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[Catholic Caucus] Four more German dioceses reject blessings for same-sex couples» Continue to this story on Katholisch (German) CWN Editor's Note: Four more Catholic dioceses in Germany—Augsburg, Eichstätt, Passau, and Regensburg, have joined the Archdiocese of Cologne in rejecting a text with the support of the episcopal conference to be used in blessings for couples, under the terms of Fiducia Supplicans. The dioceses that have declined to use the text argue that it goes beyond the Vatican document in permitting blessings of same-sex couples. The text was prepared by the German Bishops’ Conference and the Central Committee of German Catholics,...

They will Use Newman for Their HeresyI got back from a 12-day retreat to read the happy news that the Holy Father has confirmed the plans to proclaim St. John Henry Newman a Doctor of the Church. I’ve never read much Newman myself, but he seems to be universally respected by all Catholic men of letters… but with a dark side. But let me return to that in a moment.The Apostasy of AlbionFirst, even though I haven’t read much from Newman, we can already see the immense significance of this news in the history of the Church. In many ways...

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal Ambongo: Resistance to homosexuality is not merely an African phenomenonAfricans were not the only ones who resisted the highly controversial 2023 Vatican declaration “Fiducia Supplicans”, a document that permits Catholic priests to give blessings to couples in "irregular situations," including same-sex couples, without explicitly declaring church approval of their union.This month, in remarks to EWTN News, Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo, archbishop of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo and head of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), declared the following:“The position taken by Africa [on the declaration] was also the position of so...

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal Müller to German bishops: Same-sex ‘blessings’ are ‘diametrically opposed’ to will of GodCardinal Müller said that Christians naturally understand that lifestyles contrary to Christian ethics 'are not blessed by God.'Cardinal Gerhard Müller said that same-sex “blessings” are “a deception” and are “diametrically opposed” to the will of God.In an article published in the German Catholic newspaper Die Tagespost, Cardinal Müller reiterated his critique of so-called same-sex “blessings” in response to two German bishops implementing the heterodox practice in their dioceses.READ: German bishop suggests guidelines for blessing same-sex ‘couples,’ divorced and ‘remarried’“When the Pharisees asked Him the trick...

[Catholic Caucus] Official Vatican Report Dismantles Traditionis CustodesA major exposé on Traditionis Custodes leaked a confidential Vatican document summarizing the 2020 global survey of bishops—a document that allegedly influenced Pope Francis’s controversial decision to restrict the Traditional Latin Mass. According to the leaked findings, the majority of bishops did not support limiting the Latin Mass and even warned that such restrictions could worsen tensions within the Catholic Church.Journalist Diane Montagna recently published the report prepared by the Vatican following the questionnaire that, in 2020, the then Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had sent to the presidents of episcopal...

[Catholic Caucus] Controversial Synod study groups delay reporting on findings by 6 monthsAll ten groups had been due to issue their reports by the end of June, but due to the death of Pope Francis and the ensuing conclave they have had a six-month extension.The study groups which emerged from the Synod on Synodality are now set to issue their findings at the end of the year, rather than at the end of June.Following a meeting with Pope Leo XIV last Thursday, officials at the General Secretariat for the Synod of Bishops have delayed a key development from the multi-year...

[Catholic Caucus] Rip Down the Pride FlagTwenty years ago few could have imagined that the last stronghold of truth, the Catholic Church, would have fallen to the LGBT lie of "Love is Love."Many years ago, I decided to attend daily Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. Each morning on my way to Mass, I would drive past a house that flew the flag representing pride in all the different sexual identities that fell under the LGBTQ (this was pre-IA+ times) banner. I didn’t take much notice of it at the time,...

[Catholic Caucus] Questions Linger on Cardinal Fernandez’s ‘Sex Change’ RemarksThe prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has not addressed concerns that his recent remarks may contradict the Church’s moral teaching on bodily integrity.The prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, who recently appeared to some observers to support “sex change” surgery in especially difficult cases, has not responded to questions aimed at clarifying his comments. ... Some observers took his comments to be a contradiction of the DDF’s 2024 declaration Dignitas Infinita (Infinite Dignity). That document, which underlined the inherent and inalienable dignity...

You might not have read the Book of Maccabees. (Catholics and Orthodox regard it as canonical while Protestants and Jews mostly consider it simply an inspiring, accurate history of God’s people enduring corruption and persecution.) But the Lutheran George Frederick Handel thought the story important enough to compose a beautiful oratorio retelling it, Judas Maccabeus. The Jewish holiday of Channukah has its origins in the events recounted in Maccabees — commemorating the rededication of the Temple after pagans had profaned it.Maccabees is certainly worth a read for Christians today trying to navigate a path between an overbearing, increasingly intolerant secular...

[Catholic Caucus] Pope Francis faces new phase of papacyIn 1990, as Argentina's Jesuits were divided over the church's role in the country's politics and society, frustration with the future Pope Francis' leadership style resulted in his two-year exile in Cordoba. Then-Fr. Jorge Mario Bergoglio used his solitary time in a Jesuit residence to pray, write and read — including a five-volume series on the history of the papacy.Francis later would describe his "dark night of the soul" as a "time of purification" for his inner life. Three decades after that spiritual crisis — at age 88 — Francis is facing...

