Free Republic

[Catholic Caucus] German bishop attacks Church teaching for upholding ‘only man and woman,’ demands changes to CatechismPro-LGBT Auxiliary Bishop Ludger Schepers of Essen insisted that ‘something has to change’ in the Church regarding sexuality and that the ‘Catechism must say different things than it does now,’ in the latest heterodox remarks from the German hierarchy.A German bishop criticized Catholic teaching for “assuming there is only man and only woman” and demanded that the Church change its infallible doctrine on sexuality in the latest heterodox comments from the German hierarchy.Bishop Ludger Schepers, an auxiliary bishop for the Diocese of Essen, who...

Less than 1% of American Catholics agree with all three of the Catholic Church's teachings on the sanctity of life issues, showing the widespread existence of what some call "cafeteria Catholics" in the United States, according to an analysis. Researcher Ryan Burge, an associate professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University who publishes articles on a Substack called "Graphs About Religion," shared data Thursday about the beliefs of Catholics in the U.S., focusing on their views on abortion, capital punishment and euthanasia. Burge attributed the motivation to conduct the research to comments made by Cardinal Wilton Gregory of the...

The Biden administration’s persecution against pro-life Christians in America is getting worse. Just days after LifeNews reported that federal prison officials put a pro-life woman in solitary confinement for 22 days for sharing food with fellow prisoners, a new report indicates that Biden officials are preventing a pro-life Christian from attending church. Paulette Harlow is one of a dozen pro-life Americans the Biden administration has targeted with prosecution for protesting abortions while it ignores hundreds of pro-abortion crimes committed across America. Harlow, who is 73, could be sentenced to up to 11 years in prison for protesting abortion. While Americans...

Leftists love to believe that churches should be run like clubs -- the majority rules. So they'll make a big deal out of polls, like the Pew Research Center finding six of ten Catholics disagree with the church's opposition to abortion. They do not ask self-identified Catholics whether they actually go to church on Sundays, or if they stopped the minute they became an adult. You would get a more conservative result. On Tuesday, NPR's newscast All Things Considered brought on reporter Katia Riddle to channel the views of pro-abortion Catholics, but what made it more shocking is touting a...

How Pope Francis opened the Vatican to transgender sex workersThe outreach, reflecting the most radical stage of his papacy, has prompted backlash while also altering the lives of the nearly 100 people he has met.

DOJ prevents pro-lifer on house arrest from attending Sunday Massh2>Paulette Harlow was refused a religious accommodation to go to church. Sign the prayer pledge for the nine pro-life rescuers facing a decade in prison.WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) – In what appears to be a targeted persecution, the Department of Justice has directly infringed on the religious liberty of a peaceful Catholic pro-lifer who has been placed on arrest, insisting that she be prohibited from attending church despite the defendant’s express request to be allowed to attend Mass in addition to doctor’s visits.RELATED: Biden DOJ’s treatment of jailed pro-lifers meets international definitions...

Priest Celebrates Lesbian [Pseudo] Marriage - One "Bride" Is Protestant PreacherRev. Joseph Williams, pastor of St. Vincent de Paul in Chicago, Illinois, officiated at a pseudo-marriage for two women in his church. They posted video footage on social media on 22 April and Rev. Williams confirmed that the video is real (OsvNews.com, 1 May).One of the women, Kelli Beard, is a United Methodist minister. She will become an associate pastor at an Arizona church starting in July. The other, Myah Knight, is a mental health therapist who runs a 'religious trauma support group'.Beard wore an off-the-shoulder champagne-coloured sequined dress, Knight...

[Catholic Caucus] Bishop Strickland: A ‘confused understanding of authority’ has invaded the ChurchSt. Robert Bellarmine wrote: 'Just as it is licit to resist a Pontiff who attacks the body, so it is licit to resist him who attacks souls, or who disturbs the civil order, or, even more, who tries to destroy the Church.'The following is a May 3, 2024, letter from Bishop Joseph Strickland, the bishop emeritus of Tyler, Texas. Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,“Roma locuta; causa finita est!” “Rome has spoken; the matter is finished!” In these pastoral letters that I have been publishing, I have been...

[Catholic Caucus] Pope Gregory XVI’s Mirari Vos Condemns the Cardinal Sin of the Vatican II RevolutionAs profitable and enlightening as it is to reflect on how Mirari Vos condemns the specific novelties of Vatican II, though, we might draw greatest value from the encyclical if we can truly appreciate what it said about the permissibility of novelties in general.Like many other papal encyclicals prior to Vatican II, several aspects of Pope Gregory XVI’s 1832 encyclical on “Liberalism and Religious Indifferentism,” Mirari Vos, directly contradict ideas that were explicitly promoted at the Council. For instance, whereas Vatican II’s “Declaration on Religious...

The Global Methodist Church has issued an official response to the United Methodist Church's General Conference votes to drop the denomination's decades-old ban on ordaining noncelibate homosexuals and allow the blessing of same-sex weddings. UMC General Conference delegates voted this week via consent calendar to remove assorted rules from the denomination's Book of Discipline, shifting its stance on multiple LGBT issues. Launched in 2022 as a conservative alternative to the UMC at a time when many churches were planning to leave the mainline Protestant denomination, the GMC issued a statement Wednesday stating that it "do[es] not have any affiliation with...

