Free Republic

What Is Truth? Bad philosophy and theology Bad philosophy leads to bad theology. We've been seeing the fruit of bad philosophy since the Protestant revolution, but even more in the last 50 to 60 years. Society has suffered due to the noticeable change in the Church's philosophy. Already, in the late 1950s and early 1960s many Catholic laity were clamoring for the Church to permit contraception in marriage. Many priests told them at the time, "Keep doing it, the Church will change its doctrine soon." Pope John XXIII commissioned the Pontifical Commission on Population, Family and Birth Rate to study the morality of...

Italy: Francis' “Our Father” Will Be Introduced The Francis Church in Italy will push its bogus version of the Our Father upon the Novus Ordo faithful beginning with the first Sunday of Advent 2020.It will exchange Christ's invocation "and lead us not into temptation" with the Francis statement "do not abandon us to temptation."Pro-homosex Chieti Archbishop Bruno Forte told AdnKronos.com (January 27) that the erroneous text is contained in a new edition of the Novus Ordo missal that will be published after Easter.The version is so bad that even the German bishops refused it. It will further separate the dwindling...

I explore 75, which outlines Muhammad's view of the Day of Judgment, and explain how it is diametrically opposed to scripture.

Antonio Socci: VP Pence Warns the Vatican About China Pro-China drift destabilizing the Church, Italy and the West China is (dangerously) close, not only because of the terrible coronavirus that is causing alarm throughout the world, but also because China represents a planetary threat from both the economic and political point of view. In fact, it was primarily the topic of China that brought American Vice President Mike Pence to Rome in the past few days to meet with Pope Bergoglio and also with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and Italian President Sergio Mattarella. PM Giuseppe Conte and VP Mike...

Cardinal Tells Catholics Who Protest Pope to Become Protestants Gualtiero Bassetti's outburst hints at Francis' concern with new Catholic media PERUGIA, Italy (ChurchMilitant.com) Italy's chief archbishop lashed out at critics of Pope Francis on the feast of Saint Francis de Sales, asking them to make "other choices" and become Protestants if they are unhappy with the policies of the present pontiff.  "Our Protestant brethren have neither the pope nor the bishop — everyone makes his own choices. I told someone they could make the choice of becoming Protestant if you don't like the Catholic Church, if this boat is too narrow," Cdl. Gualtiero Bassetti, president...

[Catholic Caucus] “La Verità” Newspaper interviews Professor Roberto de Mattei Last January 18, in Munich, Bavaria, a unique event took place: more than a hundred people lined-up in a square, where, for an hour, they remained standing,, reciting the Rosary in silence, in defense of orthodoxy in the Catholic Church. The promoters call it Acies ordinate. Among them was professor Roberto de Mattei, historian and President of the Fondazione Lepanto.  How did this Bavarian initiative come about?  It is the third Acies ordinata demonstration, the first outside Italy. The previous ones took place in Rome last year: on February 19th...

Vatican cardinal objects to ‘intercommunion’ argument that Protestant Last Supper is identical to Catholic Mass 'The thought of the Sacrifice does not even occur' in Protestant services, said Cardinal Kurt Koch January 27, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – Cardinal Kurt Koch, the President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, gave an interview to Vatican News in which he in part contradicts a German ecumenical document calling for intercommunion.  While also seeing the good parts of the German document, Koch says that the document is based on an “assumption” which he cannot share, “namely: that the Catholic Eucharistic celebration and...

Calvin’s Cathedral to Celebrate First Catholic Mass Since Reformation Protestants welcome to receive Holy Communion GENEVA (ChurchMilitant.com) - For the first time since the Protestant Reformation, Catholics will celebrate Holy Mass in the cathedral of one of its chief "reformers," John Calvin. Neither Catholics nor Protestants in Geneva opposed the historic proposal to hold the Eucharistic celebration at the Cathedral of Saint-Pierre (St. Peter), despite an unequivocal statement inviting Protestants to receive Holy Communion at the service.  The Feb. 29 Catholic liturgy is the first in almost 500 years following Calvinists' abolition of the Mass in August 1535, after iconoclasts devastated Saint-Pierre Cathedral by breaking statues and slashing...

I explore Surah 74 of the Quran, and explain how Muhammad's soteriology damns Muslims to Hell. I also compare the Biblical view of judgment with the Islamic view.

Posted on January 26, 2020 by Msgr. Charles Pope “Everyone Is Looking for You” – A Meditation on a Short Sentence from Scripture There is a brief line in the first chapter of Mark’s Gospel that simply and completely sums up what we all are doing, even if we’re not aware of it. The setting of the passage is the outskirts of Capernaum in the early morning.The prior day Jesus had healed a great many people at the house of Simon Peter. As the new day dawned there was already a multitude gathered in hopes of seeing this healer....

Trump and the Catholic Vote In 2016, Donald Trump, running alongside a Catholic turned Evangelical in Mike Pence, scooped up a majority of the Catholic vote. Hillary Clinton had added to her ticket nominally Catholic Tim Kaine, but that didn’t stop white Catholics from gravitating to Trump. Presumed opponent Joe Biden faces a similar problem. Trump remains popular with Mass-going white Catholics, who not only appreciate his strong stances in favor of religious freedom and a pro-life judiciary but also recognize that he has delivered to the country three-plus years of peace and prosperity.Biden, who has followed his party into...

