Free Republic

Editor’s note: The following letter by Eagle Forum president, Phyllis Schlafly, was mailed this month to key members of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in the United States concerning the implementation of the Common Core education standards in public and private schools, including Catholic schools. It is reprinted here with permission of the author. Your Excellency, I write today to share with you our significant concerns about a troubling development in our Catholic schools and to seek your prayerful guidance about this issue. Under the guise of reforming the nation’s failing public schools, President Obama’s Department of Education offered states $4.35...

WOONSOCKET, RI, August 13, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Two Rhode Island men were told by their priest that, because of their same-sex “marriage,” he could no longer give them Communion, according to local news reports. Lew Pryeor and Pierre Laveillee were “married” in 2007 and have been parishioners at Sacred Heart for two years. Lew Pryeor and Pierre Laveillee However, Fr. Brian Sistare at Sacred Heart Church has challenged the couple to conform to the Catholic Church’s teaching, which says that marriage can only be between a man and a woman. The subject reportedly arose during a meeting Pryeor had requested...

WASHINGTON, D.C., August 13, 2013 (LifeSiteNews) – D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray admitted Monday that he made the final decision to remove gospel singer Donnie McClurkin from the lineup of performers at a city-sponsored concert held Saturday at the Martin Luther King memorial in respond to complaints by gay activists. McClurkin was to have been a headline performer at the event , called “Reflections on Peace: Ghandi to King,” which marked the beginning of a planned series of events to commemorate King’s life during the run-up to the 50th anniversary of the civil rights leader’s “I Have a Dream” speech. But...

According to Your Faith Today's Scripture “...According to your faith be it done to you.” (Matthew 9:29, ESV) Today's Word from Joel and Victoria A lot of times when people have a need, they think that if God wanted to, He would just automatically meet it. But Jesus didn’t say, according to your need be it unto you; He said, according to your faith. That’s why it’s so important to have an attitude of expectancy every single day. If we want God to move in our lives, we have to approach every day filled with faith and hope. Scripture...

“Do Not Quench the Spirit” "Do not quench the Spirit" —1 Thessalonians 5:19 The voice of the Spirit of God is as gentle as a summer breeze— so gentle that unless you are living in complete fellowship and oneness with God, you will never hear it. The sense of warning and restraint that the Spirit gives comes to us in the most amazingly gentle ways. And if you are not sensitive enough to detect His voice, you will quench it, and your spiritual life will be impaired. This sense of restraint will always come as a “still small voice�...

The inimitable Sr. Maureen Fiedler has taken it upon her broad shoulder to be spokesone for the LCWR.Sr. Maureen Fiedler We know that a past mentor of the LCWR is annoyed that Archbp. Sartain (appointed by the CDF to keep his eyes on the nuns) is attending the proceedings (starting today) at the Caribe Royale in Orlando. HEREThe old guard is piping up.From the National Schismatic Reporter (aka Fishwrap) with my emphases and comments: LCWR: The coming assembly Maureen Fiedler | Aug. 13, 2013The website of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) offers this headline: “We welcome new members...

Homosexual activists and advocates often state that they merely want recognition and certain legal rights, and that churches and other objectors to their life style remain free to have their opinions and state them in a free culture. And any expressed fears regarding compulsory recognition or punitive measures directed against objectors are dismissed as fear mongering.Never mind that these fears are based in real experiences in Canada and Europe where clergy have been arrested and fined for presenting the biblical case against homosexuality in the pulpits of their own churches or the pages of their bulletins.In the end we who...

Teitzei means “to go out” in Hebrew. It is in the book of Devarim (Deuteronomy 21:10 – 23:26). What many do not realize or appreciate is that the Torah is based on connecting principles. Not just that, but that the world is based on connecting principles, and that ultimately God Himself, so to speak is consistent and runs the universe consistently based on connecting principles. Thus, is something at some point seems disconnected or dissonant at any given point in time, it will be redressed and reconnected and the final consequence will be such that not matter what seemed out...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem Children an Families In The Bible Joseph(Genesis 37-50) 1. Then Joseph fell on his father’s face and wept over him, and kissed him. 2. And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel. 3. Forty days were required for him, for such are the days required for those who are embalmed; and the Egyptians mourned for him seventy days. 4. Now when the days of his mourning were past, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, “If now I have found favor in your eyes,...

