Free Republic

I’ve always been a great fan of Pope St. Leo XIII’s whose moves to protect the working man during the Industrial Revolution resulted in the rise of labor unions. It saddens me to see how unionism has fallen under totalitarian rule with the leaders thriving on power rather than the welfare of the workers – or the survival of the companies that employ them. More than one union has committed economic suicide by demanding pay and benefits beyond what an industry can support. They forgot it wasn’t only solidarity, it was also subsidiarity – well-stated in Pope Benedict XVI’s “Caritas...

I have a brilliant idea. Let’s sell the White House to help pay off the debt. It’s valued at more than $300 million and that would make a significant contribution. The Obamas could move into a nice townhouse, probably in the $300,000 range, within commuting distance of Washington, D.C. I suppose some complications would arise from this plan. For security purposes, they would probably have to buy the surrounding houses or even the whole block. The president’s entourage would likely back up traffic as he is commuting downtown every day. They would also have to purchase new office space for...

The sign of peace at Mass has not always led to serenity among liturgists or within the congregations gathered each Sunday in Catholic churches around the world. After nine years of study and consultation, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments has told Latin-rite bishops around the world that the sign of peace will stay where it is in the Mass. However, the congregation said, “if it is foreseen that it will not take place properly,” it can be omitted. But when it is used, it must be done with dignity and awareness that it is not a liturgical...

Pope lifts suspension of Father D’Escoto, former Sandinista official August 04, 2014 By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis has lifted the suspension of Maryknoll Father Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann, who was ordered 29 years ago to stop exercising his priestly ministry because he refused to give up his political position in Nicaragua’s Sandinista government. The pope made his decision after Father D’Escoto, 81, formally requested permission to resume priestly duties, Passionist Father Ciro Benedettini, assistant director of the Vatican press office, said Aug. 4. Vatican Radio reported that Father D’Escoto had written that he wanted to...

War On Terror: The fanatical Islamist group torches an 1,800-year-old church built before the founding of Islam and forces the Christian residents of Mosul to convert, pay a tax, leave or face execution. This is what the West faces. 'From Boston to Zanzibar, there's a worldwide war on Christianity," Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul said at the Values Voters Summit last October, an annual conservative gathering. The number and intensity of attacks was so great, he said, that it's "almost as if we lived in the Middle Ages." That was an era when the swords of Islam had conquered much...

Growing up in New Albany, Ind., during the 1950s, I never heard the term “domestic church,” but I knew what it meant. I knew it because my parents and my friends’ parents made their homes domestic churches, even before that phrase from our Catholic tradition was retrieved during the Second Vatican Council. I guess you could say that my childhood friends and neighbors were at home in church and in church at home. But what did it mean in practical terms that we experienced the family as a domestic church? For one thing, it meant that nearly every Catholic family...

WASHINGTON — Tensions between Girl Scouts’ messaging and Catholic teaching have led to a national boycott of Girl Scout cookies, the ousting of Girl Scouts from parishes, and a significant drop in Catholic membership in the Girl Scouts. Now a panel of U.S. bishops has released the results of a two-year investigation into Girl Scouts’ problematic messaging, ties to Planned Parenthood, and continued advocacy of so-called reproductive rights by the organization’s international affiliate, the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS). Their findings indicate that the concerns continue to persist, regarding the problematic connections between the Girl Scouts...

From a far-flung from the Vatican, lonely post in Canada, Canada Free Press (CFP) is asking Pope Francis where did all the money go to help the “poorest of the poor” in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala before their mass exodus to the southern borders of the United States of America?

Asking for forgiveness, Pope Francis told abuse survivors that “despicable actions” caused by clergy have been hidden for too long and had been “camouflaged with a complicity that cannot be explained.” “There is no place in the church’s ministry for those who commit these abuses, and I commit myself not to tolerate harm done to a minor by any individual, whether a cleric or not,” and to hold all bishops accountable for protecting young people, the pope said during a special early morning Mass for six survivors of abuse by clergy. The Mass and private meetings held later with each...

"Celebrate Pride Month with the St. Ignatius Community!" "As members of the Mystical Body of Christ, the Church, we are called to celebrate and share the gifts of diversity of sexuality in our church today. Our organization, Embracing God's Gifts, has been formed as an instrument for recognizing these gifts and incorporating their goodness and use into the life of our parish."

NOGALES, Mexico (CNS) — In a soup kitchen just across the U.S. border, Nicole Davison sat down at a table lined with men. There was a clatter of plates as the guests who were served dinner help clear the dishes. The guests all had been recently deported from the United States. Davison, 19, learned that one man had been working in the U.S. for more than 20 years, and that his wife and children were at home in Scottsdale, Arizona. A Mexican without a U.S. visa or work permit, the man was now stuck here, where he knew no one....

