Free Republic

[In light of Scott Brown's upset victory in Mass.] Conservative leaders and their followers are excited about Scott Brown's victory and anxiously awaiting the 2010 elections this fall. Conservative leaders and their base are also touting that they can see the light at the end of the "Big Government" tunnel and are very optimistic. Though we should be excited about what may transpire this fall we should not be putting all our optimistic eggs into this cankering basket. What we will be witnessing in a future 2010 victory are the last struggling convulsions of a nation on the precipice of...

Three workmen rescued a nun moments before an Amtrak train hit and destroyed her car Monday in Lemont. Jason Wojdyla, 25, his dad John, and coworker Ryan Dimenza were installing air conditioning on a rooftop in downtown Lemont at 1 p.m. Monday when they spotted the nun crash her white Chevy Malibu. “She hit a fire hydrant and got stuck on the tracks,” Jason Wojdyla said. “We knew we had to do something.” The threesome ran downstairs to help. Though the nun, who Wojdyla estimated was in her 60s, was unhurt, they had to convince her to abandon her car...

Moscow, Russia, Jan 20, 2010 / 12:11 am (CNA).- The Gospels, four icons, crosses and a relic of the True Cross have been taken aboard the Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS), a Russian cosmonaut has reported. A photo taken by the station crew shows an icon and a crucifix floating in zero gravity in the ISS. Writing on his blog at the website of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), Cosmonaut Maksim Suraev responded to readers’ questions about religious symbols on the space station. “We have four holy icons on the Russia segment. We also have the...

The Christian exodus from PA-controlled territories continues, religious freedom under Moslem control is not expected – yet the Vatican issues a document blaming the “occupation.” The document released this week prefaces a meeting that Pope Benedictus XVI will hold nine months from now with 150 bishops in the Middle East. The plight of the increasingly dwindling Christian minority in the region, the reasons for the exodus, and the discrimination faced by Christians will be the main issues. The document lists several causes for the current situation in the PA, Iraq, and elsewhere, including the “Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” the growth of “political...

Skeptics, atheists, and agnostics, have every reason to ask me, as a Christian, how my loving God could allow the earthquake in Haiti. And, as a Christian, I must face the fact that God, indeed, could have prevented the quake and spared the Haitian people such agony. And yet He chose to allow it.

A copy of the commandments is back on the wall of a Kentucky courthouse after the federal court ruled late last week that the display does not violate the U.S. Constitution. After a decade of court battles with the American Civil Liberties Union and others, advocates of religious expression seem to be on a winning streak.

Today Conservatism in America - and in the world - is at the “Alamo” of its existence. As we shall see, there is no way that we as a nation - let alone a global society - can survive the devastating impact of the past 50 years. We are at the imploding point even now. The American structure is ready to collapse by the over burden load of godlessness and decadence placed on it by the American people. The dam is about to burst, and the “lawlessness flood” of oppression, tyranny, global war and human catastrophe is soon to deluge...

Venerables John Paul II and Pius XII Rome, Italy, Jan 19, 2010 / 12:21 pm (CNA).- Some details of the case under investigation regarding a possible miracle attributed to Venerable Pope Pius XII have been made public.  The story features not just one former Pontiff, but two.On Tuesday morning, Vatican journalist Andrea Tornielli published an article in Il Giornale describing at length the situation which "mysteriously involves" John Paul II.Tornielli reported that this case was brought to the attention of Benedict XVI shortly before he approved a measure on Dec. 19, 2009 venerating Pope Pius XII's life of "heroic...

Vatican City, Jan 19, 2010 / 02:17 pm (CNA).- The Vatican Press Office presented on Tuesday the "Lineamenta" document in preparation for the convocation of the Special Assembly of the Synod of Middle Eastern Bishops.  The document aims to stimulate discussion for the creation of a "working document" that will provide guidelines for the upcoming synod, which will be held in the Vatican from Oct. 10 - 24 of this year. "The initiative concerns the 'anxiety' of the successor of St. Peter 'for all the Churches' and is an important event demonstrating the interest of the Universal Church in...

In impressive local movements across the country, individuals and organizations that work with teens are tirelessly launching grassroots efforts to bring the film TO SAVE A LIFE to their local communities. In many cities, the efforts are led by teens themselves. Inspired by the film’s campaign, these people realize that a film cannot change the world. But the people who see it can change the lives of those around them.

VATICAN CITY — U.S. Rabbi Jacob Neusner, a prolific author and professor at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., told the Vatican newspaper that Pope Benedict XVI has finished the second volume of his book on Jesus.Rabbi Jacob Neusner (CNS/Bard College) The rabbi says the pope told him so during their 20-minute meeting yesterday.The fact that the pope would tell a U.S. rabbi that the manuscript is finished isn’t quite as odd as it would appear. In the pope’s first volume, “Jesus of Nazareth,” there were more quotes from Rabbi Neusner than from anyone but the Gospel writers and St....

