Free Republic

August 18, 2017 Friday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Jos 24:1-13Joshua gathered together all the tribes of Israel at Shechem,summoning their elders, their leaders,their judges and their officers.When they stood in ranks before God, Joshua addressed all the people: "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: In times past your fathers, down to Terah,father of Abraham and Nahor,dwelt beyond the River and served other gods.But I brought your father Abraham from the region beyond the Riverand led him through the entire land of Canaan.I made his descendants numerous, and gave him Isaac.To Isaac I...

August 16, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) -- Since Pope Francis has chosen not to respond to the five questions on whether his Exhortation Amoris Laetitia conforms to Catholic teaching, a “correction” of the ways his teaching departs from the Catholic faith is “necessary,” said Cardinal Raymond Burke in a new interview. The Cardinal, who is one of the four who signed the dubia almost one year ago asking the Pope to clarify his teaching, explained in an interview with The Wanderer how the process for issuing a “formal correction” would proceed. “It seems to me that the essence of the correction is...

The Trump administration will soon unveil new regulations that will exempt religious institutions from the “Obamacare” requirement that health-insurance programs must include contraceptive coverage, the Wall Street Journal reports. During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump promised to repeal the “contraceptive mandate” for religious institutions. New regulations, fulfilling that promise and allowing employers to opt out of the contraceptive coverage, will soon be released, according to the Journal. Trump Set to Roll Back Obama-Era Contraception Rule (Wall Street Journal)

Archbishop Denis Hart of Melbourne, Australia said that he would go to jail rather than obey a law requiring him to divulge the contents of a sacramental confession. The archbishop was responding to a recommendation from the royal commission on sexual abuse, which had urged Australian states to implement new laws requiring priests to disclose reports of sexual abuse that they heard in confessions. Archbishop Hart stressed that the Church could not accept such legislation. “I believe that this is an absolutely sacrosanct communication of the highest order,” he said. He added that he would “go to extreme lengths outside...

The Treason of the Catholic "Nice Guys" The Church will -- through the power of the Holy Spirit! Editor's Note: This is the main article from the current issue of the Les Femmes newsletter. It's not posted on line yet; I'm offering this as preview. I am on retreat this week and scheduled the article to post before I left. No comments will be posted, however, until I return on Saturday. So if you comment please be patient.  I will be computer and phone-free this week and will moderate all comments when I return. I'm praying for the intentions of my...

The former prefect of the Apostolic Signatura explains in a new interview how a correction of parts of the Holy Father’s magisterium would be enacted, pays tribute to the recently deceased Cardinal Meisner, and stresses the importance of true mercy. In a new interview, Cardinal Raymond Burke has said it is “now necessary” that a declaration be issued on key areas of Church doctrine that are “not clear” in Pope Francis’ teachings. The Holy Father will then be “obliged to respond” in order to bring clarification to those teachings, he said. The cardinal told The Wanderer newspaper Aug. 14 that...

...actually, "in service to some" - just "cradle Catholics": Converts need not apply, or buy insurance *** The Knights of Columbus made a clear choice when the organization decided to sponsor the faltering "Crux" -- founded by the Boston Globe for liberal journalist John Allen Jr (when the Globe thought it could cash in on Francis' supposed "popularity") and then, when it came into trouble, propped up by the Knights. The Knights' choice was to uphold the liberal and Modernist version of Catholicism in reporting news. For a few weeks now, Knights-Crux has been on a crusade to crush...

With so many leaders in the Church in open rebellion to Her and Her divinely revealed teachings, it's worth alerting people to the treachery. Currently, in the English-speaking world at any given moment, you will find some combination of the following four priests, spreading error and sowing confusion anywhere they can gain an audience. And because of their influence in Church circles, they gain entrance to many many audiences. First, the big four are Fr. James Martin, Fr. Thomas Rosica, Fr. Bryan Massingale and Fr. Timothy Radcliffe. Combined, they form the leading edge of a public relations campaign to introduce...

Proverb 17 (NKJV) The LORD Tests Hearts 01 Better is a dry morsel with quietness, 00 Than a house full of feasting with strife. 02 A wise servant will rule over a son who causes shame, 00 And will share an inheritance among the brothers. 03 The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, 00 But the LORD tests the hearts. 04 An evildoer gives heed to false lips; 00 A liar listens eagerly to a spiteful tongue. 05 He who mocks the poor reproaches his Maker; 00 He who is glad at calamity will not...

