Free Republic

The Decline of Catholicism in Latin America A recent Wall Street Journal report shines a light on it.Catholicism is rapidly losing ground to Protestants in Latin America, according to the Wall Street Journal. “Seven countries in the region — Uruguay, the Dominican Republic and five in Central America — had a majority of non-Catholics in 2018, according to a survey by Latinobarómetro, a Chilean-based pollster,” it reports. “In a symbolic milestone, Brazil, which has the most Catholics of any country in the world, is expected to become minority-Catholic as soon as this year, according to estimates by academics that track...

Francis On Homosexuals: “The Lord Will Save Everyone” (Video)Francis claimed that everyone will be saved during his September 15 in-flight press conference thus qualifying Christ's death as superfluous.The blasphemy went unnoticed until NovusOrdoWatch.org (January 3) paid attention to it. While taking about the vice of homosexuality, Francis said,“Respect everyone. The Lord is good and will save everyone — do not say this aloud [laughs] — but the Lord wants to save everyone. Please do not make the Church deny her truth. Many, many people of homosexual orientation approach the Sacrament of Penance, they approach to ask priests for advice, the...

It is a country where so-called "dead churches", can be viewed and purchased on the Internet, Even a synagogue became a mosque... The Catholic Church in the Netherlands has entered such an unstoppable spiral, according to research by the Trouw newspaper, that eight out of ten parishes are in the red and will have to be closed. From 1970 to 2008, 400 Catholic churches were demolished or converted. Since then, the rate has accelerated dramatically. Two churches, on average, close every week. One fifth of all the churches in Holland have already been converted. Holland still has six thousand churches....

President Joe Biden effusively praised Pope Francis on Sunday, reflecting on his personal audience he had at the Vatican on Friday. “He is everything I learned about Catholicism from the time I was a kid going from grade school through high school,” Biden said. The president spoke about Pope Francis at a press conference with reporters in Europe after the G20 Summit. “This is a man of great empathy. He’s a man who understands that part of his Christianity is to reach out and forgive,” Biden said.

ROME — As “soft totalitarianism” coincides with an erosion of civil liberties, and a “woke”-fueled “cancel culture” leads many religious people and social conservatives to self-censor, bestselling author Rod Dreher, offers his own insights and solutions, culled from the experiences of those who suffered under communism in the Soviet bloc. In his acclaimed book Live Not By Lies — A Manual For Christian Dissidents, published in September 2020, he notes how these citizens recognized the seeds of tyranny in the West long ago, and have been trying to warn Westerners ever since...

Politicians who support pro-abortion legislation are engaging in a new trend: publicly citing their faith while addressing abortion. This easily leads to confusion when a politician’s position on abortion disagrees with his or her religion. It’s a distinction that many in the media all too often miss. Most recently, these comments tying abortion and faith together are from politicians who identify as Catholic, a religion that recognizes abortion as a grave evil. The latest example comes from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who openly cited her Catholic faith while defending taxpayer-funded abortion. “As a devout Catholic and mother of five...

In the fourth century, St. Ambrose of Milan spoke truth to power. U.S. bishops could learn something from him.On Saturday, New Mexico state Sen. Joe Cervantes, a Democrat from Las Cruces, tweeted that because he voted to repeal a state law that criminalized abortion, he was denied communion by Bishop Peter Baldacchino, apparently after several warnings (something the senator conveniently neglected to mention).I was denied communion last night by the Catholic bishop here in Las Cruces and based on my political office. My new parish priest has indicated he will do the same after the last was run off. Please...

Leftist media is politicizing the bishops’ meeting — not the other way around. And their almost every interpretation of the meeting is misguided and blatantly false.Last week, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops voted to advance a document that will discuss “Eucharistic coherence,” which Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila called an “opportunity for me and all bishops to recommit ourselves to an unapologetic preaching of Jesus Christ.” In the aftermath, corporate media once again proved themselves to be arbiters of hypocrisy, with headline after headline criticizing the church for allegedly politicizing the Eucharist.Among others, NPR reported “Bishops Vote to Rethink...

Biden likes to talk a big Catholic game when he’s campaigning, but like most Democrats, the moment power is achieved is the moment that Catholicism gets tossed out of the window. As a result, American bishops are going to have a meeting to discuss whether or not he should be denied Holy Communion.According to Fox News, the meeting between the bishops will take place virtually and talk about, not only Biden but any politician who embraces any stances that run contrary to Catholicism’s teachings:The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) will hold their annual meeting, virtually, from Wednesday through Friday,...

Cardinal: “Ramadan Is Everyone’s Holiday”Muslims in Burkina Faso celebrated Eid El Fitr on 13 May, marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.They gathered in the capital Ouagadougou at the Place de Nation for prayer.Despite the Ascension which was celebrated on the same day, Cardinal Philipe Ouédraogo, 76, attended the Eid El Fitr prayer, thus showing the “solidarity” of the Church to the Muslim community, Burkina24.com (May 13) writes."We are happy to express our best wishes to our Muslim brothers and sisters," Ouédraogo said. For him, "what belongs to the pond belongs to the cayman" (meaning: your joy is...

