Free Republic

ROME (RNS) Controversy over Italy's decision to cover nude statues during the visit of Iran's president continued to spark debate as the leader of the Syrian Catholic Church criticized the episode, saying it pains persecuted Christians in Syria who feel forgotten. "This is our culture. If you don't want to see it, close your eyes!" an exasperated Patriarch Youssef III Younan told journalists in Rome on Thursday (Jan. 28). The head of the Syriac Catholic Church was speaking two days after ancient nude statues were covered by staff at Rome's Capitoline Museums in a bid to avoid offending the Iranian...

January 29, 2016 Friday of the Third Week of Ordinary Time Reading 1 2 Sm 11:1-4a, 5-10a, 13-17 At the turn of the year, when kings go out on campaign,David sent out Joab along with his officersand the army of Israel, and they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah.David, however, remained in Jerusalem.One evening David rose from his siesta and strolled about on the roof of the palace.From the roof he saw a woman bathing, who was very beautiful.David had inquiries made about the woman and was told, "She is Bathsheba, daughter of Eliam, and wife of Joab's armor...

We wish this was just a joke. It is not. It is pure sacrilege taking place in a parish in Brooklyn, New York. Not only does the Diocese of Brooklyn know about this abomination … it actually helped advertise it on facebook! The statement from the Diocese of Brooklyn says: “On Sunday, Jan. 31, head down to St. Bernard’s Parish in Mill Basin for a very special treat: a #StarWars themes Mass! Kids come dressed as their favorite character and there will be snacks in the auditorium after the Mass. Be sure to be there at 11:30 AM and May...

Leonardo DiCaprio has officially met the Pope. The actor had a private meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Thursday morning. "Leo explained that he wanted to discuss a subject they both have very much at heart: protecting the environment and climate change," a source tells PEOPLE. DiCaprio, 41, arrived at the Vatican at 11:15 a.m. local time and was accompanied by his father, George DiCaprio, and Milutin Gatsby, global fundraising chair for the actor's namesake charity, the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation. During the 15-minute meeting, the actor presented the pontiff with a check from his environmental philanthropy for him...

Why Holy Days and the Sanctoral Cycle Are Important Msgr. Charles Pope • January 27, 2016 • In last Sunday's Mass we read from the eighth chapter of the Book of Nehemiah. I posted a lengthy commentary on it last week (On the Wonder of the Word of God). In today's post I would like to ponder a rather surprising emphasis of that text. Let's start with a little background.In a stunning reversal for the Jewish people, the Babylonians invaded Jerusalem and destroyed not only the city, but the Temple as well! Prophet after prophet had warned the people...

San Cristobal de las Casas (Mexico) (AFP) - The domed mosque with a minaret rises above small homes in a seemingly unlikely place: A southern Mexican indigenous city that will greet Pope Francis in three weeks. Surrounded by the misty mountains of Chiapas state, San Cristobal de las Casas is home to many members of Mexico's growing Muslim community. Women wearing colorful hijabs walk down the dusty streets of the highland neighborhoods. On Fridays, hundreds of Muslims go to the imposing mosque or smaller places of worship to pray to Allah. "I wasn't born a Muslim. I became a Muslim...

Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco insists the bishops are united, but questions exist about how supportive Pope Francis is of open opposition to controversial legislation supporting same-sex partnerships The pressure to subvert traditional ethics on issues pertaining to life, the family and education, which has been sweeping through the European Union from West to East, is currently being halted by the former "Iron Curtain" countries, and in Italy, where the struggle has been pitting grassroots movements against the European Establishment for at least a dozen years now. As befits the country that has hosted the papacy for almost all of the twenty...

Roughly a year ago, Fr. Bob Betz, pastor of Divine Mercy Parish, South Milwaukee, believed the property of the old St. Adalbert Parish would never be sold. It had been largely empty for about six years and various proposals to sell the 2.5-acre site near 16th and Minnesota avenues fell through. On Monday, Dec. 23, however, Divine Mercy Parish closed a deal and sold the St. Adalbert property for $600,000 to Masjid Al-Huda, a Muslim congregation. The selling of St. Adalbert began with the merger of four South Milwaukee parishes 12 years prior. "They were all viable parishes at one...

January 28, 2016 Memorial of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Priest and Doctor of the Church Reading 1 2 Sm 7:18-19, 24-29 After Nathan had spoken to King David, the king went in and sat before the LORD and said, "Who am I, Lord GOD, and who are the members of my house, that you have brought me to this point?Yet even this you see as too little, Lord GOD; you have also spoken of the house of your servant for a long time to come: this too you have shown to man, Lord GOD! "You have established for yourself your...

The president of the Pontifical Council for the Family [Abp. Paglia] has confirmed that Pope Francis' post-synodal apostolic exhortation devoted to the family will be published by the end of March. ... [Abp. Paglia] said the much-anticipated document, which summarizes the Pope's conclusions of the two synods dedicated to the family, will be "a hymn to love, a love that wants to take care of the welfare of the young, to be close to wounded families to give them strength, a love that wants to be close to children as well as to all mankind in need. " Well informed...

