Free Republic

A number of well-known spokesmen on the left have voiced reservations, not only about the Republican decision to have members of Congress — both Republicans and Democrats — read the Constitution aloud at the opening of the latest session of Congress, but also about Americans’ veneration of the Constitution. Three examples: In a recent appearance on MSNBC, Washington Post staff writer Ezra Klein said: “The issue with the Constitution is that the text is confusing because it was written more than a hundred years ago and what people believe it says differs from person to person.” Joy Behar asked her...

Invited dignitaries watched the live exercises along with the South Korean president North Korea is ready for a "sacred war of justice" using a nuclear deterrent, its armed forces minister has said. Kim Yong-chun accused South Korea of making preparations for war by holding live-fire exercises near the border. The drills are one of the largest in South Korea's history, involving tanks, helicopters and fighter planes. North Korea shelled a Southern island last month killing four people - the first time Northern shells had killed civilians since the 1950-53 war. South Korean President Lee Myung-bak has promised immediate retaliation to...

  The First Friday Devotion in the Catholic Church History of First Friday First Friday devotions among Catholics are related to devotion to the Sacred Heart of Christ. First Friday practices date to the last decades of the 17th century, when Jesus appeared to St. Margaret Mary and spoke to her of His Sacred Heart. Among the promises Our Lord revealed to St. Margaret Mary, the 12th specifically referenced practices for Fridays:In the excess of the mercy of my Heart, I promise you that my all powerful love will grant to all those who will receive Communion on the...

Two men have been found guilty of running an internet company that illegally provided sperm from anonymous donors. Ricky Gage, 49, and Nigel Woodforth, 43, were both convicted on three counts under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990. They operated the company from the basement of Mr Woodforth's home in Reading, Berkshire, introducing donors to women who were trying to conceive. Nearly 800 deliveries were found to have been completed by the illegal firm, which provided the two men with earnings of £250,000. Speaking at Southwark Crown Court, judge Deborah Taylor warned Mr Gage and Mr Woodforth that she...

Rarely are currency exchange rates as good for the American dollar as that of Asian countries. In Asia, the American dollar carries a lot of clout and with the recent devaluation of the USD; it is a good thing that these countries offer an excellent trip for so little cost to Americans.

A dispute over blessed arrows and turkeys apparently led to the stabbing at a Virginia bar on Tuesday that left one man in the hospital and another facing felony charges. . . . Police found TwoCrow being supported by another man, gasping for breath and kicking his legs. TwoCrow was taken to Virginia Regional Medical Center and later airlifted to St. Mary’s Medical Center in Duluth for treatment of a laceration to the lower portion of his heart. He was listed in good condition on Friday. . . . When police interviewed TwoCrow at the hospital on Wednesday, TwoCrow told...

Should Private Colleges That Raise Billions Receive Public Funds? As state lawmakers crunch budget numbers in New York, some leaders of the State University System are wondering why private institutions with the ability to raise money on their own are still receiving public funds, according to The Buffalo News. Columbia University has received $32-million in state funds, and New York University has collected $50-million, the newspaper reports. Meanwhile, Columbia is in the middle of a $4-billion fund-raising campaign and NYU is raising $2.5-billion in private donations. “At a time when we’re facing budget cuts, is it appropriate?” asked Marsha S....

Obama: McCain Trying to Make Voters 'Sacred' of Me July 30, 2008 2:13 PM ABC News' Sunlen Miller Reports: While campaigning in a traditionally Republican district, Sen. Barack Obama attempted to beat back rumors about him– telling the Springfield, Missouri crowd that Republicans and Sen. McCain are trying to make voters “scared” of him because they don’t have another strategy. “Nobody thinks that Bush or McCain have a real answer for the challenges we face. So what they are going to try to do is make you scared of me,” Obama warned, “You know he's not patriotic enough. He's got...

March 27, 2008 - As a Catholic Church, we need to be quite sensitive about the disposition of sacred articles that are no longer being used in our parishes. A trend developing is finding Catholic sacred articles on places such as E-Bay or other online salvage sites. The real problem with these sites is that there is no attempt to reuse, or restore the items for their proper liturgical and devotional use. They are simply sold to the highest bidder. Whether the buyer is another Catholic Church, an individual, a bar, a nightclub or anything else is not even...

VATICAN CITY, OCT. 15, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Sacred music is a treasure of inestimable value, greater even than that of any other art, says Benedict XVI. The Pope said this Saturday during a visit to the newly refurbished Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music, the Vatican press office said today. At the institute, the Holy Father was welcomed by Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education and chancellor of the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music, and the institute's president, Monsignor Valentin Miserachs Grau. The pre-eminence of sacred music over other art forms, the Pontiff explained during his address, "is...