“We sent six samples from around Kenya to laboratories in South Africa. They tested positive for the HCG antigen,” Dr. Muhame Ngare of the Mercy Medical Centre in Nairobi told LifeSiteNews. “They were all laced with HCG.” Dr. Ngare, spokesman for the Kenya Catholic Doctors Association, stated in a bulletin released November 4, “This proved right our worst fears; that this WHO campaign is not about eradicating neonatal tetanus but a well-coordinated forceful population control mass sterilization exercise using a proven fertility regulating vaccine. This evidence was presented to the Ministry of Health before the third round of immunization but...

Papal Primacy and the Heresy of Conciliarlism[EDITOR’S NOTE: In the following essay, as the number of endnotes alone suggests, Fr. Kramer has left few stones unturned in examining the nature of papal primacy and the prospect of a pope who has fallen into heresy. Like the recent article by Robert Siscoe and John Salza, it will take considerable effort to read, but I can assure you that it is well worth your time as you will come away with a deeper understanding and appreciation for the way in which Christ constituted His Church. So, please, persevere! – LV]It is claimed...

In a world that changes constantly, people wonder if the Church can change its doctrine.

In Biden's speech, St. Augustine's deep warning about misdirected unity in love of the wrong thing becomes the spiritual equivalent of “c’mon, man.”Yesterday’s remarks from Joe Biden were what we thought they would be: a lot of talk about unity, and a lot of condemnations of other Americans along the way. The unity talk went over just as expected, with Republicans rolling their eyes. Of course there was unity on that dais in Washington, with a thousand of America’s elites — nearly all of them already vaccinated, but wearing masks to send a message — guarded by tens of thousands...

The 13th century Trisulti Charterhouse in the province of Frosinone, central Italy.The Dignitatis Humanae Institute, which is working with President Donald Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon to found an academy in Italy to defend Judeo-Christian civilisation, today fought off the Italian government’s latest attempt to remove the academy from an historic abbey near Rome. DHI chairman Benjamin Harnwell, who has always protested his innocence in the face of the state’s accusations, said the court action to remove him from the Trisulti Charterhouse has been entirely politically motivated. “The Ministry of Culture simply wanted me out because I proudly work...

REIMS, France — The Church in France is under pressure, according to the president of the French Catholic bishops’ conference. But for Archbishop Éric de Moulins-Beaufort, that is no cause for despair. “The Church in France is being jostled in many ways; it is reacting, which proves that it is alive,” he told CNA in an email interview. The archbishop of Reims, in northeastern France’s Grand Est region, has had a busy past few months. In October, he was among the bishops offering comfort to Catholics after an attacker shouting “Allahu Akbar” stabbed three people to death at the Basilica...

Generally, the Marxists of the left are, like Karl Marx, unapologetic atheists. They slander religious people, openly advocate against religious ideas and practices, and advocate for policies that are antithetical to a religious and moral society. However, come election time, they are forced to reckon with the fact that most of America is still, in fact, a religious society. So, to make themselves seem more electable, the Democrats occasionally pretend that they are religious. Recently, they have been claiming that Joe Biden is a Catholic, despite his support of anti-Christian policies and support for a part that stands against God....

The media has normalized an anti-religious bigotry that threatens to remove faithful Christians, be they Catholic or anything else, from public service.In a series of articles by its editorial board, media columnist Margaret Sullivan, and former Voice of America Director Amanda Bennett, the Washington Post has mounted a coordinated attack on Robert R. Reilly, the new nominee for VOA director, claiming he is an existential threat to the organization’s mission to provide independent reporting to foreign audiences.The reason they deem Reilly disqualified to serve as VOA director isn’t about a lack of credentials. He was director from 2001 to 2002...

While the United States was reeling last week from an utterly chaotic election, the Vatican decided it was the right moment to publish its long-awaited report into disgraced former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. The mammoth document is a nauseating account of clerical coverup, cowardice, and complicity that prioritizes subtle finger-pointing and deflection over real accountability. Those expecting an explanation of how a serially accused predator was catapulted through the church hierarchy despite serious allegations and rumors of assault and indecent behavior will be left not merely disappointed but disillusioned.Equally unsatisfactory is its failure to disclose the extent to which this highly...

A common accusation against Roman Catholicism is that it is legalistic, slavishly beholden to an elaborate set of rules and precepts and thereby resistant to the movements of the Holy Spirit or the mercy of God. The charge may not be entirely without its merits, especially at certain times in the Church's history, in certain places, and with certain figures, but for it to be evaluated fairly an important distinction must be drawn between the prominent use of or focus on law on the one hand and legalism on the other. Legalism is the practice of law emptied of the...