Free Republic

SNAP still targets Monsignor Brenkle of St. HelenaAn advocacy group for those who have been sexually abused by priests is still calling for Monsignor John Brenkle to be removed from his position as head of a sex abuse review panel — even though the altar boy who was the subject of a false accusation against Brenkle is asking them to leave Brenkle alone. Luke Wilmoth, now 27 and living in Las Vegas, maintains that the accusation by his father that Brenkle lured him into his sacristy under false pretenses was unfounded and Brenkle never abused him in any way. He...

A respected Italian journalist has called attention to an important struggle within the Roman Curia: a battle for control of the Vatican's chief liturgical office. Andrea Tornielli of Il Giornale has written that Cardinal Franics Arinze, the prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, will soon be replaced by a Spanish prelate, Cardinal Antonio Canizares Llovera of Toledo. Although the same rumor has circulated in Rome for several months, the report takes added weight from Tornielli's report that the change will take place "in the coming weeks." (Tornielli, a veteran Vatican-watcher, has excellent sources within the Vatican. In June he...

Are We in a Cold Civil War? Is the Church? Filed under: Uncategorized — Hierothee @ 1:37 am The way this election cycle is going, it is perhaps more apparent than ever that there are two Americas, and neither America is particularly interested in being governed by the other. This is why both McCain and Obama supporters are hostile and angry about the coming election. There are some interesting commentaries and analyses on the web at present trying to understand this phenomenon. One such analysis comes from the Canadian political commentator David Warren. Mark Steyn, a British essayist who lives...

'Silhouette City' Captures Essence of Christian Right as Supremacist Political Movement By Bruce Wilson It is the mark of a truly outstanding documentary that it can survive the test of a fast-changing political and religious landscape and remain relevant and even transcendent. There have been many superb documentaries in the last few years about religion and politics, but my own personal opinion is that Michael W. Wilson's Silhouette City stands above the pack, and for one overriding reason - Wilson's deep understanding of the dynamic in which the militant, militia-movement grounded Christian right of the 1980's has morphed into a...

Muslims should take advantage of the global financial crisis to build an economic system compatible with Islamic principles, influential Sunni cleric Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi said on Sunday. "The collapse of the capitalist system based on usury and paper and not on goods traded on the market is proof that it is in crisis and shows that Islamic economic philosophy is holding up," said the Egyptian-born, Qatar-based cleric. "The Western system has collapsed and we have a complete economic philosophy as well as spiritual strength," he said at Sunday's opening of a conference on Jerusalem. "All riches are ours... the Islamic...

Amid despairing news of Christian persecution in Orissa, Indian Roman Catholics have something to rejoice about: Pope Benedict XVI celebrated an open air mass in Vatican on Sunday to canonize India's first saint, Sister Alphonsa Bharanangnam who hailed from Kottayam in Kerala. In an address to tens of thousands of worshippers who congregated in St. Peter square at Vatican, the pope said Sr. Alphonsa was "an exceptional woman, who is offered to the people of India as their first canonized saint."Recalling how, Sr. Alphonsa stepped on hot coals to burn and disfigure her feet to escape a forced arranged marriage...

The island faiths have always seemed to me, at distant consideration, a fairly detached bunch, roused only by the threat of Sunday ferry sailings or the sight of an untethered child’s swing on the Sabbath. Okay, they don’t like anything much unless it involves walking slowly to church in a hat formerly owned by their great-grandfather, but these austere elaborations of the Calvinist reform tradition — the Free Church, the Free Church (Continuing) and the Free Presbyterian Church — always seemed too remote, too isolationist, to care about the world beyond Benbecula. But there’s one thing that does rouse their...

