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Welcome to Muck IslandThe sacking of Bishop Strickland brings to mind the sad plot of Brian Moore’s novella "Catholics".I watched the EWTN interview of Bishop Strickland last night and had nightmares while I slept. The bishop, articulate and, to my mind, innocent of all irony, recounted what had happened in his process of deposition and professed his recognition of the pope’s authority and his obedience to his removal from office. The sincerity of the man’s confusion about why he was singled out was piercing. Many sources have hinted at “administrative” reasons without any real evidence. The fact that the protocol...

[Catholic Caucus] Calling "Mighty Shepherds"!"As one sees the power of the Antichrist spreading, one can only pray that the Lord will give us mighty shepherds to defend his Church against the power of evil in this hour of need."- Pope Benedict XVI(Letter to a longstanding correspondent) I have related before a telling episode in Father Crane's workaday life that captured the devilish essence of our post-conciliar times. It involved fierce criticism and great praise received in short order.First came a scathing missive from a fellow Jesuit who railed against the "scurrilous" work of Christian Order, demanding that Father cease and...

Francis’ New Book Hails Islam as a ‘Religion of Peace’Pontiff claims Islamic State terrorist outfit is a creation of the West In a new book recounting the last 10 years of his pontificate, Pope Francis is defending Islam as a "religion of peace" and suggesting the possibility of making celibacy optional for Latin rite priests. Non Sei Solo: Sfide, Risposte, Speranze (You Are Not Alone: Challenges, Answers, Hopes), published in Italian and released Tuesday, is a series of dialogues with journalists Sergio Rubin and Francesca Ambrogetti. The pontiff calls upon Europe to integrate Muslim migrants, insisting that "radical Islam is...

Archbishop Viganò: Every saint and Doctor of the Church would stand against today’s VaticanFor the first time in history, in this battle between the Church and the anti-church, the former is not only marginalized and persecuted, but also finds herself defrauded of the supreme authority of the Roman pontiff.We have just celebrated the feast of Saint Charles Borromeo, the Cardinal Archbishop of Milan, a Confessor of the Faith, the patron saint of the city of Milan and of the Ambrosian Diocese. A saint who, like all the saints proclaimed by the Church before the conciliar revolution, today would be pointed...

Mass AttacksIf the current pontificate has set one thing in bold relief it is surely this: that the seemingly insane process of self-destruction triggered by Vatican II is not madness at all. Ultimately, the ever rising flood of suicidal novelties that has now swollen to a synodal tsunami is the demonic fruit of patient decades of infiltration of the Church by her myriad enemies. Most notably by Enemy #1: the Lodge and its communistic, modernistic, sodomitic subsets. Detailed in masonic plans exposed and published by popes a century before Paul VI himself decried the "self-destruction" and the allusive "smoke of...

[Catholic Caucus] El Tucho: Puppet from HellBefore Christ’s second coming.... The persecution [of the Church] will unveil the “mystery of iniquity”in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth.- Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 675-676 "To achieve world government, it is necessaryto remove from the minds of men,... religious dogmas.- BROCK CHISHOLM, First Director General of the WHO On 1 July, Francis announced that 60-year-old Archbishop Víctor "Tucho" Fernández of La Plata, the notorious "kissing expert" and key contributor to heretical gems like Amoris Laetitia...

Schismality And if a house be divided against itself,that house cannot stand. - Mk 3: 24-25"It is not to be excluded that I will enter historyas the one who split the Catholic Church.” If Der Spiegel had attributed the sinister quote above to any pope other than the present one we would have laughed it off as far and away the most ludicrous hatchet job ever perpetrated by the corporate media against the Church and the papacy. Alas, in its 23 December 2016 edition the renowned German magazine alleged that the boast was made to a small group of his...

[Catholic Caucus] "Approaches to Ecclesial Radiography" - Archbishop Héctor Aguer What do we see when we apply an x-ray to the body of the Church on earth? The emeritus Archbishop of La Plata, Argentina, tells us in this latest column from October 31, 2023. Translated for Rorate Caeli.1. Priests cancelled. I am not dealing now with what is happening at the international level, but with a phenomenon that is becoming more and more frequent in Argentina, in various dioceses. "Cancelled" is equivalent to a displacement to non-existence when counting the official number of priests who serve as clergy in a...

[Catholic Caucus] Nuchurch’s “Counter-Syllabus” of ErrorsWith providential foresight, Pope Pius IX (top left) saw in the 19th century the heresies that would come upon the Church in the 20th century. So, in 1864, he wrote the Syllabus of Errors. Over one hundred years later, Cardinal Ratzinger (top right, before he was Pope) unfortunately admitted that Vatican II was “a Counter-Syllabus” of Errors. By this, he meant Vatican II was good and the Syllabus’ condemnation of heresies was bad, or at least outdated. This is found in his book Principles of Catholic Theology. More specifically, Cardinal Ratzinger said Gaudium Et Spes...

[Catholic Caucus] Francis, His Synodal Church, and God’s Providence“For whom the Lord loveth, He chastiseth; and He scourgeth every son whom He receiveth. Persevere under discipline. God dealeth with you as with His sons; for what son is there, whom the father doth not correct?” (Hebrews 12:6-7)In his October 25, 2023 intervention at the Synod on Synodality gathering in Rome, Francis described the membership of the Synodal Church:“I like to think of the Church as this simple and humble people who walk in the presence of the Lord (the faithful people of God). This is the religious meaning of our...

