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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] The uniqueness of Jesus "cannot be absolutized": a Brazilian joins the Theological Commission Tiago de Fraga Gomes, a 39-year-old priest, has been studying Claude Geffré’s religious pluralism since 2015 and in 2025 defended an “even sacramental” integration of irregular situations.Pope Leo XIV on Monday, October 19, appointed Brazilian priest Tiago de Fraga Gomes, 39, a member of the International Theological Commission. He is a presbyter of the Diocese of Osório in the state of Rio Grande do Sul and an associate professor at the School of Humanities of the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS)...

[Catholic Caucus] Synodal church reverses Our Lord’s mandate to proclaim the Gospel Cardinal Ferrão’s words about the family stem from the Synodal mentality which is essentially rooted in the heresy of Universalism.I have recently read the statement by Cardinal Filipe Neri Ferrão regarding the family at the Amoris Laetitia Summit in Rome. I was disturbed but not as utterly shocked as I should have been.I would have been more shocked had the statement not been a part of a whole host of alarming comments and actions from some of the hierarchy of the Church rooted in the so-called Synodal Way.Ponder...

[Catholic Caucus] Leo XIV-appointed Missio President doubles down: Women called to priesthood. Pope Leo XIV appointed Irish Sister Mary Teresa Barron on October 8, as president of the Pontifical Mission Societies (Missio) and adjunct secretary of the Vatican's Dicastery for Evangelization.On October 19, she told EWTNNews.com: “Who am I to say whether the door is open or closed to women priests?”“Women today may hear the call to priesthood,” she said. “So for me, itʼs how do we within Church facilitate that discernment?”Sister Barron wants the Church to accompany women who feel "called to the priesthood", “What do we do as...

[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...

[Catholic Caucus] German bishops’ chairman confirms controversy over Communion for divorced Catholics at Vatican meeting Bishop Heiner Wilmer, chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference, has confirmed that Holy Communion for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics was discussed “at length and with some controversy” during the Vatican meeting marking ten years of Amoris laetitiaThe question of Holy Communion for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics prompted controversy during a Vatican meeting marking the tenth anniversary of Amoris laetitia, Bishop Heiner Wilmer has confirmed.Bishop Heiner Wilmer of Münster, chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference, said the issue was discussed “at length and with...

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...

Leo XIV’s excommunication backfires: SSPX lists multiple priests who just joined them ‘While Rome plans a procedure for priests wishing to leave the SSPX, many priests from diocesan clergy and religious communities continue, around the world, to draw closer to the Fraternity or to join it,’ the SSPX noted.The Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) on Friday posted a list of diocesan and religious priests around the world who have joined the Society, undeterred by penalties or the Vatican’s declared excommunications. “After the ordinations, diocesan priests continue to turn toward Tradition,” the official international SSPX Twitter account wrote in a...

[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] 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] 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] From Familiaris consortio to Amoris laetitia and the pending response to the dubia?Rome begins this Wednesday to take stock of the ten years of Amoris laetitia. From October 7 to 14, nearly 250 bishops, including presidents of Episcopal Conferences and heads of the Eastern Catholic Churches, will join families and experts in a meeting convened by Leo XIV to examine the application of Francis’s exhortation and the current challenges of matrimonial and family pastoral care.The gathering comes a decade after one of the most debated documents of the previous pontificate. Amoris laetitia, published in April 2016 following the...

[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...

[Catholic Caucus] Leo: The Church Should be an “Open House” that “Listens Without Judging” The Church as founded by Christ listens only to God, not to man, but the Bishop of Rome has a different idea. Pope Leo has said that he wants the Church to be an “open house” that “listens without judging.” In his prayer video for October 2026, he said:“May your Church be an open house, a safe space where everyone has a place — a community that accompanies and never excludes; that listens without judging; and that draws near without fear.”Unfortunately, Leo has erred again. This...

[Catholic Caucus] Synod’s canonical commission calls for diocesan synods, provincial councils every 10 years, ‘complete revision’ of Code of Canon Law A canonical commission established by Pope Francis proposed changes to 34 canons of the Code of Canon Law in light of the Final Document of the 2021-2024 synod on synodality.“In the long term, however, there is an obvious need for a complete revision of the two Codes to reflect the theological and ecclesiological issues that have emerged,” the commission, referring to the Code of Canon Law (1983) and the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches (1990), stated in...

Leo XIV praises foundational Lutheran document: The Augsburg Confession by MelanchthonLeo XIV praises foundational Lutheran document: The Augsburg Confession by Melanchthon.Today, Leo XIV received a delegation of the Lutheran World Federation. He said: “Renewed communion in the apostolic faith, in the sacraments [!], and in the ministries is the goal of our ecumenical journey of grace.”Leo XIV focused particularly on the year 2030, which will mark the 500th anniversary of the Augsburg Confession, presenting it as an opportunity to advance Catholic-Lutheran ecumenism and the pursuit of “full, visible unity.”He claimed: “The Augsburg Confession was originally intended as a document of...

[Catholic Caucus] Vatican Synod commission proposes “complete revision” of canon law — including marriages without a priest. Vatican Synod commission proposes “complete revision” of canon law — including marriages without a priest.A 10-member Canonical Commission established as part of the Vatican’s Synod on Synodality has published today proposals to reshape canon law.The report says that in the long term there is an “obvious need for a complete revision” of the Codes. The goal is to reflect emerging “theological and ecclesiological issues.”Among the proposals:• Sensus fidei: Canon 749 would begin by stating that “the entire body of the Christian faithful… cannot...

[Catholic Caucus] Irreversible—the Dictatorship of What Has Happened. When History Becomes a “Magisterium”Irreversible—the Dictatorship of What Has Happened. When History Becomes a “Magisterium”: Notes on a Statement by Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich. Functional “Facts-Based Politics” Instead of the Holy Spirit. An article by Armin Schwibach (kath.net; original in German)Rome (kath.netet/as) “Irreversible”: With these words, Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich described the process of synodality initiated by Pope Francis in an address in October 2015: the fait accompli of a political land grab within the Church. In an interview with the Kurier on September 20, 2026, the Luxembourg cardinal and former Jesuit explained that...