Free Republic

[Catholic Caucus] Half of Toronto’s Catholic school trustees agree to consider recognizing ‘Pride Month’ The vote outraged parents expecting a Catholic education from Catholic schools. TORONTO, May 8. 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — An LGBT activist elementary Catholic school teacher is lobbying the Toronto Catholic District School Board to recognize June as “Pride Month” — and half of the board voted Thursday to consider the idea. “There is no Catholic reason not to recognize the diversity of our LGBTQ students through an event such as Pride Month,” Paulo De Buono claimed in a May 7 three-minute video presentation to the board. Six...

Question: Should Christian leaders be restored to ministry after moral failures? Should Christian leaders be restored to a position of Christian ministry and trust once they have betrayed that trust? I have addressed aspects of that question in previous Christian Post columns (Feb. 7 and Feb. 14, 2020). However, this is a somewhat different question that has entered the realm of public debate in a heightened way because of the tragic situation unfolding at Cedarville University. In the interest of full disclosure, I am personally acquainted with Thomas White, Cedarville’s president, who has been placed on “administrative leave” by his...

Santa Marta Mass: Francis hits out at dogmatism, moralism, elitism in Church Pope Francis presided over Mass at the Casa Santa Marta on the Thursday of the Fourth Week of Easter. During his introduction he turned his thoughts to artists saying that yesterday he received a letter from a group of them thanking him for his prayers: “I would like to ask the Lord to bless them because through artists we understand beauty, and without beauty we cannot understand the Gospel”, he said. At the end of his General Audience on Wednesday on the theme of prayer, the Pope said,...

Sex, Women, Power. The Three Challenges Germany Is Issuing To the (Catholic) Church The coronavirus pandemic has made the “synodal path” of the Church of Germany disappear from the news. But meanwhile it continues forward. And on it not only the German Church, but the universal Catholic Church is staking its future: > Francis and the Schism of Germany. History of a NightmareThe synod held its first session in Frankfurt from January 30 to February 1. And the inaugural Mass, officiated by Munich cardinal Reinhard Marx, provided the portrait of it, with bishops, priests, and lay people, men and women,...

Students at a Christian university in Ohio called their pro-life peers “terrorists” in a recent attempt to shut down a new student pro-life club on campus. One News Now reports the matter involves pro-life and pro-abortion students at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, a private school whose motto is “Christ and the Church.” Prior to the coronavirus shutdowns, the Case Western Undergraduate Student Government approved the formation of a new Students for Life club on campus, according to the report. But soon afterward, a group of pro-abortion students began a petition to get the pro-life group kicked off of...

The Scourge of Abortion in New Mexican Catholic Culture—an Introduction Albuquerque, New Mexico’s Dr. Curtis Boyd, is a cult hero to some. To others he is the devil incarnate. Boyd is an abortionist. He performs third-trimester, and even partial-birth, abortions as it is legal within the Albuquerque city limits. Tragically, when the issue was submitted as a referendum to the citizenry of this predominantly Hispanic and Catholic city, ashamedly, it passed. I am told by Elisa Martinez, Executive Director of the New Mexico Alliance for Life, that Boyd’s very modest and unspectacular-looking clinic in the center of town will often...

At least 1,000 Kentuckians protested Saturday in Frankfort against Gov. Andy Beshear’s decision to allow abortions to continue while restricting church gatherings and small businesses. Kentucky Today reports protesters urged the governor to reopen the state and allow people to return to church and work. Like many Democrat governors, Beshear restricted church gatherings, small businesses, non-essential medical care and more to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus and preserve medical supplies for life-saving medical care. However, the governor allowed an exception for elective abortions – after the state’s only abortion clinic donated to his campaign, something state Rep. Stan...

Former navy chaplain speaks outDETROIT (ChurchMilitant.com) - A former Catholic chaplain turned whistleblower is decrying the pattern of gay-friendly bishops who are persecuting straight priests under their authority. Gene Gomulka, who blew the whistle on his former ecclesiastical superior Cdl. Edwin O'Brien for covering up homosexual abuse in the military, told Church Militant that straight priests can expect persecution. He cited recent cases including Fr. Eduard Perrone under Detroit archbishop Allen Vigneron, Fr. Paul Kalchik under Chicago cardinal Blase Cupich and Fr. Mark White under Bp. Barry Knestout in Richmond, Virginia. "With Vigneron who is trying to get rid of...

Pope Francis financially bails out transsexual prostitutes struggling with no street ‘customers’ The Pope's response was 'immediate' when the group of transsexuals reached out to him through the Papal Almoner TORVAIANICA, Italy, April 30, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – Pope Francis has allegedly provided “immediate” financial help to a group of transsexuals who were no longer able to support themselves from “customers on the street” amid the coronavirus lockdown in Italy.  “At the height of the coronavirus emergency, a group of transsexuals, almost all Latin Americans, arrived in the church with amazement and wonder,” Don Andrea Conocchia, the parish priest of Torvaianica, not...

U.S.—Some churches across the nation have begun reopening, but pastors are running into a problem as many parishioners are forgetting to put on pants. Having grown accustomed to attending church on their couch in their underwear, Christians are having trouble adjusting to the old way of doing church, where you have to put on clothes. "We'd just gotten used to rolling out of bed, plopping down on the couch, and turning on the service 10 minutes late," said churchgoer Peter Wiley. "Now, they expect me to adjust back to wearing clothes and brushing my teeth and stuff? No way." "Remember,...

