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In an exclusive interview with Crux, retired bishop of Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen says he believes Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin is more interested in diplomacy than he is the Catholic faith. The cardinal spoke critically about the current state of the Holy See's relationship with China and says he believes the Church is willing to compromise too much in order to establish diplomatic relations. HONG KONG - He’s been called “the conscience of China,” lauded by some for his indefatigable promotion of democracy and loathed by others for his hard-line position against the Beijing authorities. At age...

Faith Is About Obedience Msgr. Charles Pope • October 15, 2017 • There is a very important phrase in the beginning of St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans, which we are reading in daily Mass. A common modern conception of what it means to have faith has an egocentric element, for which St. Paul provides a remedy. In describing his authority and mission as an apostle, he says,Through [Jesus] we have received the grace of apostleship, to bring about the obedience of faith, for the sake of his name (Romans 1:3-4).There it is: the obedience of faith.He repeats the...

Yesterday, immediately following the canonization of 35 saints (including 33 Martyrs, 30 of whom were murdered by a Protestant-led horde during Holy Mass), Pope Francis announced the convocation of a Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the "Pan-Amazonic" region, that is, the regions of the Amazon area in various South American countries. The gathering will take place in Rome in October 2019. The assembly was called supposedly to address indigenous natives' concerns.  But we know better. Just as the Synods "for the Family", in 2014 and 2015, were called basically to find enough ambiguity and semantic confusion to...

Ecumenism has gone wrong one more time in Germany and has escalated into denial of the truth about the Eucharist: in the German Diocese, Stuttgart-Rottenburg, an initiative by a Catholic theologian has invited Protestants to receive Communion on a large scale.“Here on sight, we begin with a hospitable Church by inviting each other openly and cordially to Communion and the Celebration of the Last Supper [Abendmahl]” reads the “Ravensburger Manifesto” signed on October 8.

Party or Perish Msgr. Charles Pope • October 14, 2017 • The past three Sundays have featured shocking parables about our readiness, fruitfulness, and decision as to whether to accept and enter the Kingdom of God. The Lord has used the image of a vineyard extensively: a vineyard into which workers are dispatched at different times of the day but who have different attitudes about what is due to them at the end of the day; a vineyard into which two sons are sent, one of whom goes and one who does not; a vineyard in which are wicked...

The Tablet on the Filial Correction I said some time ago that the instinct of conventional Catholic ‘progressives’ would be to ignore the Filial Correction. It is the strange new brand of Ultramontanist liberal who is writing article after article and tweet after tweet attacking it. Compare the response of John Allen (report it as briefly as possible alongside two unrelated issues) or PrayTell (pretend it never happened) with that of the likes of Walford, Fastiggi and Goldstein, Fagioli, and Buttiglione (see this blog passim ad nauseam). The old-style liberals have spent a life-time criticising Ultramontanism, and many — there’ll...

Pope Francis’ recent statements about the death penalty being “contrary to the Gospel” seem to be a departure from previous Catholic teaching, a Catholic professor says.  “When Pope Francis says that capital punishment is ‘in itself contrary to the Gospel,’ and ‘inadmissible … no matter how serious the crime,’ he seems to be contradicting traditional teaching,” said Dr. Edward Feser, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Pasadena City College in California, to LifeSiteNews.  Pope Francis made his controversial remarks during an October 11 speech to the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, which gathered to celebrate the 25th...

The very credibility of the Magisterium, the teaching office of the Holy Catholic Church, depends upon its universality and constancy down through the Christian centuries, being based, as it is, on the Deposit of Faith: i.e., divine revelation, including the Gospel and the Commandments of God as explicated by the same Magisterium. The famous formula of St. Vincent of Lerins captures this essence of the Magisterium, describing it as: “quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus creditum est (“what has been believed everywhere, always, and by all”). Like God who does not change His mind, the Magisterium cannot reverse itself...

A Mysterious Passage Q: Matthew’s Gospel says that, right after Jesus died, “the bodies of many saints who had fallen asleep were raised. And coming forth from their tombs after his resurrection, they entered the holy city and appeared to many” (27:52-53). What else do we know about these appearances of the dead who had been raised after the Resurrection? Who would’ve been among them?Bob, Oakland, California A: This is a very mysterious text that does not lend itself to simple or satisfying explanations. Matthew seems to have two purposes in mind: He reports what actually happened, but he...

Pope Francis recently stated that the death penalty is “inadmissible” and should be categorically banned. Speaking at a Vatican conference celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, he clearly emphasized that “Tradition is a living reality”.“Only a partial vision can think of ‘the deposit of faith’ as something static,” he explained. “One cannot conserve the doctrine without making it progress, nor can one bind it to a rigid and immutable reading without humiliating the Holy Spirit.”Indeed, “since the very beginning of Christianity, the faith has been expressed anew according to new cultures, and new questions, sensitivities,...

