Free Republic

“Democratic Party elites such as those on CNN are not just angry but genuinely confused by the fact that American voters don’t obey them.” — Glenn Greenwald. What’s most amazing about the fiasco that was the French Revolution is that it happened at exactly the same time that the United States successfully organized themselves into an orderly and effective government following the American Revolution. George Washington was elected and sworn-in by April of 1789, with the backing of an exemplary constitution assembled by the best minds in the land. The Bastille fell in July that same year. France then fell...

So this morning, hubby and I visited a nearby church after having been invited by a neighbor. After the musical portion of the service, the pastor stood on the stage and asked us to turn in our Bibles to Ephesians 1. He then started to speak of discipleship and for examples, instead of reading from the Bible itself, he started speaking of a Dr. Suess book. Next, he moved to Disney movies and stated, "As anyone will tell you, I'm a big fan of Disney". Six to 7 minutes in, and he had yet to read from the Bible. The...

Are you a kind person? If so, what motivates you to be kind to others? A travel blog posed the following question along with their answer: “Who are the top five kindest people on earth?” 1. Thai2. Scots3. Kiwis (New Zealand)4. Moroccans5. BraziliansYou have undoubtedly met plenty of kind people over the years. After all, God created man in his own image, and so it is no wonder that many human beings practice kindness.Obviously, you don’t have to be a Christian in order to demonstrate kindness. In fact, some unbelievers show more kindness than certain Christians. So what’s up? The...

Sports hall, restaurant, club: What can become of churches? In order for churches to be better attended, they sometimes need new functions. This poses challenges for dioceses Last year, more than 72,000 people left the Catholic Church. An indoor football pitch in Wettringen, a parish in North Rhine-Westphalia, measures nine by 18 metres. Nothing special really, yet it attracts attention. For where cheers echo from the vaulted ceiling today, not so long ago it was the prayers of believers.

The Trial of the Century Takes the Pope to Court. Which Also Risks an Incident With ChinaAmong the papers in the possession of the Vatican tribunal called to judge Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu and other defendants, with the next hearing scheduled for January 25, there is an explanatory note at the top of which it is written that “during the board meeting of April 6 the Holy Father gave the authorization to make the aforementioned Note public.” Signed: Edgar Peña Parra, substitute secretary of state.This is what Settimo Cielo does in this post: provide readers with the essential features of...

Vatican Demands VaxxApparently the crowds to see Pp. Francis are so small that it doesn't matter any more.The Vatican has eliminated the possibility of employees presenting a negative coronavirus test to gain access to their place of work, insisting that only proof of vaccination or recovery from the coronavirus disease will be admitted.A Vatican decree Thursday signed by Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin states that the obligation of presenting a vaccine passport (Super Green Pass) to go to work applies to all personnel of the Roman Curia and institutions linked to the Holy See as well as external collaborators,...

Motus in fine velocior (2) - "With a Divisive, Useless, and Unjust Persecution, the Francis Crisis is Gathering Even More Speed" - by Roberto de Mattei by Roberto de MatteiOn February 11, 2014, one year after the day on which Benedict XVI made known his decision to resign from the pontificate, I published an article entitled Motus in fine velocior to signal the beginning of a dizzying acceleration of time’s pace, starting with the resignation of Benedict and the election of Pope Francis on March 13, 2013. Benedict XVI reigned from April 19, 2005, to February 28, 2013, seven...

LGBTQ lobby has already triumphed at the SynodThe wrestling match over a link to an American LGBTQ organisation on the Synod website - put, removed, put back - reveals just how influential the gay lobby is today at the top of the Church. It amounts to the official recognition of a group disavowed by the American bishops, condemned by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith 22 years ago, but now promoted by Pope Francis.A link is worth more than a hundred theological and magisterial documents. This is the lesson that was taught recently by the Synod on Synodality,...

[Catholic Caucus] Traditional Catholics Sound Alarm As Rome Suppresses Most Old Rite SacramentsThey contend the Oct. 7 pastoral instruction forbidding six of the seven sacraments celebrated according to the extraordinary form is a violation of canon law and will cause spiritual harm.ROME — Canon lawyers and experts in the traditional liturgy have warned that a pastoral instruction issued by the Diocese of Rome that bans traditional communities and priests from celebrating all the sacraments with the exception of the Eucharist according to the traditional form of the Roman Rite is unlawful and will harm souls if allowed to continue.The guidelines,...

If Francis is a Heretic, What should Canonically happen to him?If Francis is a Heretic, What should Canonically happen to him? Did Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (the future Pope Benedict XVI) say that Francis is a heretic? On June 3, 2003 the then Cardinal Ratzinger (and future Pope Benedict), head of the Congregation for the Faith, said that the endorsement of "homosex civil unions" was against Catholic teaching, that is heterodoxy: "Those who would move from tolerance to the legitimatization of specific rights for cohabiting homosexual persons need to be reminded that the approval or legalization of evil is something...

