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Prominent Catholic philosophers and a world expert on the Church Fathers have joined the growing chorus of voices expressing deep concerns over the implications of Pope Francis’s controversial exhortation Amoris Laetitia. “What was certain before has become problematic,” due to the pope’s signature ambiguity, wrote Dr. Jude P. Dougherty, the dean emeritus of the School of Philosophy at The Catholic University of America, in a column at The Wanderer. The seeming “internal waffling” going on inside the Church over the issue of Holy Communion for the divorced and remarried is undermining the Church’s moral authority, Dougherty wrote, at a time...

Last Friday, Steve Skojec reported on the eloquent and piercing response written by the German-speaking professor, Josef Seifert, as published by Professor de Mattei’s website Corrispondenza Romana. It seems that more and more conservative Catholics are taking heart and seeing it necessary to raise their own voices in opposition to the direction in which Pope Francis is now trying to take the Catholic Church. Now we have learned that another well-known U.S. philosopher and former dean of the School of Philosophy of the Catholic University of America, Jude P. Dougherty, published a similar critique on 1 June in the Catholic...

In a recent article for the Italian news platform “Corrispondenza Romana”, renowned Catholic philosopher Josef Seifert strongly criticizes Pope Francis for statements in his recent Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia. Seifert, a longtime ordinary member of the Pontifical Academy for Life and a close associate of St. John Paul II, explains that he criticizes the document because instead of invoking joy – as stated in the exhortation title – the papal document would actually make Jesus and his mother cry. Many of the passages which seem merciful turn the teachings of the Church on their heads, according to Seifert. “In my...

The stunning introduction to today’s official Vatican Radio report on Pope Francis’ morning homily reads: “Pope Francis warned on Thursday against an excessive rigidity, saying those within the Church who tell us ‘it’s this or nothing’ are heretics and not Catholics. His remarks came during the morning Mass on Thursday celebrated at the Santa Marta residence.” The specific section of the homily referred to in the opening is as follows: This (is the) healthy realism of the Catholic Church: the Church never teaches us ‘or this or that.’ That is not Catholic. The Church says to us: ‘this and that.’...

During Pope Francis’s first Angelus address after ascending to the chair of Peter, he approvingly cited Walter Cardinal Kasper’s book Mercy: The Essence of the Gospel and the Key to Christian Life (2012), saying that he had read it recently and it had done him “much good.” Since that papal audience, Francis has spoken frequently about God’s mercy, even calling an Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy and issuing a book-length interview, The Name of God is Mercy: A Conversation with Andrea Tornielli (2016). Cardinal Kasper has also played a prominent role in discussions about how to extend mercy in the...

The dazzling critique by an Australian scholar on the post-synodal exhortation. “We have lost all foothold, and fallen like Alice into a parallel universe, where nothing is quite what it seems to be” by Sandro Magister ROME, June 7, 2016 - Keep an eye on the author of the volume above, the first critical version of a masterpiece by Saint Basil the Great lost in the original Greek but come down to us in an ancient Syrian version attested to in five manuscripts, published two years ago by the historical publisher Brill, active in Holland since the 17th century. The...

In a response to The Remnant’s Chris Ferrara (“An Open Letter to Bishop Athanasius Schneider“; May 10, 2016), Bishop Athanasius Schneider has not backed off of his existing criticism of Amoris Laetitia, but rather, has encouraged further resistance to it:

Dear Mr. Matt: Thank you for your greetings. I wrote an answer to The Remnant‘s Open Letter, which I send to you in the attachment and you can publish. God bless abundantly you and your apostolate for the Catholic faith. With cordial greetings in Jesus and Mary, + Athanasius Schneider Dear Mr. Christopher A. Ferrara: On May 9, 2016 you published on “The Remnant” website an open letter to me regarding the question of the Apostolic Exhortation “Amoris laetitia”. As a bishop, I am grateful and at the same time encouraged to receive from a Catholic layman such a clear...

BOSTON —President John F. Kennedy’s love letter to an alleged secret mistress will be put up for auction by RR Auction. The four-page love letter was written to Mary Pinchot Meyer, a Kennedy family friend and wife of CIA agent Cord Meyer, in October 1963, a month before the president’s assassination.

For Francis, the right interpretation of “Amoris Laetitia” is not that of the prefect of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith, but that of the Austrian cardinal. Here, for the first time, is his complete text by Sandro Magister ROME, May 30, 2016 – The prefect of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith is still the same, German cardinal Gerhard L. Müller. Who diligently continues to carry out his task, most recently with the monumental address he gave in Oviedo on May 4 for a correct understanding of “Amoris Laetitia,” in harmony with the previous magisterium...

