Free Republic

[Catholic Caucus] German bishop attacks Church teaching for upholding ‘only man and woman,’ demands changes to CatechismPro-LGBT Auxiliary Bishop Ludger Schepers of Essen insisted that ‘something has to change’ in the Church regarding sexuality and that the ‘Catechism must say different things than it does now,’ in the latest heterodox remarks from the German hierarchy.A German bishop criticized Catholic teaching for “assuming there is only man and only woman” and demanded that the Church change its infallible doctrine on sexuality in the latest heterodox comments from the German hierarchy.Bishop Ludger Schepers, an auxiliary bishop for the Diocese of Essen, who...

[Catholic Caucus] Synodal Cancellations - by Archbishop Héctor AgüerThe progressive official party installed in Rome for just over a decade goes on in its policy of “cancellation” of those who, with freedom of spirit, seek to serve Jesus Christ in orthodoxy and Tradition. By “cancellation” one means all forms of ignoring, conspiracy of silence, marginalization, prohibition of publishing in media and social media, and even the cessation of functions of those who do not adhere “synodally” to the current Vatican ideologies and discretions. Good bishops such as Daniel Fernández Torres, from Arecibo, Puerto Rico, were cancelled, as is known; and...

Boy Scouts of America changes name to ‘Scouting America’ to be ‘more inclusive’The organization began welcoming homosexual-identifying boys in 2013, halted its ban on gay adult scout masters in 2015, announced in 2017 that girls who identify as 'transgender' could enter boys-only programs, and fully opened its membership to girls in 2018.After years of turmoil and upheaval resulting in a major identity crisis, the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) announced today that it’s changing its name to Scouting America in order to be “more inclusive.”The rebranding comes as the troubled organization emerges from bankruptcy after a tsunami of allegations of...

Louisiana AG sues Biden’s Dept of Education over rule forcing radical LGBT dogma on public schoolsWhile the lawsuit works through the courts, Louisiana leaders are telling state education officials not to comply with the Biden administration's new dictates. Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill announced that her office is suing the Biden administration over its effort to force widespread recognition and accommodation of LGBT ideology on public education, arguing the White House is actually facilitating “discrimination” rather than ending it.In February, President Joe Biden’s U.S. Department of Education (DOE) submitted to the U.S. Office of Management & Budget its finalized Title...

Why Tom Brady and Garth Brooks will be at the Vatican this weekendGarth Brooks may have friends in low places, but this Saturday he will perform at a high-level Vatican event with Nobel Peace Prize winners, business leaders, and professional athletes, including former NFL quarterback Tom Brady.Brady, Brooks, and other celebrity guests will meet Pope Francis in an audience at the Apostolic Palace on the morning of May 11 as participants in the Vatican’s World Meeting on Human Fraternity.It will be the second time that the longtime quarterback for the New England Patriots has met a pope. Brady met John...

[Catholic Caucus] Sacrilege in Bogata. Woman gives Communion to her dog.Woman feeds her pet with Eucharist during MassIn Bogotá, Colombia, an event during a Mass has shocked the local religious community, after a woman shared a fragment of the Eucharist with her pet, according to Father Laureano Barón, parish priest of Santo Domingo Savio.In Bogotá, Colombia, Father Laureano Barón, in charge of the Santo Domingo Savio parish, expressed his dismay over an incident that he described as sacrilege during a recent Mass. He reported that a woman, after receiving the Eucharist, returned to her place and shared a fragment with...

Vatican meeting on ‘human fraternity’ seeks ‘answers’ for the future but is silent on faithThe Vatican event, titled ‘Be Human,’ gathers secular leaders, Nobel laureates, and various professionals to discuss ‘proposals for a fraternal planet,’ drawing from Pope Francis’ 2020 encyclical Fratelli Tutti.The Vatican is partnering with the Fratelli Tutti Foundation to host the second “World Meeting on Human Fraternity,” which will see secular leaders and Nobel laureates attempt to “find answers” to build “the future.”Announced via a press conference May 7, details of the May 10-11 “World Meeting on Human Fraternity” were revealed principally by Cardinal Archpriest of St....

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal Marx: ‘Global, synodal Church’ without ‘purely clerical rule’ is ‘in the making’Cardinal Marx called for changes to ‘the theology of Holy Orders’ and said the Church should be subjected to a ‘social-scientific examination’ in the heretical, pro-LGBT prelate’s latest comments against Catholic teaching.Cardinal Reinhard Marx has said a “global, synodal Church” without a “purely clerical rule” is “in the making.”In an essay for the German magazine Herder Korrespondenz entitled “Church on the horizon of modernity,” the German cardinal, who rejects Catholic teaching on various subjects, claimed that “a church of the future can only be imagined with...

[Catholic Caucus] Leave behind Tridentine model of priesthood, embrace synodality, Cardinal Hollerich bids parish priestsCWN Editor's Note: On the last day of Parish Priests for the Synod—an international meeting of parish priests at the Vatican—Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, SJ, encouraged participants “to become ambassadors of synodality, to be full participants in a synodal Church, to become with all the people of God, missionary disciples of Jesus.” “Many times their training and their reality have been oriented towards a Tridentine model of the priesthood,” Cardinal Hollerich, the relator-general of the synod on synodality, said of parish priests, in an address to Pope...

[Catholic Caucus] Priest Publicly Challenges Bishops To Defend Sacred TraditionTo the Catholic Bishops: The truth of our much lamented position as the Church is in the sacramental records. This is specifically found in the change of the priest to faithful ratio over the last 54 years. This ratio is as telling as it gets. Obviously, the lower the priest to faithful ratio, the more the Mystical Body of Christ is served. The larger the ratio, the harder it becomes for the faithful to go to Mass, have their Confessions heard, or to have a meaningful contact with priests at all.In...

