Free Republic

Charlie:: “You coulda been another Billy Conn, and that skunk we got you for a manager, he brought you along too fast.” Terry: “It wasn’t him, Charley, it was you. Remember that night in the Garden you came down to my dressing room and you said, `Kid, this ain’t your night. We’re going for the price on Wilson.’….I coulda taken Wilson apart! So what happens? He gets the title shot outdoors on the ballpark and what do I get? A one-way ticket to Palooka-ville! You was my brother, Charley, you shoulda looked out for me a little bit. You shoulda...

A Kansas teenager is in trouble after mocking Gov. Sam Brownback during a mock legislative assembly for high school students. Emma Sullivan, a senior at Shawnee Mission East High School in Prairie Village, was in Topeka on Monday as part of Kansas Youth in Government, a program for students interested in politics and government. During the session, in which Brownback addressed the group, Sullivan posted on her personal Twitter page: “Just made mean comments at gov brownback and told him he sucked, in person #heblowsalot” On Tuesday, Sullivan was called to her principal’s office and told that the tweet had...

Gov. Sam Brownback endorsed Texas Gov. Rick Perry for president on Thursday, citing Perry's record on creating jobs and reducing taxes. "Rick Perry is the right leader for this moment in history," he said in a prepared statement. "I think he's really got the right message that it's about jobs, it's about job creation and it's about getting the atmosphere right," Brownback said. "They've maintained and created a very positive, growth-oriented atmosphere in Texas that we've got to get back to in the United States." Perry's campaign issued a statement calling Brownback "one of the most respected voices for conservatism...

Q: What made you want to make a movie about Josemaria Escriva?A: One thing that really struck me is his belief that the spiritual could be found in every dimension of life.Q: So, is there a message in this movie?A: This movie says we all live spiritual lives because there are two aspects to every person: mental and physiological, and they perform different functions. This movie doesn't preach, this movie just describes.Q: How would you like audiences to react to your film?A: A movie reflects what's inside people. If it's not in there, a movie cannot put it there. But...

Set during the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s, when Escrivá was a young man (he died in 1975 and was canonized Saint Josemaría in 2002), "There Be Dragons" was conceived by Roland Joffé.The story of Opus Dei offers a counterpoint to the common view that the Roman Catholic Church harshly enforces conformity among all of its members. Rome co-opts its more fractious elements, harnessing them until they are safely domesticated. That strategy was described by the 19th-century Whig historian Thomas Babington Macaulay. In a famous essay on Catholicism, he noted—as much in consternation as admiration—that the Vatican "thoroughly understands...

A US court has heard how it cost a great-grandson of an oil industry tycoon at least $ 6 million after he took his computer in to the workshop to repair it after it was infected with a virus. The victim was probably jazz pianist and composer Roger Davidson, an heir of oil tycoon Conrad Schlumberger, although the authorities have refused to name him. The victim took his computer to 36-year-old Vickram Bedi and his girlfriend Helga Invarsdottir after it developed a virus. According to prosecutors, the pair cooked up a scheme which convinced Davidson that his life was in...

FOR the past 15 years, she has been Kabbalah’s most high profile and dedicated follower. But now Madonna has apparently ditched the controversial faith and taken up with Opus Dei – the secretive Catholic sect made famous in The Da Vinci Code. The singer is said to be intrigued by the organisation and spent Friday with priests from the centre’s London HQ. The move follows her alleged falling out with some Kabbalah leaders after reports that cash raised for her Malawi charity was squandered. Last night a source claimed: “She has invested so much into Kabbalah so she was devastated...

Roland Joffé, director of The Mission and There Be Dragons, calls himself an agnostic, but he seems to be a remarkably God-haunted one. At a recent press event in Spain, the British writer-director reflected on what drew him to There Be Dragons — a film set during the Spanish Civil War that has predictably elicited media controversy for its positive treatment of St. Josemaria Escrivá, played by Charlie Cox, and Opus Dei, the personal prelature he founded. There Be Dragons recently opened in Spain; the film comes to the United States in May. “I have no idea whether there’s a...

Subject: Cathars: The Bad Men Regarding the PBS video: The Secret Files of the Inquisition

LONDON -- Hundreds of disillusioned Anglicans were preparing Sunday to defect from the Church of England to the Roman Catholic Church in time for Lent, Sky News reported. It follows a campaign by a former Anglican bishop in protest at its stance on the ordination of women and gay clergy. Father Keith Newton has encouraged Anglicans to join the Ordinariate -- a special branch of Catholicism established by the Pope -- to welcome protestant defectors. Despite the efforts of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Anglo Catholics have begun leaving following the conversion of three Anglican bishops in mid-January.

A New York couple have been charged with defrauding a wealthy musician to the tune of $20 million (£12.3 million) after he innocently visited their computer servicing company to have a virus removed from his laptop. The hard-to-believe story started started in 2004 when moneyed pianist Roger Davidson asked Mount Kisco computer store owners Vickram Bedi, 36, and his Icelandic girlfriend Helga Invarsdottir, 39, to rid his computer of a virus. On learning of Davidson's wealth, the pair are alleged to have concocted an elaborate social engineering scam that defrauded him of somewhere between the $6 million the police have...

