Free Republic

(Hymn at the link.) With everyone so urgent about who is Pope Leo XIV, we may want to pull back and think about who he will seem to be in a year, 5 years, 10 years, 20 years, after his death, after the next Pope. When God sends the people a scourge because they dispise his blessings, and they are trying to understand why bad things are happening to supposedly good people, you can't just look at the punishment, you need to examine those who are the punished. The punishment for our faithlessness was a Dictator Pope who deliberately promoted...

Former OnlyFans Star Nala Ray joined former adult film star Brittni De La Mora on the podcast, “Uncensored W/ Brittni De La Mora,” to talk about how Jesus redeemed Ray from the darkness of sex work and set her free. “If there’s a woman right now who’s either contemplating getting on OnlyFans or wants to get off, how would you encourage her?” “The devil has a budget,” Ray replied...“The devil can only give you so much. So to them, I would literally say, ‘You can only go so far. This is not a career. These actions will have consequences.’” Ray...

Pastoring a church in Johannesburg, South Africa, I hear this complaint periodically. Crudely put, Christianity is the white man’s religion and has no place amongst true Africans. In an era where forming an African identity aside from Colonialism is high on people’s agenda, it’s a compelling argument to some. Except that it’s not true. For Christianity was present in Africa 1000 years before the first European Colonialists arrived on African shores. You may be familiar with the strong base for Christianity established in Alexandria, Egypt, in the 1st century. Eusebius even wrote that the Gospel writer, Mark, came to Alexandria...

This may have been one of the most tumultuous papal conclaves in recent memory, with the cardinals of the Roman Church settling on what appears to be a unifying Pope, Leo XIV. It is remarkable that Robert Prevost, an American, became Pope. It long had been held that an American could never become Pope. But Vatican sources, who are impeccable, tell Newsmax he was the man to beat from the minute the conclave began. Here's what unfolded. This conclave started last Wednesday with secret meetings in the Sistine Chapel. But the discussions about replacing Francis began almost immediately after his...

Daily Readings from the USCCBJesus walked about in the temple area on the Portico of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I told you and you do not believe.” John 10:24–25Why is it that these people did not know that Jesus was the Christ? They wanted Jesus to speak “plainly” to them, but Jesus surprises them by saying that He already answered their question but they “do not believe.” This Gospel passage continues the...

🇺🇸Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem 🇮🇱(5/13/25)[Prayer]Water, Rivers, and Streams in the BibleGenesis 9:12-1712 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never...

Twenty-three-year-old Joshua Steel found a "great sense of peace" that he couldn't find anywhere else when he started attending Catholic Mass in Britain. Twenty-six-year-old Dan Williamson was driven to convert to the faith by an "ache" he had for something "deeper and ancient and more rich". Both are among a growing number of men aged 18-34 who are going to church in Britain compared with before the COVID pandemic, upending the long-held tenet that Christianity was in generational decline in Western nations like Britain. ..."I was looking for meaning in life," Steel said after Mass ended at St. Elizabeth of...

13 May 2025 Tuesday of the 4th week of Eastertide St. Robert Bellarmine Parish, Chicago, IllinoisReadings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: C(I).First readingActs 11:19-26They started preaching to the Greeks, proclaiming the Lord JesusThose who had escaped during the persecution that happened because of Stephen travelled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, but they usually proclaimed the message only to Jews. Some of them, however, who came from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch where they started preaching to the Greeks, proclaiming the Good News of the Lord Jesus to them as well. The Lord helped them, and...

“‘And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words’” (Matthew 6:7). If we’re honest, all of us have been guilty of repetitive prayers—before meals, at prayer meetings, before bed—with little or no thought to what we are saying or how God feels when He hears us do that. But such prayers are offensive to God and should be to us as well. We should understand, however, that Jesus here is not forbidding the repetition of genuine requests. In His parable of the midnight...

This Easter, the University of Notre Dame saw a record number of students enter the Catholic Church. This trend is happening not just at Notre Dame but around the country. Los Angeles welcomed more than 5,500 new Catholics. The New York Post ran an essay entitled “Young people are converting to Catholicism en masse [. . .]” As reporter Matthew McDonald wrote in another article, “Dioceses are reporting increases of 30%, 40%, 50% and even more than 70%.” Not just in the United States but around the world, a growing number of adults—mostly young adults—joined the Church. In Austria, there...

