Free Republic

Müller warns of an "internal apostasy" in the West in the face of the expansion of Islam Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller has warned that the expansion of Islam in Europe coincides with a profound identity crisis in the West, which is abandoning its Christian roots. “Muslims do not respect a weak Christianity that is ashamed of the Cross and reduces itself to a charitable organization or an environmental watchdog body,” stated the prefect emeritus of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.Müller made these remarks in a prepared address for the Tavole di Assisi 2026, a gathering held on...

[Catholic Caucus] 10 Italian bishops attend national conference on LGBT ‘pastoral ministry’ The meeting presented initiatives already operating in several Italian dioceses.Italy’s Catholic bishops gathered to discuss the integration of LGBT-identifying people and their families into ordinary diocesan life.On September 4, nearly 200 pastoral workers and around 10 bishops gathered at the General Curia of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in Rome for Italy’s first national conference dedicated to “pastoral ministry with homosexual and transgender people.”The meeting, titled “Good Practices in Pastoral Ministry with Homosexual and Transgender People,” presented initiatives already operating in several Italian dioceses, while also examining the...

[Catholic Caucus] Kraków was John Paul II’s diocese. Now a trans activist helps plan its future 'I am changing the Church from inside,' said the trans activist, a formerly married father of one. Pope John Paul II’s Polish diocese is embracing gender ideology, even going so far as to welcome a gender-confused “trans” activist into its synodal process.The Archdiocese of Krakow released its Report of Synodal Work, marking the conclusion of the first stage of the Second Pastoral Synod. Both were influenced by 54-year-old trans activist Maria Minakowska (born Marek Jerzy Minakowski). The document proposes creating pastoral “safe havens” for...

Leo XIV appoints Archbishop: “The Church is called to disappear so that the Kingdom may grow.” Leo XIV appoints Archbishop: “The Church is called to disappear so that the Kingdom may grow.” Today, Pope Leo XIV appointed Father Mario León Dorado, 52 — a T-shirt guy and an adherent of the heretical Abu Dhabi program — as Coadjutor Archbishop of Rabat, Morocco. Born in Madrid, Dorado joined the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate in 1996 and was ordained a priest in 2001.He has served as Apostolic Prefect of Western Sahara since 2013.“The Church is called to disappear”In September 2022, he...

[Catholic Caucus] Synod reports call for ‘gender equality’ in Church governanceThe Synod documents emphasize the implementation of ‘gender equality’ and ‘co-responsibility’ in workplaces and the participation of consecrated laywomen in the election of bishops and chaplains.The Synod issued two new reports this week that include promoting “gender equality” across all positions within the Catholic Church.On September 8, the General Secretariat of the Synod published two final reports proposing changes to relations between bishops, consecrated religious, ecclesial associations and the Holy See, including a recommendation that diocesan faithful participate in preparing the reports bishops submit before their official visits to Rome.The...

[Catholic Caucus] They Won’t Let Bishop Schneider Offer the Latin Mass in St. Peter’s Cardinal Burke was allowed to celebrate the Latine Mass in St. Peter's Basilica for the Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage in 2025. For this year's event, Bishop Athanasius Schneider will celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass at St. Mary Major instead. Rome’s decision to deny him the Altar of the Chair raises uncomfortable questions about the Church’s current treatment of Catholics attached to Tradition.The Vatican’s move to deny Bishop Athanasius Schneider permission to celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) in St. Peter’s Basilica for this year’s Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage...

[Catholic Caucus] Brazilian bishop’s Mass includes heretical creed featuring ‘goddess,’ ‘sexual diversity’ A Mass for Brazil’s ‘Cry of the Excluded’ event featured the radical ‘Creed of the Ecclesial Base Communities,’ which denounces ‘rules governing love’ and a ‘hierarchical Church.’A heterodox creed recited during the annual “Cry of the Excluded” Mass celebrated by Bishop José Valdeci Santos Mendes of Brejo, Maranhão, Brazil, last week, which featured leftist language, included a reference to a “God/Goddess.”As first reported by EWTN News, during the September 7 Mass (the video for which has since been deleted from YouTube), the “Creed of the Ecclesial Base Communities”...

Bishop Schneider: Synodality is a ‘code word to undermine Catholic doctrine’ Bishop Athanasius Schneider pointed out that the word ‘synodality’ is purposely ambiguous and is used in a 'cunning' attempt to promote moral relativism within the Church.Bishop Athanasius Schneider warned that “synodality” is a “cunning code word used to undermine Catholic doctrine.”In an interview published Thursday with AdVaticanum that discussed Our Lady’s title of Co-Redemptrix, the suppression of the Traditional Latin Mass, and interreligious contact, the auxiliary bishop of Astana, Kazakhstan gave his view on the meaning of “synodality.” Schneider suggested that the meaning of “synodality” has deliberately been kept...

Illegal migrants excused from Sunday Mass obligation: Indiana archbishop Foreigners who are willfully breaking America’s immigration laws do not have to go to Mass on Sundays or Holy Days of Obligation this month, according to the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.Migrants who are in violation of the country’s laws are also now excused from attending Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation, according to a new directive from the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are currently working their way through Ohio and Indiana, arresting illegal immigrants. As a result, Archbishop Charles Thompson released a decree, written in Spanish, dispensing...

[Catholic Caucus] Vatican denies Bishop Schneider Latin Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica 'It seems very strange that today the so-called LGBT Catholics can obtain a special Mass in St. Peter's more easily than Catholics attached to the Church’s Tradition,' a source told LifeSite.The Traditional Latin Mass will not be celebrated in St. Peter’s Basilica during this year’s Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage.On September 9, the organizers of the 15th edition of the traditional Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage at the Tomb of St. Peter released the official program of the event. Unlike last year — and as already happened during Francis’s pontificate — the...

