Free Republic

Andrew Sullivan, the author who still harbors serious doubts about the veracity of Sarah Palin's ultimate pregnancy, has determined that outgoing Pope Benedict is gay. In a post titled "Two Popes, One Secretary," Sullivan writes that since Benedict will live in the Vatican with Archbishop Georg Gaenswein, his trusted secretary, he must be gay. "So Benedict's handsome male companion will continue to live with him, while working for the other Pope during the day," Sullivan wrote. "Are we supposed to think that's, well, a normal arrangement?"(continued)

The Italian authorities have capitulated to hatred. Last week Italian education minister Francesco Profumo proposed that Islam be taught in public schools alongside the traditional teaching of Catholicism, while Bishop Mariano Crociata, secretary general of the Italian Episcopal Conference, announced that the Vatican is in favor of building new mosques in Italy. Tthe European Bishops met with European Muslims in Turin to proclaim the need for the “progressive enculturation of Islam in Europe". And it began when thousands of Muslims marched in front of Milan’s Duomo to protest against Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, burning Israeli flags and chanting anti-Jewish...

A drive to rekindle Roman Catholicism's missionary zeal is struggling to counter the challenge of Islam, a religion with an arguably more direct message and a greater institutional hold on its faithful. Bishops who have been meeting for three weeks to plot a way forward for a Church whose membership is dwindling in Europe are concerned by Islam's growth and worried about Christian minorities in Muslim countries, according to participants' comments released by the Vatican. Islam was barely mentioned in preparatory documents for the Synod on New Evangelisation, a meeting in Rome of 262 prelates from around the world been...

On Monday, the Vatican called for creation of a “global public authority” and a “central world bank” to regulate the world’s financial institutions. As Reuters reported, “The document from the Vatican’s Justice and Peace department should please the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ demonstrators and similar movements around the world who have protested against the economic downturn.” The Vatican got very specific in its recommendations. It condemned the “idolatry of the market” and called for global wealth redistribution, asking nations of the world to participate in an “ethic of solidarity.” In a passage that could have been ripped from Marx, the Vatican...

Seven members of the board of Catholic Charities announced their resignations. They were protesting the effort by Massachusetts bishops to prohibit gays from adopting children from their Catholic social service agencies. The seven who quit said prohibition ''threatens the very essence of our Christian mission." Church doctrine states that allowing children to be adopted by same-sex couples ''would actually mean doing violence to these children...gravely immoral." If you agree with those principles, according to the Vatican, a Catholic in good standing. If you don't, you're not. Liberals raised as Catholics refuse to accept this reality. We think we can be...

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport in Connecticut has filed a federal lawsuit following assertions by a state official that rallying church members at the Capitol in Hartford constitutes a violation of lobbying law. Six weeks after 4,000 Catholics in Connecticut rallied in opposition to a proposed state law known as Bill 1098, which dictated local parishes reorganize their governing structures to substitute lay leaders for priests in oversight of finances , the Diocese of Bridgeport received a letter from Connecticut's Office of State Ethics informing it that an investigation was underway to ascertain if the diocese had violated state...

CINO Prep by: Malcolm A. Kline, March 07, 2008 Although Catholic schools look good when compared with their public counterparts, they don’t fare as well in contrast to the way they used to be. In the wake of Vatican II, “Radical reformers tore at every aspect of Catholic life, questioning time-honored practices and beliefs,” Phillip F. Lawler writes in The Faithful Departed: The Collapse of Boston’s Catholic Culture. “Catholic schools jettisoned their religious education programs; the old reliable Baltimore Catechism quickly became a collectors item.” “In parochial high schools, religion classes became freewheeling discussion sessions, with students encouraged to reflect...

The St. Louis archbishop informed the six board members of the parish that the priest they hired is also excommunicated from the Catholic church.

There can be no compromise on the moral imperative protect the basic human rights of eery individual incarcerated for any reason.

We have commented on actor Tom Cruise using the media to preach the virtues of Scientology and the evils of psychiatry. He gave interviews about his new film, "War of the Worlds," as long as he was permitted to talk about his religion. But Scientology not only has a base in Hollywood, it has enjoyed powerful friends in Washington. For years, Scientology fought a battle with the IRS because the government would not recognize its claim to be a religion. The IRS finally granted Scientology its desired status under President Bill Clinton, the recipient of massive donations from Hollywood. Now...

Pope Benedict XVI yesterday refused to declare Islam "a religion of peace." Asked by reporters whether Islam could be considered a religion of peace shortly before entering a meeting with priests and deacons of Valle d'Aosta in northwest Italy where he is spending a brief holiday, the pontiff refused to reply positively. "I would not like to use big words to apply generic labels," he replied. "It certainly contains elements that can favor peace, it also has other elements: We must always seek the best elements." The day before, he asked God to stop the terrorists. "Even these days of...

Here is a cultural mystery to solve: It has sold over 7.5-million copies in just over a year. The author has claimed on national TV interviews and on his web page that this piece of fiction contains fact when it comes to theories about art and the Christian faith. It has spawned more than a dozen response books. What is it? Of course, it is the best-selling mystery thriller, The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. This novel is a good read. The mystery, which I will not give away, is tied to the idea that the church suppressed the...

At the liberal university, poking fun at and openly putting down or criticizing a religion or ethnic group constitutes an unforgivable infraction of the highest severity...it's "ethnocentric", "threatening", "against the philosophy of multiculturalism"...that is, of course, unless the group you are targeting happens to be Christians. Because they are viewed as being part of the dominant establishment, Christians are fair game for snide comments and critical examination that students and politically correct professors wouldn't dare utter otherwise. This means that quite often, those few Christian students who are brave enough to attend the "liberal" university often find themselves in hostile...

Internal UN Documents Show Financial Mismanagement at UNFPA Austin Ruse 01/03/2003 An investigative report just released by the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM) and the International Organizations Research Group (IORP) has found widespread financial and programmatic mismanagement within the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). "The United Nations Population Fund: Assault on the World's Peoples" reports that internal UN audits show that UNFPA does not monitor the quality or reliability of the reproductive goods it ships to poor countries. The report also unveils little known internal UN audits that accuse UNFPA of failing to account for up to 50...