Free Republic

Moral obligation is not man's prison, from which he must liberate himself in order finally to be able to do what he wants. It is moral obligation that constitutes his dignity, and he does not become more free if he discards it: on the contrary, he takes a step backward, to the level of a machine, or a mere thing. If there is no longer any obligation to which he can and must respond in freedom, then there is no longer any realm of freedom at all. The recognition of morality is the real substance of human dignity; but one...

Papal heavies shut down an awkward question at a Vatican press conference today when a journalist asked UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon his views on climate sceptics.

How bad will the upcoming Papal encyclical on the environment be? Maybe this bad: As the world celebrates Earth Day on Wednesday, Pope Francis is planning to use one of the highest forms of papal expression — an encyclical — to promote climate action to save the planet as a moral and religious imperative. In recent weeks, Vatican officials have outlined what the document will say and are choreographing its release — perhaps as early as June — for maximum global impact beyond the Roman Catholic Church’s 1.2 billion members. Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami, who chairs a panel dealing...

Imam says linen cloth believed to be the burial shroud of Jesus invites us to be "brothers" TURIN — “We decided to come as a sign, to say that we are citizens of this country and city. The Shroud draws Christians and Muslims, and in a world marked by division, it invites us to be brothers.”  This message of peace and dialogue came Wednesday from a group of Muslims who visited the Holy Shroud of Turin now on display at northern Italian city’s Cathedral. The delegation included the President of the League of Imams and Preachers of Mosques in Italy,...

For the past five years I have been absolutely fascinated about how little is stated about the Two Witnesses' ministry of Revelation (Rev. 11:3-12), but also have been absolutely blown away with how much in that little given one could write a novel on! The Divine POWER and AUTHORITY given unto them by Almighty God is inconceivable but by faith we must believe it to be so. The key is knowing where they fit into Almighty God's final outworking of Biblical prophecy before the return of the Messiah (Rev.19:11-21). These two Lamp Stands of Revelation's chief ministry for 1260 days...

Pope Francis makes a visit to the Parish of St. Michael the Archangel in Rome on Feb. 8, 2015. Credit: Lauren Cater/CNA. Vatican City, Apr 15, 2015 / 09:22 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis has warned against gender theories which seek to eradicate differences between man and woman, saying they perpetuate the very problems they are trying to solve. “Experience teaches us: to know each other well and grow in harmony, the human being requires the reciprocity of man and woman,” the pontiff said Wednesday to participants in his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square. In his Apr. 15...

Does it matter whether or not matter is eternal? Peter J. Leithart, who writes a regular blog on the web site of First Things, definitely thinks it does. According to Leithart , who is a Protestant theologian in the Reformed Presbyterian tradition in the United States, if matter is eternal, "creation can only be control, limitation, ordering." Then God could only be a master craftsman, working with already existing material to form the universe. If matter is eternal, "creation cannot be a gift; . . . cannot be the bestowal of existence, a grant of being." Finally, if matter is...

Photo: us.fotolia.com | © olly Quia parvus error in principio magnus est in fine. (“A small error at the outset can lead to great errors in the final conclusions.”) – St. Thomas Aquinas, De Ente et Essentia By now, most people have heard the common saying, “Men are from Mars, women are from Venus,” popularized by the book by John Gray in the 1990s. That God created men and women with equal human dignity but distinct and complementary natures is a perennial teaching of the Catholic Church, but today’s society is becoming increasingly untethered from this eternal truth, leading...

Bionic eye (CC0 1.0). Washington D.C., Apr 9, 2015 / 04:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- It sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie – being able to “upload” our minds to computers to live on after we die, to freeze our bodies only to bring them back in the future, or to pop pills to enhance our mood and intelligence. While these may seem like impossible notions, these are the kinds of things the transhumanism and posthumanism movements are hoping for and working toward. However, as with most technological advancements, these proposals have bioethicists and theologians questioning: just because we...

[SNIP] Severely gluten intolerant, Celiac Catholics like myself can’t take the whole wheat hosts that are so prevalent in today’s Catholic churches, so we’re forced to receive our Lord in the form of wine. Problem is, with so many faithful receiving Holy Communion during Holy Week services, the consecrated wine runs out before Communicants do. During packed Holy Thursday and Easter Masses, as many as a third of the congregation may miss out on lifting the chalice. You can bet most of these are Celiac victims. That happened to me this past Thursday. I’ve received Holy Communion at over 57...

