Free Republic

Freemasonry 1104. Does not the Church absolutely forbid Catholics to become Freemasons? Yes. 1105. You have never been a Mason. How can you know anything about it? I seem to know so much about Masonry that I have been challenged over and over again with the charge that I am an ex-Mason of the Royal Arch Degree. However I have never been a Mason. But just as I can speak about New York even though I have never visited that city, so I have authentic information about the origin and aims of Masonry. 1106. Your Church takes the stand of...

My Life of Drink and One-Night Stands Left Me Feeling Hollow, Now I've Found The Answer: I'm Going To Be A Nun KATIE COLBRAN 05th November 2009 New order: In a few weeks, Katie Colbran will become a trainee nun For the past four years, I've led the kind of glamorous life some people only dream about. Regularly jetting off to exotic destinations such as Rome, Istanbul and Marrakech, I've been fortunate enough to stay in some of the most exclusive hotels and see some amazing sights. I've made dozens of friends, partied until the early hours in some of...

Christ Is Necessary for You MILLIONS OF MEN have lived in this world yet only one Man could say in His own right and back up His words with proof: "Which of you can convict me of sin" (John 8:46)? Hundred of men over the ages have been teachers of their fellowmen, hundreds have pointed out the way life should be lived, hundreds have led others of their fellow beings, but not one of them dared say of himself as did this Man: "I AM the way, and the truth and the life" (John 14:6). Many claimed to be sent...

Responding to “many news reports” and “various inquiries” about the apostolic visitation of institutes of women religious in the United States, Cardinal Franc Rodé, prefect of the Congregation of Institutes of Religious, released an English-language statement on November 3. He said that the visitation’s purposes are to “encourage vocations and assure a better future for women religious” and “promote the Catholic identity and vibrancy of life of women religious.” “For many years,” he said, “this dicastery had been listening to concerns expressed by American Catholics-- religious, laity, clergy and hierarchy-- about the welfare of religious women and consecrated life in...

Pope Invites Tony Blair To Vatican Summit To Discuss Church's Fears That Politics Is Losing Its Religion By Nick Pisa November 2009 Catholic convert Tony Blair is among several world leaders being invited to attend a top level summit with Pope Benedict XVI to discuss the role of the Church in politics. The two-day summit will be held at the Vatican and will include other Catholic politicians from all over the world, including German chancellor Angela Merkel, U.S. vice president Joe Biden, former Spanish PM Jose Maria Aznar, and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Church officials have been quietly working...

FR can't post threads from the Lower Hudson newspaper. Some more good news. I just wanted to let everyone know that a Republican and Pro-Life Catholic who is the station manager and program director of The Catholic Channel on Sirius Satellite Radio, Rob Astorino, won the election for County Executive for Westchester County, a liberal democrat bastion outside of NYC. He was attacked by the non-religious, pro-abortion left for being anti-femal and pro life. And still won!

“Junk” DNA Discovered to Have Both Cellular and Microevolutionary Functions Evolutionists have long sought mechanisms for the origin of reproductive barriers between populations, mechanisms which are thought to be key to the formation of new species. A recent article in ScienceDaily finds that “Junk DNA” might be the “mechanism that prevents two species from reproducing.” Basically, so-called “junk”-DNA is involved in helping to package chromosomes in the cell. If two species have different “junk” DNA, then this prevents the proteins in the egg from properly packaging the chromosomes donated by the sperm. The organism does not develop properly. As the...

Five Hard Truths That Will Set You FreeBy: Msgr. Charles Pope Some years ago I read an essay by the Franciscan Theologian Richard Rohr. I will say that I do not share a lot of agreement with Richard Rohr (no need to detail that here) but I found this particular essay compelling. I do not recall the exact title of that essay but in my mind the title “Five Hard Truths that Will Set You Free� seems the best title. The following five truths from that essay are indeed hard truths. They tend to rock our world and stab...

