Free Republic

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Peace be with you! Good morning to all of you, and welcome. Dear Brothers and Sisters, I am pleased to greet you, dear members of Aid to the Church in Need International, as you gather in Rome during this Jubilee of Hope. Your visit is timely, for our world continues to witness rising hostility and violence against those who hold different convictions, including many Christians. In contrast, your mission proclaims that, as one family in Christ, we do not abandon our persecuted brothers and sisters....

A Christian baker believes she should not have to design a cake that celebrates an ideology that goes against her faith. In 2017, Cathy Miller was reportedly approached by a lesbian couple, Eileen and Mireya Rodriguez-Del Rio, at her business, the Tastries Bakery in Bakersfield, California. Miller explained that same-sex couples were not part of her belief system and that she did not wish to design their cake. Miller did, however, recommend another cake decorator in town. Later that year, California's Civil Rights Department sued Miller and said she violated the state's anti-discrimination laws. In 2023, a five-day trial ended...

CNN is taking credit for prompting the firing of The Western Journal founder and former owner Floyd Brown, who only a month ago had taken a senior position at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The piece by CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski describes Brown as a “far-right activist” who is a professing Christian and who has made statements in the past critical of the homosexual lifestyle and same-sex marriage. ... In February, President Donald Trump announced that he was naming Ric Grenell as interim director of the Kennedy Center. The president wrote on social media, “Ric shares my Vision for...

The justices left in place a lower-court decision that allows the transfer of land in central Arizona known as Oak Flat that is sacred to Western Apache Indians.The Supreme Court on Tuesday cleared the way for the federal government to transfer thousands of acres of national forestland containing a Native American sacred site to a copper-mining company. The justices left in place a lower-court decision that allows the transfer of land in central Arizona known as Oak Flat. The land, which has great spiritual value to the Western Apache Indians, sits on the world’s third-largest deposit of copper ore. Justice...

President-elect Donald Trump used a “forceful hand” to get his Drug Enforcement Agency pick to drop out on Tuesday after hearing “concerns” about the Floridian’s record, sources familiar told The Post — leading outgoing Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-NY) to make a bid for the position. Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister issued a lengthy statement indicating he was withdrawing his name for the DEA slot — but did not reveal the specific reason he was dropping out of the confirmation process after just three days. “Everyone knows President Trump calls the shots,” a well-placed source spilled. “The president heard the concerns...

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has confirmed that chaplains can preach sermons with obviously Christian content at affiliated medical facilities and has rescinded a letter of reprimand after a chaplain was punished last year. In a letter written in late February but recently made public, VA Secretary Doug Collins said "there is no national or local policy or standard operating procedure which inhibits Chaplain sermons." "To the extent that there have been any proposed changes to any existing policy, those proposals will not move forward and have been rescinded," wrote Collins. "VA reiterates again its commitment to upholding and...

A federal district judge has failed to dismiss a lawsuit brought by a fired worker who obtained a job at a religious school by promising to adhere to its biblical standards, even as he was already started on a campaign to embrace transgenderism. The judge, Norman Moon, allowed the lawsuit by Jonathan Zinski against Liberty University to move forward by claiming that the school cannot "erect a shield against antidiscrimination laws by asserting that mere acceptance of a member from a particular group would impair its image." Further, he said having the Christian school employ Zinski does not significantly burden...

A state court in Maine has outrageously ruled that a mother cannot take her own daughter to church.

This ruling, concocted without legal precedent or constitutional justification, is nothing short of judicial sabotage. Worse, it was issued ex parte—meaning Trump administration lawyers weren’t given notice, weren’t allowed to argue, and weren’t even in the room. Only Democrat attorneys general were heard, ensuring a predetermined outcome. Engelmayer’s order is legally indefensible. He cites no statutory basis because none exists. He offers no constitutional rationale because the Constitution directly contradicts him. Instead, he fabricates a fiction: that the duly appointed Treasury Secretary is nothing more than a ceremonial figurehead, akin to a powerless monarch, while unelected bureaucrats—who answer to no...

A federal judge on Wednesday voided the Trump administration’s “conscience rule” that would have allowed health-care providers to refuse to participate in abortions, sterilizations or other procedures they disagree with on religious or moral grounds. U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer in Manhattan declared the so-called “conscience rule” unconstitutional in a 147-page decision stemming from a lawsuit brought by New York and nearly two dozen other mostly Democratic states and municipalities. The rule had been set to go into effect later this month.

Even though the Communist Party of China is officially atheist, and the central government was once wary of religion, subtle signs and increasing activities show there is a changing attitude towards religion in order to unite China and its neighbors. In March last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping stood in the offices of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris, and extolled the profound impact Buddhism has had on China. "Buddhism originated in ancient India," said Xi, the leader of the officially atheist Communist Party of China. "After it was introduced into China, the religion went...

