Free Republic

(A book review) The Future Church How Ten Trends Are Revolutionizing the Catholic Church By John L. Allen Jr. Random House, 480 pages, $30 If one could take a Roman Catholic from 100 years ago and put him down in the middle of a 21st-century Catholic church, he would almost certainly wonder where on Earth -- perhaps even where in hell -- he was. Very little would be familiar to him. The Mass would no longer be said or sung in Latin, but rather in the vernacular, and not a particularly elegant version of the vernacular at that. He would...

Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has apparently issued an ultimatum to four bishops embroiled in the Irish Catholic Church child sex abuse scandal — to either quit or be fired by the Vatican.

VATICAN CITY, DEC. 16, 2009 (Zenit.org).- A 12th-century scholar has a lesson for today on what makes for fair and equal treatment in law, Benedict XVI says.The Pope proposed today during the general audience the teaching of John of Salisbury, an English theologian and philosopher who served as bishop of Chartres, France, from 1176 until he died in 1180.The Holy Father explained how John taught that "there also exists an objective and immutable truth, whose origin is God, accessible to human reason. This truth regards practical and social actions. This is a natural law, from which human laws and political...

Dear Bishop ________, Groups claiming the title “Catholic” are working effectively to support legislation which violates core Catholic social teachings. They do not represent Catholic morality. But they claim to represent YOU. “Catholics across the political spectrum should lend their full-throated support to this [Health Care Reform] legislation. The bishops' stamp of approval means that this bill is unambiguously pro-life, and we will vigorously oppose those who suggest otherwise.” Chris Korzen Catholics United http://www.catholics-united.org/> Here, Chris Korzen is speaking of the Health Care Reform that passed the House in November which --- despite the Stupak Amendment --- is still objectionable...

Question: I am a teenager, and thinking of going into church ministry when I'm older. I am attracted to the OPC, based on its faithfulness to Scripture. I noticed that the OPC holds to a "strict-subscriptionist" interpretation of the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms. I agree with them on every point, except perhaps one which I would like clarified. The WCF, Chapter XXIV (Of Marriage and Divorce) reads as follows: It is lawful for all sorts of people to marry, who are able with judgment to give their consent. Yet it is the duty of Christians to marry only...

KEVIN Rudd's decision to take holy communion at the Mary MacKillop Memorial Chapel in Sydney has sparked debate within the Catholic Church because he is a practising Anglican. The controversy mirrors a debate nearly a decade ago when Jeff Kennett complained he was sent a letter by Cardinal George Pell instructing him not to take communion at the state funeral of prominent Catholic B.A. Santamaria, despite the then Victorian premier's own shift to Catholicism. The Australian has confirmed that the chaplain and sisters at the chapel were caught unawares by the Prime Minister's visit on Sunday. They were concerned that...

When Justice John Paul Stevens, who is 89, retires—and he's expected to in the next year or so—there will be no Protestant left on the highest court in the land. Will President Obama be pressured to appoint one? Popular opinion once held that even one Catholic was too many on the court. Today there are six. But would anyone even notice if Obama appointed a seventh to replace Stevens? Once upon a time, there was an outright religious litmus test for Supreme Court appointees. Today religion is almost irrelevant in appointing new justices. All of which raises a question: Are...

Folks, this according to the Thomas More Law Center: ANN ARBOR, MI – Tomorrow, December 16, 2009, at 10 AM PST, a panel of eleven judges of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals sitting in San Francisco will hear oral arguments concerning the constitutionality of San Francisco Board of Supervisor’s virulent resolution attacking the Catholic Church for its teachings against homosexual adoptions. The en banc panel will review the earlier opinion of a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit that upheld the resolution. Thomas More Law Center attorney Robert Muise will argue the case on behalf of the plaintiffs in...

LONDON (CNS) -- The Catholic bishops of England and Wales said they could be at risk of prosecution under a proposed law unless they accept women, sexually active gays and transsexuals as candidates to the priesthood. They made their claims in a briefing for Catholic members of the House of Lords, Britain's upper political chamber, ahead of a scheduled Dec. 15 debate on the Equality Bill, which aims to stamp out discrimination in the workplace. The bishops said the bill defines priests as employees rather than officeholders. Under the terms of the bill, the church would be immune from prosecution...

