Free Republic

Pope Benedict XVI, a man of immense learning in philosophy and theology, has just been quoted as saying that rich nations must assume environmental duties, should shed their "consumerism" and embrace more sober lifestyles: this datelined Vatican City by Reuters. Let's get this straight. We Catholics believe the Pope is infallible on matters of faith and morals but with this caveat: The doctrine of infallibility is a negative i.e. the Pope cannot err on faith and morals. Moreover infallibility does not mean impeccability. The Blessed Virgin, conceived without Original Sin, was and is impeccable but Popes are not. Peter, the...

The holiday season can be filled with warm happy families and smiling couples. Yet even during the holiday season domestic violence does not take a break. According to the National Institute of Justice "financial strain and unemployment" can impact rates and severity of intimate partner violence. In addition, escalation of alcohol consumption can create the perfect tsunami for increased stress and unrestrained domestic abuse. Yet as we attend these festive celebrations we many times turn our heads away simply wishing the discomfort of hearing or seeing violent physical outbursts and abuse away. The violence does not slip away nor is...

John L. Allen, Jr., The Future Church: How Ten Trends are Revolutionizing the Catholic Church (New York: Doubleday Religion, 2009), 480 pp., $28.00. FORCASTING THE future of religion has a long and tainted history. Too often, futurology merely consists of watching the current trajectory of lines on a graph, and extending them until they reach some sensational conclusion. This was the process that led Mark Twain, a century ago, to predict that the world’s largest religions by 2000 AD would be Roman Catholicism—and Christian Science. But no less troublesome is the enduring belief that religion is simply going to fade away...

If anyone has interest in watching this evening... Wednesday, December 16 09:00 PM Thursday, December 17 01:00 AM When millions of people all over the world vanish, a biblical prophecy that has come to be known as the Rapture will be fulfilled, and a floodgate of horrors will be opened on those who are left behind. The Apostle Paul foresaw a moment when all Christians would suddenly be caught up into the air with their Messiah. This would occur prior to the final outpouring of God's wrath upon the wicked. Even Native America Hopi predicted the faithful would be taken...

(IsraelNN.com) The Temple Institute began work on the sacrificial altar Thursday, Tisha B’av, the day the Second Temple was destroyed almost 2,000 years ago. The Temple Institute has already built several of the Temple vessels such as the Ark and the menorah, and has now embarked on an ambitious project to build the altar, which will ultimately measure 3 meters wide by 3 meters long and 2 meters tall. During Thursday’s ceremony, which took place in Mitzpe Yericho just east of Jerusalem, the Temple Institute laid the cornerstone for the altar and demonstrated how tar will be used to cement...

A "Progressive" Anglican church in Auckland New Zealand paid to have this billboard placed near their parish. Here are some excerpts written by the Vicar, Archdeacon Glynn Cardy on the church's website touting what he did. ________________ To make the news at Christmas it seems a priest just needs to question the literalness of a virgin giving birth. Many in society mistakenly think that to challenge literalism is to challenge the norms of Christianity. What progressive interpretations try to do however is remove the supernatural obfuscation and delve into the deeper spiritual truth of this festival. Christian fundamentalism believes a...

Several GetReligion readers have sent in the URL for a Washington Post story that ran last weekend about the formation of a group for gays, lesbians and, one would assume, bisexuals on the campus of the Catholic University of America. This story is pretty much what you would expect: A love song to a small, courageous band of true believers who are standing up against the establishment. Journalists love that template. You can see this right at the top of the report: Every Wednesday morning, 150 officials at Catholic University receive an email about a gay student’s struggles on campus.There’s...

MILWAUKEE, December 15, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The incoming Archbishop of Milwaukee, Jerome Listecki, has responded to a campaign by "Young Catholics for Choice" to promote use of contraception and abortion among Catholic youth. Using media advertising the group is, says the Archbishop-Designate, "attempting to convey the message that Catholics can disregard Church teaching regarding contraception, abortion and human sexuality in general and remain Catholics in good standing." However, "Nothing could be further from the truth." "While people can call themselves whatever they want, it is my duty as a bishop to state clearly and unequivocally that by professing and disseminating...

God hates the Jews. Wright said it. That is bold, orthodox Muslim preaching. So blow up Jews’ buildings. That’s Muslim Muslim Muslim written all over it.

