Free Republic

According to the former head of the Vatican’s highest court, Cardinal Raymond Burke Muslims and Christians do not worship the same God, since Allah is a “governor,” whereas Christianity was “founded on love.” The modern belief that Islam and Christianity are fundamentally the same “is very much influenced by a relativism of a religious order,” the Cardinal said at a recent press conference. “I hear people saying to me, well, we’re all worshipping the same God. We all believe in love. But I say stop a minute, and let’s examine carefully what Islam is, and what our Christian faith teaches...

A worship event if being planned for the city of Syracuse for the evening of Friday, Sept 16, 2016 beginning at 7PM at the Carrier Dome on the campus of Syracuse University. Admission and parking are free and there will be sign language interpretation for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. It's a joint effort of the following campus ministries on the SU campus and is being supported by 25-30 local area churches. This has the full support of the new chancellor. Fellowship of Christian Athletes Evangelical Christian Ministries Roman Catholic Association Historically Black Church Young Life College Brothers and...

The bishop of the Catholic diocese of Parramatta has called on the church to accept homosexuality, lamenting that the faith is not a “trailblazer” against inequality. Bishop Vincent Long Van Nguyen has gone further than the Pope, who has said God loves and accepts gay people. Bishop Long said it was not good enough to treat gay people with compassion and then define their lifestyle as “intrinsically disordered”. The comments, del­ivered in a speech in western Sydney last month, are likely to cause consternation in the church hierarchy, which is against same-sex marriage. “We cannot talk about the ­integrity of...

This is an animation of a Merlin Falcon & Cry, wings in, in writing from the Bible, how to come to God and make peace with Him. Ends with instrumental by myself, with mandolin and lyrics of the song, Till We Meet Again.

Washington D.C., Sep 5, 2016 / 04:06 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Young Catholics are leaving the faith at an early age – sometimes before the age of 10 – and their reasons are deeper than being “bored at Mass,” the author of a new report claims.“Those that are leaving for no religion – and a pretty big component of them saying they are atheist or agnostic – it turns out that when you probe a bit more deeply and you allow them to talk in their own words, that they are bringing up things that are related to science and...

An open letter written by a North Carolina pastor to the father of Brock Turner has gone viral. CNN's Ashleigh Banfield spoke with the pastor. video only on link

<p>When Fr. John O'Neill took to the pulpit at St. James Church in Danielson on Aug. 16, it was to deliver a eulogy for Fr. Joe Whalen.</p> <p>O'Neill didn't mince words for the crowd that had gathered.</p> <p>O'Neill has often told the story of Whalen, a man who entered the priesthood when he was 66-years-old. His late vocation came after he'd spent the better part of his life drinking. He had married and had children. He also found sobriety through Alcoholics Anonymous. It wasn't enough to save his marriage, however.</p>

In the midst of so many discouraging and troubling pieces of news, it is always important to point out manifestations of virtue and of the good that still abides. One of the great defenders of Catholic Truth right now is Antonio Cardinal Cañizares Llovera, the Archbishop of Valencia, Spain, about whom we had presented a report earlier this year. On May 13 2016, another Marian Feast Day, Cardinal Cañizares – the former head of the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (who had been removed from that office and sent back to his homeland by...

When Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio became the new Catholic pope in 2013, he chose the name of Francis to indicate that his pontificate would be one of mercy and compassion for the poor and needy...St. Francis (1182-1226) is indeed known for all those qualities. But he was known for something else his modern-day namesake fails to live up to: unapologetically confronting Islam...

THE list of comforts which the Anointed has here prepared for His mourners is apparently inexhaustible. He seems as if He delighted to give "according to the multitude of His tender mercies" a very cloud of blessings. This is the third of His sacred exchanges--"the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." Grace, like its God, delights to be a trinity. This is also the broadest of the blessings, for whereas the first adorned the face with beauty, and the second anointed the head with joy, this last and widest covers the whole person with a garment of praise!...

September 2, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) — A renowned psychiatrist who has worked with victims of priestly sexual abuse and priest abusers has strongly condemned the Vatican’s new sex education program as abusive and “the most dangerous threat to Catholic youth” he has seen in the past 40 years. The gravely concerned psychiatrist is Dr. Rick Fitzgibbons, a counseling center director who has been a consultant to the Congregation for the Clergy at the Vatican and has served as adjunct professor at the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family at the Catholic University of America. In an essay...

