Free Republic

Pope Francis née Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who practices an ecclesiology tailored to the spirit of the times, could easily be mistaken as Joe Biden in a white cossack and skull cap. They share an imperious disposition that takes delight in overturning or diminishing the decrees of their predecessors, overregulate their administrations with orders and encyclicals, are vindictive in their treatment of ideological opponents, look unfavorably upon conservative American Catholics, believe their foundational documents are out of step with modern times, and are hell-bent on transforming their sovereignties. They are both vaccinistas pushing COVID jabs, and climate hypocrites unfazed by their...

In 2015, retired Catholic priest Paul-André Harvey from Quebec's Chicoutimi diocese pleaded guilty to 39 charges of indecent assault and gross indecency. Most of his victims were girls between the ages of eight and 10. Harvey was sentenced to six years in prison. But before Harvey died in prison, the defrocked priest did something extraordinary — he provided a confession for his victims to use in a class-action suit against the Catholic Church. He claimed that church officials were aware of his crimes for years. When complaints surfaced, Harvey says he was simply moved. Records show between 1963 and 2002,...

A.W. Richard Sipe was a former Benedictine monk and Catholic priest, trained as a psychotherapist to deal with the mental health problems of the clergy. However, over the years, his work with the records of over six thousand patients uncovered a pattern of behavior within the Church that eventually led him to exit the clergy and reveal the truth behind the sexual abuse of minors.

A would-be thief fired shots at a priest Monday morning after he caught two men trying to steal a catalytic converter outside St. Ignatius College Prep.

Why Harrison Butker Attends the Latin Mass and You Should TooOf all the Catholic truth bombs Harrison Butker dropped on the graduating class of Benedictine College in a commencement address that has generated almost two weeks of vilification and vitriol, one of the most powerful was his endorsement of the Traditional Latin Mass. As Butker explained, “I do not attend the TLM because I think I’m better than others, or for the smells and bells, or even for the love of Latin. I attend the TLM because I believe just as the God of the Old Testament was pretty particular...

Pope Francis said his conservative critics within the Roman Catholic Church in the United States are trapped in a "suicidal attitude," according to an interview with CBS. During the April 24 interview with "60 Minutes" that will air this Sunday, Pope Francis was asked his thoughts on the conservative backlash against his papacy, with many of his critics being American clergy members. Pope Francis responded by saying a conservative is someone who "clings to something and does not want to see beyond that." "It is a suicidal attitude," the pontiff said, according to a brief transcript excerpt made available by...

While the number of Catholics worldwide slightly increased from 2021 to 2022, new statistics show that the number of priests continues to decline. The Vatican released the 2024 Pontifical Yearbook and the 2022 Statistical Yearbook of the Church earlier this month. Edited by the Vatican Secretariat of State's Central Statistical Office, the publications are being distributed in bookstores and published by the Vatican Printing Press.The publications highlight "statistical data to assess the main trends affecting the evolution of the Catholic Church worldwide," reports Vatican News.The latest edition of the Statistical Yearbook shows the number of baptized Catholics in the world...

Joe Biden has the odd and at times inappropriate habit of crossing himself in public, political situations. Thus the self-described devout Catholic crossed himself while mentioning Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert -- then proceeded to attack her at length. On two occasions, Biden even crossed himself while interacting with Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, including once while Netanyahu was making a speech to Congress. Oy vey! On the Sunday edition of MSNBC's The Weekend, co-anchor Michael Steele, the former RNC Chairman turned member of the disgraced Lincoln Project, made like Biden. Steele sort of half-crossed himself in a discussion of North...

The Vatican declared in 2021 that same-sex relationships cannot be blessed because God “cannot bless sin.” And now less than three years later, Pope Francis has authorized blessings for same-sex couples. What exactly does Pope Francis want LGBTQ Catholics to do in response to his shocking declaration? The Pope has a huge responsibility to clarify his hopes and dreams for LGBTQ Catholics, especially since “some Catholic bishops in Africa, Poland and elsewhere say they will not implement the new Vatican policy allowing blessings for same-sex couples.”Does the Pope want these couples to view homosexual behavior as less sinful than fornication...

Pope Francis urged Vatican officials to avoid "rigid ideological positions" in a speech days after his recent approval of blessings for same-sex couples.Addressing the Holy See hierarchy in his annual Christmas greeting last Thursday, Francis emphasized the importance of evolving to serve the Catholic Church effectively."In our service here in the Curia too, it is important to keep faring forward, to keep searching and growing in our understanding of the truth, overcoming the temptation to stand still and never leave the 'labyrinth' of our fears," the bishop of Rome said. "Fear, rigidity and monotony make for an immobility that has...

