Free Republic

Someone had to be the first to jump into the 2016 presidential race, and it seems only fitting that that someone was US Senator Ted Cruz, leapfrogging over his likely opponents to launch his campaign early with a Jesus-soaked speech at the world's largest fundamentalist college. Cruz is a long shot for the GOP nomination, partly because he lacks experience, and mostly because no one likes him. But tucked into his speech Monday, in between stories about sin and redemption and abolishing the IRS, Cruz offered one reason he actually thinks he can win. "Today, roughly half of born again...

A German cardinal has publicly opposed the words of two other German bishops who have suggested that the nation’s Church can form its own policies without direction from Rome. Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes published a letter earlier this month objecting to the pronouncements of prominent leaders of the Church in Germany that the nation's bishops' conference will pursue its own program of pastoral care for marriages and family regardless of the outcome of October's Synod on the Family. At a Feb. 25 press conference following the German bishops' plenary assembly, Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising, who is president...

In an eight page document in preparation for the Synod on the Family the diocese of Essen, Germany, has asked the Vatican to elaborate a “Rite for the blessing of same-sex-couples”, to de facto abolish the indissolubility of marriage, to accept adultery and to allow artificial birth control. According to the document, blessing of practiced homosexuality would be a – quote – “sign of justice” and “non-discrimination”.

Ghanaian Archbishop Charles G. Palmer-Buckle of Accra, right, shown here with Cardinal Polycarp Pengo of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Just like assembling a jigsaw puzzle, it’s easier to sort through items in the news when you know what the big picture is supposed to look like. It’s already clear that one of the Catholic megatrends of our time is the coming of age of the Church in Africa, which gives three recent storylines special importance. In late February, the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), the continent-wide assembly of African bishops, announced the appointment of a...

FULL TITLE: Exclusive: Cardinal Burke says ‘manipulation’ at Synod was driven by agenda to undermine teachings on marriage LifeSiteNews Paris correspondent Jeanne Smits and Cardinal Raymond Burke Olivier Figueras / LifeSiteNews Note: Sign the petition to Pope Francis on the Synod and the future of the family, also signed by Cardinal Burke, here.ROME, March 24, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- In an interview with LifeSiteNews Paris correspondent Jeanne Smits, Cardinal Raymond Burke warns that confusion is spreading among Catholics regarding divorce and homosexuality.In a wide-ranging interview published today in full on LifeSiteNews, the cardinal, who until recently was the head of the Vatican’s highest...

Senator Ted Cruz’s presidential run is premised on the idea that, by speaking to the “values” of evangelical voters, he can mobilize them in numbers not seen in a very long time. “Imagine instead millions of people of faith all across America coming out to the polls and voting our values,” Cruz said yesterday, adding that these voters had been “staying home.” Cruz’s decision to announce his run at Liberty University is itself a sign that he hopes to assume the mantle of leading evangelical champion. And as Jon Ward puts it, Cruz’s announcement was “an attempt to lay down...

Marx's comments "belong in the village pub": Cardinal Josef Cordes' letter to Tagespost publicly rebuking German Bishops' Chairman The German-language Catholic news website Kath.net provided a few days ago an authorized summary of the letter sent by Cardinal Cordes to Tagespost on Cardinal Marx's most recent controversial statements, in effect declaring the independence of the German Church. Translation by reader "K":Vatican City. Authorised summary of a letter to the editor of the “Tagespost” from March 7, 2015, in which Paul Josef Cardinal Cordes, former president of the papal work COR UNUM, publicly refutes some statements made by Reinhard Cardinal...

From its inception Christianity was a marginalized not a culturally powerful or influential religion. With the death of the mainlines we’re witnessing the last gasp of the informal Constantinianism in America, the gathering of cultural elites in the narthex of tall-steeple PCUSA congregations. The informal coalition of cultural and political power brokers in and with the mainline is dead. The WWII generation was probably the last to care to identify with the mainline or to seek the approval of the mainline. Now that the culture has got what it wanted, capitulation, even the NYT will ignore it. There is no...

Changes in ambiguous wording, tepid warnings from Catholic bishops, and deep concerns about children are part of the tense lead-up to May 22nd vote Just two months before a May 22nd 'Marriage Equality' referendum, many commentators predict Ireland will become the first country in the world to insert a constitutional amendment permitting civil marriage between two people of the same gender. A distinctive feature of Irish democracy has been frequent recourse to constitutional referendums. May’s referendum will be the 35th time voters have been asked to amend the constitution in less than 80 years. The origin of this state of...

A week ago today, Italian journalist and avowed atheist Eugenio Scalfari published an article containing notes from a new interview with Pope Francis. Although the article provoked some reactions in the Italian press, the rest of the world has been somewhat slow to register the publication and what it contains: Giuseppe Nardi reported on Scalfari's article on the 18th, and The Remnant blog picked up the story yesterday. This uncharacteristic sluggishness in reporting is not very surprising, as Scalfari's already dubious reputation among Catholics was irreparably damaged after the publication of similar notes from an interview last Summer which proved...

