Free Republic

Sánchez Sorondo will cease to be a member of the Network’s board. The initiative was founded by Andrew Forrest with the goal of combatting human trafficking. “We do not want to be used”The Holy See no longer forms part of the Global Freedom Network, the interreligious alliance that works to combat human trafficking, launched by a foundation that is financed by Australian magnate Andrew Forrest. “The Holy See actually withdrew some time ago,” says the Chancellor of the Pontifical Social Science and Science Academies, Mgr. Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo. “We do not want to be used: a businessman has the right...

“‘For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also’” (Matthew 6:21). In wealthy countries, where the focus is on material things, believers must strive for the right perspective on possessions. Today’s text answers the simple but age-old question, Where is your heart? When our Lord answers the question, it is clear He is referring to all of life’s major preoccupations and investments—anything that receives most of our thinking, planning, and expenditure of energy. The religious leaders of Jesus’ day had their hearts in the wrong places. Among their many other sins, the Pharisees were thing-oriented—covetous, greedy, avaricious, and...

"Let all that you do be done in love" (1 Cor. 16:14). The more you love God, the less you will sin. Scripture and personal experience teach us that sin always has its consequences. When you harbor unconfessed sin, you dishonor God and forfeit the blessings and joy He desires for you. Prolonged sin might even bring His chastening through pain or illness. That's what happened to Corinthian believers who partook of the Lord's Table in a sinful manner (1 Cor. 11:27-30). Paul warned the rest of the congregation to take careful spiritual inventory of themselves to avoid incurring a...

Access to heaven It is only through the blood of Christ that the gates of heaven have been opened allowing us to enter Msgr. Charles Pope 7/29/2015 Question: When Christ died on the cross, the heavy curtain that separated the Holy of Holies was torn from top to bottom. What does this mean? Someone told me that this means we no longer need priests to intercede for us to the Father.— Name withheld, via email Answer: We most certainly do need to have a priest intercede for us. He is the Great High Priest, Jesus Christ. Scripture says of...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem Character Studies From The Bible Elijah 17 Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. 18 Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops. (James 5) New International Version (NIV) Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

August 1, 2015   Memorial of Saint Alphonsus Liguori, Bishop and Doctor of the Church Reading 1 Lv 25:1, 8-17 The LORD said to Moses on Mount Sinai,“Seven weeks of years shall you count–seven times seven years–so that the seven cycles amount to forty-nine years.Then, on the tenth day of the seventh month, let the trumpet resound;on this, the Day of Atonement, the trumpet blast shall re-echothroughout your land.This fiftieth year you shall make sacredby proclaiming liberty in the land for all its inhabitants.It shall be a jubilee for you,when every one of you shall return to his own...

It didn’t take long. Four days after the U.S. Supreme Court’s epochal 5-4 decision to legalize gay marriage nationwide, a Montana threesome applied for a polygamous marriage license. If denied, the trio intends to file suit to topple the law against bigamy. Husband Nathan Collier was featured on “Sister Wives,” so “reality TV” now meets legal and political reality.More significant was a July 21 op-ed piece in The New York Times, that influential arbiter of acceptable discourse and the future agenda for America's cultural left. University of Chicago law professor William Baude, a “contributing opinion writer” for the paper, wrote,...

IT has been on my heart for several months now to summarize for my readers the personal “words” and “warnings” I feel the Lord has communicated to me in the past decade, and that have shaped and inspired these writings. Everyday, there are several new subscribers coming on board who have no history with the over one thousand writings here. Before I summarize these “inspirations”, it is helpful to repeat what the Church says about “private” revelation: Throughout the ages, there have been so-called “private” revelations, some of which have been recognized by the authority of the Church. They do...

The most difficult part of my Orthodox experience to discuss with the non-Orthodox is the place and role of the Mother of God in the Church and in my life. It is, on the one hand, deeply theological and even essential to a right understanding of the Orthodox faith, while, on the other hand, being intensely personal beyond the bounds of conversation. I am convinced, as well, that the Orthodox approach to Mary is part of the apostolic deposit, and not a later accretion. When I was doing graduate studies some decades back, I decided to concentrate my historical research on...

