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[Catholic Caucus] Pope says he was 'used' in 2005 conclave: Ratzinger 'was my candidate'Pope Francis discusses details from the 2005 conclave he participated in as archbishop of Buenos Aires in an upcoming book.Pope Francis voted for Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI, in the 2005 conclave that followed the death of St. John Paul II."He was the only one who could be pope at that time," Pope Francis said about his immediate predecessor in an excerpt from the upcoming book "El Sucesor" ("The Successor"). The excerpt was published March 31 by the Spanish daily newspaper ABC.Pope Francis told...

Another county in the state of Minnesota has sent voters erroneous ballots, bringing the total number of affected counties to four. In a filing with the Minnesota Supreme Court last Friday, Murray County Auditor-Treasurer Heidi Winter cited a “clerical error” as the reason why midterm general election ballots were distributed with outdated district numbers for the Minnesota Senate and House of Representatives races. Due to redistricting, Murray County’s state Senate and House district numbers were changed from 22 and 22A to 21 and 21A. But the ballots sent to voters were still printed with 22 and 22A. The filing states...

[Catholic Caucus] Disturbing Revelations From Francis on the 2013 Pre-conclaveThis is the first time that the Pope has mentioned, in such a precise way, the future apostolic constitution on the reform of the Church, which should be promulgated at the end of 2021.Three passages of the interview granted by the Roman Pontiff to Spanish radio COPE, on September 1, 2021, are devoted to the future document which will eventually replace the Pastor Bonus constitution, signed by Pope John Paul II on June 28, 1988.The Pope confirms the name of the future document: “with regard to the apostolic constitution Praedicate Evangelium,...

I wrote previously about the industrial scale electoral fraud we have witnessed in these so-called elections. In that fraud, of course, hundreds of thousands of votes have appeared magically for Harris-Biden in just the right states, of course. Well, we in the Diplohouse have witnessed fraud right here in North Carolina. Two days ago, grinding away at the gym trying to do something about my "lockdown" weight gain, I got a call from an unknown number. My habit consists of not answering such calls, but since it had a local area code, I did. You never know, perhaps Publishers Clearing...

A state judge has invalidated more than 50,000 absentee ballot application forms sent to voters in Linn County, Iowa, the second-largest county in the state. The county auditor’s office almost completely filled out the ballot applications, despite the secretary of state’s directions that only the election date be included. The auditor’s actions may have also been against a state law that forbids government workers from filling out the forms. Judge Ian Thornhill agreed with the Trump campaign, which had sued the county over the ballot applications.CNN: The judge sided with the Trump campaign and the Republican Party, which filed a...

[Catholic Caucus] Invalid baptism leads to an avalanche of invalid sacraments A rogue "permanent deacon" in the Archdiocese of Detroit, Mark Springer, administered invalid baptisms for 13 years. One of them was to someone who would eventually be "ordained" a priest in 2017 -- only to learn he was never validly baptized himself. Post-Vatican II vernacular baptism book To his credit, the priest -- Father Matthew Hood -- watched a video of his baptism and heard the word "We" instead of "I" used in the vernacular formula, "I baptize thee in the name of the Father and of the Son...

President Trump's legal team on Saturday issued a full-throttled defense to the articles of impeachment, refuting the substance and process of the charges while accusing House Democrats of engaging in a "dangerous attack" on the right of the American people to freely choose their president. "This is a brazen and unlawful attempt to overturn the results of the 2016 election and interfere with the 2020 election now just months away," said a source close to the president's legal team, reading from the expected legal filing. The legal paperwork is the first formal response to the two articles of impeachment read...

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal Danneels admits being part of clerical ‘Mafia’ that plotted Francis’ election September 25, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) - The authorized biography of Cardinal Godfried Danneels, out next week, is even more of a bombshell than expected. Not only do the two authors, Jürgen Mettepenningen and Karim Schelkens, reveal that the Cardinal was a regular member of a secret pressure group of Churchmen that met in the Swiss town of Sankt-Gallen, but the Cardinal himself has publicly and good-humoredly admitted the fact. Danneels even said that what was officially but discreetly labeled “the Sankt-Gallen group” was referred to by its...

[Catholic Caucus] The LGBT Political Campaign Behind Pope Francis' Election By David Martin  With theologians and bishops aghast over what some are calling ‘the most terrible schism the world has ever seen,’ it behooves the Catholic hierarchy to take a closer look at the 2013 papal election since it appears to have raised to the Chair of Peter “a man, not canonically elected.”  To recap, on the eve of the 2013 conclave, Cardinal Óscar Rodríguez Maradiaga who was one of the key kingmakers for the papal election was busily on the phone with cardinal electors from the Honduran embassy in Rome. His frenzied...

[Catholic Caucus] Bergoglio and McCarrick: Manipulating the Conclave McCarrick was a member of the St. Gallen mafia that lobbied for Bergoglio's election Evidence shows Pope Francis, with the help of the St. Gallen mafia, manipulated the 2013 conclave into believing that organic coincidences had led to selecting the pontiff "from the end of the world" — and that Theodore McCarrick was a key part of this effort. Former Cdl. Theodore McCarrick, in a now infamous Villanova talk, recalled that after an intervention (speech) by then-Cdl. Jorge Bergoglio at the 2013 general congregation for the conclave, for the first time in its history there was...

