Free Republic

[Catholic Caucus] Catholic laity grow in number as priests and seminarians continue declineThe trends of recent years have been repeated, with growth especially found in Africa while Europe stagnates.Seminarians at Oscott Catholic College in Birmingham, England, November 9, 2013.The number of Catholics globally has increased but priests and seminarians continue to decline, according to the latest figures released by the Vatican.Catholics now number 1.406 billion globally, according to the Vatican. The figures form part of the annual statistics on the state of the Church, and cover the time period from 2022 to the end of 2023.The trends of recent years...

[Catholic Caucus] ‘Have an abortion’: Alleged Rupnik victims detail abuse as Vatican slowly investigatesOver 500 days since Pope Francis was effectively shamed into opening an investigation into Father Marco Rupnik, alleged victims of the priest have revealed shocking new details of the abuse they accuse him of.Over 500 days since Pope Francis was effectively shamed into opening an investigation into Father Marco Rupnik, alleged victims of the priest have revealed shocking new details of the abuse they accuse him of.Painting his notorious icons naked from the waist down, raping the women under his charge, and telling one former nun to...

[Catholic Caucus] Rupnik scandal, it's time to shed light on De Donatis' roleThe former Vicar of Rome, Cardinal De Donatis, is also the Superior of the Convent of Montefiolo. The nuns are about to move out and the controversial Slovenian priest, one of the cardinal's protégés, is being welcomed. The Holy See must clarify the situation. - Rupnik occupies a convent near Rome. Card. De Donatis is directorThere has been no official judgement by the Church on the acts committed by Don Marko Ivan Rupnik and, on closer inspection, no trial has even been opened. According to what the Prefect...

The Left Is Right: Clericalism Is the Problemp/c Remnant MagazineThe leftists who hijacked the hierarchy since the 1960s (and especially since 2013) state that the main problem in the Catholic Church today is “clericalism.” They condemn anything maintained by traditional Catholics that still delineates between the clerical state and the lay state. For example, they believe even something as innocent as the cassock must be deemed a sign of arrogance and “rigorism.” Like Marxists have always done, their thrust is to blur the lines between Holy Orders and marriage… so as to destroy both sacraments.But it is precisely the leftists...

“The anti-liturgical obsession is an ideology that canonically becomes a tyranny”: Archbishop Héctor AguerI celebrated my first Mass on November 26, 1972. I did it using the rite then in force, the one created by Paul VI, whose author was the Freemason Annibale Bugnini. The Mass was In Spanish, of course, though the secret prayers of the celebrant survived in Latin.It had never occurred to me to resort to the "Mass of the Ages." The one we prayed at the Seminary every year of my formation, with the novelty that it was -- in the chapel of the philosophate, daily...

[Catholic Caucus] 2,800 Catholics sign Traditional Latin Mass petition delivered to Arlington bishopNearly 2,800 supporters of the Traditional Latin Mass have signed a petition addressed to Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington. The organizer tells CNA he delivered that petition to the bishop’s office on Monday. The document asks Burbidge to lift restrictions he recently imposed on the celebration of the sacraments in the Extraordinary Form. “In the spirit of the Synodal Path that the church has embarked upon, we humbly ask that you engage in consultations with the faithful of each parish church potentially affected by restrictions on the Traditional...

[Catholic Caucus] The Church's Troubling View of the Laity Throughout his pontificate, Pope Francis has frequently spoken out against "clericalism", which he views as one of the preeminent problems in the Church today. The irony is that the Franciscan pontificate evidences a profoundly clericalist mindset, especially in how the pope has dealt with the traditional Catholic movement.For example, in the letter that accompanied Traditiones Custodes, Pope Francis directed bishops "to discontinue the erection of new personal parishes tied more to the desire and wishes of individual priests than to the real need of the 'holy People of God.'" I...

Orbán Baits Francis on Islamic ImmigrationBUDAPEST, Hungary (ChurchMilitant.com) - Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is punching back after Pope Francis retracted a diplomatic snub and agreed to meet with Hungary's rulers on his forthcoming trip to celebrate Holy Mass at the Eucharistic Congress in September. Orbán with György Jakubinyi, archbishop of Alba Iulia In a Sunday interview with Croatian Catholic weekly Glas Koncila, the Christian politician, who has been disparaged by Pope Francis as a populist and nationalist, dismissed reports of Francis' refusal to meet him on the Hungary papal visit as "false news." Attributing media reports first published by faithful...

We Must Obey Francis - Especially When It Comes To the Traditional Latin Mass. By Father Franz Paprovich*By now everybody knows it. The Traditional Latin Mass is as good as abolished. Of course, I will obey the Pope and make his directives my own. He is a role model for me, especially in the liturgy - and therefore I will act entirely in his spirit.The Pope has been telling us many times that we should be freed from the rigidity of the law and also from idealisms that do no good. We are not servants of the letter, but enjoy...

US bishop tries to oust yet another faithful priest in what appears to be a patternFr. James Parker said he was told he can no longer live in a diocese rectory, and was given no clear reason as to why, despite claims of the diocese that he denied an offer of residence.BATAVIA, Illinois, June 11, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — A faithful, tradition-minded and beloved priest has been ousted from his Illinois church without reassignment or clear explanation, and has been denied residence in any diocese rectory.Hundreds of Catholics have been rallying to the defense of Fr. James Parker in recent weeks...

