Free Republic

SALTILLO, Mexico – Gabby and Ana are in love. So are Marco Antonio and Juan Carlos. Under a sweeping new law allowing same-sex couples to form civil unions, they are planning to turn their love into a legal commitment. Legislators in the dusty northern border state of Coahuila have stunned Mexico by giving same-sex couples property and inheritance rights long reserved for married heterosexuals. It is a first for this predominantly Roman Catholic country, a measure so swift and so bold that it surprised even the gay community. All of a sudden, gay rights are on the national agenda. Since...

Archbishop Viganò slams US Bishops conference for claiming Biden is second ‘Catholic’ President His Excellency, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, has sent the following statement to LifeSiteNews for publication. The world in which we find ourselves living is, to use an expression from the Gospel, “in se divisum” (Mt 12:25). This division, it seems to me, consists of a split between reality and fiction: objective reality on one side, and the fiction of the media on the other. This certainly applies to the pandemic, which has been used as a tool of social engineering that is instrumental to the Great Reset,...

The Anti-Catholic Presidency to Come It was brought to Catholics by their own bishops. Joe Biden’s campaign to con Catholics, often with the help of their own bishops, paid off. He appears to have scooped up at least half of Catholic voters. In the crucial Rust Belt states, he fared far better with them than Hillary Clinton did. “It turns out that while Trump stays on par (or better) with the Catholic vote nationwide, the GOP’s share of the Catholic vote has been slowly dropping wherever Catholics are more thickly clustered. Trump’s 8 percentage point drop from 2016 with these...

VATICAN CITY—In his first public statement on the horrifying, devastating report on sexual abuse within the Catholic Church, Pope Francis stated he would address the controversy in detail once he’s done talking about climate change for a few more weeks. The head of the Roman Catholic Church claimed he is deeply concerned with the tragic report, but is “just too swamped” with work fighting climate change, criticizing capitalism, and advocating for other issues of social justice to talk about the repulsive report at the moment. “Rest assured, once I have exhausted my talking points on the need for government policies...

From:hms@sandlerfoundation.org To: ses@sandlerfoundation.org, james@sandlerfoundation.org Date: 2015-06-22 18:26 Subject: FW: PICO: Vatican Visit I thought you might find this of interest. From: Knaebel, Sergio Sent: Monday, June 22, 2015 12:58 PM To: Sandler, Herbert Subject: FW: PICO: Vatican Visit Herb, In case you did not get this from Steve. Sergio Knaebel Grant Director Sandler Foundation sknaebel@sandlerfoundation.org From: Scott Reed [mailto:sreed@piconetwork.org] Sent: Thursday, June 18, 2015 8:39 AM To: Knaebel, Sergio Subject: PICO: Vatican Visit Hi Sergio: I just sent a note to Steve with this summary of our visit to the Vatican. I look forward to talking soon. PICO sent a...

Lately, Chavez declared himself a member of a charismatic congregation, thus allegedly belonging to his country's fastest-growing branch of Christianity. But then he angered the country's National Catholic Bishops Conference by communing at a Mass organized by a priest of pro-Communist leanings. Should you have any doubt that Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez is in serious decline, consider this: His bust is being removed from the altars of his country's popular religion, a renowned anthropologist told United Press International on Monday. Less than four years ago, the syncretistic Maria Lionza cult celebrated Chavez as the reincarnation of Simon Bolivar, (1783-1830),...

On January 13, Robert González Nieves, archbishop of San Juan, revealed Pope Francis’ role in Barack Obama’s pardon of terrorist mastermind Oscar Lopez-Rivera. Speaking from the Cathedral of San Juan, Nieves announced that although the Holy Father made no public statement of his involvement, he had indeed worked behind the curtain on behalf of the unrepentant, bloody-handed Lopez-Rivera. The archbishop was pleased to say: “I know that there have been efforts made through diplomatic channels. The pope is very aware. We are grateful to the Holy Father for his support.” Papal complicity in this politically charged act received little notice...

When Pope Francis canonizes Father Junípero Serra on Wednesday in Washington, D.C., Serra will be the first Hispanic American saint, and the first saint canonized on American soil. He also figures to be one of the most controversial saints in the long history of the Roman Catholic Church – a symbol that roils some hearts even as it lifts others. Serra, an 18th-century Spanish friar who founded nine of the 21 California missions, including Mission San Juan Capistrano, is gaining sainthood, in part, because he helped bring the church to the Americas. By one reckoning, Serra’s legacy is nothing less...

The purest form of religion on earth, says Rome, is to bow before a piece of bread and worship it. “The Eucharist is ‘the source and summit of the Christian life,’ ” and “is the heart and the summit of the Church’s life,” says the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1324, 1407). And “the prayer of thanksgiving and consecration,” is “the heart and summit of the celebration” (1352). It is at the utterance of the consecration, the priest’s words, “This is My body,” and “This is the cup of My blood,” that the bread and wine are said to...

Tucked away between houses on an estate in the Republic of Ireland is a small field that many believe, until recently, had a big secret. Beneath a grotto of the Virgin Mary, lie flowers and teddy bears by well-wishers in memory of the children of unmarried mothers, described at the time as "fallen women." It is believed nearly 800 children are buried in the grounds of what was once a mother and baby home run by nuns in Tuam, County Galway. A child died nearly every two weeks between the mid 1920's and 60's. After world-wide publicity, the Irish government...