During recent rally for his wife’s campaign, the 69-year-old ex-president was caught laying a kiss on a woman in the crowd. While politicians are known to shake hands and give the occasional cheek kiss, commenters have accused Slick Willie of crossing the line this time. “Yuck,” one commenter wrote. W”here’s Bill’s left hand? What’s with the woman clasping Bill’s neck?” Others agreed, saying, “Boy, he never stops does he, young or old.” As Radar readers recall, this is far from the first time that Bill has been accused of having inappropriate extramarital relationships.

The Chinese government has banned all depictions of gay people on television, as part of a cultural crackdown on “vulgar, immoral and unhealthy content”. “No television drama shall show abnormal sexual relationships and behaviours, such as incest, same-sex relationships, sexual perversion, sexual assault, sexual abuse, sexual violence, and so on.” The ban also extends to smoking, drinking, adultery, sexually suggestive clothing, even reincarnation. China’s State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television told television producers it would constantly monitor TV channels to ensure the new rules were strictly adhered to.

At a meeting to discuss the apostolic exhoration Amoris Laetitia, Archbishop Bruno Forte revealed new insights into the mind of Pope Francis on one of the most controversial issues facing the Church: communion for the divorced and “remarried.” Forte was the man personally chosen by Pope Francis as the Special Secretary for the synods on marriage and family, and he is widely believed responsible for the insertion of the explosive language pertaining to homosexuals in the 2014 Synod’s mid-term relatio. During his presentation, the details of which were published on 3 May on the Italian news website, Zonalocale.it, Forte recalled...

"I honestly do not see how one could interpret Chapter 8 of the Exhortation in the sense of traditional doctrine. It would do violence to the text and wouldn’t respect the intention of the compilers." Father Barthe Chapter 8 of Amoris Laetitia cannot be interpreted in a traditional sense Interview of Roberto de Mattei with Fr. Claude Barthe Father Claude Barthe, theologian, author of works such as La messe, une forêt de symboles, Les romanciers et le catholicisme, and Penser l’œcuménisme autrement was one of the first in France, on April 8, to express on the blog L’Homme nouveau. We...

The reason Amoris laetita (AL)is rightly called a “catastrophe” is summarized in the already infamous paragraph 301, in which Francis announces nothing less than an excuse from culpability for those living in relationships — divorce and “remarriage” and cohabitation — which the Church has constantly reprobated as living in sin. According to Francis, however: “The Church possesses a solid body of reflection concerning mitigating factors and situations. Hence it can no longer simply be said that all those in any “irregular” situation are living in a state of mortal sin and are deprived of sanctifying grace. More is involved here...

In my first column in this series on how Amoris laetitia (AL) engages in deceptive arguments and use of sources, I noted AL’s systematic and indeed fraudulent suggestion that in Familiaris consortio John Paul II endorsed a form of “pastoral discernment” that would allow public adulterers living in so-called “second marriages” to receive absolution and Holy Communion in “certain cases,” along with other habitual public sinners of the sexual variety, without any firm purpose of amendment. I also showed how AL literally hides from the reader, throughout 256 pages, John Paul II’s insistence in paragraph 84 of Familiaris, in line...

A vast amount of critical commentary has already been written about Amoris laetitia (AL), a document the Rorate Caeli blog site rightly summarizes in a single word: “catastrophe.” The focus of this series is suggested by the comment of Carl E. Olson at Catholic World Report (Father Fessio’s publication): “Francis apparently plays a bit fast and loose with some of his arguments and sources.” That’s putting it mildly, although it is remarkable that even a “mainstream” commentator on a “mainstream” Catholic website feels compelled to note the lack of honesty in the document. But it must be said in all...

News is now spreading about Cardinal Gerhard Müller’s varied remarks on marriage, as well as on the Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia itself, during his trip to Spain at the beginning of May. As the Spanish website Infocatolica.com now reports, Cardinal Müller spoke at a presentation of his new book on hope at the Francisco de Vitoria University in Madrid, Spain, where he affirmed and confirmed the traditional view of marriage and the “impossibility” of changing that clear doctrine. “It is not possible to live in God’s grace while living in a sinful situation,” he said, and continued by saying that...

Fox News chief White House correspondent Ed Henry will not be appearing on the channel for the time being, following a report in In Touch Weekly that he cheated on his wife with a Las Vegas hostess. “We recently became aware of Ed’s personal issues and he’s taking some time off to work things out,” a Fox News spokesperson told POLITICO in a statement. Henry joined Fox News in 2011 as chief White House correspondent. He was previously the White House correspondent for CNN.

We all have been waiting for it for quite some time now. Finally, a prelate has spoken. On the topic of the apostolic exhortation, Amoris Laetitia, Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Astana, Kazakhstan, has given a statement of over 6,000 words to the Italian website Corrispondenza Romana, which was published yesterday, 24 April. (No English translation has yet been made available; all of the following excerpts are taken from our own partial translation.) While Schneider says that different interpretations of Amoris Laetitia now are now spreading, he sees that “Some of the statements of Amoris Laetitia are objectively liable to misinterpretation.”...