Free Republic

Critics of Pope Francis’ new curial reform document say some of the reforms threaten to revolutionize the Church’s understanding of the hierarchical power of governance.VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis’ recently announced reform of the Roman Curia introduces some sweeping changes aimed at aiding the Church’s mission of evangelization, but critics have warned that some key reforms show a poor understanding of theology, canon law and ecclesiology that threaten to undermine the Church’s authority. On March 19, the Solemnity of St. Joseph and the ninth anniversary of Pope Francis’ inauguration as pope, the Vatican published Praedicate Evangelium (Preach the Gospel), his...

Liberal viewers of the progressive cable news network MSNBC raged on social media after host Chuck Todd said that President Joe Biden's successful nomination to the Supreme Court was to be his last victory. Chuck Todd made the comment during the celebration of Democrats over the confirmation of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court despite the passionate objections by some Republicans in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Todd characterized the Supreme Court victory as possibly the last one for the White House, apparently referring to the impending loss of congressional seats for Democrats in the midterm elections amidst collapsing support...

“Smart App Control is a major enhancement to the Windows 11 security model that prevents users from running malicious applications on Windows devices that default blocks untrusted or unsigned applications,” Microsoft vice president David Weston explains. “It goes beyond previous built-in browser protections and is woven directly into the core of the OS at the process level. Using code signing along with AI, ... our new Smart App Control only allows processes to run that are predicted to be safe based on either code certificates or an AI model for application trust within the Microsoft cloud. ...Model inference occurs 24...

About 129,000 wall beds sold online by Costco, Amazon and other retailers are being recalled after the furniture left one person dead and injuries were reported in 60 other incidents. The beds can detach from the wall and fall on people. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and furniture company Bestar announced the recall on Thursday. An additional 53,000 of the beds are being recalled in Canada. A 79-year-old woman died in 2018 after a wall bed fell on her and injured her spine, according to the news release from the CPSC and manufacturer. Others have reported bruising, among other...

Pope Francis on Thursday recalled the 500th anniversary of the election of Pope Adrian VI, who sought reconciliation between the Catholic Church and Martin Luther during his short pontificate. “In his brief pontificate, which lasted only a little more than a year, he sought above all reconciliation in the Church and the world, putting into practice the words of St. Paul, according to which God entrusted precisely to the Apostles the ministry of reconciliation,” Pope Francis said on April 7. For this reason, Adrian VI sent the nuncio to the Imperial Diets of Nuremberg “to reconcile Luther and his followers...

FRANKFORT, Kentucky (LifeSiteNews) – The Governor of Kentucky has signed legislation stating that churches are essential during declared states of emergency. Governor Andy Beshear signed the bill into law on April 5. The new law means that churches will stay open during any emergency situation, such as one resembling the lockdowns that were enacted due to the declared pandemic. The bill’s sponsor, Representative Shane Baker, was surprised that the bill was signed into law so swiftly considering that it was seen as a response to what were seen as heavy handed measures enacted by the governor during the lockdowns. Nevertheless,...

"The Church keeps people from losing their reference points in life. But it is also all pious people of all times and all nations. It is the Orthodox faith, which lives and works in the Orthodox Church, that is the force that holds [the Antichrist] back. . ."His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia spoke out about anti-Russian sentiments in the world, recalling the last book of the New Testament (Revelations). It refers to the power that restrains the coming of the Antichrist into the world. Such a force was the Orthodox faith and pious people of all...

In the fall of 1993, I began my first semester at NYU. Just one year earlier, I’d been a regular Moscow teenager, whose wildest ambition was to own a nice pair of jeans. But my father had been offered a job at an American company, and our family relocated to New York. With the move, the world suddenly opened to me, possibilities beckoning. My father, ever the practical man, told me to study business. Ever the obedient Soviet child, I didn’t protest, despite the fact that nothing could interest me less — but fortunately for me, there was no such...

I was never really into “conspiracy theories” until the 2020 election. But since then, I’ve become more questioning of nearly every official narrative from the election to Covid-19 and their “vaccines” to the CIA’s involvement in setting the stage for the Ukraine-Russia war. I don’t believe every theory I hear, but like a Berean testing against scripture, I take conspiracy theories and test them against known facts and the agenda of the globalist elites.On today’s episode of The Midnight Sentinel, I explored a theory that has been popping up more over the past couple of weeks. Hearing it requires a...

[Catholic Caucus] Why this Australian priest fighting for his Latin Mass community means so much to Catholics in ScotlandThere’s nothing wrong with the Traditional Latin Mass, but there’s a lot wrong with the traditional 'pray, pay, and obey' attitude of too many manager-bishops. Fr. Michael Rowe and parishioners on the Chartres PilgrimageHelp Fr. Rowe by donating to his Life Funder.EDINBURGH (LifeSiteNews) — You don’t go to the Traditional Latin Mass for the people, but the people might just become your most cherished faith community. A child of the 1970s and 80s, I grew up with what I came to call...