Evening preaching, 24 minutes

According to a group of liberal clergy, killing babies in abortions and selling their body parts to the highest bidder is “God’s work.” On July 29, the Planned Parenthood Clergy Advocacy Board said the undercover videos portraying their executives haggling over the cost of aborted babies’ body parts are simply an attack on health care. Jeffrey Walton from the Institute on Religion and Democracy reports that the board is made up of religious leaders from the United Church of Christ, Episcopal Church and American Baptist Churches as well as clergy from Reformed Jewish and Unitarian Universalist congregations. In a statement...

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort. 2 Corinthians 1:3 Bible Reading 2 Corinthians 1:1–7 Devotional 2 Corinthians 1:1–7 tells us some very profound things about God’s comfort for those who belong to Christ. Did you notice as you read these verses how many times the word “comfort” is used? This passage identifies comfort with salvation. The strength of our lives as children of God is that the Lord comes to us and shows us mercy in our misery! All comfort proceeds from the Lord and is...

Christians may be the most persecuted group in the world, and their persecution is on the rise. As Islamic extremism takes hold and repressive governments step up their campaigns against Christianity, the Pope has been moved to warn of “a form of genocide”, and for campaigners to speak out over “religio-ethnic cleansing.”

On the Biblical Roots and Requirements of Church Design Msgr. Charles Pope • July 30, 2015 • In yesterday’s readings at Mass we read about how Moses laid out the “tent of meeting” exactly according to the pattern God gave him up on the mountain. A millennium later John described a similar scene of the sanctuary in Heaven.Few Catholics today realize that God actually did indicate a good deal about how He expects our churches to be designed. And while some degree of variation is allowed and has existed, most modern churches have significantly departed from the instructions God gave....

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, joined by representatives of other Orthodox churches, recalled the 1000th anniversary of the death of St. Vladimir, prince of Kievan Rus' and a key figure in the evangelization of the Slavic peoples. "We do not forget that the light of the Orthodox truth came to us from the shores of Bosporus, from Constantinople," Patriarch Kirill said on July 27 at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow. "In spite of all difficult historical circumstances, this spiritual bond has never been broken. I believe that the ties existing between us will continue to strengthen the whole...

The German Protestant Church (EKD) has apologised for the widespread destruction of religious images during the Reformation. “The Protestant Church rejects the destruction of images. Images have long since become an expression of Protestant piety,” Protestant Bishop Petra Bosse-Huber underlined at a meeting of delegations from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and the EKD. The clerics met in Hamburg to discuss the word “image” from the Orthodox and Protestant points of view. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and EKD chairman Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm sent greetings and blessings to the Hamburg meeting. Destroying image was most common in the immediate aftermath of the...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem Character Studies From The Bible Elijah 11 I ask then: Did God reject his people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew. Don’t you know what Scripture says in the passage about Elijah—how he appealed to God against Israel: 3 “Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me”? 4 And what was God’s answer to him? “I have reserved for myself...

Over the past couple of years the Obama administration has made it clear that when religious freedom conflicts with their political agenda, religious believers are the ones that will have to set aside their conscientious objections. And to be honest, I suspected that would be what happened more often than not. Sure, you’d have some brave holdouts, like the owners of Hobby Lobby and the dedicated nuns of the Little Sisters of the Poor. But for the most part, I expected Christian organizations would find a way to defend a “principled compromise.” For instance, I assumed Christian colleges would be...

“For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness” (v. 10). - Psalm 84:8–12 If you could visit any place, where would you go? That is a common question we have all likely asked or have been asked ourselves. Beach lovers might pick the coasts of California or Florida. European history buffs would perhaps choose Versailles or Berlin.Those who are really adventurous might opt for an out-of-this-world experience such as a trip to Mars or other far-off reaches...

Fight Against Human Trafficking, Fight for Gender-Ideology -- From One the Vatican Distances Itself, the Other Not (Rome) The Vatican has ended its cooperation in the Global Freedom Network. One of the new influential men in the Vatican, the Argentine Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo no longer sits on the board of the network against human trafficking and forced labor. The backgrounds for the withdrawal are unclear. The clear step has astonished because the distancing publicly and urgently demanded by Catholics had not occurred till now. "We will not be exploited," said Vatican Insider citing Msgr.Sorondo, Secretary of the Pontifical Academies...