Free Republic

[Catholic Caucus] After Cardinal Marx visits Vatican, Germany's 'synodal way' up for bishops' vote Fulda, Germany, Sep 23, 2019 / 01:00 pm (CNA).- The German bishops are set this week to vote upon statutes for a “binding synodal process,” days after Cardinal Reinhard Marx, president of the German bishops’ conference, held talks about the plans with Pope Francis and Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops.On Monday, the German bishops began a three-day plenary session in Fulda, which will conclude Sept. 25. Sources close to the conference told CNA that the bishops plan to debate a “substantially unchanged” draft...

* Catholic sister suggests artificial intelligence robots could be used as priests * Theologian Ilia Delio said robotic priests could replace or work with humans* Benefits of AI include being incapable of sexual abuse and are gender neutral * Robots have been used to read Buddhists funeral right in Japan for some years A senior Catholic sister and theologian has suggested sophisticated robots could be used as priests. Franciscan Sister Ilia Delio who has two PhDs and a chair in theology at Villanova University, said the priesthood should be 'reimagined' with robots working alongside, or instead of, human religious figures....

Reuters reports that China will exempt some American agricultural products from its latest round of tariffs. This is welcome news—particularly for our pork and soybean producers who’ve been on the front lines of the trade war. But what does the news really mean? Did China blink? Are they throwing us a bone? Or is just part of Xi Jinping’s 200 IQ 4D underwater chess gambit to win the trade war? The answer begins and ends with the economic data. First up: pigs. China is by far the largest pork consumer on earth, and is expected to consume more than 50...

I get my felonies mixed up. Was President Trump committing bribery if he offered the Ukrainian president $250 million in foreign aid in exchange for an investigation to smear potential Democratic nominee Joe Biden? Or would that be considered extortion? It doesn’t matter. The real question is whether now, finally, the House of Representatives will perform its constitutional duty to hold Trump accountable. At this point, the president is practically begging for impeachment. Give it to him, already. Look, this is not a close call. According to published reports about a whistleblower complaint — which the administration outrageously refuses to...

The festival, which took place on the Feast of the Exultation of the Holy Cross, was held to atone for scandals and vandalismPolish Catholics participated in Masses and penance liturgies for recent scandals over sexual abuse by clergy and acts of vandalism and profanation at local churches. “The vision of Christ’s suffering can transform human hearts, spurring recognition of sins and a request for forgiveness,” said Bishop Wieslaw Mering of Wloclawek. “Today, we are being told to have fun, enjoy life, be ourselves and realize our desires. But the path to salvation doesn’t lead through egoism,” he said. Preaching to...

Hillary Rodham Clinton made listening tours famous, using them to build buzz for her New York Senate and presidential campaigns. Now, she’s on another. In an email to supporters, the 2008 and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate said, “I’d like to hear what you’re thinking.” While she isn’t talking about running for president for a third time, Clinton said that she has been talking to people about key issues, including immigration reform and electing Democrats “at all levels” in 2020. “I’ve been traveling and talking with folks around the world about their plans for the rest of the year. Some members...

If Democrats were serious about using red flag laws to keep guns out if the hands of people who might use them to senselessly murder others and therefore are danger to society, and not just as a gun control tool to disarm law-abiding citizens, then why did they kill an attempt to use compiled lists of known gang members, which many police departments and law enforcement agencies possess, then why did they kill a measure to red flag gang members? And if Beto O’Rourke is going to come and take our guns, particularly our AR-15s, is he going to start...

Steak and potatoes, creamed spinach, a stiff drink: the menu at your average steakhouse hasn’t changed for over 100 years. Americans flock to these palaces of meat, whether they’re upscale chains or a neighborhood spot whose décor hasn’t changed since the Reagan administration. Despite some falls in consumption in recent years due to price increases and health concerns, steak is still a very big deal in America. This week we’ll take a look at the steakhouse, an American institution. Our modern steakhouse has two direct ancestors, the beefsteak banquet and the chophouse. Both arose, interestingly enough, in mid-19th century New...

    ~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Anniston Army Depot, AlabamaAnniston Army Depot (ANAD) is a major United States Army facility for the production and repair of ground combat vehicles, overhaul of Small Arms Weapon Systems and the storage of chemical weapons, a.k.a. the Anniston Chemical Activity. The depot is located in Bynum, Alabama.As of 2014, the Depot employs 3,400 civilian workers. Tanks and other equipment are repaired and tested, but historically Anniston's main role since World War II has been as a major munitions storage site. Anniston is one of seven depots in the United States where...

