Free Republic

The Pell Fallout Continues, And it Has Implications for the Whole Church Last week, it was announced by the Australian court system that Cardinal George Pell had been convicted in December of child sex abuse. The media had been prevented from reporting on the verdict because there was a hope of moving forward with yet another trial against the cardinal. That trial against Pell fell apart. Another, earlier proceeding ended in a mistrial due to a hung jury. The cases were confidential, but some outlets have reported that the jurors in that early trial voted 10-2 in favor of acquittal.Nevertheless,...

Anchor from 'most valuable shipwreck in history' found Anchor found off of U.K. coast could be from one of Britain’s richest ship wrecks An anchor brought up in a trawler's fishing nets off the coast of the U.K. is reportedly from a 17th-century shipwreck. The anchor is believed to be from the Merchant Royal, which has been described as one of Britain’s richest wrecks, carrying cargo worth around $10.5 million. SWNS reports that the anchor, believed to be from the Merchant Royal, was brought up in a fishing vessel’s net 20 miles off Land's End, Cornwall. The merchant ship sank...

Qatar, which funds Hamas and al-Qaeda, has begun a massive military aircraft project in South Carolina The politicians in South Carolina are lining their pockets, but are we enabling those who will one day be fighting against us? “South Carolina is becoming home to a quiet Qatari military aircraft project,” by Jordan Schachtel, Conservative Review, March 5, 2019: The nation of Qatar, a tiny Gulf state known for its vast energy riches, tiny indigenous population, slave labor economy, and, of course, its troublesome connections to international terrorist organizations, has commenced a massive but under-the-radar spending spree in South Carolina. Through...

This is a pretty significant pickup for the GOP in Kentucky tonight. #SD31 Democrats are doing pretty poorly overall in 2019 special elections thus far. They are at risk of giving back quite a bit of ground to the GOP if they can't right this ship.

A man was arrested Monday after breaking into an apartment to shower and cook pork chops inside. 45-year-old Oscar Joseph Ledet was charged with burglary of a residence, a second-degree felony... Ledet said he had gone inside to get a vase he had left in there and then admitted he also used the shower and cooked some pork chops. Ledet added that there were other people in the apartment to help him move things out. Officials contacted the apartment resident who said he does not know Ledet personally but that he stays in the laundry room, however, he did not...

The stunning sight of emerald green-colored icebergs in Antarctica has been documented for more than a century — in literature and beyond. For decades, scientists have argued about the cause behind the bizarre phenomenon and debated why the green-hued ice chunks aren't the typical blue or white color. But a recent discovery from a 2016 research trip to East Antarctica’s Amery Ice Shelf may provide the final clue they've been waiting for. In a new study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, researchers found marine ice varies in color due to the "abundance of foreign constituents in the...

Macau, China – The prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Cardinal Fernando Filoni, said today in Macau that the “pastoral agreement” between the Vatican and China “will greatly help the Catholic Church” in the country. Fernando Filoni presided over the official inauguration of the new facilities of the University of Saint Joseph in Macau, which gathered more than 500 people in the auditorium to attend Mass. Macau and Hong Kong are the only places in all of China where the pope’s authority is accepted. On the sidelines of the event, the cardinal stressed to the journalists that...

Would you like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) if she was conservative? What if she had the same personality and presentation, but displayed conservative principles? Would you then like her?

As the number of migrant families crossing the southwest border was again breaking records, officials said Tuesday they were building a new facility to manage them, while warning the crush is overwhelming border agents and straining facilities. More than 76,000 migrants crossed the U.S.-Mexico border last month, more than double the number from the same period last year. Most were families coming in ever-increasingly large groups — there were 70 groups of more than 100 people in the past few months, and they cross illegally in extremely rural locations with few agents and staff. There were only 13 large groups...

The bishops said that while they oppose abortion, they believe the Heartbeat Bill would fail a court challengeThe Catholic bishops of Tennessee have voiced their opposition to a fetal heartbeat law being considered in the state and instead urged alternative legislation less open to legal challenges. The leaders of the state’s three dioceses released an open letter on February 26 stating that while they are opposed to abortion, they believe the Heartbeat Bill would fail a likely court challenge. “We believe that the sanctity of human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception to natural...

You don't give up on every state in America. One thing the Democrats do well is that they compete in EVERY state. Look at what they are doing to Virginia, Texas, North Carolina, Arizona, New Mexico, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Tennessee. Changing the demographics. They are plenty of conservative areas in NYC (Staten Island, Bayside, Douglaston), Long Island, Rockland County, Upstate NY; plenty of conservative areas in NJ (Ocean, Morris, Monmouth) that can outvote the liberal areas and cities. Don't move to FL, NC, GA. Fight. Fight, fight, fight, fight. The GOP can win those states if a Democrat screws up big...

