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Francis has put the debate on ecclesiastical offices on a new track. Changes to the priesthood? The Pope's plans for lay ministries In Germany, Catholic reformers are calling for women to be ordained to the priesthood, seeing it as equal rights. But Pope Francis has taken a different path that could radically change the entire priesthood. Quietly, Pope Francis has set the debate about ministries in the Catholic Church on a new track this year with three short letters. While in Germany the Synodal Way and demonstrations of "Maria 2.0" call for the admission of women to all ecclesiastical offices...

Nine years ago Nine years ago this very hour I was dressing for work when the announcement came across the radio. It was devastating. I truly thought he was dying or had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's and would be gone within the year. I loved him, I trusted him. He was like the grandfather I never knew. As long as I knew he was there, all would be well, or at least I thought. Since that time it has been a horror for the Church, for individual faithful Catholics. It has only become worse. When I look at him,...

The story is behind a paywall at Newsmax. Vatican source tells Newsmax John Gizzi that ‘Pope Francis is dying,’ with insiders saying they believe the Pontiff will not survive past 2022.

Big news about sacred tradition and Traditionis Custodes emerged over the weekend. ...

ROME— Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Cardinal Robert Sarah as head of the Vatican’s office for liturgy, removing an outspoken conservative and possible future pope from the ranks of Vatican leadership. The Holy See Press Office announced Saturday that Cardinal Sarah had stepped down. No successor has been named. The cardinal submitted his resignation as required by church law when he turned 75 on June 15 of last year. But the pope frequently lets cardinals serve two or three years past that age, though not past 80. Last June, the cardinal wrote on Twitter: “For my part, I am...

Pope Honorious I was declared to be an invalid Pope posthumously over the issue of monothelitism, and later primarily for failure to even try and stop it. Have other Popes been Anathematized? Can Popes still be Anathematized posthumously or even in real time?

A bleg for Latin experts, sorta: St. Malachy's list of popes is usually expressed as referring to a final pope, Peter the Roman.In the final persecution of the Holy Roman Church, there will sit Peter the Roman, who will pasture his sheep in many tribulations, and when these things are finished, the city of seven hills will be destroyed, and the dreadful judge will judge his people. The End.I just found out that this was written in two paragraphs! In persecutione extrema S.R.E. (Holy Roman Church) sedebit. Petrus Romanus, qui paſcet oues in multis tribulationibus: quibus tranſactis ciuitas ſepticollis diruetur,...

By David Martin Pope Francis recently published a new book titled, Let us Dream: A Path to a Better Future, which is being touted “an inspiring and actionable blueprint for building a better world for all humanity” (Simon & Schuster). What is strange is that the book is void of the instructions for a better world given to us by Christ. There is nothing about doing penance (Mt 3:2) and obeying rules and commandments (John 14:15). In his book, Francis talks about "creating something new", "our new principle", and "reimagining a new world." This immediately calls to mind the lyrics...

The next pope: are we facing the nightmare of a Parolin pontificate? Vatican officials are anxious to get their hands on an advance copy of The Next Pope, a survey of 19 leading contenders to succeed Pope Francis scheduled for publication next month. The author, Edward Pentin, discusses these papable cardinals in today's episode of Holy Smoke.The full list is still under wraps, but inevitably we talk about Cardinal Robert Sarah, the African-born apocalyptic visionary whom liberals most fear. (If you doubt that, read this despicable and semi-literate hatchet job on Sarah by Christopher Lamb in The Tablet.) Equally inevitably,...

[Catholic Caucus] The Mazza Hypothesis: Benedict resigned as Bishop of Rome but not Vicar of Christ. Wherein Fr. Z ponders with a heavy heart. I’ve been pondering lately.   One needs to do this out of love.  Ponder, comes from Latin pondus, “weight”.  Hence, I am weighing things.  Augustine famously wrote, amor meus pondus meum… my love is my weight.  In Augustine’s time, gravity was thought to be an interior force that compelled things to go to where they belonged.  Thus, the heart is always restless until it rests in God.  Amor meus, pondus meum.However, in the words of the modern poet’s song,...

April 26 is the feast day of one of the most enigmatic Popes, Saint Marcellinus, who perished at the height of the Great Persecution in AD 304. Because his reign took place during a time when the Church was under extreme duress, the facts surrounding his pontificate are hazy. Similarly hazy is his fate. Following is the complete brief biography of Pope Saint Marcellinus as contained in the Liber Pontificalis, that useful if occasionally confused catalog of all the ancient popes prior to Saint Gregory the Great that was compiled in the late 6th century: Marcellinus, by nationality a Roman,...