Order -- A Meditation on one of God's Great Gifts Msgr. Charles Pope January 26, 2016 In this series of two posts, I ponder the glory of something we call order. I do this more in the form of a meditation than a treatise on the glory of order. In the first part (yesterday's post) I set forth how the appreciation and understanding of order has suffered in the modern age. In this second part I want to meditate on the glory of order under four headings.The English word "order" comes from the Latin ordo, which is a row...

Moscow, January 26, Interfax - The assumptions about a possible meeting between Patriarch Kirill and Pope Francis in a Latin American country this February are baseless, the Synodal Department for External Church Relations told Interfax-Religion. "The Patriarch and the Pope's Latin American visit programs do not intersect," the Russian Orthodox Church's spokesman for inter-Christian relations, Hieromonk Stefan (Igumnov) told the agency on Tuesday, commenting on recent rumors in the foreign press about a possibility of such a meeting during the two church leaders' visits to that region in February. "The leader of the Russian Orthodox Church and the head of...

The Pope spoke at a prayer service concluding the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity After walking across the threshold of the Holy Door of the Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls with an Orthodox metropolitan and an Anglican archbishop, Pope Francis invoked God's mercy upon divided Christians and apologised for times that Catholics may have hurt members of other denominations. "As bishop of Rome and pastor of the Catholic Church, I want to beg for mercy and forgiveness for un-Gospel-like behaviour on the part of Catholics against Christians of other churches," the Pope said on Monday at a...

"You were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance" (Eph. 1:13-14). The Holy Spirit is God's first installment on your eternal inheritance. The Holy Spirit's ministry in your life is multifaceted and profound. Among other things He brings salvation, conviction, guidance, and strength. He indwells and equips you for spiritual service and gives assurance of your salvation. He is your Helper and Advocate. He is the Spirit of promise, who seals you until the day when your redemption is fully realized (Eph. 4:30). Sealing speaks of security, authenticity, ownership,...

January 27, 2016 Wednesday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 2 Sm 7:4-17 That night the LORD spoke to Nathan and said:"Go, tell my servant David, 'Thus says the LORD:Should you build me a house to dwell in?I have not dwelt in a house from the day on which I led the children of Israel out of Egypt to the present, but I have been going about in a tent under cloth.In all my wanderings everywhere among the children of Israel, did I ever utter a word to any one of the judges whom I charged to...

"Rise, Peter, and fulfill this pastoral office divinely entrusted to you as mentioned above. Give heed to the cause of the holy Roman Church, mother of all churches and teacher of the faith, whom you by the order of God, have consecrated by your blood. Against the Roman Church, you warned, lying teachers are rising, introducing ruinous sects, and drawing upon themselves speedy doom. Their tongues are fire, a restless evil, full of deadly poison. They have bitter zeal, contention in their hearts, and boast and lie against the truth. [...] Moreover, because the preceding errors and many others are...

Venerable Engelmar Unzeitig, CMM, whom Pope Francis declared a martyr last week. Credit: (c) Archiv Redaktion Mariannhill, Reimlingen via engelmarunzeitig.de. Vatican City, Jan 26, 2016 / 06:03 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Fr. Engelmar Unzeitig, a young priest with Czech roots serving in Germany and Austria, was arrested by the Nazis on April 21, 1941.His crime? Preaching against the Third Reich from his pulpit, particularly against their treatment of the Jewish people. He encouraged his congregation to be faithful to God and to resist the lies of the Nazi regime.As punishment, Fr. Unzeitig was sent to what has been called the "largest...

I try my best to refrain from commenting on the words and antics of Pope Francis. My weak heart can only take so much. Today's breaking news (H/T Rorate Caeli) that Papa Frank will take part in a "common worship service" (whatever that means) in October to help kickoff a yearlong commemoration of the Reformation should be unsurprising to those who have bothered to pay attention to the ways and means of this pontificate. Whatever Francis is interested in, it has very little to do with the Catholic Faith, either as it was maintained and promoted before the Second Vatican...

February 11, 2016 will mark the third anniversary of Pope Benedict XVI’s shocking declaration of his intention to abdicate on February 28, 2013. What was behind that history-changing decision? We can all guess but nobody on this side of the Tiber really knows. That he was pressured in some way seems obvious. But, why? Two words: Summorum Pontificum. At the end of the day and despite “the dossier”, the butler, vatileaks and everything else, it’s my opinion that Benedict incurred the wrath of hell itself when he restored the Traditional Latin Mass to the mainstream of the Catholic Church (even...

As the Italian parliament prepares to vote on whether to legalize "civil unions" for "couples" who engage in sodomy, Pope Francis has told the judges of the Roman Rota (the Vatican's matrimonial tribunal) that "there can be no confusion between the family God wants and any other type of union. ... The family, founded on indissoluble matrimony that unites and allows procreation, is part of the 'dream' of God and that of his Church for the salvation of humanity." That sounds fine, putting aside the peculiar notion that God has a "dream" about "the family that God wants" as opposed...