Free Republic

Sure a quake kit is a great thing -- if you can afford it. Too bad about everyone else. You are not ready. This is just a fair guess. You are not fully prepared for the monster life-slapping colon-rattling quake that is slated to devastate our fair state somewhere between the time you finish reading this sentence and about 2035 -- an epic disaster that will make Katrina look like a waterslide and that, if all predictions and all experts are to be believed, will look something like "The Day After Tomorrow" crossed with "28 Days Later" with a dash...

Vatican, Sep. 19 (CWNews.com) - Pope Benedict XVI has given his approval to a new Vatican policy document indicating that men with homosexual tendencies should not be ordained as Catholic priests. The new document-- which was prepared by the Congregation for Catholic Education, in response to a request made by the late Pope John Paul II in 1994-- will be published soon. It will take the form of an "Instruction," signed by the prefect and secretary of the Congregation: Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski and Archbishop Michael Miller. The text, which was approved by Pope Benedict at the end of August, says...

Renee Zellweger, who has filed for an annulment from Kenny Chesney after just four months of marriage, says the couple "hope to experience this transition as privately as possible." In court papers filed Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, the Oscar-winning actress listed "fraud" as the reason for the breakup with the country music star. The term was "simply legal language and not a refection of Kenny's character," Zellweger said in a statement Friday. "I would personally be very grateful for your support in refraining from drawing derogatory, hurtful, sensationalized or untrue conclusions," she said. "We hope to experience...

A self-appointed traffic judge who allegedly meted out street justice by vandalizing cars in Jamaica Plain for everything from expired stickers to parking violations was arrested yesterday after he was caught on camera keying the side of a police decoy van.      It was graying security guard Robert Feest's love for the law that was his undoing, officials said.      Cops say Feest, 44 - dubbed the ``Parking Nazi'' by local residents - has been terrorizing the Boston neighborhood for years with his ruthless respect for auto etiquette - imposing his punishments while out walking his dog.      ``We (investigators) looked at each...

The two youths charged with beating the Rev. Eugene Costa in Douglas Park on Dec. 21 pleaded guilty Monday to aggravated battery. The state agreed to seek no more than a three-year prison sentence for Jamie E. Gibson, 17, and Ryan Boyle, 15, when Circuit Judge Leo Zappa sentences them July 19. Gibson, represented by Springfield attorneys Jon Noll and Dan Fultz, pleaded guilty Monday morning, and Boyle, who has Sangamon County public defender Brian Otwell as his attorney, appeared before Zappa in the afternoon. Each admitted hitting and kicking Costa, 54, in the head and body. A second aggravated...

Rob Carpick says he thought he might persuade state lawmakers to allow the University of Wisconsin to begin offering domestic partner benefits on the basis of simple economics. So Carpick, who is gay, wrote the co-chairman of the Legislature's budget committee earlier this month to explain that he's brought in more than $2.5 million in research grants during the five years he's been an assistant professor of engineering at the UW-Madison. In an e-mail to Rep. Dean Kaufert, R-Neenah, Carpick noted that Gov. Jim Doyle estimated the cost of providing full benefits to domestic partners - unmarried heterosexual couples as...

Warsaw's conservative mayor has vowed to ban an annual gay rights parade for a second year, saying that he is "against propagating gay orientation" in the Polish capital. Mayor Lech Kaczynski, who is widely seen as a leading contender for Poland's presidency in October elections, said he would block plans by gay rights activists for a march on June 11. He said it would interfere with plans to unveil a monument that day to Gen Stefan Rowecki, a leader of Poland's anti-Nazi underground army during World War II. "Organising a gay parade on that day is a joke," Kaczynski was...

ST. PAUL, Minnesota (AP) -- A Roman Catholic priest denied communion to more than 100 people Sunday, saying they could not receive the sacrament because they wore rainbow-colored sashes to church to show support for gay Catholics. Before offering communion, the Rev. Michael Sklucazek told the congregation at the Cathedral of St. Paul that anyone wearing a sash could come forward for a blessing but would not receive wine and bread. A group called the Rainbow Sash Alliance has encouraged supporters to wear the multicolored fabric bands since 2001 on each Pentecost Sunday, the day Catholics believe the Holy Spirit...

LOS ANGELES/ ST PAUL- MINNEAPOLIS, May 16, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Feast of Pentecost is the celebration in the Christian calendar of the descent of the Holy Spirit onto the Disciples of Christ after His resurrection and ascension into heaven as recorded in the bible. In recent years, homosexual activists have used the feast as an annual pretext for protests to make demands that the Catholic Church change her teaching on the sinfulness of homosexual acts. Archbishop Flynn of St. Paul-Minneapolis, Cardinal Mahoney of Los Angeles and bishop Matthew Clarke of Rochester New York have been singled out for praise...

