Free Republic

In the First Book of Samuel which we are reading now in daily Mass, we see are rather stunning portrait of poor parenting and poor priestly leadership in the person of of High Priest of the Sanctuary at Shiloh, Eli. Consider this line from the Scriptures: Samuel was sleeping in the temple of the LORD where the ark of God was. The LORD called to Samuel, who answered, “Here I am.” Samuel ran to Eli and said, “Here I am. You called me.”“I did not call you,” Eli said. “Go back to sleep.” …..At that time Samuel was not familiar...

Editor: We got earlier statements from the good Cardinal at Enlace Catolico. Here he is again, this time for Vatican Radio and kath.net, saying his piece against these theologians. It's certainly one of the most striking statements from a Curial official so far, and one of the most surprising. Here are some excerpts from his interview as translated at kath.net. "Churches, which have opted for woman's ordination and the recognition of same-sex partnerships, have put themselves for that reason in a very deep crisis"

The Six Days of CreationBy Jimmy Akin The six days of creation recorded in Genesis 1 represent one of the most beautiful and most controversial passages in Scripture. Over the centuries, many interpretations of what the six days mean have been proposed. Here are three common ones: 1. The "ordinary week" interpretation. According to this view the days of Genesis 1 are six, 24-hour days that occur within the space of a week (completed by a literal seventh day of divine rest). While this view historically has been the most common interpretation, there have always been prominent dissenters from this...

The archdiocesan policy on sexual abuse by clergy can be found in a pamphlet posted on the archdiocesan webpage. (http://www.archspm.org/brochure.htm) It defines "Ministry-related sexual misconduct refers to three related forms of misconduct: - Sexual abuse which is sexual conduct between a church leader and a minor or vulnerable adult. - Sexual exploitation which is sexual contact between a church leader and a person who is receiving pastoral care from the church leader. - Sexual harassment which is unwanted sexual conduct or language between co-workers in the church work setting. Dr. Pence calls these categories totally inadequate. In the archdiocese, he...