Free Republic

Archbishop Coakley sues satanic group to hand over consecrated Host.With one month to go before a satanic group in Oklahoma City a public “black mass,” the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City is suing to force the group to hand over a consecrated Host it claims to have. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in the District Court of Oklahoma County, claims Satanic leader Adam Daniels and his religious organization, the Dakhma of Angra Mainyu, have "unlawfully taken possession of property belonging to the Roman Catholic Church, specifically a Consecrated Host." Daniels, who has claimed publicly to have the Host, clarified in an interview...

Refugee Samo Ilyas Ali has nine children to feed but he can't focus on the future because the sounds of women and children crying out for help while being buried alive by Islamic State militants in northern Iraq often consume his mind. Tens of thousand of Yazidis fled their ancient homeland of Sinjar and other villages to escape a dramatic push by the Sunni militants who regard the ethnic minority as devil worshippers who must embrace their radical version of Islam or die. The refugees sit idle in camps in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq. Traumatized by Islamic...

I want to consider three things in this blog: first, the harm that has been done; second, our white gaze; and third, nonviolent direct action. The harm Michael Brown is dead at 18. He graduated from high school and was headed for college. The promise of his life is gone. He leaves behind parents and brothers and sisters, extended family, friends, neighbors, teachers. His body lay in the street for hours and the watchers, standing outside the yellow crime-scene tape, must have been harmed by that experience. For all of them, Michael's death leaves a lifelong void. What can be...

Residents of Ferguson “are struggling to find peace in the chaos” that has followed the shooting death of an unarmed teen by a police officer and “as people of Christ, we are struggling to find direction in the unrest,” said Archbishop Robert J. Carlson of St. Louis. “We are all aware of the turmoil and tragedy our St. Louis community is experiencing,” he said in an Aug. 18 letter to Catholics of the archdiocese. After visiting Ferguson, about 11 miles from downtown St. Louis, and offering prayers at a memorial there to 18-year-old Michael Brown, Archbishop Carlson said he has...

Reading the papers is reading authors of confusion. They say “Saudi top cleric blasts al-Qaida and ISIS as ‘enemy No. 1′ of Islam” in a statement issued in Riyadh.“The ideas of extremism, radicalism and terrorism … have nothing to do with Islam and (their proponents) are the enemy number one of Islam,” the kingdom’s top cleric said.He cited jihadists from the Islamic State, which has declared a “caliphate” straddling parts of Iraq and Syria, and the global al-Qaida terror network. Really? ISIS and al-Qaida do not represent Islam? ISIS IS ISlam and ISlam is ISIS.Muslims frequently say that we, the...

The Pope recalls the teaching of the Catechism about the legitimacy of halting aggressors, but he does not endorse American bombings. He also reminds us of the consequences of recent wars waged by Western powers in the area and values the role of the United Nations ANDREA TORNIELLIVatican City “Today we are in a world at war, everywhere! Someone told me: you know, Father, that we are witnessing the Third World War - but waged in chunks, in  different chapters”. Francis’ words on war, and on the bombs that kill both guilty and innocent alike, hitting women and children, describe...

Time for another ELCA "conversation," this time regarding "who is welcome" to Holy Communion. An innocuous-sounding invitation to participate came out a few weeks ago, and and similar notice appears again in the Summer 2014 Seeds for the Parish, now appearing in snail boxes across the ELCA but not yet on its website. Resources for the conversation will be available at www.elca.org/worship "by mid-August," but so far not yet. Over at lutheranforum.org, Paul Hinlicky will have none of this innocuousness in yesterday's post The Truth about "Radical Hospitality". At its conclusion, he invites readers (I would presume ELCA clergy and...

Pope Francis and Archbishop Georg Ganswein in St. Peter's Square after the Wednesday general audience, May 7, 2014. Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA. Vatican City, Aug 19, 2014 / 12:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Before any international trip Pope Francis visits Benedict XVI, a key Vatican archbishop revealed, noting the good relations between the two and how Pope Francis is carrying forward Benedict's vision.   Archbishop Georg Gaenswein, who serves as prefect of the Pontifical Household, spoke in an all-out interview Aug. 15 with the Austrian Catholic press agency in “Kath.net” while he was in the diocese in Freibourg. There he led  Aug....

After the kidnapping of more than 500 Yazidi girls by Islamic State (IS) militants, the women are being sold in Quds Neighborhood in Mosul through a special office. The Head of The Women’s Committee in the Kurdistan Parliament, Evar Ibrahim, told BasNews, “After kidnapping 500 Yazidi girls from Sinjar and taking them to Mosul, the IS insurgents are now, through a special office in the Quds Neighborhood of the city, selling them to people.” “The price of each girl starts from IQD 20,000 [US $17] to 30,000 [$26]. Despite selling them, the Yazidi girls have been raped by the IS...

