Free Republic

The choice to the Church: speak up or keep your head downHow might St Paul, the Archduke Ferdinand and the Catholic Church come together in a story set at the end of 2022? They might offer themselves as useful interpretative devices as the story of what is happening in the Church in the West today continues to unravel.Some commentators who have been following my journey and reading my work have taken an interest in the fact that I have withdrawn my application to be ordained as a priest in the Catholic Church, and wondered why. The dynamics that drove the...

[Catholic Caucus] A Unified Theory of “Backwardism”What was so awful about the pre-Vatican II Church that its memory needs to be obliterated and those who hold to doctrines that are ancient in provenance must be labeled as “rigid” and psychologically damaged?Pope Francis has presented many of his key initiatives as pope as efforts to “move the Church forward,” as the saying goes. As you probably also know by now, he is vehemently opposed to anything that takes the Church “backward.” In recent months, he started using an Italian neologism—“indietrismo” or “backwardism”—to describe those Catholics who are opposed to progress in...

St Peter's Basilica Converted into a Debate HallCardinal Ravasi organised a panel discussion ("Lectio Petri") on 22 November inside Saint Peter's.The four participants sat behind a desk in the basilica's sanctuary, in front of the communion table. Each of them had a bottle and a glass in front of them.The Novus Ordo regards churches as secularised meeting rooms. Among the participants was the Protestant pastor and theologian Paolo Ricca, 86.He spoke about Mt 16, where Christ calls Peter a rock ("on this rock I will build my church"), and suggested that "one Peter is not enough", that "we too are...

The Rights of Immemorial Tradition and the Limits of Papal PositivismEditor’s Note: The following is the text of a lecture as prepared for delivery at the Paix Liturgique conference in Rome (Oct. 28, 2022).Whenever traditionalists object to or reject a particular papal determination on the liturgy — be it the creation of novel liturgical books or the severe limitation of the use of customary rites — our so-called conservative opponents are ready to assail us with a battery of proof-texts drawn from popes like St. Pius X or Pius XII, or from Vatican II, or from neo-scholastic manuals, to the...

[Catholic Caucus] “Last of Vatican Fathers” Proposes Killing Children as He Nears His Particular Judgement (Rome) The "last living council father", the "red bishop", wants to justify the killing of unborn children as his last act before his death - at least up to the "fourth/fifth month". The process of disintegration in the church, illustrated by a concrete, shocking example.IMonsignor Luigi Bettazzi will celebrate his 99th birthday in three days. In 1946 he was ordained after his training at the seminary of Bologna and in 1963 was installed by Pope Paul VI. as auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of...

Free to Abort Up to the Fifth Month. A Bishop and a Theologian Explain WhyHe was the first to acknowledge that the thesis he supports goes so far as to “subvert the Church’s conception of abortion.” That is, the thesis that one is a “human person” only “after the fourth/fifth month” of pregnancy, and so before this stage abortion is no longer murder nor even a sin, if carried out for good reasons.This thesis is supported by a well-known and esteemed bishop, Luigi Bettazzi (in the photo), 99 years old, the last Italian bishop still alive who took part in...

“Pope Francis” is Our Reward for Tolerating the Errors of Vatican IIAs we end the liturgical year, and begin another Advent with Francis still occupying the papacy, we cannot escape the reality that the Church’s crisis has grown significantly worse over the past year. All but the most obstinate self-deceivers recognize that Rome has not only lost the Faith but has also become the loudest voice against the true Faith. It appears that we now hear Satan’s unfiltered voice through these false shepherds. We naturally look back to Benedict XVI’s abdication with more dismay as the Francis crisis deepens —...

Archbishop Viganò Critiques Benedict XVI’s Theology, Decries “Permanent Revolution” of Vatican II PDF ButtonDE HOC MUNDOThe “Secularization” of Authorityas a Premise for Religious Freedom and Ecumenical DialogueTheorized by Vatican IIRegnum meum non est de hoc mundo.Jn 18:36I. IntroductionThe wound inflicted by the Second Vatican Council on the ecclesial body and — consequently — on the entire social body is anything but healed after sixty years, and indeed continues to become gangrenous with very serious damage before the eyes of all. The enthusiastic and self-congratulatory tones with which the Bergoglian Sanhedrin praises the Council cannot cancel the ruin it has brought...

[Catholic Caucus] Archbishop: Communion has NEVER Been Treated so Casually As in the Novus Ordo ChurchThe way Eucharists are prepared and presided over needs to change, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone told CatholicNewsAgency.com (November 20). For instance, the faithful should go to confession more often and be better prepared to receive Communion respectfully.Cordileone's assessment of the situation is damning, “Never has Communion been treated so casually, in any of the Apostolic Churches, in any of the Eastern Rites, or in the West."Asked if the "only way" to receive Communion properly and respectfully was to receive it - instead of pushing...

[Catholic Caucus] Archbishop Viganò Blasts “Total Self-Referentiality of the ‘Conciliar Church'” in Response to Papal HomilyEditor’s Note: In his latest written intervention (full text below), Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò responds to Pope Francis’ homily in honor of the 60th anniversary of the opening of Vatican II, during which the Pope stated: “Let us return to the Council and move beyond ourselves, resisting the temptation to self-absorption [Italian, autoreferenzialità; Spanish, autorreferencialidad], which is a way of being worldly.”In response, Archbishop Viganò identifies and denounces “the total self-referentiality of the ‘conciliar Church,’ that is, of that subversive organization born almost imperceptibly from...