Why and How Does Satan Roam the Earth? Msgr. Charles Pope • August 16, 2017 • One of the more puzzling aspects of demonology is the freedom that Satan and demons appear to have in roaming the earth, causing trouble. If the condemned are consigned to Hell for all eternity, why is Satan allowed to wander about outside of Hell? Isn’t he supposed to be suffering in Hell along with his minions and the other condemned? Further, it doesn’t seem that he is suffering one bit, but rather having a grand time wreaking havoc on the earth. How do...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem The Ark of the Covenant, The Tabernacle, and The Temple 1 Kings 6 Solomon Builds the Temple 6 In the four hundred and eightieth[a] year after the Israelites came out of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, the second month, he began to build the temple of the Lord. 2 The temple that King Solomon built for the Lord was sixty cubits long, twenty wide and thirty high.[b] 3 The portico at the front of the main hall of the temple extended the width of the temple,...

"Love . . . is not arrogant" (1 Cor. 13:4). Love is the key to effective ministry. In 1 Corinthians 13:4 Paul says, "Love does not brag and is not arrogant." We often equate bragging and arrogance, but in this passage there is a subtle difference. The Greek word translated "brag" emphasizes prideful speech or actions; "arrogant" emphasizes the attitude of pride motivating those actions. The prideful attitudes of the Corinthians were evident in several areas. In 1 Corinthians 4:18-21 Paul says, "Some have become arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. But I will come to you...

“To me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). True contentment is found only in Christ. There has never been a society in the history of the world that has had as many commodities as Americans have. We are living in affluence that is unheard of in the world’s history. The key philosophy behind it all is this: only as you accumulate enough assets to satisfy your particular lifestyle can you really be happy. Sad to say, Christians have bought into that philosophy. Now, there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with commodities, but it is wrong to think...

Evangelical Christians love America. Some see in her the last hope of creating a Christian nation. But it is not a Christian nation. It is pagan to the core. It is in danger of becoming, if it is not already, the new “Evil Empire.” The Mayflower Compact is a museum piece, a relic of a forgotten era. “In God We Trust” is now a lie. Yes, we must always work for social reform. Yes, we must be “profane” in Martin Luther’s sense of going out of the temple and into the world. We do not despise the country of our...

"We've been not only abandoned by the Western countries, we have been betrayed"The West has failed to do enough to protect Christian minorities in the Middle East, the Syriac Catholic Patriarch has said. “I can tell you, we’ve been not only abandoned by the Western countries, but even we have been betrayed,” Patriarch Ignace Joseph III Younan told The Southern Cross, newspaper of the Diocese of San Diego. He made the comments in a recent interview at Our Mother of Perpetual Help Syriac Catholic Parish in El Cajon. While the Christian minority in Syria and Iraq is composed of “peaceful...

The umbrella group of the leaders of U.S. Catholic men’s religious orders has committed to working to persuade Pope Francis to write a new encyclical letter focused on shifting church teaching away from just war theory towards Gospel nonviolence.The umbrella group of the leaders of U.S. Catholic men’s religious orders has committed to working to persuade Pope Francis to write a new encyclical letter focused on shifting church teaching away from just war theory towards Gospel nonviolence. In a resolution adopted Aug. 3 at its annual assembly, The Conference of Major Superiors of Men declared it would “use both our...

We accommodate. We compromise. We avoid conflict — even when conflict is the only proper course,' Archbishop Tartaglia wroteScottish Catholics have become too “wishy-washy” in standing up for their faith, the Archbishop of Glasgow has warned. In an essay for Crux, Archbishop Philip Tartaglia said “too many believers” have submitted to secular values and failed to stress their faith. When challenged by secularism, the archbishop said, many Catholics avoid saying they “really believe in anything supernatural; in anything they can’t see or touch or experience; or in anything beyond modelling and encouraging decent behaviour”. “Too many believers no longer talk...

August 17, 2017 Thursday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Jos 3:7-10a, 11, 13-17The LORD said to Joshua,"Today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel,that they may know I am with you, as I was with Moses.Now command the priests carrying the ark of the covenantto come to a halt in the Jordanwhen you reach the edge of the waters." So Joshua said to the children of Israel,"Come here and listen to the words of the LORD, your God.This is how you will know that there is a living God in...

Amoris Laetitia clearly reaffirms the traditional doctrine of the church, Cardinal Onaiyekan saidPope Francis did not change church teaching on the rules for receiving Communion, but rather assured people who are in difficult situations that the church cares for them and the mercy of God extends to them, a Nigerian cardinal said. Nigerian Cardinal John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan of Abuja, speaking at Ghana’s National Eucharistic Congress in Jasikan August 11, said it was unfortunate that pressure has mounted on the Catholic Church in some places to relax the rules about the reception of holy Communion. Such pressure, he said, can be...