Free Republic

Weapons were stolen from the United States Army Reserve Armory in Worcester on Saturday night. The facility -- the Lincoln Stoddard Army Reserve Center is located on Lake Street. The FBI says some weapons are missing as a result of the break-in. According to the Boston Herald, “The FBI is aware that some weapons are missing as a result of the break in at the Army Reserve Center in Worcester, Massachusetts. We have entered those weapons into NCIC, a national database, and alerted our federal, state and local law enforcement partners,” said Kristen Setera, spokeswoman for Boston Special Agent-in-Charge Harold...

Donald Trump will be having a rally in Worcester, MA on Wednesday November 18th at the DCU Center at 7PM Eastern time. Doors open at 5PM Eastern Must register for free tickets here: http://www.trumpworcester.eventbrite.com/

It's unclear what happened before the video started, but what happened afterward one parent could only describe as "terrifying." Video shot by a parent of a Quinsigamond Elementary School student Wednesday afternoon of what should have been a routine school bus stop showed young children crying and screaming, seemingly unable to leave the school bus they were riding in as parents shouted at the driver to let them off. In the video, shot near the corner of Perry Ave. and Harlem Street by parent Jessica Jimenez, parents curse and shout at the driver asking why she won't let the kids...

A community rally is planned early next week in Worcester after a noose was spotted hanging in the employee area of the city’s post office, the Worcester Telegram reports. ...The US inspector general’s office is conducting a federal investigation into the case.

Susan W. Bailey, of the Worcester Diocese "Commission for Women," [the same dissent group which has heavily promoted the work of Joyce Rupp and other well-known dissidents], writes, "Today I started reading a book entitled The Naked Now by Richard Rohr. I originally planned on reading it because a group I belong to, the Commission of Women of the Diocese of Worcester, chose this book as the one they wished to study this year. A dear friend of mine, a deacon in the Catholic Church, had also highly recommended it. Rohr aims to teach the reader to see as the...

In an article for The American Catholic which may be found here, The Motley Monk writes: "It’s pretty easy to tell that the folks over at the National Catholic Reporter (NCR) aren’t happy campers these days. Some of their heroes fighting on the front lines for women’s ordination are being “disciplined.” According to a recent NCR article: A longtime peace and human rights activist arrested countless times, Franciscan Fr. Jerry Zawada has been removed from public ministry for concelebrating Mass with a woman priest in 2011. Poor Fr. Zawada! After all he’s done over the decades to promote the cause...

Tom, a faithful Catholic of the Worcester Diocese and a contributor to this Blog, writes: "The February 10, 2014, Diocesan Dispatch publicizes the following upcoming pro-abortion speaker at Holy Cross College: 'TALK ABOUT PROPHETIC SPEECH AT HOLY CROSS Legal scholar and moral theologian M. Cathleen Kaveny, the newly named Darald and Juliet Libby Professor at Boston College, will give a lecture titled “Prophetic Rhetoric in the Public Square” at the College of the Holy Cross on Thursday, Feb. 13 ...' The Irish Rover, an alternate student newspaper at the University of Notre Dame (where she formerly taught) and the Sycamore...

A Worcester (MA) man has been charged with enticing a 10-year-old New York child into producing sexually explicit videos and then sending the videos to him by email, according the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York. Brian Belanger, 21, was arrested Friday at his Worcester apartment and brought before a federal judge in U.S. District Court in Albany, where U.S. Magistrate Judge Hon. Randolph F. Treece ordered Belanger detained until a hearing scheduled for 2 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 10, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney Richard S. Hartunian's office. According to...

Pope Francis has declared that "authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Koran are opposed to every form of violence," but the religious and civil authorities in Pakistan, the second most populous Islamic state, seem to disagree. Asia Bibi, a Catholic woman imprisoned and awaiting execution in Pakistan for "blasphemy," has just written to the Holy Father in an attempt to garner support. Jihad Watch reports (hat tip Atlas Shrugs): Asia Bibi is in prison awaiting execution on false accusations of blasphemy. Only God can free her because Christians in the West don't dare to speak out on her...

Two college students were robbed at gunpoint by masked men Tuesday night, according to police. The two male college students called Worcester police to Oliver Street at 10 p.m. to report they had been robbed by two men in masks with guns. The students told police they were approached by the men, one of whom punched one of the students and demanded he hand over all his belongings, according to a press release from the Worcester Police Department. The suspects grabbed the victim's keys before "abruptly" fleeing the scene on foot towards Park Avenue, report police. Neither of the victims...

Although Pope John Paul II proclaimed the definitive nature of the Church's doctrine on the male-only ministerial priesthood in Ordinatio Sacerdotalis (1994) and said that the issue was not to be discussed any longer, Dr. Thomas Groome, in his 1995 book Language for a Catholic Church (revised edition) that, "..the continued exclusion of women from ordained ministry in the Catholic Church is seen by fair-minded scholars as without theological or biblical warrant" (p. 31). In this same work, Groome posited that it would be "helpful to reduce reliance on gender-based pronouns" when referring to Jesus in order "to emphasise his...

