Free Republic

Why Catholics should use preferred gender pronouns and namesNames play an important role in the Catholic tradition. At the celebration of baptism, the first question posed to the parents is "What name do you give this child?" At confirmation, it is customary for the confirmation candidate to select and embrace the name of a patron saint. Many members of religious congregations adopt a new name as part of their religious profession, even when their "legal" names (on government documents like birth certificates) do not reflect it. Clergy and religious alike take on new titles and appellations such as "Father," "Sister,"...

[Catholic Caucus] Pro-LGBT German bishop: ‘Nothing will be the same’ in Church after Amazon Synod ESSEN, Germany, May 3, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – A pro-homosexual German bishop has predicted that sweeping changes to the Catholic Church regarding sexual morality, the male priesthood, and priestly celibacy will follow the next Vatican-run meeting of bishops planned for later this year. According to Katholische.de, the official website of the German Catholic Bishops, Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck, the ordinary of Germany’s Essen diocese, told reporters that the October Synod in Rome will lead to a “break” in the Church and that “nothing will be the same...

A prominent Austrian Catholic philosopher has issued a forceful rebuttal to the call of a new member of the Pontifical Academy for Life to allow contraception in some circumstances. Professor Josef Seifert, co-founder of the International Academy of Philosophy (IAP) and a former member of the Pontifical Academy for Life, has said the positions of Fr. Maurizio Chiodi, delivered on Dec. 14, 2017 during a public lecture at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, contain “disastrous general philosophical errors that have been magisterially and forcefully rejected by Pope John Paul II in Veritatis Splendor.” As LifeSite reported on Monday, the...

Pope Francis was elected with a mandate to undertake institutional reform of the Vatican. But as curial reform has proved difficult, Francis seems to have made it a lower priority. Meanwhile, the corruption and inefficiency of the Curia have not prevented him from pursuing his higher priorities. Increasingly, when he has his own ends in view, Francis simply goes around the Curia—for good and ill. In four years as pope, Francis has instituted a deeply personal (some might say autocratic) regime that is without precedent in living memory. While the popes have always been absolute monarchs—at least theoretically—during the last...

Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, the president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, has applauded the introduction of legislation that would allow for living wills in Italy. The legislation, introduced in the Italian parliament on March 13, would allow individuals to register their own preferences regarding treatment in case of terminal illness. The proposal would allow for DNR (do-not-resuscitate) orders and establish guidelines for limiting treatment and the artificial provision of nutrition and hydration. Saying that the bill had “nothing to do with euthanasia or assisted suicide,” but merely provided against “excessive” treatment, Archbishop Paglia said that he hopes for “the broadest...