sense of rational discussion oriented toward some reasonable understanding of the common good, has come to an end. Everyone notices the partisanship, the bad faith, the indifference to truth, and the substitution of entertainment for hard news. Catholics in particular notice the disappearance of natural law reasoning, even in the informal everyday form that had always upheld principles such as the natural family and the protection of unborn children. The dominant view seems to be that things mean whatever those with position and power can...

Rabbi Chain Ovadia Yosef, unarguably the greatest Sephardi Torah sage and one of the most influential political leaders of the past 40 years, died in Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital Monday after several months of deteriorating health. Hundreds of thousands of people are expected at his funeral, which will begin at 6 p.m. (11 a.m. EDT) at the Porat Yosef Yeshiva and he will be buried in the cemetery at Sanhedria in Jerusalem. Several main streets will be closed.

Anyone that's familiar what the bible, anything like that, when Jesus said that you're going straight to hell if you didn't treat the less of his brothers and sisters, and what did he say, he said he was hungry. They give him food stamps. – Tax evading Congressman Charlie Rangel The demons are emerging from their pits, folks, and they're slithering toward the TV cameras. Cheatin' Charlie is not "familiar" with "the bible, anything like that." If he were, he would understand that "You Shall Not Steal" and "You Shall Not Covet" are two of the Ten Commandments, and that...

Global warming and Catholicism do not mix. If you do not agree with this, you could be right. In either case, however, there is nothing we can do about it. ... Let me be clear on a few points to get started. First, I love nature and the environment. In addition, I am completely against pollution (air, water, noise, light, etc.) of every kind. I also believe in environmental responsibility. ... However, to return to the primary thesis that Catholicism leaves very little room for the belief that humans can have a significant impact on global warming. Even if I...

After the Vatican recently hosted several international conferences on the environment and environmental problems, headlines reported that the Catholic Church is finally jumping on the environmental bandwagon. They were wrong on two counts. First, Catholic teaching has long been that care for the earth is both a duty that we owe to God and a reflection of our respect for each other. So, the Church isn't some Johnny-come-lately to protecting the planet. Second, the Church's understanding of what it means to be a good steward is not precisely in line with the thinking of many modern environmentalists. Subdue the Earth...

There have been a lot of comments on my piece from yesterday pertaining to the prohibition on furloughed GS or contract priests saying Mass at US military installations. A number of people have raised questions over the legal provisions surrounding this situation, and some have said this situation is no different than that facing every furloughed government worker.I’m no attorney, but I’ve done some digging. In an attempt to answer some of these questions, I’d like to share what I’ve found.The governing regulation concerning furloughed federal workers is the Antideficiency Act of 1884. As the story goes, the Executive branch...

The title "The Devil" was given by Almighty God to Lucifer (the father of lies) because of his offensive slanderous tactics which he manufactured to deal with ETERNAL TRUTH and REALITY which He in FULL LIGHT and REVELATION rebelled against and rejected (John 8:44). The Greek word (devil) literally means to slander, to falsely accuse or to blaspheme one's character in the means of destroying one credibility or good status. As these days are coming to a grand climax called the Tribulation Period, a time of EXPONENTIAL lawlessness and the Day of Almighty God’s wrath, expect the slanderous activity of...

Recently a Community Column writer for a local paper wrote an opinion piece denouncing conservative politicians for not complying with the "Red-Letter" teachings of Jesus. Among other things, he was referring more specifically to Ted Cruz's call for evangelical Christians to help his political bloc to defund Obamacare. This claim is worthy of careful examination. Emphasizing the authority of one portion of scripture while ignoring all others isn't a principle of historical normative Christian theology. As the Bible declares of itself "...All scripture is given by inspiration of God..." Red-lettering was first conceived in 1899, and it first appeared in...

This just in, from the Archdiocese for the Military Services: The United States House of Representatives today voted 400-1 to pass House Concurrent Resolution 58 calling on Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to allow the continued performance of religious services on military installations during the government shutdown. The resolution was introduced by Congressman Doug Collins (R-Ga.) in response to an Oct. 3 op-ed by Mr. John Schlageter, General Counsel of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA (AMS) in which he disclosed that non-active duty Catholic priests have been ordered not to work—or even volunteer—on military installations for the duration of...

<p>Residents of a Florida city who have had "God Bless America" signs posted on their front lawns for months have been ordered by local officials to remove them.</p> <p>MyFoxTampaBay.com reports that the First Baptist Church of Bartow distributed some 300 signs to residents following a Fourth of July celebration. The city only permits residents to display signs during major holidays is starting to crack down on the displays.</p>

From HERE:

Top bishops from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops have spoken out on the recent government shutdown by suggesting that moral criteria should guide budgetary decisions, and insisted that the poor and needy should come first. "We write as pastors and teachers, not experts or partisans, to bring both moral principles and everyday experience to this discussion. The Catholic community defends the unborn, feeds the hungry, shelters the homeless, educates the young, welcomes refugees, and cares for the sick, both at home and abroad. In many instances, the government is a partner with the Church and its ministries in...

