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[Catholic Caucus] New Vatican official renews calls for female deacons Sister Mary Barron has committed to her prior activism for ordaining women, despite the Church clearly reserving Orders for men.A new senior Vatican official has reaffirmed her previous push for female deacons, saying that women “hear the call to priesthood”. On October 8, Sister Mary Barron OLA was named by Pope Leo to become the adjunct secretary of the Dicastery for Evangelization and president of the Pontifical Mission Societies. A native of Ireland, Sr. Mary spent some years in Nigeria and Tanzania with her missionary Congregation of the Sisters of...

[Catholic Caucus] Pope names members of Vatican’s key advisory theology commission The members will serve for a five-year term, with some of the new intake raising eyebrows due to their questioning of Catholic teaching on ordination and homosexuality.A series of new members of the International Theological Commission have been appointed today, comprising the new faces of the organisation which serves as an advisory body to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. Working from his recovery room in the Apostolic Palace, Leo XIV finalised the new look of the International Theological Commission (ITC), after the previous members have come...

[Catholic Caucus] Austrian theologian: Ending synodal process would be an ‘ecclesiological problem’ An Austrian theologian who advised the Synod on Synodality argues the process must become a 'lasting culture' in the Church under Pope Leo XIV. A theological adviser to the Synod on Synodality has called for the process to continue indefinitely, declaring that synodality is not a project with an “expiration date.”Klara-Antonia Csiszár, a pastoral theologian who serves as vice rector of teaching and research at the Catholic Private University of Linz, gave an interview to katholisch.de – the online news portal of the German Bishops’ Conference – in...

Synod canon law proposals could make Catholic Church ‘Protestant community’ Canonists warn that proposed canon law reforms from the Synod on Synodality to transfer governing power to laypeople would ‘undermine the nature of the Church.’ Leading canonists have warned proposals to reform Canon Law promoted by the Synod on Synodality would undermine Catholic doctrine and the Second Vatican Council.On October 12, leading canon lawyers warned in a report published by the National Catholic Register that proposed reforms to the Code of Canon Law, emerging from the Synod on Synodality, could undermine the Church’s divine constitution. The proposals would introduce a...

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal notes “changing understandings of gender,” says Church must discern how to change. At Leo XIV's meeting marking ten years of Amoris Laetitia on October 8, Cardinal Filipe Neri Ferrão delivered a speech on the challenges facing families in Asia. He is the President of the Conference of Bishops of India.Discussing changes in the “identity, nature and composition of the family,” the cardinal observed that “new forms of partnership and cohabitation are emerging, amid changing understandings of gender and relationships in urban settings.”Reflecting on what the Church has learned from its pastoral work, Ferrão declared: “Pastoral work is...

[Catholic Caucus] EXCLUSIVE: Bishop Schneider says Amoris Laetitia is ‘against divine law’, must be ‘explicitly correctedAs the Pope gathers prelates to the Vatican to discuss Amoris Laetitia, Bishop Athanasius Schneider has expressed his concerns that the text is a practical “denial of the divine truth of the indissolubility of marriage” and an attack on the “ineffable sanctity of the Holy Eucharist”. The prominent prelate, auxiliary of Astana in Kazakhstan, gave a wide-ranging interview to the Catholic Herald recently, discussing issues such as the Society of Saint Pius X, the traditional Mass, Amoris Laetitia (AL), the recent document commemorating Nostra Aetate...

[Catholic Caucus] The Deceptive Tactics of the Silent Revolution Engulfing the Church - by Bishop Robert Mutsaerts The Deceptive Tactics of the Silent RevolutionBy Bishop Robert MutsaertsAux. Bishop of the Diocese of 's-Hertogenbosch, NetherlandsThe Catholic Church has experienced, over two thousand years, virtually everything that can befall an institution: bad popes, corrupt bishops, heresies, schisms, revolutions, persecutions, decadent monasteries, dissolute clergy, and theologians so determined to be original that ultimately only they themselves understood what they meant.And yet the Church endures. Not because Catholics have always been wise — that would be a rather audacious historical hypothesis. The Church survived...

The Catholic Response to a (Synodal) Church in Crisis | Bishop Mutsaerts CIC 2026 In an address that received the longest standing ovation in Catholic Identity Conference history, Bishop Rob Mutsaerts of the Netherlands challenges the modern obsession with constant reform, asks whether the Synodal project has actually produced the fruits it promised, warns against confusing mercy with affirmation, defends the sacred character of the liturgy, and explains why young Catholics are often searching for precisely what the Church has been tempted to abandon: truth, sacrifice, reverence, doctrine, confession, beauty, and a supernatural faith. Below are both the transcript and...

[Catholic Caucus] Heterodox cardinal says ‘entire Tradition’ must be read ‘in light of’ Vatican II 'The Council was not a departure from Tradition. It was a return to that current of Tradition which is the oldest and establishes the measure,' claimed Cardinal Grzegorz Ryś.A heterodox Polish cardinal said that Catholics should read the “entire Tradition of the Church in light of” the Second Vatican Council.On October 3, Cardinal Grzegorz Ryś, archbishop of Kraków, made a series of striking remarks on the relationship between Tradition and Vatican II during an interview with Dr. Konstanty Pilawa at a session of the Jagiellonian...

Breaking: Pope Leo’s Vatican asks Catholics to ‘esteem’ other faiths The Vatican has asked Catholics to 'esteem' other faiths in its latest document on interreligious dialogue and 'fraternity.'The Vatican has asked Catholics to ‘esteem’ other faiths in its latest document on interreligious dialogue and “fraternity.”The document, signed by Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF); Cardinal Kurt Koch, Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity; and Cardinal George Jacob Koovakad, Prefect of the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue, appeared this morning.Entitled “A Journey of Hope: Sixty Years of Interreligious Dialogue and Fraternity...