Free Republic

Facebook’s already clearing the deck to return Democrats-in-Exile to victory in this year’s coming Midterms. The world’s largest social media network has already pared down President Donald Trump’s Facebook presence by about 45 percent. Political and Hollywood activists work to put America’s 45th out of business by smearing him with names such as “misogynist” and “racist”. Others work to get him out of office by branding President Trump as “mentally unfit”, their term for “plum crazy”. Facebook’s already clearing the deck to return Democrats-in-Exile to victory in this year’s coming Midterms. The world’s largest social media network has already pared...

De Mattei: Opponents of Ostpolitik – Part 2: Father Alessio Ulisse (1920-1986) Roberto de Mattei Corrispondenza Romana February 28, 2018 Paul VI receives Andrei Gromyko Among the staunchest opponents of the Vatican Ostopolik, a figure of remarkable cultural and moral stature should be remembered: Father Alessio Ulisse Floridi (1930-1986). A member of the Company of Jesus at a very young age, Father Floridi studied at the Pontifical Russian College, where he learned Russian perfectly and, in 1949, he was ordained a priest in the Byzantine Rite  His hope was to be part of an underground apostolate in Russia, just...

The progressives are cranking things up to 11 on the Stupid/Psycho Scale, which is good for us in the short term – some of us Normals were growing complacent and the midterms are coming. But we also need to open our eyes and accept the bitter reality we face. We can’t just pretend the truth is not the truth because we wish it were otherwise. The left’s dropping of its mask has demonstrated once again the undeniable fact. The left hates you. Just give them a listen. Those carefully selected moppet puppets are out there on TV telling Normals “We...

Pope Francis‘ political collaboration with Communist China has direct precedents in the Ostopolitik of John XXIII and Paul VI.  But yesterday, just as today, Ostoplitik had strong opponents who deserve to be remembered. One of these was the Slovakian Bishop Pavol Hnilica (1926-2006), whom I’d like to recall, based on my own personal memories and by referring to a precise study dedicated to his figure, to be published shortly by Professor Emilia Hrabovec, to whom I express my gratiude for allowing me to consult and quote from her manuscript. In the 1960s when Vatican diplomacy began to put Ostpolitik into...

Jeremy Corbyn has drafted in a controversial former Communist to help run his office. Andrew Murray has been enlisted by the Labour leader as a part time consultant as the party hones its Brexit strategy. But his appointment has sparked anger among party moderates who have concerns about his political beliefs.

The U.S. bishops are proclaiming February 26, National Catholic Call-In Day to Protect Dreamers, after legislation to protect dreamers failed to pass the Senate last week. A joint statement from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) announced Monday: "[W]e will be asking the faithful across the nation to call their Members of Congress next Monday, February 26, to protect Dreamers from deportation, to provide them a path to citizenship, and to avoid any damage to existing protections for families and unaccompanied minors in the process." The Senate failed on February 15 to pass a bipartisan measure that included a...

A “Kill the NRA” billboard was visible Monday on I-65 in Louisville, Kentucky. The message was spelled out in large, white spray-painted letters on a black billboard bearing the tag, “Resist 45.” The Courier Journal reports that photos come in the wake of the Florida school shooting that has given rise to intense criticism of the NRA. The NRA was made aware of the billboard and responded with a Facebook post: The Courier Journal reports that other billboards tagged “Resist 45” have popped around Louisville in recent months, leveling some degree of criticism toward President Trump. One billboard urged viewers...

Regarding the Mainstream Media’s gushing over Communist dictator Kim Jong Un’s sister at the Olympics last week please excuse Cuba-watchers while we roll our eyes completely into their sockets and chant The Talking Heads’ famous line: “Same as it Ever Was!” Actually, the term “same” doesn’t quite fit. Because if you actually read the New York Times, WaPo, CNN, etc. accounts of the Stalinist Kim Yo-jong at the Seoul Olympics they’re pretty tame–nothing remotely comparable to the decades-long outpouring of love-notes by the U.S. media to the Stalinist, mass-murdering, dictator 90 miles off our shores whose lifelong craving was to incinerate...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — North Korea said Friday it can't pay nearly $184,000 in dues to the United Nations because of U.N. sanctions that prevent the transfer of funds from Pyongyang. North Korea's U.N. Mission said sanctions imposed by the Security Council in early August on the Foreign Trade Bank of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, which is in charge of international transactions, made payment impossible. The mission said Ambassador Ja Song Nam met Undersecretary-General for Management Jan Beagle Friday afternoon to request the opening of "banking channels" to make the DPRK's required $183,458 payment for 2018 for the...

As the fifth anniversary of Pope Francis’ election draws near, we hear repeatedly that we are facing a dramatic and absolutely unprecedented ‘page’ in the history of the Church. This is only partly true. The Church has always experienced tragic times which have seen the laceration of the Mystical Body since its very beginnings on Calvary right up to the present day.The younger generations don’t know and the older generations have forgotten how terrible the years that followed the Second Vatican Council were, of which the present age is the result. Forty years ago while the 1968 revolt was erupting,...

