Free Republic

Do We Really Need a “New Ecumenism”?If we could, in a phrase, sum up Western man’s chief flaw, we might say: he never knew when to stop innovating.Innovation and striving towards new ways of developing culture is, of course, a strength of the West. But if one is always discontent with the greatness he achieves, he risks tinkering too much, innovating himself into ruin. Is this not what was done with the Second Vatican Council and its ecumenism? Our elites grew tired of the bastion of the Church of the Pius popes, for there was the allure that the breakaway...

Pope Francis to Lutherans: ‘Jesus Christ is the heart of ecumenism’Pope Francis this morning received a delegation from the Lutheran World Federation at the Vatican and stressed that “Jesus Christ is the heart of ecumenism.”In his talk given during the audience held in the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican, the Holy Father called this encounter “an important gesture of ecumenical fraternity.”The pontiff recalled the visit of this delegation to Rome three years ago, an occasion in which they reflected on the upcoming 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea in 2025 as an ecumenical event.In this context, he noted...

[Catholic Caucus] The Faith of Pope Pius IX’s Qui Pluribus is Alone Capable of Defeating Catholicism’s Enemies In 1846, Blessed Pius IX began his first papal encyclical, Qui Pluribus (On Faith and Religion), by describing his purpose in writing to the Church’s bishops:“Its purpose is to urge that you keep the night-watches over the flock entrusted to your care with the greatest possible eagerness, wakefulness and effort, and that you raise a protecting wall before the House of Israel; do these as you battle with episcopal strength and steadfastness like good soldiers of Christ Jesus against the hateful enemy of...

[Catholic Caucus] The Patient Who Refuses to Die and the Quixotic Intellectuals who Defend the Liturgy of AgesThe Evangelist Matthew relates that after the death of the Savior Christ, those who had orchestrated his execution had one major concern: to obtain the guard of the tomb where Joseph of Arimathea had placed Jesus’ body. Before Pilate, they explained that they feared lest the “heresies” of the one killed spread even more, in the event that his disciples stole his body (Matthew 27:63-64). Pilate granted them the requested soldiers. The tomb was sealed and placed under Roman guard.Why did I summarize...

The Synodal Church is Shaping Up to be Protestantism in Union with a Bishop of Rome In his 1928 encyclical on religious unity, Mortalium Animos, Pope Pius XI wrote that Christian unity can only be achieved through the process of non-Catholics returning to the “one true Church”:“[T]he union of Christians can only be promoted by promoting the return to the one true Church of Christ of those who are separated from it, for in the past they have unhappily left it. To the one true Church of Christ, we say, which is visible to all, and which is to remain,...

Day of Reparation for the Crimes against the Most Holy EucharistEditor’s note: this is the original call for the Eucharistic crusade by Bishop Schneider from the year of the reign of Jesus Christ, MMXX, and this is the day which he calls every parish to embrace on the Octave day of Corpus Christi. The sins against the Blessed Sacrament and the need of a crusade of Eucharistic reparationTHERE HAS NEVER been in the history of the Church a time where the sacrament of the Eucharist has been abused and outraged to such an alarming and grievous extent as in the...

Making Reparation For the Offenses Against the Sacred Heart of Jesus That Have Grown Progressively Worse Since Vatican IIIn his June 5, 2024 General Audience, Francis announced his intention to publish a document on devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in September:“We are passing through this month dedicated to the Sacred Heart. . . This is why I am pleased to prepare a document that brings together the precious reflections of previous Magisterial texts and a long history that goes back to the Sacred Scriptures, in order to re-propose today, to the whole Church, this devotion imbued with spiritual...

Why Harrison Butker Attends the Latin Mass and You Should TooOf all the Catholic truth bombs Harrison Butker dropped on the graduating class of Benedictine College in a commencement address that has generated almost two weeks of vilification and vitriol, one of the most powerful was his endorsement of the Traditional Latin Mass. As Butker explained, “I do not attend the TLM because I think I’m better than others, or for the smells and bells, or even for the love of Latin. I attend the TLM because I believe just as the God of the Old Testament was pretty particular...

[Catholic Caucus] The Benedictine College Nuns “Leaned Into” the Vatican II Revolution to Foul Mr. Butker One of the aspects of Vatican II that its liberal defenders seem to ignore these days is the Council’s defense of freedom of conscience, especially in religious matters, as set forth in the Declaration on Religious Freedom, Dignitatis Humanae:“On his part, man perceives and acknowledges the imperatives of the divine law through the mediation of conscience. In all his activity a man is bound to follow his conscience in order that he may come to God, the end and purpose of life. It follows...

False Ecumenism Operates as a Blasphemous Anti-Pentecost in the Catholic ChurchIn his The Liturgical Year, Dom Guéranger described the great transformation that took place on the first Pentecost:“These hundred and twenty disciples need but to speak of the Son of God, made Man, and our Redeemer; of the Holy Ghost, who renews our souls; of the heavenly Father, who loves and adopts us as His children: their word will find thousands to believe and welcome it. Those that receive it shall be called the Catholic Church, that is, universal, existing in all places and times. Jesus had said: ‘Go, teach...

