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[Catholic Caucus] ‘Stand Up Like Free Men’: The modern history of standing for CommunionThe posture of Catholics receiving Communion has been a subject of discussion in recent weeks, after Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago wrote a column last month asking that people “receive Holy Communion standing.”While kneeling is known to have been the universal Roman Catholic practice for many centuries, receiving the Eucharist while standing is currently the ‘normative’ or ‘default’ posture for the United States and in many other places around the world.Pre-conciliar trendsEven before the Second Vatican Council, there was advocacy in the Church among some liturgical theologians...

FBI Director Wray explains why he’s resigning, defends feds’ raid of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Outgoing FBI Director Christopher Wray said Sunday he’s leaving his post when President-elect Donald Trump assumes office to avoid throwing the bureau “deeper in the fray” as he defended the agency’s 2022 raid of the 45th president’s Florida estate. The head of the FBI addressed his impending resignation, the controversial search for classified documents at Mar-a-Lago and how China is the “defining threat of our generation” in a wide-ranging interview on CBS’s “60 Minutes” Sunday night. Wray, 58, said deciding to step down before completing his 10-year...

PELL: the Scapegoating and Witch-Hunt of a Hero of the Faith - On the Second Anniversary of His DeathPart I of IIIBy Serre Verweijfor Rorate CaeliWhen Cardinal Pell died in early 2023, he received a Catholic funeral attended by 30 bishops, hundreds of priests, the Australian opposition leader and a former Australian prime minister. But he was denied a state funeral by the Labour authorities, even though that’s the norm for important public figures. Apparently, it would have been too distressing for victims according to the premier of Victoria, Daniel Andrews. Andrews perpetuated a hateful narrative that was constructed against...

During an interview with CBS News aired on Thursday’s “CBS Evening News,” LAFD Chief Kristin Crowley stated that the cuts to the department’s budget resulted in the department taking from “nonessential duties and responsibilities” but due to the cuts, “we were limited to a certain factor,” in their ability to respond to large-scale events, but with the wind with the recent fires being the way it was, “I honestly don’t think a thousand engines at that very moment could have tapped this fire down.” Host Norah O’Donnell asked, [relevant exchange begins around 11:05] “[A] lot of people are talking about...

To hear President-elect Donald J. Trump tell it, he is about to take over a nation ravaged by crisis, a desolate hellscape of crime, chaos and economic hardship. “Our Country is a disaster, a laughing stock all over the World!” he declared on social media last week.But by many traditional metrics, the America that Mr. Trump will inherit from President Biden when he takes the oath for a second time, two weeks from Monday, is actually in better shape than that bequeathed to any newly elected president since George W. Bush came into office in 2001.For the first time since...

"If you woke up on January 7th of 2021 with the glass still shattered on the floor of the Capitol and the smoke rising and the troops are surrounding the building, and you had said that Donald Trump will be president in 4 years, nobody would have believed that."

Some things we just shouldn't have to search for

The attorney for two women accusing former Florida Representative Matt Gaetz with paying them for sex told Newsweek that his clients do not want to testify during the Senate's confirmation process. Florida attorney Joel Leppard told Newsweek that his clients have already testified in front of the House Ethics Committee and that they are not looking to do so more publicly in front of the Senate during Gaetz's confirmation process. The former representative was nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to become Attorney General. Leppard said his clients will only testify "if they are required to do so." "They do not...

Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chair Rep. Nanette Diaz Barragán (D-Calif.) said mass deportations could cause a spike in costs for American families, including at the grocery store. President-elect Trump has repeatedly pledged large-scale deportations of illegal immigrants, which could greatly impact the workforce. “What we also see, I think, under mass deportations, as you’re going to see further cost for American families going up if you start deporting the agricultural workforce and people in the essential jobs that are putting food on the table, grocery costs are only going to go up,” Barragán said during a Wednesday afternoon MSNBC appearance. She...

Watching Democrats try to figure out how they lost the election is a lot like watching a baby try to take their first steps – sometimes they get very close, then they fall right on their ass. They get there eventually; balance isn’t that difficult to achieve. However, unlike walking, Democrats will lose their life balance repeatedly throughout their lives, even though people do not forget how to walk. Some of them remember how to walk, while others may never stand upright again. Let me say from the start I’m enjoying the hell out of this. Most of these leftists...

Establishment economists are threatening President-elect Donald Trump with a new round of inflation if he restores Americans’ civil right to a secure national border. But the free market will manage the inflation threat by hiring Americans in place of deported migrants, and by investing in productivity-raising machinery, responded EJ Antoni, an economist at the Heritage Foundation. “I see no reason why the adjustment would not happen almost immediately,” he told Breitbart News.

