Free Republic

[Catholic Caucus] Traditional Catholicism’s Enemies Routinely Fail These Three Common Sense ChecksAll of this is like a Monty Python skit except that it is only humorous to the enemies of God and His Catholic Church. God has permitted the crisis in the Church to reach this point to which those who persecute Traditional Catholics are unmistakably wrong.Although we pray that the tide will turn with Pope Leo XIV, one of the most astoundingly bizarre realities in the world today is that Traditional Catholics are persecuted by the putative leaders of the Catholic Church. The crime committed by Traditional Catholics is...

[Catholic Caucus] The only Mass that was ever imposed by force upon the Church is not wantedN.B. The novus Ordo is a botched product. And a failed experiment. Sure, many people attend but there are always many people who just do what everyone else is doing for a variety of reasons. Some get paid to go, parish staffs and employees for example, some go because they are getting something like Catholic grade school or high school or sacraments like Confirmation. Some think that’s all there is. (Won’t they be surprised. And many constantly are when they finally discover what it...

[Catholic Caucus] Archbishop Aguer: Pope Leo XIV’s presentation brings ‘more glorious times’ to mindFrancis' long pontificate will be left behind, his witticisms forgotten. The Church always faces her mission according to the Lord's command: to make disciples of all nations.The presentation of the new Pope Leo XIV brought to mind more glorious times of the Church. He appeared on the loggia dressed in papal vestments, and the name he chose refers to Leo XIII, the pope of Rerum Novarum, the initial document of an updated exposition of the Catholic social teaching.From 1903 to 1958, within a history full of contrasts,...

[Catholic Caucus] Vatican II’s Dignitatis Humanae and the June Battle of FlagsWere it not for Dignitatis Humanae, there would be no supposed theological justification for this demand that human dignity requires us to refrain from questioning the “transness” of those claiming to practice the Catholic Faith. Thanks in large part to the defenders of Vatican II, though, Fr. Martin and the New Ways Ministry can insist that Catholics ought to celebrate Pride Month in recognition of the human dignity of the Catholic LGBTQ community.As reported by LifeSite, Fr. James Martin recently shared his opinion about why Catholics ought to celebrate...

Bishop Strickland: Novus Ordo Mass, priestly formation have led to problems in the ChurchBishop Joseph Strickland said the ‘more comfortable’ Novus Ordo Mass has shifted priests toward acting like ‘social workers’ and declared that the Latin Mass ‘will stay with us’ in a recent interview.Bishop Joseph Strickland said that the shift to the Novus Ordo Mass from the Traditional Latin Mass has led to a decline in the priesthood and called out the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) for pushing bishops to “forget that they’re successors of the Apostles.” The former bishop of Tyler, Texas, who was removed...

[Catholic Caucus] Florida bishop preserves thriving Latin Mass community by establishing shrineBishop Gregory Parkes said the new Latin Mass shrine in Tampa Bay will be a ‘place of pilgrimage for those throughout the Diocese devoted to the liturgical fruits of the antecedent liturgy.’A Florida bishop has announced that a growing parish with a strong devotion to the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) will become a diocesan shrine and be placed under the pastoral care of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest (ICKSP).Bishop Gregory Parkes of the Diocese of St. Petersburg, Florida, announced on March 25 that the Epiphany of...

Vatican II and the Most Wicked Swindle Since Satan Tempted Eve in the GardenIn the name of a fraudulent unity based on appeasing Protestants, Cardinal Bea managed to deceive the apparent leadership of the Catholic Church into abandoning the Great Commission. It was the greatest swindle in salvation history since Satan tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden.To set the stage for understanding the second greatest swindle in salvation history, it is useful to consider which of the following two statements would sound most correct to the ostensible leaders of the Catholic Church today:Membership in the Church is necessary for...

The Post-Conciliar Ecumenism and the Great DiscontinuityThere is no other error (or, rather, sum of errors) as specifically (neo)modernist as the so-called “ecumenism.” This is why rejecting it and the relativism and indifferentism it generates is absolutely necessary.One of the most debatable directions inaugurated by the Second Vatican Council is that in favor of ecumenism. In blatant contradiction to the Church’s constant Magisterial position regarding the positive reception of religious pluralism, this new teaching has become the dominant feature of post-conciliar Catholicism. Things have gone so far that, in addition to the formation of a special dicastery for the “promotion...

Remember the Springtime in the Church: Reality is Demographic Winter!It's bad news for Catholics from a PEW Survey on Religion in America, the first since 2014. For every 100 new Catholics entering the Church, 800 leave. This from Eric Sammons at Crisis Magazine:No other religion has nearly as bad of a join/leave ratio. For every 100 people that become Protestant, 180 leave. That’s bad, but it’s not Catholic bad. Conversely, for every 100 people who leave the religious “nones” (i.e., they join a religion), a full 590 become part of that irreligious cohort. Where are the former Catholics going? Of...

Cardinal Roche: ‘Nothing wrong’ with Latin Mass but Church needed to ‘move away’ from itCardinal Arthur Roche, a leading enforcer of Pope Francis’ restrictions on the Latin Mass, has said there is ‘nothing wrong’ with the traditional liturgy but insists the Church deliberately moved ‘away from’ it for ‘very good reasons.’After vigorously implementing Pope Francis restrictions on the traditional Mass, Cardinal Arthur Roche has said there is “nothing wrong” with the Latin Mass but that the Church wished to “move away from what had become an overly elaborate form of celebrating the Mass.”Prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and...