Answering our accusers in the Savior’s way. We have gathered together as one, we have taken upon us the name of Jesus Christ, and we are Christians. One of the questions we would ask: why then, if we have that love of the Savior, would someone want to be an antagonist or to attack us? Recently a group of bright, faithful young Latter-day Saints wrote down some of the most pressing questions on their minds. One sister asked, “Why doesn’t the Church defend itself more actively when accusations are made against it?” To her inquiry I would say that one...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The patriarch of the Melkite Catholic Church, who lives in Syria, and the Latin-rite patriarch of Jerusalem invited members of the Synod of Bishops on the Bible to visit them and discover how living in the land of the Bible can make its words come alive. Melkite Patriarch Gregoire III Laham of Damascus, Syria, and Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal of Jerusalem addressed the synod Oct. 10, extending invitations but also talking about some of the challenges Christians in the Holy Land are facing. Patriarch Laham told the synod: "The word of God unites us; it reinforces...

I received this forwarded email a short while ago from friends of mine in Indiana. I thought I'd share it with you all... ---------------------------------------------------------- For anyone who needs to verify or confirm this story that follows, please Email me or call me at the following numbers: MEA31975@aol.com (513) 291-0425 Be Blessed! Pastor Mark Arnold (PLEASE READ ENTIRE STORY BELOW) This past Tuesday, the McCain/Palin Bus came through a little town called, Lebanon, Ohio. The LORD allowed me to go to the Rally giving them a message that He wanted me to personally deliver. Sunday Night - a burden hit me...

The Influence of Marxism in the United States Today by Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J. As the title of our conference indicates, we plan to cover two areas of an immense subject: first, to see something of what is Marxism, and then reflect on its influence in the United States. On a personal note, I should say that I began reading Karl Marx at the age of fourteen. I have taught graduate courses in Marxism; and have given lectures in Moscow on two lengthy occasions. Most personally, members of my own family have died under Communism in the profession...

Socialism is one of the simplest ideas in the world. It has always puzzled me how there came to be so much bewilderment and misunderstanding and miserable mutual slander about it. At one time I agreed with Socialism, because it was simple. Now I disagree with Socialism, because it is too simple. Yet most of its opponents still seem to treat it, not merely as an iniquity but as a mystery of iniquity, which seems to mystify them even more than it maddens them. It may not seem strange that its antagonists should be puzzled about what it is. It...

As the Internet is changing communication now, so the printing press did half a millennium ago, and not only for writers. Artists until then could paint or sculpt and hope their creation would last in one public place. But soon after Gutenberg's mid-15th-century innovation, artists who devoted themselves to print media could produce multiple copies for private homes. One artist in particular specialized and excelled in intricate woodcuts, engravings, and etchings: Abrecht Dürer (1471-1528). Art historians view him as the greatest master of the printed image besides Rembrandt, the leading melder of northern European and Renaissance styles, and a true...

A Prophecy Lesson: What Manner of Person Should You Be? Why are you interested in prophecy? Is your goal to decipher all the obscure biblical prophecies that await fulfillment? If so, be careful—God's purpose for prophecy may be different from yours. by Beyond Today host Darris McNeely I once knew a person who thought he had every detail of prophecy worked out. He had a chart to show when all the end-time prophecies would be fulfilled. He even thought he knew the year and day of Christ's return.There was one problem.The years and days came and went and the prophecies...

ROME, OCT. 10, 2008 (Zenit.org).- As Christians in India continue to face persecution for their faith, they will have a new advocate in the figure of soon-to-be St. Alfonsa of the Immaculate Conception.Blessed Alfonsa (born Anna Muttathupadathu) is one of four people to be canonized by Benedict XVI this Sunday. The other three are Maria Bernarda Butler, from Switzerland; Narcisa de Jesús Martillo Morán from Ecuador; and Father Gaetano Errico from Italy.Blessed Alfonsa will be the first woman from India to be canonized. She was a religious of the Poor Clares.Anna Muttathupadathu was born in the Indian state of Kerala...