Last Sunday's edition of The New York Times contained a startling admission. Among 5,400 homosexual couples who have "married" in Massachusetts since last May, nearly two-thirds were pairs of women. A lesbian is about four times as likely to opt for same-sex "marriage" as a homosexual man. [It's] the same psychological divide familiar to any young man on the make in the heterosexual world: Darn it, the women are all looking for that ring. This wasn't supposed to be.

April 15, 2005 John Carroll University’s Division of Student Life Presents An Interactive, Multimedia Learning Experience, “Tunnel of Oppression” This Event is Free and Open to the Public   What:  On April 28, 2005, John Carroll University will present an interactive, multimedia learning experience designed to advance and disseminate knowledge about issues of oppression entitled “Tunnel of Oppression.”   Facilitated by the Organization of Resident Assistants, the Tunnel of Oppression is a collaborative effort of John Carroll University students, faculty, staff and administrators.  This year, the Tunnel of Oppression will focus specifically on the issues of international oppression, mental illness,...

Children are at growing risk from paedophiles who convert to Christianity in prison and join a church on their release, a government-backed charity said yesterday. The Churches' Child Protection Advisory Service said that five churches a week were asking for its help, partly because of an influx of sex offenders who had "found God" on evangelical "Alpha" courses in jail. With the backing of the police, the service has produced advice for clergy who face the dilemma of wanting to welcome new members into their congregations while protecting young worshippers. It will launch a DVD next week that features a...

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Protesters who want the Church to change its teaching on the morality of homosexual acts will be denied Communion in the Cathedral of St. Paul if they step forward wearing a rainbow-colored garment Pentecost Sunday. For the past four years members of the Rainbow Sash Alliance have donned multicolored sashes for Pentecost Sunday Mass at the St. Paul Cathedral and were given the Eucharist.The organization is the U.S. affiliate of the international Rainbow Sash Movement. Because the movement’s actions have been perceived as a protest, St. Paul and Minneapolis Archbishop Harry Flynn has told the local...

An Anchorage Priest on administrative leave today. He's facing accustaions that he used his positon of power to pressure a man into sex. Those accusations only came to light after an exclusive 11 News investigation. The graphic sexual nature of what we uncovered is deepy disturbing and viewer discretation is certainly advised. But as hard as this may to be listen to, what is perhaps most troubling about this investigation, is that it centers on a spiritual leader, a preist, and it all takes place inside his Anchorage church. Parishoners here at Our Lady Of Guadelope have reason to rejoice....

Top Vatican Cardinal: Gay Marriage is "A Crime Which represents the Destruction of the World" Gay Adoption "Destroy's the Child's Future" and is "An Act of Moral Violence Against the Child" VATICAN, May 3, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - On the first business day after meeting privately with newly elected Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Alfonso López Trujillo, gave one of the strongest statements defending the traditional family in recent memory. The Cardinal, who was reinstated in his post as President of the Pontifical Council for the Family which he held under Pope John Paul II just after the election of Pope Benedict,...

Father John Nesbella intent on suing bishopOK folks, you know I've been diligently tracking this story for the last several months. Last Sunday, the Johnstown Tribune-Democrat, published a profile of Fr. Nesbella (pictured right) and reported on both sides of the controversy. Here are some quotes:...Now - at age 42 and after speaking out loudly - Nesbella is out in the cold. After filing a lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, claiming he was sexually abused at the age of 16 by a priest who is now dead, Nesbella on Feb. 18 was placed on a leave of...

Rainbow Sash Movement Calls for Integrity and Justice from both Pope Benedict XVI, and Cardinal Francis George VP of the NCCB, on Pentecost Sunday, May 15, 2005Monday May 2, 6:00 am ET CHICAGO, May 2 /PRNewswire/ -- The Rainbow Sash Movement (RSM) with its supporters will be entering Cathedrals and parishes around the nation on Pentecost Sunday, May 15. We are inviting our supporters to join us, and wear the Rainbow Sash as a symbol of dignity and inclusion.We continue to call for public dialogue with Cardinal Francis George Vice President of the National Council of Catholic Bishops.In the weeks...

Okay, it's Monday...time to get the week started with some good captions. A good place to begin is the 40th Anniversity of the Equality Forum that took place in Philly yesterday. For those who don't know, Equality Forum celebrates the gay and lesbian lifestyle...

I recently ran across the following passage which is taken from the Chronicle of John Malalas: "In that year [A.D. 528] some of the bishops from various provinces were accused of living immorally in matters of the flesh and of homosexual practices. Amongst them was Isaiah, bishop of Rhodes, an ex-praefectus vigilum at Constantinople, and likewise the bishop from Diospolis in Thrace, named Alexander. In accordance with a sacred ordinance they were brought to Constantinople and were examined and condemned by Victor, the city prefect, who punished them: he tortured Isaiah severely and exiled him and he amputated Alexander's genitals...

Noting that in his Good Friday homily soon-to-be pope Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger condemned the "filth there is in the church," Wheeler believes the pontiff "will not tolerate [homosexuality's] presence in his church."