[All Catholic Caucus] When Living Tradition Turns Ugly: from Henri de Lubac to Francis’s Synod and Dubia Response“Living Tradition bobs along like a cork through the stream of evolving dogma. What a pleasant euphemism for the old heresy of dogmatic historicism.” (Fr. Dominique Bourmaud, One Hundred Years of Modernism) Many Traditional Catholics have likely heard the concept of “living tradition” in connection with John Paul II’s rebuke of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in the July 2, 1988 apostolic letter, Ecclesia Dei:“The root of this schismatic act can be discerned in an incomplete and contradictory notion of Tradition. Incomplete, because it does...

[Catholic Caucus] Senior Synod theologian claims the Church is now in a ‘deeper phase’ of Vatican IIFr. Ormond Rush gave an address to the synod members at the start of their final week in Rome, urging them to draw on the arguments of Vatican II for their proceedings.VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Beginning their final week of the Synod on Synodality, members were told that the event “is a dialogue with God,” as a prominent Australian priest and outspoken advocate of the Second Vatican Council drew from Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s 1960’s writings on “tradition” as understood at Vatican II.“Having listened to...

[Catholic Caucus] Pope Francis gives Synod members Vatican II lobby group’s liberation theology textChurch historian Roberto de Mattei told LifeSiteNews that this hugely significant event is the 'last act of a process' beginning with Vatican II and culminating in Pope Francis’ Synod on Synodality.VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) –– In a hugely significant move, participants of the Synod on Synodality were quietly given the text of a secretive pact – first composed by a group of liberal theologians during Vatican II – which is part of a relativistic and “egalitarian” plan embodied and enacted by Pope Francis to “change the identity of...

Pope: “The Church Has to Change”In a new interview, the Roman Pontiff has elaborated on the synodal dream of Cardinal Martini, taking place now in Rome. But before we get to that, we should be fair and say that he also said a few good things:We were all unexperienced young people once, and sometimes young boys and girls hold onto miracles, to a messiah, to things being solved in a messianic way. There is only one Messiah who saved us all. The rest are all clowns of messianism. None of them can promise a solution to conflicts, unless it’s emerging...

Seeds of the Synod: Vatican II’s Forgotten Battle Over Who Belongs to the Mystical Body of ChristPius XII’s Humani Generis from 1950 was the last major encyclical warning Catholics about the dangers facing the Church prior to Vatican II. In it, he denounced what he termed the “imprudent zeal for souls” that led some Catholics to question the necessity of belonging to the Catholic Church:“Some say they are not bound by the doctrine, explained in Our Encyclical Letter of a few years ago, and based on the Sources of Revelation, which teaches that the Mystical Body of Christ and the...

[Catholic Caucus] Archbishop Aguer: Post-Vatican II era has replaced childlike spirituality with childishnessIn general, it would have to be said that the post-conciliar pastoral proposals for children's pastoral care are fruitless and useless, if compared to the common tradition expressed univocally in the most diverse sectors of society.The history of spirituality records a mode of relationship with God known as spiritual childhood. The modern expression of this spirituality is found in the writings of St. Therese of the Child Jesus. In the patristic age, and in the Middle Ages, traces of this consideration can be found, which presents the Christian...

[Catholic Caucus] Pope Francis suggests the Synod is a continuation of Vatican II: ‘The Church has to change’Among the more striking changes advanced by Pope Francis is his recent encouragement of priests to bless homosexual unions, in contradiction to the unchangeable Catholic teaching that the Church cannot bless sinful acts.VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — “The Church has to change,” argued Pope Francis in a recent interview, highlighting post-Vatican II changes which he said “must continue.”“Progress is necessary and the Church has to incorporate these novelties with a serious conversation from a human point of view,” declared the Argentine pontiff. In an...

Pope’s synod reforms ‘irreversible’, says Fr Vimal Tirimanna CSsRFr Vimal Tirimanna is one of the theological advisers to the synod and a professor of moral theology who teaches in Sri Lanka and Rome.A leading Asian theologian says Pope Francis’ decision to include non-ordained women and men as voting members of October’s synod assembly is a “giant step” that will irreversibly change the Church’s decision-making processes. Last month, the synod secretariat announced the Pope had authorised a reform to allow at least 70 non-bishops to be members of the 4-29 October synod assembly in the Vatican. This move will see women...

[Catholic Caucus] Synod on Synodality now discussing female deacons, married priests, and lay governanceSynod participants will now spend the next few days discussing controversial topics, after officials refused to commit that members had to uphold Church teaching in discussions.Pope Francis and Synod on Synodality leaders, October 13, 2023.Participants of the Synod on Synodality are currently discussing topics of married priests, female deacons, and increased lay ministry as part of the third of five modules held during the event.Opening the proceedings on Friday morning, relator general Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich gave an address highlighting the chief themes that will form the subject...

[Catholic Caucus] Understanding Why Most Catholics Reject the Faith of their Fathers“Faith of our Fathers! Holy Faith! We will be true to thee till death.” (Faith of Our Fathers, Fr. Frederick William Faber) Although he was neither a theologian nor a saint, Evelyn Waugh certainly understood the logical appeal of Catholicism. As he wrote in his essay about his conversion, in The Road to Damascus, either the Catholic Church is right and all heresies are wrong, or else the entire Christian religion is an imposture:"It was self-evident to me that no heresy or schism could be right and the Church...