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[Catholic Caucus] Starved of the Sacraments Pope Francis' 'field hospital' Church is bankrupt ROME (ChurchMilitant.com) - The Church is in "full retreat" by suspending Masses, "a fact that had never occurred, not even during the two world wars, even in the most terrible hours in the history of this country, on the occasion of disasters, floods or earthquakes."  That's the view of illustrious Italian epidemiologist Dr. Paolo Gulisano, a professor of History of Medicine at the Bicocca State University of Milan. Gulisano is also a celebrated cultural essayist. He is ripping to shreds "one of the most famous slogans of the current pontificate," which is the Church as...

French bishop tests positive for coronavirus after Vatican visit A French bishop who visited the Vatican last week has tested positive for coronavirus, his diocese announced on Monday.Bishop Emmanuel Delmas of Angers tested positive for COVID-19 on the evening of March 15. The Diocese of Angers said in a statement on March 16 that the bishop first experienced symptoms during his time in Rome.Delmas was part of a delegation of 31 French bishops who met with Pope Francis during their ad limina visit on March 9. Vatican media shared photos of the bishops sitting one meter apart with a significant...

[Catholic Caucus] Canceling Catholicism Until Further Notice What happened to the “field hospital” of Pope Francis? Early on in his papacy, Pope Francis likened the Church to a field hospital. But the analogy hasn’t held up amidst coronavirus fears. The diocese of Rome has suspended Masses through April 3. The idea of closing churches during a crisis is a peculiarly modern one. The ancient impulse during a crisis was not to abolish worship but to increase it.In the age of the secularized Catholic Church, deference to the state, which prioritizes the body over the soul, is the order of the...

Beijing tries to bribe, blackmail clerics into schismFUJIAN PROVINCE, China (ChurchMilitant.com) While Pope Francis has asked Chinese Christians to be "good citizens" by not "engaging in proselytism," the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has intensified the persecution of faithful Catholic clergy, manufacturing new and dehumanizing pressure tactics to coerce them into joining the CCP's Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA). Bitter Winter reports participants at a December meeting for select Catholics in the Mingdong diocese were told clergy such as Bp. Vincent Guo Xijin, who is currently homeless after refusing to join the CPCA, should be "transformed." Promised their churches would operate...

[Catholic Caucus] US archdiocese tells priests to stop saying Masses for pro-gay group rejecting Catholic teaching Pro-homosexual Dignity Masses have been officially banned in Detroit. DETROIT, Michigan, March 10, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – The Archdiocese of Detroit has ordered priests to “refrain” from celebrating Masses “in any parish church, chapel, or diocesan facility” for the pro-homosexual group Dignity/Detroit. Bishop Gerard W. Battersby, an auxiliary bishop in Detroit, explained in a statement that the group “rejects Church teaching on human sexuality.” According to Dignity/Detroit’s website, the organization, which was founded in 1974, “works for respect and justice for people of all sexual...

March 6, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — Sante Fe’s Archbishop John Charles Wester has asserted that Communion in the hand is “every bit as respectful” as receiving on the tongue in a statement regarding his response to the coronavirus. “There is nothing ontologically preferable to receiving on the tongue,” he said as he announced that all communicants in the archdiocese must receive in the hand due to the coronavirus. The archbishop said in a statement earlier this week that “[g]iven the highly contagious nature of the flu and the coronavirus, communicants MUST [capitalization in the original] receive Holy Communion in the hand...

[Catholic Caucus]Mexican Bishops Ban Communion on the Tongue, Citing Coronavirus Fears Faithful Catholics warn order designed to eradicate reverential practice NOGALES, Mexico (ChurchMilitant.com) - For decades, Mexico has been considered one of the most Catholic countries in the world — a nation where, after the government banned the Holy Mass and receiving Communion on the tongue in the 1920s, believers responded by taking up arms and waging a bloody, years-long civil war against regime forces, during which many faithful were tortured or executed for their beliefs. But now, the Conference of the Mexican Episcopate (CEM), the ruling body of bishops, has banned reception of...

[Barf Alert] Vatican climate scientist says Church’s moral authority key to advancing global warming agenda Dr. Veerabhadran Ramanathan said he believes that the Catholic Church has a key role to play in leading a 'moral revolution' on climate change. Dr. Veerabhadran Ramanathan (second to Pope Francis's right). ROME, February 25, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — Pope Francis’s Global Education Pact is a golden opportunity to use the moral authority of the Catholic Church to institute “cradle to grave climate literacy” for children as young as pre-kindergarten, a prominent member of the Vatican’s Academy of Sciences has said.  Speaking at a Vatican...

Masonic Grand Master hails pronouncement as breakthrough in reconciliationVIENNA (ChurchMilitant.com) - Eight popes over 200 years in a barrage of 20 legal interdicts have condemned Freemasonry, pronouncing automatic excommunication against any Catholic who becomes a member of a masonic lodge. Now, a new book by an official of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue is claiming that a practicing Catholic can simultaneously be a Freemason and that the penalty of excommunication may "certainly not" be applied to "Catholic Freemasons." Father Michael Heinrich Weninger launched his 500-page study Loge und Altar: Über die Aussöhnung von Katholischer Kirche und regulärer Freimaurerei (Lodge...

