Free Republic

Christ Our Light Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J. Christ is the Light of the World It is especially in St. John’s Gospel that Christ is identified as the Light which enlightens every man that comes into this world. His followers are told to walk in this light so that they may be free, and without this light all is darkness and spiritual night. So we ask, “How is Jesus the Savior also, and necessarily, our Light?” This is not an unimportant question in our day when there is so much confusion among Catholics, including not a few priests and religious....

Earlier this year, the New York Times published two opinion columns harshly critical of the Republican party. The author bemoaned the passing of a time when, he argued, Republicans stood solidly for a handful of core principles: limited government, a strong national defense, light taxes and regulatory burdens, and free trade. Pointing to recent high-profile fights over issues like Terri Schiavo and embryonic stem-cell research, he accused party bigwigs of promoting a cynical alliance with socially conservative, and primarily evangelical, Christians. This partnership, he wrote, threatened to turn the party into "the political extension of a religious movement." Fears about...

NEW YORK — German scientists say cells from the testes of mice can behave like embryonic stem cells. If the same holds true in humans, it could provide a controversy-free source of versatile cells for use in treating disease. Embryonic stem cells can give rise to virtually any tissue in the body and scientists believe they may offer treatments for diseases like Parkinson's and diabetes and spinal cord injuries. But to harvest the cells, human embryos must be destroyed. Some religious groups and others oppose that. The new research into testicular cells, published online Friday by the journal Nature, comes...

Sri Lanka has recently witnessed an increase in attacks and threats against the Christian community there. The increase has led to fears that a new wave of anti-Christian violence is about to begin, reports Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW). According to the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL) "there is a visible increase in the number of attacks on Christian places of worship and acts of intimidation during the past two months." A report from NCEASL claimed that the pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church in Galle was subject to a host of virulent threats on 6th February. He...

ENCINITAS, January 16, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Many pro-life organizations use Christmas season sales of poinsettias to raise funds, but according to a US-based researcher, so do Planned Parenthood and other abortionists in the US. James Hartline, a Christian activist in California wrote to LifeSiteNews.com warning that the poinsettias decorating the churches and homes of Christians in the US could easily originate from a family-owned business that has been supporting abortion for decades. The Ecke Ranch in Encinitas, California, supplies 70% of all of the poinsettias sold in the United States and the Ecke family is among the most generous supporters...

Christmas is a time of joy for Christians and, for multitudes around the world, a time of suffering. Last Wednesday, under the auspices of Senator Rick Santorum and the Congressional Working Group on Religious Freedom that he cochairs with Congressman Roy Blunt, some of the world's foremost defenders of persecuted Christians gathered in the U.S. Capitol to draw attention to this suffering. Over Christmas 2000 in Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim country and one traditionally renowned for its religious toleration, terrorists bombed churches in 18 cities, killing scores and wounding hundreds. At Wednesday's forum, Catholic Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver...

MEDIA, Pa. - Instead of feeding children in third-world countries and fixing the leaky roof, a woman used money from First Church of Lansdowne collection plates to buy a shore home and breast implants. "I was very dishonest and selfish," Colleen Lacombe, 34, of Drexel Hill, told Judge Robert C. Wright tearfully. Lacombe pleaded guilty in September to theft by deception, and made full restitution of $325,000 to the church. Wright sentenced the mother of two to two years of house arrest Tuesday, followed by two years of probation. Lacombe embezzled the money while handling finances at the church from...

In the Egyptian city of Alexandria, a crowd of Muslim demonstrators tries to storm a Coptic church to protest at a play about a Muslim campaign to convert Christians. In Iraq, the Christian middle class is emigrating in droves, fearful of the daily violence and the hostility it now encounters from Islamists.  In Saudi Arabia, churches and other places of non-Muslim worship are banned, and foreign workers who try to hold secret Christian services are jailed, flogged and often deported. In the land of its birth, Christianity is in sad decline as the pressures of life under Israeli occupation and...

The Christian Defense Coalition Director says in many cases "national security" has become more important than protecting the First Amendment and civil liberties. Coalition especially concerned about the Patriot Act defining terrorism as "... .to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion." Those definitions are so broad it is an open invitation for the government to harass and attack any groups who use public demonstrations or peaceful civil disobedience to "influence" government policy. Organization cites the improper use of the federal RICO laws against non-violent pro-life activists as a clear example of how the Patriot Act could...

Muslim Mob 'Terrorizes' Children in Indonesian Sunday School(CNSNews.com) - Approximately 30 Christian children fled in panic after a mob of Islamic militants raided and vandalized their Sunday school class, which was being held in a private home last weekend in Curug, Indonesia, according to a Christian group called Voice of the Martyrs (VOM). The violence came less than a month after three teenaged Christian schoolgirls were attacked and beheaded as they walked through a cocoa plantation on their way to school. One girl's severed head was reportedly placed in front of a church, eight miles from where the bodies were...

