Free Republic

[Catholic Caucus] Austrian priest: Pope Francis is responsible for widespread ‘dismay, heresy, and division’ in the ChurchPope Francis’ approval of homosexual ‘blessings’ is a ‘turning point’ that shows how the Jesuit pontiff has ‘left the teachings of the Church’ and caused a ‘swath of devastation that cannot be overlooked,’ Fr. Joachim Heimerl writes.This essay by Fr. Joachim Heimerl was originally written in German. It has been translated and published with the permission of Fr. Heimerl.(LifeSiteNews) — When Pope Francis said that Christ expects “synodality” from the Church of today, I wondered how the pope knew this. Has he received a...

[Catholic Caucus] Surveying the Passages From St. Matthew’s Gospel That Francis Routinely ContradictsWith the recent widespread criticism of the document authorizing the blessing of same-sex unions, Fiducia Supplicans, we can see hints that Francis and his collaborators may have entered new territory in their assaults against Catholic Truth. And yet, as most Traditional Catholics understand all too well, Fiducia Supplicans is simply one of Francis’s countless intolerable offenses against the Faith. To better appreciate these offenses, we can consider some of the numerous ways in which Francis routinely contradicts the teachings we find in St. Matthew’s Gospel. We could of...

[Catholic Caucus] LITURGY - Pope Francis: the Master of IronyI read with great interest the remarks of Pope Francis to the members of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline before their annual plenary assembly. What particularly struck me were Pope Francis” words: “Without liturgical reform there is no reform of the Church.”As I pondered these words I was overtaken by a sense of confusion. Was the Pope referring to the document Sacrosanctum Concilium promulgated by the Second Vatican Council and the reform of the Liturgy that occurred in the years after the Council? And if so, what is...

[Catholic Caucus] Archbishop Aguer: The confusion of Francis’ papacy has only worsened as he’s gotten olderPhilosophy has coined the following observation about various processes: movement speeds up toward the end. This Aristotelian vision applies to Pope Francis' papacy, which reveals its harmful condition inasmuch as it drags on as the pontiff gets older.Philosophy has coined the following observation about processes that is particularly valid for change: motus in fine velocior, i.e., movement speeds up toward the end. Beyond the realm of physics, this should be understood as referring to the metaphysical identity and quality of any process near its end,...

[Catholic/Anglican Caucus] Exit the Pope?It is not disrespect of papal magisterium to register difficulties with supposedly pastoral recommendations on the basis of prudential criteria.My reading of papal history has lately convinced me that the papacy permits the contradiction of one of the oldest axioms of philosophy: the parts are sometimes greater than the whole. That is especially true in our age when the greater share of the Fourth Estate has given up all pretense of objectivity. We are not trusted with the news to make our opinions. We are given narratives framed by opinion, and dissidence is censored to an...

What “Papolatry” is and What We Can Learn from Tolkien’s Epic Story One of the most serious errors widespread today is designated by the term “papolatry.” This error is not manifested through denial but rather through an excessive affirmation of the Pope’s authority and privileges. To designate it, there is at least one alternative term, namely the concept of “hyperpapalism” proposed by Dr. Peter Kwasniewski in his comprehensive monograph, The Road from Hyperpapalism to Catholicism (Arouca Press, 2022). However, the most commonly used word remains the former. In this article, I want to explain as clearly as possible the meanings...

Can the Pope be a Heretic? The Traditional Catholic Answer In a homily on May 7, 2005, Pope Benedict XVI made one of the important statements regarding the authority of the Pope. The following words, in particular, have remained in my mind:“The pope is not an absolute monarch whose thoughts and desires are law. On the contrary: The pope’s ministry is a guarantee of obedience to Christ and to his Word. He must not proclaim his own ideas, but rather constantly bind himself and the Church to obedience to God’s Word, in the face of every attempt to adapt it...

Normalizing Sodomy: The True Legacy of FrancisA few days ago, the head of the former Holy Office, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, went out of his way to let the world know that single mothers who repent and confess their sins should be allowed to receive Holy Communion. NEWSFLASH to Cardinal Victor: The Catholic Church has never said otherwise. I was educated in Catholic schools from the first grade all the way though Catholic university, and I never heard any priest, sister, or lay professor even suggest that an unwed mother was to be considered excommunicated and therefore cut off from...

[Catholic Caucus] Pope Francis: How much lower can we sink?Text of a talk given to the Latin Mass Society in London on November 24th, 2023. Mr. Sire’s audio of this talk can be heard here.When Joseph Shaw proposed this talk to me in early September, I suggested the title “Pope Francis: how much lower can we sink?”, but the fact is that since then we have been overtaken by events. Over the past eleven years we have all seen Pope Francis’s pontificate in a trajectory of accelerating descent into more and more overt betrayal of Catholic doctrine, but I must...

[Catholic Caucus] FRANCIS KNOWS BEST: Blessing Gay Unions is Already a Done DealIn this episode of The Remnant Underground, Michael Matt takes a look at the ramifications of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s conclusion that the FBI views pro-life, pro-family traditional Catholics as “possible domestic terrorists.” Here’s the bigger problem: Pope Francis is carrying water for the FBI. How so? Watch and see. Plus, to bless gay unions or not to bless gay unions. That is the question. Trouble is, Pope Francis has already done it. Michael takes a deep dive into the film, “Francesco” – the documentary that rips the...