Featured Term (selected at random):MOTU PROPRIO Words used in rescripts drawn up and issued by a pope on his own initiative, and not conditioned by any petitionary requests. The documents are always signed personally by a pope. See Also: PROPRIO MOTU All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.   PROPRIO MOTU More commonly motu proprio. Something done on one's own initiative or by one's own will. Said especially of certain papal documents written on the Pope's own authority, often to meet a special and urgent need in the...

Darwin’s bulldog—Thomas H. Huxley --snip-- Huxley, although an unbeliever, was thoroughly familiar with the gospel, and had little time for Christians who compromised their position by supporting the anti-biblical belief of evolutionary naturalism. He wrote: ...

COLUMNS Monday, 02 November 2009 The Bishops Go On Offense By Robert Royal    A Notre Dame professor reminded me this week of an old football saying: offense sells seats, but defense wins games. Painfully true about the problems of the Irish this year, but I’ve never thought much of that proposition. Taken to its logical extreme, the most you could hope for relying solely on defense is 0-0 ties. Far preferable is the profound and incarnational wisdom of the coach who said that “prayers work better when the linemen are big.�I’ll drop the football metaphors, not least because, in...

Italy's bishops are saying the European Court of Human Rights is guilty of a partial and ideological outlook with its Tuesday decision that crucifixes in public school are a violation of freedom. The Vatican and the Italian government expressed dismay with Tuesday's decision and Italian bishops expressed their own perplexity. The court ruled in favor of an Italian citizen of Finnish origin who complained in 2002 that the state school where her two children studied violated their freedom by displaying crucifixes. The school's administration refused to remove them, contending that the crucifix is part of Italian cultural patrimony; Italian courts...

November 4, 2009                                 Wednesday of the Thirty-first Week                                 in Ordinary Time Reading 1Responsorial PsalmGospel Reading 1Rom 13:8-10 Brothers and sisters:Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another;for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.The commandments, You shall not commit adultery;you shall not kill;you shall not steal;you shall not covet,and whatever other commandment there may be,are summed up in this saying, namely,You shall love your neighbor as yourself.Love does no evil to the neighbor;hence, love is the fulfillment of the law. Responsorial...

Part Two:  Channels of Grace Anointing of the Sick Table of Contents     The sacrament of Anointing of the Sick was already implied in Christ’s first mission to the twelve apostles. “So they set off to preach repentance; and they cast out many devils, and anointed many sick people with oil and cured them” (Mark 6:13). Some time during His public ministry, Christ personally instituted anointing “as a true and proper sacrament of the New Testament” (Council of Trent, November 25, 1551). After the Lord’s ascension into heaven, anointing was commended to the faithful and promulgated by the Apostle James, “the...

Protestant services 1089. Is it a sin for a Catholic to attend weddings in Protestant churches? The law of the Catholic Church forbids participation in a religious service that is not Catholic because it is an implied repudiation of the faith which a Catholic professes to be the only true faith. It is good for non-Catholics to realize this so that, knowing that Catholics must refuse, they will not ask them to assist at the religious ceremony itself and then be offended as if refusal were due to lack of friendship. 1090. May a Catholic act as best man or...

Tegucigalpa, Nov 3, 2009 / 07:26 pm (CNA).- A new law has taken effect in Honduras prohibiting the consumption and marketing of the morning-after pill in the Central American country. The law was passed by the Honduran Congress at the beginning of the year with backing from the Medical College of Honduras, which pointed out that the pill has an abortifacient effect making it unconstitutional. The Honduran Congress argued that the drug would “gravely endanger the health of the Honduran population, especially women who are able to get pregnant.” Lawmakers pointed to a 2008 report by the Medical College of...

A few weeks ago, on a Thursday around noon, Nancy Pelosi whirls through the second floor of the Capitol in a sea-foam pantsuit with lots of gold jangling on her arms. The Speaker of the House, the highest-ranking woman in government and third in line to the president, is about to walk the pink-painted halls of her private chambers to another series of closed-door meetings with the Democratic caucus about the health-care bill. Today, she’s set up a powwow of progressives in one of her conference rooms, and another for the Blue Dogs down the hall, but first she has...

