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Two Baptist chaplains said they were forced out of a Veterans Affairs chaplain training program after they refused orders to stop quoting the Bible and to stop praying in the name of Jesus. When the men objected to those demands, they were subjected to ridicule and harassment that led to one of the chaplains leaving the program and the other being ejected, according to a federal lawsuit filed Friday. The Conservative Baptist Association of America is suing Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki; the group’s suit alleges two of its chaplains were openly ridiculed by the leader of the San...

The Vatican is planning an unprecedented public display of the relics of St. Peter, as the Year of Faith comes to a close. The display was announced by Archbishop Rino Fisichella, the president of Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization, in an article appearing in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano. The archbishop did not supply any details of the plans. The tomb of St. Peter, located under the altar of the Vatican basilica, was unearthed during excavations in the mid-20the century. In 1968, after extensive research and testing, Pope Paul VI announced that relics of St. Peter had been...

British parliamentarians have concluded their three-day visit to the Holy See. Eleven members of the All Party Parliament Group, accompanied by the chaplain to Parliament Canon Pat Browne, met with the Pope on Wednesday, after the General Audience. MP Edward Leigh declared after the three day visit that “The Holy See is an enormous soft power, it represent a religion of 1.2 billion people and so the British government and the British parliament is very interested in what the Vatican says.” The Group, made up of representatives of both House of Parliament and all the major political parties, has encountered...

The pope is selling his hog. The National Catholic Register reports that Pope Francis is selling his Harley-Davidson motorcycle to raise money to help the homeless in Rome. “It is a precious gift that has once again made us happy in feeling the closeness of our bishop to the poor of the Church of Rome,” Monsignor Enrico Feroci, director of Caritas Rome, said. “We are deeply grateful to Pope Francis for this.” According to The Associated Press, Harley gave Francis two classic white Harleys for the Vatican police force in June when the manufacturer and tens of thousands of Harley...

For vast numbers of people, Roman Catholicism is the religion of choice. Rome can be attractive for a wide variety of reasons. The most significant is familial, people born into and persevering in the Roman Church. But other attractions of various sorts can be readily found: theological, philosophical, liturgical, moral, psychological, and historical.Defenders of Protestantism over the centuries have entered the lists, confronting at great length all of Rome's attractions. Understandably, the discussions have often focused particularly on biblical and theological arguments. But historical arguments are of great importance as well. Rome often claims that it represents two thousand years...

A photo from the gay wedding series. Photo: Gonzalo Orquín A gallery in Rome has removed photographs of same sex couples kissing in churches after the Catholic Church threatened legal action. The series of photos, by Gonzalo Orquín, was due to be displayed at the exhibition opening at the Galleria L’Opera on Wednesday evening. “A letter arrived from the Vicariate of Rome, an organization that is part of the Vatican, which said the church is against the exhibition. I spoke to lawyers and for security reasons we decided not to show the photos,” Orquín told The Local. The Vicariate,...

In 717–18, Western civilization was hanging by a thread.Today, August 15, marks the anniversary of Constantinople’s victory over Muslim invaders in what historians commonly call the “Second Siege of Byzantium,” 717–18. Prior to this massive onslaught, the Muslims had been hacking away at the domains of the Byzantine empire for nearly a century. The Muslims’ ultimate goal was the conquest of Constantinople — for both political and religious reasons. Politically, Islam had no rival but the “hated Christians” of Byzantium, known by various appellations — including al-Rum (the Romans), al-Nassara (the Nazarenes), and, most notoriously, al-Kilab (the “dogs”). The eastern...

ROME, August 5, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Up to 500 people are expected to hold a demonstration later tonight outside the Italian parliament to protest a bill that would criminalize homophobia and "transphobia," something constitutional experts believe would shut down citizens' right to free speech, especially for Christians. The event is organized by the recently formed Italian branch of Manif pour Tous. It will be matched by a demonstration in Paris by the French branch of the group, outside the Italian embassy. The group contends that the bill would stifle any principled opposition to the homosexual political agenda, including plans that they...

Unfortunately, the fall of Rome is a pattern repeated by empires throughout history ... including ours? A group of libertarians gathered in Las Vegas recently for an event called "FreedomFest." We debated whether America will soon fall, as Rome did. Historian Carl Richard said that today's America resembles Rome. The Roman Republic had a constitution, but Roman leaders often ignored it. "Marius was elected consul six years in a row, even though under the constitution (he) was term-limited to one year." Sounds like New York City's Mayor Bloomberg. "We have presidents of both parties legislating by executive order, saying I'm...

--snip-- But the attention of the emperor [Valens] was most seriously engaged, by the important intelligence which he received from the civil and military officers who were intrusted with the defence of the Danube. He was informed, that the North was agitated by a furious tempest; that the irruption of the Huns, an unknown and monstrous race of savages, had subverted the power of the Goths; and that the suppliant multitudes of that warlike nation, whose pride was now humbled in the dust, covered a space of many miles along the banks of the river. With outstretched arms, and pathetic...

