Free Republic

When the election is Constantine vs. Diocletian, Christians don't get to stay home. Should Christians get behind Donald Trump? As I’ve demonstrated here, on every criterion of politics, it seems to me that electing Donald Trump is less dangerous to the preaching of the gospel, the safety of Christian institutions from colleges down to the family, and the lives of unborn children. We don’t have to believe the claim that he’s even a “baby Christian” to recognize that this is true. Winston Churchill wasn’t any kind of Christian, but he defended our institutions and our freedoms, and that was all...

The synod will instead focus on 'Young People, Faith, and Vocational Discernment'The topic of the next synod has been announced as “Young People, Faith, and Vocational Discernment”, according to a Vatican statement released today. But according to one respected Vatican journalist, the synod – a meeting of bishops which will take place in 2014 – was nearly dedicated to a different theme: priestly celibacy. Edward Pentin, Vatican correspondent of the National Catholic Register, reported that Pope Francis was “known to be keen” for the next synod to examine “priestly celibacy and a possible push to allow married priests”. However, Pentin...

A young boy, 10 years old or so, faces the camera.Like many young boys he is happy to be interviewed.This is war-torn Iraq, however, so he tells of the day ISIS came to his village. What took place, horror after horror, he starts to recount. It is hard to accept that one so young has already seen so much evil. Gradually, his urgent retelling of what happened slows and he breaks down. It is hard to watch as the tears flow down his cheeks. He tries to stem them, brushing them away Â… but to no avail. His grief...

As a psychiatrist with an expertise in the nature, origins and treatment of excessive anger, it has become clear to me that numerous statements and programs from the Vatican demonstrate the expression of excessive anger at St. John Paul II’s remarkable legacy and prophetic writings. The new light shed upon Our Lord’s plan for marriage and sexuality, so badly needed in our time, has been very beneficial to Catholic youth, marriages, families, educators as well as the priesthood and the episcopacy over the past 35 years. It has begun to have a noticeable and constructive effect upon marriage preparation and...

SUMMARY In media appearances since he was named the Vice Presidential running mate of Secretary Clinton, Tim Kaine has continuously referenced his time in Honduras as the decisive period that helped shape both his political and religious views. The facts surrounding this “mission trip,” however, raise grave and serious concerns, particularly given his continued relationships with the successors of a number of political and religious extremists. Catholic voters and leaders are entitled to the truth about this decisive period in Kaine’s life. This memo has been published based on extensive research and reporting in an effort to help all people...

Maybe it takes a Torah scholar and religious Jew to help us understand the roots of the inverted values that animate Western civilization. For over ten years, author and radio talk show host Dennis Prager taught the first five books of the Bible verse-by-verse at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles. According to Prager there is no greater concept in the Torah than that of “distinction,” or, put another way, the clear separation God makes between certain things: God and man, animal and human, life and death, sacred and profane, good and evil, male and female. He even...

“Do you see cows?” asks the woman on the phone.“Yes,” answers the reporter. “I see six cows, it looks like they are grazing.”“They have been grazing for over 20 years,” comments Mrs. Coponet, “They are made out of plastic. Well, turn right after the cows, then take the second left. We are expecting you.”Thus begins a meet-up between journalists from the French publication Famille Chrétienne and three witnesses to the Mass-time murder of Fr. Jacques Hamel who felt ready to talk about what they had experienced. Coming together not far from where the remains of Fr. Hamel lie, the reporters...

In the one and the other the pope has made it known what kind of implementation he wants for the eighth chapter of “Amoris Laetitia,” the one about communion for the divorced and remarried. His approved spokesmen: the Argentine bishops and his cardinal vicar by Sandro Magister ROME, October 4, 2016 – There was a big stir all around the world over the letter of commendation written by Pope Francis to the Argentine bishops of the region of Buenos Aires, praised for how they have been able to give the right interpretation of “Amoris Laetitia” - meaning that of Francis...

The Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Head Mufti of Russia and the Children's Ombudswoman support the removal of abortions from Russia’s mandatory health insurance, but officials and doctors say that a ban will only move the procedure undergroundOn Sept. 27, Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill signed "The citizen's petition for banning abortion." Promoted by conservative Orthodox activists, the petition supports the position that life begins at conception and reads in part: "We, citizens of the Russian Federation, speak in favor of terminating the practice of legally killing infants before birth."The move by the patriarch has once again brought the...

