Free Republic

As superb look at suffering by Dr. Peter Kreeft, courtesy of Prager University. I agree with his division of suffering into what Man causes through our actions, wars are a classic example, and suffering caused by nature, the type of suffering caused by the seizure that took the life of my son Larry on May 19, 2013. He is also correct that when we complain about such suffering afflicted by nature we are appealing to a standard that presupposes a God, since nature cares not a whit about human suffering or the lack whereof. It is only by belief in...

Novelist Lars Walker — a friend of this blog and an insightful reviewer of some of my own novels — makes a trenchant comment in the Elizabeth Smart post below. I know it’s trenchant because I was about to make basically the same comment but Lars beat me to it! In the comment, he makes a delightfully concise reference to “the Osteenian view that suffering is always a sign of God’s displeasure.” This, of course, refers to popular preacher Joel Osteen, who has been promoting his new book at the Blaze and other places. He basically preaches that God wants...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem Children and Families In The Bible John 16 19 Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, “Are you asking one another what I meant when I said, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me’? 20 Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. 21 A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time...

We live in a time that has tended to reduce holiness to merely being nice and agreeable. In this manner of thinking holiness tends to be variously thought of as: getting along well with everyone, being kind, agreeable, helpful, likable, generous, pleasant, mild mannered, amiable, good humored, middle of the road, even tempered, placid, benevolent, friendly, forbearing, tolerant, thoughtful, and the like. It can all be summed up by saying that “so-and-so” is “basically a nice person.” And thus the goal seems more to be nice than holy.If you think this isn’t so, listen to how people talk at funerals....

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...

There have been a number of articles published recently, following a show in Moscow, of carved icons of a Russian couple Rashid and Inessa Azbuhanov (their website is here and h/t Deacon Paul Iacono of the Fra Angelico Institute for bring these to my attention). These are exquisite works and are of interest to me particularly because I have to admit I have never seen anything quite like them. I am told that they are re-establishing the tradition of carved icons. These portray form through a combination of color and relief and in this sense are a halfway house between...

For the past two Sundays, hundreds of Pakistanis of all faiths have formed human chains in front of churches during mass – first in Karachi, then in Lahore. This solidarity movement was launched in reaction to the terrorist attack that killed 81 worshippers at a church in Peshawar, making it the deadliest ever perpetrated against the country’s Christian minority. Militant groups linked to the Pakistani Taliban said they carried out the September 22 bomb attack in response to US-led drone strikes. Christians have been targeted for their faith before, but previous attacks have usually taken the form of mob violence...

I doubt that Pope Francis has heard of Ernie Banks, the Hall of Fame shortstop. But like “Mr. Cub,” whose love for baseball led him to exclaim “Let’s play two!” before Sunday doubleheaders in the 1950s, the pope from the end of the world seems to think that papal canonizations are better in tandem: hence the Sept. 30 announcement that Blessed John XXIII and Blessed John Paul II will be canonized together on Divine Mercy Sunday, April 27, 2014. Predictably, the decision caused some unhappiness in some quarters. Some Poles wanted John Paul II canonized by himself. Some who welcomed...

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...

Job | The Great Unknown

Say What He Says Today's Scripture “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” (Genesis 1:3, KJV) Today's Word from Joel and Victoria When God created the worlds, He didn’t just think them into being. He didn’t just believe there would be light and land and oceans and animals. He had it in His heart, but nothing happened until He spoke. He said, “Let there be light,” and light came. His thoughts didn’t set it into motion; His words set it into motion. It’s the same principle today. You can believe all day long and not...

The Key to the Missionary’s Work (2) "He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world" —1 John 2:2 The key to the missionary’s message is the propitiation of Christ Jesus— His sacrifice for us that completely satisfied the wrath of God. Look at any other aspect of Christ’s work, whether it is healing, saving, or sanctifying, and you will see that there is nothing limitless about those. But— “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!�— that is limitless (John 1:29). The missionary’s message...