While browsing some threads on a popular forum recently, I was introduced to an interesting critique of Ayn Rand's ethics, by John Piper. I already knew the critique was going to be from a Christian perspective, but was pleasantly surprised by it, nevertheless. This is what I wrote to the poster who provided the link to the article: "I'm a long time student of Rand, since the 50's, and have read almost everything I could find related to Rand and her philosophy, and of course everything she has written, including her journals and correspondence. I have never read John Piper's...

Pentecostals have always been the red-headed stepchildren of American Christianity -- holy rollers who were known for speaking in tongues or laughing wildly and even barking like dogs while seized by religious ecstasy, or producing miracle healings on command and handling venomous snakes without fear. All of that was made possible, of course, by calling on the Holy Spirit -- yet was too embarrassing for sober-sided mainline Protestants and even hellfire Southern Baptists, and incomprehensible to the point of batty for Roman Catholics and other high-church folks. Or at least it was until Oral Roberts came along. Roberts, who...

She states that it is the government that dictates to the populace what is moral and what is immoral. Therefore, grassroots must bow down to the governmental altar, giving honor to politicians who scribe the holy writ of society.

My Beloved, where is true beauty found today? In People Magazine’s Most Beautiful People edition? In the natural genetic beauty of Hollywood and the Music industries’ A-list? In Donald Trump’s Miss America beauty pageants? In the high school cliques of the most popular teens? Nope, it’s not there. Where is true beauty to be found then? Well, there is a temporal, natural beauty possessed by a select number of people. There is no denying that. These did absolutely nothing to obtain this “outward” form of beauty who received it at birth. In the end this beauty is short-lived and vain...

Television evangelist Oral Roberts ... has died after suffering a weekend fall. He was 91. The Oral Roberts Ministries site Tuesday stated Roberts had been admitted to hospital on the weekend after a fall and had been suffering symptoms of pneumonia. "Oral Roberts was the greatest man of God I've ever known," his son Richard Roberts, who leads the ministry, said in a statement. "A modern-day apostle of the healing ministry, an author, educator, evangelist, prophet, and innovator, he was the only man of his generation to build a worldwide ministry, an accredited university, and a medical school. His name...

NRO has an excellent piece on the subject.Maggie’s Top Eight Reasons Why Gay Marriage Is Not Inevitable1. Nothing is inevitable.We are talking about the future here. It’s weird to have “reporting� that something that has not yet happened will certainly happen. The future is never inevitable.2. Young people are not as unanimous as most people think.In California, the young-adults vote split 55 percent to 45 percent. Is it so hard to imagine 5 percent of those young people changing their minds as they move through the life cycle?3. The argument from despair is bait and switch.They are trying push...

The Rev. Oral Roberts, the internationally known television evangelist and faith healer who founded Oral Roberts University, died Monday in Newport Beach, Calif. He was ­91. According to a release, his son, Richard, and daughter, Roberta, were at his side. Funeral services are pending. The often-controversial charismatic minister built Oral Roberts University, the now-closed City of Faith Medical and Research Center and the University Village Retirement Center in Tulsa.

Vatican City, Dec 15, 2009 / 02:02 pm (CNA).- Pope Benedict XVI made his message for World Day for Peace public on Tuesday morning in preparation for its observation on January 1, 2010. In his message, he calls for global solidarity in action to provide for the world's needs and to protect the environment. However, the Holy Father also stresses that we must be continually aware of the value of people over and above all other living things. An attitude of "global solidarity" is essential in shaping our efforts to protect creation through a better internationally-coordinated management of the earth's...

The time is now for the church to return to the sufficiency of Scripture, said a ministry head. Scott T Brown, director of the National Center for Family-Integrated Churches, opened a three-day conference on Thursday calling attention to the urgency of the matter. "What is at stake here is the question of the sufficiency of God," he wrote in his blog, recalling his address to thousands of conference attendees. "God did not breathe into the Scripture; He breathed the Scripture." To embrace the sufficiency of Scripture is to embrace the sufficiency of God Himself, Brown asserted. The conference at the...

