Free Republic

At an astonishing pace, one third of the 27 German dioceses have already now come out with statements concerning the recently published controversial intercommunion guide of the German Bishops’ Conference. Only one diocese has, so far, declared that it will hold back on implementing the new guide allowing, in individual cases, Protestant spouses of Catholics to receive Holy Communion on a regular basis, and without converting to the Catholic Faith, and even without a prior sacramental confession. The most troubling message came out just last week from the bishop of Würzburg, Franz Jung, who invited, for the weekend of 5...

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis was about to take a major step backing the science behind ­human-driven global warming, and Philippe de Larminat was determined to change his mind. A French doubter who authored a book arguing that solar activity — not greenhouse gases — was driving global warming, de Larminat sought a spot at a climate summit in April sponsored by the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences. Nobel laureates would be there. So would U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, U.S. economist Jeffrey Sachs and others calling for dramatic steps to curb carbon emissions. fter securing a high-level meeting at...

Abolishing celibacy for priests would encourage more to take up the cloth, Alois Glück, president of the central committee for German Catholics argued on Friday. … But Glück admitted that since the Vatican was unlikely to change its stance on the issue in the foreseeable future, lay Catholics would hopefully play a bigger role in local parishes. “Women will have to take up more responsibilities,” he said. …

The passage of a same-sex marriage bill in New York, over the objections of the Catholic hierarchy, has led to a storm of criticism of the state's bishops. The most extreme condemnation comes from a July 5 editorial in the National Catholic Reporter (NCR).   The Catholic hierarchy, says NCR, "has lost most of its credibility with the wider culture on matters of sexuality and personal morality, just as it has lost its authority within the Catholic community on the same issues." The bishops are guilty of engaging in everything from "wholesale excommunications" to "open warfare" with dissidents.   The...

Betrayal -- that's what living a cafeteria lifestyle means, so it's hard to feel too sorry for proud, self-proclaimed "cafeteria Catholic" Maria Shriver who is experiencing the reality of betrayal from her cafeteria husband. In 2008, Shriver told the world, via the Washington Post's religion blog, that she chooses what she wants from Church teaching: "Even though I consider myself a Catholic in good standing, I disagree with a lot of the teachings of the Church....I don’t believe that if someone’s divorced they shouldn’t get Communion; I don’t believe that people who are gay shouldn’t be accepted into the...

AUSTRALIA'S senior Catholic cleric, Cardinal George Pell, has denounced Catholic politicians who defy church teachings on controversial issues such as same-sex adoption. Cardinal Pell sharply rebuked MPs who "fly under the Christian or Captain Catholic flag" but "blithely disregard Christian perspectives" when they voted in parliament on moral issues. Federal MP Teresa Gambaro recently sparked concerns from church leaders in her Brisbane electorate after hinting at supporting gay marriage. "If a person says, 'look, I'm not a Christian, I've a different set of perspectives', I disagree but I understand," the Archbishop of Sydney told The Sunday Mail."If a person says...

A recent poll by the Public Religion Research Institute showed that a majority of California Catholics supports the legalization of same-sex “marriage,” while their Protestant counterparts oppose such counterfeit “marriage” by a much higher margin. While the July 21 poll did not discriminate between Catholics who attend Mass regularly and those who do not, it also did not discriminate between Protestants who attend religious services regularly. In either case, the poll allowed respondents to self-identify as Catholic or Protestant. What the poll showed is that Protestants are much more in line with Church teaching on the issue of marriage than...

Seven members of the board of Catholic Charities announced their resignations. They were protesting the effort by Massachusetts bishops to prohibit gays from adopting children from their Catholic social service agencies. The seven who quit said prohibition ''threatens the very essence of our Christian mission." Church doctrine states that allowing children to be adopted by same-sex couples ''would actually mean doing violence to these children...gravely immoral." If you agree with those principles, according to the Vatican, a Catholic in good standing. If you don't, you're not. Liberals raised as Catholics refuse to accept this reality. We think we can be...

A woman ordained in July at a ceremony the Roman Catholic Church considers invalid will celebrate a Mass Saturday at a conference in Liverpool. The Rev. Gabriella Velardi-Ward, a member of RC Womenpriests, an international group of Catholics who advocate women's ordination, will lead a 2:30 p.m. liturgy at the Upstate New York Call to Action conference at Le Moyne Manor in Liverpool. The conference will also include presentations by the Rev. Roy Bourgeois, who has been criticized by the Vatican for participating at a Womenpriest ordination; and Mary Hunt, a native of Syracuse and a feminist theologian who is...

News Briefs American Maryknoll priest excommunicated for involvement in women's 'ordination' December 11, 2008 An American priest has evidently been excommunicated because of his active support for the ordination of women, and his participation in ceremonies simulating ordination. Father Ray Bourgeois received a warning from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in December, informing him that if he did not recant his position supporting women's ordination within 30 days he would face excommunication; the Maryknoll priest replied that he would not change his stand. The Maryknoll Society has now confirmed that the Congregation has contacted that its leaders...

BOSTON (Reuters) - Liberal U.S. Catholics on Tuesday expressed dismay at the choice of a conservative new pope and doubted he will heal an institution racked by disillusionment and tarnished by a sex abuse scandal among the clergy. The election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI rankled those who advocate married priests, a bigger role for women within the church and softening its policy on homosexuality, birth control, euthanasia and abortion. Since taking over the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith as the Roman Catholic Church's chief ideologue, Ratzinger has denounced homosexuality and even branded other Christian...

I have a general question for the Catholics here. How many of you live in a Diocese that openly encourages holding hands for the "Our Father"? Not in the parishes but the Diocese. I know that St. Louis and Charlotte discourage this practice. How about yours?

Pope had critics, too As Pope John Paul II is laid to rest this week, debates he fueled in churches throughout the Americas continue to swirl.In the United States and Latin America, John Paul left a church with declining membership, short on clergy, and attempting to heal from the priest sex-abuse scandal.For critics and lay reform groups, his biggest weakness was his refusal to engage in open dialogue.Polls have shown the majority of American Catholics out of step with church doctrine on issues such as contraception, divorce, homosexual unions, married clergy, and women priests, even as they praised the pope's...

As I pulled into the high school parking lot of the affluent Long Island suburb of Manhasset one July evening, I passed a BMW with a Voice of the Faithful (VOTF) window decal. Clearly, this was the place. I entered the building, passing a number of elderly people standing behind tables covered with pamphlets. A very pleasant grandmother handed me four or five leaflets, including a printout of the Nicene Creed, a flier for the group’s September “Faith Convention” and some other VOTF reading material. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Paul Lakeland-the liberation theologian from Fairfield...

Liberals Planning for Vatican III? by Deal Hudson, Editor of Crisis Magazine I guess it was just a matter of time. As you and I both know, critics of the Church are taking advantage of the sex scandal to push forward their own agendas. We've seen it time and again in newspaper editorials, radio call-in shows, and TV interview programs. And now, to the list, we can add The National Catholic Reporter (NCR) -- that venerable old institution of tedious (and increasingly gray-haired) dissent. CRISIS reader Danny deBruin alerted us to NCR's latest overturn-the-Church scheme. The newest issue sports...