Free Republic

More than 10 victims have alleged sexual abuse by the late Monsignor Othmar Schroeder and reports are continuing to come in, the Catholic Diocese of Evansville's bishop said Thursday. Bishop Gerald Gettelfinger said two more reports came in Thursday through the diocese's sexual abuse hot line. Most of the reports have been from men but some have been from women, he said. This is the largest number of victims associated with a single priest in the diocese's history, Gettelfinger said.

Rome, August 30, Interfax - Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia has greeted the recent decree of Pope Benedict XVI providing more freedom to celebrate the ancient Latin Mass. The motu proprio Summorum Pontificum that provides more freedom to use the pre-Vatican II Missal ‘is a positive fact,’ Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia said to comment on the Roman Catholic Church reintroducing her ancient liturgical form. ‘We strongly adhere to the tradition. Without being faithful to her liturgy the Russian Orthodox Church would have failed to survive persecutions in 1920s and 1930s,’ the Russian primate...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Offering federal help for strapped mortgage holders, President Bush is proposing to aid hundreds of thousands of borrowers hard hit by the housing slump. The president on Friday was to talk about several initiatives and reforms to help homeowners with risky mortgages keep their homes, a senior administration official said Thursday. Bush also was to discuss efforts to prevent these kinds of problems from arising in the future. The official said Bush will direct Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Housing Secretary Alphonso Jackson to work on an initiative to help troubled mortgage holders get services and products...

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Shaolin Temple, the cradle of Chinese kung fu, is demanding an apology from an Internet user who said its monks had once been beaten in unarmed combat by a Japanese ninja, Chinese media reported on Friday. Shaolin Temple, in the northern province of Henan, became famous in the West as the training ground for Kwai Chang "Grasshopper" Caine in the 1970s "Kung Fu" TV series. Ninjas -- professional assassins trained in martial arts -- date back to mediaeval Japan. "The so-called defeat is purely fabricated, and we demand the Internet user to apologise to the whole...

A daily round-up of Fred news. Intriguing Announcement Day Sepculation about Fred Thompson There is some speculation that Fred Thompson may have an announcement surprise in his plans. Joe Lerner, over at National Review Online, has a piece out this morning speculating that Fred may be planning to name his Vice-Presidential running mate as he announces on Sept. 6! He never cites any sources, but it makes you wonder why he ever thought of such a thing unless he had heard the idea floated by someone. It is certainly intriguing to consider. Here is an excerpt from the piece: There...

The Evesham school board last night voted 7-1 to stop showing third graders a controversial educational video that includes depictions of families headed by same-sex couples. The vote came after a committee of scholars and educators, appointed by the board to review the issue, recommended keeping the video in the curriculum, but showing it to fourth graders, instead of to third graders, as had been done. But after a number of board members spoke against the film, the board did away with the video, called That's a Family, altogether. The half-hour video shows children explaining their various family structures, including...

Has the pedestal has gone the way of the bustle, the bobbie sock, and the beehive hairdo? It's a question that liberals instantly dismiss -- after all, we're all supposed to be absolutely equal. And conservative men shrink from serious discussion of the issue, preferring to seek refuge in their chivalrous instincts. But let's ask the question anyway: Do we need to down-size the pedestal? I'm more than happy to hold the door open for a lady or tote a doddering grandma's bag. And last I checked, no one is talking about dispatching a squadron of rosy-cheeked G.I. Janes to...

...a boycott called to protest proposed restrictions on illegal immigrants in Prince William County appears to be having minimal impact on the national chain stores that are its chief targets... But the week-long boycott has sharpened the contradictory emotions and opinions among county residents, highlighting the complexity of a fast-changing region that has experienced the burdens and benefits of immigration. Some established Latino immigrants, for example, say they sympathize with illegal newcomers but fear the boycott will provoke hostility... In a hardware store, the non-Hispanic co-owner said he had a "strictly neutral" position on the boycott and the county resolution...

Consumer Spending Rebounds in July, Helped by Strong Income Growth WASHINGTON (AP) -- Consumers returned to the malls in July after taking a breather in June, although worries about the future could make the rebound short-lived. The Commerce Department reported Friday that consumer spending rose by 0.4 percent in July, double the June increase. The spending was supported by a solid 0.5 percent rise in incomes, the best showing in this area in four months. The gain in spending was right in line with expectations, while the increase in incomes was double what analysts had been expected. However, economists cautioned...

