Free Republic

The woman who risked her own life to try and protect children from a knife-wielding attacker has been called a ‘hero’. Leanne Flynn is still in hospital after a man attacked her and three children aged five and six in Dublin on Thursday. A five-year-old girl is still in critical condition after undergoing emergency surgery at Temple Street Children’s Hospital, while two other young victims, a five-year-old boy and a six-year-old girl, have both been discharged from Crumlin Children’s Hospital. Leanne, their brave carer, was described as being in a serious but stable condition in Dublin’s Mater Hospital. Her brother...

The minister of a church in Kensington Market says she’s “heartbroken” and “extremely anxious” for those staying at an encampment there after receiving word that the city intends to evict its residents and clear the site on Friday morning. Rev. Canon Maggie Helwig of St. Stephen-In-The-Field Anglican Church on Bellevue Avenue told CP24 that the City of Toronto’s Encampment Office informed them on Wednesday night that it plans to remove the makeshift camp, which is located on a small plot of private and city-owned land just west of the church, sometime between 7 and 9 a.m. on Friday. “We have...

[Catholic Caucus] Is Francis a Pope or a Pretender?The arguments in his defense don’t stand the test of timeIn the wake of Bishop Joseph Strickland’s removal by Francis, the question of Francis’ own status has resurfaced. Is he really the pope? Or is he an imposter or an anti-pope or something worse?When the question was initially raised years ago, quite a few Catholic theologians and commentators came to Francis’ defense. They quoted scripture, canon law, and past theologians, and they seemed quite confident that they were right and that critics of Francis didn’t know what they were talking about.But, as...