Kathmandu -- The church in Nepal is on the edge as Nepal struggles to finalize its much-awaited new constitution amid sporadic protests, violent clashes and shut downs in several districts over demarcation of the provinces under the draft constitution.   "There is lot of tension, both good news and bad news for us on the constitution [making] front," Father Silas Bogati, vicar general of the Vicariate of Nepal told Aleteia August 19 — a day after as a young protester died in police firing.   On the positive side, Father Bogati pointed out that: "At least church and Christianity will...

Elderly man jailed in Nepal for handing out bibles AN ELDERLY Christian who was arrested in Nepal for distributing bibles has ended up in hospital after spending two traumatic weeks in jail, as criminal treatment against the religion intensifies. Christian leaders in Nepal are issuing pleas for unity against the persecution which is rising to “near-genocide” levels in some parts of the world. Cho Yusang, 73, was arrested on July 23 for allegedly forcefully converting Nepali locals to take Christian literature. Pastor Sagar Baiju, a senior Christian leader in Nepal warns police and politicians are targeting Christians, he said: “When...

NEW DELHI (Morning Star News) – As he awaits prison after a wrongful conviction for proselytizing, Pastor Keshab Raj Acharya fears his case will set a precedent for authorities in Nepal to incarcerate other Christians, he said. The 35-year-old pastor said he fears police and judiciary will cite his case as an example to send Christians to prison for either proselytizing or forcible conversion even without evidence. “In case someone wilfully converts to Christ, the police and the court will convict the person through whom this believer has heard the message of Christ and His salvation,” Pastor Acharya told Morning...

House Republicans who have led a nearly two-year investigation into a $500,000 State Department grant to an organization that promotes humanism and secularism are pressing the agency to conduct more diligent oversight after it admitted that the organization may have misused taxpayer funds.Rep. Mike McCaul, a Texas Republican who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican who heads the panel’s human rights subcommittee, have accused the State Department of trying to promote atheism overseas under the guise of advancing religious pluralism, a longtime U.S. foreign policy priority. Rep. Brian Mast, a Florida Republican who...

ACI Prensa Staff, Mar 28, 2023 / 09:15 am The auxiliary bishop of Managua, Silvio Báez, who lives in exile in the United States, called the Daniel Ortega dictatorship’s staging this weekend of a prison interview with Bishop Rolando Álvarez “repugnant and cynical.” Álvarez was sentenced to 26 years and four months in prison on Feb. 10 as a “traitor to the homeland.” El 19 Digital, a news outlet supportive of the dictatorship, released over the weekend photos and a video of Álvarez, the bishop of Matagalpa, who was visited by a brother and sister on March 25 in the...

Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz has faced multiple lawsuits for allegedly infringing on religious liberty during his time as Minnesota governor. Walz encountered legal challenges for lockdown policies that religious organizations argued were discriminatory, placing stricter requirements on churches than businesses. He also encountered pushback after signing a law that stripped faith-based schools of funding for a program that offers free college credits to high school students. Walz determined in a May 13, 2020, executive order that retailers would be allowed to reopen at 50% capacity, but left religious gatherings capped at ten people. After Catholic and Lutheran churches...

The son of a Canadian pastor who faces jail time for preaching to truckers who blocked the US-Canada border last year received a standing ovation in EU Parliament as he slammed PM Justin Trudeau for taking 'freedom and democracy' away from citizens. Nathaniel Pawlowski's father Artur Pawlowski potentially faces 10 years in prison after he delivered a 19-minute speech to truckers who were protesting federal vaccine mandates by blocking the border in early 2022. 'I am here today in desperation, a cry for help,' Pawlowski, 23, told members of the EU Parliament on July 4. 'I would like to stand...

Very slowly, a reckoning is taking place for outrageous tyrannical government restrictions imposed on the populace during the COVID panic. The zeal with which certain public officials tried to restrict basic freedoms in response to a virus with a tiny fatality rate for the non-elderly and non-infirm should stand as a lesson to all that our rights mean little or nothing to them and must be vigorously defended. This story from Moscow, Idaho, a college town of about 25,000 that is home to the University of Idaho, is both good news and bad news. Fox News reports:The city of Moscow...

Nicaraguan dictator Daniel Ortega has continued his fierce assault on the Catholic Church, shuttering two important Catholic universities and appropriating their assets. In the official government newspaper La Gaceta, the Ministry of the Interior published Tuesday the annulment of the legal status of the Juan Pablo II University, based in Managua and four other cities, and the Autonomous Christian University of Nicaragua (UCAN), based in León and five other cities. The authorities of the two now defunct Catholic universities are required to deliver to the government of Daniel Ortega their databases containing all information on their students as well as...