Free Republic

[Catholic Caucus] NCR interview: Nancy Pelosi criticizes Pope Francis over China pactFormer speaker discusses loss of the Catholic vote, generational change in the Democratic PartyFormer Speaker Nancy Pelosi criticized Pope Francis' recently renewed pact with China, telling the National Catholic Reporter in an interview that the Vatican has disregarded the Gospel by permitting the Communist government to meddle with the Roman Catholic Church in China.The agreement with China gives the Communist government input over the appointment of Catholic bishops in China, a deal that critics say endangers Catholics loyal to Rome who have worshiped in secret for seven decades. "I'm...

The Vatican has unveiled its 2024 Christmas display—which met with Pope Francis’s approval—and it deliberately advances the leftist/Muslim narrative that Jesus was a “Palestinian.” This is a historical rewrite of the worst kind and gives fuel to the worst people. History is not complicated: The Bible says—and nothing contradicts it—that around the early 17th century B.C., the Israelites settled in the Land of Canaan, which became the Nation of Israel. Around the year 1,000 B.C., King David defeated the Philistines, who were the Israelite’s ancient enemies. For the next slightly more than 400 years, whether as a single nation or...

Pope Francis unveiled the annual nativity scene at the Vatican over the weekend - raising some eyebrows in the process. A noticeable addition this year saw the seminal scene's baby Jesus draped in a keffiyeh - a traditional scarf used by Palestinians as a national symbol. Jesus was born into a Jewish family in Bethlehem some 2,000 years ago - and his death triggered the birth of Christianity. A statement from the wheelchair-bound pontiff, moreover, saw him humbly ask onlookers for peace in the Middle East, weeks after he called for an investigation into what he said may be a...

Pope Francis: May inmates on death row in the US be gracedPope Francis asks for prayers for inmates awaiting execution on federal death row in the United States, appealing that their sentences be commuted.Pope Francis on Sunday prayed that the sentences of inmates on death row in the United States be commuted or changed.His prayer during the Angelus address comes as US President Joe Biden has the authority to commute the sentences of people on federal death row before he leaves office in January 2025.“Today, I feel compelled to ask all of you to pray for the inmates on death...

9 Day Novena for the Conversion of Pope Francis [Prayer]Steubenville, Ohio. A special 9-day Novena for the Conversion of Pope Francis will begin on December 8, 2024, and will run through December 17, 2024 (the birthday of Pope Francis), starting at 8:00 PM EST every night.This prayer initiative, which invites Catholics worldwide to unite in prayer, is focused on securing the grace of conversion for Pope Francis. Our Lord said to Peter in Luke 22:32 “But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and thou, being once converted, confirm thy brethren.”Our prayer is focused on the prayer...

Is the Vatican on the verge of bankruptcy? It appears so. I saw this going viral online so I dug into it (because we actually do our research here, we don’t just rely on Tweets) and what I found was this is accurate: VATICAN BANKRUPTCY?https://t.co/cHpTrpv2Xb pic.twitter.com/9Z5CFz02TP — The Sacred Blue Tent (@SabrinaGal182) December 3, 2024 The AP reports the situation is dire, as admitted by Pope Francis himself: Pope Francis, who has imposed a series of cost-cutting measures across the cash-strapped Vatican, warned Thursday that the city state’s troubled pension fund needs urgent reform to guarantee future obligations. Vatican employees...

[Catholic Caucus] A Funeral Fit for Vatican II: Francis’s Funeral ReformsEven in death, Francis seems intent on mocking the papacy.In what is erroneously described as yet another act of humility, the Vatican announced this week that the rubrics for pontifical funerals are being “simplified.”The reforms are intended to “emphasize even more that the Roman Pontiff’s funeral is that of a shepherd and disciple of Christ and not of a powerful man of this world,” Archbishop Diego Ravelli, the Vatican’s Master of Ceremonies, has said. They are meant to “better express the faith of the Church in the Risen Christ.”The previous...

A Brief Look at Benedict XVI’s 2013 Rejection of Francis’s Synodal ChurchWhen Pope Benedict XVI spoke of the “power struggle between different trends in the Church,” it is evident that he was talking about the tension between those seeking to conserve some semblance of Catholic tradition and the innovators who were pushing for the more revolutionary developments that we have seen from Francis.As discussed in previous articles, Benedict XVI condemned the “Council of the media” in his final address to the clergy of Rome on February 14, 2013. In that address, he directed almost all of his attention to discussing...

[Catholic Caucus] Fr. Heimerl: Francis’ ‘synodal church’ is controlled by old homosexual menThe barque of the Church is experiencing something like the mutiny on the Bounty, but with one crucial difference: the captain is here with the mutineers, and those who, like Bishop Strickland, close themselves off to the ‘gay’ mutiny almost have their backs to the wall.There are men who are like lonely callers in the desert, and we know from the Bible that it is usually the Spirit of God that rests on such men.Joseph Strickland, the emeritus Bishop of Tyler, Texas, who was unjustly deposed by Francis,...

[Catholic Caucus] The “Suicide of Altering the Faith” Took Place Before We Heard of FrancisThe Church had already reached the point of crisis before Jorge Bergoglio was even ordained to the priesthood (on December 13, 1969).Most of us understand that the Catholic Church is currently undergoing a profound crisis and that Francis seems to be doing everything in his power to make it worse. While Catholics justifiably consider how to best counteract the frequent outrages from Rome, it is worth considering the broader context of the crisis. To that end, the following milestones paint a picture that we may sometimes...

