Free Republic

Cardinal Maradiaga has condemned military action against ISIS.

You might say—many commentators have said—that with the quick Vatican smackdown of Cardinal Sarah's proposal for ad orientem worship, Rome has spoken and the case is closed. I disagree. On the contrary, Cardinal Sarah has reopened a much-needed discussion about how to increase reverence in the liturgy. His address to a conference in London caused what that city's Catholic Herald is describing in this week's cover headline as A liturgical earthquake. Ten days ago no one was talking about celebrating Mass ad orientem. Now that option is being widely discussed, even in secular media outlets. Cardinal Sarah was not issuing...

Translation of an interview with the prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, published by the French magazine Famille Chretienne.Editor’s Note: The French magazine Famille Chretienne published an online interview with Cardinal Robert Sarah of Guinea on May 23. The following is a Register-commissioned translation from the original French. Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments, calls us to a serious reflection on the Eucharist. He also invites priests and the faithful to turn and “orient” themselves towards the East, “the Orient” — that is, to Christ. Several weeks...

Cardinal Robert Sarah made the comments in an exclusive interview with Famille ChrétienneThe Vatican’s liturgy chief has called on priests to celebrate Mass facing east. In an interview with the French Catholic magazine Famille Chrétienne, Cardinal Robert Sarah said that the Second Vatican Council did not require priests to celebrate Mass facing the people. This way of celebrating Mass, he said, was “a possibility, but not an obligation”. Readers and listeners should face each other during the Liturgy of the Word, he said. “But as soon as we reach the moment when one addresses God – from the Offertory onwards...

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is a "satanic terrorist group." Those were the words of Cdl. Kurt Koch of Germany on Tuesday at the International Ecumenical Congress held in his country near Stuttgart. The German cardinal, one of the few remaining orthodox prelates in Germany, told his audience it's wrong to believe violent persecutions of Christians are a thing of the past. Instead, he pointed out how there are plenty of martyrs for the Faith today, specifically because of ISIS. "In about 25 countries Christians are under threat of life and limb," observed Cdl. Koch. Hence, it is...

The Prefect of the CDF, Cardinal Gerhard Müller, has criticized in Regensburg on Tuesday a "climate of the German claim to leadership for the whole universal Church". At a book presentation, he pointed out the high number of people leaving the church, the deserted confessionals and empty seminars and religious houses in Germany. Often he has been asked from where the establishment of the so-called "German Church" derives the claim to be pacemaker for the universal Church with all the symptoms of a dramatic decline precisely on questions of sexual morality and the Catholic teaching on marriage.

In the past week or so, the outright mean, un-Christian-like actions of two bishops, Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston and Bishop Paul Bootkoski of Metuchen have been all over the news. If you have time, you should write or call both of them and ask them to apologize for their actions that have harmed innocent people. First, there was Cardinal O’Malley firing a janitor, a pastor, a school principal and a second-grade teacher because the janitor used the same bathroom that an elementary school student used and no one reported the fact that no crime and nothing inappropriate happened to...

As noted here, "Immaculate Heart of Mary School of Still River, MA has withdrawn its marching band and float of Saint Patrick from this year’s Saint Patrick’s Day Parade after learning that a small homosexual activist group will be allowed to march while publicly identifying its homosexuality. The school is compelled by the teachings of the Catholic Church to pull out. According to the Principal, Brother Thomas Dalton, 'Catholics are forbidden to sponsor or even participate in an event which openly promotes unnatural and immoral behavior. The Church will never accept nor condone same sex marriage and the homosexual life...

Writing for his column in New York Catholic, Cardinal Timothy Dolan complains that he is receiving much criticism for deciding to serve as Grand Marshall in next year's St. Patrick's Day parade which will feature homosexuals marching under their own banner. The Cardinal writes, I haven’t been in this much hot water since I made the comment, right after I arrived as your archbishop five-and-a-half years ago, that Stan Musial—my boyhood hero of my hometown St. Louis Cardinals—was a much better ballplayer than Joe DiMaggio! Now I’m getting as much fiery mail and public criticism over my decision to accept...

His Eminence Antonio Cardinal Canizares Llovera, Prefect Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments Piazza Pio XII 10 00193, Rome Italy Your Eminence; I am a Catholic in good standing and a member of the faithful in the Diocese of Worcester in the state of Massachusetts, U.S.A. I bring to you a serious concern that I and others have been unable to have properly addressed by His Excellency, The Most Rev. Robert J. McManus, Bishop of the Worcester Diocese There is an extensive lack of respect and devotion toward Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. Indeed, it...