When Pope Francis consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on October 13th, he followed a tradition of pontifical consecrations established by Pope Pius XII and continued by Pope John Paul II, each of whom made the consecration twice. These consecrations are certainly occasions of grace, even if many in the world have no wish to be so consecrated. The official use of the term “consecration” in this context will, I hope, give pause to some who insist the word cannot be used properly except in direct reference to God. While as a precise theological term, “consecrate” does...

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.

By Mary Wisniewski, Reuters Pope Francis' comments that the Catholic Church should not focus so much on homosexuality, abortion and contraception have met with strong approval from U.S. Catholics, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released on Friday. Sixty-eight percent of American Catholics agree with comments the Pope made to that effect in an interview published last month in the Jesuit magazine Civilta Cattolica, while 23 percent disagreed, according to the poll. There was little difference in opinion between observant and less-observant Catholics, women and men, and among age groups, the poll found. There was little difference in opinion between...

Also, three Evangelical NT scholars from North America will participate in symposium sponsored by Joseph Ratzinger Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation >Although he might not be well known outside of certain theological circles, Dr. Hans Boersma is one of the finer young Evangelical theologians writing today. He is the J.I. Packer Professor of Theology at Regent College, one of the best Evangelical schools in Canada, and he is the author of some books that engage deeply and thoughtfully with Catholic theology, notably Nouvelle Théologie and Sacramental Ontology: A Return to Mystery (Oxford, 2009), and Heavenly Participation: The Weaving of a Sacramental...

Most of us who are Catholics eventually get asked, “Why do you Catholics worship Mary?� More often than not the question is not a real question it is a rhetorical question. For a few of you who might not know what is meant by the expression “rhetorical question,� it refers to a “question� whose purpose is not to seek an answer, but, rather, to make a (usually hostile) point. For example the expression “Who do you think you are!?� is in the form of a question but it does not seek an answer. Instead it is meant as a rebuke....

Pope Francis praised Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone for his “attitude of unconditional faithfulness and absolute loyalty to Peter,” as the Italian prelate stepped down from his position as Vatican Secretary of State. In a short ceremony at the Vatican on October 15, Pope Francis said that he was “profoundly grateful” to Cardinal Bertone for his service, and added that he was also speaking for Pope-emeritus Benedict XVI, who had appointed Cardinal Bertone to the Vatican’s #2 post in 2006. “Seven years of hard work, lived with great generosity and in the spirit of service,” the Pope remarked, as he thanked the...

<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>

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.

Several dozen U.S. Army active duty and reserve troops were told last week that the American Family Association, a well-respected Christian ministry, should be classified as a domestic hate group because the group advocates for traditional family values. The briefing was held at Camp Shelby in Mississippi and listed the AFA alongside domestic hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan, Neo-Nazis, the Black Panthers and the Nation of Islam. A soldier who attended the briefing contacted me and sent me a photograph of a slide show presentation that listed AFA as a domestic hate group. Under the AFA headline is...

SANTA CLARA -- A decision by Santa Clara University's president to drop health insurance coverage of elective abortions for the Catholic university's faculty and staff has triggered a serious rift at the school. Many faculty members say they were blindsided by the move at an institution that has long prided itself on open communication and governing by consensus. The thorny issue echoes a nationwide debate at Catholic universities over their institutional identities and ability to consider the convictions of those who do not identify with -- or who disagree with -- certain principles the Catholic tradition holds as central. The...

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...

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Rattled by Pope Francis’s admonishment to Catholics not to be “obsessed” by doctrine, his stated reluctance to judge gay priests and his apparent willingness to engage just about anyone — including atheists — many conservative Catholics are doing what only recently seemed unthinkable: They are openly questioning the pope The wary traditionalists became critical when, in an interview a few weeks ago, Francis said Catholics shouldn’t be “obsessed” with imposing doctrines, including on gay marriage and abortion. Then earlier this month, Francis told an atheist journalist that people should follow good and fight evil as they “conceive” of them. These...

