Free Republic

The Vatican accused Beijing of breaching its agreement by ordaining a bishop for a Chinese diocese not approved by the Vatican. Beijing’s action surprised few because many people, including the Catholics in China and Hong Kong, had warned Pope Francis not to forge this ill-advised agreement with Beijing in the first place. Yet Francis refused to listen. Will he now have the grace to apologize to Catholics in China?The Chinese Communist Party severed China’s diplomatic relations with the Vatican in 1949, and Catholics in China, like all other religious believers, suffered more than three decades of persecution. The CCP shut...

At 14, Yulia Hicks has already had more than her share of bad luck. Brought from Ukraine to the United States in December 2018, she was given up by her first two adoptive families before Chrissy and Lee Hicks adopted her in 2021. She suffers from Senior Loken Syndrome, a genetic condition that is destroying her kidneys and eyes and will soon force her to have a kidney transplant. Now Yulia is facing another crisis, this one seemingly caused by her own physicians. Doctors at Duke University, where Yulia has been awaiting a kidney transplant, have told her parents they...

Harmeet Dhillon announces run for RNC chair. Video of announcement on Tucker Carlson in link.

The Fed has signaled the terminal rate will likely be around 5% — we think an upper bound of 5% — reached in early 2023. To get there, the central bank will likely raise rates by 50 basis points at its December 2022 meeting, followed by two more 25-bp hikes in 2023. We then see it holding at 5% throughout the year. Markets have priced in a similar amount of tightening. Controlling inflation comes at a cost to growth. Yield curves have inverted. A Bloomberg Economics model shows a 100% probability of recession starting by August 2023. Take that —...

A recent alleged death threat against pro-life activists indicates that Jane’s Revenge — the group that has claimed responsibility for several violent attacks against pregnancy centers and pro-life organizations throughout the nation — doesn’t just support the killing of unborn children but is willing to “shoot up” those working against their evil and dystopian dream.On Saturday, Students for Life Action (SFLAction) members and other Nebraskan pro-life activists reported finding a death threat attributed to Jane’s Revenge posted to the door of the St. John Paul II Newman Center near the University of Nebraska-Omaha’s Scott Campus. The pro-lifers were gathering at...

The Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms is reportedly planning to destroy a number of firearms from Operation Fast and Furious ten years after the scandal took place. In a letter to ATF Director Steven Dettelbach, incoming House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan is asking that the firearms be preserved. "Yesterday, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) notified us that it intends to destroy the firearms associated with the botched Operation Fast and Furious. I strongly urge you to reconsider this decision and request that you preserve this evidence," Jordan wrote. "Although the ATF apparently intends to...

To commemorate the 81st anniversary, here’s a look back at a collection of Associated Press photos of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Warning: Some photos contain graphic content.

The the far-left University of Virginia, as it's been known to do, refused to release the race of the attacker, to avoid busting up their left-wing narrative. Authorities at the far-left University of Virginia have finally admitted that a black woman attacked the school’s black affairs office, after spending months covering up the race of their suspect. UVA has become notorious for refusing to list racial descriptions of minority suspects, even leading police on a chase for a white man after a black mass shooter killed three on school grounds. The rock-throwing incident at UVA’s Office of African American Affairs...

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon admitted that theft has become a major issue for the chain.. he said that woke district attorneys' policies need to be 'corrected' or the company will be forced to raise prices or shut stores.. McMillon did not specify which locations have experienced the record-high level of shoplifting, but stores in LA have had to lock up most of their inventory.. Robberies there are up over 10%; critics blame DA George Gascon's policies.. ... Target, also revealed that shoplifting at its stores had jumped more than 50 percent year on year, leading to more than $400 million...

Last fall I taught my last class, ending a teaching career that began in the fall of 1977. During that time I watched as higher education deteriorated under the pressures of leftist ideology, rank careerism, bureaucratic inertia, and philistine utilitarianism. The humanities––English, foreign languages, philosophy, history, the arts––have been particularly corrupted.Worse, liberal education, the passing on of the traditions, foundational ideas, and collective wisdom of the West, has been virtually banished from most of our schools and colleges. Universities, with a few exceptions, no longer ground students in liberal education, and teach them “to know the best that has been...