Phrancis, Phisher of MenReaders might remember the “phishing” scheme that replaced telemarketing as the World’s Most Annoying Thing back in the aughts. The way the scam usually works is that a con artist sends out e-mails designed to look exactly like notifications from real banks, corporations, or government agencies. The e-mail asks the recipient—who believes he or she is communicating with a legitimate entity—to update passwords or provide other personal information. It’s a variety of the old bait-and-switch operation: an unsuspecting victim thinks one thing is going on, all above board and on the level, when in reality he or...

ROME -- Pope Francis is supporting demands for racial justice in the wake of the U.S. police killing of George Floyd and is blasting COVID-19 skeptics and media organizations that spread their conspiracies in a new book penned during the Vatican’s coronavirus lockdown. In “Let Us Dream,” Francis also criticizes populist politicians who whip up rallies in ways reminiscent of the 1930s, and the hypocrisy of “rigid” conservative Catholics who support them. But he also criticizes the forceful downing of historic statues during protests for racial equality this year as a misguided attempt to “purify the past.” The 150-page book,...

Viganò skewers McCarrick Report on EWTN: ‘Bergoglio is to the deep church as Biden is to the deep state’ Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò responded to the Vatican’s recently released McCarrick Report which tries to pin the lack of adequate response to McCarrick on Viganò himself November 12, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – In an interview with EWTN’s Raymond Arroyo this evening, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the former papal representative to the United States, responded to the Vatican’s recently released McCarrick Report which tries to pin the lack of adequate response to McCarrick on Viganò himself.  Asked by Arroyo about the report claiming Viganò “did...

For years now, pollsters and demographers have been chronicling the decline of religion in America. And it’s not just religious affiliation that’s declining. Along with lower rates of church attendance, religious weddings and religious activities in the household are also waning. By every measure, America is becoming a less religious country, with huge implications for our political and cultural life.But the story of the decline of religion in America is incomplete. What has gone less noticed, and less studied, is the rise of ersatz religions in America—secular substitutes for traditional forms of faith. The fastest-growing of these pseudo-religions occupy...

“This is not decay,” Barr said. “This is organized destruction. Secularists and their allies have marshaled all the forces of mass communication, popular culture, the entertainment industry, and academia in an unremitting assault on religion and traditional values.” The attorney general said numerous measures of social decline are rising as religion recedes from public life, citing higher instances of drug addiction, mental illness, and suicide. Those outcomes are not random, but the fruit of a dedicated campaign against orthodox religious belief, Barr added.

Events related to Iran and Israel appear to be dominant with numerous Israeli attacks reported in Iraq, Lebanon and Syria since Saturday night. There's also been a rocket attack aimed at southern Israel from Gaza..... Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif arrived by airplane at Biarritz, France. site of the G7 summit, just after 8am Eastern US time Sunday morning.... The Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri said the Israeli drone strike reported in the suburbs of Beirut early Sunday was a: "blatant attack on Lebanon's sovereignty"..... The US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke with the Lebanese Prime Minister Hariri Sunday...

When my airplane dipped beneath the clouds, I could finally see the earth: interminable horizon, crisscrossing bands of interstate, the cities of the plains, home to more than 7 million souls. Landing in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex feels like drifting down to reality; if everything is bigger in Texas, it’s also more intense — the light brighter, the shadows deeper. I was particularly grateful for all that harsh relief in April, because I had come to take stock of a spiritual situation tailor-made to emphasize every challenge in the contest of conscience between heaven and earth. How are evangelical Christians...

Sunday, voters in Turkey will face a stark choice between two paths. One, embodied by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, entails a further descent into authoritarianism and a deepening of ethnic and sectarian divides. The other, represented by the opposition, offers the potential for national reconciliation, a return to parliamentary democracy and an easing of tensions with the West. The stakes have never been higher. Opinion polls show a deeply polarized nation, split between the pro-Erdogan camp and an opposition bloc led by pro-secular presidential candidate Muharrem Ince. Not only will the outcome affect the Turkish people. It also will determine whether...

Remarks by French President Emmanuel Macron that he wanted to repair church-state ties caused uproar Tuesday, sparking charges he was tampering with France’s longstanding secular tradition. The Church and the state were for centuries virtually indistinguishable in France, but the 1789 Revolution marked the first step by republicans to exclude religion from government affairs, codified in a 1905 law separating the two. But tensions have persisted, with conservative politicians often accusing officials of denying France’s cultural heritage — as seen in efforts to install nativity scenes at town halls during Christmas. Macron, who prides himself on tackling difficult issues head-on,...

A lot of people don't want to hear it, but it's true: in the future, you will either be a religious conservative, or secular. The religious left will evaporate. Don't take my word for it. Take the word of Daniel Cox, the head of research at PRRI, a firm whose religious views tend towards progressivism. Excerpts: The first and perhaps most significant reason for skepticism is that there are far fewer religious liberals today than there were a generation ago. Nearly four in 10 (38 percent) liberals are religiously unaffiliated today, more than double the percentage of the 1990s, according...