Free Republic

New York’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade will finally end its ban on gay groups marching in its annual Irish celebration, organizers said Wednesday. The organizing committee said this move to “change of tone and expanded inclusiveness is a gesture of goodwill to the LGBT community in our continuing effort to keep the parade above politics.”

Thousands of TFP Student Action supporting university students are right on the money for lamenting to Oklahoma authorities that… “only Jesus gets no respect”. The students call the “Black Mass” permitted to take place on Sept. 21 at the Oklahoma City Civic Center by local authorities, including Mayor Mick Cornett, “sacrilegious” and “obscene”. Even though the apathy-dogged civic level government is the one most ignored by everyday people, more than 70,000 online petitions have been collected calling on the Civic Center to cancel the “Black Mass”, which is an attack on God and a desecration of the true Catholic Mass.

Hardly any Americans will know of Hilarion Alfeyev, 48, a Russian Orthodox bishop who acts as the "foreign minister" of his Church, but it is important that they do. He is a bridge between not just the Orthodox Church and Catholicism but a bridge between Russia and America. As a Catholic American, I first saw him 15 years ago on a cold December day in Moscow. Hilarion, then 33, was already a rising star in the firmament of the Russian Orthodox Church. He had done his graduate studies in philosophy at Oxford — rather rare for Russian Orthodox Church leaders....

“Why is it,” said Jessica, my long-time friend, a non-observant Church of Scotland member, “that the Catholic Church won’t just, er, enter the modern era? Why are they so obsessed with sex?” Um, I thought, here we go. We were sitting in a coffee place in Edinburgh, trying to catch up from our busy lives. Even though our lives have taken different paths, Jessica and I go back a long time. I took a deep breath. “For the same reason that traditionally Jews forbade pre-marital sex, and sex outside marriage,” I said evenly. “After all, Christianity is an offshoot of...

I want to consider three things in this blog: first, the harm that has been done; second, our white gaze; and third, nonviolent direct action. The harm Michael Brown is dead at 18. He graduated from high school and was headed for college. The promise of his life is gone. He leaves behind parents and brothers and sisters, extended family, friends, neighbors, teachers. His body lay in the street for hours and the watchers, standing outside the yellow crime-scene tape, must have been harmed by that experience. For all of them, Michael's death leaves a lifelong void. What can be...

The Vatican is increasingly indicating support for military action in Iraq to protect Christians and other religious minorities from persecution by brutal Islamic jihadists. As the world grapples with how to combat the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS), the Vatican released a letter Wednesday in which Pope Francis urges the international community “to take action to end the humanitarian tragedy now underway.” The Pope’s entreaty came before U.S. defence officials revealed late Wednesday that air strikes and the work of Kurdish fighters had allowed many of the thousands of Yazidis trapped on Mount Sinjar to escape....

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Pope Francis has joined with Christians facing genocide in Iraq and Syria, calling upon the world to make an armed response to the Islamic State. He has asked the world to "stop these crimes" and his envoy called for the use of "a professional, well-equipped army."You know a situation is bad when a pope or his envoy calls for an armed response. Pope Francis, widely appreciated as a practical and realistic man, is not just calling for a cease-fire or negotiations. Instead, he is inviting an armed response to the terrorism of the Islamic State. Archbishop Giorgio Lingua, the Vatican's...

Some Catholic bishops have recently suggested that granting amnesty to illegal immigrant children from Central America is consistent with “pro-life” Catholic teachings. As reported in National Catholic Register, Bishop David Zubik of Pittsburgh said that providing for the needs of the young illegal immigrants is one facet of a truly pro-life philosophy. “The Catholic Church responds to humanitarian crises here at home and all across the world because we are pro-life,” Zubik said in a statement on July 19th. “Being pro-life requires we protect and care for vulnerable persons from conception to natural death.” “Whether they are traveling because of...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Tom Petty says that no one has interpreted Jesus Christ’s teaching more incorrectly than Christians, as he was asked to explain the history behind his new song “Playing Dumb.” In an interview with Billboard, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer explained his inspiration behind the song, which will be featured as a bonus cut on the accompanying vinyl release of “Hypnotic Eye.” “Catholics, don’t write me,” Mr. Petty said. “I’m fine with whatever religion you want to have, but it can’t tell anybody it’s OK to kill people, and it can’t abuse children systematically for God knows how many...

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...

