Free Republic

Priest attends brother’s homosexual ‘wedding,’ calls it ‘amazing,’ ‘special’Fr. Rico Passero, the pastor of a Catholic church in Ontario, said that he ‘MC’d the reception’ and praised what he called ‘an EPIC wedding weekend.’A Canadian Catholic priest from Ontario posted on social media that he attended his brother’s homosexual “wedding,” which he described as “amazing” and “EPIC.”Fr. Rico Passero, who is listed as the pastor at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Grimsby, Ontario, made the Facebook post.“What an EPIC wedding weekend last week. It took me some time to finally receive some amazing photos from the Midnight in Eden wedding...

After the SSPX Excommunication: Which Catholic Truths Does Cardinal Tucho Want Catholics to Deny?The Vatican has punished the SSPX—but for what, exactly? If Catholics may not "formally adhere" to the Society's doctrine, then the obvious question follows: Which doctrines? This analysis walks through the most controversial points of the SSPX's 154-point Profession of Faith and asks whether Rome is now condemning truths Catholics have always been required to believe.Our Catholic Faith does not permit us to compromise revealed truth—no matter who commands us to do so.Tweet this quoteUnsurprisingly, even the secular press has reported on the punishments issued by Cardinal...

Wow! I'm Excommunicated By My Papa...or Am I?This photo says it all. My mom always said, "Birds of a feather flock together." So here we have the scandalous porn-writing head of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith sharing an intimate moment with the pope, il papa, my daddy in the spiritual life. I'm heartbroken and shaking my head after reading the explanatory note from Fernandez. [Published at the end.]Will I stop going to the SSPX? No. My conscience tells me that in order to be in "full Communion" with Rome these days, I must accept those things I...

Pope Leo XIV remains widely popular among U.S. Catholics, but a new survey suggests partisan divisions are beginning to shape views of the pontiff. A Pew Research Center survey found 78 percent of Catholics view Leo favorably, down from 84 percent last year. The decline was driven largely by Republican Catholics and less-frequent churchgoers. The survey follows a period of public tension between Pope Leo and President Donald Trump. In April, the pontiff spoke out against war, warning that it was driven by unnamed leaders gripped by a "delusion of omnipotence." Trump later responded with a series of social media...

The Roman Catholic archbishop of Washington, D.C., removed an archdiocesan exorcist and severed ties with his nonprofit organization on Wednesday after he went viral earlier this week for expressing his opinion that most UFO encounters are likely demonic. Monsignor Stephen J. Rossetti, a psychologist and priest of the Diocese of Syracuse, New York, who served as an exorcist in the Washington archdiocese for 19 years, was removed by Cardinal Robert McElroy for "linking UFOs to demonic presence," according to a statement from the archdiocese. McElroy, who has faced scrutiny and criticism for his own views on Catholic social teachings and...

[Catholic Caucus] Homosexual German priest says Bible should be read through ‘queer’ lens'Reading the Bible from a queer perspective essentially means approaching the texts as a source of liberation for all ways of life,' wrote Father Burkhard Hose.An openly homosexual German priest, who enjoys the support of his local bishop, has said that the Bible should be read through a “queer” lens.Father Burkhard Hose, a well-known pro-LGBT activist within the Catholic Church in Germany, wrote an essay in which he laid out what it means to read Holy Scripture through a “queer” lens.“Reading the Bible from a queer perspective essentially...

About a dozen years ago, having wandered for decades, I returned to the Catholic Church into which I was, as an infant, baptized in 1959. Therein lies my proprietary interest. I’ve long found Fox News host Sean Hannity to be a voice of common sense, when most in the political media sphere reliably tote woke Democrats’ water. But I wholeheartedly disagree with lifelong Catholic Sean’s April decision to leave our Church (while remaining Christian). He cited current officials hiding wrongdoings and their pursuit of popularity over traditional doctrine as causal factors. “I left the Catholic Church in large part due...

Copilot said Here’s a clear, scholarly, and surprisingly fascinating look at the little word “is” in the New Testament — and whether the Greek ever means “represents.” No tools were needed here; this is straight linguistic and exegetical analysis. 6. The Conclusion When you synthesize these passages, the result is unmistakable: • Jesus teaches a literal Eucharist (John 6). • Jesus gives a literal Eucharist (John 13). • Paul interprets a literal Eucharist (1 Cor 10–11). • The early Church universally accepts a literal Eucharist.The symbolic only interpretation simply does not fit the grammar, the narrative, the theology, or the...

New data shows 18%, or nearly 1 in 5, of tested students and staff at Archbishop Riordan High School in San Francisco were diagnosed with either latent or active tuberculosis during an outbreak that started in November. New testing is scheduled to start today. In total, 96% of the school community was tested, seven people were diagnosed with active cases during the course of the outbreak and 241 latent cases were reported, according to data released by the San Francisco Department of Public Health on April 27 to the school community. In February, four active cases and three suspected active...

