Free Republic

Members of the Party and the United Front, university professors and patriotic bishops have transformed formerly "underground" priests into perfect "state officials". A report by the Patriotic Association.Rome (AsiaNews) - "Is this still the Catholic Church?": This is the reaction of a young Chinese man to the text we publish below today in full translation, concerning the "formation courses" held in Beijing for the priests of the diocese of Mindong (Fujian) who joined the Patriotic Association. As already reported Mindong - which was to be the "pilot project" for the Sino-Vatican agreement - was given a new ordinary bishop, Msgr....

Desperado Dems want you to believe the presidential election—some 15 months away—is already over. All 20-plus spittle-flecked contenders in the DNC primaries are riding on a bus touting a ‘Utopia or Bust!’ banner. They’re travelling at break-neck down the road leading to Socialism, confident that they’ve conned the masses into thinking they are ‘progressives’ at heart. Get off the Democrats’ Socialist bus before they throw you under it. They’re planning to toss all plebes under the bus as soon as they’re elected.

Our gospel tune today is The Wondrous Word by the Sons of the Pioneers (1951). THE WESTERNER https://thewesterner.blogspot.com/

It is the second time the Philippine president has green-lighted a Marian feast as a holiday Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has signed a law declaring Sept. 8 of every year, the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Catholic Church, a "national special working holiday." The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary is one of the oldest Marian solemnities and one of the principal feasts of the liturgical devotion to the Blessed Mother. A working holiday means that there will be classes in schools, while offices and other establishments will be open. It is the second...

Action could 'upend religious freedom' across the AmericasWASHINGTON (ChurchMilitant.com) - An under-the-radar sexual orientation discrimination case is threatening to undermine religious freedom across the Western Hemisphere. Years in the making, the case springs from Chile, where an open lesbian is challenging her bishop's decision that she cannot serve as a religion instructor owing to her refusal to abide by Church teaching on sexuality. It involves two components of the Inter-American Human Rights System: the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, based in Washington, D.C., and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, based in San José, Costa Rica. In Chile, ecclesial authorities...

Today, August 18, is the feast of Saint Helena Augusta, mother of Constantine the Great. A long lived and active woman, even in her old age, Saint Helena died ca. AD 330 and was greatly mourned by her son. Please enjoy this short video taken from The Life of the Blessed Emperor Constantine, written about the year AD 340 by the bishop Eusebius Pamphilus, detailing some of the works of Saint Helena. It also includes some lovely images of Helena and her son from antiquity and later art. St. Helena, the mother of Constantine, as described by 4th Century historian...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem (Old Testament) 2 Kings 18 Hezekiah King of Judah 18 In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign. 2 He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Abijah[a] daughter of Zechariah. 3 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done. 4 He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the...

Millionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein was able to buy two pairs of small women’s panties from a jail shop while serving time for sex offenses, according to bombshell new documents. The convict bought two pairs of size 5 female underwear from Palm Beach County Jail’s shop in 2008 where he was serving time after pleading guilty to soliciting a minor for sex, according to jail logs. The tiny panties were the most disturbing part of more than $2,000 the pedophile spent while incarcerated for 13 months, according to the records obtained by the Miami Herald. Epstein, who killed himself in his...

Cambridge professor and reported FBI informant Stefan Halper, who is being sued by a Russian-born academic for allegedly smearing her and former national security adviser Michael Flynn as part of a government conspiracy to bring down the Trump administration, declared in a recent court filing that he is entitled to legal immunity ordinarily afforded to federal agents – even if the lawsuit's allegations are true. Halper did not explicitly admit to being an FBI informant in asking an Alexandria, Va. federal judge to throw out the case, and his filing followed legal rules that require defendants to assume that plaintiffs'...

“The heart of the prudent getteth knowledge; and the ear of the wise seeketh knowledge” (Proverbs 18:15).

