Free Republic

Brisbane's Catholic Archbishop has made a formal submission opposing the State Government's plan to make priests report child sex offences revealed in the confessional. Archbishop Mark Coleridge said while the church was unequivocally committed to the protection of children, breaking the confessional seal would "not make a difference to the safety of young people". "The proposed legislation would make the priest at this vital point less a servant of God than an agent of the state," he wrote. "Clergy have died because they have refused to submit to the claims of the state and preferred to defend the rights of...

President Trump on Saturday ripped the "sea wall" that was proposed by the Army Corps of Engineers to protect New York City from damaging natural disasters such as Hurricane Sandy, calling the plan costly, foolish [and] environmentally unfriendly." "A massive 200 Billion Dollar Sea Wall, built around New York to protect it from rare storms, is a costly, foolish & environmentally unfriendly idea that, when needed, probably won’t work anyway," the president tweeted. "It will also look terrible. Sorry, you’ll just have to get your mops & buckets ready!" he added. The proposal, which would create a six-mile long barrier...

A response to the formal summons from the Senate, notifying the Executive Office of the President of impeachment proceedings, was due at 6:00pm ET today. The White House has responded with a seven-page position answer.

Santiago, Chile, Jan 16, 2020 / 07:00 pm (CNA).- During the Jan. 11 installation Mass of Celestino Aós as the new archbishop of Santiago, Chile, a small number of protesters opened backpacks near the front of the church and dumped tear gas canisters on the floor. An Instagram post by portadasoñada, which describes itself as “an independent and self-managed media outlet” included a video of the incident, which it said was intended to "denounce in the face the highest Catholic authority in the country for his silence and complicity with the government." The United Nations has warned of evidence of...

Russia’s defense ministry accuses Armia Krayova of ‘destroying Jews’ in Warsaw, amid feud with Poland over war’s historyRussia’s defense ministry on Friday accused the Polish resistance movement that staged the Warsaw uprising of 1944 of “destroying Jews,” in the latest salvo of Moscow’s feud with Poland over WWII history. The accusations were posted with a trove of declassified documents called “Warsaw Under Fire” on the 75th anniversary of Soviet forces’ taking the city after more than five years of occupation by Nazi Germany. The Russian defense ministry published a multimedia website Friday to mark the anniversary with scans of documents...

A story that’s beginning to boil over in New York is about to become a major issue in the 2020 election. That is, unless the Democrats can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. That issue is the controversial bail reform law pushed through the New York State legislature by Governor Andrew Cuomo late last year. The law eliminates cash bail on the argument that cash bail discriminates against poorer defendants. But critics of the law have been warning for months that eliminating bail was sure to put too many criminals with violent tendencies back on streets, even if they...

Prelates trumpet administration's 'concrete actions'WASHINGTON (ChurchMilitant.com) - In a rare move, a statement from the U.S. Bishops' Conference is speaking positively of President Donald Trump's administration. January 16 is National Religious Freedom Day in the United States. Bishop George V. Murry, S.J. of Youngstown, Ohio, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) Committee for Religious Liberty, issued an official statement the day before National Religious Freedom Day saying the following: On this Religious Freedom Day, we are grateful that the right of religious liberty is cherished in this country. I appreciate concrete actions the Administration has undertaken, such...

I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same...

Florida man strikes again. The former mayor of Milton, Fla., was sentenced last week to 51 months in prison and ordered to pay back $650,000 he stole from the United Way. Guy Thompson, who served as Milton’s mayor from 1994 to 2014, stole the funds while he was the executive director of the United Way in Santa Rosa County, according to the Pensacola News Journal. Thompson “devised a complex scheme where he kept a portion of money intended for use to pay United Way’s regular bills and expenses by replacing it with other donation checks no one at United Way...

Scribd Link: House Impeachment Trial Brief

As libertarians, you would assume I am not writing this to defend the president, but, in the unlikely event this reflection escapes into the wild, I want to go on record that I did not vote for him last time around. I will not vote for him next time, I do not believe we should have troops in Iraq, and I do not think he should have killed Qassem Soleimani last week. I think we should have done it years ago . . .

Gene Simmons from KISS says it's OK to say God Bless America. Rock star and tv personality Gene Simmons delivered an emotional speech at the Pentagon.

      DARE TO DREAM Someone once commented that "One of the most powerful things in the world is a dream. Not those dreams that come to us while we sleep, but those we consciously pursue while we are awake." Think of how dreams have shaped our modern life. Of Martin Luther King whose famous speech began, I have a dream today." And of Robert Kennedy who said, "Some men see things as they are and ask "Why?"; I dream things that never were and ask 'Why not?'" Think of how children's lives are often shaped by their...

Clips tagged #Swamp New text messages between Parnas and aide put Devin Nunes on the hot seat New documents show a Nunes aide repeatedly in contact with Parnas, leading to even more questions about what Nunes knew and when. Clips tagged #Homefront FAA declares airspace over Richmond, VA "National Defense Airspace" until after Lobby Day The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has not only issued temporary flight restrictions for Richmond, Virginia for Monday, but has designated the airspaces are “National Defense Airspace” until after Lobby Day, where tens of thousands of people who support the Second Amendment will gather on the...

A home security camera captured a touching scene earlier this week: An anonymous man in a service member's uniform carefully folding a flag that had been torn from its ropes and fallen. The passing man was dressed in fatigues and folded the flag in proper ceremonial style. This simple act of kindness shows just how important the American flag is to our service members, and the inspirational footage is going viral on social media. It's already been shared thousands of times. Now, the Hope Mills homeowner hopes to find the man and personally thank him. Frankie Grandstaff, who posted the...

Prelims on ESPN at 8 eastern Main Card on 'PPV' at 10 Former Champ Conor McGregor returns to face Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone in a Welterweight Bout In the Co-main Former Women's Champ Holly Holm faces Raquel Pennington Anthony "Showtime" Pettis also on the card

On this date in 1985 progressive Islamic theologian Mahmoud Mohamed Taha was publicly hanged at a prison in Khartoum North, Sudan......Specifically, Taha embraced a women’s movement and opposed the imposition of sharia, at least in the absence of a radical modernization of the Islamic religious law.

So much of the gun control debate is about things that might go wrong. Democrats, who just took control of the Virginia state legislature, are about to pass a law that will dramatically limit the ability of people with concealed handgun permits from other states to carry in Virginia. There haven’t been any problems with these permit holders, but that doesn’t matter for gun control advocates.

Editor's Note: This piece was co-authored by Duggan Flanakin.  “We are all born ignorant,” Benjamin Franklin once said, “but one must work very hard to remain stupid.” Greens are incensed over suggestions that anything but fossil fuels and climate change might be turning green California and Australian ecosystems into black wastelands, incinerating wildlife, destroying homes and killing people. The notion that they and their policies might be a major factor in these fires gets them so hot under the collar that they could ignite another inferno. But the facts are there for all to see. PG&E certainly failed to maintain, upgrade and...

[Catholic Caucus] BREAKING: Viganò comes out of hiding to protest German bishops’ ‘synodal path’ of destruction In first public appearance since McCarrick report in 2018, Archbishop Viganò participates at Munich prayer event January 18, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – In his first public appearance since going into hiding over a year ago, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò joined other prominent Catholics in Munich today in prayer and protest against the German Episcopal Conference and its President Cardinal Marx. The Vatican whistleblower joined Catholic laity to oppose the German prelates’ plan to embark on a “synodal path” that critics say would create a...