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While the United States was reeling last week from an utterly chaotic election, the Vatican decided it was the right moment to publish its long-awaited report into disgraced former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. The mammoth document is a nauseating account of clerical coverup, cowardice, and complicity that prioritizes subtle finger-pointing and deflection over real accountability. Those expecting an explanation of how a serially accused predator was catapulted through the church hierarchy despite serious allegations and rumors of assault and indecent behavior will be left not merely disappointed but disillusioned.Equally unsatisfactory is its failure to disclose the extent to which this highly...

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal Danneels admits being part of clerical ‘Mafia’ that plotted Francis’ election September 25, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) - The authorized biography of Cardinal Godfried Danneels, out next week, is even more of a bombshell than expected. Not only do the two authors, Jürgen Mettepenningen and Karim Schelkens, reveal that the Cardinal was a regular member of a secret pressure group of Churchmen that met in the Swiss town of Sankt-Gallen, but the Cardinal himself has publicly and good-humoredly admitted the fact. Danneels even said that what was officially but discreetly labeled “the Sankt-Gallen group” was referred to by its...

Do you remember where you were on the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima in 1981? May 13, a remarkable day in history. Today, we mark the anniversary of the first apparition of Our Lady at Fatima on May 13, 1917, to the three small shepherd children, Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta. Also, it was 38 years ago today that John Paul II was shot in St. Peter’s Square. Where Were You 38 Years Ago? Do you know where you were 38 years ago today, May 13, 1981? Well, let me tell you about that day, one I'll never forget —...

It has been revealed that Turkey informed Italian officials about Mehmet Ali Agca's plan to assassinate Pope II Jean Paul one year before the incident.Turkish Interpol warned member countries by issuing a red bulletin after Agca escaped from prison in 1979 where he was sentenced to life for murdering Abdi Ipekci, editor of the moderate left-wing newspaper Milliyet; however, the countries did not pay much heed to "the red bulletin" at first. After Agca's assassination attempt, Interpol’s Secretariat General thanked the Turkish Security Directorate and held Turkey as an example for other countries.Retired Security Director Selahattin Gultepe who worked at...

Pope Francis has once again answered the question of whether women will be priests in the Catholic church. Pope Francis said the Catholic church is still opposed to women being ordained as priests, and it doesn't look like that's ever going to change. While visiting Sweden, the Pope told the press the matter was settled in 1994, saying, "Saint Pope John Paul II had the last clear word on this, and it stands." SEE MORE: Pope Francis Criticized For Not Accepting Transgender Community Article Continues Below Pope John Paul II's justification for the ban was that Jesus selected 12 men...

"Familiaris Consortio" was yesterday, today is "Amoris Laetitia"

Cheers and petals for the Turk who shot the Pope By Kate Connolly, in Istanbul (Filed: 13/01/2006) Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish nationalist who shot Pope John Paul II, was showered with petals by supporters after being released from prison after 25 years. The man responsible for one of the 20th century's most notorious assassination attempts shook hands with guards before being driven away from Kartal high-security jail in Istanbul yesterday. Mehmet Ali Agca arrives at a military recruitment centre Dressed in jeans, he said nothing to journalists but held aloft a magazine showing a photograph of his meeting with...

Speaking under the hateful gaze of Che Guevara in Havana’s Plaza of the Revolution — a shrine to ruthless communism — Pope Francis scolded us to “serve people, not ideas.” “Service is never ideological, for we do not serve ideas,” he said. “We serve people.” What a quaint and beautiful concept to ponder here in this fallen world full of violent men who thirst for absolute power and feast on death, rape and slavery.

On arrival in La Paz, Pope Francis was presented by Bolivian President Evo Morales with a wooden crucifix carved in the form of a hammer and sickle, the symbol of Lenin, Stalin, Mao and Fidel. Had Pope John Paul II been handed that crucifix, he might have cracked it over Evo’s head. For John Paul II had seen up close what communism did — to his country, his church and his people in 45 years of Bolshevik rule. On his arrival in the Nicaragua of Daniel Ortega in 1983, Pope John Paul castigated a priest-collaborator who dared to serve that...

Over the past two decades Israel has managed to destroy its regional reputation. With our own hands, we have twice shown our neighbors they have little reason to tie their fates to ours. We are unreliable. In 1994, Israel betrayed the Palestinians in Judea, Samaria and Gaza who had helped us fight against PLO terrorists for decades. Open season on our Palestinian allies officially began in July 1994 with the entrance of thousands of PLO terrorists – led by Yasser Arafat – into Gaza and Jericho. Arafat’s henchmen did not limit their murderous wrath to the Palestinians who saved countless...