Monday December 14, 2009 Author Calls on US Bishops to Reform Catholic News Service (CNS) - Part 2 Many parishes "force feed" subscriptions to the diocesan newspaper upon their parishioners See Part 1  Commentary By Louie VerrecchioWASHINGTON, DC, December 11, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - CNS' cavalier attitude toward orthodoxy is not confined to its recent treatment of the life issue alone. Some other examples, just to name a few:In 2005, CNS issued a glowing review of the movie "Brokeback Mountain" and rated the homosexual propaganda piece as suitable for a "limited adult audience." Following the backlash of outraged readers, CNS eventually changed...

"I've told environmentalists that if they think humanity is wrecking the planet, wait until they see what Jesus does to it. Peter says God is going to literally turn it in on itself in an atomic implosion so that the whole universe goes out of existence (2 Peter 3:7-13)." *** I do think we have a responsibility to care for the environment--we ought to care for every resource God has provided for us. That's illustrated in the Old Testament account where God put Israel in the Promised Land, a fertile land flowing with milk and honey. God provided them that...

When Justice John Paul Stevens, who is 89, retires—and he's expected to in the next year or so—there will be no Protestant left on the highest court in the land. Will President Obama be pressured to appoint one? Popular opinion once held that even one Catholic was too many on the court. Today there are six. But would anyone even notice if Obama appointed a seventh to replace Stevens? Once upon a time, there was an outright religious litmus test for Supreme Court appointees. Today religion is almost irrelevant in appointing new justices. All of which raises a question: Are...

Lutheran Churches in Eastern Europe have added their voices to those of Lutherans worldwide who are critical of the decisions of the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly to endorse same-sex unions and to allow pastors to be in same-sex sexual relationships. The leaders of the Lutheran Churches in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania met Nov. 3-4. The bishops issued a message noting the crisis of faith and fellowship caused by the actions of the ELCA and the Church of Sweden in endorsing same-sex sexual relationships. These churches are all members of the Lutheran World Federation. “At the present time a common witness...

Pope Benedict XVI says industrialised countries have a "historic responsibility" to solve environmental problems. "It is indeed important to recognise, among the causes of the current ecological crisis, the historic responsibility of the industrialised countries," the pope said on Tuesday. "Less developed countries, and especially emerging nations, are not however exonerated from their responsibility... because the duty of gradually adopting effective environmental measures and policies belongs to all," he added. The pope's appeal came as crucial UN climate talks in Copenhagen were bogged down by procedural wrangles and divisions between rich and developing nations. World leaders were converging on the...

Today's divine mercies are keeping the globe spinning upon its axis. God loves this globe. "For God so loved the world. . ."

San Angelo, Texas » Jurors heard more from a former member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on Monday in the trial of Allan Keate, who faces charges of sexually assaulting a child. Rebecca Musser explained why she moved away from her FLDS community. Having been married to FLDS prophet Rulon Jeffs in her late teens, she was pressured along with younger wives to marry the new prophet, Rulon Jeffs' son Warren Jeffs, and she refused, Musser said. Musser said Warren Jeffs told her, "I will break you. I will make you a good wife....

Life is full of ironies. Europe’s immigration revolution was caused by two major developments, and both had hugely ironic results. Europe’s Holocaust complex and sense of self-hatred following the Nazi horror led to a reactive obsession with racism as the ultimate evil, which led, ironically, to large-scale immigration from among the most anti-Semitic countries on earth, widespread “anti-Zionism” in Europe, and an increase in hate crimes against Jews across the continent. The second factor was the sexual revolution, the decline of church attendance, the invention of the Pill, the 1967 Abortion Act and the increase in female employment, which caused...

Has a young Harvard graduate student in economics dealt a deadly blow to Max Weber’s theory that Protestantism favours economic development? Davide Cantoni has just produced a brilliantly argued paper which takes economic data from Catholic and Protestant cities in Germany from 1300 to 1900, subjects them to meticulous multivariate analysis, and finds no evidence that Protestantism per se made people richer. Cantoni, whose CV reveals that he is a 28-year-old doctoral student with joint German and Italian citizenship, knows that he is walking into a minefield. Weber’s reputation as perhaps the greatest of all sociologists does not rest solely...