ROME — Pope Francis has proclaimed a special jubilee pilgrimage for gays and all LGBTQ+ people, Italian media announced this weekend. For the first time, a specific Jubilee event will be dedicated to Catholic homosexuals and LGBT people, noted the Italian daily, Il Messaggero, despite the Catholic Church considering homosexual acts to be intrinsically disordered. On September 5, Catholic members of the LGBTQI+ community will be hosted by the Jesuit Church of the Gesù, in central Rome, for a vigil service. The Jubilee 2025 initiative is sponsored by Jonathan’s Tent, an Italian pro-LGBTQ organization founded in 2018 by Catholic priest...

[Catholic Caucus] Join the novena for the conversion of Pope Francis starting December 8From December 8 to December 17, LifeSite readers are invited to take part in a nine-day novena dedicated to the conversion of Pope Francis and restoration of the Catholic Church.Please pledge to pray the novena here and get your copy of the novena prayer.STEUBENVILLE, Ohio (LifeSiteNews) — LifeSiteNews readers are warmly invited to take part in a nine-day novena dedicated to the conversion of Pope Francis and restoration of the Catholic Church.Organized by the Confraternity of Our Lady of Fatima, the novena is set to take place...

[Catholic Caucus] Pope Francis approves LGBT ‘pilgrimage’ for 2025 Jubilee: reportPope Francis has approved an LGBT-specific pilgrimage during the 2025 Jubilee year, an Italian Vaticanist reported, continuing his policy of openness to LGBT individuals. Giansoldati wrote that “a special moment of spirituality has been included in the official calendar of the Holy Year on Sept. 6, and the historic Baroque church of the Gesù has become the promoter of welcoming Lgbt+ pilgrims, their parents, workers and all those who gravitate to these rainbow associations.”The beautiful and famously lavishly decorated church of the Gesù is the mother church of the Jesuit...

‘A general misconception about dialogue’ - How an imam got talking with Pope FrancisThe Ahmadiyya Muslims are a community of around 12 to 15 million Muslim believers, who — because they believe in a Muslim messiah named Mirza Ghulam Ahmad — are considered heretical by mainstream Islam, and severely persecuted in many Muslim-majority countries.Ahmadiyya Imam Marwan Gill is leader of the Ahmadiyya movement in Argentina. Since becoming involved in interreligious dialogue, Gill has met Pope Francis twice, and is set to visit the Holy Father a third time this week, to present the pope his recent book about interreligious dialogue.Gill...

[Catholic/Orthodox Caucus] Pope Francis had new Latin Mass restrictions on his desk but didn’t sign document: reportA papal confidant has attested that, following a conversation he had with Pope Francis about the merits of the Latin Mass, the Pope decided not to issue a rumored document restricting it further.This article was originally published by PerMariam: Mater Dolorosa.VATICAN CITY (PerMariam) — A friend of Pope Francis’ has claimed that the Pope told him that a document – much rumored about during the summer – to implement new restrictions on the Latin Mass does exist, and Francis only did not sign it...

[Catholic Caucus] Benedict XVI made a colossal mistake by inventing the role of ‘pope emeritus’The truth is that the simplest explanations are being ignored. One should conclude either that Pope Benedict XVI made a colossal mistake or that he, in truth, invalidly renounced the papacy—with all the consequences such a conclusion entails for his successor.A recent contribution by Luisella Scrosati, published on the Italian Catholic outlet La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana on October 31, focuses on Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation, a topic that, over a decade since it happened, continues to spark debate—and likely will for years to come.As canon law...

[Catholic Caucus] Badilla: Catholics Are Not Obligated to Agree with Francis' ScandalsSince his formation as a Jesuit in Chile in 1963, Father Jorge Mario Bergoglio "has always been associated with his erratic, contradictory and even discombobulated behaviour", writes Vatican journalist Luis Badilla in a commentary.In this context, a phrase about Francis' behaviour printed in numerous books is memorable: "Bergoglio puts the blinker to the left, but then turns right, or vice versa".Badilla notes, however, that a driver who sends ambiguous and incoherent messages to other road users causes "great disorientation".He mentions Francis' recent "surprise" when he stopped at the luxurious...

[Catholic Caucus] A History Without Apologetics? A Commentary on the Pope’s LetterTrue Church history should not be an exercise in repentance and moral condemnation of the institution founded by Jesus Christ. Instead, it must testify to the triumph of divine truth in human history.The Holy Father’s Letter of November 21, 2024, on the renewal of Church history studies offers interesting insights but also raises serious concerns. Pope Francis presents methodological and purpose-driven questions that merit attention, yet his conclusions risk paving the way for dangerous misinterpretations regarding the Church’s mission in history. The call to study primary sources such as...

Francis Hallucinates: “All Religions Teach That We are Children of One God”rancis spoke today to participants in a Vatican conference (November 29-30) commemorating the centenary of the first interfaith gathering, an "All religions’ conference" then led by a certain Sree Narayana Guru (1856-1928).Adressing the "respected Swamis of Sivagiri Mutt and the followers of Sree Narayana Guru", Francis said:"All religions teach the fundamental truth that as children of one God we must love and honor one another, respect diversity and differences in a spirit of fraternity and inclusion, and take care of each other and the earth, our common home."The idea...

[Catholic Caucus] World Rejoices, Catholics Scandalized: Pope meets with Mexican transgenderTwo days ago, I tweeted out the following which has since been seen some 105,000 times on X. Some were critical of me, saying Francis is only trying to convert this person in the spirit of Christ eating with sinners and tax collectors: This is beyond idiotic, and here’s why.After the photos of the meeting went viral on the Internet, Nava Mau revealed the following on Instagram: “Not ever in my life did I imagine I would be sitting next to the pope in his residence, let alone speak with...