Free Republic

When Gov. Alfred E. Smith ran for president in 1928, his candidacy was derailed in large part by anti-Catholic prejudice. It has been nearly 48 years since John F. Kennedy became the first (and so far only) Roman Catholic president, but experts say that anti-Catholic sentiment — much of it originating in, or as a response to, immigrants in New York — remains an enduring force in American culture. That was the consensus of a panel assembled at the Museum of the City of New York on Tuesday night to consider the question, “Is Anti-Catholicism Dead?” ...The Rev. Richard John...

Yes, the sad little cracker has met its undignified end, so stop pestering me. The cracker, the koran, and another surprise entry have been violated and are gone. You'll have to wait until tomorrow for the details, what little of them there are. I must quickly apologize to all you good Catholics who were hoping to attend Mass, since you can't anymore — I have been told many hundreds of times now that cracker abuse violates your right to practice your religion. I guess you'll have to adapt. Secular humanism is a good alternative, if you aren't already flocking to...

I believe so.Folks, as you know already from my previous post, Paul Zachary Myers, a professor at the University of Minnesota Morris, has pledged to desecrate the Eucharist in public and has solicited help openly to accomplish it. The question now is, is this criminal solicitation and attempted conspiracy to commit a hate crime across state lines? I'm no lawyer, but I can read the statutes.Let us begin with a general definition of a hate crime. The one in the Wikipedia will serve: Hate crimes (also known as bias motivated crimes) occur when a perpetrator targets a victim because of...

Pastor John Hagee sent a letter today [Copy Here] to Catholic League president Bill Donohue that effectively ends the dispute the two men have had. Donohue comments as follows: “After weeks of meeting with various Catholic leaders, and accessing scholarly literature on Catholic-Jewish relations, Pastor John Hagee has demonstrated an improved understanding of the Catholic Church and its history. In his letter to me, Hagee says, ‘I want to express my deep regret for any comments that Catholics have found hurtful.’ He specifically cites his emphasis of ‘the darkest chapters in the history of Catholic and Protestant relations with the...

In more sophisticated language, The New York Times columnist Frank Rich also sought to dismiss the general outrage at Wright's racist and anti-American diatribes. In Rich's view, American society's outrage at Wright is but one more example of American racism. His proof? America is not as angry at a white pastor, the Rev. John Hagee, who has endorsed Sen. John McCain, as it is at Wright and his 20-year bond with Sen. Barack Obama. In Rich's words, "Mr. Hagee's videos have never had the same circulation on television as Mr. Wright's. A sonorous white preacher spouting venom just doesn't have...

On his April 11 HBO show, “Real Time with Bill Maher,” the comedian went into an extended assault on Pope Benedict XVI and the Catholic Church. For a transcript, click here.Catholic League president Bill Donohue responded as follows:“Maher’s obsession with the Catholic Church continues, only this time there isn’t enough material for him to use as a club, so he literally makes things up. His lies include the following statement: ‘When the—when the current pope was in his previous Vatican job as John Paul’s Dick Cheney—he wrote a letter instructing every Catholic bishop to keep the sex abuse of minors...

William F. Buckley’s ‘Conservative Movement’ Still-Born, Dead-On-Arrival, Decades Ago, Because it Was Godless, Against Christ, Ignored God’s Word Contact: John Lofton, 301-873-4612, 410-760-8885, JLof@aol.com MEDIA ADVISORY, March 3 /Christian Newswire/ — Recovering Republican John Lofton, Editor of TheAmericanView.com and co-host of “The American View” radio show with the Constitution Party’s 2004 Presidential candidate Michael Anthony Peroutka, has issued the following statement: “Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.” – Psalm 127. The Lord Jesus Christ did not build the “conservative movement” house....

Following our first interview with Governor Mike Huckabee there was an intimation of anti-catholicism by several pundits and commentators. We asked the Governor directly about this and about another issue of importance to our Catholic Online readers and viewers.