Pontifical Academy Rips Faithful Catholic Scientist In response to criticism of pandemic document VATICAN CITY (ChurchMilitant.com) - The Vatican has launched a personal attack on a Catholic scientist after she shredded a pontifical publication for portraying "an earthly utopia without God."Dr. Doyen Nguyen Dr. Doyen Nguyen, an academic physician and moral theologian with specializations in diagnostic hematology and bioethics, slammed the Pontifical Academy for Life's (PAL) document titled "Humana Communitas in the Age of Pandemic: Untimely Meditations on Life's Rebirth" as godless, Christless, churchless, hopeless and faithless. PAL lashed out at her in a tweet, refusing to addressing the scientist-theologian as Dr. Nguyen: "Mrs....

City authorities claim that Cardinal Antonio Cañizares broke strict coronavirus lockdown regulations. VALENCIA, May 12, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — A Spanish cardinal has found himself under police scrutiny for having given a blessing and briefly exposing an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the front entrance of a basilica on the occasion of the city’s annual feast day. City authorities claim that Cardinal Antonio Cañizares broke strict coronavirus lockdown regulations when he stood at the entrance to the Basilica de la Virgen de los Desamparado displaying the image and blessing the city of Valencia on the feast of Our Lady...

Francis, the Good Boss “Who Doesn't Want To Fire Anyone.” But the Facts Say the Opposite The all-out war that flared up starting on May 3, in Italy, between minister of justice Alfonso Bonafede and the magistrate Nino Di Matteo, both belonging to the justicialist wing of politics and the magistrature, has obscured what happened at the Vatican in the days immediately beforehand, with Pope Francis as protagonist, there too in the name of the most unbridled justicialism.In Argentina, “justicialista” was the name of the party created by Juan Domingo Perón, the leader whom Jorge Mario Bergoglio fervently supported in...

[Catholic Caucus] Martinsville priest refuses to sign order to silence from the Catholic Diocese of Richmond Father Mark White said he wasn't allowed to review a document read aloud to him by church officials a day after he had met with the bishop. That truce reached last week in a dispute between a Martinsville priest and a Richmond bishop that preserved the priest’s job now appears to have been short-lived.About 24 hours after that meeting last Wednesday, Father Mark White, priest of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Martinsville and St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Rocky Mount, was visited...

[Catholic Caucus] Victim calls on Vatican to remove US bishop who blackmailed him to keep silent about sex abuse CROOKSTON, Minnesota, February 5, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – An abuse victim is calling on the Vatican to remove a U.S. bishop who the victim says blackmailed him into keeping silent about how a priest in the diocese allegedly abused the victim when he was a teen.  Bishop Michael Hoeppner is the first Catholic bishop to be investigated under new sexual abuse guidelines issued by Pope Francis last year. Court evidence reveals that Bishop Hoeppner, of the diocese of Crookston in Minnesota,...

[Catholic Caucus] Excusing Priestly Sexual Misconduct as ‘Consensual’ Houston's Cdl. Daniel DiNardo downplaying monsignor's abuse of trust and power The Catholic hierarchy's use of the "consensual sex" card to justify priestly misconduct has been thrown on the table once again, this time after a Texas woman was taken advantage of emotionally, spiritually and physically by a priest serving as her spiritual counselor.  Msgr. Frank Rossi Laura Pontikes, a 55-year-old construction executive in Texas, had been suffering from long-term depression and problems in her marriage when she sought help from Msgr. Frank Rossi, then-vicar general and deputy to Cdl. Daniel DiNardo in the Galveston-Houston Archdiocese....

[Catholic Caucus] Pope Francis: Clericalism Began with the Apostles ROME — Christians must embrace the “imbalance” of the gospel rather than trying to put everything in order, Pope Francis said Thursday, which leads to a “dictatorship of functionalism.” It is an error to try to “fix” things and impose order on the world or the Church, the pope told participants in a diocesan assembly in Rome, adding that it is a “temptation” to think we can “reorganize the city, reorganize the diocese, put everything in order.” Having everything in order converts the Church into a “museum,” Francis said, which would...

Vatican would deny papal blessing to politician strongly against illegal immigration May 6, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – The Vatican would deny a papal blessing to Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini because of his strong policies on illegal immigration, a close aide to Pope Francis said, putting the Catholic government official on the par with an abortion provider and Venezuelan dictators. Cardinal Konrad Krajewski said papal blessings can be requested for religious events such as First Communions, Confirmations, weddings, and anniversaries, Breitbart’s Thomas Williams reported, but cannot be given to someone if it would create scandal. “But we do not give these...

[Catholic Caucus] The Fight Against Clericalism Takes a Dangerous Turn “Clericalism” has been a favorite buzzword of Pope Francis almost since the inception of his pontificate. He wields it like a Swiss army knife, applying it to every problem he doesn’t have a sufficient alternative explanation for. (There’s also not a little irony in his use of the term, but that’s par for the course.) Most recently, he leveled the vaguely-defined charge of clericalism at the sexual abuse crisis. In his “Letter to the People of God” in August of 2018, Francis said that “Clericalism, whether fostered by priests themselves or by lay persons,...

The Holy Father has sent a simple message to the Italian Minister of the Interior, Matteo Salvini: he will not meet him in a private audience until he opens the Italian ports to the 'refugees'. Never in recent history have relations between the Curia and a ruler of the country that surrounds them everywhere, been so tense, Italy. In the past elections, His Holiness clearly showed the side from which his political sympathies fell, and his disappointment at the victory of the 'strange couple', 5 Stars and League Movement. Especially this second and the aggressive anti-immigration policy of its leader...