The first truth we must find is a way to swallow this - we have exactly the government we elected! Our Republican President has a public approval rating hovering around 30% and our Democrat congress has an approval rating down around 20%. Clearly, we don’t think much of our government, but we elected them and what does that say about us? (snip) In my last column titled “Ron Paul—A Liberal-tarian, not a Conservative," I demonstrated how easy it is to attack any politician on his alleged voting record, demonize an entire group on the basis of a few in that...

They could soon become the majority of the population in the United Arab Emirates. And in Saudi Arabia, too, their numbers are increasing. Who they are, where they come from, and how they live. A report from Dubai and Abu Dhabi ROMA, August 31, 2007 – Three months ago to the day, on May 31, the Holy See established diplomatic relations and exchanged ambassadors with the United Arab Emirates. Few noted the fact that the United Arab Emirates has the greatest Christian presence of any Islamic country. And it is a new and growing presence. Exactly the opposite of what...

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, ACLU and others are warning of major disruptions when the federal government launches an illegal immigration crackdown next week with a flurry of letters notifying employers that some of their workers have suspect Social Security numbers.

Pete Seeger, America's best-known and most influential folksinger, wrote me a letter a few days ago. I did not expect to hear from him. Last June, I wrote in these pages about the new documentary on his life. The article ran under the headline "Time for Pete Seeger To Repent." My complaint was that the film, good as it is, did not give a completely honest account of Mr. Seeger's politics. The filmmaker, Jim Brown, interviewed me on camera, but he did not include any of my critical remarks in the final version. In my interview, I pointed out that...

Fox News is reporting according to GOP sources Senator Craig will resign today.

In order that we might all raise the level of discourse and expand our language abilities, here is the daily post of "Word for the Day". tyro • \TYE-roh\ • noun a beginner in learning : novice Example Sentence: A reviewer described the new photography manual as "a clear explanation of the basics, ideal for tyros but too elementary for seasoned shutterbugs." Did you know? The word "tyro" is hardly a newcomer to Western language. It comes from the Latin "tiro," which means "young soldier," "new recruit," or more generally, "novice." The word was sometimes spelled "tyro" as early...

Former Sen. John Edwards is expected to start his Labor Day in Pittsburgh and leave with the endorsement of the United Steelworkers. Mr. Edwards has courted the USW and other unions since the end of his 2004 vice presidential candidacy, which was publicly launched in Mellon Square, just blocks from the Mellon Arena site of the Monday rally where the former North Carolina senator will speak before the start of the Labor Day parade. Neither the Edwards campaign nor the USW responded to inquiries about the planned announcement, which still must be formally confirmed in a conference of the USW's...

I'm old enough to remember well the anti-war demonstrations of the Vietnam era.  They got lots and lots of fawning press coverage.  But I don't believe that those hot-headed college students were being paid cash for their willingness to hideout in their mob identity, the way today's anti-war demonstrators are.  Those college kids of the 60's at least believed in what they were doing.  Nobody had to pay them for one simple reason.  The vast majority of them were affluent college students, living the high life on Daddy's dollar.  And their prime motivation, I believed at the time - and...

Marking the beginning of yet another dispute over free speech and religious sensitivity, the government of Pakistan has joined Iran in protesting the publication in a Swedish newspaper of a sketch featuring the head of Mohammed on the body of a dog. "Pakistan condemns, in the strongest terms, the publication of an offensive and blasphemous sketch of the Holy Prophet in the Swedish newspaper," the foreign ministry in Islamabad said in a statement Thursday. A Swedish diplomat was summoned to the ministry and "was told that the publication of the sketch had caused grave affront to the religious sentiments of...

The 8-year-old boy with close-cropped hair and a missing front tooth stepped off the yellow bus, looking lost and clutching a coloring book against his chest. A two-hour drive away, at the airport in the capital city of San Salvador, a man with shaggy hair and pursed lips walked off an unmarked white plane with his hands cuffed behind his back. Behind him came another 77 convicts -- most returning to their homeland for the first time in years. The boy and the convicts had something in common: They were deportees, returned home on separate days last month. The convicts...

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke speaks at 10 a.m. Eastern Time from Jackson Hole, Wyoming. President Bush speaks at 11:10 a.m. Eastern Time from the White House on the mortgage crisis.