Free Republic

[Catholic Caucus] Jubilee: LGBT “Pilgrimage” Received with InsigniaDiane Montagna, on her X account, describes herself as an American journalist based in Rome and accredited to the Holy See. She has conducted a series of interviews with Bishop Athanasius Schneider for the publication of the book Christus vincit, The Triumph of Christ over the Darkness of Our Time, and is the executive director of the website The College of Cardinals Report.On the occasion of the LGBT “pilgrimage” that took place for the Jubilee Year in St. Peter's in Rome on September 6, 2025—officially organized by several associations, particularly by "Tenda di...

U.S. Catholic Bishops Warn of the Greatest Threat We Face: IslamophobiaTalk about poor timing! On the same day that news broke of an Islamist attack on a Catholic Parish in the Congo that left 64 dead and many wounded, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops published a 15-page booklet, “Islamophobia: A Guide for U.S. Catholics on Anti-Muslim Bigotry.”The purpose of the booklet is to warn Catholics about “the rising tide of anti-Muslim sentiment.” I’m not aware of any “rising tide” of anti-Muslim bigotry in the U.S., but I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a rising tide of anti-Muslim...

[Catholic Caucus] Pro-Abortion Senator Dick Durbin “Overwhelmed” By Pope Leo XIV's DefenceOn Wednesday, pro-abortion Senator Dick Durbin told NBC News that he was "overwhelmed" by the support he received from Pope Leo XIV.Durbin was scheduled to receive a "Lifetime Achievement Award" from Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich in November. However, he declined after facing clear backlash from Catholics, including a few US bishops.Durbin said he was allegedly surprised by "the level of controversy" and "shocked" by Leo XIV's defense: "It's amazing to me. It’s quite a moment. I didn’t expect it. I didn’t know it was going to happen."On Tuesday, Leo...

Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) was planning to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich for Durbin's work with immigrants. There was tremendous backlash from some American Catholic bishops and Catholic laity, pointing to Durbin's record on abortion as disqualifying. Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, IL, said giving the award to Durbin would be "scandalous." In a statement sent to Catholic publication The Pillar, Paprocki said, "I was shocked to learn that the Archdiocese of Chicago plans to honor Senator Richard Durbin with a Lifetime Achievement Award." Paprocki continued, "Given Senator Durbin’s long and consistent record of supporting...

“Is there one Republican Senator in this chamber who gives a damn?” Durbin said in his speech on the Senate floorWASHINGTON – In a speech on the Senate floor yesterday, U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, reprimanded the Trump Administration for weaponizing the Department of Justice (DOJ) to attack President Trump’s personal enemies. In his remarks, Durbin underscored that political retribution was the true intention behind President Trump and Attorney General (AG) Pam Bondi’s move to force Erik Siebert, the Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, to resign. With...

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal Chow denies persecution in Hong Kong, breaking with ZenCardinal Stephen Chow of Hong Kong has said there is no religious persecution in the territory, putting himself at odds with his predecessor Cardinal Joseph Zen, who has long warned that the Chinese Communist Party is steadily tightening its grip on the Church.Speaking in Parramatta on 15 September during a public dialogue in the “Bishop Vincent Presents” series, The Catholic Weekly reported that Cardinal Chow declared Beijing wanted to keep Hong Kong’s religious freedom “intact” and insisted: “I want to invite any one of you, everyone, to come to...

[Catholic Caucus] Head of German Bishops demands rainbow flag be hung in German ParliamentRainbow flag at the Bundestag? Julia Klöckner counters Bätzing's criticismBishop Georg Bätzing had said he would have liked to see the rainbow flag at the Bundestag. The President of the Bundestag poses a counter-question.President of the Bundestag Julia Klöckner (CDU) rejects Bishop Georg Bätzing's criticism of the handling of the rainbow flag in the Bundestag. "The bishop's regret is astonishingly selective. Did the Vatican or did all bishoprics raise a rainbow flag on Pride Day?" she asks in the weekly newspaper "Die Zeit."Bätzing, the chairman of the...

Paprocki ‘shocked’ by Durbin’s Chicago award“This decision risks causing grave scandal,” Bishop Thomas Paprocki said.An Illinois bishop said Friday that he is “shocked” by plans in the Archdiocese of Chicago to honor Senator Dick Durbin, a longtime supporter of legal protection for abortion.Durbin, who is prohibited from receiving the Eucharist in his home Diocese of Springfield, will be feted in November with a lifetime achievement award by the Archdiocese of Chicago’s office of human dignity and solidarity.While the award will be presented at a benefit presided over by Chicago’s Cardinal Blase Cupich, Durbin’s own diocesan bishop — Bishop Thomas Paprocki...

[Catholic Caucus] German Bishop Opposes Using the Bible to Condemn HomosexualityThe Bishop of Mainz, Germany, has spoken out against using Biblical passages as a reason to oppose homosexuality.Bishop Peter Kohlgraf made his statements during an interview on the television show “SWR Democracy Forum in Hambach Castle,” broadcast by Südwestrundfunk (SWR), a TV channel in western Germany, reported Katholisch.de. Bishop Peter KohlgrafKohlgraf said that one “cannot simply derive timelessly valid, eternal truths” in Biblical passages about homosexuality. The topic of the show was “Taboos in our society – between morality, power, and the media.”“I don’t take a single sentence from the...

