Free Republic

Islam is a deadly totalitarian political system masquerading as a religion. Few in the West know this and/or are willing to admit it. Being honest about this doesn't mean hating Muslims. It means understanding the religion and why it is dangerous to the rights and freedoms and way of life in the West, and why that danger probably isn't going to go away. The last Pope seems to have understood this. At Asia Times, Spengler writes:

Former Pope Benedict says in his memoirs that no-one pressured him to resign but alleges that a "gay lobby" in the Vatican had tried to influence decisions, a leading Italian newspaper reported on Friday. The book, called "The Last Conversations", is the first time in history that a former pope judges his own pontificate after it is over. It is due to be published on Sept. 9... In the book, Benedict says that he came to know of the presence of a "gay lobby" made up of four or five people who were seeking to influence Vatican decisions. The article...

Backing from retired pope at event to mark his 65th year as a priest may help Francis gain favour among church conservativesBenedict XVI has endorsed Pope Francis’s ministry in an unprecedented Vatican ceremony featuring a reigning pontiff honouring a retired one on the 65th anniversary of his ordination as a priest. The ceremony in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace served in part to show continuity from Benedict to Francis amid continued nostalgia from some conservatives for the former’s tradition-minded papacy. Francis had invited the entire Vatican Curia, or bureaucracy, to celebrate Benedict’s anniversary, and prelates turned out in...

<p>On board the Papal plane en route to the Greek island of Lesbos where he is visiting refugees, Pope Francis remembered his predecessor in his prayers saying, "I would like to remind you that today is the 89th birthday of Pope Benedict XVI. Pray for him"</p>

It’s a somewhat obscure apocalyptic novel, much overlooked since its publication in 1907, and yet it comes with a recommendation that just about any best-selling author would covet: the spiritual leader of the whole world says it’s a good read. And not just the current pope, the previous one too.Pope Francis raised eyebrows in 2013 and again in 2015 when he recommended Robert Hugh Benson’s Lord of the World to the faithful as a book that depicts a “globalization of hegemonic uniformity.” Similarly, then-Cardinal Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI, referred to the Universalism depicted in Lord of the...

On March 16, speaking publicly on a rare occasion, Pope Benedict XVI gave an interview to Avvenire, the daily newspaper of the Italian Bishops' Conference, in which he spoke of a “two-sided deep crisis” the Church is facing in the wake of the Second Vatican Council. The report has already hit Germany courtesy of Vaticanist Guiseppe Nardi, of the German Catholic news website Katholisches.info.

March 16, 2016 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- On March 16, speaking publicly on a rare occasion, Pope Benedict XVI gave an interview to Avvenire, the daily newspaper of the Italian Bishops' Conference, in which he spoke of a “two-sided deep crisis” the Church is facing in the wake of the Second Vatican Council. The report has already hit Germany courtesy of Vaticanist Guiseppe Nardi, of the German Catholic news website Katholisches.info. Pope Benedict reminds us of the formerly indispensable Catholic conviction of the possibility of the loss of eternal salvation, or that people go to hell: The missionaries of the 16th...

ROME, March 14, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) - In a recent interview, Cardinal Gerhard Muller, the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), acknowledged that he must sometimes correct Pope Francis on matters of dogma, noting that the pope is not a "professional theologian." In a March 1 interview with the German newspaper Kolner Stadt-Anzeiger, Cardinal Muller was asked about his relationship with the pope and whether he is his strongest opponent. Muller first explains that he had been appointed by Pope Benedict XVI. Concerning Benedict, he adds: "With him, I was closely connected due to the fact...

From the article: But what’s most odd is that the two popes are these two popes, and that the one who spent a third of a century erecting a Catholic edifice of firm doctrine and strict prohibition now must look on at close range as the other cheerfully dismantles it in the service of a more open, flexible Church.

Since at least the fifth century, Christians had identified a spot in Jerusalem as the Pool of Siloam and the site of the miracle. But it was not until a decade ago that archaeologists found what they are certain is the ancient pool of Siloam. Like so many such finds, it was almost by accident. During construction work to repair a water pipe near the Temple Mount, Israeli archaeologists Ronny Reich and Eli Shukron found "two ancient stone steps." According to Biblical Archaeology Review, "Further excavation revealed that they were part of a monumental pool from the Second Temple period,...

Kai Diekmann, Editor-in-chief of Bild Zeitung, talks about his visit to Benedict XVI: “Bright-eyed, smiley, no signs of wearinessA small reception hall, a wooden staircase that leads up to the first floor. The sitting room is welcoming and bright, there is a white leather sofa and a simple seat. A book case that reaches the ceiling, a flat-screen TV with a DVD player and some religious icons on the walls. A coffee table and a piano with a black-and-white photo of his brother Georg. The story Kai Diekmann, Editor-in-chief of Bild Zeitung, wishes to share with his readers is very...

