Free Republic

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal decries Vatican ‘silence’ on homosexuality at abuse summit ROME, February 27, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — Organizers of the recent Vatican sex abuse summit deliberately avoided the issue of homosexuality in order to advance a “homosexual agenda” in the Church and protect homosexual networks that thrive in “climate of complicity and a conspiracy of silence,” a cardinal has said.  In a new interview with Edward Pentin of the National Catholic Register, German Cardinal Walter Brandmüller said that “discussing the problem of homosexuality would have become dangerous for them, because it’s evident there is a network of homosexuals within the Vatican.”  “That’s the problem,...

ROME, February 22, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — Decades of widespread homosexuality in US seminaries had “nothing to do with the sexual abuse of minors,” a key organizer of the Vatican abuse summit said on Friday. At today’s summit press briefing, LifeSite asked Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, adjunct secretary for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and papal appointee to the summit’s organizing committee, a follow-up to a question posed yesterday by Italian journalist Sandro Magister. Magister had asked the Maltese archbishop on Thursday why the word “homosexuality” was completely absent from the summit’s opening day — particularly in...

Gay author with Vatican connections names who’s allegedly helping Pope homosexualize Church February 25, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – Amongst the most striking claims of French sociologist and openly homosexual Frédéric Martel in his new book on homosexuality in the Vatican is that Pope Francis and his inner circle are actively working to make homosexuality acceptable to the Catholic Church, even if they are not aiming to open the Church to homosexual “marriage”. First, a caveat: many of Martel’s claims about conservative cardinals’ supposed homosexuality are so outrageous and ill-founded that all he writes is not necessarily true. But his statements regarding...

Plagiarism by Vatican spokesman Fr. Rosica goes back almost 30 years TORONTO, February 25, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – Instances of plagiarism by disgraced Vatican spokesman Father Thomas Rosica, C.S.B., have now been traced back as far as 1991. He plagiarized not only in newspapers and blogs but also in peer-reviewed academic journals.  Last week Rosica admitted that he plagiarized, telling the National Post that he “relied too much on compiled notes.” He also said that he, in the words of the National Post article, “relied on material prepared by interns.”  “It could have been cut and paste,” he said.  But now...

What is -- or rather should be -- the purpose of interfaith dialogue? When the Vatican and Pope Francis announce, as they recently did, that they are engaged in interfaith dialogue with leading Muslims, what exactly are they conveying to the world? What are they accomplishing? The answer to this question is the difference between what true interfaith dialogue is -- namely, an excellent thing that acknowledges and tries to overcome complications -- and what most modern day interfaith dialogue amounts to: Soothing but false panaceas that serve only to suppress, leaving complications to fester and metastasize beneath the surface....

ROME - Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston wants to see a report from the Vatican detailing who knew what and when about Theodore McCarrick, once among the most influential men of the Church in the United States - and, as of last Saturday, an ex-priest found guilty of sexual sins with both minors and adults. O’Malley said he believes that report will include information sent to the Holy See by the four dioceses where McCarrick served, meaning New York, Metuchen, Newark and Washington, D.C. Knowing what happened, O’Malley said, is “very important” when it comes to possible wrongdoing both in...

A top Catholic cardinal admitted on Saturday that Church files on priests who sexually abused children were destroyed or never even drawn up, a move which allowed paedophiles to prey on others. "Files that could have documented the terrible deeds and named those responsible were destroyed, or not even created," German Cardinal Reinhard Marx said in a speech to a landmark Vatican summit on tackling paedophilia in the clergy. "Instead of the perpetrators, the victims were regulated and silence imposed on them. The stipulated procedures and processes for the prosecution of offences were deliberately not complied with, but instead cancelled...

Pope Francis has said that those who constantly criticise the Catholic church are “friends of the devil”. Speaking to pilgrims from southern Italy, the pontiff said that defects of the church needed to be denounced so they could be corrected, but that those who condemned “without love” were linked to the devil. “One cannot live a whole life accusing, accusing, accusing, the church,” he said. People who did, he said, were “the friends, cousins and relatives of the devil”. His remarks come as dozens of victims of clerical sexual abuse gathered in Rome ahead of an unprecedented Vatican summit on...

ROME, February 19, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — Assembling amid banners of the four evangelists and in the holy name of Mary, today an international coalition of 100 Catholic laity mobilized in Rome’s historic center to silently “oppose the Vatican’s policy of silence about homosexuality,” ahead of this week’s Vatican summit on clerical sex abuse. The international coalition is called Acies ordinata. Its name, which Catholic tradition reserves for Mary Most Holy who assembles an army of the faithful to defeat her enemies — terribilis ut castrorum acies ordinate— is taken from the Old Testament canticle, the Song of Songs (6:3, 6:10).  Acies ordinata, photo by Diane Montagna/LifeSiteNews “You...

In Ohio Republican Governor Mike DeWine is proposing a gax tax hike..... Brazil is in on sending humanitarian aid across its border with Venezuela. That word from the spokesman for Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro.... Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Moscow today meeting with Russia's President Vladimir Putin..... He's running for president again as a Democrat in 2020... A Congressional report says that sensitive nuclear power technology is being transferred to Saudi Arabia...... In France a 36 year old laptop salesman who is a convert to Islam arrested..... And Yellow Vests got their wish last night when a former bodyguard...

