Free Republic

At least nine Christians were burned alive in Pakistan Saturday, according to Pakistan Christian Post, and the pogroms saw young Christians girls raped by Punjabi Muslim zealots and their houses looted before being torched. The Christians are labeled as the dirty ones or bhangees in Pakistan and Muslims don't eat in the same plate with them. Forced conversions of Christians are routine and a black lack law called blasphemy law is used to inflict extreme miseries on Christians in Pakistan.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on last night’s edition of Penn & Teller’s show. The program aired on Showtime which is owned by CBS: The Nazis couldn’t have done better. Having been in this job for over 16 years, I have never seen a more defamatory, obscene and vicious show on TV. And I mean about any religious or demographic group—not just Catholics. The lies about the Catholic Church, to say nothing of the vile language used by Penn Jillette, were positively astounding. Moreover, it never attempted to be comedic—from the very beginning it advertised the show as payback...

Rifqa Bary, the young woman who fled Ohio fearing for her life, after converting from Islam to Christianity, told of her Muslim father's words: "If you have this Jesus in your heart, you are dead to me. I will kill you." "I will kill you"- the same words spoken to Mohammed Hijazi by his Muslim father in 2008. Watch this important video. "From the Gaza strip to neighboring Egypt, his father is promising to kill him for becoming a believer." "Now he's on the run with his wife and little baby." "Mohammed Hijazi's father always taught him to hate Christians....

In a story in this week’s issue of The Catholic Review, Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien talked about the violence plaguing Baltimore City. Here is the full transcript of that conversation. Catholic Review: When the summer began, you had a peace summit with other religious leaders and you were hoping this would be a summer of peace. How frustrating has it been to watch everything that’s transpired? Archbishop O’Brien: I hope some of it helped. It’s safer in Iraq and Afghanistan, I think, sometimes. Still, there are good people out there patrolling the streets and taking an interest in the neighborhoods...

U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy, one of the leading forces of liberalism in the Senate for over a quarter-century, died Tuesday night at his home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. Kennedy had been battling brain cancer since it was diagnosed in May 2008. He was chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) committee at the time of his death. Known as "the lion of the Senate," Kennedy was one of the most formidable opponents to American conservatism ever to claim a seat in the Senate. NARAL awarded a 100% pro-abortion voting record to the Massachusetts senator, who also championed...

Upholding lower court decisions, United States Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg has ruled that the Diocese of Bridgeport must unseal 12,000 pages from lawsuits filed against the diocese when Cardinal Edward Egan served as bishop.

A sudden shift towards religiously-charged rhetoric in President Obama's stumping for health care reform continued yesterday in a telephone conference, in which the president said that "we are God's partners in matters of life and death." Obama told the virtual gathering of Jewish rabbis - as many as 1000, according to the Washington Jewish Week news service - that he was "going to need your help in accomplishing necessary reform." Washington, D.C. Rabbi Jack Moline posted some of the president's statements in a series of live tweets, which went viral on the Internet before Moline deleted almost all the posts...

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who assumed office in 2004, is warning that evangelization threatens the stability of his island nation. Citing “aggressive preaching” and criticizing the “wave of revival, megachurches, and tele-evangelism” he sees in the United States, the Buddhist prime minister-- and Catholic high school alumnus-- said that “the most dangerous fault line is race and religion.” An estimated 4% of the nation’s 4.6 million inhabitants are Catholic; 43% are Buddhist, and 15% are Muslim.

Two months after the US bishops’ doctrine committee published its Note on Ambiguities Contained in Reflections on Covenant and Mission, two major American Jewish organizations, joined by Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform rabbis, say that the new document puts interfaith dialogue at risk. “A declaration of this sort is antithetical to the very essence of Jewish-Christian dialogue as we have understood it,” they wrote in an August 20 letter to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The doctrine committee’s June document offered “a clear affirmation of the Church’s belief that Jesus Christ in Himself fulfills God’s revelation begun with Abraham...

Those words begin this stark, frank, and -- unfortunately -- utterly necessary column by the very fine writer Leonard Pitts, Jr.. The subject is Nazis, who seem to be everywhere these days. Read on: I hope this column makes you sick. See, we'll be talking about Nazis, something many of us are doing lately. Indeed, just this week a fellow named Joseph e-mailed me about a caller he heard on a radio show. The man, vexed over healthcare reform, likened President Obama to Adolf Hitler. Asked why, he said, ``Hitler took over the car companies, then healthcare and then he...

