Free Republic

The Failure of Interreligious Dialogue with IslamLast week, on the morning of August 7th, Pope Francis, just before his regular Wednesday general audience, received a group of representatives from the Afghan Muslim community in Italy. He touched upon the “complicated and dramatic history [in Afghanistan], marked by a succession of wars and blood-stained conflicts, which have made it very difficult for people to lead peaceful, free and secure lives.” The pontiff went on to tell the Afghan males—there were, surprisingly, no women at the encounter—“to continue in [their] noble endeavour to promote religious harmony and to strive to overcome misunderstandings...

[Catholic Caucus] The Magisterium of Francis Illuminates Saint PaulIn the light of the Magisterium of Pope Francis, Aldo Maria Valli (AldoMariaValli-it, 8 August) has updated Saint Paul's speech on the Areopagus in Athens, which in its original version is rigid and narrow-minded and does not correspond to the gigantic progress in theology after the Second Vatican Council. Here is the new version:Then Paul, standing in the middle of the Areopagus, said: 'Athenians, I see that you are very religious in everything. As I passed by and looked at your monuments, I also found an altar with the inscription 'To an...

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 , 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2...

Anne-Marie Slaughter, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s director of policy planning, now denies she endorsed Today’s Zaman, the flagship newspaper of Fethullah Gülen’s Islamist cult. Here is a google cache record with Prof. Slaughter’s endorsement, and here is the page now, with Professor Slaughter’s endorsement excised. Professor Slaughter denies she made the endorsementThere are two possible explanations: (1) Professor Slaughter is being truthful, and Today’s Zaman simply made it all up. If so, this suggests that the ethics of Zaman and the organization which sponsors it are non-existent. (2) Professor Slaughter asked for the retraction only after learning about Today’s...

[Catholic Caucus] Bergoglio’s election was celebrated by the Freemasons and he continues to advance their agendaIn his first brief address to the crowd filling St. Peter’s Square that chilly evening, Bergoglio mentioned the Freemason tenet of 'brotherhood' twice. He never uttered the term 'Catholic.'(Ed. note: The following article is Part 1 of a series of blogposts adapted from a talk given by attorney Elizabeth Yore at the December 9 “Is The Pope Catholic” conference hosted by Dr. Edmund Mazza.)Introduction Dialogue dominates the decade of Bergoglio.Dialogue litters the language of Bergoglio’s apostolic exhortations and encyclicals.Dialogue was the justification for the deadly...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the weekly Cabinet meeting Sunday that he is optimistic on the possibility of reaching an agreement on the government's planned judicial reforms. "We are currently in the process of negotiations with the aim of reaching a broad agreement. I would like to remind you that before the elections, many of the leaders of the current opposition supported fundamental changes in the judicial system. Therefore, there is a basis for agreements that can be reached with good will and genuine negotiations," Netanyahu said at the beginning of the Cabinet meeting. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant entered...

When Christendom learned to fight fire with fireRaymond Ibrahim's Defenders of the West: The Christian Heroes Who Stood Against Islam, chronicles the lives of eight great Crusaders who defended Christians against Islamic extermination, savagery, occupation, and slavery. These heroes demonstrated great courage on the battlefield and a fierce devotion to their Christian faith. Raymond Ibrahim, an expert in Islamic history and doctrine and a frequent contributor to American Thinker, spotlights Duke Godfrey of Bouillon, France; El Cid (Roderick Diaz of Spain); King Richard the Lionheart of England; St. Ferdinand of Spain; St. Louis of France; John Hunyadi of Wallachia; Skanderbeg,...

Recently, the Akron Roundtable of Ohio invited me to give a presentation on the issue of election integrity as part of a recurring series it calls “Point/Counterpoint.” As I told the audience, the sponsors of the Roundtable, which includes the Kiwanis Club, the Greater Akron Chamber, and the Akron Beacon Journal, were to be applauded for upholding the great American tradition of having civil, even vigorous discussions on important issues from individuals with differing points of view, a tradition that has virtually disappeared in our communities and college campuses. The progressive, radical left, however, has no interest in upholding this...

Debunking Dialogue in the Pontificate of Pope Francis — A Response to Austen Ivereigh’s article “The Limits of Dialogue” Traditional Latin Mass in Kampala, Uganda (Photo: New Vision, Uganda)The author of this guest post, Michael Kakooza, is a Ugandan Catholic who discovered the Traditional Latin Mass while studying in the UK (see Una Voce Scotland Newsletter, 19th April 2019, pp. 5-6). He is a member of the Traditional Latin Mass Community in Kampala which is ministered to by the Institute of the Good Shepherd. Dr. Kakooza holds a PhD in Communication and Ideology from the University of Wales; his...

[Catholic Caucus] North American Martyrs and the Importance of Baptism The religious impact of the discovery of the New World in the late 15th century cannot be overestimated. Although Catholic Europeans were aware of areas of the world that were not Christian (they had been involved in centuries of crusades against the Muslims), the assumption of most Catholics was that the Gospel had reached the ends of the earth, even if some vast areas had still not accepted it.However, with the discovery of the New World, the Church realized that even 1,500 years after the Incarnation there was still a...

