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The Pope met with the Tribunal of the Roman Rota for the beginning of the judicial year. ...

I was going to post this under Catholic Caucus but I decided instead to open it up. To summarize: Pope Francis, aka Papa Pacha, gave an interview with AP on Tuesday, he said that certain bishops need to go through a process of conversion (whatever that means), that laws criminalizing homosexuality are "unjust", that it's all part of the "human condition", but nonetheless still a sin. Francis could have said all of the above about suicide, but didn't, as these traditional bishops he went after are against it as well, it is a crime to commit suicide, a sin people...

Gay “clubs” operate openly in Catholic seminaries, the institutions that prepare men for the priesthood, the late Pope Benedict XVI has claimed in a posthumously published book scathing of Pope Francis’s progressive agenda. In a blistering attack on the state of the Catholic Church under his successor’s papacy, Benedict, who died on Dec 31 at the age of 95, said that the vocational training of the next generation of priests is on the verge of “collapse”. He claimed that some bishops allow trainee priests to watch pornographic films as an outlet for their sexual urges. Benedict gave instructions that the...

[Catholic Caucus] Francis: "God Does Not Reject Homosexuals""God doesn't reject homosexuals," Francis used his usual doublespeak talking to the Italian psychologist Salvo Noé for another interview book ("La paura come dono" - Fear as a Gift), reports Ansa.it.“God's style is closeness, mercy and tenderness," Francis repeated his mantra, "His heart is open to each and every one. He is Father. Love does not divide, but unites.”Hypocrisy is for Francis “the fear of the truth” - while a more brilliant mind called it "the bowing of vice before virtue."For Francis who ratters down words like "closeness, mercy and tenderness" in order...

Pfizer and the VaticanSources say Pope Francis met privately twice last year with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla The Register has learned that Pope Francis privately held undisclosed meetings with the CEO of Pfizer last year as questions arise over the efficacy of the vaccines in preventing transmission, which are now being mandated for all Vatican staff and visitors.According to Vatican sources, the Holy Father twice met Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla at the Vatican, although the precise details are not known. Unlike most papal private audiences, these meetings were not announced by the Holy See Press Office, which did not...

Pope Francis is just full of surprises. Word has now emerged that the Pope, using coarse language, advised Spanish seminarians that, even if the person making a confession is not penitent and does not intend to repent in the future, priests must grant that person absolution. By doing so, Francis departed from Catholic doctrine. More than that, he has just removed eternal punishment for any and all crimes and sins. As I said, full of surprises. The Catholic Herald has the details:Priests should grant absolution in the confessional even when the penitent has no intention to repent, the Pope has...

Pope Francis reportedly delivered a profanity-laden speech to seminarians in Barcelona on Dec. 10, in which he urged them to refrain from being “clerical” and to “forgive everything” even if they believe the person in the confessional has “no intention to repent.”

Cardinal George Pell had told friends of his desire to spend his final years in Australia, but in the end, he would spend some of his last days furiously working on a fierce criticism of the Vatican.Only after his death have his recent critical writings of the church and its leader been revealed, including claims he anonymously published scathing pieces under a pseudonym."The most recent articles that have come out that have been critical, quite critical of the Francis papacy," Elise Anne Allen, from the Catholic news site the Crux, told the ABC."One thing Pope Francis appreciated about him at...

The Funeral Rites of Benedict XVI and the Many Petty Gestures of FrancisFrancis’ Petty Heart Mediocre people surround themselves with ones even more mediocre than themselves in order to be able to manage them as they please and conceal their own mediocrity. This is what Bergoglio did as soon as he took over the papal throne. And it has been demonstrated for the umpteenth time with the death of Pope Benedict XVI. I summarize here some of the events of the last few days, mostly anecdotal, but which reveal the mean and petty soul of Pope Francis. Some are public;...

We had the opportunity to read some previews of Mgr Georg Gänswein's book 'Nothing but the truth. My life at the side of Benedict XVI" coming out now from PIEMME Press. Basically it reconfirms what was anticipated in the interviews that have come out in recent days. To be read in full!

Pope Francis could be ousted in 'secret plan' by Vatican hardlinersVatican conservatives are waging a “secret plan” to put Pope Francis under such stress that he resigns, it has been claimed. The campaign against the Argentinian pontiff began just days after the death of his predecessor, Benedict XVI.Despite previously stating he will resign if his health deteriorates, it was thought highly unlikely that Francis would decide to step down while Benedict was still alive to avoid there being three Popes living in the Vatican – a situation without precedent that would have embarrassed the Catholic Church.But with Benedict’s death on...

