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Francis-Collapse of Catholicism in Latin AmericaCatholicism has been in collapse in Latin America since the aftermath of Vatican II -- but it went into vertiginous tailspin in the pontificate of the Pope from Argentina.We have often covered this in Rorate.For instance, right after the election of Francis, in 2014, in the long post "THE COLLAPSE OF CATHOLICISM IN LATIN AMERICA:New Poll, Statistics, Tables and Graphs - Extensive Analysis", as well as in "The Latin American Exodus: Catholics become Protestants in Droves".Now, the most credible research institute on religious trends, the Pew Research Center, has released a new study specifically dealing...

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal Zen says consistory was ‘hijacked’ by Pope Francis ‘henchmen’'They did their utmost to prevent the cardinals from voicing their opinions. Isn't this the exact opposite of Pope Leo's purpose in convening the consistory?' Cardinal Zen wrote. Cardinal Joseph Zen said he was “deeply grateful” for this month’s extraordinary consistory while also claiming it was “hijacked” by allies of the late Pope Francis.On Tuesday, the 94-year-old Chinese cardinal published his reflections on the consistory called by Pope Leo XIV, the first of his papacy. Zen wrote that he came away “grateful” for the opportunity to gather with his...

[Catholic Caucus] Consistory Done Like Middle School - Leo XIV Is ResponsibleJournalists Raymond Arroyo and Robert Royal, and canon lawyer and priest Gerald Murray of New York talked on January 16 about the consistory of January 7-8. A short sequence, video below.Robert Royal commenting on Cardinal Grech’s contribution on synod:I think you hear that and you say, what in God’s name can that possibly mean? This is the gobbledygook we’ve been listening to for years about synodality and all this confusion. I mean, one of the things I’ve heard from sources is that many of these cardinals have said, "Look,...

[Catholic Caucus] German Diocese Regrets "Slime Jesus" – But No One Is PunishedThe diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart, Germany, allegedly regrets its televised Christmas Eve Eucharist, which featured an adult woman covered in sticky rice paper who resembled a slimy alien in a manger.The Eucharist was broadcast Germanwide from the parish of St Mary’s in Stuttgart.The officiating priest, Thomas Steiger, said during the service: "The nativity scene shows a real human being, lying there miserable, naked and exposed."Next to him, the female actor breathed heavily and slowly writhed in the paper, which was apparently meant to represent the vernix covering a newborn...

[Catholic Caucus] Extraordinary Consistory: what is its true meaning?The Extraordinary Consistory of January 2026 was not a mere consultative moment, but a strategic turning point: beneath the appearance of dialogue and “synodality,” a parliamentary model of the Church is being consolidated that relativizes the Petrine primacy and makes the neo-modernist drift allegedly irreversible, while Pope Leo XIV appears increasingly as an arbiter of power balances. The extraordinary Consistory of January 2026 should not be read as a simple consultative moment, but as a decisive step in the attempt to refound the Church on procedural and parliamentary bases, foreign to its...

[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...

Why I am not a Catholic priest: Deus vultI have been asked to write a little about why, unlike many of my more estimable Anglican former colleagues, I have not been ordained as a priest in the Catholic Church, but remain a layman.It is June 1980. I am standing barefoot in a black cassock in what long before had been the Priory Church of St Mary Overie, on the Feast of St Peter. I had trained at university to be a lawyer. I was now waiting instead to be ordained as an Anglican and to begin work in a parish...

Cardinal Zen Denounces “Bergoglian Synodality” as “Ironclad Manipulation” at Extraordinary ConsistoryFull text of Cardinal Joseph Zen’s intervention at the two-day meeting of cardinals convened by Pope Leo XIV.(Cardinal Joseph Zen and his personal secretary with Pope Leo XIV.) ROME, 9 January 2026 — In his intervention at the Extraordinary Consistory of Cardinals held at the Vatican on January 7–8, Cardinal Joseph Zen delivered a searing critique of the Synod on Synodality, denouncing its process as an “ironclad manipulation” and warning that its continual invocation of the Holy Spirit is “ridiculous” and verges on “blasphemy.”Delivered behind closed doors in the presence...

Pope Leo calls Second Vatican Council the ‘guiding star’ of the Church’s pathLeo’s description of the Second Vatican Council as the ‘guiding star’ of the Church’s path suggests he sees this council as surpassing in importance every other council of the Church.Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday said the Second Vatican Council is the “guiding star” of the Church’s path in his strongest statement to date in support of the controversial council.“It is the Magisterium (of the Second Vatican Council) that still constitutes the guiding star of the Church’s journey,” Pope Leo said during his Wednesday general audience, Vatican News reported....

[Catholic Caucus] Pope at Audience: Second Vatican Council still guiding star of Church’s journeyPope Leo XIV begins a new catechesis series on the Second Vatican Council and its documents, emphasizing that the Council's teaching still serves as the guiding star of the Church’s journey."It is the Magisterium [of the Second Vatican Council] that still constitutes the guiding star of the Church’s journey today."Pope Leo XIV expressed this during his Wednesday General Audience, on January 7, in the Vatican, as he began a new catechesis series, which is dedicated to Vatican Council II and a rereading of its Documents, following the...

[Catholic Caucus] Pope Leo opens first consistory with strong emphasis on synodality, Vatican IISources told LifeSiteNews that key roles in the opening phases of the consistory were assigned to figures closely aligned with the approach of Pope Francis.Pope Leo XIV opened his first extraordinary consistory with an agenda centered on synodality, liturgy and the legacy of the Second Vatican Council.On Wednesday, January 7, Pope Leo began the first extraordinary consistory of his pontificate at the Vatican, convening cardinals from around the world in the Paul VI Hall and the New Synod Hall to reflect together, advise the Pope, and discuss...

