Free Republic

Pro-LGBT Jesuit parish in California shows where Pope Francis’ synodal agenda is headingSt. Ignatius, a Jesuit parish in Sacramento, promoted calls for ‘ordination’ of women and LGBT ‘inclusion’ and condemned ‘patriarchy’ in its report on the synodal process, which pastor Father Tom Lucas celebrated in a recent column.SACRAMENTO, California (LifeSiteNews) — My family recently attended Mass at St. Ignatius Loyola Parish in Sacramento, California. While it fulfilled our Sunday obligation, St. Ignatius is a Jesuit parish, and we are living under the Francis pontificate.Father Tom Lucas’ “Pastoral Perambulations” column of the church bulletin for the Fourth Sunday of Easter should...

Pope Provides Sr. Jeannine a Clarification of “Dignitas Infinita”The following reflection is from Sister Jeannine Gramick, SL, co-founder of New Ways Ministry.I have been very sad since April 8, 2024 when the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith promulgated Dignitas Infinita, the Declaration on Human Dignity. I have felt the immense grief among LGBTQ people and their families and friends. This document states many beautiful and essential truths, but the section on Gender Theory, which condemns “gender ideology,” is harming the transgender people I love.I wrote a note to Pope Francis to tell him about my sadness and...

The scandals haunting Pope Francis - Scheming cardinals are sharpening their knivesThe cardinals are already meeting to discuss who should be the next pope. Some of the liberal ones, who feel safe because they’re in favour with the ailing Pope Francis, can be seen comparing notes in a bar near the gates of the Vatican. The conservative cardinals are more nervous: they gather at suppers in each other’s apartments or — if they can trust the fawning waiters not to betray them — in a favourite restaurant.Perhaps you can see the flash of a bishop’s ring as he taps a...

The United Methodist Church General Conference voted to drop a ban on funding LGBT advocacy groups and removed a required punishment for pastors who officiate gay weddings after thousands of theologically conservative congregations left the mainline Protestant denomination in the last two years. On Tuesday, delegates approved a petition that struck from the UMC Book of Discipline Paragraph 806.9 language that prohibits the General Council on Finance and Administration from "ensuring that no board, agency, committee, commission, or council shall give United Methodist funds to any gay caucus or group, or otherwise use such funds to promote the acceptance of...

A United Methodist Church bishop, whose election was declared invalid in 2017 for being in a same-sex marriage but who remains in office, has denounced the denomination’s ban on “queer clergy” in a General Conference sermon. Bishop Karen Oliveto of the UMC Mountain Sky Area gave a message on Monday morning before the churchwide UMC General Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina. During her remarks, Oliveto asked those gathered if they were “willing to make God’s love visible in all you do” and if they would “meet and serve Jesus in the outcast, the downcast, and the cast aside.” Oliveto gave...

Queerdom, or living a life of sexual anarchy and rebellion against God, is one thing. But when you cross into the territory of comparing your sexual malfeasance to the triune God and Creator of all things, you’re in serious trouble. Much worse than if you’d just kept your mouth shut about God. Don’t get me wrong, your sin without repentance will still land you a place in Hell, but dragging the name of God into your sin to try to justify it will cause a greater judgment (Revelation 20:12) according to your works of evil. But such is the work...

CV NEWS FEED // The funeral for the late Rep. Donald Payne, Jr., D-NJ, a pro-abortion Baptist, is reportedly scheduled to be held at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark Thursday, May 4. North Jersey Media Group reported Friday that the late congressman’s funeral will take place “at 10 a.m. Thursday at Newark’s Cathedral Basilica.” Other sources corroborated this date and location. In addition, multiple sources indicate that Payne listed his religious affiliation as Baptist. It is likely that he was never baptized as a Catholic. Payne’s father and predecessor, the late Rep. Donald Payne, Sr., D-NJ,...

U.S. president Joe Biden has come under fire for making the sign of the cross during a rally criticizing measures that restrict abortion. Among his critics are José Ignacio Munilla, the bishop of Orihuela-Alicante in Spain, who called Biden’s gesture a “sacrilege.” Biden went to Tampa, Florida, on April 23 for a campaign stop one week before a law restricting abortion in the state from 15 to six weeks of gestation was due to go into effect. While a Biden supporter on stage criticized Florida governor and former Republican candidate for president Ron DeSantis for signing the bill, Biden made...

Is it any wonder Americans no longer share a hope for the future and a sense of the common good?A new study by researchers at the University of Arkansas and the University of Buckingham, which analyzed 57 international studies, concluded that religious schools are far more effective at teaching children to become engaged citizens than secular public schools — resulting in students who model political tolerance, knowledge, and skills better than their publicly educated peers.The study found that receiving a private, faith-based education increased political tolerance and knowledge by 12 percent of a standard deviation. In turn, receiving such an...

Leaders of the First Unitarian Church of Dallas cut the ribbon Friday on a new pregnancy resource center that aims to provide comprehensive reproductive health information and to act as a foil for crisis pregnancy centers. The Truth Pregnancy Resource Center is a direct reaction to Texas’ strict abortion bans that made the procedure illegal in all cases but those that threaten the life of the mother. Abortion clinics around the state shuttered, limiting access to women’s health care providers in regions already known to be maternal care deserts. Doors down from the now-closed Southwestern Women’s Surgery Center, which offered...