... The closet of the Roman Catholic Church hinges on an impossible contradiction. For years, church leaders have driven gay congregants away in shame and insisted that “homosexual tendencies” are “disordered.” And yet, thousands of the church’s priests are gay. The stories of gay priests are unspoken, veiled from the outside world, known only to one another, if they are known at all. Fewer than about 10 priests in the United States have dared to come out publicly. But gay men probably make up at least 30 to 40 percent of the American Catholic clergy, according to dozens of estimates...

“At that time, [marching] from Tirtza, Menachem subdued Tiphsah and all who were in it, and its territory; and because it did not surrender, he massacred [its people] and ripped open all its pregnant women.” II Kings 15:16 President Trump held a conference call with 4,500 participants on Thursday in which he reportedly referred to late-term abortions as “execution.” During the invitation-only conference call, the president discussed recent attempts by Democratic lawmakers to advance a pro-abortion agenda. In particular, the president discussed a bill recently signed by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo which allows abortions after 24 weeks if the...

Francis’ synod on sex abuse: “Will not be talking about anything except minors.” A friend is listening to the opening press conference right now and his helpfully sending me some little paraphrases, like kitty treats, to get us all interested.At least they’re being up front about the intention to avoid actually addressing anything. ~ For those with the stomach for it, here’s the whole thing.Ed Pentin (at 1:12:18):“It was often said during the Synod on youth that abuse of seminarians vulnerable adults as it was put, would be addressed at this meeting. partly because of the McCarrick scandal. When this...

McCarrick Laicization a Political Bone Throw? Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the former Apostolic Nuncio to the United states, has publicly expressed his misgivings about the upcoming Vatican summit on clerical sexual-abuse this February 21-25. In a brief essay issued in response to an invitation to participate in a National Catholic Register symposium on the upcoming summit, he says, “I am praying intensely for the success of the February summit” but laments that there is “no sign of a genuine willingness to attend to the real causes of the present situation.” Viganò presents three critical questions, wherein he manifests his doubt...

Pope picks liberal cardinals Cupich, Marx, Tagle for featured talks at Vatican Abuse Summit ROME, February 18, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago, Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Germany, and Cardinal Antonio Tagle of the Philippines will be featured speakers at the Vatican’s upcoming summit on clerical sex abuse titled, “The Protection of Minors in the Church” beginning later this week. Cardinal Cupich, one of the main organizers of the summit and lead prelate of the delegation from the United States, emerged as an immediate proponent of the Vatican summit when at the last minute, the Holy See blocked...

ROME, February 14, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — Archbishop Georg Gänswein has reaffirmed the validity of Benedict’s resignation, insisting that he did resign the Petrine office. “There is only one legitimately elected and incumbent [gewählten und amtierenden] Pope, and that is Francis,” Benedict’s longtime private secretary said, adding simply: “Amen.” His definitive affirmation, communicated to LifeSiteNews on Feb. 11, 2019 — the six-year anniversary of Pope Benedict’s abdication — comes at a time when increasing numbers of bishops, canonists, theologians and lay faithful are questioning its juridical validity. Clergy and laity alike are concerned that Benedict’s remarks about the “forever” of the...

This weekend marks the three month anniversary of the Yellow Vests protests in France and nationwide protests are planned today with a special protest in Paris tomorrow...... "California will see you in court" is the response from Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom to President Trump's emergency declaration to erect a barrier on the US-Mexico border..... Former Massachusetts Governor William Weld wants to challenge President Trump in 2020. Weld forming an exploratory committee for a candidacy that would oppose the President for the GOP nomination.... Five are dead in a workplace shooting incident in Aurora, Illinois..... General Joseph Votel, commander of US...

February 15, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – Archbishop Carlo Viganò said he is “praying intensely” for the success of the abuse summit happening next week at the Vatican, but he fears that there is "no sign” that Pope Francis, along with organizers, is willing to “attend to the real causes” of the clerical abuse crisis. In a Feb. 10 essay published by the National Catholic Register as part of its “Abuse and the Way to Healing” symposium, the former Nuncio to the United States offered some questions that he says reveals a lack of “genuine willingness” to address the crisis. Viganò’s first...

The Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community released a document that addresses the upcoming European elections of May 23-26. Church support to the “Common European Home”, even though it’s not perfect. The human person at the centre of political life. Necessary reforms and a set of key-issues: family, migration, development and rights. The “profile” of a good candidate.A strong, determined, committed invitation to support the European integration process also through participation in the important election of May 23-26. In a message from COMECE, the Commission of Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community, Christians are called to contribute...

Pope Francis has reportedly written to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro indicating conditions aren't ripe for the Vatican to step in and help mediate in the country's dramatic political crisis. The Corriere della Sera newspaper on Wednesday quoted from a letter it said Francis wrote to Maduro on Feb. 7, several days after the socialist leader said in an interview that he had written to Francis to ask the pontiff's help in launching talks with the opposition. A Vatican spokesman, Alessandro Gisotti, said the Holy See "doesn't comment on the letters of the Holy Father, which, obviously, are private in character."...