Free Republic

Henry Sire Backs Rumours: Francis Seriously Ill“As the New Year approaches, I should mention that many Vatican insiders say that Francis is ill with cancer and has limited time left,” the historian Henry Sire wrote on Twitter.com (December 27).LifeSiteNews.com journalist Maike Hickson has also heard these persistent rumours from her Vatican contacts,“Cardinals are said to be meeting in preparation for a future conclave. God finally is the author of life, and He will decide. We keep praying for Francis and resist his errors,” she comments.

What is behind the papal strangulation of the old Mass? By Fr Christopher Basden, Parish Priest of Ramsgate, England. Since the Pope’s recent brutal and unmerciful constriction of the traditional Latin Mass, many have been shocked by its unusual severity and questioned what motivates it. Liberal Catholic friends respond that it lacks the inclusivity that a broad Church demands. Friends from beyond the confines of Catholicism scratch their heads; this is the classic Roman ritual which for 1 ½ millennia was the inspiration of countless works of music, literature and art. One of the loveliest personal memories I have...