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Vatican Double Standard: Communists IN, Traditionalists OUTWhy does the Vatican tolerate Communist China’s state-appointed Catholic bishops while cracking down on the SSPX and the Traditional Latin Mass? Michael Matt examines the growing double standard and the disturbing ramifications for faithful Catholics. Why is the Vatican eager to tolerate bishops appointed by Communist China without a papal mandate while taking increasingly severe action against Traditional Catholic bishops of the SSPX?Michael Matt examines this contradiction alongside a series of developments affecting Traditional Catholics: reported restrictions on the Traditional Latin Mass in Seattle and Pittsburgh, new pressure against the TLM in England, and...

[Catholic Caucus] NEW BOOK: Publication of 'Vatican II and The Eclipse of God. A Critique of the Council' by Don Pietro Leone Rorate Caeli is delighted to report that “Vatican II and the Eclipse of God” ‘A Critique of the Council’ by Don Pietro Leone has finally been published. Readers will recall that Rorate had the honour of posting instalments of this very important work over a period of two years. (See note)* Since then, the author has added further analysis to the original texts. Below is the link to Loreto Publications and a short presentation of the book. Readers...

Florida’s Catholic AG pushes back on archbishop for rejecting vaccine exemptions ‘Should Muslim schools teaching sharia law in violation of Florida law nevertheless get state funding? I don’t think so,’ Florida AG James Uthmeier said. Florida’s attorney general has met the archbishop of Miami’s refusal to provide vaccine religious exemptions at diocesan Catholic schools with sharp criticism.Early this month, Florida AG James Uthmeier warned the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops that Catholic schools may be disqualified from state-funded scholarships and vouchers due to their denial of vaccine religious exemptions. On Monday, Archbishop Thomas Wenski ironically insisted that Uthmeier’s challenge to...

[Catholic Caucus] Pachamama ritual performed by Vatican official took place at pro-LGBT event In addition to the idolatrous Pachamama ritual, the 'human rights' event was held in conjunction with LGBT groups.Rorate Caeli reported published a report from InfoVaticana yesterday morning showing that two Catholic bishops and a monsignor participated in a pagan ritual (venerating and praying to Pachamama) in a conference intended to prepare the way for Pope Leo’s trip to Peru this November. The initial story came from the Vatican News, and unsurprisingly, Vatican News omitted several key details.The event titled “Weaving Voices for Dignity: For Human Rights and...

Leo XIV’s Newest Appointments: WEF, Agenda 2030 and Women-Must-Become-Priests On 18 August 2026, Pope Leo XIV appointed twelve new consultors to the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. Leo XIV fills the Vatican's social-policy apparatus with mostly anti-Catholic figures.1. Peter G. Kirchschläger, 49, Social ethicist, University of Lucerne, SwitzerlandIn December 2018, he said that the Catholic Church has an unresolved human-rights problem regarding the impossibility of women's ordination to the priesthood. He even claimed that the state "may not look away" but has an obligation to press the Church on it. When presented with the argument that women dissatisfied with...

Irish TV personality endorses ‘women priests’ during ‘homily’ at Knock shrineMary Kennedy’s talk included a tepid homage to ‘Catholicism,’ her suggestions for the religion’s improvement, and self-congratulations for being a ‘good Catholic.’Irish television personality Mary Kennedy endorsed “women priests” in a talk she gave during Mass on Friday at the Knock Shrine.Kennedy, a self-described “à la carte” Catholic, was invited to give a talk after the Gospel at the Knock Shrine in commemoration of the National Public Novena to Our Lady of Knock that takes place annually at the shrine from August 14 to 22.The bulk of Kennedy’s talk was...

[Catholic Caucus] Vatican won’t stop pro-LGBT sex ed after parents appeal to Leo XIV The Dicastery for Culture and Education reaffirmed a 2019 Vatican document against modern gender theory in educations but took no action against the controversial pro-LGBT program. Catholic parents who begged Pope Leo XIV to halt the implementation of pro-LGBT sex education in Hamburg’s Catholic schools received a brief Vatican reply reaffirming Church teaching on gender, but no direct intervention to stop the program.The pro-LGBT diocesan sex-education guidelines remain set to take effect on August 20.According to a report published by Italian outlet La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana,...

