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[Catholic Caucus] Müller: Holy Spirit Doesn't Inspire Francis To Invent False DoctrineBishops are betraying their divine mission by failing to preach the Catholic Faith, Cardinal Gerhard Müller told a conference the day before the Roman Rite's 'Summorum Pontificum' pilgrimage event to Rome tomorrow (Edward Pentin, X.com).Müller knows that the power of politics, the media and the banks is, in secular terms, "the safe side". Truth, on the other hand, defies contradiction and promises suffering with Christ. Müller also pointed out two serious errors:1. That a Pope with his maximum apostolic authority (plenitudo potestatis) could even change the hierarchical constitution of...

Pope Francis has expelled two more members and upheld the expulsion of one member of the controversial lay movement Sodalitium Christianae Vitae due to allegations of sexual abuse, abuse of power and financial malfeasance. In a letter dated Oct. 21 and posted on the Peruvian bishops’ conference website, the apostolic nunciature in Peru announced that the decision was made after the pope evaluated allegations revealed during a Vatican investigation last year. The investigation, dubbed as a “special mission,” was conducted in July 2023 by Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta and Msgr. Jordi Bertomeu, officials of the Dicastery for the Doctrine...

[Catholic Caucus] Francis’ Focus on Self: Third Autobiography in Two YearsA new autobiography by Francis entitled "Spera" (hope!) will be published simultaneously in 80 countries on January 14 .The original plan was alledgely to publish the memoirs after Francis' death. But "the needs of our time" prompted Francis to shape the narrative of his life.The German publisher Kösel claims that it is the first autobiography of a pope in his lifetime. In fact, Pius XII had already met journalists who wrote his biographies (e.g. Konstantin, Prince of Bavaria). John Paul II published his memoirs under the title “Gift and Mystery”.Francis...

Pope Francis says to vote for lesser of two evils, and we know abortion is the real evilThe pontiff insisted abortion and deportation are equally evil, but the lesser evil principle requires voting against the candidate who would do the most harm.(Population Research Institute) — I have long regarded this papacy as a kind of penance.From its sacrifice of the Underground Church in China to its suppression of the Latin Mass, from its dalliance with Masonry to its relentless sermonizing about climate change and our collective sins, it has at times seemed to be nothing more than a collection of...

[Catholic Caucus] "A Toast to the Pope" - by Fr. Richard CipollaFrom the first epistle of St Paul to Timothy: Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared.When I was young I remember waiting to see the latest Walt Disney movie. I had to wait until it came to what was called the second run theater near my house, where the price of admission was cheaper than in the grand movie houses downtown. And...

[Catholic Caucus] Prominent Italian priest claims Francis is not the pope in viral sermon Famous Italian priest Father Giorgio Maria Faré said in an October 13 sermon, which now has over 38,000 views, that he believes Francis is not a true pope because Pope Benedict XVI did not fully resign his office. Faré claimed Benedict didn’t properly resign from the papacy and remained pope until his death in 2022. The priest also charged that Pope Francis was doubtfully elected and Benedict intentionally didn’t resign. Francis is not the pope Faré opened his sermon by explaining that in recent years, he...

[Catholic Caucus] Synodality is the common thread linking the many controversies of the Francis pontificateAs Cardinal Joseph Tobin stated in 2021, 'synodality is, in fact, the long-game of Pope Francis.' The process of 'listening and dialogue' leading to doctrinal revolution and relativism is the string which ties together not just previous synods, but the last 11 years.Through the process and style of the Synod on Synodality, Pope Francis appears to be subtly but firmly trying to irreversibly implement the more controversial focus points of his papacy.“The Synod on the Amazon has opened the path for the Synod on Synodality,” Cardinal...

[Catholic Caucus] Pope Francis said he will consider ‘openness’ to ‘transgender people’ when naming new US bishops: reportPope Francis allegedly ‘said that when he appoints new bishops in the US he will consider their openness to [so-called] transgender people as a criteria,’ according to a member of a meeting between Francis and the LGBT activist group New Ways Ministry.Two people who participated in Pope Francis’ private meeting with New Ways Ministry on Saturday have attested that the Pope committed to consider “openness to transgender people” as a criteria for appointing new U.S. bishops.According to Deacon Raymond Dever, who was cited...

[Catholic Culture] When top Vatican officials clash on sex-abuse discipline...In more than 40 years of covering news of the Catholic Church, I have never encountered a Vatican story as wild as this one, nor one that is potentially—I stress, potentially—as revealing about the way the Vatican actually works.First bear in mind that this story involves the sex-abuse scandal: an issue on which any sensible Catholic prelate by now recognizes the importance of getting things right; an issue on which Pope Francis has repeatedly promised transparency and accountability. And yet:A powerful Vatican dicastery overturned the sentence imposed by two ecclesiastical tribunals...

Francis Takes Revenge on the (True) AfricansFrancis has often expressed his alleged "love for the peripheries", writes Carlos Esteban on InfoVaticana.com (10 October).But this love does not include the peripheries of black Africa, perhaps because the continent has rejected Francis' homosexual manifesto "Fidicia supplicans".For Esteban, it is a "striking anomaly" that Cameroon, with 4 million Catholics, a quarter of the population, has more than 1,200 priests and as many seminarians in formation, but not a single prelate in the College of Cardinals.Nor does fertile Benin, with its three million Catholics, almost eight hundred priests and more than a thousand nuns.Not...

