Free Republic

[Catholic Caucus] Italian bishops call for ‘research’ into female diaconateThe least-supported proposal that still received approval at the Italian bishops' synod calls for 'research projects' to explore the question of the female diaconate.Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi leaves the Vatican after a College of Cardinals' meeting on April 30, 2025 in Rome, ItalyAs far as the Italian bishops are concerned, the issue of a female diaconate is still on the table.On October 25, the Italian Synod approved a final document of proposals in which the synod affirmed its support and called for research into the issues addressing the ordination of women...

The U.S. Conference Of Catholic Bishops Needs To Stop Apologizing For IslamIslam’s inherent disdain for non-Muslims must not intrude on the pieties of interfaith harmony, according to the USCCB.Earlier this month, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) published “Islamophobia: A Guide for U.S. Catholics on Anti-Muslim Bigotry.” Showcased on the USCCB website with a lovely Islamic design cover, this 15-page booklet exhorts Catholics to “address the disturbing phenomenon of anti-Muslim sentiment in our times.”Introduced by the co-chairs of the National Catholic-Muslim Dialogue (NCMD) — Bishop Elias Lorenzo of Newark and Imam Kareem Irfan — the USCCB declares dire need...

[Catholic Caucus] German Bishops Publish Homosexual Handbook for Catholic SchoolsOn 30 October, the German Bishops’ Conference published a guide urging Catholic schools to incorporate homosexual ideology. The title is: 'Created, Redeemed and Seduced Loved: Visibility and recognition of sexual identity diversity in schools”. In it, the bishops adopt the vocabulary and assumptions of gender ideology (queer, non-binary, cis, heteronormativity). They blaspheme that God willed homosexual lifestyles. Main problematic quotes, shortened for clarity.- The primacy of love orders all other perspectives – including sexual-moral ones.- Being loved in creation and redemption applies to the human person in all his or her...

“Gay-Washed” Bible’s imprimatur should be withdrawn. Here’s why.I am grateful to OSV News for reporting on my concerns about the USCCB’s granting of an imprimatur to the New Revised Standard Version updated edition (NRSVue) Bible. I appreciate USCCB Scripture scholar Father Pablo Gadenz responding directly to my concerns. But I found his responses unpersuasive, and I still think the imprimatur should be withdrawn, for the reasons below.First, a recap for readers unfamiliar with the issue. The updated edition of the NRSV, the flagship Bible of Mainline Protestantism, was published in 2022. Protestant Scripture scholar Robert A.J. Gagnon (who literally wrote...

[Catholic Caucus] The Unspoken Trial of the Orphaning of Our PriestsA type of bishopric anti-fatherhood has led countless priests in America to live out vocations tainted by fear, torment, and silent despair.Crisis editor Eric Sammons​ has made written ​and spoken pleas for laity calm in the aftermath of Pope Leo XIV’s odd ice-block blessing and refusal to condemn Cardinal ​Blase Cupich’s decision to award a pro-abortion politician with a lifetime achievement honor. ​Even on gasket-blowing days like yesterday, when the Chicago-native pontiff promoted his fellow Chicagoan Cupich to the Pontifical Commission for the Vatican City State​, Sammons’ call for calm...

[Catholic Caucus] 39% of Young American Priests Consider Access to the Traditional Latin Mass a Priority 39% of priests in the United States ordained after the year 2000 consider access to the Traditional Latin Mass a priority -- 1in 4 (more like 4 in 10 edit e.t.), compared with just 11%, or 1 in 10, for priests ordained before 1980.The numbers come from this study ("Morale, Leadership, and Pastoral Priorities: Highlights from the 2025 National Study of Catholic Priests"), published today by The Catholic Project of the Catholic University of America (CUA).It is quite astonishing, and a clear trend. Woe...

