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Bishop Stika's 'miracle' gold ringA news report published this month in the diocesan newspaper of the Diocese of Knoxville has become a source of some wonderment — and something of a metaphor — among priests and laity in the Tennessee diocese.Bishop Rick Stika preaches at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Knoxville, Tennessee. Credit: JD Flynn/The Pillar.The report opened at a March 19 Mass celebrated by Knoxville’s Bishop Rick Stika, on the occasion of his 14th episcopal anniversary. During the Mass, Stika reportedly realized that he wasn’t wearing his episcopal ring, and began asking the people to pray. He reportedly thought he...

Zanchetta’s Lawsuit Against InfoVaticana.com Dismissed – Strange DetailA Madrid court dismissed a May 2021 lawsuit of Bishop Zanchetta, Francis' Santa Marta room-mate, against InfoVaticana.com for “libel and slander.” Zanchetta had asked for €300,000 in damages and wanted to know the identity of Specola who publishes on Infovaticana.com. Zanchetta is indicted in Argentina for homosexual abuse.An interesting detail: When Zanchetta testified in Argentina, he could not be arrested because Francis had provided him with a Vatican passport and diplomatic immunity.

The Francis effect: LGBT-promoting bishops come out publiclyFourteen U.S. bishops, one of them a cardinal, have added their names to a public statement in support of young people who identify as LGBT.June 16, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — June is the month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, but our radically anti-Christian culture has dubbed it “Pride Month.” A month to take pride in an activity, not in persons. It’s not pride about love, it’s pride about sexual activity. It is pride in replacing God-ordained marriage between one man and one woman with a counterfeit. Listen, no one is condemning loving relationships...

Bishop apologizes to fired LGBT Catholic educator at theology gatheringAfter eight years serving as the director of religious education at a Catholic school in Pennsylvania, Margie Winters was fired in 2015 because of her marriage to a woman.Her story is similar to those of a number of other Catholic educators in the U.S., fired because their relationships violate the church's teaching against same-sex marriage. But on June 4 this year, Winters received something different: a clerical apology for the way she was treated.As part of a discussion during the annual gathering of the College Theology Society, held virtually, Bishop John...

Vatican Citizenship for Suspect BishopIgnored charges of sexual, financial crimeVATICAN CITY (ChurchMilitant.com) - Rome has a welcome mat for accused criminals.Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta, indicted in Argentina for unwanted sexual advances towards two seminarians, obtained Vatican citizenship in 2018 even though accusations of sexual and financial improprieties had already been leveled at him. According to a May 27 report by InfoVaticana, Bp. Zanchetta, 57, was given the rarely-granted citizenship of the Vatican City State on May 7, 2018. At the time, Zanchetta was already facing accusations of criminality in his native Argentina.Citizenship to the world's smallest state — in terms of...

LGBTQ blessings service kicks off Pride month for CatholicsLess than three months after the Vatican issued a decree forbidding priests from blessing same-sex unions, nearly two dozen U.S. Catholic leaders and organizations kicked off the celebration of Pride month with a blessings service for LGBTQ Catholics. "God is inviting you to draw near and that God desires a deep and intimate relationship with all of you," Bishop John Stowe of Lexington, Kentucky, told the virtual participants of the Catholic Pride Blessing on June 1. "May God, the source of life and love, fill you with the joy of knowing your...

Cdl. Mahony Sued for Sexually Assaulting Male TeenLawsuit charges LA archdiocese with cover-upLOS ANGELES (ChurchMilitant.com) (warning: some explicit content) - A new lawsuit accuses California Cdl. Roger Mahony of sexually abusing a male minor. It is the first such lawsuit ever brought against the former archbishop of Los Angeles.Former Cathedral of St. Vibiana, Los Angeles, nowprivately owned and renovated into an entertainment venueFiled April 19 in Los Angeles Superior Court, the plaintiff, under the alias John Doe, is suing "The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Los Angeles," which includes Cdl. Roger Mahony and staff of the archdiocese.The lawsuit alleges Mahony "repeatedly...

[Catholic Caucus] German Catholics plan huge blessing of gay unions on May 10An LGBT choir sings outside the Pastoral Congress at the World Meeting of Families in Dublin Aug. 23, 2018. (Credit: Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters via CNS.)Continuing to openly challenge the Vatican, several Catholic leaders in Germany are openly supporting the blessing of same-sex couples, with a massive blessing service scheduled for May 10, in direct opposition to Rome’s chief doctrinal office.ROME – Continuing to openly challenge the Vatican, several Catholic leaders in Germany are openly supporting the blessing of same-sex couples, with a massive blessing service scheduled for May 10,...

Two US bishops back pro-LGBT campaign calling for acceptance of men who claim to be femaleBishops Wester and Stowe joined the Human Rights Campaign in calling for 'transgender individuals' to be 'treated with dignity and respect'April 9, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — A U.S. Catholic archbishop along with a bishop and several priests joined up with the pro-LGBT Human Rights Campaign in releasing an April 1 letter affirming “transgender individuals” — men who claim they are women and women who claim they are men — while calling for an end to the “epidemic of violence” that they say such individuals face.“We, Bishops,...

Canon lawyer: Belgian bishop who rejects Church teaching on homosexuality should resignFor the good of his soul and of the souls of his flock, I pray he recants. If he refuses and also refuses to resign, he should be removed by Pope Francis as a stumbling block, a true scandal to the faithful.’NEW YORK, March 25, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — Well-known canon lawyer Fr. Gerald Murray has called on Bishop Johan Bonny to resign, after the bishop of Antwerp, Belgium, said he was “ashamed” of the Church for the Vatican’s reiteration of the ban on blessings for same-sex couples.In the wake...