Two small parishes in the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia have quit the denomination over gay ordination and joined a like-minded group of dissident churches based in Northern Virginia. The break-away Anglican District of Virginia announced Friday that Christ Church in Emporia and Grace Church in Purdy had become members. The district now includes 23 parishes that have cut ties with the Episcopal Church. Church of the Messiah in Chesapeake quit the Episcopal denomination in 2006. Grace Episcopal Church in Newport News quit a couple years earlier. The Southern Virginia diocese has about 120 parishes, including more than two dozen...

Buenos Aires, Oct 10, 2008 / 01:28 pm (CNA).- Pablo is one of the one hundred Argentinean young people who stood outside the Cathedral of Neuquen on August 17 to shield the church from protests by feminists who want abortion to be legalized.Thousands of people have been moved by a video of the young people posted on CNA’s YouTube channel, which shows the ferocity of the confrontation by the feminists who were gathered for the National Encounter of Women in Neuquen.  They shouted insults and threw objects at the young people who were shielding the Cathedral. One of the young...

The many surprisingly advanced civilizations in the New World boggled the mind of the first Europeans that arrived. How could these savages construct amazing buildings and maintain an advanced social structure, when they didn't even know about God? Wild theories were soon introduced to explain the mystery. The most common theory, and one that you will still hear, is that early Europeans or Egyptians must have visited the New World centuries earlier, bringing their wisdom and knowledge. Even though we do know that parts of the New World were indeed visited before Columbus, it is more likely that civilizations developed...

Everybody loves a riddle.  See if you can guess what ties these people together based on the MSM coverage: “Brought up a devout Catholic, [he] aspired to become a priest….”Although a devout Catholic, [she] is happy to face evil in her latest film, she tells Gill Pringle: ..�At home I expose my children to all faiths. I put a different book on the stairs leading up to our bedrooms — books on Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Christianity and so on. I want them to get a taste of different religions and see how different people approach things and what their motivation...

Remembering my mother's home going 1 year this month and with the view of a red-tail hawk in flight with it’s song, also a fish fly by out of the running brook.

Bishop Martino of Scranton, PA - the hometown of pro-choice Senator Joe Biden - recently wrote a pastoral letter for Respect Life Sunday which focused on the evil of abortion. He told all his priests to read the letter in place of their homily this past Sunday. Here's how the local paper, the Scranton-Times Tribune responded: Gee, I guess depicting the Bishop with a baby cradled in his arms wouldn't convey the kind of point this cartoonist-satirist is comfortable with. I've said before that anti-Catholicism is the last acceptable prejudice, and this is a perfect example. Imagine a cartoon...

SAINT LOUIS BERTRAND Dominican Missionary and Preacher (1526-1581) Saint Louis Bertrand was born in the year 1526, the oldest of the eight children of his good Christian parents, at Valencia in Spain. He was in every way a model of modesty and obedience, and it was foreseen that God had some particular role for him. He devoted himself to the sick in the hospitals. He desired to enter the Order of Saint Dominic, but for some time could not obtain his parents’ permission. Finally, in 1545, he became professed in the Dominican Order, then was ordained a priest in 1547...

In many respects, the contemporary church in America looks more like a large corporation than like anything described in the New Testament. Even church leaders sometimes bear a closer resemblance to CEOs and corporate executives than to humble, tender shepherds. Sadly, the good news — that a sinner can find forgiveness for sins before a holy God by placing his trust in and committing his whole life to Jesus Christ — is often eclipsed by “success”-oriented programs and an interest in the bottom line. As a result, many churches have become nothing more than entertainment centers, employing tactics that effectively...

The Fall of Satan's Kingdom "Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time" (Revelation 12:12). When we consider the whole picture, we can hold no doubt that this is Satan's world rather than God's. Paul even refers to our era as "this present evil age" (Galatians 1:4). However, Satan will not always dominate planet earth. Bible prophecy reveals that an astounding series of events will shake our world as never before and usher in a new age—a 1,000-year...