Every December, public school students, parents, teachers and administrators face the difficult task of acknowledging the various religious and secular holiday traditions celebrated during that time of year. This pamphlet is designed to inform members of the public school community about the current state of the law regarding constitutionally permissible religious holiday observance in the public schools. The First Amendment guarantees freedom of religion to all Americans — including young schoolchildren — by prohibiting the government from endorsing or promoting any particular religious point of view. This prohibition has led courts to ban such plainly coercive religious activities in public...

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This Wednesday (December 16), The History Channel is supposed to air a program as part of its series, "The Nostradamus Effect." The topic of the program will be "The Rapture." It is the program for which I was asked to interview, and did so last June. The program was first scheduled, according to the documentary's project co-producer, for Wednesday, December 2. It was then moved to Wednesday, December 9, and finally, I was alerted that it will be aired this Wednesday (December 16). While the move of the program's air date is frustrating in that we must keep changing our...

<p>CHISINAU, Moldova — Dozens of people led by an Orthodox priest smashed a menorah in Moldova's capital, using hammers and iron bars to remove the candelabra during Hanukkah, officials said.</p> <p>The 1.5 meter(5-foot)-tall ceremonial candelabrum was retrieved, reinstalled and is now under police guard.</p>

Now the Dem libs have gone way over the line with California Senator Diane Feinstein laying out the devil’s doctrine. She focuses especially regarding abortion.

The law did not require Jews to be at the Temple in Jerusalem, as this was not one of the pilgrimage festivals. Every one observed it in his own place, not as a holy time. Jesus was there that He might improve those eight days of holiday for good purposes. Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon’s porch when the Sadduciens asked him “How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ tell us.” They pretended to want to know the truth, as if they were ready to embrace it; but it was not their intention....

Operation Rescue has launched Project Daniel 5:25 -- a reference to scripture dealing with handwriting on the wall. Operation Rescue has done extensive research to determine how many abortion clinics have closed in the last two decades. Spokesman Troy Newman believes the days of legal abortion in America are numbered. "[We] come up with a number of nearly 1,500 of these abortion clinics that have closed and not reopened," he explains. "And so just like the biblical story of Daniel, [who] reads the handwriting on the wall that says that this wicked kingdom will soon come to an end, it...

The 2009 CINO (Catholic In Name Only) Award Nominations are now open.  Due to the sheer volume of possibilities, the 2009 CINO awards will be limited to elected officials in the United States, given their unique ability to affect and influence our lives.  (I certainly encourage folks in others countries to start their own CINO awards.) The purpose of this exercise is NOT to place ourselves in judgment of others, but rather as observers of behavior within the context of Catholic teaching as set forth in the Catechism.  There is only one ultimate Judge and we are not Him.  Please...

Many readers will rejoice - fittingly on this Gaudete Sunday - to learn that last Thursday, 10 December 2009, the Cause of Beatification of the Servant of God Zita, last Empress of Austria and wife of Blessed Emperor Charles, was solemnly opened by His Excellency Msgr. Yves Le Saux, Bishop of Le Mans, France. The process was opened in Le Mans, and not in the Swiss diocese of Chur, where the Empress died 20 years ago in 1989 in Zizers, with the consent of Msgr. Huonder, the Bishop of Chur, and the permission of the Congregation for the Causes of...

CLEAR LAKE — Members of Zion Lutheran Church voted to withdraw from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America on Sunday, a reaction to the issue of practicing gay pastors. The vote was 238 to 119, exactly the two-thirds majority vote needed for it to pass. “I’m happy that they decided to go this direction because I think it sets the possibility for a new and stronger future for the congregation,” said Rev. Dean Hess, senior pastor at the Clear Lake church. Carole Roth, church council president, said she was pleased with the results, too. “Certainly God has spoken today,” she...

Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad believes in the Second Coming of the Iranian Messiah. The Messiah will appear when the globe is in utter chaos. Spell "chaos" as meaning "nuclear blow up."

<p>A federal lawsuit has been filed against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago alleging that church officials discriminated against African-American victims of sexual abuse by trying to silence their claims and proposing smaller settlements than those offered to white victims.</p>

“Perfection is acquired through our efforts, and if we try to become saints, someday we will be saints.” — Father Emil Kapaun Chase Kear does not seem at first glance to be the poster boy for a Vatican investigation involving sainthood. He chews a little dip, hits targets at turkey shoots, listens to country music when he rolls. In his Facebook profile photo he dresses the part of a halfnaked bandito in a sombrero. He’s a self-described redneck; also foolish and drunk and stupid at times in the past, he says, though less so since his accident. He takes comfort...