"Who am I to judge?" makes a triumphant entry in the American subset of the College of Cardinals, in an interview granted to the highest-rated political debate program on US television, to be broadcast tomorrow: Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York praised University of Missouri football star Michael Sam for coming out as gay, saying he would not judge the athlete for his sexual orientation. "Good for him," Dolan said in an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press" airing Sunday. "I would have no sense of judgment on him," Dolan continued. "God bless ya. I don't think, look, the same...

ROME, January 21, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The secular media is abuzz with comments from Archbishop Fernando Sebastián Aguilar, recently named as a cardinal-elect by Pope Francis, that homosexuality is a mental disorder that can be treated. Sebastián told the Spanish newspaper Diario Sur on Monday that: “Homosexuality is a defective manner of expressing sexuality, because [sex] has a structure and a purpose, which is procreation.” “A homosexual who can’t achieve procreation is failing,” he said. “Our bodies have many defects. I have high blood pressure, a defect I have to try and correct in whatever way I can.” “To say...

News Print Article | Email Friend | Reprint Permissions Cardinal: Replacing mom and dad with ‘Parent 1 and 2’ will send an ‘earthquake’ through society by Hilary White, Rome Correspondent Fri Sep 13, 2013 14:49 EST Tags: carlo caffarra, family, homosexuality ROME, September 13, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Replacing terms like mother and father with “Parent 1 and Parent 2” is not an innocuous defense of “equality” but the beginning of a complete re-write of Italian society, a prominent Italian cardinal said this week. Changing the categories of family life and genealogy could send “a real earthquake” through the social structure....

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A South African cardinal who helped elect Pope Francis this week has told the BBC pedophilia is an illness and not a crime. Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier, the Catholic Archbishop of Durban, told BBC Radio 5 on Saturday that pedophilia was a "disorder" that needed to be treated. "From my experience, pedophilia is actually an illness. It's not a criminal condition, it's an illness," he said. Napier said he knew of at least two priests who became pedophiles after they were abused as children. "Now don't tell me that those people are criminally responsible like somebody who...

The first days of his papacy to Pope Francis, the archbishop of Buenos Aires elected Pope with the white smoke on Wednesday evening began with a visit to the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.

Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio has had a growing reputation as a very spiritual man with a talent for pastoral leadership serving in a region with the largest number of the world’s Catholics. Since 1998, he has been archbishop of Buenos Aires, where his style is low-key and close to the people. He rides the bus, visits the poor, lives in a simple apartment and cooks his own meals. To many in Buenos Aires, he is known simply as “Father Jorge.” He also has created new parishes, restructured the administrative offices, led pro-life initiatives and started new pastoral programs, such as...

Drudge says Argentina gets pope

A few days ago Cardinal Meisner was speculating that it would be good for a man as young as 45 to be Pope. The youngest Cardinal happens to be 55 and formerly an Auxiliary Bishop in the Cardinal's Archdiocese of Cologne. Step forward Cardinal Woelki (55), seen above at his introduction to the See of Berlin, at which none other than Cardinal Meisner preached. Cardinal Marx of Munich is also to be seen concelebrating. It is not too much a leap to see the hand of Cardinal Meisner in the early promotion and indeed the red hat for Cardinal Woelki.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, will participate in the conclave, though he is 80 years old in two days. He will thus be the oldest of the Papal voters. The German cardinal is presently the most heavyweight representative of the progressive cardinals who flag up an anti-Ratzinger pontificate. The former assistant to Hans Küng was removed in 1999 by John Paul II as Bishop of the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart and transported to Rome, where he was until 2010 President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. (Cathcon- what a pair Cardinal Lehmann, research assistant to Karl Rahner and Cardinal Kasper, assistant...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Hungarian Cardinal Peter Erdo ministers from the heart of Europe, but with a concern and contacts that span the globe. Hungarian Cardinal Peter Erdo of Esztergom-Budapest is among the cardinals eligible to vote in the upcoming conclave. He is pictured at the Vatican in this 2012 file photo. The 60-year-old archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest, Cardinal Erdo serves as the president of the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences, coordinating common projects on the continent as well as European church support for Catholic communities in the developing world