Free Republic

(Barcelona / Rome) Does the Congregation of Religious suffer from a villainous portrait of tradition? This question has hung in the air since last weekend. The Franciscan José Rodriguez Carballo, for a year secretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, participated in a Conference of Religious of Catalonia. In his speech he delivered last Saturday without directly mentioning the Order by name, gave a first official hint as to why the Franciscans of the Immaculate have been reprimanded by his Congregation. The reason implied much to the young religious Order, and is of...

The Center for Reproductive Rights, a non-governmental organization that advocates for legalized abortion, is urging the United Nations Committee Against Torture to tell the Catholic Church that “the freedom of speech and of religion” do not give the church the right to advocate against abortion. When the committee met in Geneva on Monday for a hearing on the Vatican’s compliance with the Convention Against Torture, Vice Chairperson Felice Gaer, an American, said in her opening statement that laws that ban all abortion—which is the position of the Catholic Church—may violate the convention. She also repeated verbatim some language that had...

Vatican officials are blasting the Untied Nations after a UN panel made wild-eyed claims that the Catholic Church’s pro-life teachings “promote torture.” The UN panel is expected to release its report on the Catholic Church at the end of the month.As international pro-life leader Austin Ruse writes as Breitbart: Archbishop Silvano Tomasi told committee members, “The Holy See condemns the torture of anyone, including those tortured and killed before they are born.” This was a pointed comment to a committee manned largely by outspoken abortion advocates.“Late-term abortion constitutes torture,” he said to Felice Gaer, an American and vice-chairman of the...

A Vatican official revealed during a U.N. Committee hearing on Tuesday that the Roman Catholic Church defrocked 848 priests who raped or molested children and sanctioned another 2,572 others since 2004. Figures show that it has also paid $ 2.5 billion in compensation to victims in the U.S. alone. "While the Holy See does not have the competency or the ability to initiate criminal proceedings against crimes that are committed in territories outside Vatican City State, it makes every effort to conduct ecclesiastical proceedings against clerics against whom credible accusations of sexual abuse of minors have been presented," the Holy...

Pope Francis has a funny way of naming and shaming certain tendencies in the church, using insults that are inventive, apposite, and confounding. His ear is finely tuned for the way the Catholic faith can be distorted by ideology. And I'd like to imitate his example when I say this: Most Catholics are completely unprepared for a wicked pope. And they may not be prepared for Pope Francis either. They are more loyal to an imagined Catholic party than to the Catholic faith or the church. Between Pentecost and the launch of Vatican.va, most Catholics did not have access to...

ROME, May 6, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The American Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), which was placed under a mandate of reform by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith last year, must drop its New Age ideas and return to the central teachings of the Catholic religion on Jesus Christ, the Trinity, and the nature of the Church, or risk being expelled as a recognized Catholic institution. In an address to LCWR officials in Rome on April 30, Gerhard Müller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), and Archbishop Peter Sartain of Seattle,...

This is odd and surprising. It would seem most likely that the Pope wanted a secretary from the Islamic world to show his favorable view of Islam, and is unaware of Father Yoannis Lahzi Gaido’s previous statements. He will undoubtedly soon find out, however, if he hasn’t already, and what happens then will be interesting. Here is Blazing Cat Fur’s modified Google translation of a German-language article: “The Pope’s new Coptic secretary: Islam is a ‘culture of death,’” Blazing Cat Fur, April 29, 2014 (thanks to Jamal): Pope Francis has a new secretary who speaks Arabic and has very clear...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Using what he acknowledged was unusually "blunt" language, the head of the Vatican's doctrinal office rebuked officers of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious for honoring a Catholic theologian whose work was judged "seriously inadequate" and for promoting futuristic ideas he described as "opposed to Christian revelation." Cardinal Gerhard Muller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, made the remarks April 30 in an address to the presidency of the LCWR, a Maryland-based umbrella group that claims about 1,500 leaders of U.S. women's communities as members, representing about 80 percent of the country's...

The Vatican attempted to minimize its culpability over the Catholic Church’s child sexual abuse scandal as a UN committee on torture grilled the institution over it alleged “climate of impunity” which has prevailed for decades. In a two-hour hearing in Geneva, the Committee Against Torture was unrelenting in its questioning of the Vatican delegation, asking about past policy decisions, the juridical distinction between the Holy See and Vatican City, and information on specific cases, Reuters reports. The Vatican, which is set to issue a formal answer on Tuesday, said the church has been cleaning house for the past decade and...

