Free Republic

……...The Left wants to change the way culture sees Christianity. We see it on several fronts. The Left wants to divide the church about what is right and wrong. The United Methodists are ready to split on the issue of same-sex "marriage." There's a push among a small but loud faction of liberal voices that declare themselves "exvangelicals," who resist the church's stance of LGBT issues and abortion but want to retain and redefine what it means to be a Christian in 2019. In redefining Christianity, they want to shift the emphasis from a changed life to doing what they...

[Catholic Caucus] ‘The term ‘life’ must be redefined,’ new head of Vatican Life Academy declares LOS ANGELES, California, September 5, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) ― The president of the Pontifical Academy for Life has declared that the academy must broaden its scope and welcome non-Christian “experts.”  Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, 74, presented the speech at Loyola Marymount, a private Jesuit university in Los Angeles, yesterday. After introducing the pontiff’s January 6 letter Humana Communitas, the prelate explained that Francis wishes both the Academy for Life and the John Paul II Institute, of which Paglia is grand chancellor, to work “more broadly.” “The...

[Catholic Caucus] The significance of Cardinal Brandmüller's latest condemnation of the Amazon Synod: "A situation never before seen in the Church's history" By now (6th September 2019), many media outlets (among them Catholic Herald and Catholic News Agency) have reported on the latest broadside against the upcoming Amazon Synod (and its Instrumentum Laboris) by Cardinals Raymond Burke and Walter Brandmüller.  This is not the first time that either Cardinal has denounced this horrid document. What is new is Brandmüller's declaration that the current crisis surpasses even the Arian Crisis in severity:  "'We must face serious challenges to the integrity of...

Swiss bishop: Abu Dhabi declaration signed by pope, imam, eclipses Jesus as mediator, savior September 6, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – A Swiss bishop has come out strongly against the Abu Dhabi Declaration signed by Pope Francis and a Muslim leader earlier this year, which among other things, states that the “diversity of religions” is “willed by God.” Bishop Marian Eleganti stated that the “unique and universal mediation of Jesus Christ is eclipsed” in the declaration. “From a Christian point of view, the unique and universal mediation of Jesus Christ is eclipsed in the Abu Dhabi Declaration, due to the double...

[Catholic Caucus] The Bergoglian Creed The admirable Lifesitenews reveals today that some "theological ignoramus with a bishop's hat" [Cardinal Mueller's apt description] has stated that the Instrumentum laboris is"merely the application of the encyclical Laudato si, and therefore an expression of the infallible Magisterium of the Pope who stands above the word of God or, as a source of revelation, right next to it". This goes even further than the hitherto finest exposition of the ultrapapalist Bergoglianist heresy: the famous words (probably the only thing he ever said which wasn't plagiarised) of the Bergoglianist former high-flyer (now Icarised) Fr...

Recently, the Superior General of the Jesuits, Fr. Arturo Sosa Abascal, declared that “the devil exists only as a symbolic reality.” He has said similar things in the past. He also made news in 2017 when he asserted, concerning Christ’s condemnation of divorce and remarriage, that we can’t know for sure what Jesus really said because no one recorded him on the spot. These and similar remarks make it clear that at least this Jesuit does not believe that Scripture—which teaches manifestly both the reality of the devil and the sinfulness of active divorce and remarriage—is actually the word of...

[Catholic Caucus] Burke and Brandmüller say Amazon synod challenges deposit of faith Two cardinals have sent letters to fellow members of the College of Cardinals, raising concerns about the working document for an upcoming synod of bishops on the pan-Amazonian region.“Some points of the synod’s Instrumentum laboris seem not only in dissonance with respect to the authentic teaching of the Church, but even contrary to it,” Cardinal Walter Brandmüller wrote to fellow cardinals in an Aug. 28 letter obtained by CNA.“The nebulous formulations of the Instrumentum, as well as the proposed creation of new ecclesial ministries for women and, especially, the...

[Catholic Caucus] Pope Names Pro-LGBT Bishop a Cardinal Activists praise appointment of Abp. Matteo Zuppi to College of Cardinals VATICAN CITY (ChurchMilitant.com) - Pope Francis is elevating a leading pro-gay prelate to the College of Cardinals. In a surprise declaration on Sunday, Francis announced that 13 clerics will be raised to the rank of cardinal at an Oct. 5 consistory in Rome. Among those picked to receive a red hat is homosexualist Abp. Matteo Zuppi of Bologna, one of the pontiff's strongest allies. Inside and outside the Church, pro-LGBT activists are celebrating the news — among them, Fr. James Martin.  After...

Radical liberation theologians push for overthrow of Catholic doctrine at Amazon synod September 3, 2019 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A group of aging priests and theologians associated with Latin American “liberation theology” who are involved in the preparation for Pope Francis’ upcoming “Pan-Amazon Synod” have produced a document arguing for the overthrow of Catholic doctrine in a variety of areas, LifeSite has learned. The document, called “Towards the Pan-Amazonian Synod: Challenges and Contributions from Latin America and the Caribbean,” was produced in April of this year as a result of a meeting in Bogota, Colombia, by theologians from two organizations promoting liberation...

[Catholic Caucus] Seattle bishops’ response to suicide caused grave scandal, not just ‘confusion’ August 30, 2019 (CatholicCulture.org) — After the publication of an an AP story about a man who received a blessing in a Catholic church just a few days before committing suicide, the Seattle archdiocese released a statement that read in part: The Associated Press story about Mr. Fuller is of great concern to the Archbishops because it may cause confusion among Catholics and others who share our reverence for human life. Confusion? The AP story was not confusing at all; its message was crystal-clear. A man had received a blessing...

