Free Republic

www.catholicnewsagency.com Crucifix is symbol of European identity, asserts Russian bishop Rome, Italy, Jun 22, 2010 / 09:51 pm (CNA).- As the EU court in Strasbourg prepares to issue a new ruling on the public display of crucifixes on June 30, the president of the Bishops' Conference of Russia, Bishop Joseph Werth, noted that the crucifix is not only a religious symbol but it also represents Europe’s true identity. “Religious symbols such as the cross are not only the sign of Christianity but also one of the most important elements of European identity,” the bishop said. In a statement published...

COLUMNS Friday, 22 January 2010 Now Kennedy is Really Dead By Austin Ruse    What faithful Catholic did not ponder late Tuesday night that the election of Scott Brown to the “Kennedy seat” was God's judgment on Kennedyism. Kennedyism being the proposition that one may defend the sick and the poor in some circumstances but in other circumstances support their deliberate killing.After all, Brown's election is the precursor to the final deathblow to Kennedy's lifetime project to nationalize health care. And though Brown did not run as a pro-lifer, he ran to kill that monstrous bill, which would have been...

COIMBRA, Portugal, FEB. 21, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Sister Lucia was the "jewel" of the Carmelite convent of Coimbra, but within its walls she lived exactly like the other women religious, says the prioress. "Age had made her very frail and the doctor advised her not to catch cold, so she heard Mass from her cell and we took her Holy Communion," said the prioress, Sister Maria Celina of Jesus Crucified, in an interview on the program "Ecclesia" broadcasted by the agency of the same name. Sister Maria Lucia of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart, the last witness of the apparitions of...

A pharmacist refused to sell the morning-after pill to a mother-of-two - because he's a Catholic. Kerrie Gooch, 24, who has a nine-week-old baby and a two-year-old was forced to go to a clinic instead, reports the Daily Mirror. She plans to sue if she falls pregnant and asked: "What gives him the right to play God? "Everyone is entitled to an opinion but I don't want someone making a decision like this for me. Kerrie's problem began when the condom she and her long-term partner, aged 22, were using split. Kerrie then went to a Lloyds Pharmacy in Swindon,...