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Cardinal Brandmüller defended the dubia, saying that many people were concerned by the situation in the ChurchCardinal Walter Brandmüller, one of the two living cardinals to have signed the dubia addressed to Pope Francis, has spoken out against the “heresy” of believing in divorce and remarriage. In a lengthy interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine, Cardinal Brandmüller, former president of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences, said that the Council of Trent had proclaimed the indissolubility of marriage as a dogma. This means, the cardinal said, that entering a new union after a civil divorce, or continuing a sexual relationship in this...

WARSAW, Poland, October 27, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) — Cardinal Robert Sarah has affirmed a nation’s right to distinguish between refugees and economic migrants. According to Polish newsmagazine wPolityce.pl and other Polish publications, the African cardinal supported Poland’s resistance to a certain “logic” of migration that outside forces are trying to impose on the nation. “In what manner is it possible to remove the rights of the nation to distinguish between a political or religious refugee, who must flee from his homeland, and the economic migrant, who wants to change his address without adapting himself, identifying with, and accepting the culture of...

CHICAGO, November 2, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) -- Francis-appointed U.S. Cardinal Blase Cupich said that if Catholics want to engage in “discernment” like Pope Francis does, they must let go of “cherished beliefs.” “It is our job to take up that discernment. It takes time. It involves discipline. Most importantly it requires that we be prepared to let go of cherished beliefs and long-held biases,” said the Archbishop of Chicago in a talk to the Catholic Theological Union published on YouTube October 27. “It is this willingness of Francis to let go of the unnecessary and explore unchartered waters that gives him...

In this country, it is women – not religious dignitaries – who decide on whether to have children. This is according to the chair of the Serbian National Assembly Committee on Human and Minority Right, Meho Omerovic, who reacted on Wednesday. Omerovic spoke after Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) Patriarch Irinej stated that “Serb women are obligated to give birth.” Omerovic recalled that Serbia respects the separation of church and state, and added, in a written statement sent to media outlets on Wednesday, that “religious dignitaries are free to ‘urge duty based on divine rules’.” “I do not wish to debate...

Francis Ends Celibacy Pope Francis has placed a request for Brazilian priests to be allowed to marry on the agenda of a forthcoming Synod on the Amazon region, Vatican sources told Il Messaggero. From the beginning it was clear that the Amazon Synod is only a pretext. With the usual single-case tactic Francis took the decision to put a "partial lifting" of priestly celibacy up for discussion and a possible vote by Brazilian bishops. It followed a request by Modernist Cardinal Claudio Hummes who asked Francis to consider ordaining married men. This means that Francis will again prefer an unthought...

Fr. Gregory Baum spent his whole career trying to dismantle Church teaching on birth controlNEW YORK (ChurchMilitant.com) - Father James Martin, the notorious homosexualist, is commending an excommunicated priest who revealed he was also an active homosexual for decades while married to an ex-nun. Gregory Baum died on October 18 at 94 years old. America Magazine — the liberal-progressive magazine published by the Jesuits and of which Martin is editor-at-large — published an article extolling Baum's alleged contributions to the Church's ecumenical relations with the Jews, but mentioned little of the issue that brought him into the limelight: his lifelong...

The Church of England will debate blessings for same-sex couples after a motion was passed by one diocese, with the support of the local bishop, calling for a formal liturgy. The Bishop of Hereford, who spoke in favour of the change and voted for the motion, said he thinks clergy should be helped to carry out a more formal service with recently married gay couples. Hereford's diocesan synod has voted to support a motion calling on the House of Bishops to "commend an Order of Prayer and Dedication after the registration of a civil partnership or a same sex marriage"....

Attempts to solve the clergy shortage, such as bringing in outside priests, have not proven overly successful, says Bishop Erwin Kräutler. A retired bishop who led Brazil’s largest territorial diocese for some 34 years says he’s hoping the 2019 special Synod for the Pan-Amazon region will lead to the ordination of married men to the priesthood and women to the permanent diaconate. Bishop Erwin Kräutler, an Austrian-born missionary who headed the sprawling Diocese of Xingu in the Brazilian rain forest from 1981-2015, told Kathpress that the “horrendous” priest shortage has left the indigenous people of the Amazon deprived of the...

For the past three years, the emphasis of Pope Francis and those close to him has been on “respect” and “listening”, with little or no reference to holiness, chastity, or the objective truth about sexual moralityThe effect of Pope Francis’ Amoris Laetitia on divorce, remarriage, and reception of the Eucharist has been profound. Bishops of Malta, Sicily, and Buenos Aires have decided that the divorced and remarried may receive Communion. But do the principles upon which those decisions were made apply to other areas of sexual morality, and specifically to homosexual unions and relationships? Indeed, in Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis...

October 20, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) — French Cardinal Philippe Barbarin commended Catholics in new unions who bear witness to true matrimony by refraining from partaking in the Eucharist but clearly opened a door to those who feel they should receive communion while remaining in a second “marriage.” Cardinal Barbarin, archbishop of Lyon in France and Primate of the Gauls, held a special service last Sunday at his cathedral for Catholics from broken marriages. The event was designed to share reflections on the controversial chapter 8 of Amoris Laetitia and how it is interpreted in the diocese – one of the most...