Top Vatican adviser Jeffrey Sachs says that when Pope Francis visits the United States in September, he will directly challenge the “American idea” of God-given rights embodied in the Declaration of Independence. Sachs, a special advisor to the United Nations and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, is a media superstar who can always be counted on to pontificate endlessly on such topics as income inequality and global health. This time, writing in a Catholic publication, he may have gone off his rocker, revealing the real global game plan. The United States, Sachs writes in the Jesuit publication,...

Stating that “there is no fourth secret nor are there other hidden secrets,” Cardinal Angelo Amato, the prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, delivered a lengthy address on the Fatima apparitions at the Pontifical University Antonianum on May 7. The 20th century, said Cardinal Amato, was expected to be a time of “reason and brotherhood,” but instead saw the beginning of an era of Christian persecution: “the Armenian genocide, the Mexican repression, the Spanish persecution, the Nazi massacres, the Communist extermination, and, in this first part of the third millennium, Islamist persecution.” “The message of Fatima in...

In The Great Façade (2002)—soon to be republished in a second edition with new chapters covering the past twelve years of the “regime of novelty”—I refuted the accusation of neo-Catholic polemicists that traditionalists are improperly “pitting one Pope against another” when they note the obvious: that the Popes since Vatican II have been saying and doing things every one of their predecessors, including even John XXIII, would have considered unthinkable. In the neo-Catholic view of our situation this plain fact is inadmissible, for whatever the Pope or his delegates in the Holy See pronounce or approve is, for them, ispso...

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 03, 2014 The German magazine Stimme des Glaubens reported years ago that Pope John Paul II had commented on the Third Secret of Fatima during a conference in Fulda, Germany in 1980. In this report, Pope John Paul II said, "...it should be sufficient for all Christians to know this: if there is a message in which it is written that the oceans will flood whole areas of the earth, and that from one moment to the next millions of people will perish, truly the publication of such a message is no longer something to be so much...

(Reuters) - Lech Walesa, head of the Solidarity movement that ended Communism in Poland, knelt in prayer on Friday at a Catholic funeral mass for General Wojciech Jaruzelski, the Communist leader who for decades was his sworn enemy.

<p>Just two days before the canonization of Pope John Paul II, a giant crucifix erected in his honor collapsed in Italy, crushing a young man and killing him, according to ANSA.</p> <p>A piece of the 30-meter (98-foot) high wooden crucifix fell down during an event near the village of Cevo, in northern Italy, instantly killing the 21-year-old man. The Jesus Christ figure attached to the cross is six meters high and weighs 600 kg, according to AFP.</p>

An Italian man was crushed to death on Thursday by a giant crucifix dedicated to the late Pope John Paul II, just days before the Polish pontiff will be made a saint in a ceremony at the Vatican. In a bizarre coincidence, the 21-year-old man was reported to have been living in a street named after Pope John XXIII – who will also be canonised in the ceremony on Sunday, in an event that is unprecedented in the 2,000 year history of the Catholic Church. The man, named as Marco Gusmini, was posing for a photograph with a group of...

A man has been crushed to death after a giant crucifix dedicated to Pope John Paul II collapsed, just days before a historic Papal canonisation in Rome. The 30-metre-high (98ft) wooden and concrete cross fell during a ceremony in the Italian Alpine village of Cevo, near Brescia. Another man was taken to hospital. The structure was dedicated to John Paul II on his visit to the region in 1998. In a strange co-incidence, the 21-year-old man named as Marco Gusmini by local media, was reported to live in a street named after Pope John XXIII – who will also be...

VATICAN CITY (RNS) While millions of pilgrims are expected to attend the Catholic Church’s first-ever double canonization at the end of April, the Vatican is preparing its most ambitious TV and social media campaign for the millions who don’t make it to Rome.View down Via della Conciliazione to St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Photo courtesy of Jimmy Harris via Flickr City officials are expecting more than 5 million people to attend the ceremony when Pope Francis declares his predecessors Pope John Paul II and Pope John XXIII saints in St Peter’s Square on April 27.For the first time viewers will...

The Vatican Press Office has published the details regarding the preparations for the canonisations of Blesseds John XXIII and John Paul II, to be celebrated on 27 April. Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to be present Iacopo Scaramuzzivatican city A simple prayer vigil in various churches across Rome the night before the big day, hundreds of thousands of faithful and the possible - though as yet uncertain – presence of the Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. This is what the Vatican has in store for the double canonization ceremony that will make John XXIII and John Paul II saints...