A friend wrote me about a school principal, a religious sister, speaking to a parent and requesting school funds. The gentleman was described as an "ultra-Catholic." My friend asked me: "What is that, do you know?" Evidently, the "non-ultra" principal thought it all right to siphon needed cash from the "ultra" parent. No strings were attached. Once the funds were donated, the non-ultra establishment would go its non-ultra way. The ultra was good for his cash, if he still had any. His ideas were, well, ultra. Clearly, I cannot resist taking a stab at defining what a modern ultra-Catholic...

Communism 1533. The Catholic Church forbids a Catholic to be a communist! That is true. Communism is opposed to the law of God, is anti-Christian, and violates the fundamental rights of man. Apart from this, it will never remedy existing evils, and can only lead to the greater distress of those whom it pretends it will benefit. 1534. Your Church's solution of this terrible mess is faith! It is not. Her solution is common-sense, strict justice all round, and Christian charity based upon faith. 1535. It matters little to me whether the Christian religion be right or wrong. I stand...

Bishop Thomas Tobin of Rhode Island clarified his reasons for denying pro-abortion politicians Communion on Tuesday, noting that such politicians are not forced to be Catholic - but if they choose to, they must then “understand what the Church teaches, accept those teachings, and live that faith.�“The most important commitment we can make is our faith, because that defines our relationship with God. Nothing is more important than that. And if your job, your profession, your vocation gets in the way of that, you have to quit your job and save your soul,� said Tobin in an appearance on the...

Chris Matthews / Bishop Thomas Tobin Washington D.C., Nov 24, 2009 / 03:06 pm (CNA).- On Monday Bishop Thomas Tobin tangled with television pundit Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s “Hardball” about the relation between religion and politics as well as the legal status of abortion. Matthews’ comments, which charged that the bishop has overstepped his authority, were criticized as a “rant” and an “extended lecture.”Bishop Tobin, of the Diocese of Providence has been critical of Rhode Island U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy’s attacks on the Church for opposing abortion. Rep. Kennedy recently revealed that the bishop had asked him to refrain...

Sister Sobodka said: "Several times he (Pope John Paul) would put himself through bodily penance. "We would hear it – we were in the next room at Castel Gandolfo. You could hear the sound of the blows when he flagellate himself. He did it when he was still capable of moving on his own." The flagellation is also confirmed by another bishop who has given testimony. Emery Kabongo was a secretary for Pope John Paul. "He would punish himself and in particular just before he ordained bishops and priests," he said. "I never actually saw it myself but several people...

WASHINGTON — Providence Bishop Thomas J. Tobin has forbidden Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy to receive the Roman Catholic sacrament of Holy Communion because of his advocacy of abortion rights, the Rhode Island Democrat said Friday. “The bishop instructed me not to take Communion and said that he has instructed the diocesan priests not to give me Communion,” Kennedy said in a telephone interview. Kennedy said the bishop had explained the penalty by telling him “that I am not a good practicing Catholic because of the positions that I’ve taken as a public official,” particularly on abortion. He declined to say...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas Tobin has banned Rep. Patrick Kennedy from receiving Communion, the central sacrament of the church, in Rhode Island because of the congressman's support for abortion rights, Kennedy said in a newspaper interview published Sunday. The decision by the outspoken prelate, reported on The Providence Journal's Web site, significantly escalates a bitter dispute between Tobin, an ultra orthodox bishop, and Kennedy, a son of the nation's most famous Roman Catholic family. "The bishop instructed me not to take Communion and said that he has instructed the diocesan priests not to give me Communion," Kennedy...

