Free Republic

Eight years after Vatican-China deal, persecution of faithful Catholics intensifiesThe Vatican's secret deal with China has empowered the Chinese Communist Party's war on religious freedom that Rome needs to address.“Nobody has any illusion about the Chinese Communists Party’s determination to eliminate all religion.”~Bishop James E. Walsh, Maryknoll Missionary to China, 1948, imprisoned for 12 years by the CCP.(Elizabeth Yore) — The Patriotic Chinese Catholic Association was established in 1957 by the authority of Mao Zedong, and under the control of the United Front Work Department of the Central Committee of the CCP with the goal to bring Catholicism into alignment...

Austrian diocese with ‘Rainbow Ministry’ officially supports LGBT ‘pride’ paradeThe Diocese of Gurk-Klagenfurt openly expressed its support for the Pride Parade in Villach, which took place on July 4.An Austrian Catholic diocese has officially supported a local LGBT “pride” parade.“On the eve of the Pride Parade in downtown Villach, the team from the diocesan Rainbow Ministry hosted a prayer service at St. Michael’s Chapel in Villach Sankt Martin,” the diocese said on its website.During the service, it was emphasized that “You are you!”, implying that no repentance was needed from people who engage in same-sex relations or who identify as...

Écône: A Sign of Contradiction? - by Côme de Prévigny Écône: A Sign of Contradiction?by Côme de Prévigny*It has been repeated with evident satisfaction over the past few days: "The matter is settled. The schism is consummated. There is nothing more to expect from the SSPX." Very well. Granted. We should have turned the page by now. And yet the file stubbornly refuses to close and continues to occupy a prominent place in the news.The extraordinary shockwave that has shaken social media and Catholic circles reveals, on the contrary, an affair far from resolved. Episcopal consecrations without a pontifical mandate...

Police Confronts UK Street Preacher for THIS 😱🤯‼️

Priest attends brother’s homosexual ‘wedding,’ calls it ‘amazing,’ ‘special’Fr. Rico Passero, the pastor of a Catholic church in Ontario, said that he ‘MC’d the reception’ and praised what he called ‘an EPIC wedding weekend.’A Canadian Catholic priest from Ontario posted on social media that he attended his brother’s homosexual “wedding,” which he described as “amazing” and “EPIC.”Fr. Rico Passero, who is listed as the pastor at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Grimsby, Ontario, made the Facebook post.“What an EPIC wedding weekend last week. It took me some time to finally receive some amazing photos from the Midnight in Eden wedding...

Pope Leo’s newspaper publishes article claiming ‘there is no devil,’ original sin in Book of GenesisL'Osservatore Romano published an article by theologian Marinella Perroni claiming Genesis contains no devil and no original sin, arguing that tradition exegesis ‘is reduced to sex.’A new essay in the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano examining the Book of Genesis argues that the narrative does not deal primarily with the devil and original sin, in contrast with the traditional interpretation.On July 4, L’Osservatore Romano – the official newspaper of the Holy See – published an article by Italian theologian Marinella Perroni, according to whom in the...

[Catholic Caucus] Pope Leo appoints German bishop who endorsed homosexual ‘blessings,’ claimed sodomy ‘not sinful’Pope Leo named Bishop Christian Würtz the new ordinary of Eichstätt, though Würtz approved documents of the heretical Synodal Way that denied Catholic teaching on homosexuality and other issues. Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday named Monsignor Christian Würtz, an auxiliary bishop in the Diocese of Freiburg, who has a history of supporting homosexual “blessings” and contradicting the Church’s teaching on homosexuality, as the next bishop of Eichstätt.Würtz, 55, was among the 38 German bishops in 2023 who voted in favor of a document endorsing “blessings” for...

Reports indicate regular or increased attendance at SSPX chapels worldwideSnapshots of Mass attendance on Sunday indicate that the Vatican’s threat of excommunication to the faithful who ‘adhere’ to the SSPX ‘schism’ did not discourage attendance at its chapels.Multiple reports indicate that since Cardinal Víctor Manuel “Tucho” Fernández issued a decree of excommunication against the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) for their episcopal consecrations, attendance at SSPX chapels has remained steady or increased.Re-posting pictures taken outside SSPX chapels this past Sunday as proof, the Mason-Dixon Latin Mass Society shared on Sunday that “SSPX chapels today are standing room only” and...

Cardinal, bishops support expanding Latin Mass access after SSPX consecrationsCardinal Kurt Koch said that ‘we have to rethink’ Pope Francis’ restrictions on the Latin Mass, and a bishop in Norway vowed to continue and possibly expand the TLM in his diocese.Since the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) consecrated four bishops without a papal mandate and the subsequent decree of excommunication by the Holy See, some Catholic bishops and a cardinal have said that the Vatican should rethink the restrictions of Traditionis Custodes, while at least one ordinary has promised to expand access to the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) in...