The state-run Global Times said the Pope had made 'substantive concessions' to China The Vatican and Beijing will re-establish diplomatic ties “sooner or later” thanks to the “wisdom” of Pope Francis, a Chinese government-run newspaper has said.The Global Times said in an editorial that the Pope had made “substantive concessions” to the Chinese government. Relations are therefore taking a “clearer shape” despite the opposition of “Western media and certain radical religious groups opposed to enhanced Sino-Vatican ties”.The column comes after an unnamed senior Vatican source told Reuters that the Holy See and China were close to signing a deal on...

China, new rules: Catholic retreats and gatherings are banned China, no more retreats, no private religious gatherings for young Catholics, in schools, in universities, as well as in the parishes in ...

Chinese Bishops Illegitimate, Official, Clandestine… Which Ones Francis Is Rewarding and Which He Is Not To judge from what is happening in China, from the sortie of Cardinal Joseph Zen Zekiun, from the Vatican’s reply, from the interview with Cardinal Pietro Parolin and from the words of Pope Francis to Zen, an accord between the Holy See and the authorities of Beijing on the appointment of the bishops would seem to be in the home stretch:> China and the Vatican are close to a groundbreaking agreementThe two dioceses, in fact, in which the controversy was ignited, those of Shantou and...

Perhaps the word “swoon” in the headline strikes some of my amigos as unnecessarily hyperbolic?—as typical “click-bait?”Fair enough. Let’s have a closer look at the issue for a more accurate evaluation. Here’s indignant Trump SOTU boycotter Barbara Lee (D-CA) explaining her indignation and boycott:“On January 20th, I will not be celebrating or honoring an incoming president who rode racism, sexism, xenophobia and bigotry to the White House."Now here’s Lee upon “copping a backstage pass” (so to speak) upon one of her frequent red-carpet visits to Cuba to “meet and greet” the jailer and torturer of the most and longest suffering black,...

"Daniel Ellsberg (born April 7, 1931) is a former American military analyst employed by the RAND Corporation who precipitated a national political controversy in 1971 when he released the Pentagon Papers, a top-secret Pentagon study of government decision-making about the Vietnam War, to The New York Times and other newspapers."http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Ellsberg _____________________________________________________________ "As a response to the leaks, the Nixon administration began a campaign against further leaks and against Ellsberg personally. Aides Egil Krogh and David Young under John Ehrlichman's supervision created the 'White House Plumbers,' which would later lead to the Watergate burglaries."http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Ellsberg#Fallout _____________________________________________________________ So what is Daniel Ellsberg...

In several decades of living in Washington, D.C., I’ve met my share of scamps and scalawags, fabulists and outright liars. It would take a modern Dante to determine which circle of Inferno each type of misbehavior merited. But of one thing, I am certain: at least in my own experience, I’ve never encountered more brazen and manipulative liars than Communist Chinese officials responsible for relations with religious believers. Which is what makes it so disturbing that last week reports surfaced that the Vatican asked two underground Chinese bishops, loyal to Rome, to step aside in order to allow two bishops...

Pope Francis has decided to accept the legitimacy of seven Catholic bishops appointed by the Chinese government, a concession that the Holy See hopes will lead Beijing to recognize his authority as head of the Catholic Church in China, according to a person familiar with the plan. For years, the Vatican didn’t recognize the bishops’ ordinations, which were carried out in defiance of the pope and considered illicit, part of a long-running standoff between the Catholic Church and China’s officially atheist Communist Party....

If it wasn’t obvious before, it sure is now. Leftist politicians don’t just hate Trump. They hate America. And frankly, they don’t much care for you, either.

Underground Church as a pawn in China’s political game, a thorn in the side of the Holy See Lay and clerical members of the official and underground Church speak about the Vatican’s decision to force out recognised underground bishops in favour of bishops approved by the Chinese government. A source of sadness, anger, and distress, some warn that in so doing the underground Church is forsaken, as the Holy See puts the whole Chinese Church in the hands of political power. Despite everything, people hold to obedience and hope. Rome (AsiaNews) – The fate of the underground Church, China’s unsanctioned...

Vatican Delegation Demands Resignation of Two Catholic Bishops in Favor of Schismatic Puppets of Beijing by Christopher A. Ferrara January 24, 2018 Almost daily, a new scandal erupts from the Vatican. The situation has become so outrageous that now even decidedly mainstream journals such as The Catholic Herald are pulling no punches in telling the truth about the increasingly alarming course of this pontificate. Thus, the Herald now unsparingly reports the revolting news that “The Holy See has reportedly asked two Chinese bishops to stand aside to make way for illicitly ordained, Chinese government-backed counterparts.” Note well: a mainstream Catholic...