Last week I blogged about the outrageous episode of Dominican Sister Donna Quinn's volunteer work at an abortion clinic being exposed. I urged AmP readers to take action and email her superior, Sr. Patricia Mulcahey, OP. No doubt in part because of your efforts, Sr. Mulcahey has now responded on behalf of her congregation: From Pat Mulcahy, Prioress of the Sinsinaw Dominicans On Behalf of Council Members, Erica, Howard, Jo, Liz, Mary Ellen, Sue, TerePublic Statement of the Sinsinawa Dominican Congregation"Several months ago the leadership of the Sinsinawa Dominicans was informed that Sr. Donna Quinn, OP, acted as a...

The European Court of Human Rights has ruled against the use of crucifixes in classrooms in Italy. It said the practice violated the right of parents to educate their children as they saw fit, and ran counter to the child's right to freedom of religion. The case was brought by an Italian mother, Soile Lautsi, who wants to give her children a secular education. But the ruling has sparked anger in the largely Catholic country, with one politician calling the move "shameful". The Strasbourg court found that: "The compulsory display of a symbol of a given confession in premises used...

Students Protest at Planned Parenthood Clinic to Conclude 40 Days for LifeNovember 3, 2009 Christendom College's pro-life student group, Shield of Roses, held its biggest protest in over 30 years of existence. On October 31, over 200 students, faculty, staff, and visitors traveled to Washington, D.C., to peacefully protest their opposition to abortion at the Planned Parenthood clinic, located just north of the White House, on 16th Street. The group protests at this same clinic each Saturday morning during the academic year, but normally only around 20-30 students make the trek into D.C. on a weekly basis. Once a semester,...

Tuesday November 3, 2009 Planned Parenthood's President Lashes Out at USCCB By James Tillman   WASHINGTON, DC, November 3, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, sent an email to her supporters on Monday, complaining of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) campaign against the abortion-funding health care bill. Richards begged for quick action from abortion supporters to counter the bishops' influence and push the bill through Congress.Richards' attack was spurred by the nation-wide campaign the USCCB has recently launched, seeking to mobilize parishioners and clergy to call their representatives and...

SANTA ANA, Calif., Nov. 3 /Christian Newswire/ -- While many people continue to believe in Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, a group of scientists will present overwhelming scientific evidence against Darwin's speculations. "If Charles Darwin knew 150 years ago what we know today, he likely would not have published Origin of the Species," said John Baumgardner, Ph.D., whose organization, Logos Research Associates, will lead the two-day "Darwin Was Wrong" conference Nov. 13-14 at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. "We can perhaps excuse Darwin, given his ignorance about the true complexity of living organisms and about genetics," said Dr. Baumgardner, a geophysicist...

Ada Scheidler [3rd generation Scheidler working for prolife] holds a protest sign at a rally outside Planned Parenthood Aurora [photo by Sam Scheidler].Today at Mass, I was praying for our nation, and what came to mind were the relatively few people (with prominent power!) "going to bat" for us doing the "extraordinary" (while putting their lives on the line) to help save our nation and the world at large. Of course, there are others, but as the following continue on their journeys attempting to "knock [another] one out of the park," know that there is a way that we can...

New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan has condemned The New York Times -- blasting the Gray Lady and its columnist Maureen Dowd for what he says are examples of unfair, prejudicial and just downright mean anti-Catholicism. Dolan used his blog last Thursday on the Archdiocese of New York's Web site to rail against the Times a day after the paper refused to print his critique as an op-ed piece. He singled out Dowd -- a poison-penned, Pulitzer winner and former Catholic-school girl -- for "the most combustible," "intemperate and scurrilous" "diatribe" she wrote on Oct. 25, which "rightly never would have...

