Free Republic

[Catholic Caucus] Catholic Leader Sees Pluses and Minuses on the Horizon for LGBTQ+ PeopleThe social climate for LGBTQ+ people in Germany (and, indeed, in many countries) is “significantly more hostile than it was a few years ago,” said Hendrik Johannemann, a co-spokesperson for the Catholic LGBT+ Committee, an advisory group to the Catholic bishops in that nation. In an interview with Katholisch.de, Johanneman opined on a number of topics, including offering a mixed reaction to the legacy of Pope Francis.Hendrik JohannemannAs evidence of the growing oppressive social climate, Johannemann pointed to the need for greatly increasing security at light Christopher...

[Catholic Caucus] Four more German dioceses reject blessings for same-sex couples» Continue to this story on Katholisch (German) CWN Editor's Note: Four more Catholic dioceses in Germany—Augsburg, Eichstätt, Passau, and Regensburg, have joined the Archdiocese of Cologne in rejecting a text with the support of the episcopal conference to be used in blessings for couples, under the terms of Fiducia Supplicans. The dioceses that have declined to use the text argue that it goes beyond the Vatican document in permitting blessings of same-sex couples. The text was prepared by the German Bishops’ Conference and the Central Committee of German Catholics,...

[Catholic Caucus] What If “Synodality” Means Nothing?There’s good news and there’s bad news. The problem is that the good news isn’t very good, and we don’t know (yet?) how bad the bad news can be. Yes, you guessed it: I’m talking about “synodality.” The good news is that “synodality” might actually be meaningless. (That raises some questions about why, then, we are spending so much time, energy, and money on the topic; but let’s try to manage one conundrum at a time.) The bad news is that, precisely because “synodality” is a meaningless term (and “meaningless” will be defined below,...

[Catholic Caucus] GOODBYE, GOOD PROFS AND STRAIGHT SEMINARIANSThe Unaddressed Motive Behind Weisenburger’s FiringsMany articles have appeared recently about Sacred Heart Seminary faculty members who were fired by Detroit Archbishop Edward Weisenburger. Aware of Weisenburger’s record of covering up sex abuse which helps prelates get promoted in a Church controlled by the Lavender Mafia, I mentioned him in a February 14, 2025, article, “Pope and Bishops Have No Moral Credibility to Confront Trump.” I maintained, “The appointment of anti-border patrol Tucson Bishop Edward Weisenburger to the Archdiocese of Detroit is remarkably similar to the appointment of San Diego Cardinal Robert McElroy...

[Catholic Caucus] German priest quits diocese over Fiducia supplicans implementationAn 86-year-old German Catholic priest has publicly cut ties with his diocese in protest at its embrace of Fiducia supplicans.Father Winfried Abel announced in an open letter that he will no longer identify as a priest of the Diocese of Fulda, northern Germany. The diocese is led by Bishop Michael Gerber, who supports women’s ordination, married priests, and blessings for same-sex unions.Fr Abel cited the diocese’s official support for a local “Christopher Street Day” gay pride parade and new Church policies permitting blessings for homosexual unions as reasons for his decision.Fr...

[Catholic Caucus] German Dioceses Respond Positively and Negatively to Blessings GuidelinesIn June, Bondings 2.0 shared the news that a German church body had published guidelines for the pastoral blessing of couples living in “irregular” situations, which included same-gender couples. Since their publication, the guidelines have met with mixed reactions from German bishops, ranging from enthusiasm to rejection. Entitled “Blessings for Couples Who Love Each Other”, the guidelines were released by a joint conference of the German Bishops’ Conference and the Central Committee of German Catholics (an official Catholic organization representing lay people in Germany). Katholische.de previously reported that the provisions’...