Is America a better place today than it was back in 1956? Of course many Americans living right now couldn’t even imagine a world without cell phones, Facebook or cable television, but was life really so bad back then? 60 years ago, families would actually spend time on their front porches and people would actually have dinner with their neighbors. 60 years ago, cars were still cars, football was still football and it still meant something to be an American. In our country today, it is considered odd to greet someone as they are walking down the street, and if...

T o much fanfare in the press, Pope Francis has started a "dialogue" about the Catholic Church's marriage practices. The part that has received the most attention is whether civilly divorced and civilly remarried Catholics should be admitted to Holy Communion, without having to abandon their second marriage, which the church recognizes as continuing adultery. This issue will be addressed by the bishops of the Catholic Church at a "Synod on the Family" over this year and next. Unfortunately, the pope's favorite theologian and the pope himself have initiated this discussion in a befogging cloud of pessimism. The pope is...

**SNIP** Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the No. 2 Senate Democrat, said the administration was forced to use recess appointments because of Republican intransigence. “In its frustration, this administration said ‘we were elected to govern,’” Durbin said. “And whether it’s the National Labor Relations Board or whatever they wanted to put people in place to govern.”

Today is the 40th anniversary of man’s first steps on the surface of the moon. On July 20, 1969, Apollo astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin descended from the lunar module Eagle, with Armstrong uttering these famous first words: “That’s one small step for [a] man; one giant leap for mankind.” A short while later, Aldrin privately added some words to mark the occasion . . . from the Word. On his website author Eric Metaxas shares Aldrin’s little-known story of taking communion on the moon: “In the radio blackout, I opened the little plastic packages which contained the bread...

On Sunday July 20, 1969 the first people landed on the moon. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were in the lunar lander which touched down at 3:17 Eastern Standard Time. Buzz Aldrin had with him the Reserved Sacrament. He radioed: “Houston, this is Eagle. This is the LM pilot speaking. I would like to request a few moments of silence. I would like to invite each person listening in, whoever or wherever he may be, to contemplate for a moment the events of the last few hours, and to give thanks in his own individual way.”

A Norwegian church used lemon-flavoured cola instead of water in a baptism ceremony after its taps were temporarily turned off because of freezing temperatures. Priest Paal Dale from the town of Stord, about 150 miles west of the capital Oslo, improvised during a recent cold-spell by dabbing the lemon fizzy water on a baby during a baptism ceremony, it said. "It had gone flat," Dale was quoted as saying by the newspaper. "Only the lemon smell made this unusual." Dale said the child's family were informed about the switch only after the ceremony because the priest "had a need to...

Ensuring McCain’s Citizenship - What’s in it for Obama? By Leon Siu, 3/5/2008 8:15:12 AM The developing story involving presidential candidate, John McCain’s citizenship also has ramifications for presidential candidate Barack Obama. As you know, the question regarding McCain’s foreign-born status has been gaining traction recently. It seems the U.S. Constitution has this pesky requirement that a president of the United States must be a “natural-born Citizen.” That used to mean a person physically born within the borders of the U.S. The question raised regarding McCain is, could “natural-born” be construed to include children born to U.S. citizens who happen...

How Does Your Church Baptize? Archbishop John Bathersby of Brisbane, Australia commented to the press that baptisms performed at St. Mary's Church for the past 10 years were invalid and re-baptism would be needed. This was according to canonical advice he received. The Archbishop said, "The words of scripture can't be adjusted to suit our own taste. The next thing we'll be getting rid of is Christ himself." For more than a decade, Fr. Peter Kennedy had been baptiz-ing infants by saying: "In the name of the Creator, Liberator and Sustainer", rather than, In the name of the Father, the...

KIEV, Ukraine - Ukraine's parliament on Saturday declared invalid the disputed presidential election that triggered a week of growing street protests and legal maneuvers, a move that was not legally binding but clearly demonstrated rising dissatisfaction with the announced outcome. The Nov. 21 presidential election was won by Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, according to the Central Elections Commission, but opponent Viktor Yushchenko's supporters have streamed into the streets, claiming he was cheated out of victory. The Supreme Court will hear an appeal by Yushchenko's supporters on Monday, and Yanukovych will not be inaugurated before that appeal is decided. Regional courts...

About the Author FR. JOHN WITHERSPOON MOLE O.M.I. Presently resides in Ottawa, Canada, and in this work attempts to carry out the recommendation of the 1977 Synod of Bishops that there be religious instruction for adults based on the Liturgy of the Word, which Pope John Paul II emphatically endorsed in his Catechesi Tradendae. John Witherspoon Mole was born in England on February 10th, 1911 (Feast of Saint Scholastica). He emigrated with his family to Canada in 1912 (providentially missing passage on the doomed Titanic), but later returned to Britain for his formal education. Some years later, back on...