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During the press conference on the airplane returning from Bangladesh on December 2, the French journalist Etienne Loraillère posed this question to Bergoglio:“Which is your priority: to evangelize or to dialogue for peace?”The response of Bergoglio – after a series of incredible absurd statements – ended with these unheard of terms: “And your question: what is the priority, peace or conversion? But when you live with testimony and respect, you make peace. Peace starts to break down in this field when proselytism begins, and there are so many ways of proselytism, but this is not evangelical.” In practice, Bergoglio is...

Yesterday, someone forwarded to the Lepanto Institute an email from Ralph McCloud, the Executive Director for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD).  McCloud’s email was written to address recent concerns raised by the Lepanto Institute regarding CCHD grants.  You can read McCloud’s email here. In typical fashion, McCloud never actually addressed any specific concerns, but stressed the CCHD’s procedure for allegedly ensuring a high standard of accountability.  At the beginning of the letter, McCloud said the following:“In years past, CCHD staff met with Mr. Hichborn of the Lepanto Institute with no positive results.  Additionally, the CCHD Subcommittee asked that...

Pledge of fidelity FAITHFUL TO TRUE DOCTRINE, NOT TO ERRING PASTORSPledge of fidelity to the authentic teaching of the Church by pro-life and pro-family leaders Pledge of fidelity FAITHFUL TO TRUE DOCTRINE, NOT TO ERRING PASTORSPledge of fidelity to the authentic teaching of the Church by pro-life and pro-family leaders The number of innocent children killed by abortion during the last century is greater than that of all the human beings who have died in all the wars in recorded history. The last fifty years have witnessed a continual escalation in attacks on the structure of the family as designed...

The publication of the Pope's letter to the Buenos Aires bishops mean the matter is 'hopefully' settled, the cardinal saidThe controversy over Amoris Laetitia has come to an end, Cardinal Walter Kasper has said.The admission of divorced and remarried people to the sacraments in certain individual cases is now the only correct interpretation of the document, he claimed, following the official publication of the Pope’s letter to the Buenos Aires bishops.In an op-ed for the German language edition of Vatican Radio, translated by CNA, Cardinal Kasper said that “with the official publication of the letter from Pope Francis to the...

On The Hidden Mercy of the Tilma of Guadalupe Msgr. Charles Pope • December 11, 2017 • On the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, it is a chance for us to rejoice in the great mercy of our divine Lord and our blessed Lady. I am drawn to mediate on the miraculous quality of our Lady’s eyes on the tilma.As many of you know, recent discoveries using modern magnification and ophthalmological equipment have shown the seemingly miraculous reflection of as many as a dozen persons in her eyes. How such tiny and accurate reflections could occur in both...

The Youth Synod which will take place in 2018, encounters little interest among young people, writes moimunanblog.com. November 30 was the deadline for answering the preparatory questionnaire published online on a special webpage. Because of the few responses the deadline was extended to December 31. In four months, the four-language webpage of the Synod generated less than 150,000 clicks. Only a few more than 65,000 answered the questionnaire. Of this number, only about 3,000 left their email address to be informed of the result of the survey. As a comparison, gloria.tv generates more clicks in a single day.

Editor’s note: Last month, Dr. Maike Hickson began a correspondence with Catholic historian, author, and speaker Professor Roberto de Mattei on the nature of the escalating crisis in the Church. Although her husband’s recent sudden illness has necessitated that she take a leave of absence from her work here at OnePeterFive, she and her husband both asked that we proceed with the publication of this important and timely interview. Maike Hickson (MH): Many Catholics around the world had hoped that the Dubia Cardinals would publish their public correction of Pope Francis concerning his Post-Synodal Exhortation, Amoris Laetitia. What would you tell...

We all know that during the second half of the John Paul II pontificate a great number of conservative Catholic laity took seriously the call to the “New Evangelization” and started working for the Church. It’s a common story in dioceses and the various offices of national conferences bishops around the world. A great many of these are what we call “Generation X” people who were raised and lived through the post-conciliar period, watching as their parents’ generation of priests and bishops systematically tore down the edifice of the Church – sometimes literally in bricks and stones, but as often...

Walking Toward the Light in Advent Msgr. Charles Pope • December 10, 2017 • Many people think of Advent merely in terms of pre-Christmas activities: office parties, shopping, decorating, and so forth. In the Church, though, Advent is something of a penitential period, a time of preparation for both the Christmas Feast and the Second Coming of the Lord. The purple vestments represent penance. The faithful are encouraged to go to Confession and the liturgical texts and readings emphasize readying for the coming of the Lord.The theme of preparation (and much of the season itself) is couched in the...

Faithful Catholics will gather in Manhattan Monday night to protest a Church-affiliated fundraising gala featuring pro-gay Jesuit Fr. James Martin. Members of Church Militant's Resistance group will challenge Fr. Martin's appearance through a Rosary rally outside Leo House, the Midtown Catholic guesthouse hosting the fundraiser.Faithful Catholics will gather in Manhattan Monday night to protest a Church-affiliated fundraising gala featuring pro-gay Jesuit Fr. James Martin. Members of Church Militant's Resistance group will challenge Fr. Martin's appearance through a Rosary rally outside Leo House, the Midtown Catholic guesthouse hosting the fundraiser. Free clip from CHURCH MILITANT Premium WATCH MORE LIKE THIS The Inaugural Pope Leo XIII Award Gala...

