Free Republic

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea hinted Wednesday that it would halt any plans to test a long-range missile if the U.S. agreed to direct talks, as a former South Korean president scrapped plans to visit the North because of its apparent moves toward a launch. Tensions in the region have soared following intelligence reports that the North has fueled a ballistic missile believed capable of reaching U.S. territory. The U.S. and Japan have said they could consider sanctions against the impoverished country if it goes ahead. On Wednesday, a spokesman for former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung cited the...

From the "Down with America" slogans outside to the "Den of Spies" exhibition within, a visit to the former United States embassy in Teheran has long been one of the more off-beat museum experiences.Visitors to the building - defunct since the hostage crisis of 1979 - can peruse yellowing diplomatic codebooks, ancient paper-shredding machines and other evidence of "American espionage". Now, however, after more than a quarter of a century as a monument to diplomatic deadlock, the compound is once again the staging ground for a battle over the country's destiny. Last week, Washington performed a diplomatic U-turn and offered...

THE American secretary of state Condoleezza Rice has offered to sit down in person with Iranian officials if it will help Iran to suspend its nuclear enrichment work. Holding out the prospect of the highest level face-to-face contact since the 1979 Islamic revolution which overthrew the Shah, she said: “I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the ministers meet at some point.” Charles Kupchan, an expert on Iran at the Council on Foreign Relations, said: “It’s a big deal for the secretary of state to say we’ll talk to you. There has been a big changing of the guard in...

Tehran agrees to discussions on nuclear programme, but not to conditions set by foreign ministersWORLD powers last night agreed a package of incentives to be offered to Iran in exchange for Tehran agreeing to stop part of its controversial nuclear programme. Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, said that the six world powers would stop UN Security Council action if Iran suspended uranium enrichment. There would be “significant benefits” for Iran if it did so, she said. If Tehran rejects the offer, as it says that it will, Iran will be referred to the Security Council, where it could face the...

Hamas rejects Abbas call for peace talks with Israel By Harry de Quetteville in Ramallah (Filed: 28/05/2006) Hamas, the radical Islamic group that won January's election, yesterday rejected a deadline issued by the Palestinians' moderate president, Mahmoud Abbas, to choose between violence or peace talks with Israel. At the same time, a Hamas militia involved in factional clashes with Palestinian police in Gaza that have left 10 dead, was sent back onto the streets, only a day after it was withdrawn. Mahmoud Abbas: Deadline Its return seems to signal the end of a short-lived effort to defuse tensions between Hamas,...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iran has ruled out for now proposed talks with the United States over the future of Iraq because of Washington's "negative" attitude, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Friday. "We had decided to have direct talks on the issue of Iraq with Americans," Mottaki, visiting Baghdad, said at a joint news conference with his Iraqi counterpart, Hoshiyar Zebari. "Unfortunately, the American side tried to use this decision as propaganda and they raised some other issues. They tried to create a negative atmosphere and that's why the decision which was taken for the time being is suspended,"...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin offered couples cash to have more children to halt a dramatic decline in population and called for a stronger army in a key speech on Wednesday in which he shrugged off sharp attacks by Washington. Putin, defying predictions he would focus on foreign policy, zeroed in on Russia's dwindling population -- an issue with huge implications for the economy -- which is falling by 700,000 people every year. In his annual speech to the nation, the president, who in July hosts leaders of the G8 group of rich democracies, responded only obliquely to stinging...

Fundamentals of Catholicism by Father Robert Altier Lesson 23: Moral Theology (Part 2) Moralists emphasize that there are two fundamental norms of morality to which all other things can be reduced. One of these norms is said to be objective, and the other is subjective. The objective norm of morality is law in all of its ramifications, and the subjective norm of morality is the conscience. We have to look very carefully at those two points. What do we mean when we talk about law? The definition given by Saint Thomas Aquinas is that law is “an ordinance of reason...

Fundamentals of Catholicism by Father Robert Altier Lesson 22: Moral Theology (Part 1) Throughout the previous lessons we have been looking at the basics of the Faith, but now we have to look at the implications of that, how to put it into practice. In his letter in the New Testament, Saint James says, Faith without works is dead. It is not just enough to have faith. Jesus said, Not everyone who cries out “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven. Well, they would not be calling Him “Lord” if they did not have some faith. In fact, Saint...

Fundamentals of Catholicism by Father Robert Altier Lesson 21: Holy Matrimony and Holy Orders In this lesson, we are going to look at the last two of the sacraments that have not been covered yet: Holy Matrimony and Holy Orders. These two sacraments look to the spiritual welfare of Christians. Matrimony is that sacrament in which a baptized man and a baptized woman enter into a permanent communion of life and love by mutual agreement for the generation and the education of children, and in which they receive God’s grace to help them to grow in holiness and to fulfill...

