Free Republic

"Orthodoxy is the Church of collegiality," Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople writes in an encylical letter released in preparation for this year's pan-Orthodox Synod meeting. "The discernment between truth and lies, between orthodoxy and heresy, is not always easy," the Ecumenical Patriarch explains. Since the Church must proclaim the truth, he says, questions must be resolved. "The Orthodox Church in this case recognizes one, single authenticity: the Synod of its canonical bishops." The Orthodox Patriarch's letter emphasizes the crucial importance of the coming meeting of all the world's recognized Orthodox leaders. He notes that for many years such meetings have not...

Vatican spokesman revealed that the trip may take place in JuneThe Vatican is studying the possibility of Pope Francis visiting Armenia in late June, the Vatican spokesman said. Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the spokesman, confirming Pope Francis's desire to make the trip, denied that it already was set for June 22-26 as a news website reported. "It is true that a trip to Armenia in late June is being studied," he said on March 18, but the papal trip planners had not yet visited the country and neither the dates nor the program have been finalised. The vast majority of...

Introduction Again and again the Italian Catholic and public intellectual Antonio Socci has shocked the Catholic “mainstream” with explosive exposés that confirm the diagnosis of the current crisis in the Church in “traditionalist” and “Fatimite” circles. Unlike so many of his colleagues in the Catholic commentariat, Socci will not refrain from publishing what intellectual honesty demands respecting our situation. Hence his Fourth Secret of Fatima, which placed the massive evidence of the Vatican’s failure to disclose the entire Third Secret squarely before the public eye, where it will simply not go away. Likewise, his Non é Francesco (It’s Not Francis,...

Prefect of the Pontifical Household says the Pope has awoken expectations regarding Church reform but not yet clear how these will all be played out.Archbishop George Ganswein has sought to reassure the faithful that Pope Francis will adhere to the Church's teaching on Holy Communion and civilly remarried divorcees. In an interview over the weekend with Deutsche Welle, the prefect of the Pontifical Household, who is also Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI's private secretary, said it is "not the first time" that a pope has tried to tackle this question, but that he was "convinced" that Francis "will continue on the...

Rome, Italy, Mar 18, 2016 / 03:00 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- After their seminary in Qaraqosh was dissolved following a brutal ISIS attack in 2014, four Iraqi seminarians chose not to give up after being forced to flee, but to continue their path to the priesthood. Now, a year and a half after the attack that uprooted them from their homes, the four men will be ordained deacons, and have chosen a church in an Erbil refugee camp for the March 19 ceremony. "People want hope, and when they see that there are four young people who will become deacons and...

The Congregation for Religious' struggle against the Franciscans of the Immaculata is going into a new round. On March 2nd, the legal representatives of the founder and General Superior dismissed by the Vatican, Father Stefano Manelli, has issued a complaint to the state prosecutor of Avellino. He founded the Order in the 1970s, it was recognized by the Holy See in 1990, returned to the original Franciscan Rule and also followed Pope Benedict liturgically. After the Motu proprio Summorum Pontificum he implemented the traditional liturgy internally, while offering the Sacraments in both forms of the Roman Rite for pastoral reasons....

On March 16, speaking publicly on a rare occasion, Pope Benedict XVI gave an interview to Avvenire, the daily newspaper of the Italian Bishops' Conference, in which he spoke of a “two-sided deep crisis” the Church is facing in the wake of the Second Vatican Council. The report has already hit Germany courtesy of Vaticanist Guiseppe Nardi, of the German Catholic news website Katholisches.info. Pope Benedict reminds us of the formerly indispensable Catholic conviction of the possibility of the loss of eternal salvation, or that people go to hell: The missionaries of the 16th century were convinced that the unbaptized...

A letter from Pope Francis to Robert Cardinal Sarah, the Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments was published January 21, 2016 in which Pope Francis decreed that, at the ceremony of the Washing of the Feet (in the Ordinary Latin Rite) on Holy Thursday, the priest may wash the feet not only of men, but also of women. On January 21, Edward Pentin gave a thorough overview of these proposed and permitted changes in the National Catholic Register to include the further explanations and instructions as published by the office of Cardinal Sarah...

Voice of the Family is pleased to publish a comprehensive analysis of the Final Report of the Synod of Bishops to the Holy Father. Our analysis argues that the Final Report, which was approved by the Ordinary Synod on the Family on 24 October 2015, undermines the teaching of the Catholic Church on matters relating to human life, marriage and the family. By striving towards bringing Catholic moral teaching in line with the norms prevailing in the modern world, the report pursues an approach that runs contrary to divine revelation and the natural moral law. The Final Report: * endorses...

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit! The quickly flowing river of time rushes on to eternity. Only the Holy Church and God’s feasts stop this motion momentarily, as if counting the time. And our entire life, from our birth to departure from it, is reflected in this yearly cycle; it reminds us and calls to us, “Know yourself, look inside yourself, O man. Who are you, how do you live, and what awaits you ahead? You are rushing headlong with this flow of time to timelessness, to eternity.” So it is every day, every year. Was...

