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[Catholic Caucus] $30 million? The price of Pope Francis’ performative humilityFrancis’ decision to live in the Casa Santa Marta guesthouse instead of the traditional papal apartments added €200,000 per month to the Vatican’s bills amid a spiralling financial crisis. Recent investigations have revealed that one of Pope Francis’ most notable and purportedly “humble” decisions actually cost the Vatican around €200,000 a month.For the past 12 years, secular pundits and close allies of Pope Francis have relentlessly pushed the message that his humility is striking. One of the earliest and most prominent examples cited to support this argument was Francis’ decision...

[Catholic Caucus] Santa Marta is too expensive: Pope Leo returns to the Apostolic PalaceThe first steps taken by Pope Leo XIV at the helm of the Church are largely satisfying the expectations of the cardinals who elected him. The eminent prelates were looking for a good shepherd, but even more so they trusted that the new pontiff would be able to restore balance to a form of government that, under Pope Francis, had taken on authoritarian tendencies and destabilized the clergy and the faithful with numerous acts considered overly bold.Leone has first of all reestablished—with kindness but firmness—the dignity proper...

[Catholic Caucus] Francis: "Synod Church No More Top Down" - "Female Prefect is Coming"In an interview with the Argentinean television channel 'Canal Orbe 21' on December 20, Francis spoke [not about Christ but] about the war in Ukraine."There is a great hypocrisy. And it worries me a lot, because right now Ukraine is sending 20-year-old boys to the front. The thing is, they don't have that many men, while Russia has plenty. A peace treaty is urgently needed, but when someone talks about peace, they start dancing around secondary issues," he said.When asked about conflict resolution, the troublemaker and tyrant...

Pope reflects on papacy in interview with Argentine news agencyVATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis said the goals he has achieved in more than nine years as pope were simply the fruit of the ideas discussed by the College of Cardinals prior to his election.In an interview with Argentine news agency Telam published July 1, the pope said that objectives, such as the reform of the Roman Curia, were “neither my invention nor a dream I had after a night of indigestion.”“I gathered everything that we, the cardinals, had said at the pre-conclave meetings, the things we believed the new...

The Prisoner of the Vatican In one of his last speeches before abdicating in 2013, Pope Benedict XVI decried the liberalism that had seeped into the Church after Vatican II. To this liberalism, he traced “so many problems, so much misery, in reality: seminaries closed, convents closed, the liturgy was trivialized.” But he then proceeded to hand the Church to the very liberals responsible for these problems and to a successor set upon liberalizing the Church even more.Not long after assuming power, Jorge Bergoglio took a veiled swipe at his predecessor. He told an interviewer that Vatican II had encouraged...

The Pope’s Mask Falls Againg The scandals of this pontificate pile up. Jorge Bergoglio is not so much the pope of the common man as a friend to the globally powerful. He disdains the most devout members of his faith, labeling them “rigid,” while rolling out the red carpet for thugs and pagan celebrities. Not a week passes without the pope meeting and greeting some enemy of the faith. The media, for the most part, continues to serve as his PR agents. Witness its burbling over The Two Popes, a movie as fictional as its news coverage. It might as...

Disturbing video: Pope Francis refuses to let Catholic faithful kiss his papal ring ROME, March 25, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — Pope Francis today made it clear that he doesn’t want the faithful to kiss his papal ring, repeatedly pulling his hand away from pilgrims who were lined up to greet him reverently during his one-day visit to the Holy House of Loreto. A disturbing video from the Italian news site TGCOM 24 captured the Pope’s insistence that the laity not show him such reverence. Link to video It’s not known why Pope Francis objects to this.  The meaning of the ring...

On the afternoon of Sunday, January 15 Pope Francis, in full exercise of his role as bishop of Rome, will visit the parish of Santa Maria a Setteville. Of the more than 300 parishes in the diocese of Rome, this is the twelfth that will welcome the pope. So he has not visited very many of them yet, in part because for the duration of the Jubilee he suspended the visits. But there is one curious element that makes this visit special. The parish of Santa Maria a Setteville does not fall within the territory of the municipality of Rome,...

Share in the excitement of #PopeInDC! On September 23, after meeting with President Obama at the White House, Pope Francis will drive a short parade route between the Ellipse and a portion of the National Mall in the Popemobile. The viewing area of the open motorcade route is free and open to the public. No tickets are required, however spectators will need to pass through security. Security gates will open for the Ellipse and the National Mall at 4:00 a.m. on September 23 and will close at 10:00 a.m. No one will be admitted into the area after that point...

Professor Odon Vallet is an expert in the history of religions and civilizations and, since he is deemed a strong and radical "Progressive", he is a favorite in the French media to speak as a secular-friendly voice on Catholic issues. He was interviewed by popular daily "20 Minutes" on the results of the 2014 assembly of the Synod of Bishops: In what sense did the provisional text [the Forte relatio] signal an important step? The provisional text included two overtures. One regarding the remarried divorcees. The other regarding homosexuals. It was not a revolution, but an evolution. It was not...