Free Republic

Nearly 225 years after the ratification of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the cause of conscience protected by the principles of “no establishment” and “free exercise” may be losing support in the minds and hearts of the American people. Appeals by religious individuals and groups for exemption from government laws and regulations that substantially burden religious practice are increasingly unpopular and controversial. So much so that many in the media have taken to using scare quotes, transforming religious freedom into “religious freedom.” Now the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights appears to be recommending that we make it official:...

An abortion advocacy organization called “Catholics for Choice” (CFC) placed deceptive full-page newspaper ads in multiple cities on September 12 calling for taxpayer funding of abortion in the name of the Catholic faith. As the U.S. Catholic bishops have stated for many years, the use of the name ‘Catholic’ as a platform to promote the taking of innocent human life is offensive not only to Catholics, but to all who expect honesty and forthrightness in public discourse. CFC is not affiliated with the Catholic Church in any way. It has no membership, and clearly does not speak for the faithful....

The Vatican issued a strong ruling about the sanctity of life this week when it said a man’s involvement in performing or helping someone procure an abortion is an obstacle to orientation as a Catholic priest. According to the National Catholic Reporter, the Vatican published the ruling on Thursday after Pope Francis approved the interpretation of church law during a Pontifical Council in May. The Catholic Church considers the sanctity of life “so absolute” that the new ruling even includes men who were not Catholic at the time of the abortion, according to the report. The Catholic Church is a...

DAY 35 – MARY, REFUGE OF SINNERS, PRAY FOR US CATCH EXCELLENCE The desire to enter the fight is a desire to enter into a genuine training in holiness, pursuing the goal of becoming one of God’s champions. St. Paul put it this way: “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a...

Archdiocese of Washington On Being Faithful in a Few Things before Being Ruler over Many Things Capital Catholic Happenings • September 17, 2016 • A Homily for the 25th Sunday of the YearIn today’s Gospel, the Lord Jesus gives a penetrating analysis of the state of the sinner and some very sobering advice to us would-be saints. Let’s look at the Gospel in two stages:I. ANALYSIS OF THE SINNER – In the opening lines of the Gospel, Jesus describes a sinful steward: DELUSION (of the sinner) – Jesus said to his disciples, “A rich man had a steward …” Notice...

September 18, 2016 Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Am 8:4-7 Hear this, you who trample upon the needyand destroy the poor of the land!“When will the new moon be over,” you ask,“that we may sell our grain,and the sabbath, that we may display the wheat?We will diminish the ephah,add to the shekel,and fix our scales for cheating!We will buy the lowly for silver,and the poor for a pair of sandals;even the refuse of the wheat we will sell!”The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob:Never will I forget a thing they have done! Responsorial Psalm Ps...

DAY 34 – MARY, HEALTH OF THE SICK, PRAY FOR US THIS DAY WE FIGHT Spiritually speaking, the devil is doing all that he can to catch us isolated and unarmed on the battlefield — no spiritual armor, no spiritual weapons, and no comrades in the heavenly realm to fight alongside of us. In other words, the reason evil is promoted so effectively today is because we’re ignoring God’s offer of supernatural strength and power and ignoring the mightiest of all allied forces: the Communion of Saints. C.S. Lewis wrote, “Enemy-occupied territory — that is what this world is. Christianity...

September 17, 2016 Saturday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 1 Cor 15:35-37, 42-49 Brothers and sisters:Someone may say, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come back?” You fool!What you sow is not brought to life unless it dies.And what you sow is not the body that is to bebut a bare kernel of wheat, perhaps, or of some other kind. So also is the resurrection of the dead.It is sown corruptible; it is raised incorruptible.It is sown dishonorable; it is raised glorious.It is sown weak; it is raised powerful.It...

(Vatican Radio) Catholic and Orthodox theologians are meeting in the Italian town of Chieti for the 14th plenary session of their international dialogue commission. The meeting from September 15th to 22nd brings together two representatives from each of the fourteen Orthodox Churches, alongside 28 Catholic participants, under the shared presidency of Cardinal Kurt Koch from the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity and Archbishop Job of Telmessos from the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The meeting will focus on discussion of a draft document, drawn up at the previous two sessions, entitled “Towards a common understanding of Synodality and Primacy in...

Father Gabriele Amorth, perhaps the best known Catholic exorcist in the world, has died at the age of 91, Italian media are reporting.Father Amorth, who frequently made headlines beyond the Diocese of Rome, where he was the official exorcist, had been hospitalized for several weeks for complications from pneumonia at the Saint Lucy Foundation Hospital in Rome, according to Corriere delle Sera.Born in Modena on May 1, 1925, Father Amorth joined the Society of St. Paul in Alba in 1947, and was ordained in Rome in 1951. In 1985, he was appointed exorcist of the Diocese of Rome by Cardinal Ugo Poletti.Over...