[Catholic Caucus] Priest denies bodily Assumption of Mary at Mass while allowing ‘liturgical dance’‘We should not take this literally,’ a priest in Spain said of the Virgin Mary’s Assumption, arguing that ‘No human being ascends to heaven, body and soul. Heaven is not a physical place.’ During a televised Mass celebrating the 125th anniversary of his parish’s founding on the Feast of the Assumption, a priest delivered a heretical sermon questioning the Assumption of the Virgin Mary while also allowing men and women dressed in brightly colored hoop skirts to perform a liturgical dance. The troubling liturgy took place at...

"Mother Earth" Pagan Worship by Vatican Representative: Doctrine of the Faith Official makes Offering of Coca Leaves at Pachamama Ceremony during Official Church Meeting Rorate Note: Official Vatican News covering of the event here (in Spanish); Spanish page Infovaticana adds the grotesque context.A Pontifical Commissioner and a Bishop Deposit Coca Leaves in an "Earth Offering": Jordi Bertomeu as Offerer at a Pachamama Ceremony InfovaticanaAugust 18, 2026The Southern Macroregional Encounter "Interweaving Voices for Dignity" — presented by Vatican News as part of the preparation for Pope Leo XIV's upcoming visit to Peru — opened without any Catholic prayer whatsoever. In its...

[Catholic Caucus] The Friends of Governor Maura Healey The following news analysis is courtesy of the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts…Catholic social media — in America and around the globe — is reacting with horror and disgust at the scene of women clapping and cheering as Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey signed into law a bill which eliminated all remaining restrictions on late term abortion in the Commonwealth.That scene occurred on Monday, August 10th, in the Corner Office (the Governor’s Office) of the Massachusetts State House in Boston.Joining Maura and Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll were their friends from the Planned Parenthood...

[Catholic Caucus] Latin Mass suppression left this monastery to face ‘sacramental euthanasia’ Dom Alcuin Reid, founding prior of a traditional Benedictine monastery, called Latin Mass restrictions a product of 'narrow-minded Vatican II extremists.'A French Benedictine monastery revealed that Pope Francis’s restrictions on the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) left it without the ordinations needed to sustain its sacramental life.On August 16, Ad Vaticanum published an interview with Dom Alcuin Reid, founding prior of the Monastère Saint-Benoît in Provence, France. Reid described how Pope Francis’ 2021 restrictions on the Traditional Latin Mass affected his community, saying the monastery ultimately accepted ordinations from...

[Catholic Caucus] Leo XIV Backs Liturgical Program after 'Traditionis Custodes' Leo XIV has sent a message to Cardinal Arthur Roche, Prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship. The occasion is a meeting at Mount Angel Abbey in Oregon devoted to liturgical formation. Dated June 29, the brief message was published today in the Vatican bulletin. The text appears to reinforce Cardinal Roche’s recent statement that Leo XIV does not intend to abolish Traditionis Custodes. Leo XIV calls for respect for “the rites promulgated by Pope Saint Paul VI and Pope Saint John Paul II.” He adds that this respect must...

[Catholic Caucus] Bishop calls the devil ‘imaginary’ in assault on St. Michael devotion One social media user advised that Bishop Ferreira ‘convert to Catholicism' after the prelate suggested the faithful should instead fight ‘homophobia,’ ‘femicide.’A Brazilian bishop has attacked consecration to St. Michael the Archangel while suggesting that the devil is “rather imaginary.”“Are there theological justifications for Consecration to Saint Michael? Consecration is to God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,” wrote Bishop Vicente Ferreira on X last week. “Isn’t the devil we fight against rather imaginary?” he added.“The greater exorcism should be: of homophobia, of femicide, of racism, of...