[Catholic Caucus] Heterodox German bishop criticizes public act of reparation for Vatican LGBT ‘pilgrimage’Auxiliary Bishop Ludger Schepers of Essen, Germany, the queer representative to the German Bishops' Conference, has a history of promoting the LGBT movement.Pro-LGBT Auxiliary Bishop Ludger Schepers of Essen, Germany, who serves as the queer representative of the German Bishops’ Conference (DBK), slammed in a recent interview the four bishops who recently made a public act of reparation for the Vatican LGBT pilgrimage during this year’s Catholic Identity Conference (CIC).In an interview with the German Catholic News Agency (KNA) published October 10, Schepers called the act of...

Left-wing US bishop says Pope Leo supports his efforts on immigration Left-wing U.S. Bishop Mark Seitz told America magazine last week that Pope Leo XIV supports him speaking out against the Trump administration’s immigration policies.“You stand with me, and I stand with you,” Leo told the El Paso ordinary during a meeting he had with a U.S. delegation at the Vatican on October 8. “The church [sic] cannot remain silent.”Seitz serves as the chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) committee on migration. During the 2020 presidential campaign, Seitz participated in a Black Lives Matter protest where he...

[Catholic Caucus] Traditional Latin Mass annihilated in the Diocese of Knoxville, Tennessee (Update: and a humiliating homily)The cruelty taking place under Leo XIV is becoming loud and deafening. Rome does nothing.Tragic. And not even one alternative venue was offered in a diocese of 14,000 square miles occupying all of East Tennessee. The current bishop was named by Francis last year. Document below:Update: If that were not enough, the faithful in the Novus Ordo mass in one of the venues, the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul, in Chattanooga, were subjected to this simultaneously pseudo-overeducated and misinformed homily haranguing them about...

[Catholic Caucus] LGBT activists praise Spanish bishops for rejecting ‘conversion therapy’Cardinal Cobo and Bishop Satué were praised for advancing pro-LGBT language that omits the Catholic Church’s call for chastity.A Christian activist group has praised two Spanish bishops for their pro-LGBT stance and for rejecting so-called “conversion therapy.”The Madrid-based Christian Homosexual Organization (CHRISMHOM) praised Cardinal José Cobo of Madrid and Bishop José Antonio Satué of Málaga for their pro-LGBT remarks and apparent deviation from Catholic teaching on the matter of homosexuality.CHRISMHOM cited recent statements by the two bishops as evidence of their support for the LGBT agenda.As LifeSiteNews reported in August,...

U.S. Catholic Bishops Warn of the Greatest Threat We Face: IslamophobiaTalk about poor timing! On the same day that news broke of an Islamist attack on a Catholic Parish in the Congo that left 64 dead and many wounded, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops published a 15-page booklet, “Islamophobia: A Guide for U.S. Catholics on Anti-Muslim Bigotry.”The purpose of the booklet is to warn Catholics about “the rising tide of anti-Muslim sentiment.” I’m not aware of any “rising tide” of anti-Muslim bigotry in the U.S., but I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a rising tide of anti-Muslim...

[Catholic Caucus] Diocese of Austin shuts down planned Latin Mass for students at Texas A&M UniversityThe president of A&M’s Juventutem student chapter said it is ‘tragic that students who long for reverence and continuity with the past are being discriminated against.’Celebration of the Holy Mass vetus ordo, Mass in Latin, in the days of the pilgrimage Summorum Pontificum decennial.COLLEGE STATION, Texas (LifeSiteNews) — Catholic students at Texas A&M University in College Station will not have the opportunity to attend a planned Traditional Latin Mass after the Diocese of Austin ordered its cancellation.A press release issued on September 24 by the...

[Catholic Caucus] Head of German Bishops demands rainbow flag be hung in German ParliamentRainbow flag at the Bundestag? Julia Klöckner counters Bätzing's criticismBishop Georg Bätzing had said he would have liked to see the rainbow flag at the Bundestag. The President of the Bundestag poses a counter-question.President of the Bundestag Julia Klöckner (CDU) rejects Bishop Georg Bätzing's criticism of the handling of the rainbow flag in the Bundestag. "The bishop's regret is astonishingly selective. Did the Vatican or did all bishoprics raise a rainbow flag on Pride Day?" she asks in the weekly newspaper "Die Zeit."Bätzing, the chairman of the...

