Free Republic

Katrina,A few weeks ago you suggested to a man that he should consider finding another church. My opinion is that shopping for a new parish shouldn’t be done before extensive prayer for your present parish.– C——————–Dear C, I don’t actually disagree with you; I’m not of a mind to advise superficial church-hopping, especially when it’s about something related to church decor, or a Mass schedule that suits one’s preference. There is a good argument to be made that remaining in your geographical parish is important in maintaining the strength of a community.That is not always the case, though. If...

Sister Lucia dos Santos, one of the three children who witnessed the Marian apparitions at Fatima, died in 2005. But before her death, she predicted that the final battle between Christ and Satan would be over marriage and the family. So says Cardinal Carlo Caffarra, who reports that the visionary sent him a letter with this prediction when he was Archbishop of Bologna, Italy. This reported statement by Sister Lucia, expressed during the pontificate of Saint John Paul II, was recently revisited by the Desde la Fe (From the Faith) weekly of the Archdiocese of Mexico, in the midst of...

Pope Francis has named Chicago Archbishop Blase Cupich to serve as a member of the Congregation for Bishops, the Vatican office that recommends to the Pope candidates to be appointed bishops. The move has alarmed traditional-minded Catholics since Cupich has shown himself to be an extremely liberal bishop. In this role, Cupich will now exercise one of the most prominent roles in deciding who to appoint as new bishops in the United States. Cupich is said to have been hand-picked by Pope Francis for his prominent position as Archbishop of Chicago. Cupich will join Washington, D.C.'s Cardinal Donald Wuerl, who...

(Washington) Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia has been attacked by the media as an "enemy" of the Pope, because he interpreted the Post-Synodal Letter Amoris laetitia in the light of Catholic moral teaching and Sacraments. Archbishop Blase Cupich of Chicago has been appointed at the same time by Pope Francis as a member of the Congregation for Bishops, and will continue to have a decisive influence on the appointment of bishops in the United States. The two events are emblematic of the pontificate of Pope Francis and his relationship with the Church in the United States. The Church in the...

Austrian Catholic website kath.net reports that on 7 July, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn published an interview in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, in which he said that Amoris Laetitia is a binding doctrinal document. From now on, says Schönborn, all the previous magisterial texts concerning marriage and the family “have to be read in the light of Amoris Laetitia.” Schönborn also said in this interview – a fuller excerpt of this text has now been published in English in the Jesuit journal Civiltà Cattolica – that it is “obvious” that Amoris Laetitia is an act of the Magisterium since it...

Jesuit Father Antonio Spadaro, editor of the journal La Civilta Cattolica, interviewed Cardinal Christoph Schonborn about Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation “Amoris Laetitia” and reaction to it. The journal provided Catholic News Service with an English translation of the interview and its website — www.laciviltacattolica.it — was scheduled to post selections in English from the interview at 3 p.m. Rome time today. Here are two of the questions and answers: Father Spadaro: Some have spoken of AL as a minor document, a personal opinion of the pope (so to speak) without full magisterial value. What value does this exhortation possess? Is...

Chaput issues pastoral guidelines saying divorced and gay Catholics must avoid sexJim Kenney did not mince words when a Twitter follower asked the Philadelphia mayor his thoughts on a new set of pastoral guidelines for clergy and other church leaders issued by Archdiocese of Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput. The guidelines say divorced and remarried parishioners should abstain from sex and live "like brother and sister" if they want to receive Holy Communion and haven't had their previous marriage annulled. The guidelines say gay Catholics should abstain from sex, too. Keeping his response within Twitter's 140-character limit, Kenney said Chaput's directives...

CFN intro: Leftist Cupich is notoriously pro-homosexual. He is now positioned by Francis to recommend men of his ilk to become bishops in the United States. The Francis disaster continues full throttle and will further poison the Church in America and worldwide. Oremus - jv Crux Staff, July 7, 2016 By naming Archbishop Blase Cupich of Chicago to the Vatican's all-important Congregation for Bishops, Pope Francis effectively has positioned him, in tandem with Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C., to be the American "kingmakers" on this pope's watch. Pope Francis on Thursday named Archbishop Blase Cupich of Chicago to the...

San Diego Bishop Robert McElroy celebrated Pope Francis’ call for Christians to apologize to gays and suggested the Catholic Church consider changing how it refers to same-sex attraction and homosexual acts. McElroy’s comments were published June 30 in an interview with the Jesuit magazine America. “I think [the Pope’s call for an apology] opens up a very helpful pathway to dialogue and hopefully healing,” McElroy said. “What we need to project in the life of the church is ‘You are part of us and we are part of you.’ [LGBT Catholics] are part of our families.” After the Orlando terrorist...

