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[Catholic Caucus] Bishop Schneider Severely Criticizes Cardinal Roche's ReportInterviewed by Diane Montagna, Bishop Schneider challenges the historical assumptions and theological premises underlying Cardinal Arthur Roche's document. He maintains that the report does not reflect an impartial and thorough analysis, but rather an ideological approach marked by what he calls "rigid clericalism." Bishop Schneider argues that the Mass most faithful to the Council was the Ordo Missae of 1965, and that the form later promulgated by Pope Paul VI—the Novus Ordo Missae—was substantially rejected by the first Synod of Bishops after the Council in 1967. He disputes the interpretation of the...

[Catholic Caucus] Cdl. Fernández Warns Against “Ex Cathedra” Condemnations Online while claiming he can add to the "Ordinary Magisterium"Cardinal Fernández warned against “Ex Cathedra” condemnations online at the opening of the DDF Plenary Session, where he said: "We have the possibility of giving authoritative answers, of writing documents that become part of the Ordinary Magisterium."... But since documents that enter the Ordinary Magisterium should be infallible by canon law and required to stand in continuity with what the Church has always taught, they demand a high degree of doctrinal coherence and clarity. Maybe the problem so far has been the...

[Catholic Caucus] Leo XIV has a problem, his name is CupichThe Cardinal and Archbishop of Chicago's interventionism in matters of internal and ecclesiastical politics, such as his attacks on the ancient rite, risks causing difficulties for the Pope, who favours unity. Cupich is approaching 77 years of age. When will he resign from his position as leader of the archdioceseLeo XIV has a problem called Blase Cupich. The loquacity of America's most liberal cardinal risks putting his fellow countryman, the Pope, in a difficult position. Recently, the Archbishop of Chicago decided to lead the opposition against the Trump administration. In...

[Catholic Caucus] Vatican doctrinal chief warns against condemnations, urges humility in the ChurchCardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, warned Tuesday about a culture of “ex cathedra” condemnations online and called for greater humility in the Church to avoid repeating “the same deception that led to the excesses of the Inquisition.”“Today on any blog, anyone — even without having studied much theology — expresses an opinion and condemns as if speaking ex cathedra,” the cardinal said as he opened the dicastery’s plenary assembly, being held Jan. 27–29 at the Vatican with more...

[Catholic Caucus] Chicago Cardinal Escalates Against Roman Rite: "There Must Be Only One Rite"Ongoing reform is central to the liturgy because it has cultural elements that change over time and across places, pro-homosexual Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago - an ardent enemy of the Roman Rite and a good friend of Leo XIV - wrote on ChicagoCatholic.com (January 21).He repeated the historical misrepresentations which Cardinal Arthur Roche used at the January 7–8 consistory to polemise against the Mass of all ages.For Cupich, “with the passage of time and changes in the culture, there is always a need to reform the...

Cardinal Tobin: Pray, mourn and say 'no' to ICE fundingA high-ranking Catholic leader is ratcheting up criticism of the Trump administration's immigration crackdown and urging people of faith to be more vocal in calling out injustice.Responding to a sense of helplessness many people are feeling in the wake of violence at the hands of federal immigration officials, Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark, New Jersey, urged people of faith not to shy away from the news and to use their voices to say, "No."In a reflection delivered Jan. 26 during an online interfaith prayer service hosted by Faith in Action, Tobin...

[Catholic/Orthodox Caucus] Bishop Schneider demolishes Cardinal Roche’s attack on Latin Mass Cardinal Roche claimed at Pope Leo’s consistory that ‘we cannot go back’ to the traditional Latin Mass. Bishop Schneider explained why his argument falls apart. Bishop Athanasius Schneider dismantled Cardinal Arthur Roche’s justification for suppression of the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) in an exclusive interview with Diane Montagna published Tuesday.Bishop Schneider decried as “manipulative” a document on the liturgy distributed by Roche at the extraordinary consistory convened by Pope Leo XIV earlier this month, in which Roche claimed that “we cannot go back” to the Traditional Latin Mass. In...

At annual Mass, Cardinal McElroy honors late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as a ‘dreamer and prophet’The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led a “revolution of conscience,” who sought “the conversion of hearts,” Washington Cardinal Robert W. McElroy said during a Jan. 18 Mass remembering the late civil rights leader.“Dr. King was truly a dreamer and a prophet,” the cardinal said. “He came to echo the message of Jesus Christ that we are all truly brothers and sisters.”Cardinal McElroy was the principal celebrant of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington’s annual Mass honoring the life and legacy of Dr....

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal Roche is Sad and WorriedThose who visit the Dicastery for Divine Worship say that Cardinal Roche has been looking downcast lately; they find him sad and worried. And no wonder. His career as a bishop, now drawing to a close in the shadows of old age, has been a series of failures. His pontificate in Leeds was disastrous in many respects, including financially. That is why—and this is no secret—the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales asked Pope Benedict in 2012 to find him another position where he could do no harm to souls or banks. And...

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal Roche Doubles Down on ‘Traditionis Custodes’In an undelivered consistory address, the prefect for the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments reiterated that the 1969 Missal of Paul VI should be ‘the sole expression’ of the Roman Rite liturgy.In an undelivered address to cardinals last week, Cardinal Arthur Roche planned to voice opposition to the traditional Roman Rite, which he sees as a concession that needs to be eventually phased out in favor of the post-Vatican II liturgy as the unique expression of the Latin Rite.In a two-page text on Traditionis Custodes (Guardians of...

