Free Republic

SCHOOLS will be forced to teach children as young as five the importance of gay marriage. Teachers who refuse because of their religious beliefs could face disciplinary action. Ministers are pushing ahead with a legal overhaul of the definition of marriage. Campaigners against the Coalition Government’s plans warn it will put classrooms on the frontline of a political correctness war and parents who object to the teaching of same-sex marriage could be classed as bigots. The Government will next month publish its consultation on giving same-sex marriage the same legal definition as traditional marriage. It is the first step towards...

In this picture made available by the Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano, Pope Benedict XVI greets the faithful of the Pontifical Academy for Life during a private audience at the Vatican, Saturday, Feb. 25, 2012. (AP Photo/Osservatore Romano, Handout)VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday urged infertile couples to shun artificial procreation, decrying such methods as a form of arrogance.Speaking at the end of a three-day Vatican conference on diagnosing and treating infertility, Benedict also reiterated church teaching that marriage is the only permissible place to conceive children. Matrimony "constitutes the only 'place' worthy of the call to existence of...

'Beauty and Belief' - Acclaimed Islamic art exhibit at BYU Curators hope collection helps bridge Islam and Western culture By Jason SwensenChurch News staff writer Published: Saturday, Feb. 25, 2012 PROVO, UTAH Why would Brigham Young University — a Church-owned institution found in the heart of Mormon culture and heritage — play host to a massive exhibit of Islamic art grounded in the day-to-day culture of the Muslim world?It's a fair question. One that exhibit and museum directors are eager to answer and engage. Dr. Sabiha Al Khemir, project director of the new Islamic-themed "Beauty and Belief," said she is...

Pope Benedict Defends Religious Liberty   PoliticsFebruary 23rd, 2012 Rebecca Ryskind Teti Bishops from the dioceses of Baltimore, Washington and Military Services were in Rome this month, making their requisite ad limina visit to Rome to pray at the tomb of St. Peter and renew their allegiance to his successor.It was a religious duty they were observing, but the Pope chose to speak to them not of prayer or sacraments, but about threats to religious liberty, the proper relations between Church and State and the role of the Catholic citizen in a secular nation.His appeal to all Catholics to defend...

You may already have seen our news story, Liberal nuns file brief in support of Obama health-care plan. And you may have wondered, as I have, when something will be done to (a) bring wayward communities of women religious into fidelity to Christ and the Church, and (b) bring so-called Catholic social and health service organizations firmly under Catholic control.The signals from Rome following the Apostolic Visitation of Women Religious indicate a tendency to back away from a confrontation. However, the same was true following the first Apostolic Visitation of American seminaries back in the 1980s, yet between the first and the...

White House and State Department Appeal for Iranian Pastor’s Life by Steve Eastman No one outside the government of Iran knows for know for sure if Youcef Nadarkhani is still alive. It’s believed his execution order has already been signed. Despite pressure from Iranian officials, the 34 year-old pastor has refused to deny Christ and “accept the prophet Muhammad as his savior." He was first detained by the Islamic regime in 2009. This week the White House released this statement: “The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms reports that Iranian authorities’ reaffirmed a death sentence for Iranian Pastor...

The Thomas More Law Center filed a federal lawsuit yesterday afternoon against the Howell Public School District located in Howell, Michigan, and teacher, Johnson (“Jay”) McDowell, for punishment and humiliation heaped on a student after he expressed his religious belief opposing homosexuality when asked by the teacher during class. [copy of lawsuit] The student, Daniel Glowacki, a junior at Howell High at the time of the incident, was specifically asked by McDowell about his feelings on homosexuals. Daniel responded that as a Catholic he was offended by the gay and lesbian lifestyle. Because of his answer, Daniel was ordered to...

The Thomas More Law Center, this past Tuesday, filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Department of the Navy. The purpose of the lawsuit is to obtain records believed to show intentional deception by the Pentagon to gain congressional support for repeal of the 1993 law regarding open homosexual conduct in the military, usually called "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Erin E. Mersino, the Thomas More Law Center attorney handling the case, explained the reason for the lawsuit, “Based on what we know thus far, the Pentagon engaged in a pattern of deception in its efforts to persuade...

Washington D.C., Feb 23, 2012 / 03:45 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- President Obama's contraception mandate may only be the beginning of a historic attack on religious freedom, Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan warned his fellow U.S. bishops in a Feb. 22 letter. “If the government can, for example, tell Catholics that they cannot be in the insurance business today without violating their religious convictions, where does it end?” asked the cardinal, addressing the U.S. episcopate in a letter coauthored with the bishops' religious freedom chair Bishop William E. Lori. The Health and Human Services’ contraception mandate “violates the constitutional limits on our...