Pope Francis popularity plummets in the U.S. and 6 Latin American countriesPope Francis Faces Shifting Sentiment Across Latin America and the U.S. in 2024(ZENIT News / Roma, 10.13.2024).- A decade after his election as Pope Francis, once a highly popular figure across Latin America, is now seeing a decline in his favorability among the public in the region, according to a recent 2024 survey conducted by the Pew Research Center. The poll, which gathered data from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru, highlights both waning support and growing criticism of the Argentine-born pontiff. ... A Significant Decline in ArgentinaThe...

[Catholic Caucus] New Ways Ministry Brings Transgender, Intersex, Ally Catholics for Dialogue with Pope FrancisPope Francis meeting part of the the New Ways Ministry delegation. From left, Dr. Cynthia Herrick, Laurie Dever, Deacon Ray Dever, Michael Sennett, and Nicole SantamariaROME—Pope Francis met today with a diverse group of transgender, intersex, and ally Catholics, including a medical doctor who provides gender transition care. The group urged Pope Francis to move past the Church’s negative approach to gender-diverse people, and to encourage Church leaders to listen more attentively to the lives and faith of LGBTQ+ people.The nearly 90-minute meeting was arranged by...

ROME — A group of LGBTQ+ Catholics met with Pope Francis in the Vatican this weekend, during which they urged him to give his approval for “gender-affirming care,” which includes sex change surgery. The nearly 90-minute meeting was brokered by Sister Jeannine Gramick, a U.S. nun who was disciplined by the Vatican in 1999 for problematic “errors and ambiguities” in her pastoral approach to homosexuality. That year, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) permanently barred Sr. Gramick from any pastoral work involving homosexual persons, together with Father Robert Nugent, with whom she had co-founded New Ways...

Popes can err slightly but cannot profess formal heresyAn error held by some Catholics is that a pope cannot err, yet the Church has never taught such a thing. A pope indeed cannot profess or declare magisterial something that is a manifest error, but a pope can make slight, inadvertent mistakes or allow slight errors to creep into his speech. After all, popes are only human, they’re not infallible.For instance, Pope Paul VI initially declared Vatican II to be the work of God, which he believed in the innocence of his heart, but he later recanted this by saying...

[Catholic Caucus] BREAKING: Pope urged to approve ‘sex changes’ during meeting with New Ways MinistryFrancis met with a group of self-professed 'LGBT', 'transgender' and intersex people at the Vatican today, who urged him to approve 'sex-change' surgeries.(L - R) with Francis. Dr. Cynthia Herrick sex-change doctor; Laurie Dever, Deacon Ray Dever; Michael Sennett "transgender man"; and Nicole Santamaria "intersex"Pope Francis met privately with a group of “transgender, intersex, and ally Catholics” today, in an event organized by dissident LGBT group New Ways Ministry, whose longstanding official censure by the Vatican remains in place though Francis has repeatedly signaled support for...

[Catholic Caucus] At Synod ecumenical vigil Pope emphasizes link of ‘unity and synodality’Marking the anniversary of Vatican II's opening, Pope Francis led Synod participants and ecumenical delegates in a prayer vigil at the Vatican, during which the link between Synodality and ecumenism were emphasized.Pope Francis joined with ecumenical delegates and participants of the Synod on Synodality in an ecumenical prayer vigil at the Vatican this evening, during which the link between ecumenism and synodality were once more affirmed.Closing the full day of Synod meetings Friday, October 11, the participants took part in a highly anticipated ecumenical prayer vigil in the...

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal Tobin says synodality implements Pope Francis’ ‘program’ for the ChurchWith ‘Amoris Laetitia, Fratelli Tutti, Laudato Si’,’ Pope Francis has ‘distilled wisdom’ from previous synods, opined Cardinal Joseph Tobin at a Holy See press briefing today.Newark’s Cardinal Joseph Tobin has linked some of Pope Francis’ more controversial texts, such as Amoris Laetitia, to the Synod, saying that synodality is a key part of Francis’ “program” which makes the Church “live and act” differently.With “Amoris Laetitia, Fratelli Tutti, Laudato Si’,” Pope Francis has “distilled wisdom” from previous synods, opined Cardinal Tobin at a Holy See press briefing today.Tobin drew...

VATICAN CITY (AP) – Pope Francis met Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Vatican on Friday, the latest step on the Ukrainian president’s European tour to win support for his proposed “victory plan” aimed at ending the war with Russia. The pope and the Ukrainian leader held private talks for 35 minutes. After their private meeting at the Sala della Biblioteca and the presentation of the Ukrainian delegation, Francis gave Zelenskyy a bronze plaque depicting a flower and an inscription reading: “Peace is a fragile flower.” In turn, Zelenskyy gifted the pontiff with an oil painting portraying “The massacre of Bucha. The...

In a renewed appeal, Pope Francis called for the worldwide abolition of the death penalty, arguing it ‘attacks the inviolability and dignity of the person,’ contrasting against traditional Church teachings that defend capital punishment. Pope Francis has once again called for an end to the death penalty, describing the practice as “always inadmissible” and appealing for its “abolition in all countries of the world.”In an October 10 post on his official X (formerly Twitter) account to commemorate “European and World Day against the Death Penalty,” the Pope wrote that the “death penalty is always inadmissible, because it attacks the inviolability...

[Catholic Caucus] Pope says Church must ‘confront forms of paganism’ in secularismIn his meeting with his brother Jesuits in Belgium, Pope Francis call secularization a “complex phenomenon” and noted sometimes the Church must “confront forms of paganism.”Speaking to 150 Jesuits in Brussels on Sep. 28, the pontiff answered a question from a member living in Amsterdam, one of the most secularized cities in the world.In his reply, Francis noted he didn’t mean a paganism like the one in the ancient world.“We do not need a statue of a pagan god to talk about paganism: The very environment, the air we...