Free Republic

VATICAN CITY — Two-and-a-half years ago, Pope Francis was trying to fill a big job. For decades, that position — heading the powerful office that helps vet and select bishops — had gone to consummate Vatican insiders. But Francis had staked his papacy on expanding the boundaries of the Catholic Church. And he had his eye on a surprise contender: an American-born missionary operating in the coastal plains of Peru, some 6,000 miles from Rome.“You know that I am very happy in Peru,” the missionary, then-Bishop Robert Prevost, recalled telling Francis. “But if you ask me to take on a...

[Catholic Caucus] Pope Francis tells Communists: ‘Don’t back down, don’t give up’‘Imagine he had said that [don't give up] to the Traditional Catholics,’ said John-Henry Westen.Pope Francis meeting with the Marxist group, January 10, 2024Hosting a Marxist-Christian dialogue group at the Vatican on Wednesday, Pope Francis urged them to “be open, in dialogue, to new ways,” while avoiding reiterating the Church’s consistent condemnation of Marxism. Shortly before his weekly general audience on January 10, Pope Francis received a small delegation from the DIALOP group. DIALOP, according to its own description, is a “project of dialogue between Socialists/Marxists and Christians, involving...

Leftist theologian attacks late pontiffMUNICH (ChurchMilitant.com) - A Marxist philosopher and dissident ex-priest is denigrating the theological legacy of Pope Benedict XVI. On Tuesday, the German magazine Publik-Forum published an article by Brazilian Liberation Theology proponent Leonardo Boff, who shared his Marxist perception of the late Pontiff. Boff declared that Benedict "proved to be the enemy of the friends of the poor." He berated the pope emeritus for focusing too heavily on traditional theology and not enthusiastically embracing Marxist theory. The laicized Brazilian has a long history of conflicts with Pope Benedict XVI, going back decades to when Benedict was...

Peruvian President Dina Boluarte announced on Sunday that she would soon present two proposals: to hold presidential elections this year, rather than in 2026 as planned, and “total” constitutional reform. Boluarte vowed to make the changes if the nation’s Congress failed to pass the measures. The latter, a core demand of far-left rioters whose violence has resulted in 58 deaths and counting, would essentially result in a complete overhaul of Peru’s constitution. Leftists have been rioting in the country for nearly two months, erecting roadblocks to cut food supplies and burning down historic buildings, following the impeachment and arrest of...

Russian officials offered support for Lula, who now presides over the country that like Russia is a member of the club of BRICS emerging economies: — Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the upper-house Federation Council’s Foreign Affairs Committee: “I was in Brazil when Lula was inaugurated and saw everything with my own eyes: there were no signs of disturbances at all. What happened now is difficult to explain and, from my point of view, non-systemic.”

The US has begun deporting Brazilian opposition leaders to the Gulags as evidence mounts the Jan. 8 riots were staged. US journalist Glenn Greenwald complained about the Communist takeover he helped enable: Chief Justice Alexandre de Moraes is “making himself chief censor of the world,” Greenwald said. Speaking to Steve Bannon, Brazil obesrver Matt Tyrmand said: “They are going full Gulag. This is the worst Communist takeover ever.”

Venezuelan electoral authorities on Sunday claimed that 95 percent of voters in a nonbinding referendum approved of the nation's territorial claim on a huge chunk of neighboring oil-rich Guyana.

Two men working on behalf of the Chinese government’s Ministry of Public Security attempted to bribe an IRS agent in a scheme intended to further Beijing’s harassment of Falun Gong believers, the Justice Department revealed in a criminal complaint unveiled today. The defendants were arrested today in California on charges including acting as unregistered foreign agents, money laundering, and bribery. “The Chinese government has yet again attempted, and failed, to target critics of the PRC here in the United States,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement this afternoon. “The Justice Department will continue to investigate, disrupt, and prosecute...

Huh. This sure reeks of election desperation, doesn't it? After welcoming Venezuelan immigrants -- including violent gang members and other criminals -- into the U.S., the Biden administration is not extending their legal status. NEWS — The Biden administration will not be extending the legal status of tens of thousands of Venezuelan migrants who were allowed to fly to the U.S. under a sponsorship program, according to officials and internal documents.https://t.co/KCL5242Ncn — Camilo Montoya-Galvez (@camiloreports) October 3, 2024 CBS News Reports: The Biden administration will not be extending the legal status of tens of thousands of Venezuelan migrants who were...