Pope Benedict spoke honestly about Islam. Now it has come to light that he was being undermined by a shadowy cabal that wanted to install Cardinal Bergoglio — the present Pope Francis — as Pope and “modernize” the Catholic Church. One thing they’ve certainly succeeded in doing is ending all resistance to the global jihad that has victimized hundreds of thousands of Christians. The Church leadership is betraying its own people...

One thing that that has puzzled a lot of people since the selection of Pope Francis two years ago is how a left-leaning Pope could succeed two very serious conservative Popes—John Paul II and Benedict XVI—who you would have thought had stacked the ranks of the Cardinals with clergy that would perpetuate their theological and philosophical outlook. Was Benedict hounded out of office by some kind of internal Vatican scandal perhaps? Was there some ecclesiastical version of a coup?There’s no evidence that I’m aware of—until now. Three days ago the National Catholic Register ran a very curious article about...

ST. PAUL — Orthodox Rabbi Yehuda Levin of Brooklyn, a longtime pro-life, pro-family activist, in a September 9 telephone interview with The Wanderer said he is “calling upon the eminent Pope Benedict…to weigh in before the Synod” against same-sex marriage and civil unions, as well as “on all the negative things that are going on.” Rabbi Levin offered his view that Benedict has “got to be a fighter for this,” given “the volume of the negative stuff” and because “God and His people are under attack in a vicious way,” particularly in their efforts to defend marriage. He said he...

More than 13,000 people have signed an online petition calling on the Milwaukee Art Museum not to display a newly acquired portrait of retired Pope Benedict XVI fashioned from 17,000 colorful condoms. The petition was circulated by CitizenGo.org, a conservative Christian advocacy site based in Madrid. "The Milwaukee Art Museum's decision to display this offensive piece of art exposes a double-standard when it comes to offending religious groups," Caroline Craddock, the Boston-based U.S. campaigns director for CitizenGO said in a news release. "They would never dare insult Mohammad or other religious leaders the way they demean followers of Christ." The...

Once again, this time by the New York Times, it has been proven that the only group that it is politically correct to bash or offend is Christians. They turn the other cheek and forgive those who trespass, rather than behead and bomb, or storm newspaper offices to murder and maim. That much was admitted by New York Times editor for standards Phil Corbett in defending the newspaper’s decision to publish Monday a picture of Pope Benedict XVI fashioned out of condoms, after being among those that refused to publish the Charlie Hebdo cartoons of the Mohammed that prompted a...

In Interview with La Nacion's Elisabetta Pique, Prefect of the Pontifical Household Says Benedict XVI "Impressed" By SuccessorArchbishop Georg Gänswein says Pope Benedict “follows his successor with great attention and sympathy.” The prefect of the Pontifical Household gave an interview to La Nacion's Elisabetta Piqué, which was published on March 21st. The German prelate, who serves as personal secretary to both Pontiffs, said that in a number of ways he and Benedict have been “impressed” by Pope Francis, both as a human being and as a spiritual leader. While acknowledging that the first Jesuit Pope to hail from the Americas...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A donation to the Vatican by a U.S. businessman enabled Pope Benedict XVI to peruse a few pages of the oldest existing copy of the Gospel of St. Luke and one of the oldest copies of the Gospel of St. John. The Catholic businessman, Frank J. Hanna III, and his family were present in the pope's library Jan. 22 when Pope Benedict got his first look at pages from the famous Bodmer Papyrus XIV-XV. Hanna is the Atlanta-based chief executive officer of HBR Capital Ltd., an investment management company, and co-chairman of President George W. Bush's...

How to Save the World, God’s Way – A Reflection on a Liturgical Teaching of Pope Benedict By: Msgr. Charles Pope Whenever I write on liturgy, I usually get a lot of comments. Many people obviously care deeply about it.Yet I also get comments that decry my “preoccupation” with liturgy, saying that it is of minor importance compared to the issues of poverty, abortion, etc. Some on the left will say, “Who cares if the Pope washes certain feet or doesn’t wear a fanon! Get out there and take care of the poor and show compassion. Frankly, your elaborate and expensive liturgies are...

In today's edition of the American Thinker, Peter Muhearn raises an interesting point in the current Pope-Islam controversy: Did Pope Benedict give Muslims cause for offense by quoting the Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus (born 1350, died 1425)? Manuel once scored debating points on a Persian scholar by demanding ”[s]how me just what Mohammed brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.” . . . Manuel certainly knew what he was talking about. He spent some time as a hostage in...