Anti-Christian Children's Novel Coming out as Time Warner Film in December starring Nicole Kidman By Elizabeth O'Brien LOS ANGELES, August 20, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The best selling novels of atheist author Philip Pullman, which were written specifically to indoctrinate children with anti-Christian values, have sparked the creation of a controversial new fantasy film to be released this December 7 by New Line Cinema - a Time Warner Company. Starring Nicole Kidman, "The Golden Compass," is based on Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy, which includes "Northern Lights" (re-titled "The Golden Compass" in the United States), "The Subtle Knife" and "The Amber...

On Dec. 7, 2007, the movie "The Golden Compass," based on the first book in the fantasy trilogy entitled "His Dark Materials" by atheist Philip Pullman will be released in theaters throughout the world. Pullman wrote his fantasy trilogy because he was so upset by the Christian evangelism of C.S. Lewis in his wonderful series of Christian tales entitled "The Chronicles Of Narnia." Pullman is an avowed atheist who has dedicated his life to undermining Christianity and the Church among young readers. The film's release is only another example of a culture spiraling away from faith, a culture into which...

CathNews alerts us to the potential problem: Nicole Kidman has denied that a new film she's making is anti-Catholic. The movie features an organisation known as "The Magisterium", which kidnaps children to remove their souls.The Brisbane Times reports that Kidman told a US magazine that her Catholic faith affected her consideration of the script for the film, which is titled The Golden Compass.The fantasy film is based on a novel by Philip Pullman called Northern Lights. It is already attracting attention in the US for avoiding much of the book's perceived anti-Catholic rhetoric.Kidman said some of the religious elements...

LONDON – A debate over a movie’s anti-religious antagonism – or lack thereof – is heating up ahead of its upcoming release, with some accusing Hollywood of “castrating” the anti-Catholic themes present in the novel from which it is based. The expected blockbuster, “The Golden Compass,” is named after the American title of best-selling author Philip Pullman’s novel “Northern Lights” and will star actress Nicole Kidman and James Bond star Daniel Craig. The original children’s novel, part of Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” series, rejects organized religion – in particular, the Catholic Church – and critics of the movie version say...

Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007) Directed by Shekhar Kapur. Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Clive Owen, Abbie Cornish, Samantha Morton, Jordi Mollà.From a National Catholic Register review By Steven D. Greydanus A lurid sort of Christopher Hitchens vision of history pervades Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Shekhar Kapur’s sequel to his 1998 art-house hit Elizabeth. The earlier film, which made a star of Cate Blanchett as the eponymous Virgin Queen, celebrated the triumph of bright, happy Elizabethan Protestantism over the dark, unwholesome Catholic world of Bloody Mary. Even so, that film’s church-bashing was tame compared that of this sequel, in which...

If this is not the place for vanity posts I apologize, but it's quite breaking news either. I heard at my church today that the Westboro Baptist Church will be protesting outside of a Roman Catholic and an Episcopal church next Saturday and a memorial to fallen firefighters and another RC church on Sunday. These aren't to protest funerals, rather to protest against...well...I don't know. Apparently God hates homosexuals, soldiers, firefighters, Catholics, and Episcopalians, though I'm not sure in what order. We've been told that there will be police present and that the best thing to do would be to...

British David Yallop, writes a book besmirching the memory of the great, late Servant of God. Folks, according to Juan G. Bedoya, a reporter for the Spanish newsdaily El País, David Yallop, a 70-year old British historian, has come up with a newbook, entitled, The Power and the Glory: The Hidden History of the Papacy of Pope John Paul II, in which he casts aspersions against the late Pope. Here are some of the claims Yallop makes about Pope John Paul:- A pontificate as grandiose in its purpose as twisted in its results - Unable to stop Vatican corruption. -...

Folks, a second letter was published in The San Juan Star, this one on June 15th, attacking the Catholic Church by a self-assured know-it-all. Our tropical heat has been affecting Ms. Paula Benedict's reasoning powers, as they've affected those of Mimi Arjona's before. It is either that, or something in the water is triggering these explosions of utter silliness. Anti-catholicism is in fashion in Puerto Rico, flying high upon the wings of a false intellectualism. Little letters like this one are so filled with inaccuracies--like this statement that the Council of Nicea falsified the Gospels which we find in other...