Posted on January 25, 2020January 25, 2020 by Msgr. Charles Pope Come and Go With Me To My Father’s House – A Homily for the Third Sunday of the Year In these early weeks of “ordinary” time, we are being introduced to Jesus and the beginnings of His public ministry. Matthew’s Gospel today describes how Jesus began His public ministry in the wake of the arrest of John the Baptist. Matthew tells us four things about Jesus’ ministry: its context, its content, its call, and its comprehensiveness. Let’s look at each in turn. The CONTEXT – When Jesus heard...

Rumble in the Jungle I strongly reject the word 'synodal path'.I consider it to be label fraud.” - Bishop Konrad Zdarsa   Subversive synods of various shapes and hues are breaking out all over. Locally, on 3 February, Archbishop Malcolm McMahon of Liverpool issued his "Solemn Proclamation of Synod 2020." The Australian hierarchy has labelled their's "Plenary Council 2020." Hirelings everywhere are marching in lockstep along the papal "pathway" to Amazonia, where Bergoglianistas will provide the ancient pagan template for the revolutionary rumbling of our holy Faith — a makeover they boast will change the Church forever. Per usual, the...

Posted on January 24, 2020January 24, 2020 by Msgr. Charles Pope The Ministry of Angels As Seen in a Commercial Most of us struggle with the fact that God allows bad things to happen to us. Why does He not intervene more often to protect us from attacks of various kinds and from events that cause sadness, setbacks, or suffering?While mysterious, the clearest answer is that God allows suffering in order that some greater blessing may occur. To some degree I have found this to be so; some of my greatest blessings required that a door slam shut for...

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal Sarah Cancels Talk, Calls Present Situation "Abject" Because of the current saga surrounding the famous Ratzinger/Sarah book on celibacy, Cardinal Robert Sarah received “thousands of messages.”“They touch me,” Sarah confessed on Twitter (January 24). Nevertheless, he decided to cancel a talk to which Créteil Bishop Michel Santier, France, had invited him.Sarah's explanation, "The abject and deleterious situation of the last days invites to stay calm and silent."

Cardinal Burke at March for Life Mass: ‘Remain faithful soldiers of Christ,’ ‘never give way to discouragement’ WASHINGTON, D.C., January 24, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) ― Cardinal Raymond Burke told Catholics attending Mass before the March for Life never to give up the fight for life. Cardinal Burke made his remarks in a short but stirring homily during the Traditional Latin Mass he celebrated this morning at Holy Comforter-Saint Cyprian Roman Catholic Church.  “Sometimes we can grow weary in the battle for the restoration of respect for human life,” Burke observed.  “Sometimes we are tempted to say that our pro-life efforts...

Cdl. Burke Reiterates: No Communion for Pro-Abort Politicians Slams Joe Biden's 'consistent' pro-abortion record WASHINGTON (ChurchMilitant.com) - Cardinal Raymond Burke has again confirmed Catholic doctrine about publicly promoting abortion and reception of the Holy Eucharist on national television on the eve of the 47th annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. The cardinal said, "No devout Catholic, no practicing Catholic, can be in favor of abortion," after being asked by Fox News host Martha MacCallum on Thursday about Joe Biden's pro-abortion voting record and his being refused Holy Communion, adding that the former vice president "has a consistent record of being pro-abortion." No Catholic could "justify voting for...

Church Historian: Pope Francis is Skating on Thinnest Ice Ever Rarely has a pope been accused of heresy, warns Carlos Eire ROME (ChurchMilitant.com) - A distinguished Church historian who fled the tyranny of Fidel Castro is warning that Pope Francis is theologically "skating on the thinnest ice that anyone — not just living, but dead or watching — is." Ed Pentin "It is very rare" for a pope to be accused of unorthodoxy or perhaps even heresy, Carlos M. N. Eire, professor of History and Religious Studies at Yale University, asserts.   However, "things would get hairy" if a heretical pope invoked infallibility, Eire explains in an interview...

Another Explosive Socci Interview Antonio Socci has written a new book, Il Dio Mercato, La Chiesa, e L’Anticrsiso (The Market God, the Church and the Antichrist). As followers of his work – and I am one – have come to expect, Socci provides an acute and devastating commentary on the state of the Church and the world today, which his interviewer calls (translation mine) “a situation beyond all limits and unsustainable, given the Bergoglian line and the co-presence of two Popes who, beyond ceremonial courtesies, say opposite things.”In Socci’s view, expressed in the opening of his book (quoting a 1934...

Taiwanese president writes Pope Francis: ‘Dialogue’ with China ‘impossible’ The president of a vulnerable nation has reminded Pope Francis that it is difficult to 'dialogue' with a tyrant. TAIPEI, Taiwan, January 23, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) ― The president of a vulnerable nation has reminded Pope Francis that it is difficult to “dialogue” with a tyrant. Tsai Ing-wen, the recently re-elected president of the island nation of Taiwan, wrote an open letter to the pontiff on Tuesday in response to his 2020 World Day of Peace message. In his letter, Pope Francis declared, “We need to pursue a genuine fraternity based...