Irish Bishop of Limerck Brendan Leahy - a corrupted, episcopal promoter of sodomy There once was a bishop from Limerick, Whose faith was not apostolic. He welcomed all gays in so many ways From Catholicism, he's really schismatic. Gay couples must be made welcome at World Meeting of Families, insists bishop 1Celebration of family diversity: Bishop Brendan Leahy Sarah MacDonald October 13 2017 2:30 AM  Gay couples must be made welcome at next year's World Meeting of Families in Ireland, the Catholic Bishop of Limerick has said. Bishop Brendan Leahy is the first Catholic bishop to publicly reach out to...

It is his view of the death penalty, not theirs, that departs from Catholic teaching. For decades, liberal Catholics have relativized Catholic dogma and dogmatized relativism. Pope Francis is the champion of this movement. One moment, he is pushing Jesuitical situation ethics, which is an outgrowth of moral relativism; in the next, he is hectoring Catholics that his flaky political opinions constitute “Catholic social teaching.” To adulterers, he says: Go and sin some more. To people who fail to recycle, he has urged confession and repentance.To more fanfare from the media this week, he declared the death penalty “inadmissible” everywhere...

The crisis in the world 100 years ago when Our Lady appeared at Fatima continues today and has also infected the life of the Church, Cardinal Raymond Burke said yesterday. Addressing a Fatima conference in England coinciding with the 100th anniversary of the final apparition, Cardinal Burke said the faithful should be realistic about the great evils besetting the world and the Church, but be full of hope in the victory of the Sacred Heart of Jesus through the Immaculate Heart of Mary “The reality of the apostasy of faith in our time rightly and profoundly frightens us,” he stated....

"Clarify the unclear and do not obscure the clear" Cardinal Gerhard Müller on over 25 years of the World Catechism and the question of whether "Amoris laetitia" is Thomistic. Eminence, the Catechism of the Catholic Church is now a quarter-century old. It is always said that the theologians in Germany had at that time been somewhat disdainful and judged it as handed down from above. You were a dogmatic theologian in Munich at that time. How did you receive the new Compendium of the Faith from Rome in 1992?

A Spiritual Danger, as Seen in the Book of Jonah Msgr. Charles Pope • October 12, 2017 • As we continue to read the story of Jonah at daily Mass, for Wednesday of the 27th Week we ponder a significant spiritual danger. Most of us struggle to some degree over God’s patience and clemency. Certainly, we want God to be patient and merciful with us, but we don’t want Him to be patient when it comes to allowing bad or even sinful things to continue. We would like to see God put a swift end to every heresy, mete...

The brilliant German monk never intended to start his own Church A few years ago, a Lutheran friend sent me a link to her favourite website: Lutheran Satire. The brainchild of a US Lutheran pastor, it focuses on Church humour from a Lutheran angle. The goal is catechesis through comedy, and no issue or religious leader is too sacred to poke. One of the site’s most popular videos is a cartoon called “The Reformation Piggybackers”. The plot is simple: Luther nails his 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenberg church...

Pope Francis Toys WIth Heresy In His Hostility Towards Capital Punishment Pope Francis has made known his animosity towards capital punishment, going so far as to condemn it outright.  Of course in doing so, he has directly contradicted centuries of Church teaching.  These teachings include proclamations by various popes and the Council of Trent.  Also read here, here, here, here, and a smattering of my previous posts dealing with this as the Maryland Catholic Conference repeatedly blundered on this topic. In Evangelium Vitae, Pope St. John Paul II betrayed his personal distaste for capital punishment, but he respected Sacred Tradition enough to acknowledge...

In Missouri, Bp. John Gaydos' commitment to a pro-gay diocesan measure continues to stoke tensions in the diocese of Jefferson City. On October 7, Catholics from across the Show-Me State gathered in Jefferson City to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Missouri Catholic Conference. The celebration was a momentous affair, featuring prelates Abp. Christophe Pierre, papal nuncio to the United States, and St. Louis Abp. Robert J. Carlson, in addition to Bp. Gaydos. Meanwhile, roughly two dozen faithful Catholics came together to pray the Rosary outside St. Joseph Cathedral during the commemoration's closing Mass. The vigil was organized as an...

Reluctant Prophet – The Story of Jonah Msgr. Charles Pope • October 11, 2017 • Jonah, Michelangelo, Sistine ChapelOf all the prophets, Jonah is perhaps the most reluctant; his struggle with sin is not hidden. We are currently reading Jonah’s story in daily Mass. In the story we see a portrait of sin and of God’s love for sinners. Psalm 139 says, beautifully,Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy face? If I ascend into heaven, thou art there; if I descend into hell, thou art present. If I take my wings early...

Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, the key figure in the production of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, sees the Catholic book of faith 25 years after its publication as a success project. In the German-speaking world alone, old prejudices continued, and the work has "not yet caught on in depth," the Viennese archbishop said on Tuesday in the interview with the news agency "Kathpress". Recent theological debates, such as the letter "Amoris laetitia", should be looked at in more detail with regard to the Catechism promulgated by Pope John Paul II on 11 October 1992, Schönborn demanded.