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[Catholic Caucus] John Paul II Institute Responds to Student and Faculty Criticisms Jul. 30, 2019 The statement aimed to respond to concerns raised by students, alumni, and faculty members of the Institute following the recent approval of its new statutes, or governing documents. VATICAN CITY — The Pontifical John Paul II Institute issued a statement Monday, defending recent changes at the school. But some students and faculty members say that explanations do not address the full picture of issues at the theological institute.

[Catholic Caucus] U.S. bishop praises cardinal’s statement on impossibility of women’s ordination July 29, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) -- Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, praised Cardinal Gerhard Müller’s latest statement on the forthcoming controversial Amazon Synod in remarks on social media over the weekend. Müller had said, among other things, that no synod, pope, or council “could make possible the ordination of women as bishop, priest, or deacon.”  It is widely feared that the Synod, scheduled for October, is being implemented as a means of ushering in women’s ordination. Strickland made his comments in posting the July 26 LifeSiteNews article...

The foundational rupture in the tectonic plates of Western civilization is the breakage along the fault line of truth. The very concept of truth as we have known and inherited it is a Judeo-Christian concept. Germany became a post-Christian nation after its seminaries and universities rejected the Scriptures as God’s perfect, revealed truth. The United States has become a post-Christian nation after its best seminaries and universities—founded as teaching centers for the Word of God—rejected Scripture as God’s perfect, revealed truth. As American culture drifts further and further from anything Christian, the pressure to abandon the authority of the Bible...

gloria.tv Church Teaching Is "Obfuscated" By "Pervasive Errors" – Cardinal Burke Celibacy stems from the example of Christ who is the model of perfect continence for every priest, Cardinal Raymond Burke told the annual “Napa Institute” conference (July 25) in California, USA.He noticed that the teachings of the Church are presently "obfuscated" and "undermined" and that "sins against the Faith are widespread." Among the “pervasive errors” in the present Church, Burke listed• the hesitance to evangelize Muslims and Jews although Christ alone can save.• the wrong belief that a lay faithful can substitute a priest to offer a Sunday service.•...

[Catholic Caucus] At Napa Institute, Cardinal Burke points out 'pervasive errors' in contemporary church teaching Napa, Calif. — In back-to-back opening keynote addresses July 25 at the ninth annual Napa Institute, well-known conservative Catholic commentator George Weigel and high-profile papal critic Cardinal Raymond Burke exhorted the predominantly affluent Catholic assembly to fight pervasive error, division and apostasy in the church and embrace its immutable teachings. Visit National Catholic Reporter's Online Classifieds to learn about job opportunities, events, retreats and more. Both called the nearly 700 participants at the July 24-28 event in Napa, California, to "more thorough, intense Catholic lives"...

[Catholic Caucus] VIDEO: Mass apostasy, doctrinal confusion sure signs of anti-Christ uly 23, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — Michael O’Brien is a Catholic novelist, author, painter, and speaker. He is the author of the best-selling book Father Elijah: An Apocalypse, which has been translated into many languages. On this part 1 of a two-part episode of The John-Henry Westen Show, he talks with me about the mass apostasy in the Church, the anti-Christ, and why so many Catholics are falling away from the faith. An author of more than thirty books, O’Brien says that the Church in the West is experiencing an “unprecedented...

[Catholic Caucus] A Papal Interview Too Far Pope Bergoglio’s interview with the Vaticanist Valentina Alazraki of Mexico, his umpteenth over the past seven years, appears to be his first encounter with a journalist who made some effort to ask tough questions and press for direct answers. On at least one point, the results were devastating—for Bergoglio.Longtime Vatican journalist Valentina Alazraki interviewing Pope Francis for the Mexican news outlet Televisa (full Italian transcript published May 28, 2019). It is impossible to cover here all the subjects touched upon in the sprawling 12,000-word text of the interview in Italian (translations mine). A...

[Catholic Caucus] US Bishop calls out brother bishops: ‘Deposit of faith has been fragmented and corrupted’ July 22, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) -- Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, spoke out on Twitter over the weekend about how the Catholic Church’s moral teaching on sexuality and the family has been broken and tainted of late, and he called for a return to the truth of that teaching by Catholic laity and bishops.  He said:  Bishop Strickland told LifeSiteNews his tweet was prompted by the upcoming anniversary of Humanae Vitae, and that he has been trying to tweet periodically on the themes...

[Catholic Caucus] Announcing the ROUNDTABLE at the eve of the Pan-Amazon Synod ROUNDTABLE: Our Church – reformed or deformed? Voice of the Family will be hosting a roundtable discussion to address critical questions for the Church and for the family at the eve of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region, to be held in October 2019 in Rome. WHAT IS AT STAKE AT THE UPCOMING SYNOD OF BISHOPS? Voice of the Family was formed to assist bishops to uphold the Church’s teaching on the family at the synods on the family (2014-2015). During the course of the two family...

German relief agencies financing Amazon Synod, predict ‘unmistakable’ change in Church ROME, July 19, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) — The chief executives of two German Church aid agencies, which have been funding the Amazon Synod preparations, have said the meeting will be “an unmistakable signal of departure” for the Church and a means of decentralizing Church governance away from Rome. Much of the agency funding for the synod has passed through a Church network called REPAM set up specifically to prepare for the Synod, whose Brazilian director is Austrian Bishop Erwin Kräutler of the Territorial Prelature of Xingu in Brazil. Bishop Kräutler is...

