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[Catholic Caucus] Pope Francis accused of ‘straw man’ tactics in response to question about homosexual blessingsAsked about the controversial document, Pope Francis replied: 'No one is shocked if I give a blessing to an entrepreneur who maybe exploits people, and that is a very serious sin. Whereas they are scandalized if I give it to a homosexual.... This is hypocrisy!'In comments critics call “straw man” arguments, Pope Francis has stated that outrage over Fiducia Supplicans is “hypocrisy.”The Pontiff made the remarks in an interview he gave to the weekly Italian journal Credere, which is due to be released February 8,...

[Catholic Caucus] Archbishop Aguer: Fiducia Supplicans has been repudiated in places where the Church is flourishingIn Africa and Asia, attachment to ecclesial Tradition leads to a repudiation of the Bergoglio-Fernández project to confuse Catholics with their (sadly) celebrated declaration, Fiducia Supplicans.The declaration Fiducia Supplicans and the reactions it has engendered allow us to observe a division of continental dimensions pulsating through the Church: In Europe, approval; in Africa and Asia, repudiation. This is therefore not something marginal, or which has to do with “ideological groups,” as the Pontiff asserts.This is the ecclesial reality: In old Europe, Christian faith and culture...

[Catholic Caucus] Abp. Viganò: Fernández’s blasphemous sex book is yet another fruit of the Vatican II revolution'If we think of the spousal model that Saint Paul offers us in the most chaste relationship between Christ and the Church (Eph 5:22), Tucho’s unmentionable obscenities reveal to us a soul totally corrupted by vice, and by a vice that with all evidence seems to have been amply experimented.'f, before Vatican II, an official of the Holy Office had been tasked with examining the text of La Pasión Mística to draw up a report on it in view of making a judgment about...

[Catholic Caucus] BREAKING: Priests, scholars ask Church leaders to request the Pope withdraw Fiducia Supplicans'Never in the history of the Catholic Church has a document of the Roman Magisterium experienced such a strong rejection’ as Fiducia Supplicans.Today, the feast of Candlemas, some 90 clergymen, scholars, and authors are publishing a new statement that joins the chorus of those Catholic voices opposed to the papally approved Fiducia Supplicans, a document permitting blessings of homosexual couples and other couples in irregular unions. The signatories address the bishops and cardinals of the Catholic Church, asking them to forbid such blessings in their respective...

[Catholic Caucus] Fiducia Supplicans: A Crisis of TrustThe current reactions to Fiducia Supplicans constitute an outbreak of a crisis of trust toward the Holy See that has been lingering for years.I remain amazed and puzzled by how the publication of Fiducia Supplicans is affecting the Church—and by how the responses to it still seem to be under-perceived, downplayed, or ignored. Negative reactions to the document, and against specific contents of the document, have been strong, including those from entire bishops’ conferences and large numbers of priests and lay people. Ignoring the vehemence and the reasons behind these reactions is not...

German Diocese Invites Lutherans To Pick Up Communion without FaithLutherans in the Diocese of Osnabrück, Germany, are officially invited to pick up Communion at Novus Ordo Eucharists.Communion for Protestants is "a great opening" and "an important step that will allow the churches to grow closer together", claimed Osnabrück Cathedral Canon Reinhard Molitor in an interview with the diocesan newspaper Aus.sicht.Molitor: "The diocese of Osnabrück was the first German diocese to issue an official invitation to Eucharistic hospitality in June 2023. Rottenburg-Stuttgart is also working on such an agreement. Other dioceses are hesitating. I think it could apply to the whole...

[Catholic Caucus] Statement From Suspended Kentucky TLM Priests As some readers may be aware, two Missionaries of Saint John the Baptist priests who celebrate (exclusively) the TLM at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Park Hills, Kentucky, had their faculties removed by the bishop of Covington.I met both of them a few years ago, impressed these former Fathers of Mercy were able to start a new religious community that -- unlike the Fathers of Mercy -- uses the traditional Latin books, while preserving the parish mission and homiletics apostolate their former community is known for within the conservative novus ordo...

"Vatican II and the new liturgy have invented a new magisterial mode: dogmatic regression": Interview with Claude BartheOn the occasion of the revised and expanded reissue of his book "Trouver-t-il encore la foi sur terre [Will He still find faith on earth?]," we interviewed Abbé Claude Barthe.Michel Janva: The title of your book is a quotation from the Gospel. In view of the current evolution of the Catholic religion (growth in Africa and Asia, decline in Europe...), is it possible that it could disappear in Western Europe, and therefore in Rome, just as it was practically eliminated from North Africa...

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal says debate about blessings is normal part of Church lifeCardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, said the debate surrounding the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith’s declaration on the possibility of blessing gay couples shows that deeper reflection is still needed.At the same time, he said, the reaction is a normal and healthy part of the Catholic Church learning how to take Gospel values and apply them to new situations.Speaking to reporters who were attending his speech on the Holy See and peacemaking Jan. 12 at Rome’s Academy of the Lincei, the cardinal was asked...

[Catholic Caucus] Archbishop Viganò: Cdl Fernández’s defense of Fiducia Supplicans shows his ‘manifest heresy’Speaking to LifeSiteNews, Archbishop Viganò roundly condemned Cdl. Fernández's defense of same-sex blessings as 'usurping the sacred authority of the Pastors of the Church of Christ in order to destroy Her.'Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò has stated that Cardinal Fernández’s press release defending Fiducia Supplicans is part of an attempt to “cause a schism” and to “demolish it [the Church] from within,” accusing the cardinal of “manifest heresy.”“{A}ny document bearing Tucho’s signature can be considered devoid of any value, due to the manifest heresy of Tucho himself and...

