Free Republic

[Catholic Caucus] Pope names members of Vatican’s key advisory theology commission The members will serve for a five-year term, with some of the new intake raising eyebrows due to their questioning of Catholic teaching on ordination and homosexuality.A series of new members of the International Theological Commission have been appointed today, comprising the new faces of the organisation which serves as an advisory body to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. Working from his recovery room in the Apostolic Palace, Leo XIV finalised the new look of the International Theological Commission (ITC), after the previous members have come...

Jesuit-run Georgetown University celebrates pro-LGBT ‘OUTober’ Some of Georgetown's upcoming 'OUTober' celebrations include a Catholic 'Mass of Belonging,' a Jewish 'Pride Shabbat,' and 'Queer Space Pumpkin Decorating.'Georgetown University, the nation’s oldest Catholic and Jesuit university, is hosting several pro-LGBT events as part of its celebration of “LGBTQ+ History Month,” or “OUTober,” while trying to claim a Catholic identity.In an October 1 announcement, the university touted the fact that it was the first “Catholic, Jesuit higher education institution” to create an “LGBTQ Resource Center,” and emphasized that it is proud to celebrate the “LGBTQIA+ community” throughout “OUTober,” which the Church commemorates...

[Catholic Caucus] James Martin: Gays ‘treated like dirt’ by being asked not to receive Communion In a podcast with JD Flynn, James Martin erroneously called denial of Holy Communion to sexually active homosexuals mistreatment rather than fidelity to Jesus Christ.Notoriously heterodox Jesuit priest Fr. James Martin, S.J., claimed in a recent interview that homosexuals are “treated like dirt” in parts of the Church, citing as an example the refusal of Holy Communion when a priest knows someone is “doing whatever and you’re gay.”In the October 12 episode of The Pillar Podcast titled “On bridges, with Fr. James Martin,” hosted by...

Catholic parish to host female Lutheran ‘pastor’ for pro-LGBT talk Catholic leaders call on Archbishop Jeffrey Grob to 'cancel the event' led by a pro-LGBT 'heretic' Lutheran 'minister.'Three Catholic organizations are calling on the Archbishop of Milwaukee to stop a parish event featuring a female Lutheran pastor who will discuss ways the parish can be more supportive of homosexuality and transgender ideology.“How can other faith traditions help us more fully welcome LGBTQ+ people in our Catholic community,” a Facebook post from St. Sebastian parish in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee asks.The parish “welcome” group will host “Rev. Rachel Young Binter, a...

[Catholic Caucus] From Familiaris consortio to Amoris laetitia and the pending response to the dubia?Rome begins this Wednesday to take stock of the ten years of Amoris laetitia. From October 7 to 14, nearly 250 bishops, including presidents of Episcopal Conferences and heads of the Eastern Catholic Churches, will join families and experts in a meeting convened by Leo XIV to examine the application of Francis’s exhortation and the current challenges of matrimonial and family pastoral care.The gathering comes a decade after one of the most debated documents of the previous pontificate. Amoris laetitia, published in April 2016 following the...

[Catholic Caucus] In the Synodal Church Every Month is Pride Month From Fiducia supplicans to Pride pilgrimages in St. Peter’s Basilica, by their fruits you shall know them.And their fruits are antichrist.As June unfolds and the secular world celebrates Pride Month, Catholics are reminded that for a long time the post-conciliar, synodal Church has not only accommodated the LGBT movement but is actively participating in its advancement.The evidence is not confined to isolated incidents or fringe personalities like ”Fr” Jimmy Martin, but across Germany, Italy, and the United States, clergy, religious, and diocesan structures are increasingly flaunting and celebrating the...

[Catholic Caucus] German bishop to share gay couples’ ‘experiences’ at Leo’s Amoris Laetitia summit Bishop Heiner Wilmer's stated intention to bring those experiences with him to the Vatican meeting signals a continued movement toward normalizing homosexuality within the Catholic Church.The president of the German Bishops’ Conference (DBK) promised to bring the “experiences” of homosexual couples with him to Rome for the Vatican’s upcoming conference on Amoris Laetitia.Bishop Heiner Wilmer, the DBK president, said that he prepared for the Vatican summit by meeting with a wide variety of couples – including same-sex couples and those living in a second civil marriage...