Was to watch out for deceivers... In your opinion, was he speaking of the *Church* if so what Church? Jesus answered: Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ,' and will deceive many. (Mat 24:4, 5) The Lord also mentioned the success that false prophets will have in their deceptions. This should cause all Christians to stay on their spiritual guard, for many will be deceived: Many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. (Mat 24:11 Their teaching will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus,...

MANILA, OCTOBER 8, 2008 (STAR) By Delon Porcalla - An “overwhelming majority” of 85 million Catholics have endorsed the Reproductive Health Bill as a means of family planning, according to the bill’s principal author. However, Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman said the Catholic Church has remained “deaf” to the call of its flock. “The Church is supposed to act through the entire people of God and the faithful have not remained silent on this issue and yet are being clearly ignored, even muzzled by the Catholic hierarchy,” he said. The Church hierarchy, which is out of touch with the opinion of...

Its observers abstain from food, sex, baths and wearing leather for 26 hours, casting away distractions that may cloud their mission: Getting closer to God. Jews will celebrate Yom Kippur on Wednesday and Thursday this year. Taking place 10 days after the start of Rosh Hashanah, the start of the new Jewish year, "Yom Kippur is the holiest of days on the Jewish calendar," said Kim Gonzalez, teen director and Jewish educator at the Levite Jewish Community Center in Birmingham. The holiday is both somber and joyful, a bittersweet reflection on one's good and bad deeds in the past year....

Caricaturist Boris Efimov, whose drawings during World War II helped stoke morale among Russian troops in the fight against Nazi Germany, died last week in Moscow. One of the world’s oldest Jews, he passed away just shy of his 109th birthday. Born Boris Fridland in Kiev, Ukraine, in 1899, Efimov was just a toddler when his family moved to Bialystok in present-day Poland. He studied art and by the time he moved to Moscow in the 1920s, his drawings were attracting the attention of influential politicians. But it was his depictions of German troops and Nazi leader Adolf Hitler that...

Shortly after his historic meeting with Jewish elders in Rome, in A.D. 64, as reported in Acts 28, the Apostle Paul wrote a series of epistles — one to the Jews (the book of Hebrews) and seven to Gentile congregations. Among them was the letter to the Philippians, in which this passionate apostle wrote, "The Lord is at hand" (Phil. 4:5). He wrote this incredible statement only seven years before the destruction of Herod's Temple. Why not? There was still time for Nero, the supposed Roman Antichrist, to commit the abomination of desolation, enslave the world and bring on the...

Americans are not the only ones facing an election this fall. Their neighbors to the north also head to the polls on October 14 as Canada holds its federal election. Yet one of the biggest issues of the past year — the right to practice one’s Christian faith unmolested by the state – remains untouched by Canadian politicians from all parties. And the persecution is spreading to the United States, as seen in several instances noted below. Sound like exaggeration? Think religious persecution is not possible right next door to America? Well think again. Canada’s human rights commissions and tribunals, originally...

Please post prayers and blessings for the American People and John McCain related to tonight's debate with Barack Obama.

...."The work is amazing. People are already coming by," said Tumbas. "Miloje has accomplished in 12 years what it often takes generations to do." Now the walls and ceilings are covered with brightly covered religious images that represent scenes from the Bible. The birth of Jesus, the raising of Lazarus, Jesus' death on the cross. There are also drawings of saints and other holy figures that would have special meaning to the Serbian Orthodox such as St. Sava, a member of the royal family who gave up his crown to become a monk. "Iconography is considered the poor man's Bible,"...

I don't know who wrote this, but it's something everyone should read: It is with conviction that I challenge my family in Christ. This upcoming election is more defined than ever in our history as a nation between Godly principles and the deceit of men. I have been unable to escape the compelling need to pray and to call on those who believe in a God who hears and answers the cry of his people. 2 Chronicles 7:14 says this, “If my people who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn...

