Free Republic

Imagine a Republican president regularly invoking the wisdom of a multibillionaire businessman who had profited off companies with questionable business practices, and who law-enforcement officials had recently asked to provide information about his own company’s questionable practices. No question about it: Democrats and the media would be having a field day. So why do we hear so little about the dark side of Warren Buffett? True, the double standard involving Buffett’s business record is longstanding. But now President Obama is using him as a central prop in his class-warfare strategy for winning a second term. Getting a free pass from...

Two American religious figures - one a native American, the other the director of a hospital are expected to be canonized as saints later this year. The Blessed Kateri Tekawitha and Blessed Mother Marianne Cope have had miracles associated with their intercession. Both were renowned for their life's work in rural New York. Mohawk Indian Kateri Tekawitha spent most of her life in the region during the 17th century. Two hundred years later, the Blessed Mother Marianne Cope began a religious life that focused on providing medical care Pope Benedict XVI certified miracles attributed to the two women last month,...

Author, lawyer and former game show host Ben Stein says politics are getting a little too personal, and believes candidates should not be judged by their "gossipy love life." Appearing on CBS' "The Early Show," Stein said the coverage of GOP president contender Herman Cain and allegations of extramarital affairs was getting to be too much.

November 22, 2011 Memorial of Saint Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr   Reading 1 Dn 2:31-45 Daniel said to Nebuchadnezzar:"In your vision, O king, you saw a statue,very large and exceedingly bright,terrifying in appearance as it stood before you.The head of the statue was pure gold,its chest and arms were silver,its belly and thighs bronze, the legs iron,its feet partly iron and partly tile.While you looked at the statue,a stone which was hewn from a mountainwithout a hand being put to it,struck its iron and tile feet, breaking them in pieces.The iron, tile, bronze, silver, and gold all crumbled at once,fine...

The Chapel Street excavation site where the remains of St Edburg may have been found ARCHAEOLOGISTS believe they may have found the remains of Bicester’s patron saint, St Edburg, underneath a former block of flats. The team believe it could be the first time in the country the bones of a saint have been found. It could take up to a year to confirm the date of the bones using specialist carbon dating technology. Archaeologists discovered the entire north transept of the Priory Church, which is believed to stretch to Old Place Yard, Priory Road and Chapel Street. They are...

Become A “Battle Saint”May 12, 2011 5:03 PM **SNIP** The idea is the brainchild of Cynthia Lemay who wanted to honor the men and women who serve in the U.S. military. The bracelet sells for $5 and is made of wood with pictures of saints on it. “Wherever I go, people ask me about the bracelet, the story behind it, how we came up with the idea. And people who wear them just feel like it gives them a sense of protection,” Lemay told WWJ’s Marie Osborne. Lemay said she got the idea for the bracelet while chatting with young...

ThérèseSat. May 7 at 8 PM ET The mesmerizing story of a young girl's romance with God. Her faith and sacrifices reveal a way of life based on love and simplicity. A contemplative film based on the true story of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, the most popular saint of modern times. Thérèse - Behind The ScenesSat. May 7 at 9:40 PM ET First, watch the movie “Therese” at 8 PM ET, Saturday, May 7 and then stay tuned for this behind-the-scenes look at the telling of the story of St. Thérèse, one of the most beloved saints of our...

Arlington, VA Sunday, May 01, 2011 "The St. Gabriel Possenti Society, Inc. rejoices at the beatification in Rome on Sunday of Pope John Paul II," Society chairman John M. Snyder said today. "The late Pope's writings display an appreciation of the right of self-defense so exemplified by St. Gabriel Possenti," Snyder added. St. Gabriel Possenti used handguns in self-defense when he rescued the villagers of Isola del Gran Sasso, Italy in 1860 from a band of terrorists. Demonstrating his excellent handgun marksmanship, he shot a lizard running across the road. Then, without harming anyone, he drove the terrorists out of...

