Free Republic

A lot of people have seemed pretty shocked by the leftist media’s assault on Chip and Joanna Gaines. BuzzFeed, along with other liberal sites, went after the Gaines family this week for committing the crime of being Christian. Sure, they didn’t put it like that exactly. Instead they accused Chip and Joanna of attending a church led by a pastor who doesn’t believe in gay marriage. But, as anyone with even a trivial understanding of the world’s largest religion already knows, every authentic Christian church in the world teaches the same thing. There has never existed a real Christian church...

Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life, has again blasted critics of Pope Francis and his apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia. Previously Cardinal Farrell has publicly criticised Archbishop Chaput of Philadelphia for issuing guidelines implementing Amoris Laetitia in continuity with the Magisterium. Cardinal Farrell made his latest comments to the "progressive" Catholic newspaper The Tablet. The Prefect for Laity, the Family and Life "criticised opponents of Amoris Laetitia for closing their minds to 'certain nuances that exist in the life of people'. He went on to observe that its critics "wished the world were...

THREE archbishops from war-torn Iraq and Syria have been refused permission to enter the UK despite being invited to London to meet Prince Charles.The Christians, including the Archbishop of Mosul, were told there was “no room at the inn” by the Home Office when they applied for visas to attend the consecration of the UK’s first Syriac Orthodox Cathedral. Last night the decision was described as “unbelievable” by critics who pointed out that extreme Islamic leaders had been allowed visas. The Prince of Wales addressed the congregation at St Thomas Cathedral in London last week, while both the Queen and...

In an April 2015 interview with the French Catholic newspaper La Croix, Cardinal Gerhard Müller, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, stated: The arrival of a theologian like Benedict XVI in the Chair of St. Peter was no doubt an exception. But John XXIII was not a professional theologian. Pope Francis is also more pastoral and our mission at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is to provide the theological structure of a pontificate. Oh, really? More than two months ago, the CDF and Prefect Müller were presented with the now infamous dubia consisting...

ARNOLD NESSELRATH Curator, Vatican Museums "Sweden is a particularly Protestant country. Holland is a particularly Protestant country. So if you want to set an ecumenical sign through creating events as we've seen on the 31 of October, and this is what we wanted to contribute to with this exhibition.”

A Prophet Who Prepares Msgr. Charles Pope • December 3, 2016 • The Second Sunday of Advent usually features the ministry of St. John the Baptist. He was the prophet who fulfilled the Office of Elijah, of whom it was said, See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction (Mal 4:4-6).St. John was a prophet who...

Pope Francis put up a statue of Martin Luther in a prominent place in the Vatican. He then received a delegation of Lutherans, who presented him with a copy of Luther's 95 Thesis. He then put on a blue scarf, representing the Lutheran tradition, at his meeting with the Lutherans. See: http://www.traditioninaction.org/RevolutionPhotos/A700-Luther.htm Luther, who was historically considered a Catholic heretic and apostate, has received more honor from Pope Francis than most Catholic saints. On the other hand, conservative Catholic cardinals like Cardinal Burke and Cardinal Sarah, are treated like dirt. What more evidence do we need, to prove that Francis...

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Saturday greeted participants of the Fortune-Time Global Forum. The Forum brings together Fortune 500 and Time 100 leaders, who were discussing technology and jobs, global health, food and water, commitment to communities, energy and the environment, and financial inclusion—each representing critical elements related to poverty alleviation. “Our world today is marked by great unrest,” – Pope Francis told them – “Inequality between peoples continues to rise, and many communities are impacted directly by war and poverty, or the migration and displacement which flow from them.  People want to make their voices heard and express their...

Full title: "Bizarre move: Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople writes article for L'Osservatore Romano endorsing Amoris Laetitia. Revisiting the contrasting positions of Moscow and Constantinople at the Synod of 2015" In what is surely one of the most bizarre twists in the debate on Amoris Laetitia, Pariarch Bartholomew, Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople, has penned an article unabashedly endorsing that exhortation. While it is no secret that the Kasperite and liberal wing have partly taken inspiration from Eastern Orthodox praxis, that L'Osservatore Romano would go to the extent of publishing an article from Bartholomew in support of AL will only exacerbate...

“The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops. The priests who venerate me will be scorned and opposed by their confreres… churches and altars sacked; the Church will be full of those who accept compromises and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord.” Thus warned Our Lady of Akita in 1973, no doubt echoing Her warning in the integral Third Secret of Fatima, Her own explanation of which has been suppressed in favor of...

