Free Republic

We must have been fifteen or sixteen when we discovered the church visitor’s book. It was an old church, maybe medieval, and I would pass it with my school friends on our way to the town center. I’m not sure what possessed us to go in; it might have been my idea. I’ve always loved old churches. For a long time, I would tell myself that I liked the sense of history or the architecture, which was true as far as it went. Like the narrator in Philip Larkin’s poem “Church Going,” I would venture into any church I found,...

British detectives have launched a manhunt for a boy's mother and grandfather in southern France after they allegedly kidnapped him and took him to a 'spiritual commune' six years ago where he was 'brainwashed' before he managed to escape. Alex Batty, from Oldham, Greater Manchester, was just 11 when he did not return from a holiday to Spain with his mother Melanie, then 37, and grandfather David, then 58, in 2017. His grandmother and legal guardian, Susan Caruana, who has spent an agonising six years not knowing if her grandson is alive, said in 2018 that she believed her daughter...

A new Pew Research Center in-depth report, “Spirituality Among Americans,” revealed that “7 in 10 U.S. adults describe themselves as spiritual in some way, including 22% who are spiritual but not religious.” The 95-page report released on Thursday found that: 83% of all U.S. adults believe people have a soul or spirit in addition to their physical body. 81% say there is something spiritual beyond the natural world, even if we cannot see it. 74% say there are some things that science cannot possibly explain. 45% say they have had a sudden feeling of connection with something from beyond this...

A Satanic pedophile cult uncovered by the FBI after the arrest of a Queens man two years ago is an offshoot of a much older neo-Nazi organization that wants to destroy Western civilization, according to an overseas nonprofit that’s been tracking the hate group. Federal authorities stumbled upon the newer group – which is named “764” but goes by a number of aliases – while investigating Angel Almeida, a 23-year-old convicted felon from Queens who was busted with a gun in November 2021. The loosely organized commune of creeps appears to be intensely interested in targeting kids on the internet,...

A Satan-worshipping cult of pedophiles is blackmailing girls into cutting themselves — but the FBI didn’t seem interested in that so much as the fact that one of its members once used the n-word, a Daily Wire investigation found. For years, the group known both as 764 and Harm Nation has tortured what is believed to be hundreds or thousands of girls. But the FBI didn’t put its cybercrimes or violence-against-children investigators on it. Instead, its interest appears to have piqued mainly by the fact that the group — most of whose victims are white teens — was once racist...

Cardinal Cupich to appear at ecumenical conference coordinated by Wiccan priestessThe Parliament of the World’s Religions conference, first held in 1893, was condemned by Pope Leo XIII in 1895, at which time he also forbade Catholics from attending any of the organization's future events.Left-wing Cardinal Blasé Cupich is set to appear at a scandalous ecumenical event in Chicago this week. The conference is coordinated by a Wiccan priestess and features more than 6,000 representatives of various forms of pagan and non-Catholic sects. The 2023 Parliament of the World’s Religions is being held at McCormack Place convention center from Tuesday, August...

On a recent trip to Salem, Massachusetts, I overheard the same question: Is magic really real? For me, the answer is yes.Two weeks ago in the run-up to Halloween, I visited Salem, Massachusetts, for the first time since the pandemic began. In renewing my annual Halloween pilgrimage, I was bowled over by what I found in the Witch City: bigger crowds, longer lines and a wider and welcome array of merchandise geared toward many different religious traditions and ethnic identities. Amid the curious crowds in black capes and conical hats, bags overflowing with DIY spell kits and candles to enhance...

There are witches among us. Halloween approaches, signaling the time of year when dentists crack their knuckles with glee and Amazon overflows with sexy versions of otherwise reasonable costumes. But Samhain (pronounced sow-ain) is the original Halloween, a modern(ish) version of an ancient Gaelic end-of-harvest festival. Co-opted by the Catholic Church as “All Hallows’ Day” or “All Saints’ Day,” Samhain lands midway between the fall equinox and the winter solstice, celebrated on the evening of Oct. 31 and into Nov. 1. Much of modern Halloween is about demons, monsters and cult serial killers, none of which have anything to do...

The occultist rocketeer of the real-life Suicide Squad BY STRANGEREMAINS on AUGUST 8, 2016 • ( 2 ) Although the Suicide Squad is best known today as a movie about a fictional group of supervillains drafted by the government to undertake dangerous missions in exchange for commuted sentences, there was a real-life Suicide Squad at Caltech in the 1940’s. As I read about the original Suicide Squad, I became fascinated with the life and death of its strangest member, Jack Parsons. Jack Parsons (2 October 1914-17 June 1952) was an explosives aficionado who worked at the rocketry research lab at...

Dissident priest group backed by prominent bishops demands Catholic priestesses June 25, 2019 (Lepanto Institute) — The Association of US Catholic Priests (AUSCP), which claims a priestly membership of just over 1,300 priests, issued a white paper on May 8, 2019, titled "AUSCP Declaration on the Status of Women." This white paper calls for the priestly ordination of women and utilizes condemned Modernist reasoning to reach its conclusions. According to the St. Louis Dispatch, AUSCP members will be asked to affirm this declaration at the ongoing AUSCP 2019 Assembly in St. Louis. The Lepanto Institute has written extensively on the...