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal Fernández issues ‘clarification’ to Vatican document, suggests Church approval of gender mutilation in ‘severe dysphoria’ casesIn a striking departure from established Church teaching, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández has signaled that sex “change” surgeries may be morally acceptable under certain conditions. Cardinal Fernández, the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) offered this perspective in a conference he delivered via video to a Theological congress organized by the Catholic University of Cologne (Germany) in mid January. But then in March, the Cardinal posted the conference as an official “clarification” of Dignitas infinita, the Church’s...

Why do the Church and the world still need Pope Francis?Victor Manuel Fernández: Because this world needs a father, someone who reflects like him the fatherhood of God.He knows him perfectly, because he's been at his side for many years. Some say that Cardinal Victor Manuel "Tucho" Fernández has been Pope Francis' theological alter ego since he was his adviser at the 5th Conference of the Latin American and Caribbean Episcopate in Aparecida (2007). Therefore, he wanted him by his side and sent him to come to Rome, to entrust him with nothing less than the dicastery for the Doctrine...

Recognize and Resist is Real: The First Anniversary of the Historic Backlash to Fiducia SupplicansThe Orthodox Resurgence by Serre Verweijfor Rorate CaeliA year ago, Victor Manuel Fernandez came out with a press release that was meant to clarify Fiducia Supplicans (or to placate its numerous critics). Fiducia Supplicans had managed to be the most controversial Vatican document since Humanae Vitae, 55 years earlier. In fact, it was more controversial. The alleged clarification ended up ‘de facto’ annulling many key parts of Fiducia Supplicans itself. Now, a year later, the document has become largely a dead letter. What exactly happened?A clarification,...

[Catholic Caucus] La Plata: Francis' Work of Destruction Becomes VisibleLa Cigüeña De La Torre published on InfoVaticana.com (20 December) a photo of the Seminary of San José Major in La Plata, Argentina.La Plata (924,000 inhabitants) is the capital of the province of Buenos Aires in Argentina. It is only about 64 kilometres south-east of Buenos Aires.The most recent archbishops of La Plata were Monsignor Héctor Rubén Aguer from 2000 to 2018; Tucho Fernández from 2018 to 2023; and Monsignor Gabriel Antonio Mestre from July 2023 to May 2024.The photo published by La Cigüeña De La Torre shows the seminary on...

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal Fernández Says Female Diaconate Will be Studied ‘More Intensively’Cardinal Victor Fernández, the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, announced that the female diaconate will be the subject of a more in-depth study under the impetus of the proposals sent to the commission assigned to this task. He also stated that this question, although Pope Francis considers it not “mature,” is not a “closed issue.”To delve deeper into the differences between holy orders and authority in order to be able to entrust laywomen with leadership functions in the Church is, according to Fernández, the...

[Catholic Caucus] Vindicating the Mother of God Against False ApparitionsMEDJUGORJE COMPLETE: The Definitive Account of the Visions and Visionaries by Donal Anthony Foley. Angelico Press, 2021. 538 pp. Foreword by Dr. Manfred Hauke; Preface by Dr. William A. Thomas. PaperbackWhen I was a greenhorn (bluehorn?) Marian devotee in high school—this would have been right around the year 1988—a friend of mine who used to drive me to conferences, retreats, rosary rallies, special Masses, and the like, and who had strained to breaking point his rearview mirror with the number of devotional items hanging from it, introduced me to the already-burgeoning...

[Catholic Caucus] Synod, October 9: Cardinal Fernández invites synod participants to weigh in on forthcoming document on women and ministryOn October 9, 343 of the 365 participants in the second and final session of the synod on synodality gathered in Paul VI Audience Hall for the third day of their four-day consideration of the session’s second module, “Relations” (synod agenda).“Relations” is the title of the first part of the session’s instrumentum laboris, or working document (pp. 11-22).Following the morning general congregation in Paul VI Audience Hall, participants gathered in St. Peter’s Basilica for a Maronite Divine Liturgy.“We must remember throughout...

[Catholic Caucus] The Infernal Synod on SynodalityAs the three-year synodal process on synodality for a synodal Church limps into its final three weeks of meetings in Rome, even poking fun at it has become a bit tedious.Originally ridiculed by many as a “meeting about meetings,” it never managed to demonstrate that it wasn’t. Way back in November 2021, still flush with excitement over the synodal process—with meetings at the parish, diocesan, national, continental, and planetary level still beckoning enticingly—Cardinal Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio in the United States, said that if synodality was a “meeting about meetings,” it would be a...

The Perverted Roots of the Medjugorie VisionsDespite the widely held belief that Medjugorje, Yugoslavia, is the site of the Virgin Mary’s appearances to six children beginning in 1981, the Catholic Church negates this claim based on its denunciation of Medjugorje in 1985 and again in 1991. For this reason, pilgrimages to the site were banned in 2013. At the direction of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Archbishop Carlo Viganò, the former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States issued a letter on October 21, 2013, stating that Catholics “are not permitted” to participate in any meetings that...

[Catholic Caucus] Pontifical Academy Against Life: Member Calls for Justifying Homosexual Sins"It is necessary to develop a new [= immoral] approach to homosexuality and contraception," Don Maurizio Chiodi, a priest of the Italian Diocese of Bergamo and member of the Pontifical Academy Against Life since 2017, told Katholisch.de (2 August).Chiodi has already made similar comments in 2019, and has since been known as the Italian James Martin in reference to the notorious homosexual activist. Francis appointed Chiodi, an immoral theologian, among the seven members of the Synod's study group on 'controversial doctrinal, pastoral and ethical issues'.His way into moral decadence...