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In a story distributed for Good Friday, the Associated Press claims Mary Magdalene was a biblical “Me Too” figure who was “long maligned” by the West.The story, filed from Israel with the headline “Long-maligned Mary Magdalene now seen as stalwart disciple,” asserts that Magdalene was not a reformed prostitute but rather a “strong, independent woman” who supported Jesus.The article also conflates the virtues of Magdalene’s figure with the “Me Too” movement. This latest iteration of U.S. feminism uses the hashtag #MeToo on Twitter and other social media to publicize the prevalence of sexual assault and harassment in the wake of...

Pope Francis delivered a Holy Thursday homily for a congregation of priests attending Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome in which he told them that they “can” tell adulterers to “go and sin no more,” but should not do it “with the legalistic tone of truth as definition.” Instead, he told them, they should do it with the “tone of truth as fidelity.” “I suggest that you meditate on three areas of priestly closeness where the words, ‘Do everything Jesus tells you,’ need to be heard—in a thousand different ways but with the same motherly tone—in the hearts of...

The newly-installed bishop of the Portuguese city of Porto, Manuel Linda, appeared to reject the Catholic doctrine that divorced and invalidly remarried Catholics should abstain from sexual intercourse. He stated in a recent interview, “I’m convinced that it isn’t really a family” if they do so.  “I know that there are some remarried couples, who were previously in a canonical marriage and who later reconstructed their lives and are in another marriage that is not canonical, who for motives of faith and of interior conviction and of conscience, in fact live in sexual abstinence. But we have to ask ourselves:...

March 28, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – A French priest has announced in a televised interview that Pope Francis approved of his blessing of homosexual couples. The news comes in the wake of silence from the Pope at the suggestion of one of his main advisor Cardinals that spiritual encouragement of homosexual couples should be undertaken and blessings for homosexual couples should not be ruled out. Father Daniel Duigou, priest of the Church Saint-Merry in Paris, France, is a late vocation and a former journalist who holds progressive views. According to a recent interview he gave to the international news service Konbini...

In his homily for Palm Sunday, His Humbleness once again succumbed to the temptation to use the occasion to insult faithful Catholics – i.e., those who oppose his program of destruction, both lay and ordained – under the guise of preaching on holy things.Either he has deluded himself into believing that we’re not smart enough to recognize his act, or being so enamored with himself that he simply doesn’t care.Ostensibly in reference to the crowds that welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem, Francis remarked:All this joy and praise is a source of unease, scandal and upset for those who consider themselves...

The theologian criticized by Pope Emeritus Benedict in his recent controversy-causing letter to the head of Vatican communications is a major influence on Pope Francis’s theology of marriage.  German theologian Peter Hünermann, 89, was mentioned by name in Benedict’s letter, which was on the topic of an 11-volume series on Pope Francis’ theology which Benedict declined to read. The Pope Emeritus expressed surprise that Hünermann had been asked to write a volume. This section of the letter was originally omitted from the public by the Vatican.  Hünermann had led “anti-papal initiatives,” Benedict stated in his letter, and “virulently attacked the magisterial authority of the...

Some years ago, I wrote a column about adultery and politicians. In light of the Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal interviews concerning their alleged (and probable) affairs with President Donald Trump, it is time to revisit the subject. I do not agree with those -- right or left, religious or secular -- who contend that adultery invalidates a political or social leader. It may invalidate a pastor, priest or rabbi -- because a major part of their vocation is to be a moral/religious model, and because clergy do not make war, sign national budgets, appoint judges, run foreign policy...

As the days go by it is ever more evident that Francis has by no means dismissed or punished Monsignor Dario Edoardo Viganò, for the way in which he used the letter that Benedict XVI had written to him.On the contrary, he has confirmed and even reinforced his powers, explicitly renewing his mandate to bring to a conclusion soon the incorporation of all the Vatican media, including “L'Osservatore Romano,” in a “single communications system” entirely under his control, with a direct line to the pope and intended to preserve his image as an exemplary pastor and now also as a...

Bill Hybels, founder and senior pastor of the multi-campus Willow Creek Community Church, has denied multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, including a consensual affair with a married woman, who retracted her claims. Investigations commissioned by the church also could not substantiate the allegations. In an extensive investigation of the allegations published by the Chicago Tribune on Thursday night, former members of the church, including those who resigned from high-level leadership positions, argue that the church's investigations have been deficient. The Tribune report also alleges a pattern of behavior against Hybels that includes suggestive comments, extended hugs, an unwanted kiss, and...

MEXICO, March 23, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Vatican archbishop Vincenzo Paglia expressed his frustration at the widespread controversy caused by Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation Amoris laetitia during a recent stop on a Vatican campaign to secure acceptance of the document among the clergy.  “Enough of debating all of this!” shouted Paglia before an audience gathered in the seminary of the Mexican diocese of Queretaro. “Enough!” he repeated. People are living in an “existential tragedy” in second marriages, and “it’s time to put an end to this discussion” and to “begin to receive people” in such situations into the Church, Paglia said....

