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In response to pending bill requiring Catholic priests to report child sex abuse learned about through the sacrament, priests insist on upholding sacred trust. California state Sen. Jerry Hill introduced a bill to the state Legislature on Feb. 20 that would require Catholic priests to report child sex abuse learned about in the confessional. The clergy and more than 40 other professions are already mandatory reporters there, but crimes disclosed during confession have been exempt. According to Hill, “The exemption for clergy only protects the abuser and places children at further risk.” The bill is currently awaiting a hearing. Although...

August 18, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) -- In the less than three weeks since the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) promulgated and explained on August 2 a new papally mandated revision of the Catechism of the Catholic Church’s teaching on the death penalty, the Internet has been awash with conflicting interpretations of this revised version of CCC #2267. It seems like Amoris Laetitia All Over Again: some Catholic scholars affirm, while others deny, that another novel papal teaching can be given a valid ‘hermeneutic-of-continuity’ reading in harmony with the previous magisterium. And as we saw in the wake of...

TALLAHASSEE, Florida - The Catholic bishops of Florida urged Gov. Rick Scott to commute the death sentence of Jose Antonio Jimenez to a life sentence without parole. Jimenez is scheduled to be executed Aug. 14 at 6 p.m. local time for the 1992 murder of Phyllis Minas. “Both victims of crime and offenders are children of God and members of the same human family,” said an Aug. 10 letter to Scott on behalf of the bishops by Michael B. Sheedy , executive director of the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops in Tallahassee. “We appreciate your difficult task as governor and...

The Bergoglian twist on capital punishment appears to have rattled the neo-conservative cage like nothing else has over these last sixty-four months of modernist mayhem. Some, it seems, are coming to terms with the cold hard reality that Francis (as he wishes to be known) is most certainly a heretic; so much so that some are even willing to say so aloud.It is a rude awakening indeed for these folks; the same that have been ever so careful to avoid the “H” word when speaking of Amoris Laetitia; a text that didn’t seem to disturb their peace nearly as much...

The Vatican announced on Thursday that Pope Francis had approved formal alterations to Catholic teaching that clarify the death penalty is unacceptable. The section of the Catholic Catechism which deals with capital punishment will now read: "Recourse to the death penalty on the part of legitimate authority, following a fair trial, was long considered an appropriate response to the gravity of certain crimes and an acceptable, albeit extreme, means of safeguarding the common good. Today, however, there is an increasing awareness that the dignity of the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious penal sanctions imposed...

Deathgate I can't see much point in making substantive comments on the "changes made to the teaching of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) on the death penalty" until the new text is published. All I can so far find on the Internet are some vernacular versions. . This, in itself, I object to. The world has been given the impression that the Catholic Church has changed its teaching when nobody has the wherewithal to judge whether or not this is true. I can only call this sort of behaviour in  matters of faith and morals disgracefully frivolous. Can...

ROME — Pope Francis has changed Catholic Church teaching to fully reject the death penalty, the Vatican announced Thursday, saying it would work to abolish capital punishment worldwide. The change addresses several sentences of the catechism, the compendium of Catholic teaching, but it sharply amplifies the church’s opposition against one of the world’s most debated policies. The church’s updated teaching states that capital punishment is “inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person.” Previously, the church allowed for the death penalty in very rare cases, only as a means of “defending human lives against...

"Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift each of you like wheat. But I have prayed for you,that your faith will not fail. And when you have turned back, confirm your brethren." Luke 22:31-32 August 2, 2018 Dear Bishop S----, Thank you for your letter and thanks also to S and D and P and R who have also responded to my concerns: I appreciate this, too. But it is not enough. Centuries ago, faithful Catholics didn't ordinarily need to question their Bishop. If he were an honest Catholic, well and good; but if not, it made little difference to...

Just as the latest round of homosexual network and sex abuse allegations in the Church are reaching a fever pitch, Pope Francis – who has been eerily quiet of late – dropped a nuclear theological bomb into our midst.From Crux: According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the death penalty now is no longer admissible under any circumstances.The Vatican announced on Thursday Pope Francis approved changes to the compendium of Catholic teaching published under Pope John Paul II.“The death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person,” is what the Catechism of...

August 2, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – In the boldest and most reckless move to date in a pontificate that was already out of control and sowing confusion on a massive scale, the Vatican has announced Pope Francis’s substitution, in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, of a new doctrine on capital punishment. Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and the Magisterium of the Church for 2,000 years have upheld the intrinsic legitimacy of the death penalty for grave crimes against the common good of Church or State. There had never been any doubt in the minds of anyone on this subject. It was...