In 1955, Algeria had over 1 million Catholics and 140,000 Jews. Today, as Pope Leo visits Algeria, there are some 8,000 Catholics in Algeria and there are fewer than 200 Jews.99% of the population of what was one of the old territories of Christianity are Sunni Muslims.Was Islam so popular that all the Christians and Jews decided to convert? Not at all. They were persecuted, murdered, tortured and driven out by Islamic violence that occurred in our lifetimes.Christians and Jews had lived in Algeria since Roman times. Now they’re gone.This Christian genocide was endorsed by major world powers, aided and...

A majority of U.S. Catholic voters supported Donald Trump in his 2024 presidential victory. Yet across the broad Catholic political spectrum – even among conservative-leaning bishops – there is dismay over Trump’s unprecedented verbal assault on Pope Leo XIV, the first American to lead their church. Leo says he is sharing a Gospel message and not directly attacking Trump or anyone else with his appeals for peace and criticism of attitudes fueling the war. Criticism of Trump came from Archbishop Paul Coakley, head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and from Minnesota-based Bishop Robert Barron, who only a few...

Hours after Leo XIV became pope in May, Trump confidant and conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer posted a brief message on social media. It said: “WOKE MARXIST POPE.” She was not the only member of the American right to immediately cast Leo as a culture war villain. Steve Bannon, a Catholic and former altar boy, called him the “worst pick for Maga Catholics” and described his election as a victory for “the globalists that run the Curia”. You might expect Donald Trump’s Maga base to embrace the first American pope. His administration is stacked with officials who speak proudly of their...

President Trump refused to apologize Monday to Pope Leo XIV amid their public fight over the US-Iran war, claiming the leader of the Roman Catholic Church “said things that are wrong.” “He was very much against what I’m doing with regard to Iran, and you cannot have a nuclear Iran — Pope Leo would not be happy with the result,” Trump said. “Iran wants to be a nuclear nation so they can exterminate the world. Not gonna happen.”Trump also accused the pontiff of being “very weak on crime” during an impromptu press availability outside the Oval Office at the White...

In the face of increasing tensions worldwide, Pope Leo XIV has called the faithful to join him in a prayer vigil for peace on Saturday, April 11. In his first Easter message - on Easter Sunday, the pontiff linked Jesus’ Resurrection to peace. He noted that Jesus’ conquest of death, darkness and hatred came at the cost of his life. Still, Jesus gave his life freely out of love — the same love the faithful are called to show to neighbor in a “new humanity” in the Risen Christ. “We are growing accustomed to violence, resigning ourselves to it, and...

Consternation as Pope Leo meets with former Obama advisor David AxelrodIt is being speculated that the Axelrod meeting could have been preparation for Pope Leo to eventually meet Obama himself.Pope Leo XIV met with David Axelrod, a former advisor to President Barack Obama, in a private audience on Thursday.The Vatican confirmed the meeting with Axelrod and his “entourage,” but details about what was discussed have not been made public. Pope Leo was allegedly 30 minutes late to another meeting because his audience with Axelrod overran.The meeting came in the wake of reports that back in January, the Trump administration demanded...

Days after Pope Leo XIV delivered his State of the World speech, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby summoned Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the Vatican’s U.S. representative, to a closed-door Pentagon meeting for a bitter lecture. “The United States,” Colby said, according to a blistering new report by The Free Press, “has the military power to do whatever it wants in the world. The Catholic Church had better take its side.” One U.S. official present at the meeting brought up the Avignon papacy, a period in the 14th century in which the French monarchy bent the Catholic Church into submission,...

During Holy Week, as Christians recall how a public change of heart led to what we consider to be the ultimate sacrifice in a state-sanctioned execution, it is a fitting moment to reflect on how justice is carried out today. California holds the largest death row population in the nation, with hundreds of men and women still living under a sentence of death. Yet our state has not carried out an execution in years and has already begun moving toward a more humane vision of justice.

“Brothers and sisters, this is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war,” the first American pope, citing a Bible passage, told congregants in St. Peter’s Square, according to The Associated Press. “He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them,” he added.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, said on Thursday that the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran does not meet the Catholic Church’s criteria for a just war. “No, it does not seem to meet the conditions,” he told reporters on the sidelines of an academic conference at the Vatican Apostolic Library. When asked by EWTN News about the decision of the United States to attack Iran, Parolin referred to recent remarks by Cardinal Robert McElroy, archbishop of Washington, D.C. In an interview with his archdiocesan newspaper, The Catholic Standard, McElroy said the intervention in Iran failed to meet several...

In 2023, LA welcomed 3,462 catechumens and candidates — both children and adults who had never been baptized, plus those who had been baptized but had never completed the other sacraments — into the Church at Easter. Then in 2024, there were 3,596. In 2025, a significant bump of a combined 5,587 entered. For Easter 2026, the archdiocese expects an even more staggering increase: 8,598 catechumens and candidates. So what’s behind the surge in conversions? Some point to a reawakening born from the personal desolation experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic…Many find it to be a sign of spiritual hunger caused...