Free Republic

Just before tomorrow’s consistory in Rome where Pope Francis will come together with the Cardinals of the Catholic Church in order to elevate his new Cardinals, it seems that the brewing conflict which started in February 2014 with Cardinal Walter Kasper’s speech at the earlier Consistory is now coming to a head. As Steve Skojec has recently reminded us, it was at that time that 85% of the cardinals who then spoke up had rejected the “Kasper prosposal” which finally wants to admit “remarried” divorcees to Holy Communion.In this context, the Four Cardinals Letter written against the papal document Amoris Laetitia is of...

Longtime Clinton confidante discussed infiltrating the Catholic Church with progressive ideology to foment revolution A newly leaked email shows Hillary Clinton’s current campaign chairman John Podesta and a Left-wing activist casually discussing fomenting “revolution” in the Catholic Church. “There needs to be a Catholic Spring, in which Catholics themselves demand the end of a middle ages dictatorship and the beginning of a little democracy and respect for gender equality in the Catholic Church,” Sandy Newman, president and founder of the progressive nonprofit Voices for Progress, writes to Podesta in an email titled “opening for a Catholic Spring? just musing.” “There...

THE “D’ESCOTO CASE” AND THOSE WHO WANT TO WIPE OUT THE WORK DONE BY JOHN PAUL II AND BENEDICT XVI Antonio Socci Libero September 7, 2014 In the era of Bergoglio, the Vatican has practically rehabilitated Liberation Theology, which came into existence in the 1960s and has caused untold disasters, mainly in Latin America, by fostering the Church’s subordination to Marxist thought. Over the past months there have been startling occurrences, such as the “landing” of Gustavo Gutierrez (“the father” of Liberation Theology) in the Vatican itself. A year ago, “L'Osservatore Romano” published large extracts from one of his books...

For years genuine Catholics have been forced to watch helplessly as Democrat, fake Catholics have trashed Catholic doctrine for political gain with little more than a peep from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. We have been forced to shy away from discussions about the feckless response our Church leaders have displayed in the face of Democrat fake Catholic demands. When the Bishops give an inch or appear to give an inch the fake Catholic Democrats demand a yard. This has embarrassed us to no end; but things might be changing. After years of remaining largely silent while Democrat fake...

When Brahmachari Vrajvihari Sharan led his first worship service in his new job as a Hindu chaplain Sunday, he knew his audience. As the service began, he asked worshipers to clear their minds. “Close all the tabs that are open, just as you would do to a Firefox window,” he said. The comparison — of a spiritual mindset to an Internet browser — worked at once. More than 40 college students, many of whom had been up until 3 a.m. the Saturday night before this 9 a.m. service, chuckled appreciatively and fell into a reverent silence. This is Sharan’s new...

August 23, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – Leaked emails through WikiLeaks reveal that billionaire globalist George Soros - one of Hilary Clinton's top donors - paid $650,000 to influence Pope Francis’ September 2015 visit to the USA with a view to "shift[ing] national paradigms and priorities in the run-up to the 2016 presidential campaign." The funds were allocated in April 2015 and the report on their effectiveness suggests that successful achievements included, “Buy-in of individual bishops to more publicly voice support of economic and racial justice messages in order to begin to create a critical mass of bishops who are aligned with...

When Pope Francis met with Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb on Monday, he told him that “our meeting is the message“. So precisely what kind of “message” was Pope Francis attempting to convey? Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb is the Grand Imam of Cairo’s Al-Azhar Mosque, and some have described him as “the highest figure in Sunni Islam“. The Daily Mail said that the meeting between these two men was a “historic bid to reopen dialogue between the two churches”, and as you will see below this is yet another in a long series of attempts by Pope Francis to build bridges between Catholicism...

He was the most recognized person in the world. He met with Presidents Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush. Born in a small town in Poland, MAY 18, 1920, was Karol Wojtyla. A chemical worker during World War II, he risked punishment by Communists for being ordained a priest. In 1967, he became Archbishop of Krakow and, in 1978, he became Pope John Paul II, the first non-Italian pope since 1522. Leader of one billion Catholics, Pope John Paul spoke eight languages and traveled a million miles in 170 countries - more than any other pope. In 1981, he survived...

ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE BISHOP OF LEGNICA /pron. legnitsa/ On the Eucharistic Miracle in St. Jack Parish in Legnica (translated from Polish)  Sisters and Brothers in Our Lord Jesus Christ! As The Bishop of Legnica I hereby announce to the public and inform about an event that took place in the parish of St. Jack in Legnica which has the signs of the Eucharistic miracle. On 25th December, 2013 during the distribution of the Holy Communion, a consecrated Host fell to the floor and then was picked up and placed in a water-filled container (vasculum). Soon after, stains of the...

Following 9/11, there was renewed interest in the Crusades as explanations were sought for the brutal attacks. As terrorist attacks have continued throughout the years, and now with the rise of the Islamic State, this interest in the Crusades has not abated. Unfortunately, increased interest has not necessarily translated into increased knowledge. Prof. Thomas F. Madden has lamented: “An interested person who simply strolls into a bookstore looking for a history of the crusades is much more likely to walk out with a book written by a novelist, journalist, or ex-nun than one written by a professional historian and based...