[Catholic Caucus] Diocesan Traditional Latin Mass stops being celebrated in SwedenStatement from the congregation responsible for the Mass, celebrated since 2007 in Franciskusgården, in the town of Jonsered:STATEMENTFor several years, the friars of the Delegation of St. John the Baptist of the Third Order Regular have celebrated Holy Mass at the Franciscan Monastery according to the 1962 Roman Missal, which is the Extraordinary Form of the Church's Liturgy. These Holy Masses, which are usually celebrated at 12:00 on Sundays, have been celebrated in addition to the Ordinary Form of Holy Mass at 10:00."Liturgical diversity can be a source of enrichment...

[Catholic Caucus] German bishops looking to promote gender ideology in schoolsA 20-page document says Germany's Catholic schools should respect and make more visible students who are 'non-binary' and 'non-heterosexual.' The heretical German bishops are planning to introduce guidelines for Catholic schools promoting radical gender ideology without questioning its horrendous consequences for children.The German Catholic News Agency (KNA) reports that the Catholic bishops, or more precisely, their school commission headed by Bishop Heinrich Timmerevers, are preparing a 20-page document on “sexual diversity” for Catholic schools.The paper says schools should respect and make more visible students who are “non-binary” and “non-heterosexual.” It...

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal Ambongo: Resistance to homosexuality is not merely an African phenomenonAfricans were not the only ones who resisted the highly controversial 2023 Vatican declaration “Fiducia Supplicans”, a document that permits Catholic priests to give blessings to couples in "irregular situations," including same-sex couples, without explicitly declaring church approval of their union.This month, in remarks to EWTN News, Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo, archbishop of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo and head of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), declared the following:“The position taken by Africa [on the declaration] was also the position of so...

[Catholic Caucus] Why Don’t We? LGBTQ+ Catholics Prepare for Their Jubilee PilgrimageToday’s post is from guest contributor Elisa Belotti who is a freelance journalist based in Italy. She covers human rights and marginalized communities, with a particular focus on the impact of religion on society.2025 is a Jubilee Year, a major Catholic event held every 25 years that brings people from all over the world to Rome to pray, pass through the holy doors of selected churches, and take part in other spiritual activities to renew their faith. And this year, LGBTQ+ Catholics want to be an organized part of...

[Catholic Caucus] Detroit archbishop fires renowned conservative professors from Sacred Heart Seminary'The firing of Ralph Martin and Eduardo Echeverria from Sacred Heart Seminary … is an act of a thin-skinned, petty tyrant,' said Eric Sammons, editor-in-chief of Crisis Magazine.Current and former colleagues and students of conservative Professors Ralph Martin and Eduardo Echeverria were shocked and dismayed to learn on Thursday of their firing from Sacred Heart Seminary (SHS) by Detroit’s progressive new prelate, Archbishop Edward Weisenburger.Last month, Weisenburger came under fire for eliminating nearly all public celebrations of the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) and prohibiting ad orientem in the Novus...

[Catholic Caucus] Italian Daily Il Foglio: Where Have All the Bergoglians Gone?Michelangelo Pistoletto and Fr. Spadaro SJBERGOGLIANISM IS OVERCarlo LangoneIl FoglioJuly 24, 2025 Where have all the Bergoglians gone? Since Pope Francis died, it seems as if they never existed. As if the friends of the enemies of Jesus, the Jesuits, had been suppressed once again, to Pascal's delight... Father Spadaro goes to kiss the slipper of guru Michelangelo Pistoletto* and has his picture taken in secular dress: has he left the priesthood? Heaven forbid! In short, for us Christians, it should be a good time, but for a few...

[Catholic Caucus] Germany approved guidelines for promoting ‘Fiducia supplicans blessings’ during Sede VacanteCoincidence. Or not. But in the midst of the Sede Vacante, on April 23, the German Bishops’ Conference (DBK) and the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) jointly published a pamphlet titled, “Blessings Strengthen Love. Blessings for Couples Who Love Each Other.”According to the German Episcopate, this document adopts “guidelines for pastoral workers on the practice of blessing couples not married by the Church.”“The Church recognizes and offers support to couples united in love,” the document states.“Therefore, the practice, already developed in many places, of accompanying divorced couples...