One of the greatest moments in the history of faith was also one of the greatest moments in modern political history. It happened in June 1979. Just eight months before, after dusk on Oct. 16, 1978, a cardinal had stepped out onto the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica to say those towering, august words, "Habemus papem"—"We have a pope." The cardinal pronounced the new pontiff's name in Latin. Not everyone understood or could hear him, and the name sounded odd. For 456 years the church had been electing Italian popes. This didn't sound Italian. The crowd was perplexed. Then the...

Dead for 122 years now... simply astonishing Our Lady of Lourdes CathedralLourdes, France Do keep in mind that the poor sisters of those days -along with most everybody else- were simply buried in a pine box, and not professionally embalmed as is prevalent in civilized countries today- These photos show the "incorruptible" Saint Bernadette's body on display in Lourdes, France a full 122 years past her death... it's level of preservation a miracle in itself. In this Holy woman's lifetime, Bernadette's eighteen separate visions of Mary at Lourdes -each recognized officially as a Marian apparation by The Vatican- propelled the young Maria-Bernada Sobirós towards...

As House Speaker for most of Ronald Reagan's two presidential terms, bombastic liberal spendaholic Tip O'Neill was one of the fiercest opponents of the entire Reagan agenda, fighting it tooth-and-nail for six years. He called Reagan a "cheerleader for selfishness" and even went so far as to personally attack him as "most ignorant man that has ever inhabited the White House". Not one to be easily outwitted -but showing considerably more class and good humor- Reagan observed parallels between Yeltsin-esque Speaker O'Neill and the Pac-Man video game, as  "a round thing that gobbles up money". Yet despite the professional animosity, Ronald Reagan often...

Brother André expressed a saint’s faith by a lifelong devotion to St. Joseph. Sickness and weakness dogged André from birth. He was the eighth of 12 children born to a French Canadian couple near Montreal. Adopted at 12, when both parents had died, he became a farmhand. Various trades followed: shoemaker, baker, blacksmith—all failures. He was a factory worker in the United States during the boom times of the Civil War. At 25, he applied for entrance into the Congregation of the Holy Cross. After a year’s novitiate, he was not admitted because of his weak health. But with an...

The Conversion of Elizabeth Ann Seton: First American-born SaintFATHER CHARLES P. CONNORIn Elizabeth Ann Seton, we have a saint for our times. In Elizabeth Ann Seton, we have a woman of faith, for a time of doubt and uncertainty . . . a woman of love for a time of coldness and division . . . a woman of hope for a time of crisis and discouragement. Elizabeth Bayley Seton, the first native-born citizen of the United States to be canonized a saint, was of English ancestry and grew up in a family that had settled in colonial New York....

ST. MARTIN OF TOURS THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2010      St. Martin of Tours was born at Sabaria (today Steinamanger in German, or Szombathely in Hungarian), Hungary around the year 316. In his early years, when his father, a military tribune, was transferred to Pavia in Italy, Martin accompanied him. When he reached adolescence he was, in accordance with the recruiting laws, enrolled in the Roman army. From the first, he was attracted towards Christianity, which had been in favor in the camps since the conversion of Emperor Constantine. His regiment was soon sent to Amiens in Gaul which became...

Mary MacKillop, the nun who will soon be Australia's first saint, was excommunicated by the Catholic Church because she discovered children were being abused by a priest and went public, the ABC's Compass program can reveal. In 1871, after only four years as a nun, she was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church and turned out onto the street with no money and nowhere to go. MacKillop's cause for sainthood began in 1925 and has had the tireless backing of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Sacred Heart, the order she founded. On October 17, MacKillop's canonisation by Pope...

...Consider this statement of her desires in A.D. 1373: "I wanted to have every kind of pain, bodily and spiritual, which I should have if I died, every fear and temptation from devils, and every other kind of pain except the departure of the spirit." Reading a line like this, I can't help think that if Julian were a member of my church, I would encourage her to see a counselor. "For contemporary readers," Frykholm notes, "Julian's declaration that at a young age she 'desired a bodily sickness' coupled with her depictions of Christ bleeding on the cross are off-putting...

