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[Catholic Caucus] Two bishops’ advice to Catholics in Lenten crisis: Eat meat on Fridays The bishop of Boston and the bishop of Metuchen, N.J. declared to their flocks that Lenten abstinence from meat on Fridays is no longer binding. March 27, 2020 (CatholicCulture.org) — Another week dominated by news about the CO19 epidemic; another week without access to the sacraments. These are distressful times, and we are facing troubles that we could not have imagined, even a few weeks ago. As this troubled week moved toward a close, a couple of headlines truly looked surreal: Bishops advising Catholics to ease...

Ohio says religious gatherings are ‘essential business,’ bishops cancel Mass anyway COLUMBUS, Ohio, March 27, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – During the COVID-19 pandemic, churches in the state of Ohio are considered an essential business and allowed to stay open. “Religious facilities, entities and groups and religious gatherings, including weddings and funerals,” are listed by the state as “essential businesses and operations” which may stay open. The order of the Ohio Department of Health was issued on March 22, taking effect on March 24, and scheduled to last until April 6. The bishops within the state of Ohio, organized as the Catholic...

[Catholic Caucus] Analysis: The sacramental shutdown, coronavirus, and canon law Washington D.C., Mar 26, 2020 / 02:01 pm (CNA).- The coronavirus pandemic has caused disruption around the world. To politics, economics, and to the life of the Church: most especially to the steady regularity of her sacramental life, which many Catholics see as the anchor of consistency amid a world of chaos.“Stat crux dum volvitur orbis,” the Carthusians say— The cross is steady while the world turns.But while the cross remains steady, restrictions on public liturgies and access to church buildings have made the sacramental life of the Church less...

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal: Francis Pushes Catholics Back Into Catacombs The Vatican must reconsider the June 2019 pastoral guidelines encouraging Chinese clergy to join the country’s official State church, Cardinal Joseph Zen told NCRegister.com (March 26). Zen finds it “incredible” that the Holy See is pushing for unity “with the wrong church, with a schismatic church.” He called the situation so serious that Catholics should retreat “to the catacombs,” as it is “useless to fight now.”

Cdl. Burke Rebukes Church’s Pagan Idolatry Coronavirus memo calls faithful to prayer and penance ROME (ChurchMilitant.com) - A leading traditionalist cardinal is calling upon Catholics to reflect upon the coronavirus calamity in the light of society's rebellion against God and "even within the Church, a paganism which worships nature and the earth." Priest hosting drive-through communion outside his church "There are those within the Church who refer to the earth as our mother, as if we came from the earth, and the earth is our salvation," laments Cdl. Raymond Burke, alluding to the veneration of Pachamama in the Vatican during the October Amazon...

Pope Believes Chinese Virus Is Nature’s Wrath ROME (ChurchMilitant.com) - Pope Francis is weighing in on one of the most troubling theological questions of all time: Does God bring about natural disasters and other trials to punish humans for their sins? His answer is "No."Dr. Gavin Ashenden But Mother Nature does. In a Skype interview aired on Spanish television, Francis suggested the global pandemic is nature's response to man's ecological sins: "God always forgives. We forgive from time to time. Nature never forgives. Fires, earthquakes ... nature is kicking in so that we take care of nature." Some analysts note that embedded within the pontiff's remarks...

Pope Francis: Coronavirus Pandemic Is Nature ‘Throwing a Tantrum’ ROME — Pope Francis told a Spanish journalist Sunday that nature never forgives and the coronavirus pandemic is nature’s cry for humans to take better care of creation. Asked by a Spanish journalist via Skype whether the COVID-19 pandemic is nature’s way of taking “revenge” on humanity, the pontiff suggested that nature is calling for attention.“There’s a saying, which you have heard: ‘God always forgives. We sometimes forgive. Nature never forgives,’” the pope said. “Fires, earthquakes … nature is throwing a tantrum so that we will take care of her.”

[Catholic Caucus] Coronavirus: Protection against Christ? Father Paddy Mockler, the parish-priest in Pass Christian, Biloxi Diocese, Mississippi, celebrated last Sunday Mass in rubber gloves. Parts of the Mass can be seen on YouTube.com (video below). A woman who read the epistle also wore rubber gloves, likely to protect herself from the Word of God.

Pope Francis’ Coronavirus Antidote: ‘Be Nice and Keep Hugging’ Sociologist identifies pontiff's religion as Moralistic Therapeutic Deism ROME (ChurchMiliant.com) - It is the nicest response to come from the successor of St. Peter in the 2,000-year history of the Church confronting plagues. It is also a unique and unparalleled pontifical exhortation to a world knocked off its axis by pandemic and pandemonia.      If only previous popes had responded to the Plague of Cyprian (250–271) or the Plague of Justinian (541–542) or the Black Death (1346–1353) with Pope Francis' gentle non-judgmentalism! Just do it. Be nice and hug one another.       Alas! The...

Rome Canonist to Priests: Disobey Illegal Mass Bans Says bishops have no authority to stop sacraments ROME (ChurchMilitant.com) - A Rome-based expert in canon law is urging faithful clerics to defy illegal orders prohibiting the faithful from attending Holy Mass and receiving the sacraments.  "The Catholic Church has taught from time immemorial that lex iniusta non est lex, an unjust law is no law at all — and it should not be obeyed," writes canonist Catherine Caridi, creator of the popular blog Canon Law Made Easy.  Bishops' Conferences have "absolutely no authority" to make decrees canceling all public Masses, Dr. Caridi states. "The law is...