Pope Francis' modus operandi Five years into the Bergoglio pontificate, Rorate is (finally!) far from alone in our reporting and analysis of Pope Francis. Several books exposing the behavior and methods used by Jorge Bergoglio have been, or are in the process of being, published.  Ross Douthat, the lone conservative columnist at the New York Times, has one such book in the works, which will be released next week. Mr. Douthat had a column in the Sunday New York Times (largely an excerpt from his forthcoming book) exposing the myth that Francis would grow the Church (Mass attendance has been down under...

In the two days that have elapsed since my piece on this subject, the full extent of the Vatican’s doctoring of the letter from Benedict to Archbishop Vigano respecting the “theology of Pope Francis” has been revealed under growing public pressure for full disclosure.As has so often been the case, the sleuthing of Sandro Magister has led to a breakthrough. In the hyperlinked column, Magister notes another suspicious circumstance surrounding the letter, beyond the blurring of the first two lines and concealment of almost the entire second page by a pile of the eleven booklets on “the theology of Pope...

Pope Francis made global news in 2016 with a high-level document on family life meant to bring the church into modern times. It emphasized the need for priests to welcome divorced Catholics who remarry outside the church and many others in what the church calls “irregular situations.”Francis fans cheered his emphasis on inclusion. Critics rued his lack of clarity.Two years later, Washington’s archbishop, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, has released one of the most comprehensive responses from a Catholic leader on how to implement the pope’s more lofty and theoretical document.Like the pope’s, Wuerl’s document sidesteps giving a specific answer to the...

Ahead of the publication of pastoral guidelines on Amoris Laetitia, the bishops have voiced support for some divorced and remarried Catholics to receive the Eucharist, even if living in a state of objective adultery. Edward Pentin Polish bishops appear to be showing support for allowing confessors to determine on a case-by-case basis whether remarried divorcees living in a state of objective adultery can receive Holy Communion. In a statement issued after a two-day plenary meeting, the bishops stressed the importance of “discernment, accompaniment and inclusion” in dealing with such cases, according to the Polish Catholic website Pch24. The website added that...

Cardinal Walter Kasper, whose theology appears to be the chief inspiration for Pope Francis’ doctrine on giving Holy Communion to people living in states of adultery in second marriages, now appears to be claiming that homosexual unions contain “elements” of Christian marriage and are even “analogous” to it in a way that is similar to the relationship between the Catholic Church and non-Catholic Christian communities. Moreover, the cardinal is attributing his claims to Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, despite the fact that the document explicitly contradicts him. “The pope does not leave room for doubt over the fact that...

Only about half of the people who voted for President Donald Trump say it would be immoral if he had an affair with pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels. The other half say it is not immoral, or they are not sure, according to a new HuffPost/YouGov survey published Tuesday. Three-quarters of Trump voters also contend that, even if Daniels’ allegations are true, they are not relevant to Trump’s presidency. In fact, they claim to be barely concerned about a president’s private life at all: Seventy percent say an elected official who has committed an “immoral act” in his or her...

This is just sad. Fox News host Jesse Watters is reportedly divorcing his wife after an affair with a 25-year-old subordinate was uncovered. The New York Daily News has the exclusive report: The network’s prominent host Jesse Watters — who dined on Monday with President Trump — is in the midst of divorce due to an affair with a 25-year-old associate producer. Watters’ wife, Noelle Watters, filed for divorce in October. The couple has twin girls. Sources said the 39-year-old host informed the network of his adulterous relationship with Emma DiGiovine shortly after Noelle filed divorce papers.

In an article for Vatican Insider, Andrea Tornielli, an unflaggingly vigorous whitewasher of “this disastrous papacy,” presents a summary of “indications” of which people living in what the Catechism of John Paul II rightly describes as “a situation of public and permanent adultery” will be permitted to receive Holy Communion according to Amoris Laetitia, and which will not. These preposterous “indications on how to discern case by case” which public adulterers purporting to be divorced and “remarried” will be exempted from a moral norm that admits of no exceptions are proposed by none other than the Bishop of Albano, Marcello...

It is a pastoral instruction entitled “Rejoice with me” dedicated to “Welcoming, discerning, accompanying and integrating into the ecclesial community the faithful who have divorced and civilly remarried”. The Bishop of Albano Marcello Semeraro, secretary of the C9, the council of cardinals who helps the Pope in the reform of the Curia and in the governance of the universal Church, is distributing it these days. The peculiarities of the document are two: it is a well-defined application instruction about the topic - described in the subtitle - and at the same time it is a generous document, which, although it...

Cardinal Walter Kasper, the chief proponent of Pope Francis’ doctrine that Holy Communion should be given to divorced and “remarried” couples living in a state of adultery, is complaining about the increasingly common use of the word “heresy” to describe the novel teaching. The word “heresy” has been used by a large number of Catholic scholars, and even some cardinals, to describe the doctrine advanced in the Pope’s 2016 apostolic exhortation Amoris laetitia, which appears to teach that certain motives can diminish or eliminate the sinfulness of adultery, allowing some adulterers to receive Holy Communion. “There is a very bitter...