If Don Imus could be fired for offensive racial remarks, Bill Maher certainly deserves discipline from his employer for bashing Christians, including his description of a Catholic Mass as graphic homosexual acts, charge media watchers. Explicit sexual mockery of Scripture and Catholic theology on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" should be addressed by parent company Time-Warner, say Brent Bozell III, president of the Media Research Center, and Robert Knight, director of the MRC's Culture and Media Institute. Maher's comments began with a verbal assault on Jerry Falwell three days after the Baptist minister's death May 15 then "escalated into...

ROME, APRIL 2, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Adolf Hitler's No. 1 enemy was the Vatican's secretary of state, Eugenio Pacelli, future Pope Pius XII, according to documents recently found in Europe. In an article published last Thursday by La Repubblica, reporter Marco Ansaldo announced that he has a dossier on Pius XII that complements documentation found in the Vatican Archives. According to the newly discovered documents, Pius XII was considered an enemy of the Third Reich. Memos and letters unearthed at a depot used by the Stasi, the East German secret police, show that Nazi spies within the Vatican were concerned at...

With a sad biretta tip to Nihil obstat: On FattiSentire there is a report of the placards put up in Genova by those who oppose the Church, atheistic anarchist and homosexual activist types. This one from Il Giornale... ...says, "Thank God I am an atheist". It depicts a photoshoped image of partisans shooting the Pope and some muslim men at prayer. Another poster depicts Benedict XVI shaking hands with Adolf Hitler with the title: "From Hitler’s soldier to God’s soldier". Christ died and rose for these people too. Meantime, on the evening of the Easter Vigil in Modena there will...

ZAGREB -- Legal representative Ivan Šimonović says Croatia should swap charges against FRY for settlement. “My personal opinion is that if the key claims in the lawsuit can be obtained with an out-of-court settlement, we should not press further with the trial�, said Šimonović, Croatian representative before the International Court of Justice in the Hague. He said these claims primarily pertained to clearly defining responsibilities for the plight and suffering in Croatia, punishing all who are guilty of committing war crimes, determining the truth about the fate of missing persons and returning Croatia’s cultural treasures. Croatia filed charges against the...

LONDON, January 29, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – British Catholics heard a flurry of naked anti-Catholic sentiments expressed last week by some government Members and Cabinet Ministers in the “row” over the government’s decision to force Churches to adopt children to homosexuals. Anti-Catholic, anti-clerical and anti-papal slurs had been, until as recently as fifty years ago, standard fare in Britain’s political discourse where the established state Protestant religion is officially anti-Catholic, but most British people, both Catholics and Anglicans, were grateful to assign them to history’s waste bin. “I’m not going to have some bloody reactionary German Pope dictate the law of...

LAS VEGAS // President Bush recently echoed Vice President Dick Cheney's support for Croatia to join the European Union, a bid that has been stalled because of the former Yugoslav republic's slowness to own up to and prosecute its 1990s war crimes and its failure to ensure protections and rights for minorities, including returning Serb refugees. Croatia also faces the possibility of being excluded from the 2008 European soccer championship because when an Italian team's fans taunted the Croatian team's fans at a match in August by waving Yugoslavia's old communist flag, the other side took great offense and showed...

BEAVER COUNTY, Pa. -- New Brighton police are charging teenagers with vandalism at a Beaver County church after authorities said the teens took a pipe and hit the head off the Virgin Mary statue at the Holy Family Church on Thanksgiving. Police said the teens admitted they were planning on burning the statue with gasoline but were scared off when neighbors saw them. All are facing numerous charges.

This was a name applied to a movement in American politics which attracted a large share of public attention during the period from 1851 to 1858. It was the revival or re-appearance under a new name of the Native American movement which, during the preceding quarter of a century, had made various organized efforts to engraft its principles upon the legislation and policy of the American government. These principles briefly stated, were the proscription of those who professed the Roman Catholic faith and, the exclusion of foreign-born citizens from all offices of trust and emolument in the government, whether federal,...

