Free Republic

Minister reprimands top bishop for claiming the secrecy of confessional ‘above laws of the Republic’Catholic priests must report all child sexual abuse allegations to police, including if they hear about it in the secrecy of the confession box, the French interior minister has said after reprimanding France’s top bishop for claiming that the secrecy of the Catholic confessional was “above the laws of the Republic”. France is reeling from the publication last week of a devastating independent report which found that at least 330,000 children were victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy and lay members of church institutions over...

Former Clinton adviser James Carville said Thursday on MSNBC’s “The Beat” that President Joe Biden and the Democrats were using an “idiotic” strategy to sell the Build Back Better agenda. Carville said, “Democrats in Congress are asked to do very popular things. It doesn’t take much courage to negotiate prescription drug prices. It doesn’t take much courage to raise taxes on the wealthy. It doesn’t take much courage for expand health care. Somebody has to get into the room, OK. We want to do ten things, we can do five. Take the other five and run them in 2022. They...

At a time in the not so distant past (about 10 years ago), the phrase "gay evangelical demands that prayer for conversion be criminalised" would make as much sense as "square circle makes triangle". But in today's world it seems about par for the course! I'm not sure that in many years of reading 'reports' I have ever read one as chilling, or with such dangerous implications, as the just released Cooper Report from the Ozanne Foundation. That may sound hyperbolic but bear with me as we see what the report actually says. Although I was aware of the stance...

WORLD—Car manufacturers around the world are aiming to increase sales to women by replacing traditional "check engine" lights with new warning lights reading "Check Engine, or don't, whatever, it's probably no big deal." The warning light will flash when the car's computer detects something seriously wrong with the engine or transmission or other key components of the car, but will assure the female driver that it's not a big deal and they can drive with the light on indefinitely. "This is a more realistic warning light for the female market," said one executive at Toyota. "Frankly, the other one was...

Ratcliffe said former Justice official Michael Sussmann just "the first of what I would hope would be a number" of others charged in Russia probe. Former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe says he's given John Durham, special counsel investigating the Russia collusion probe, a trove of documents that he thinks support charges beyond those recently filed against cybersecurity lawyer Michael Sussman. "Sussmann's is the first of what I would hope would be a number" of additional people charged, he told Fox News on Sunday. Ratcliffe made the argument on what he said was "1,000 intelligence community documents" that he...

Anthony Fauci isn’t a fool. He just thinks everyone else is. This is why he’s been able to keep a straight face throughout the rapid devolution surrounding the narrative of his beloved vaccines. They were touted as practically 100% effective in the beginning. Today, some are saying they have zero impact on whether its recipients contract Covid-19 or not. A new video highlights the moving goalpost of vaccine effectiveness, starting with all of the reports that show it is 100% or 99% effective and flashing through as the number quickly dropped… and kept dropping. Meanwhile, Fauci has been playing everyone...

... Based upon interviews with the foregoing witnesses, as well as other witnesses who were interviewed during the course of the investigation, and in the inspection of approximately 1,000 absentee ballots and ballot images, the Secretary's investigators have been unable to substantiate the allegations that fraudulent or counterfeit ballots were counted. Investigators looked into claims made by Suzi Voyles, who worked the county's risk-limiting audit and claimed to see a batch of "pristine" ballots that looked suspicious. Voyles is now running for Congress as a Republican in the 6th Congressional District. After interviewing Voyles two separate times, investigators checked several...

Rep. Adam Schiff (D‑CA), who sits on the Jan. 6 committee investigating the Capitol riot, announced over the weekend that they are “prepared to go forward and urge the Justice Department” to prosecute conservatives who refuse to comply with their subpoenas. The House committee is especially intent on sinking their fangs into Steve Bannon. The committee may refer Bannon for criminal prosecution by the Department of Justice (DOJ) if he doesn’t show up for a deposition slated for Thursday according to The Hill. McQuade said the committee has other options. It could seek the assistance of the House sergeant-at-arms to...

The Council of Bishops, the Supreme governing body of the Russian Orthodox Church, is scheduled to meet this November. They are planning to consider the approval of a canonical document, On the Security of Human Life from Conception. It stipulates the rights endowed to every human being from the very moment of being conceived. “There has been no change in our position on this subject, as it was presented in the Foundations of the Social Doctrine of the Russian Orthodox Church adopted over twenty years ago,” said His Grace Silouan, Bishop of Peterhof, Chairman of the Synodal Commission on Bioethics....

Internal Capitol Police documents were obtained and released by legal watchdog Judicial Watch. The nearly 500 pages of interviews of witnesses and investigators of the Ashli Babbitt shooting reveal “no good reason for shooting,” according to Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “These previously secret records show there was no good reason to shoot and kill Ashli Babbitt,” Fitton said. “The Biden-Garland Justice Department and the Pelosi Congress have much to answer for the over the mishandling and cover-up of this scandalous killing of an American citizen by the U.S. Capitol Police.”