Published on Jun 27, 2013Disturbing news from the Vatican - stay tuned for more details.

Italian investigators have opened an inquiry into claims by a convicted paedophile priest that an underage prostitution ring has been operating inside the Holy Roman Church with clergymen hiring rentboys for sex inside churches. Don Patrizio Poggi, 46, told Italian authorities that a former Carabinieri pimped boys for nine clergymen. Poggi, who served a five-year sentence for abusing teenage boys while he was a parish priest at the San Filippo Neri church in Rome, said he made the allegations to "protect the Holy Church and the Christian community." The boys were chosen because they were starving and desperate, he claimed,...

There I was, minding my own business and watching The History Channel about the atrocities perpatrated on Rome by the Boy King Caligula...... It was stunning to learn of the things he did in those 1400 days of terror..... and they kept comparing his dirty deeds asking: "....imagine if an American president did this...." He never cared what anyone thought....his favorite saying: "...let them hate me, as long as they're scared of me" He made a point of buying the people's love by giving them parties and gifts.....but if you questioned him, you died....and then he took your money... Like...

(Vatican Radio) A team of archaeologists, historians, engineers and experts in Christian antiquities on Thursday inaugurated an important new archaeological site in Rome. The site is located inside the area that belongs to the Basilica of St. Paul’s outside the Walls and its adjoining Benedictine Monastery. After a brief welcome speech by Cardinal James Harvey, Archpriest of the Basilica of St. Paul, members of the Vatican Museums-backed team who have been collaborating with members of the Pontifical Institute of Christian Archaeology and of Rome’s La Sapienza University, illustrated the importance of the new archaeological site. Listen to the report by...

By A.D. 200, the Roman Republic was a distant memory. Few citizens of the global Roman Empire even knew of their illustrious ancestors like Scipio or Cicero. Millions no longer spoke Latin. Italian emperors were a rarity. There were no national elections. Yet Rome endured as a global power for three more centuries. What held it together? A stubborn common popular culture and the prosperity of Mediterranean-wide standardization kept things going. The Egyptian, the Numidian, the Iberian, and the Greek assumed that everything from Roman clay lamps and glass to good roads and plentiful grain was available to millions throughout...

A new film, Under the Roman Sky, starring James Cromwell as Pius XII, details the heroic efforts of Pius XII to save the Jews of Rome from the Nazis, after Rome came under Nazi occupation subsequent to the fall of Mussolini following the Allied invasion of southern Italy in 1943.Rabbi David G. Dalin, in his review of a Moral Reckoning, a tome by Daniel Goldhagen which sought to blame Catholicism for the Holocaust, details the efforts of the Pope to save the Jews of Rome:Goldhagen’s centerpiece is the outrageous allegation that Pius XII “did not lift a finger to forfend...

In a quest to make concrete more durable and sustainable, an international team of geologists and engineers has found inspiration in the ancient Romans, whose massive concrete structures have withstood the elements for more than 2,000 years.Sample of ancient Roman maritime concrete from Pozzuoli Bay near Naples, Italy. Its diameter is 9 centimeters, and it is composed of mortar formulated from lime, volcanic ash and chunks of volcanic tuff. (Carol Hagen photo) Using the Advanced Light Source at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), a research team from the University of California, Berkeley, examined the fine-scale structure of Roman concrete....

[Janet] Stephens is a hairstyle archaeologist who specialises in recreating how women in ancient Rome and Greece wore their hair. She spoke to the BBC about a museum visit that marked the start of a long journey of discovery on which she solved a historical mystery and had her work published in an academic journal.

Leading archaeologists have denounced the poor state of conservation of the Roman remains at Antinopolis in Egypt, the city built by the emperor Hadrian, who ruled Rome from 117AD to 138AD... Antinopolis, located near the Nile over 30km south of the nearest large town, Minya, is a perfect target. Until recently, the Roman hippodrome there was still intact, although it has now been swallowed by the ever-expanding cemetery for the neighbouring small town called Sheikh ‘Ibada. Out of the four hippodromes built by the Romans in Egypt, this was the only one that survived. Large areas are being prepared for...

(Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel met Pope Francis on Saturday and, apparently responding to his criticism of a heartless "dictatorship of the economy", called for stronger regulation of financial markets. On Thursday, Francis appealed in a speech for world financial reform, saying the global economic crisis had made life worse for millions in rich and poor countries. Merkel visited Rome for a few hours specifically to meet the pontiff and spoke with him privately in his library for 45 minutes, unusually long for a private papal audience. She told reporters afterwards that the scandals and excesses criticized by Francis...