Free Republic

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinals, theologians gather to plan how US church can support Pope FrancisCardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago celebrates Mass March 25 in Chicago. Cupich was among about 70 cardinals, bishops and theologians gathered privately March 25-26 for conversations focused on how the U.S. church can better support Pope Francis. (NCR screengrab)Chicago — A group of about 70 cardinals, bishops and theologians gathered privately for two days here from March 25-26 for conversations focused on how the U.S. Catholic Church can better support the agenda of Pope Francis.Through a series of keynote presentations and panel discussions centered on tracing the...

A former Boston College student who prosecutors say drove her boyfriend to take his own life with thousands of text messages pleaded guilty Thursday to involuntary manslaughter. Inyoung You, 23, received a 2 1/2 year suspended jail sentence and 10 years of probation and was barred by a judge in Suffolk Superior Court from profiting from her case in any way. The sentence means You can avoid time behind bars if she adheres to all the terms of her probation. Prosecutors said You sent Alexander Urtula, of Cedar Grove, New Jersey, thousands of messages in the last two months of...

ROME – On Friday the U.S. State Department confirmed a European tour for United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken next week that will include stops in Italy and the Vatican, where he is expected to meet with top Holy See officials. According to the State Department’s June 18 communique, Blinken’s tour will last from June 22-29. He will first visit Berlin and Paris before coming to Italy, making stops in Rome, the Vatican, Bari, and Matera. While in Rome, he will co-chair a meeting of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS alongside Italian Foreign Minister Luigi De Maio, and...

Peter Kreeft, a philosophy prof at Boston College, has the charism of talking across normally impenetrable borders, so, he's a Christian who talks to Atheists, and respects them. He's criticizing George Lucas' 'Star Wars' philosophy. This is at a podcast at http://peterkreeft.com/audio/44_star-wars/peter-kreeft_star-wars.mp3 queued to about 23:05. He's talking about classifying magic, technology, religion and science, in terms of either a structuralist or a functionalist, a static or a dynamic perspective. The ordering of the list of 4 things above is an attempt to be agnostic about which of the 4 things are put into pairs.A standard, static-structuralist arrangement is for...

A former Boston College student has been charged with involuntary manslaughter for allegedly driving her boyfriend to jump to his death from a parking garage, 90 before before he was set to graduate. Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins held a press conference on Monday to announce the indictment of 21-year-old Inyoung You in connection to the death of Alexander Urtula, 22. Both were students at Boston College at the time Urtula's death on May 20. You later dropped out of the university. You is currently in her native South Korea. Rollins said she is cautiously optimistic that the woman would...

A federal jury ruled in favor of the Boston College alumnus who had sued the University for improper interference in violation of fair process in his 2012 disciplinary hearing on Monday. The jury awarded the alumnus—referred to by the pseudonym “John Doe”—$102,426.50 in damages: $24,819.50 for tuition and fees for the semester he was suspended and $77,607 for one year of lost income as a result of his delayed graduation from BC. Doe brought the lawsuit after an Administrative Hearing Board found him responsible for sexually assaulting a fellow student on the annual AHANA Leadership Council Boat Cruise. Throughout the...

Four Jewish high school students in Boston say they didn't see a man's swastika tattoo before they saved his life—but they would have rescued him anyway. The students at an Orthodox Yeshiva high school in the Brighton neighborhood spotted the man floating in the Chestnut Hill Reservoir during a late-night walk last week and rushed to flag down a police officer, MassLive reports. Boston College Police Officer Carl Mascioli says that after the students raced to alert him, he pulled the partially submerged, motionless man from the water and discovered he had the Nazi symbol tattooed on his hand. Mascioli...

A pro-choice student at Boston College is in the news this week for repeatedly claiming that a baby born after a failed abortion is “not a baby.”The student made the claim during an exchange with Kristan Hawkins, a pro-life advocate and president of Students for Life of America, during a sold-out stop on Hawkins’ “Lies Feminists Tell” university tour. Hawkins later wrote about the uncomfortable exchange on Twitter."There is an abortion crisis of one million killings a year, and it all starts with dehumanizing the unborn," Hawkins tweeted, referring to the heated encounter that occurred between her and the student...

Four American women traveling in southern France were attacked with acid Sunday at a train station in Marseilles, a police spokeswoman said. All four of the women were taken to a hospital for burn treatment, though two were mostly uninjured, according to the New York Times. One of the women had been hit in the eye with the substance and could not see well, TV station France 3 reported. All four of the Americans were university students in their early 20s studying abroad. A statement from Boston College identified them as Courtney Siverling, Charlotte Kaufman and Michelle Krug — students...

Tom Coughlin resigned as New York Giants head coach on Monday as one of 13 coaches in NFL history to win multiple Super Bowls. He is the seventh coach in NFL history with 100 wins and two Super Bowl victories for a single team, according to Elias Sports Bureau research. The others are Hall of Famers Don Shula, Tom Landry, Chuck Noll and Joe Gibbs, as well as Bill Belichick and Mike Shanahan.