[Catholic Caucus] As a priest, Pope Leo XIV opposed the Western media’s pro-LGBT lies and promoted truthPope Leo XIV has understood what Pope Francis did not: it is precisely the hard teachings of the Gospel that draw people to salvation through Jesus Christ.While there are only a few recorded examples of Pope Leo XIV’s history with LGBTQ issues, his statements stand in stark contrast with those of his predecessor, Pope Francis, who early in his pontificate wondered aloud, “If a person is gay … who am I to judge?” He later allegedly told a young man, “God made you gay.”At...

[Catholic Caucus] Our Long Collective Nightmare is OverEarlier today, another sign that, no matter what happens, at least a sense of Catholic normalcy is returning to the Vatican.After each of the past conclaves, one of the first meetings of the elected Roman Pontiff is a salutation to the men and women of the media who covered the interregnum and conclave. In 2013, at the end of his rambling, Francis refused (simply refused) to impart the traditional blessing, just remaining in silence for a while and saying he was giving a "silent blessing" out of "respect" for "non-believers." Today, Leo XIV...

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Agri-Business; End to Sex Slavery; Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. (1 John 5:14) 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...

[Catholic Caucus] On Silence about the Papal Tyrant"He who does not bellow the truth when he knows the truth makes himself the accomplice of liars and forgers." ~Charles PeguyNow we learn. For a dozen long miserable years, they all kept their mouths shut about Bergoglio. They all covered up the chaotic madness of this man, yet whispering and gossiping and cowering in the halls of Casa Santa Marta about the man in white. They breathed not a word about the man, who subjected the Catholic Church to 12 years of brutal tyranny, blatant material heresy, vindictive psychopathy, and rampant predator...

President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw aid relief funding from South Africa has been described by local faith leaders as a slap to God’s face. The Evangelical Alliance of South Africa based in Johannesburg — representing approximately four million Christians in South Africa — stated that the sanctions against the country, which include termination of funding for Anti-Retroviral Treatment, are a punishment on the sick and those dying from HIV/Aids-related illnesses. According to Foster Mohale, a spokesperson for the national department of health, roughly 7.8 million people in South Africa (SA) are living with HIV and 5.5 million are on...

On Thursday, a panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals partially overturned a previous ruling that found Southwest Airlines acted with religious discrimination when it fired a flight attendant who shared pro-life messages on Facebook. In 2017, Charlene Carter filed a lawsuit against Southwest, arguing that she was unfairly fired from her flight attendant position because of her pro-life stance. When the flight attendant union, TWU Local 556, decided to participate in the 2017 Women’s March, Carter shared her criticism of the decision on Facebook because of the March’s connection to pro-abortion messaging and Planned Parenthood. She sent a...

Residents of a small town in Arizona are reeling after a pastor was found murdered April 28 in his home. William Schonemann, 76, was pastor of New River Bible Chapel in New River, Ariz., where he was known as “Pastor Bill,” according to the Arizona Republic. Investigators with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office have not released much information on the case beyond confirming they discovered Schonemann’s body the evening of April 28 after responding to a report of a deceased elderly male. They have not announced any suspects, arrests or motives for the crime. The Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office...

A bill seeking to allow Texas public and charter schools to hold voluntary prayer and readings of religious texts has stalled after lawmakers failed to take action on the legislation. The House Committee on State Affairs grappled with Senate Bill 11, which would allow school boards to decide whether to carve out time for private prayer or readings from religious texts, such as the Bible. The bill, which passed the Senate 24-6 in March, sparked intense debate last Wednesday before being left pending at the session’s close, signaling further deliberation ahead. Authored by Sen. Mayes Middleton, R-Galveston, and introduced in...

Daily Readings from the USCCB“But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice, as the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has driven out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice.” John 10:2–4Do you recognize the voice of the Shepherd? Does He lead you each and every day, guiding you into His holy will? How attentive are you to what He speaks each day? These are some...

🇺🇸Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem 🇮🇱(5/12/25)[Prayer]Water, Rivers, and Streams in the BibleGenesis 8:6-146 After forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark 7 and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. 8 Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. 9 But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out...