Letter from a Catholic Mother About the TLM Which clergy will defend real Catholicism as the stakes increase? Below is a letter I received from a mother of a large family. She and her husband gave me permission to publish it. I am keeping them anonymous, as well as their bishop and diocese.The TLM community in my diocese is suffering greatly. We are still mourning the loss of our Latin Mass; that school of holiness, valor, beauty, and love. It was our identity; the light of our families and the means of constant conversion in which we were all deeply...

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal Burke affirms Mary as Co-Redemptrix despite Vatican’s rejection Cardinal Raymond Burke reaffirmed the Blessed Virgin Mary's role as Co-Redemptrix after the Vatican claimed in November that it's 'always inappropriate' to use the title.Cardinal Raymond Burke publicly reaffirmed the Blessed Virgin Mary’s traditional title of Co-Redemptrix during a conference on Sunday at the Cathedral of Saint Bavo in Haarlem, the Netherlands.The remarks, reported by The Catholic Herald from a copy of the original talk issued by Burke’s office, mark a notable intervention in the debate that followed the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith’s (DDF) November 4,...

Is Rome Minimizing Our Lady? The Crisis of Marian Devotion Why are traditional Marian titles being minimized precisely when the Church needs Our Lady more than ever? From Coredemptrix and Mediatrix to Don Bosco’s famous vision of the Two Pillars, this powerful reflection calls Catholics back to the Mother of God, and warns against a Marian minimalism that risks forgetting how profoundly Our Lady belongs to the story of our salvation. On this feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Church recounts the unique role of our Lady in salvation history: the one chosen by God to...

[Catholic Caucus] Leo XIV’s Appointed President of the ‘Academy for Life’ Opens the Door to Euthanasia Archbishop Renzo Pegoraro, President of the Pontifical Academy for Life, claims that Catholics could morally assent to a law permitting assisted suicide in Italy.Speaking to the Italian bishops’ newspaper Avvenire.it on September 6, he said: “From the Catholic side, it is a matter of assessing whether we will be faced with an ‘imperfect law’, to which it would nevertheless be moral to give one’s assent, in view of the fact that more permissive and libertarian laws could otherwise quickly be approved in Parliament, laws...

[Catholic Caucus] Italian cardinal writes foreword for pro-transgender book Cardinal Domenico Battaglia previously allowed an LGBT activist to address congregants during a ‘Te Deum Mass’ at the Naples cathedral. Pope Francis-appointed Cardinal Domenico Battaglia of Naples has written the forward for a pro-LGBT book on “transgender people.” Battaglia’s forward was translated by Elisa Belotti for New Ways Ministry, an LGBTQ+ activist group promoting the normalization of homosexuality and transgenderism within the Catholic Church. Battaglia’s words are carefully chosen, leaning towards the acceptance of transgenderism while failing to mention the Church’s explicit teaching on the subject. He wrote that we find...

[Catholic Caucus] Spain awakens for Ceuta and not a single bishop in the squares One thousand squares filled at the same time, a forest of Spanish flags from Cibeles to the Pilar, and a single cry from north to south: “Ceuta is not for sale, Ceuta defends itself.” Nothing like it had been seen since the autumn of 2017, when the separatist challenge brought a seemingly dormant nation into the streets. The Spanish people are slow to react. But when they are put in check, they react. Yesterday they did so again — alone, without their shepherds.There are images a...

[Catholic Caucus] Vatican claims Mass is ‘ecological school’ in ‘climate change’ document The Vatican’s International Theological Commission said the Eucharist can lead to ‘the ecological conversion that we so urgently need to undertake as a human family,’ in a new document on Wednesday. A lengthy document published by the International Theological Commission entitled “Caring for our Common Home – A Responsible and Fraternal Response to the Triune God” refers to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as an “ecological school.”In the September 2 document focusing on the environment, “ecological conversion,” and so-called “climate change,” the Theological Commission devoted an entire...

SSPX Barred from Marian Shrines While Interfaith and LGBTQ Events Are Welcomed In the last two weeks, the SSPX has been barred from two of Europe’s most famous Marian shrines: Lourdes and Mariazell. But interfaith prayer and LGBTQ-themed events have been welcomed... Who or what exactly is being protected here?The Irony of The Vatican’s Logic of Exclusion: When Those Who Defend the Blessed Virgin Mary Are Barred from Her Shrines There is a bitter irony unfurling in the Catholic Church in 2026, one that explicitly exposes the contradictions at the crux of its present institutional crisis. Within the span of...

[Catholic Caucus] China’s Patriotic Church and Leo’s Synodal Church are driving faithful Catholics underground Both are puppet institutions that serve a higher power while betraying those who want to follow the Gospel of Jesus Christ.The High Priest of Hypocrisy, Leo XIV, has once again given Catholics another reason to ask who is really directing the Church in Communist China.Any observer with two eyes and one brain cell can, of course, guess the answer.On August 31, Paolo Liu Honggang was consecrated Bishop of Datong in Shanxi province. The Vatican confirmed that Leo had “appointed” Liu on August 10 after approving his...

Pope Leo’s Rimini Meeting: Everyone Is Welcome, Except Traditional Catholics Pope Leo’s Rimini Meeting was presented as a celebration of friendship, dialogue, and the search for truth among peoples. But what happens when Catholics insist that Catholicism is NOT merely one path among many? Let's examine Pope Leo XIV’s Rimini address, false ecumenism, and why Traditional Catholics have no place at the modern Vatican’s “friendship circle”.Leading up to Leo XIV’s August 22, 2026 visit to the Rimini “Meeting of Friendships Among Peoples,” Vatican News provided the background for the event:“The history of the Meeting for Friendship Amongst Peoples, also known...