The president of Planned Parenthood, Cecile Richards, has penned a scathing editorial, published today in the Huffington Post, in which she sets her sights on the U.S. Catholic bishops, slamming them for their opposition to the abortion mandate in the Obama health care bill, and to abortion in general. "Does anyone else see the irony in the U.S. bishops wanting to define universal health care as covering everything except for what they don't support?" writes Richards. "Since when does universal health care mean denying comprehensive reproductive health care supported by the majority of Americans?"

The persecution of the Church in Nicaragua is intensifying under the regime of President Daniel Ortega, the Sandinista strongman who ruled Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990 and was elected to office in 2006. The nation’s attorney general of human rights has accused two bishops of being CIA agents, and three bishops have received death threats. Earlier this month, Ortega supporters attacked persons taking part in a cultural event at Managua’s cathedral.

Vandals have cut off and stolen the head of the infant Jesus from a marble statue at a parish in Wauwatosa. Local police said that such vandalism is typical in the Milwaukee suburb of 45,000, and the parish estimates that repairs will cost $12,000.

The bishops of New Zealand are opposing a bill in parliament that would legalize adoptions by homosexual and unmarried couples. “The New Zealand Catholic bishops are concerned about the rights of the adult being given priority over the rights of the child in the current debate about whether the law should change to allow homosexual and de-facto couples to adopt children,” said Bishop Peter Cullinane of Palmerston North. “A mother’s and a father’s love are different and complement each other. We would always support the right of the child to experience both.”

The principal of Pace High School, Frank Lay, and Athletic Director Robert Freeman are facing fines and imprisonment on criminal contempt charges after violating a court injunction that forbids prayers by administrators at school functions. The criminal charges carry up to a $5,000 fine and a six-month jail term. Earlier this year, Florida's Santa Rosa County School District was coerced into consenting to a court order prohibiting prayers during school-sponsored events after it decided not to further contest a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The ACLU suit was filed behalf of two unnamed students who claimed...

The US Senate has sounded a hasty retreat on "death panels" in health-care reform by striking out the provision on "end-of-life counseling" from the bill. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), announced last week that the Senate Finance Committee has now expunged all "end-of-life" provisions from the Senate version of health-care reform in order "to avoid unintended consequences." Grassley admitted in a statement Wednesday that the storm of controversy surrounding the "end-of-life" provisions in detailed in section 1233 of the House version (H.R. 3200) expressed legitimate concerns that the elderly and infirm could end up pressured into lower-quality care or none at...

A Freedom of Information request has revealed that Britain's National Health Service (NHS) has sponsored dozens of abortions for underage girls in Scotland in recent years. The Daily Record newspaper reports that 87 13-year-old girls and eight 12 year-olds as well as almost 3,000 girls under 15 had NHS abortions between 2000 and 2008. The government has responded to the statistics with promises of still more sex education in Scotland for young people, despite statistics demonstrating the failure of the strategy. Public Health Minister Shona Robison told media that the numbers were "cause for concern" and said that the government...

20-year-old Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe has, in an interview with a homosexual magazine, expressed anger and intolerance for parents who oppose education about homosexual sex in the classroom. "Then there's all this stuff at the moment, which is hateful, about people being up in arms about the idea of gay sex education in schools. Hello!?! Actually for the one or two gay kids in the class, it's f***ing vital! It really makes me angry," he said in an interview with Attitude. The magazine quotes Radcliffe continuing his tirade against pro-family parents saying: "I just loathe homophobia. It's just disgusting...

As over 100 couples renewed their vows at Celebrate Marriage and Family Day, an event sponsored by the National Organization of Marriage on property owned by Rhode Island’s sole diocese, between 20 and 30 homosexuals engaged in a peaceful protest. Tim Hortons and a local seafood company had originally sponsored the event but withdrew their support following complaints.

The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis is warning the faithful that a 2010 synod sponsored by the Catholic Coalition for Church Reform “is not being conducted under the auspices of the Archdiocese, the universal Roman Catholic Church, or any entity or organization affiliated with the Archdiocese or the universal Roman Catholic Church.” The archdiocese released its warning on August 13, the day on which Father Roy Bourgeois-- a Maryknoll priest who has been excommunicated for his participation in feminist ceremonies at which women have claimed to be ordained as priests-- was appearing at a fundraiser for the coalition of...

