Free Republic

It is all too common to hear stories about fallen away Catholics, and how fewer are attending Mass and following their faith. Many blame theirs or others’ lukewarm faith or lack of catechesis on priests, their schools, bishops, Vatican II, popes, liturgical abuses, scandals, or any number of things. The problem of being lukewarm is mentioned in Revelation 3:16, where it states, rather indelicately but deliberately, “But because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, not hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth.”We hear regular criticism that the Church is failing Catholics and thus the world,...

Erbil, Iraq, May 1, 2016 / 04:02 pm (CNA).- Loai Behnam Toubia pulls up his shirt, uncovering a thick, dark scar – probably 10 inches long – that tears vertically down his large, round belly. With a cockeyed arm he points to three smaller scars that decorate the left side of his misshaped abdomen, marking the times he was shot when ISIS opened fire on his car last year. I stand in the dust surrounded by rows of boxy prefab trailers listening to his story. I focus on the scar marking where the bullet that landed just centimeters below his...

LONDON (Reuters) - Sadiq Khan of opposition Labour Party is the strong favourite to win London's mayoral election on Thursday after a contest marked by religious tensions and accusations of racism. Polls show Khan, the son of a bus driver, is as much as 20 percentage points ahead of rival Conservative Zac Goldsmith in the race to run one of the world's top financial centres. If he wins, he will succeed current Conservative mayor Boris Johnson to become the first Muslim to head a major Western capital. London's population of 8.6 million is among the most diverse in the world...

It’s a massive victory more than six months in the making. Sergeant First Class Charles Martland – a decorated war hero who faced expulsion from the Army for defending a child – has been exonerated and will be allowed to remain in the U.S. military. We have been aggressively advocating for SFC Martland for more than six months, and now we’ve helped achieve a significant victory for this Green Beret war hero. SFC Martland faced expulsion from the Army for defending a child from sexual abuse and confronting an admitted sexual predator in Afghanistan. The ACLJ argued that his actions...

He says, “I removed the burden from their shoulders; their hands were set free from the basket. In your distress you called and I rescued you, I answered you out of a thundercloud; I tested you at the waters of Meribah. “Hear, O my people, and I will warn you— if you would but listen to me, O Israel! You shall have no foreign god among you; you shall not bow down to an alien god. I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.” (Psalm...

There's a new sound coming forth from the hills of southern West Virginia. It's a sound many prophets have foretold but haven't heard until now -- and some believe it could spark an end-times awakening...

Denver, Colo., Apr 29, 2016 / 12:08 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The lawyers of the bakery owner who made headlines for declining to make a wedding cake for a same-sex wedding is “evaluating all legal options” to preserve the man’s First Amendment rights after the state’s highest court declined to take the case. “We asked the Colorado Supreme Court to take this case to ensure that government understands that its duty is to protect the people’s freedom to follow their beliefs personally and professionally, not force them to violate those beliefs as the price of earning a living,” Alliance Defending Freedom...

MUMBAI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The leader of the only South Asian Muslim community known to practice female genital mutilation (FGM) came under criticism on Friday by campaigners who accused him of urging followers to continue the centuries-old custom. Little is known about FGM in India, where it is carried out in great secrecy by the close-knit Dawoodi Bohra community, a Shi'ite Muslim sect thought to number over 1 million that considers the practice to be a religious obligation. An audio clip of Syedna Muffadal Saifuddin's speech at a mosque in Mumbai, has been authenticated by several members of the...

FULL TITLE: “Even if the Pope were Satan incarnate, we ought not to raise up our heads against him” – St. Catherine of Siena Today is the – in the post-Conciliar, modern, non-traditional – Ordinary Form – Novus Ordo Calendar – Feast of St. Catherine of Siena, Patroness of Europe and named by Paul VI as Doctor of the Church. Thus, her life and works reflect something of the Church’s own role as Teacher.  Her head may be venerated in Siena and the rest of her in Rome in the Church Santa Maria sopra Minerva (near the ecclesiastical tailor Gammarelli...

Italian police officers patrol St Peter's Square (AP) Authorities monitored conversations between the suspects via WhatsAppItalian authorities have arrested six suspects who allegedly received orders from ISIS to attack the Vatican and the Israeli embassy in Rome.The arrests made in Lombardy and Piedmont were the result of a joint operation coordinated by the district attorney of Milan and the Italian anti-terrorism agency.According to the Italian news agency ANSA, authorities arrested Abderrahim Moutaharrik and his wife, Salma Bencharki; Abderrahmane Khachia, and three people who have maintained contact with a couple that left Italy to join ISIS in Syria. All of the suspects...

