Free Republic

A Catholic school in North Carolina was within its legal rights to dismiss a substitute teacher because he was in a same-sex marriage, a federal appeals court ruled.A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Wednesday that Charlotte Catholic High School could fire Lonnie Billard for marrying a man.Circuit Judge Pamela Harris, an Obama appointee, authored the majority opinion, concluding that the Catholic school was protected by the "ministerial exception," noting that Billard's employment involved an inherently religious element."We conclude that the school entrusted Billard with 'vital religious duties,' making him a 'messenger' of its...

Less than 1% of American Catholics agree with all three of the Catholic Church's teachings on the sanctity of life issues, showing the widespread existence of what some call "cafeteria Catholics" in the United States, according to an analysis. Researcher Ryan Burge, an associate professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University who publishes articles on a Substack called "Graphs About Religion," shared data Thursday about the beliefs of Catholics in the U.S., focusing on their views on abortion, capital punishment and euthanasia. Burge attributed the motivation to conduct the research to comments made by Cardinal Wilton Gregory of the...

Catholics in the U.S. have swung dramatically against President Biden in recent years, now boasting a significant statistical break towards his GOP challenger. Pew Research released on Apr. 30 a report exploring support for presidential candidates sorted by religious affiliation. The poll found that 55% of Catholics support or lean towards supporting former President Donald Trump in a head-to-head against Biden. Conversely, only 43% of Catholics support Biden in the same one-on-one pairing. The 12% margin of support in favor of Trump marks a significant shift from 2020, when he held an extremely narrow lead — 50% to 49%. Biden...

The U.S. Department of Justice's Inspector General Michael Horowitz maintains that the FBI did not commit any wrongdoing or demonstrate hostility toward religion by circulating an internal document warning about connections between "racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists" and "radical-traditionalist Catholic ideology." Horowitz submitted a report to several committees of U.S. Congress Thursday. The document looks into the "actions and events, including any underlying policy direction" that served as the basis for the FBI Richmond Field Office circulating a memo in January 2023 addressing a purported link between "Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists (RMVEs) and 'Radical Traditionalist Catholic (RTC)'...

While the number of Catholics worldwide slightly increased from 2021 to 2022, new statistics show that the number of priests continues to decline. The Vatican released the 2024 Pontifical Yearbook and the 2022 Statistical Yearbook of the Church earlier this month. Edited by the Vatican Secretariat of State's Central Statistical Office, the publications are being distributed in bookstores and published by the Vatican Printing Press.The publications highlight "statistical data to assess the main trends affecting the evolution of the Catholic Church worldwide," reports Vatican News.The latest edition of the Statistical Yearbook shows the number of baptized Catholics in the world...

Catholics in the U.S., one of the country's largest single Christian groups, hold far more diverse views on abortion rights than the official teaching of their church. While the Catholic Church itself holds that abortion is wrong and should not be legal, 6 in 10 U.S. adult Catholics say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, according to a newly released profile of Catholicism by Pew Research.

A video posted by reliable Fox News reporter Matt Finn shows illegal immigrants ravaging a mountain in Sunland Park, New Mexico, while Border Patrol agents apparently won’t defend it, calling the mountain the Cartel’s. Finn wrote in the video post, “Unbelievable. A Border Patrol agent in Sunland Park, NM just told us a mountain in the United States is ‘not ours’ anymore. ‘It’s theirs.’ Referring to Cartels. We literally spent five minutes on Mt. Cristo Rey and a group of illegals breezed by.” Mt. Cristo Rey is adorned by a 29-foot-tall statue of Jesus, which was erected in 1940 after...

Another Ramadan is upon us, and as is always the case, the eager-to-be-fooled infidels are out in force. A Catholic diocese in Italy has just called upon priests and laypeople to seek out opportunities to participate in Ramadan observances, as a gesture of goodwill toward Muslims. When will Muslim leaders tell Muslims to participate in Christian worship to show friendship with Christians? Don’t hold your breath. The Catholic Herald reported Friday that the Italian diocese of Bergamo is “instructing its priests to participate in Islamic rituals, citing Pope Francis’ directives on interreligious dialogue.” Diocesan officials issued a directive “urging priests...

Catholic persecution is still rising around the world, especially in Africa. Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) found that 132 of those in the Catholic clergy and nuns were arrested, kidnapped, and murdered in 2023. All of the stats are likely higher. ACN only counts arrests related to persecution. We all know places will trump up charges to avoid persecution accusations. The stats do not include members of the Catholic Church. Terrorists slaughtered almost 200 Catholics across Nigeria and destroyed villages, leaving tens of thousands homeless from December 23-26. Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has intensified his war on the...

Congressional lawmakers released an interim report Monday titled, "The FBI's Breach of Religious Freedom: The Weaponization of Law Enforcement Against Catholic Americans," providing a glimpse into the lengths the FBI has gone to cast those with conservative religious beliefs as threats apparently requiring state surveillance and "mitigation." The new report from the House Judiciary Committee and its Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government indicates the FBI: "abused its counterterrorism tools to target Catholic Americans as potential domestic terrorists"; "relied on at least one undercover agent to develop its assessment"; "proposed developing sources among the Catholic clergy and...

