Free Republic

The Pope will pray for the redemption of Islamic terrorists when he visits the site of the September 11 attacks in New York next week. The pontiff will call for terrorists to convert to Christianity, saying: "Turn to Your way of love those whose hearts and minds are consumed with hatred. "God of understanding, overwhelmed by the magnitude of this tragedy, we seek your light and guidance". The prayer is likely to further incense the Muslim world, which has already attacked the Pope for publicly converting Magdi Allam, a journalist and one of Italy's most high-profile Muslims, at Easter. Osama...

http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1563542006 Scotland on Sunday, UK - O'Brien urges Muslims to say sorry for 9/11 THE leader of Scotland's Roman Catholics, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, has called for Muslims to apologise for the 9/11 and 7/7 bomb attacks, declaring that the ...

There is more than enough religious anger in the world. So it is particularly disturbing that Pope Benedict XVI has insulted Muslims, quoting a 14th-century description of Islam as “evil and inhuman.” In the most provocative part of a speech this week on “faith and reason,” the pontiff recounted a conversation between an “erudite” Byzantine Christian emperor and a “learned” Muslim Persian circa 1391. The pope quoted the emperor saying, “Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith...

ROME, Sept. 1 — They meet every year, the eminent German professor and his old doctoral students, for a weekend of high-minded talk on a chosen topic. For years it was nothing more than that. But now the professor, once called Joseph Ratzinger, has become Pope Benedict XVI. And this year, for three days beginning Friday, the topic on the table is evolution, an issue perched on the ever more contentious front between science and belief. And so the questions rise as the meeting unfolds at a papal palace just outside Rome. Is this merely another yearly seminar? Or is...

Aug. 10, 2006 — The Rev. Fred Daley, 59, and a Roman Catholic priest, was scheduled to be on an AIDS mission to Africa last Sunday. He had undergone months of training and was preparing to spend more than a year in Lesotho, where one-third of the population suffers from AIDS. "The airline tickets had been sent," Daley said to ABC News. "There was no condition to that." It turns out there was a condition, and now Daley won't be going anywhere. On July 18, Daley was suddenly withdrawn from his mission to Lesotho by its organizers, Catholic Relief Services....

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict XVI said Saturday that low birth rates in Canada are the result of the "pervasive effects of secularism" and asked the country's bishops to counter the trend by preaching the truth of Christ. Benedict, who has spoken out several times in favor of large families, blamed Canada's low birth rate on social ills and moral ambiguities that result from secular ideology. "Like many countries ... Canada is today suffering from the pervasive effects of secularism," Benedict told visiting bishops from Canada. "One of the more dramatic symptoms of this mentality, clearly evident in your own...

Could the Roman Catholic Church's sex abuse crisis be tied to embedded Satanic and occult imagery in its artwork - some of it hundred's of years old? That is the seemingly incredible thesis of a new documentary, "Rape of the Soul," made not by anti-Catholic bigots, but by devout followers of the Church. Rape of the Soul is in theatrical release in major cities, including New York and Los Angeles. The documentary explores the prevalent use of satanic, sexual, and occult and anti-Catholic images in historical and contemporary religious artwork. The film also discusses the acceptance of the artwork at...

Park United Methodist Church minister Mike Allen knew it would turn his life upside down -- cost him his job, his home and his preaching credentials.Despite the certain consequences, the Lexington pastor made his choice.One Sunday in January, he stood in front of his stunned congregation and broke the news: He was going to follow his heart and convert to Roman Catholicism.With that decision, Allen joined not only thousands of members who are leaving mainstream denominations, but hundreds of Protestant ministers who are joining the Roman Catholic Church.For Allen, conversion was an eight-year process of study, prayer and reflection.It began...

WASHINGTON, April 20 - The election of an unstintingly conservative pope could inject a powerful new force into the intense conflicts in American politics over abortion and other social issues, which put many Catholic elected officials at odds with their church. Pope Benedict XVI ascends to power at a tumultuous time for his church in American politics: Catholic voters, long overwhelmingly Democratic, have become a critical swing vote. Republicans have become increasingly successful at winning the support of more traditional Catholics by appealing to what President Bush calls the "culture of life" issues, including abortion, euthanasia and research on embryonic...

OP-ED COLUMNIST Do not be fooled by the talking heads in Rome. The journalists handicapping the papal election may sound as confident as ever, authoritatively quoting anonymous cardinals and exclusive sources deep in Opus Dei. But our profession is in trouble. A specter is haunting the punditocracy - the specter of Intrade. That's an online futures market, based in Dublin and used by more than 50,000 speculators worldwide who put their money where our mouths are. They're expected to spend at least $1 million on futures contracts tied to the election of the pope. And if recent history is any...