MADISON, Wis. (ChurchMilitant.com) - A Wisconsin diocese is advising priests to be careful with funerals for people who lived a homosexual lifestyle to avoid scandalizing the faithful. In a memo issued on October 21 by James Bartylla, vicar general of the diocese of Madison, headed by Bp. Robert Morlino, Bartylla addressed funerals in Catholic parishes for people who were in "a public union gravely contrary to the natural law," specifically referring to homosexual civil unions. Although not authored by Bp. Morlino, a Madison diocese statement clarified that the directives "conform with the mind of the bishop and meet his approval."...

New document portends trouble at 2018 World Meeting of FamiliesDUBLIN (ChurchMilitant.com) - Ireland's largest diocese is affirming same-sex relationships. Ahead of the 2018 World Meeting of Families, the archdiocese of Dublin has released a six-part guide, a "parish conversation," to prepare the faithful for the event. Released under the watch of Dublin Abp. Diarmuid Martin, "Amoris: Let's talk Family! Let's be Family!" is sparking controversy, as it contains a passage endorsing active homosexual relationships as an alternative family model, providing "mutual support" for participants. On page 24, under a section titled "The Christian Vision for the Family," the guide reads,...

Speaking of processions, I would be remiss if I did not mention the fact that Fr. Paul Weinberger, pastor of St. William parish in Greenville, TX, “concluded” over four years of nightly “Rosary walks” and public processions in honor of Our Lady on October 13. I say “concluded,” because when Father Weinberger started, his initial intention was to keep up the nightly prayers and processions until the 100th anniversary of Fatima, just concluded. But since that has now passed, he some months ago announced his intention to continue the nightly devotion until Dec. 12, 2031 – the 500th anniversary of...

DUBLIN, Ireland, October 17, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) — Catholic bishops in Ireland are using Pope Francis teachings on marriage and family to promote homosexual couples as a new form of “family” in the upcoming World Meeting of Families. The World Meeting of Families is set to take place in Dublin next August. It is described on the official website as a major international event that “brings together families from across the world to celebrate, pray and reflect upon the central importance of marriage and the family as the cornerstone of our lives, of society, and of the Church.” The event will...

"The doctors of the law are not just of those times, there are so many even today. That is why we need to pray for shepherds. Pray so that we do not lose the key to knowledge and do not close the door to ourselves and the people who want to enter." Vatican City (AsiaNews) - Do not forget that salvation is free, an expression of God's closeness, because "when you forget the gratuity of salvation you fall, you lose the key to knowledge of the history of salvation". "That is why we need to pray for ourselves as shepherds",...

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of American was founded in 1988 with 5,288,230 members. By 2016, less than twenty years later, the ELCA had shrunk to 3,563,842 members. With that kind of "growth," the ELCA has less than forty years before the final member throws her hands up and quits. Christ the King Lutheran Church in Cary, N.C., believes that they've found the answer to stopping the mass exodus of tithing members. They've stopped preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and have embraced progressive theology and social justice.Writing for Religion News Service, Yonat Shimron tells the story of Christ the King Lutheran...

He didn’t have to be there, not in that place and at that time. But there he was. He could have been back at the base in Da Nang, waiting for the soldiers to return, and no one would have given it a second thought. But he chose to be with the men. In actuality, he didn’t even have to be in Vietnam at all. His tour of duty had ended months before, and so he could have been home in America. But he asked for, and was granted, an extension. How could he not be with the young men...

Bishop Matthew Kukah of the Sokoto Diocese has accused the United States and Europe of contributing to the diminishing influence of the Catholic Church in Nigeria.The Bishop said the Catholic Church in Nigeria is beginning to lose its public influence partly because of the decline of religious faith in the Western countries, especially Europe and the United States.“The Arab world is pouring money into Nigeria and the Pentecostal pastors in America are doing the same, and the Catholic Church is now becoming the weakest in terms of access to resources,” he said in Liverpool, United Kingdom.Bishop Matthew Kukah accused European...

Italian journalist and scholar Fabrizio Grasso says that when Pope Benedict XVI resigned in 2013, he changed the institution of the papacy forever. Among other things, Grasso says, "it’s not hard to imagine a possible near future with more than one emeritus pope and, consequentially, an exclusive papal club, which could be no other than a proto-parliament of the Vatican State."ROME - Catholics have had to get used to a lot lately. The secularized state in the West has been progressively pushing faith to the margins, and Christians have been victims of persecutions around the globe. What’s more, the Church...

In his sermon on Oct. 7, the archbishop of San Francisco, Salvatore Cordileone, said the horrors of the last 100 years -- world wars, genocide, religious persecution, abortion, sexual immorality -- are in many ways "a living reflection of Hell" and a "mocking of God." He added that this mockery is even evident in the streets of San Francisco where gay "pride" parades occur and the "exaltation of the vulgar and blasphemous" occurs. Archbishop Cordileone was appointed to his position as head of the Archdiocese of San Francisco by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009. In addition to his duties there,...