Free Republic

...They were standing up for free speech and against political correctness. They were applauding with their purchase the courage shown by the owners of this restaurant. They did not back down in the face of forceful, even hateful, opposition from those who, while claiming to be tolerant have become so intolerant of those who do not agree with them. ...What occurred on August 1, 2012 ...holds great promise for the coming election. The real people of America, the salt of the earth, have had 'ENOUGH!" They came in in cars and on foot to Chick-Fil-A restaurants everywhere. The reports of...

... In an interview during his 2010 visit Walesa offered this observation: "The United States is only one superpower. Today they lead the world. Nobody has doubts about it. Militarily. They also lead economically but they're getting weak. But they don't lead morally and politically anymore. The world has no leadership. The United States was always the last resort and hope for all other nations. There was the hope, whenever something was going wrong, one could count on the United States. Today, we have lost that hope..." Former Governor Mitt Romney just returned from a foreign policy trip... The Romney...

...Chick-fil-A is under a ferocious assault precisely because their President publicly affirmed their company support for true marriage and the family and society founded upon it. Dan Cathy expressed his deeply held religious convictions to the Baptist Press and literally - all hell broke loose among some new Cultural Revolutionaries. Among the most vocal opponents was Carlos Maza of "Equality Matters", a homosexual equivalency activist group. He told the Washington Post that Dan Cathy's position in defense of marriage, along with the contributions made by his family's foundation to pro-life and pro-family groups, "solidifies Chick-fil-A as being closely aligned with...

EXCERPTS: ...Is it Moral? Does it recognize the existence of the higher law, the Natural Law which is a participation in God's Law? Does it affirm that there are self evident truths? Does it recognize the fundamental human rights with which we are all endowed and acknowledge that these rights are not given to us by civil government but by God? Does it affirm the nature and dignity of the human person as created in the Image of God? ... recognize the primacy of true marriage and the family and society founded upon it and serve the true common good?...

...The Republican Party now has a nominee, the former Governor of my home State as a boy, Massachusetts. I must vote to discharge my duty as a faithful Catholic citizen. I will not waste my vote. I cannot vote for the current President. I will do everything I can to see he is not reelected. His leadership in the White House has demonstrated he is no friend of life, marriage and the Family and the society upon it, Religious Liberty and many other foundational causes to which I have dedicated my life. In fact, I worry for the future of...

On Thursday, June 28, 2012 the United States Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the individual mandate of the Affordable care Act (aka Obama Care). The dense opinion was authored for a 5- 4majority by Chief Justice John Roberts. Justices Kennedy, Alito, Scalia and Thomas strongly dissented. However, a Court speaks through its majority. The Majority opinion upheld the mandate of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, not under the Commerce Clause, but as an exercise of Congress' power to tax. The Obama Administration initially argued that the penalty for non-compliance with the Affordable Care Act's mandate to purchase...

..."We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights - that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men." The principles of that Declaration have informed our history and inspired our neighbors in other parts of the world to stand up against all forms of tyranny. As we reflect upon the text we should remember that our forebears were not declaring their independence from Divine Providence. Rather, they were trusting in the Governance...

...This former Protestant Archbishop knew that coming home to the fullness of the Catholic Church meant selling all to buy the treasure in the field.(Matt. 13:44) He laid aside a thriving ministry of many years with no assurance of any possibility of ordination to either the diaconate in Christ or the Holy Priesthood. Over the years that followed his entry into the Church he humbly offered his multiple gifts in many ways, including serving as the Associate Editor of Catholic Online. He has been a model in his love for the Lord and fidelity to the Church. The fruit was...

"For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that he may grant you in accord with the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner self, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the...

...The fact that a Mormon, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, would be the commencement speaker at the Baptist University founded by Dr Jerry Falwell speaks to the urgency of the hour. Add to this the fact that this Catholic Editor in Chief of Catholic Online would consider the speech important enough to make it the lead article, and the point is made even clearer... ...The Romney candidacy raises a certain irony. Here we had a Mormon candidate who went to Liberty University and addressed a crowd which has major disagreement with his religious...

The main stream media is abuzz over the acknowledgement by President Barack Obama in an interview with ABC News that he no longer supports marriage as between one man and one woman. The politically correct way of writing about his announcement would be to follow the verbal engineers in the Human Rights Campaign, the Nation's largest Public Interest Law Firm, and say the President supports "marriage equality". I will not do so... Homosexual Equivalency activists want us to hail the Presidents "evolution" as some sort of enlightened act when it is just plain wrong and dangerous for the Nation. Borrowing...