Manhattan prep school officials and parents aren't the only ones who hope the NYPD tracks down and arrests a defrocked priest accused of molesting a student. His son wants him behind bars, too. "I'd love to see him get caught," Aaron Jacques, 25, the youngest child of school fund-raiser Bruce Jacques, told the Daily News yesterday. "If he really did what they say he did, that would make my day." Bruce Jacques, 57, is on the run after a male student at the Robert Louis Stevenson School on W. 74th St. claimed the ex-priest sexually assaulted by him in Central...

On Sunday, October 2nd, thousands of pro-lifers across the US and Canada will participate in Life Chain, a silent, prayerful, hour-long protest to tell the truth about abortion: that abortion kills babies. I strongly urge all pro-lifers reading this to look up Lifechain.net to find out where their local Life Chain will be held. It is not an easy thing to witness to the truth of abortion. The media continues to treat those who oppose abortions as extremists and mindless zealots. However, considering the scope of the evil that plagues our countries, it is vital that pro-lifers speak up, because...

good or evil: who decides?Dr. Raymond DeSouza Who decides what is good or evil? The state? Society? The individual? Join Dr. Raymond De Souza as he teaches about the Natural Law and the Magisterium of the Catholic Church.Contact:Dr. Raymond De Souza http://saintgabriel.com.au PO Box 111 Western Australia 6058 Telephone:[61] 08 9202 1300  Back to Series List

Park United Methodist Church minister Mike Allen knew it would turn his life upside down -- cost him his job, his home and his preaching credentials.Despite the certain consequences, the Lexington pastor made his choice.One Sunday in January, he stood in front of his stunned congregation and broke the news: He was going to follow his heart and convert to Roman Catholicism.With that decision, Allen joined not only thousands of members who are leaving mainstream denominations, but hundreds of Protestant ministers who are joining the Roman Catholic Church.For Allen, conversion was an eight-year process of study, prayer and reflection.It began...

Judaism’s Sexual Revolution: Why Judaism (and then Christianity) Rejected Homosexuality    DENNIS PRAGER When Judaism demanded that all sexual activity be channeled into marriage, it changed the world. The Torah's prohibition of non-marital sex quite simply made the creation of Western civilization possible. Societies that did not place boundaries around sexuality were stymied in their development. The subsequent dominance of the Western world can largely be attributed to the sexual revolution initiated by Judaism and later carried forward by Christianity.This revolution consisted of forcing the sexual genie into the marital bottle. It ensured that sex no longer dominated society, heightened...

ACTION NEEDED NOW: Stop & Shop Supermarkets “negotiating” with Bay Windows to bring sexually graphic, revolting anti-Catholic newspaper back into its stores! Your hard work got it removed in the first place!  As you remember, about three weeks ago the two largest supermarket chains in New England, Stop & Shop and Shaws / Star Markets, bowed to pressure from their customers across the state (i.e., you!).  Both companies agreed to stop distributing ”Bay Windows,” a sexually graphic, anti-family homosexual newspaper, in their stores.This decision was hailed by families all over New England.  Click here to see what was in an...

Federal law enforcement officials call a Nutley man a ``dangerous predator.'' Kevin Hildreth has admitted sexually assaulting nine children and videotaping at least two having sex in the basement of a church where he was an assistant scoutmaster. The 33-year-old pleaded guilty to federal charges of crossing state lines to sexually assault a child and possession of child pornography. Hildreth was arrested in June as part of an international child porn Internet investigation. He told investigators that he had fondled or raped nine boys in the past 16 years. The victims ranged in age from four to 13. One was...

Nick Silverio of Safe Haven for Newborns in Florida has asked that we spread the word of a disabled newborn in need of adoption. The child, born today, has no arms, only one leg, and is missing a good portion of his jaw - but his prognosis is good.  The baby was abandoned by his mother under the Florida Safe Haven law and, unless potential adoptive parents can be found quickly, the child will become a ward of the state (and, it is feared, the target of euthanasia).  The Florida Department of Children and Families will not become involved unless...

For the last quarter of a century, this non-Catholic has had a pope. Now that John Paul II is gone, I am even more of an orphan than the Christians in the Roman church. For they will surely have another pope, but that one may not be mine, since I haven't converted. I am sure I am reflecting the views of many Protestants. Who else but John Paul II gave voice to my faith and my values in 130 countries? Who else posited personal holiness and theological clarity against postmodern self-deception and egotism? Who else preached the gospel as tirelessly...

Harry Potter and the Paganization of Children's Culture The realm of human imagination is a God-given gift, a faculty of the mind that is intended to expand our understanding by enabling us to visualize invisible truths. In the modern era this zone of man's interior life has moved to the forefront of his experience. With the advent of film, television, and now the near-virtual reality of special-effects videos and other electronic entertainment, the screen of the imagination is stimulated to a degree (both in quantity and in kind) more than at any other period in history. This has prompted a...