[Catholic Caucus] New TLM Suppression: Diocese of Austin axes scheduled Latin Mass at Texas A&M UniversityNews sent by our friends at Texas A&M in College Station:College Station, Texas – In a stunning intervention, the Diocese of Austin has forced the cancellation of a scheduled Traditional Latin Mass at Texas A&M University, silencing one of the most vibrant and growing expressions of Catholic faith among young people in America.The Mass was to be celebrated by a chaplain traveling from the Diocese of Victoria. On the evening before the liturgy, this priest was told by his Victoria bishop that he had received...

[Catholic Caucus] Spanish bishops reject conversion practices amid LGBT outreachThe bishops of Spain have publicly rejected so-called “conversion” practices for people who identify as homosexual, in a move that has drawn both praise and criticism within the Catholic world.On 19 September, the Madrid-based homosexual association CRISMHOM published a statement thanking Cardinal José Cobo of Madrid and Bishop José Antonio Satué of Málaga for their support.The message, carried by ReligionDigital.org, described both prelates as “doorkeepers who open their arms to welcome rather than impose a conversion in which we renounce the gift of the rainbow with which we have been blessed.”The...

[Catholic Caucus] ‘Dispose after reading,’ Archbishop Weisenburger’s history of cover-up for clerical sexual abuseDetroit Archbishop Edward Weisenburger has a history of concealing clerical sexual abuse, according to revelations of a Church-commissioned investigation that examined the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, where Weisenburger served 16 years as Vicar General.As Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City from 1996 to 2012, Weisenburger not only wielded immense influence—but used it to suppress accountability for priestly sexual abuse of minors. Investigators discovered that he routinely instructed staff to “destroy after reading,” oversaw the mass deletion of his own emails following his departure, and even...

[Catholic Caucus] US Bishops’ Conference Partnering with Heretical Association of PriestsThe heretical Association of US Catholic Priests (AUSCP) announced earlier this year that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCBP) approached the Association, asking it to host a virtual consultation on the USCCB’s Laity Document. Public materials describe the event as a joint effort between AUSCP and the USCCB, presenting it as a continuation of synodal engagement.The AUSCP has a long history of promoting views in direct conflict with immutable Catholic teachings regarding the ordination of women, human sexual morality, the sacraments and the nature of the priesthood.In the...

[Catholic Caucus] German Bishop Opposes Using the Bible to Condemn HomosexualityThe Bishop of Mainz, Germany, has spoken out against using Biblical passages as a reason to oppose homosexuality.Bishop Peter Kohlgraf made his statements during an interview on the television show “SWR Democracy Forum in Hambach Castle,” broadcast by Südwestrundfunk (SWR), a TV channel in western Germany, reported Katholisch.de. Bishop Peter KohlgrafKohlgraf said that one “cannot simply derive timelessly valid, eternal truths” in Biblical passages about homosexuality. The topic of the show was “Taboos in our society – between morality, power, and the media.”“I don’t take a single sentence from the...

[Catholic Caucus] Why the ‘good bishops’ keep disappointing the faithfulCatholic World Report has done a great service to readers today, by dipping into the magazine’s archives and posting an article by the late, great James Hitchcock, Conservative Bishops, Liberal Results. Originally published in the May 1995 issue (when I was serving as editor), the article explores a phenomenon that still puzzles many faithful Catholics. Why is it that so many good bishops—bishops who have the enthusiastic support of Catholics loyal to the perennial traditions of the Church—fail to bring about any discernible changes in the actual working of their dioceses?...

[Catholic Caucus] Idiocracy in the Hierarchy"Dei" is the genitive for God (Deus) in Latin. That is, "of God."It is also, coincidentally, the English abbreviation for the movement/ideology known as "Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion" (DEI), an affront to both God and the equality before the law that is the basis of modern Western Law. It is a complete corruption of all that is good and noble in both Christianity and the Law, and it should be abhorred by all good Catholics. And, of course, it is simply pronounced D, E, I -- not "day-ee" (as Dei is, in Latin).Anyway, this mere...