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Cardinal Caffarra “Suffered Terribly” Because of Pope Francis An unnamed ex-journalist who is a Catholic, writes on Marco Tosatti's blog (January 6) that the late Cardinal Carlo Caffarra, one of the four Dubia cardinals, “suffered terribly” because Pope Francis had not deemed him worthy of an answer. The ex-journalist adds, “The light-headed Bergoglio, who makes phone-calls to the right and to the left, who gives interviews like an actor, who appears at the birthdays of prelates close to him, who does not hesitate to take pen and paper in order to punish Cardinal Robert Sarah, never found half-an-hour to speak...

Italian police interrogated pro-life leaders today after they ran a campaign yesterday honouring Cardinal Carlo Caffarra, one of the dubia authors, outside the Vatican. The pro-life groups ProVita Onlus, Vita è, and Fede e Cultura drove a publicity truck through the streets of Rome around the Vatican on Monday, bearing billboard-sized images of the dubia cardinal and Pope John Paul II. The police had stopped them for questioning on the Via della Conciliazione, the central road leading to St. Peter’s Basilica. According to main organizer Toni Brandi, head of ProVita Onlus, at one point the police claimed Cardinal Caffarra...

Two books have come out recently, both of them by prominent authors and both in response to the “dubia” submitted to Pope Francis one year ago by four cardinals, concerning the post-synodal exhortation “Amoris Laetitia.” The first of these books, published in Italy by Ares, has already prompted a lot of discussion. It is by Rocco Buttiglione, a well-known scholar of philosophy and an authoritative interpreter of the philosophical thought of John Paul II, today a staunch defender of the “openness” introduced by Francis regarding communion for the divorced and remarried, and an equally resolute proponent of the perfect continuity...

The validity of the commandments and of the entire moral law is at stake in the Church according to Bishop Athanasius Schneider. Talking to onepeterfive.com he asserted that "the Pope is himself tolerating a wide dissemination of obvious errors of faith and of grave abuses of the sacraments (like the admittance of unrepentant adulterers to the sacraments)". Schneider compares this to a ship in a stormy sea, in which the captain ignores the obvious dangers, while the majority of his officers wrap themselves in silence, saying: "All is just fine on the sinking ship”. The few officers, who raise their...

After Dubia Cardinal Carlo Caffarra's death on the first day of the Apostolic Journey to Colombia, Pope Francis let the journalists, who accompanied him, know, that he would not accept any question regarding Caffarra during the press conference in the plane on his way back to Rome. The Italian blog Anonimi della Croce writes, that Francis was afraid of the question why he did not answer the doubts ("dubia") of the four Cardinals concerning his controversial document Amoris Laetitia.

The death of Carlo Caffarra, the beloved dubia Cardinal, has left an additional empty place in the group of the original four who presented their concerns to the pope concerning Amoris Laetitia. So much so, in fact, that one of the pro-papal apologists, Dr. Austen Ivereigh, even put on Twitter this somewhat breezy comment: “Only two of the four dubia cardinals alive.” (I will leave out here Dr. Ivereigh’s more explicitly demeaning comment about Cardinal Caffarra himself on the very day of his death.) One could well imagine (but I do not claim any intimate knowledge here) that these two...

Pope Francis has sent his condolences to the relatives of Cardinal Carlo Caffarra, Archbishop emeritus of Bologna, who died on September 6, 2017, at the age of 79. In the telegram addressed to, current Archbishop of Bologna, Matteo Maria Zuppi, the Pope said he shares in the suffering of the late cardinal’s loved ones. “I think affectionately of this dear Brother in the Episcopate, who served the Gospel with joy and loved the Church intensely.” “I remember with gratitude,” Pope Francis continued, “the generous pastoral work carried out by him.” The Pontiff remembered his work at the John Paul II...

Just last week, I published a post exploring whether or not Cardinal Burke may have taken the formal act of correction off the table.At the conclusion to that post I wrote, “Perhaps His Eminence will be asked about this directly in a future interview (which, if history is any indication, cannot be very far removed from today).”Well, we didn’t have to wait very long at all.On August 14th, the Wanderer published Part 2 of an interview with His Eminence wherein he indicated that the formal act of correction is not only on the table, it may in fact be the...

Are the three remaining “dubia” cardinals – Cardinals Burke, Caffara, and Brandmüller – at fault for publicizing the five questions they posed to Pope Francis, and for publicizing the fact that the pope did not respond either to those questions or to a later request for an audience? Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna thinks they have done a disservice to the Church and to the Holy Father. Speaking in Limerick, Ireland on July 13th he said: “The question of these dubia is for me mainly a question of procedure. That cardinals, who should be the closest collaborators of the pope,...

Pope Francis has referred to Cardinal Christoph Schönborn as the “authoritative interpreter” of Amoris Laetitia. So when the Austrian cardinal spoke to an Irish audience about the controversial papal document, people naturally paid careful attention. According to Austen Ivereigh’s account: Schönborn revealed that when he met the Pope shortly after the presentation of Amoris, Francis thanked him, and asked him if the document was orthodox. “I said, ‘Holy Father, it is fully orthodox’,” Schönborn told us he told the pope, adding that a few days later he received from Francis a little note that said: “Thank you for that word. That gave...

