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Man who threw Pachamama in Tiber fires back after prof says he ‘damaged’ Catholicism Alexander Tschugguel said he remains “convinced that Christ’s saying will always be true, ‘No one comes to the Father except through me.’” VIENNA, Austria, February 7, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – Alexander Tschugguel, the young Austrian founder of the Saint Boniface Institute who threw the Amazon Synod’s Pachamama idols in the Tiber river last October, has fired back after a professor of dogmatic theology accused him of falling behind the Second Vatican Council. “I’m convinced that Christ’s saying will always be true, ‘No one comes to the...

[Catholic Caucus] Sound the Alarm: Traditionalist Movements Are “Assaulting” the Church, Despite the Best Efforts to Suppress Them An interesting article in the Italian daily Il Giornale demonstrates, perhaps inadvertently, that Tradition cannot be eradicated from the Church because it is, after all, a work of the Holy Ghost that the deluded Modernist visionaries, even with a Pope among them, can never destroy.The article, entitled “How traditionalist movements are ‘assaulting’ the Church,” presents an interview with one Juan Miguel Montes, director of the Rome chapter of the organization Tradition, Family and Property (TFP), which originated in Brazil — a fact...

Survey of Amazon Synod Final Doc: Vatican II with an Amazonian Face Six weeks have passed since the closing of the Pan-Amazon Synod (Oct. 6-27, 2019), the latest exercise in what Pope Francis has called the “path of synodality which God expects of the Church of the third millennium.” The dust has settled and I have now had a chance to review the Synod’s final document in full, which was originally composed in Spanish and subsequently translated into English by LifeSiteNews in early November due to the absence of an official English text. (Sometime in the past few days, the Vatican finally...

Catholic young men ask bishops to teach traditional faith and save them from nihilism, despair MONTREAL, November 29, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — A group of young French-Canadian Catholic men are asking their bishops to teach the traditional faith and give the spiritual leadership they say is essential to combat the nihilistic culture that tempts many to despair. That includes allowing access to the traditional Latin Mass.  Twenty-nine men between the ages of 18 to 44, including university students, a doctor and two lawyers, signed an open letter titled “We Ask for Faith: Open Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic...

[Catholic Caucus] NY Daily News Op-Ed -Pining for the Latin Mass: Reflecting on major changes to the Catholic liturgy, 50 years later Pining for the Latin Mass: Reflecting on major changes to the Catholic liturgy, 50 years later By KENNETH J. WOLFE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS NOV 30, 2019 | 5:00 AM Fifty years ago this weekend, the Catholic Church debuted a new version of Mass following reforms made by the 1960s’ Second Vatican Council. From the use of vernacular language instead of Latin, to the priest facing the people instead of the tabernacle, the changes became mandatory at all...

Op-ed: "Is the Married Permanent Diaconate a Trojan Horse to attack the sacred priesthood?" The Pan-Amazonian synod has realised the fears of certain Fathers of the Second Vatican Council that the creation of the married permanent diaconate would undermine and eventually abolish the sacred Tradition of priestly celibacy in the Latin Church. The Final Document of the Amazonian synod proposes that permanent deacons are ordained priests: “…we propose to establish criteria and dispositions on the part of the competent authority, in the framework of Lumen Gentium 26, to ordain as priests men who are apt for it and who...

[Catholic/Orthodox/SSPX Caucus] Conservative Catholicism: An Object Lesson in Intellectual Dishonesty  A response to Ross Douthat On Nov. 10, Ross Douthat published in The New York Times a leader under the title "What Will Happen to Conservative Catholicism?" The article is very revealing, since Douthat has shown himself the spokesman of that brand of Catholicism, often in valuable ways, as in his book To Change the Church, in which he analyzes Pope Francis' revolutionary program. However, the salient lesson to be drawn from Douthat's article is the murky pool of intellectual dishonesty on which conservative Catholicism floats.  Douthat defines his school of thought...

Bishop Schneider: Pachamama idolatry during Amazon Synod has its roots in Vatican II Council November 8, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – Bishop Athanasius Schneider, the auxiliary bishop of Astana, Kazakhstan, has recently given an interview to Michael Matt, the editor of the Catholic newspaper The Remnant. Speaking about the idolatrous worship of Pachamama statues during the Amazon Synod in Rome, the prelate says: “We have to condemn this.” “Idolatry,” he adds, “is a violation of Divine Revelation” and of the First Commandment. “You cannot commit acts of idolatry in the Catholic Church.” He further speaks about an “evil” in the Church...

[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...