Over the last several days the sad, confusing and now disheartening saga of a courageous man named Chen Guangcheng has filled the news. Much of the focus seems to be on who botched this entire affair diplomatically, rather than the even more important underlying issues. Chen is a 40 year old Chinese citizen who taught himself the law and, as a human rights lawyer, courageously stands up against the evil, inhumane and barbaric forced abortion and sterilization policies of the nation he loves, the Peoples Republic of China. Chen was released from jail in 2010 and placed under house arrest....

...At 2:22 p.m. the candidate stepped up to the microphone at the platform in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and announced that he was suspending his 2012 presidential campaign. To his right stood his loving and dedicated wife Karen - and her expression said it all. She is an extraordinary woman, a lawyer, NICU Nurse, author, mother and Rick's best friend. However, she is also a woman who shows her heart. Surrounding them both were several of their beautiful children. Rick Santorum recounted the story of Good Friday in the Santorum home. He called it a "Passion Play of sorts". Their little three...

... I am deeply concerned... The dream called American is threatened. I share the growing sense that it is not because the American people have lost that dream, but, at least partially, because we have the wrong leaders in political office... I am disturbed to once again hear and read the mantra of the main stream media that the 2012 Presidential campaign is over. You know the drill; that Mitt Romney is the nominee to face President Obama and anyone who feels differently should stop their efforts and sing the song of the establishment... The lyrics have gone through revisions....

...This was blue collar vs blue blood. The pundits tried all evening to sound intelligent as they attempted to explain the vote. They failed miserably. In his victory speech, Rick Santorum nailed it, "This campaign is about ordinary folks doing extraordinary things, just like America." As he ended his speech he told his supporters the campaign was about "Free people, a free economy, the integrity of the family and the centrality of faith in our lives". Just as he finished that line, a campaign worker informed the candidate that he had also won Mississippi. The entire room broke into an...

After Sandra Fluke's testimony before Congress last week, two things became clear: 1) This controversy is political theater if I ever saw it, and 2) modern, secular "feminism" makes women stupid. With a pen stroke and a press conference, President Obama used women to initiate a war on Religious freedom and with the media lapdogs panting at his heels, he made sure the Republicans, and especially the Catholic Church, were painted as misogynist zealots. Ms. Fluke has become the latest player in a drama that President Obama has manufactured and fueled for his own political gain. Fluke, the Georgetown law...

....When CNN returned to the Santorum speech, the candidate was gracious in defeat, humble and inspiring. He had a large crowd gathered along with his wife and members of his family. They were all clearly enthused and not overtly disappointed or discouraged. After thanking all who made his surprising showing possible, he returned to overriding theme of his campaign, Freedom. Next Tuesday is called "Super Tuesday" for a lot of reasons. Rick Santorum may just add one more reason by again surprising the political establishment. The political "left" knows that Rick Santorum is a formidable candidate from a working class...

...A real Presidential campaign, a choice between two candidates with two very different worldviews. This election will also be a choice about who we are - and who we will become. It is a choice which addresses the foundation of our identity as Americans and the nature of true freedom. President Obama is in full reelection mode. His campaign theme is that our Nation is divided between the "1%" and the rest of us; between the super rich and everyone else. His rhetoric purports to be "populist", peppered with the mantras of "fair share", and "fair shot". He adds that...

As Rick Santorum surges in popularity people may be scratching their heads about his Catholic faith. The American public are used to Catholic politicians, but not this kind of Catholic politician. I grew up as an Evangelical Protestant. We were prejudiced against Catholics. In our mind, Catholics were Democrats--and that was not good. We knew many of the blue collar folks were Catholics, but Catholics were also fat cats. The Kennedys were Catholics and we had no respect for old Joe Kennedy who made his money as a bootlegger, nor for his philandering sons with their assumed air of American...

Over the last two weeks Catholics have heard read letters read at Mass which were written by the Catholic Bishops of the United States. We have been asked to rise up in prayer, fasting, Catholic Action in response to an unjust Edict issued by Kathleen Sebelius, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, on January 20, 2012. This mandate requires all employers, including Catholic and other religious employers, to cover sterilization, abortifacients, and contraception in their health care plans. The "exemption" provided for religious employers does not cover hospitals, universities, soup kitchens, outreaches to the poor and many other vital...