Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

New Pope Vows To Unify Christians (Pope Benedict XVI To Continue Eucumenical Outreach Alert)
Associated Press ^ | 04/20/05 | Nicole Winfield

Posted on 04/20/2005 5:47:40 AM PDT by goldstategop

By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press Writer

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday pledged to work to unify all Christians, reach out to other religions and continue implementing reforms from the Second Vatican Council as he outlined his goals and made clear his pontificate would closely follow the trajectory of his predecessor, Pope John Paul II.

AP Photo

Reuters Slideshow: Ratzinger Named Pope Benedict XVI

Complete Coverage

• News & Analysis • Photos & Slideshows

Benedict, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, listed top priorities of his papacy in a message read in Latin to cardinals gathered in the Sistine Chapel for the first Mass celebrated by the 265th leader of the Roman Catholic Church.

He said his "primary task" would be to work to reunify all Christians and that sentiment alone was not enough. "Concrete acts that enter souls and move consciences are needed," he said.

The new pope said he wanted to continue "an open and sincere dialogue" with other religions and would do everything in his power to improve the ecumenical cause.

The message was clearly designed to show that Benedict was intent on following many of the groundbreaking paths charted by John Paul, who had made reaching out to other religions and trying to heal the 1,000-year-old schism in Christianity a hallmark of his pontificate.

Benedict referred to his predecessor several times in his message, including a reference to the late pope's final will, where John Paul said he hoped new generations would draw on the work of the Second Vatican Council, the 1962-65 meeting that modernized the church.

"I too ... want to affirm with decisive willingness to follow in the commitment of carrying out the Second Vatican Council, in the wake of my predecessors and in faithful continuity with the 2,000-year-old tradition of the church," he said.

John Paul supported council reforms but cracked down on what both men considered excesses spawned by the changes, including calls for priests to be allowed to marry and admission of women into the priesthood.

The Vatican's hard-line enforcer of church orthodoxy under John Paul II for almost 25 years, Benedict had gone into the two-day conclave as a favorite. He was elected Tuesday as the oldest pontiff in 275 years and the first Germanic pope in almost a millennium.

A cheering crowd of more than 100,000 welcomed Benedict when he stepped onto the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica as dusk fell Tuesday and gave his first blessing as pope. By contrast, St. Peter's Square was nearly empty early Wednesday, although by the end of the Mass a few hundred had gathered to watch on giant TV screens.

"We greet our Pope Benedict XVI," read a poster toted by teens from a high school in Handrup, Germany, who were in the square when his black Mercedes convertible, its top up and Vatican flags flying, zipped into and out of his former offices at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Benedict said he had been surprised by his election, and German Cardinal Joachim Meisner told reporters late Tuesday that he had looked "a little forlorn" when he went to change into his papal vestments in the Room of Tears — so nicknamed because many new pontiffs get choked up there, realizing the enormity of their mission.

Meisner added: "By the time dinner came around, Ratzinger was looking much better and very much like the pope."

Benedict asked cardinals to dine together on bean soup, cold cuts, a salad and fruit, Meisner said. The nuns who prepare their meals at the Vatican hotel where the cardinals were sequestered during the conclave didn't have time to plan a special menu, so there were only two special treats — ice cream and champagne.

In his first words as pope delivered from the loggia overlooking the square, Benedict paid tribute in accented Italian to "the great John Paul II." He called himself "a simple, humble worker in the vineyard of the Lord."

It was a sign of John Paul's charismatic legacy looming over the new pontiff, who is described by people who know him as intellectual, cultured and rather reserved.

Benedict said Wednesday he felt John Paul's presence as he wrestled with two conflicting emotions following the election: thanks to God for the gift of being pope but also "a sense of inadequacy" in carrying out the responsibility.

"I seem to feel his strong hand holding mine, I feel I can see his smiling eyes and hear his words, at this moment particularly directed at me: 'Be not afraid.'"