Moscow’s full-scale war did not come as a surprise to us, but we didn’t believe it would so closely replay those old atrocities. Whenever I receive guests in Tallinn ..I show them a room where portraits line the wallse depicting Estonian heads of government before WWII. I ask my guests to look at the dates of their deaths; all lost their lives at the hands of Soviet occupants in the 1940s or died in Soviet captivity. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine did not come as a surprise to Estonia, but we did not believe it would so closely replay those old...

The computer developer who created Gmail is predicting Google may have only a year or two left before ‘total disruption’ of its search engine occurs after the release of a sophisticated chatbot that uses artificial intelligence (AI). Last week ChatGPT was released by OpenAI, a company co-founded by Elon Musk in 2015. It responds to text prompts from users and can be asked to write essays, lyrics for songs, stories, marketing pitches, scripts, complaint letters and even poetry. Its ability to answer complex questions has led some to wonder if it could challenge Google’s search engine monopoly. Critics feel Google’s...

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. has not encouraged or enabled Ukrainian forces to conduct missile strikes inside Russia as Moscow’s war against neighboring Ukraine extends into its 10th month. During a news conference on Tuesday, Blinken said the U.S. was informed of reports about drone strikes on Russian military sites but stressed that it had not helped Ukraine carry out the reported attacks. Several Russian military sites were the target of drone strikes in the last two days, with one such attack causing a fire at an air base in Russia’s Kursk region on Tuesday and separate...

The recent release of the 2021 UK Census data has brought a bombshell finding to Christian observers everywhere. In England and Wales, which covers the vast majority of the population of Great Britain, the percentage of those who identify as Christian fell 13 points over a decade, from 59% of the population to a mere 46%. That comes on the heels of the previous decade, which saw the numbers fall from 72% Christian in 2001 to 59% in 2011.Unfortunately, this poll may not give the full extent of the decline, partly due to the questioning in the poll. In 2020,...

New Zealand has long been in the running for the most draconian COVID-19 lockdown policy under WEF minion Jacinda Ardern, edged out perhaps in its brutality only by Canada, likewise led by WEF errand boy Justin Trudeau.The Kiwi nation recently threatened to remove a child from his parents’ custody on the grounds that they don’t want him infused with mRNA blood.Via the Guardian:New Zealand’s health service has made a court application over the guardianship of a four-month-old baby whose parents are refusing to allow his life-saving heart surgery to go ahead unless non-vaccinated blood is used…Te Whatu Ora filed papers...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) changed his plan for a windfall tax on oil company profits to describe the tax as a “penalty” to avoid a requirement that new taxes be passed by a two-thirds vote in the state legislature.

[Catholic Caucus] Satan’s Vile Attacks on Traditional Catholicism Spotlight What He Hates Most“Thou art Peter: and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18)Jesus’s words console us that the Church will never be defeated, but they also warn us that the gates of hell will attempt to overcome the Church, and may at times even appear to be close to succeeding. Cornelius a Lapide expanded upon Our Lord’s words in his commentary on the Gospel of St. Matthew:“Therefore, by His word Christ first encourages His Church that she...

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) has announced he will run against current minority leader Kevin McCarthy for the position of House Speaker. “It is time for new leadership of the U.S. House of Representatives,” Biggs wrote in an op-ed in the Daily Caller announcing his candidacy. “People are thrilled that Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s reign of Leftist extremism is ending. The question is whether we will be treated to the status quo that will move us along the same path, though perhaps more slowly.” In the aftermath of the disappointing midterm elections, Biggs has called for a complete overhaul of the GOP’s...

Lima (AFP) – Peru's opposition-dominated Congress will on Wednesday debate whether to impeach President Pedro Castillo in the third attempt to unseat him since his election a year and a half ago. Castillo, a former school teacher who unexpectedly took power from Peru's traditional political elite, has faced non-stop crises since coming to office, with repeated cabinet reshuffles, multiple corruption investigations and protests against his leadership. The opposition seeks to impeach him for moral incapacity, a constitutional provision that has seen two presidents sacked since 2018.

(Daily readings from the USCCB)“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28One of the most delightful and healthy activities in life is sleep. This is especially the case when one is able to enter into a deep and refreshing sleep. Upon awakening, the person who has slept deeply feels refreshed and ready for a new day. Of course, the opposite is also true. When sleep is difficult and restless, the person can suffer numerous ill effects, especially when a lack of healthy sleep becomes the norm.The same is true in...