Free Republic

[Catholic Caucus] What Do Our Views of Vatican II Imply About Our Views of God? “The results that have followed the Council seem cruelly opposed to the expectation of all, to begin with that of Pope John XXIII, then that of Paul VI . . . The Popes and the conciliar Fathers were expecting a new Catholic unity and, on the contrary, we have gone towards a dissension which, to take again the words of Paul VI, appears to have passed from self-criticism to self-destruction.” (Cardinal Ratzinger, 1985, quoted in Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre’s They Have Uncrowned Him, p. 231) As...

The Last Italian Bishop Present at Vatican II DiesArticles by Borgo Pio from La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana, (18 July 2023 and 19 July 2023, originals in Italian)The funeral of Bishop Emeritus Msgr. Luigi Bettazzi, who died last Sunday at age 99, will be held today in Ivrea Cathedral, celebrated by his current successor Msgr. Edoardo Cerrato. Born in 1923, Msgr. Bettazzi was the only Italian bishop still alive to have participated in the Second Vatican Council (he was consecrated bishop in 1963, as auxiliary of Bologna, later becoming ordinary of Ivrea in 1966).He was the last Italian exponent of Vatican...

[Catholic Caucus] Latin and Liturgical ParticipationWhen told his movie The Producers was vulgar, Mel Brooks quipped “It rises beneath vulgarity.” That anecdote came to mind in reference to one of the most telling attempts to defend the restrictions placed on the Tridentine Mass over the past two years—an attempt which rose beneath ignorance to reveal that the foundation of the anti-Tridentine position is incompatible with Catholic dogma.In their now-notorious series of articles, Father Thomas Weinandy, John Cavadini and Mary Healy gave the game away in two simple sentences: “Without the vernacular, the active, vocal, intelligible participation [making responses together with...

[Catholic Caucus] Pius XII’s Humani Generis, and the Holy Ghost’s Protection of What John XXIII Rejected“The Holy Spirit does not always prevent the necessary consequences of our negligence.” (Fr. Alvaro Calderon, Prometheus: The Religion of Man, p. 201) In his One Hundred Years of Modernism, Fr. Dominique Bourmaud provided a sobering assessment of the way in which the architects of Vatican II so thoroughly disavowed Pius XII’s encyclical condemning the errors threatening the Church, Humani Generis:“Humani Generis appeared in 1950. The year 1965 marked the closing of the Second Vatican Council, which cast doubt on the fundamental points reaffirmed by...

Evelyn Waugh and "The Bitter Trial" of the Council: What is Old Is NewIn reading A Bitter Trial, the collection of letters by Evelyn Waugh and John Cardinal Heenan on the Second Vatican Council, what is striking is how similar our present day is to the tumultuous mid-1960s. In 2011, when the expanded edition was put together, it may have seemed as though the Church had recovered from the shocks of the Vatican II and the difficult decades that followed. But events of the last few years-- Traditionis Custodes, attempting to suppress the Traditional Latin Mass, and the Synod on...

[Catholic Caucus] New Coke: If Today’s Catholics Were In ChargeIn April 1985 the Coca-Cola Company introduced a new formula for their flagship product, Coke. Called “New Coke,” it was a public relations disaster and within months the company reverted back to their beloved formula. But what if history were different? What if Coca-Cola handled the release of New Coke like many of today’s Catholic leaders handle the current crisis in the Church?July 1985Meeting of top Coke executivesCEO: So, it’s been three months since New Coke was introduced – how’s it going?Mr. Eldridge, VP of Operations: Not so good. We’re getting...

[Catholic Caucus] If We Love God and His Church, We Must Repudiate False Ecumenism Those who love the true Catholic Faith know firsthand how lost we would be without it. Through the Catholic Church we have the salutary truths entrusted to it by Our Lord and the Sacraments He instituted. Nothing is more precious than this gift of the Faith that God has given us, and if we truly love another person we would want them to have the same gift. Prior to Vatican II, the popes consistently emphasized the unique role of the Catholic Church in propagating the truths...

Revealing interview with Archbishop Fernández: "Francis wants to give a different meaning to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith"Giuseppe NardiKatholisches.infoJuly 5, 2023(source in German)Msgr. Victor Manuel Fernández, the newly appointed Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith of the Catholic Church, flirts with the media while discrediting his new office and his predecessors in office. The Dicastery of the Faith had been the old Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Holy Office, in other words, the Inquisition, an institution that investigated all kinds of people -- including himself, the new Prefect of the...

[Catholic Caucus] Archbishop of Paris Admits: Modern, Minimalist Church Decor Is the Fruit of Vatican IIThroughout history, many souls have been attracted to the Catholic faith by the beauty of her magnificent churches. As the Pontifical Council for Culture stated in 2006: "The via pulchritudinis [‘way of beauty’] can open the pathway for the search for God." The document goes on to ask: "Do not the cathedrals and churches of the West and East reach a summit of splendor when a liturgy streaming with beauty is celebrated by a gathered crowd?" The document bemoans "the ugliness of some churches and...

[Catholic Caucus] Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre’s Vision of the Great Mystery of the Church’s PassionIn his Letter to Friends and Benefactors from the Feast of St. Joseph in 1978, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre wrote of the “great mystery” of the Church’s crisis, which he called the passion of the Church:“Providence has allowed this painful crisis in the Church for our sanctification and in order to give more brightness to the pure gold of its doctrine and its means of redemption. This passion of the Church is a great mystery, for it reaches chiefly its hierarchy, its scholars, who seem to no longer...