‘Assault’: Asian cardinal denounces Muslim resumed takeover of Catholic cathedral Hagia Sophia Cardinal Charles Bo said that ‘turning what was once the world’s largest cathedral into a mosque’ will ‘sow tensions, divide people and inflict pain.’ YANGON, Myanmar, July 24, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — A Catholic cardinal who is the leader of the Asian bishops has strongly condemned the move of the Turkish government to allow the former Catholic cathedral Hagia Sophia, once the most important church in Eastern Christianity, to be turned back into a mosque. Cardinal Charles Bo said that not only does the move “grieve” him, but he...

Old School™ With Patrick Rooney Podcast is back with a vengeance! Patrick interviews long-time friend and popular comedian Marc Yaffee, asking if Americans can talk to each other again, after the hostilities among "the tribes" have been ramped up by to the extreme in recent months. This is Part I of a two-part series... Part II will discuss how Marc became a successful comedian (part of the "Success" podcast series)

“While we write and print millions of words about race in America, why is it still so hard to have a truly respectful, decent, and humble dialogue about perhaps the most complicated and contentious issue in American life?” asks David French in his Dispatch article “American Racism: We’ve Got So Very Far to Go.” Yet he does not mention in his story of personal change the elephant in the room: the Black Lives Matter movement’s radical cultural hegemony.Establishment Republicans made the same mistake by ignoring the movement’s radical premise: that at its core, America is rotten and systemically racist, and...

Pope Silent on Captive Italian’s Proselytism Aid worker Silvia Romano's conversion to Islam sparks furor ROME (ChurchMilitant.com) - Pope Francis remains tight-lipped on the capture and conversion of an Italian aid worker to Islam despite his repeated rebukes against proselytism, even as a public outcry has erupted in Italy against the victim's "forced" conversion. Silvia Romano, now 24, and a baptized Catholic, was serving as a volunteer in an orphanage in a village in Kenya when gunmen from Somalia's al-Shabaab Islamic terrorist organization abducted her in Nov. 2018 and held her captive for 18 months.  Silvia Romano returns to Rome in Islamic garb   The aid worker,...

Proselytism, triumphalism, and more! June 5 is the feast of St. Boniface Winfrid in the Roman calendar, an eighth-century Englishman who evangelized the Germanic peoples with such zeal and success that he is commonly known as the Apostle of Germany. Today the so-called Catholic News Agency sent a tweet with a link to its biographical page about this great bishop and martyr, which notes: St. Boniface was very bold in his faith, and was well known for being very good at using the local customs and culture of the day to bring people to Christ. He was born in Devonshire,...

What is -- or rather should be -- the purpose of interfaith dialogue? When the Vatican and Pope Francis announce, as they recently did, that they are engaged in interfaith dialogue with leading Muslims, what exactly are they conveying to the world? What are they accomplishing? The answer to this question is the difference between what true interfaith dialogue is -- namely, an excellent thing that acknowledges and tries to overcome complications -- and what most modern day interfaith dialogue amounts to: Soothing but false panaceas that serve only to suppress, leaving complications to fester and metastasize beneath the surface....

The number of Russians residing and working in the Czech Republic has been steadily growing in recent years. Today Russians are the fourth strongest foreign minority in the country, after Vietnamese, Slovak and Ukrainian nationals. In the last decade their number rose from 23,000 to 37,000. For young Russians, Prague is an attractive city free of the constraints of the Putin regime, and a good place for business and entertainment. The language barrier is easily surmountable due to both nations speaking a Slavic language. However there is one barrier that is harder to cross and that is the stigma of...

BLOCKED by the New catholic Red Guards. How about you? Posted on 4 January 2018 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf In the last couple of days I’ve discovered that I’ve been blocked on Twitter by Fr. Thomas Rosica (@FatherRosica) and by Massimo “Beans” Faggioli (@massimofaggioli).I am not sure why I clicked on a tweet reference to Rosica, since I can’t remember the last time I purposely looked at his feed. I don’t recall ever tweeting to or about him or retweeting. Hence, I don’t know when I was blocked or why.But, I think we all know why.I also am not sure...

The Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome will be hosting a year-long series of lectures on the fiftieth anniversary of Humanae Vitae. The featured speakers are not known to be great proponents of the encyclical, while noted scholars on the subject of the consequences of ignoring the prohibition against contraception, such as Mary Eberstadt, are conspicuous by their absence. The series is, of course, billed as an “interdisciplinary study,” a form of “dialogue” among differing views – yet the preponderance of views represented leans in a certain, predictable direction.This seems to be a recurring phenomenon when the call to “dialogue”...

Rome, September 28 - Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin said on Thursday that "it's important to dialogue even within the Church", in response to a letter from a group of conservative Catholics accusing Pope Francis of heresy.