[Catholic / Anglican Caucus] The Jargon-Filled Synodal TrajectoryWhen Pope Leo XIV spoke from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica on the day of his election he said: “we want to be a synodal Church.” The significance of this depends, of course, on how Pope Leo understands synodality. The notion of a Church that is One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic – and now Synodal – isn’t clear to most, because synodality is a largely unknown concept. Its meaning will emerge as Pope Leo guides the “synodal path” with the help of the General Secretariat of the Synod. That secretariat’s latest contribution to...

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal Müller to German bishops: Same-sex ‘blessings’ are ‘diametrically opposed’ to will of GodCardinal Müller said that Christians naturally understand that lifestyles contrary to Christian ethics 'are not blessed by God.'Cardinal Gerhard Müller said that same-sex “blessings” are “a deception” and are “diametrically opposed” to the will of God.In an article published in the German Catholic newspaper Die Tagespost, Cardinal Müller reiterated his critique of so-called same-sex “blessings” in response to two German bishops implementing the heterodox practice in their dioceses.READ: German bishop suggests guidelines for blessing same-sex ‘couples,’ divorced and ‘remarried’“When the Pharisees asked Him the trick...

[Catholic Caucus] Will Pope Leo XIV Stop Sister Becquart’s Synodal Teams from Hijacking Local Churches?As Undersecretary of the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops, Sister Nathalie Becquart now has a mandate to take all the putrid fruits of the Synod and "to implement those fruits with creativity, in the diversity of the context of the local Churches.” She and the Synodal teams are not called to make the local dioceses and eparchies more holy, orthodox, or fervent. Instead (as described below), Sister Becquart wants to compel each local church to experimentally “listen to the Spirit” to determine how to...

[Catholic Caucus] Archbishop Eleganti on Synodality: ‘I Can No Longer Listen To Your Propaganda’For the love of Christ, finally put an end to the excess of synodal documents, intermediate stages, indications for the continuation of the process, announcements of results, final documents that aren’t final, extensions to other cycles, the multiplication of commissions, at the end of an assembly in a canonical no-man’s land. The vast people of God are unaware of your documents. In my experience, almost no believer knows or reads them. Stop spinning on your axis in a process that hasn’t reawakened love for Jesus Christ in...

[Catholic Caucus] Bishop Joseph Strickland: Statement on the Lavender Mafia and the St. Gallen MafiaThe Lavender Mafia undermined the Church’s credibility through sin and scandal. The St. Gallen group weakened her witness through strategic manipulation of leadership and teaching.Editor’s note: The following was originally published on Bishop Joseph Strickland’s Substack on July 14, 2025.(LifeSiteNews) — In a recent post, I spoke of what many refer to as the “Lavender Mafia.” This term is commonly used to describe a hidden network of clergy within the Church who engage in or protect homosexual activity, form alliances based on mutual secrecy, and often...

[Catholic Caucus] German bishop suggests guidelines for blessing same-sex ‘couples,’ divorced and ‘remarried’Bishop Georg Bätzing recommended implementing heretical 'blessings' for 'divorced and remarried couples, couples of all gender identities and sexual orientations.'Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg, president of the German Bishops’ Conference (DBK), recommended implementing the conference’s official guidelines for the “blessings” of same-sex “couples,” the divorced and civilly “remarried,” and other irregular unions in his diocese this week.The Diocese of Limburg published Bätzing’s recommendation to implement the heterodox “blessings” in its official diocesan journal on July 9. The bishop’s recommendation follows April announcement from the German Bishops’ Conference and...

[Catholic Caucus] Mad Hatter Francis "Liturgist" Andrea Grillo: The Bishops Were All Wrong, I'm Right -- plus a major assessment by Sandro Magister of the Lies on which Traditionis custodes were basedWeeks after mocking soon to be canonized Carlo Acutis for having faith in the Blessed Sacrament -- a public statement that was so shocking that his own university disowned him -- the Mad Hatter of the liturgical world, Andrea Grillo, is again showing his colors. He, who was the man behind Francis document Traditionis custodes, establishing a gradual extinction of the Traditional Latin Mass, now does not deny (as...