According to much of what's read in the media and among some advocates, the Vatican's changed! It's finally come around to embracing the LGBTQ+ agenda, and is now offering blessings for gay couples for inclusivity's sake, and who knows, soon may be offering gay marriages! Here is some of the cheering from Christopher Lamb at CNN:With five words, uttered right at the beginning of his pontificate, Pope Francis changed the Catholic conversation about LGBTQ+ people. In 2013, when asked by a journalist about gay priests, the pope famously replied: “Who am I to judge?”Over the last decade the pope has...

Pope approves blessings for same-sex couples if they don't resemble marriage Story by By NICOLE WINFIELD and DAVID CRARY, Associated Press • 1h

Here is the entire memo... POTUS & POLITICAL WARFARE   May 2017   BACKGROUND.  The Trump administration is suffering under withering information campaigns designed to first undermine, then de legitimize and ultimately remove the President. Possibly confusing these attacks with an elevated interplay of otherwise normal D.C. partisan infighting and adversarial media relations, the White House response to these campaigns reflects a political advocacy mindset that it is intensely reactive, severely under-inclusive and dangerously inadequate to the threat. If action is not taken to re-scope and respond to these hostile campaigns very soon, the administration risks implosion and subsequent early...

Wait! Aren't Republicans the ones who inappropriately drag religion into politics? And surely no Democrat would ever perform a religious ritual as protection against the mention of a Republican's name? And yet . . . On Thursday, Nicolle Wallace's MSNBC show, with Alicia Menendez as substitute host, rolled tape of Biden crossing himself after he mentioned the name of Lauren Boebert. Menendez blithely said, without comment, that Biden "made the sign of the Cross at Boebert's name." Think MSNBC would be so nonchalant if a prominent Republican made the sign of the Cross at the mention of a Democrat's name?Get...

Twice, Burke has joined other conservative cardinals in issuing formal questions to the pontiff, known as “dubia,” asking him to clarify questions of doctrine that upset conservatives and traditionalists. In the first, they asked Francis to clarify his outreach to divorced and civilly remarried Catholics, and Francis never replied. In the second, they asked whether same-sex couples could receive church blessings — and received a conditional maybe in response.

The institution of the Catholic Church finds itself in a period of extraordinary crisis. An August 2018 grand jury report on clerical sex abuse in six Pennsylvania dioceses gave a detailed, often graphic account of decades of criminal offenses against minors by Catholic priests. Other states have since launched their own investigations. Evidence that church superiors—bishops, archbishops, and even popes—failed to address abuses effectively has only amplified the outrage. (snip) All of these tragedies are tinged with a sense of déjà vu. Similar patterns of abuse have been front-page news in the United States since an explosive 2002 investigation by...

A famous comedian has announced his conversion to Catholicism and repentance for what he characterized as a failure to show “Christ’s forgiveness” to those he disagreed with. Rob Schneider, a “Saturday Night Live” alumnus known for starring in the comedy movies “Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo” and “The Animal” as well as his multiple appearances in Adam Sandler movies, announced on X on Oct. 31 that he had converted to Catholicism. Schneider’s post, which coincided with his 60th birthday, began with a declaration that “I am the luckiest man in the world” and featured shout-outs to his wife, Patricia, and their...

The Catholic Church, like many ancient institutions, has a checkered past. Its record has been marred by the horrors of the Inquisition, its ambivalence towards the Nazis and the Holocaust, and its complicity in – and even cover-up of – child abuse by priests. To its credit, however, the Church – despite some lapses – has a long and consistent history of opposing slavery.That is the thesis of The Worst of Indignities: The Catholic Church on Slavery, the latest book by Paul Kengor. A professor at Grove City College, Kengor is the bestselling author of over a dozen works, such...

ROME—Pope Francis removed Bishop Joseph Strickland, one of the pope’s most vocal critics in the U.S. hierarchy, the Vatican said Saturday.The Vatican said that the pope had “relieved [the bishop] of the pastoral governance of the Diocese of Tyler,” Texas, and appointed Bishop Joe Vázquez of Austin as “apostolic administrator,” or acting bishop, of Tyler.“I’m saddened for the harm to the faithful but at peace in His Truth, stay Jesus Strong,” Strickland wrote via email on Saturday, in response to a request for comment. Asked about his plans, he replied: “Just praying for now.”Strickland’s firing follows a Vatican investigation this...

Vatican City (AFP) – LGBTQ rights campaigners welcomed a Vatican statement that transgender people can be baptised as a step towards a more inclusive Catholic Church, but denounced caveats that provide cover to those who object.In a document published on Wednesday, the powerful Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, one of the main departments that manages the affairs of the Holy See, said transgender believers can be baptised if it would not cause scandal or confusion.