Free Republic

[Catholic Caucus] 60 Years After the Council, Will Catholics Reject the Unholy Errors of Tucho’s Dignitas Infinita?This document is quite possibly the most wicked statement possible on human dignity. On April 8, 2024, Cardinal Víctor Manuel “Tucho” Fernández and his Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith released their Declaration on Human Dignity, Dignitas Infinita. Although Catholics celebrated the transferred Feast of the Annunciation on April 8th, we can draw a more apt comparison to Dignitas Infinita from the solar eclipse in America also taking place. Almost everyone witnessing the solar eclipse understood that the sun did not actually vanish...

[Catholic Caucus] Female Synod advisor appointed by Pope Francis says ‘women deacons’ are a ‘possibility’Maria Lucchetti Bingemer is one of three new consultants for the Synod on Synodality appointed by Pope Francis who have endorsed so-called ‘women deacons.’VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — One of the female advisors appointed to the Synod by Pope Francis has said women deacons are “a possibility.”In an interview with the news outlet of the German bishops, katholisch.de, theology professor Maria Lucchetti Bingemer said that thanks to Pope Francis, “There is already more visibility of women in leadership positions, and this creates an ecclesiological fact: women are...

Biden hosts papal nuncio Christophe Pierre, Fr. James Martin at White House St. Patrick’s Day brunchPapal nuncio Cardinal Christophe Pierre, homosexual Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, and left-wing Jesuit Fathers James Martin and Thomas Reese joined President Joe Biden at the White House yesterday for a St. Patrick’s Day brunch.Pierre, who as papal nuncio is the pope’s ambassador to the U.S., delivered an invocation and led grace before the meal.“We gather on St. Patrick’s Day to pay tribute to the Catholic leadership in this country, especially the fields of charity and social engagement. And so, we give thanks to God...

You might be wondering, what is being besieged? Our borders? Yes. Common sense values? For sure. How about proper theology? Absolutely. We are besieged like never before but, then, this was predicted! There would be a vast “falling away” from the faith. (2 Thessalonians 2) But I think that this issue goes deeper. Let me explain. I have watched Bible prophecy attacked, scorned, mocked, criticized, and improperly taught for a lot of years. There has been overwhelming confusion about the last days. Again, that is predicted, so no surprise (II Peter 3:3–7). In many denominations, it is taught egregiously wrong....

[Catholic Caucus] Russian Catholic bishops reject blessing same-sex couples as ‘unacceptable’Emphasizing the traditional view of marriage as between a man and a woman, the Catholic Bishops of Russia declared their duty to defend the family as the union of one man and one woman, the foundation of society. The Conference on Catholic Bishops of Russia has released a statement condemning the blessing of “same-sex couples” as instructed in the Vatican’s December Declaration Fiducia Supplicans as “unacceptable.”In a Friday statement, the nation’s senior prelates lamented the “misunderstandings that have arisen” as a result of Pope Francis’ document Fiducia Supplicans. As a...

The Church and Freemasonry: the Secret February 16 Meeting in Milan -- by Roberto de Mattei On Feb. 16, 2024, representatives of the main Italian Masonic lodges and a number of influential Catholic prelates gathered in Milan for a day of study. The seminar, sponsored at the Ambrosianum Foundation by the Gris (Group for Socio-Religious Research and Information), was attended by the three Grand Masters of Italian Freemasonry: Stefano Bisi for the Grand Orient of Italy (GOI), Luciano Romoli for the Grand Lodge of Italy of the ALAMs (GLDI, and Fabio Venzi (in connection) for the Grand Regular Lodge of...

[Catholic Caucus] How Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre Fought the Vatican’s Ongoing Assault on Catholic TruthWhen thinking about how best to resist Francis (and any heretic the next conclave might elect), we should recognize that God has given us the example of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who fought these same battles long before the world had heard of Jorge Bergoglio. One of the most evil aspects of Francis’s occupation of the papacy is his unabashed assault on Catholic truth. Most of us have seen several indications of this over the past ten years, but it is worthwhile to summarize some of the primary...

German Diocese Invites Lutherans To Pick Up Communion without FaithLutherans in the Diocese of Osnabrück, Germany, are officially invited to pick up Communion at Novus Ordo Eucharists.Communion for Protestants is "a great opening" and "an important step that will allow the churches to grow closer together", claimed Osnabrück Cathedral Canon Reinhard Molitor in an interview with the diocesan newspaper Aus.sicht.Molitor: "The diocese of Osnabrück was the first German diocese to issue an official invitation to Eucharistic hospitality in June 2023. Rottenburg-Stuttgart is also working on such an agreement. Other dioceses are hesitating. I think it could apply to the whole...

Pope Francis Is the Pope He Was Waiting ForThe Church under Pope Francis has become infiltrated by the strange ideological connotations found among communist-sympathizing Liberation Theologians.In my book Status Envy: The Politics of Catholic Higher Education, there is a chapter titled “A Pope Away from a Perfect Life for the Jesuits.” The chapter documents in depressing detail the ways in which the Jesuits began to wage war with the pope following Vatican II. It describes how the 28 Jesuit campuses became the battlefields for a protracted war between the Jesuits and Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. From...

[Catholic Caucus] The Time of Magical ThinkingLast year's Synod on Synodality was a moment of Magical Thinking, bearing no resemblance to historic Christianity.Joan Didion’s 2005 bestseller, The Year of Magical Thinking, left her readers a bit shaken. The rending account of her husband’s death was cast in a demimonde of disturbing shadows. For quite a time it tossed her into a twilight existence of strange disconnections and fantasy expectations. Hence her tantalizing title. Her mourning bore no resemblance to reality, only a loose pastiche of semi-mad concoctions. Didion’s book came immediately to mind when reviewing the results of last October’s...