A Setback for the Catholic LeftIts reaction to the Vatican’s ban on blessings for gay couples has been revealing.Pope Francis has never been known to hold a strict view of documents from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF). In 2016, a reporter asked him about a 2003 CDF document prohibiting recognition of gay civil unions. He replied, “I do not remember that document well.” In fact, as archbishop of Buenos Aires, he had disregarded the document’s directive and endorsed legislation in favor of gay civil unions.Another indication of his casual view of CDF documents was his advice...

[Catholic Caucus] KingmakersMcCarrick protégésThe homosexual network extending from America to the Vatican continues full steam ahead, with those crowned kings now doing the crowning.Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark, New Jersey joins Chicago cardinal Blase Cupich in the Vatican office responsible for making bishops throughout the world. Pope Francis selected Tobin on Thursday, having picked Cupich in 2016.Tobin's ecclesiastical career stretches back to notorious cardinal Joseph Bernardin, under whom Tobin served in the early '90s as pastor of St. Alphonsus on Wellington Street in Chicago's Boystown community. The area is well-known for catering to Chicago's homosexual community.Archbishop Carlo Viganò, in his...

Explainer: Cardinal Tobin will now help Pope Francis pick bishops. What does that mean for the U.S. Church?Pope Francis appointed Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin of Newark, N.J., to the Vatican’s influential Congregation for Bishops on March 4, filling the position left open when Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl, the former archbishop of Washington, D.C., retired in November from his Vatican roles.Cardinal Tobin joins Chicago’s Cardinal Blase Cupich as one of two Americans on the congregation. The two will play a key role in choosing bishops for the United States in particular, as congregation members generally have significant sway within the body...

Bishops’ LGBT Statement LackingCompassion without doctrineNEW YORK (ChurchMilitant.com) - A pastoral statement from pro-LGBT bishops on youth with same-sex attraction is notable for what it does not say. Issued on Monday, the document, titled "God is on Your Side," denounces the bullying of so-called LGBT young people. While it speaks eloquently of the love and mercy of God and the evil of harassment and hazing, it nevertheless keeps silent on God's universal call to chastity, the morality of homosexual behavior and gender ideology.As of press time, ten bishops so far have signed the statement:Cdl. Joseph Tobin of NewarkAbp. John Wester...

[Catholic Caucus] Beloved TX Priest Stripped of Faculties'No room for conservative priests in San Antonio'SAN ANTONIO (ChurchMilitant.com) - A beloved Texas priest has been officially stripped of his faculties after his defense of Catholic Church teaching on homosexuality landed him in hot water with his bishop.Father Clay Hunt was notified the day before Thanksgiving that his faculties were being removed immediately. The move came five months after the San Antonio Family Association (SAFA) had warned, "Fr. Clay has been and is being targeted and attacked. There is an attempt by certain people in the hierarchy of the archdiocese of San...

[Catholic Caucus] Faithful in Syracuse Rebuke BishopDenounce Bp. Douglas Lucia's support of pro-gay Fr. James MartinAs a group of concerned, faithful Catholics representing a significant number of parishes in the Diocese of Syracuse, New York, we felt compelled to write the following letter rebuking Bp. Douglas Lucia in response to his column in the Nov. 5 issue of our diocesan newspaper, The Catholic Sun. In his article, he defended a livestream visit by Fr. James Martin to a local parish to receive an award and give a lengthy talk in which he disparaged Catholic teaching on homosexual relationships. In a...

McCarrick’s ‘Nephews’ Still Run the ChurchThe Vatican’s report on his scandal is monumentally misleading.Anybody who bothers to slog through the Vatican’s mountainous report on the McCarrick scandal will not emerge from the experience enlightened. The report’s revelations, to the extent they exist, are inadvertent. The chief one, evident in the feckless epistolary back-and-forth documented in the report, is that McCarrick would remain an honored cardinal to this day were it not for credible accusations against him involving underage teens. Take those charges away, and he would still be popping up at the Vatican for meetings with the pope. That McCarrick...

Alleged victims still waiting for justice in case of Argentine bishop working at Vatican Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta, left, as he leaves the chambers of Judge Claudio Parisi in Oran, Salta, northern Argentina, August 8, 2019. (Credit: Inés San Martín/Crux.) ROSARIO, Argentina – As the release of a Vatican report on the rise of laicized former cardinal Theodore McCarrick puts the spotlight on how clerical culture can protect high-ranking officials when they are accused of abuse, some eyes turned to the case of Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta.Though far from being nearly as influential as McCarrick was, this Argentine prelate was still one...

[Catholic Caucus] "Our Lady of Pride": Lexington Bishop Lets It Happen Lexington St Paul Church, Kentucky, published an alleged prayer which ridicules Our Lady with the title “Our Mother of Pride.”Pride which the homosexual movement claims for itself, is the worst of the seven deadly sins. Lexington Bishop John Stowe is a notorious supporter of gay ideology and Pride events.StevenSperay.WordPress.com (August 9) points out that "Our Lady of Pride" equals saying “Our Mother of the Wicked,” “Our Mother of Abomination,” or “Our Mother of the Seven Cardinal Sins.”The mock prayer laments about those [gays] who have been “rejected” and wait...

Cover-Up Culture Gave McCarrick License New investigation sheds light on old crimes NEWARK, N.J. (ChurchMilitant.com) - New details are emerging regarding the Church hierarchy's cover-up of notorious homosexual pederast Theodore McCarrick, freeing the former cardinal to continue with his crimes unabated. Mark Crawford and Fr. Kenneth Martin An investigative analysis published on Monday reveals that Vatican officials and other prelates ignored or overlooked reports on McCarrick's misdeeds and odd sleeping arrangements with seminarians at his infamous beach house in Sea Girt, New Jersey. Now working for the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP), Mark Crawford met with McCarrick in...