Free Republic

Bahrain: Francis' Personal Friend Condemns "Deviations Such As Homosexuality"During his November 3-6 trip to Bahrain, Francis presided over a November 5 Eucharist for 30,000 mostly working class Catholics from across the Arabian Peninsula.At various meetings, he called for an end to the death penalty and human rights abuses, pointing out that religious freedom should not remain limited to a mere freedom of worship.On November 4 he spoke to Muslim elders, calling them “brothers in Abraham” and saying that the “great religious traditions" [which contradict each other] must be "the heart" that unites the members of the body of humanity. He...

When Pope Francis embraced an anti-Semite, and the media didn’t mind December 24, 2019 (Turning Point Project) — John Cornwell's 1999 smear of Pius XII, Hitler's Pope, became a best-seller, lauded by reviewers and excerpted in major magazines. Cornwell portrayed Pope Pius as an anti-Semite, a supporter of Hitler, and an enabler of the Holocaust. None of this is true, of course. Eugenio Pacelli despised Hitler, denounced Nazi ideology on numerous occasions, and – according to historian Martin Gilbert – was responsible for saving the lives of thousands of Jews. During the German occupation of Rome, hundreds of Jews were...

The United States urged Arab ally Egypt to pull "back from the brink" after security forces killed dozens of supporters of deposed Islamist President Mohamed Mursi and opened a dangerous new phase in the army's confrontation with his Muslim Brotherhood... Washington, treading a fine line with an important Middle East ally and recipient of over $1 billion in military aid, urged the Egyptian security forces to respect the right to peaceful protest... U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spoke to two senior members of Egypt's army-installed interim cabinet, expressing his "deep concern." "This is a pivotal moment for Egypt," he...