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[Catholic Caucus] Bishop Schneider says Cdl. Fernández is ‘completely wrong’ that Vatican II texts cannot be changedThe Vatican doctrine chief's recent claim that Vatican II texts cannot be corrected has been pivotal in the SSPX’s decision to proceed with episcopal consecrations without Holy See approval.Bishop Athanasius Schneider declared that Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández’s claim that Vatican II’s texts cannot be modified is “completely wrong.”Schneider, the Auxiliary Bishop of Astana, Kazakhstan, addressed Fernández’s recent claim – which has now proved to be pivotal in the Society of St. Pius X’s (SSPX) decision to move forward with episcopal consecrations – in an...

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal Fernández tells SSPX superior that Vatican II documents ‘cannot be corrected’The Vatican's immovability chills the likelihood of an agreement with the SSPX, given that the Society has repeatedly insisted parts of Vatican II texts contradict magisterial teaching.Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, reportedly told Father Davide Pagliarani, Superior General of the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), that documents from the Second Vatican Council cannot “be corrected.” A communiqué from the SSPX General House published Thursday revealed that, while Fernández has proposed dialogue with the SSPX to...

[Catholic Caucus] Bishop Eleganti urges Church leaders to ‘admit their own failures since Vatican II’Pope Leo XIV has already celebrated the very changes of Vatican II that Bishop Eleganti has lamented: those of the liturgy and of ecumenism.Bishop Marian Eleganti exhorted the Church and Pope Leo XIV to “finally admit their own failures since the Second Vatican Council,” including those of the Novus Ordo Mass, and of ecumenism.In an exclusive statement to LifeSiteNews, Eleganti returned to the last point of a recent statement in which he said that the faithful who “criticize the horizontalism and anthropocentrism in the Novus Ordo...

[Catholic Caucus] Letter to Pope Leo XIV: How Can You Embrace All Christians Except the Society of St. Pius X?As you know, one of the foundations of the Synodal Church is an inclusivity that embraces all Christians. But if the Synodal Church accepts all Christians, how can it also decide to cast off the SSPX if it consecrates bishops to continue its work?Your Holiness,God is in charge of His Church and will always provide for those who truly want to serve Him as faithful Catholics. As such, although we write with concern about the recent news from Cardinal Víctor Manuel...

[Catholic Caucus] Communiqué of the General House (FSSPX): interview in RomeThe interview, held one-on-one according to the Cardinal’s wish, lasted an hour and a half and took place in an atmosphere that was both cordial and frank. It allowed Father Pagliarani to listen carefully to the Prefect, and to specify the scope of the announcement of February 2, as well as the meaning of the steps taken with the Holy See in recent months.The Superior General was thus able to present orally the present situation of the Society of St. Pius X and its duty, in the year of the...

[Catholic Caucus] The Long Shadow of Vatican II: Ambiguity as Ecclesial CancerOn February 8, Bishop Bernard Fellay of the Society of Saint Pius X delivered a sermon in which he spoke of the necessity for the Society to consecrate new bishops. The purpose of this piece is not to address the merits or challenges of that decision, but rather to focus on some of the problems he identified as plaguing the Church today and how these flow from a reading of the Second Vatican Council that has led to profound confusion—confusion that was aggravated by Pope Francis. The Second Vatican...

[Catholic Caucus] Bishop Strickland: ‘I cannot remain silent’ as confusion in the Church deepensThe greatest danger facing the Church today is not persecution from the outside. The Church has endured emperors, revolutions, prisons, martyrdom; the deeper danger today is confusion within.My brothers and sisters in Christ,There are moments in the life of the Church when a shepherd feels a weight that cannot be ignored. Not a political pressure. Not a media storm. But a quiet, insistent sense of responsibility before God. A sense that silence, however comfortable it might seem, is no longer faithful. READ: Scholars break down why Zionism...

[Catholic Caucus] Leo XIV and the Unfathomable Evil of Promoting False Christian UnityIn a Jan 25, 2026 homily, Pope Leo XIV spoke on the unity of all Christians: “Yes, we share the same faith in the one and only God. We are one! We already are! Let us recognize it, experience it and make it visible.” There must be a return to true Catholic teaching.<As a convert to Catholicism, I still recall the way in which the Church’s teaching about sanctifying grace and mortal sin fundamentally changed the way I thought about life. Looking back at the copy of Baltimore...

Guest Article: The Crisis of Modern EcumenismThe modern ecumenical movement, particularly in its post-conciliar manifestation, has adopted a dangerous illusion: that the various Christian denominations represent equally valid paths to God, differing merely in accidental rather than essential characteristics. This irenic approach, pursued with increasing fervour since the Second Vatican Council, fundamentally misunderstands the nature of the Church established by Christ; the Catholic Church, built sub Petro et cum Petro. Pope Pius XI, in his 1928 encyclical Mortalium Animos, provided a prophetic critique of this very tendency, warning against a false irenicism that would compromise the integrity of Catholic...

[Catholic Caucus] How the Church CHANGED overnight: controversy of Vatican IIFr. Charles Murr opens up about the spiritual and institutional unraveling that followed the Second Vatican Council, recalling how ambiguity, failed leadership, and compromises with modern ideologies destabilized the Church from within. He argues the true crisis came not from the Council’s texts but from their misinterpretation and misuse by poorly formed clergy. The aftermath of Humanae Vitae, he says, marked a collapse in episcopal authority, as public dissent went unpunished and relativism infiltrated moral theology. Liturgical experimentation and the loss of sacred discipline further unmoored Catholics from tradition. Fr....