To Catholics, the week before Easter is Holy Week, a time to prepare for the most special feast day of the year: celebrating the resurrection of Christ. To Hollywood, it is a time to flog the Catholic Church with vicious portrayals of corruption and hypocrisy. Hollywood insists that its products reflect a market demand. But there is no market demand for this. It is Hollywood, and only Hollywood, that wishes to vocalize its bigotry toward Catholics. This year, there are entire shows that mock God and Catholics on a weekly basis. On Tuesday, ABC's announcer actually told viewers, "It's Easter...

Have we truly arrived to a SCHISM? Dear friends, As always, it is very important in these times of great confusion, when even Catholic bishops are no longer in agreement about the fundamentals of our faith and morals, to not only pray much and to study the Catechism of the Catholic Church for adults (CCC), but to keep our eyes open so as not to fall into the beautiful lies of Satan presented as if they were the Truth!!! A friend of mine recently showed me a synthesis of a conference given by Padre Santiago Martin, F.M., entitled “Love, Truth...

TRUE CHURCH When did the Church established by Jesus Christ get the name Catholic? Christ left the adoption of a name for His Church to those whom he commissioned to teach all nations. Christ called the spiritual society He established, "My Church" (Mt. xvi, 18), "the Church" (Mt. xviii, 17). In order to have a distinction between the Church and the Synagogue and to have a distinguishing name from those embracing Judaic and Gnostic errors we find St. Ignatius (50-107 A.D.) using the Greek word "Katholicos" (universal) to describe the universality of the Church established by Christ. St. Ignatius was...

WASHINGTON—Possibly the biggest tribute to late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, 79, during his funeral Mass Saturday, Feb. 19, may have come during the homily offered by his son, Fr. Paul Scalia, who preached about the blessings his father received during his life and the salvation that faith in Jesus Christ offers flawed people such as his dad. Every funeral is a reminder of the thin "veil" that is between this world and the next one, between this time and "eternity," and between the "opportunity for conversion" and the moment of judgment, Fr. Scalia told the attendees at the Basilica...

The Chicago Archdiocese is responding to a published report in which a local priest comes out as gay, but it wasn't clear whether there would be ramifications for the clergy member. In a column by Washington Post religion reporter Michelle Boorstein, Rev. Michael Shanahan is interviewed at length about his decision to disclose that he is gay. "I'd like to be one of those priests, who, with great respect for the church's teaching, can say: I'm a human being. I'm a son -- one of six -- I'm gay and I'm a priest, period," Shanahan, a more than 20-year veteran...

Does anybody, anywhere, believe that the HHS Mandate was ever intended to be anything other than a deliberate attack on the Catholic Church?Anyone?The duplicitous way that the Mandate was handled from day one should have convinced most Americans that shenanigans were afoot.The Mandate was drafted in closed-door meetings of a committee of abortion industry insiders. It violated promises that the President of the United States made to Congress in order to pass Obamacare.The administration rolled it out with an orchestrated apologia from the pandering press. Equally pandering organizations such as the ACLU joined in with assurances that the Mandate...

In the wake of numerous Islamist terrorist attacks, a reaction against religion is now discernible in many quarters of society. After 9/11, the sales of books by prominent atheists such as Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens skyrocketed. The gradual slide into secularism that had been underway for decades prior to 9/11 accelerated after that event. In the last fifteen years, the number of people opting for agnosticism, atheism, or simply no religion has grown markedly. The massacres in Paris and San Bernardino have added fuel to the fire. After the Paris attacks, a Huffington Post article called for the...

Parishioners at several New Jersey churches are distraught about a string of creche crimes: the theft of baby Jesus statues.Statues of the infant have been taken from five churches since Christmas Eve, according to the Archdiocese of Newark. Parishioners at St. Clare Church in Clifton reacted with dismay Sunday after a baby Jesus statue was apparently stolen from the church's outdoors nativity scene overnight. The statue disappeared between 7 p.m. Saturday and 7 a.m. Sunday, according to Father Peter Galbik. The small figure had just been purchased this holiday seaso "We are deeply disturbed that some group or person stole...

CARDINAL KOCH & RABBI ROSEN Catholics should not try to convert Jews and should work with them to fight anti-Semitism, the Vatican said on Thursday in a major document drawing the Church further away from the strained relations of the past. It was the latest move on a host of issues, such as gay rights and re-marriage, that the Vatican or Pope Francis have made showing a desire to be more compassionate and open and to move further away from entrenched traditions. In the past, for example, Catholic prayers have denounced Jews for not believing in Jesus. Jews have also...

When President Barack Obama addressed the nation Sunday night about the terrorist attack in San Bernardino, he was careful to build a wall of separation between the terrorists who had murdered 14 Americans and the religion they claimed to embrace. "But it is clear that the two of them had gone down the dark path of radicalization, embracing a perverted interpretation of Islam that calls for war against America and the West," Obama said. Were the president to exhibit this same zeal in defending the integrity of Christianity, he would drop his administration's legal pursuit of the Little Sisters of...