[Catholic Caucus] “Is There a Mass of the Council?” — Article by Michael Charlier “Is There a Mass of the Council?” — Article by Michael Charlier Papal High Mass with Pope John XXIII in St. Peter's Basilica for the opening of the Council(Published in German on November 19, 2022: source.)Funny question — of course there is. It is the Mass celebrated by 10,000 participating priests and bishops on all days of the Council, and by the Roman clergy as well: the Mass whose Ordo had been purged of some of the errors of the then-modern age after the Council...

Archbishop Viganò on Civitas Dei and civitas diaboli in contemporary societyBeatus populus, cujus Dominus Deus ejus. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. - Ps 143:15 In a world that has made democracy its founding value and revolution its supreme ideological principle, it is difficult to understand how our ancestors lived before Freemasonry decided to overthrow the Italic Kingdoms through the uprisings of the Risorgimento and the revolts organized by the Carbonari and secret societies. And it is even more difficult, for us who live in a secularized world in which even Religion is made profane by its...

[Catholic Caucus] Apostate Bishops Have Their Unholy Synod, Will Faithful Bishops Call an Imperfect Council?In his 2018 article in The Remnant, Can the Church Defend Herself Against Bergoglio?, Christoper Ferrara presented the case for bishops to call an imperfect council to remove Bergoglio:“So what can be done to defend the Church against Bergoglio? That the mode of papal election by cardinals has persisted for nearly a thousand years has led to the general impression that it pertains to the irreformable divine constitution of the Church, but it certainly does not. As to matters of purely ecclesiastical law such as this...

The Council and the Eclipse of God by Don Pietro Leone- CHAPTER 10 - part 5: ‘The Principal Agents of the Council ’: 1. THE DEVIL'The Devil Entering Through A Window In The Church'(Detail from St. Anthony the Hermit in the Isenheim Altarpiece)by Matthias Grünewald (late 15th early 16th century) II The Principal Agents of the Council Here we consider: 1. The Devil; 2. The Bishops; 3. The Freemasons; 4. The Protestants; 5. The Periti; 6. The Press. 1. The Devil We proceed to examine: a) The Devil’s Agency in General; b b) Marks of the Devil’s Agency in the...

Abp. Chaput adds insult to injury for Arlington Catholics who love the Latin Mass'I also understand why the Pope thought he needed to act at this time' to restrict the Traditional Latin Mass, Archbishop Chaput told Arlington Catholics, who lost many of their beloved parish TLMs in what has become known around the diocese as a 'massacre.'ARLINGTON, Virginia (LifeSiteNews) – Many Catholics attached to the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) “simultaneously reject many parts” of the Second Vatican Council and “you don’t have to scratch them very hard before they bleed anti-Council thoughts and sentiments,” Philadelphia archbishop emeritus Charles Chaput claimed...

Archbishop Viganò: Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is wrong to praise the diabolical revolution of Vatican IIIt appears that in recent decades the model of the Church which has inspired the proponents of Vatican II is that of the 'civitas diaboli,' judging by the support that the Holy See offers to globalist ideology, to the neo-Malthusian delusions of the ‘green economy,’ to transhumanism, and to the entire gender and LGBT repertoire.Editor’s note: Below follows the full text of Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò’s latest essay, “DE HOC MUNDO: The ‘secularization’ of authority as a premise for religious freedom and ecumenical dialogue theorized...

[Catholic Caucus] Archbishop Viganò: The post-Vatican II church has almost entirely eclipsed the Church of Christ'There is something terribly self-centered, typical of Luciferian pride, in claiming to be better than those who preceded us.'Editor’s Note: Below follows the full text of Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò’s latest essay titled “REPETITA JUVANT: How with its own self-referentiality the ‘conciliar church’ places itself outside of the path of the Tradition of the Church of Christ.”(LifeSiteNews) — With the prosopopoeia that distinguishes ideological propaganda, the recent Bergoglian panegyric on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of the Opening of the Ecumenical Council Vatican II...

[Catholic Caucus] “Lofty concepts and great hopes cannot be separated, in practical judgment, from their effects” — Guest article on the Birthday of Vatican II The main hall in Pennsylvania Station, 1910-1963Few other occurrences in history have their achievements celebrated as often as does the Second Vatican Council. So, although rather tiresome, the laudatory commemoration of the sixtieth anniversary of the opening of the Council is de rigueur for today’s rather tiresome ecclesial establishment. Worthy of note, however, is the defensive tone adopted for the birthday party in which the Council’s partisans have made a point to defend the Council...

Outcome of Francis' Term: "The Church Is in Ruins" - SchneiderThe aim of the synod on synodality is to undermine the faith and adapt it to a [supposed] "fashion of the day", Bishop Athanasius Schneider told EWTN (20 October).He denounced the diocesan synodal processes as non-transparent, manipulative and a way of hearing only those who want to change the faith, while Catholics "are despised or not heard".Catholic people and priests told Schneider that their input into the synod has been ignored and "many" bishops fear the synod is a cover for a pre-determined agenda in Rome. He agrees with Cardinal...

[Catholic Caucus] Intentions Abandoned and Ignored: Cardinal Montini at Vatican II, Sixty Years Ago Today The 60th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council (11th October 1962) has recently passed, accompanied with the usual panegyrics and plaudits, this time round with the addition of so-called "synodality". Indeed, we should, so the Pope says, "return to the Council's pure sources of love... rediscover the Council's passion and renew our own passion for the Council."I thought, then, that it would be perfectly in keeping with the Pope's words to look at what the Council Fathers actually had to say...