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis says the 70th Anniversary of the D-Day landings is an opportunity for present generations to show gratitude for the “heavy sacrifice” of soldiers who landed on the beaches of Normandy to fight against “Nazi barbarism” and free occupied France during World War II. He also states that it should serve as a reminder that excluding God from the lives of people and societies can bring nothing but death and suffering and he calls on the people of Europe to find their roots and future hopes in the Gospel of Christ. The Holy Father’s words are contained...

Arizona Edition - Last week, members of the U.S. Conference of Bishops led a mass for immigrants and their families at St. Peter’s Catholic Church on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. It was meant to recall a mass conducted in Nogales on the U.S.-Mexico border two months earlier on April 1st. After the mass, members of the delegation met with members of Congress, including House Speaker John Boehner to encourage them to take on immigration reform as soon as possible. Gerald F. Kicanas, Bishop of Tucson, was one of the six clerics in attendance. KAWC’s Lou Gum spoke to Kicanas...

The Catholics United Education Fund, a Democrat-leaning advocacy group which began criticizing Church opposition to same-sex “marriage” in 2012, received most of its operational budget that year from a gay activist foundation run by influential multi-millionaire Tim Gill. “I would say it is very obvious that Mr. Gill does not agree with the Catholic Church and Her teachings on the issues of homosexuality and marriage,” Jennifer Kraska, executive director of the Colorado Catholic Conference, told CNA May 29. “His attitude toward the Church on these issues is definitely one of extreme disagreement.” Tax forms show the Colorado-based Gill Foundation made...

In a recent interview with the Telegraph newspaper in the UK, Melinda Gates talked about why she decided to dissent from the teaching of the Catholic Church, but still seems to believe that she is a Catholic in good standing. She said: "I’ve traveled so much all over the world. India, Bangladesh; so many counties in Africa. And I would come home and the stories would ring in my head of the women I talked to on the ground in those counties. I go out to the rural areas. I go out to slums and townships, and I would be...

What is wrong with you people? Seriously. A Black Mass was to be celebrated at Harvard. “The event, organized by the Harvard Extension Cultural Studies Club and the New York-based Satanic Temple,” writes FoxNews, “is to take place at an on-campus bar and is being billed as part of a ‘larger effort to explore the religious facets’ that influence contemporary culture, organizers from the Harvard Extension Cultural Studies Club say. The ceremony has traditionally been performed by satanic cults to parody the Catholic Church, and officials at the Archdiocese of Boston are furious that such an event could be held...

When considering the suppression of parishes or the closing of church buildings, bishops should hew closely to canon law not simply because it’s a legal requirement of the church, Cardinal Raymond L. Burke said, but because it helps foster unity. In a May 7 interview with the Catholic Review, the prefect of the Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signature, the Vatican’s highest court, said following proper procedures helps ensure legitimate decisions. “When we don’t follow the requirements of the law, then people rightly claim that they’ve been aggrieved by this,” said Cardinal Burke, who was a featured speaker at the...

A Harvard University student club is hosting a satanic black mass on May 12 to be staged by The Satanic Temple. The Cultural Studies Club characterizes the event as a "reenactment" to be "performed" by The Satanic Temple, but reportedly, the group has obtained and will be using a Consecrated Eucharistic Host - making the event as real as it gets as far as the Catholic Church is concerned. The Black Mass is "a magical ceremony and inversion or parody of the Catholic Mass that was indulged in ostensibly for the purpose of mocking God and worshipping the devil; a...

Rome -- "When did you first know he was a saint?" It's a question Joaquin Navarro-Valls gets often and especially now, in the days surrounding the canonization of his former boss, now St. John Paul II. Navarro-Valls served as press director for the Holy See during JPII's pontificate, and speaking to Catholic communicators at a conference at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross here, he remembers "the first time I saw him pray." "A person who prayed the way he did could not not be a saint," Navarro-Valls recalls. He was "deeply bound to God." He "didn't move, he...

Responding to Georgia's new "guns everywhere" law, Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Atlanta has pledged to keep guns out of Catholic churches, schools and other institutions. ..."Before this legislation takes effect in July, I will officially restrict the presence of weapons in our Catholic institutions except for those carried by the people that civic authorities have designated and trained to protect and guard us, and those who are duly authorized by law and military officials," Gregory wrote. ...Georgia has always banned licensed weapons in churches, but the new legislation drops the penalty to a $100 fine and the legal charge to...