Free Republic

Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul the Apostle Mark 16:15-18 Friends, today we reflect on the significance of the conversion of St. Paul. Paul’s encounter on the road to Damascus was an answer to this question: when would God gather the nations and through Israel bring his rule to the whole world? When Paul met Jesus he realized that the promises of God had been fulfilled, that the expectations of the prophets had been met—but in a most unexpected and extraordinary way. He knew from his tradition that God, through Israel, would deliver the world from sin, gather the...

As ex-Muslim converts to Catholicism warn the Holy Father on the inherent dangers of Islam, it's notable that Cdl. Raymond Burke has been warning Catholics that Muslims' Allah is not the Prince of Peace heralded in Isaiah 9:6. In their sobering letter to Pope Francis, the former Muslims quoted the Quran: ‬ For the Qur'an, ‬Christians "‬are only impurity" (‬Qur'an ‬9.28)‬," "‬the worst of Creation" (‬Qur'an ‬98.6)‬, ‬all condemned to Hell (‬Qur'an ‬4.48)‬, ‬so Allah must exterminate them (‬Quran ‬9.30)‬. They added, "We must not be deceived by the Quranic verses deemed tolerant, ‬because they have all been repealed by the verse...

No conciliar decree has had more influence, while apparently remaining unread, than Lumen Gentium. Two generations of Catholics have now been educated to believe that in effect it abolished the hierarchical conception of the Church, substituting in its place the idea of “the people of God,” which is then understood as essentially a democracy. The document obviously remains unread because its professed devotees appear unaware that it contains the strongest possible reaffirmations of hierarchical authority, including statements about papal authority as strong as anything in the decrees of the First Vatican Council, which Vatican II allegedly “corrected.” (The late Jesuit...