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal Sarah’s upcoming book ‘2050’ offers insights on the future of the ChurchThe defender of tradition and reverence will discuss his concerns over signs of ‘the loss of faith’ as well as his 'reasons for hope’ for the Church.Cardinal Robert Sarah announced he will be releasing on March 4 a book on the future of the Church titled 2050.Co-written with French journalist Nicolas Diat, the work will discuss Cardinal Sarah’s concerns over signs of “the loss of faith” as well as his “reasons for hope,” the cardinal shared Tuesday on X.“In 25 years, will the Church still be...

[Catholic Caucus] Bishop Eleganti: Cardinals must address the crisis in the liturgy, origins of the Novus OrdoThe loss of sacredness, the lack of centrality of God, the one-sided emphasis on the ‘meal character’ in the Mass since the introduction of the Novus Ordo: all this must be reconsidered!(LifeSiteNews) — In an interview with Diane Montagna on January 20, 2026, Bishop Athanasius Schneider draws attention to some historical facts about the liturgical reform after the Second Vatican Council, which most bishops and cardinals ignore or are no longer aware of:The liturgical constitution Sacrosanctum concilium was adopted on December 4, 1963, and...

[Catholic Caucus] Dutch Bishop Mutsaerts condemns liberal theology as ‘danger from within’ the ChurchReferencing Hilaire Belloc, Bishop Mutsaerts warns the Church is being undermined by theologians who no longer believe in conversion or sin.Dutch Bishop Robert Mutsaerts has criticized liberal theology as a great “danger that comes from within” to the Catholic Church.In an article on his blog published in early January, the auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of ‘s-Hertogenbosch cited Catholic author Hilaire Belloc, who wrote that he did not fear “’the barbarians at the gates,’ but rather the danger that comes from within.”“I would now like to address...

Vatican official praises Lutheran text as model for Christian unity ahead of 2030 commemorationThe 'Confessio Augustana,' written by the Protestant theologian Philip Melanchthon and presented in 1530 to Emperor Charles V, is one of the founding texts of Lutheranism.Statue of Martin LutherShutterstockThe secretary of the Dicastery for the Promotion of Christian Unity has said one of the founding texts of Lutheranism offers a model for rediscovering common ground among Christians ahead of a planned ecumenical commemoration in 2030.On January 22, Archbishop Flavio Pace made the remarks in an interview with Vatican News published on the occasion of the Week of...

Francis-Collapse of Catholicism in Latin AmericaCatholicism has been in collapse in Latin America since the aftermath of Vatican II -- but it went into vertiginous tailspin in the pontificate of the Pope from Argentina.We have often covered this in Rorate.For instance, right after the election of Francis, in 2014, in the long post "THE COLLAPSE OF CATHOLICISM IN LATIN AMERICA:New Poll, Statistics, Tables and Graphs - Extensive Analysis", as well as in "The Latin American Exodus: Catholics become Protestants in Droves".Now, the most credible research institute on religious trends, the Pew Research Center, has released a new study specifically dealing...

Attempts to change Church governance to synodal model have failed throughout historyChanging the leadership structure of the Church to make the Pope more like a CEO has been tried several times. Each time, God's intervention prevented it from succeeding. The rumbling after the conclusion of the two-day consistory held recently at the Vatican is a warning that a storm is brewing and we should prepare for it. Pope Leo XIV called the Vatican II Council “the guiding star of the Church’s path.” That star led the consistory to “lay the groundwork for the revolutionary Novus Ordo Missae,” to “prepare a...

The Neo-Catechumenal Way: Leo XIV Praises a Modernist CultHow a Vatican II–Spawned “Way” Became a Web of Scandals, Heresies, and Cult-Like Abuses – and Why It Should Have Been Suppressed A Sect Born of Vatican II’s SpiritThe Neo-Catechumenal Way (NCW) was born in 1964 in the wake of Vatican II, founded by layman Francisco “Kiko” Argüello and Carmen Hernández. It bills itself as an “itinerary of Christian formation” for lapsed Catholics, but it resembles a sect within the conciliar Church. Even its name – “the Way” – betrays an exclusive self-concept, as if it alone were the path to true...

[Catholic Caucus] Sunset Boulevard and Vatican IIOnce upon a time, Hollywood used to produce movies. Real movies, that is. They were like serious novels but on celluloid. They were movies that explored the depths of the human condition, with its soaring peaks and dreadful valleys. It was a time when formidable creativity was placed at the service of truth and beauty. Not to put too fine a point on it, but Hollywood was the closest thing modernity had to Quattrocento Florence. No longer. Today’s Hollywood is more a landfill for Woke ideology and degenerate carnality. This billion-dollar industry is insulated...

[Catholic Caucus] "Nostalgic" Proposals on Liturgy Not Helpful – Cardinal SpenglerAsked about the Mass in the Roman rite, Cardinal Jaime Spengler of Porto Alegre, Brazil, said that “the river doesn’t flow backwards.” He spoke with VidaNuevaDigital.com on January 16. The cardinal is president of the bishops’ conferences of Brazil and Latin America (CELAM). His main statement echoes the historically weak ideas promoted by Cardinal Roche at the consistory on January 7-8. Cardinal Spengler said, “Throughout history, the liturgy has undergone various reforms. The Second Vatican Council represents an enormous effort to recover fundamental elements of Catholic liturgical celebration. Nostalgic proposals...

[Catholic/Anglican] Why Today’s Men Are Repulsed By the Mainstream Catholic ChurchOne of the most devastating realities about the Catholic Church today is that men are generally repulsed by what they see, beginning in their local parishes and all the way up to the Vatican.Merely looking at some of the prominent aspects of the “mainstream church” today, we can understand why this is: flamboyant priests like Fr. James Martin are rewarded by the Vatican while good men like Bishop Joseph Strickland are banished; rather than finding the firm and immutable religion of the saints, we find an amorphous set of nice...