Pope Francis has said that Catholics must discern difficult situations of sexual morality on a case-by-case basis, even when presented with a person who is considering or has had gender reassignment surgery. In a lengthy press conference aboard the papal flight back to Rome Oct. 2 after a weekend visit to Georgia and Azerbaijan, the pope said "you must take things as they come" and give time to accompany and discern individually with the various situations people are facing. Francis recounted a meeting at the Vatican he had last year with a Spanish transgender man who had written to the...

This is a video of Sunday Mass at Ss Simon & Jude, Roman Catholic Cathedral of Phoenix. The homily in which Fr. John Lankeit discusses the election begins at 18:24.

A Catholic college’s campus ministry recently expressed support for a student protest that compared cops to the Ku Klux Klan. Loyola University Chicago’s Campus Ministry praised the student protest over its Facebook and Twitter pages, reports The College Fix.

Despite the Vatican’s assertion that a so-called sex-change surgery does not alter the sex of a person, Pope Francis has nevertheless chosen to refer to a woman who underwent a sex-change operation as a “man,” and also referred to her as having “married” another woman and admitted to receiving them in the Vatican last year. As with most of his most controversial remarks, the statements came during an in-flight press scrum. On October 2, on his return flight from his papal visit to Georgia and Azerbaijan, the Pope referred to a woman who “felt like a man” but “was physically...

“Throughout my life as a priest, bishop and even as Pope, I have accompanied people with a homosexual inclination and who practice homosexuality.

“Today there is a global war to destroy marriage,” the Pope said during a meeting in Tbilisi with priests, religious, seminarians and lay people active in parish life.

Lutherans and the Political Challenges of 2016 Robert Benne 10/01/2016 An Unprecedented Dilemma [1] Most of my conservative Lutheran friends say that either they will simply not vote for any of the presidential candidates this year or they will write in someone they know cannot win. A few will “hold their noses” and vote for the Republican candidate. Even my liberal Lutheran friends are reluctant to vote for the Democratic candidate, though some will also “hold their noses.” Their personal reluctance is mirrored in the high disapproval ratings borne by both major candidates. This is an unprecedented situation in my...

On 9/14/2016 I legitimately lost a game of Scrabble to my wife. Why? What good can possibly come from this? Come along with me as I examine this life changing event. https://youtu.be/u7utxC08Ww8

Cardinal Gerald Lacroix of Quebec said he has no intention to follow in the steps of his fellow Canadian bishops of Alberta and the Northwest Territories in refusing funerals for those who asked to be euthanized. “I don’t plan specific directives aimed at refusing this support or refusing access to the anointing of the sick and the celebration of funerals,” Cardinal Lacroix said in a statement Sept. 29. The cardinal was reacting to a document published earlier this month by the bishops of Alberta and the Northwest Territories, addressed to the clergy, in which they said these sacraments and celebrations...

The Archdiocese of Mexico has kindled the ire of the country’s “discrimination” police after publishing an interview with psychologist Richard Cohen, who recounts his conversion from homosexuality to heterosexuality as well as his subsequent career as a therapist for those suffering from same-sex attraction. In an article entitled “People aren’t born homosexual,” the archdiocesan weekly newspaper Desde la fe (From the Faith) writes that homosexuality is “reversible” and quotes Cohen stating that his own homosexuality was caused by the disordered relationships he experienced with his parents and siblings. “There was a lack of unity with my father and an excessive...

Catechism of the Catholic Church The catechism clearly states that Christ condemns adultery Adultery refers to marital infidelity. When two partners, of whom at least one is married to another party, have sexual relations – even transient ones – they commit adultery. Christ condemns even adultery of mere desire (cf. Mt 5:27–28). The sixth commandment and the New Testament forbid adultery absolutely (cf. Mt 5:32; 19:6; Mk 10:11; 1Cor 6:9–10). The prophets denounce the gravity of adultery; they see it as an image of the sin of idolatry (cf. Hos 2:7; Jer 5:7; 13:27). (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no....