COLLAPSE: 12 Years of the Bergoglio Age in Numbers The Bergoglian Age in numbers: in ancient Christian countries, but not only, the number of Catholics is declining. Of course, there are many reasons for this, such as secularization, urbanization, competition from competing ideologies and religions, and the unravelling of family units and traditional values in many places. But the statistics point to a worrying acceleration since the start of Pope Francis' pontificate, particularly in places where bishops and indeed the Church as a whole pride themselves on their progressivism and their entry into the marvellous synodality.Germany, spearhead of Catholic progressivism,...

[Catholic Caucus] Preparing for the Pope’s PassingThere is an apologia brewing for the spirit of the Francis papacy as secular stakeholders recoil to lose his fast-and-loose presence in the Vatican with the same vehemence as they recoil at Donald Trump’s fast-and-furious return to the White House.At the time of this writing, Pope Francis is in critical condition at Gemelli University Hospital in Rome with a complex case of pneumonia in both lungs and early-stage kidney failure. Before all else, we pray for his well-being and peace. But death is in the air. The Swiss Guard have held funeral rehearsals. The...

[Catholic Caucus] Why the Walls of Notre-Dame de Paris Are GroaningThe new Notre-Dame de Paris would shock the saints and holy doctors who prayed within its hallowed columns and vaulted ceiling. But today its walls moan as they are compelled to embrace the hellscape of liturgical innovation.Some things are worse than a devastating fire. Notre-Dame de Paris proves the point. While its façade, walls, and roof have been restored to a pristine perfection, its interior liturgical appointments tell another story. The altar has become a bathtub; the pulpit, a highway barrier; the sedilia a Star Wars prop; and the reliquary...

[Catholic Caucus] Archbishop Aguer: The Arian heresy has not entirely disappeared from the ChurchIn today’s Church the centrality of man and human rights has a semi-Arian or neo-Arian character. It is necessary to preach Jesus Christ, true God made man without ceasing to be God. An authentic Christology is Trinitarian.The year 2025 marks the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, held in 325 and later completed by the Council of Chalcedon and the First Council of Constantinople. In that first and great council of the Church the mystery of the Holy Trinity was proclaimed, declaring that the Son, Jesus...

The Council’s Origins: Heaven or Hell?As reported by Catholic News Agency (CNA), Catholic University of Valencia recently gave an honorary doctorate to Cardinal Kurt Koch, Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Lunacy.This is the department that is charged with carrying out the conciliar church’s ecumenical operation, specifically, by propagating and implementing Unitatis Redintegratio of Vatican II.In his acceptance speech, Koch said:For the Council, fidelity to its origins and conformity to the times were not opposed to each other. Rather, the council wanted to proclaim the Catholic faith in a way that was both faithful to its origins and appropriate...

The Destruction of the Traditional Latin Mass and its Ultimate CauseThe exclusion of the Church’s Traditional Latin Mass and the tyrannical imposition of Pope Paul VI’s Liturgy are events whose deep causes must be sought among the very premises that gave rise to the modern world. The “mutation” from a world woven with symbols and theophanies to a universe governed by the uniform laws of mechanics and devoid of the transcendent horizon of the unseen realm, reflects the profound crisis of Christian faith that gave birth to that synthesis of heresies which Saint Pope Pius X called “modernism.”In the context...

[Catholic Caucus] How Pope Pius XI defended the history of Genesis, special creation of St. AdamThe Creation of Adam – Michelangelo, 1511Editor’s note: This article is Part 1 of a four-part study of Pope Pius XI’s understanding of the Catholic doctrine of creation as opposed to the modern scientific proposition of the evolution of mankind.(Kolbe Center for the Study of Creation) — One of the wonderful things about the Kolbe apostolate has been the way that members of our leadership team have been inspired to research different topics relevant to our mission, resulting in all kinds of fruitful discoveries.In recent...

[Catholic Caucus] God is allowing the passion of the Catholic Church for our sanctification'Providence has allowed this painful crisis in the Church for our sanctification and in order to give more brightness to the pure gold of its doctrine and its means of redemption,' wrote Archbishop Lefebvre in 1978, words that ring even truer today. In his letter to friends and benefactors on the Feast of St. Joseph in 1978, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre wrote of the “passion” of the Catholic Church: Providence has allowed this painful crisis in the Church for our sanctification and in order to give more brightness...

Trad Godfathers at Vatican II: Lefebvre on the Eve of the CouncilTowards a Better Understanding of the Second Vatican Council: The Importance of studying the Cœtus Internationalis Patrum. Read part I The Coetus: Trad Godfathers at Vatican IIPart II: What Did the Leading Members of Coetus Want Vatican II to Address?The Case of Archbishop Marcel LefebvreWhen the progressives won their first procedural victory at Vatican II on November 21, 1962 (John XXIII withdrew the schema on Revelation that had been prepared before the council), a conservative resistance formed around Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre throughout the rest of that first conciliar session....

The Charismatic Cardinal Suenens | Part 1Editors Note: We are happy to republish this previously ‘lost’ (unpublished since 1997) article in conjunction with a history of the CCR with Kennedy Hall on our YouTube Channel. The late John Vennari was a crusader for Catholic orthodoxy and our former Editor-in-Chief.Part 2 will be published soon.The August 1997 issue of Catholic Family News featured the article “A ‘Catholic’ Charismatic Extravaganza” which contained a report on the Charismatic’s 30th Anniversary conference in Pittsburgh. The article also catalogued a brief summary of the most serious problems with “Catholic” pentecostalism as being radically opposed to...