[Catholic Caucus] Incarnate Word founder, friend of McCarrick, confirmed to have abused seminarians Argentine Father Carlos Miguel Buela, who died in 2023, had long been under suspicion of alleged sexual abuse of seminarians. The Holy See this week confirmed that the now-deceased founder of the Institute of the Incarnate Word (IVE), whose work was supported by then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, was guilty “of acts constituting an offence against the sixth commandment, committed with violence against several people.”Ecclesiastical tribunals “reached moral certainty regarding the responsibility of Fr. Carlos Miguel Buela,” founder of both IVE and its female counterpart, the Servants of the...

As he stood before a bathroom mirror at a Wyoming rest area off Interstate 80, a Sacramento truck driver saw a strange man step up behind him. The stranger slammed a fist into his head, then plunged a knife into his arms, chest and rib cage, the 28-year-old trucker later recalled.

[Catholic Caucus] Pope Leo names bishop who addressed integrating homosexuality with religious vocation Pope Leo XIV appointed Italian Bishop Michele Di Tolve, who made a presentation last year on a book advocating the integration of homosexual orientation into living a religious vocation.Pope Leo XIV appointed a new bishop the head the Diocese of Chioggia who last year presented on a book addressing the integration of homosexual orientation into living one’s religious vocation.Serving as titular bishop of Oria, auxiliary of Rome, and rector of the Pontifical Roman Major Seminary, Bishop Michele Di Tolve was named to his new office on Wednesday...

[Catholic Caucus] 10 Italian bishops attend national conference on LGBT ‘pastoral ministry’ The meeting presented initiatives already operating in several Italian dioceses.Italy’s Catholic bishops gathered to discuss the integration of LGBT-identifying people and their families into ordinary diocesan life.On September 4, nearly 200 pastoral workers and around 10 bishops gathered at the General Curia of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in Rome for Italy’s first national conference dedicated to “pastoral ministry with homosexual and transgender people.”The meeting, titled “Good Practices in Pastoral Ministry with Homosexual and Transgender People,” presented initiatives already operating in several Italian dioceses, while also examining the...

[Catholic Caucus] Italian cardinal writes foreword for pro-transgender book Cardinal Domenico Battaglia previously allowed an LGBT activist to address congregants during a ‘Te Deum Mass’ at the Naples cathedral. Pope Francis-appointed Cardinal Domenico Battaglia of Naples has written the forward for a pro-LGBT book on “transgender people.” Battaglia’s forward was translated by Elisa Belotti for New Ways Ministry, an LGBTQ+ activist group promoting the normalization of homosexuality and transgenderism within the Catholic Church. Battaglia’s words are carefully chosen, leaning towards the acceptance of transgenderism while failing to mention the Church’s explicit teaching on the subject. He wrote that we find...

SSPX Barred from Marian Shrines While Interfaith and LGBTQ Events Are Welcomed In the last two weeks, the SSPX has been barred from two of Europe’s most famous Marian shrines: Lourdes and Mariazell. But interfaith prayer and LGBTQ-themed events have been welcomed... Who or what exactly is being protected here?The Irony of The Vatican’s Logic of Exclusion: When Those Who Defend the Blessed Virgin Mary Are Barred from Her Shrines There is a bitter irony unfurling in the Catholic Church in 2026, one that explicitly exposes the contradictions at the crux of its present institutional crisis. Within the span of...

[Catholic Caucus] Bishop Strickland: Why do Church leaders keep supporting LGBT agenda?Why do so many in the Church, even in the highest offices, refuse to name the sin of sodomy, instead dressing it up in words like 'hospitality'?Certainly Scripture condemns pride, injustice, and the neglect of the poor. The prophets make that abundantly clear. But Sacred Scripture also plainly presents Sodom as a city that had rejected God’s design for human sexuality and had embraced grave sexual immorality.For 2,000 years the Church has understood that lesson. The word “sodomy” comes from the city of Sodom and the story in the...