Dear Marylanders, On the day that I found out I was cancer free, I pledged that as long as I was governor of this great state—and long after that—I would continue to stand with all those who are fighting this terrible disease.We have been working hard to increase access to treatment and raise awareness, and just last week, I announced my Maryland Cancer Moonshot Initiative, which dramatically expands all of our efforts to detect, prevent, treat, and find a cure for cancer so that we can save more lives. This week, we broke ground on the first part of our...

U.S. employers say it's a hard time to find and keep talent. Workers are decamping at near-record rates, while millions of open jobs go unfilled. One reason for this labor crunch that has largely flown beneath the radar: Immigration to the U.S. is plummeting, a shift with potentially enormous long-term implications for the job market. In the middle of the last decade, the U.S. was adding about 1 million immigrants a year. But those numbers, which slowed down during the Trump administration, hit a brick wall when COVID-19 erupted in 2020.

One of the most important products for new parents is in short supply. Baby formula, which three-quarters of babies in the U.S. receive within their first six months, is increasingly out of stock at retailers across the country. The supply of formula is so constrained that retailers like Walgreens are even limiting how much consumers can purchase at one time. A spokesperson for the drugstore chain told CBS MoneyWatch it is limiting customers to three infant and toddler formula products per transaction, citing "increased demand and various supplier issues." Supply-chain snarls related to COVID-19 are contributing to the shortage of...

State Department spokesman Ned Price joined "Special Report" Friday to discuss how the United States is working to spread the truth about the war to Russian civilians to combat their president's propaganda. NED PRICE: Public opinion within Russia is notoriously difficult to measure. Russia is essentially a closed society. Vladimir Putin has near-total control over the organs of information, which may explain why it is that his popularity by some ratings and by some metrics is fairly high. And that is precisely because Vladimir Putin has fed his people a steady diet of lies and disinformation and propaganda. So it's...

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is warning federal, state, and local law enforcement of an impending nationwide spike in fentanyl-related “mass overdose events” and reported the amount of the drug infiltrating into the United States in 2021 was enough “to kill every American.” “Fentanyl is killing Americans at an unprecedented rate,” DEA administrator Anne Milgram said. “Drug traffickers are driving addiction, and increasing their profits, by mixing fentanyl with other illicit drugs.”

***** Tunes For Our Troops ~ The Freeper Canteen Music Dedication Presents: The Crooners Music! ~ *****~ Support The Artists You Hear Throughout The Canteen ! ~ ***** Warning: Not all music may be appropriate for children! Please click with caution. Thank you! Tunes For The Troops This music is provided for the entertainment of our Troops, Veterans, Allies & their families! Enjoy the variety of musical selections that the Canteen DJs provide throughout the thread. Please ping any DJ with your requests for the Troops! All music is removed on Monday.Thanks to all the DJs for their time...

**SNIP** English footballers still 'take the knee' before games in deference to BLM and even Sir Keir Starmer was photographed doing the same in his office at the height of the protests. With those who didn't fall into line risking accusations of racism, few wanted to be thought out of step. So no wonder three co-founders of the movement might have felt they deserved to celebrate a little as their cause gained widespread attention. In a video they released on YouTube last year to mark the first anniversary of George Floyd's death at the hands of a white police officer...

A fearsome Russian general has been linked to the deadly railway station strike that killed dozens of fleeing civilians that was branded a 'crime against humanity' within the international community. Western officials believe Captain General Aleksandr Dvornikov, a Russian commander who oversaw devastation in Syria, is likely to have ordered yesterday’s fatal air strike on the station in Kramatorsk. Graphic images on Friday from the eastern Ukrainian city showed bodies strewn across the floor, lying amongst luggage and children's prams outside the city's busy station. Some had already been put into green body bags, while other photos showed smoke rising...

Orsted report Wednesday that a rotor and three blades separated from the nacelle of one of the offshore wind turbines at its 400 megawatt (MW) Anholt Offshore Wind Farm and fell into the sea. No injuries were reported from the accident. But as a precautionary measure, Orsted is requesting authories establish temporary ‘no-sail zones’ at other wind farms using the same turbines as the one that failed. The Anholt Offshore Wind Farm was commissioned in 2013 and consists of 111 Siemens-Gamesa 3.6 MW wind turbines. Other farms using the turbines include West of Duddon Sands, Lincs, Gunfleet Sands, Burbo Bank...

There's never really any true way to know whether a Saturday Night Live sketch will become an instant classic or quickly fade from memory. But as Will Ferrell taught audiences on April 8, 2000, you can tilt the odds pretty drastically in your favor if you fall back on a Blue Öyster Cult hit, some banging cowbell and a fittingly bizarre Christopher Walken performance. We're talking, of course, about the "More Cowbell" sketch, which imagines the recording session that produced the Blue Öyster Cult classic "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" — specifically the contributions made by cowbell player Gene Frenkle (Ferrell),...