[Catholic Caucus] Polish Professor: John Paul II Institute Forsaking Moral Theology Stanisław Grygiel: The late Pope's name 'shouldn't be used as a fig leaf' for changes at institute ROME (ChurchMilitant.com) - A professor tied to the John Paul II Family Institute sees signs of heterodoxy in the school's current shake-up. The Pontifical John Paul II Theological Institute for Marriage and Family Science is experiencing a massive overhaul. After two faculty members were dismissed in July, many close to the institute have expressed concern about the direction it is heading. Earlier this month, professor Stanisław Grygiel gave an interview to Catholic Polish site Teologia...

<p>Bishop Reinhold Nann, 59, of Caravelí Diocese, Peru, had more priests, he would not know how to organize a living from them from the "meager offers" coming from the villages.</p> <p>Nann was born in Germany and belonged to the Schönstatt Movement. He told Die-Tagespost.de (August 29) that as missionary priest he took care of an Amazon parish with 37 villages.</p>

Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.(Philipians 2:3)The Church definitely needs to exercise greater discernment, especially in these last days, when so much deception is being unleashed to attack the believing remnant, that Jesus said “…if possible, even the very elect would be deceived”.Pastors need to be courageous, calling out heretics, and deceivers who turn many away from the once and for all delivered faith. All believers need to make it their business to know and live the gospel, and to familiarize ourselves with the Word to...

[Catholic Caucus] St. Augustine: "All Catholics know: Divorce is of the devil!" On the Feast of Saint Augustine, his words on the wedding at Cana: Even setting aside any mystical interpretation, the fact that the Lord was pleased to be asked, and to go to a marriage, showeth plainly enough that He is the Author and Blesser of marriage. There were yet to be those of whom the Apostle hath warned us as forbidding to marry; who say that marriage is a bad thing in itself, and a work of the devil. Yet we read in the Gospel that...

[Catholic Caucus] Former papal nuncio demands women’s ordination at Mass, parishioners applaud COLINDRES, Cantabria, Spain, August 27, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) ― An archbishop and former papal nuncio to the United Kingdom has affirmed his support for women’s ordination.  On August 25, Archbishop Pablo Puente Buces, 88, announced during a Mass honoring a local saint that a letter would be sent to the pontiff on this subject the next day.  Miguel Ángel Revilla, 76, television personality and the president of the Spanish region of Cantabria, was present at the Mass. He reported the incident on Twitter: “During the Mass of San...

Jesuit Priest Blesses Gay Man Just Before His Assisted Suicide Abp. Terrence Prendergast: 'We cannot be forgiven pre-emptively for something we are going to do' SEATTLE (ChurchMilitant.com) - Days before a Seattle man planned to marry his same-sex partner and kill himself, a Jesuit priest led the entire parish in a final blessing of him. After a diagnosis of cancer in 2018 and one round of chemotherapy, Robert Fuller picked May 10, 2019, as the day he was going to die and began planning a party where he would marry his same-sex partner then kill himself. An Associated Press report chronicling...

Two German bishops endorse book calling for Church blessing for homosexual couples August 26, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – Sources in Germany have alerted LifeSiteNews that two German bishops – the Vice-President of the German Bishops’ Conference, Bishop Franz-Josef Bode (Osnabrück), and Hamburg’s Archbishop Stefan Hesse – have written a preface for the book With the Blessing of the Church? Same-Sex Partnership in the Focus of Pastoral Care (Mit dem Segen der Kirche? Gleichgeschlechtliche Partnerschaft im Fokus der Pastoral). The book, which has just been published in Germany by the publishing house Herder Verlag, was edited by Dr. Stephan Loos, Dr....

EXCLUSIVE: Bishop Schneider says Vatican is betraying ‘Jesus Christ as the only Savior of mankind’ ROME, August 26, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — The Vatican’s decision to implement a document affirming that the “diversity of religions” is “willed by God,” without correcting this statement, is tantamount to “promoting the neglect of the first Commandment” and a “betrayal of the Gospel,” Bishop Athanasius Schneider has said. In an exclusive interview with LifeSiteNews on a Vatican-backed iniative to promote the “Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together,” the auxiliary of Astana, Kazakhstan, said that “however noble such aims as ‘human fraternity’ and ‘world peace’ may be, they...

[Catholic Caucus] The Papacy in Jesuitical Captivity: Archbishop Viganò and the “60-Year-Old Plan” Editor’s Introduction: One year ago today (Aug. 25, 2018), Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, former apostolic nuncio to the United States (2011-2016), made history by publishing his explosive testimony concerning ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s decades of homosexual predation and abuse, indicting over a dozen high-ranking prelates – including Pope Francis himself – as being guilty of covering up McCarrick’s notorious sexual deviancy. Archbishop Viganò referred to such prelates in his 11-page testimony as belonging to “the homosexual current in favor of subverting Catholic doctrine on homosexuality,” describing “[t]hese homosexual...

[Catholic Caucus] Rev. Sosa’s remarks on the devil warrant official response The existence of the devil as a personal reality, and not merely as a symbol of evil, is an article of faith (Ott, Fundamentals 126-131; CCC 395, 2851). Denial of an article of faith is an element of the canonical crime of heresy (1983 CIC 751), an act punishable by measures up to and including excommunication, dismissal from the clerical state, and/or loss of ecclesiastical office (1983 CIC 1364, 194).Rev. Arturo Sosa, sj, superior general of the Society of Jesus, denies the personal reality of the devil, describes him instead...