Gay media celebrates Pope Leo XIV’s 4 pro-LGBT bishop appointments'Letters from Leo' hailed Pope Leo’s recent LGBT-friendly appointments, which include a bishop who had a drag queen speak at Mass. A gay news site published an article praising Pope Leo XIV for having “made room for progressive LGBTQ+ voices.” Headlined Pope Leo’s Recent LGBTQ-Friendly Appointments Include Bishop Who Had Drag Queen Speak at Mass, the article draws heavily from a liberal Catholic Substack, Letters from Leo, authored by former Obama staffer Christopher Hale.The article focuses on the installation of four reportedly pro-homosexual and pro-transgender bishops: James Checchio, appointed by Leo...

[Catholic Caucus] Pachamama ritual performed by Vatican official took place at pro-LGBT event In addition to the idolatrous Pachamama ritual, the 'human rights' event was held in conjunction with LGBT groups.Rorate Caeli reported published a report from InfoVaticana yesterday morning showing that two Catholic bishops and a monsignor participated in a pagan ritual (venerating and praying to Pachamama) in a conference intended to prepare the way for Pope Leo’s trip to Peru this November. The initial story came from the Vatican News, and unsurprisingly, Vatican News omitted several key details.The event titled “Weaving Voices for Dignity: For Human Rights and...

[Catholic Caucus] Vatican won’t stop pro-LGBT sex ed after parents appeal to Leo XIV The Dicastery for Culture and Education reaffirmed a 2019 Vatican document against modern gender theory in educations but took no action against the controversial pro-LGBT program. Catholic parents who begged Pope Leo XIV to halt the implementation of pro-LGBT sex education in Hamburg’s Catholic schools received a brief Vatican reply reaffirming Church teaching on gender, but no direct intervention to stop the program.The pro-LGBT diocesan sex-education guidelines remain set to take effect on August 20.According to a report published by Italian outlet La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana,...

[Catholic Caucus] Bishop calls the devil ‘imaginary’ in assault on St. Michael devotion One social media user advised that Bishop Ferreira ‘convert to Catholicism' after the prelate suggested the faithful should instead fight ‘homophobia,’ ‘femicide.’A Brazilian bishop has attacked consecration to St. Michael the Archangel while suggesting that the devil is “rather imaginary.”“Are there theological justifications for Consecration to Saint Michael? Consecration is to God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,” wrote Bishop Vicente Ferreira on X last week. “Isn’t the devil we fight against rather imaginary?” he added.“The greater exorcism should be: of homophobia, of femicide, of racism, of...

[Catholic Caucus] ‘Stop this’: Parents beg Leo XIV to halt pro-LGBT sex-ed in Catholic schoolsHundreds of parents appealed to Pope Leo XIV and filed a canonical complaint against the local archbishop, but the anti-Catholic sex-ed program is set to take effect regardless. A pro-LGBT sex-education program is set to take effect August 20 in 15 Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Hamburg, Germany, despite a canonical complaint against Archbishop Stefan Heße and a direct appeal to Pope Leo XIV that the Holy See has left unanswered.Hundreds of Catholic parents in the Archdiocese of Hamburg are opposing a sex-education program approved...

[Catholic Caucus] Francis-appointed cardinal praises Japan’s new pro-LGBT campaignJapan remains one of a handful of countries in the developed world that have not legalized homosexual 'marriage.'The cardinal-archbishop of Tokyo welcomed the Japanese government’s recently announced plan to promote education about LGBT-identifying people.Cardinal Isao Kikuchi, archbishop of Tokyo, told UCA News that it was “meaningful that the Japanese government had clearly articulated a policy aimed at deepening understanding of sexual minorities.”The plan, which was greenlighted June 16, stems from the 2023 LGBT Understanding Promotion Act and reportedly “aims to establish core guidelines for governments, schools, and businesses.”Kikuchi seemed to distinguish between...