The Lost Soul of Scott Hahn By John W. Robbins Rome Sweet Home: Our Journey to Catholicism. Scott and Kimberly Hahn. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1993. Foreword by Peter Kreeft What sorts of people write autobiographies when they are healthy and well at 35? Generally there are three sorts: egotists, egomaniacs, and megalomaniacs. There seems to be no other plausible reason for writing the story of one's life when it has barely begun. But the fawning Peter Kreeft, a confused mind who wrote the Foreword for this book, disagrees. According to Kreeft, Scott and Kimberly Hahn are "one of the...

Knight Moves University officials continue to demonstrate hostility towards Catholicism that borders on persecution. We have posted stories on the failure of college administrators to take action when student newspapers publish sacrilegious cartoons. Their declarations of support for freedom of the press would be more believable if they took the same approach towards sketches that offend Islamic and Gay Rights groups. Add to the mix the University of Wisconsin’s attempt to ban the Knights of Columbus. The Catholic fraternity is already invisible enough on cutting-edge campuses loosely affiliated with the Church, such as Georgetown’s. “Although the Knights have been a...

WASHINGTON, February 9, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The February edition of the Jewish bimonthly magazine, Moment, carries an excerpt from a book by Abigail Pogrebin, Stars of David; the book details conversations Pogrebin had with 62 famous Jews.  The excerpt features Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, one of Pogrebin's subjects.  What Ginsburg had to say about Christianity was noted by Catholic League president Bill Donohue:"In the January 30 edition of the Connecticut Jewish Ledger, Abigail Pogrebin was asked which Jewish persons have left a 'profound impression' on her.  She answered, 'I will never forget Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg saying,...

When a Homosexual Murders a Christian: Media Ignore Mary Stachowicz Vigil By Peter LaBarbera, IFI Executive Director Mary Stachowicz 1951-2002   Sikorsky Funeral Home where alleged murderer Nicholas Gutierrez stuffed Mary's body in a crawl space. Stachowicz and Gutierrez both worked at the funeral home.   Candlelight vigil for Mary, victim of hate. News database search: thousands of stories on Matthew Shepard; 25 on Mary Stachowicz No major "mainstream" media in Chicago or Illinois covered a candlelight vigil Sunday night (November 13) commemorating the three-year anniversary of the murder of Mary Stachowicz--a devout Chicago Catholic woman who was brutally killed...

DJAKOVICA -- Monday – A bus with forty Serbian people inside was pelted with stones while trying to visit a cemetery in Djakovica this weekend. The Serbian refugees from Djakovica visited the Orthodox cemetery located near the village. Many of the monuments that have been desecrated recently have been successfully restored and a fence has been put in place around the cemetery. A commemoration ceremony for the deceased was held in front of what remains of the Holy Prince Lazar church. While the Serbian refugees were visiting the grave sites, several cars drove around the cemetery grounds playing Albanian music...

There is no denying Christopher Hitchens’s skill as a public figure: he is seldom at a loss for words, sometimes entertaining, and occasionally even right. But he keeps getting important things wrong because, throughout his political wanderings, there persists a strange loyalty to an obscure bloodthirsty revolutionary and to the ideals of the Bolshevik Revolution. For Hitchens—now honored throughout the neoconservative Right—remains what he has been throughout his public life, a disciple of Leon Trotsky and a talented writer and polemicist—perhaps the most talented polemicist the Bolshevik tradition has produced in the West. Given Hitchens’s current role as a neocon...

ISRAEL - VATICAN An Israeli official is in Washington to repair the Israeli – Holy See crisis by Arieh Cohen Tel Aviv (AsiaNews) - AsiaNews has learnt from the Israeli Government sources that a Foreign Ministry official is being dispatched in haste to Washington DC, to try to repair some of the damage caused to Israel's image and relations with US Catholics by the Foreign Ministry's withdrawal from negotiations with the Holy See, and savage verbal attacks on Pope Benedict XVI and on the memory of Pope John Paul II. The official is, however, a certain Nimrod Barkan who had...