The appointment of Herman Van Rompuy as “President of Europe” is a gift to conspiracy theorists who fear the re-emergence of a Europe dominated by Rome. The wellspring of the Belgian’s Eurofederalism, like that of the EU’s founders, is his Catholic faith. He makes monthly retreats to a Benedictine monastery; even his wife is overawed by “the force he can find in his faith”. I can already see the words “Holy Roman Empire” forming on the lips of Eurosceptics whose mistrust of the EU draws on a dislike of Catholicism. And perhaps there is just a grain of truth in...

(Reuters) - Here are some facts about Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy, who on Thursday became the European Union's president. Van Rompuy, 62, emerged as the strongest centre-right candidate. Although he has been prime minister for less than a year, after coming to power following a banking crisis, he has proved a steady hand running a difficult coalition. * RISE TO POWER: -- Van Rompuy helped calm the linguistically divided country after taking charge in December 2008 after 18 months of turmoil under predecessor and fellow Christian Democrat Yves Leterme. -- He had been president of the lower house...

Where is Tom Hanks when you need him? Something sinister is happening in the Catholic Church, at least according to New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd. And the way she writes about it, it reads like the beginning of a treatment for a Dan Brown extravaganza. Her plot, you see, is just that absurd. Dowd was convinced that Catholic religious sisters were unhappy when she was in the fifth grade, and she remains adamant. She writes: “Nuns were second-class citizens then and — 40 years after feminism utterly changed America — they still are.” I can’t speak for “the formidable...

Cardinal Francis George / Bishop Mark Hanson Washington D.C., Sep 30, 2009 / 02:49 am (CNA).- Catholic, Lutheran and Methodist church leaders will mark the tenth anniversary of a joint agreement on the Doctrine of Justification in a meeting in downtown Chicago on Thursday. A service including Evening Prayer and tributes to the joint declaration will be held at Old St. Patrick’s Church, a press release from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) reports.The Vatican and the Lutheran World Federation signed the Joint Declaration on October 31, 1999. It was the product of nearly 35 years of Lutheran-Catholic...

As observers continue to decipher the meaning of Benedict XVI’s latest encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, all appear to agree that the passage of note, the passage that may prove historic in its implications, is the one that is already becoming known as the “world political authority” paragraph: In the face of the unrelenting growth of global interdependence, there is a strongly felt need, even in the midst of a global recession, for a reform of the United Nations Organization, and likewise of economic institutions and international finance, so that the concept of the family of nations can acquire real teeth....

In pictures: Pilgrimage unites Sri Lankans The church sits on a site where there has been a shrine to the Virgin Mary for hundreds of years. Catholics, both Tamil and Sinhalese, and members of other faiths revere it.

I was looking at a Free Republic post Is There Salvation Outside The Catholic Church which incurred an astounding reaction among Freepers. You won't see that kind of post in Huffington or Kos. I am a former Catholic, now merely and simply a nondenominational "Christian" not bound, or aided by Protestantism or Catholicism. I received an excellent education in parochial grade and high schools, was an altar boy, and like most boys in the 1950's I was steered toward Catholic seminary. I did not go. Again, my parochial education, except for some of the doctrines, gave me an advantage in...

Buenos Aires, Argentina, May 7, 2009 / 04:13 pm (CNA).- Bishop Juan Ruben Martinez of Posadas in Argentina said celibacy cannot be reduced to a "mere imposition of the Church" and that "bad examples and even our own limitations do not invalidate the contribution of so many who, in the past and today, give their lives for others." Bishop Martinez said that a "materialistic vision" of man that is based solely on "instinct and the physiological" makes it difficult to see these values as a "gift of God" and an "instrument of service to humanity and to the common good."...

Tennessee-born beauty Cybill Shepherd definitely isn’t one to waste words -- and had she no qualms in speaking out about who she thought was to blame for the passing of Proposition 8 in California's last election, which led to gay and lesbian marriage rights being overturned.

Jack Smith of the Catholic Key (the KC Archdiocese newspaper which uses its blog to great effect, expanding and exploring stories), explains the source of the CDF's...issues with the *leadership* of the Leadership Conference for Women Religious. There are many issues, but they are summmarized at the keynote of the 2007 LCWR conference by Sinsinawa Dominican Sister Laurie Brink. In the talk, she outlines several ways in which religious communities are changing, different choices that are made. Some accept death and prepare for it. Others accede to what seems to be the current Catholic zeitgeist, which, she notes dismissively, is...

