Free Republic

Trust me, I know that it is hard to write accurate, easy-to-read articles about complicated Vatican theological documents. This is especially true when dealing with materials focusing on very nuanced issues that continue to cause behind-the-scenes debates among Catholics. It's even harder to write informative, catchy and, yes, accurate headlines for these kinds of stories. This brings me to a recent New York Times report that ran with this headline: "Vatican Says Catholics Should Not Try to Convert Jews." The problem with that headline is that it is simplistic to the point of being inaccurate -- that is, if the...

Carmel >> A special Mass celebrating the canonization of Saint Junipero Serra was marred on Sunday by vandalism at Carmel Mission Basilica. A 6-foot tall bronze statue of Serra in the mission courtyard was pushed over and the staff in the statue’s hand was broken. A fountain next to the statue was splattered with paint, as were the doors of the cathedral.

This is Free Republic. Our mission here is to fight against the America-hating, God-hating, capitalism-hating, abortionist/homosexualist leftist revolutionaries and marxist/fascist totalitarians who are hellbent on destroying our constitution, our religious freedom, our economic freedom, our Judeo-Christian way of life and the America we love. Pro-life, pro-family, conservative Catholics, Protestants and Jews are not the enemy. All pro-life, pro-family pro-America believers in our one true Judeo-Christian God are our guests, friends and allies in this effort, so please quit attacking your allies! Your attacks are not going to convert anyone. Please save your ammunition for the enemy. We’re on a mission...

This is Free Republic. Our mission here is to fight against the America-hating, God-hating, capitalism-hating, abortionist/homosexualist leftist revolutionaries and marxist/fascist totalitarians who are hellbent on destroying our constitution, our religious freedom, our economic freedom, our Judeo-Christian way of life and the America we love. Pro-life, pro-family, conservative Catholics, Protestants and Jews are not the enemy. All pro-life, pro-family pro-America believers in our one true Judeo-Christian God are our guests, friends and allies in this effort, so please quit attacking your allies! Your attacks are not going to convert anyone. Please save your ammunition for the enemy. We’re on a mission...

... Statues of ... historical figures stand in the U.S. Capitol's National Statuary Hall, where each state has two representatives cast in bronze or marble ... [Father Junipero] Serra could be the first and only actual saint in Statuary Hall -- Pope Francis recently announced plans to canonize him -- yet he's also a polarizing figure. Is it time to send Serra to the sidelines (or more accurately, move his statue to the California Capitol grounds)? ... Take our pointedly unreliable poll, leave a comment or do both! ...

Left: Monument of Junípero Serra on plaza de San Francisco de Asis in Havana; right: Mission church of Jalpan de Serra, Querétaro, Mexico, built by Junípero Serra between 1751 and 1758 (Images: Wikipedia) Los Angeles, Calif.- California missionary Father Junipero Serra’s canonization is “long overdue,” says a university professor concerned that the priest’s history has been politicized and misrepresented. “When he died, many native peoples came to the mission for his burial. They openly wept. Others of his colleagues and even colonists, believed that he would be made a saint, because of the way he had lived his life,...

The Pope to members of the Neocatechumenal Way on the “missio ad gentes”: take to the peripheries of the world the message the God loves humanity and that love is possible Vatican City, 6 March 2015 (VIS) – This morning in the Paul VI Hall Pope Francis received in audience seven thousand members of the Neocatechumenal Way, including two hundred families who will shortly depart on the “missio ad gentes”. “The task of the Pope is to confirm brothers in the faith”, said the Holy Father. “You too, with this gesture, have asked Peter's Successor to confirm your calling, to...

The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan says he could recommend extending the mission and maintaining U.S. troops in the country, Army Times reports. “I’m taking a look and assessing every day based on the enemy situation, based on how much we’re getting done with the Afghans, how they’re progressing on their lines of effort, how the [Train, Advise and Assist mission] is going, how the government’s coming along, [and] if we can really get after the objectives that we set,” said Gen. John Campbell, commander of the Resolute Support mission, during an interview Jan. 15 with Army Times. There are...

SIERRA VISTA — While it’s a new year, one constant Americans can count on every year is its military, Maj. Gen. Robert P. Ashley said. But even that constant is going through changes with the reduction in its forces coupled with fewer citizens willing to to be part of the nation’s volunteer military forces, the commander of the Army’s Intelligence Center of Excellence and Fort Huachuca said Saturday. Speaking at the monthly meeting of the Greater Sierra Visa United Veterans Council, Ashley said, “I’m here today in a very elite company. You are part of an honored few that were...

He is probably known among Catholics almost entirely as the man who last July gave the Holy Father a high five. I happened to meet the Evangelical evangelist James Robison recently at a gathering to discuss a common project, and was surprised when he said, to a group mixing conservative Evangelicals and Catholics (two of us converts), “I’ve met the pope. I love that man.” The high five, which left some Catholics I know muttering, he explained in the Huffington Post a few days afterward. At a three-hour meeting at the Vatican, Francis listened to several Evangelical leaders talk...