Pope Francis sent a message of thanks and held a farewell ceremony for the Vatican’s Secretary of State emeritus, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, SDB, on Tuesday. The 78 year-old Cardinal Bertone served in the office from his appointment by Benedict XVI in June of 2006. In remarks to the gathered officials and staff of the Secretariat of State of the Holy See, the Secretary emeritus remembered the seven years’ service and more with his collaborators, who, he said, “[served with] dedication and sometimes with sacrifice.” He thanked Pope Francis for his benevolence and offered best wishes to his successor as Secretary,...

I read at Rorate about a strong speech given by SSPX Bp. Bernard Fellay which is effectively a denunciation of Pope Francis and Pope Benedict and – yawn – you know the rest. Here is a sample: ----- “The situation of the Church is a real disaster, and the present Pope is making it 10,000 times worse.” [Bp. Bernard Fellay] said this in an address at the Angelus Press Conference, the weekend of Oct 11-13 in Kansas City. ... Bishop Fellay alluded to the SSPX/Vatican drama of 2012: “When we see what is happening now we thank God, we thank...

Idolatry and hypocrisy do not spare even the Christian life. Pope Francis put us on guard against both these vices in his homily at this morning’s Mass at the Casa Santa Marta. In order not to give in to the dangers of these sins, he said, it is necessary to put into practice the commandments of love of God and love of neighbour. Once again, the liturgy of the Mass elicits from Pope Francis a reflection on the traps that punctuate the life of faith: To become an apostle of one’s own ideas, or a devotee of one’s own well-being,...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem Children and Families In The Bible John 8 1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do...

“You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of Heaven’s Armies—the God of the armies of Israel” . . . For the battle is the LORD's 1 Samuel 17:45 / 47

At 12 o’clock this morning, the Holy Father Francis received in audience -- in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Vatican Palace --, the participants in the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization.Here is a translation of the Pope’s address to those present.* * *THE HOLY FATHER’S ADDRESSDear Brothers and Sisters,I greet you all and thank you for what you do at the service of the New Evangelization, and for the work for the Year of Faith. My heartfelt thanks! What I would like to say to you today can be summarized in three points:...

The Virgin of the Navigators is an alterpiece painted in 1536 by Alejo Fernandez for the chapel at the House of Trade in Seville. Under the protection of the Virgin are depicted King Ferdinand II of Aragon, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, and, kneeling on the viewer’s right are Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci and one of the Pinzon Brothers. In the background are gathering the peoples of the New World. The painting was made five years after the appearance of Mary as Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico in 1531, and I wonder if word of this miracle had made...

Most mainstream media stories about women in the growing skeptic/secularist/science education movement (the boundaries between the three are pretty porous) usually begin with articles and videos asking, "Where are all the women?" But people within these circles know that there are actually a lot of female leaders, and the real woman problem is sexual harassment. As Rebecca Watson, a major writer and speaker on the skeptic/atheist circuit wrote in Slate last year, the amount of sexual harassment aimed at women over even the tiniest suggestions of how to make the movement more female-friendly is absolutely stunning. ... This sort of...

A court in Malaysia ruled on Monday that a Catholic newspaper could not refer to God as "Allah," in a case that has spanned three years. The Herald argued in 2009 that the government ban on the use of "Allah" - the Arabic world for God - was unconstitutional. The challenge to the government's decree was upheld by a court that year and the ban was lifted pending a judicial review. The removal sparked a series of attacks on Christian places of worship in an unusual display of religious tension in the multi-faith country. The review, presided over by a...

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....

A Sermon of Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones on Romans 10:3 “For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.” “Saving Faith” An Exposition of Chapter 10, published by The Banner of Truth Trust: 1997 1.800.263.8085 (pp.28-39). “For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going We have, so far, been dealing with the first two verses, and have seen that certain general lessons are taught there by the Apostle. These not only concern his contemporaries, the Jews, but are of universal application in the life of...

"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...

The moment I uttered these words, my burden rolled off my back and I knew that I was free. Joy now flooded into my heart and I began to praise the Lord. He had taught me a new song. by Moshe Radcliff [On September 25th H.R. Moshe Radcliff died. His testimony appeared in the Presbyterian Standard (July-September 1998) and is published by kind permission.] I was born into a Jewish family in prosperous Vienna, Austria on the 5th April 1930. Although my parents did not strictly observe the Jewish religion, father took my brother and me to synagogue occasionally. Mother...

