Free Republic

The Death of Pope Francis: The End of An Era? - by Roberto de Mattei At 7:35 a.m., on April 21, 2025, Easter Monday, Jorge Mario Bergoglio's soul separated from his mortal body to present itself to the Divine Judgment. Only on the day of the Last Judgment will we know what the sentence of the supreme tribunal to which each of us must one day present ourselves was for Pope Francis. Let us pray today for the suffrage of his soul, as the Church publicly prays in its novendials, and, precisely because the Church is a public society, let...

Pope Francis’s Sharp Left Turn Toward HeresyJorge Mario Bergoglio became the 266th successor of St. Peter and the head of 1.4 billion Catholics on March 13, 2013. His pontifical persona as Pope Francis, taken in honor of St. Francis of Assisi — the patron saint of ecology and animals — warmed the hearts of both Catholics and Protestant,s and even non-Christians.But Francis’s honeymoon with faithful Catholics lasted just four months. While flying back from an apostolic visit to Brazil on July 29, 2013, a reporter asked him if there was a “gay lobby” in the Vatican.Francis’s reply was shocking: “If...

[Catholic Caucus] The Vatican is now in Utter Chaos, As It Was Foreseeable by The WandererArgentinaApril 23, 2025Shortly after the death of Pope Francis, the Vatican was a hornet's nest, in every sense of the expression. In other words, it was and is chaos. It could not be otherwise when those who are at the head of the most delicate mechanisms of the Church are useless people placed there at the whim of the tyrant. The first major problem faced is the location. Bergoglio's decision not to reside in the Apostolic Palace, because he was very humble as we all...

Nalin Haley, the son of former U.S. presidential candidate Nikki Haley, was received into the Catholic Church on Palm Sunday. “As parents, Michael and I always prayed that our children would have a faith and relationship with God,” Nikki Haley posted on social media Sunday. “Today we were so proud to support Nalin in his faith journey as he was confirmed into the Catholic Church, completed RCIA, and received his first holy Communion,” she said of her son. Nikki Haley, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and South Carolina governor, was born and raised in the Sikh faith...

Not even months into his new pontificate, Pope Francis declared, to a group of young people in Paraguay, “Go out and make a mess.” A puzzling remark from the Successor of St. Peter. As the years of his papacy went on, we witnessed what he meant. Year after year, he kept his promise. And the Church descended into an unprecedented chaos. Recall St. Augustine’s classic definition of peace: the tranquillitas ordinis (the tranquility of order). During Pope Francis’ reign, there was nothing of order and certainly no tranquility. Upheaval followed upheaval; shock gave way to more shock; ambiguity was compounded...

Could Cardinal Parolin be validly elected pope?For Cardinal Parolin, the Vatican II 'renewal' is to be brought about through compromise with the proponents of liberalism and naturalism, rather than by combatting these errors.Pietro Parolin is widely regarded as one of the leading candidates who may be elected at the next conclave. Parolin was named a cardinal by Francis in 2014 and has been a member of his influential Council of Cardinal Advisers since that year. He played a prominent role in Francis’s radical revolution and has been a strong supporter of “synodality”, which he sees as a continuation of Vatican...

The Barack Obama of the Roman Catholic Church Has DiedThe twelve-year reign of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Pope Francis, as the head of the Roman Catholic Church began shortly after the strange and still-unexplained resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, and seven weeks into the second term of Barack Obama as president of the United States. It was fitting that Obama was president during the first four years of Francis’ papacy, as Francis was the Barack Obama of popes: just as Obama did as president of the United States, Pope Francis worked to weaken, instead of strengthen, the institution he was leading,...

Pope Francis Dies at 88 Marking the End of a Tumultuous and Divisive PontificatePope Francis’ death this morning marks the end of a modernising and seemingly benign pontificate for most of the world, but for those who have followed it with any closeness, a time of turmoil, disruption and deep division.Elected on a mandate of reform, Francis set out to make the Church less self-referential and more mission oriented, closer to the faithful and the peripheries, and more relevant to the times. In many ways he achieved this: those who would never give the Catholic Church a second glance, perceiving...

[Catholic Caucus] About the Conclave: Unusual Specific Names You Read About Will Have Been Selected to Deceive You and Manipulate the ProcessNews pages and newspapers are filled today with reports on who are those most likely to succeed Francis as the next Roman Pontiff. While Romans have for centuries cautioned outsiders that, "he who enters [the conclave] as pope, leaves as a Cardinal," this is not exactly what we have in mind.What we do have in mind is what happened in the 2013 conclave, a conclave that should have never taken place and was caused by the absurd and indefensible...

The Vatican has released images of Pope Francis being laid out in an open coffin ahead of the Confirmation of the Death of the Pontiff ceremony. Francis died Monday after suffering a stroke that led to irreversible heart failure following a weeks-long hospitalization with pneumonia. He was 88. The pontiff’s body had been placed in the coffin late Monday, with Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the Vatican camerlengo — the “chamberlain” who essentially acts as head of the Vatican between the end of a papacy and the start of the next — reading the official declaration of death aloud in an intimate...

