Free Republic

In its latest attack on religious liberty, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) wants to force Roman Catholic organizations to provide contraception and abortions to unaccompanied immigrant children pouring over America’s southern border. The ACLU is suing the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to obtain documents that it claims show that Catholic relief agencies are not providing abortions or referrals for abortion. It’s part of a national strategy to force faith-based facilities to perform abortions or face ruinous litigation and the loss of government contracts, and it comes despite the Supreme Court’s ruling last June against the ham-handed...

If you want to choose in the US, you'd better praise God. The Americans do not seem to care much what church leaders pray; just want to kneel .. It was built in the 1920s in the style of the Spanish missions, topped off with one of those thatched roofs of red clay so popular in southern Florida by then. Catholics put their foundation a few steps from the famed Biltmore Hotel (inspired by the Giralda, the tower of the Cathedral of Seville in Spain) and named their church in honor of St. Therese of Lisieux, also known as the...

VATICAN CITY – In an Easter peace wish, Pope Francis on Sunday praised the framework nuclear agreement with Iran as an opportunity to make the world safer, while expressing deep worry about bloodshed in Libya, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa. Cautious hope ran through Francis' "Urbi et Orbi" Easter message, a kind of papal commentary on the state of the world's affairs, which he delivered from the central balcony of St. Peter's Square. He had just celebrated Mass in rain-whipped St. Peter's Square for tens of thousands of people, who huddled under umbrellas or braved the downpour...

Someone was joking recently that the reason the Eastern Orthodox cannot have women bishops is because one can’t call a woman “Patriarch.” Behind the wisecrack is some wisdom, and the existence of women ministers in non-Catholic denominations raises the question of just how patriarchal the Christian religion must be.  Is it necessary to call priests “Father” and refer to the Pope as “Holy Father”? The title “Abbot” comes from the ancient term “Abba-Father,” and “pope” comes from the Greek word pappas — “daddy.” Are these no more than human traditions? Are these just social constructs? Or is the idea of...

On Easter Day (April 5th, 2015), faithful Christians will celebrate the resurrection of Jesus bodily from death. Later on this year, faithful Christians will also (on August 15th, 2015) celebrate the resurrection of Mary the mother of Jesus (before her body could see decay) and her Assumption into heaven. With the shows on CNN (Finding Jesus: Faith, Fact and Forgery) and O'Reilly's book, "Killing Jesus" on television (both this Sunday), there seems to be an uptick in the interest on the life of Jesus, the Apostles and early followers of Jesus - as well as Mary's role, too.

TV and movie producers rarely focus on Catholic priests in their plots, let alone use them as central characters, as in "The Father Dowling Mysteries" or "Father Murphy" in the 1980s. Maybe that's a good thing, because when Catholic priests are part of the plot these days, there is an unmistakable odor of aggression -- mocking, vilifying, and disparaging not just Catholic priests, but the priesthood itself. On March 4, on the nation's most religion-mocking channel, Comedy Central, the late-night game show "@Midnight" featured the comedian Neal Brennan. Host Chris Hardwick asked a question about confession, to which Brennan responded,...

Editor’s Note: There has been a tendency among some recent critics of The Remnant to confuse our editorial concern over the troubling pontificate of Pope Francis with expressions of indignation over mere personal effrontery. Nothing could be further from the truth. When we note the fact that the Holy Father, for example, appears to be “scolding” traditional Catholics on something of a regular basis, we are not particularly concerned about his less-than-favorable opinion of us as individuals. We are a remnant, after all, whose stock-in-trade is opinion which tends to struggle against the current. An attack on traditionalists by the...

)n Thursday, a slew of American Catholic publications, including America Magazine, National Catholic Register, National Catholic Reporter, Our Sunday Visitor, and Patheos Catholic announced their joint commitment to abolishing the death penalty in the United States. Prompted by an upcoming Supreme Court hearing on the use of certain drug combinations in lethal injections, the statement represents a rare and welcome moment of unity among Catholics of varied political commitments. No such unity can be found among the 78.2 million American Catholics themselves, and that's because one group opposes these publications' position on the death penalty: white Catholics. The Catechism of...

In a wide-ranging, at points jaw-dropping interview with Aleteia, Archbishop Charles Palmer-Buckle of Accra, Ghana, signaled his openness to finding a way for remarried Catholics to be readmitted to Communion--and suggested the church might reinterpret Scripture to allow the "unbinding" of marriages. Palmer-Buckle, who is sixty-four years old, was selected by his brother bishops to represent Ghana at this October's Synod on the Family. Early in the interview, the archbishop makes it clear that he takes seriously Pope Francis's call for open discussion of the challenges facing Catholic families today. "There are people in polygamous relationships, who were involved in...

In his address to the Italian Confederation of Cooperatives Saturday, Pope Francis employed muscular language in speaking about money — while acknowledging its importance to business. “Money,” he said, “is the devil’s dung.” “It is not easy to talk about money,” Francis said. Quoting Saint Basil the Great, the Pope said: “Money is the dung of the devil! When money becomes an idol, it rules over a person’s choices. And then it ruins a person and condemns him, turning him into a slave.” The Pope called for “creative imagination” to find new methods, attitudes and tools to combat the “culture...