Crown Heights, NY - The battle lines are being drawn between The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) organization and the National Committee for Furtherance of Jewish Education (NCFJE) with the advent of the season of Kapparot, the ancient Jewish rite of slaughtering chickens to atone for one's sins before the holiday of Yom Kippur. PETA zeroed in for the second year in a row on NCFJE's annual Kapparot project. The organization raises funds for its outreach activities by selling the chickens used for the ritual. In an exclusive interview with Israel National News, NCFJE Chairman of the...

Delilah is dangerous, Jezebel, wicked, and as for Eve... Whether they are temptresses, harlots or simply Old Testament chattels, women (it is often argued) get a raw deal in Scripture, with the odd saintly exception (the virgin Mary). But new research into Biblical women shows that the majority receive positive or matter-of-fact write-ups. Words such as "blessed", "righteous" "outstanding" and - of course - "beautiful" crop up in descriptions of 60 of the Bible's 175 female characters, according to research from The Bible Society.

Rome, Oct 6, 2008 / 02:01 pm (CNA).- In an article published by L’Osservatore Romano, Stefan Heid, professor of Liturgy and Hagiography at the Pontifical Institute of Christian Archeology, said that “in its substance and origin, celibacy is a spiritual decision” that “requires interior strength.” In his article, Heid explains that “in every age of the Church there are priests who fail in their own sexuality. As with any life-long decision, which entails a long period of time, celibacy also requires an interior strength.  It can be lived only by a healthy priest, who is capable of marriage, and...

Revealed for the first time: The truth about Angels from Heaven … Armageddon … Israel’s Role in Prophecy … The Y2012 Crisis … The Rapture … The Mark of the Beast THE world as we know is vanishing and will disappear in an earth-shaking series of Year 2012 events that are clearly laid out in prophecies appearing in the Holy Bible for everyone to see. And contrary to what many clergymen have told their flocks, that God frowns on fortune-telling and has hidden the future from us, an increasing number of religious experts - from Pope Benedict XVI and the...

A wave of irate protest silenced a Jews for Jesus radio campaign last week on a local radio station in the north. It took just a few hours for Kol Rega, which broadcasts to the Galilee and northern valleys, to cave in to pressure from listeners who phoned in to demand that the Jews for Jesus campaign be taken off the air. "Shortly after we broadcast it, we received dozens of angry phone calls from listeners telling us they were hurt by the crudeness of the ad," said Haim Hecht, manager of Kol Rega. "The truth is that even before...

Mormons should never respond with arrogance or hostility to attacks on their faith, but be peacemakers among themselves and in the community of faith, said several speakers at the 178th Semiannual LDS General Conference on Sunday. "More regrettable than the [LDS] Church being accused of not being Christian is when church members react to such accusations in an un-Christlike way," Apostle Robert D. Hales said on the second day of the two-day conference. "Surely our Heavenly Father is saddened - and the devil laughs - when we contentiously debate doctrinal differences with our Christian neighbors." Sometimes, the best response is...

Opening today's first session of the Synod on the Word, the Pope saw fit to throw in a word on the global financial crisis, whose effects have buffeted European markets in recent days. "We now see in the collapse of the great banks: money disappears, turns to nothing," B16 said in an impromptu meditation at the day's start. "And all these things, which seem like the true reality on which we can count, are realities of a second order. "One who builds his life on these realities, on objects, success, on everything that's visible, builds on sand," the pontiff...

Meanwhile, Pope Benedict XVI addressed the Bishops gathered in Rome to begin a Synod of study on the Word of God. He reminded the faithful that the crisis should be a reminder that"He who builds only on visible and tangible things like success, career and money builds the house of his life on sand"....

Catholics Keeping Catholics in the Dark October 4th, 2008 by Brad OLeary At a family gathering I was shocked when I learned I had children and grandchildren planning to vote for Barack Obama.  Their reasoning was he was handsome, articulate, and “for change.”  Yet none of them could tell me what he stood for on any of the issues.  I thought the best way to educate them would be to draft a letter, detailing Obama’s stances on the important issues of the day.  However, I soon realized that I had a enough material for a book, and so, The Audacity...