Catholicism in France Could Soon Become a Minority but a More Traditional One, Experts ClaimToday’s announcement of the resignations of two French bishops suffering from episcopal burnout, and the impending release of a potentially devastating report about sexual abuse allegations at France’s Community of St. John, have directed renewed attention towards the fragile state of the Church in France. Is Catholicism now on the verge of extinction in France, “Eldest Daughter of the Church” and homeland of St. Louis and St. Joan of Arc? Studies of the evolution of the country’s religious landscape have already suggested so over the past...

Synodal working document is deeply rooted in Vatican IIHelena Jeppesen Spuhler, center, talks with Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, right, and Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops Cardinal Mario Grech at the end of a presentation of the new guidelines for the Synod of Bishops at the Vatican June 20.The first two things that jump out when reading the working document, or instrumentum laboris, for the forthcoming synod, which was released June 20, are how much the document charts a new approach to a working document for an ecclesial synod and how deeply the document is in continuity with the teachings...

[Catholic Caucus] The Synod of the Anti-Church The "Instrumentum laboris" (that is, the working draft document) of Francis' "Synod on Synodality" was released today.It is the blueprint of the Anti-Church.All you need to see this is to see this point -- and the Apostolic Counterpoint."What steps can a synodal Church take to imitate ever more closely its Master and Lord, who walks with all in unconditional love and proclaims the fullness of the Gospel truth? ...6) How can we create spaces where those who feel hurt by the Church and unwelcomed by the community feel recognised, received, free to ask...

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal Tagle traces synods to Vatican IIMakes recording to liberal priests meeting in San DiegoPope Francis with Cardinal Tagle at the Spanish Steps in Rome Dec. 8, 2022.Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle suggested that pockets of resistance to Pope Francis’ invitation to synodality within the global Catholic Church is rooted in fear of change and insecurity about Catholic identity.“Maybe we need to individually and as communities really confront the forces of resistance,” the Filipino prelate said in a recorded discussion with Holy Cross Fr. Stephen Newton, executive director of the Association of U.S. Catholic Priests.The recording was played June...

[Catholic Caucus] Francis talked the talk but never walked the walk on sexual abuse. Declining years of a failed Pontificate.Francis came to the pontificate with an unspoken mandate to cleanse the Augean stables of sexual abuse in the Church, and he soon trumpeted his 'zero tolerance' policy. Ten years on and the cases of McCarrick, Barros, Zanchetta and now Rupnik seem to indicate that the policy in question was little more than a rhetorical slogan."In the face of Marko Rupnik's repeated refusal to obey this mandate, we are unfortunately left with only one solution: resignation from the Society of Jesus,"...

It seems that, after Vatican II, nothing really changed. But now? Now’s our chance! For the last couple months I was too happy to have had the desire for self-harming. However, now that I am not in Rome anymore I ventured over to the Fishwrap and revisited the darkness of self-inflicted irritation.Sr. Joan Chittister, incredibly still writing (in more than one sense), has finally unlocked the secret to what’s been going on since Vatican II.Fishwrap shares with us her razor sharp observations and the polished steel traps of her reasoning. Who better than she, with her vast experience of the...

Exploring the Theological Heritage of Francis’s Most Recent Attack on Proselytism“[I]n spreading religious faith and in introducing religious practices everyone ought at all times to refrain from any manner of action which might seem to carry a hint of coercion or of a kind of persuasion that would be dishonorable or unworthy, especially when dealing with poor or uneducated people.” (Vatican II’s Declaration on Religious Freedom, Dignitatis Humanae) In a May 29, 2023 audience, Francis recounted one of his characteristically hostile attacks on Catholics who engage in proselytism:“I had a bad experience in this, in a youth meeting, some years...

Vatican II laid the groundwork for the Francis-approved ‘Abrahamic Family House’ in Abu DhabiThe Abrahamic Family House was inspired by the Document on Human Fraternity, and according to Pope Francis, is in perfect continuity with the Second Vatican Council.(Catholic Family News) — Four years after Pope Francis signed the Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together (Feb. 4, 2019) with Grand Imam Ahmad Al-Tayyeb, the so-called “Abrahamic Family House” campus opened in Abu Dhabi (Feb. 16, 2023), the capital of the United Arab Emirates and the city in which the text was signed. The Document, which falsely...

[Catholic Caucus] New Preface by Cardinal Burke to French Reissue of the "Ottaviani Intervention" The Short Critical Study [or Brief Critical Examination] of the New Order of Mass—better known as the "Ottaviani Intervention"—is well known to traditionalists around the world (if you'd like to read more about it, see here and here). Every few years, a new edition appears in some major language. It strikes me as particularly significant that a new French edition has appeared with a Foreword by none other than His Eminence Cardinal Burke. The full French text may be found here; what follows is an automated...

The So-Called “New Pentecost” vs. True Renewalhis article first appeared in the May 2021 Print Edition of Catholic Family News (click HERE to subscribe; current subscribers can access the E-Edition HERE).Pentecost: The Coming of the Holy Ghost“And when the days of the Pentecost were accomplished, they were all together in one place: And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a mighty wind coming, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them parted tongues as it were of fire, and it sat upon every one of them: And they were all...