Even as Congress struggles with the ongoing crisis at the border and the President plans some sort of meeting with Central American leaders, there seems to be no shortage of elected officials who want to get in on the action. Of course, if you’re looking for help with a huge problem on the Texas border, your first thought might not be to ask somebody in upstate New York. But that won’t stop the city’s mayor, Stephanie Minor. (Go ahead… say “Mayor Minor” five times fast.) The mayor’s latest pitch came in a letter to President Obama. “We have a network...

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...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2dw-KnKEakscroll to the :40 seconds to begin broadcast The study dated 3/20/14 from University of Texas at El Paso detailing the planning of the "crisis": http://ncbsi.utep.edu/documents/UAC%20Project%20Site%20Visits/UTEP%20NCBSI%20Final%20Report%20March%2020%202014.pdf

Baltimore Auxiliary Bishop Denis J. Madden is enthused by the fruit that came from recent discussions between U.S. bishops and Iran’s religious leaders. “When you build a certain sense of trust and respect, then you can move forward and deal with the issues,” he said. The faith leaders announced June 14 that they oppose actions that endanger the life, health, dignity and welfare of others, including the creation of weapons of mass destruction. That declaration was the result of a March dialogue between a delegation from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Supreme Council of the Seminary Teachers...

The Archdiocese of Santa Fe announced Wednesday it is exploring sainthood for an Italian-born nun who challenged Billy the Kid, calmed angry mobs and helped open New Mexico territory hospitals and schools. Archbishop Michael Sheehan said he has received permission from the Vatican to open the “Sainthood Cause” for Sister Blandina Segale, an educator and social worker who worked in Ohio, Colorado and New Mexico. Segale, a nun with the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati, came to Trinidad, Colorado, in 1877 to teach poor children and was later transferred to Santa Fe, where she co-founded public and Catholic schools. During...

The chairman of the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on Migration has called upon the Obama administration to halt any plans to send back unaccompanied illegal immigrant minors who have been flooding across the U.S. border. “This is a very vulnerable population which has been targeted by organized crime networks in Central America,” said Bishop Eusebio Elizondo in a press release Wednesday. “To return them to these criminal elements without a proper adjudication of their cases is unconscionable.” The bishops have asked the Obama administration to reconsider their proposed request to Congress for “fast track” authority to expedite the removal of unaccompanied...

RedState.com quotes a Huffington Post article wondering whether there are too many Catholics on the Supreme Court? At present there are no Protestants on the Supreme Court. 3 are Jewish ( Kagan, Breyer, and Bader ) and the remaining 6 are Catholic. It's been noted that the Supreme Court has never reflected the demographics of the country. The Court was all white until 1967 with the appointment of Thurgood Marshall, and Sandra Day O'Conner became the first female SC justice in 1981. Andrew Jackson appointed the first Catholic SC justice, Roger Taney, in 1836. The largest Protestant group in the...

From efforts to install a monument at the Oklahoma Capitol to a controversial “Black Mass” at Harvard University, Satanists are all over the news. But are they, along with Wiccans and pagans, all together in one non-Abrahamic lump? Not at all, say experts on paganism and the major Satanist groups’ websites. “Paganism is an umbrella term for a wide variety of traditions outside the Abrahamic faiths. Wicca is the largest but there are countless others, from Druid to Heathen to people who are creating their own faiths even as we speak,” said Laura Wildman-Hanlon, a Wiccan priestess and editor of...

VATICAN CITY – The Vatican's former ambassador to the Dominican Republic has been convicted of sex abuse by a church tribunal and defrocked pending further criminal proceedings in the first case of its kind. Polish archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, who was recalled to Rome last year amid claims that he sexually abused a number of children in the slums of Santo Domingo, was found guilty by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican said on Friday. It is the first time that a Vatican ambassador has been defrocked for sexual abuse. Wesolowski, who has two months to appeal,...

The Persian Gulf island has had a Christian presence for over a centuryBahrain, the small island country nestled between Qatar and Saudi Arabia in the Persian Gulf, will gain a Catholic cathedral, a step some see as an increased interest in Christianity in the heart of the Islamic world. King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa donated land for the project recently — the only church he has done so for, Northern Arabia vicar Bishop Camillo Ballin told Real Clear Religion, though Bahrain's cathedral is not the first church that the country's rulers have supported. "The king has a special appreciation...