Benedict, who turned 78 on Saturday, is the oldest pope elected since Clement XII in 1730. His age clearly was a factor among cardinals who favored a "transitional" pope who could skillfully lead the church as it absorbs John Paul II's legacy, rather than a younger cardinal who could wind up with another long pontificate.

His election in four ballots over two days concluded one of the shortest conclaves in 100 years.

A conservative on issues such as homosexuality, the ordination of women and lifting the celibacy requirement for priests, Benedict has led the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith — a position he used to discipline church dissidents and uphold church policy against attempts at reform by liberals and activist priests.

His background was clearly on the minds of cardinals a day after the election.

"God has taken the most unusual people and placed them in places of authority, power if you will, and used them for his purposes," said American Cardinal Adam Maida. "So I believe that Cardinal Ratzinger, with all his gifts and talents and even some of his shortcomings, will somehow be able to reach others."

British Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor suggested Ratzinger might temper some of his positions, at least publicly, because of the office he now holds.

"The pope now has a platform and a place he didn't have before. Now he has much wider responsibilities, and I think he's aware of that," Murphy-O'Connor said, adding that Ratzinger was elected "notwithstanding his age."

Joy over the selection of a new pope immediately mixed with worries that Benedict could polarize a global church, whose challenges include growing secularism in rich countries and inroads by evangelical groups in regions such as Latin America.

"He could be a wedge rather than a unifier for the church," said the Rev. Thomas Reese, editor of the Jesuit weekly magazine America.

Evelyn Strauch, a 54-year-old housewife from Ratzinger's home state of Bavaria, buried her head in her hands and wept as she stood in St. Peter's.

"This can't be true," she said. "I had hoped so much that we would get a good pope who would do something for women. ... This is so terrible."

Mark Wunsch, 27, a religious philosophy student from Denver, was elated.

"The cardinals elected a good and holy man who was close to Pope John Paul II," he said. "He'll be a wonderful and good leader in preaching the truth and love."

Benedict inherits a range of pressing issues. These include priest sex-abuse scandals that have cost the church millions of dollars in settlements in the United States and elsewhere, chronic shortages of priests and nuns in the West, and calls for easing the ban on condoms to help fight the spread of AIDS.

And he has to follow in the footsteps of John Paul II, the global pontiff who made 104 international trips in his more than 26 years as pope and set new standards in reaching out to other religions.

In an indication that he would indeed travel and continue to reach out to young people, Benedict said Wednesday he planned to attend the church's World Youth Day celebrations in Cologne, Germany, in August.

Two images of Ratzinger have emerged in recent days.

With his wispy silver hair blowing in the wind, the German prelate stood before the world's political and spiritual leaders at John Paul's funeral April 8 and offered an eloquent and sensitive farewell that moved some to tears.

Then, just before the cardinals entered the conclave Monday, he made clear where he stands ideologically, using words that John Paul would surely have endorsed. He warned about tendencies that he considered dangers to the faith: sects and ideologies like Marxism, liberalism, atheism, agnosticism and relativism — the ideology that there are no absolute truths.

"We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one's own ego and one's own desires," he said.

He has denounced rock music, dismissed anyone who had tried to find "feminist" meanings in the Bible, and last year told American bishops it was appropriate to deny Communion to those who support abortion and euthanasia.

Benedict is the first Germanic pope in nearly 1,000 years. His faith is rooted in Bavaria, the Alpine region with Germany's strongest Catholic identity. Like many of his generation, he carries the burden of Germany's past.

In his memoirs, the policeman's son wrote of being enrolled in Hitler's Nazi youth movement against his will when he was 14 in 1941, when membership was compulsory. He says he was soon let out because of his studies for the priesthood.

He and his older brother, Georg, were ordained in 1951. He taught theology and earned a reputation as a forward-looking prelate. He took part in the Second Vatican Council, but had some reservations.

Returning to Germany between sessions of the council, "I found the mood in the church and among theologians to be agitated," he wrote in his memoirs. "More and more there was the impression that nothing stood fast in the church, that everything was up for revision."

