Free Republic

Full title - "[Catholic Caucus] World Over - 2016-04-14 – Pope Francis' Apostolic Exhortation on the Family with Raymond Arroyo" FR GERALD MURRAY and ROBERT ROYAL...the Papal Posse...join us to discuss Pope Francis' recently released Apostolic Exhortation, AMORIS LAETITIA (The Joy of Love). Excerpt - see video of this EWTN program segment at "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5Avd7bCiV0".

One of the first United Methodist Church congregations to join the LGBT lobbying group, Reconciling Ministries Network, will close next month. St. Paul United Methodist Church of Denver, Colorado, a theologically liberal congregation that became the third church to become a Reconciling congregation, will soon close its doors. The Rev. Jessica Rooks, head of St. Paul UMC, told The Christian Post the final worship service will be held on Sunday, May 22. "St. Paul has opened its doors and built relationships with the LGBTQ community, the homeless and hungry in Denver, those struggling with addition, and individuals who struggle to...

As a general rule, one is typically on the wrong side of the issue if they are fighting against a group of nuns providing care for the elderly and poor. “One,” in this case, is unsurprisingly the Obama Administration. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The pending U.S. Supreme Court case Zubik v. Burwell involves the Catholic charity the Little Sister of the Poor and other religious organizations’ desire to not provide services in their health plans that violate their religious beliefs. Namely, this includes free access to contraceptive drugs, including some that may cause abortions.The Obama Administration claims that they include a workaround...

The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster isn't real and it's followers, who call themselves Pastafarians, are just kinda' being jerks, a federal court in Nevada. (OK, the court didn't say they were being jerks but hey I'm allowed some editorial leeway. It's just a blog anyway.) A blast of common sense from the bench. Whoa. Newsweek:Worshippers of the Flying Spaghetti Monster call their faith FSMism or Pastafarianism, a portmanteau of pasta and Rastafarianism. One such worshipper, Stephen Cavanaugh, a prisoner in a Nebraska state penitentiary, sued the state in 2014 over the right to practice his faith. Cavanaugh argued...

On Wednesday, April 13 Kobe Bryant, one of the greatest athletes of all time, ended his 20-year basketball career with a bang, scoring 60 points in his last game.While Bryant’s stats can be recited by many  five-time NBA champion, two-time Olympic champion, 18-time All-Star and the third leading scorer in NBA history — few know about the role his Catholic faith played in helping him through one of his darkest hours.Born in Philadelphia, Kobe Bryant was raised in a Catholic household and even spent some of his youth in Italy. Drafted into the NBA at the age of 17, he eventually married Vanessa Laine at...

For years there has been disagreement between Catholics and some non-Catholic groups about the Catholic ChurchÂ’s teaching on the Marian Dogmas, particularly, the perpetual virginity of the Blessed Mother. This will attempt to clear up some of the confusion. Catholics have always held that Mary remained a virgin before, during, and following the birth of Jesus. Many non-Catholics contend that scripture proves that she did not and points to several instances of people being called brothers or sisters of Jesus. When we study the scriptures carefully, paying particular attention to the order of sentences and view the language with precision,...

I. The Church is a mystery. It is the mystery of God's presence among us, our Savior, God, who does not want the death of sinners, but be converted and live. The conversion requires our collaboration. II. The Church is infallible in its divine nature; but it is run by people who can make mistakes and even make mistakes. We must distinguish the office of the person. The latter remains a certain amount of time in office and then out-either by death or other circumstances, but the office remains. Pope Francis today has the papal ministry and the primacy of...

Editor's Note: One of the most popular regular features in the print- and e-edition of The Remnant is "The Last Word", by Father Celatus. Father, who is a pastor working in the U.S. at a diocesan parish, enthusiastically celebrates the TLM as often as possible. Father's call to his brother priests to stand and resist what is happening in Rome speaks for itself, but I'd remind our readers that this courageous priest is not part of the SSPX or FSSP or any other traditionalist fraternity or society. He is a diocesan priest who is protecting his flock and defending Truth...

Norway's Lutheran Church voted on Monday in favor of allowing same-sex marriage, becoming the latest of a small but growing number of churches worldwide to do so. Last year the French Protestant Church allowed gay marriage blessings, while the U.S. Presbyterian Church approved a change in the wording of its constitution to include same-sex marriage. In a vote at the annual conference of the Norwegian Lutheran Church on Monday 88 delegates out of 115 in total backed same-sex marriage. "Finally we can celebrate love independently of whom one falls in love with," said Gard Sandaker-Nilsen, leader of the Open Public...

A video tribute to the revival of the Church in Russia after a century of bloody persecution.