The public murder of Matt Gaetz begins. In 2020, it was first reported that popular MAGA Rep. Matt Gaetz was involved in a sex-trafficking scandal. The bogus allegation arose in 2020 and was pushed continuously by the far-left mainstream media. Months later, in February 2023, the Merrick Garland Department of Justice decided not to charge Matt Gaetz in the sensationalized sex-scandal probe. The investigation originally stemmed from allegations that Rep. Gaetz was had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl. The DOJ investigated the accusations but decided against pressing charges. Gaetz was exonerated of all criminal accusations. It should be...

[Catholic Caucus] Dishonest Cardinal Hollerich: Roman Rite Catholics “Did Not Write” To SynodThe Roman Rite "was not a topic for discussion" at the ex-synod, Luxembourg Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich SJ said at the end of the meeting, according to NcRegister.com (November 6).Cardinal Hollerich added of Catholics: "We were not against them, we were not for them."When reminded that the synod was supposed to include listening to all points of view, Cardinal Hollerich replied: "We discussed things that were raised by the people of God, and those people did not write to us."In reality, there were numerous, well-documented interventions at all stages...

Sara Haines told her co-host Friday on ABC’s “The View” that “not everyone who voted” for President-elect Donald Trump was racist and misogynist. Partial transcript as follows: HAINES: We need to be introspective. If we voted for Kamala Harris, we need to say what didn’t resonate with the voters. You know what didn’t resonate with the voters when they were saying we don’t feel safe and the left focus on defund the police and bail reform. When they were focused on renaming schools, there were people saying, “Hey, students are destroying colleges. I paid for that. I sent them there....

During MSNBC’s coverage of the 2024 election on Wednesday, MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” host and NBC News Chief Washington Correspondent and Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Andrea Mitchell said that President-Elect Donald Trump says things that people think are “truth-telling,” but aren’t true and stated that Trump “bound Joe Biden to a withdrawal” from Afghanistan with the deal Trump reached during his first term in office, even though, by Mitchell’s own acknowledgment, Biden could have decided not to withdraw. Mitchell said, “He then gets into office, he cut the deal with the Taliban, cutting out the Afghan government, that bound Joe...

So, we've heard a lot since 2000, especially from California, about the undemocratic nature of the Electoral College (100% true, it's an anti-democratic institution).Some States have been proposing an (unconstitutional) interstate compact where participating States would give their Electoral votes to the winner of (nonexistent) "national popular vote".My question for FReepers is: Given the results from last night, how fast would California seek to withdraw from such a compact (if it existed) rather than deliver their 54 EV to our 47th President, Donald John Trump?

As former President Donald Trump kicked off his four-rally tour across three states on Monday in Raleigh, North Carolina, many seats sat empty in the 5,000-seat J.S. Dorton Arena, marking the start of his final campaign push. Trump addressed his supporters in a 90-minute speech, covering familiar topics like his proposed tough immigration policies. He mentioned potential tariffs on Mexico if it doesn't assist with border control and aired grievances against his Democratic opponents. Empty seats were evident at the rally, with social media users and Vice President Kamala Harris' Rapid Response team highlighting them despite Trump's frequent boasts about...

As Election Day approaches, former President Donald Trump has increasingly been warning that if he loses, it will be because of cheating. “They’re going to cheat. They cheat. That’s all they want to do is cheat,” Trump said of Democrats during a rally this month in Juneau, Wisconsin. “It’s the only way they’re going to win. And we can’t let that happen, and we can’t let it happen again. We’re going to have no country.” Trump has long inaccurately claimed that he is the legitimate winner of the 2020 election, and false claims of Democratic meddling have been a centerpiece...

CV NEWS FEED // The Catholics for Harris campaign held its second virtual rally on October 23, featuring two speakers who argued that Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, hold deeply Catholic principles. Catholics for Harris held its first virtual event in September, with significantly more speakers in attendance, CatholicVote reported. Alex Nason, a Democrat who has worked for the Irish government and the Arab League, appeared again as the event’s master of ceremonies. Nason welcomed attendees gathered “as a community, united by our shared faith and a deep commitment to the values...

“ Thirteen former Trump administration officials released an open letter on Friday amplifying warnings from John F. Kelly, Donald J. Trump’s longest-serving White House chief of staff, that the former president would rule like a dictator if he returned to office.” ……………. “The letter, organized on Wednesday after Mr. Kelly’s comments were published in The Times on Tuesday, was signed by several outspoken Harris supporters, including two who gave speeches at the Democratic National Convention: Stephanie Grisham, a former Trump White House press secretary, and Olivia Troye, who was an adviser to Mr. Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence. Other signers...