A majority of Roman Catholic adoption agencies have cut their ties with the Church rather than defy gay equality laws. Five agencies have declared themselves independent - and some have changed their names - to comply with laws that say they must allow homosexual couples to adopt children.The retreat ends decades in which the adoption charities have worked in the name of the Catholic Church with support from dioceses, clergy and congregations.The decision to end the formal connection with the Church follows a deadline set by the Government for charities to comply with the 2007 Sexual Orientation Regulations. These...

A plan to put atheist slogans on buses in Italy has been shot down by the Roman Catholic Church. The campaign, which follows a similar one in Britain, had caused controversy in the deeply Catholic country. The ads read 'The bad news is that God doesn't exist. The good news is that you don't need him' and were to have made their first appearance today in the streets of Genoa. The city was targeted because it is home to the head of the Italian Catholic Bishops Conference Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, an outspoken opponent of artificial insemination and gay marriage.

Domestic Terrorist Bill Ayers To Speak At St. Mary's College Campus In California College Characterizes Him As Advocate Of "Social Justice"By WILLIAM MAYER January 12, 2009 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - On Jan 28th at 7:30PM Bill Ayers, an unapologetic domestic terrorist and founder of the Marxist revolutionary terrorist group, the Weather Underground, will be speaking at St. Mary's College located in Moraga, California. St. Mary's is a Catholic college and located approximately 30 miles east of San Francisco, in Contra Costa County. The college website contains the following information regarding the event. "Bill Ayers is a...

San Francisco Mayor Newsom and the Board of Supervisors have shown nothing but contempt for the First Amendment rights of Catholics. Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church, in the heart of San Farncisco's gay Castro community, was vandalized over the weekend by opponents of Proposition 8, the California resolution passed by voters in November that rejected gay marriage. Swastikas were painted on the church and the names Ratzinger (referring to Pope Benedict XVI) and Niederauer (the San Francisco Archbishop) were scrawled besides the Nazi symbol. In the wake of Proposition 8, innocent persons have been assaulted, churches have been vandalized, a...

To All the Bishops Everywhere, Beloved in the Holy Ghost, Our Venerable, Most Dear Brethren; and to their Most Pious Clergy; and to All the Genuine Orthodox Sons of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church: Brotherly Salutation in the Holy Spirit, and Every Good From God, and Salvation. The holy, evangelical and divine Gospel of Salvation should be set forth by all in its original simplicity, and should evermore be believed in its unadulterated purity, even the same as it was revealed to His holy Apostles by our Savior, who for this very cause, descending from the bosom of...

Our DRE just quit, and it looks like my husband and I will be stepping in to teach the RCIA class. Any FReepers out there teaching RCIA? Do you have a curriculum you love? Suggestions? Can we chat?

“When you hear this message, I will no longer be there,” the voice, characteristically spirited, confident, just a little bit cheeky and familiar to all of France, said on a tape released this week. The words were those of Sister Emmanuelle, a nun revered for her work with the disenfranchised, especially among the garbage-scavengers of Cairo, and renowned for her television appearances in France as an advocate for the poor. She died Monday at a retirement home operated by her order, the Congregation of Notre-Dame de Sion, in Callian, in the south of France. She was immediately praised by the...

Men becoming priests at mid-life By Bob Holliday BLOOMINGTON -- In what he calls his past life, the Rev. Geoffrey Horton worked at a Bloomington-Normal insurance company, coached a women’s softball team, owned a home and invested in a 401K. Although life was good, Horton, 43, felt something was missing. In May, he found his calling as a newly ordained Roman Catholic priest. “I became a priest for the only reason anyone should ever become a priest, because I felt that’s what God was asking of me,” said Horton, currently assigned at a church in Peoria. The Rev. Michael Bies...