Thousands of girls and boys were raped and tortured, and many were murdered, in Canada's aboriginal boarding schools, most of which shut down in the 1970's. The unchecked criminal violence suffered by these girls and boys has become a major cause of rampant child prostitution and other serious social ills among several generations of Canada's First Nations (Native/indigenous) peoples. This violence is called genocide.

Modern communication technology has helped make the Pope’s death an unparalleled event. The entire world has literally come together to praise this one man. I find that many sense that there will be some important and climactic consequences to follow the death of this Pope. As I studied the many Bible prophecies of the Last Days, I found a most unusual extra-Biblical prophecy made by an Irish Catholic Bishop in the 12th Century. His name is St. Malachy. According to his biographer St. Bernard of Clairvaux, in his book Life of Saint Malachy, St. Malachy was known to have the...

Look at the pictures of Leonardo's "Last Supper" before and after restoration. Then think of the big to-do about Mary Magdalen's allegedly sitting next to Christ in this painting. Then prepare to laugh -- and get mad at the thought of so many souls torn away from Christ because of Dan Brown's lying book. http://www.kensmen.com/catholic/xdavincilastsupperphotos.html

During the February 22 episode of the NBC-TV sitcom, “Committed,” two non-Catholics are mistakenly given Holy Communion at a Catholic funeral Mass.  Nate, who is Jewish, and Bowie, a Protestant, don’t know what to do with the Eucharist, so they make several failed attempts to get rid of it.  For example, they try slipping it into the pocket of a priest, dropping it on a tray of cheese and crackers, etc.    At one point, the priest, who is portrayed as not knowing the difference between the Host and a cracker, goes to grab the “cracker” from a tray...

For Toledo police, it was a rare assignment: Search an abandoned house on the edge of a cornfield in western Lucas County where people reportedly took part in ritual abuse ceremonies. The detectives combed the bedrooms, kitchen, and even the dark basement for evidence of cult gatherings. The search of the decrepit, wood structure last year was a sign the investigation of the Rev. Gerald Robinson was moving beyond a murder case.

Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler gave one of his generals a direct order to kidnap Pope Pius XII during World War II, but the officer did not obey, Italy's leading Roman Catholic newspaper reported yesterday. Avvenire, owned by the Italian Conference of Roman Catholic bishops, said details of the plot had emerged in documents presented to the Vatican to support putting the wartime pontiff on the road to sainthood. Elements of alleged plots to abduct the pope during Germany's occupation of Italy have previously emerged from some historians, but Avvenire's full-page report said its details were new. Avvenire said Hitler feared...

Translated J.R. Orellana So it reveals the Catholic newspaper Avvenire according to statements made by former Nazi General Karl Friedrich Otto Wolff, who says that he personally received orders from the Führer to kidnap the Pope EFE El Universal online Roma, Italia Saturday 15 january 2005 13:24 Adolf Hitler had planned to kidnap Pope Pius XII 1944 due to his position against Nazism and his collaboration with the Jews, according to today's edition of the daily Avvenire, which is based on testimony from former Nazi General Karl Friedrich Otto Wolff. According to the paper, Wolff's information is found in a...

“Anti-Catholicism in the US is the predominant focus of the Catholic League. But we are not oblivious to what has been happening to Catholics in other parts of the world. Specifically, the rise of anti-Catholicism in Europe and the Arab nations is very disturbing. Moreover, it is not for nothing that these two regions continue to display an abiding hatred of Jews.

In 2003, the Catholic League celebrated its 30th anniversary. Founded in 1973 by Jesuit scholar Father Virgil Blum, the league is dedicated to defending individual Catholics and the institutional Church against discrimination and defamation. 

Spain's New Government to Legalize Gay Marriage Thu Apr 15, 2004 10:27 AM ET MADRID (Reuters) - Spain will legalize homosexual marriages and grant equal rights to gay couples, incoming Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said Thursday. The move is likely to stir controversy in one of Europe's most Catholic countries as the Vatican condemns same-sex unions and homosexuality was banned under Spanish dictator Francisco Franco. Spain's Catholic bishops have already spoken out strongly against the adoption of children by homosexual couples. "The moment has finally arrived to end once and for all the intolerable discrimination which many Spaniards...