[Catholic Caucus] Burke: Often Mentioned "Francis Magisterium" Is Not The Magisterium A soon-to-be-published “Catechism of the Catholic Church with Theological Commentary,” edited by Curia Archbishop Rino Fisichella, will "not have the authority” of the 1994 Catechism, said Cardinal Raymond Burke.He told TheWandererPress.com (January 8) that the current Catechism “will continue to be the authoritative text" while "whatever authority the new edition has, will depend on the correctness of its fidelity to doctrine.”Burke linked the continuing doctrinal and moral confusion in the Church to the 4th century Arian heresy, pointing out that, at that time, St Athanasius defended Christ's divinity at...

Vatican Enables Illegal Gay Rave on New Year’s Eve Pope's almoner pays electricity bill allowing drug-fueled party ROME (ChurchMilitant.com) - The Vatican is facing public relations blowback after a residential building secured for migrants by a cardinal close to Pope Francis was used for a drug- and alcohol-fueled illegal gay rave on New Year's Eve.     More than 5,000 young people, including a large number from the LGBTQ+ community, went ahead with the party on Dec. 31 — in defiance of the police chief's notice delivered to the organizers, according to Leo Zagami, author of Pope Francis: The Last Pope? Money, Masons and Occultism in the...

- A Catholic diocese in northeastern France is endorsing new "gender-neutral" language in ecclesiastical baptismal registers after the bishop issued a letter recommending the removal of all references to "father" and "mother." The traditional terms for parents will be replaced on a default basis with "the name of the parents or other holders of parental authority." The bishop of Langres defended the new guidelines, saying it would enable the Church to adapt its initiation rite to homosexual unions without offending anyone. "The situation in France is becoming more and more complex. This makes certain Catholic acts difficult, in particular, those...

Nothing Says Christmas Like a Priest Saying "Jesus Was a Racist" It didn't happen just anywhere, no, it happened in that which used to be the central learning institution for thousands of Irish priests sent around the world to teach the Catholic and Apostolic Faith, Maynooth. The preacher was the President of Saint Patrick's College Maynooth himself, Father Michael Mullaney. And in a Christmas Carol service no less, and posted on the website of the Bishops' Conference of Ireland: Even Jesus had to confront his ingrained prejudices; indeed, even racism. The Gospels recount his stunning and unique encounter with...

ROME, December 19, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — In what many see as an effort to normalize homosexuality in the Catholic Church, the Vatican has released a new book that reduces the “sin of Sodom” (Genesis 19:1–29) to “a lack of hospitality.” “The story about the city of Sodom … illustrates a sin that consists in the lack of hospitality, with hostility and violence towards the stranger, a behavior judged to be very serious and therefore deserving to be sanctioned with the utmost severity,” the new book asserts. Sources consulted by LifeSite described the book as “utter banality” and “obviously ridiculous.” One...

Cafeteria Catholics and Pope Francis? Brietbart reports the less-than-surprising news that “A majority of practicing U.S. Catholics support President Donald Trump and give him a 52 percent job-approval rating,” whereas “Catholics who say that faith plays only a minor role in their lives gave the president an approval rating of just 28 percent.” That’s the conclusion of a poll of U.S. Catholics jointly conducted by EWTN News and Real Clear Opinion Research.The definitions of terminology employed in the poll are quite revealing of the correlation between belief in what the Church teaches and support for Trump, notwithstanding his unsavory pre-election...

US ambassador cites Pope Francis in urging Zambia to embrace homosexuality December 7, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – The U.S. ambassador to Zambia quoted Pope Francis this week in urging the people of Zambia to adopt a softer line on homosexuality, amid an ongoing debate over a 15-year prison sentence for two men convicted of sodomy. Japhet Chabata and Steven Samba were convicted last year of sex “against the order of nature,” with Judge Charles Zulu rejecting an appeal of their sentence last week. Daniel Foote, the U.S. Ambassador to Zambia, responded that he was “horrified” by the “oppressive sentencing,” which he said...

Pell was reportedly reprimanded for “interfering in sovereign business” by looking into the Vatican Secretariat of State’s dealings with a Swiss bank with a long track record of violating fraud safeguards.The Holy See’s relationship with a disreputable Swiss bank triggered an internal dispute between the Secretariat of State and Vatican financial authorities. At the center of the conflict was a multimillion-dollar line of credit used to fund a controversial investment in London property speculation. Sources inside the Vatican’s Prefecture for the Economy confirmed to CNA that a substantial part of the $200 million used to finance the Secretariat of State’s...

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — The spokesman for an Argentine bishop close to Pope Francis who has been accused of sex abuse criticized Argentine prosecutors for requesting an arrest order, saying the release of information in the case hurt his image and his presumption of innocence. Spokesman Javier Belda denied that Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta was in “rebellion” for not responding to calls or messages, as Argentine prosecutor María Soledad Filtrín asserted this week. Belda said Zanchetta had cooperated with judicial authorities throughout the case. Zanchetta has been formally accused of “aggravated continuous sexual abuse” of two seminarians, charges that carry...

Pope Francis’ version of evangelization without ‘convictions’ makes no sense November 25, 2019 (The Catholic Thing) — "In your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect." (1 Peter 3:15) This clearly means that one way in which we honor Christ as Lord is by persuasively defending the truth of the faith, by giving reasons supporting faith's rationality and truthfulness. This defense is crucial because the response to the Gospel should...

TOKYO - Pope Francis has told Japanese Emperor Naruhito that he remembers seeing his parents cry over the news of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 74 years ago. The pope traveled on Sunday to the two Japanese cities, where he urged world powers to renounce their nuclear arsenals and declared the use and possession of atomic bombs an “immoral” crime. Palace officials say the pope told the emperor on Monday that he recalled the memory of his parent’s sorrow when he addressed survivors of the atomic bombings in the two cities. Naruhito told Francis that he has high...