Chen Guangcheng, the blind human-rights activist who escaped China last year after taking refuge in the U.S. Embassy, will be affiliated with The Catholic University of America, according to a report from Reuters. The Catholic University of America is reportedly set to reveal details of the affiliation today at a press conference with the Witherspoon Institute and the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice, with which Guangcheng will also be affiliated. A human rights activist in China, Chen found himself imprisoned for four years for his work in exposing the thousands of forced abortions and sterilization procedures performed on...

President Obama is a subjective narcissist who adheres to lawlessness, moral relativism and is fully opposed to the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God. For a little more than four and a half years President Obama has displayed that he is the polar opposite of our Founding Fathers in every way and as we have seen, his chief trait is to display and parade his vindictive rage in all of his anti - constitutional policies. Just yesterday we saw President Obama's true disdain towards our WW2 Vets as he lashed out at Republicans and Tea Party patriots and sought...

Psalm 104:1 My Soul, Praise thou the Lord; O Lord my God, thou art Exceedingly Great; Thou art Clothed with Glory and Honor.

Moscow, October 2, Interfax - Grand Mufti of the Saudi Arabia, Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah's idea to destroy all churches in the Arabian Peninsula shows "the extreme degree of Wahabi impudence," the expert on Islam, Roman Silantyev said. The first person of "the most peaceful trend in Islam" again urged to aggressive actions against Christians. It evidently proves that official Wahhabism-Salafism is identical to the ideology of terrorists, who are in fact destroying Christian churches and their parishioners from Pakistan to Nigeria, working especially hard in Syria," Silantyev told Interfax-Religion. He reminds that a Russian Orthodox church was opened in...

As Democrats take up immigration reform again, Justice for Immigrants, the group that is running the well-organized campaign for amnesty for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), will be rooting for many of the same politicians that support unrestricted abortion-on-demand, have passed and refused to defund ObamaCare and its HHS mandate, and support same-sex marriage.As Breitbart News reported Wednesday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and other Democrats who have supported funding ObamaCare and the HHS mandate, introduced a comprehensive immigration reform bill, saying they were “prepared to do whatever it takes to go to conference with a...

In this last year (in light of Obama's many scandals, Obama Care and anti constitutional policies), the lawless Left has absolutely manifested and demonstrated to the countless gullible moderates and middle of the roaders (IF THEY WOULD ONLY PAY ATTENTION) who and what they fully are. The Left's actions have been continually on display for all to see, yet there are still countless Americans who willingly remain ignorant in their subjective, delusional, clueless, narcissistic and apathetic worlds. The Left can NOT abide in REALITY and TRUTH so they MUST continually slander to survive in their self induced lawless delusions (Rom....

Moscow, October 2, - Deputy Chairman of the Russian Muftis Council Rushan Abbyasov has spoken with representatives of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom about the problems of Muslims in Russia. He expressed concern over the fact that the mass media often associated extremists with Islam, the press service of the Council reported on Tuesday. "It is precisely for this reason that in this country, like they are in the West, people are scared by the construction of new mosques. The local authorities also sometimes demonstrate a lack of understanding. As a result of this media policy, people are...

During this local political season, it is important that our communication with one another be characterized by a firm allegiance to honesty, integrity, and truth. As a local pastor, I decry sins of the tongue - slander, gossip, lies, outbursts of wrath, false accusations - all dishonor our Creator and defame others who are made in the image of God. It is my desire to speak the truth in love. To that end I wish to address the misleading way in which the agenda of the lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and transgendered (LGBT) community has been linked by some, including mayoral...

Dialogue between Francis and La Repubblica's founder, Eugenio Scalfari: "Starting from the Second Vatican Council, open to modern culture". The conversation in the Vatican after the Pope's letter to La Repubblica: "Convert you? Proselytism is solemn nonsense. You have to meet people and listen to them."by EUGENIO SCALFARIPope Francis told me: "The most serious of the evils that afflict the world these days are youth unemployment and the loneliness of the old. The old need care and companionship; the young need work and hope but have neither one nor the other, and the problem is they don't even look for...

<p>Dialogue between Francis and La Repubblica's founder, Eugenio Scalfari: "Starting from the Second Vatican Council, open to modern culture". The conversation in the Vatican after the Pope's letter to La Repubblica: "Convert you? Proselytism is solemn nonsense. You have to meet people and listen to them."</p>