Aleteia: You were ordained a priest in Mongolia on August 28, 2016, which makes you the first indigenous priest for almost 1000 years! How do you feel about the historical significance of this?  Joseph Enkhee-Baatar: I am just glad and honored to have been chosen to be ordained here in Mongolia, and to be a small part of the mission. The first missionaries who came to the Mongol Empire were Nestorians. They came as early as the 7th and 8th century. Consequently, several Mongol tribes converted to Christianity. Then, in the thirteenth century under the Yuan dynasty, the first Catholic missionaries arrived. According to some historical...

DAY 33 – MARY, MORNING STAR, PRAY FOR US UNITY IN TRUTH Devil’s Tactic #2 – Divide and Conquer The second modern tactic of the devil is actually the very ancient military strategy of “divide and conquer.” This strategy is defined as one that separates a force that would be stronger if united. As we said, the devil is roaming around like a lion that sizes up the herd to find the easiest target. He is also watching to see who is separated from the herd. Large, coordinated forces are difficult to defeat. If the enemy can separate us into...

The Fading of Earthly Glories, As Seen on TV Msgr. Charles Pope • September 15, 2016 • According to the video below, the Dos Equis “Most Interesting Man in the World” is being replaced; there is now a new “Most Interesting Man in the World.”And the Verizon “Can you hear me now” guy has defected to Sprint.What is this world coming to? How can this be?Scripture says, We have here no lasting city (Heb 13:14). There is a well-known saying that used to be etched on many fireplaces: Sic transit gloria mundi (Thus passes the glory of the world)....

Information, disinformation, truths, half-truths and lies all seem to be jumbled up in the communication strategy of the Holy See. The history of the Church is being written through interviews, improvised discourses, articles on semi-official blogs and media-rumours, leaving the field wide open to all interpretations possible and giving rise to the suspicion that the confusion is deliberate. Two recent examples. The first regards the expulsion of the President of the IOR (the Vatican Bank), Ettore Gotti Tedeschi in 2012. In Benedict XVI’s latest book “Last Conversations” with Peter Seewald, the “Pope Emeritus” takes responsibility himself for Gotti Tedeschi’s dismissal,...

So now we know. We knew before, really, but didn’t have explicit confirmation. The long, agonizing slog, however, is finally over: from Pope Francis’ invitation to Cardinal Kasper to address the bishops in Rome in February of 2014 to the pope’s letter last week to some Argentinean bishops affirming guidelines they had developed in a joint document that, in “exceptional cases,” people divorced and remarried (living in an “adulterous” relationship as we believed for 2000 years in Western Christianity), may receive Holy Communion. This whole affair is bizarre. No other word will do. As I wrote on this page many...

The archdiocese is refusing to disclose reason behind sudden removalPARAMUS, N.J. (ChurchMilitant.com) - Two administrators at a Catholic high school currently engaged in a legal battle with a lesbian teacher have been ousted without explanation. According to the archdiocese of Newark Tuesday, Pres. James P. Vail and Principal Stephanie Macaluso "are on leave from their posts" at Paramus Catholic High School effective immediately. The reasons, archdiocesan spokesman James Goodness stated, are personal, and further details would not be given. Paramus Catholic High School in northeastern New Jersey is presently fighting a lawsuit filed by Kate Drumgoole, an open lesbian fired...

FEARS are growing for a bishop who has been arrested by Chinese authorities during the regime’s latest crackdown in religion.Bishop Peter Shao Zhu Min was detained by officials who reportedly took him “on a trip” sparking concern he has been transported to a labour camp. The Bishop had recently taken over as the Bishop of Wenzhou following the death of his 89-year-old predecessor. Despite Bishop Shao being recognised by the Vatican, Chinese authorities say he was not approved by the government. The 53-year-old was preparing for his predecessor Bishop Vincent Zhu Weifang’s funeral, which was attended by more than 5,000...

September 16, 2016 Memorial of Saints Cornelius, Pope, and Cyprian, Bishop, Martyrs Reading 1 1 Cor 15:12-20 Brothers and sisters:If Christ is preached as raised from the dead,how can some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead?If there is no resurrection of the dead,then neither has Christ been raised.And if Christ has not been raised, then empty too is our preaching;empty, too, your faith.Then we are also false witnesses to God,because we testified against God that he raised Christ,whom he did not raise if in fact the dead are not raised.For if the dead are not...

Beethoven and the Catholic Church MICHAEL DE SAPIO Ludwig van Beethoven, Johann Sebastian Bach, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart form the great trinity of Western classical composers. Of the three, it is Beethoven whose religious beliefs have proven the most elusive.  We know all about the devout Lutheranism of Bach, who wrote his music "for the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul"; and Mozart was a practicing Catholic, as his letters make clear.  Beethoven, by contrast, was reticent about expressing his religious convictions.  He is often portrayed as a child of the secular-humanist Enlightenment — a freethinking individualist...

Of Dolphins and Man: The Vast Difference between Animals and Humans Msgr. Charles Pope • September 14, 2016 • Those of you who read my posts regularly know that I have often expressed great fascination with and affection for the pets I have had over the years. I am in awe of the whole of the created order, which proclaims God’s glory.However, there are important distinctions between the human person and the created order that sometimes get lost in modern movements such as environmentalism, animal rights, and even in the realms of philosophy and science.Consider a recent article on...