[Catholic Caucus] Pictured: Priest replaces Joseph for same-sex nativity sceneParish priest defends having two mothers of baby Jesus as reflective of modern familiesA church nativity scene featuring two mothers of the Baby Jesus instead of the conventional Mary and Joseph has sparked anger in Italy.Nativity scenes are popular in the largely Catholic country, but in recent years they have been increasingly mired in culture wars as its society becomes more secular and multi-cultural.The priest at the Church of Saints Peter and Paul, in Capocastello di Mercogliano, a hamlet in the province of Avellino about one hour’s drive east of Naples,...

Heterodox Amazon Synod bishop claims Church ‘cannot return’ to time before Pope Francis‘Married priests will come first, then the diaconate for women. Women priests will be the next stage,’ Bishop Erwin Kräutler said, contradicting the infallible teaching of the Catholic faith.Bishop Erwin Kräutler, a key architect of the Amazon Synod and a proponent of “women priests,” has said that the Church “cannot return” to the time before the “change” that Pope Francis has initiated.In an interview with the Swiss outlet kath.ch, Kräutler, 84, addressed the possibility of the Catholic Church officially allowing female ordinations and consecrating “proven” married men as...

Why public heretics are not true members of the Catholic Church(LifeSiteNews) — This is the fourth part of our series on membership of the Church. It examines who the members of the Church are, and who they are not. Part I can be read here; Part II can be read here; and Part III can be read here.IntroductionIn his letter to the Galatians, St. Paul warned that “there are some who trouble you, and wish to pervert the gospel of Christ.” (Gal 1:7)In the face of these false preachers, he commanded his flock to remain faithful to the true gospel...

[Catholic Caucus] Pope’s warning about German ‘Synodal Council’ has nothing to do with sexual morals, correcting heresyThe pope’s criticism has nothing to do with the Synodal Way’s attack on Catholic moral teaching, but rather with undermining the authority of the bishops via the 'Synodal Council' the German bishops are trying to set up. Pope Francis has expressed his “concern” that the Church in Germany is moving away from the Universal Church, but he failed once again to correct the Synodal Way’s heretical teachings on sexuality. The German Newspaper WELT published a letter written by Pope Francis addressed to four women,...

[Catholic Caucus] The Heresy of Practice: Some Insights from Saint Bernard and Saint AlphonsusRecently used by Cardinal Müller,[i] the phrase “practical heresy” has been popularized in a couple of his latest articles by Timothy Flanders,[ii] the editor-in-chief of One Peter Five (1P5). Essentially, this concept refers to any religious practice that contradicts, through deeds and actions, a revealed doctrine. We will take the teaching on marriage as an example. Every well-formed Christian knows that in the Church founded by our Savior Jesus Christ, “the essential properties of Marriage are unity (monogamy) and indissolubility.”[iii] In practice, in the case of spouses...

[Catholic Caucus] Exclusive: Cardinals Cupich, McElroy say 'impossible to go back' to synods without lay voters Two U.S. cardinals said one of the immediate results of Pope Francis' major summit on the future of the Catholic Church is that it should now be "impossible" to return to an era where lay men and women are not given both a voice and vote in major Vatican meetings. "It would seem to me impossible to go back now," said San Diego Cardinal Robert McElroy on Oct. 29. "It would be wrenching to go back if you just had bishops there or just...

[Catholic Caucus] Rearranging the Synod Table ChairsThe Synod was a series of fixations on matters of utter inconsequence, rather like the deck hands busily arranging chairs on the Titanic before its final plunge into the sea.There was a time, not so very long ago, when the raging controversy among Catholics was about how best to receive Holy Communion. Would greater reverence be shown when receiving Our Lord on the tongue, which had been the custom for centuries, or in the hand, which not a few innovators were proposing as somehow more fitting? How quaint it all now seems up against...

[Catholic Caucus] The synodal expectations gameAfter a month of meetings in Rome, it’s finally now halftime in the synod of bishops’ synod on synodality, with delegates departing Rome to bring the good news about synodality back to their home countries.As they head out, they will be taking with them the assembly’s interim report document, published Saturday after considerable debate and amendment from the initial draft version produced by the synodal secretariat’s writing committee.Debate over that text, and the significance of the language used, or not used, in some passages has become the subject of much post-session synodal debate. How significant...

[Catholic Caucus] The Greatest Catholic Event Since Vatican II?Several voices – mostly close to Pope Francis and the organizers of the Synod on Synodality – declared the assembly, before the fact, the most significant event in the life of the Catholic Church since Vatican II. The official organizers, however, sought to rein in expectations, perhaps because the Synod has deliberately been structured to put the “nice” stuff first – conversation, listening, mutual respect – reserving the harder sayings for next October’s meeting. Then again, several of the officially selected speakers suggested, as one of them put it, “When we reach...

[Catholic Caucus] “What does the Pope really want?” - Bishop Rob MutsaertsA post by Bishop Rob Mutsaerts, Auxiliary Bishop of 's-Hertogenbosch (Bois-le-Duc), Netherlands. Translated from his blog in Dutch here. What is the synod underway in Rome actually about? Over and again, official Vatican sources are telling us many things. That it is not about theology, nor about doctrinal matters, nor about LGBTQ+, the ordination of women and the issue of celibacy. Neither is it, they add, about seeking to undermine or replace the hierarchical nature of the church or democratize the decision-making process. No, it would seem to be...