A few Sundays ago I was encouraged to take a flyer after mass detailing the Catholic position on DACA and immigration. I'll spare you the details, but it is basically amnesty. But is that really the Catholic position on immigration? Is it true that in order to be a good Catholic one must delete the borders of a nation and welcome in any person at any time for any reason without reserve? Nonsense.I know I'm not the only one in the laity who rolls her eyes at the messaging coming from the American bishops on this issue. Sarah Hoyt...

This letter was written and sent a few days before a diocesan conference centering on "The Legacy of St. Pope John Paul II". Dear Bishop -------- Please allowed me to ask a few questions which are urgent to me and others of the faithful. 1. The Legacy of Pope John Paul II is being replaced by a New Paradigm being taught by such highly-placed teachers at Cardinal Cupich of Chicago. They claim that previous teaching about Faith, Morals, and Sacramental practice are pastorally unhelpful. They deny that there are acts that are intrinsically wrong. They propose that God has given...

Change the Catechism. If its doctrine does not coincide with the new desired orthodoxy concerning homosexuality, it will be better to adopt the solution of Alexander the Great, who with one stroke of his sword decided to untangle the Gordian knot in his own way: by cutting it in two.In the same way, in order to accept and definitively clear the way for homo-erotic practice, it is necessary to address the fundamentals, and from there everything will be easier. Now that an attitude of laxity and acceptance of homosexuality as a natural variant of human sexuality is becoming increasingly common,...

Where Are You from? A Reflection on Recent Tensions over Immigration, Race, and Ethnicity Msgr. Charles Pope • January 14, 2018 • A priest friend of mine who immigrated to this country from Jordan back in the 1970s is often asked, “Where are you from?” He humorously answers, “I am from my mother’s womb.”True enough! There is an even more fundamental answer, rooted in Scripture, which speaks to the origin of every human person: You are from the loving will and heart of God. Before you were ever formed in your mother’s womb, God knew you and thought about...

Francis: Change the Catechism, which Pope Saint John Paul II called "a sure norm," because I prefer my own understanding Lifesite News is reporting that: "Pope Francis may have begun a new phase in his pontificate: doctrinal change, a priest and former philosophy professor has written. Italian Fr. Giovanni Scalese, the local Ordinary for Afghanistan, wrote a post titled 'Fase B' (Phase B) on his blog 'Antiquo robore,' arguing that Pope Francis laid out his new plan for doctrinal evolution in the Church in a recent speech. The October 11 speech to the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization, in...

In my last column I discussed the Pope's astonishing declaration that capital punishment is "in itself contrary to the Gospel," uttered in the face of the Church's constant teaching, based on the Gospel itself, that capital punishment is within the legitimate authority of civil rulers and is even obligatory in cases where the protection of society necessitates its imposition. Of further concern, from the same address, is the suggestion that the Catechism promulgated by John Paul II should be "revised" to reflect Francis' view of the death penalty. According to Francis, this would not involve "a contradiction with the teaching...

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,...

The Catechism, published 25 years ago today, is no dry-as-dust manual - as I discovered when wrestling with its contentsI have never argued more with a book than the one that sits before me now. When I open my dog-eared copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, I see page after page covered in pencil marks. The comments, written almost 20 years ago, read like those of a stranger: someone trying to argue his way out of becoming a Catholic.As I flick through the book, with its yellowed and broken spine, I see expressions of bafflement and even outrage....

Teachings on Human Labor from the Catechism Msgr. Charles Pope • September 4, 2016 • Today is Labor Day in the United States. With this in mind, I thought it would be good to reflect on some teachings about human labor that are given in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The text from the catechism is shown in italics, while my commentary is in blue. Human labor precedes original sin and hence is not an imposition due to sin but part of our original dignity. God places [Man] in the garden. There he lives “to till it and...

Tim Markatos/Georgetown Voice Lisa Bourne Follow Lisa Share on Facebook 820 Share on Twitter Comment on this Article 16 Share via Email Print this Page NewsCatholic Church, HomosexualityThu Jun 8, 2017 - 11:24 am EST Pro-gay Vatican consultant: Catechism teaching on homosexuality ‘needs to be updated’ Lisa Bourne Follow Lisa benedict xvi , catechism of the catholic church , catholic , homosexuality , intrinsically disordered , james martin , jesuits , john paul ii , new ways ministry , pope francis , same-sex 'marriage' June 8, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) – The Jesuit priest recently given an influential Vatican post thinks...