To help keep the flow of our “dinner conversation,” and at the same time keep you updated with all the Grace Before Meals happenings, I’ll use this E-Blast to give you some great news. First, I’d like to give a response to questions I’ve received – either at the seminary, on the streets, and even in a few e-mails. “What do I think about the recent conversations regarding the HHS Mandate?”(This is definitely deadly breakfast conversation. But we have to talk about it!) This has been a challenging time for people of faith – no matter what faith. The ability...

Mishawaka, Ind., Feb 24, 2012 / 04:03 am (CNA).- A group of women religious' approval of the contraception mandate compromise plays into President Obama's “transparent tactic” of dividing the Church, says a Catholic healthcare CEO.  Kevin Leahy, president and CEO of the Indiana-based Franciscan Alliance, told the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) that it has done “irreversible” damage to the Catholic Church over its support for the compromise.In a Feb. 14 statement to Sr. Annmarie Sanders, IHM – the group's director of communications – Leahy said the conference cannot sincerely believe that the administration “offered an acceptable compromise...

Two canon lawyers reviewed the "Vindicate Rights Petition."Philip Gray, J.C.L, says "in the vast majority of cases today, divorce has become an 'easy out' to avoid responsibility, pass blame, obtain revenge, or somehow justify problems in the marital relationship or between parents and children." Canon lawyer Fr. Chuck Zmudzinski, C.P.M., J.C.L. explained, "I worked in a marriage tribunal for about five years and one of the reasons I eventually quit was because I did not agree with how strongly biased the tribunal officials seemed to be against the bond of matrimony."

February 23, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Vatican has issued an ultimatum to a Peruvian Catholic university known for its deviation from Church teaching, giving it a deadline of April 8 to change its statutes to bring it into conformity with Church law. Although the Holy See’s communique on the matter, displayed on its website, does not state what the consequences would be should the institution fail to comply, various Peruvian publications and broadcasters are reporting that the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP) would be required to jettison the words “Pontifical” and “Catholic” from its name. The ultimatum follows months...

The Methodist Church's rise and recent decline is perhaps the most statistically striking story in American religious history. At the time of the American Revolution, the denomination was tiny. English Methodist founder John Wesley was hostile toward American independence, which badly hampered the church's growth in America. After the Revolution, the American church began to operate independently from English Methodists. The legendary Methodist "circuit riders" began reaching the American backcountry, riding on horseback to reach every nook and cranny of the Appalachian frontier and Mississippi River Valley. In 1770, there were about 20 Methodist churches in America. By 1860 that...

I have received some comment from correspondents claiming to be Dutch and reporters, contesting my article yesterday that describes some of the Dutch euthanasia horrors. They don’t claim I am wrong that about 1% of Dutch deaths are “termination without request or consent,” e.g. non voluntary euthanasia. They don’t deny that Dutch doctors commit infanticide. They don’t deny that the country is moving toward euthanizing the elderly who are “tired of life.” No, they contest that some people carry cards in their wallets saying that they don’t want to be euthanized if they become incompetent or are brought to a...

The Education Secretary Michael Gove has defended the right of Catholic schools to promote Church teaching on homosexuality following a complaint from Brendan Barber, general secretary of the Trade Union Congress (TUC). Mr Barber had written to Mr Gove complaining that the distribution of “homophobic material” in some classrooms in Lancashire undermined equality laws. In response, Mr Gove said that the content of a curriculum was not covered by the Equality Act, but added that any berating or harassing of gay pupils would be unlawful. He said: “The education provisions of the Equality Act which prohibit discrimination against individuals based...

Thursday, February 23, 2012 Sir Trevor Phillips: Christians, and only Christians, should be denied religious freedom and conscience rights Saint Thomas Aquinas explains that a law is just if it corresponds to the divine law. If civil law does conform to the divine law, then it has the power to bind us in conscience and to disobey such a law would be a sin. But human law cannot exceed the power of its human authors. Aquinas teaches that the law which is promulgated must correspond to the divine law. No human authority can declare what is morally evil to be...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DW81eEDsRfM&feature=player_embedded

Cardinal Timothy Dolan issues strongest statement yet against the HHS mandate His Eminence Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, President, and His Excellency Most Reverend William E. Lori, Chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty, have released a very strong statement regarding the current status of the HHS mandate, dated February 21, 2012, to the bishops of the United States. The statement warns of the severe danger posed to religious liberty by "an all-encompassing, extreme form of secularism" and notes that the narrow "exemption" in the mandate was "instituted only by executive whim" and so "can be taken away easily."...

Acknowledging that it is “not good for Democrats” to go “head-to-head” with “any church,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told The Daily Caller that he and his Democratic caucus “totally” support President Barack Obama forcing religious institutions to cover contraception in employee health insurance plans or pay a federal fine. Catholic bishops across the country are speaking out against this provision of the health care law. TheDC asked Reid if he thinks it is a good idea, politically, for the president to go against the Catholic Church on the issue. “Of course it’s not good for the Democrats to go...