Free Republic

Is This the End of our Exile? Christopher A. Ferrara REMNANT COLUMNIST, New Jersey ROME - We have a Pope:  Benedict XVI, formerly known as Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger. In the fortieth year of our exile from Tradition, the new Pope has begun by restoring a verbal link with the long line of his successors. The new Pope has taken the name last taken by the preconciliar pontiff whose advice, had it been heeded by the world, would have avoided the bloodbath of World War I, the triumph of “democracy” under the tank treads of Woodrow Wilson’s armies, and the final...

Letter from Fr. Brian Harrison April 8, 2005 Dear faithful Catholic friends, I am writing to all of you - some by e-mail, others by snail-mail - as the sun begins to shine on a new day: Friday, April 8th. Battling my accustomed lethargy at this hour of the day, I am stirred thus to share my impressions with you, because I believe what has happened in Rome just now represents a new and singular moment of grace. Here in the arid south of Puerto Rico it had not rained for four months prior to yesterday, the eve of John...

Vatican, Sep. 13 (CWNews.com) - The Austrian government will send an official representative to the October 3 beatification ceremonies of Karl von Hapsburg-- who died in exile after being ousted as the Austrian emperor. The Austrian republic still bans from its territory any descendants of Emperor Karl who have not formally renounced their claims on the Austrian throne. Otto von Hapsburg, the eldest son of Karl and the Empress Zita, officially gave up the throne in 1961. But his brothers Felix and Carl Ludwig took the same step in 1996. Otto von Hapsburg-- now 91 years old, and a retired...

Well, It's Nice... But is Catholic Social Teaching Realistic? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ By Christopher Zehnder "They should just be happy to have a job!" "Don't those union workers know that everyone else pays a portion of his benefits' package? Why shouldn't they?" "They should just accept their companies' need to decrease the payroll to remain competitive." "Workers who strike are stealing from their employers." "Healthcare is not a right." I cannot count the number of times I've heard such notions expressed, especially since the southern California grocery clerks strike began in October. I've read them in the letters section of our local...

I've never liked it when my fellow non-Catholics tell the Church who or who not to canonize, but personally I hope this goes through and wonder what FR's Catholics think. Queen Isabella not only saved Spain from Islam, but played a vital role in the eventual spread of Catholicism throughout the Western hemisphere.