December 4, 2016 Second Sunday of Advent Reading 1 Is 11:1-10 On that day, a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse,and from his roots a bud shall blossom.The spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him:a spirit of wisdom and of understanding,a spirit of counsel and of strength,a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the LORD,and his delight shall be the fear of the LORD.Not by appearance shall he judge,nor by hearsay shall he decide,but he shall judge the poor with justice,and decide aright for the land’s afflicted.He shall strike the ruthless with the rod of...

The Advent Gift of John the BaptistJacques-Bénigne Bossuet “Now the time came for Elizabeth to be delivered and she gave birth to a son. And her neighbors and kinsfolk heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her” (Luke 1:57-58).True gatherings of the friends and families of Chris­tians should have for their object to celebrate the mercy that God has shown to us. Without this object, the con­gratulations we receive have nothing solid or sincere about them and are vain things.God weaves the fabric of his designs in a wonderful order. He intended the...

Opposition to abortion and the death penalty have long been cardinal beliefs for the Roman Catholic church, whose faithful make up about a quarter of all Americans. What if fighting climate change becomes an equally passionate issue in parishes nationwide? The foremost group of Catholic leaders in the U.S. is ramping up a campaign to do just that, urging priests and congregations from San Diego to Atlanta to think about global warming as a sanctity-of-life issue. Some Catholic experts have even likened the growing campaign to deal with human-caused climate change to the revered pro-life movement — calling on the...

The letter of the four Cardinals to Pope Francis, and the decision to go public with this document certainly constitute a stunning affair in the history of the Church. When has anything like this ever taken place? There’s the sad history of Ignaz Von Dollinger, which eventually led to his excommunication, but Dollinger was simply a priest-historian, and no Cardinals ever joined his challenge to Vatican I’s solemn teaching on papal infallibility. This present event is a dramatic challenge to Pope Francis who, ironically, has several times called for a shaking up of the Church. The Cardinals are all well...

French Town Told Park's Virgin Mary Statue Must Go The Virgin Mary, Jesus and Joseph are widely represented in European public art. A French town has been told it must take down its statue of the Virgin Mary to comply with a national ban on religious symbols in public spaces, the town's mayor said on Saturday. A court has given the town of Publier, in eastern France, three months to remove the work. If it fails to do so, it will be fined €100 (£80; $105) a day. Mayor Gaston Lacroix said he will try to relocate the marble statue...

Cardinal Burke’s critics fall into serious errors about the true nature and authority of the Papal Magisterium December 1, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) — Jeffrey Mirus, the founder of CatholicCulture.org, is concerned that Cardinal Raymond Burke might have confused the faithful by stating his intention to possibly make a “formal correction” of Pope Francis if Burke does not receive a response to several queries or dubia he and three other cardinals submitted to Francis regarding questionable affirmations in his recent apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia. However, it is Mirus who’s more likely to confuse the faithful with his own ambiguous language and apparently...

Race in the Bible Question: A friend of mine, referencing some sort of black studies program she attended, says that the opening line of the Song of Songs is racist. It says, “I am black and beautiful, Daughters of Jerusalem” (Song 1:5). She tends to be radical, but I must admit I couldn’t really give her an answer. Can you help?— Name and place withheld Answer: The reference is more likely to economic class than to race. She is a Jewish woman, from the region of Shulem, speaking to other unspecified Jewish women about how she found love. She speaks...

Cardinal Gerhard Müller said the CDF could only speak with the authority of the PopeCardinal Gerhard Müller, the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), has said that his role is not to participate in the controversy over the four cardinals’ letter to the Pope. He has also indicated that he does not believe Church doctrine can change on Communion for the remarried. In an interview with the German website Kathpress, Cardinal Müller said that the CDF’s role was to speak with the authority of the Pope, not to “participate in the controversy of opinion”. He...

December 3, 2016 Memorial of Saint Francis Xavier, Priest Reading 1 Is 30:19-21, 23-26 Thus says the Lord GOD,the Holy One of Israel:O people of Zion, who dwell in Jerusalem,no more will you weep;He will be gracious to you when you cry out,as soon as he hears he will answer you.The Lord will give you the bread you needand the water for which you thirst.No longer will your Teacher hide himself,but with your own eyes you shall see your Teacher,While from behind, a voice shall sound in your ears:“This is the way; walk in it,”when you would turn to...

Keeping Advent when it’s not yet ChristmasJenny Uebbing It’s nearing the end of November. Which means Christmas music has already begun playing in stores, and I’m too late to buy Thanksgiving blend at Starbucks, because Christmas blend has already been out for weeks and weeks.The grocery stores are starting to fill out their fabricated forest of Christmas trees out front, and okay, yes, I’ve let my kids watched Mickey’s Christmas Carol on Netflix. Twice.But I don’t want to get pulled too far down the path of celebrating Christmas before we’ve kept Advent.Now, we live in a culture that beckons us...