In 1977, he was appointed bishop of Munich and elevated to cardinal three months later by Pope Paul VI. He was one of only two cardinals in the latest conclave who were not chosen by John Paul.

___

Associated Press writers Tony Czuczka, Vanessa Gera, Brian Murphy, Daniela Petroff, Niko Price and Rachel Zoll contributed to this story.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: catholicism; christendom; christianunity; ecumenism; popebenedictxvi; unity
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 61-8081-100101-120121-124 next last
To: ctdonath2
The posts by "Reformjoy" indeed the tagline, are dead giveaways. He/she is likely a fallen away or marginal Catholic who vehemently disagrees with Catholic social teaching and believes that the Church (and the Pope) should be made in his image or likeness.

I have seen these so-called Catholics my entire 43 years of life. They are a miserable lot, generally. Angy, bitter, and prideful -- they would not conform to the will of Christ himself if it required a change in lifestyle -- Think "rich young man parable."

In any event, as much as it will pain me, I will pray for reformjoy -- that he/she becomes a little more open to the teachings of the Church.

81 posted on 04/20/2005 8:56:55 AM PDT by CWW (Mark Sanford for President on 2008!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 79 | View Replies]

To: CWW

And judging from his past, he never willingly strayed from his course. He is a man seeking to serve the Lord in any way he can.

"So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth." - Revelations 3:16


82 posted on 04/20/2005 8:56:56 AM PDT by KurtAZ (So they've got us surrounded, good! Now we can fire in any direction, those bastards won't get away)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 71 | View Replies]

To: CWW

Aw, I was betting hell-fire protestant for sure. I knew a couple growing up, they were afraid to come near me since their folks had told them Catholics were going straight to hell.

We could lay wagers, but I bet reformjoy wouldn't play nice.


83 posted on 04/20/2005 8:59:03 AM PDT by pa mom
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 81 | View Replies]

To: pa mom

lol!


84 posted on 04/20/2005 8:59:13 AM PDT by tiredoflaundry (If you think pushing 40 is hard, try dragging it!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 80 | View Replies]

To: pa mom

Raging Protestant... my money's on Raging Protestant.


85 posted on 04/20/2005 9:01:24 AM PDT by Terabitten (I have a duty as an AMERICAN, not a Republican. We can never put Party above Nation.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 83 | View Replies]

To: Terabitten
I may add adolescent to my wager. There is the whole "dog with a bone" thing going on that my teens have down pat.
86 posted on 04/20/2005 9:03:43 AM PDT by pa mom
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 85 | View Replies]

To: reformjoy

They locked the other thread and I couldn't reply.

But I know you speakers of truth for the last days are out there. Hang on reformjoy...its not an easy calling. My prayers are with you. (I made the Tower of Babel comment, in case you forgot which one I am.)


87 posted on 04/20/2005 9:22:43 AM PDT by BriarBey ("He Who Does Not Remember History Is Condemned To Repeat It")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: reformjoy

The reason to go to this man was that the Conclave of Cardinals, The Princes of the Catholic Church, recognized that the Vatican II Council had been hijacked by the MODERNIST group within the church.

This had been attempted before late in the 19th century, but was stopped in it's tracks. This latest attempt in 1962, was a very agressive move, by the followers and New Age movement of the Jane Fonda's, John Kerry's, the Clinton's and the rest of the Socialist/Progressive party.

Pope Benedict XVI was there, he saw what had been to the church, along with JPII. It seems to me that JPII over the years of his reign, replaced or convinced (along with the help of his close friend and advisor Cardinal Ratzinger)the newly appointed Cardinals with men of a more traditional view of the Catholic church.

I stated that because of the continuing Heresy of Vatican II and the NO Mess along with the Homosexual/Pedophile Priests, that The Seat was Empty (Sede Vacante'). I may now soon be able to return to the Catholic Church along with millions of others and reclaim my lost love to hear the word of GOD in the House of the Lord once again.

Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat
Christ conquers, Christ reigns, Christ commands


88 posted on 04/20/2005 9:24:59 AM PDT by 26lemoncharlie (Defend the US CONSTITUTION)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]

To: reformjoy; onyx; Mo1; NYer
With all due or undue respect, as the case may be, you need to educate yourself about Pope Benedict XVI and his childhood in Germany. Dropping false comments that defile and besmirch him with lies is despicable. I'm particularly offended at the flippant and grossly inaccurate portrayals of those who chime in with tactless, baseless smears, designed only to register controversy and division. It would be a good idea to look to your conscience and your church's doctrine and theology for guidance before you again utter untruths.

Here are some facts

Ratzinger's WWII Experiences

In May 1945, thousands of German prisoners of war trudged down the highway toward the Bavarian town of Bad Aibling. Among them — tired but grateful to be alive — was 18-year-old Joseph Ratzinger, who just days before had risked death by deserting the German army.

"In three days of marching, we hiked down the empty highway, in a column that gradually became endless," the future pope recalled years later in his memoirs.

"The American soldiers photographed us, the young ones, most of all, in order to take home souvenirs of the defeated army and its desolate personnel."

(snip)

(Pope John Paul II) was forced to work in a quarry and narrowly escaped arrest in a mass roundup of young men by the Germans in Krakow; Ratzinger's experiences also were harrowing.

In particular, his decision — in late April or early May, just after he turned military age — to leave his army unit could have cost Ratzinger his life.

At the time, he knew that the dreaded SS units would shoot a deserter on the spot — or hang him from a lamppost as a warning to others. He recorded his terror when he was stopped by other soldiers.

"Thank God they were ones who had had enough of war and did not want to become murderers," he wrote in his book, "Aus meinem Leben," published in English as "Milestones: Memoirs 1927-1977."

"They had to find a reason to let me go. I had my arm in a sling because of an injury."

"Comrade, you are wounded," they told him. "Go on." Soon he was home with his father, Josef, and his mother, Maria.

For years, he and his family had watched the Nazis strengthen their grip on Germany. His father, a policeman and a convinced anti-Nazi, moved the family at least once after clashing with local followers of the party. A local teacher, he remembered, became an ardent follower of the new movement, and tried to institute a pagan May pole ritual as more fitting of Germanic ways than the traditional, conservative Catholicism.

In 1941, Ratzinger, 14, and his brother, Georg, were enrolled in the Hitler Youth when it became mandatory for all boys. Soon after, he records in his book, "The Salt of the Earth," he was let out because of his intention to study for the priesthood.

In 1943, like many teenage boys, he was drafted as a helper for an anti-aircraft brigade, which defended a BMW plant outside Munich. Later, he dug anti-tank trenches. When he turned 18, on April 16, 1945, he was put through basic training, alongside men in their 30s and 40s, drafted as the Third Reich went through its death agony. He was stationed near his hometown — he doesn't say where — but did not see combat with the approaching U.S. troops.

(snip) They identified him as a German soldier, made him put on his uniform, put up his hands, and marched him off to join other prisoners kept in a nearby meadow. Taken to a camp near Ulm, he wound up living under the open air for several weeks, surrounded by barbed wire.

He finally was released on June 19 and hitched a ride on a milk truck back to his hometown, Traunstein.

=========================================================

From the start, a life of service

Born on Holy Saturday to parents Mary and Joseph, Joseph Ratzinger seemed destined to have special ties to the Catholic Church. An army deserter during the Third Reich, he became archbishop of Munich, then was called to the Vatican.

BY RITA CIOLLI
Newsday

Joseph Ratzinger was baptized hours after he was born on an icy Holy Saturday morning in a Bavarian village at the base of the Alps. The holy water had been blessed just hours before, at a vigil on the eve of Easter Sunday in 1927.

''To be the first person baptized with the new water was seen as a significant act of Providence,'' Ratzinger would write years later in Milestones, his 1998 autobiography.

(snip)

But the happiness of those early years faded in the Nazi era. Ratzinger was 6 when Adolf Hitler came to power, and says he was enrolled against his will in the Hitler Youth, as required of all German adolescents. He said he never attended meetings. His father, who once wrote that ''a victory of Hitler's would not be a victory for Germany but rather a victory for the anti-Christ,'' moved the family from Tittmoning after a dispute with local Nazis.