LOS ANGELES, April 8 - Lily Velazquez, who turned 18 on Thursday, is the sixth of 12 children of Mexican immigrants in a poor suburb of Los Angeles. She considers herself both a devoted Catholic and a hopeless sinner. She attends Mass every Sunday but has had two children out of wedlock. She thinks abortion is murder but chafes at the Vatican's ban on birth control. She mourns the death of Pope John Paul II but hopes his successor will be "new and different." "My mom gets mad if I don't go to church," Ms. Velazquez said, as her 2-year-old...

OP-ED COLUMNIST IT takes planning to produce a classic chapter in television history. "We've rehearsed," Thom Bird, a Fox News producer, bragged to Variety before Pope John Paul II died. "We will pull out all the stops on this story." He wasn't kidding. On the same day that boast saw print, a Fox anchor, Shepard Smith, solemnly told the world that "facts are facts" and "it is now our understanding the pope has died." Unfortunately, this understanding was reached 26 hours before the pope actually did die, but as Mr. Smith would explain, he had been misled by "Italian reports."...

OP-ED COLUMNIST Here's my prophecy about the next pope: He will allow married men to become priests. This is simply a matter of survival: all over the world, the Catholic Church is running out of priests. In the United States, there was one priest for every 800 Catholics in 1965, while now there is one for every 1,400 Catholics - and the average age is nearly 60. In all the United States, with 65 million Catholics, only 479 priests were ordained in 2002. The upshot is that the Catholic Church is losing ground around the world to evangelical and especially...

U.S. Roman Catholics adored Pope John Paul II but vast numbers of the nation's 67 million parishioners openly disregard the pontiff's core teachings about abortion, divorce, extramarital sex and birth control. But Catholics have become more conservative in recent years, a movement fueled, in part, by the growing numbers of more traditional Latino members. Church officials estimate Latinos will comprise half of the U.S. membership within a decade. A majority of Catholics voted for President Bush, the first time a Republican presidential candidate has taken the Catholic vote. A historic union between conservative Protestants and Catholics helped re-elect Bush. Catholic...

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- John Paul's earthly remains lay clothed in crimson vestments, his head on golden pillows and adorned with a white bishop's miter. His hands held a rosary, a pastoral staff was tucked under his left forearm. Swiss Guards stood watch on either side. Karol Joseph Wojtyla was finally at peace, the lines of pain erased from his face after years of crippling disease. ''It was very satisfying for all of us to see him so serene,'' said Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles, one of many church officials, diplomats and politicians who paid their respects at the...

Jeff Robbins/Associated Press John Paul II's teachings on social issues resonated with the conservative shift in American opinion in the 1980's and 1990's. He celebrated a World Youth Day Mass in Aurora, Colo., in 1993. IT is hard to remember now that when Pope John Paul II was elected 27 years ago, the church he inherited was destabilized and dispirited. His immediate predecessor, John Paul I, had been found dead in bed one morning after only 34 days in office. The pope before that, Paul VI, spent his last years melancholy and withdrawn, his accomplishments overshadowed by the uproar...

The Bush administration has broken new ground in its "faith-based" initiative, this time by offering federal employees a Catholic health plan that specifically excludes payment for contraceptives, abortion, sterilization and artificial insemination. The new plan, announced last week, combines two White House priorities. It is part of a $1 billion project seeking to involve religious organizations in all types of federal social programs. At the same time, the plan is a new form of coverage - a health savings account combined with high-deductible coverage - that is being promoted as a centerpiece of President Bush's health care policy. The plan,...

The parishioners at a Matamata church are so upset about receiving anti-Catholic mail that they are making a complaint to the police. Anti-Catholic messages are being delivered to letterboxes of members of the Holy Angels Catholic Church in Matamata. Three other parishes in the Hamilton area have also received the mail. The Parish Priest, Eamon Kennedy, says the person responsible apparently wants to save Catholics from going to hell by attacking aspects of the Catholic faith. He says the mail has been addressed to individual parishioners in some cases and is very upsetting for some people.

BISHOP ALLEN VIGNERON, shepherd of the Roman Catholic Diocese, heard something he didn't like from his flock about Diocesan plans for the 17-story Christ the Light Cathedral last week at a community meeting. These were not sheep-like Catholics, and they knew the scriptures. What the bishop heard was a respectful bleating. "Baaaaa ..." Several who spoke said the $131 million price tag for building the cathedral complex should instead be spent on the poor and homeless as taught by Jesus Christ and the Bible. The proposed soaring edifice would be a "symbol of wealth and the pride of man," said...

"A constitutional amendment recognizing both marriage and civil unions is no 'compromise.'"BOSTON, March 26, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Massachusetts clerks are readying for homosexual "marriages". Town and city clerks were notified by the Registry of Vital Records and Statistics that training to perform the services would begin in early May, in time for the prescribed May 17 date set by the Supreme Judicial Court last November. A spokeswoman for Governor Mitt Romney, controller of the Department of Public Health, denied knowledge of the training being offered. "I have no knowledge of training being scheduled," Nicole St. Peter told the Boston Globe....