I am so excited, I can't believe that I put off telling you all. I walked into chemo yesterday and the dr told me that contrary to me having one more cycle (of three weeks) that I was DONE. DONE. DONE!!!! I've been on cloud nine ever since. I'm sorry. I am never sure I'm posting correctly, so I put it off. Here's my face now :D

Atheists should drop their easily dismissed scientific, philosophical or historical arguments against Christianity, and instead quiz believers about Old Testament violence and hell, writes John Dickson.

 We know who the disciples saw after the empty tomb was found. But what did they see?As Christians we believe that the same person who had died on the cross, Jesus Christ, really appeared in the flesh-and-blood, even with the same body as before, yet in a glorified condition.But last year, the Boston Globe published an interview with a secular theologian (yes, you read that right), Bart Ehrman who offered a ‘new theory’ about what the disciples had seen.His answer: a hallucination. The disciples were so distraught by the death of their savior, so his theory goes, that their...

Biblical Conspiracies 3 of 4 Secrets of the Crucifixion

Dizzy Girl / Flickr Satan cannot drive out Satan. A house, or a kingdom, cannot be divided against itself.The synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record this profound event in the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ. After healing a demon-possessed man, Jesus is confronted by the Pharisees, the pious religious leaders of the time, who question what authority Jesus has to cast out demons. They suggest, since Jesus certainly can’t possibly be working through the power of God, that it must be Satan, the devil, that’s given Him the power to drive out the demonic.I think it’s safe to...

ABSTRACT: Jesus of Nazareth underwent Jewish and Roman trials, was flogged, and was sentenced to death by crucifixion. The scourging produced deep stripelike lacerations and appreciable blood loss, and it probably set the stage for hypovolemic shock as evidenced by the fact that Jesus was too weakened to carry the crossbar (patibulum) to Golgotha. At the site of crucifixion his wrists were nailed to the patibulum, and after the patibulum was lifted onto the upright post, (stipes) his feet were nailed to the stipes. The major pathophysiologic effect of crucifixion was an interference with normal respirations. Accordingly, death resulted primarily...

WASHINGTON — Was the resurrection of Jesus Christ an anti-scientific event? This question was discussed at a March 13 conference on science and religion hosted by The American Association for the Advancement of Science's Dialogue on Science, Ethics and Religion.At the end of a panel on "Science Engagement in Congregations," an audience member who identified himself as a rabbi said "the elephant in the room has not been discussed," which he identified as, "that the fundamental basis of Christianity is a violation of nature."He began his remarks by recalling another event he attended at a Presbyterian church. An audience member...

The Sudarium of Oviedo is by most accounts the best validation of the Shroud of Turin as the true burial cloth of Jesus of Nazareth. The ark that contains the Sudarium of Oviedo (Wikipedia) I have followed with great interest the response to Catholic World Report's recent article on the Shroud of Turin by Jim Graves, which now has well over a 150 comments. Many are statements and counter-statements that attempt to prove or disprove the authenticity of the Shroud as the burial cloth of Jesus of Nazareth. This is as it should be—a mystery for our era that calls...

Shroud of Turin negative. Vatican City, Mar 26, 2015 / 12:09 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican has released the schedule for Pope Francis' upcoming pilgrimage to Turin – home to what is believed to be the burial shroud of Jesus – with a program that largely centers on young people. The pontiff's June 21-22 visit to the northern Italian city also marks the bicentenary of the birth of Saint John Bosco, founder of the Salesian order and patron saint of youth. According to the Vatican, which released the schedule during a March 25 press briefing, the Pope will venerate the...

“One of my favorite testimonials as to the authenticity of the Shroud,” says Barrie Schwortz, an expert on the Shroud of Turin, “actually came from my Jewish mother.” People view the Shroud of Turin on display at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Turin, Italy, in this April 26, 2010, file photo. (CNS photo/Paul Haring) This June, Pope Francis will be making a pilgrimage to Turin, Italy, home of the famous Shroud of Turin, which many believe is the 2,000-year-old burial cloth of Jesus Christ. The pope’s June 21-22 visit will include time venerating the Shroud at the...