In 1939, at age 12, Ratzinger entered the seminarian school in Traunstein, where he said classes in Greek and Latin awoke his intellect. But four years later, the class was drafted into the Flak, an antiaircraft corps, into a unit that was to defend a BMW auto plant. There he saw slave laborers from the Dachau concentration camp.

Ratzinger was soon dismissed to continue his studies. Then, in fall 1944, he was drafted to dig ditches. Six months later, he deserted but was captured by the advancing U.S. Army. Two months later, he was released.

When the war was over, he re-entered the seminary with his brother. The two were ordained in 1951. He was just 35 when he attracted attention in Rome during the Second Vatican Council, in 1962. He was appointed a chief advisor to Cardinal Joseph Frings.

========================================================

What Kind of Man is Pope Benedict XVI?

After the rise of the Nazi's, the senior Joseph Ratzinger, a police commissioner, risked much as a public opponent of Nazi ideology which was wholly opposed to his traditional Catholicism.

As a child, Joseph Ratzinger developed a desire to teach at an early age, though he was also once impressed with the work of a local housepainter. He loved to write including poetry, "about things of everyday life, Christmas poems, nature poetry…whenever I learned something I wanted to pass it on too."

While attending the seminary, young Joseph avoided the Hitler Youth as long as possible. But later he was obliged when he reached an age at which membership became compulsory. Pope Benedict told Seewald that a sympathetic professor, himself a member of the party, arranged to have him exempted. It was difficult for him since his family was not wealthy and the government offered tuition assistance to members of the Hitler youth.

From 1943 all the seminarians were conscripted. Ratzinger did various jobs for the military until he came of age to be drafted at 18. He was stationed at first near the Austro-Hungarian border but an officer, whom he describes as "obviously anti-Nazi" arranged to send him to serve near his home. It was to Traunstein that the 18 year-old Joseph Ratzinger returned to his family in May 1945 risking death by deserting from the German army. He wrote in his memoirs that he was terrified of being caught by the SS who shot or hanged deserters on the spot.

When the war was over he spent a short time in a US POW camp after which he returned home, hitchhiking on the back of a milk truck. After the war he resumed his studies for the priesthood.

=========================================================

Events in the life of Pope Benedict XVI

April 16, 1927: Born in Marktl am Inn in Germany's southern region of Bavaria near the Austrian border on the day before Easter. Baptised the same day.

1929: Family moves to town of Tittmoning.

December, 1932: Family moves to Traunstein after father came into conflict with local Nazi Party supporters in Tittmoning.

1941: Enrolled against will in Hitler Youth. Let go shortly after because of his intention to study for the priesthood.

1943: Drafted as helper for anti-aircraft unit, serves in battery defending BMW plant.

September 10, 1944: Let go from flak service. Returns home to find draft notice for forced labor.

September 20, 1944: Leaves home to dig anti-tank trenches.

November, 20, 1944: Released from labor force, returns home. Gets army draft notice three weks later.

April-May, 1945: Deserts army, returns home. Captured by Americans as war ends.

June 19, 1945: Released from U.S. POW camp, catches ride home on milk truck.

========================================================

How perfectly were you prepared for life's challanges -- and would you have been .. for Nazism and war -- when you were 14?

Long Live Pope Benedict XVI -- God Bless Him With Courage and Good Health, and May Our Dear Lord and The Blessed Mother protect him from evil and evil people, as they protected Our Dear Great Pope John Paul II !


89 posted on 04/20/2005 9:25:51 AM PDT by STARWISE (FIGHT JUDICIAL TYRANNY- CALL TO URGE COURAGE-SENATORS @ 866-808-0065+ REPS @ (202) 224-3121.FIGHT4US)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: reformjoy

Christ prayed that all Christians may be united. YOu may disagree with the terms Benedict would want them united under, but whatever sect you belong to, if you are a bible-believing Christian, you must work for unity.