There is a proliferation of U.S.-funded, supposedly free journalism organizations and training courses linked to various left-wing opposition newspapers in Hungary, according to the Hungarian civil rights group, Tűzfalcsoprt (Firewall Group). (snip) While the web of supporting organizations has not yet been fully untangled, Hungarian domestic intelligence agencies have already determined that NGOs funded by billionaire oligarch George Soros along with U.S. state and state-linked organizations were involved in funding the opposition’s election campaign. This information was included in the report of the Hungarian domestic intelligence agency, the National Information Center, which was submitted to Hungary’s parliament on Jan. 20,...

A Los Angeles County teenager was sentenced to four years in prison Tuesday after admitting to making more than 375 "swatting calls" in which he made false reports of bomb and mass shooting threats at locations around the U.S. Alan W. Filion, an 18-year-old Lancaster resident, admitted in a plea agreement to carrying out calls targeting places such as high schools, colleges and universities, religious institutions and people such as government officials, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Federal prosecutors said he intended for the calls to result in major emergency responses by law enforcement. This led to some...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – Albuquerque Police says a former New Mexico House candidate who lost his election in November is now accused of conspiring to shoot at the homes of four Albuquerque lawmakers in December and January. The department made the announcement late Monday afternoon, saying Solomon Peña is accused of shooting at the homes of two Democratic Bernalillo County commissioners and two Democratic state lawmakers. A 39-year-old Republican, Peña ran and lost the race for House District 14 in the November 2022 election. APD arrested Peña during a SWAT situation Monday afternoon near downtown Albuquerque. Albuquerque Police Chief Harold...

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in a major reversal has decided to support restoring a rule that allows a motion from the floor of the House of Representatives to “vacate the chair” and force a vote on a new Speaker of the House. McCarthy’s change of position comes as the first vote of the newly convening 118th Congress is expected to begin in less than 48 hours on Jan. 3 at noon. McCarthy is the clear choice to succeed the outgoing Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) of a majority of 222 Republicans who will hold the majority in the...

Charles McGonigal, a former FBI agent who helped lead the investigation into Trump-Russia connections, is expected to plead guilty to charges of unlawfully working for a Russian oligarch.In an ironic turn of events, one of the individuals who worked tirelessly to take down former President Donald Trump by falsely accusing him of secretly collaborating with Russian officials and hackers was, in fact, the one engaging with influential Russians at the time.McGonigal, 54, a former top FBI counterintelligence agent based in New York, was charged in January with money laundering and violating United States sanctions by working for a Russian oligarch...

Two bombs exploded in the middle of a procession at an Iranian cemetery that commemorated the death of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a drone attack ordered by Donald Trump on Jan. 3, 2020. At least 103 people were killed and 171 injured. Dozens more are in critical condition, and the death toll is expected to rise. Soleimani, one of the top Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commanders, was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American service people in Iraq and the Middle East. It's unknown if an explosion in the suburbs of Beirut on Tuesday...

In December 2023, for 17 continuous days, a fleet of drones appeared at night over Langley Air Force Base (AFB), Virginia and other facilities in the greater Virginia Beach area. This was reported at the time, but the story was fleeting. Two other events occurred in the area that are relevant to the story. In February 2023, a pair of F-22s from Langley shot down the Chinese spy balloon as it exited the United States over South Carolina into the Atlantic Ocean. In January 2024, a Chinese graduate student at the University of Minnesota, was arrested for flying a drone...

Many of you may remember my reporting around "Operation Choke Point 2.0" from the spring of 2023; TLDR, Biden's financial regulators, namely the Fed, FDIC, and OCC, launched a crackdown on banks covering the crypto space. The first casualty was Silvergate Bank, which voluntarily liquidated. The standard reporting around Silvergate was that the bank lent to crypto depositors and those depositors were flighty; when rates rose, Silvergate suffered M2M losses on bond portfolios and ended up insolvent. Except that's not true. Silvergate weathered the storm, even though short sellers and members of Congress like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) encouraged a...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, America First Legal (AFL) uncovered records showing Rashad Robinson, the President of the George Soros-funded, far-left organization Color of Change, visited the Biden-Harris White House a whopping sixteen times and had four meetings with President Biden and four meetings with Vice President Harris, according to official White House visitor log records:

[Catholic Caucus] Unhinged Miscreants Desecrated the Body of Cardinal PellIt was appalling to learn that a person or persons unknown desecrated the body of Cardinal George Pell before it was returned to Australia. We are told that this happened after the autopsy, that his body was inadequately embalmed, that he was left undressed and that his nose had been broken. This indicates a level of vindictiveness that is hard to fathom, and shows how little regard the perpetrators had for Pell’s family: the ones most affected by this sad event. One can only wonder at the motive: a true Christian...

Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 @julie_kelly2 Newly unredacted FBI interview btw FBI and unidentified Mar-a-Lago employee from Jan 2023 shows agents trying to get information about the personal life of Walt Nauta, Trump's close personal aide DOJ wanted to flip.