Pope Francis has been forced to cancel a planned Mass in Rome with other clergy after suffering a 'slight illness'. The Vatican said the 83-year-old pontiff had a 'slight indisposition' that meant he did not attend an event at the St John Lateran basilica in Rome on Thursday morning. A spokesman said Francis would continue with the rest of his day's business, but preferred to stay within the Vatican rather than travel across the city. There was no word from the Vatican about the nature of his illness, but the pope was seen coughing and blowing his nose during the...

[Catholic Caucus] Marco Tosatti: Does Pope Francis think that his Pontificate is about to come to an end? December 8, 2019 The appointment of Tagle as Prefect for Propaganda Fide is an important signal for many reasons. But most of all because it gives grounds to suppose that Pope Bergoglio believes the end of his pontificate is nigh. An intuition, obviously; nonetheless, justifiable, if you consider another decision  taken - for no apparent reason - some weeks ago. We are referring here to  the end of Fabiàn Pedacchio’s service as special Secretary to the Pontiff over the last six years; a...

Dark political machinations occur. Huge sums of money change hands. The secular power intrudes upon the domain of the Church, creating a situation whereby the reigning Pope is deposed and another is set up in his place. The deposed Pope is silenced, made a monk and sent into exile. The new Pope is secretly beholden to the secular powers who afforded him his seat. They now expect to see their temporal and ecclesiastical goals supported and advanced by the authority of the Papal office. Indeed, they are willing to coerce the Holy Father if he shows any reticence —and they’ve...

"...in the third part, I would like to develop some perspectives for a proper response on the part of the Church." III. (1) What must be done? Perhaps we should create another Church for things to work out? Well, that experiment has already been undertaken and has already failed. Only obedience and love for our Lord Jesus Christ can point the way. So let us first try to understand anew and from within [ourselves] what the Lord wants, and has wanted with us. (cont'd) First, I would suggest the following: If we really wanted to summarize very briefly the content...

Disturbing video: Pope Francis refuses to let Catholic faithful kiss his papal ring ROME, March 25, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — Pope Francis today made it clear that he doesn’t want the faithful to kiss his papal ring, repeatedly pulling his hand away from pilgrims who were lined up to greet him reverently during his one-day visit to the Holy House of Loreto. A disturbing video from the Italian news site TGCOM 24 captured the Pope’s insistence that the laity not show him such reverence. Link to video It’s not known why Pope Francis objects to this.  The meaning of the ring...

It is now six years since Benedict XVI announced he was resigning from the papacy. He quietly declared his intention in Latin on Feb. 11, 2013 before a small gathering of cardinals in Rome. But it quickly sent shockwaves through the worldwide Church. Benedict, who had been elected in 2005, later explained that he would officially step down on the following March 28 due to old age and the inability to meet the physical demands of his global office. He was 85 years old at the time, the fourth-oldest pope in history. He was also the first Bishop of Rome...

Cantalamessa: Benedict XVI’s Resignation "Democratized" Papal Office Benedict XVI’s resignation constituted a significant step on the path to "humanizing" and "democratizing" the papal office according to liberal Father Raniero Cantalamessa, 84, the longtime preacher of the papal household. During a retreat for the US bishops last week Cantalamessa went on calling the present deadly Church crisis a “golden age" compared to past centuries when many bishops were more concerned about governing their territory than caring for the flock.” [At least then, the bishops were not actively engaged in leading the flock into the abyss and, after all, still had a...

Defending “True Devotion to the Chair of St. Peter”: A Response to Professor Douglas Farrow This article appears in the current issue (Dec. 2018) of Catholic Family News (click HERE to subscribe; current subscribers can access the E-Edition HERE).*****On Nov. 10, 2018, Professor Douglas Farrow published a long article on the website of the Catholic World Report entitled, “The Conversion of the Papacy and the Current Church Crisis,” in which in a friendly manner he criticizes several theses which I proposed on the occasion of the Catholic Family News Conference in Deerfield, Illinois, on April 8, 2018, speaking on the theme, Tu es Petrus:...

De Mattei: The Disfigured Roman Primacy by the Successor of Peter Roberto de Mattei Correspondenza Romana September 26, 2018 The impressive rapidity with which events are unfolding one after the other in the Church makes one think that this is due not only to the dynamics of historical acceleration, but a deliberate choice by the agents of chaos to increase disorientation and paralyze the forces that are seeking to resist the rush of the tide. On September 22, The Holy See and the People’s Republic of China, in a joint statement, disclosed  they had signed a “provisional” agreement on the...