Pauline Hoffmann resigned her post as dean of St. Bonaventure University's communication school, but says she did it under pressure. She also claims the school denied her a promotion to provost, the university's highest academic position. Why? Hoffmann says it is because she is a woman and Wiccan. In a lawsuit filed in Buffalo federal court, the St. Bonaventure professor – she is still on the faculty there – claims her religion and gender played a role in her forced resignation as dean and her failure to win a promotion she feels she deserved. She is seeking her job back,...

The number of self identified witches in America has soared in recent years to 1.5 million. A survey by Pew Research found 0.4% of Americans, between 1 and 1.5 million - identify as Wicca or Pagan, according to Quartz. That means there are now more witches in the US than there are Presbyterians who have around 1.4 million adherents. Experts believe that the explosion in the witch population is due to millennial women’s embracing of new-age spirituality, mindfulness, meditation, and yoga. Wicca, also called Witchcraft or The Craft, is a Pagan religion which emerged in Britain in the early 20th...

A report in the Christian Post contends that the number of witches (and Wiccans) has dramatically increased since the 1990s, to the degree that there may be at least 1.5 million witches in the United States, which is higher than the 1.4 million mainline Presbyterians. "[T]he practice of witchcraft has grown significantly in recent decades; those who identify as witches has risen concurrently with the rise of the 'witch aesthetic,'" reported the Christian Post in October, citing data from Quartz, a Trinity College study, and the Pew Research Center. Between 1990 and 2008, the number of Wiccans in the United...

Since his election and installation in March 2013 as Pope Francis of the Roman Catholic Church, we now have sufficient evidence from Jorge Bergoglio’s words and deeds to raise serious questions as to whether this pope is Catholic or even Christian: 1- To begin, a legitimate case has been made that Bergoglio’s election as pope was illicit, being contaminated by lobbying in violation of papal law. 2- Bishops, cardinals and archbishops who are Bergoglio’s allies are flagrant homosexuals and pedophiles. See “Pope Francis’ Vatican: a cesspool of pedophiles and homosexuals” and “Catholic Church in Crisis: Pedophile cardinal; Pennsylvania priests abused...

A Democratic candidate in West Virginia was an active leader in pagan witchcraft for years and instructed others. Lissa Lucas wrote two books on occult practices, including a how-to book for casting spells. Lucas... doesn’t think voters will care about her ‘spirituality’ because they’re not ‘religious bigots.’ A Democratic candidate for the West Virginia House of Delegates was an active leader in pagan witchcraft, Lucas’s campaign has raised more than five times as much money as her Republican opponent, thanks in part to national media attention that has left out Lucas’s witchcraft. She authored two books on casting pagan spells,...

First, take a candle. Then, pour some salt into your hand. Then, keeping the grains in your palm, take a pen to write out a thank you to Christine Blasey Ford, the woman whose allegations of sexual assault against Supreme Court nominee — and now justice — Brett Kavanaugh, stunned a nation. Or, if you prefer, simply say, “I believe you.” It’s just one of the many quasi-religious rituals circulating the internet — particularly pagan and #resistance circles — in the wake of Kavanaugh’s confirmation. These rituals help self-identified witches process trauma, anger, and grief. ...

Gun control advocates can now boast of a new group of allies joining their dubious coalition: witches. It kind of makes sense. We all know that gun control is based mainly on magical thinking. Its advocates, after all, ask us to believe we’re just a few more “commonsense safety measures” away from a world in which evil people who are otherwise determined to kill others refrain from doing so for fear they might violate a gun control law somewhere along the way. A related premise is that gun control advocates hold the keys to ending violent behavior once and for...

If you are a woman and dare to look within yourself, you are a Witch. You make your own rules. You are free and beautiful. You can be invisible or evident in how you choose to make your witch-self known. You can form your own Coven of sister Witches (thirteen is a cozy number for a group) and do your own actions . . . You are a Witch by saying aloud, “I am a Witch” three times, and thinking about that. You are a Witch by being female, untamed, angry, joyous, and immortal. In her article, Penny also cites...

While many Saskatchewan residents are getting ready to play make-believe with costumes and haunted houses for Halloween, Saskatoon witch Ave Riddler will be preparing for an event she believes will bring humans closer to real spirits. Riddler is the priestess of the Congregationalist Wiccan Association of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon. On Sunday, her association will hold a ritual for the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, which marks the end of summer, by giving thanks for the year's harvest and paying tribute to the dead. She said the festival period, which is often recognized on or around Oct. 31, is also considered...

“How much different is it from praying to God that your candidate wins?” asked one attendee. BUSHWICK, BROOKLYN – President Donald Trump has elicited all kinds of protests around the country. On Friday night, a gathering of dissenters in Bushwick created one of the most imaginative – a hexing ceremony. About a dozen people gathered at occult bookstore Catland on Flushing Avenue, near Central Avenue, to put a malevolent spell on the president. The ceremony was simple enough. Catland honcho Dakota Bracciale set up an altar with a skull, some other bones and mason jars filled with crumbled wads of...