[Catholic Caucus] Una Voce responds to Roche Consistory Report against the Traditional MassDuring the recent consistory, the meeting of cardinals in Rome, Cardinal Arthur Roche, Prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship, handed out a two-sided piece of paper containing some reflections on the liturgy to those present: this has been made available by Diane Montagna here. The liturgy had been among the four topics originally proposed for discussion at the meeting, but the cardinals decided to focus on just two, leaving the liturgy out. Cardinal Roche’s document was accordingly handed out without being formally discussed.Versions were available in Italian...

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal Tasked with Promoting and Protecting Catholic Faith tells Hierarchy to Stop Obsessing over Doctrine and NormsI think the first consistory of 2026 has already been thoroughly denounced for what it was—a clown show—and that not much more needs to be said about it.However, as part of yet another episode of You Can’t Make this Crap Up, I would like to highlight some lesser-reported comments by Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, aka “Cardinal Soft Porn,” which seem to have slipped through the media cracks. Keep in mind that this man leads the very serious Vatican body (Dicastery for the...

[Catholic Caucus] Catholics in Leo’s former diocese urge him to reverse ‘scandalous’ rejection of Co-Redemptrix titleMore than 100 Catholics in Peru wrote to Pope Leo denouncing a ‘harmful’ and ‘truly scandalous’ Vatican document that attacks Our Lady’s titles of ‘Co-Redemptrix’ and ‘Mediatrix of All Graces.’Catholics in Pope Leo XIV’s former diocese of Chiclayo, Peru, are petitioning him to “reconsider” what they condemn as a “truly scandalous” and “harmful” document issued by the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) that opposes the Marian titles of “Co-Redemptrix” and “Mediatrix of All Graces.”The petition includes the signatures of more than...

[Catholic Caucus] Pope Leo’s US nuncio bars Fr. Frank Pavone from offering funeral Mass for his motherCardinal Christophe Pierre refused the request of America's best-known pro-life priest from offering a funeral Mass for his mother, who died at 91 on December 15.Pope Leo’s Nuncio to the United States has refused the request of America’s best-known pro-life priest from offering a funeral Mass for his mother, who died at 91 on December 15.Cardinal Christophe Pierre replied Thursday to a December 16 request for permission from Frank Pavone, saying “I believe that the limitations imposed by your canonical status, compounded by the...

[Catholic Caucus] Accountability from the Vatican needed after Cardinal Fernández’s recently unearthed bookCardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández is back in the news - again for the wrong reasons. Simply put, the prelate’s recently unearthed book, titled “¿Por qué no termino de sanarme?” (“Why can’t I finish healing myself?”) and published in 2002, as reported by Vatican news correspondent Michael Haynes, has ignited grave concerns and serious questions.This newly “discovered” book seems to perpetuate all-too-familiar patterns already detectable in Fernández’s erstwhile contentious writings regarding sexuality and mysticism. I shall spare readers from the highly graphic (in fact, I would consider even pornographic)...

[Catholic Caucus] New ‘pornographic’ texts by Cardinal Fernández discovered‘Cardinal Fernández's problem also explains the contempt with which he gratuitously treated the Blessed Virgin Mary, denying her two titles used by saints and popes,' observed El Wanderer.More erotic filth by Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, Prefect for the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) — formerly the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith — has been reported by the Argentine Catholic website El Wanderer, which described the newly unearthed material as “not only pornographic but also detestable.”The “disgusting” erotic texts are in line with the DDF head’s previously known...

Leading Mariologists Publish Scathing Critique of Vatican Note on Mary’s TitlesIn a lengthy response, the International Marian Association Theological Commission highlights what it sees as significant errors and omissions in the Vatican’s controversial doctrinal note Mater Populi Fidelis.One of the Catholic Church’s foremost associations of Mariologists has issued a strongly critical response to Mater Populi Fidelis, a recently published Vatican doctrinal note that has been criticized for its diminution of some long-established devotional Marian titles.In a 23-page document published Dec. 8, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, the International Marian Association Theological Commission (IMATC) points to various elements of Mater...

[Catholic Caucus] New Cardinal of Krakow: “I Don't Want Any Other Church Than That of Francis”Cardinal Grzegorz Ryś, 61, has learned “everything I believe in about the Church from Francis,” he said according to Onet.pl after Leo XIV appointed him as Archbishop of Krakow on November 26.Francis taught Cardinal Ryś “how to understand the Church”.And: “I don't want another Church. I simply don't want it. I cannot imagine another Church than the one Francis taught us.”Experience at Francis’ TombCardinal Ryś recounted an experience during the days leading up to the conclave. He visited Francis' tomb with Cardinal Konrad Krajewski. There,...

[Catholic Caucus] Head of Italian bishops says ‘the end of Christendom is not a defeat’Cardinal Matteo Zuppi has described secularization as a providential opportunity to free the faith from 'constraints of power and culture.'The president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI) has said that secularization was willed by God to deprive the Church of its cultural hegemony.On November 17, during the General Assembly of the Italian Bishops in Assisi, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi explained to his confreres why secularism should not be regarded as a defeat, but rather as a providential opportunity to rethink the way Christians live their faith.“What is...

[Catholic / Orthodox Caucus] Pope Leo XIV can work towards attaining “Church unity” by first removing Cardinal (“Tucho”) Fernández from the DDFThey say that a quickfire way to start a schoolyard brawl is to start downplaying or insulting someone’s mother.On November 4, the Vatican’s doctrinal office, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), led by prefect Cardinal Víctor Manuel (“Tucho”) Fernández, did just that in the Catholic world when it published the document “Mater Populi Fidelis”( “The Mother of the Faithful People of God”). Strikingly and disturbingly, the document claimed that the title of “Co-Redemptrix” was not an...