One of the many memorable scenes in David Lean’s Doctor Zhivago features Zhivago’s family fleeing the ugliness and brutality of Moscow after the Bolshevik Revolution for the tranquility of the family’s country estate in Varykino. Upon reaching the estate after an arduous journey, Zhivago’s father-in-law, Alexander Gromeko, finds the main house boarded up, with a notice affixed to the door. After reading the notice, he cannot contain his exasperation: “A body, styling itself the Yuriatin Committee of Revolutionary Justice, has expropriated my house. In the name of the people. Very well. I’m one of the people, too!”I know how Gromeko...

This is so hard to write...but I believe God listens to prayer....so I ask you to pray for my daughter (and my wife and I)...I feel like I am watching a horrific event unfold in slow motion before my eyes....as if the world is caving in around me... My eldest daughter (19 years old) has just had a run in with the law...she has been charged with possession of a controlled substance (xanax) in the 7th degree. It is her first offense...but...given the crowd she runs with....it is fortunate that this is only the first... We live in NY, Suffolk...

Peace, peace, to him that is far off and to him that is near, saith the LORD that createth the fruit of the lips; and I will heal him. Isaiah 57:19

August 13, 2013 Tuesday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time    Reading 1 Dt 31:1-8 When Moses had finished speaking to all Israel, he said to them,“I am now one hundred and twenty years oldand am no longer able to move about freely;besides, the LORD has told me that I shall not cross this Jordan.It is the LORD, your God, who will cross before you;he will destroy these nations before you,that you may supplant them.It is Joshua who will cross before you, as the LORD promised.The LORD will deal with them just as he dealt with Sihon and Og,the...

Syria's Christians belong to one of the oldest Christian communities in the world, but chased away by the threat of violence some are heading for neighbouring Turkey, where they have been greeted with considerable enthusiasm. Driven by a deep and humble faith, Father Joaqim is a young man with a sense of destiny. He has returned from 11 years in Holland to revive his dying community in eastern Turkey. We are standing together on the terrace of his newly restored monastery, high on a remote escarpment near Nusaybin, looking south over the Mesopotamian Plain. "Thank God our community is alive...

Wife just got a phone call with horrible news from niece in Bombay. Ceiling collapsed in multi-story apartment building in the middle of the night. Very poor area. Wife's older sister currently is semi-conscious and bleeding. There seems to be no emergency service who will pick her up and family has no vehicle. The next few hours would seem to be critical. The sister, Margaret, was practically a saint in helping raise my wife as a child. A wonderful person. Prayers badly needed. Thank you. I will read but probably not reply tonight. Thank you.

Unintended Consequences: How the “relevant” church and segregating youth is killing Christianity. I recently spent six-months doing a rotation as a hospital chaplain. One day I received a page (Yes, hospitals actually still use pagers). Chaplains are generally called to the rooms of people who look ill: People gray with kidney disease, or yellow with liver failure, discouraged amputees, nervous cancer patients. In this room, however, was a strikingly attractive 23 year-old young lady sitting up cheerfully in the hospital bed, holding her infant daughter and chatting with family and friends. Confused, I stepped outside and asked her nurse, “Why...

Just Ask Today's Scripture “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” (Matthew 7:7, NIV) Today's Word from Joel and Victoria What do you need from God today? A lot of times, it’s easy to think that we’re not supposed to ask for too much, but scripture encourages us to go to God with all of our needs. He longs to give you the desires of your heart and pour out His favor and blessing on you. In fact, Jesus said, “You have not because...

The Theology of Resting in God "Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?" —Matthew 8:26 When we are afraid, the least we can do is pray to God. But our Lord has a right to expect that those who name His name have an underlying confidence in Him. God expects His children to be so confident in Him that in any crisis they are the ones who are reliable. Yet our trust is only in God up to a certain point, then we turn back to the elementary panic-stricken prayers of those people who do not even...

Mid-East Prophecy Update - August 11th, 2013 Pastor JD talks about the prophecy in Ezekiel 38 concerning an alliance of enemies seeking to destroy Israel as a nation and how it's yet another reason, that Christ's return for His church is sooner than we may think.