Once again, The Catholic Free Press [Diocese of Worcester, Massachusetts] has demonstrated that it is not committed toward offering its readers an authentic Catholic teaching. Writing in the June 14, 2013 edition, Fr. Conrad S. Pecevich, Pastor of St. Anne's Parish in Southborough, correctly notes that, "Time and again throughout the Gospels, Jesus chastised the religious people of his day, the Sadducees and the Pharisees, for their hasty judgmental attitudes." So far so good. But then Fr. Pecevich writes, "When we commit the sin of judgment, we place ourselves morally above others. We forget that, like them, we are poor,...

As I noted in a previous post (see here), the Diocese of Worcester has some sort of animus against men who feel called to the priesthood but who accept, promote and defend the Church's Magisterial teaching. There really is no denying this. Candidates such as Jonathan Joseph Slavinskas are entirely welcome within the diocese (see here), but I am not permitted to even apply as part of a discernment process. This is most unfortunate. Dr. Germain Grisez explains that, "Since the ordained priesthood and diaconate provide the necessary ministries of the word and sacraments to the whole Church, every member...

WORCESTER — The mother of a 3-year-old boy faces motor vehicle homicide charges today after a Monday night car accident on Franklin Street. Jayden Figueroa, 3, was pronounced dead at a local hospital following the 10:14 p.m. accident at 432 Franklin St. Jayden and a 7-year-old were trapped inside the 1992 Toyota Camry which was traveling at more than 70 mph before it crossed into the eastbound travel lane and crashed into a parked Honda Odyssey, according to police. Jayden's mother, Christina Castro, 27, of 2 Wall Street Court, was outside the vehicle with another son, a 5-year-old, when emergency...

WORCESTER – Audrey Santo’s beatification process could officially begin next year, supporters rejoiced Sunday. They highlighted the Eucharist and redemptive suffering at a memorial for the fourth anniversary of Audrey’s death, held at Immaculate Conception Church and the Father Connors Center. Five years after someone’s death, a diocesan commission for that person’s canonization cause can be impaneled, said Father Kenneth Yossa, a Byzantine priest from Pennsylvania who gave a talk about exorcisms. He said he’s a consultant for The Foundation for the Promotion of the Cause of Beatification and Canonization of Little Audrey Santo and for the Diffusion of the...

WORCESTER — The Guns for Goods program succeeded in getting more guns off the streets, but it also netted a piece of history. “We got a very unusual vintage Japanese rifle from World War II with a bayonet,” said Dr. Michael P. Hirsh, chief of the Division of Pediatric Surgery and Trauma at UMass Memorial Medical Center. The program, which offered both gift certificates from Wegmans and free flu shots to people who anonymously turned in guns, netted 102 weapons in two days. Mr. Hirsh said 34 were collected yesterday to go with 68 collected Dec. 1. The collection yesterday...

Some years ago, a faithful and dedicated priest decided to leave the Diocese of Worcester and become a Chaplain for the United States Army. During a conversation back in 2000, this priest-friend told me that he had had enough of the nonsense within the diocese. This was after he presided over a graveside service for my father. This same faithful priest has a letter in this week's "Catholic" [when they feel like it] Free Press. As usual, it is an excellent letter. But then, this priest reads the life of Jesus Christ. The letter is entitled "Choose life and love,...

In a previous post, I noted how The Catholic Free Press is once again promoting Sister Joyce Rupp, a dissident religious who rails against the hierarchical Church while promoting New Age spirituality. Many parishes throughout the Worcester Diocese are also promoting the upcoming day-long retreat with this angry, dissenting religious. The retreat, which is to be held on September 29th at St. Anne's Parish hall in Shrewsbury, is being sponsored by the "Commission for Women," and has as its theme: "The Gift of Self - Compassion." Sister Rupp, the self proclaimed spiritual midwife, claims to have learnt a lot from...

Monday, April 23, 2012I call upon the Diocese of Worcester to renounce the evil spirits which plague it Father Jeffrey Steffon is an expert on Satanism and the occult. He has worked counseling victims of satanic ritual abuse and is a popular conference speaker. In his book entitled "Satanism: Is it real?," Fr. Steffon, addressing the popularity of the New Age movement, says that the movement is not new, but is a revival of paganism. He writes, "This revival includes the resurgence of goddess worship. Through ritual, celebration, and myth, NAM and neo=pagans attempt to reharmonize themselves with the Whole...

Saint Augustine, in his Confessions, Book VIII, Chapter X, describes his torment at being torn between two wills, the carnal and the spiritual, and writes, "..as yet I was bound by the iron chain of my own will. The enemy held fast my will, and had made of it a chain, and had bound me tight with it. For out of the perverse will came lust, and the service of lust ended in habit, and habit, not resisted, became necessity. By these links, as it were, forged together -- which is why I called it 'a chain' - a hard...