[41] Then he shall say to them also that shall be on his left hand: Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels. Matthew 25: 41 Yet another fruit of Pope Francis’ policy of giving interviews and then never giving any sort of explanation after the feathers hit the fan. From Mahound’s Paradise: On to the Scalfari piece. It’s an editorial reflection in La Repubblica on what the journalist wants to see happen in the Church, so it’s not a new interview, per se. But he includes a part where he...

Only days after stripping the disgraced pervert Cardinal, Keith O'Brien of his title and power and sending him to retire quietly in a £200,000 cottage, Pope Francis; amidst the outrage of the people of the Diocese of Osorno in Chile has permitted another bishop to take his Cathedra - a man implicated in the scandal of sodomy and perversion and the abuse of three men from the time they were boys. Is this to be considered another "who am I to judge" episode as with Msgr. Ricca appointed to a high position within the Vatican Bank? If so, then the...

SOMERVILLE, NJ -- A Catholic school has decided not to rehire a theology teacher who rejected the argument in favor of gay “marriage” on her private Facebook page, her family has announced. The controversy began last week after a student found a Facebook post by Patricia Jannuzzi, a 57-year-old theology teacher at Immaculata High School in Somerville, New Jersey. In it, Jannuzzi said that advocates of redefining marriage argue that they “are born this way and it is not a choice, to get 14th amendment rights equal protection” – which was intended for “unchangeable characteristics such as race and disability.”...

John 10:27-29 My Sheep hear My Voice, and I Know them, and they Follow Me: And I Give unto them Eternal Life; and they shall Never Perish, Neither shall Any Man Pluck them out of My Hand. My Father, Which Gave them Me, is Greater than All; And No Man is Able to Pluck them out of My Father's Hand.

Refuting the Belief that the Catholic Church ever supported the notion of the Divine Right of KingsI this article I will help to refute the false belief that the Catholic Church ever supported the so called “Divine Right” of kings. I will show that the concept of “Divine Right” is actually not a Catholic and for most part a medieval concept, but rather a concept which derived from the Late medieval ages, and which found its way into complete acceptance in the Protestant Reformation. Similarly I will show that to much extent the Catholic Church actually helped develop much of...

NAPLES, Italy, March 23, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- For at least the third time in his pontificate Pope Francis has used very strong language to condemn the gender theory, one of the intellectual underpinnings of the ‘LGBT’ agenda. Speaking Sunday with young people on his voyage to Naples, Italy, Pope Francis spoke of the “ideological colonization” of families seen throughout Europe and the West.“Gender theory is an error of the human mind that leads to so much confusion," he said. “So the family is under attack.” As to how to deal with the “secularization” or the “ideological colonization,” the pope said...

A while back I posted about the surge of vocations in the Diocese of Madison under the influence of the Extraordinary Ordinary, Most Rev. Robert C. Morlino, the diocesan bishop.  It’s a small diocese, but there are more than 30 outstanding men in formation.  This fact has made liberals quiver with anxiety.I received a note from a friend of mine in New York state who is well situated to hear all manner of news. The vocations office in Albany has gone from zero to 120 inquiries from young men of the area. My first reaction is to say, with Henry,...

Why do so many Evangelicals so strongly support Israel? The answer is that a significant majority of American Evangelicals believe that the Abrahamic Covenant is still in force. The Abrahamic Covenant (Gen. 12:1-3) says, among other things, that God promised the land of Canaan to the Jews forever. A significant majority of American Evangelicals believe that God is a keeper of His promises and that the "Promised Land" belongs to the Jews in belief and unbelief, in obedience and in disobedience, forever. (It is an unconditional promise, with no time limits or conditions.) The Abrahamic Covenant also promises that "I...

Days after America's largest Presbyterian denomination approved an amendment to its constitution changing its definition of marriage to include same-sex couples, a lesbian couple will be ordained as ministers Sunday at First & Central Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, Delaware. Kaci Clark-Porter and Holly, who married three years ago, will be the first-ever same-sex couple to be jointly ordained, according to USA Today, which says the denomination couldn't point to other examples. Last year, Presbyterian Church (USA) approved a vote on an amendment to change their official definition of marriage from "a man and a woman" to "two people, traditionally a...

WHEN IS (WAS) THE GREAT TRIBULATION? by Charles S. Meek “And they will deliver YOU up to tribulation. . . .” (Matthew 24:9) “For these are the days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written.” (Luke 21:22) “For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole EARTH.” (Luke 21:35) The Olivet Discourse contains the greatest body of prophecy in the New Testament outside of Revelation. It is found in the parallel passages of Matthew 24/25, Mark 13, and Luke 21. The above passages in the Olivet Discourse are referring to the Great Tribulation at...