Free Republic

Silence Is Necessary – On Cultivating Silence in Our Soul By: Msgr. Charles PopeI suppose it goes without saying that we live in a very fast-paced, hectic, and noisy world.  We’re often in a big hurry to get somewhere. Stress is the norm and noise is all around us in the form of radios, televisions, iPods, etc. We’re plugged in but often tuned out. Very few of us live at the pace or volume of normal life.So overstimulated are we that many literally cannot relax when it is quiet; silence unnerves them. I recently took an informal poll in a...

Honor to the Martyrs! A Declaration of Gratitude to the Martyrs of Our Day By: Msgr. Charles PopeIn the Divine Office last week we read a remarkable passage on the persecution of the Church. It seems proper to consider a portion of it in times like these; more on that in a moment.Of course in writing of persecution and martyrdom, I write as an American who, though experiencing a lot more scorn these days, does not have to endure grave threat for being a Catholic. But as I consider Catholics and Christians in places like Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Nigeria, the...

http://www.aleteia.org/en/video/on-trial-for-being-catholic-5836428944605184 Watch the video. It says it all.

Choice and Consequences By: Msgr. Charles PopeThe themes of early Lent are pretty basic. The ashes of Ash Wednesday announce the simple truth that we are going to die and  thereafter face judgment. Hence, we need to repent and come to believe the good news that only Jesus can save us.Another early reading from Thursday after Ash Wednesday featured Moses laying out the basic reality that all of us have a choice to make. He says to us,Today I have set before youlife and prosperity, death and doom …I call heaven and earth today to witness against you:I have set before you life...

Within the context of keeping the Syrian jihad alive, it seems there is no end to the attempts of some Islamic clerics to legitimize otherwise forbidden behavior in order to gratify the sexual urges of the jihadis and keep them fighting Syrian president Bashar Assad. First, there was the now infamous “sex-jihad” fatwa, which holds that any Muslim woman who willingly allows her body to be used by the sexually-deprived jihadis becomes herself a jihadi, if not a “martyr,” deserving of all the honor and rewards associated with those titles. (Much has been written about the sex jihad, including videotaped...

Oprah and the AtheistsTrent Horn October 23, 2013 | Members of the atheist community are outraged, but not at their usual targets, such as conservative politicians or pastors. Instead, they have set their sights on Oprah Winfrey.This past weekend on her show Super Soul Sunday, Oprah interviewed Diana Nyad, the 64-year-old marathon swimmer, to discuss her amazing feat of swimming from Cuba to Florida in 53 hours. During the course of the interview the following exchange occurred:Nyad: I can stand at the beach’s edge with the most devout Christian, Jew, Buddhist, go on down the line, and weep with the...

The MSM-e, hollywood, activist atheists, activists within the Roman Catholic Church (RCC),etc, have been, and are pushing really hard for the Roman Catholic Church to change its stance on not allowing females to serve as priests. I don't see these same usual suspects pushing for greater "inclusiveness," i.e., pushing for Sunni, Shiite, or Sufi Islam to allow female Imams or pushing for female Rabbis within Orthodox Judaism, or even other branches of the same.

Like a zombie that just won't stay dead, pretentious left-wing talking head Keith Olbermann has somehow managed to find a way to befoul Americans' living rooms once more. Thankfully, unless you are a baseball junkie, you won't have to witness his bloviations since Olbermann is scheduled to serve as a host for the Turner Broadcasting System's coverage of post-season Major League Baseball playoff games. The move is a logical one for Olbermann, who began his television career as a sportscaster for almost 20 years before venting his venom on politics for the liberal MSNBC and Current TV channels. According to...

Conflicted about Fasting and Abstinence By Dr. Jeff Mirus | April 12, 2013 3:30 PM Have you noticed that fasting and abstinence are making a modest comeback in the Church—at least the English-speaking Church—which all but abandoned these practices during the course of the 20th century? The English bishops brought back abstinence formally in 2011. The American bishops have been calling for it, without actually changing the rules, since 2012.Back in my grandparents’ day, each Friday of the year was a day of fast and abstinence (plus some other days), and all the days of Lent were fast days with...

Terror TV, Al Jazeera, is wasting no time exploiting its buy of "Current TV" to advance its malevolent jihadist propaganda. Al Jazeera-Current is going after the vocal among us who are exposing their terror ties and lies to advance sharia and jihad. They did a segment on my defense of freedom as "islamophobia." Of course Hamas-CAIR posted the video here. Al Jazeera is the leading terrorist propaganda organization in the world. Jihad murder mastermind Anwar al-Awlaki has praised Al Jazeera, and several years ago one of its most prominent reporters was arrested on terror charges. Al Jazeera also has for...

