Free Republic

[Catholic Caucus] Louisiana Bishop Threatens to Kick Out Seminarians Associated With Whistleblowers Bp. Douglas Deshotel: 'Anyone in formation known by me to be associated with ... SSPD shall be dismissed from formation' LAFAYETTE, La. (ChurchMilitant.com) - A bishop is decreeing he will not ordain any seminarian who is associated with a lay group that is investigating and exposing corruption in his diocese. Within days of a report showing Bp. Douglas Deshotel of the diocese of Lafayette, Louisiana, is knowingly leaving a priest in ministry he admits should "not be alone with children," he issued a decree threatening all men in formation to disassociate...

Pope Francis has accused Britain of placing greed over humanity by refusing to hand over a disputed island archipelago in the Indian Ocean to Mauritius. In an unusually muscular foreign policy intervention, the pope suggested that Britain’s failure to heed a United Nations vote calling on it relinquish sovereignty over the British Indian Ocean Territory was uncivilised. “Not all things that are right for humanity are right for our pocket, but international institutions must be obeyed,” the pope told journalists as he left Mauritius at the end of a three-nation tour of Africa. “If there is an internal dispute or...

Like all accounts of God’s faithfulness, mine begins with a genealogy. In the late seventeenth century, my mother’s Congregationalist ancestors journeyed to the New World to escape what they saw as England’s deadly compromise with Romanism. Centuries later, ­American Presbyterians converted my father’s great-­grandmother from Coptic ­Orthodoxy to ­Protestantism. Her son became a Presbyterian minister in the Evangelical Coptic Church. By the time my parents were ­living in ­twenty-first-century Illinois, their families’ historic Reformed commitments had been replaced by non-denominational, ­Baptistic ­evangelicalism. This form of Christianity dominated my Midwestern hometown. My parents taught me to love God, revere the Scriptures,...

ROME - On a day remembered for the terrorist attacks against the United States, Pope Francis met with members of a committee of Muslim leaders and Vatican officials promoting a new era of dialogue and world peace. The first meeting of the committee working to fulfill the goals of the “Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together” was held Sept. 11 in the Vatican residence where the pope lives. “The date was chosen as a sign of the will to build life and fraternity where others sowed death and destruction,” said a communique by the Vatican press...

In June, Eritrean authorities seized health facilities that were previously run by the Catholic Church. The church slammed the move which it said impacted the less privileged most. Reports indicate that a latest round of seizures have taken place, this time education institutions are at the center of the seizures. A BBC report said seven secondary schools run by religious organisations had been captured by government. An order to hand over the running of the schools was given to the Catholic Church and other Christian and Muslim groups on Tuesday morning, the report said. As in the case of the...

About a thousand representatives of world religions and other organizations gathered in Germany in late August to advance globalism and a planetary uniting of religions to promote the United Nations’ so-called masterplan for humanity known as UN Agenda 2030. Critics expressed alarm that self-proclaimed religious leaders were embracing dangerous world “order” ideas totally at odds with liberty and Christianity. The implications are massive. The controversial 10th World Assembly of Religions for Peace, backed by George Soros and the globalist-controlled German government and other powerful forces, aimed to unify the world’s religious organizations behind key elements of the establishment’s agenda —...

Pope’s Inaction on Nicaragua Deemed ‘Shameful’ While Catholics suffer persecution, Francis remains silent Pope Francis' relative silence and apparent inaction in the face of mounting persecution of the Church by the government of Nicaragua has recently been characterized by a Miami Herald article as "shameful," "inexplicable" and "anemic." Anemic? Of course. Shameful? Certainly. Inexplicable? More like business as usual.  Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega has held a central place in his country's politics since the 1970s, when he was a leading figure within the communist Sandinista rebellion that (with Soviet Union backing) was waging a guerilla war and terror campaign against the country's more or less conservative government. When the government collapsed in 1979, Ortega...

"In the same week as the awful attack on the mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand... more than two hundred Christians were killed in Nigeria. There was hardly any mention of the latter in the news. There were no marches for martyred Christians, no tolling of church bells ordered by governments, no 'Je suis Charlie' t-shirts... no public outrage at all." — Fr. Benedict Kiely, Crisis Magazine, September 4, 2019 NASA's satellites observed the Amazon fires, prompting world leaders to pledge to protect the rainforest. But the burning, chopping and murder of Christians is not tracked by satellites and their suffering...

Pope Francis' unexpected announcement this past Sunday that he would appoint 13 new cardinals to the College of Cardinals strengthens his grip on the Catholic Church and solidifies a liberal majority to select the next pope. ... While three of the Cardinals designated will be honorary, 10 new ones will be created Oct. 5 at a consistory and will become active members of the College of Cardinals, increasing its number of electors to 128, exceeding the current limit of 120. ... Since assuming the seat of St. Peter in 2013, Francis has been assiduously stacking the College of Cardinals with...

American conservatives who loathe his outreach to migrants and China, his denunciation of free-market capitalism, his environmental concerns and his relaxation of church rules on the death penalty and sacraments for civilly remarried Catholics. Some have gone so far as to accuse Francis of heresy. The pope’s most outspoken conservative critics in the U.S. include Cardinal Raymond Burke, who Francis ousted as a Vatican supreme court justice, and former White House adviser Steve Bannon. Well-funded, right-wing Catholic media amplified their disapproval. Wealthy Catholics are putting money behind initiatives to discredit Francis’ allies with the goal of electing a conservative, doctrine-minded...