Once again we see Christianity under attack in Europe. The question is, will the pro-Christianity, anti-Islamic government of Italy put up with this? European court: No crucifixes in Italian schools By ALESSANDRA RIZZO ROME – Europe's court of human rights said Tuesday the display of crucifixes in Italian public schools violates religious and education freedoms, prompting an angry reaction from the Catholic Church and government officials in Rome.

The Brothers and Sisters of Jesus   There is absolutely ho historical evidence that Mary, the mother of Jesus, had other children. The Catholic Church teaches that Mary was a Virgin before, during, and after the birth of Jesus.The belief in Mary’s perpetual virginity (which necessarily includes her virginity after the birth of Christ) has been so deeply rooted in Catholic Tradition from the very beginning, that the Fathers of the Church instinctively and vigorously rose to its defense every time early heretics questioned it. Among the many witnesses that could be mentioned in this connection are: Origen, St....

Ardipithecus ramidus is an extinct primate whose fossilized remains were first found along the Awash River in Ethiopia about fifteen years ago. Many fragments were collected, including shattered bones from a four-foot-tall female nicknamed "Ardi." She was chosen to represent her kind, apparently because of the comparative completeness of her remains. Now Ardi's discoverers believe they have collected enough data to reconstruct her history--but what does their data actually reveal? ...

Hawaii Celebrates Saint Who Cared For Lepers Huge crowd takes part in service for canonization of Saint Damien [Pic in URL] A relic of Father Damien — now Saint Damien — is carried in a procession to the Iolani Palace in Honolulu on Sunday as part of the interfaith celebration of his canonization. HONOLULU - Hawaii feted the canonization of Saint Damien with a Mass and an interfaith celebration that underscored the 19th century priest's enduring popularity in the islands. More than 1,200 people attended Sunday's Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu, where Damien was...

It all comes down “The Rule.” That’s what I learned Tuesday night during the nationwide webcast hosted by Stop the Abortion Mandate.com. The vote expected this week in Congress is historically critical – and it’s not the vote you might think. Let me say this as bluntly as I can: The time is NOW. This very minute! If you have not made calls to your Senators and Representatives, if you have not sent e-mails and faxes, this moment in history is calling out to you for action. Do it now. Nancy Pelosi’s bill, HR 3962, mandates abortion coverage, plain and...

Oct 29, 2009 — “Even the most ardent fan of Charles Darwin might be feeling weary as his anniversary year draws to a close,” remarked Clive Wynn in another issue of Nature celebrating his bicentennial. --snip-- The Editors are not done celebrating, though. They just began a 4-part essay series on how Darwin’s ideas were received around the world...

Featured Term (selected at random):CELTIC CHURCH The name originally given to the Church in the British Isles before the mission of St. Augustine of Canterbury (d. 604) from Rome (596-97). It was founded by the second century, mainly among the poor, by missions from Rome and Gaul. By the fourth century, it was sufficiently established to send delegates to the Synod of Arles in 314 and the council of Ariminum in 359. All the evidence indicates that the Celtic Church was little affected by the major heresies of the age. It was in frequent contact with the Church of the...

The slaying of a 64-year-old Catholic nun in her convent over the weekend has stunned and saddened a small Navajo Nation community about 30 miles northwest of Gallup. The FBI is looking for suspects in the death of Sister Marguerite Bartz, a 10-year resident of the community of Navajo, who was killed on church property at St. Berard Mission Church. The FBI would not release details about the manner of death or other aspects of the investigation. They confirmed they are looking for a suspect or suspects who may be armed and dangerous, as well as the vehicle Bartz had...

Just got hold of the latest issue of the magazine my old alma mater in Spain sends me regularly. A feature about a movie actor, now also a producer, immediately got my attention. First, a magazine that tries to be serious in character would normally not talk about actors and celebrities. Second, though I’ve heard of the story before in a tangential way, I thought it would just have a short shelf life, just a flash in the pan, you know. In short, the article broke my guiding principles. It deserved to be read. And I did. Now, I feel...