. . .Mr. Saint, a former newspaper reporter and political press secretary, founded his firm 26 years ago. It specializes in using political-campaign tactics—petition drives, phone banks, websites—to build support for or against controversial projects, from oil refineries and shopping centers to quarries and landfills. Over the years, it has conducted about 1,500 campaigns in 44 states. Mr. Saint says about 500 have involved trying to block a development, and most of those have been clandestine. For the typical anti-Wal-Mart assignment, a Saint manager will drop into town using an assumed name to create or take control of local opposition,...

<p>A family has built what could be the first public shrine in Mexico City to Jesus Malverde, Mexico's so-called "narco-saint" revered by many of the nation's drug traffickers.</p> <p>Malverde, whose original shrine is located in the city of Culiacan in northern Sinaloa state — considered the cradle of Mexico's top drug clans — is a controversial figure.</p>

Obtuse Rangel: Charlie seems to have forgotten his Sunday school lessonsSaturday, April 3rd 2010, 4:00 AM These are rough days for Rep. Charlie Rangel. He talks and some amazing things burst forth from his mouth. None of them more astonishing and hilarious than his great big oopsie Friday. There he was on Holy Thursday, the eve of the most solemn day of the Christian calendar, the day that marks the crucifixion of Christ after history's most notorious betrayal, that of Judas Iscariot. At a political rally, union big Chris Shelton branded Rep. Mike McMahon of Staten Island a "Judas" for...

A Palestinian nun could serve as an inspiration for Christians who remain in the Holy Land, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem said during her beatification. The beatification on Sunday "breathes upon us a new spirit, renews our Church and invites us to the happy hope that we ourselves, too, can be saints like her", said Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal about Blessed Soultaneh Maria Ghattas, founder of the Dominican Sisters of the Holy Rosary of Jerusalem. "What the Church needs most is the witness of saints," he added in his homily. "Holiness is the sign of the Church's credibility." Patriarch Twal...

The New Testament begins its account of Mary's life with the visit of Gabriel the angel who was sent by God as His messenger. The Lord God had selected Mary to be mother of Jesus. The Bible records Mary's role in key events of the life of Jesus from his virgin birth to his crucifixion.

Friday, November 13, 2009 Le Curé d'Ars Camille Dolard (1818- ?) Le Curé d'Ars sur son lit de mort (saint Jean-Marie Vianney, 1786-1859) Also entitled: Le Curé d'Ars, décédé le 4 août 1859, photographié d'après nature Taken 1859 pos. montées sur carton : papier albuminé : d'après nég. sur verre au collodion Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris Saint Jean-Baptiste-Marie Vianney died on 4 August 1859 By 1855, the number of pilgrims who came to see him had reached twenty thousand a year. Vianney yearned for the contemplative life of a monk, and four times ran away from Ars, the last...

Madrid, Spain, Oct 31, 2009 / 08:20 am (CNA).- Award-winning director Roland Joffé discussed his upcoming film “There Be Dragons” in a Thursday press conference. The film, set during the brutal Spanish Civil War and based on the life of St. Josemaria Escriva, can teach about love and forgiveness between families and enemies, Joffé said. The film begins with a young journalist, estranged from his military father Manolo, who conducts research on the life of Opus Dei founder and priest St. Josemaria Escriva. He discovers his father was a childhood friend of the future saint, and also uncovers family secrets.The...

Pilgrims venerate the relics of St. Therese in Aylesford, England. Credit: Catholicrelics.co.uk London, England, Oct 13, 2009 / 09:19 pm (CNA).- As many as 100,000 pilgrims are expected to visit Westminster Cathedral to view and venerate the relics of St. Therese of Lisieux during their month-long tour of England and Wales.Agence France Presse reports that the cathedral has ordered 100,000 candles and 50,000 pink roses to meet the demand. The cathedral expects 2,000 pilgrims every hour until Thursday.St. Therese became a Carmelite nun at the age of 15 and died in 1897 at the age of 24. Known as...

Saint Faustina's Diary includes a series of personal revelations she received from Jesus Christ in the 1930s. Many believe St. Faustina will eventually join the ranks of the great post-apostolic teachers Can you guess the following saint? The author, Fr. Steven Payne, OCD, wrote about this obscure and humble nun in 2002. He describes her "limited education," saying she "never wrote a treatise or published an article," and what she did write displayed an "imperfect literary style." Yet, he writes, no one would have guessed that she "would soon take the world by storm and go on to become the...

