Free Republic

The Archdiocese of Detroit is warning Catholics in metro Detroit ... to stay away from a national conference of liberal Catholics to be held in Detroit next year. And Archbishop of Detroit Allen Vigneron is calling upon organizers of the conference to cancel their plans, saying they are in opposition to the Catholic faith. The American Catholic Council, which calls for church reforms and greater openness, is set to hold a national gathering in June 2011 featuring progressive Catholic leaders near the 35th anniversary of the ‘Call to Action,’ a Detroit gathering in 1976 that urged reform and was held...

James White had a very thoughtful post on the theological issues that underlie the decision to be or not to be Roman Catholic. Reading that post, as well as listening to his extended Dividing Line podcast has led me back into the fold of Calvinism, which I believe is a very good thing. I need to solidify my theology if I expect to defend it against outsiders. But it leaves me with the question of why I’m Reformed and not something else, like Roman Catholic. Regular readers of this blog will recall that I was raised Catholic–baptized and confirmed. So...

What could change the faith of a Catholic from birth (and former altar boy) in his 38th year? The power of God and His Word - the Holy Scriptures! A fiercely independent electrical engineer, successful businessman, married 15 years with two children; I had gotten myself into financial and marital trouble. I had always prided myself in having my life in control. I was the "middle child" of 5 boys, and I felt I was the most secure in life. I had always tried to balance life's priorities, including religion, but things slowly got away from me. I never truly...

I joined the Roman Catholic Church because I was looking for God. I entered the convent because I wanted to be close to God and to serve Him with radical devotion. But it wasn't until after I left Catholicism that I found the kind of relationship with God that I had been looking for all along. You can read about it in my poems. My pastor and my father have both advised me not to give out personal information. This biography is an attempt to share my heart and my life within the framework of their advice. I started out...

Following is my resignation letter from the Roman Catholic Church and from my position as Director of the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA), a program designed to teach Catholicism to adults who would like to become Catholics. This letter serves to inform you that I am separating myself from the Roman Catholic Church. This decision has come about after many months of intensive research into the Scriptures, the writings of the Patristic fathers of the church, and church history. During this period of research I have considered the writings and/or oral arguments of such Catholic authors as...

Mel Gibson: $8M More to Private ChurchYou may recall Gibson telling the officer who arrested him that he “owned half of Malibu.”  Well, not quite. But as I reported in this space last February, following up on a New York Times report by Christopher Noxon, Gibson has been building a religious retreat in Malibu for some time.  Holy Family is a Catholic church that isn’t recognized by any archdiocese.   Instead, it follows beliefs counter to the 1965 Vatican II Conference, which among other things, absolved Jews of Christ’s death. Instead, Holy Family Catholic Church adheres to 16th century Catholic values.Click...

I was baptized in a Greek Orthodox Church as an infant. Since the Orthodox Church was too far away, my mother got permission from a Catholic priest for me to attend Mass and CCD. He told us since I was not Catholic I would not be able to take part in the Sacraments. I remember all those years attending Mass and watching all my classmates go to Confession and receive Communion, but unable to participate. I questioned, even as a child, these man-made laws. Yet, I dreamed as a young child of becoming a nun. The nuns told my mother...