Much has been written about the sacrament of reconciliation — the theology behind it, the scriptural evidence for it, the power and benefits of it for penitents. But what’s it like, experientially, for a priest to hear the sins of others week after week and month after month? Can it be a burden? Does it affect a priest’s spiritual life? Aleteia’s lifestyle editor, Zoe Romanowsky, asked Msgr. Charles Pope about what it’s been like to hear confessions over his 24 years as a priest. Msgr. Charles Pope is the pastor of Holy Comforter-St. Cyprian in Washington DC. He is a...

And receives lavish donations from them. Name by name, all the magnates of finance and technocracy to whom the pope has given audience this year ROME, March 11, 2016 - Pope Francis is relentless against the rich gluttons who famish the poor Lazaruses, against what he calls the "economy that kills." And yet the richest men of the world and the moguls of high finance throng to be received by him. And he not only welcomes them with open arms, but he showers them with praise. The latest to benefit from the pope's appreciation was Christine Lagarde, received at...

The cardinal from a remote African village has become a standard bearer for Catholic orthodoxy in a Church where many things now seem uncertainIt is often said that once a new pope has emerged on to the loggia of St Peter's, the cardinals' thoughts turn almost immediately to the question of his successor. Pope Francis, although about to turn 80 at the end of this year, does not seem ready to run out of steam. Despite having part of a lung missing, he seems undiminished by a daunting schedule, which in fact he seems to relish. This, along with his...

Ring reportedly involves vicar general Greg Mustaciuolo, who is protected by Cdl. Edwin O'BrienNote: This is an involved story reaching back decades and involving people of high rank. Many of the facts are sordid and difficult to digest, and we note them here not to scandalmonger, but rather to expose this corruption to the light of day. It is only when the disinfecting light of the sun is allowed to shine on the filth that has festered in the dark that a cleansing and reform can truly beginNEW YORK (ChurchMilitant.com) - Sources from within the New York archdiocese are revealing...

We all have difficult times, now and then, when we could use a little encouragement from a friend.Carlos Adrian Vazquez Jr. was having more than just a little difficulty, and he received more than just a little encouragement. The juvenile inmate, whose wayward life in a gang led to his incarceration following a murder, received a big boost in the form of a letter from Pope Francis.At age 16, Vazquez was serving an 11-year sentence for involuntary manslaughter. Internally, he was navigating the labyrinths of regret, while externally he was adjusting to a life of prison conflicts.According to a report on CNN, he...

Not long ago, Francis' niece, Cristina Bergoglio, said that she sees "...the church as outdated," and added, "that's why I believe life has put my uncle to renew this certain system of thought that was getting stagnated." That "certain system of thought" is Roman Catholicism. As Randy Engel has said, "Catholicism is a religion of Tradition, Sacred Scripture and the Magisterium, the fullness of the Faith, handed down to us from the time of the Apostles. It never was, is, or will be a religion of 'evolution' or 'change' related to dogmatic truths and morals. Yet, Francis continues to maintain...

A rosary on a Catholic college campus should be no surprise. But one with the crucifix removed and replaced with an IUD, (inter-uterine device) is shocking. The desecrated rosary was used to decorate a poster announcing an abortion doctor’s talk at Seattle University, a Catholic Jesuit school.

Update: The website of the Organizacion de los Seminarios de la Argentina has comprehensive statistics for major and minor seminarians in the country from 1997 to the present (ESTADÍSTICAS COMPARADAS). The rapid and unrelenting collapse of vocations is unmistakable: from 1,501 major seminarians in 1999 to 916 in 2012, 875 in 2013 and 827 in 2014; and from 624 minor seminarians in 1997 to only 59 in 2012 (the last year for which there are statistics for minor seminarians). The following statistics come from the article SACERDOCIO: LA CRISIS DE VOCACIONES IMPACTA EN LA IGLESIA published by the Argentinian news...

The Vatican celebrates Women's Day on 8 March, 2016. With the help of the organization Voices of Faith , an event is taking place at the Vatican where women "share their stories of strengthening the Church's mission through their leadership," according to the website of Voices of Faith. This event is the occasion for an interview with the journalist Gudrun Sailer which has been published today on the official website of the German Catholic Bishops, katholisch.de. Sailer has been working for the German Branch of Vatican Radio since 2003. She has written extensively on the role of women in the...

My old pastor, the late Msgr. Schuler used to make mordent remarks about the suicidal vocations efforts of the Archdiocese. “They’re like people during a famine who wring their hands and discuss how they are all going to starve to death, instead of planting crops.”From a great Anthony Esolen at LifeSite: The Catholic Church’s priest shortage crisis: a self-inflicted woundSuppose you take a double-barrel shotgun and aim it at your foot. You press the trigger, and half of your toes are bloody fragments. Then you pray, “Cure me, O Lord, for I am lame!” You hobble around for a while,...