Free Republic

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 25, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) — A Catholic priest asked that pro-abortion Vice Presidential nominee Tim Kaine “do us both a favor” and not show up in his Communion line. “I take Canon 915 seriously. It'd be embarrassing for you & for me,” tweeted Dominican Father Thomas Petri, the vice president and academic dean of the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception at the Dominican House of Studies. Canon 915 of the Code of Canon Law instructs that those “persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to Holy Communion.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches,...

The election of a Muslim as London mayor 'illustrates the need for Europe to rediscover its capacity to integrate', the Pope told La CroixPope Francis has hailed the election of London’s first Muslim mayor in a wide-ranging interview with a French newspaper. Discussing the migrant crisis with French daily La Croix, Pope Francis said “the worst form of welcome” for migrants is “to ‘ghettoise’ them”. “On the contrary, it’s necessary to integrate them,” the Pope said. “In Brussels, the terrorists were Belgians, children of migrants, but they grew up in a ghetto. In London, the new mayor (Sadiq Khan) took...

Pastor Who Opposes Abortion to Deliver DNC's Closing Prayer By Krissah Williams Sen. Barack Obama's team will continue its aggressive outreach to evangelical voters at the Democratic National Convention next week. Making a prime-time appearance Thursday night will be Joel C. Hunter, a Florida megachurch pastor who will deliver the convention's closing prayer following Obama's speech accepting the Democratic presidential nomination. Hunter is a registered Republican, opposes abortion and, at one point, had been chosen to lead the Christian Coalition. He has not endorsed Obama and says he agreed to give the benediction because has was asked to do so....

"Look at me I have been automatically excommunicated and it is reserved to the Holy See to lift it."The annoying thing about these faux ordinations is that they are hard to parody when they go to so much effort to parody themselves.Come on tie-dye stoles?  Plus exactly what part of the ordination ceremony calls for the above rubric?  The blankets are a pretty tacky detail.  Them seem more fitting to send with your kindergarten kid for nap time.  Seen plenty of pictures of priest being ordained and don't think I ever saw one with them prostrate on a blanket....

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom had barely been on the job a month back in 2004 when he ordered the city to issue marriages licenses to gay and lesbian couples. Thousands of same-sex partners flocked to City Hall to exchange vows. For four weeks, a steady stream of ceremonies stretched into the night, and lines of eager couples wrapped around the block. And as quickly as the couples could say, "I do," the scene of women marrying women and men marrying men sparked a nationwide uproar. Proponents called the move bold. Opponents called it defiant and blatantly illegal. People on...

For all the Democrat presidential candidates' claims of the importance of Christianity in their lives, not a single one could accurately come up with one Bible verse that was their favorite.Have you heard the good news? The Democratic Party won't concede "values voters" to the Republicans. The kind of church you attend, if you attend at all, and your frequency of attendance is perhaps the greatest (though certainly not the only) predictor of whether you are a Democrat or Republican.Hunting for votes in your opponent's base is nothing new. What is unique about this strategy is its heavy emphasis...

EVERYTHING WAS going swimmingly on the panel. The subject was politics and faith, and I was on stage with two clergymen with progressive spiritual leanings, and a moderator who is liberal and Catholic. We were having a discussion with the audience of 1,300 people in Washington about many of the social justice topics on which we agree — the immorality of the federal budget, the wrongness of the president's war in Iraq. Then an older man came to the mike and raised the issue of abortion, and everyone just lost his or her mind. Or, at any rate, I did....

Vermont Catholic Bishop Salvatore Matano will stand by gay priests as long as they stay celibate and teach that "homosexual activity is immoral." The Vatican, in an announcement Tuesday, said the worldwide Catholic Church won't ordain men who are active homosexuals, have "deep-seated tendencies" or support "gay culture." In response, Matano said the statewide Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington would obey the instruction in regard to men in seminaries, but won't question Vermont's 82 current priests. "For those ordained and who find themselves with a homosexual tendency, it should be noted that this does not affect the validity of Holy...

ASHINGTON, May 7 — Evangelical leaders meeting here today denounced as "dangerous" and "unhelpful" the anti-Islam remarks made in the last year by leaders in their own movement and proposed new guidelines for churches to follow in relating to Muslims.At the same time, the religious leaders reaffirmed their commitment to proselytizing, and they accused mainline Protestants and groups like the World Council of Churches of holding "naïve" dialogue sessions with Muslims that minimized theological and political differences. The meeting came at a time when Christian leaders are deeply divided over whether their goal should be to coexist with Muslims...

After a series of anti-war articles in our church weekly that went beyond bad taste into disrespect, my wife and I made the difficult decision to leave our church. Below is my letter to the leadership. The church is the United Methodist Church of Northern Illinois. I didn't post the specific article that came out in our weekly newspaper, but suffice to say that it was riddled with anti-Bush, anti-American diatribe that rivaled the worst of the San Francisco lot. It even included ad hominem attacks against American for slavery, racism, Bush Sr., Cheney, and just about anything else the...