On October 1, 2009, the liturgy of the Church celebrates the memory of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face, "the greatest saint of modern times," in the words of Pope Saint Pius X. The charm of her "Little Way," with all its sweetness and mercy, admirably harmonizes with the traits of a genuine warrior, "I would die in a battlefield, arms in hand," she once stated. Her soul had infinite aspirations: she wanted to be a warrior, priest, apostle, doctor of the Church and martyr; she felt the courage of a crusader, of a Papal...

Maronite image of Saint Thecla, taken from Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Catholic Church (The following is excerpted from the 23 September entry in Volume XIV of the 1983 Marian House edition of the English translation of Dom Prosper Guéranger's 'The Liturgical Year' by the Benedictines of Stanbrook.) "While honouring the first successor of St. Peter [St. Linus], Rome commemorates the protomartyr of the female sex. Together with holy Church, then, let us unite in the concert of praise unanimously lavished upon [Saint] Thecla by the fathers of east and west. When the martyr pontiff Methodius [Saint Methodius of Olympus]...

The book "Gun Saint" by John Michael Snyder takes a close look at St. Gabriel Francis Possenti. The cover features an illustration of a shooting incident connected to the 19th-century Passionist priest. Using a revolver, the priest is shown shooting and killing a lizard with one shot in his attempt to reign in a group of armed criminals. WASHINGTON (CNS) -- From lost causes to the unattractive, patron saints are associated with virtually every occupation, ailment and activity. St. Gabriel Francis Possenti, a 19th-century Passionist monk and patron saint of Italy's Abruzzi region, clerics and youths, is gaining a line...

Pope Benedict XVI today announced the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman. The declaration means that the Anglican vicar, who shocked Victorian England by converting to Catholicism, will be given the title 'Blessed'. It also puts Newman just one stage away from becoming the first English saint in about 40 years.

1. "The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name" (Is 49,1). Today we celebrate the birth of St John the Baptist. The words of the Prophet Isaiah are well-suited to describe this great biblical figure who stands between the Old and the New Testaments. In the long line of Israel's prophets and just men and women, John "the Baptist" was placed by God's providence immediately before the Messiah, in order to prepare the way before him by his preaching and by the witness of his life. Of all the saints, John...

I learned today that the Saint Louis Science Center is and will be hosting an exhibit this summer called "Ends of the Earth: From Polar Bears to Penguins." The exhibit website, available here, has more information about it. While I'm sure the exhibit contains plenty of good information, according to the website it's purpose is to "highlight [the] climate change crisis." I don't want to preach to the choir too much, but we've all seen politics done in the guise of science, and as a scientist, I don't like it one bit. And while the fact that the earth has...

This Sunday, Pope Benedict XVI will include in the canon of saints of the Catholic Church the great warrior, holy patriot, and humble Christian: Nuno Alvares Pereira. As we mentioned last year, in an age of so many disgraceful individuals involved in public life, the life of the Holy Constable of Portugal, Nuno Alvares Pereira (1360-1431), is perhaps the most surprising of them. One of the greatest statesmen and military leaders in the history of the Iberian Peninsula, he was always a most faithful son of the Church. After becoming a widower, and despite having all the fortune, power, and...

Obama’s message is not new: tax the rich, give to the poor. Sure, it sounds nice… or does it? This strain sounds pretty Marxist to me. Why? Because his “tax cuts” are not tax cuts. He promises tax cuts for 95% of Americans. Guess what? Only 62% of Americans even pay federal income tax. So those other people, the ones who don’t pay taxes, can’t get “cuts” on something they don’t pay! So they’re just getting checks from the government. You know what we actually call Obama’s tax cuts? Income redistribution. Yes, I want to help the poor. But you...

Nancy Pelosi is now a Saint....CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS? On a Saturday afternoon, in Washington, D. C., House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's aide visited the Cardinal of the Catholic Cathedral. He told the Cardinal that Nancy Pelosi would be attending the next day's sermon, and he asked if the Cardinal would kindly point out Pelosi to the congregation and say a few words that would include calling Pelosi a saint. The Cardinal replied, "No. I don't really like the woman, and there are issues of conflict with the Catholic Church over certain of Pelosi's views." Pelosi's aide then said, "Look. I'll...