[Catholic Caucus] "This document damages the communion of the Church, for such blessings directly and seriously contradict Divine Revelation": Strongest and clearest episcopal reaction yet from +Rafael Escudero López-BreaPastoral Message of the Bishop Prelate of Moyobamba on the Declaration Fiducia Supplicans, Published by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith on December 18, 2023.Dear priests, consecrated religious, and lay faithful:Grace and Peace for the Nativity of the Lord!Faced with the unprecedented bewilderment provoked by the Declaration Fiducia supplicans in the clergy and many faithful of this Prelature and in so many places in the Catholic world, I have taken...

[Catholic Caucus] Vatican Clarifies the Clarification of Blessing “Same-Sex Couples”Tucho locutus est (again)No. Yes. Maybe?The first time Tucho “Heal Me with Your Mouth” Fernández made the Roman Pontiff contradict himself, he added his own “Roma locuta est”:Thus, beyond the guidance provided above, no further responses should be expected about possible ways to regulate details or practicalities regarding blessings of this type.As if the definitive nature of that statement wasn’t enough, he thought it necessary to clarify the clarification (again).Yet again, a member Pope Francis’s inner circle, the late Cardinal Pell has been proved right:Commentators of every school, if for different...

Blessings: A pastoral development anchored in traditionItalian Professor Rocco Buttiglione, a member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, describes the Declaration Fiducia supplicans of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith as almost revolutionary and a return to the Church's origins and the missionary presence of Christ in human history.The Declaration “Fiducia supplicans” on the pastoral meaning of blessings of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith marks an authentic pastoral development solidly anchored in Church tradition and its moral theology. The Dicastery's Cardinal Prefect, Víctor Manuel Fernández, wisely prefaces the Declaration with a brief presentation in...

[Catholic Caucus] German church plans formal ‘ceremonies’ for blessing same-sex couplesGerman bishops will continue to work on a handout for 'blessing ceremonies' to give to priests while the vice president of the Central Committee of German Catholics expresses hope that a change in church doctrine on sexual morality follows.BERLIN (LifeSiteNews) — Birgit Mock, the vice president of the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZDK), announced that in light of Rome’s permission to grant blessings to “couples” in irregular unions and same-sex “couples” the German bishops will continue as planned to work on a handout for “blessing ceremonies” to give to...

[Catholic Caucus] The Heresy of Practice: Some Insights from Saint Bernard and Saint AlphonsusRecently used by Cardinal Müller,[i] the phrase “practical heresy” has been popularized in a couple of his latest articles by Timothy Flanders,[ii] the editor-in-chief of One Peter Five (1P5). Essentially, this concept refers to any religious practice that contradicts, through deeds and actions, a revealed doctrine. We will take the teaching on marriage as an example. Every well-formed Christian knows that in the Church founded by our Savior Jesus Christ, “the essential properties of Marriage are unity (monogamy) and indissolubility.”[iii] In practice, in the case of spouses...

[Catholic Caucus] US Apostolic Nuncio receives blowback for slamming the cassock, Traditional Latin MassAn anonymous priest of the Society of St. Pius X told LifeSite that Cardinal Christophe Pierre’s remarks exhibit an off-the-charts levels of cognitive dissonance as modern seminaries are floundering compared to their traditional counterparts.While confessing that young people today do enjoy attending the Latin Mass, Pierre condescendingly asked, “is the liturgy [only] something you like? Is it a refuge? Is the church a refuge? If you look at it as a refuge, you isolate yourselves.”“The church is missionary,” he said. “It’s not a reserve of people who...

[Catholic Caucus] Synod, October 18: Cardinal Hollerich calls for ‘small but sensitive changes’ in Church governanceOctober 19, 2023On October 18, participants in the first session of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops turned their attention to the Synod’s fourth topic: “Participation, governance and authority. What processes, structures and institutions are there in a missionary synodal Church?”The Synod’s first session has reached its halfway point: the session began on October 4 and will conclude on October 29. The Synod’s second session will take place in October 2024.Archbishop Grušas: The Gospel is ‘given on God’s terms, not man’s’On...

[Catholic Caucus] Exclusive: Bishop on synod drafting committee expresses openness to women deaconsExclusive: Bishop on synod drafting committee expresses openness to women deacons">Share on TwitterEmail to a friendPrintOne of the 13 members of the committee expected to draft the hotly anticipated final document from Pope Francis' ongoing Vatican summit on the future of the Catholic Church has expressed an openness to ordaining women as Catholic deacons.In an exclusive interview with National Catholic Reporter, Australian Bishop Shane Mackinlay, elected to the committee role by his peers at the Oct. 4-29 Synod of Bishops, said of discussions about women's ordination: "I'm glad...

[Catholic Caucus] Rigged Synod Experts Will Proclaim “the Will of God”So it’s October 17th, and we are more than half way through this month of the #SchismaticWay, and what do we have so far? A particular generation of theologians have more or less declared this synod to be the dream of Cardinal Martini, where they can finally find that reform they always wanted: As such, the synod has become a circus of what this pontificate has alreadty brought forth: all the cheerleaders for the St. Gallen Mafia have lifted their heads above water and shouted their filth to the world....

[Catholic Caucus] Full interview: Cardinal attacks Dubia cardinals:refuses to confirm that they are of good willThe Prefect of the Cause of Saints reproaches his 'companions' for not understanding that 'Ecclesia Semper reformanda'Cardinal Semeraro on the Dubia cardinals: “The Pope is hurt, but serene”“The responses to the 'dubia' have been more than enough. Because they explain very well that we must understand that dogma also has to advance, that faith also has to progress.”"Why, then, are these five of our companions not bothered that the Church does not approve the death penalty or just war? The attitude of these cardinals is...