While American Catholic nuns continue to undergo scrutiny from a Vatican investigation, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) invited Cokie Roberts, a political commentator who has criticized the Church's prohibition against abortion, contraception, and homosexuality, as the keynote speaker for their annual meeting this week. Another Catholic group, Supporting Our Aging Religious (SOAR), has announced it will host a dinner in honor of Roberts and her husband Steve in November of this year. New Orleans native Cokie Roberts spoke at the LCWR summit in the same city Tuesday, according to a Times-Picayune report. Cokie Roberts, a Roman Catholic, is...

LSN: "The USCCB Pro-Life Office Executive Director Tom Grenchik on Friday wrote about the current bills on Capitol Hill, and he said that: '... one thing is certain. The bills approved so far by House and Senate committees include mandated abortion coverage and abortion funding, and that is a line we can never cross.' Does Catholic Charities agree that the current bill's handling of abortion is 'a line we can never cross,' even if that means a delay in health care reform?" CONNER: Well, I don't know about using the exact same language that you stated as a question, I...

In the midst of two Vatican inquiries-- the Apostolic Visitation of Institutes of Women Religious in the United States, and an investigation by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith into “the tenor and the doctrinal content of various addresses” at its meetings-- the Leadership Conference of Women Religious is featuring Cokie Roberts as the keynote speaker at its annual assembly, which is taking place in New Orleans. Mrs. Roberts-- who has described Pope Benedict XVI as “really lacking in the theological virtue of charity,” and who has called pro-lifers “extremists”-- is a critic of Catholic teaching on embryonic...

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on an e-mail he received from New York University Law Dean Richard Revesz about the controversy surrounding Singaporean law professor Thio Li-ann: It is my position that an organized campaign of intimidation forced Professor Thio to reconsider her willingness to teach a course this fall at NYU. It is also my position that Dean Revesz failed to use this controversy to educate the NYU community: faculty who reject, as Professor Thio does, the proposition that it should be legal for two men to marry is a respectable—indeed mainstream—opinion (in the 30 states that have...

Yesterday I told you all about my disturbing call from a census worker. You can read the account here. I didn't have time to tell you the rest of the story which was even more disturbing. Someone who posted on the thread suggested that this call might be fraud and to find out the number from caller ID. I did, and called back the number. I spent some time getting info from the census worker since she called from a local number. She was calling from here home. I got her name, where she lived and the name and number...

he United States Senate has confirmed theologian Dr. Miguel H. Díaz as ambassador to the Holy See. Since 2004, Dr. Díaz has worked as a professor at the College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University in Minnesota Dr. Díaz-- who donated $1,000 to the Obama Victory Fund last September 23, and another $1,000 to Obama for America on September 30-- issued a statement upon his confirmation:

On a political forum I happened to run across one of the peculiar arguments some use against people of faith. Some have complained about invocations of the name of the Creator in political matters, or even requests for prayers for our country. The argument goes something like this: “Your religion says to render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s. There is supposed to be separation of church and state in this country.” For some reason, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” (separation of church and state) has come to mean...

OK, so tell me that I am not paranoid. I am the pastor of a small church in New Jersey. I just got a call from very pushy census worker, asking for our church's help in promoting the US census. I said, how can I help. She said, by putting info in your bulletin, website, etc. I said, OK, I'll do that. Then she wanted to set up a meeting for me to meet with her supervisor. I said not thank-you. I said, actually the only thing we need to fill out is our name adress and number of people...

New York, NY, August 4, 2009 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) called on the U.S. Supreme Court to reject a "sham transaction" and prohibit a prominent religious display on public land. In an amicus brief submitted to the Court in Salazar v. Buono, ADL and a coalition of civil rights groups also emphasized the importance of allowing Americans access to courts to challenge violations of the First Amendment. Marvin D. Nathan, ADL Civil Rights Committee Chair, issued the following statement:

When the Italian drug agency approved the sale of the deadly abortion drug RU 486 late Thursday night, senior Vatican officials responded strongly saying that doctors who prescribe it and the women who take it risk excommunication. The Italian Pharmaceuticals Agency (AIFA) said the drug, to be sold under the brand name Mifegyne, would not be sold in pharmacies and only be administered by physicians in hospitals. Bishop Elio Sgreccia, a bioethics professor, author and former vice-president of the Pontifical Academy for Life (PAV) told Corriere della Sera newspaper, "This is a compound which kills the foetus and one much...