Former Massachusetts governor and longshot candidate for the GOP nomination for president Bill Weld on Monday accused President Donald Trump of "treason" for pressing Ukraine's President to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and stated bluntly "the penalty for treason under the US code is death." "Talk about pressuring a foreign country to interfere with and control a US election, it couldn't be clearer," Weld said in an interview on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "And that's not just undermining democratic institutions, that is treason. It's treason pure and simple." "The penalty for treason under the US code is death. That's the...

Julianne Hough recently posed nude on the cover of a magazine — but what she said during her interview was far more revealing than the photos. Now, Hough is reflecting about coming out as “not straight,” and how the admission has affected her sense of self. The America’s Got Talent judge opened up about her marriage to husband Brooks Laich during the interview — and made headlines when she recalled a conversation she’d had with him. “I [told him], ‘You know I’m not straight, right?’” Hough told Women’s Health. “And he was like, ‘I’m sorry, what?’ I was like, ‘I’m...

Once a fringe argument restricted to extreme anti-Muslim corners of the internet, the idea that Islam is not actually a religion, and therefore does not qualify for religious liberty protections, has rapidly gained salience in mainstream public discourse in the U.S. among activists, media commentators, and lawmakers alike. In her new book, When Islam Is Not a Religion: Inside America’s Fight for Religious Freedom, attorney Asma Uddin traces the assertion’s American origins from extreme right-wing activist spaces to the White House. A religious liberty expert and Senior Scholar with the Religious Freedom Center at the Freedom Forum Institute in Washington,...

Donald Trump on Monday openly accused former Vice President Joe Biden of being "corrupt" in vague terms and ratcheted up his rhetoric, claiming without proof that if a Republican did what Biden did "they'd be getting the electric chair right now." Days after dismissing and downplaying a whistleblower's complaint, Trump has now acknowledged he discussed Biden in a July call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and CNN has reported that the President pressed Zelensky to investigate Biden's son, Hunter, according to a person familiar with the situation. That call was also part of a whistleblower complaint submitted to the Intelligence...

The United Nations released an “unprecedented” report on anti-Semitism on Monday, which pointed out that the frequency appears to be increasing. It also linked anti-Semitism to denunciations of Israel as well as the Palestinian-led Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement, which calls for a boycott of all Israeli products. The report stressed that the “prevalence of anti-Semitic attitudes and the risk of violence against Jewish individuals and sites “ is significant. The report, “Combating Antisemitism to Eliminate Discrimination and Intolerance Based on Religion or Belief,” was released on Monday by U.N. Human Rights Council’s special rapporteur on freedom of religion or...

CNN’s Jake Tapper is many things. He’s a TV man, a person who says words in public. He owns multiple suits. He is overly concerned about people being mean to him on Twitter. That last point is relevant because Tapper has put aside his fear of getting mildly criticized in a public forum in order to flex his art skills by drawing today’s “Dilbert.” The text of the comic was, as ever, written by nth-dimensional-chess genius Scott “the Brain” Adams, and the original will be auctioned off to benefit a veterans’ charity.

Mayor Pete Buttigieg expressed his dissatisfaction with the concept of carrying a gun after serving in Afghanistan. “Over time, I realized having a gun made me feel smaller, not bigger,” he said during a conversation about guns with a BuzzFeed reporter as part of his bus tour in Iowa. The mayor was asked about his feelings on guns as a veteran who served in Afghanistan in the Navy Reserves but apparently did not engage in combat. Earlier in September, Buttigieg criticized men who had their “sense of manhood wrapped up in owning a gun.” “[I]f it gets to where your...

Although cats have a reputation for being aloof, a new study says they bond with humans much like dogs do. Researchers at Oregon State University discovered that cats — just like dogs and young children — can form secure or insecure bonds with their humans. “Like dogs, cats display social flexibility in regard to their attachments with humans,” Kristyn Vitale, study author and researcher at Oregon State University’s Human-Animal Interaction Lab, said in a statement. “The majority of cats are securely attached to their owner and use them as a source of security in a novel environment.” Vitale and her...

“Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ Nicodemus said to Him, ‘How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?’” (John 3:3–4). Jesus’ shocking statement was far more than Nicodemus had expected. Incredulous, Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” Nicodemus did not misinterpret Jesus’...

On October 30, 2008, Barack Obama said, "We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America." The legal policy changes wrought under the Obama Administration paved the way for the so-called Equality Act, HR 5, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives on May 17, 2019 by a vote of 236 to 173. The Equality Act would fundamentally and radically alter Civil Rights Law to prohibit "discrimination" on the basis of "sexual orientation" and "gender identity," in the same way racial discrimination is prohibited. Analysis by pro-life and pro-family organizations, as well as the U.S. Catholic...

Fueled by lax laws, promises of sanctuary, and a growing threat to shut down the U.S.-Mexico border, the illegal immigrant population in the United States has surged nearly 2 million to 14.3 million, according to a new calculation from a key immigration policy group.