Free Republic

[Catholic Caucus] The Precarious Situation of China’s Underground Catholics Upon the election of Pope Leo XIV, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian stated: ‘We hope that under the leadership of the new pope, the Vatican will continue to have dialogue with China in a constructive spirit, have in-depth communication on international issues of mutual interest, jointly advance the continuous improvement of the China–Vatican relations, and make contributions to world peace, stability, development, and prosperity.’The ‘constructive spirit’ was nothing else than the continuity of the provisional agreement designed by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin in 2018 with the blessing...

Netflix released a documentary about the legendary late comedian last week. But what I remember most about him is something he said in a 2018 tweet: ‘How could a man be a cynic? It is a sin.’I’ve long believed that to understand a society, a culture, its people, there’s no better place to look than comedians. Comedy is a medium that does its best to defy performative opinions. It lives and dies on the instant feedback of a raucous chorus of laughter, the desperate silence of a failed punch line. There’s no room for ambiguity. Something is funny or it...

Hillary Clinton may no longer be the most influential voice in the Democratic Party, but she remains a member in good standing of the party establishment. So when she expresses support for expanding the number of justices on the Supreme Court, it tells us that what was once a radical idea has gone mainstream. “We should seriously look at expanding the court while the Democrats are in power,” Clinton said on a recent podcast. “You know, it used to be that you’d have one justice for each circuit. We now have 13 circuits, we should have 13 justices.” Adding four...

Quran is "Word of God" and Muhammad "chosen by God" - says Italian bishops’ school material. The publication, Schede per conoscere l’Islam (“Sheets for Understanding Islam”), was prepared by the CEI and the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies (PISAI). It comprises 11 teaching sheets intended for use in Catholic religious instruction in Italian schools. They were presented at Palazzo Borromeo in Rome on October 21, at an event attended by Cardinal Matteo Zuppi.Sheet 2 describes Muhammad as “chosen by God to carry His message and to establish and guide the new community of believers.” It also presents him...

Some drivers who are caught speeding make some of the most outlandish excuses when they face the cops. One woman in Florida was flustered when a deputy asked why she was driving 90 miles per hour and she tells him that she was late to visiting her mom who has cancer. The driver didn't have a license, though, which led deputies to search her vehicle. And that's when they found many things that she didn't want them to know about. (snip) Bodycam footage shows a deputy asking [Tosha] Cisco why she was driving 90 miles per hour in a 50-mph...

Please pray for my husband John, who was admitted last night through the ER to the hospital with a Troponin level of 3 that jumped to 5. Other types of tests corroborate. Cardiac issues and on oxygen, resting comfortably just awaiting what tests the doctor will do next. He had a major M.I., 4 stents in April 2025 and has congestive heart failure (35% ejection fraction), but has been doing very well since and was reasonably recovered except for periods of weakness and need for extra sleep. Such a wonderful courageous man, I love him so very very much. Always...

Otzma Yehudit chairman and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir on Friday criticized efforts by the Likud party to attract voters away from his party, claiming that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to establish a broad coalition with Gadi Eisenkot in which Ben Gvir would have limited influence. In a Facebook post published before the start of Shabbat, Ben Gvir urged his supporters to reject what he described as Likud's campaign to draw votes away from smaller right-wing parties. He warned that a weakened Otzma Yehudit might leave him outside the next government. "I need your help to ensure that...

Who edits this stuff? A rant from the New York Times editorial board compares the Trump administration to some of history’s worst dictatorships:The revocation of a political opponent’s citizenship has long been a tool of authoritarian repression.The Soviet Union stripped Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the dissident author, of his citizenship in 1974 and deported him to West Germany. Czechoslovakia revoked the citizenship of Milan Kundera, another celebrated author, in 1979. East Germany and Romania, under Communist rule, took similar steps against critics, as did Chile under Augusto Pinochet, Greece under its military dictatorship, Germany under Hitler and Italy under Mussolini. More recently,...

It’s surprising that it’s gotten to this point. The warning signs have been obvious for weeks. A soccer match between PSG and Lyon recently was moved from Sunday to Monday, at the direction of French authorities. If the NFL won’t do the prudent thing and move the game to London, the powers-that-be in Paris should direct the NFL to bump Steelers-Saints to Monday, too. There’s no reason to wait. They should make the move now.

A growing number of Minnesota Democrats are speaking out against U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar’s upcoming appearance at an event featuring controversial far-left Twitch streamer and political commentator Hasan Piker. Democratic state Sen. Omar Fateh is organizing the sold-out event, the first in a new conversation series called “I’m the Host Now,” in Minneapolis on Monday. A description on Eventbrite says the discussion will focus on Minneapolis, politics and the community. “I am honored to be able to share space alongside two fearless champions for our people who fight for us and the future that we want to build,” Fateh said...

