Free Republic

Although a Catholic legislator’s vote in favor of legalizing abortion still falls short of the “formal cooperation” that carries with it automatic ex-communication, the church still considers such a vote a stain on the legislator’s soul. As such, unless he confesses his sin and does penance for it, he may not receive communion without committing the second mortal sin of sacrilege, a point that many American bishops and priests seem to have forgotten.After months of accusing Republicans of using “phony, trumped-up culture wars” to divide the electorate, the Democrats have chosen abortion, the mother of all culture war issues, as...

Catholics are seeking help from Attorney General Merrick Garland after plans surfaced that leftwing protestors who want abortion on demand to remain the law of the land will show up at churches on Mother’s Day to protest the U.S. Supreme Court’s draft opinion on overturning Roe v. Wade. The national Catholic advocacy group CatholicVote has asked Garland to enforce the law and protect churches from threats from people who have already vandalized churches and clashed with police at protests.

Pope Francis, a leading advocate of Doormat Christianity, is at it again. Although it is traditional for papal podiums to depict the crucifix, during his recent visit to the island of Malta, Pope Francis ditched the cross lest it offend Muslim migrants. As the archdiocese of Malta openly admitted, “The podium will not be adorned with a crucifix, given that the majority of migrants are Muslim.” Instead, the podium backdrop used by Francis consisted of recycled plastic bottles with red blobs meant to highlight the two primary reasons Francis was visiting Malta — to defend migrants and the environment. “When...

“Baptism and Growth in Communion”The Fifth Phase of the Lutheran-Roman Catholic Commission on Unity (2008-2019) has now come to its official conclusion with the completion of the document Baptism and Growth in Communion.In a joint preamble, the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU) state that Baptism and Growth in Communion “includes important pneumatological impulses for ongoing theological and ecclesiological discussion. It makes a significant step in proposing a differentiating consensus on baptism.”At the same time, the preamble mentions still different views when it continues: Baptism and Growth in Communion “was studied and received...

ABUJA, Nigeria, March 28, 2022 (Morning Star News) – Fulani herdsmen on Thursday (March 24) killed an estimated 50 Christians and abducted a Catholic priest in attacks on communities in an area of Kaduna state, Nigeria, area sources said. In late-night attacks on 10 predominantly Christian communities of Giwa County, herdsmen and others also took about 100 people captive and burned down a church building, area residents said. “They also burned houses, stores and killed animals,” resident Nuhu Musa told Morning Star News by text message. “These attacks continued and lasted up to the morning of Friday, 25 March. They...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) joked that the Catholic Church would "like to throw me out" due to her support of abortion rights during an event at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library Tuesday night, The Daily Wire reports."It isn't about 'What is your religious belief?' It's 'What is the right of people to make their own decisions about the sizing and time — or if — they're going to have a family," Pelosi said, her hands visibly shaking. "This really gets me burned up — in case you didn't notice — because, again, I'm very Catholic. Devout, practicing, all...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—This Lent, devout Catholic Joe Biden has announced that he is giving up coherent speaking for the next 40 days. It's traditional for Catholics to give up some mortal pleasure during the 40 days preceding Easter, and Biden is no exception to the custom. "Ffffor -- for the n-next, next 40,000 - excuse me - 40 hundred days, I will be giving up, you know, the thing," he said during his State of the Union address this evening. "The speaking of... of the -- the Eng, English wordle - begyerpardon - English word things, I'm giving all that up,...

Thirteen Catholic lawmakers in the U.S. Senate voted Monday in favor of a failed attempt to pass a sweeping new abortion law that threatened to override states’ pro-life laws and remove restrictions on abortion up to the point of birth, in some cases. Their support of the defeated bill, called the Women’s Health Protection Act, placed them sharply at odds with the clear teaching of their Catholic faith, which strictly prohibits abortion and condemns efforts to promote it. Church leaders and Catholic pro-life advocates were quick to criticize the senators’ votes after the measure was defeated on Feb. 28. “Catholics...

Pope Francis writes to controversial nun, thanking her for 50 years of LGBTQ ministryPope Francis has sent an encouraging letter to an American nun thanking her for her 50 years of ministry to LGBTQ Catholics, more than two decades after she was investigated and censured by the Vatican for her work.In his letter dated Dec. 10, Francis wrote that Sister Jeannine Gramick has not been afraid of “closeness” and without condemning anyone had the “tenderness” of a sister and a mother. “Thank you, Sister Jeannine, for all your closeness, compassion and tenderness,” he wrote.He also noted her “suffering ... without...

[Catholic Caucus] Deemed "satanist", the musician Anna von Hausswolff deprogrammed in Paris after Nantes under pressure from CatholicsA hundred traditional Catholics prevented Tuesday evening the holding in Nantes of a concert by a Swedish artist they consider "satanist". In the process, the Parisian church of Saint-Eustache also canceled the performance of Anna von Hausswolff scheduled for Thursday.The "Hail Mary" got the better of rock. The Parisian church of Saint-Eustache announced this Wednesday on its site that it has canceled the performance of Anna von Hausswolff scheduled for Thursday at 7 p.m. Tuesday evening, it is a group of a hundred...