French European minister calls on Holy See to revoke nuncio's diplomatic immunity Archbishop Luigi Ventura is accused of inappropriately touching a young male staffer of Paris City Hall FranceÂ’s European affairs minister encouraged the Holy See last week to aid in an investigation of the apostolic nuncio to France, who has been accused of sexual assault in Paris.Archbishop Luigi Ventura, 74, is accused of having inappropriately touched a young male staffer of Paris City Hall during a Jan. 17 reception for the New Year address of Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo. He is being investigated by Parisian authorities.Nathalie Loiseau, FranceÂ’s...

Fr. Angelo Bisi: 'I'm not fighting to keep my place as a parish priest; I'm fighting for Christian values'A bishop in northern Italy has removed a priest who opposed relaxing restrictions on Holy Communion to the divorced and civilly remarried. The diocese of Mantua, which recently implemented a pastoral ministry offering the possibility of admission to the sacraments for those in adulterous unions, removed the priest from his parish duties allegedly because of his outspoken defense of Church teaching. Father Angelo Bisi, in charge of the parishes of Motteggiana-Villa Saviola, was removed from Villa Saviola after several years of contention...

A Woodburn man pleaded guilty Tuesday to participating in a conspiracy that produced more than 10,000 fraudulent government identification cards, including driver’s licenses from Oregon and more than 25 other states, U.S. Social Security cards, false immigration records, birth certificates, marriage licenses and vehicle titles. Miguel Merecias-Lopez, 24, and unidentified conspirators worked out of a secret photo lab in Woodburn, using digital cameras, computers, scanners, laminators and a high-resolution printer to produce bogus documents that they sold and distributed in Oregon and mailed across the United States, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Sax. The investigation continues and other arrests...

At the end of freshman orientation, Rep. Abigail Spanberger was in a bind. The Virginia Democrat had hoped to grab an office next to her closest buddies in the new Congress — a group of fellow military veterans who’ve dubbed themselves the “Gang of Nine.” But she hadn’t gotten a chance to check out the spot her colleagues had chosen and it was time to make a decision. “I had that split-second moment, like, do I choose an office I haven’t seen... or give up on your friends?” she recalled in an interview. Spanberger stuck with the group, solidifying the...

As OrthoChristian has reported several times already, Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople explicitly rejected His Beatitude Patriarch John X of Antioch’s late-December call for a pan-Orthodox council to resolve the ongoing Ukrainian crisis (see here, here, and here). On December 24, Pat. Bartholomew wrote to the autocephalous Local Churches, asking them to acknowledge the results of December 15’s “unification council” that created a new, nationalist church in Ukraine. In response, Pat. John implored the primate of Constantinople to convene a Synaxis of the Primates to address the issue. The full text of Pat. Bartholomew’s reply to Pat. John’s reply has since...

California's largest county has banned the construction of large solar and wind farms on more than 1 million acres of private land, bending to the will of residents who say they don’t want renewable energy projects industrializing their rural desert communities northeast of Los Angeles. Thursday’s 4-1 vote by San Bernardino County’s Board of Supervisors highlighted a challenge California could face as it seeks to eliminate the burning of planet-warming fossil fuels. **SNIP** Dozens of local residents spoke in support of the proposed ban, known as Renewable Energy Policy 4.10. They came from high desert communities such as Daggett, Joshua...

U.S. Military Academy Cadet Peter Zhu was declared brain dead Wednesday, four days after the California resident was involved in a skiing accident. WEST POINT, N.Y. — The parents of a 21-year-old West Point cadet fatally injured in a skiing accident raced the clock to get a judge's permission to retrieve his sperm for "the possibility of preserving some piece of our child that might live on." U.S. Military Academy Cadet Peter Zhu was declared brain dead Wednesday, four days after the California resident was involved in a skiing accident at West Point that fractured his spine and cut off...

Monday on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) likened House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Adam Schiff’s (D-CA) efforts to investigate President Donald Trump and his 2016 campaign to that of former Sen. Joe McCarthy (R-WI), who sought out communist sympathizers in the federal government during his tenure in the U.S. Senate. Kevin McCarthy questioned Schiff’s motives, which go back before the investigation. “Well, remember what else we know about Adam Schiff. Before this investigation even began, he said he had proof and evidence,” McCarthy said. “Now, I’m not related to Joe McCarthy but Adam Schiff is...

WASHINGTON — Anti-vaccination activists, some with their (presumably unvaccinated) children, packed the Dirksen Senate Office Building Tuesday morning for a hearing that they hoped would vindicate, or at least recognize as legitimate, their fear that protecting their families from measles runs the risk of something worse, including autism and other disorders. As the doors closed on the room where the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions was meeting, a woman could be heard pleading to be allowed in to give her side of what has become a heated, and potentially dangerous, controversy. That hope would be quickly dashed....