Free Republic

LOS ANGELES, June 7, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – Archbishop José Gomez tore apart the “seamless garment” argument that intrinsic evils and social ills are morally equivalent in the Los Angeles archdiocesan newspaper June 3.  Advocates of the “seamless garment” approach to moral issues and social justice, promoted by the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, often use it to suggest a moral equivalency between issues like abortion, poverty, and immigration.  “The hard truth is that not all injustices in the world are ‘equal,’” wrote Gomez. “We can understand this perhaps better about issues in the past than we can with issues in...

There are some Catholic bloggers and commentators saying that it is okay to vote for Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton because, even though they are pro abortion, they are “pro life” on other issues. Health care is a “life” issue, they argue. A living wage is a “life” issue. Good treatment of immigrants is a “life” issue. Torture is a “life” issue. This is a lie. Do not be taken in by it and do not propagate this lie. Use your common sense. Health care, immigration reform, gun control, a living wage, torture and care for the poor are not...

Salt or Bust! A Consideration of the Lord’s Uncompromising Stance in Calling Us the Salt of the Earth Msgr. Charles Pope • June 7, 2016 • In the Gospel today (Tuesday of the 10th week) the Lord describes metaphorically what a Christian is and what He expects of us.You are the salt of the earth … You are the light of the World … But if salt goes flat it is good for nothing … No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket.Note the metaphor of salt: You are either salt, or you are nothing—in fact,...

June 8, 2016 Wednesday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 1 Kgs 18:20-39 Ahab sent to all the children of Israeland had the prophets assemble on Mount Carmel. Elijah appealed to all the people and said,“How long will you straddle the issue?If the LORD is God, follow him; if Baal, follow him.”The people, however, did not answer him.So Elijah said to the people,“I am the only surviving prophet of the LORD,and there are four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal.Give us two young bulls.Let them choose one, cut it into pieces, and place it on the...

If you are knowledgeable about Catholic history, then you may be aware of the hundreds of movements that arose to destroy the Catholic Church over the centuries. Islam wiped out the Catholic Church from North Africa and the Middle East in the first millenium. Adam Weishaupt (1748-1830), a former Catholic Law Professor, who became one of the most bitter enemies of the Catholic Church in history, founded the secret society, the Bavarian Illuminati, with the specific purpose of destroying the Catholic Church. Napoleon Bonaparte, the atheist dictator who waged war on Europe to promote his atheist ideology, sent his troops...

When God Says No – A Meditation On the Sometimes Mysterious Providence of God Msgr. Charles Pope • June 6, 2016 • In last Sunday’s Gospel, we heard the story of the widow at Nain, whose son Jesus raised from the dead. Beautiful though that story is, there are some who may wonder sadly why they did not receive a better answer to their prayers; why their loved one died. Such stories might even serve to deepen their sorrow.All of us struggle with the great mystery of God’s providence and will. Sometimes it is our own struggle and sometimes...

June 7, 2016 Tuesday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 1 Kgs 17:7-16 The brook near where Elijah was hiding ran dry,because no rain had fallen in the land.So the LORD said to Elijah: “Move on to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there.I have designated a widow there to provide for you.”He left and went to Zarephath.As he arrived at the entrance of the city,a widow was gathering sticks there; he called out to her,“Please bring me a small cupful of water to drink.”She left to get it, and he called out after her,“Please bring along...

Before answering the title question, let's look at a few facts drawn, for the most part, from an episode on Saul Alinsky and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) produced by Church Militant T.V. Find it here: http://www.churchmilitant.com/video/episode/ciax-2010-03-07. The broadcast dates back to 2010, but Catholics, Protestants, and religious skeptics alike should watch it because the fruits of the Alinsky-USCCB partnership have ripened. In 1938 when atheist Saul Alinsky was working with juvenile delinquents in Chicago, he struck up a friendship with two Catholic brothers, Joseph and Msgr. Peter Meegan who together acquainted Mr. Alinsky with the inner...

Pondering the Collection Basket in an Age of Electronic Giving Msgr. Charles Pope • June 5, 2016 • New financial realities and mechanisms raise questions for the traditional collection and offertory procedures at Mass. For as far back as most of us can remember, the “collection” has always taken place after the Creed and Intercessory prayers. A basket is passed and people drop in cash or a check, often inside an envelope. It is often brought up along with the bread and wine as an actual offering to the Lord and His Church.But the problem is that cash, and...

Translation of an interview with the prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, published by the French magazine Famille Chretienne.Editor’s Note: The French magazine Famille Chretienne published an online interview with Cardinal Robert Sarah of Guinea on May 23. The following is a Register-commissioned translation from the original French. Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments, calls us to a serious reflection on the Eucharist. He also invites priests and the faithful to turn and “orient” themselves towards the East, “the Orient” — that is, to Christ. Several weeks...

