Free Republic

VATICAN CITY – Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta took a break Wednesday from war planning and leading the world’s most powerful military to pay his respects to Pope Benedict XVI, a champion of peace.Panetta, a devout Catholic who proudly wears his Italian American heritage on his sleeve, was beaming as he sat in a front row reserved for VIPs during the pope’s weekly general audience in a Vatican auditorium. After listening to a papal address in several languages, Panetta and three of his military aides — along with dozens of other Catholics — lined up to meet Benedict and receive...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem A New Journey…The Names of God in The Scriptures Merciful GodJeremiah 3:12 "Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say: 'Return, backsliding Israel,' says the LORD; 'I will not cause My anger to fall on you. For I am merciful,' says the LORD; 'I will not remain angry forever.

Ultimate Victory Today's Scripture “I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace and confidence. In the world you have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration; but be of good cheer...for I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33, AMP) Today's Word from Joel and Victoria When trials and challenges come, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed or discouraged. You may feel lost or uncertain about the future. That’s when we need to turn our hearts and minds to God because He has promised that no matter what we face, we can have His...

The Voice of the Nature of God "I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: ’Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?’" —Isaiah 6:8 When we talk about the call of God, we often forget the most important thing, namely, the nature of Him who calls. There are many things calling each of us today. Some of these calls will be answered, and others will not even be heard. The call is the expression of the nature of the One who calls, and we can only recognize the call if that same nature is in us....

..The new book, "Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief," describes Tom Cruise's life in Scientology. Much of it is probably obvious to people with knowledge of the controversial organization: Cruise has signed a billion year contract with Scientology, and like all members, has the ultimate goal of protecting humanity from aliens living in our bodies, aliens who are bent on destroying us and Earth. It's all good, though: Scientology and its practices gives Cruise the ability to "go clear," which means he will be "free of the influence of engrams, unwanted emotions or painful traumas not readily...

With the government set to debate ‘gay marriage’, I am constantly asked on social media why I cannot, like ‘other more loving and tolerant Christians’, accept same sex ‘marriage’ as an expression of love and commitment between two people of the same sex. Several people have referred me to an article in the Independent last week titled ‘Happy and Clappy and out of the closet: Evangelicals who say gay is OK’. The implication is that if some evangelicals are welcoming same sex marriage then evangelicalism per se should not be a barrier to others moving in the same direction. Many...

FOURTEEN HOLY HELPERS   A group of saints invoked with special confidence because they have proven themselves efficacious helpers in adversity and difficulties, known and venerated under the name Fourteen Holy Helpers. Though each has a seperate feast or memorial day, the group was collectively venerated on 8 August. However, this feast was dropped and suppressed in the 1969 reform of the calendar. They are invoked as a group because of the Black Plague which devastated Europe from 1346 to 1349. Among its symptoms were the tongue turning black, a parched throat, violent headache, fever, and boils on the...

January 16, 2013   Wednesday of the First Week in Ordinary Time     Reading 1 Heb 2:14-18 Since the children share in blood and Flesh,Jesus likewise shared in them,that through death he might destroy the onewho has the power of death, that is, the Devil,and free those who through fear of deathhad been subject to slavery all their life.Surely he did not help angelsbut rather the descendants of Abraham;therefore, he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every way, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest before Godto expiate the sins of the...

11 Biblical Tests of Genuine Salvation: Test #5 - Do you Love Christ and eagerly await His Return? SO4J ^ | John MacArthur Posted on 01/07/2013 6:02:58 AM PST by xzins Test #1 of Series: 11 Biblical Tests of Genuine Salvation: Test #1 - Do you enjoy Fellowship with God and Christ? Test #2 of Series: 11 Biblical Tests of Genuine Salvation: Test #2 - Are you Sensitive to Sin in your Life? Test #3 of Series: 11 Biblical Tests of Genuine Salvation: Test #3 - Do You Obey God's Word? Test #4 of Series: 11 Biblical Tests of Genuine...

Last week, Cardinal Timothy Dolan raised his objections to proposed abortion legislation in New York. Now the state Catholic Conference has issued a point-by-point memo that makes clear how extreme Governor Andrew Cuomo’s proposal really is. The memo below comes from the conference website.

And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.(Genesis 6:1-3)And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they...

A detailed analysis of FBI statistics covering ten full calendar years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks reveals that, on a per capita basis, American Muslims, contrary to spin, have been subjected to hate crimes less often than other prominent minorities. From 2002 to 2011, Muslims are estimated to have suffered hate crimes at a frequency of 6.0 incidents per 100,000 per year — 10 percent lower than blacks (6.7), 48 percent lower than homosexuals and bisexuals (11.5), and 59 percent lower than Jews (14.8). Americans should keep these numbers in mind whenever Islamists attempt to silence critics by invoking Muslim...

(Reuters) - Europe's top human rights court ruled on Tuesday that equality laws and safety concerns trumped religious freedom in three cases where British Christians were sacked or sanctioned for expressing their beliefs at work. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled employers did not violate the religious rights of a registrar who refused to officiate for civil partnerships of same-sex couples and a counselor deemed unwilling to offer sex therapy for gays. It also turned down an appeal by a nurse whose hospital barred her from wearing a cross around her neck. In the fourth case in the...

These are not the best of times. In fact, some folks say that the Catholic Church in the United States confronts today the greatest challenge in its history. Things were already tough before the November elections, but now they’re in the tank. The good news is that, this year, Catholic bishops were united as never before in defending the Church’s First Amendment right of religious freedom; the bad news is that, if the election results are to be viewed as a referendum on that issue, we lost. Win or lose, it’s certainly time for some prayerful introspection. The battle over...

God bless Frank Newport. The Gallup Poll’s editor-in-chief is author of the recently published book, “God is Alive and Well: The Future of Religion in America.” It punctures the myth that the ranks of the nation’s non-religious are growing by leaps and bounds. The myth has gained currency in the mainstream media, thanks to a dishonest poll published this past fall by the left-leaning Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life. By playing fast and loose with polling data, and by employing semantic gymnastics, Pew was able to make the dubious claim that 20 percent of Americans “do...

The Vatican has taken multiple blasts at same-sex marriage in the last month, just as it is on the way to becoming legal in Britain and France, and as a poll by an evangelical-backed organization finds opposition in the United States on the wane. A front-page article in L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, likens marriage equality to 20th-century communism, reports the Religion News Service, saying it is equal to “the egalitarian utopia that did so much damage during the 20th Century . . . deceiving humanity as socialism did in the past.” The Vatican blast follows a Christmas season message...

Featured Term (selected at random):HUMANITARIANISM An ethical system that places temporal welfare of the human race as an exclusive goal of human effort and basic standard of conduct. It makes the personal and social good of human beings the primary object of human existence and subordinates, if it even considers, the worship of God to the interests of human beings. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Last week the New York Times published an opinion piece that offered atheism’s response to the evil/tragedy in which 20 children and six adults were murdered at the Sandy Hook elementary school in Connecticut. What prompted Susan Jacoby to write her piece was a colleague telling her that atheism “has nothing to offer when people are suffering.” She wrote the piece, “The Blessings of Atheism” (“It is Here and It is Now!” screams the subhead), to prove her colleague wrong by offering a consoling atheist alternative to religion’s consoling belief in an afterlife. Atheists cannot believe that there is any...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem A New Journey…The Names of God in The Scriptures PurifierMalachai 3:3 He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, And purge them as gold and silver, That they may offer to the LORD An offering in righteousness.