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ZENIT - The World Seen From Rome Code: ZE02070105Date: 2002-07-01Austrian Bishops Say "Ordination" of 7 Women a FarceDissident Goes Through the Motions on the DanubePASSAU, Germany, JULY 1, 2002 (Zenit.org).- A ceremony in which an excommunicated Argentine priest presumed to ordain seven women was denounced by the Austrian Catholic bishops' conference as a farce. Romulo Braschi, who was excommunicated in the 1960s, claimed he had the power to ordain the women because he himself had been ordained bishop by two other excommunicated clergymen. The women, of German, Austrian and U.S. nationality, went through the ceremony led by Braschi, founder...

Last week's Ninth Circuit Court decision regarding the unconstitutionality of the Pledge of Allegiance has drawn well-deserved fire from many quarters. It was also a chance for political demagogues from both sides of the aisle to jump on the red-white-and-blue bandwagon and show their electorate just what stars and stripes, Yankee-doodle-dandies represent them in Washington. The fact that this spontaneous "patriotic outburst" on the Capitol steps was performed by the same men who routinely oppress taxpayers and treat the office of public service as the American version of royal peerage is conveniently overlooked. On this day they were standing...

PASSAU, Germany, JULY 1, 2002 (Zenit.org).- A ceremony in which an excommunicated Argentine priest presumed to ordain seven women was denounced by the Austrian Catholic bishops' conference as a farce. Romulo Braschi, who was excommunicated in the 1960s, claimed he had the power to ordain the women because he himself had been ordained bishop by two other excommunicated clergymen. The women, of German, Austrian and U.S. nationality, went through the ceremony led by Braschi, founder of the so-called Charismatic Apostolic Catholic Church of Jesus King. The Austrian episcopal conference in a statement said that "a simulated ordination like this one...

Worried that your still-unsold screenplay might be a little too dumb for Hollywood? Still no buyers? More rewriting, back to the editor, change this, change that. Collecting dust when the only rewrites involve the introduction of novel diatribes and invective. Martin Sheen isn't the real president, but he is the Left's president, President Bartlett of "West Wing," out campaigning in the red pickup truck with former Clinton administration Attorney General Janet Reno. On the hustings, Democrat gubernatorial candidate Reno and Sheen engaged in a deliciously auto-erotic lip lock, part of the script. One take thank goodness. Not many people...

Dow 8,996.47 -113.32 (-1.24%) @ 12:04 EDT

Have you ever had so many mixed emotions you didn't know which one to feel? The frightening thing is that it's necessary to feel them all, or we will shut down and not allow ourselves to feel anything. Apathy will strip us of our very soul. I listened to a 15 year old girl tearfully tell how painful it was to hear the Pledge of Allegiance recited each day at school. She is an atheist and does not believe in G-d and to hear those words "under G-d" is very hurtful and makes her cry. So, it was a...

The political pundits have treated us, recently, to a debate over whether Richard Nixon was sleazier than Bill Clinton. Certainly, it is a competitive contest and it is understandable on the 30th anniversary of the Watergate break in. I believe strongly that personal integrity cannot be separated from private integrity and I would not minimize the appalling actions of these two Presidents. However, we have an even more serious problem with government. George Bush is, by all observable standards, an honest man. He would not be expected to discuss hush money payments to criminals, to take money from the...

<p>The law, as Dickens famously observed, "is a ass," and now the Europeans are insisting that everyone, including us, kiss it.</p> <p>The new International Criminal Court is the brainchild of the Utopians, some of whom may be bubbling over with good intentions, but a lot of whom are consumed with penal envy, and long to lock up all American miscreants. "All" includes all of us.</p>

Christianity Harmful to Animals, Says Animal Rights Godfather By Marc Morano CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer July 01, 2002 (CNSNews.com) - Princeton University Professor Peter Singer, dubbed the 'godfather' of animal rights, says Christianity is a "problem" for the animal rights movement. Singer, author of the book "Animal Liberation" and a professor of bioethics at Princeton University's Center for Human Values, criticized American Christianity for its fundamentalist strain that takes the Bible too "literally" and promotes "speciesism." He defined speciesism as the belief that being a member of a certain species "makes you superior to any other being that is not...

Any body with a gut feeling about the politics of Peru, and the liberal media in the US? I just fail to understand how Peru shows up on our radar as a worthy news? Even after their President, Alberto Fujimori left to live in Japan, the leftists are still after him. Today's NPR provides us with a long drawn out report on how Fujimory's security chief was convicted in taking a bribe! Give me a break, there are people in Washington that are taking bribes every single day, including our ex-President, so how do we waste ink on Peru --...