NASHVILLE (BP) -- The centrality of the doctrine of substitutionary atonement is being emphasized by Southern Baptist leaders after a state newspaper editor wrote that he does not sing certain words of a popular hymn due to its mention of God's wrath. Substitutionary atonement refers to the belief that Jesus died in the place of sinners, taking on Himself the wrath of God that they deserved. Bob Terry, editor of The Alabama Baptist, in an Aug. 8 editorial, paralleled the angst expressed by a Presbyterian Church USA hymnal committee in rejecting the song "In Christ Alone" because of the line...

Father Patrick Dowling. Courtesy of the Diocese of Jefferson City. Jefferson City, Mo., Aug 12, 2013 / 02:12 pm (CNA).- The mysterious Missouri priest who gave anointing to a woman in her wrecked car near Center, Mo. has been identified as Father Patrick Dowling, of the Diocese of Jefferson City. “I thank God and the amazingly competent rescue workers,� Fr. Dowling stated today in a comment on CNA's original article on the Aug. 4 incident. “I thank them for making me welcome in such a highly charged situation and allowing me to minister as a priest.� Katie Lentz was trapped...

A comprehensive demographic study of more than 200 countries finds that there are 2.18 billion Christians of all ages around the world, representing nearly a third of the estimated 2010 global population of 6.9 billion. Christians are also geographically widespread – so far-flung, in fact, that no single continent or region can indisputably claim to be the center of global Christianity. A century ago, this was not the case. In 1910, about two-thirds of the world’s Christians lived in Europe, where the bulk of Christians had been for a millennium, according to historical estimates by the Center for the Study...

� Why This Generation Doesn’t “Get” Hell… This Guy Understands… Take a few minutes and listen to this stirring speech by Rafael Cruz, the Father of Senator Ted Cruz. He speaks for the rapidly marginalized true America, which is unapologetically Christian. Whatever happens is up to God. I don’t see a political solution to our spiritual problem, but Truth is refreshing to hear, especially when passionately presented, Enjoy, and pray! Pastor Rafael Speaks

Featured Term (selected at random):OLIVE BRANCHA universal symbol of peace. It is the sign of reconciliation between God and humans, shown when it was brought by the dove returning to Noah's ark after the Deluge. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem Children and Families In The Bible Joseph(Genesis 37-50) Jacob’s Last Words to His Sons 1 And Jacob called his sons and said, “Gather together, that I may tell you what shall befall you in the last days: 2. “ Gather together and hear, you sons of Jacob, And listen to Israel your father. 3. “ Reuben, you are my firstborn, My might and the beginning of my strength, The excellency of dignity and the excellency of power. 4. Unstable as water, you shall not excel, Because you went up to your father’s bed;...

[ . . . ] . . . Christian authorities need to stop thinking and writing as though the categories of homosexual and Christian can be joined—as though the Church could tolerate or accommodate, or speak gently of, much less bless or sanctify, anything peculiar to the garment stained by the flesh that those who come to Christ throw off in their baptism. In that baptism we become penitents, and as such divided from our sins. St. Paul tells us here that no penitent is to be named by, identified by, what he has abjured. Those injured people who have...

My youngest brother has been diagnosed with microscopic polyangiitis (MPA).He's been "out of sorts" for the last 6 months, but when he noticed some rather disturbingly large blood blisters on his lower legs and feet, he went to the doctor at 1030 in the morning. At 1045, he was in the emergency ward.

Professor Richard Dawkins, known as the world’s most famous atheist, has risen to rock star status for his attacks on God and religion, in particular, his attacks on the God of the Bible. But when he recently criticized Muslims, he was in for a surprise. Before looking at Dawkins’ rather mild criticism of Muslims, let’s remember the depth of his vitriol against Christians and the Bible, most of which has only enhanced Dawkins’ reputation. In an April interview aired on the Qatar-based TV network Al Jazeera, Dawkins railed on the Catholic Church, saying that, as “Horrible as sexual abuse no...

August 12, 2013Monday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time    Reading 1 Dt 10:12-22 Moses said to the people:“And now, Israel, what does the LORD, your God, ask of youbut to fear the LORD, your God, and follow his ways exactly,to love and serve the LORD, your God,with all your heart and all your soul,to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORDwhich I enjoin on you today for your own good?Think! The heavens, even the highest heavens,belong to the LORD, your God,as well as the earth and everything on it.Yet in his love for your fathers the...

