Free Republic

[Catholic Caucus] Jesuit Expert in the Fight Against Abuse: Vatican Dicastery Must Respond Regarding Father RupnikFather Hans Zollner, a Jesuit priest and an expert in the fight against abuse, said the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith “must respond” to questions surrounding the case of Father Marko Rupnik, a member of the Society of Jesus accused of abuse.Father Zollner is one of the leading experts in the field of safeguarding from sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. He is a member of the Vatican’s Commission for the Protection of Minors since its creation in 2014 and is the...

A Canadian pensioner seeking euthanasia because he fears homelessness has received approval from a doctor despite admitting poverty is a major factor in the decision to end his own life. Les Landry, 65, told assessors for the procedure he 'doesn't want to die' but has applied for medical assistance in dying (MAID) because he can't afford to live comfortably. Astonishingly, a doctor has given one of the two signatures required for Landry to end his own life, despite knowing that financial hardship - not illness - is a leading reason for the profound decision. Landry is now awaiting the decision...

HARLINGEN, Texas (ValleyCentral) — Three people were arrested after a vehicle registered to the Starr County District Attorney’s Office was used in a human smuggling attempt Wednesday in Victoria County, officials said. At 12:20 p.m. Wednesday, the Victoria County Sheriff’s Office stopped a 2015 Chevrolet Traverse for an alleged traffic violation, and the vehicle displayed the emblem of the Starr County District Attorney’s Office, according to the Victoria County Sheriff’s Office. Magali Rosa, the driver of the vehicle, identified herself to authorities as an employee of the Starr County District Attorney’s office, authorities said. The vehicle was occupied by the...

President Joe Biden’s approval rating from small business owners increased for the first time during his presidency, according to the CNBC|SurveyMonkey Small Business Survey for Q4 2022.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) permitted Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) to keep her congressional committee assignments after she announced Friday she will leave the Democrat party and become an independent. “Senator Sinema informed me of her decision to change her affiliation to Independent,” Schumer stated in a press release. “She asked me to keep her committee assignments and I agreed. Kyrsten is independent; that’s how she’s always been.” Sinema sits on four Senate committees: Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs; Commerce, Science, and Transportation; Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs; and Veterans Affairs.

VENTURA COUNTY, Calif. (KTLA) — Six people are in custody and a seventh is being sought by authorities after California Fish and Wildlife game wardens busted an alleged poaching ring that spanned several years and involved the cooperation of a local grocery market. They’re called the E-Bike Crew, a group of six men who are believed responsible for dozens of illegal kills of local wildlife. On Monday, Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko announced that 21 charges have been filed against the men, including allegations of forgery, conspiracy, receiving of stolen property, animal cruelty and possession of an untagged bear....

Twitter owner Elon Musk dropped another batch of files exposing his predecessors for lying about the existence of the platform’s elusive shadowbanning operation. Former New York Times editor Bari Weiss, who first reported on the second batch of Twitter files Dec. 8, noted that they show how Twitter employees “build blacklists, prevent disfavored tweets from trending, and actively limit the visibility of entire accounts or even trending topics—all in secret, without informing users.” “Twitter executives have been lying to Congress and to the American public,” MRC Free Speech America Vice President Dan Schneider said. “This is an illegal fraud on...

Florida Rep. Brian Mast slammed a left-wing Democratic counterpart for allegedly dumping the American flag in the trash. In a video posted to Twitter on Thursday, the Palm City Republican said “today’s rescue mission” was to save the U.S. flag from the garbage outside the office of Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Texan and one of the most liberal members of Congress.

Jessica Tarlov, the token leftist on “The Five,” spewed Democratic talking points on Monday, asserting that Illegitimate President Biden didn’t squelch free speech or censor the Crackhead Hunter Biden laptop from hell story because he was not in office yet, conveniently negating censorship by Big Tech and his ties to it. She attempted to flip the narrative upside down, ridiculously intimating that former President Trump was guilty of censoring on Twitter, deflecting from the leftist social media platform’s silencing anyone and everyone who said anything negative about Biden at the time. The twisting of historical facts by the left comes...

This is what eight years of Obama and two years of Biden have done to the American military—it’s ready to fight American moms. The moment he entered office, Obama started reshaping the military in his woke image, everything from welcoming the LGBTQ+ crowd to firing old line officers who were insufficiently woke. Trump’s efforts to reverse this trend were unavailing, which is unsurprising given that the woke Pentagon hierarchy opposed him. Two years of Biden’s redoubling Obama’s efforts have left us at this moment: A Marine Corps lieutenant colonel called the cops on a mother who put up a Facebook...

Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the incoming chairman of the House Oversight Committee, says that the Biden administration may have engaged in a quid pro quo with Saudi Arabia, and he appeared to suggest that this was an impeachable offense per the Democrats’ own standards. Back in October, Saudi Arabia said that Joe Biden tried to get OPEC+ to delay a cut in oil production until after the midterm elections were over. “It appears that Joe Biden went on his hands and knees to Saudi Arabia and begged them to increase oil production before the election — which of course would...

The midterm elections have elucidated much. One of the revelations is the real definition of one of the Democrats’ main campaign themes this election cycle; for example, voters must vote Democrat to “save our democracy.” What has been revealed is that the real intention was to save our kleptocracy and that the junior partners of the Uniparty—the GOP establishment—were complicit.Let us explore the premise.Past Wave ElectionsThe first midterm elections of Democrat presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama provide a benchmark for what should logically have transpired in 2022.In 1994, Republicans took control of the U.S. Congress for the first time...

On Friday morning, Americans woke up to the news that Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) has left the Democratic Party and is now a registered independent. This defection, revealed in an op-ed in the Arizona Republic, was probably the last thing anyone expected to hear, especially mere days after Democrats officially secured a true majority in the Senate. According to The Guardian, this “bombshell defection” will have “far-reaching consequences as Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer attempts to plot a course through the upcoming Congress.” Really? Will it? I can certainly understand why it might seem that way… at first… but upon...

Elon Musk confirmed early Friday morning that under previous leadership at Twitter, political candidates were blacklisted, prevented from having their content amplified on the platform. Twitter executives testified before Congress in 2018 and said unequivocally that they did not engage in this kind of suppression. This admission from Musk comes after Bari Weiss dropped the second batch of Twitter Files, which revealed that "teams of Twitter employees" did build blacklists, which they used to stifle those users whose content they did not want to see trending or amplified on Twitter. Weiss did not list political candidates among those who she...

A Biden administration Energy Department official who allegedly stole a woman’s suitcase from a Minneapolis airport in September has been accused of another luggage heist at a Las Vegas airport. A felony warrant on grand larceny charges was issued for Sam Brinton, the deputy assistant secretary for spent fuel and waste disposition at the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy, 8 News Now reported Thursday. Brinton, who made history as one of the federal government’s first gender-fluid officials, allegedly stole luggage from another traveler at Harry Reid International Airport in Vegas on an unknown date, according to the outlet....

The radical leftists running the Netherlands are about to create a far-reaching famine. A bureaucratic scheme to eliminate some 3,000 small farms in the Netherlands foreshadows increasing efforts by technocrats and global food interests to dominate food production at the expense of local culture, local economies, and family cows. In the name of “saving the planet,” such grand delusions will doubtless destroy it, and humans in the bargain. Perhaps that is the plan. If so, the Netherlands is the best place to start. The rationale is chiefly that the region is home to numerous fragile ecosystems that must be protected,...

Pence’s new book chronicles how Pence and other worked behind the scenes to thwart Trump during the pandemic. This clearly demonstrates that Pence is entrenched in the deep state. He advocated extending shutdowns beyond the initial lie of two weeks to flatten the curve, despite Trump’s resistance.

Ron DeSantis looks to be bought. It's sad. He had such great potential.Now he's just another swamp creature it seems.Behind DeSantis' probable presidential run are multiple left-wing billionaires, who are desperate to prevent a return of Donald Trump to power. DeSantis is their man. The Miami Independent has described how the DeSantis administration will do nothing about evidence of massive ballot harvesting in the state. Why is this? Are they keeping the election fraud powder dry to use against Trump in 2024?ERIC, the 'progressive' voter registration entity is still being used by the state of Florida, allowing the election fraud...

Are U.S. Bishops Complicit in the Trafficking and Exploitation of Migrant Children?The Catholic Church is one of the largest recipients of government grants and contracts for immigration-related activities in America. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), which lobbies the government for ever-expanding migrant programs, received over $67 million in migrant-related funding in 2021, it’s second largest source of revenue that year. Likewise, the USCCB spent $69 million to provide “migration refugee services,” a figure representing 40% of the organization’s operating expenditures. These facts beg the simple question:Is the USCCB is a religious organization whose mission is the salvation...

The world became a deadlier place for journalists in 2022, with 67 individuals killed while carrying out their work. That is up from 47 in 2021, according to a report published by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) on Friday. Ukraine became the most dangerous country thanks to the Russian invasion, accounting for 12 of the total number of killed journalists and media staff. The report also highlighted violence in Haiti and organized crime in Mexico, accounting for 6 and 11 deaths respectively. "The surge in the killings of journalists and other media workers is a grave cause of concern...