Free Republic

White Double “O HAPPY PENANCE, which has won me such glory!” said the Saint of today at the threshold of heaven. And on earth, Teresa of Jesus wrote of him “Oh! what a perfect imitator of Jesus Christ God has just taken from us, by calling to his glory that blessed religious Brother Peter of Alcantara! The world, they say, is no longer capable of such high perfection; constitutions are weaker, and we are not now in the olden times. Here is a Saint of the present day; yet his manly fervor equalled that of past ages; and he...

October 19, 2018 Memorial of Saints John de Brébeuf and Isaac Jogues, Priests, and Companions, Martyrs Reading 1 Eph 1:11-14 Brothers and sisters:In Christ we were also chosen,destined in accord with the purpose of the Onewho accomplishes all things according to the intention of his will,so that we might exist for the praise of his glory,we who first hoped in Christ.In him you also, who have heard the word of truth,the Gospel of your salvation, and have believed in him,were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,which is the first installment of our inheritancetoward redemption as God's possession, to the...

On October 10, LifeSiteNews reported on one of the listening sessions held by Bp. McElroy at Our Lady of Grace Church in San Diego. During this session, one attendee was removed because of the concern she expressed over “an openly homosexual man ‘running the show’” at St. John the Evangelist parish. According to LifeSite: After the woman alleged that the parish of St John the Evangelist had an openly homosexual man “running the show,” the Bishop cut her off, saying, “Alright, you’ve gone far enough now. You’re not going to stand here and disparage an employee of the diocese. You...

The 217 signatories say that 'senior prelates' spread confusion by deliberately using unclear wordsAustralia’s national organisation of Catholic students has asked the Youth Synod to address “ambiguity” over Church teaching on issues such as contraception and Communion for the remarried. In an open letter signed by 217 young Catholics, the Australian Catholic Students Association (ACSA) say that they want to be formed by the Church. “But we can’t hope to take shape amidst confusion over issues such as contraception, sexuality, communion for divorcees and non-Catholics, married priests and female ordination.” The ACSA members, including the presidents of six university Catholic...

Vatican City, Oct 17, 2018 / 08:40 am (CNA).- While Chinese Bishop Joseph Guo Jincai is new to the Vatican’s Synod of Bishops, he has served three terms as a deputy to the National People’s Congress in Beijing. As a member of China’s legislative body, Bishop Guo publicly supported an amendment to eliminate presidential term limits and enshrine “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era” in the Chinese Constitution in March 2018. Weeks after his excommunication was lifted last month as a part of an agreement between China and the Holy See, Bishop Guo garnered...

WASHINGTON (ChurchMilitant.com) - The federal government has issued subpoenas to multiple Pennsylvania dioceses in a criminal probe into sex abuse cover-up. The subpoenas were served last week, but news of the investigation only broke Thursday. So far, all eight Pennsylvania dioceses — Erie, Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Allentown, Scranton, Buffalo Pittsburgh and Greensburgh — have confirmed they have received subpoenas, some stating they will cooperate with the investigation. Two Eastern Catholic dioceses are also being investigated: the Byzantine Archeparchy of Pittsburgh and the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparhcy of Philadelphia. The investigation is being spearheaded by U.S. Attorney General William McSwain, who is asking...

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP/VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE and AMERICA: Government, Family, Military, Business, Education, Churches, 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 Religion Forum threads labeled "Prayer" are closed to debate of any kind.

1 And it came to pass, as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the sabbath day, that they watched him. 2 And, behold, there was a certain man before him which had the dropsy. 3 And Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day? 4 And they held their peace. And he took him, and healed him, and let him go; 5 And answered them, saying, Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and...

Franciscan Media Image: The Apostle Luke | Andrey Mironov Saint Luke Saint of the Day for October 18 (d. c. 84)  Saint Luke’s Story Luke wrote one of the major portions of the New Testament, a two-volume work comprising the third Gospel and Acts of the Apostles. In the two books he shows the parallel between the life of Christ and that of the Church. He is the only Gentile Christian among the Gospel writers. Tradition holds him to be a native of Antioch, and Paul calls him “our beloved physician.” His Gospel was probably written between 70 and...

The recent controversy over the Orthodox Church in Ukraine has been the subject of a lot of confusion, especially online. The following questions and answers attempt to clear up confusion in a non-partisan way that does not take sides in the dispute.Updates will be added whenever new information comes to light, so check back periodically.LAST UPDATED OCT. 18, 2018Who are the players in the current dispute and what is being disputed?The primary parties in the dispute are the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate, MP), led by Patriarch Kyrill, and the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople (EP), led by Patriarch Bartholomew.Directly affected...

Good evening!I'm a day late on this (been working some ridiculous hours). However I finally got home from work early enough to post this week's "Why the New Testament Was Written" vlog. This week, in part 9, we're talking about why Paul Wrote I Timothy.Why Paul Wrote I TimothyVideo clocks in at 11:31. Normally with first-and-second books of the New Testament we talk about both in one video, but Paul wrote to Timothy twice for very different reasons. This also gave me a chance to talk about gnosticism, which some historians believe originated in Ephesus and was the false doctrine...

“The depravity of man is at once the most empirically verifiable reality but at the same time the most intellectually resisted fact.” Malcolm Muggeridge

Isaiah had a vision of the final end of the World. The issue which eventually engulfs every nation into the final cataclysm , is called the Controversy of Zion. The center of the earth is Israel, the center of Israel is Jerusalem, (the city of the great King) and the center of Jerusalem is a piece of contested real estate called MT Zion, the place on which the temple of God once stood. Israel was banished from the land God gave to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, for two millennia in fulfillment of the warnings given by Moses in the Song...

Australian Youth to Synod: We Can’t Help Shape the Church Until the Church Forms Us In a letter to the Synod, a group of young people criticize substituting the truth for policy-speak and call out senior prelates who deliberately use ambiguous language in the face of Christ’s teachings. Edward Pentin Ambiguity and confusion over Catholic teaching is “neither charitable nor desired” by young people who instead want the Church to form them in the truth of Christ, a group of young Australians has told the Youth Synod.  In an Oct. 12 letter addressed to the Synod Fathers and all the...

Father Paul Warns that Chinese Regime’s “Ultimate Goal Is To Eliminate All Religion” 10/17/2018 China (International Christian Concern) – According to statements by religious affairs officials in a recent Religious Affairs Committee seminar, the Chinese government believes the “Vatican’s policy of meddling in China had not been abandoned”. The seminar was held in Wuhan city of Henei province where the deputy director of the committee, Xiong Huaqi, asks that Catholics regulate their religious activities to protect government interests.In a series of statements made by Xiong, he accuses some Catholics of having “lost their minds” because they do not know whether...

Clergy Abuse Is Soul Murder Amid the low rolling plains, where the coastal mountains dot the northwest corner of Ireland, lies the beautiful county of Donegal. There, in the rural village of Gortahork, where Gaelic primarily is spoken among the 1,600 residents, lies the Catholic Parish of Criost Ri (Christ the King). Known for its natural diverse, rugged beauty, Gortahork is infamous – not as the home of Gerry Adams, the leader of the Sinn Féin political party, but for the wreckage of many young lives. Tragically, this beautiful, quaint hamlet harbors a dark and menacing secret.Clerical sex abuse hangs...

Brazilian priest gives Communion to pro-abortion presidential candidate, quotes Pope Francis October 17, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Brazilian Catholics are expressing outrage following a mass in which the country’s main socialist candidate for president, Fernando Haddad, who is perceived as pro-abortion, was given the sacrament of Holy Communion in a Catholic parish by a priest who is openly supporting his candidacy. The priests attached to the parish have issued a statement defending the action, citing Pope Francis’ famous dictum, “Who am I to judge?” and claiming that anyone who approaches the altar must be given Communion. Haddad, whose Labor Party...

Five Biblical Lists of Mortal Sins Msgr. Charles Pope • October 17, 2018 • The first reading for Wednesday of the 27th Week of the Year, from Galatians, spoke to sins that exclude one from the Kingdom of Heaven. If one dies unrepentant from committing any of these sins, one cannot go to Heaven but rather must be excluded in Hell. It is an important reminder to pay heed to the toll that sin takes on our heart, our character, and ultimately our destiny.One of the great deceptions of our time is that serious sin is only a remote...

The patriarch of Constantinople recognizes the independence of Christians who have broken from Moscow. The Russian Orthodox Church cries foul. The Russian Orthodox Church on Monday officially broke communion with the Orthodox Church of Constantinople, whose patriarch has held the title “first among equals” for nearly a thousand years, following the East–West schism of 1054 — the schism that separated Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. If communion between Moscow and Constantinople is not reinstated, the schism would be the largest in nearly a millennium. Typically, questions of church are a purely ecclesiological matter, but in this case politics seems to...

Please Pray for this family. Dave and Mary are the parents of Sarah(who just lost her battle with cancer) have been raising her three boys William, Jude and Eliot. Less than twelve hours after she passed Sarah's ex husband has notified them that he will be coming from TN to take the boys back with him.