CANTERBURY, England (RNS) Nicholas Chamberlain, the bishop of Grantham, has come out as the first Church of England bishop to openly acknowledge he is gay. Chamberlain, 52, said in an interview with the Guardian published Friday (Sept. 2) that he is living with a man and in a long term loving relationship, though it does not involve sex. The Guardian predicted that Chamberlain’s announcement “will be embraced by campaigners for equality but is likely to alarm conservatives who fear the church is moving away from traditional teachings.” As a suffragan bishop, Chamberlain is subordinate to the archbishop of his diocese,...

As the world awaits Mother Teresa’s canonization Sunday, one mystery remains: why the international Left still harbors such hatred for a diminutive religious sister who spent her entire life serving the poorest of the poor. After all, with her inexhaustible dedication to alleviating poverty and assisting the needy, Mother Teresa should be an icon of liberals the world over. Instead, we find that the Left showers her not with affection and praise, but with scorn and disdain. On September 1, The Washington Post published an article titled “Why Mother Teresa Is Still No Saint to Many of Her Critics,” citing...

September 1, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) — In his message for the celebration of World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation today, Pope Francis called on Catholics to go to confession for sins of not being respectful of creation, giving examples of examination of conscience such as “avoiding the use of plastic and paper,” “separating refuse” and “turning off unnecessary lights.” He called on Catholics to have an “ecological conversion.” Recalling the year 2000 act of public repentance by Pope John Paul II for sins of “religious intolerance, as well as for injustice toward Jews, women, indigenous peoples, immigrants, the...

Holy Father makes proposal in message on World Day of Prayer for the Care of CreationPope Francis is proposing adding care for the environment to the traditional, Gospel-inspired works of mercy that Christians are called to perform. Francis made the proposal in a message on Thursday to mark the Church’s World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, which he instituted last year in a bid to highlight his green agenda. In the message, he said: “The Christian life involves the practice of the traditional seven corporal and seven spiritual works of mercy. We usually think of the works...

RNS) The Catholic archbishop in New Jersey has barred a gay priest from ministry because the cleric supports gay advocacy groups and has backed a Catholic high school counselor who was fired when church officials discovered the woman was in a same-sex marriage. The Rev. Warren Hall said he was notified by phone on Wednesday (Aug. 31) that Newark Archbishop John Myers, an outspoken conservative who has submitted his retirement papers to Pope Francis, says Hall’s actions are “confusing the faithful.” As a result, Hall will no longer be able to celebrate Mass in public, present himself as a priest...

A new social dicastery has been established and is to be headed by Cardinal Turkson. At the moment, Francis is taking charge himself of migration, thus underlining the importance of this emergencyThe new Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development”, which merges a number of pontifical councils, was established today. For the moment, however, Francis has decided that he will be personally in charge of the department dedicated to migrants and refugees. His choice comes as a response to the current crisis in this field. It is a way to highlight the importance of this issue and to show the Pope’s...

ROME, Italy, August 30, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) — It is “highly questionable” to say Catholics and Muslims worship the same God and Islam is a religion of peace, Cardinal Raymond Burke said on a call with reporters Monday. Burke, an American, is the former Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, the Vatican’s highest court. He is now the patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Burke was speaking to the media about Hope for the World: To Unite All Things in Christ, a newly-published book-length interview with French journalist Guillaume d’Alançon in which the prelate weighs in on a host of...

Last week saw yet another instance of Pope Emeritus Benedict giving an interview and insisting upon his unconditional support of Pope Francis and his work. EWTN reported on 28 August 2016 about this new statement of the former pope as follows: Speaking about Pope Francis, Benedict said that obedience to his successor “was never in discussion,” but that since Francis’ election, a feeling of “deep communion and friendship” has arisen between the two. “At the moment of his election I experienced, as many, a spontaneous feeling of gratitude toward Providence,” he said, explaining that after having two Pope’s [sic] from...

A group of parishes is preparing what could be the first step towards a formal split in the Church of England over issues such as homosexuality, with the creation of a new “shadow synod” vowing to uphold traditional teaching. Representatives of almost a dozen congregations in the Home Counties are due to gather in a church hall in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, later this week for the first session of what they say could eventually develop into an alternative Anglican church in England. Organisers, drawn from the conservative evangelical wing of Anglicanism, say they have no immediate plans to break away...