A task force created by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to investigate clergy misconduct includes a psychologist who works on sex offender management, a computer forensics expert and a former St. Paul police sergeant. Members say their work will be independent of the archdiocese they're investigating. An MPR News investigation has revealed that several priests suspected of sexual misconduct were protected by the Twin Cities archdiocese.

You are subject to none Conquerer of all for My Presence "IN" you "IS" Holy and True !  Do you see My children the enemy would attempt to convince you of your unholiness but My Righteousness STANDS ETERNAL and is " subject to none " !  Thererfore wear the garments of Righteousness that I have given you and walk in My ways for I HAVE finished the fight you are in against darkness !  Merely APPLY MY WORD to each situation you are in and I will shut the mouth of the lions for you for THE BATTLE IS MINE "SAYS" THE LORD...

MISSING police files relating to an abuse case against a former Catholic boys home have been destroyed. This has now been admitted after one of the former boys called for an investigation. Mr Damian Chittock won damages from the Catholic Church in 2003 after being abused at St Francis Boys Home in Shefford in the late 1960s. After that settlement a police investigation was held and Father John Ryan, the priest then in charge of the home, was arrested and interviewed.

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.

Ever since the Protestant Revolt in the 16th century, the Catholic Church has been accused of ignoring, opposing, hiding and even destroying the Bible in order to keep it from the people. Allegedly, copies of the Bible were chained to the walls of churches during the Middle Ages so that people could not take them home to read. Supposedly the Church during the Middle Ages also refused to translate the Bible into the various tongues of the common people, the vernacular languages, in order to further hinder personal Bible reading. Furthermore it is claimed that the Church even went as...

Pope Francis warned against the hypocrisy of thinking one is saved by pious works during his homily at morning Mass today at Casa Santa Marta. This attitude of perfect piety risks for one to look for their own salvation but not for the care of the poor. The Holy Father referred to this hypocrisy as the “Jonah syndrome”, referring to the sign of Jonah that Christ speaks of in today’s Gospel.The Gospel of Luke, which recounted Christ’s warning to the “wicked generation”, a term he said that is very strong. “This, however, does not refer to the people who followed...

Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, president of the German Bishops Conference, was among several representatives from Germany on the upcoming “Court of the Gentiles” which will take place in Berlin from November 26th-28th. The event is promoted by the Pontifical Council for Culture in collaboration with the Archdiocese of Berlin and the German Bishops Conference.Fr. Laurent Mazas, Executive Director of the “Court of the Gentiles” began the conference by explaining the symbolic significance of such an event. One of the events include a procession of two groups near the Bode Museum. This he said, is symbolic of the “Court of the Gentiles”,...

<p>A 200-year-old Russian Orthodox bell has been returned to Alaska after being held by Catholics for more than a century in Southern California.</p> <p>The bell, known as the San Fernando bell, was returned to Holy Resurrection Orthodox Cathedral on Oct. 1 and is waiting to be placed in a permanent outside display.</p>

<p>MADRID (AP) -- The Vatican on Sunday beatified 522 people - mostly priests and nuns - who were killed in the turmoil that led to Spain's civil war.</p>

Pope Callistus I is celebrated in churches throughout the world as a saint and martyr on October 14. The saint caused a major controversy, including a schism that lasted almost two decades, by choosing to emphasize God's mercy in his ministry. However, the early Pope's model of leadership has endured, and his martyrdom in the year 222 confirmed his example of holiness. Because no completely trustworthy biography of Pope Callistus I exists, historians have been forced to rely on an account by his contemporary Hippolytus of Rome. Although Hippolytus himself was eventually reconciled to the Church and canonized as...

Choose Blessings for Your Future Today's Scripture “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live.” (Deuteronomy 30:19, NKJV) Today's Word from Joel and Victoria Your words have creative power. With your words, you can either bless your future or curse your future. If you want to know what your life is going to be like five years from now, just listen to what you’re saying about yourself today. Too many people go around saying,...