The dolphins were filmed gently playing with the puffer, passing it between each other for 20 to 30 minutes at a time, unlike the fish they had caught as prey which were swiftly torn apart. Zoologist and series producer Rob Pilley said that it was the first time dolphins had been filmed behaving this way. At one point the dolphins are seen floating just underneath the water's surface, apparently mesmerised by their own reflections. Re

The Reverend Not So Sharpton is not considered a hater. He was much sought after by 12 of the Democrat presidential candidates, who made the pilgrimage to his humble abode to kiss his ring. When it was time to renew his television show, his credentials were examined (but the ratings were ignored), and yes, he was qualified because he is still black. That seems to be the reason Al is a television star. Al is paid $500,000 annually by MSNBC for his television work, and he pays himself over $200,000 from his civil rights non-profit organization. You might think a...

Since Russia still needs to import soybeans to fulfil its own needs, it was unlikely to provide an effective answer to China’s problems, Rylko added. He also warned that many of the European soybeans were not of particularly high quality because they were relatively low in protein. He predicted that the best-case scenario would see Russian soybean exports reaching 2 million tonnes a year – a significant rise on last year’s total of 800,000 tonnes. However, that is still a drop in the ocean compared with China’s annual consumption of more than 100 million tonnes – some 88 per cent...

Today’s Campaign Update (Because The Campaign Never Ends) Here’s an actual quote from Bernie Sanders yesterday: “We have a president who is a racist, who is a bigot, who is a sexist, who is a homophobe, and Islamophobe…and what we will not allow him to do is to divide us based on our skin color and our gender.” Oh. Okay. *sigh* Here is how The Oregonian fake newspaper led its coverage of yesterday’s stupid clash between the Proud Boys and the violent terrorist group Antifa: “Right-wing activists and those protesting their presence converged Saturday on Portland’s downtown waterfront in a...

During a recent morning surf at a town beach here, Andy Jacob spotted a dark shadow in the water just a few feet away. He assumed it was a gray seal because they are everywhere these days—until he got a better view. “As clear as day, it was a great white shark,” said the 40-year-old Wellfleet resident, who had been surfing around the same spot where a great white killed a boogie boarder last September. He said he warned others nearby and that a lifeguard temporarily ordered people out of the water, standard protocol after a sighting. “Any person could...

Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) both reportedly shared an antisemitic cartoon by an artist who participated in Iran’s Holocaust denial contest on their respective Instagram accounts on Friday, according to Forward editor Batya Ungar-Sargon. Ungar-Sargon noticed that Omar and Tlaib had each shared the image on their Instagram “stories.” Both were barred from entering Israel Thursday because of their support for the “boycott, divestment, sanctions” (BDS) movement. Tlaib then applied for a humanitarian visa so she could visit her grandmother in a Palestinian village, promising not to promote boycotts of Israel while traveling there. Her request was...

Actor Peter Fonda delivered a profane Twitter rant against President Trump’s immigration policies Wednesday morning, saying the president’s 12-year-old son Barron should be taken from his mother and placed in a “cage with pedophiles.” Mr. Fonda, the younger brother of actress and liberal activist Jane Fonda, was responding to Tuesday’s joint White House press briefing with Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Homeland Security Secretary Kristjen Nielsen. In a now-deleted tweet, the “Easy Rider” star said Ms. Nielson should be put in a cage naked and “whipped by passersby while being filmed.” In subsequent tweets that have also since been deleted, Mr....

It’s Sunday. Ponder the irony of the natural world, via Instapundit: A New Species of Leech Is Discovered Near Washington, D.C.  Or if that is not your idea of reverie, might I suggest that you go fishing… as the day is still young, but the year grows short.Posted from: MOTUS A.D.

On August 13th, 2019, I went to Tecate to see, if they had started building the planned new fence there. Tecate is about 20 miles east of San Diego/Tijuana. There is a contract with SLSCO Ltd. to build four miles of 30-foot-high bollard fence to replace the old, dilapidated landing-plate fence. I found that they had already started building the fence two months earlier. About a mile and a half of the fence had already been constructed. SLSCO Ltd is based in Texas. This company is receiving hundreds of millions of dollars to build border fence in California, which might...

Eco-warriors Harry and Meghan flew into a new hypocrisy row last night as it emerged that they used a private jet to go on holiday to the South of France – their third private jet flight in just eight days. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex arrived in Nice on Wednesday aboard a 12-seater Cessna aircraft. Dressed in a white blouse and cream sun hat, Meghan, 38, was spotted cradling the couple’s three-month-old son Archie as she left the plane which is registered to the luxury firm NetJets.