Free Republic

North Dakota legislators have proposed a bill allowing public high schools to offer an elective Bible studies class as part of its social studies curriculum. "The intention of this bill is to provide an option to schools to teach a class on the bible from a historical perspective," State Rep. Aaron McWilliams, R-Hillsboro, a co-sponsor of the bill, told Fox News. "My position is that no religious text should be excluded from being taught as it relates to the historical or philosophical influences in our history or on our society today." But the Republican lawmakers have come under heavy criticism...

Vatican, Venezuela bishops play ‘good cop/bad cop’ with Maduro ROSARIO, Argentina - A day after the bishops of Venezuela declared the new presidency of Nicolas Maduro “illegitimate,” Pope Francis sent a Vatican representative to his inauguration. The successor of the late Hugo Chavez thanked Monsignor George Koovakod for his “bravery” for coming.Many observers say the apparent contrast isn’t a matter of the Vatican and the bishops being at odds, but rather a classic “good cop, bad cop” diplomatic maneuver.Maduro took office for the second time on Thursday, amidst criticism from the international community of snap elections in May. Concerns over...

Through bitter experience over the years, I have learned never to proclaim that some trusted figure couldn’t possibly be guilty of sexual abuse. I have learned to wait, to weigh the evidence, and if a court finds the man guilty, to accept that finding. Since I don’t know the facts, I cannot guarantee that Cardinal George Pell is innocent of the offenses of which he has been convicted in a secret trial. But I can say that a grave injustice has been done, for several reasons. First, because in a proper legal system, not only is justice done, but justice...

The German government has started to request that those countries register any funding they may provide to mosques in Germany, a report says. The move aims to discourage radicalization in German mosques.The German Foreign Ministry wants Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and other Gulf states to register any donations or state subsidies intended for mosques in Germany. According to daily Süddeutsche Zeitung and German broadcasters WDR and NDR, the government has involved both the domestic and foreign intelligence services to monitor who sends the money and who receives it. The Gulf states are also required to alert German authorities if a...

Beijing (AsiaNews) - The agreement between China and the Holy See is very similar to the one signed between Napoleon and Pius VII. The startlingly apt comparison is fitting in many aspects: the restructuring of the dioceses; power over the Church; recognition (only formal) of the Pope; total control of religious activities; elimination of bishops and "non-sworn" priests (or underground). The author, Li Ruohan (a pseudonym) is a scholar from northern China. The original title of the essay is "What is illegal has become legal".On December 12th I saw the images of the Holy See special envoy, Archbishop Claudio M....

Full title: Huntington Beach family sues school district over students’ right to hand out fliers promoting Bring Your Bible to School Day HUNTINGTON BEACH — A Los Angeles-based conservative Christian group has filed a federal lawsuit against the Huntington Beach City School District on behalf of two children, alleging they were unlawfully prohibited from distributing fliers promoting Bring Your Bible to School Day. The lawsuit, filed Monday, Jan. 7 by Freedom X in United States District Court in Santa Ana, alleges that the school district violated the First Amendment rights of Micah Bausch, 10, and Nieka Bausch, 8, by curtailing...

Democratic lawmakers are divided over questions some see as a religious litmus test applied to candidates for the federal bench. The debate has turned into a war of words between members of Hawaii’s Congressional delegation “We cannot and will not tolerate prejudicial treatment of those with whom we disagree, any more than we would tolerate such treatment of those with whom we agree,” Rep Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) wrote in a Jan. 8 op-ed for The Hill. Gabbard accused senators screening judicial candidates of “religious bigotry” and warned against legislators “weaponizing” questions of personal faith. At least two judicial candidates in...

Construction of the first Christian (Syrian-Orthodox) place of worship of the Republican era should start at the end of February in Yesilkoy, an Istanbul neighbourhood not far from the international airport. It will serve as a point of reference for the city’s 17,000 Assyrians.Istanbul (AsiaNews) – The construction of a Christian church will start in late February in Istanbul, the first since the founding of the modern Turkish republic, said a city official during a meeting with a Syriac Orthodox Church prelate. Freedom of worship is guaranteed in Turkey, but freedom of religion has been violated on various occasions in...

The Chinese government is going after elementary and high schools to teach students that atheism, not religion, is the best belief system.The Chinese Communist Party, or CCP, is indoctrinating the young minds, starting a movement to boycott religion on school campuses, using the typical means of threats and intimidation to achieve its ultimate goal of eradicating religion. Bitter Winter received witness accounts about the growing anti-religion attitude in schools across provinces in China. In order to stop students from participating in religion, the Education Department of Heping district, in Shenyang city of the northeastern province of Liaoning, issued an edict...

Pope Francis is due in the UAE on February 3, which will be the first time a leader of the Catholic Church has visited the GulfThe Pope’s visit to the UAE will be a momentous occasion for the Gulf region, said Dr Anwar Gargash, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs. Pope Francis is due in the country on February 3. His trip will be the first time a leader of the Roman Catholic Church visits the Gulf. His visit will be a highlight of the UAE’s Year of Tolerance, during which religious acceptance will be an important feature. Dr Gargash...