In this episode, your window reveals a timelapse of one of the most dramatic urban evolutions in human history. For over two millennia, Rome was shaped by political revolutions, wars, plagues, the rise and fall of empires, and a continuous cycle of destruction and renewal. Among its most dramatic chapters is the era of the Domus Aurea. After the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD, Emperor Nero seized vast areas across the Palatine, Esquiline, and Caelian hills to build his sprawling Golden House, complete with an enormous artificial lake at its heart. Just a few years later, that same...

President Volodymyr Zelensky stated in an interview broadcast on ABC News that Ukraine is prepared to conclude a peace agreement with the Russia immediately if achievable, while expressing regret over the contraction of US military assistance. Speaking in the interview, the president confirmed that Kyiv is prepared to halt hostilities as quickly as possible, reiterating Ukraine’s readiness to freeze combat operations along the existing line of contact. Zelensky clarified that while Russian forces currently occupy over 19 percent of Ukrainian territory in the Donbas, Kyiv is unwilling to cede additional land to secure an end to the war. Addressing the...

The Pentagon released the results Monday of its initial research security audits of 30 American universities over their financial and research relationships with foreign entities. The War Department directed the universities, which included New York University, Harvard and Georgetown University, to review identified foreign collaborations and assess any exposure of "sensitive or export-controlled research," in August. They were also directed to implement plans to mitigate actions that violate national security protocol and even terminate relationships with foreign institutions if necessary. The department said all schools completed the audits, which resulted in more than 80 termination-related actions across the 30 universities,...

THE GREATEST IMAGES OF THE ANTI-CHRIST, HIS REIGN, AND ETERNAL DEMISE! AN IMAGE TODAY SPEAKS MORE THAN A MILLION WORDS! CAN YOU SEE, BELOVED! MARANATHA!

MADISON, Wis. -- On Friday, Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway announced she would end her bid for reelection over threats and harassment. "The price of being in public office has gotten too high," Mayor Rhodes-Conway said in a TV-exclusive interview with News 3 Now's political reporter and "For the Record" host Elly Laliberte. The news broke amid rising threats against mayors, common council members, and other local officials around the country. In a report from the Brennan Center for Justice published in 2024, more than 18% of local officeholders said they experienced threats or attacks in the 18 months prior to...

Early voting is surging in several key battleground states, giving Democrats hope that their strength in midterm polling could translate into a turnout advantage in November. In North Carolina, more than 1.2 million early ballots have been accepted, a 37 percent increase from the same point leading up to the 2022 midterms, according to an analysis released Friday by Catawba College political scientist Michael Bitzer. That growth — which includes both in-person and mail-in ballots — has been driven by a 47 percent increase among registered Democrats and a 60 percent increase in participation among unaffiliated voters. Early voting among...

Bad actors should be prosecuted to the limit of the law and regulators should require banks to publicly disclose the reason for debanking.A few days ago, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued a report confirming that the nine largest banks in the country engaged in debanking thousands of people based on their political or religious beliefs. This is at best outrageous, and at worst, illegal — and clearly it needs to be addressed quickly and firmly. For about a five-year period, these large banks engaged in debanking (closing customers’ account and preventing them from access to bank...

President Donald Trump has handed Republican Senator Susan Collins a timely economic boost in the competitive Maine Senate race, unveiling support for the state’s lobster industry and targeted tariff relief as new polling shows her drawing level with Democratic challenger Troy Jackson. A Fox News Poll found Collins and Jackson tied at 49 percent among likely voters, replacing the four-point Democratic advantage recorded by Marist Poll earlier in October. The surveys measured different electorates, meaning the results do not establish a direct four-point swing, but together they suggest a contest that has tightened during its closing weeks. Supporters of both...

The legal eagles defending embattled “Squad” Rep. Ilhan Omar from prison or deportation include former President Biden’s “autopen” personal attorney and the white-shoe lawyer who quarterbacked both of President Trump’s impeachments. The Somalia-born Omar’s defense duo boasts impressive lefty legal pedigrees, but neither specializes in immigration law — raising questions about whether the Minnesota Democrat is more concerned about her husband’s alleged $30 million fraudulent windfall than she is about her immigration status. Amy Jeffress, a partner at boutique DC firm Hecker Fink, became Biden’s personal attorney in 2025, succeeding longtime confidant Bob Bauer. She represented the gaffe-prone former president...

As a big fan of the book written by Steven Ambrose and the HBO Series "Band of Brothers" back in 2018 I went on a 2-week Band of Brothers Tour with Steven Ambrose Historical Tours, starting in Toccoa, GA and finishing in Berchtesgaden and Hitler's Eagle Nest, we spent 2-nights in Berchtesgaden and went up the mountain to the Eagle's Nest, today it's a cafe, beer garden and tourist attraction, it will be interesting to see what the motivation of the person who has burned it to the ground. Having been up the narrow one-lane road to the Eagle's Nest,...