Did billionaire speculator George Soros, President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Vice President Joe Biden, and Obama/Clinton adviser John Podesta conspire to overthrow the conservative Pope Benedict XVI and replace him with a radical, Pope Francis? Did they use America’s intelligence agencies, and our nation’s diplomatic machinery, political muscle, and financial power to coerce and blackmail “regime change” in the Roman Catholic Church? Far from being some wild conspiracy theory, there is sound prima facie evidence to indicate that this is a serious effort to expose a political scandal of the highest order, involving flagrant, criminal abuse of...

[Catholic Caucus] Bishop Blames Marxism for Rising Persecution of Catholics in Nicaragua Bp. Juan Abelardo Mata accuses papal nuncio of being 'used' by the regime MANAGUA, Nicaragua (ChurchMilitant.com) - Nicaragua's most outspoken bishop has accused the country's "demonic" Marxist regime of persecuting the Catholic Church and of "murders and crimes against humanity." Bishop Juan Abelardo Mata, bishop of Estelí, 73, reputed to be the "toughest" bishop of the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua, attacked President Daniel Ortega's dictatorship for "using" papal nuncio Abp. Waldemar Stanisław Sommertag in the Second National Dialogue, which was later suspended. In a Spanish interview, Mata, who "has spent his entire...

All that this dialogue has led to is Christian leaders being quiet about Muslim persecution of Christians, for fear of offending their dialogue partners. Has this been reciprocated by Muslims? Have Muslim spokesmen stopped being critical of Christians and Christianity? Of course not. The “dialogue” is all dawah on one side and Useful Idiots, eager to be deceived, on the other. Robert McManus, Roman Catholic Bishop of Worcester, Massachusetts, said it on February 8, 2013 as he was suppressing a planned talk (by me) at a Catholic conference on that persecution: “Talk about extreme, militant Islamists and the atrocities that...

An Archbishop who wrote an explosive letter last year calling for Pope Francis to resign on the grounds he knew about Cardinal Theodore McCarrick sexual abuse, is now in hiding.Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò alleged Francis covered for McCarrick and claimed he repealed sanctions imposed by Pope emeritus Benedict XVI in the late 2000s, despite Viganò telling the Pope about the abuse.

[Catholic Caucus] Polish Professor: John Paul II Institute Forsaking Moral Theology Stanisław Grygiel: The late Pope's name 'shouldn't be used as a fig leaf' for changes at institute ROME (ChurchMilitant.com) - A professor tied to the John Paul II Family Institute sees signs of heterodoxy in the school's current shake-up. The Pontifical John Paul II Theological Institute for Marriage and Family Science is experiencing a massive overhaul. After two faculty members were dismissed in July, many close to the institute have expressed concern about the direction it is heading. Earlier this month, professor Stanisław Grygiel gave an interview to Catholic Polish site Teologia...

Lewis and Clark Stop celebrating. They don't matter. By David Plotz Posted Friday, August 16, 2002, at 7:40 AM PT The American infatuation with Lewis and Clark grows more fervent with every passing year. The adventurers have become our Extreme Founding Fathers, as essential to American history as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson but a lot more fun. Last month, President Bush announced the Lewis and Clark bicentennial celebration, a three-year, 15-state pageant that begins Jan. 18 in Virginia and could draw as many as 25 million tourists to the Lewis and Clark trail by the time it wraps up...

VATICAN – The lives of 19 religious men and women martyred during the Algerian civil war are a testament to God’s plan of love and peaceful coexistence between Christians and Muslims, Pope Francis said…. Both Christians and Muslims in Algeria “have been victims of the same violence for having lived, with faithfulness and respect for each other, their duties as believers and citizens in this blessed land. It is for them, too, that we pray and express our grateful tribute,” the Pope said. Among those who were beatified were Blessed Christian de Cherge and six of his fellow Trappists –...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — “Now is the time to abandon our dependence on fossil fuels and move, quickly and decisively, toward forms of clean energy,” Pope Francis said as he marked the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation.“We have caused a climate emergency that gravely threatens nature and life itself, including our own,” the pope said in his message for the Sept. 1 ecumenical day of prayer.Pope Francis urged Catholics to find a naturally beautiful place and think about how God created the universe and declared it good; then he created human beings and gave them creation...

My pastor recently told me that 25 years ago, the first person that people would contact when they faced a marriage crisis was their pastor. Ten years ago, he continued, it was their counselor or psychiatrist. Today, it’s their lawyers. A recent study conducted by the Associated Press and the University of Chicago concurs. “Doctors, teachers, members of the military,” and scientists are, according to the survey, esteemed “more positively than clergy.” Among infrequent churchgoers, clergy are viewed as negatively as lawyers. (For the record, that last line came from a member of our editorial team who’s been admitted to...

US bishops dismiss spokeswoman in wake of tweets praising Trump, opposing Democrats WASHINGTON, D.C., August 27, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has replaced its public affairs director a month after she was put on leave amid controversy over her criticism of Democrats and support for President Donald Trump on social media. Judy Keane was the USCCB’s public affairs director since 2016 until she shared pro-Trump tweets on her personal Twitter account that roiled “liberal” Catholics. The USCCB announced Thursday it had appointed the Archdiocese of Washington’s Director of Media and Public Relations, Chieko Noguchi, as Director of its Office...