Theologian: Amazon Synod attempting to ‘demolish’ the Church from within ROME, July 17, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — Another respected theologian is sounding the alarm on the upcoming Amazon Synod, saying it is an attempt to “create another church” by “demolishing” the true Church from within. Monsignor Nicola Bux, a theologian and former consulter to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith during Benedict XVI’s pontificate, said in a recent interview that “what we are facing is an the attempt to genetically modify the Church.”  Asked why he believes the working document [Instrumentum laboris] for the upcoming synod has been so...

[Catholic Caucus] Key bishop in upcoming Amazon synod has hope for ‘at least female deacons’ July 16, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – Bishop Erwin Kräutler – a member of the preparatory council of the upcoming Amazon synod and a key author of the synod's controversial working document – said he has "hope" the synod will approve the ordination of female deacons along with the priestly ordination of married men.  Kräutler made it clear in his July 14 interview with the Austrian TV channel ORF, as well as in a recent talk in Austria, that allowing women to become deacons would be...

Benedictine theologian calls Amazon Synod working doc ‘biodegradable Christianity’ in searing new critique ROME, July 10, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — A Benedictine theologian has joined the chorus of voices criticizing the working document of the upcoming Synod of Bishops on the Amazon, calling it “biodegradable Christianity.” In an analysis published by Italian journalist Aldo Maria Valli on July 2, Dom Giulio Meiattini, a monk of the abbey of Madonna della Scala in the southern Italian province of Bari, said the Instrumentum laboris proposes and contains nothing less than a “reversal” of the “very idea of Church and Christian faith.” “The Person of Christ and His Gospel disappear; they...

Episcopalians in Maine took part in the consecration of their new bishop this past weekend, the first openly partnered gay man to be installed as a diocesan bishop in the U.S.-based Episcopal Church since Gene Robinson in 2003. The Rt. Rev. Thomas James Brown was consecrated Saturday as the 10th bishop of the Diocese of Maine at the Cathedral Church of St. Luke in Portland. The service was led by the Most Rev. Michael Curry, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church. A video posted on the diocese’s YouTube channel showed participants, including Brown, calling the Holy Spirit a “she” during...

The Rise of the “Amazonian” Elites In his treatise The Rise and Fall of Elites, Vilfredo Pareto proffers the thesis that “The history of man is the history of the continuous replacement of elites: as one ascends, another declines.” Unduly reductive as this contention is, Pareto attunes us to the persistent presence of elites in even the most revolutionary and populist movements. Elite, here, is not uttered with ressentiment or contempt; rather, for Pareto the term names any group that possesses consolidated influence and power. It would seem that a so-called “synodal Church” would offer an egalitarian, decentralized correction to...

Pope Francis, starting back in 2014, instituted Islamic prayers to the moon god allah in the Vatican. In 2018, he told a photographer that he was ‘the Devil’ then walked away laughing about it. In 2019, he called for all Catholic schools to begin teaching about Islam, and he signed a ‘Universal Brotherhood’ concordat with Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb after kissing him on the mouth. Did I say Pope Francis was the False Prophet? Hmm, now that I think about it, he sounds more like Antichrist. FROM LEO HOHMANN: The Vatican has released the preparatory document for its upcoming Pan-Amazonian Synod...

Cardinal Gerhard Muller: ‘True Reform of the Church Is About Her Renewal in Christ’ In a wide-ranging interview that discusses the Pan-Amazon synod and the Church in his home country of Germany, the cardinal says Western Christianity is experiencing a crisis of faith and spiritual leadership. The thinking behind the much-debated working document for the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon Region is a “projection” of European theological thought not in accord with Catholic theology and needs to be corrected “in a more Catholic way,” Cardinal Gerhard Müller has said. In comments to the Register to be broadcast on EWTN...

[Catholic Caucus] Belgian bishops direct priests to accompany to the end those who choose euthanasia On the one hand, the bishops of Belgium are reminding their flock and pastors that a dying person, who is fragile for that very reason, needs the proximity as well as the material, psychological and spiritual aid of family, friends, neighbors and pastoral workers, from priests to parish volunteers. On the other, they aim to broadcast a message of “unconditional love” that leads them to ask pastors to remain “close” to the dying person, even when euthanasia has been asked for and access to...

Pan-Amazon Revolt Is Coming Bishop Overbeck: 'Nothing will be the same' Both good and bad bishops are saying the upcoming Pan-Amazon Synod will be revolutionary in its attempts to change the priesthood for the entire Church. Last week's Instrumentum Laboris, or working document, for October's Pan-Amazon Synod is calling for female deacons and married priests and was thus condemned on June 27 as "heretical" by Cdl. Walter Brandmüller, who added that it was a sign of "apostasy": It is impossible to conceal that the "synod" is especially to help implement two most cherished projects that heretofore have never been implemented: namely, the abolishment of celibacy and the introduction of a female...

Costi Hinn, a former prosperity gospel preacher and nephew to the immensely popular prosperity gospel preacher Benny Hinn, shared his conversion story with PJ Media before the release of his forthcoming book, God, Greed, and the (Prosperity) Gospel: How Truth Overwhelms a Life Built on Lies. Hinn first shared his story in Christianity Today two years ago, but his book — and his interview — fleshes out the story of how a man-centered rich kid became a God-centered follower of the humble Jesus. Famous hucksters like T.D. Jakes, Kenneth Copeland, Joel Osteen, and Benny Hinn get rich preaching a health...