Aides to former Democratic Vice President Al Gore have failed to respond to a recent Al-Jazeera TV broadcast, in which a top imam affirmed the death penalty for anyone who quits Islam. Gore sold his Current TV network to Al-Jazeera, which now plans to extend its broadcast into the United States this summer, according to Ashok Sinha, vice president of corporate communications at Current TV/Al-Jazeera America.

"...Now, many of us have known or heard of someone who picked a skyrocketing stock through dumb luck or investment acumen and made a killing in that stock as they held on to it for a few years. With this guy however, lightning just keeps striking – over and over again. So he comes out of the Washington with a bunch of debt. Then he finds himself, a man who never worked in the private sector much less start a business - having stock options dumped in his lap by two corporations whose shares turn out to be the biggest...

In the history of mankind there are countless instances of cult figures who have lead their followers to ruin and disillusionment. Names like Jim Jones, David Koresh, The Pied Piper, Bernie Madoff, Adolph Hitler, Charles Manson, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and a whole host of TV evangelists have done their damage. It was easy for those outside and not sucked in by these hucksters to see the message they peddled defied logic, science and the laws of economics: Alchemy, master race, buy your way into heaven, getting something for nothing, all have that common thread. ... Gore was making hundreds of...

Just call him Al Gorezeera. Yesterday morning, the still shell shocked staff at Current TV was called to an all hands staff meeting at its San Francisco headquarters, which was teleconferenced to their offices in LA and NYC, to meet their new bosses. That would be two of Al Jazeera’s top guys: Ehab Al Shihabi, executive director of international operations, and Muftah AlSuwaidan, general manager of the London bureau. Ominously missing was the creator of Current, the self proclaimed inventor of the Internet and savior of clean energy, Al Gore, although his partner, Joel Hyatt, stood proudly with the Al...

It's nice to see a progressive admit that their old hero is a hypocrite: Yesterday morning, the still shell shocked staff at Current TV was called to an all hands staff meeting at its San Francisco headquarters, which was teleconferenced to their offices in LA and NYC, to meet their new bosses. That would be two of Al Jazeera’s top guys: Ehab Al Shihabi, executive director of international operations, and Muftah AlSuwaidan, general manager of the London bureau. Ominously missing was the creator of Current, the self proclaimed inventor of the Internet and savior of clean energy, Al Gore, although...

Former vice president Al Gore, newly flush with cash from his sale of his Current TV to Al Qaeda's favorite TV channel, Al Jazeera, did not even bother to show up for the first meeting between the Current staff and the new ownership. New York Post TV critic Linda Stasi has the story: Yesterday morning, the still shell shocked staff at Current TV was called to an all hands staff meeting at its San Francisco headquarters, which was teleconferenced to their offices in LA and NYC, to meet their new bosses. That would be two of Al Jazeera’s top guys:...

Glen Beck was too "right wing" - So Gore sold to "an authoritarian-Islamist government that has criminalized homosexuality, discriminates against non-Muslims, prosecutes journalists, and has a “Not Free” rating from Freedom House."

Well how about that little Goreacle? When he made a gazillion dollars by creating the Church of Global Warming and setting up a convenient donation program by selling carbon credits (which were created, quite literally, out of thin air), we thought it was a fluke.(snip) We may have been wrong. By selling his nascent Current TV network to Al-Jazeera he has clearly moved into mogul deal-making status.   Q: is Al Gore now wealthy enough to officially be maligned as part of the hated 1% A: Of course not, he’s a well-intentioned liberal. (snip)It’s not that there weren’t other suitors who...

Where is God At Times Like These? A meditation in the wake of a violent atrocity.By: Msgr. Charles Pope One of the great mysteries to to believer and non-believer alike is the mystery of evil and suffering.  If there is a God who is omnipotent and omniscient how can he tolerate evil, injustice, and suffering of the innocent? Where was God yesterday when the shootings in Connecticut occurred?  Where is God when a young girl is raped, when genocide is committed, when evil men hatch their plots? Why Did God even conceive the evil ones, and let them be...

Second Seal: World War 3 Wednesday, May 16th, 2012 @ 03:10 am   My dearest beloved daughter I must inform you that a Third World War is about to unfold in the world My tears flow this morning as you can see.*The Second Seal is about to unfold as foretold to John the Evangelist in the Book of Revelation.It will start in Europe.Your banking system will be the cause and Germany, once again, will be involved in this tragedy as it was on the last two occasions.When it commences much will be over saving the economy and catastrophe will affect...