Islamic State blows up Church of Immaculate Virgin FEBRUARY 6, 2015 9:42 AM BY RAYMOND IBRAHIM] According to Rudaw, an Iraqi news agency, on February 2, security sources from the Ninevah police district said that the Islamic State blew up the Church of the Immaculate Virgin—one of the largest and oldest Chaldean churches in the ancient section of Mosul. The security source said: “The organization finished wiring the church with explosives this morning and detonated it, leaving widespread destruction in the church and neighboring buildings.” Prior to this, the old church — which stood on the foundation of what was...

...Al-Muhallab said, “You must use deception in war, for it is more effective than reinforcements.” Some methods of deception include: a. Planting spies. b. Reconnaissance. c. Feigning an intent to attack an area other than the actual target, for when the Prophet (sallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) wanted to attack one area, he would give his army the impression they were going to attack another. “If a man’s chest is too narrow to hold his own secret, then the chest of the one with whom he stores the secret is even narrower” [Poetry]. And be on guard against your enemy at...

The unofficial death of the moderate American Democrat went largely unnoticed last week. Tim Ryan — a once-strident champion of the Rust Belt city of Youngstown, filled with moderate Catholic Democrats whose issues are still firmly pocketbook-based — penned an op-ed saying he now supports abortion. The Ohio congressman, who once sat on the board of the Democrats for Life in America advocacy group, made that surprising reversal as he contemplates a run for U.S. Senate. You see, plenty of Jacksonian Democrats remain in his district — and all across the country, for that matter — but no tolerance for...

MSNBC's resident socialist Lawrence O'Donnell made a whopper of a historical claim on the Thursday edition of his program. In the midst of ripping President Obama's controversial National Prayer Breakfast speech from earlier in the day, O'Donnell asserted that "Catholicism was the most murderous force on the face of the Earth for hundreds of years," as he ripped President Obama's controversial National Prayer Breakfast speech from earlier in the day. [video below] The left-wing host led the segment by mocking the breakfast as "the place where presidents go to pander to leaders of organized religions once a year." He continued...

The Absurdity of Separated Brethren Before Protestants were "separated brethren"... Q. Does the Lord make use of apostate Catholics, such as Martin Luther, Calvin, John Knox, Henry VIII., King of England, to reform the manners of the people? A. The thought is absurd. The lives of those men were evil, and it is only the devil that makes use of them to pervert the people still more. The Lord makes use of His saints, such as a St. Francis of Assisium, a St. Dominick, a St. Ignatius, a St. Alphonsus, to convert the people and reform their evil manners...

On a recent busy evening in one of the Philippines’ top malls, shoppers wandered through luxury brand shops while prostitutes sat expectantly at a bar and a priest gave a sermon at a chapel. The scene may appear an unlikely combination but in the Philippines the Catholic Church has successfully set up shop where millions increasingly spend their leisure time. As a visit by Pope Francis to the Philippines this week shines a spotlight on the nation’s vibrant brand of Catholicism, local Church leaders said he would endorse the mixing of faith with consumerism. “It was Jesus who went to...

Catholic Theologians Protest ‘Deep-Seated Racism’ Of US, Compare Eric Garner To Christ A "statement of commitment to racial justice." More than 400 Catholic theologians signed a statement protesting the “deep-seated racism” of the US and compared Eric Garner to Jesus Christ. Written by St. Louis University Professor of Theological Ethics Dr. Tobias Winright, it is called a “statement of commitment to racial justice.” Advertisement-content continues below What prompted the writing of the statement was the killing of blacks by police officers. The statement reads: The killings of Black [sic] men, women and children—including but not limited to Rekia Boyd, Eric...

With Reformation Day coming up, this is a good time to recall why the Reformers departed from Roman Catholicism. In our day especially, it seems that many Christians have history-amnesia when it comes to the importance of what God did through the Reformers. During the Reformation, great confusion existed regarding what was, and was not, the true church of Christ. Rome had asserted itself as the true church for centuries, and continues to do so today. However, as the Reformers recognized then, Christians must follow in step today by recalling that joining hands with Rome is a departure from Christ....

Europe News Europe’s Empty Churches Go on Sale Hundreds of Churches Have Closed or Are Threatened by Plunging Membership, Posing Question: What to Do With Unused Buildings? By Naftali Bendavid Jan. 2, 2015 7:36 p.m. ET ARNHEM, Netherlands—Two dozen scruffy skateboarders launched perilous jumps in a soaring old church building here on a recent night, watched over by a mosaic likeness of Jesus and a solemn array of stone saints. This is the Arnhem Skate Hall, an uneasy reincarnation of the Church of St. Joseph, which once rang with the prayers of nearly 1,000 worshipers. It is one of hundreds...

The pontiff plans to issue a rare and controversial plea for Catholics to consider the environment. Recent polls show his message just might resonate. Pope Francis has ambitious environmental plans for 2015. Come March, he will deliver a 50 to 60-page edict urging his 1.2 billion Catholic followers to take action against climate change. The Pontiff will make his announcement during his visit to the Philippian city of Tacloban, which was ravaged by typhoon Haiyan, which killed thousands in 2013. But within his global congregation, many conservative Catholics are expected to oppose the pope’s environmental views. The message comes months...