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New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan has condemned The New York Times -- blasting the Gray Lady and its columnist Maureen Dowd for what he says are examples of unfair, prejudicial and just downright mean anti-Catholicism. Dolan used his blog last Thursday on the Archdiocese of New York's Web site to rail against the Times a day after the paper refused to print his critique as an op-ed piece. He singled out Dowd -- a poison-penned, Pulitzer winner and former Catholic-school girl -- for "the most combustible," "intemperate and scurrilous" "diatribe" she wrote on Oct. 25, which "rightly never would have...

November 3, 2009                                     Tuesday of the Thirty-first Week                             in Ordinary Time   Reading 1Responsorial PsalmGospel Reading 1Rom 12:5-16ab Brothers and sisters:We, though many, are one Body in Christand individually parts of one another.Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us,let us exercise them:if prophecy, in proportion to the faith;if ministry, in ministering;if one is a teacher, in teaching;if one exhorts, in exhortation;if one contributes, in generosity;if one is over others, with diligence;if one does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness....

Jesuits 1080. Were not the Jesuits the very embodiment of the intolerant moral theology of the Catholic Church? The Jesuits are members of a Religious Order whose members pledge themselves to love Jesus Christ as much as possible, to labor solely in His interests and in order to win as many souls as possible to His service. 1081. Did not Clement XIV suppress the Jesuits because he was so shocked by their crimes, and die shortly afterwards from poison? No. The Jesuits were very active in stemming the tide of the Reformation, and many of the Protestant princes and rulers...

Part Two:  Channels of Grace Penance Table of Contents     As Catholics, we have no doubt that Christ instituted the sacrament of Penance on Easter Sunday night. St. John describes the event in great detail. In the evening of that same day, the first day of the week, the doors were closed in the room where the disciples were for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood among them. He said to them, “Peace be with you,” and showed them His hands and His side. The disciples were filled with joy when they saw the Lord and He said to...

Featured Term (selected at random):HEAVEN The place and condition of perfect supernatural happiness. This happiness consists essentially in the immediate vision and love of God, and secondarily in the knowledge, love, and enjoyment of creatures. Until the final resurrection, except for Christ and his Mother, only the souls of the just are in heaven. After the last day, the just will be in heaven in body and soul. Although the same God will be seen by all and enjoyed by all, not everyone will have the same degree of happiness. The depth of beatitude will depend on the measure of...

Where is Tom Hanks when you need him? Something sinister is happening in the Catholic Church, at least according to New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd. And the way she writes about it, it reads like the beginning of a treatment for a Dan Brown extravaganza. Her plot, you see, is just that absurd. Dowd was convinced that Catholic religious sisters were unhappy when she was in the fifth grade, and she remains adamant. She writes: “Nuns were second-class citizens then and — 40 years after feminism utterly changed America — they still are.” I can’t speak for “the formidable...

At Saint Mary the Virgin Catholic Church, the 75-year-old priest is married, members sing from an Episcopalian hymnal and parishioners kneel at the altar to receive Communion. Years ago, the Texas parish and a handful of other conservative Episcopal churches in the U.S. decided to become Roman Catholic. Though they were confirmed by the Vatican, they were still allowed to practice some of their Anglican traditions, including having married priests. Now, these churches may have helped pave the way for Anglicans worldwide, or Episcopalians as they are known in the U.S., to become Catholic under a new Vatican plan created...

Pierluigi Molla was only 5 when his mother died. But he had absorbed enough of her saintly character to make a mark on his life. Canonized in 2004, St. Gianna Beretta Molla refused to have an abortion and gave her life instead to save that of her fourth child, Gianna Emanuela. Her heroic example led to her being named a patron saint of the unborn, and she has a growing, devoted following worldwide; reports of miracles and graces granted through her intercession continue to this day. Register correspondent Edward Pentin spoke recently with Pierluigi, her first child. A business...