It is a fundamental doctrine of the Catholic Church that life begins at conception and ends at natural death and that an abortion ending human life is a grave sin, as is funding and promoting abortions. . It is also a fundamental doctrine of the Catholic Church that when presenting themselves to receive Holy Communion they should not be in a state of grave mortal sin. Yet here was the Vicar of Christ receiving President Joe Biden without any public rebuke or condemnation of Joe Biden, our second Catholic President, for his support of abortion on demand and its funding...

“Dear God, I ask you that you help me get out of here and that you take care of my mom.”That’s a prayer that the bishop of El Paso, Texas brought to a meeting of 20 Catholic bishops and Vatican officials. It’s a child’s prayer, written in Spanish, collected from a migrant in a tent city south of the border. It’s heart-wrenching; there’s no soul as innocent as a child’s, and in this simple plea, it shows.But there’s no peace coming to children like these; not right now, in this moment — at least not in this world.The images flickering...

The Vatican will require all visitors and personnel to show a COVID-19 pass proving they have been vaccinated, have recovered from the coronavirus, or have tested negative for the disease in order to enter the city state beginning Oct. 1. To enter Vatican territory, tourists and other visitors, employees, and officials will be required to show a digital or paper Covid Certificate issued by the Vatican or another country, according to an ordinance published Sept. 20. The president of Vatican City State, Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello, issued the ordinance at the request of Pope Francis, who asked “to take all appropriate...

A French priest with a history of campaigning against gay rights faces a Catholic Church trial over allegations that he sexually assaulted men to “heal” their homosexuality. Msgr. Tony Anatrella, a Vatican adviser and psychotherapist, will stand trial in church court after multiple allegations of abuse and inappropriate sexual relationships with his male clients, per the National Catholic Reporter.

Members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops are trying to clarify their position and deal with the confusion caused by their announcement last week that they would create a teaching document on the Holy Eucharist or the meaning of Communion. The statement caused many to speculate that the church was looking to deny President Joe Biden and other pro-abortion Catholic politicians from receiving Communion.The speculation was misplaced, said the bishops.“There will be no national policy on withholding Communion from politicians,” the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said in a Q&A document dated June 21.“The intent is to present a...

Will the church view the culture war through the gospel, or will it view the gospel through the culture war? One approach is biblical. The other is deadly.Thanks to a communion controversy being clarified by the U.S. Catholic bishops and a continued insistence by President Joe Biden that his public actions are actually deeply personal matters, abortion is the issue of the day — and with it, questions of religious faithfulness.Corporate media are teaming up with nominal Catholics to smear the faithful as bad-faith political actors, while traditional Catholics work to convince an unconvinceable political class that their deeply held...

We're always skeptical of polls, but this one confirms what I hear from the people I go to Mass with. This is from Catholic Vote:CatholicVote released a poll Tuesday showing a strong majority of Mass-attending Catholics believe politicians who oppose Church teaching should not present themselves for Communion.The poll found that 83% of churchgoing Catholics believe politicians who oppose Catholic teachings "create confusion and disunity."74% believe that "Catholic public officials who disagree with their Church on serious or grave matters" should "avoid creating confusion and disunity by not presenting themselves for communion...."The polling data comes just before the U.S. Bishops...

Ceremonies blessing same-sex unions by German Catholic priests this week represent a challenge to the Vatican from which it dare not shrink.The German Catholics are at it again. Catholic priests across Germany have been blessing same-sex unions this week in open defiance of the Vatican, which explicitly forbade such practices in March, reflecting long-settled and unchangeable Church doctrine.According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, such ceremonies have been conducted in private for years, but this year liberal German priests are doing it in public, sometimes inside their churches, in an effort to publicize the issue and push for...

United States bishops are considering formalizing their opposition to pro-abortion Catholic politicians receiving communion as they continue to speak out against President Joe Biden, a Catholic, over his support for abortion. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, scheduled to hold a national meeting in June, is considering approving a draft document that would advise Catholic politicians who support abortion not to receive communion. The consideration of the document comes as Biden continues to advocate for liberal abortion policies that directly conflict with the teachings of his faith, specifically, that all human life is sacred from natural conception until natural death....

On day before Joe Biden became president, a federal court in North Dakota defended Roman Catholic health care providers from an Obamacare mandate forcing doctors and nurses to perform experimental transgender surgeries that violate Roman Catholic convictions. Yet on Tuesday, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) appealed that decision, seeking to enforce the transgender mandate on Catholic health care providers. Luke Goodrich, vice president and senior counsel at the religious freedom law firm Becket, which represents the Catholic health care providers, noted the tragic irony of an administration headed by a Catholic president targeting the religious freedom of...