“We know how to get through this.”Écône Diary: Thursday 2nd July, the Feast of the Visitation The momentous day of Wednesday, 1st July, the Feast of the Precious Blood, concluded with Second Pontifical Vespers of the Precious Blood of Jesus and Benediction. The American Rector of Saint Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Virginia, the newly-consecrated Bishop Michael Goldade, gave a short sermon in which he shared how touched the newly-consecrated bishops were by the fidelity, prayers and sacrifices of the faithful, clergy and religious.After invoking the life-giving abundance of the Catholic Church, he continued:Today we see such wreckage. If the Catholic...

A Lifelong Catholic's Appeal to Bishops: Aren't We Trying to Square the CircleA Catholic from New Zealand sent a letter to the bishops of his country some time ago, hoping for a response. Having received nothing, not so much as a polite acknowledgment, he sent the letter to me and asked if I might publish it. I am pleased to do so, as this humble layman speaks for a million others who could have written the same thing. Until the bishops choose to unstop their ears and listen to the cry of the poor, the Church’s decline will be credited...

Sir Keir Starmer announced in September that all UK citizens are to have mandatory ID to prove their right to live and work in the country. People in India, who have had digital IDs for years, tell Sky's Sam Coates how they work their country.

Diocesan Priest Explains SSPX State of Necessity and Pope Leo’s Missed OpportunityIn this edition of Ask Father, a diocesan priest examines the SSPX's "state of necessity" argument, reflects on the wider crisis in the Church, and imagines the pastoral address Pope Leo XIV could have given to unite Catholics instead of deepening division. Dear Father, the situation in the Church has gotten even more confusing since the consecration of the four bishops by the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX). The four new bishops and the bishops consecrating them have been declared excommunicated; it seems the SSPX priests have been...

Leo Praises Liberty While He Puts Écône in ChainsAs Leo praised freedom of worship, Rome branded the SSPX, threatened the faithful, and tolerated a conciliar world where sanctuaries become playgrounds and Christendom becomes a punchline.Liberty for Everyone Except TraditionOn July 3, Leo XIV accepted the Liberty Medal from the National Constitution Center and spoke like a man defending freedom of conscience.He praised the American founders’ appeal to nature and nature’s God. He spoke of human dignity as something that precedes the State. He described authentic freedom as the capacity to know the truth and adhere to the good, even at...

The SSPX Crisis is not an AbstractionI have tried to stay out of the tribal warfare surrounding the SSPX because I do not belong to anyone’s faction. I just want to be left alone to practice the orthodox Faith. I am a convert, but I am not an uninformed one. Before entering the Catholic Church, I studied Catholic theology, Church history, papal authority, canon law, Vatican II, Tradition, and the Magisterium. I read the Summa cover to cover. I have continued studying ever since. I understand why the consecration of bishops without a papal mandate is treated as an extraordinarily...

Canonical Analysis: The 2026 DDF Decree on the SSPXBy the Canon of Shaftesbury, a judicial vicar in a major archdiocese.The question is whether the Decree and Explanatory Note issued by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) on July 2, 2026 actually accomplished what many have said, namely, the excommunication of six bishops, over seven hundred priests, and an unspecified number of the faithful. The short answer, reading the documents against the Code of Canon Law, is that they did not.The Decree itself names six individuals: four newly consecrated bishops, the principal consecrator (Bishop de Galarreta), and a...

Wow! I'm Excommunicated By My Papa...or Am I?This photo says it all. My mom always said, "Birds of a feather flock together." So here we have the scandalous porn-writing head of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith sharing an intimate moment with the pope, il papa, my daddy in the spiritual life. I'm heartbroken and shaking my head after reading the explanatory note from Fernandez. [Published at the end.]Will I stop going to the SSPX? No. My conscience tells me that in order to be in "full Communion" with Rome these days, I must accept those things I...

Letter to the Holy Father regarding the Decree of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the FaithThe Superior GeneralTo His HolinessPope Leo XIVEcône, 3 July 2026Among yourselves, if a father is asked by his son for bread, will he give him a stone? Or for a fish, will he give him a snake instead of a fish? Or if he is asked for an egg, will he give him a scorpion? Why then, if you, evil as you are, know well enough how to give your children what is good for them, is not your Father much more ready to...

New SSPX bishop invokes Mediatrix of All Graces in first episcopal sermonBishop Pascal Schreiber delivered his first sermon since the consecrations, calling the faithful to embrace the virtues of humility and magnanimity.Newly consecrated – and now newly excommunicated, according to Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith – Bishop Pascal Schreiber of the Society of St. Pius X delivered his first episcopal sermon on Thursday. At a Pontifical High Mass taking place on the “prairie” of the Écône seminary, Schreiber’s message centerd on the Blessed Virgin Mary, the priesthood, and the Society of...