Excerpted: "Hell and the Spiritual War" "Drawing his inspiration from Dante Alighieri's epic poem The Divine Comedy, Leastar paints the celebrated Italian poet and his companion Virgil discovering Bergoglio in the Inferno. Francis is upside down in the furnace with protruding feet and legs in the air above ground." "Dante's Inferno has several corrupt popes in Hell. A pope is one of the first souls Dante sees in the flames because he rejected the task God set for him. Anastasius II is in Hell for heresy and Nicholas III for simony, heralding the arrival of Boniface VIII and Celestine V...

I forgive Pope Benedict. I hope others can too.I first met Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in 1994 when I was researching my book "Inside the Vatican: The Politics and Organization of the Catholic Church." I was getting ready to leave Rome and he was one of the last and most important interviews for the book. Because of illness, he had to cancel our first appointment and then graciously rescheduled me for a time when most Vatican officials were taking their siestas. At the end of the interview, I asked for his blessing — something I only did with two other Vatican...

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is suffering from ill health, Pope Francis announced Wednesday as he finished his weekly general audience. “I would like to ask all of you for a special prayer for Pope Emeritus Benedict, who, in silence, is sustaining the Church," Pope Francis told attendees. He added, "Let us remember him. He is very sick, asking the Lord to console and sustain him in this witness of love for the Church, until the end." The Holy See Press Office later confirmed the pontiff's announcement and said Benedict has taken a turn for the worse medically, according to the...

Recalling Jesus’ birth in a stable, Pope Francis rebuked those “ravenous” for wealth and power at the expense of the vulnerable, including children, in a Christmas Eve homily decrying war, poverty and greedy consumerism. In the splendor of St. Peter’s Basilica, Francis presided over the evening Mass attended by about 7,000 faithful, including tourists and pilgrims, who flocked to the church on a warm evening and took their place behind rows of white-robed pontiffs. Francis drew lessons from the humility of Jesus’ first hours of life in a manger. “While animals feed in their stalls, men and women in our...

[Catholic Caucus] No Vatican II Nostalgia: Young Clergy Rejects FrancisThe Austin Institute has found that younger Catholic priests and priests ordained in the US in recent years tend to be significantly more Catholic than older clergy (Wsj.com, 18 December).The priests commented on Catholic teachings such as the sinfulness of contraception, masturbation, homosexual acts and suicide, the invalidity of women's ordination and the necessity of faith in Christ for salvation.Priests ordained in 2010 or later are the most faithful of all - and the least happy about Francis, who is still nostalgic for the decadence of the 1960s. About half (!)...

[Catholic Caucus] Frank "Cancels" FrankPro-life activist and national director of Priests for Life, Father Frank Pavone, 63, has been "removed from the priesthood" by the homosexualist Vatican under Francis Bergoglio.Father Pavone was accused of “blasphemous communications on social media” (sic!) and “persistent disobedience of the lawful instructions of his diocesan bishop.”In a December 13 letter to U.S. bishops, homosexualist Nuncio Christophe Pierre wrote that the Clergy Congregation issued the decision on November 9, writes CNA.In keeping with Francis' mercy ideology, there is “no possibility of appeal.” Not surprisingly, the trial against Pavone was conducted in secrecy behind Father Pavone's back...

Pope Francis laicizes America’s best loved pro-life priest Fr. Frank PavoneAccording to the pope's U.S. representative, the order for dismissal from the priesthood was a result of 'blasphemous communications on social media' and 'persistent disobedience of the lawful instructions of his diocesan bishop,' but Pavone said he had no knowledge of the Vatican's decision. America’s best loved pro-life priest, Fr. Frank Pavone, the National Director of Priests for Life as well as the President of the National Pro-Life Religious Council, has apparently been laicized (dismissed from the priesthood) by order of Pope Francis.Catholic News Agency (CNA) reported that a December...

The Vatican accused Beijing of breaching its agreement by ordaining a bishop for a Chinese diocese not approved by the Vatican. Beijing’s action surprised few because many people, including the Catholics in China and Hong Kong, had warned Pope Francis not to forge this ill-advised agreement with Beijing in the first place. Yet Francis refused to listen. Will he now have the grace to apologize to Catholics in China?The Chinese Communist Party severed China’s diplomatic relations with the Vatican in 1949, and Catholics in China, like all other religious believers, suffered more than three decades of persecution. The CCP shut...

The Abrahamic Family House in Abu Dhabi is nearly complete and mere weeks away from opening its doors to Chrislam and the One World Religion The world now accepts the idea of a Roman Catholic peace covenant brokered between a pope and an imam, and within this covenant a room is reserved for the Jews. Like all movements of man, it has a palatial headquarters, known as the Abrahamic Family House in Abu Dhabi, which is now just week away from being completed. It is considered one of the marvels of our age, alongside of the Abraham Accords. The stage...