Pope Francis has named Archbishop Blase Cupich of Chicago a member of the Congregation for Bishops. The Congregation’s members, whether curial prelates or diocesan bishops like Archbishop Cupich (who remains Archbishop of Chicago), assist the Congregation’s prefect and secretary in making recommendations to the Pope for the appointment of bishops in non-mission Latin-rite dioceses. The appointment of Archbishop Cupich gives him considerable influence in the selection of new bishops, especially for the US. The Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples recommends the appointment of bishops in mission territories; members of curial congregations automatically cease to be so at the age...

According to a new set of pastoral guidelines for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia governing implementation of Pope Francis' Amoris Laetitia, divorced and civilly remarried Catholics, people living together outside of marriage, and same-sex couples are eligible for Communion only if they "refrain from sexual intimacy."Conceding that it may come off as a “hard teaching,” Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia has decreed that divorced and civilly remarried Catholics in the archdiocese may receive Communion only if they refrain from sex, and that they cannot hold positions of responsibility in a parish or perform liturgical functions. That latter prohibition, according to a...

Recent major court rulings may affect the work of the Church in the southern American state, says bishopFederal court decisions in three cases in late June will directly impact the work of the Catholic Church in Mississippi. On June 30, US District Court Judge Carlton Reeves blocked the implementation of H.B. 1523, also known as the Religious Accommodations Act, hours before it was to go into effect July 1. Earlier that week, the US Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of a proposed law that would have required abortion doctors to have admitting privileges at local hospitals. Turning away...

It may appear that the Clintons have once again escaped earthly justice, but it's important to remember that God is in control. The decision to let Hillary Clinton escape prosecution is just one more indication of the direction our nation is heading in. It seems to be going just as described in the Bible when it speaks of the last days. Since only Christ can and will make a new world, Christians are simply called to be lights in the darkness of this one. It's a good time to remember what the real spiritual battle is, where it is taking...

Has Francis’ self-styled theology of mercy blinded him to the need for justice for the Church’s violent betrayal of children? Has mercy replaced justice in the lexicon of papal rules necessary to protect children? Is clergy sex abuse too bothersome and unfashionable for the popular globalist media star fixated on global warming and income redistribution? Or, is he simply the mercy impostor, unwilling to address the crisis, similar to his years in Argentina? Francis’ mercy minions may be shocked, but in the opinion of abuse survivors, the Francis “peripheries” don’t include the victims of clerical sexual predators. Several speakers denounced...

According to Cardinal Reinhard Marx, homosexual relationships have “worth,” a worth that must be recognized by the Catholic Church. “We have to respect the decisions of people,” Marx told the media last week in Dublin after delivering a speech at Trinity College, according to a recent report in the Irish Times. “We have to respect the decisions of people. We have to respect also, as I said in the first synod on the family, some were shocked but I think it’s normal, you cannot say that a relationship between a man and a man and they are faithful [that] that...

St Augustine rest home was fined €6,000 after it stopped doctors from giving a lethal injection to a 74-year-old womanJudges in Belgium have fined a Catholic nursing home for refusing to allow the euthanasia of a lung cancer sufferer on its premises. The St Augustine rest home in Diest was ordered to pay a total of €6,000 after it stopped doctors from giving a lethal injection to Mariette Buntjens. Days later, the 74-year-old woman was instead taken by ambulance to her private address to die “in peaceful surroundings”. Buntjens’ family later sued the nursing home for causing their mother “unnecessary...

A spectacular newspaper interview with Pope Francis was published on Sunday in which the Pope uses an unusual dialectic. Is the Catholic Church leader to understand that his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, was a "problem" for the Church?" Indicates Francis in addition that "ultraconservative" Church representatives, according to context meaning the defender of Catholic marriage and morality and the Discipline of the Sacraments, actually "beheaded" include? Newspaper interviews as a new papal "magisterium" With his first interview that was published in the leftist daily on October 2013 by La Repubblica, Pope Francis revolutionized the communication policy of the papacy. The...

I learned of this site today at the irreplaceable One Peter Five by Steve Skojec [ http://www.onepeterfive.com/ ]. The site follows the Drudge format, with a page of links to stories and websites. This will be of most interest to Catholic Conservatives faithful to the Magisterium.

Five years ago I warned readers that folks on the left do not care one whit about your religious liberty. Four-and-a-half years ago, Pope Benedict voiced particular concerns about "certain attempts being made to limit that most cherished of American freedoms, the freedom of religion". Four years ago, the US Bishops launched the first annual Fortnight For Freedom,  running from June 21—the vigil of the Feasts of St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More—to July 4, Independence Day. This event, once unnecessary but now imperative, seeks "to highlight the importance of defending religious freedom" in America. Unfortunately, the situation for...

When Pope Francis said this week that the church should ask forgiveness from gay people for the way it has treated them, he sparked yet another round of global headlines about how his unpredictable papacy is changing Catholicism. But more than setting the church on a new course, Francis may have exposed the tensions within his own hierarchy over how to engage the gay community — tensions that have intensified in the weeks after the horrific massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando that left 49 dead. Francis’ comments Sunday (June 26) during an in-flight press conference on his return...