Free Republic

Even as the universal Church grieves the death of Pope Francis and prepares for the conclave to elect his successor, Chinese authorities are moving forward with episcopal appointments, signaling their determination to operate independently of Rome. In the Diocese of Shanghai, Father Wu Jianlin was confirmed April 28 as auxiliary bishop, AsiaNews reported. The next day, officials in the Diocese of Xinxiang chose Father Li Janlin for the same role. Both selections were made through a state-managed process involving only a single candidate — an approach Beijing continues to use despite its 2018 agreement with the Vatican on episcopal appointments.The...

Officials from the Chinese Communist Party have once again arrested a bishop of the underground church in the latest targeted arrest aimed at preventing him from celebrating the Holy Week liturgies. According to AsiaNews, Bishop Peter Shao Zhumin was arrested on April 10, along with his aide Father Jiang Xu Nian. The pair were taken by officials from the National Security Bureau, and AsiaNews reports that their current location is unknown. Shao’s latest arrest came last Thursday, meaning that he has been taken away from his underground church community for Holy Week and Easter.

President Trump early Wednesday morning slammed the reverend at a National Cathedral prayer service for the inauguration who called on him to have mercy on transgender children and immigrant families. Trump, in a lengthy post on Truth Social, called Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde’s remarks “nasty” and not smart. “The so-called Bishop who spoke at the National Prayer Service on Tuesday morning was a Radical Left hard line Trump hater. She brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way. She was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart,” he said. “She failed to mention the...

An Episcopalian bishop who tried to lecture President Trump on his first full day in office has a history of attacking the commander-in-chief. Mariann Budde caused a stir inside the Washington National Cathedral on Tuesday as Trump attended the National Prayer Service. Budde, 65, made comments concerning LGBTQ people and undocumented migrants during the service, seemingly taking a jab at Trump and his policies. The bishop, who proudly puts her pronouns in her Instagram biography, is also pro-gay marriage and previously donated to the presidential campaign of Barack Obama. In a piece with the Washington Post in 2011, after being...

Pope Francis has appointed a new bishop to a Texas-based diocese who will replace a theologically conservative critic of the pontiff who was removed from office last year. The Catholic Diocese of Tyler announced last Friday that Francis appointed the Most Rev. Gregory Kelly, auxiliary bishop of Dallas, to lead the regional body. Kelly will fill the vacancy left after Francis removed Bishop Joseph E. Strickland, the former head of the diocese who had criticized the pontiff for some of his policies on LGBT issues and overall doctrine. “I am grateful to the Holy Father for this surprising pre-Christmas gift,...

Kentucky Bishop John Stowe has expressed his “dismay” over the overwhelming Catholic voter support for Donald Trump, insisting the U.S. Bishops should have warned Americans about the “danger” of the election. Stowe, a well-known liberal prelate, said the bishops should have issued a public statement of disagreement with Trump’s policies following the election, the way they did in the case of Joe Biden four years ago. There is the issue of Trump’s character, Stowe told Crux, an online Catholic news service, “and when somebody has such a flawed character that has been manifestly obvious throughout his previous presidency and the...

ROME — Conservative Bishop Joseph Strickland, who was ousted from his Texas diocese by Pope Francis in 2023, has rebuked his fellow U.S. bishops as “silent shepherds” for their failure to speak out against “false messages” coming out of the Vatican. In an open letter addressed to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) during their 2024 fall plenary assembly in Baltimore this week, Bishop Strickland repeatedly asks what it will take for the bishops to “finally speak up against the false messages constantly flowing from the Vatican under the leadership of Pope Francis”: Almost all of you “stood by...

Former Department of Defense official Kash Patel is being considered for several national security posts — including CIA director, a key GOP source told The Post on Monday. Patel, 44, previously served as a National Security Council official, senior adviser to the acting director of national intelligence and chief of staff to the secretary of defense. While President-elect Donald Trump has not officially arrived a decision about Patel’s final move, there has been “conversations” between the transition team and the former Trump official — with the majority of the discussions in Trump World being focused on the CIA, according to...

A regional body of The United Methodist Church has its third openly gay bishop, the first since the mainline Protestant denomination changed its rules to allow noncelibate homosexuals to be ordained. The Rev. Kristin Stoneking, a United Methodist studies professor at the Pacific School of Religion, was elected a bishop by the UMC Western Jurisdiction at their meeting held last week in Spokane, Washington.Stoneking was elected on the 11th ballot, receiving 65 votes out of 94 valid ballots cast. For that ballot, she needed to receive at least 63 votes, according to UM News. Her term of service begins on...