My dear friend's, once America's restraint is totally and fully removed from this present evil world, what is to stop the global lawless march to doomsday and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse's ride (2 Thess. 2:2-8, Rev. 6-19)! My friends, a very sobering NOTHING! That is right, NOTHING! We are at the bottom of the super accelerating vortex in world's history, where there is no more time, room and remedies to fix our nation and world's horrific EXPONENTIAL ills. We are at the bottom of the super accelerating vortex in world's history, where there is no more time, room...

Moscow, April 29, Interfax - Most of Russians (75% in general and 72% of those who call themselves Orthodox believers) did not have any special diet during the Great Lent, which this year ends on April 30, the Lavada-Center told Interfax. During the poll held on April 22-25 among 1600 people in 137 cities and towns of Russia it cleared out that eight per cent of Russians in general and nine per cent of Orthodox believers were going to observe fast during the last week before Easter. Another 14% of respondents (16% of Orthodox believers) observe fast partially (for example...

You can have your opinion’ as long as it doesn’t ‘deny my existence’It’s uncommon at Jesuit universities these days for someone to openly share a traditional Catholic viewpoint. When it happened at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, the school was so spooked it called the Los Angeles Police Department. Both the police and the university’s Bias Incident Response Team are investigating the stated belief that only two genders exist, male and female, as a hate crime. A Loyola alumni office employee discussed her views on sexual orientation, which align with the Roman Catholic Church, with three students who were...

Vice President Joe Biden arrives in Rome on Thursday to attend a conference on breakthroughs in regenerative medicine, part-hosted by the Pontifical Council for Culture. Biden will deliver a talk the following day about the Obama administration's "Moonshot" initiative which aims to make therapies available to more patients and accelerate cancer research by improving cancer prevention and detecting it at an early stage. The Vice President, whose son Beau died of brain cancer last year, is aiming to double the rate of progress toward a cancer cure, for which the Obama administration has asked Congress for $1 billion. The April...

The Catholic Archbishop of Cologne has slammed Germany's anti-Islam party, Alternative for Deutchsland (AfD). Rainer Woelki posted a video where he ridiculed the right-wing party's claim that Islam is incompatible with the German constitution. The archbishop's intervention comes after the anti-immigration party said it would press for bans on minarets and burqas. "Anyone who denigrates Muslims as the AfD leadership does should realise prayer rooms and mosques are equally protected by our constitution as our churches and chapels," he said. "Whoever says 'yes' to church towers must also say 'yes' to minarets." The AfD has grown in prominence putting pressure...

MT. JULIET, Tenn. (WATE) – A Middle Tennessee pastor is stirring up controversy from both supporters and those opposed to the transgender bathroom bill. Pastor Greg Locke of Global Vision Bible Church in Mt. Juliet’s video about Target’s new bathroom policy has received over 14 million views. In April, the Tennessee House sponsor of the bill, which would have require students in public school grades K-12 and higher education institutions to use the restroom that corresponds with their sex at birth. Shortly after the bill was pulled, Target issued a store policy that allows transgender customers to use the bathroom...

He has been called the godfather of shock-rock, mixing elements of horror movies into acts that have included an unpalatable array of guillotines, fake blood, baby dolls and boa constrictors. Yet many would be surprised to learn of his Christian roots and his homecoming to the faith after sowing his oats as the ultimate prodigal.“My father was a pastor and my grandfather was an evangelist, actually both were evangelists,” Cooper told the Harvest Show. “I grew up in the church and all my friends were church kids. I had so much fun. I was in church Sunday, Wednesday night, Friday...

Pro-life protesters faced a disturbing scene this weekend in Michigan when a group of Satanists arrived to counter-protest wearing baby masks and carrying whips. Citizens for a Pro-Life Society organized a protest outside of the Detroit Planned Parenthood abortion clinic on Saturday as part of a larger #ProtestPP movement to expose the abortion giant’s deadly trade of aborting unborn babies and trafficking their body parts. During the pro-life event, a local Satanist group arrived and conducted a disturbingly grotesque counter-protest. Some of the Satanists dressed in masks and diapers to look like babies, while others dressed in black, carried whips...

Psalm 3:4,5 I Cried Out to the Lord, and He Heard me from His Temple in Jerusalem. Then I Lay Down and Slept in Peace and Woke Up Safely, For the Lord was Watching Over me.

A recent New York Times article revealed that 90 percent of teens in the predominantly Muslim districts of Molenbeek and Schaerbeek think of the Brussels terrorists as heroes. The main thing to notice here is not that these youth have warped values (which they do), but that their heroes are people who are willing to die for what they believe. Which means that some of these young people are likely willing to die for the same beliefs. Meanwhile, a test given to thirteen-year-olds in an Italian middle school revealed that 90 percent of them would convert to Islam if...