WASHINGTON (CAP) - American Catholics this week, while generally happy with the newly elected Pope Francis, expressed disappointment that the new head of the Catholic Church insisted on espousing such Catholic views. A new study out of the Pew Research Center said that while 74 percent of American Catholics approve of Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio's appointment as pontiff, almost 60 percent wished he held different views on abortion, premarital sex, contraception and same-sex marriage. "Most respondents questioned why the pope has to be so darn Catholic, to use a phrase that came up over and over again," said Pew spokesman...

“….the Catechism has raised throughout the world, even among non-Christians, and confirms its purpose of being presented as a full, complete exposition of Catholic doctrine, enabling everyone to know what the Church professes, celebrates , lives, and prays in her daily life.” – Pope John Paul II (CCC pg xiv) God gave everyone a Free Will. No one is forced to be Catholic. People are Catholic because they want to be Catholic. The Catholic Church is not a salad bar where individuals can pick and choose what he or she wishes to believe. We do not vote on what is...

Every November, including this one, American Catholics -- who constitute approximately 25% of the U.S. population -- are asked to contribute to the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD).  The Catholic faithful have been told that their donations will go to fight poverty. Little do most of them realize what their money will actually fund.  CCHD is the brainchild of Saul Alinsky, the "father of community organizing."  Alinsky (1909-1972) had numerous connections in the Catholic community of his native Chicago, some of them nearly as radical as he was.  He helped start CCHD in 1969. Unfortunately, the benevolent-sounding term "community...

In addition to handing out cartoon-like publications to kids entering the DI Haunted House and families attending Mass last Saturday, one parent reports that Mineral Wells Junior High English teacher Marsha A. McDonald gave her child and others an anti-Catholic pamphlet at school Monday, during class. The mother, who asked to go unnamed, said her 12-year-old child showed her the small pamphlet titled “Are Roman Catholics Christians?” Monday night, telling her it came from McDonald during Creative Writing class. McDonald has been suspended by Mineral Wells ISD pending an investigation into whether she violated district policy. The mother said this...

I believe efforts to disqualify Mitt Romney as a presidential contender because of his Mormon faith are outrageous and unfair. Apparently, a lot of people in the liberal media agree with me. Unfortunately, they are hypocrites. The media are ignoring their own established religious test—against candidates whose evangelical or Catholic faith guides their political beliefs. Having momentarily discovered an appreciation for the Constitution, liberal journalists are reminding conservative Christians who question Romney’s faith that our founders prohibited a religious test as a qualification for elected office. “It was only a matter of time before some bigot drew a bead on...

While other voters have been disappointed by Obama's economic failures and arrogant, ham-handed approach to everything from health care reform to the Solyndra scandal, swing-voting Catholics have special reason to feel betrayed. In the past year, Obama's Justice Department has argued in court that defenders of traditional marriage — the most visible segment of which are observant Catholics and bishops — should be regarded in law as the equivalent of racists. His National Labor Relations Board has issued rulings against two Catholic schools, St. Xavier University in Chicago and Manhattan College in New York, saying that they are not sufficiently...

In yet another stunning attack on freedom of religion, President Barack Obama's Justice Department asked the Supreme Court last week to give the federal government the power to tell a church who its ministers will be. The case involves a former teacher at Lutheran school, who along with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is pushing a claim that a Lutheran congregation should be forced to restore her ministry position. Americans United for Separation of Church and State and American Atheists, Inc. have filed briefs siding with the Obama administration against the church. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Church...

Last Friday, Rev. Robert Jeffress, the Dallas pastor who introduced Gov. Rick Perry at the Values Voter Summit, spoke derisively about the Mormon faith of Mitt Romney, making the case that “Mormonism is a cult.” Two days later, he chided Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism as “false religions.” Last year, Rev. Jeffress said the Roman Catholic Church was the outgrowth of a “corruption” called the “Babylonian mystery.” He continued, “Much of what you see in the Catholic Church today doesn’t come from God’s word. It comes from that cult-like pagan religion. Isn’t that the genius of Satan?” Catholic League president Bill...

Michael Voris is the favourite talking head of the Catholic Taliban, that motley crew of traditionalists who believe in way-out stuff like “abortion is evil” and “Jesus rose on the third day”. He runs his own online TV station in Michigan and has hair so unreal it could be miraculous. In an age when the average priest seems to get the life – and the theology – sucked out of him at seminary, Voris speaks with clarity and humour. This is the man who dismissed liberal nuns as Marxists “embracing lesbianism”, “yoga” and “witchcraft”. He became a viral sensation after...

(snip) As far as I know there is no “Guide to Catholic Comboxes for Anti-Catholics” but I thought it would look something like this: 1) If the writer of a Catholic blog has raised the specter of something being immoral (like say abortion), the angry comboxer must bring up the sex abuse scandal as a way of discounting anything or everything any Catholic writer says about anything.... 2) Anytime a conversation actually starts where something might be learned it’s always helpful to accuse the Pope of being a Nazi... 3) In the 21st century it’s become commonplace to accuse opponents...