Free Republic

Pope Francis' recent leftist statements should trouble Catholics and non-Catholics alike, but even more disturbing are the pope's latest declarations on the dramatic action needed to fight climate change... ...What climate-change action will the Vatican endorse? Almost all the leading anti-climate-change initiatives endorsed by the Green Movement — cap and trade, carbon taxes, regulations against using abundant fossil fuels — are merely regressive taxes that hurt the poor the most. What is the ethical and moral basis for going to poor villages and telling those living at subsistence levels that they have an obligation to save the planet by staying...

Following a visit in March to Tacloban, the Philippine city devastated in 2012 by typhoon Haiyan, the pope will publish a rare encyclical on climate change and human ecology. Urging all Catholics to take action on moral and scientific grounds, the document will be sent to the world’s 5,000 Catholic bishops and 400,000 priests, who will distribute it to parishioners.

ABC’s Sunday show, This Week, used its last edition of the year to review 2014’s key stories, and given the media coverage of the Catholic Church and Pope Francis this year, it’s fitting that one of This Week’s contributors, radio host Michael Smerconish, labeled a few things Pope Francis didn’t say as one of the key stories. Smerconish dubbed Pope Francis a “game changer” of the year “because on issues from the treatment of women to the treatment of gays to even whether our pets are going to make it through the pearly gates, he put a soft, overdue face...

Tonight on CBS, viewers will be treated to a special hour of “60 Minutes Presents: Inside the Vatican.” Scott Pelley will profile Pope Francis, who is surprising the world by spurning tradition; and Morley Safer will lead viewers on a tour of the Vatican Library. The program will air at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time and Pacific Time. To whet your appetite for what is certain to be a fascinating disclosure of rarely seen documents, let me tell you a little about the things I’ve seen in that hallowed space. Center> * * * * It was my great privilege to...

He has been called the “superman pope”, and it would be hard to deny that Pope Francis has had a good December. Cited by President Barack Obama as a key player in the thawing relations between the US and Cuba, the Argentinian pontiff followed that by lecturing his cardinals on the need to clean up Vatican politics. But can Francis achieve a feat that has so far eluded secular powers and inspire decisive action on climate change? It looks as if he will give it a go.

Back in December of 2012, I wrote, "The "Social Gospel" is more concerned about an earthly future than eternity Standing before a statue of Mary near the Spanish Steps on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Pope Benedict XVI reminded his listeners that the Gospel is the good news of freedom from sin, that it is "the proclamation of the victory of grace over sin, of life over death." Proponents of the "social gospel" have forgotten this. The mission of the Church is not to eradicate poverty or social injustice. As Dr. Dietrich von Hildebrand explains, while "a deep interest...

Last Friday, Rev. Robert Jeffress, the Dallas pastor who introduced Gov. Rick Perry at the Values Voter Summit, spoke derisively about the Mormon faith of Mitt Romney, making the case that “Mormonism is a cult.” Two days later, he chided Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism as “false religions.” Last year, Rev. Jeffress said the Roman Catholic Church was the outgrowth of a “corruption” called the “Babylonian mystery.” He continued, “Much of what you see in the Catholic Church today doesn’t come from God’s word. It comes from that cult-like pagan religion. Isn’t that the genius of Satan?” Catholic League president Bill...

ROMA, January 19, 2006 – The first words of Benedict XVI’s first encyclical letter, almost the motto of his papacy, are “Deus Caritas Est,” God is love. But not everyone in the upper levels of the Church is full of love and solidarity for this new pope. Resistance to his guidance is tenacious and widespread, and in some places it is on the rise. And almost all the resistance shields itself behind the protection of anonymity. The only open and avowed resistance is that of the Neocatechumenal Way, which has opposed a papal directive issued last December, which struck at...

OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR Why the Next Pope Needs to Be Italian By ROBERTO PAZZI Published: January 11, 2004 FERRARA, Italy--For years Vatican specialists in Italy have, in delineating the uncertain features of John Paul II's successor, been fueled by a silent question: will the new pope be Italian? Why, one might ask, should Italy hope for an Italian pope, given the almost universal praise for the pontificate of Karol Wojtyla? The origins of this question go back in time and deserve examination. I was watching on that unforgettable Roman evening of Oct. 16, 1978, when, on the state television network, RAI,...

Though many Cuban-American Catholics praise the pontiff for encouraging progress, others feel betrayed by their spiritual leader. Those who equate Raul Castro with the devil are incensed by the pope's diplomacy. Cuban exile Efrain Rivas says he feels abandoned, calling himself "a Catholic without a pope."