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal Radcliffe: I support “moving ahead quickly” on female deaconsThe English cardinal's interview highlights the spirituality which underpinned the Synod on Synodality.Cardinal Radcliffe, who served as spiritual advisor to the Synod on Synodality, has given his support to “moving ahead quickly” with ordaining women to the diaconate.Interviewed by The Telegraph, Timothy Cardinal Radcliffe OP made a number of revelatory comments, not least about the fact that he apparently fell in love with a woman just shortly after he was ordained a priest and invited her to stay at his priory to meet the Dominican community there.But it is...

[Catholic Caucus] Fr. Pavone’s laicization came from Pope Francis himself: canon lawyer The shocking decision to laicize pro-life priest Father Frank Pavone without appeal could only have come from Pope Francis himself, according to a prominent canon lawyer.In an interview Sunday with Catholic News Agency (CNA), canonist Father Gerald Murray, a priest of the Archdiocese of New York and a regular contributor to EWTN’s “The World Over with Raymond Arroyo,” noted that the Pope alone can issue a decision “against which there is no possible appeal.”“Only the Pope, who enjoys ‘full and supreme power in the Church’ (canon 332, 1),...

[Catholic Caucus] Leo XIV Promotes US Bishop - Fan of 🌈 James Martin and Fiducia SupplicansPope Leo XIV appointed Father Manuel de Jesus Rodriguez as the bishop of Palm Beach, Florida.Born January 15, 1974, in the Dominican Republic, Rodriguez became a Salesian of Don Bosco and was ordained a priest on July 3, 2004. He is currently the parish priest at Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Queens, in the Diocese of Brooklyn.Monsignor Rodriguez became a U.S. citizen in 2018. He has regularly been revealing his thoughts on Twitter since 2014.Staunch Loyalist of Wonderful FrancisHe is a priest “who loves...

[Catholic Caucus] Italian diocese tries to normalize homosexual, divorced and ‘remarried’ relationshipsA Catholic diocese in Italy has released a pamphlet of various 'Christian testimonies' that included two homosexual couples and one civilly remarried couple. A Catholic diocese in Italy has released a pamphlet of various “Christian testimonies” that included two homosexual couples and one civilly remarried couple.On December 4, the Family Pastoral Service of the Diocese of Chiavari, Italy, directed by Father Marco Torre, published the pamphlet “There Is No Greater Love.” It includes autobiographical testimonies presented as “exemplary,” without additional doctrinal notes or commentary. There were no official statements...

[Catholic Caucus] Lesbians ‘dressed as brides’ receive ‘blessing’ in Argentine cathedral, priest reports‘Heartbreaking. This Pastor is a wolf in sheep's clothing,’ one Catholic laywoman remarked.A priest in the Cathedral of San Isidro in Argentina blessed two lesbian women dressed as brides, a traditional missionary priest reported.“In the chapel where the Tabernacle is, at 6.15 pm, there was a blessing of two lesbian women dressed as brides,” Father Joao Silveira shared on Twitter. “I told the priest: ‘One thing is accompaniment, but we can’t consent to sin, much less bless it.’ He replied, ‘It’s pastoral,’” Fr. Silveira said. He did not...

[Catholic Caucus] Italian priest suggests ‘baby girl Jesus’ in Nativity scenes in call for women deacons, bishopsFr. Vitaliano Della Sala claims a female Christ Child would expose the apparent ‘injustice’ in Church teaching excluding women from the possibility of receiving Holy Orders.AVELLINO, Italy (LifeSiteNews) — An Italian priest has argued that a “baby girl Jesus” should be introduced into Nativity scenes because God could have incarnated as a woman as well.On December 3, Father Vitaliano Della Sala, pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul in Capocastello, Italy, during an interview with a local television station, sparked widespread debate in the national...

[Catholic Caucus] Beware the Trojan Horse in the Synodal ChurchA small work is now circulating in the Catholic world that is shrouded in mystery. Published this fall by Catholics for Catholics, it is titled: The Trojan Horse in the Catholic Church—Synod of Synodality: The Attempt to Invert the Bride of Christ’s Hierarchy and Moral Order. What makes the book so mysterious and controversial is that no one knows from whence it came. The author is listed as just Fr. Enoch. Nothing is known about this priest save that he fears retribution and therefore writes under an assumed name. His choice...

[Catholic Caucus] Archbishop Gänswein: Benedict XVI’s path “is the right way,” Traditionis custodes “is and remains a mystery to me”Archbishop Georg Gänswein, the former private secretary of Pope Benedict XVI and current nuncio to Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, recently gave an interview to Athinea Andryszczak, broadcast in two parts (1, 2) on the German Catholic television station K-TV.At the very beginning of part 2 (full German-language video below), he spends some time discussing the liturgical situation in Lithuania and the universal Church. Here are his comments, in English translation, with my emphases:Your Excellency, we were just talking about the different...

[Catholic Caucus] Bishop Eleganti: Vatican trying to play both sides of the women deacons question It is all too obvious that, despite the historical findings regarding female ordination, the aim is to keep the issue alive and the question open.The study commission on the question of women’s ordination concludes, on the one hand, that the possibility of admitting women to the diaconate (as part of the sacrament of ordination) must be ruled out, but at the same time that it is not possible to “make a definitive judgment, as in the case of priestly ordination.”[1]This makes little sense. It is...