90 posted on 04/20/2005 9:30:21 AM PDT by dangus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: j_k_l

Benedict knew how evil they were, and has taught against liberalism and modernism by showing how the Nazis used these thight systems to destroy Christianity in Germany.


91 posted on 04/20/2005 9:32:57 AM PDT by dangus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: goldstategop

bump for later reading


92 posted on 04/20/2005 9:35:44 AM PDT by kalee
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: reformjoy
I attend to praise God and find strength, not to find "common ground" with other religions.

The freedom of religion is a private matter.

I, for one, do not look forward to being shackled to a world religion, or pressured to bow at this man's feet or accept his agendas.

LOL.... wherever did you get the egocentricity to think that Pope Benedict XVI was talking to you and awaiting your reaction? Amazing.

93 posted on 04/20/2005 9:39:46 AM PDT by STARWISE (FIGHT JUDICIAL TYRANNY- CALL TO URGE COURAGE-SENATORS @ 866-808-0065+ REPS @ (202) 224-3121.FIGHT4US)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: reformjoy
"He can focus on uniting Catholics, but need not bother with Christians, thank you very much.

This Uniter does not speak for me.

Christ is the only one who sits at the right hand of God"

I am sure he isn't trying to speak for protestants but to protestants. He will probably just win hearts by communication more efficiently the catholic faith.
94 posted on 04/20/2005 9:47:35 AM PDT by todd1
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Terabitten
You said:

“Its going to interesting to observe how the new Pope handles relations with non-Christian faiths, namely Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism among others. Yes, it will. I'm more interested, though, to see how Pope Benedict XVI treats us Protestants. If reconciliation means coming under the authority of the papacy, I can't imagine many Protestants would go for it.”

It is going to be "interesting" for protestants all right given the fact that this man Ratzinger has previously "officially declared" in official RC writing that "there is no eternal life apart from the Roman Catholic Church"… period. It is going to be "interesting" to see how this man wiggles his way around his own doctrinal position that is in writing for all to see, in order to pull the wool over the eyes of those he wants to subjugate under the authority of his supposed "holiness" and the church of Rome. This guy was not called "The Pope's Rottweiler" by those within the RC church itself who knew him "up close and personal" for nothing.

“I can't imagine many Protestants would go for it.”… Not those who know Christ and the Word of God, but don’t worry, there are lots of so-called “protestants” in and out of ministry who know neither Christ nor the Word so they will go for his ecclesiastical shenanigans hook, line and sinker… The blind leading the blind with the result that both fall into the pit.

I am a former Roman Catholic, feel free to flame away but that is what Ratzinger has said in official writing and believes (as well he should because that is what the RC church officially believes,… hence the Reformation).

…As for me and my house, we will follow and serve the Lord Jesus Christ, not some man in red who thinks he is the supposed “vicar of Christ” (Christ's representative on earth), especially in light of the fact that those within the church who know him, have openly entitled him "The Pope's Rottweiler".

95 posted on 04/20/2005 10:10:32 AM PDT by Jmouse007 ("Negotiate and die!" Brought to you by "Islam the Religion of Peace tm")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Jmouse007
It is going to be "interesting" for protestants all right given the fact that this man Ratzinger has previously "officially declared" in official RC writing that "there is no eternal life apart from the Roman Catholic Church"… period.

Actually, quite a bit more was said. Nothing near as stark as you would like to interpret it.

SD

96 posted on 04/20/2005 10:17:49 AM PDT by SoothingDave
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 95 | View Replies]

Comment #97 Removed by Moderator

Comment #98 Removed by Moderator

To: TonyRo76

I'll take a guess at what he means by Protestants following papal authority every easter.

Protestants follow the date for easter defined and changed by pope Gregory XIII in 1582, instead of the one used by all Christians for the first 1500 years.


99 posted on 04/20/2005 11:19:03 AM PDT by Mount Athos
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 98 | View Replies]

Comment #100 Removed by Moderator


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 61-8081-100101-120121-124 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson