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[Catholic Caucus] Special De Mattei: The New Pact of the Catacombs: the fulfillment of Vatican II? The secret testament of the Second Vatican Council has [now] become public and official. On October 20, 2019. in the Catacombs of the Domitilla ”The Pact for a poor servant Church”,  was solemnly renewed as stipulated on November 16, 1965 in the same place, by forty-two Council Fathers, some weeks before the conclusion of the Council Assembly. Monsignor Luigi Bettazzi, Emeritus Bishop of Ivrea, the only living signatory of the Pact of the  Catacombs, revealed that the 1965 text had been written by Monsignor...

Poll: Nones Outnumber Catholics More than 1 in 4 US adults are atheist, agnostic or irreligious DETROIT (ChurchMilitant.com) - Irreligious adults — called "nones" — now outnumber adult Catholics in the United States, according to a recent poll. A report by Pew Research Center released Thursday is showing that 26% percent of America's adult population identify as nones, a group composed of atheists, agnostics and irreligious. This dwarfs the mere 20% of U.S. adults claiming to be Catholic. The poll found the percentage of U.S. adults professing to be nones surged in just one decade from 17% in 2009 to 26% in 2019. During the same period, the adult...

Synod Proposes New Amazonian Rite to Ordain Women and Married Men VATICAN (ChurchMilitant.com) - Synod fathers are proposing the creation of an "Amazonian Rite" that will allow the ordination of women to the diaconate and married men to the priesthood.From left to right: Matteo Bruni, Abp. Rino Fisichella and Bp. Mário Antônio da Silva  On Friday, the Vatican published summaries of the synod fathers' small circle working groups, with cardinals grouped according to language. The majority of working groups did not mention an Amazonian rite, female ordination or married priests, but a vocal minority, involving Italian Groups A and B, Portuguese Groups A and B and...

“Dis-evangelized” Amazon. The Numbers of a Catholic Church Reduced By Half At the press conference on Monday, October 14 Paolo Ruffini, prefect of the Vatican dicastery for communication, was asked why updated statistical data have not been released on the religious affiliation of inhabitants of the Amazon, seeing the impetuous growth of the Evangelical and Pentecostal Churches, at the expense of the Catholic Church.Ruffini replied that all the information in the possession of the Vatican offices has been made available to the accredited journalists, and that in any case the synod has to address rather more important questions than statistical...

[Catholic Caucus] Cdl. Tobin: ‘Rethinking of the Mystery of Human Sexuality Is Important’ Tobin Talks to America magazine NEWARK, N.J. (ChurchMilitant.com) - In a recent interview with America magazine, Cdl. Joseph Tobin discussed his commitment to Pope Francis' mission and his views on human sexuality and gender roles. Jesuit Fr. Matt Malone, editor in chief of America, spoke Tuesday with Cdl. Joseph Tobin of the archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey, in a streamed discussion titled "Pope Francis and the Future of the American Church," which is described as "an evening discussion on the vision of Pope Francis and the present...

[Catholic Caucus] The Church in Self-Imposed Exile: Where is Ezra? The second reading for the Mass of Ember Wednesday in September:  “And the people wept when they heard Ezra reading the Law”. Ember Wednesday.  Most Catholics have never heard of an Ember Day, this despite the fact that the Ember Days, the Quattuor Tempora in Latin, the four seasons, are among the oldest of liturgical celebrations, at least back to Leo the Great in the fifth century.  They have their roots in the four seasons of the year, and hence before each season of the year—Autumn, Winter, Spring and...

Interview with Father Davide Pagliarani, Superior General of the Society of Saint Pius X  Rev. Fr. Superior General, a number of important events will take place before the end of the year, such as the Synod for the Amazon and the reform of the Roman Curia. They will have a historical impact on the life of the Church. In your opinion, what place do they occupy in Pope Francis's pontificate? The impression that many Catholics are currently experiencing is that of a Church on the brink of a new disaster. If we step back a moment, the Second Vatican Council...

Father Sosa: Attacks against Pope Francis are aimed at influencing the next conclave Pope Francis embraces Father Arturo Sosa Abascal, superior general of the Society of Jesus, during a meeting with editors and staff of the Jesuit-run magazine, La Civilta Cattolica, at the Vatican Feb. 9, 2017. (CNS photo/L'Osservatore Romano, handout) “The attacks against Pope Francis in the church today” are “a fight between those who want the church dreamed of by the Second Vatican Council and those who do not want this,” Arturo Sosa, the Superior General of the Jesuits, stated at the Foreign Press Association in Rome on...

[Catholic Caucus] Guest Op-Ed: "Discerning the false prophets at the Amazonian Synod" - by Nick Donnelly As we await the Amazonian Synod we would do well to pay special heed to one of sacred Scripture’s and sacred Tradition’s insistent warnings — we must be on our guard against individuals who seek to pass off their own words as the word of God. The history of the ecclesia dei includes dark periods when false prophets and heretics sought to deceive the faithful that they spoke the word of God.  However, darkness does not have the final say — the history...

[Catholic Caucus] In the “Church of Vatican II,” You Never Know Where You’re Going ‘Till You Get There In an address during his trip to Mozambique, Pope Francis reiterated for the umpteenth time his thematic disdain for the past, just because it is the past, in favor of a gauzy future, just because it is the future.  Quoth Francis: “Dear brothers and sisters, whether we like it or not, we are called to face reality as it is. Times change and we need to realize that often we do not know how to find our place in new scenarios: we...

Hand or Tongue: The Eucharistic Reception Debate When we delve into the Word of God, it’s often those smaller details that hand us surprises. Consider the reaction of most biblical persons in an encounter with divine creatures such as angels, let alone the Creator Himself. Recognizing that they’ve encountered the supernatural, they almost invariably and immediately fall on the ground in prostration [1]. This provides us with some insights. First, it was the custom in ancient cultures to bow or prostrate oneself before someone of higher authority as a sign of respect and submission [2]. In addition, it reveals the innate knowledge...

Catholics to US Bishops: Restore Eucharistic Belief Through Tradition, Orthodoxy WASHINGTON (ChurchMilitant.com) - Catholics and even non-Catholics are telling the U.S. bishops that only by restoring reverence toward the Blessed Sacrament will they restore belief in the Real Presence. The bishops, however, are offering catechetical booklets. Following a poll showing 7 out of 10 baptized Catholics do not believe that the Eucharist is Christ, U.S. bishops are asking the public for a solution. On Friday, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops posted the following question on its official Facebook page: "A recent PEW study revealed that only 1/3 of Catholics believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the...

Waterloo Of Boomer Catholics This is pretty amazing. A couple of Portland readers have sent me this story about what happened when the Catholic archbishop of Portland sent a priest in to reform a wackadoodle progressive parish that had gone native. The Oregonian’s report on it is hysterically biased, making the priest look like a monster; the reporter never once appears to have considered that Catholicism is a religion that has clear norms, and this parish’s previous leadership had seriously violated them, for a long time. Anyway, from the story about St. Francis parish, identified by the newspaper as having...

[Catholic Caucus] Viganò Points to 'strands of Marxism' in the Heart of the Church We're greatly encouraged to read the recent interview of Archbishop Viganò, posted at InsideTheVatican.com a few days ago.As faithful Catholics struggle to effectively confront the crisis in the Church and, with breaking hearts, to keep up with the spoof going on inside the Vatican, Archbishop Viganò emerges as both a ray of hope and voice of sanity. Viganò has been living in silence—his own words—and yet keeping a shrewd eye on Francis Revolution. The upcoming Amazon Synod, as represented by the gosh-awful Instrumentum Laboris (IL), garnered a special rebuke...

Priest Excommunicated, Parish Closed After Criticism of Conciliar Popes MINNEAPOLIS (ChurchMilitant.com) - A priest of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter has been excommunicated, and his parish permanently closed, months after he criticized certain actions of various popes both during and after the Second Vatican Council. On April 1, Bp. Steven J. Lopes announced he had issued a decree of excommunication against Fr. Vaughn Treco, pastor of St. Bede the Venerable in suburban Minneapolis, citing "rejection of the magisterial authority of an Ecumenical Council and a series of popes. The charge stems from a homily Fr. Treco delivered on...

[Catholic Caucus] A Mission That Baptized No One in Fifty-Three Years: The Flawed Evangelization Model of the Pan-Amazonian Synod Since 1965, the Institute of the Consolata for Foreign Missions, originally from Turin and present in 28 countries, has had a mission among the Yanomamis in Brazil. The mission is currently led by the Italian priest Fr. Corrado Dalmolego, assisted by three women religious of the Institute’s female branch. Fr. Corrado Dalmolego In a recent interview to the Internet portal Periodista Digital1, the Consolata missionary provided interesting details about his conception of a mission and his missionary activities, hoping that his example...

[Catholic Caucus] The Ottaviani Intervention Turns 50: A Perceptive and Still Relevant Critique Today is the 50th anniversary of the Short Critical Study of the New Order of Mass, better known as the “Ottaviani Intervention” after one of the two cardinals who signed it (Alfredo Ottaviani and Antonio Bacci). The study bears the date of Thursday, June 5, 1969, which was the feast of Corpus Christi that year. The study was, however, not delivered to Pope Paul VI until almost four months later, with a cover letter dated September 25, 1969. In this letter the Cardinals aver: The accompanying...

Monday, May 27, 2019 The Vatican II Revolution Reexamined  By David Martin While the gale force of the post-conciliar tempest continues to uproot the Faith, dislodge morals, blow apart revered traditions, topple the Church's edifice, and spread doctrinal debris throughout the Church, there are those who insist that the problem today isn’t due to Vatican II but to a “misinterpretation” of the Council. Unfortunately, misinterpretation had nothing to do with this, for this revolution was the result of years of careful planning. We might see the conciliar documents as the blueprint for this plan. The ambiguities, omissions, and outright errors...

The Second Vatican Council: A Story Now Being Written Dr. Roberto de Mattei Editor’s Note: The following is the full transcript of a speech given by Professor Roberto de Mattei, founder and president of the Lepanto Foundation, in Seville, Spain (Mar. 2, 2019). It first appeared in the print edition of Catholic Family News in two parts (April and May 2019 issues). Professor de Mattei was in Seville to address a conference organized by Adelante la Fe, a Spanish-language Catholic news media apostolate. ***** Exactly sixty years ago, on 25 January 1959, Pope John XXIII announced to the world the...

Vatican II Springtime: the Collapse of Female Religious in Latin America The number of female professed religious in Latin America: (1) 1980: 120,016 (89,936 in South, 30,080 in Central America and Mexico) Note: In 1980, the population of Latin America was of approximately 364,000,000,including approximately 92,000,000 in Central America and Mexico (2) 2016: 102,953 (69,552 in South, 33,401 in Central America) Note: In 2016, the population of Latin America was of approximately 640,000,000; including approximately 175,000,000 in Central America and Mexico, where a slight increase of female religious was not at all proportional to the demographic expansion. (3) The...