Call it truth in advertising–though not in reporting. Religion News Service's story on Pope Francis's Christmas address to the Curia bears a headline that aptly sums up its spin: "Pope Francis to Curia: Merry Christmas, you power-hungry hypocrites." The lede signals that we have before us the mainstream media's familiar "Francis as radical" meme: VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Francis launched a blistering attack on the Vatican bureaucracy on Monday (Dec. 22), outlining a “catalog of illnesses” that plague the church’s central administration, including “spiritual Alzheimer’s” and gossipy cliques. The pope’s traditional Christmas greeting to the cardinals, bishops and priests who...

Looking back at our popular culture in 2014, it appears that Hollywood's power is on the wane. Politically, the leftist celebrities and the "Rock the Vote" gang couldn't help dig the Democrats out of their rut. Even that paragon of permissiveness Sandra Fluke couldn't exploit her Limbaugh-victim aura to win a state Senate seat in libertine California. The year's biggest loser was Sony, which looked pathetically powerless in the wake of an alleged North Korea's hack attack. Worst yet were the people involved. A clearly frustrated George Clooney announced there was no one in that industry willing to sign a...

A feminist activist ran topless through St Peter's Square and rushed the nativity scene before attempting to flee with the baby Jesus figurine. The woman, who had the words 'God Is Woman' written on her chest, started her protest just one hour after Pope Francis delivered his Christmas message. Thousands of pilgrims were still standing in the famous square when the woman, who is a member of Femen, was ambushed by a guard on her way off the platform. She was quickly arrested by officers from the Vatican police.

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- The Vatican's official English-language translation of Pope Francis' prepared homily, to be delivered in Italian, during Christmas Eve Mass on Wednesday in St. Peter's Basilica. Spelling and style are the Vatican's.

Religion News Service is reporting that: "Cardinal Walter Kasper, one of Pope Francis’ closest advisers, has sought to downplay the pontiff’s scathing critique of the Curia earlier this week. Kasper, who previously led the Vatican body responsible for promoting Christian unity, said the pope was asking the Curia, or Vatican administration, to examine their conscience in a bid to promote spiritual renewal. The German cardinal, joined by Argentine Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, said Francis was asking the Curia to set an example. 'The fundamental thing is he wants spiritual reform of the Curia,' Kasper told the Italian daily Corriere della Sera...

Pope in Rome, not in WashingtonAlmost from the beginning of his papacy, there has been a lot of nonsense written about Pope Francis. On the Left, there has been much wishful thinking about how the former Cardinal Bergoglio is really a man of progressive sympathies, while on the Right, there is a deep suspicion that the first Jesuit pope is basically a “liberation theologian” who is not a particular fan of capitalism and may in fact be a sneak commie symp. Much of what the pope is said to have said turns out to be either a mistranslation or...

Cardinal Raymond Burke said in an interview this week that it is “amazing” that those who have defended Catholic teaching and practice on withholding Communion from those in publicly “irregular” sexual situations, are being accused of “being against the Holy Father, and of not being in harmony with the Church.” The blog Rorate Caeli carried a translation of the comments Cardinal Burke made this week to the French language daily Le Figaro. Burke, one of a small group of vocal opponents of the so-called Kasper proposal, said that October’s Synod of Bishops on the family “was a difficult experience.” Those...

I thank you Lord that I am not like these others..... I thank you Lord that I'm not like those members of the Curia who feel immortal, immune or indispensable and who do not criticize themselves. I thank you Lord that I'm not part of that sick body which has become spiritually and mentally hardened. I thank you that I don't have spiritual Alzheimer’s and that I haven't forgotten my encounter with the Lord. I thank you that I do not on the here and now and that I do not succumb to my passions, whims and manias. I thank...

Now that Pope Francis has done his part to ensure that U.S. sanctions against the murderous regime in Cuba have been removed, the Holy See is already looking toward thawing relations with another brutal Communist regime: China. See here. Back in October, Matt Hadro, writing for the Catholic News Agency, explained that: "The state of religious freedom in China is moving from bad to worse, said U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), responding to a new report by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China. 'There’s a huge gulf now' between China and the Catholic Church, Smith stated during an Oct. 9 conference...

Monday, December 19, 2011 The apocalyptic prophecies of Hildegard of Bingen, the next Doctor of the ChurchBy Brian Kopp Earlier this fall, Pope Benedict XVI beatified Venerable Elena Aiello, bringing to light her little known prophecies, which have strong parallels to those of both Our Lady of Akita as well as statements Pope JPII and Cardinal Ratzinger made in the past regarding the Third Secret of Fatima. (See this earlier blog post for a summary of the parallels: For fourth anniversary of Summorum Pontificum, Pope draws attention to little known prophecies of Venerable Elena Aiello) Now, Pope Benedict XVI is...