Happy Wednesday. How are things going for Democrats today? Let’s review a handful of headlines. (1) Out of Iowa, a legislative seat that has been in Democratic hands for decades is no longer blue. Over the summer, Republicans won back a state senate seat in affluent, suburban, Trump-hostile Connecticut. Last night, they picked off a different sort of district. Trump carried it, but it had remained blue at the state legislative level, even in recent cycles with Trump on the ballot. Change: GOP legislative pickup in Iowa. Seat went 59/41 Dem in 2018 cycle. Dems had held it for decades....

As the first tranche of COVID-19 restrictions lifted earlier this week, the people of New South Wales (NSW) enjoyed their first taste of freedom after four months of strict lockdown and enforced seclusion. Although vaccination rates in the state were low in July, once the NSW government-linked freedoms to needles, the rates shot up as people flocked to get jabbed. With the 80 percent target due to be reached sometime this week, hope grows that we will return to something resembling normal life by year’s end. Those not yet fully vaccinated—plus conscientious anti-vaxxers—will live restricted lives for some time to...

A Netflix group for trans workers is coordinating a company-wide walkout protesting the company's latest comedy special from Dave Chappelle and Netflix's responses to criticism that it includes transphobic jokes, according to a report. Netflix didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. "Our leadership has shown us they do not uphold the values to which we are held," an internal organizing message for the group said, as reported by The Verge. "Between the numerous emails and non-answers that have been given, we have been told explicitly that we somehow cannot understand the nuance of certain content."

[Catholic Caucus] Bishop Schneider tells Steve Bannon the Latin Mass is ‘stronger’ than Pope Francis: ‘It will win’The Pope's 'limitations are really short lived – they will collapse. Because the truth and the beauty of the prayer of the Church of all ages is [are] so powerful and so beautiful. This is the demonstration that the Church is in the hands of God.' Discussing Pope Francis’ new motu proprio Traditionis Custodes that aims at abrogating this Mass, the Kazakh bishop stated, “The traditional Mass is stronger than Pope Francis … it will win.” In an EWTN interview aired October 7,...

The new vaccine is now available and tested on highly dense human populations of 241 MILLION and now also another 277 million ! It doesn't have to be taken before symptoms are felt, but could be. Very low cost compared to other "solutions". If COVID big case spikes UP were happening in these dense populations, and then with this new vaccine quickly distributed to those showing symptoms, and the cases quickly dropped to nothing in weeks, I think that's a pretty good result, don't you? If that happened in your LOCAL County, or at least companies or local officials knew...

One of the few public-school systems in North Carolina that has stood its ground on keeping masks optional, despite a legal threat from the state, has seen a decrease in COVID-19 cases. The COVID-19 dashboard for the Union County Public Schools (UCPS) reported 170 positive cases last Friday, down from 252 the previous week, and down from 479 in the second week of September. There are 53 schools, 41,500 students, and 5,100 employees in the school system. The Union County Board of Education voted to keep masks optional in July, and since, has faced heated criticism. In its meeting last...

*** Youngkin has pulled even or ahead in some polls, and the formerly confident Democrats are beginning to panic. Now they want to change the election rules in the middle of the game: [T]he Democrat-dominated Fairfax Board of Supervisors has asked Gov. Ralph Northam to waive the witness signature requirement that Virginia law stipulates for all absentee ballots. Board Chairman Jeffrey McKay insists that the waiver is necessary due to the threat of COVID-19, yet cases are declining. This is the same fraud that the Democrats perpetrated in something like 15 states in the 2020 election. Using covid as an...

New research published in the journal Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being sheds light on how personality, social media exposure, and anxiety interact to influence people’s eating behavior during the pandemic. The findings point to a pathway whereby high neuroticism paves the way for greater anxiety in response to social media exposure during the COVID-19 pandemic, and in turn, increased emotional overeating. The premise for the study came from evidence suggesting that the pandemic has coincided with changes in people’s eating behavior. This link may be unsurprising, since anxiety has increased worldwide during the pandemic, and negative emotions like anxiety can...

In February of 2013, skywatchers around the world turned their attention toward asteroid 2012 DA14, a cosmic rock about 150 feet (50 meters) in diameter that was going to fly closer to Earth than the spacecraft that bring us satellite TV. Little did they realize as they prepared for the once-in-several-decades event that another bit of celestial debris was hurtling toward Earth, with a more direct heading. On Feb. 15, 2013, the Chelyabinsk meteor, a roughly 62-foot (19 meter)-diameter asteroid exploded over the city of Chelyabinsk, Russia, as it entered Earth's atmosphere at a shallow angle. The blast shattered windows...