Free Republic

A Christian wedding photographer has filed a complaint against New York over a state law that requires her to service same-sex wedding ceremonies despite her religious objections. Emilee Carpenter of Emilee Carpenter Photography sued multiple state officials, with the lawsuit being filed Tuesday in the United States District Court for the Western District of New York. Named defendants include New York Attorney General Letitia James; Jonathan J. Smith, interim commissioner of the New York State Division of Human Rights; and Weeden Wetmore, district attorney of Chemung County. At issue, according to the litigation, are provisions in state law that require...

On March 8, Cambridge, Massachusetts City Council adopted amendments to the city's Domestic Partnership Ordinance allowing polyamorous domestic partnership. The ordinance now provides that "Domestic partnership" means the entity formed by two or more persons who meet the following criteria and jointly file a registration statement proclaiming that: 1. They are in a relationship of mutual support, caring and commitment and intend to remain in such a relationship; ... 5. They consider themselves to be a family.

The blood of murdered unborn children cries to God from abortion-tainted vaccines and medicinesBishop Athanasius Schneider on abortion-tainted vaccines and the culture of death. April 1, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — Anti-Christian world powers that promote the culture of death are seeking to impose on the world’s population an implicit — though remote and passive — collaboration with abortion. Such remote collaboration, in itself, is also an evil because of the extraordinary historical circumstances in which these same world powers are promoting the murder of unborn children and the exploitation of their remains. When we use vaccines or medicines which utilize cell...

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media. I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone: for kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. ~ 1 Timothy 2:1-2 Religion Forum Threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind.

Another Easter without Mass: What happened to Catholic Ireland?May the blood of the Irish martyrs serve to inspire the Church, so that the Irish clergy may once more fulfill their vocation to lead souls to God instead of away from Him, and may the underground Church continue to grow in size and fervor.DUBLIN, Ireland, April 2, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) –– For the second year running, the Irish government has brought about something which would have made the previous persecutors of Irish Catholics so very proud: The prohibition of public worship during Holy Week and Easter.Yet the blame cannot fall solely at...

Biden supports legal abortion, the redefinition of marriage, taxpayer-funded abortion and transgender ideology. Despite this, 67% of U.S. Catholics, including Bishop William Malooly of Wilmington, Delaware and Cardinal Wilton Gregory of Washington D.C., believe he should be allowed to receive Communion.Washington D.C., Mar 31, 2021 / 04:00 am (CNA).- Two-thirds of U.S. Catholics say that President Joe Biden, who has contradicted Church teaching on abortion, marriage, and gender ideology, should be allowed to receive Communion. According to a Pew Research Center survey released on Tuesday, 67% of U.S. Catholics say that Biden should be allowed to receive Communion at Mass,...

During this year's Holy Week, in the days leading up to Easter Sunday, Catholics find themselves in a fierce debate as some would try to cancel an archbishop for correctly stating Church teaching. This is specifically on abortion as it pertains to President Joe Biden, who is often showcasing his Catholic faith. Candidate as well as President Biden's staffers, surrogates, and supporters, are often reminding voters that Biden is a "devout" Catholic, despite how he publicly disagrees with the Church on abortion. Jen Psaki spins out of Hyde Amdt. & Mexico City question by saying Pres. Biden is a "devout...

ELCA pastor: "I have friends who are in wonderfully healthy poly relationships". The Christian Church has taught for 2000 years that sexual intercourse is for one man and one woman within the bond of holy matrimony. The Church has never endorsed polyamory (having multiple sexual partners at the same time). But Pastor Clint Schneckloth, a pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, has recently posted this: "...I have friends who are in wonderfully healthy poly relationships. Mutuality, consent, health, these are critical. I don't know what I would do about a throuple seeking a church blessing or marriage. It...

CNA Staff, Mar 30, 2021 / 06:00 am MT (CNA).- Cardinal Christoph Schönborn said Sunday that the Vatican’s rejection of blessings for same-sex couples was marked by a “clear communication error.” Renewing his earlier criticism of the intervention by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), the Archbishop of Vienna told the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF) March 28 that he was concerned by both the timing and form of the ruling. “I wasn’t happy -- neither about the timing nor about the way in which communication was being made,” he said on the discussion program “Pressestunde”.CNA Deutsch, CNA’s...

Five centuries ago in Rome “there were marriages between men,” during Holy WeekI read:“On my return from San Pietro I met someone who warned me, with great courtesy, of two things: that the Portuguese were doing their 'obedience' during the week of the Passion, and that since on this same day the visit was to San Giovanni a Porta Latina, in which church some years before certain Portuguese had formed a strange brotherhood. During the Mass there were marriages between men with the same ceremonies that we use for our weddings: they took communion together, they read the same nuptial...

“The temptation of the age is to look good without being good.” — Brennan ManningOver the past year, we have witnessed key Christian leaders and pastors’ moral failures get exposed. It happens every year, but it feels like the Church has taken a huge hit more recently. Leaders who have personally impacted me through their teachings and writings are no longer in ministry. Every time I learn about what was happening behind the scenes, my heart breaks for the leader, their family, their organization and for the body of Christ. We all suffer when someone falls. I’ll never forget a...