The Special Representative of the UN Secretary General and head of UNMIL, Ms Karin Landgren, has confirmed here that an international staff of the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) has tested positive of the deadly Ebola virus. The staff member, who works for UNMIL medical team, is currently receiving treatment. According to a press statement issued in Monrovia on Wednesday, SRSG Ms. Karin Landgren said this is the second case of Ebola within the mission. An earlier probable case resulted to the death of a staff member on 25 September 2014... Meanwhile the Mission is extending the robust review...

Officials and medical personnel have expressed concern that American troops being deployed in Liberia to fight the spread of the Ebola virus may be at risk for contracting malaria, an often just-as-deadly disease more easily spread in an insecure sanitary atmosphere. A local report from Denver's KUSA notes that, in the wake of Fort Carson, Colorado sending 160 troops to Liberia in the coming weeks, military medical personnel are beginning to engage with the possibility of troops contracting malaria. According to medical expert Dr. John Torres, one child dies every day in Africa from malaria, an astronomical figure. While Ebola...

Radical Islamists seem intent on conquest. It has always been so. From the beginning and down through the ages, radical jihadists have attempted to convert people to their religion by force. “Convert” they cry “or we have nothing to offer you but the sword.”

On Thursday, the Pentagon revealed that the Yazidi minorities have been encircled by Islamic State forces on Mt. Sinjar for weeks were in much better shape. Military officials determined that select airstrikes on ISIS positions around the mountain had been successful, and some Yazidis had already evacuated the area. Defense officials determined that the success of contingency operations against ISIS in western Iraq indicated that no further action would need to be undertaken. In a press conference on Thursday, President Barack Obama confirmed that the mission to save the Yazidis had been a success. He added that, while the...

A dramatic international rescue mission of thousands of trapped refugees in northern Iraq was ‘far less likely’ this morning after the Government revealed huge numbers had already escaped across the border to Syria. David Cameron, returning from holiday 24 hours early to chair an emergency Cobra meeting in Downing Street, yesterday revealed Britain was working on ‘detailed plans’ to airlift up to 30,000 desperate Yazidis cornered by Islamic State extremists on Mount Sinjar. But the International Development Secretary Justine Greening confirmed this morning that American surveillance had revealed fewer people were left on the mountain than first feared. But she...

MISSION, Texas (AP) — Deputy Rudy Trevino was patrolling a park along the Texas-Mexico border when he spied movement in the darkness. Swinging his spotlight toward the motion revealed 14 women and children who had just sneaked across the Rio Grande in a small boat The youngest, a 14-month-old boy from Guatemala, lay quietly in a baby carrier hung from his mother's chest. The oldest, a 38-year-old woman from El Salvador, cried with her head in her hands, her 7-year-old daughter leaning against her. In minutes, they were loaded into a Border Patrol van and whisked away — a typical...

In April, we shared with you an opportunity to support Ligonier’s international outreach in Brazil during the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Thanks to the generosity of our supporters, the Lord supplied the resources to print over 140,000 booklets from R.C. Sproul to distribute during the games in both Portuguese and English. Last week, the World Cup officially began with a game between Brazil and Croatia. Our partners in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro were out on the streets at bus stations, subways, and the areas surrounding the stadiums handing out copies of Dr. R.C. Sproul’s Can I Have Joy...

In recent years, I have heard certain military personnel, usually Marines, bragging that they never leave a comrade behind—even a dead comrade.Let’s think about that.For one thing, I call it a “purported” policy because I am not sure it is the official policy of the Marines or any other unit. I even wonder if it is a Marine policy that has been proclaimed by Marine privates without consulting with the Commandant of the Marine Corps. If so, the Commandant has not been quick enough or loud enough at correcting the notion that the Marines never leave a dead comrade behind.The...

Those pursuing three authoritarian agenda items once considered unthinkable emanating from an administration which has become openly hostile to what once were our basic freedoms can already hang “Mission (Partially) Accomplished” banners on their walls.First, there are the ongoing revelations about the government’s accumulation of digital mountains [1] of personal information on citizens’ daily lives.If there’s a positive result from this, it would be that many Americans have become a bit more careful about their data trail. But the good news ends there. Our emails, Facebook posts, text messages and other communications are subject to easy scrutiny by government...

The National Security Agency (NSA) will send its recommendations for where to store telephone metadata records to President Obama later this week, the outgoing NSA director said Friday in a speech defending his agency’s surveillance tactics. General Keith Alexander, who is retiring as NSA director next month, did not say where he thinks the data should be held. President Obama recommended on January 17th that the government stop holding Americans’ phone call records, but pushing the data out to either telephone companies or to a third party are both seen as having significant drawbacks. “The good news is we have...