[Catholic/Orthodox Caucus] EXCLUSIVE: Don’t blame young if they turn to tradition in age of confusion, says SchneiderWhenever one prepares to meet people of high moral stature or rank, there is always a temptation to consider them also in physically grandiose terms. Britain was fooled by the media into thinking the late Pope Benedict XVI was the “Panzer Kardinal”, or “God’s Rottweiler”, and expected a personality to match only to discover, during his 2010 visit to the UK, a man whose gentleness and shyness served to conceal the inner steel of fidelity to the Gospel and a clarity of thought sharper...

[Catholic Caucus] Pope Francis set to remove his ‘enemy’ Cardinal Burke’s ‘flat and salary’: reportPope Francis recently announced his intention to evict Cardinal Burke from his lodgings in Rome and declared the prelate his ‘enemy,’ according to a report by the New Daily Compass. Pope Francis is reportedly working to evict Cardinal Raymond Burke from his apartment in Rome and remove his salary, according to Vatican sources cited in a new report.Published in three languages on November 27, the New Daily Compass (NDC) reported that Pope Francis had announced his intention to evict the prominent American cardinal from his lodgings...

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal Müller: Pope Francis allowing ‘trans’ people to be godparents is ‘confusing and harmful’A recent text published by Pope Francis and Cardinal Victor Fernández allowed for 'transgender' individuals to be godparents for the sacrament of Baptism. The Catholic Church teaches that so-called 'gender reassignment surgery' is a grave sin and a rebellion against divine and natural law.Cardinal Gerhard Müller has strongly rebuked a recent document issued by Pope Francis and Cardinal Victor Fernández on transgender issues, accusing Fernández of a “manipulation” of prior teaching on such questions.“It is confusing and harmful for the Magisterium to rely on the...

Professor John Rist: Pope Francis is a heretic and has encouraged heresy in othersCAMBRIDGE, England (LifeSiteNews) — Editor’s note: The following article was submitted by Dr. John Rist, a Professor Emeritus of Classics at the University of Toronto now residing in Cambridge, England. A world-renowned scholar and a life member of Clare Hall, Cambridge University, Professor Rist was one of the signers of a 2019 letter accusing Pope Francis of heresy. Q. Is Jorge Bergoglio the pope?A. Yes. Although elected by a scandalously irresponsible collection of Cardinals, the election was valid.Q. Why was the election ‘scandalously irresponsible’?A. Because, as admitted...

[Catholic Caucus] Pope Has “Uttered Plenty of Material Heresies”: Former Vatican Doctrinal HeadIn a new interview with LifeSite News, Cardinal Müller, the former head of the Holy Office said that Pope Francis “has already uttered plenty of material heresies,” but that since these are not formal heresies, Pope Francis has not lost his office. He affirmed the theory of St. Robert Bellarmine, whose opinion was that the pope would lose his office immediately upon becoming a formal heretic.We have already commented at OnePeterFive to point out that Bellarmine’s view here (according to Bellarmine’s own estimation!) is merely a probable opinion...

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal Müller: Pope would ‘automatically’ lose his office by teaching heresy‘The pope is the perennial principle and foundation of the unity of the Church,’ Cardinal Müller writes in a new essay for First Things. ‘But the Church is not centralized in him, as if he were the supreme leader of a totalitarian party.’(LifeSiteNews) — Cardinal Gerhard Müller has stated that a pope who teaches heresy would automatically lose his office. “To teach contrary to the apostolic faith would automatically deprive the pope of his office,” he wrote in an opinion piece published on Friday in the religious journal...

[Catholic Caucus] New Response in the Same-Sex Blessing ControversyBack on September 30th, a few days before the new Dubia were released, Cardinal Tucho Fernández gave an interview to LifeSite News about Same-sex blessings which has now been published. But before we get to that, I want to go back to the 2021 document approved by the Holy Father which was meant to put to rest this dubium with the following clarity:TO THE QUESTION PROPOSED:Does the Church have the power to give the blessing to unions of persons of the same sex?RESPONSE:Negative.The explanation goes into the fact that “Blessings belong to...

[Catholic Caucus] Understanding Pope Francis’ Response to Same-Sex Union BlessingsShould the Church allow same-sex unions to be blessed it would be an empty mercy—a mercy that cannot save because it is a “mercy” divorced from the truth of Christ.On July 12, 2013, Pope Francis told a group of young people, “make a ruckus, but do a good job of it!” The next day, July 13—World Youth Day—he told 30,000 young people: “make a mess.” What did Francis mean by such exhortations? Certainly, he urged that the followers of Christ disturb the status quo by living the Gospel in the modern...

[Catholic Caucus] Key Considerations Often Omitted from the Debates on the Crisis of the PapacyFor several decades, many of the most ardent and capable defenders of Catholic tradition have debated the question of how to respond to a heretical pope. Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, for instance, had this to say about the reign of Paul VI:“Perhaps one day, in thirty or forty years, a meeting of cardinals gathered together by a future Pope will study and judge the reign of Paul VI, perhaps they will say that there were things that ought to have been clearly obvious to people at the...

[Catholic Caucus] When Doubt Becomes CertaintyWhen Doubt Becomes CertaintyMichael CharlierSummorum-Pontificum.de4 October 2023(source)Image: Titian, National Gallery London. Christ instructs Peter: "Go behind me, Satan, thou art a scandal unto me: because thou savourest not the things that are of God, but the things that are of men." Mt 16,23The question we asked on the occasion of the "Dubia" by five cardinals, "But where is Peter?" requires an update. In the meantime, the first answer of Francis (of July 11) is available. The text bristles with woolly "on the one hand, on the other hand" statements that avoid any clear orientation and...