Jeremiah 17:7,8 Blessed is the Man that Trusteth in the LORD, And whose Hope the LORD is. For he shall be as a Tree that is Planted by the Water, Which Spreadeth Out her Roots by the River, And shall not Feel when the Heat Cometh, But her Leaf shall be Green, And shall not Care for the Year of Drought, Neither shall Cease from Yielding Fruit.

... to be taken in by this sort of nonsense, courtesy of Aussie politics and press: NSW Premier Kristina Keneally is in 'utter agreement' with the teachings of the Catholic Church but wants female priests, the vow of celibacy relaxed and supports abortion. In related news, I'm in utter agreement with the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but believe Joseph Smith was a con artist, think the Book of Mormon is nonsensical, and want the LDS to publicly and financially support abortion. Is that a problem? The mother of two and church-going Catholic challenges much...

Tiger Woods of late has been the center of great controversy in light of his sexual addictions and appetites. Tiger has many exceedingly great accomplishments in his young life. One though that he has fallen short on is the discipline and managing of his own heart and the unbridled passions. Tiger is just the tip of the iceberg in today’s Red Light District American culture. He is par for the course in light of the countless others in the professional sports world and the entertainment elite industry that are part of this decadent and licentious pleasure seeking crowd. With their...

Manhattan Declaration comes at a time of ‘important decisions,’ Robert George explains Prof. Robert P. George Washington D.C., Dec 12, 2009 / 10:47 pm (CNA).- Robert P. George, a Princeton University professor who co-authored the popular Manhattan Declaration, has explained that the document was intended to speak at a time when “important decisions” are being made concerning the sanctity of human life, the nature of marriage and religious freedom.Speaking in a Dec. 1 interview with Kathryn Jean Lopez of National Review Online, George said the statement’s backers wanted to bear witness to “three foundational principles of justice and the...

His site is currently down (Voice of Evangelism, Manna Fest), but you can watch it there if you can get to it. This is not surprising. There are CDs, DVDs on his site about this. Let's just say he's letting it fly...The show is on his web site.

The election of a second openly-homosexual bishop in the Episcopal Church hardly came as a surprise. Given the actions of the church in its General Convention this past summer, the question was clearly not if there would be more openly-gay bishops, but when. The Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles answered that question on Saturday, electing the Reverend Mary D. Glasspool of Baltimore as an assistant bishop. She is expected to be consecrated as bishop on May 15 in Los Angeles.Ms. Glasspool was elected on the seventh ballot, winning 153 clergy votes and 203 lay votes. Her election followed the election...

The familiar passages of the early chapters of the book of Genesis tell us that God not only created the earth and all it contains, but that He also revealed Himself to man and communicated directly with him. Clearly then, the Bible teaches that from his very beginning, mankind was aware of the existence of one God. Thus, if the biblical account is to be accepted, the first man was a monotheist. But, can this be reconciled with what modern science teaches us about the development and evolution of man and his institutions? Is it conceivable that the primitive mind...

Question Of the Month: A few weeks ago, I went and bought my oldest 2 daughters (aged 17 and 15) a lovely new Bible each, complete with a bookmark. And after the evening meal on the Sunday I quietly announced that we were going to read and discuss the Bible together as a family. The reaction of my oldest daughter, 16 was, shall we say.... vigorous! She nearly hit the roof!!! We were ramming religion down her throat. She even accused of child abuse! Needless to say, she didn't say thank you for the Bible. Nobody else I know does...

Talk to GodPope John Paul II thought prayer was so important, he dedicated a year to the Rosary. Pope Benedict XVI directed these beautiful words to Americans during his recent visit: “Time spent in prayer is never wasted, however urgent the duties that press upon us from every side. ... Contemplation of the mysteries of the Rosary releases all their saving power, and it conforms, unites and consecrates us to Jesus Christ.” This Advent, the Register challenges each reader to pray the Rosary every day. Then, when Advent ends, why stop? 1 If you had the chance to talk...