June 6, 2016 Monday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 1 Kgs 17:1-6 Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab:“As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve,during these years there shall be no dew or rain except at my word.”The LORD then said to Elijah:“Leave here, go eastand hide in the Wadi Cherith, east of the Jordan.You shall drink of the stream,and I have commanded ravens to feed you there.”So he left and did as the LORD had commanded.He went and remained by the Wadi Cherith, east of the Jordan.Ravens...

A Prescription for Peace in a World of Woe – A Homily for the 10th Sunday of the Year Msgr. Charles Pope • June 4, 2016 • Today’s Gospel provides a kind of prescription for peace in a world of woe. Let’s look at this Gospel in four stages. I. The Place – The text says plainly, Jesus journeyed to a city called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd accompanied him.The name of the city, Nain, means fair (in the sense of beautiful). And it was, for it sat upon a high hill and commanded a magnificent...

June 5, 2016 Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Reading 1 1 Kgs 17:17-24 Elijah went to Zarephath of Sidon to the house of a widow.The son of the mistress of the house fell sick,and his sickness grew more severe until he stopped breathing.So she said to Elijah,“Why have you done this to me, O man of God?Have you come to me to call attention to my guiltand to kill my son?”Elijah said to her, “Give me your son.”Taking him from her lap, he carried the son to the upper roomwhere he was staying, and put him on his bed.Elijah...

A representative of the Holy See, in an intervention at the World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva last week, welcomed Sustainable Development Goal 3 and all its targets, despite target 7 calling for “universal access to sexual and reproductive health care services.” These terms are defined as including abortion and contraception by many powerful governments and agencies. Monsignor Jean-Marie Musivi Mupendawatu, secretary to the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Health Care Workers told the WHA that the Holy See commended the report on health in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which includes the United Nations’ Sustainable Development...

Is every lie intrinsically evil? Q. Is every lie intrinsically evil? I remember 60 years ago, when the Jesuits were still faithful teachers of Holy Mother Church, being taught that if a person was not entitled to the truth, one could, in fact, lead them away from the truth, by lying. For example, if I knew the hideout of Anne Frank, and the Gestapo asked me if I knew her whereabouts, according to you (“Intrinsically Evil?” TCA Faith, November/December 2015), if I said I did not, that would be intrinsically evil? Ed Siering, Muscatine, Iowa A. Permit a personal reply...

June 4, 2016 Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary Reading 1 2 Tm 4:1-8 Beloved:I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus,who will judge the living and the dead,and by his appearing and his kingly power:proclaim the word;be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient;convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching.For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrinebut, following their own desires and insatiable curiosity,will accumulate teachers and will stop listening to the truthand will be diverted to myths.But you, be self-possessed in all circumstances;put up...

A Consideration of the Human Tendency to be Stubbornly Unrepentant Msgr. Charles Pope • June 2, 2016 • One of the consistent observations that God makes of our human family, and we, the individual members of it is that we are stiff-necked (cf Ex 32:9; 33:3; Deut 9:3; 10:16; 2 Chron 30:8; 2 Kings 17:14; Jer 7:26, and many, many other texts). That is to say we tend to be stubborn, prideful, and difficult to correct. And when reproved we easily become resentful and tend to harden our hearts.One of the more humorous and true things God ever said...

June 3, 2016 Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus Reading 1 Ez 34:11-16 Thus says the Lord GOD:I myself will look after and tend my sheep.As a shepherd tends his flockwhen he finds himself among his scattered sheep,so will I tend my sheep.I will rescue them from every place where they were scatteredwhen it was cloudy and dark.I will lead them out from among the peoplesand gather them from the foreign lands;I will bring them back to their own countryand pasture them upon the mountains of Israelin the land's ravines and all its inhabited places.In good pastures will...

Ulaan Baatar (Agenzia Fides) - "We will soon have the first native priest of Mongolia: Joseph Enkh, who will be ordained a priest in Ulaan Baatar on 28 August 2016 by His Exc. Mgr. Wenceslao Padilla, Apostolic Prefect of Ulaan Baatar. This event is particularly important for our young Church, re-founded in 1992 and today has just over a thousand baptized. The ordination of a native priest will stimulate the enthusiasm and sense of belonging among the Mongols, towards a church that has long been seen as foreign", says Fr. Prosper Mbumba, Congolese missionary in Mongolia, a member of the...

Even jokes have their limits. During his show May 26, Conan O’Brien invited actress and recent Judiaism convert Natasha Leggero onto his show. Leggero praised her new religion for treating abortion as “cool” enough to have on “every Jewish holiday.” After all, she reasoned, it’s good to have a back-up to fall on, just like AAA for cars. Besides performing as a stand-up comedian, the 42-year-old created and stars in Comedy Central’s Another Period and has acted in films including Let’s Be Cops, Neighbors and He’s Just Not That Into You. After discussing her recent marriage, Leggero informed Conan that...