[Catholic Caucus] Leading Italian bishop, Vatican newspaper pay tribute to ‘Via Crucis of a Gay Boy’The Vatican newspaper has published Bishop Francesco Savino’s preface to Via Crucis di un ragazzo gay [Via Crucis of a Gay Boy], a new book by Luigi Testa, an Italian law professor.Appointed a bishop in 2015, Bishop Savino has been the vice president of the Italian Episcopal Conference since 2022. Father Sergio Massironi, an official of the Dicastery for the Promoting Integral Human Development, contributed an afterword to the book.In conjunction with Bishop Savino’s preface—which focused more on the prelate’s own reflections than on the...

[Catholic Caucus] BREAKING: Pope Francis reportedly set to ask Bishop Strickland to resignBishop Strickland has been widely praised by faithful Catholics for his promotion of traditional Catholic teaching.VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Pope Francis met with Vatican officials over the weekend to discuss asking Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, to resign, according to a report on Monday by The Pillar.Pope Francis met on Saturday with Archbishop Robert Prevost, OSA, the head of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Bishops, and Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States.The Pillar reported that several sources close to the dicastery told the outlet ahead...

[Catholic Caucus] Vatican appoints heterodox, pro-LGBT bishop to investigate sexual abuse cases in SwitzerlandArchbishop Carlo Maria Viganò criticized the Vatican over its appointment of Bishop Joseph Bonnemain, who is known for his pro-LGBT positions, to investigate sexual abuse cases and alleged cover-ups by clerics in Switzerland.The Vatican has appointed pro-LGBT Bishop Joseph Maria Bonnemain to investigate the sexual abuse cases and their alleged cover-up by clerics in Switzerland. Earlier this year, the former vicar general of Lausanne, Geneva, and Fribourg, Father Nicolas Betticher, brought forth accusations against several Swiss bishops, the local newspaper Blick reported. One unnamed active member of...

The Last Italian Bishop Present at Vatican II DiesArticles by Borgo Pio from La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana, (18 July 2023 and 19 July 2023, originals in Italian)The funeral of Bishop Emeritus Msgr. Luigi Bettazzi, who died last Sunday at age 99, will be held today in Ivrea Cathedral, celebrated by his current successor Msgr. Edoardo Cerrato. Born in 1923, Msgr. Bettazzi was the only Italian bishop still alive to have participated in the Second Vatican Council (he was consecrated bishop in 1963, as auxiliary of Bologna, later becoming ordinary of Ivrea in 1966).He was the last Italian exponent of Vatican...

Peaceful protesters have been refused entry to worship at York Minster, while climate activists were allowed to enter with placards in hand, according to Christian group Where’s Welby.While conducting a protest to highlight what the group say is the Archbishop of Canterbury’s absence from providing a moral lead on issues like abortion, protesters say they were informed they had been banned from attending public worship.Members of the group in attendance have described their shock to be informed that the York Minster police had banned them, as they had disrupted services previously.The force is a unique cathedral constabulary with limited...

The Bishop of Orihuela-Alicante, Monsignor José Ignacio Munilla, has returned to the fray against the President of the Popular Party (PP), Alberto Núñez Feijóo, for defending abortion. Munilla has been openly criticising both the PP and its national president for several months for abandoning the defence of life and bowing to the dogmas and parameters of the left.

Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.) on Tuesday became the first House Republican to publicly approve of forcing Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) out of his position as speaker over the debt ceiling deal he reached with President Joe Biden. Bishop was the only Republican at a House Freedom Caucus press conference Tuesday to raise his hand to signal that he would support ousting McCarthy over the deal, which conservative Republicans say does not cut enough spending and raises the debt limit too much. "I think it’s got to be done," Bishop said after the press conference, The Hill reported.

The husband of a housekeeper for the Catholic bishop found shot to death over the weekend in his Hacienda Heights home was arrested for the slaying on Monday, Feb. 20, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said. A tipster had told authorities that the suspect, Carlos Medina, who had also previously worked for Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell in some capacity, had been behaving oddly and claimed the bishop owed him money, the sheriff said.

Los Angeles homicide detectives are investigating the shooting death of a Catholic bishop in his home as parishioners mourn the man described as "a peacemaker with a heart for the poor and the immigrant." Auxiliary Bishop David O'Connell was found dead in his home in the Hacienda Heights neighborhood Saturday, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said. Deputies found O'Connell after responding to an emergency call shortly before 1 p.m., Deputy Lizette Falcon told CNN. "It is a shock and I have no words to express my sadness," Archbishop of Los Angeles José H Gomez said in a statement announcing...

Auxiliary bishop David O’Connell of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles was shot to death Saturday afternoon in Los Angeles, authorities have confirmed. Bishop O’Connell, 69, who was found dead in a room with a gunshot wound to his upper torso, was killed just before 1:00pm, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said.

auren Pozen reports from Hacienda Heights, where authorities are investigating the fatal shooting of David O'Connell, the Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.