AINA) -- The Antiochian Orthodox church of Sts. Sergius and Bacchus was a landmark of al-Thawrah (also known as al-Tabqah). It was an impressive, modern structure with a large yard, surrounded by a high wall and well-situated on a main street near the corniche -- a well landscaped area hugging the southern bank of Lake Assad which was popular with locals going on an evening stroll. Its elegant dome, surmounted by a cross, could be seen from all parts of the Third Quarter (also known as Hayy al-Ishtirakiyah), where it was located. Spiritually, this church was under the jurisdiction of...

Pope Francis on Sunday urged Christians and Muslims to promote mutual respect , especially through the education of new generations. His remarks came at the end of his Angelus address when he sent greetings to Muslims throughout the world who have just celebrated the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. Text from page http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2013/08/11/pope_francis_greets_muslims_and_urges_both_christians_and_muslims_to/en1-718872 of the Vatican Radio website

He writes: - A Pentecostal church in the favela is located in front of the place the Pope spoke to the people. This church lead a vigil the whole night before the visit making a lot of noise and pestering the neighbours as a form of protest and resistance against the Pope’s presence in the community. When the Pope arrived, he saw the church and said “let’s go there to salute them�. He went to the church, praised the pastors, prayed a Our Father together with them saying that we all who follow Christ are His children. The church then...

Michele Ferri is the brother of 51-year-old Andrea, a petrol station manager who was allegedly gunned down by two men including one young employee he treated like a son. The death shocked the north-eastern town of Pesaro. Michele Ferri wrote a letter to the Pope telling him of his inability to forgive the killers and was shocked when he picked up the telephone Wednesday evening to hear: "Ciao Michele, it's Pope Francis." At first Mr Ferri thought it was a joke but said he was overcome with emotion when he realised it was really Francis on the line from the...

Give Rachel Held Evans credit. She was able to generate a lot of discussion with her post, “Why millennials are leaving the church.” Evans’s contradictory article, however, is merely another polemic against the conservative evangelicalism she’s been battling for years. The solution to winning back? Churches just need to follow her lead and go liberal!

Eastern Michigan University hosted a day-long conference Saturday that dared to ask the question: “Is Islam a Religion of Peace?” Leaders of the state’s Muslim community apparently didn’t care to hear the answer because they tried mightily to get the conference cancelled. “We respect the freedom of speech,” claimed Victor Begg, senior advisor of the Michigan Muslim Community Center. “However, denying the Holocaust, yelling ‘fire’ in a theater, or glorifying Hitler would not constitute freedom of speech.” In other words, anyone who wonders aloud whether Islam truly is the peaceful religion its adherents claim is on a moral par with...

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You are a homeless person. You are sick and you know it is bad. You stagger into the ER of St. Ipsidipsy Catholic Hospital in Tall Tree Circle. You have no insurance, health coverage, or money. You are seen by a doctor and treated.The Obama Administration then punishes the hospital for treating you, a person without government-approved obligatory Obamacare.From the Daily Caller: Obamacare installs new scrutiny, fines for charitable hospitals that treat uninsured peopleCharitable hospitals that treat uninsured Americans will be subjected to new levels of scrutiny of their nonprofit status and could face sizable new fines under Obamacare. A...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem Children In The Bible Joseph(Genesis 37-50) Jacob Blesses Joseph’s Sons 1. Now it came to pass after these things that Joseph was told, “Indeed your father is sick”; and he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. 2. And Jacob was told, “Look, your son Joseph is coming to you”; and Israel strengthened himself and sat up on the bed. 3. Then Jacob said to Joseph: “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me, 4. and said to me, ‘Behold, I will make you...

Pray For Our American Heroes and Our Nation Stand Firm Joshua 1:5 No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.

This Experience Must Come "Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha . . . saw him no more" —2 Kings 2:11-12 It is not wrong for you to depend on your “Elijah� for as long as God gives him to you. But remember that the time will come when he must leave and will no longer be your guide and your leader, because God does not intend for him to stay. Even the thought of that causes you to say, “I cannot continue without my ’Elijah.’ � Yet God says you must continue.Alone at Your “Jordan�...

August 11, 2013 Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time    Reading 1 Wis 18:6-9 The night of the passover was known beforehand to our fathers,that, with sure knowledge of the oaths in which they put their faith,they might have courage.Your people awaited the salvation of the justand the destruction of their foes.For when you punished our adversaries,in this you glorified us whom you had summoned.For in secret the holy children of the good were offering sacrificeand putting into effect with one accord the divine institution. Responsorial Psalm Ps 33:1, 12, 18-19, 20-22 R. (12b) Blessed the people the Lord has chosen...