A couple of weeks ago we ran an item about a new book, Goodbye, Good Men, which focuses on the crisis in Catholic seminaries. Since we are in the midst of a scandal, most of what we reviewed had to do with liberalism and sexual immorality in the seminaries. But there is much more to it than that, and as this book makes clear, at a good number of seminaries there is outright and sometimes outspoken disobedience to the Vatican. In fact, according to some seminarians, loyalty to John Paul II has sometimes been seen as grounds to disqualify a...

<p>Rep. J.C. Watts Jr.'s announcement yesterday of his impending retirement touched off a race for his leadership post as chairman of the House Republican Conference and a debate on whether a woman should get the job.</p> <p>Within hours of Mr. Watts' announcement, Reps. Deborah Pryce of Ohio, J.D. Hayworth of Arizona and Jim Ryun of Kansas all said they will seek the job as the fourth-ranking Republican in the House.</p>

Health officials in Geneva have suppressed the publication of a politically sensitive analysis that confirms what ageing hippies have known for decades: cannabis is safer than alcohol or tobacco. According to a document leaked to New Scientist, the analysis concludes not only that the amount of dope smoked worldwide does less harm to public health than drink and cigarettes, but that the same is likely to hold true even if people consumed dope on the same scale as these legal substances. The comparison was due to appear in a report on the harmful effects of cannabis published last December by...

Congress Unloads WorldCom Donations Associated Press Last Updated: July 2, 2002 at 8:18:37 a.m. WASHINGTON - Several members of Congress and party strategists are refunding WorldCom Inc. campaign contributions or giving them to charity, moving to head off a potential issue in this fall's battle over congressional control.Rep. William Luther, a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, one of the panels investigating WorldCom, is donating at least $7,000 in WorldCom campaign money to a state displaced-worker fund.``My point is there needs to be a high standard here,'' said Luther, D-Minn. ``This is outrageous conduct. I wouldn't want my...

In the late eighteenth-century, the kingdom of France was overthrown. The new revolutionary government proclaimed that there was no God and declared France a nation of atheists. What came out of it all was the reign of terror where thousands were butchered. Finally Robespierre, speaking at the Convention, declared that belief in God was essential, and the national representatives voted that "the French people acknowledge the existence of a Supreme Being and the immortality of the soul."The revolutionaries learned the hard way what the Bible said from the beginning. Man cannot live without God, even believers. You can call yourself...

Ted Nugent is what is needed for our youth culture today. Screw the Osborne's with all of their anti-establishment crap.Ted is out there making a difference with the youth. Providing EDUCATION on firearms and hunting safety. He is involved with MADD, D.A.R.E and other such groups.He works with kids who are physically disabled so that they can shoot a gun or bow&arrow.PLUS he is pro-AMERICAN and isn't afraid to say so. It is soooooo refreshing to have someone like that speaking on national radio and going on rock&roll tours promoting the POSITIVE side to America.You may not like his music,...

Marketing overkill, IMO.

<p>Air Force jets scrambled twice over the weekend to intercept small airplanes making what turned out to be at least three harmless intrusions into the airspace over Camp David while President Bush was at the Maryland mountain retreat.</p> <p>In addition, the Secret Service said a light plane slipped slightly into the 30-mile-diameter restricted airspace over downtown Washington before correcting itself and continuing on a proper course. The intrusions occurred at a time of heightened national alert for potential terrorist attacks during the July Fourth holiday period.</p>

Is there a person hear at FR that could send e-mails to people, inviting them to come to FR and check it out? What we could do is ask FReepers to send this person the e-mail addresses of friends we know that we think would like Free Republic. I have three or four. They said they couldn't figure it out, they couldn't find their state site, blah blah blah, and didn't get what the big deal was. They are strong Conservitives that aren't "hooked" yet.I thought if someone would send a formal e-mail saying, "Your friend so and so thought...

<p>Rep. J.C. Watts Jr., Oklahoma Republican and the highest-ranking black member of Congress, announced yesterday he will end his brief but prominent tenure in Washington by retiring at the end of the year.</p> <p>"The work of America is never done, but I believe that my work in the House of Representatives at this time in my life is completed," Mr. Watts, 44, said at a news conference in his hometown of Norman, Okla. "It is time to return home, to go on with other things in my life, and assuming one of the most honored titles in all of America — citizen."</p>