The bishops of England, Wales, and Scotland are warning that a proposed EU directive against discrimination and harassment could lead to the erosion of religious freedom. Msgr. Andrew Summersgill, general secretary of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, writes: Discrimination under this Directive is not restricted to employment, and so this subjective approach to harassment will apply in all walks of life, including academic discourses, sermons, theatre, television and radio discussions. Various pressure groups are likely to use the provisions of the Directive to curtail the expression of views they disagree with by the simple expedient of declaring themselves...

Psychologist Daniel Kahneman won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2002 for his work on a phenomenon in psychology and marketing called “availability bias.” Kahneman demonstrated the human tendency to give a proposition validity just by how easily it comes to mind. An uncorroborated statement can be widely seen as true merely because the media has repeated it. Also in 2002, the Catholic clergy sex abuse scandal swept out of Boston to dominate news headlines across the country. Many commentators writing on the scandal have, knowingly or not, employed availability bias to justify draconian revisions in law and policy. The...

Catholic school teachers from around the country traveled to Israel to learn about anti-Semitism and the Holocaust as part of the Anti-Defamation League's (ADL) nationally acclaimed Bearing Witness Advanced program. Bearing Witness Advanced provides educators with an opportunity to gain firsthand knowledge of Israel against the backdrop of Jewish history, the Holocaust and Catholic-Jewish relations. "Combining experts' knowledge of the Holocaust with the words of those who experienced it can have a unique and powerful impact," said Dr. Ed S. Alster, ADL's Director of Education. "The teachers learned firsthand how anti-Semitism can lead to tragedy if left unchecked. The experience...

Pro-abortion forces aren't stupid, they're calculating. I've already discussed the DeLauro-Ryan bill, and why I think it needs to be urgently defeated. It is attempting to split the pro-life movement by claiming that those who do not support contraception are not truly pro-life. The sponsor of that bill, Democrat Tim Ryan, was quoted earlier this week by Steven Waldman, the guy behind religion internet portal Belief.net. [a brief tangent on Waldman....]

Using firearms and explosives, thousands of Muslims destroyed the Christian village of Korian in the province of Punjab in eastern Pakistan. A Christian family in the village had been accused of blaspheming Islam. “One cannot but weep upon seeing the trail of destruction left behind,” said Father Aftab James Paul, director of of the Diocese of Faisalabad’s commission for interfaith ialogue.

The Italian Pharmaceuticals Agency (AIFA) has authorized the nationwide use of the RU-486 despite the deaths of 29 women from the abortion pill’s side effect. “There will be excommunication for the doctor, the woman and anyone who encourages its use,” said Bishop Elio Sgreccia, the retired president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, referring to the penalty of automatic excommunication associated with abortion. “First abortion was legalized to stop it being clandestine, but now doctors are washing their hands of it and transferring the burden of conscience to women.”

Bishop Nicola de Angelis of Peterborough and 12 parishioners have filed a response to a claim lodged with the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal that the removal of a gay altar server was an act of illegal discrimination. The response contended that the issue was “not a human rights problem but a Church matter,” said one of the parishioners. Former altar server Jim Corcoran, who maintains that he lives chastely with his life partner, is seeking financial damages, the restoration of his role as altar server, and a sermon from the bishop on the “consequences of practicing discrimination and the slanderous...

In the last several months I have become quite active in several chat rooms. As a Christian Patriot, I choose to visit and engage in discussions in chat rooms that share my values and my faith. In general, the discussions and conversations are conducted in a civil and respectful manner. But, like in any other aspects of life, there are always points of disagreement, and there is nothing wrong with that, except for the fact that most disagreements turn into harsh exchanges and to some degree, they become offensive. We all come to the rooms with our own preconceptions, ideas...

The exhibit, Untitled 2009, is part of the Made In God's Image exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow and was thought up by local artist Anthony Schrag. The intention was for gays and transsexuals who felt left out of religion to "write their way back in" to the holy book.

The U.S. House of Representatives Friday voted to eliminate $99 million in grant funds that would have bolstered abstinence education in the U.S. The House's decision to cut the funds and to approve a new grant towards contraceptive-promoting sex education had been sought by President Obama in his budget recommendations earlier this year. House lawmakers voted 264-153 to approve the annual health and education spending bill that cut funding for Community-Based Abstinence Education. Also according to the Obama recommendations, Congress in late June chose not to renew the smaller abstinence-education funding initiative known as Title V. Instead, the Departments of...