U.S. President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama sent their warmest greetings to Muslims celebrating Eid al-Fitr around the world, calling it "part of a great tapestry of America's many traditions." "Michelle and I send our warmest greetings to Muslims celebrating Eid-al-Fitr in the United States and around the world," Obama said in his message. "For millions of Americans, Eid is part of a great tapestry of America's many traditions, and I wish all Muslims a blessed and joyful celebration. Eid Mubarak," Obama said. Eid is being celebrated on Thursday in the Arab world and most of the East...

I haunt flea markets, partly because the stuff is so cheap (and I am genetically Scottish), but partly, too, because I find things there that will never appear in a big box store, or any other chain retail environment. Likewise, I haunt second-hand bookstores, where the range of possible titles to be found is vastly greater than in stores confined to selling only those books that happen to be in print.Quality is an issue here. Most things one finds in a flea market are better made and will last longer, as well as being a lot cheaper than anything...

On one particular morning, just two weeks after His resurrection, Jesus stood on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. And, seeing the Apostles in a boat just off shore he said, Little Children, Have you caught anything? (John 21:5).It is a rather strange way to speak to grown men: “Little Children� (παιδία = paidia = little ones, children, infants, the diminutive of pais (child), hence “little ones�). And yet how deeply affectionate it is.We often think of ourselves in grander terms, terms that bespeak power, wisdom, age and strength. But I suspect that, to God, we must always seem...

Events in one Syrian town cast light on the nation’s strifeIlyas was, he told me, the very last Christian to flee Qusayr. He had been one of just a handful in the town to join the revolution — an odd thing for a Christian to do because the Free Syrian Army (FSA) were and are mostly Sunnis, and the Christians mostly sided with Assad. Still, it didn’t save him. One day he heard banging on the door and saw men with Kalashnikovs standing there. There were familiar faces, some he had known for years. He said: ‘They told me: “You’re...

n artist has created a sketch of the mysterious "angel priest" who witnesses say appeared at the scene of a Missouri car accident Sunday, anointed and prayed with the teenage victim and then vanished without a trace. Fox4KC reports Tucson-based artist Randall Sands created the sketch using online face sketch software at facesid.com based on media reports, hoping someone would be able to identify the cleric. Officials are still scratching their heads over the priest, who they say appeared out of nowhere. Perhaps more mysteriously, the local fire chief said he does not appear in any of 80 photos from...

At a special ceremony on July 6, Pope Francis briefly met with clergy and officials who, over the past two years, have been involved in the diocesan phase of the beatification process of Vietnamese Cardinal Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan.Cardinal Van Thuan spent 13 years in prison, nine of them in solitary confinement in Hanoi, following his appointment as coadjutor archbishop of Saigon just seven days before South Vietnam fell to the Communist North in 1975.He was released in 1988 and Pope John Paul II called him to Rome, where he eventually became president of the Pontifical Council for Justice...

To the faithful you show yourself faithful, to the blameless you show yourself blameless, to the pure you show yourself pure, but to the crooked you show yourself shrewd. You save the humble, but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them low. You are my lamp, O LORD; the LORD turns my darkness into light. With your help I can advance against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall. (2 Samuel 22:26-30)

Featured Term (selected at random):PREDESTINATIONIn the widest sense it is every eternal decision of God; in a narrower sense it is the supernatural final destination of rational creatures; and in the strictest sense it is God's eternal decision to assume certain rational creatures into heavenly glory. Predestination implies an act of the divine intellect and of the divine will. The first is foreknowledge, the second is predestination. According to its efficacy in time, predestination is distinguished as incomplete or complete depending on whether it is to grace only or also to glory. Complete predestination is the divine preparation of...

The Holy Suffering of the Saint "Let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good . . ." —1 Peter 4:19 Choosing to suffer means that there must be something wrong with you, but choosing God’s will— even if it means you will suffer— is something very different. No normal, healthy saint ever chooses suffering; he simply chooses God’s will, just as Jesus did, whether it means suffering or not. And no saint should ever dare to interfere with the lesson of suffering being taught in another saint’s life.The saint...