[Catholic Caucus] ‘Stop this’: Parents beg Leo XIV to halt pro-LGBT sex-ed in Catholic schoolsHundreds of parents appealed to Pope Leo XIV and filed a canonical complaint against the local archbishop, but the anti-Catholic sex-ed program is set to take effect regardless. A pro-LGBT sex-education program is set to take effect August 20 in 15 Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Hamburg, Germany, despite a canonical complaint against Archbishop Stefan Heße and a direct appeal to Pope Leo XIV that the Holy See has left unanswered.Hundreds of Catholic parents in the Archdiocese of Hamburg are opposing a sex-education program approved...

Open Letter to His Holiness Pope Leo XIV - by Bishop Robert MutsaertsWe have often published the great texts of Bishop Rob Mutsaerts (Auxiliary of s-Hertogenbosch /Bois-le-Duc), Netherlands. He has just published (in English and Dutch) an open letter to His Holiness Pope Leo XIV on the need for concern for the salvation of souls amidst the confusion of synodality and other trends.Holy Father,With reverence for the office entrusted to you as successor of Saint Peter, and in communion with the Church which Christ built upon the apostles, I address you with this open letter. I don't do so lightly....

Bishop Eleganti says Islam ‘cannot be integrated’ into West ‘There is no such thing as an apolitical Islam,’ Bishop Marian Eleganti said in a new interview. ‘It is a system of domination.’Bishop Marian Eleganti, in an interview published Thursday, said that Islam cannot be integrated into Western political systems that the Christian faith has shaped.During the interview with La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana published August 13, the auxiliary bishop emeritus of Chur, Switzerland, emphasized that it’s impossible for Islam to be integrated into the Western world, which holds Christian foundations. The bishop further highlighted the “anti-Christian” agenda of both Islamists and...

[Catholic Caucus] Pope Leo XIV: Women and Men in Religious Life ‘Are Called to Become Experts in Synodality’ Pope Leo XIV highlighted religious women’s and men’s work making “the mission and mystery of the Church visible in our world.”“All Christians are called to be builders of Christʼs communion, formed in a synodal Church in which everyone cooperates in the same mission according to their own charism and ministry,” he said during the Leadership Conference of Women Religious’ (LCWR) 70th anniversary celebration being held in Orlando, Florida, Aug. 11–14.“In a special way, those in religious life are called to become experts...

Sad Story of Ex-Carmelite: Francis Supported Her Transvestite "Apostolate" Mónica Astorga spent almost 40 years as a Discalced Carmelite nun in Argentina and became prioress of her convent in Neuquén.She became internationally known for her work with transvestites because of Pope Francis' encouragement.Astorga meanwhile left the convent and trained in hairdressing. The Vatican formally accepted her departure from the Discalced Carmelites in 2024. She “still” considers herself a believer – yet without attending a Eucharist regularly.Long Connection with BergoglioHer connection with Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the future Pope Francis, began much earlier.Astorga says she met him when he was a Jesuit...

[Catholic Caucus] Francis-appointed cardinal praises Japan’s new pro-LGBT campaignJapan remains one of a handful of countries in the developed world that have not legalized homosexual 'marriage.'The cardinal-archbishop of Tokyo welcomed the Japanese government’s recently announced plan to promote education about LGBT-identifying people.Cardinal Isao Kikuchi, archbishop of Tokyo, told UCA News that it was “meaningful that the Japanese government had clearly articulated a policy aimed at deepening understanding of sexual minorities.”The plan, which was greenlighted June 16, stems from the 2023 LGBT Understanding Promotion Act and reportedly “aims to establish core guidelines for governments, schools, and businesses.”Kikuchi seemed to distinguish between...

[Catholic Caucus] German Bishop: Laypeople Preach in My Diocese — and I Won’t Sanction Them The Vatican's reasoning for the ban on lay preaching is "not entirely consistent," Bishop Peter Kohlgraf of Mainz told Katholisch.de on August 11."The letter from the Prefect for Liturgy states that only the priest celebrating Mass may preach. But taken to its logical conclusion, that would mean a concelebrating priest or an assisting deacon shouldn't be allowed to preach either."Lay Preaching Is No ProblemIn the Diocese of Mainz, occasional lay preaching has become an established practice and Bishop Kohlgraf has no intention of changing that.In...