Free Republic

Pentecostals Come Home to Rome — Eastern Rome, That Is. Through studying the Church Fathers, an Arizona pastor leads part of his congregation into Catholicism. TUCSON, Ariz. — The phrase “Swimming the Tiber” has been used to describe Protestants coming into the Catholic Church. But a group of Pentecostals in Arizona are coming “home to Rome” through Constantinople, leaving their Assembly of God church for the Byzantine Catholic Church.

(RNS) The Vatican’s point man on family issues and a U.S. cardinal who is close to Pope Francis have both blurbed a new book by a Jesuit priest and popular author that calls on the Catholic Church to be more respectful and compassionate toward gay people. They called it “brave, prophetic, and inspiring” and a “much-needed book.” Such positive language from such senior church leaders is extraordinary and another sign of how Francis is reorienting the church toward a more pastoral focus. “Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community Can Enter into a Relationship of Respect,...

OUTVETS has been re-admitted after the parade council was threatened and bullied by gay activistsMass Resistance and the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts have received multiple reports from within the Allied War Veterans Council — organizers of Boston's Saint Patrick's Day Parade — that the homosexual group OUTVETS was admitted to the 2017 parade only after numerous threats of violent protests disrupting the parade, potentially causing injuries and worse, were directed at Council members on social media. Reports were also received that the Boston Police found these threats to be credible, and told Council members that they could not guarantee...

We've always said that certain premium causes of the left (gay rights, abortion) were also meant to be taken as a middle finger to the church. Feminists in Portugal took that middle finger to the next level on "International Women's Day".

ROME (RNS) Lurid accusations of priests involved in sex orgies, porn videos and prostitution have emerged from several parishes in Italy recently, sending shock waves all the way to the Vatican and challenging the high standards that Pope Francis has demanded of clergy. In the southern city of Naples, for example, a priest was recently suspended from the parish of Santa Maria degli Angeli over claims he held gay orgies and used internet sites to recruit potential partners whom he paid for sex. The allegations concerning the Rev. Mario D’Orlando were brought to the attention of the diocese when an...

Rose Monday is a traditionally cheerful day celebrated in the Rhineland and the Alemanic areas with large carnival parades. Four years ago, on this day, the Catholic Church was struck by the unexpected announcement of Pope Benedict XVI. Surprising, as he was the first head of the Church in history to step down from his office because of old age and weakness. In 2017, Pope Francis was the main figure of the largest Italian Carnival parade - in a very special way. At Carnevale di Viareggio, Italy's most famous carnival parade, to which more than 300,000 people came to the...

Donald Trump has scared the devil out of America’s Catholic bishops. They have supported the Democrat agenda for so long – global warming, amnesty, raising the minimum wage, and national health care – that they can’t seem to let go. As a result, with few exceptions, these prelates have blithely ignored Trump’s defense of moral principles supported by the Church – on abortion, on religious freedom, on radical federal judges, and on education. Given Trump’s reversals of Obama’s pernicious policies, why aren’t Catholic bishops cheering? Why haven’t they told the faithful and the public that at last we have a...

Several leaders in the Catholic Church are openly challenging what they say is Pope Francis’s decision to condone the rapid spread of Islam in Europe. “[T]hey are not refugees, this is an invasion, they come here with cries of ‘Allahu Akbar’, they want to take over,” said Laszlo Kiss Rigo, head of the Catholic Hungarian southern community. Rigo “belongs to a growing branch of Catholic leaders who refuse to see the future belonging to Islam in Europe,” Giulio Meotti wrote for Gatestone Institute on Jan. 29. “They speak in open opposition to Pope Francis, who does not seem too impressed...

Pope Francis says he is concerned about what he calls a “hemorrhage” of priests and nuns from the Catholic church. […] First among the factors he cited as causing nuns and priests to quit their vocations is a society that discourages lifelong commitments. Francis lamented that many conduct their lives based on “à la carte” choices. …

Catholic Online reports that new priests will be expected to be familiar with and promote efforts to reduce carbon emissions.The Catholic Church is intimately concerned about climate change. The Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences is the world’s oldest, longest running scientific mission. That body, which advises the pope on matters of science, has concluded that global climate change is real and is caused, at least in significant part, by human activity. We know because this manipulation of public opinion has been caught and documented. The fossil fuel industry funds nearly all of the climate change skeptics, going so far as...

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...