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Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer is one of the seven German bishops who opposed an orientation guide published by the German bishops’ conference that would permit Protestant spouses of Catholics to receive Communion. Edward Pentin German bishops last month published an “orientation guide” that permits some Protestant spouses of Catholics to receive Holy Communion under certain circumstances. More than two-thirds of German bishops’ conference voted in favor of the document in February (then called a pastoral handout), but it drew widespread criticism, in particular from seven German bishops. Among their chief concerns was treating this issue as a pastoral one instead of...

De Mattei: The Birth of Humanae Vitae in light of the Vatican Archives Roberto de Mattei Corrispondenza Romana July 18, 2018 At the beginning of 2017, Pope Francis set up “a study committee” to prepare for the 50th anniversary of the encyclical Humanae Vitae (July 25th 2018). The existence of this “secret” committee was brought to light some months later by two Catholic publications Stilum Curiae* and Corrispondenza Romana** The committee coordinated by Monsignor Gilfedo Marengo, has the task of finding the documentation in the Vatican Archives, related to the preparatory work for Humanae Vitae, which occurred during and after...

Sandro Magister has written a piece in which he proposes that a new book by Gilfredo Marengo on the genesis of the encyclical Humanae Vitae (HV) represents “an unexpected obstacle” to “[t]he campaign that is underway to demolish ‘Humanae Vitae’ — the 1968 encyclical of Paul VI that said no to artificial contraceptives.” I respectfully disagree. Based on the extensive summary of the book’s account provided by Andrea Tornielli, which Magister views as sufficient to see where Marengo is going, it is quite clear that Marengo, a member of Pope Francis’ semi-secret commission to “reappraise” HV on its fast-approaching 50th...

The campaign that is underway to demolish “Humanae Vitae” - the 1968 encyclical of Paul VI that said no to artificial contraceptives - has in recent days met with an unexpected obstacle in a book that reconstructs the genesis of that text, thanks to access, for the first time, to the secret documents concerning it, personally authorized by Pope Francis: > Gilfredo Marengo, "La nascita di un'enciclica. 'Humanae vitae' alla luce degli archivi vaticani", Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Città del Vaticano, 2018.The obstacle is all the more serious in that the proponents of a “paradigm shift,” meaning a liberalization of contraceptives...

The latest of a series of articles on Vatican-China talks* posted on the Vatican News site tackles the question of how the Holy See could recognize bishops who were ordained without Vatican approval, and thus subject to excommunication: The path to the legitimisation of the Chinese Bishops ordained without the mandate of the Pope is not and cannot be, then, a cold bureaucratic act; rather, it must be a journey of genuinely and profoundly ecclesial discernment, whereby particular cases are evaluated in order to determine whether the essential conditions exist, such that a given Bishop could be readmitted into full...

The Catholic Resistance must keep Fighting and Praying for the Restoration of the Church There is no doubt that Pope Francis and his inner circle are behind the greatest crisis in the history of the Church. We at the Catholic Monitor and the Band of Bloggers have documented this catastrophe. The Catholic Resistance is fighting for the restoration of the Church by exposing the falsehoods and evil that have entered the Church. We must keep doing this, but we will fail if we don't pray at Mass and outside Mass for the restoration. Jesus Christ will restore the Church unless...

If Francis Rubber-Stamps Contraception, He Will Again Fall Into Heresy For the Austrian philosopher Josef Seifert it is “totally inadmissible and a radical break with Church teaching” to claim that using contraception is an alleged "act of responsibility." Seifert referred to a claim made by radical Father Maurizio Chiodi, a member of the former Pontifical Academy for Life. Talking to Edward Pentin (July 13), Seifert said that if Pope Francis would rubber-stamp such changes “he would accept a total ethical error and a huge heresy”. Seifert added that Chiodi's heresy is "nothing else than an old ethical error" which implies...

Pope Francis personally thanked Lisbon Cardinal Manuel Clemente for propagating the immoral teachings contained in Amoris Laetita in a Lenten letter to the Lisbon priests. Clemente follows the heterodox Buenos Aires guidelines approved by Francis. Francis’ June 26 letter to the "beloved Brother Cardinal" was published by Clemente on July 12 on Patriarcado-Lisboa.pt. Francis calls Clemente's controversial text a "profound reflexion" which "fills me with joy". Although Clemente promotes sin, Francis calls him a "shepherd who accompanies the faithful" [into the abyss] and encourages Clemente "to integrate the fragility [adultery] which shows itself in many forms in couples”. At the...

In his recent book on Pope Francis, Lost Shepherd, Philip Lawler reminds us that the papacy should be a source of Church unity. However, as Lawler points out, under the current pontiff this is not so. He lays out two reasons why: the first is Francis’s autocratic style and the second is the divisive program he is advancing. Lawler offers overwhelming evidence to prove his indictment. An early example of this divisiveness is the papal intervention in the Order of the Knights of Malta. The action was unprecedented given the independence of the Order and that it was taken on...