In what appears to be the 250th attack on a Catholic Church since the Dobbs decision was leaked in early 2022, abortion activists vandalized a church in Oregon with graphic messages. People heading to church services Sunday morning at St. Patrick’s Church in northwest Portland, Oregon arrived to find disturbing pro-abortion messages on the church door and sidewalk. The front door bears a stain from where staff had to have a previous pro-abortion message removed. As Andy Ngo reported on Twitter about the latest attack, “Multiple Christian houses of worship have been attacked in Portland since 2020 by far-left extremists...

The president of a nonprofit Christian persecution watchdog that monitors hostility to faith and freedom abroad warned that too few Christians in America and the West seem aware of how such trends are manifesting at home. "Basically, we are frogs in the kettle, and the bubbles keep coming up under us," Jeff King, president of the Washington, D.C.-based International Christian Concern (ICC), told The Christian Post.Jeff King, president of International Christian Concern (ICC), warned that Americans are like "frogs in the kettle" regarding increasing persecution. | International Christian Concern"Too many people are not aware politically, and they're so used to...

New document in the Zanchetta case complicate the Church's case The Vatican was aware of the allegations against the ex-bishop before giving him a position, they say, and he is accused of abuse and commercial mismanagement with the Pope's "endorsement". Internal Church documents show that Church authorities, including Pope Francis, were aware of allegations of sexual abuse and economic mismanagement against the now ex-Bishop of Oran, Gustavo Zanchetta, before giving him a high position in the Vatican and transferring him to Rome.

As the founder and executive director of Not Forgotten Ministries (NFM), a nonprofit organization that helps women find healing after abortion through online Bible studies and in-person weekend healing retreats, I can personally attest to the importance of generosity offered by people, businesses, and churches. Without that essential support, pro-life ministries cannot survive. Living Hope Church of Kernersville, North Carolina, recently provided a wonderful example of how a church can come alongside pro-life organizations to raise awareness, show support, and bless their efforts financially. The small church family of approximately 80 adult members first heard about NFM in January when...

The United Methodist Church General Conference has advanced a measure meant to allow different regions of the global denomination to determine their own standards on LGBT issues.At the Thursday plenary session of the General Conference, delegates voted 586-164 in favor of a petition for an amendment to the UMC’s constitution allowing for regionalization. The petition will now be sent to the annual conferences for possible ratification.The amendment will need to gain at least two-thirds support from the annual conference clergy and lay voters to be added to the UMC constitution, reports UM News.>At present, the UMC Book of Discipline, the...

A pro-abortion politician received a promotional mailer for the upcoming Disney movie “The First Omen,” and has told the media she receives so much hate mail, she immediately mistook it for a pro-life threat. Business Insider reported that Amanda Taylor, a film critic currently running for office in Missouri, received a mailer that she assumed was a threat from angry pro-lifers. In the letter, there is a floating child surrounded by women in black, with their faces scribbled over. “Right away, I was thinking, ‘Ah, this has something to do with abortion,” Taylor told Business Insider. “The day before I...

Joe Biden showed his bigoted side on April 23 when he spoke in Tampa, Florida about the glory of abortion. It wasn’t abortion, per se, that got him going—it was those whom he identified as pro-life that set him off. To be specific, he railed against Donald Trump’s pro-life stance, saying the former president made “a political deal” with “the evangelical base of the Republican Party to look past his moral and character flaws.” Fifty percent of all the money raised by the Democrats comes from Jews. Yet no one is going to say that Biden made a “political deal”...

A new survey reveals that Evangelicals view immigration, American sovereignty and abortion as the top issues facing the United States heading into the 2024 presidential election. Coral Ridge Ministries (CRM) released its 2024 Spiritual State of the Nation Survey last week, which is based on 633 responses to a questionnaire sent to “friends and supporters of Coral Ridge Ministries” on an annual basis. “At a time when the views of pro-family evangelicals are sometimes distorted, even caricatured, this survey provides a much-needed window into what Christian conservatives actually believe,” asserted CRM President and CEO Robert Pacienza in a statement. In...

Gospel artist Kirk Franklin is drawing the ire of conservative Christians in Jamaica for gyrating and flexing his biceps while ministering in a tank top and shorts at “Fun in the Son,” a popular annual gospel concert sponsored by Best Dressed Chicken, a brand of the company Jamaica Broilers Group, which is well-known for their commitment to Judeo-Christian values.“At Jamaica Broilers Group, we are committed to staying true to the core. Our core values are based on Judeo-Christian principles and form the foundation on which our business is built and on which we are encouraged to conduct our lives,” the...

As ChristianTwitter catfights over whether or not John Lindell was justified to bring on noted sword-wallower Alex Magala to perform at his 2024 Stronger Men’s conference, and whether or not disgraced and disqualified Pastor Mark Driscoll was right to call it out in the bizarre and Driscollian way that he did, another question remains: what about the other performers that Driscoll did NOT call out? Amid the brawl, Magala took a shot at Driscoll for comparing his Chinese pole to a “stripper pole” and for describing his performance as “a man who ripped his shirt off like a woman does...