US bishop defies lockdown, attends rally calling on governor to close abortion centers Bishop Joseph Coffey was part of a pro-life group that was warned by police to disperse while protesting Catholic Gov. Larry Hogan's refusal to shut down abortion centers during the pandemic. Pro-lifers call on Maryland Gov. Larry Coffey to shut down abortion centers during the coronavirus pandemic. ANNAPOLIS, Maryland, April 29, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – Standing in the shadow of both the Maryland State House and Governor’s Mansion, more than 50 pro-lifers joined by Bishop Joseph Coffey defied Gov. Larry Hogan’s stay-at-home order and called on him to shut...

Kevin Watson, a sharp young traditionalist United Methodist at Candler School of Theology in Atlanta, has written insightfully for First Things about the denomination’s impending schism. His previously written books stress the importance of early Methodism’s small spiritual accountability groups and their application for today. His more recent book is Old or New School Methodism?: The Fragmentation of a Theological Tradition, which traces current divisions to the mid 19th century. I hope to review this book soon. Here’s Watson’s conclusion in his First Things article: The agonies of the United Methodist Church and their roots in Methodist history teach an...

Lindsey Horvath said she knows that life begins at conception, but she believes in abortions anyway. The West Hollywood City councilwoman also claimed she supports abortions because of her Catholic faith – even though the Catholic Church teaches that abortions are evil because they destroy innocent children’s lives. In an interview with USC Annenberg Media, Horvath tried to explain her contradictory claims through her personal experiences and beliefs. “Because of my Catholic upbringing, when I see people being mistreated, it’s impossible for me to unsee it,” Horvath said of her pro-abortion position. “‘Helping the least among us’ has been a...

April 27, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – Catholic leaders in Michigan are speaking out forcefully against Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s declaration that the abortion industry should be exempt from the sacrifices made by legitimate medical fields because it is “life-sustaining.” “A woman’s health care, her whole future, her ability to decide if and when she starts a family is not an election, it is fundamental to her life,” Whitmer claimed during an interview earlier this month. “It is life sustaining and it’s something that government should not be getting in the middle of. ” The exception, reflective of debates going across multiple...

Pro-abortion Democrat leader Nancy Pelosi quoted the Bible again Sunday to defend her plan to release prisoners early during the coronavirus crisis. The speaker of the House often touts herself as a devout Catholic and a compassionate individual, and she frequently quotes scripture to justify her political actions. In an interview Sunday with MSNBC host Joy Reid, Pelosi used a passage from the New Testament to explain why she is advocating for the early release of certain prisoners in a new coronavirus relief bill, Townhall reports. “In our caucus, we are very devoted to the Gospel of Matthew,” Pelosi said....

DC priest describes a culture of cover-up in wake of McCarrick scandal VATICAN CITY (RNS) — In early February, the second-highest-ranking prelate in the Vatican told news outlets that a long-awaited report into the ascent of disgraced former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick would be published in the “near future.” In 2018, Pope Francis ordered that the Vatican investigate all of the documentation it had collected over the years regarding McCarrick, including data gathered in the dioceses of New York; Metuchen and Newark, New Jersey; and Washington, D.C., where he had served.Almost three months after the February announcement, the report has still not...

A man became diabetic, before that he had no desire for sweets, afterwards he started hiding candy around the house like an alcoholic hides bottles. Before my heart attack, I never wanted salt, never liked it. But afterward, "mmm, gimmie that salt, GOOD!!!". It's a variant on "the grass is always greener on the other side of the hill", that whatever we can't have is precisely what we want. How do we regard the idea of "healing" from the effects of sin? This is in an age when the chief sin, is disbelief in sin. When we are going along...

A California church that police shut down on Palm Sunday for allegedly disobeying coronavirus health restrictions filed a lawsuit this month accusing Gov. Gavin Newsom and local authorities of violating its fundamental rights. The Sacramento Bee reports the Cross Culture Christian Center in Lodi and Pastor Jonathan Duncan argue in the lawsuit that Newsom and San Joaquin County health officials abused their authority through the public health restrictions. “Civil rights are not suspended by a virus,” the lawsuit states. “Fundamental and unalienable rights are, by their very nature, ‘essential.’” The National Center for Law & Policy in Escondido is representing...

Pastor Kevin Wilson and Lighthouse Fellowship Church on Chincoteague Island filed a federal lawsuit against Governor Ralph Northam for violating their religious freedom by targeting churchgoers on Palm Sunday. Liberty Counsel represents the pastor and church and filed the lawsuit today in federal court. Police served a summons to Pastor Wilson for holding a church service for 16 people spaced far apart in a sanctuary that is rated for 293 people. The charge is violating Virginia Governor Northam’s COVID Order 55 with a penalty up to a year in jail and/or a $2,500 fine. On April 5, before the service...

Priest-blogger on sex-abuse cover-up resists bishop’s order to leave parishes 'I want it to be clear that I want to be an obedient priest. All I want to do is do my duty as a priest.' MARTINSVILLE, Virginia, April 24, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – A priest whose bishop removed him from his pastoral duties at two rural parishes ostensibly due to blog entries critical of the Church’s handling of the clergy sex scandal has insisted on remaining at his post until established Church law has run its course.     After Archbishop Viganò published his testimony about Pope-Francis covering-up for sex-abuser McCarrick in...