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - A Vatican meeting of Roman Catholic bishops from the Middle East next October will discuss Islamic fundamentalism and attacks on Christians in the region, a preparatory document said. The issue appeared several times in the responses by bishops to Vatican questions in preparation for the October 10-24 synod of prelates from the region who will hold discussions with Pope Benedict and Vatican officials. In part of a 30-page preparatory document issued by the Vatican on Tuesday, bishops said the growth of the Internet had helped the spread of radical groups. "In response to this situation (growth...

Deep divisions over different forms of worship within the Catholic Church in Scotland can be revealed today by The Herald. A leading Scots Catholic claims an erosion of the “beautiful tradition” of the church and the trend for “touchy-feely” worship has put it at odds with the Vatican. The divisions are said to have created apathy amongst bishops around the planned visit of Pope Benedict to Scotland this year. The church denies the claims. But James MacMillan CBE, the composer and one of the Catholic world’s leading creative artists, said the Papal visit had brought conflicting approaches to worship in...

Famed New Atheist Richard Dawkins has opened up a "religion-free" way of helping the victims of the deadly earthquake in Haiti. Dawkins has joined 13 other groups to create the Non-Believers Giving Aid. Donors are told that when they give they are "helping to counter the scandalous myth that only the religious care about their fellow-humans." "[W]e do not hide behind the notion that earthly suffering will be rewarded in a heavenly paradise, nor do we expect a heavenly reward for our generosity: the understanding that this is the only life any of us have makes the need to alleviate...

An atheist group is objecting to coded references to New Testament passages that a Michigan manufacturer is inscribing on rifle sights it provides to U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Trijicon has a $660 million contract to provide up to 800,000 sights to the Marines, and other contracts with the Army. ABC News reported Monday that the manufacturer, founded by a Christian, had long marked its products with what ABC News called “secret ‘Jesus’ Bible codes:” One of the citations on the gun sights, 2COR4:6, is an apparent reference to Second Corinthians 4:6 of the New Testament, which reads: "For...

Vatican City, Jan 18, 2010 / 09:10 pm (CNA).- The Holy Father began the Week of prayer for Christian unity as he welcomed an ecumenical delegation from the Lutheran Church of Finland in audience. Their visit was celebrated by the Pope, who expressed his hope that the groups efforts would make headway in restoring "our lost unity." Pope Benedict welcomed the group's 25th annual visit from Finland to celebrate the feast of St. Henrik with gratitude, calling to mind the significant contribution the continuing pilgrimages have made "to strengthening the relations among the Christians" in the Nordic nation. The Holy...

Although the Vatican's anticipated announcement naming a new contingent of U.S. archbishops to the College of Cardinals likely is months away, observers are already placing their bets on which men will get the coveted red hat. The lingo of horse racing, with words like "handicapping" and "top runners," is being applied to two men: Washington Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl and Archbishop Raymond L. Burke, prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, the Vatican's highest court. (snip) The number of American cardinals is 13 — about one-tenth of the College of Cardinals — which may work against more American...

Of interest to Catholics on the mystery of the Shroud of Turin. From the transcript of the video: (romereports.com) This is the most venerate relic in the world. The Holy Shroud is the linen that some believe wrapped the body of Jesus after he was crucified. Now, an Italian expert from the Vatican Secret Archives says she can prove the shroud contains remains of Jesus death certificate. Barbara Frale Author, The shroud of Jesus of Nazareth: "The contents of these words refer to the death of a person who is called in Iesoys Nnazarennos the name that we find lying...

Just as the massive TV trucks parked around Rome's synagogue obscured the sight of one of the city's most beautiful buildings, so too have news reports obscured the real importance of the pope's visit to the Jewish community here. Late Sunday afternoon, Pope Benedict XVI made the short trip across the Tiber River to the Great Synagogue of Rome, located on the site of the former Jewish ghetto. The weather was chilly, but the greetings just the opposite. Riccardo Di Segni, chief rabbi of Rome, and Riccardo Pacifici, president of the Jewish Community of Rome, welcomed the pope on the...

LONDON, January 19, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A member of the English Catholic Bishops conference, and the head of the Catholic Education Service, has denied that there is any Catholic objection to homosexual civil unions. Speaking to The Tablet, Britain’s leading left-liberal Catholic paper, Bishop Malcolm McMahon, the chairman of the Catholic Education Service, said that he had no objection to homosexuals in civil partnerships working in Catholic schools. McMahon, once tipped by Paddy Power as a contender to replace Cormac Murphy O’Connor as Archbishop of Westminster, “has promised that the Church will not investigate the private lives of applicants for...