As this letter from Bill Donohoe of the Catholic League, two years ago, noted, the Disney/Miramax sex movie, "40 days and 40 nights" not only mocked Lent (and, hence, Christianity), it heaped insult on injury by opening during Lent. Wasn't this an example of Christian bashing by Hollywood (and by two Jewish executives)? But WHERE WAS ABE FOXMAN TO DENOUNCE THIS SACRILIGE? Apparently he can only denounce Christian movies, like Mel's. I for one am tired of the Passion being labeled "controversial," when anti-christian crap is put out incessently by the Hollywood trash and hate merchants -- without a peep...

Three years ago, the Beck Center had a transvestite march in the town of Lakewood 4th of July Parade: "Bob Simon learned that firsthand when, in costume as the sweet transvestite from Transylvania Frank N Furter, he received a sour reaction for his role in Lakewood's Fourth of July parade." "Michael Gill, marketing director at the Beck Center, said the arts facility received 28 calls within two days after the parade that complained about the publicity appearance for the stage show, which opens Friday." Now the Beck Center is preparing to present the vile anti-Catholic play, "Agnes of God." April...

'There's a huge war raging," Mel Gibson says, "and it's over us!" The movie star and director has gone apoplectic about the criticism he's received for his forthcoming film The Passion, a provocative retelling of the crucifixion of Jesus.More incendiary than the film is Gibson with his mouth open.He decried his critics before anyone actually saw the multilingual cinematic portrayal of Jesus' final hours. He has threatened the life of a well-known critic, complained about "vehement anti-Christian sentiment out there," and claimed that certain Jews would kill him if he didn't cut out some incendiary footage.Gibson is rich enough to...

As a guy who's done a bit of chatting about the Catholic Faith with folks, one of the things that has struck me over the years is the sheer fecundity of the human mind in giving reasons not to be Catholic. When Life Serves Lemons, Make Lemonade! To a young Catholic or a new convert, such overwhelming fertility in repudiating the Faith can be rather daunting. A trip to an Internet list group, for example, can be a bit like drinking from a fire hose of anti-Catholic rhetoric. One can simply be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of it all....

People sometimes have vague fears about the Catholic Church, that we have a sinister plan to restrict their freedom. Since this is Fourth of July weekend (and it fits with our Scripture readings) I would like to address those fears. Once I had a conversation with a young woman concerned that the Catholic Church was trying to take away her “right to choose.” She described herself as “very pro-choice.” Fair enough, I told her, but I was curious how far she would take it. “Suppose,” I asked, “someone were mistreating their pet (not feeding it properly, allowing it to live...

Among the many troubling offshoots of the clergy sex abuse scandal, the erosion of confidence in the leaders of the Church is easily one of the worst.Tell a mixed audience of Catholics that not all bishops are responsible for the mess and that anti-Catholicism had something to do with the way the scandal was presented and perceived — you’re likely to get your head handed to you for your trouble.But, as Philip Jenkins shows in his important book "The New Anti-Catholicism" (Oxford University Press, $27), these things happen to be facts. People who think the abuse scandal was exclusively about...

Anti-Catholicism in the U.S.: A hate much loved and lied about By Michael Pakenham Sun Staff Originally published May 11, 2003 Is a need to hate essential to the human condition? No. But history and contemporary life insist that hating has beguiling charms. Denying them is a main job of civilization. That job's not being done very well these days. For the moment, put aside African-Americans, Jews, Latinos and other traditional hate targets and consider the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. The most elegant description of anti-Catholicism I have read is John Highham's: "the most luxuriant, tenacious tradition...

It's an exhilarating and strange thing for a chubby suburbanite like me to find I am a dangerous man. But somebody named Robert M. Zins, Th.M. has deduced that I am and has written an exciting expose of me called published in a journal called Theo~Logical, (a quarterly publication of A Christian Witness To Roman Catholicism). Wow! Talk About Yer Sinister Papist! As should be obvious from the name of his ministry, Mr. Zins is pretty certain Catholics are not Christian. He is also, judging from his article, certain that I am a Bad Person. I show "to what depth...