[Catholic Caucus] Marco Tosatti: The Pope’s Pattern of Changing His Decisions Two episodes amounted to a 180 Yes, he has done it again. Dear friends and especially enemies of Stilum Curiae, the frenetic activity of these past few days prevented me from writing a comment on the recent affairs of the Vatican and the Pope and placing them in the context of repeated behavior. Cdl. Reinhard Marx There is an Arab proverb that says "adaa Alima ya 'iadatiha al qadìma," which means, "Alima has returned to her old habits." And just like the proverbial Alima, the reigning pontiff has returned...

[Catholic Caucus] Where’s McCarrick? Where’s the Report? Unanswered questions: 612 days and counting DETROIT (ChurchMilitant.com) - Continual coverage of the COVID-19 scare has served to drive other pressing stories off the front pages. For Catholics, one important story is suffering from inattention — the long-promised report on the crimes of disgraced former cardinal and abuser Theodore McCarrick is yet to be delivered. It was 612 days ago (July 16, 2018) when a story in the New York Times on the former cardinal's double life as an abuser of young men and seminarians broke. First Calls for an Investigation Within a month, Cdl. Daniel N. DiNardo...

New Theory: Coronavirus Is Punishment – From Gaia Leonardo Boff, 81, believes that the coronavirus is “a retaliation from Gaia for the insults we inflict upon her” (ATerraERedonda.com, March 14).For Boff, a lapsed priest and hero of communist Liberation Theology, it’s not accidental that the virus exploded there “where pollution is greatest.”Through it, the “Great Mother” Gaia gives us signs “that she's sick.” Boff replaces God with Gaia explaining that “the earth wants a different attitude towards her.”We should not forget “that the Earth herself feels, thinks, loves, worships and heals.”

Pope Benedict Embroiled in the War Between Re and Zen. But China Is Winning In the letter that the dean of the sacred college, Giovanni Battista Re, wrote on February 26 to all the cardinals, in contradiction with the previous letter addressed to them in September by Cardinal Joseph Zen Zekiun, there is one point on which the split between the two cardinal is absolute.In his letter Zen had written, regarding the provisional and secret agreement of September 22 2018 between the Holy See and China on the appointment of bishops:“I have cause to believe (and I hope one day...

[Catholic Caucus] Pro-Gay Maltese Mass-Cancelling ‘Fixer’ Bishop Scicluna: “God is making us fast from Him!” A reader from Malta writes of the arrogance, faithlessness of Mass-cancelling Vatican FrancisBishop, Abp. Scicluna:***FYIAll masses have been canceled in Malta and – get this – even confession. Priests are refusing to meet even at a distance with parishioners and literally mocking confession at a distance even though the Church Herself provides for this. Please note that the shutdown of Masses is NOT coming from the government, who has encouraged everyone to go about “business as usual.” This is coming directly from Charles Scicluna who,...

[Catholic Caucus] Italian Police Storms Mass in Rome (Video) Italian police interrupted a Mass in Cerveteri, Rome, EWTN's Alexey Gotovskiy reports (Twitter, March 15, video below). The Mass was broadcasted in the Internet. The stream showed few people assembled in front of the Church for prayer. There was less danger of contamination than in a supermarket, train or bus.

[Catholic Caucus] 7th Anniversary (God help us!) of Pope Francis's Election How Francis is Attempting to Complete the Destruction of the Church Begun by Paul VI. [I drafted the following text on August 6, 2016, but never published it. When reviewing it and slightly updating it in December 2019, I was struck by how much worse the situation has become since the summer of 2016, and how all of my evaluations had been confirmed by subsequent events. Although this document could be considerably expanded, it is better to leave it as a brisk pencil portrait of a Roman Pontiff who...

[Catholic Caucus] Are Bishops who Suspend the Public Mass Blazing a Trail for the Antichrist? Doctor of the Church St. Robert Bellarmine said one of the signs of the Antichrist is suspending public Mass: "[S]ure signs concerning the coming of Antichrist... the greatest and last persecution, and also the public sacrifice (of the Mass) shall completely cease." (The Prophecy of Daniel, Pages 37-38) Are bishops who suspend public Masses blazing a trail for the future Antichrist? Pray an Our Father now for the restoration of the Church as well as for the Triumph of the Kingdom of the Sacred Heart...

[Catholic Caucus] Archdiocese of Washington ‘Directs’ National Shrine to Suspend Public Mass WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception announced Friday afternoon it will suspend the public celebration of Mass and the hearing of confessions until further notice, just hours after the shrine said it would keep to its public Mass and confession schedule unless ordered to close by civic authorities. A statement from the shrine, released Friday afternoon, said that the change came at the instruction of the Archdiocese of Washington, which announced Thursday the suspension of public Masses in DC parishes. “The Basilica of the National Shrine...

[Catholic Caucus] MASSES CANCELED IN ARCHDIOCESE OF NEW YORK FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 14, 2020MASSES CANCELED IN ARCHDIOCESE OF NEW YORK(New York, NY) In light of the continued concern surrounding the coronavirus, and the advice of medical experts, all Masses in the Archdiocese of New York will be canceled beginning this weekend, March 14-15, 2020.This development follows upon today’s decision of Dutchess County to prohibit gatherings of more than 20 people.  It is also intended to provide clarity and consistency throughout the ten counties that comprise the Archdiocese of New York (Manhattan, the Bronx, Staten Island, Westchester, Putnam, Orange, Rockland, Sullivan,...