For the last several weeks, the Lepanto Institute has been investigating and reporting on a heretical priestly organization called the Association of United States Catholic Priests (AUSCP). This organization promotes women’s ordination to the diaconate (with eyes on the priestly ordination of women), homosexuality, priestless parishes, married priests, and a host of other heterodox positions.If you’re interested in having a better understanding of this international movement to spread heresy throughout the Church, previous Lepanto Institute reports on the AUSCP include the following: AUSCP’s Plan for Ordained Women and Priestless parishes Wester Participating in AUSCP ConferenceAUSCP’s Desire to Obtain Funding from...

In view of the “paradigm shift” said to be taking place during this pontificate, one that critics say breaks with the Church’s teaching and tradition, how should a concerned Catholic respond? Is it legitimate, for example, to resist Church authority, including perhaps even the Pope, and if so, how? Chilean author José Antonio Ureta offers some answers to these questions in his new book, Pope Francis’ Paradigm Shift: Continuity or Rupture in the Mission of the Church? — An Assessment of his Five-year Pontificate. In this June 23 interview with the Register in Rome on the sidelines of a conference...

...Aftermath: Part 3 was the sermon that got the most attention -- the one where Stanley suggested that you need to "unhitch" your faith from the Old Testament as he insisted the New Testament writers did. To make his point, Stanley taught from Acts 15 and the story of the Jerusalem council. (snip) ...If Stanley said the conclusion of the Jerusalem council pertained to Mosaic dietary laws, how did he explain the command to abstain from sexual immorality? Not well. Moral Decay Stanley said, "If I were to hand everybody a 3x5 card, and I were to say, 'Tell me...

The Minnesota Conference of the United Methodist Church has removed the term, ‘Father,’ from the Apostle’s Creed in an attempt to be more gender inclusive to God. The ancient creed of the Christian Church reads: I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead. However, United Methodists in the Minnesota Conference decided that referring to God as “Father” wasn’t inclusive...

As I have indicated in other columns on this page, Laudato Si is an astonishing collection of problematical statements the likes of which have never appeared in any papal encyclical, ranging from dubious scientific opinions to humanist social commentary addressed to “every person living on this planet,” to a grab bag of vague political and economic recommendations which are none of the Pope’s business. But what does it all mean? As Andrea Galgiarducci has so succinctly put it, “there is everything and nothing in ‘Laudato Si.’”One could write an entire book about this paradigmatic document, which signals what I would call a final, “post-Catholic”...

In his Santa Marta homily given earlier today, the God of Surprises (aka Jorge Bergoglio) once again took the occasion to mangle Sacred Scripture in order to justify his departure from the Catholic faith; in this particular case, as it concerns marriage.Today’s victim text was the Novus Ordo Gospel reading taken from Mark 10:1-12 – familiar words that bear reconsidering:Jesus came into the district of Judea and across the Jordan. Again crowds gathered around him and, as was his custom, he again taught them. The Pharisees approached him and asked, “Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?”...

A stolen food truck has been found a couple days after it went missing but it has been completely gutted. The truck was found in Commerce City. Genevieve Hardin bought the “What Would Cheesus Do?” truck in February, taking over the food truck serving up gourmet grilled cheese with a theme. “This is my business. This is my life. I have poured everything into this,” she said after the truck was stolen. Since it was found, Hardin says she plans to rebuild and that the set back will only make her stronger. Hardin’s family has set up a GoFundMe...

Fathers have the authority to teach and discipline their children, but this authority is not absolute.  They may not teach their children to do evil, and they may not discipline them with unjust harshness.  Everyone knows this, though everyone also knows that there are fathers who do in fact abuse their children or teach them to do evil.  Everyone also knows that it is right for children under these unhappy circumstances to disobey and reprove their fathers, while still acknowledging their fathers’ authority in general and submitting to his lawful instructions. All the same, probably no father ever says to...

Cardinal Walter Brandmüller – one of the four dubia cardinals – just published in the German newspaper Die Tagespost a commentary responding to the recent claims put forth by the right hand of Chancellor Angela Merkel, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer. That is to say, especially her call for female priests in the Catholic Church. Brandmüller thus firmly says that the question of female priests has been authoritatively ruled out by Pope John Paul II and that, therefore, anybody who insists upon this matter – to include the ordination of female deacons – “has left the foundations of the Catholic faith,” “fulfills the...

A retired Malaysian bishop has joined an appeal on behalf of traditional teaching about morality and the sacraments.Bishop Emeritus Anthony Lee Kok Hin, who retired from the diocese of Miri in 2013, endorsed the Pastoral Appeal, which has been signed by 250 priests in 39 countries since it was launched on May 2.In their latest statement, the organisers say that the statement has been “mistakenly cast” as a “veiled criticism” of Pope Francis’s Amoris Laetitia.Nevertheless, the statement, which asks bishops to publicly reaffirm Church teaching and condemn errors, refers indirectly to controversies which have followed Amoris.For instance, the pope’s document...

A German bishop has criticized a small minority in his nation’s episcopal conference for questioning the orthodoxy of the vast majority of bishops who favor a pastoral plan to allow non-Catholic spouses in inter-confessional marriages to receive the Eucharist at Mass.“We must get out of this way of argumentation which uses insinuation and suspicion and acts as if the position of the majority is out of line with church teaching,” said Bishop Peter Kohlgraf of Mainz.“I feel personally affected when, in their letter to Rome, the seven bishops warn that my vote and that of the majority of my fellow...