German bishop involved in Amazon Synod will not suspend priests who bless homosexual couplesBishop Franz-Josef Overbeck said suspending priests who 'bless' homosexual couples in defiance of clear Church teaching and a recent Vatican directive is 'out of the question.'March 31, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – German Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck, who played an important role in preparing for the controversial 2019 Amazon Synod in Rome, has stated that he will not suspend priests in his diocese who continue to bless homosexual couples, in defiance of the new Vatican document against such “blessings.”As the German Catholic newspaper Die Tagespost first reported, on March 28...

Moscow, March 30, Interfax - The Russian Orthodox Church has failed to reach an agreement on the issue of in vitro fertilization (IVF). The period the Church was given to discuss with the public a document on softening the position of the Russian Orthodox Church on in vitro fertilization has ended on Monday. The document, posted on the official website of the Church in early February, suggests updating its stance on this reproductive technology with regard for the development of medicine in the past twenty years. In particular, it proposes regarding as acceptable in vitro fertilization in which the production...

The Albany, New York prelate refused 'to compromise the faith that was once and for all delivered to the saints.'ALBANY, New York, March 31, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – After facing condemnation from an official church tribunal for ordering clergy not to perform homosexual “marriages,” Bishop William Love of Albany resigned from his see after a long-running conflict with the Episcopal Church. After the November 2018 implementation of “trial rites” in The Episcopal Church (TEC), which prevented bishops from prohibiting same-sex “marriages” in their diocese, Bishop Love issued an eight-page letter to his faithful, explaining that the new law would not be...

Diocese: Priest’s Omission of Palm Blessing in Protest over Vatican Ruling ‘Reprehensible’50-year-old Fr. Mignani, pastor of Santa Caterina Parish in Bonassola, said during his homily March 28, “if I can’t bless same-sex couples, then I won’t bless palms and olive branches either."ROME — A Catholic diocese in Italy has described a priest’s refusal to bless palms on Sunday because of the Vatican’s rejection of blessings for same-sex unions as “reprehensible.”The Diocese of Spezia-Sarzana-Brugnato said that the matter was being addressed according to Church norms.Fr. Giulio Mignani, a priest in the north-western Italian diocese, made headlines after he refused to...

California megachurch Pastor John MacArthur spoke about the possibility that the United States is already under judgment for its acceptance of progressive sexual ethics, among other things, during his Palm Sunday sermon. MacArthur preached a sermon at Grace Community Church of Sun Valley titled “Chosen in Him,” mainly focused on Mark 12 and the passage commonly known as the Parable of the Vineyard Owner. The parable speaks of a vineyard owner who allowed tenants to oversee his vineyard, only to have them take control of it and kill everyone the owner sent to collect on what they grew. “What then...

Top cardinals say Pope won’t correct wayward head of German bishops: report<2h2 class="art-title">Bishop Georg Bätzing has repeatedly dissented from Church teaching, showing his openness to changes that would contradict what has been taught since biblical times.March 31, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) —The National Catholic Register (NCR) reported that Pope Francis has denied the request of two top cardinals to have the Vatican correct flagrantly heterodox statements by Bishop Georg Bätzing calling for changes to Church moral and disciplinary teaching.In the “largely overlooked interview” with the German publication Herder Korrespondenz published over the New Year and entitled “I Want Change,” Bishop Georg Bätzing,...

Cardinal Burke floats ‘excommunication’ for Biden over his ‘aggressive’ abortion promotionThe Cardinal said that a politician who claims to be a Catholic and yet openly and aggressively promotes procured abortion is in the state of apostasy.March 30, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke said that pro-abortion Catholics in public life such as President Joe Biden, who “obstinately and publicly” deny truths of the faith and act against them, must not only be denied Holy Communion but must now face the charge of the “crime of apostasy” where the “canonical penalty” for the guilty is “excommunication.”“Such a person who claims...

At best it is experienced as cold and distant, at worst hurtful and offensive,’ says Bishop of Achonry Paul DempseyIreland’s youngest Catholic bishop has expressed regret at language used in a recent Vatican document banning blessings for same-sex couples. Earlier this month the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, with the approval of Pope Francis, said “the Church does not have, and cannot have, the power to bless unions of persons of the same sex.” Bishop of Achonry Paul Dempsey (49), in a statement released through the Catholic Communications Office on Friday evening, said of the language in...

Omens of a terminal crisis / The intentional ambiguities of Francis and Vatican IIIFrom The WandererWe have known for decades that the Church is in crisis. However, in recent years and, above all, in the past few months, in my opinion we are witnessing the manifestation of omens that indicate the imminence of the final outcome. The crisis is terminal, that is, irreversible. There is no way to turn back. Without a direct divine intervention, the Catholic Church will disappear in the next decade, transformed into a religious multinational, disfigured in its original character and transformed into a furious persecutor...