"I ... encourage you to look to Saint Joseph. When Mary received the visit of the angel at the Annunciation, she was already betrothed to Joseph. In addressing Mary personally, the Lord already closely associates Joseph to the mystery of the Incarnation. Joseph agreed to be part of the great events which God was beginning to bring about in the womb of his spouse. He took Mary into his home. He welcomed the mystery that was in Mary and the mystery that was Mary herself. He loved her with great respect, which is the mark of all authentic love. Joseph...

(The following is excerpted from the book "A Bishop, A Saint: The Life of Saint John Neumann," by Father James J, Galvin, CSsR, published by The Neumann Press.) "...St. Peter's [Basilica] was intensely quiet....Now, except for the sputter of candle-flames high in the arches, the only sound was one human voice reading in the singsong Latin. While Pio Nono [Blessed Pius IX] read, the basilica listened with a rapt excitement, waiting to hear expressed what all Christendom in its heart believed: that the Mother of the Redeemer has, by unique exception, entered time unbesmirched by Original Fault." "Not since...

LONDON -- Plans to transfer the remains of 19th-century Roman Catholic Cardinal John Henry Newman from a humble country graveyard to a posh marble sarcophagus have been abandoned because gravediggers could not find his body. When church officials sought to exhume his bones from his grave in a rural English cemetery on Thursday (Oct. 2), all they found were a brass plaque and a scattering of red tassels from his cardinal's hat. The Catholic Church had wanted to shift Newman's remains to Birmingham Oratory, the Midlands edifice that he established in Victorian England, in preparation for his expected beatification as...

One of the good luck charms Senator Barack Obama carries around with him all the time is a St. Martin de Porres figure. Saint Martin de Porres is the patron saint of: interracial relations, social justice, public education, public health service, people of mixed race, and animal shelters. His feast day is November 3rd, the day before this year's election. To make your own prayer card click on the thumbnail of the image you want with either the traditional prayer to St. Martin de Porres as found on the real prayer cards, or my own tongue-in-cheek version that is a...

ROME, OCT. 10, 2008 (Zenit.org).- As Christians in India continue to face persecution for their faith, they will have a new advocate in the figure of soon-to-be St. Alfonsa of the Immaculate Conception.Blessed Alfonsa (born Anna Muttathupadathu) is one of four people to be canonized by Benedict XVI this Sunday. The other three are Maria Bernarda Butler, from Switzerland; Narcisa de Jesús Martillo Morán from Ecuador; and Father Gaetano Errico from Italy.Blessed Alfonsa will be the first woman from India to be canonized. She was a religious of the Poor Clares.Anna Muttathupadathu was born in the Indian state of Kerala...

(The following is the legend of the breviary for St. Bruno, as quoted in Dom Prosper Guéranger's entry in The Liturgical Year for October 6, in Volume XIV of the 1983 Marian House edition of the English translation by the Benedictines of Stanbrook.) "Bruno, the founder of the Carthusian Order, was born at Cologne [Germany], and from his very cradle gave great promise of future sanctity. Favoured by divine grace, the gravity of his character made him shun all childishness; so that, even at that age, one might have foreseen in him the future father of monks and restorer...

Glenn Dallaire of Bristol, Connecticut, has recently started a blog devoted to St Gemma Galgani with quotations from her writings and posts showing her heroic life. See Saint Gemma Galgani. Glenn, married with six children, hopes by this blog to inspire others to a greater love of Jesus and Mary. Please say a prayer for him and his family.

The statue of St. Anthony of Padua in my "icon corner," with the icon of St. Charbel Makhlouf in the left background. (The following is excerpted from Dom Prosper Guéranger's entry in The Liturgical Year for 13 June, in Volume XII of the 1983 Marian House edition of the English translation by the Benedictines of Stanbrook.) "...The days of Charlemagne were past and gone; yet the work of Leo III still lived on, despite a thousand difficulties. The enemy, now at large, had sown cockle in the field of the divine householder; heresy was springing up and there, whilst vice...

The Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints has ruled that a Hawaiian woman’s cure from cancer was a miracle linked to her prayers to Blessed Father Damien De Veuster. The missionary priest, who was renowned for working with leprosy patients, is now one step closer to being declared a saint. Audrey Toguchi, a 79-year-old retired schoolteacher who lives in Aiea, became ill in 1997 with a lump on her left thigh that was discovered to be cancerous. She asked her sisters to accompany her to Kalaupapa to pray at Father Damien’s grave. “I prayed that he would ask God...

The exhumed body of Padre Pio, a saint considered a miracle worker by his devotees, attracted thousands of pilgrims on Thursday when it went on display 40 years after his death.Padre Pio is one of the Catholic Church's most popular saints and during his lifetime the Italian monk was said to have had the stigmata, the bleeding wounds of Jesus' crucifixion on his hands and feet.The economy of this southern town revolves around the cult of Padre Pio and heaving crowds waited to see his body, displayed in a crystal, marble and silver sepulcher in the crypt of the monastery...

ROME, March 3 (Reuters Life!) - The body of the mystic monk Padre Pio, one of the Roman Catholic world's most revered saints who died 40 years ago, has been exhumed to be prepared for display to his many devotees. The body of the Capuchin friar, who was said to have had the stigmata -- the wounds of Christ's crucifixion -- on his hands and feet -- is to be conserved and put in a part-glass coffin for at least several months from April 24. A Church statement said the body was in "fair condition", particularly the hands, which Archbishop...

VATICAN CITY, FEB. 13, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI announced he will dispense with the five-year waiting period established by Canon Law to open the cause of beatification of Sister Lucia, one of the three Fatima visionaries. The news was announced today in the cathedral of Coimbra, Portugal, by Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, prefect of the Congregation for Saints' Causes, on the third anniversary of the Carmelite's death.The Holy Father dispensed with the established waiting period once before for the cause of Pope John Paul II. Benedict XVI made the announcement on May 13, the feast of Our Lady of Fatima,...

Amongst the many venerables, blesseds and saints, some were assigned as gatekeepers in their respective communities. One such gatekeeper was Father Solanus Casey was a man who found God through the Catholic faith as a Capuchin Friar who ministered to the needs of all God's children, of all denominations and faiths.  God bestowed upon Father Solanus the ability to administer the divine gifts of healing. After his ordination in 1904, Fr. Solanus spent 20 years in New York, Harlem, and Yonkers. In 1924 he was assigned to St. Bonaventure Monastery in Detroit where he worked for 20 years. Fr. Solanus spent his...

I was an Anglican priest the summer I met St. Thérèse of Lisieux.I was living in England and had three months free between jobs, so I decided to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. I was going to hitchhike and stay in monasteries and religious houses on the way. The first leg of my journey took me across the English Channel to Normandy. After staying with the Benedictines at the monastery of Bec Hellouin, I headed for the town of Lisieux. As a convert from evangelical American religion, I didn’t know much about the little saint of Lisieux, and what I...

According to legend, Saint Barbara was the extremely beautiful daughter of a wealthy heathen named Dioscorus, who lived near Nicomedia in Asia Minor. Because of her singular beauty and fearful that she be demanded in marriage and taken away from him, he jealously shut her up in a tower to protect her from the outside world. Shortly before embarking on a journey, he commissioned a sumptuous bathhouse to be built for her, approving the design before he departed. Barbara had heard of the teachings of Christ, and while her father was gone spent much time in contemplation. From the windows...

Detail from The Martyrdom of St. Matthew by Caravaggio (The following is excerpted from Dom Prosper Guéranger's entry in The Liturgical Year for the 21 September, in Volume XIV of the 1983 Marian House edition of the English translation by the Benedictines of Stanbrook.) "The name of Matthew signifies one who is given. He gave himself when, at the word of Jesus 'follow Me,' he rose up and followed Him; but far greater was the gift he received from God in return. The Most High, who looks down from heaven upon the low things of earth, loves to choose the...