Democrats hit the brakes on plans to subpoena conservative legal scholar Leonard Leo and billionaire Harlan Crow during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill Thursday, scoring a win for the integrity of the Supreme Court. The move came after Republican Ranking Member Lindsey Graham warned Chairman Dick Durbin and other Democrats that their efforts to intimidate friends and acquaintances of conservative Supreme Court Justices, specifically Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito under the guise of "ethics reform," would backfire. "I promise you, everything that was working well with the committee is now in jeopardy," Graham warned. "You’re going to...

SALTILLO, Mexico – Gabby and Ana are in love. So are Marco Antonio and Juan Carlos. Under a sweeping new law allowing same-sex couples to form civil unions, they are planning to turn their love into a legal commitment. Legislators in the dusty northern border state of Coahuila have stunned Mexico by giving same-sex couples property and inheritance rights long reserved for married heterosexuals. It is a first for this predominantly Roman Catholic country, a measure so swift and so bold that it surprised even the gay community. All of a sudden, gay rights are on the national agenda. Since...

A member of the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence who has previously participated in Drag Queen Story Hour was arrested after witnesses alleged he masturbated in public for an hour. Clinton Monroe Ellis-Gilmore, 53, is a member of the group, which created a stir after it was disinvited - and then re-invited - to the Los Angeles Dodgers' Pride Night over protests from conservatives and Catholics. Ellis-Gilmore was arrested at Table Bluff County Park in Loleta, California, on August 12 after police had received reports of a man 'exposing himself in the driver's seat of a parked vehicle.'...

In February, an FBI whistleblower from their Richmond, Virginia field office leaked a report about spying on "radical-traditionalist Catholics," labeling them as "potential domestic terrorists." FBI director Christopher Wray claimed the report was "a single product by a single field office." Hearings conducted by chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Rep. Jim Jordan revealed evidence that Wray had perjured himself, as FBI field offices in Los Angeles and Portland and perhaps others were also monitoring Catholics. Perhaps this is why the FBI is too busy to investigate the Richmond riots orchestrated by Antifa in 2020 or those BLM-led riots and...

When I first moved to Massachusetts in 1969 from Protestant-dominated Minnesota, I was struck by the awesome power the Catholic church wielded there. Reverent media attention was afforded the Cardinal, the legendary Richard Cardinal Cushing, who died in 1970 and was replaced by Humberto Cardinal Medeiros. The funeral and selection of a replacement was a major media event in the Boston area. I had never seen the like of it in the Great Plains. There was more than a tinge of class resentment against the formerly dominant Yankees, who were Protestants. Things have changed in 2023, and it appears that...

It’s not ‘white supremacy’ among Catholics the FBI is really worried about, it’s traditional Catholic morality.It turns out the FBI memo targeting Catholics as potential domestic terrorists wasn’t limited to “a single field office,” as FBI Director Christopher Wray claimed under oath last month to Congress. In addition to the Richmond, Virginia, field office, the agency’s Los Angeles and Portland offices were also involved.The memo, which was leaked earlier this year, singled out what it called “Radical-Traditionalist Catholics” who attend parishes that offer the Latin Mass, which the FBI seems to think are hotbeds of “Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent...

Multiple FBI field offices were involved in the drafting of a memo targeting Catholics as potential domestic terrorists, a newly unredacted document obtained by House Republicans reveals. The discovery contradicts testimony from FBI Director Christopher Wray, who previously claimed under oath only one field office was involved.“This new information suggests that the FBI’s use of its law enforcement capabilities to intrude on American’s First Amendment rights is more widespread than initially suspected,” House Republicans wrote in a letter sent to Wray on Wednesday.Earlier this year, a leaked FBI memo dated Jan. 23 revealed the agency’s Richmond, Virginia, field office was...

Sub-Saharan African Christians Attend Mass on the First Sunday of Lent at St. Peter's Roman Catholic Cathedral in the Moroccan Capital Rabat on 10 March 2019 (Image: fadel Senna/AFP)RABAT — In a landmark event, members of the Coordination of Moroccan Christians met with officials from the National Council for Human Rights to discuss the situation faced by Christians in Morocco. During the meeting, a memorandum outlining their requests urging swift action to address their concerns was presented. Mustafa al-Sousi, the official spokesperson for the Coordination of Moroccan Christians, highlighted five key points related to the freedom of practicing the Christian...

ROME — Pope Francis stunned the faithful this weekend when he welcomed some 200 avant-garde artists in the Sistine Chapel, including photographer Andres Serrano, creator of the controversial “Piss Christ” work showing a crucifix submerged in a glass of urine. The pontiff received the artists to mark the 50th anniversary of the Vatican’s collection of contemporary art, telling them that like the biblical prophets, “you confront things that at times are uncomfortable; you criticize today’s false myths and new idols, its empty talk, the ploys of consumerism, the schemes of power.” “You can see things both in depth and from...

A second incident of young people spontaneously rising up against “Pride Month” celebrations in their school occurred on June 8 in Toronto, Canada. The drama started at the end of May, when the York Catholic District School Board (YCDSB ) voted against a proposal to fly the hideous “Progressive Pride” flag at its headquarters in June. This led to a supposedly student-organized walkout and demonstration across the district’s schools. But for the second time this “Pride,” students opposed to having sexualized Leftist dogma forced into their school stood up to it. LGBTQetc. activists had been trying to break into the...