Free Republic

A female Secretary of State in the Vatican: 'It would be time'. These are the words of Cardinal Gerhard Müller, former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under Benedict XVI, and a leading exponent of the most orthodox wing of the Church, in a long uncensored interview with Vaticanist Franca Giansoldati, from which the book 'In buona fedè (published by Solferino) was born, due out on 27 January.

In just ten minutes, an ant could learn to identify urine from mice with cancerous tumors, a new study findsScientists want to train insects to test humans for cancer. In a new study, published Wednesday in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, ants could differentiate between the smell of urine from healthy mice and from mice with cancerous tumors. The research serves as a proof of concept demonstrating that ants could someday be used as a fast, inexpensive and noninvasive tool for detecting cancer, the authors write. “This is an exciting direction,” Debajit Saha, a biomedical engineer at Michigan State...

Berges described Hunter, a 52-year-old recovering crack addict who earned millions in overseas business ventures that often involved his father, as a genius destined to become “one of the most consequential artists in this century.” “I represent Hunter Biden because I feel that not only his art merits my representation, but because his personal narrative, which gives birth to his art, is very much needed in the world,” Berges said. “Hunter Biden will become one of the most consequential artists in this century because the world needs his art now more than ever. In a world that beats us down,...

Explanation: Active galaxy NGC 1275 is the central, dominant member of the large and relatively nearby Perseus Cluster of Galaxies. Wild-looking at visible wavelengths, the active galaxy is also a prodigious source of x-rays and radio emission. NGC 1275 accretes matter as entire galaxies fall into it, ultimately feeding a supermassive black hole at the galaxy's core. This color composite image made from Hubble Space Telescope data recorded during 2006. It highlights the resulting galactic debris and filaments of glowing gas, some up to 20,000 light-years long. The filaments persist in NGC 1275, even though the turmoil of galactic collisions...

The letter of 21st December 2022, addressed by His Eminence the Archbishop of Cologne and the Most Reverend Bishops of Eichstätt, Augsburg, Passau and Regensburg to the signatories below, the Cardinal Secretary of State and the Prefects of the Dicasteries for the Doctrine of the Faith and for Bishops (copy), requires that the theme of the Synodal Path of the Church in Germany, which was already the subject of the inter-dicasterial meeting during the Ad-Limina visit of the German episcopate on 18 November, be taken up again. With regard to this meeting, we would like to begin by thanking the...

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) joined TikTok on Wednesday to complain about being kicked off the House Intelligence Committee — though TikTok is a Chinese-owned app increasingly seen as a national security threat. In the video, Schiff asks for money from supporters, claiming that Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) banned him from the committee “all for doing my job, for holding Trump accountable, and standing up to extreme MAGA Republicans.” [snip] It is not clear what device Schiff used to create and post his video. As of Thursday morning, it is the only video on Schiff’s TikTok page, where...

[Devotional/ Catholic] St. Polycarp, Bishop, Martyr–R (III) January 26 St. Polycarp, a disciple of St. John the Apostle, was Bishop of Smyrna for seventy years and was martyred under Marcus Aurelius in 169. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* ST. POLYCARP, Bishop of Smyrna, was a disciple of St. John. He wrote to the Philippians, exhorting them to mutual love and to hatred of heresy. When the apostate Marcion met St. Polycarp at Rome, he asked the aged saint if he knew him. “Yes,” St. Polycarp answered, “I know you for the first-born of Satan.” These were the words of a saint most loving and...

KANAWHA COUNTY, WV (WOWK)– The Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office is seeking the public’s help locating stolen property and identifying two suspects from an alleged robbery of an Elkview church on Tuesday. Deputies say a call came in from Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, on Mount Pleasant Drive in Elkview, West Virginia, after church officials discovered that two people broke into their garage. According to KCSO, video surveillance shows that, between Monday at around 11 p.m., and Tuesday at around 1 a.m., two people left the church’s garage pushing an ATV. According to the press release, the ATV is described as a...

Rishi Sunak, the United Kingdom’s new prime minister, refuses to answer a simple question. He was asked three times whether he received private medical care or relied upon the National Health Service, the British version of “single-payer” government-run national health insurance.Sunak dismissed the question as “not really relevant.” But it is.The prime minister is the head of the British government and is ultimately responsible for the National Health Service, the government agency that’s supposed to provide “free” universal coverage and care for all of Britain’s citizens.It does no such thing.According to the BBC, there are 7.2 million British citizens awaiting...