[Catholic Caucus] The Handbook for Confused CatholicsEditor’s note: adults can sign up for the summer adult Credo Catechism course at the Avila Institute. The high school program starts again next spring semester. -TSFCatholics of a certain age know things about their religion that many — if not most — Catholics today have never been taught. We now have a resource, however, that points today’s Catholics toward a more rich and fulfilling experience of their religion.This is Bishop Athanasius Schneider latest book, Credo: Compendium of the Catholic Faith.Since it’s release late last year, most reviews that I have read regard the...

[Catholic Caucus] Francis’s “Creative Fidelity to Tradition” and the Complete Impotence of the Vatican IIFor you know, venerable brothers, that these bitter enemies of the Christian name, are carried wretchedly along by some blind momentum of their mad impiety; they go so far in their rash imagining as to teach without blushing, openly and publicly, daring and unheard-of doctrines, thereby uttering blasphemies against God. They teach that the most holy mysteries of our religion are fictions of human invention, and that the teaching of the Catholic Church is opposed to the good and the prerogatives of human society.” (Blessed Pope...

Leftists love to believe that churches should be run like clubs -- the majority rules. So they'll make a big deal out of polls, like the Pew Research Center finding six of ten Catholics disagree with the church's opposition to abortion. They do not ask self-identified Catholics whether they actually go to church on Sundays, or if they stopped the minute they became an adult. You would get a more conservative result. On Tuesday, NPR's newscast All Things Considered brought on reporter Katia Riddle to channel the views of pro-abortion Catholics, but what made it more shocking is touting a...

[Catholic Caucus] Pope Gregory XVI’s Mirari Vos Condemns the Cardinal Sin of the Vatican II RevolutionAs profitable and enlightening as it is to reflect on how Mirari Vos condemns the specific novelties of Vatican II, though, we might draw greatest value from the encyclical if we can truly appreciate what it said about the permissibility of novelties in general.Like many other papal encyclicals prior to Vatican II, several aspects of Pope Gregory XVI’s 1832 encyclical on “Liberalism and Religious Indifferentism,” Mirari Vos, directly contradict ideas that were explicitly promoted at the Council. For instance, whereas Vatican II’s “Declaration on Religious...

Priest: Hatred of the Latin Mass is inspired by ‘hatred of everything that is Catholic’‘Hatred of the traditional Mass is not only hatred of Catholicism, it is above all the precondition for synodal ‘church reform,’’ warns Father Joachim Heimerl, criticizing ‘demonic self-hatred’ within the Church.Latin MassThis essay by Fr. Joachim Heimerl was originally written in German. It has been translated and published with the permission of Fr. Heimerl.(LifeSiteNews) — “Dell’ odio i tristi frutti.” Anyone who loves opera knows these words. They are taken from the prologue of Leoncavallo’s “I Pagliacci,” in which flaming jealousy first leads to fiery hatred...

[Catholic Caucus] The Associated Press on the future of the ChurchThere have been numerous mainstream media articles on how traditional Catholics (and conservative Catholics favoring tradition) are the future of the Church, particularly in the U.S. Many such articles, however, were during the Benedict XVI papacy and following his 2007 motu proprio Summorum Pontificum. A handful of positive articles since Pope Francis' TLM suppressions have been published in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal.So, it is very encouraging to see a new Associated Press article today entitled "'A step back in time': America's Catholic Church sees an immense...

Catholic Faith: The End of the Italian PrivilegeAlthough the title of ‘eldest daughter of the Church’ belongs to France, the beautiful land of Italy has always had a privileged relationship with the Catholic Church. It has produced more than 200 popes, and Rome’s central position on the peninsula and in the Catholic world has ensured that it has played a leading role for centuries. For the Italians, this supposedly universal Catholic Church was above all ‘their’ Church. But this privilege is being eroded, and the decline in practice, observed throughout the old world, is happening in places where it was...

Christ is King! Brief Introduction by Michael J. MattIn light of the recent attack on Candace Owens, I have decided to share a few excerpts from the late, great Michael Davies's 2002 Remnant article, "The Reign of Christ the King." The article is too comprehensive (and likely too long) to be easily comprehended by the vast majority of the Neo-Catholic critics of Candace Owens, men and women who through no fault of their own suffer from a near total lack of sound Catholic formation. So, the following will have to suffice for the moment. I will address this issue in...

Francis and His Collaborators Reject More of Vatican II Than Traditional Catholics DoChrist is the goal of human history; He is the focal point of the longings of history and of civilization; He is the center of the human race; He is the joy of every heart and the answer of all its yearnings; He is the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end; and it is the Church’s “single intention” that God’s kingdom may come. Thus says Vatican II, and yet the “great defenders of Vatican II” persecute Traditional Catholics because we assert...

Good Friday Gaslighting It has been twenty years since release of the movie, The Passion of the Christ, produced, directed and co-written by Mel Gibson. The film is the highest grossing Christian film of all time (inflation adjusted) as well as the highest grossing independent film of all time. As of 2023, it was also the highest grossing R rated film domestically, receiving an R rating due to its graphic depiction of the Passion of the Christ. But before all the glory of its ultimate success and triumph, this film had its own passion to suffer and overcome at the...