On Thursday, July 13, Cardinal Cristoph Schönborn — the pope’s chosen interpreter and advocate for his apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia — addressed an audience at the “Let’s Talk Family: Let’s Be Family” conference in Ireland in anticipation of the World Meeting of Families in Dublin next year. According to Greg Daly of The Irish Catholic, Schönborn opened his talk by assuring those in attendance that both the exhortation and the pope responsible for it are Catholic: Later, Daly tweeted that Schönborn said that all of the dubia questions can be answered with a “yes”: If you don’t recall what the answers are supposed to be,...

READ this excerpt of Pope Benedict's message read at Card. Meisner's funeral today. It is loaded with meaning:

One of Pope Francis’ newly appointed cardinals is already calling out fellow cardinals who are questioning the new direction in which the Pope is trying to move the Church. Archbishop Juan José Omella of Barcelona, Spain, told reporters this week, prior to becoming a cardinal, that the four cardinals shouldn't be waging what he called a "public fight" with the pope. The four have asked Pope Francis to clarify whether his Exhortation Amoris Laetitia conforms to perennial Catholic teaching on marriage, the Eucharist, and conscience. “When you are an adviser to the pope, which is what a cardinal is, and...

Canon Law expert Father Gerald Murray decried the confusion created by Pope Francis’ exhortation Amoris Laetitia last week on EWTN, saying if pastors don’t vigorously defend the faith they are remiss in their duty. He noted that, because of the confusion, parish priests are now forced to question whether they should continue to uphold Church teaching that they learned in the seminary, which was carried out by the previous two pontiffs. This is the result of various Church hierarchies around the world now allowing divorced and remarried Catholics to receive Communion because of the document. All of moral theology is...

Most Eminent Cardinals, I have decided to write an open letter to you, in response to your continued attempts to approach our Holy Father, Pope Francis with the issues you originally raised in the five dubia. I do so in a spirit of love for the Church, and above all, for its unity under the care and protection of our beloved Pope. I also wish to state that in relation to the question of access to the Sacraments for some divorced and remarried, I have no vested interest; I have been blessed with a twenty year marriage and five children,...

Cardinal Raymond Burke received in person on Friday the Law of Life Achievement Award, a replica of the nail that held Jesus to the cross. The award, given to those who have endured suffering in the fight to defend and protect life and family, honors the Cardinal for his work in “defending faith, life, and family from all quarters.” “I’m very honored to receive this award. I hope to continue to be able to suffer for the faith inspired by this recognition,” he said.  Cardinal Burke was presented with the award in his apartment in Rome by LifeSiteNews Editor-in-chief John-Henry...

May 2, 2017 (Steven O’Reilly) – It seems that Pope Francis continues to return to his oft-repeated characterization of  Catholics, at least those who actually believe what the Church has taught always and everywhere, as “rigid.” I’ve trained myself not to roll my eyes every time he says it for fear my eyes might get locked that way – kind of like when your mom told you not to cross your eyes. Excerpts from his most recent homily may be found here.  The conclusion to his homily is as follows: “And today, let us look at the tenderness of Jesus:...

For understanding how Francis acts with his opponents, the archbishop and theologian Bruno Forte is a reliable oracle, especially since he reported in public what the pope said to him during the last synod, at which he acted as special secretary: “If we talk explicitly about communion for the divorced and remarried, you have no idea what a mess these guys will make for us. So let’s not talk about it directly, you get the premises in place and then I will draw the conclusions.” Francis has drawn the conclusions, as is known, in the postsynodal exhortation “Amoris Laetitia,” but...

(Rome) Archbishop Bruno Forte, Pope-Servant during the two episcopal synods over the family, has attacked the four cardinals: Brandmüller, Burke, Caffarra and Meisner because of the Dubia (Doubts) they have submitted to the pope for the disputed post-synodal letter Amoris laetitia. The Archbishop of Chieti-Vasto had been appointed by the Pope as the Special Secretary of the Synod. As such he played the little praiseworthy role in the preparation of the individual reports. In the first bishop's synod in the autumn of 2014, the controversial passages on homosexuality came from his pen in the interim report. At the beginning of...

Today, on 7 March, there appeared in the prominent secular Austrian newspaper Die Presse an article, entitled “Francis – Populism in a Catholic Way” (“Franziskus – Populismus auf katholisch”), which contains some strongly critical remarks about Pope Francis and his perceptibly continual leadership. (The Austrian Catholic website Kath.net has also reported on it.) Hans Winkler, the author of the article, is the former Vice-President of the Austrian Catholic Publisher’s Association (Verband katholischer Publizistinnen und Publizisten Österreichs), and he formerly worked as the foreign policy chief editor for the largest regional Austrian newspaper, Kleine Zeitung. With a reference to the date...