[Catholic Caucus] Paul VI: Refounder of CatholicismReligion Department Academics of a certain sort love to scandalize undergraduates by telling them that Jesus is a marginal figure in Church history; the real founder of the religion, they whisper, was Paul. In fact, they persist, the religion should really be called Paulianity.From the standpoint of Roman Catholicism, there is some truth to the claim.The Mass as Roman Catholics celebrate it today received its form under Paul. Paul changed the formula of consecration during the Mass, as well as the rites of baptism, marriage, confession, extreme unction (anointing of the sick), and burial....

San Jose, Calif. has the highest ratio of unhoused young adults in the nation, according to a new study. The nonprofit United Way of the National Capital Area analyzed data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development on the number of people experiencing homeless and vacant housing units in 100 major cities. The results of the analysis were broken down in a recently released report. There were 582,462 people experiencing homelessness in January of last year marking a .3 percent increase since 2020, according to HUD data. But while anyone can experience homelessness, there...

Steve Bannon told his War Room audience that US Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is working on being named the running mate- as Vice President- on a Presidential ticket with Donald J. Trump in his 2024 bid to retake the Oval Office. “This is no shrinking violet, she’s ambitious — she’s not shy about that, nor should she be. … She sees herself on the short list for Trump’s VP,” Bannon told NBC News. .....

Mug shots, from top left, of Desmond Mills Jr., Demetrius Haley, Tadarrius Bean, Emmitt Martin III and Justin Smith, the Memphis police officers who are accused in the death of Tyre Nichols. A portrait of Tyre Nichols is displayed at a memorial service for him on Jan. 17. The five Memphis Police officers fired in the death of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man who died three days after a traffic stop earlier this month, were behind bars on Thursday. Last week, the five officers — Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith —...

Former Detroit Lions linebacker Jessie Lemonier died suddenly on Thursday, the team confirmed. He was 25. “We are shocked and saddened to learn of the passing of former Detroit Lion Jessie Lemonier,” the Lions said in a statement. “Jessie was a model teammate and wonderful young man who is gone far too soon. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends during this difficult time.”

The Treasury Department has denied a House Republican request for information on Biden family suspicious financial transactions.Earlier this month Representative James Comer (R-Ky.), the chair of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, had requested reports on activity by the Biden family that was deemed as suspicious. The letter, which was sent to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on January 11th, was rebuked on Wednesday. The Treasury Department’s reasoning was that it needed more information from the committee and the reason behind its request, and what it plans to do with the information...

The five Memphis police officers fired after the fatal beating of motorist Tyre Nichols have each been charged with murder, according to local reports. The officers surrendered and were being held at the Shelby County jail, Tennessee’s Action News 5 reported Thursday. All five will face charges of aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct, and official oppression in addition to second-degree murder.

WASHINGTON — Dozens of House and Senate Democrats tore into President Biden Thursday for keeping in place a Trump-era immigration policy that allows the government to turn away asylum-seekers without first hearing their cases. Title 42, first implemented in March 2020 at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, allows border agents to kick migrants back across the US-Mexico frontier for public health reasons. The Biden administration has repeatedly tried to end the policy, but later backtracked as the migration crisis at the southern border exploded. “Anyone who tells you that the only way to secure our border is to punish...

TRIBUTES have poured in from across Spanish football following the tragic death of under-15s star Estrella Martin.Sporting Club de Huelva, from Andalusia, announced the death of the academy youngster. A club statement said Martin had passed away in her home town of Ayamonte, in southern Spain, on Wednesday. Martin played for the club's academy, as well as the Andalusia regional under-15s team. Sporting Huelva's La Liga F game against Sevilla, scheduled for today, has been postponed. The club have also suspended academy training this week. Club president Manuela Huelva paid tribute to Martin on Twitter, writing: "There are no words...

The direct payments have been sent out automatically based on Californians’ 2020 tax information. Now, as they prepare to file their 2022 taxes, some inflation relief recipients will need to report the payments as income, according to the the Franchise Tax Board (FTB). The first important thing to note, the FTB says, is that there’s a difference here between state taxes and federal taxes. As far as California state taxes are concerned, the Middle Class Tax Refund (MCTR) is not taxable income, a FTB spokesperson told Nexstar. That means you don’t need to claim your inflation relief payment — no...

Southwest Airlines (LUV) reported a loss for the fourth quarter, as the company took an $800 million pretax hit to earnings due to the computer system failure that led to the airline’s holiday travel meltdown. "Due to the operational disruptions in late December, which resulted in more than 16,700 flight cancellations, we incurred a fourth quarter pre-tax negative impact of approximately $800 million (or approximately $620 million on an after-tax basis), which resulted in a fourth quarter 2022 net loss,” Southwest CEO Bob Jordan said in a statement. Overall for the quarter, Southwest lost $220 million resulting in an adjusted...