President Joe Biden is calling on Americans to join him in "asking for God's continued guidance, mercy, and protection" in his National Day of Prayer proclamation this week. The first Thursday of every May is set aside for the National Day of Prayer, an observance in the United States in which people are called to pray for the nation's wellbeing. In his Wednesday proclamation, Biden, a Catholic, said, "Americans of every religion and background have come together to lift up one another and our Nation in prayer." "Throughout America's history, faith and prayer have helped fuel some of the greatest...

Heretical German bishop says abortion is a ‘sensitive’ issue, will not participate in March for LifeBishop Stephan Ackermann defended Germany’s abortion regime as leading to ‘societal peace’ despite around 100,000 children killed in abortion every year and criticized strong pro-life advocacy, citing ‘a woman’s right to self determination.’The bishop of Trier has said that he would not participate in the March for Life because abortion is a “sensitive” and complex matter, citing “a woman’s right to self-determination.”In an interview with the German radio station Deutschlandfunk on April 29, Bishop Stephan Ackermann was asked about the recent March for Life in...

Pro-LGBT Jesuit parish in California shows where Pope Francis’ synodal agenda is headingSt. Ignatius, a Jesuit parish in Sacramento, promoted calls for ‘ordination’ of women and LGBT ‘inclusion’ and condemned ‘patriarchy’ in its report on the synodal process, which pastor Father Tom Lucas celebrated in a recent column.SACRAMENTO, California (LifeSiteNews) — My family recently attended Mass at St. Ignatius Loyola Parish in Sacramento, California. While it fulfilled our Sunday obligation, St. Ignatius is a Jesuit parish, and we are living under the Francis pontificate.Father Tom Lucas’ “Pastoral Perambulations” column of the church bulletin for the Fourth Sunday of Easter should...

Pope Provides Sr. Jeannine a Clarification of “Dignitas Infinita”The following reflection is from Sister Jeannine Gramick, SL, co-founder of New Ways Ministry.I have been very sad since April 8, 2024 when the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith promulgated Dignitas Infinita, the Declaration on Human Dignity. I have felt the immense grief among LGBTQ people and their families and friends. This document states many beautiful and essential truths, but the section on Gender Theory, which condemns “gender ideology,” is harming the transgender people I love.I wrote a note to Pope Francis to tell him about my sadness and...

The scandals haunting Pope Francis - Scheming cardinals are sharpening their knivesThe cardinals are already meeting to discuss who should be the next pope. Some of the liberal ones, who feel safe because they’re in favour with the ailing Pope Francis, can be seen comparing notes in a bar near the gates of the Vatican. The conservative cardinals are more nervous: they gather at suppers in each other’s apartments or — if they can trust the fawning waiters not to betray them — in a favourite restaurant.Perhaps you can see the flash of a bishop’s ring as he taps a...

The United Methodist Church General Conference voted to drop a ban on funding LGBT advocacy groups and removed a required punishment for pastors who officiate gay weddings after thousands of theologically conservative congregations left the mainline Protestant denomination in the last two years. On Tuesday, delegates approved a petition that struck from the UMC Book of Discipline Paragraph 806.9 language that prohibits the General Council on Finance and Administration from "ensuring that no board, agency, committee, commission, or council shall give United Methodist funds to any gay caucus or group, or otherwise use such funds to promote the acceptance of...

A United Methodist Church bishop, whose election was declared invalid in 2017 for being in a same-sex marriage but who remains in office, has denounced the denomination’s ban on “queer clergy” in a General Conference sermon. Bishop Karen Oliveto of the UMC Mountain Sky Area gave a message on Monday morning before the churchwide UMC General Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina. During her remarks, Oliveto asked those gathered if they were “willing to make God’s love visible in all you do” and if they would “meet and serve Jesus in the outcast, the downcast, and the cast aside.” Oliveto gave...

Queerdom, or living a life of sexual anarchy and rebellion against God, is one thing. But when you cross into the territory of comparing your sexual malfeasance to the triune God and Creator of all things, you’re in serious trouble. Much worse than if you’d just kept your mouth shut about God. Don’t get me wrong, your sin without repentance will still land you a place in Hell, but dragging the name of God into your sin to try to justify it will cause a greater judgment (Revelation 20:12) according to your works of evil. But such is the work...

CV NEWS FEED // The funeral for the late Rep. Donald Payne, Jr., D-NJ, a pro-abortion Baptist, is reportedly scheduled to be held at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark Thursday, May 4. North Jersey Media Group reported Friday that the late congressman’s funeral will take place “at 10 a.m. Thursday at Newark’s Cathedral Basilica.” Other sources corroborated this date and location. In addition, multiple sources indicate that Payne listed his religious affiliation as Baptist. It is likely that he was never baptized as a Catholic. Payne’s father and predecessor, the late Rep. Donald Payne, Sr., D-NJ,...

U.S. president Joe Biden has come under fire for making the sign of the cross during a rally criticizing measures that restrict abortion. Among his critics are José Ignacio Munilla, the bishop of Orihuela-Alicante in Spain, who called Biden’s gesture a “sacrilege.” Biden went to Tampa, Florida, on April 23 for a campaign stop one week before a law restricting abortion in the state from 15 to six weeks of gestation was due to go into effect. While a Biden supporter on stage criticized Florida governor and former Republican candidate for president Ron DeSantis for signing the bill, Biden made...