Republican candidates for the presidential nomination claim that Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell them, insist the U.S. is at war with an "evil state of consciousness," compare Muslims to rabid dogs, and call for closing mosques and registering Muslims. These are not fringe candidates. They are the front-runners. American politics has descended from principle into tribalism. The descent began in 1968. That year's presidential election looked to be a principled fight, with Democrats Hubert Humphrey and Robert F. Kennedy articulating a vision of an inclusive America in which the government expanded efforts to guarantee equality. For...

Hopelessly confused about how the Catholic Church and leaders at Jesuit universities view birth control, and blissfully unaware that a 36-count pack of Trojan-enz lubricated, latex condoms can be purchased at Amazon.com for just $13.97, student activists at Fordham University are demanding that the school provide free condoms on campus.The activists at Fordham, which bills itself as “the Jesuit University of New York,” belong to a group called S.A.G.E.S. (The acronym stands for Sex and Gender Equity and Safety.) On its Twitter page, SAGES has an image of an erect condom.In a Change.org petition, the group proclaims that a lack...

The Worst That Can Happen Is You, Sec. Kerry by Daniel Clark Rather than try to inspire the graduates at Boston College, Secretary of State John Kerry used the occasion of his commencement address to proselytize on behalf of the “climate change” doomsday cult. As reported by The Weekly Standard, the former senator and presidential nominee charged global warming skeptics with “risking nothing less than the future of the entire planet.” If, on the other hand, he and his fellow alarmists prove to be wrong, he asked “What’s the worst that can happen?” For starters, we might needlessly retard our...

Secretary of State John Kerry did not shy away from pejorative language when addressing "climate change" in his commencement speech at Boston College on Monday. Kerry referred to those skeptical of the Obama administration's climate claims as "members of the Flat Earth Society" who are "risking nothing less than the future of the entire planet" by resisting implementation of the administration's policies.

BOSTON, May 15, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Catholic Action League of Massachusetts today criticized Jesuit administered Boston College for its decision to confer an honorary Doctor of Laws degree on U. S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry, who has also been invited to serve as the university's 2014 Commencement speaker. The League is also urging Cardinal Sean O'Malley, the Archbishop of Boston, to repeat his 2013 decision to withdraw from the commencement because of the honoree's advocacy of abortion. In their 2004 statement, Catholics in Political Life, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said: "The Catholic community and Catholic...

Boston College Eagles wide receiver Alex Amidon has decided to pass up a chance of a lucrative NFL career to focus on his dreams of becoming a U.S. Navy SEAL. His shock announcement was made during a school football recruitment dinner in Boston Wednesday night, according to BC Interruption, a sports blog. "Through making this decision, Amidon is truly showing that he is a man for others, and cares so deeply about this community and country," the blog said.

BOSTON, May 16, 2013 /Christian Newswire/ -- On Monday, May 20th, Students for Life of America (SFLA) and other local and national pro-life organizations will host a prayer vigil and public witness (notatbc.com/?page_id=172) outside the Boston College graduation ceremony to protest Ireland's 1st pro-abortion Prime Minister giving the commencement address and receiving an honorary degree at the Catholic institution. SFLA will gather together to stand up for women, show the value and worth of children in the womb, and voice support for keeping Ireland abortion-free. Event Details: When: Monday, May 20th
 8am - Prayer Vigil and Public Witness
 9am -...

BOSTON COLLEGE COMMENCEMENT STATEMENT Cardinal Sean May 10, 2013 Because the Gospel of Life is the centerpiece of the Church’s social doctrine and because we consider abortion a crime against humanity, the Catholic Bishops of the United States have asked that Catholic institutions not honor government officials or politicians who promote abortion with their laws and policies. Recently I learned that the Prime Minister of Ireland, the Hon. Mr. Enda Kenny was slated to receive an honorary degree at Boston College’s graduation this year. I am sure that the invitation was made in good faith, long before it came to...

Cardinal O’Malley to boycott Boston College commencement over honoring of pro-abortion Irish PM May 10, 2013 (CNS) - Archdiocese of Boston's Cardinal Sean O'Malley said today that he plans to boycott Boston College's commencement ceremony May 20 because it will feature Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny as its commencement speaker. The College is scheduled to award Kenny an honorary Doctor of Laws degree. Kenny supports loosening the country's legislation against abortion. “Since the university has not withdrawn the invitation and because the Taoiseach (prime minister) has not seen fit to decline, I shall not attend the graduation,’’ O’Malley said in...

I wrote HERE about Jesuit-run Boston College’s plan to have anti-Catholic catholic, pro-abortion Prime Minister of Ireland Enda Kenny speak at commencement and then confer on him an honor.Outrageous. Shades of Notre Shame.Now I read at the site of the Cardinal Newman Society (see their feed on the side bar) that the local Archbishop, Sean Card. O’Malley, will boycott the event. Cardinal Sean O’Malley Will Boycott Boston College CommencementArchdiocese of Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley said today that he plans to boycott Boston College’s commencement ceremony May 20 because it will feature Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny as its commencement speaker....