Diane Montagna Interviews Edward Feser on ‘Dignitas infinita’DIANE MONTAGNA (DM): Dignitas infinita opens by asserting that: “Every human person possesses an infinite dignity, inalienably grounded in his or her very being, which prevails in and beyond every circumstance, state, or situation the person may ever encounter.” Yet St. Thomas Aquinas writes: “God alone is of infinite dignity, and so he alone, in the flesh assumed by him, could adequately satisfy for man.” (Solus autem Deus est infinitae dignitatis, qui carne assumpta pro homine sufficienter satisfacere poterat.)At the Vatican press conference to present the new Declaration, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández noted...

How Pope Francis opened the Vatican to transgender sex workersThe outreach, reflecting the most radical stage of his papacy, has prompted backlash while also altering the lives of the nearly 100 people he has met.

DOJ prevents pro-lifer on house arrest from attending Sunday Massh2>Paulette Harlow was refused a religious accommodation to go to church. Sign the prayer pledge for the nine pro-life rescuers facing a decade in prison.WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) – In what appears to be a targeted persecution, the Department of Justice has directly infringed on the religious liberty of a peaceful Catholic pro-lifer who has been placed on arrest, insisting that she be prohibited from attending church despite the defendant’s express request to be allowed to attend Mass in addition to doctor’s visits.RELATED: Biden DOJ’s treatment of jailed pro-lifers meets international definitions...

Pope's titles, the great misunderstanding about the primacy of PeterThe reintroduction of the title "Patriarch of the West" for the pope in the Pontifical Yearbook, combined with the already consummated downgrading of the title "Vicar of Christ" appears to be a move to please the Orthodox; but it is a historical and theological error.On 9 April, the Pontifical Yearbook 2024 was published. Among the titles attributed to the pope, the reinsertion of 'Patriarch of the West', which had been removed by Benedict XV, immediately stood out. What does this decision mean? Is it just a trifle or is there more...

Priest Celebrates Lesbian [Pseudo] Marriage - One "Bride" Is Protestant PreacherRev. Joseph Williams, pastor of St. Vincent de Paul in Chicago, Illinois, officiated at a pseudo-marriage for two women in his church. They posted video footage on social media on 22 April and Rev. Williams confirmed that the video is real (OsvNews.com, 1 May).One of the women, Kelli Beard, is a United Methodist minister. She will become an associate pastor at an Arizona church starting in July. The other, Myah Knight, is a mental health therapist who runs a 'religious trauma support group'.Beard wore an off-the-shoulder champagne-coloured sequined dress, Knight...

[Catholic Caucus] Bishop Strickland: A ‘confused understanding of authority’ has invaded the ChurchSt. Robert Bellarmine wrote: 'Just as it is licit to resist a Pontiff who attacks the body, so it is licit to resist him who attacks souls, or who disturbs the civil order, or, even more, who tries to destroy the Church.'The following is a May 3, 2024, letter from Bishop Joseph Strickland, the bishop emeritus of Tyler, Texas. Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,“Roma locuta; causa finita est!” “Rome has spoken; the matter is finished!” In these pastoral letters that I have been publishing, I have been...

[Catholic Caucus] Pope Gregory XVI’s Mirari Vos Condemns the Cardinal Sin of the Vatican II RevolutionAs profitable and enlightening as it is to reflect on how Mirari Vos condemns the specific novelties of Vatican II, though, we might draw greatest value from the encyclical if we can truly appreciate what it said about the permissibility of novelties in general.Like many other papal encyclicals prior to Vatican II, several aspects of Pope Gregory XVI’s 1832 encyclical on “Liberalism and Religious Indifferentism,” Mirari Vos, directly contradict ideas that were explicitly promoted at the Council. For instance, whereas Vatican II’s “Declaration on Religious...

Priest: Hatred of the Latin Mass is inspired by ‘hatred of everything that is Catholic’‘Hatred of the traditional Mass is not only hatred of Catholicism, it is above all the precondition for synodal ‘church reform,’’ warns Father Joachim Heimerl, criticizing ‘demonic self-hatred’ within the Church.Latin MassThis essay by Fr. Joachim Heimerl was originally written in German. It has been translated and published with the permission of Fr. Heimerl.(LifeSiteNews) — “Dell’ odio i tristi frutti.” Anyone who loves opera knows these words. They are taken from the prologue of Leoncavallo’s “I Pagliacci,” in which flaming jealousy first leads to fiery hatred...

Pope Francis hints at new ‘understanding’ of papacy during meeting with Anglican leadersThe Pontiff’s speech to the Anglicans held a revolutionary possibility: namely, a decision by Francis to use the papacy itself as an ecumenical bargaining tool, in a manner which could appear to undermine the authority wielded by the Pope.Pope Francis greets Canterbury's Justin Welby, May 2, 2024.VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Pope Francis hosted leaders from the Anglican Communion at the Vatican Thursday, and while speaking about the “controversial” role of the papacy, the Pontiff raised the possibility of a new “understanding” that could result from ecumenical relations and...

MAJOR STATEMENT: The Crimes and Heresies of Pope Francis, Their Causes and Effects, and the Action to Be TakenCall for the Resignation of Pope FrancisMay 2, 2024St. Athanasius of Alexandria(downloadable PDF here)Since 2013, the words and actions of Pope Francis have caused an unprecedented crisis in the Catholic Church, and have done great harm to the Church and the whole world. The members of the hierarchy of the Church have a duty to act in order to prevent Francis from causing further harm.We therefore call for Pope Francis to resign the papal office, and to repent and do penance for...