Free Republic

A documentary film about the famous Valaam Monastery in Norther Russia.

The Not-so-Nice Origins and Meanings of the Word "Nice" Msgr. Charles Pope • November 24, 2015 • Words can change meaning over time—sometimes dramatically. For example, "manufactured" originally meant "handmade" (manu (hand) + facere (make)). The word "decimate" used to mean "to reduce by a tenth" (decem = ten); now people usually use it mean "to wipe out completely." The list of examples could go on and on. Yes, words do change meaning over time.One word that has changed meaning dramatically over time is "nice." Today it is an overused word that usually means pleasant, kind, or easygoing. In our...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem Character Studies From The Bible Paul 15. Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved. 2. This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question. 3. The church sent them on their way, and as they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria, they told how the...

November 25, 2015 Wednesday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Dn 5:1-6, 13-14, 16-17, 23-28 King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his lords,with whom he drank.Under the influence of the wine,he ordered the gold and silver vesselswhich Nebuchadnezzar, his father,had taken from the temple in Jerusalem,to be brought in so that the king, his lords,his wives and his entertainers might drink from them.When the gold and silver vesselstaken from the house of God in Jerusalem had been brought in,and while the king, his lords, his wives and his entertainerswere drinking wine from them,they...

THIS POST IS FAR TOO LONG TO FIT HERE. HERE IS A SNIPIT! Is the Bible as violent as the Koran? The answer is YES, if you talk to many Muslims and Liberals. But are they really? The following is a short discussion I had with a liberal about the subject. I hope to show you that they are not and that all non-Muslims should be uniting and working against Islam, not only because it is an institution that is a Human Rights nightmare, but because Islam really does have the submission of the whole world to Islam as it’s...

On November 18, 2015, the 95th anniversary of legalization of abortions in the Soviet Union, individuals picketed in defense of life of pre-born children at the entrances to the Council of Federation and the State Duma in Moscow. The Pro-Life Movement activists silently witnessed the fact of legality of infanticide for past 95 years before the elected representatives of the people and representatives of the regions who were arriving to the plenary meetings. Commenting on the action, Chairman of the Synodal Department for Cooperation of the Church and Society Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin said: "I am very glad that Orthodox...

Cardinal Robert Sarah's boldness in proclaiming the Gospel and resisting the Zeitgeist is a prophetic witness reminiscent of a 5th century North African Pope who laid the foundations for healthy church-state relations, Archbishop George Ganswein has said. In a well-received speech in Rome Nov. 20 at the launch of the German edition of the book 'God or Nothing' - an interview with Cardinal Sarah by Nicolas Diat - the personal secretary of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI compared the cardinal favorably to Pope Galasius I whom the Church, by coincidence, commemorated on Nov. 20. Gelasius' letter to the Emperor Anastasius I...

Vatican City, Nov 24, 2015 / 07:56 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis has appointed Msgr. Steven Lopes, a Catholic priest from California, as the new bishop who will head the Anglican Ordinariate in the United States and Canada. Bishop-elect Lopes, 40, is originally from the Archdiocese of San Francisco in the United States, and currently serves as an official for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the FaithHe will be taking over for Msgr. Jeffrey N. Steenson, a former Episcopal bishop appointed by Benedict XVI in 2012 to shepherd the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter. The Personal...

Many historians had been trying for some time to set the record straight on the Crusades—misconceptions are all too common. For them, current interest is an opportunity to explain the Crusades while people are actually listening. With the possible exception of Umberto Eco, medieval scholars are not used to getting much media attention. We tend to be a quiet lot (except during the annual bacchanalia we call the International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, Michigan, of all places), poring over musty chronicles and writing dull yet meticulous studies that few will read. Imagine, then, my surprise when within days...

  Holy New Martyrs of Optina 2 years ago John Valadez ArticlesHoly FathersLives 2 From Issue 19 In 1917, the Russian Revolution and the rise of communism resulted in the deaths of millions of believers and destroyed countless churches and monasteries. Optina monastery, once the center of true spirituality for the entire region, was initially spared… but not for long. In 1938 the last Abbot was executed by the communists and the Monastery was shut down. It’s lands were taken by peasant farmers and it’s beautiful cathedral turned into a state museum. It stood silently decaying, awaiting it’s own resurrection....