This much is good and true and right: "It is better to give than to receive." But this axiom implies an interaction between two parties — a giver and a receiver. This is a really big lesson that I learned in a rather hard way. Like most of us, I feel — and I don't mean this in either a bragging or complaining kind of way — that I have been a giver for most of my life. It is kind of who I am. Then, several years ago, I underwent a couple of joint replacement surgeries. After each procedure...

"When the Church asks publicly and authoritatively in the name of Jesus Christ that a person or object be protected against the power of the evil one and withdrawn from his dominion, it is called exorcism. Jesus performed exorcisms and from him the Church has received the power and office of exorcising. In a simple form exorcism is performed at the celebration of Baptism. In solemn exorcism, called a 'major' exorcism, can be performed only by a priest and with the permission of the bishop. The priest must proceed with prudence, strictly observing the rules established by the Church. Exorcism...

News Release: October 3, 2008 CHRISTIAN & MISSIONARY ALLIANCE LEADER NAMED IN ANOTHER C&MA FRAUD AND EXTORTION SCHEME District Superintendent Wayne Spriggs Seizes Reedsville Bank Account and Church Property On the heels of the C&MA Headquarters being sued for stealing $18,000 bank account and $650,000 church property of a Chinese church in Colorado Springs, and more recently a Vietnamese Boat People Church, in Long Beach California, the Eastern Pennsylvania District of the C&MA as now hijacked another church. And just like the national bank crisis is about real estate, this case of greed is about real estate. But unlike the...

Nicholas P. Cafardi, a law professor and former law school dean at Duquesne University, a Catholic school in Pittsburgh, writes that as a Catholic, he is staunchly opposed to abortion. Pic of Cafardi: In fact, he calls it "an unspeakable evil." But he's voting for Barack Obama. Here is Cafardi on the topic of abortion: "Obama's support for abortion rights has led some to the conclusion that no Catholic can vote for him. That's a mistake. While I have never swayed in my conviction that abortion is an unspeakable evil, I believe that we have lost the abortion battle --...

I thank your Archbishop, His Eminence Cardinal Roger Mahony, for his invitation to join you at this annual Prayer Breakfast. It is a sign of strength in the Catholic community when you respond to the innate desire that is planted within us by the gift of the Holy Spirit in our baptism and confirmation to want to know God and his holy will better. In this way we can better be his instruments in helping humanity fulfill its true destiny as one human family, where every person has the opportunity to respond to God's invitation to know and love him...

Broker turned monk focuses priorities Bulgarian monk Brother Nikanor, 32, looks inside the church of Tsurnogorski monastery, some 50 km (31miles) west of the capital Sofia, September 24, 2008. The Nasdaq broker turned monk advises his former colleagues, shattered by the financial crisis, to keep a jar full of soil on their desks to remind them about where we are all heading to and what really matters in life.

What’s Wrong With Double-Poxer Pro-lifers? Filed under: Uncategorized — Hierothee @ 11:09 am In my occasional travels through cyberspace, I have noticed that many pro-life Catholics are so fed up with the current state of American politics that they refuse to vote for either major party. Mark Shea is perhaps the biggest example of this. Indeed, one of his readers has accused him and his ilk of being “double-poxers.” They say a “pox upon both your houses” to Democrats and Republicans alike. They will vote for a third-party candidate, or not vote at all, and this, Shea’s reader asserts, is...

The Mexican superstar of Latin America, Eduardo Verastegui, and several of his friends joined the 40 Days for Life prayer campaign outside Family Planning Associates, an abortion business at 601 S. Westmoreland Avenue. He went there for two reasons: to help mothers and their unborn children, and warn people about the number-one abortion celebrity, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL). Verastegui is cofounder of L.A.-based Metanoia Films and lead actor in the company’s first feature film Bella, which premiered in American movie theaters last October. Until November 2, citizens of 179 cities in 47 of the United States and the District...