Real Witches Practice Samhain: Wicca on the Rise in U.S. More Americans Are Wiccan, and Will Celebrate Samhain, Not Halloween, Saturday By RUSSELL GOLDMAN Oct. 30, 2009— Patti Wigington is a soccer mom. She is the vice president of her local PTA. And she's a witch. This Saturday while her neighborhood outside Columbus, Ohio, is crawling with costumed witches in search of candy, Wigington and a group of other local witches will not be celebrating Halloween, but the new year festival Samhain, which also occurs Oct. 31. In her backyard, Wigington and six other local women who make up...

Madrid, Spain, Oct 31, 2009 / 08:20 am (CNA).- Award-winning director Roland Joffé discussed his upcoming film “There Be Dragons” in a Thursday press conference. The film, set during the brutal Spanish Civil War and based on the life of St. Josemaria Escriva, can teach about love and forgiveness between families and enemies, Joffé said. The film begins with a young journalist, estranged from his military father Manolo, who conducts research on the life of Opus Dei founder and priest St. Josemaria Escriva. He discovers his father was a childhood friend of the future saint, and also uncovers family secrets.The...

The Catholic-run Calvary Public Hospital in Canberra Canberra, Australia, Oct 30, 2009 / 10:25 pm (CNA).- The Australian Capital Territory Government’s bid to buy Calvary Public Hospital in Canberra could endanger other public hospitals run by religious organizations, Archbishop of Sydney Cardinal George Pell has said. He has also asserted that anti-Christian motives may be driving the proposal. The cardinal gave his full support to Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn Mark Coleridge, who opposes the sale of the 250-bed Catholic-run hospital.According to the Archdiocese of Sydney, Cardinal Pell said the motives behind the effort to buy the hospital, which...

LOS ANGELES — Like many of Jason Jones’ best ideas, this one came in the middle of the night.A member of the production team that put out the pro-life hit movie of 2006, Bella, Jones’ previous nocturnal brainstorm had instigated Bella Hero, a campaign devoted to putting a copy of the film in the hands of every visitor to a crisis-pregnancy center in the United States. Next came Bella on Campus, which raises funds to pay for college screenings.Now, because of a chance meeting with a New York City beggar, drug addict and ex-con to whom he had given...

Some of our priests, particularly those who are celebrating the modern Roman liturgy ad orientem liturgicum, may be interested to know that finding an altar card for the modern form of the Roman liturgy just got quite a bit easier. Myriad Creative Concepts, in close consultation with a few priests who have used this type of altar card, have just finalized development of just such a thing for the Latin version of the modern Roman liturgy. (The company could also easily produce customized vernacular versions or Latin-vernacular versions at request they also tell me.) Evidently, some priests may wish to...

I donÂ’t recall his source, but Thomist scholar Dr. F. F. Centore used to point out to us that according to Aquinas, women make better saints than men. And back in the early 80s, I recall reading Butler's Lives of the Saints and being struck by just how much female saints outnumber male saints; I believe it is by about two thirds. And one cannot read the Latin Fathers for a reasonable stretch without coming across the notion that the Church is a woman. She is the bride of Christ and the Mother of Christians. As St. Augustine comments on...

The D.C. City Council Washington D.C., Nov 1, 2009 / 03:10 am (CNA).- A Washington, D.C. City Council proposal to recognize same-sex “marriage” would redefine marriage and could force Catholic educational and charitable institutions to close or face lawsuits, burdensome regulation and the compromising of their faith, the Archdiocese of Washington has warned.The proposed law, called the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act of 2009, redefines marriage as “the legally recognized union of two people.” It says a religious association or a non-profit associated with a religion shall not be required to provide services, accommodations, facilities or...

Pope Benedict prays the Angelus from the window of his study overlooking St. Peter's Square Vatican City, Nov 1, 2009 / 09:58 am (CNA).- To the faithful gathered on Sunday in St. Peter’s Square for the Angelus, Pope Benedict XVI presented the communion of saints, a “beautiful and comforting” reality that says “we are never alone.”  In particular he held up the ancient cult of martyrs in the early Church, and in this Year for Priests, “the saintly priests, both those canonized…and those many more that are known to the Lord.” Pope Benedict also spoke of Monday’s commemoration of the...