Pope's relatives die in road accidentThe wife and two children of Pope Francis's nephew have been killed in a car crash in Argentina, officials say.His nephew, Emanuel Bergoglio, was badly hurt in the accident in the Cordoba area, north-east of the capital, Buenos Aires.The Pope was "profoundly saddened" by the news, his spokesman Francesco Lombardi said.snip--His nephew's family was reportedly returning home from a break when their car collided with a lorry at James Craik, some 580km (360 miles) north-east of Buenos Aires shortly before midnight.His wife Valeria Carmona, 39, and their two children Jose, 2, and eight-month-old Antonio...

Fireworks this week, as the Leadership Conference of Women Religious met in Nashville for their 2014 annual meeting.The meeting marks the first time the women’s religious had met since Vatican officials imposed a requirement last April that the group pre-clear its speakers’ lists with Rome.LCWR leadership had snubbed their noses at that request–instead presenting their highest award, the Outstanding Leadership Award, to Fordham University’s Sr. Elizabeth Johnson, CSJ, who is considered one of the architects of feminist theology. Sister Johnson’s book Quest for the Living God has been called by the U.S. Bishops’ Conference “seriously inadequate as a presentation of...

By SETH DOANE CBS NEWS August 17, 2014 Pope Touches Masses In Last Day of Asia Trip On the last full day of his trip to Asia today, Pope Francis appeared to make the most visible outreach yet to China and other countries in the region that do not have diplomatic relations with the Vatican. Saying that "Christians do not come as conquerors," he urged beginning a "fraternal" dialogue. Speaking to thousands of youth this afternoon, Pope Francis called on them to serve the marginalized and the lonely. "Asian youth, wake up," the pope said. The pope started his day...

The only TRUE friend of the black man and woman in this fallen world today is not the WHITE secular liberal Democratic Party, who for centuries has been nothing but an oppressing master to them; it is not even the conservative Christian though they have always been there for the black population throughout history. The ONLY TRUE FRIEND of the Black man and women is none other than the ETERNAL Son of God who stretched forth His hands on an old rugged cross 2000 years ago and died in OUR (red, yellow, black or white) stead for OUR transgressions against...

Our sufferings today are the prelude of those you, Europeans and Western Christians, will also suffer in the near future. I lost my diocese. The physical setting of my apostolate has been occupied by Islamic radicals who want us converted or dead. But my community is still alive. Please, try to understand us. Your liberal and democratic principles are worth nothing here. You must consider again our reality in the Middle East, because you are welcoming in your countries an ever growing number of Muslims. Also you are in danger. You must take strong and courageous decisions, even at the...

Nihad Awad of the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has claimed [2] that “research has shown that anti-Islam prejudice goes down when people interact with ordinary Muslims and have greater knowledge of Islam.” Accordingly, he says, “it might also be a good idea for Americans of other faiths to borrow a Quran from a Muslim friend, neighbor or co-worker. In that way, knowledge may be increased as bonds of friendship are formed.”Awad is right. Americans should read the Quran. If they did, they would find that it makes sense of a great many recent events that might otherwise remain...

Actress Olivia Wilde is featured on the cover of the September issue of Glamour magazine. Inside the glossy is an article in which Wilde talks about what life is like for her “being a working mom.” An article featuring the vacuous ramblings of the newby mom (“I wasn’t going to sacrifice myself because I was becoming a mother,” she told her interviewer) would be unworthy of comment here were it not for the pictorial that accompanied the article. Or, more specifically, the photo of Wilde sitting in the booth of some Hollywood diner, glammed up in a Roberto Cavalli dress,...

HAEMI, South Korea (AP) -- Pope Francis made his strongest gesture yet to reach out to China on Sunday, saying he wants to improve relations and insisting that the Catholic Church isn't coming in as a "conqueror" but is rather a partner in dialogue.

During his apostolic voyage to South Korea, the Holy Father has not lost his ability to surprise.Yesterday, the 77-year-old Pontiff not only opted to take a high-speed train from Seoul to Daejeon rather than the scheduled-helicopter, but he also called in on Jesuits in the capital. To reach Daejeon after celebrating Mass on the feast of the Assumption, the Pope gave up the helicopter and preferred to board the KTX high-speed train, despite never having been on a high-speed train before.The train left the station shortly before 9am and covered the 90 miles between the two cities in 50 minutes.According to...

The Church of the Holy Innocents, located on 37th Street (Photo by Kaitlyn Flannagan)Down the street from the lights and sounds of Times Square stands the oldest building in the Garment District, the Church of the Holy Innocents. Over the decades its neighborhood has evolved into the tangle of chain stores and litter that it is today while the almost 150-year-old church has remained mostly the same since the day it was built. Step inside and the din is somehow lost, replaced by the last quiet, peaceful haven for New York’s traditional Catholics.Yet what makes Holy Innocents truly unique is...

One Faith - One Lord - One Baptism Do you wish there were ONE thing you could do to rescue Christians who are in the cross-hairs for slaughter by ISIS terrorists in Iraq? Listen: there IS something you can do. I got this appeal from Robert George, one of the most respected Catholics in the field of defending fundamental Human Rights. If you've heard of him, you know how great he is. If you've never heard of him, let me just tell you.. there's nobody I respect more. Please heed his call and sign an online petition. ------from Robert...