Will Pope Francis Canonize Socialist Bishop Who Supported Armed Struggle? The Left is cheering on the canonization movement for Dom Helder Camara Around the time of Vatican II, a group of socialist bishops signed a secret manifesto called the Pact of the Catacombs. It received its name from having been signed at a church near the catacombs in Rome. Most of the signatories of the secret manifesto came from Latin America. According to the text of the Pact of the Catacombs, the bishops pledged to politicize the Church for the sake of ushering in the "advent of another social order."...

Join Freepers throughout the world to pray for PRESIDENT TRUMP and VICE-PRESIDENT PENCE and for AMERICA: All Levels of Government, Family, Military, Business, Education, Churches, Health Care Systems and the Media. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. —1 John 5:14 Forum threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind. Please join us in prayer for Divine healing of the Democratic majority members of the 116th U.S. House of Representatives.

A retired bishop and priests in Vietnam have called on people evicted from their farms to join wider efforts to build a more just society. On Jan. 4, hundreds of police and officials destroyed farmers' houses on five hectares of land in Tan Binh district in southern Vietnam. About a dozen people were detained after roads leading to the scene were blocked. One man reportedly tried to prevent authorities from demolishing his home by lying on the ground in front of a bulldozer. Many locals gathered to pray before a Marian statue nearby and some priests visited victims of the...

COSTA RICA, January 8, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – Twenty former presidents of Latin American nations sent an open letter on Jan. 5 to Pope Francis in which they criticized his call for “harmony” in socialist Venezuela and “reconciliation” in Nicaragua where Marxist governments have ruined these countries' national economies and subjected citizens to torture and summary executions. Led by Nobel Prize-winner and former president of Costa Rica Oscar Arias, the letter to the pontiff said, “We are concerned that the call for harmony on the part of your Holiness in which, given the current context, can be understood by the victimized...

Socci: The Church is collapsing, but the Vatican has launched a crusade against Salvini What is going on in the Catholic Church? The situation is not only catastrophic - it’s absurd.  We hear of churches emptying dramatically in the West and Christians being cruelly persecuted in the East. We hear of the disappearance of traditional Catholic movements, of internal clashes in the Curia, of continuous scandals, of immense confusion among the faithful as a result of Pope Francis’ revolutionary feats ( recently he even “forgot” about the dogma of the Immaculate Conception). Yet the churchmen are not addressing any...

Irish archbishop criticizes pro-lifers fighting abortion DUBLIN, Ireland, January 7, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – An Irish archbishop criticized pro-life activists’ peaceful efforts to save unborn babies under the country’s new abortion regime. “I’m not a person personally for protest, what the Church should be doing is strengthening its resolve to help women in crisis and to educate people,” Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin said in an RTE Radio One interview on Sunday. “I would be particularly cautious about protesting against GPs (general practitioners) because everybody is going there, and people go there for all sorts of reasons,” he said. As for...

Francis Claims That There is Full Communion With “All” Chinese Regime-Bishops During his annual address to the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See (January 7), Pope Francis hailed his secret agreement with the Chinese regime as one of his major initiatives in 2018. Expressing his satisfaction he claimed that for the first time after so many years, all bishops in China were in full communion with the Pope. However, according to the Vatican agreement only seven regime-bishops were accepted of which two are known to be married with children. There are about 65 Chinese regime-bishops. #newsXxdtbhmajv

A Colorado baker who already won a U.S. Supreme Court case may proceed with a second lawsuit claiming the state of Colorado is again wrongly prosecuting him, this time for declining to bake a cake celebrating a “gender transition,” a federal court ruled Friday. Jack Phillips, the owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop in the Denver suburb of Lakewood, was plaintiff in a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court decision that ruled he was wrongfully prosecuted for declining to bake a cake marking a same-sex wedding ceremony on the grounds that doing so would violate his religious beliefs. While the state of Colorado has...

ROME, January 8, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – An article at Vatican News, in recognition of the 60th anniversary of the Cuban revolution, disappeared from the Holy See’s website just one day after it appeared on January 1. No explanation was offered for the self-censorship of the article, which marked the rise to power of Fidel Castro and his anti-clerical Marxist government, which has long been marked by grievous human rights violations. The Vatican News article, in Spanish, was titled “Cuba celebrates 60th year of the Revolution.” It read, “The historic anniversary was celebrated with an official ceremony in which the former...

GALWAY, Ireland, January 7, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – The euphoria of the “Yes” campaign on winning the Irish abortion referendum last May is turning decidedly sour. Not only are those who campaigned for a ‘yes’ vote complaining that the measures that have been rapidly introduced by a compliant government to kill the unborn are not enough, the same people who campaigned for freedom from the then existing restrictions on abortion now wish to restrict the rights of those morally opposed to abortion. The strategy by which the pro-abortion side wish to silence debate on abortion is through censorship zones, similar to...