As any apologist worth his/her salt will tell you, the great objection to the proposition that God exists is the fact of innocent suffering. If you want a particularly vivid presentation of this complaint, go on YouTube and look up Stephen Fry’s disquisition on why he doesn’t believe in God. (Then right afterward, please, do look at my answer to Fry). But the anguished question of an army of non-believers remains: how could an all-loving and all-powerful God possibly allow the horrific suffering endured by those who simply don’t deserve it? Say all you want, these critics hold, about...

There’s a religious liberty standoff underway in Middleton, Wisconsin. ADVERTISEMENT On one side is a group of Christian moms armed with Chick-fil-A sandwiches and 400 homemade brownies. On the other side are public school administrators who believe that Jesus and plump juicy chicken breasts are “divisive.” The controversy surrounds an off-campus lunch event involving students at Middleton High School known as “Jesus Lunch.”

Our time, though intimidating, may be one of the best for evangelism. Let me explain. A headline from my much beloved [!] BBC just revealed a troubling state of affairs: “Gender identity clinic for young people sees referrals double.” The number of young people referred to England’s only gender-identity clinic has doubled this past year to nearly 1,400. That is one clinic in one year with a 100% rise in gender confusion issues. This is clearly a significant cultural trend. The head of the clinic puts a positive spin on the data: “Young people now have more freedom to define...

The American Founders believed religious liberty to be so essential that they enshrined it in the First Amendment. Today, however, it is treated as only another flashpoint in the culture wars. Simply look at the reaction to Georgia’s H.B. 757, a religious-freedom bill that my colleagues in the legislature and I voted to pass on March 16. In light of the Supreme Court’s decision last year in Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage throughout the U.S., Georgia’s lawmakers wanted to be clear that our state’s protections for religious liberty have not changed. The bill would have protected clerics from...

If Catholics who have divorced and remarried without obtaining an annulment can in some cases be given permission to receive communion, will this do more harm than good? That’s the question at the heart of the controversy over Pope Francis’ post synodal apostolic exhortation, Amoris Laetitia. Other questions are so easily answered that we can skim over them very quickly. For example: 1. Is the text too long? It is long, yes. It used 95 pages coming out of my printer, with 391 footnotes. But it is not out of keeping with other post-synodal apostolic exhortations on complex topics, for...

Damascus, April 12, Interfax - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad sees no future for his country and the entire region without the Christian presence, Hieromonk Stefan (Igumnov), secretary for inter-Christian relations at the Moscow's Patriarchate's Department for External Church Relations, told reporters after a meeting with al-Assad on Tuesday. "During the talks today, Bashar al-Assad noted that Syria has traditionally been a multi-faith country, and both its future and the future of the Middle East is inconceivable without the Christian presence," he said. According to him, al-Assad noted the crucial peacekeeping and humanitarian role of the Russian Orthodox Church in efforts...

High profile corporations join coalition campaigning against legislation that would protect businesses objecting on religious grounds to same-sex marriagesMore than 60 businesses including some of Missouri’s biggest corporate names joined a coalition opposed to state legislation that would protect businesses objecting on religious grounds to same-sex marriages. Agricultural giant Monsanto, prescription drug benefits manager Express Scripts, and pet food maker Nestle Purina are among employers to join the recently formed Missouri Competes, according to gay rights advocacy group Promo, which released the list just hours before a House committee heard testimony from business, sports and religious groups. Dozens crammed in...

LOUISVILLE, KY—For the third time in as many gatherings, the Together for the Gospel Conference was marred by an outbreak of turbulence as tensions rose over differing hermeneutic approaches to Scripture. “The dispensationalists feel like they’ve been given short shrift again,” said Dr. John Dawsen, as a Crossway pen whizzed by his ear. “Combine the grammatical-historical and redemptive-historical feud and inter-complementarian squabbles, and you have a recipe for contention.” Clad in a Straight Outta Westminster t-shirt and sporting a teardrop tattoo by his left eye, Charles Lyman said, “It’s not my fault they can’t read their Bibles. Next time they...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A heart that clings to the letter of the law is closed to the Holy Spirit and God's truth, Pope Francis said at morning Mass. Such hardened hearts often were behind the persecution of innocent men and women seeking to follow God's will, the pope said April 11 in his homily during Mass in the Domus Sanctae Marthae, where he lives. The history of the church "tells us of many people who were judged and killed, although they were innocent -- judged according to the Word of God, against the Word of God," he said. "Let's...

Like Republicans across the country, Satmar Republicans are fed up with the failed policies of the Obama administration. The burdens placed on small businesses by overregulation, higher taxes and Obamacare are felt here, too. Parents struggling to make ends meet dream of a president who will be a crusader for school choice. The administration’s hostility to religious liberty sends a chill down the spine of every religious Jewish voter, Republican or Democrat. So naturally, many Jewish Republicans are turning towards Ted Cruz. Ted Cruz achieved national renown for his efforts to defund Obamacare before it launched in 2014, leading to...