Free Republic

A whistleblower has come forward with an explosive new trove of documents, rivaling or exceeding the Twitter Files and Facebook Files in scale and importance. They describe the activities of an “anti-disinformation” group called the Cyber Threat Intelligence League, or CTIL, that officially began as the volunteer project of data scientists and defense and intelligence veterans but whose tactics over time appear to have been absorbed into multiple official projects, including those of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The CTI League documents offer the missing link answers to key questions not addressed in the Twitter Files and Facebook Files....

Easter and the Holy Eucharistby Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.We do not usually associate Easter and the Holy Eucharist. But we should. Our faith tells us that God became man in order that, by His death on the Cross, He might redeem the world. But this same faith tells us that, when Christ died on Calvary, the Church came into existence. We may therefore say that we were delivered from sin by the Savior’s death, and receive the blessings of His grace through the Mystical Body which came into being the moment Jesus expired on Good Friday.But our Catholic...

The Real Presence and SanctityFr. John A. Hardon, S.J.In speaking about Holiness it is remarkable how we can overlook the obvious.  For example it is obvious that we cannot become holy unless we obtain the extraordinary graces needed to reach sanctity.  Hearing about holiness;  reading about it;  even seeing holiness, does not make one holy.  We need grace.   It is equally obvious that the graces we need must come to us from Christ since as He told us, "Without Me you can do nothing".  If that nothing refers even to salvation, it most certainly refers to sanctification. Photo...

The constitutions or laws of many nations provide for what is called “religious liberty.” In practice, this liberty is under severe restrictions in numerous countries, if it exists at all. The fact is that no one can really talk about religious freedom without examining what the “religion” holds. Grace builds on nature but does not contradict it. No religion, without further discussion, can simply believe anything at all. Some minimum criterion of order and right is presupposed to this freedom to follow religion’s teachings or one’s conscience. Concern about “fanaticism” is legitimate, even when such fanaticism is rooted in...

The Swedish Transport Administration (Trafikverket) has turned to antique rolling stock to boost resources battling the snow and to clear a stretch of track in southern Sweden, according to a report by Sveriges Television (SVT). The trains, old DA locomotives normally resident in the Swedish Railway Museum in Gävle in northern Sweden, have been dusted off and put back into service to clear the tracks of snow between Mjölby and Alvesta in southern Sweden. Furthermore a 100-year-old snowplough is in place alongside the tracks in nearby Nässjö, ready to be called into action if needed. "These are made of stern...

For weeks the family of Dr. Zehra Attari has been trying to retrace the route the missing San Jose pediatrician may taken the night she disappeared.Did 55-year-old mother of two make a wrong turn on Doolittle Road, which skirts an inlet as it runs past the Oakland International Airport? Or was did an exit off of 880 lead her astray?Where was she? They asked themselves. Was she alive?These painful questions were finally answered Tuesday night when Attari's gray Honda Accord was pulled out of the Oakland Estuary near the Grand Marina boatyard in Alameda at the foot of Grand Street....

Resignation of America editor should not surprise Catholics, expert saysBoston, May. 17, 2005 (CNA) - All of the kafuffle surrounding the resignation of Fr. Thomas Reese, SJ, as editor of America Magazine is unfounded, according to First Things editor Fr. John Neuhaus. Fr. Neuhaus expressed his views on the issue in a column published in the Boston Globe yesterday. He explained that the leadership of the Jesuits decided that Fr. Reese should be moved into a different ministry, which sparked a controversy that the “oppressive Pope Benedict XVI” allegedly ousted him from the editorial chair.Fr. Neuhaus pointed out that America...

ARTICLE THE MASS OF VATICAN IIby Joseph Fessio, S.J. This essay is based on a lecture on the liturgy given by Father Fessio in May, 1999. The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, was one of two documents issued on the same day, December 4, 1963, the first two documents issued by the Second Vatican Council. The other document, Inter Mirifica, is on social communication. Sacrosanctum Concilium is one of the most important documents of the Council, one that has been the least understood and, I believe, has wrought the most havoc — not by having been fulfilled...

VATICAN CITY (AP) - Just days before Roman Catholic cardinals select a new pope, a human rights lawyer filed a criminal complaint against an Argentine mentioned as a possible contender, accusing him of involvement in the 1976 kidnappings of two priests. Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio's spokesman on Saturday called the allegation "old slander." The complaint filed in a Buenos Aires court Friday by human rights lawyer Marcelo Parrilli accused Bergoglio, the archbishop of Buenos Aires, of involvement in the kidnappings of two Jesuit priests by the military dictatorship, according to the Buenos Aires newspaper Clarin. The complaint does not specify Bergoglio's...

THIRTY FIRST THOMAS VERNER MOORE LECTURE The Thirtieth FIRST Annual Thomas Verner Moore Lecture will be given by Rev. Jacques DupuisSeptember 25, 2004, at 8:00 PM Co-Sponsored by St. Anselm's Abbey, the School of Theology and Religious Studies at CUA, and the Law, Philosophy, & Culture Initiative of the Columbus School of Law of CUA. Topic: "Jesus Christ Universal Saviour and the Ways of Salvation" Jacques Dupuis, S.J., is widely recognized as one of the most important theologians of our time, especially as regards issues of religious pluralism. Born in Belgium in 1923, he entered the Society of Jesus...