Archaeologists granted access to Japan's sacred tombs The divine origins of Japan's imperial family come under scrutiny as it allows limited access to two burial sites. Justin McCurry in Tokyo Thursday September 20, 2007 Guardian Unlimited (UK) Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko attend the opening ceremony of the World Athletics Championships in Osaka last month. Photograph: Michael Steele/Getty Images Japan's imperial household agency is to open the doors to some of the country's mysterious imperial tombs early next year after decades of pressure from archaeologists, in a move expected to anger ultra-conservatives. Experts have long been denied access to the...

The Dutch historian and philosopher of religion Gerardus van der Leeuw once said, “The modern man is not capable of finding himself in several circles simultaneously as his primitive cousins did. ‘When we dance, we do not pray; when we pray, we do not dance. And when we work, we can neither dance nor pray.’” In a word, the sense of the sacred has disappeared. But not completely nor irretrievably. The Liturgy of the Church is a moment where all the dimensions of our lives come before the living God. It is the place where we have an active encounter...

The Recovery of the Sacred The Dutch historian and philosopher of religion Gerardus van der Leeuw once said, “The modern man is not capable of finding himself in several circles simultaneously as his primitive cousins did. ‘When we dance, we do not pray; when we pray, we do not dance. And when we work, we can neither dance nor pray.’” In a word, the sense of the sacred has disappeared. But not completely nor irretrievably. The Liturgy of the Church is a moment where all the dimensions of our lives come before the living God. It is the place where...

In the 17th century, Descartes, the father of modern philosophy, rejected the philosophical traditions of Aristotle and the Scholastics.  For Descartes, the very fact that we think is the proof that we exist.  Cogito, ergo sum.  I think, therefore I am.  He rejected the use of his senses as the basis for knowledge.  In so doing, he wounded the unity between mind and body found in classical philosophy.  Over the course of time, the wound has widened.  The spiritual and the material have drifted apart.  The sacred and the secular clearly divided.Besides modern philosophy, other factors have contributed to the...

19 June 2007 Bp. Serratelli steps up CATEGORY: SESSIUNCULUM — Fr. John Zuhlsdorf @ 10:31 am His Excellency Arthur J. Serratelli, Bishop of Patterson (NJ) since 2004 has begun a series of articles on the sense of the sacred.  I tip my biretta in his direction for this good initiative.  o{]:¬)Here is an excerpt from the first offering (my emphases and comments).  Living in our world, we breathe the toxic air that surrounds us.  Even within the most sacred precincts of the Church, we witness a loss of the sense of the sacred [Do my eyes deceive?  I think...

Sacred Cave of Rome's Founders Discovered, Archaeologists Say Maria Cristina Valsecchi in Rome for National Geographic News January 26, 2007 Archaeologists say they have unearthed Lupercale—the sacred cave where, according to legend, a she-wolf nursed the twin founders of Rome and where the city itself was born. The long-lost underground chamber was found beneath the remains of Emperor Augustus' palace on the Palatine, a 230-foot-tall (70-meter-tall) hill in the center of the city. Archaeologists from the Department of Cultural Heritage of the Rome Municipality came across the 50-foot-deep (15-meter-deep) cavity while working to restore the decaying palace. "We were drilling...

Attorneys for Southwestern Indian tribes have urged a federal appeals court to block the proposed expansion of an Arizona ski resort they say already desecrates land they hold sacred and sullies their religious beliefs. During Thursday's hearing, a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals appeared skeptical about allowing Arizona Snowbowl to become the nation's first ski resort to use 100 percent reclaimed water _ treated sewage _ to make snow. Hopi attorney Scott Canty said it is up to the deities, not man, to make snow. "To usurp their authority is a crime, an insult," he said....

A TEENAGER who burnt an Australian flag taken from an RSL club during Sydney's racial unrest will come face to face with club members as part of his punishment. The 17-year-old pleaded guilty to removing the flag from the Brighton-Le-Sands RSL club and burning it in a reprisal attack following the Cronulla riot on December 11 last year. In Bidura Children's Court today, the teenager from Hurstville, who cannot be named, was ordered into youth conferencing with the club. He is expected to meet with diggers to discuss how the crime affected them and what the flag means to war...

Hello folks, Sorry that this message isn't a notification of a new parody, but I figure this is a necessary note to send. The long and short of it is this: after three years as Butcher of Sacred Cow Burgers, I have decided to hang up my cleaver. I figured I should let you all know why. Foremost in the making of this decision is a very happy turn of events: I am going to be a father. My wife informed me of this miraculous news just days before Father's Day of this year. The responsibility of becoming a parent...

Vatican liturgical official seeks recovery of the sacred Vatican, Jun. 23 (CWNews.com) - The secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship has conceded some "negative results" of liturgical changes since Vatican II, and voiced his support for reform of the post-conciliar liturgy, in an interview with the I Media news agency. Archbishop Albert Malcom Ranjith Patabendige Don told I Media that the Council fathers had hoped to reinvigorate the sense of an active encounter with God through the liturgy. "But unfortunately," he said, "after the Council, certain changes were made rapidly, without reflection, in a burst of enthusiasm, in a...