Free Republic

After they beat Azat Azatyan so bad blood came out of his ears; after they sent electric shocks up his genitals; after they wacked him with pipes and truncheons, the Russians began to interrogate him about his faith. “When did you become a Baptist? When did you become an American spy?” Azat tried to explain that in Ukraine there was freedom of religion, you could just choose your faith. But his torturers saw the world the same way as their predecessors at the KGB did: an American church is just a front for the American state. Azat was dragged back...

On Saturday, June 10, the Divine Liturgy was celebrated in one village church in the Russian Far East for the first time in 100 years. The Holy Trinity Church, built in 1823, now sits in the uninhabited village of Byankino, Zabaikal Krai, accessible only by boat on the Shilka River. It is recognized as a monument of architecture urban planning. Last weekend, Archpriest Alexander Tylkevich and Fr. Roman Pichuev, two priests from the local Nerchinsk Diocese, celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the abandoned church, the diocese reports.

German church in danger of becoming ‘national church’ and ‘secularized,’  two cardinals warn Cardinal Müller and Cardinal Woelki once again criticize the synodal path. September 18, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — Two German cardinals have warned that the “synodal path” enacted by the German bishops could lead to “secularization,” “division,” and even “some kind of German national church.” Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, the archbishop of Cologne, told his diocesan newspaper, “The worst result would be if the synodal path leads to division and thus out of the Church, out of communion with the universal Church. That would be worst, if some kind...

New stats show record numbers leaving the Catholic Church in German archdiocese MUNICH, Germany, May 27, 2020  (LifeSiteNews) – More than 10,000 people from the German Archdiocese of Munich and Freising officially left the Catholic Church in 2019, with the compulsory church tax in Germany thought to be a key reason for the record number. Catholic News Agency (CNA) reports that the Munich statistical office has informed them that 10,744 Catholics formally withdrew from the Church in 2019. The previous record number of departures for the diocese came in 1992 with 9,010 people officially leaving the Church. Research by a...

Public Masses Resume in Italy, but Not Without Controversy The head of Italy’s bishops and the Italian prime minister signed a joint protocol May 7 allowing public Masses to resume. But others have strongly opposed it. “How sad!” commented one. “This is a total disrespect and mistrust in Our Lord,” said another. Others wrote to remind the Church in Italy that the “Eucharist is God,” and that it is “such an appalling sight! May God forgive us.” Simona, a Rome citizen, expressed her disapproval and asked why the rule applies to receiving the Host but the “same rule isn’t applied...

[Catholic Caucus] Chicago Catholic group: Cupich’s plan to re-open churches is ‘betrayal of Christ’ Cardinal Cupich's plan has 'yielded the authority of the Church and subjugated the primacy of her worship to laws of man,' they say. CHICAGO, Illinois, May 18, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — A group of Chicago Catholics has issued a statement strongly criticizing Cardinal Blase Cupich’s government-approved plan to re-open Catholic churches in his archdiocese. The St. Charles Borromeo Society, founded just weeks ago, refers to his directives as “insidious” and a “betrayal of Christ.”Prayerful protestors outside Holy Name Cathedral, Chicago, Illinois. Cupich issued his plan to re-open churches earlier...

[Catholic Caucus] Italian Government signs protocol with Church to allow the Mass as of May 18th On Monday, March 9, 2020, Italy woke up and found that the Mass had been canceled throughout the entire nation. I reported about this from the Vatican, that morning. It was clear that the decision came from the Vatican. It has been 2 months, that the Faithful were unjustly denied the Sacraments. The news today, however, changes little. Because in many Churches Communion was distributed under the present norms, described below.And nearly no Catholics went to Church, because they recognize that these measures are...

According to a group of liberal clergy, killing babies in abortions and selling their body parts to the highest bidder is “God’s work.” On July 29, the Planned Parenthood Clergy Advocacy Board said the undercover videos portraying their executives haggling over the cost of aborted babies’ body parts are simply an attack on health care. Jeffrey Walton from the Institute on Religion and Democracy reports that the board is made up of religious leaders from the United Church of Christ, Episcopal Church and American Baptist Churches as well as clergy from Reformed Jewish and Unitarian Universalist congregations. In a statement...

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, along with an anonymous parent and student on Thursday filed a lawsuit against the Connellsville Area School District seeking to have a Ten Commandments monument removed from Connellsville Junior High and to block its placement at a nearby church. In a lawsuit, the plaintiffs claimed constitutional violations with the religious marker at the public school and possible further infringement on their rights if the monument is relocated near district property. . . . Though the monolith would be on private property if moved to the church, the fact that the district is aware that the...

President Barack Obama signed an executive order on November 17 outlining the allowable religious practices of faith-based social service organizations that receive federal funds. Such organizations will not be permitted to offer federally-funded social services in the same location in which “worship, religious instruction, or proselytization” takes place. Among the key points in the executive order: “Organizations, in providing services supported in whole or in part with Federal financial assistance, and in their outreach activities related to such services, should not be allowed to discriminate against current or prospective program beneficiaries on the basis of religion, a religious belief, a...

NEW DELHI (Compass Direct News) – For the first time in Bhutan’s history, the Buddhist nation’s government seems ready to grant much-awaited official recognition and accompanying rights to a miniscule Christian population that has remained largely underground. The authority that regulates religious organizations will discuss in its next meeting – to be held by the end of December – how a Christian organization can be registered to represent its community, agency secretary Dorji Tshering told Compass by phone. Thus far only Buddhist and Hindu organizations have been registered by the authority, locally known as Chhoedey Lhentshog. As a result, only...

GODLESS: The Church of Liberalism, Chapter One On the Seventh Day, God Rested and Liberal Schemed They exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creation rather than the Creator. . . . Therefore, God gave them up to passions of dishonor; for their females exchanged the natural use for that which is contrary to nature.—Romans 1:25–26 Liberals love to boast that they are not “religious,” which is what one would expect to hear from the state-sanctioned religion. Of course liberalism is a religion. It has its own cosmology, its own miracles, its own beliefs...