Fundamentals of Catholicism by Father Robert Altier Lesson 20: Confession (Part 2) We will continue on with the issues regarding confession. The primary issue which we have not addressed yet is the “why” question. Why do we need to confess our sins? In this vein, people will usually say that they should be able to just lie on their bed and talk to God, and that they do not really need to confess their sins to a priest. Well, first of all, the reason why we need to confess our sins is because God, Who made us human, treats us...

Fundamentals of Catholicism by Father Robert Altier Lesson 19: Confession (Part 1) [Class begins with a greeting by Father and the recitation of the Hail Mary.] We will spend this entire lesson talking about the sacrament of confession or reconciliation or penance; whatever title you might want to call it by, it all comes down to the same thing anyway. We will look at some of the general points with regard to confession and then talk more practically about it so you can understand some of the workings of what happens and hopefully take away any fear that might be...

Fundamentals of Catholicism by Father Robert Altier Lesson 18: The Eucharist (Part 2) If you want to trace some of these things through the Scriptures, the place to begin is in Genesis 14. There you will find a man by the name of Melchizedek. That is the only place where he is mentioned. He comes out of nowhere and offers sacrifice and blesses Abraham, and Abraham gives him one-tenth of everything he has taken as booty in his defeat of the five kings. The only other place in the Old Testament that Melchizedek is ever mentioned is in Psalm 110....

Fundamentals of Catholicism by Father Robert Altier Lesson 17: The Eucharist (Part 1) (Class begins with a greeting by Father and the recitation of the Our Father.] We have come to what is perhaps the most important of all the lessons because it builds and fulfills everything we have talked about so far. The focus of this lesson is the Eucharist. The Eucharist is the Lord, and when we consider it from that perspective, this is absolutely central. When we talked about Jesus, we talked about all the objective things regarding Who He is and His Person, but now we...

Fundamentals of Catholicism by Father Robert Altier Lesson 16: Baptism, Confirmation, and Anointing of the Sick The first sacrament we will consider is baptism because it is by baptism that a person becomes a member of the Church and participates in the divine life of Jesus Christ. Baptism is the sacrament of spiritual regeneration conferred by the application of water while consecrating the person to the Holy Trinity. Baptism, then, confers with it a spiritual regeneration, divine adoption, the beginning of eternal life, and conformity to Jesus Christ in His death and resurrection. By baptism we become children of God...

Fundamentals of Catholicism by Father Robert Altier Lesson 15: An Introduction to the Sacraments [Class begins with a greeting by Father and the recitation of the Hail Mary.] We are going to begin our coverage of the sacraments, which will take us through the next several lessons. This is critically important because the whole life of the Church takes place in and through the sacraments. So we have to ask, first of all, what is a sacrament? Anyone raised Catholic will remember that a sacrament is an outward sign of an interior reality instituted by Christ in order to give...

Fundamentals of Catholicism by Father Robert Altier Lesson 14: Grace and the Divine Life (Part 2) We will just pick up where we left off, and that is to talk about predestination. We have to ask the question: What is predestination? Predestination means the ordination of God by which certain people are led efficaciously to the attainment of eternal, supernatural salvation. This includes two acts on the part of God: first, the act of the intellect by which God knows who will be saved and the precise means by which they will be saved; and second, the act of the...

Fundamentals of Catholicism by Father Robert Altier Lesson 13: Grace and the Divine Life (Part 1) [Class begins with a greeting by Father and the recitation of the Hail Mary.] In this lesson, we have a lot to cover. We are going to talk about grace, which is one of those absolute mysteries, but grace is also one of those things where there has been a lot of study. There are over a hundred different distinctions with regard to grace. We are not going to make all of the distinctions, but grace is one of the areas that the Church...

Fundamentals of Catholicism by Father Robert Altier Lesson 12: Divine Revelation (Part 2) Picking up where we left off, one of the difficulties in translating Scripture is that the oldest-surviving complete Hebrew manuscript of the Old Testament is from the 10th century AD. Those are known as the Masoretic manuscripts. Remember that some of the Old Testament works were first written in the 10th century BC, so we are talking about 20 centuries in between. That is a long time and a lot of copies, obviously. When we are talking about the Old Testament, at least the Pentateuch, which is...

Fundamentals of Catholicism by Father Robert Altier Lesson 11: Divine Revelation (Part 1) [The class begins with a greeting by Father and the recitation of the Our Father.] In this lesson, we are going to cover the topic of divine revelation, which is critically important. Naturally, when we think of divine revelation, we think of Sacred Scripture. So the first question we ask is: Who do the Scriptures reveal? If we are talking about revelation, the question is: Who or what is being revealed by this revelation? Of course, what we have in Sacred Scripture is the revelation of God...