As you’ve likely heard by now, Pope Francis has died. The 88-year-old progressive Pope had been battling pneumonia and passed away just one day after Easter. Many viewed Francis as “Obama’s Pope,” a nickname he got thanks to long-running rumors that Obama played a role in replacing traditionalist Pope Benedict with the more liberal Francis. And let’s be honest—after the Wikileaks Podesta/DNC dump exposed the Dem Party’s obsession with infiltrating the Catholic Church, those rumors didn’t seem so far-fetched. These tweets from 2016 are a reminder of the backlash: We now know that Dems created fake Catholic groups to try...

I legitimately don't understand. Christianity Today, the flagship evangelical publication founded by the late Billy Graham, declares its method is: "To deliver biblical wisdom and beautiful storytelling from the whole world to the whole world across all media." That publication published THIS on Eater weekend: ******************************************************** Christianity Today @CTmagazine The Bible doesn’t say Jesus was nailed to a cross. One evangelical Bible scholar thinks the crucifixion may have been done with ropes. ********************************************************* Christianity Today had to be community-noted by Christians to correct a grievous biblical error. Maybe it slipped past the editors. But how? How could a theory, so...

I just learned of the passing of Pope Francis. My heart goes out to the millions of Christians all over the world who loved him. I was happy to see him yesterday, though he was obviously very ill. But I’ll always remember him for the below homily he gave in the very early days of COVID. It was really quite beautiful. May God rest his soul. https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/homilies/2020/documents/papa-francesco_20200327_omelia-epidemia.html

Their critics call them MAGA Catholics. Others label them as traditionalists — even fundamentalists. What is certain is that conservative or “faithful” Catholics, as they often prefer to be known, seem to be everywhere right now — from the new candidate for America’s ambassador to the Holy See to holding dinners and prayers services at Mar-A-Lago. This small but fervent wave of new conservative Catholicism is exploding nationwide — more visible than ever as they celebrate their resurrection victory this Easter Sunday.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA - While Christians have often complained of bias in the selection of which days Google honors with its "Google Doodles," believers around the country were reportedly ecstatic to find that the search and advertising giant chose to honor the empty tomb of Jesus on Easter morning with an empty homepage. While many significant holidays like International Women's Day, Labor Day, and "Celebrating Pad Thai" are honored with a specially designed Google logo for the day, the celebration of Jesus's resurrection was given the highest honor, with a completely unaltered Google homepage. "Just as Christ left a completely...

"What did Trump just say about Jesus that made some Christians absolutely lose their minds?"

...My interviews with the two recent converts took place over the course of a year. Do you believe in the resurrection? I asked them. In heaven? Where do you stand on demons? But what I saw of the two young men’s faith, finally, was not through their answers to my generic questions about Christianity. It was reflected in their faces and enacted in their gestures as I attended religious services beside them. ... I discovered the two young comedians were not outliers when it comes to my generation’s relationship to faith in Britain. Not only did I meet a host...

The Christian crowdfunding platform GiveSendGo has staunchly defended its decision to host a fundraising campaign for the family of Karmelo Anthony, a 17-year-old Texas teenager charged with the murder of fellow student Austin Metcalf. The fundraiser, which has raised nearly $500,000, has sparked significant controversy, with critics arguing it violates the platform’s policies against campaigns that financially benefit individuals accused of violent crimes. Despite the backlash, GiveSendGo’s founders remain firm, emphasizing their commitment to due process and the presumption of innocence. On April 2, 2025, Karmelo Anthony, a senior at Frisco Centennial High School, allegedly stabbed 17-year-old Austin Metcalf, a...

Reports of a “quiet revival” within the Catholic Church in Britain have been drawing widespread attention over the past week as parishes up and down the country witness ahead of the Easter celebrations a steady growth in interest and attendance, especially among the young. At the vigil of the Lord’s Resurrection this Saturday, the London dioceses of Southwark and Westminster will be receiving higher numbers than usual into the Church, with Southwark receiving 450 new candidates and catechumens — a decade high — and Westminster recording 500 new faithful, up by 25% from the previous year. ...About half of those...

Muslims Threaten to Sue Spain in Strasbourg Over Holy Week Processions, Claim They “Offend Islam”A group of British Muslims of Iranian origin, led by Anjem Choudary, is threatening to file a lawsuit before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.They allege that Spain’s traditional Holy Week processions are an “offense to Islam” and to the Prophet Muhammad, demanding their immediate ban.The Muslim group intends to sue Spain in Strasbourg over these Catholic processions, with Choudary arguing that these religious events, rooted in Catholic tradition since 1978, are a “provocation” against Muslims.“It’s an offense to the thousands of Muslims forced...