From Bill Donohue at the Catholic League followed by Michael Voris' response: Bill Donohue addresses recent attacks on Cardinal Donald Wuerl: The crazies on the Catholic right have set their sights on Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington. Why? Because he is close to Pope Francis, and they hate the pope. The attacks are coming from The Church Militant, a loose gang of angry right-wingers who specialize in character assassination, and American Spectator hater George Neumayr. Three recent hit pieces by Church Militant author Christine Niles set the agenda. She says “today’s archbishop of Washington owns a penthouse in a...

Earlier this month, the great Sycamore Trust created a website called NDCatholic.com which would assist Notre Dame students in finding those professors and courses on campus that could be counted on to deliver an "authentic Catholic education." Great idea, right? On top of that, they had the great Fr. Wilson D. Miscamble, C.S.C., making his very well informed recommendations to students on the website. Great idea, right? In fact, so many students thought it was a great idea that the website reportedly crashed on the first day. Well, it seems to me the university's administration didn't like the idea. The...

Rome) In the Catholic Church there is a conflict over the demand to give  Communion to the divorced and remarried. There is also uncertainty about what Pope Francis will present in his Post-Synodal Exhortation. According to the published opinion of the secular media the "German group" has prevailed at the Synod of Bishops last October, led by Cardinal Walter Kasper. In their ad limina - Visit of November 20 Pope Francis, however, told the German bishops, however, that their church was not "the most advanced, but the most desolate," as the Vatican expert Sandro Magister reports. The German bishops, received a stern dressing down by...

Pro-life Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson won’t meet with or apologize to Bobby Schindler, Terri Schiavo’s brother, about comments Carson made concerning the legislation Congress passed to help Terri Schiavo’s family try to save her life. As LifeNews reported, Carson thinks the federal and state governments overreached when they attempted to protect Terri Schiavo from a painful 14-day starvation and dehydration death. Despite the best efforts of pro-life lawmakers in Congress and the Florida state legislature, where lawmakers approved pro-life laws to allow Terri’s family to take their case to federal courts and to allow then-Governor Jeb Bush to try...

"Bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come" (1 Timothy 4:8). Godliness should be the believer's priority in life. I'm amazed at how devoted people can be to what they believe is important. There are many people outside Christianity who live in rigid conformity to a lot of meaningless rules. People in totalitarian countries, for example, live in rigid conformity to rules predicated on a denial of biblical truth. They walk circumspectly and toe the mark. Some cultists are...

"By faith Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the exodus of the sons of Israel, and gave orders concerning his bones" (Heb. 11:22). God uses your present circumstances to accomplish His future purposes. Like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Joseph was an heir to the covenant promises of God. His hope was firmly fixed on God, and he knew that some day his people would be at home in the Promised Land. Although he spent all his adult life in Egypt, never seeing the Promised Land for himself, Joseph's faith never wavered. At the end of his life, he...

Whence Comes the Special Resistance to Christ? A Meditation on a Teaching from Joseph Sobran Msgr. Charles Pope • November 23, 2015 • I have started reading through a recently published book called Subtracting Christianity: Essays on American Culture and Society. It is an anthology of the writings of Joseph Sobran (1946-2010), long-time editor at National Review and a keen observer of culture and its intersection with faith. I recommend it highly, for its penetrating observations and its sober portrait of what happens when we remove Christianity from our culture, the same Christianity that was fundamental in our making.I'd like...

Some of the things covered in this lecture - What really happened to Jesus did he die, was he crucified, who was put on the cross? When will Jesus Return and what will be his mission? Why did Allah (God) raise Jesus up? What will Jesus look like, where and when will he descend? Who will Jesus follow when he returns? Who and what is the dajjal (antichrist)? What will the dajjal (antichrist) look like and where and when will he appear? Who will kill the dajjal (antichrist) and what will happen after he is killed? Who are the yajooj...

Jursidiction is when My Spirit overwhelms the rulers,thrones and principalities with the heavenlies and you shall always find this in worship and praise for it causes an immediate setback and hedge of Holy Fire for My Seraphim guard My Glory and such is the worship of My Children to their KING ! Job 1:6-10 6 Now there was a day when the sons (the angels) of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan (the adversary and accuser) also came among them. 7 And the Lord said to Satan, From where did you come? Then Satan answered the...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem Character Studies From The Bible Paul 21. They preached the gospel in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, 22. strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God, they said. 23. Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust. 24. After going through Pisidia, they came into Pamphylia,...