Question: Recently a Catholic friend of mine posed a question that had me perplexed and I was hoping you could explain. As you probably know, Catholics believe in Sacred Tradition. My friend told me that the Bible supports Sacred Tradition in 2 Thessalonians 3:15 when it states "Therefore, brothers, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught, either by an oral statement or by a letter of ours." Could you please explain this? Answer: Thank you for your question about 2 Thessalonians 2:15. When Paul uses the word traditions in this verse, he is referring to...

Full disclosure: I was raised Presbyterian, attended both Methodist and Episcopalian seminaries where I took Theology from both an Anglican and a Roman Catholic, OT exegetics from a Hebrew scholar, NT from an ancient Greek professor, and ethics from a Mennonite; served as an ordained minister in both “high” and “low” Episcopal parishes for almost a decade; married a Church of God pastor and two years ago was received into the Orthodox Church. If one can dine from the smorgasbord of Christianity, I certainly have eaten my fill. My choice of the Orthodox Church was a very thoughtful, deliberate one;...

Concerned Roman Catholics Call on Knights of Columbus to Expel Pro-Abortion Politicians by Staff August 5, 2008 MEDIA ADVISORY, (christiansunite.com) -- Concerned Roman Catholics of America, Inc. (CRCOA) condemn the Knights of Columbus for their continuing failure to expel pro- abortion and pro-homosexual politicians. The K of C meet in the Hilton Quebec Hotel and in the Quebec City Convention Centre from August 5-7 for their annual Supreme Convention. Ken Fisher, President of CRCOA, said: "With 50 million abortions since Roe v Wade in 1973, the Knights of Columbus has failed the unborn children miserably. The K of C, founded...

TORONTO, July 4, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Canadian Human Rights Commission has dropped a complaint by a homosexual activist against Catholic Insight a Toronto-based national Catholic news magazine. A year and a half - and many thousands of dollars in legal fees - after a nine-point human rights complaint was filed by Edmonton-based homosexual activist Rob Wells, Catholic Insight has been informed that the case has been dropped. However, a judicial review before the Federal Court is still possible should the complainant pursue that avenue. In a letter the Commission noted that it decided "to dismiss the complaint because the...

Some of you will remember my recent decision to become a Catholic. I suppose I should be surprised it ended getting derailed into a 'Catholic vs. Protestant' thread, but after going further into the Religion forum, I suppose it's par for the course. There seems to be a bit of big issue concerning Mary. I wanted to share an observation of sorts. Now...although I was formerly going by 'Sola Scriptura', my father was born and raised Catholic, so I do have some knowledge of Catholic doctrine (not enough, at any rate...so consider all observations thusly). Mary as a 'co-redeemer', Mary...

WASHINGTON - All five Roman Catholic justices on the Supreme Court were invited to Wednesday night's splashy White House dinner in honor of Pope Benedict XVI. Republican presidential contender John McCain will be there, too. But Democratic rivals Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, who had a nationally broadcast debate scheduled Wednesday night, were not invited. About 250 guests were to attend the dinner. Benedict will not be there because he will be attending an evening prayer service with U.S. bishops. The guests include former Los Angeles Dodgers baseball manager Tommy Lasorda, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Minority Leader John...

The Future Lies in the Past -- Why evangelicals are connecting with the early church as they move into the 21st century.Many 20- and 30-something evangelicals are uneasy and alienated in mall-like church environments; high-energy, entertainment-oriented worship; and boomer-era ministry strategies and structures modeled on the business world. Increasingly, they are asking just how these culturally camouflaged churches can help them rise above the values of the consumerist world around them. For younger evangelicals, traditional churches are too centered on words and propositions. And pragmatic churches are compromising authentic Christianity by tailoring their ministries to the marketplace and pop culture....

Prelates Consider It Key for Local Church SUBOTICA, Serbia, AUG. 20, 2007 (Zenit.org).- The foundation stone has been laid for the first Catholic seminary for Serbia. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, retired archbishop of Washington, D.C., presided over the ceremony, calling it a historic moment. Archbishop Stanislaw Hocevar of Belgrade, the chairman of the bishops' conference of Sts. Cyril and Methodius, which covers Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia, told the group Aid to the Church in Need that it is "of great importance that future priests be trained in their own country." After the war, Serbia was left without a seminary since the...