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis plans to address all the heads of United Nations agencies on May 10 in what some are viewing as a crucial opportunity to help turn the U.N.’s satellite institutions away from their radical anti-life agenda.He is also scheduled to meet U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon next week. The meeting would be the Pope’s second with the U.N. leader since his election.The U.N. System Chief Executives Board for Coordination — the longest-standing and highest-level coordination forum of the U.N. — will be received in private audience by the Holy Father at the end of its...

An Israeli lawmaker claims that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spoken with Chief Sephardic Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef about the possibility of ceding the Tomb of David— located in an old church building that is also revered by Christians as the site of the Last Supper—to the Vatican. The report—which has not been confirmed by the Israeli government—comes after earlier rumors that the government was engaged in secret negotiations with the Vatican about future control of the site.

The Holy See is in the U.N. dock again next week. This time it’s the U.N. Committee on Torture, and it will not be pretty. Remember last time? A few months ago the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child told the Holy See that the Church must change its teachings on foundational moral issues like abortion, contraception, adolescent sexuality, and marriage. That outrage only arose among the usual suspects, that is, from the likes of you and me, means the Committee on Torture can be expected to follow suit. The U.N. Convention against Torture, and other Cruel, Inhuman...

Notre Dame University employed the police to order a group of traditional marriage advocates off its campus late last week. Volunteers with the Tradition Family Property Student Action were given permission by an official campus student group to set up a table, according to TFP director John Ritchie. The police arrived shortly after the group began handing out pro-family literature and told them to “cease and desist.” On its website TFP Student Action claimed: The TFP handout, 10 Reasons Why Same-Sex “Marriage” is Harmful and Must Be Opposed, was being warmly received by students and faculty members alike. However, several...

A Knesset Member said Thursday that Chief Sephardic Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef told him that the Prime Minister's bureau contacted him and asked to grant halakhic permission for Israel to hand over the Tomb of David to the Vatican. The startling news was revealed by the Knesset Member during a tour of the Tomb of Daid by four MKs – Yoni Chetboun of the Jewish Home, who initiated the tour, Moshe Feiglin (Likud-Beytenu), Nissim Ze'ev (Shas), and Meir Porush (United Torah Judaism – UTJ). The MKs were unanimous in declaring that they intend to do everything within their power to forestall...

See link for discussion.

But, wait, there’s more! According to La Stampa, Pope Paul VI has reportedly been penciled in for beatification this coming fall at the conclusion of the Synod of Bishops in Rome. Yes, that’s right—Paul VI! Remember him? That vague, sort of nondescript pontiff who made up for negligible personal magnetism with an almost fanatical penchant for novelty. There is no particular cult associated with his cause, of course, other than among a few aging ecclesiastical hippies inside the Vatican who are evidently bound and determined to nominate their pal Paul for a Halo Award, come hell or high water. Something...

At least seven people wrote Decker and told him to “go to hell.” For instance, MariaTM supportively promised, “I will pray for your burning soul.” And Amanda kept things real simple: “Go to hell lowlife.” One simple text just said: “hater.” Someone calling himself or herself SSPVArchangel asked, “When did the other 2 ‘popes’ die and who made Decker Supreme Pontiff??” On FreeRepublic.com there was KarlFromOhio who cleverly wrote, “Since John Paul II eliminated the Devil’s Advocate position in the canonization procedure, I guess USA Today has decided to take the position on a pro bono basis.”

Link only included due to copyright restrictions: http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/04/21/pope-saint-johnpaulii-easter-sex-abuse-column/7980347/

TRES RIOS, Costa Rica (AP) — On a warm spring day, Floribeth Mora was in her bed waiting to die from a seemingly inoperable brain aneurysm when her gaze fell upon a photograph of Pope John Paul II in a newspaper. "Stand up," Mora recalls the image of the pope saying to her. "Don't be afraid." Mora, her doctors and the Catholic Church say her aneurysm disappeared that day in a miracle that cleared the way for the late pope to be declared a saint on April 27 in a ceremony at the Vatican where Mora will be a guest...

Japanese Tech Firm NTT Is Scanning the Ancient Texts in the Vatican Apostolic Library Almost 600 years after Pope Nicholas V founded the Vatican Apostolic Library, the Holy See is now turning to 50 experts, five scanners and a Japanese IT firm to digitize millions of pages from its priceless manuscripts, opening them to the broader public for the first time. When the project is finished, one of the richest and most important collections of historical texts in the world will be available with a click of the mouse—and free. The plan marks a revolution for an institution known as...