Chile [Kreuz.net] Bishop Juan Ignacio González (54) of San Bernardo in Chile has celebrated of late the Mass in the Old Rite. This was according to 'fortes-fide.blogspot.com'. The reason for the Mass was the three year Jubilee of the Motu Proprio 'Summorum Pontificum'. Click [href= http://www.kreuz.net/photo.697.html]here[/url] for photos of the beautiful Mass.

On May 27, Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe tried to set a political persecution in motion by "outing" several completely innocent people: "Mr. Speaker, Ottawa's bishop stated yesterday that a sizeable pro-life caucus is working behind the scenes within the government. The Prime Minister, who controls everything, must know about this caucus." With McCarthyite melodrama, Mr. Duceppe then intoned the names and positions in the Conservative party of three practising Catholics, as if that were proof of the ominous "caucus." These Catholics are all members of Opus Dei, a prelature of the Catholic Church. In Latin, Opus Dei means "God's...

...New Advent's Kevin Knight cites unnamed sources to report tonight that, in his pontificate's most significant move on these shores, Pope Benedict will name Jose Gomez, 58, archbishop of San Antonio since February 2005, as coadjutor-archbishop of Los Angeles. In the process, the native of Mexico -- the lone American bishop professed as a numerary (full member) of Opus Dei -- will make history, becoming the first Hispanic prelate placed in line for a Stateside red hat. The appointment would bring to a close several months' worth of intense consultation and speculation since word of Cardinal Roger Mahony's request for...

February 14, 2010 The Birthday Of "Alternative" Feminism? Anne-Marie Walker St Valentine’s Day is an important day for most people but this year it is especially important. Why? Is it going to be particularly chocolate-filled? Will there be a mountain of roses? No. It will be the 80th anniversary of the start of the women’s section in Opus Dei and as a woman in Opus Dei that’s really important to me. Opus Dei began life on 2 October 1928 when a young Fr Josemaría Escriva caught the tiniest glimpse of God’s plan for him within the Catholic Church. At that...

At Medfield’s Montrose School, in BC grad’s book, women cite positive role served by Catholic group"Opus Dei" means work of God in Latin. At the Montrose School in Medfield, it means educating girls to be leaders with “faith, character, and vision,’’ said the independent Catholic institution’s head, Karen E. Bohlin. For Mary Brennan, a Franklin mother of six, it is a search for divinity in everyday life as she cares for her children and works part time. “It’s faith in practice,’’ said Brennan, who prays several times a day, using a rosary, Latin readings, and the New Testament. “As Catholics,...

NEW YORK, OCT. 19, 2009 (Zenit.org).- We tracked down Marie Oates in Opus Dei headquarters in New York. Her desire to show how women live the Opus Dei charism resulted in her book “Women of Opus Dei: In Their Own Words."Coedited with Linda Ruf and Jenny Driver (Crossroad Publishing, 2009), the book's profiles range from a Harvard doctor, to stay-at-home moms, to an MIT graduate; it aims to introduce "the women in Catholicism's most intriguing organization." ZENIT: Finally someone is talking about women in the Opus Dei. Women make up half -- some believe more than half -- of the...

You may have heard some of the rumors or accusations made about Opus Dei, how it is growing cult hiding under the guise of the Catholic Church. This is only the tip of the accusations on dozens of web pages about Opus Dei, which claim it is Fascist, dishonest, completely evil and working to take over the Catholic Church. And if it's on the internet, it must be true, right? Put Opus Dei into your favorite search engine, and of course the official Opus Dei site is listed, but the next entries will all be sites dedicated to letting...

John L. Allen, Jr.'s recent book, Opus Dei: An Objective Look Behind the Myths and Reality of the Most Controversial Force in the Catholic Church, (Doubleday, 2005) is unfortunately, well short of being objective. Mr. Allen is the Vatican correspondent for the progressive Catholic periodical National Catholic Reporter. The weekly paper, which also features Auxiliary Bishop Thomas J.Gumbleton and Sister Joan Chittister, often provides the necessary counter-argument to the well-funded outlets of the Catholic Right. When Allen himself appears as an expert on cable news roundtables he is often a refreshing change from Catholic "theocons" such as George Weigel or...

Sales of a controversial Turkish novel on a conspiracy to kill Pope Benedict XVI are on the rise ahead of the pontiff's historical visit to Turkey beginning next Wednesday - his first to an overwhelmingly Muslim nation. 'The Plot Against The Pope' is a highly speculative potboiler narrating how the conservative Roman Catholic society Opus Dei, a subversive masonic lodge and the CIA collude to make the pontiff's murder a pretext for a US attack against Iran. Yuvel Kaya's book, which features Benedict XVI in front of a burning cross with a bearded gunman aiming a rocket launcher at him,...