As a pastor I’m often asked, "What’s the real issue that divides Catholics and Evangelicals?" Many cite the adoration of Mary, prayers to the saints, and for some it’s papal authority. While these topics can be troublesome for Evangelicals, the fundamental difference lies in our understanding of the cross itself. In a recent series of documents, Pope Benedict XVI clearly brought this cross-centered difference to the forefront when he said, Protestant, Lutheran and other Christian denominations ... were not true churches but merely ecclesial communities and therefore did not have the “means of salvation.” The other communities “cannot be called...

There are many ways to sing the Rosary. This is just one of them. No single approach is authorized or mandated by the Church. Still, the method set forth below carries a certain weight of tradition, for it draws, wherever possible, on the most venerable customs and practices of our Catholic ancestors.Most of the prayers recited in the Rosary -- the Our Father, the Hail Mary, the Glory Be, the Salve Regina and so on -- have been sung for centuries in the form of Gregorian chants. I do not know if these chants were ever used for the specific...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The leader of the largest U.S. Roman Catholic archdiocese apologized on Sunday for what he called a "terrible sin and crime" as the church confirmed it would pay a record $660 million to people who were sexually abused by priests. Facing trial on Monday over abuse allegations dating as far back as the 1940s, the Archdiocese led by Cardinal Roger Mahony agreed to pay 508 victims the largest-ever group settlement. "I have come to understand far more deeply that I ever could the impact of this terrible sin and crime that has affected their lives," said...

The Vatican has described the Protestant and Orthodox faiths as “not proper Churches” in a document issued with the full authority of the Pope. Anglican leaders reacted with dismay, accusing the Roman Catholic Church of paradoxical behaviour. They said that the new 16-page document outling the “defects” of non-Catholic churches constituted a major obstacle to ecumenism. The document said that the Orthodox church suffered from a “wound” because it did not recognise the primacy of the Pope. The wound was “still more profound” in Protestant denominations, it added. It was “difficult to see how the title of ‘Church’ could possibly...

Pope Benedict XVI has signed a document that would allow more churches to adopt the old Latin Mass that largely faded from use during the 1960s, when the groundbreaking Second Vatican Council opened the door to worship in the local vernacular, Vatican officials say. The revival of what is known as the Tridentine Mass has long been promoted by Roman Catholic traditionalists, who say it is more moving, contemplative and historically authentic than the modern Mass. [...] In the Tridentine Mass, the priest faces away from the congregation and prays, sometimes in a whisper, in Latin, a language unfamiliar to...

The vice presidency, John Nance Garner is alleged to have told his fellow Texan Lyndon Johnson, isn't worth a bucket of warm spit. A lame-duck presidency isn't worth much more. While George W. Bush was traveling through Europe on what should have looked like a triumphal journey, back home, Republican senators were burying his immigration reform bill and the secretary of defense was confessing that he could not reappoint Bush's handpicked chairman and vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Does Bush comprehend that the public and Congress are repudiating him? His jaunty swagger on the shore of the...

If you are a Lutheran, your religion was founded by Martin Luther, an ex-monk of the Catholic Church, in the year 1517. If you belong to the Church of England, your religion was founded by King Henry VIII in the year 1534 because the Pope would not grant him a divorce with the right to re-marry. If you are a Presbyterian, your religion was founded by John Knox in Scotland in the year 1560. If you are a Congregationalist, your religion was originated by Robert Brown in Holland in 1582. If you are Protestant Episcopalian, your religion was an offshoot...

The premiere of a work by the leading composer Sir John Taverner in Westminster Cathedral next week has provoked discord because it glorifies the Muslim deity Allah. Traditionalist Roman Catholics are planning to converge on the cathedral on Tuesday evening to protest over the work, which includes the singing of the 99 names of Allah. A number have written to Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, expressing concern that the Church will be seen to be endorsing the Islamic idea of God. advertisementBut having failed to halt the concert, dozens are now...