The Fire Next Time – A Homily for the Second Sunday of Advent Msgr. Charles Pope • December 9, 2017 • The second reading for Sunday Mass speaks to us of “the fire next time” and reminds us of the need to be ready for the coming of the Lord. In this homily I will focus on that reading, in which St. Peter reminds us of the passing that will come for us all one day.Because Advent is a time to prepare, through prayer and repentance, we do well to heed this sacred teaching and warning. It is echoed...

Five Brief Advent Meditations Msgr. Charles Pope • December 4, 2017 • The following are five Advent reflections that I prepared for catechumens and candidates in our RCIA program. (They are also available in PDF form here: The Season of Advent.) Advent is witnessed by creationLate autumn and early winter are times of great seasonal change. The leaves turn brilliant colors, then fade and fall. Shadows lengthen as the days grow shorter and colder. Vacations and the warmth of summer are distant memories and we are reminded once again that the things of this world last but a moment...

The Second Coming and Its Stages Msgr. Charles Pope • December 7, 2017 • During Advent, as we continue to meditate on the Parousia (the Second Coming), we do well to allow our imaginations to be engaged in contemplating the glory that awaits those who are faithful, to meditate on the joy and ecstasy of the culmination of all things!We must soberly admit our need to be ready by God’s grace, but if we are, what glories await us! The “great and terrible day of the Lord” will indeed be great for those who have allowed the Lord to...

Run to Jesus! An Advent Reflection Msgr. Charles Pope • December 6, 2017 • The Lord’s coming is near. And though we have all been well taught that the word “Advent” means “coming,” there is the danger that we think that we are only passively waiting for Him to come. It is not just that the Lord is coming to us; we are also journeying to Him. In fact, as the Advent prayers in the Roman Missal instruct, we ought to run, not walk, and hasten to greet Him as He draws near.This notion of running to meet God...

The Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon appears to have endorsed giving the sacrament of Holy Communion to some divorced and remarried couples, claiming that in most cases their previous marriages were invalid. Cardinal Manuel Clemente, who is also the president of Portugal’s bishops’ conference, is urging the clergy to take a “fundamental attitude of ‘welcoming,’ of ‘accompaniment’ and ‘discernment’ of those who are divorced and remarried, stating that ‘in the greatest number of cases’ the marriage was null,” according to Agencia Ecclesia, the official news service of the Portuguese bishops. The cardinal told Agencia Ecclesia that divorced and remarried Catholics who...

On Saturday, Francis made the return flight from Bangladesh to Rome, and as is his custom, he answered questions from a number of journalists while en route. As Bergoglian in-flight press conferences go, this one isn’t especially noteworthy overall, but it does contain at least one exchange that merits our attention.A reporter named Etienne from France, asked:What is the priority: to evangelize or to dialogue for peace? Because to evangelize means to arouse conversions, that provokes tensions and at times conflicts among believers. So, what is your priority: to evangelize or to dialogue?Here we have the quintessential pitch tossed directly over...

A Catholic theologian has told LifeSiteNews that Catholics may not follow the pope’s “novel teaching” endorsing Communion guidelines from the Buenos Aires bishops. The Buenos Aires guidelines, pronounced by Pope Francis to be the “only interpretation” of Amoris Laetitia, allow some divorced-and-remarried couples to receive both the sacraments of Confession and the Eucharist without a firm resolve to live chastely in continence. News broke on the weekend that both the Buenos Aires guidelines and Pope Francis’s private note endorsing them have been promulgated officially in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis. An accompanying comment from the Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin,...

Part 1: The Grinch Who Stole the Pro-life MovementGet out the Bartles and Jaymes and White Zinfandel because America Magazine and its legion of hipster Catholics are tickled pink that Cardinal Blaise Cupich has attempted to reboot the seamless garment cunningly crafted by the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin. In his article “Can the ‘seamless garment’ approach to pro-life issues make a comeback in the Catholic Church?” Michael J. O’Loughlin, a devotee of Pope Francis who wrote the fawning tribute to the Argentinian menace, called The Tweetable Pope: A Spiritual Revolution in 140 Characters, presents the case that the “tip of...

Preparing our Hearts for Mystery in Advent Msgr. Charles Pope • December 5, 2017 • As we look toward Christmas and ponder the incarnation, we ought to remember that so profound was truth of the incarnation that the early Church fell to her knees at these words: “and He was incarnate by the Holy Spirit, from the virgin Mary, and became man.” This act of falling to one’s knees at these words is still practiced in the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite; in the ordinary form, we are asked to bow.These gestures acknowledge the profound mystery of the...

The title above is the name of a book that appeared Monday in English (after earlier publication in Italian) by a writer who has assumed a grand Renaissance pseudonym: Marcantonio Colonna (an admiral at Lepanto). He evidently could not publish under his real name, for fear of reprisals. But the case he lays out is largely convincing: that Pope Francis has carefully cultivated an image in public as the apostle of mercy, kindness, and openness; in private, he’s authoritarian, given to profanity-laced outbursts of anger, and manipulative in pursuing his agenda. This is hardly news, least of all in Rome....