Free Republic

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - "We are not isolated and we are not Christians individually, each on his or her own". Instead, we are all part of the Church, "a large family, where one is welcomed," where "one learns to live as believers and disciples of the Lord Jesus," Pope Francis said. Speaking in the last general audience before the July break, the Holy Father devoted his catechesis to the Church before a crowd of 35,000 in St Peter's Square. Despite a few drops of rain, he walked extensively among the assembled faithful. In his address, he warned against those who...

White House hopeful Tom Tancredo said Thursday the existence of the Congressional Black Caucus and other race-based groups of lawmakers amounts to segregation and should be abolished. The request comes in the wake of reports that Rep. Stephen Cohen, D-Tenn., was refused admission to the caucus because he is white. All 43 members of caucus are black.

The Enemies of Religious Liberty -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- James Hitchcock -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright (c) 2004 First Things 140 (February 2004): 26-30. It is common for religious believers to lament the Supreme Court’s barely concealed hostility to the free exercise of religion, at least since the middle decades of the twentieth century. But in the long term, even more damage is likely to be done by the influence of ideas advocated by a cluster of political and legal theorists in the academy. For these writers, religious liberty itself is a pernicious idea. The term “liberalism” in recent political theory has been defined, by John...

"The Star Spangled Banner" might be sung and Old Glory might be waved on the UC Berkeley campus during a remembrance ceremony on Sept. 11 -- just don't expect campus organizers to encourage that sort of thing. "Flags promote nationalism," says Graduate Assembly president Jessica Quindel, one of the people responsible for picking student speakers for the main show at Sproul Plaza at noon. "We are steering away from singing the national anthem or handing out red, white and blue ribbons because they are political and exclusionary." The decision to exclude the flag and anthem from the official remembrance program...