Thanks to ADL training, more than 500 public school teachers in Kearny, New Jersey, have now been taught the proper role of religion in the public schools. What's more, all of the Kearny social studies teachers know how to instruct students in ADL's curriculum, The First Amendment in Public Schools, ensuring that it will become a regular part of the social studies program. The trainings were meant to counteract the teaching of religious beliefs by an 11th grade history teacher, who spent the first week of class saying that evolution and the Big Bang are not scientific, dinosaurs were among

Join these Alabamians Who Oppose Universal Abortion Coverage in Obamacare [FPN] – Residents across the state of California are voicing their opposition to a congressional proposal that would use taxpayer money to pay for abortions under the guise of so-called health care “reform”. Pro-family Californians are signing Family Policy Network’s petition urging both houses of Congress and President Obama to reject health care “reform” that provides universal abortion funding on the backs of American taxpayers. The petition reads as follows: Please OPPOSE any and all attempts to include funding and/or mandates for abortions in health care “reform” legislation.Destroying innocent human...

Pope Benedict XVI's social encyclical, Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth), is a complex and occasionally obscure document, replete with possible implications for the future development of Catholic social doctrine. Sorting those implications out will take much time and even more careful reflection. Along the information superhighway, however, careful reflection hit a few potholes in the early going, as sundry partisans sought to capture Caritas in Veritate as a weapon with which to bolster the Obama administration's economic, health care and social welfare policies. Thus in the days immediately following the encyclical's July 7 release, we were treated to the...

GUESTS Friday, July 24  Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) joins us to talk about the health care reform bill currently being discussed by Congress. Also on Friday, Fr. Thomas Berg will join Arroyo to talk about his organization, The Westchester Institute for Ethics and the Human Person, as well as the new NIH stem cell research guidelines and the controversy over New York State's plan to pay women for their eggs. Fr. Tom will also touch on the apostolic visitation to the Legion’s institutions as well as his hopes for the order.

A high level Vatican official has reminded US bishops of their responsibilities to pro-abortion Catholic politicians, including the possibility of withholding Communion. Cardinal Antonio Canizares Llovera, the head of the Vatican's liturgical office, told LifeSiteNews.com in an interview today that the guiding principle for bishops considering withholding Communion from pro-abortion politicians in their dioceses should be "caritas in veritate" or "charity in truth." Canizares explained that according to Catholic teaching those who insist upon receiving Communion in a state of serious sin are in grave spiritual danger and emphasized that the withholding of Communion is meant for the person's spiritual...

Especially at a time of financial crisis, when life-giving initiatives are hurting for money, it appears strange for a government to expand public funding for abortion, said the head of the Pontifical Academy for Life. Archbishop Rino Fisichella, the academy's head, said Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical, "Caritas in Veritate" ("Charity in Truth"), tried to explain to people how welcoming, defending and protecting human life at every stage is an essential part of promoting real development for individuals and communities. The archbishop was interviewed July 22 by Vatican Radio before speaking at a conference in Rome dedicated to the encyclical, which...

Alliance Defense Fund attorneys filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Mount Sinai Hospital on behalf of a Catholic nurse who was forced to participate in a late-term abortion under the threat of disciplinary action, including possible termination and loss of her license. The hospital has known of her religious objections to abortion since 2004. Hospital administrators told the nurse that the scheduled abortion was an “emergency,” though evidence shows otherwise, and insisted moments before the procedure that she assist doctors despite her repeated objections to the procedure, which dismembered a preborn child in the 22nd week of gestation. By federal law,...

Voice of the Faithful, the lay Catholic group founded during the church's clergy sex abuse scandal, has raised enough money to keep operating for now. The Massachusetts-based group sent a letter to its members last week, saying its financial situation was so dire that it might be forced to close its Needham headquarters unless it raised $60,000. On Tuesday, the group said its plea raised more than $63,000. The money will be used to pay operating costs for July and August.

In an exchange with the Cybercast News Service (CNS) concerning the President's healthcare bill, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that Obama's promise to the Pope to reduce abortions was the same promise he made to Planned Parenthood in a July 2007 speech. "I have two questions on health care," the CNS reporter asked Gibbs. "One, going back to the President's visit to the Vatican, he reportedly told the Pope that he would work to and do all he could to reduce the number of abortions -" At which point Gibbs interjected, "I think he said -- he said that...

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) applauded the Senate's passage of legislation that enhances the federal government's ability to address hate crimes. The Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act (HCPA) provides new authority for federal officials to work in partnership with state and local law enforcement to more effectively address hate violence. The long-delayed legislation was extended further by a flurry of unnecessary and unwelcome last-ditch efforts by policy opponents to amend it.