[Catholic Caucus] Pro-LGBT Cardinal Hollerich suggests Church should not define sexual morality so ‘narrowly’The Luxembourg cardinal advocated for expanding the Catholic Church's view of sexual morality despite the Catechism defining homosexual acts as 'intrinsically disordered.'A cardinal from Luxembourg suggested that he would change the Catholic Church’s doctrine on sexuality.In a September 6 interview with Austrian outlet Die Furche, Luxembourg Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, S.J. advocated for the Catholic Church to expand their view of sexual morality while also promoting synodality.Hollerich revealed that he “would not define morality — especially sexual morality — as narrowly as the Church does today.”Hollerich alleged that...

[Catholic Caucus] WATCH: Mass celebrated in Rome for Fr. James Martin’s Outreach group, other ‘LGBT pilgrims’ Heterodox Jesuit Father James Martin posted a video on the social media platform X on Thursday showing part of a Mass celebrated for his dissident Outreach organization and other “LGBT Catholic pilgrims” at the Oratory of St. Francis Xavier in Rome on the eve of the Vatican’s official LGBT jubilee pilgrimage.The Mass, which was celebrated by Father Sam Sawyer, S.J., the editor-in-chief of the Jesuit-run America Magazine, at the historic oratory proceeded the Vatican’s ongoing LGBT jubilee pilgrimage, organized by “La Tenda di Gionata”...

[Catholic Caucus] Bishop Bätzing says Pope Leo is ‘accompanying the Church in Germany with trust’ after meetingGerman Bp. Georg Bätzing, known for pushing female ordination and same-sex ‘blessings,’ commented that the Pope has ‘trust’ in the German church following talks.Bishop Georg Bätzing has said that Pope Leo XIV “accompanies the Church in Germany with trust” after his first private audience with the Roman Pontiff.On September 4, Leo received Bätzing, the head of the German bishops’ conference, in a private audience for the first time since becoming Pope.The Holy See did not comment on the meeting, but Bätzing released the following...

[Catholic Caucus] Italian Bishop: Every Homosexual Has Right To Receive EucharistBishop Francesco Savino of Cassano all’Jonio, the vice president of the Italian Bishops' Conference, will preside over the Eucharist in the Jesuits’ church Il Gesù in Rome for the homosexual pilgrimage to St Peter’s basilica on September 6.Saint Ignatius of Loyola is buried in this church. When asked about this event, Savino told Gionata.org on August 15 that no one is excluded from the Eucharist: "The bread broken on the altar knows no barriers of birth, language, social condition, or life path."And: "The Eucharist is a welcoming womb, not a...

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal of Madrid tells heterodox LGBT conference the Church must promote ‘inclusion’ of homosexualsCardinal José Cobo addressed a letter to a conference of the ‘Global Network of Rainbow Catholics,’ which is led by two homosexuals, and reportedly organized their next ‘world assembly.’MADRID (LifeSiteNews) — Cardinal José Cobo called for greater “inclusion” of Catholics who adopt homosexual and transgender lifestyles at a conference for a heterodox LGBT group.Cobo, who is the current archbishop of Madrid, wrote a letter that was read at the conference in the Spanish capital.“In addition to welcoming others, we must promote a culture of dialogue,...

[Catholic Caucus] Heterodox priests condone immoral sexual behavior at annual retreat: leaked audio'The ideas and teachings floated in this conference are sure to lead souls to Hell,' remarked Michael Hichborn of the Lepanto Institute.A leaked audio recording of a heretical clergy group’s annual meeting reveals that its retreat leader, a theology professor, downplayed or heretically denied the gravity of an array of serious sins, including masturbation, fornication, and receiving Holy Communion while in grave sin.The Lepanto Institute recently shared audio clips from the 2025 annual meeting of the Association of U.S. Catholic Priests (AUSCP), a dissident group that was refused...

[Catholic Caucus] Synod-Preacher Radcliffe pays tribute to homosexual relationsThe Dominican priest and spiritual assistant to the Synod of the World, Timothy Radcliffe, has acknowledged homosexual Catholics in permanent relationships. In a contribution to the Vatican newspaper "L'Osservatore Romano", the 79-year-old religious wrote last week that he is on a "synodal path with homosexual Catholics". He stressed that the challenge for homosexuals, as for everyone else, is to learn to express love appropriately, while respecting the dignity of others. "I am convinced of the fundamental wisdom of ecclesiastical doctrine, but I do not yet fully understand how it can be lived...

[Catholic Caucus] Archbishop of Detroit appoints priest linked to heretical, pro-LGBT clergy group to prominent postArchbishop Weisenburger named Fr. David Buersmeyer the priest-chancery ‘ombudsman’ for the archdiocese, even though Buersmeyer suggested the Church could ‘support gay marriage’ and publicly defended a priest excommunicated for his role in the ‘ordination’ of a woman.DETROIT (Lepanto Institute) — Following the swift crackdown on the Traditional Latin Mass and the firing of three faithful theology professors, Archbishop Edward Weisenburger of Detroit appointed a new “ombudsman” who was once indicated as a member of the heretical Association of US Catholic Priests (AUSCP).Abp. Weisenburger entered his...

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal Gregory - Destroyer of Holy Masses - wanted Homosex Liturgy "without Hesitation"On 27 July, Rev Peter Daly, a retired priest of the Archdiocese of Washington, recalled on NcrOnline.org how Cardinal Wilton Gregory of Washington came to celebrate a homosexual Eucharist on 22 January. The cardinal retired on 6 January.In September 2024, Cardinal Gregory received three homosexual activists: Sister Jeannine Gramick, Frank DeBernardo, and Rev. Daly.Father Daly asked Cardinal Gregory if he would be willing to preside over a "liturgy of reconciliation between the archdiocese and the LGBTQ+ community": "He said yes without hesitation."According to Fr Daly, the...

[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] 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...