| Welcome, Guest |
You have to register before you can post on our site.
|
| Online Users |
There are currently 506 online users.
» 0 Member(s) | 502 Guest(s)
Applebot, Bing, Google, Yandex
|
| Latest Threads |
Fr. Hewko: First Friday, ...
Forum: November 2025
Last Post: Deus Vult
10 hours ago
» Replies: 0
» Views: 73
|
Oratory Conference: Apoca...
Forum: Conferences
Last Post: Deus Vult
Yesterday, 12:22 PM
» Replies: 0
» Views: 62
|
Prayer of Reparation to t...
Forum: Our Lady
Last Post: Stone
Yesterday, 09:47 AM
» Replies: 0
» Views: 87
|
Opinion: The Reason Behin...
Forum: General Commentary
Last Post: Stone
Yesterday, 09:41 AM
» Replies: 0
» Views: 86
|
St. Robert Bellarmine: On...
Forum: Resources Online
Last Post: Stone
Yesterday, 09:39 AM
» Replies: 1
» Views: 4,205
|
Pope St. Pius X's prophec...
Forum: Resources Online
Last Post: Stone
Yesterday, 09:38 AM
» Replies: 1
» Views: 3,697
|
Purgatory Explained by th...
Forum: Resources Online
Last Post: Stone
Yesterday, 09:35 AM
» Replies: 107
» Views: 108,365
|
Oratory Conference: Litur...
Forum: Conferences
Last Post: Deus Vult
11-06-2025, 09:15 PM
» Replies: 0
» Views: 88
|
Fr. Hewko Catechism: Sacr...
Forum: Catechisms
Last Post: Deus Vult
11-06-2025, 07:11 PM
» Replies: 0
» Views: 59
|
A Defense of Our Lady: Co...
Forum: Resources Online
Last Post: Stone
11-06-2025, 12:49 PM
» Replies: 0
» Views: 130
|
|
|
| Leo XIV vows to ‘continue’ Francis’ ‘prophetic vision’ for the Church |
|
Posted by: Stone - 09-19-2025, 07:56 AM - Forum: Pope Leo XIV
- No Replies
|
 |
Leo XIV vows to ‘continue’ Francis’ ‘prophetic vision’ for the Church
In his first major interview, Pope Leo XIV stressed his intention to build directly on Francis’s legacy.
![[Image: Untitled-24.png]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Untitled-24.png)
Pope Leo XIV smiles to the audience as he arrives in the Popemobile ahead of the Inauguration Mass of Pope Leo XIV in St Peter's Square on May 18, 2025, in Vatican City
Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
Sep 18, 2025
(LifeSiteNews [slightly adapted, not all hyperlinks from original included below]) — In his first extended interview since his election, Pope Leo XIV repeatedly positioned himself as the inheritor of Francis’s program, stressing continuity on synodality, women’s roles, ecumenism, curial reform, and liturgical disputes.
Speaking to Crux correspondent Elise Ann Allen for a forthcoming biography, Leo said his years in Peru deepened his connection to Francis’ outlook.
Quote:I believe (the time in Peru) was significant in both my connection with Pope Francis, my understanding of some of the vision that Pope Francis had for the Church, and how we can continue to carry that on in terms of a true prophetic vision for the Church today and tomorrow.
On synodality, he was explicit that the “process that began long before the last synod” must continue.
“I think there’s great hope if we can continue to build on the experience of the past couple years and find ways of being Church together,” he said.
Leo also tied his approach on women in the Church directly to Francis: “I hope to continue in the footsteps of Francis, including in appointing women to some leadership roles at different levels in the Church’s life.” Appearing to allude to the open study of the ordination of women to the diaconate, he said:
Quote:I am certainly willing to continue to listen to people. There are these study groups; the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, which has responsibility for some of those questions, they continue to examine the theological background, history, of some of those questions, and we’ll walk with that and see what comes.
On one count, he distanced himself from Francis. Referring to “LGBTQ questions” as “highly polarizing,” stating that he is “trying not to polarize or promote polarization in the Church.” However, even here, he positioned himself as continuing Francis’ legacy:
Quote:I’ve already spoken about marriage, as did Pope Francis when he was pope, about a family being a man and a woman in solemn commitment, blessed in the sacrament of marriage.
The Pope had negative comments about the implementation of Fiducia Supplicans while affirming the document itself. He also aligned himself with Francis’ approach:
Quote:What I’m trying to say is what Francis said very clearly when he would say, “todos, todos, todos.” Everyone’s invited in, but I don’t invite a person in because they are or are not of any specific identity. I invite a person in because they are a son or daughter of God. You’re all welcome, and let’s get to know one another and respect one another.
When addressing the question of whether teaching on homosexuality could change, Leo’s language strongly implied that it could change in principle, but would not do so for now:
Quote:People want the church doctrine to change, want attitudes to change. I think we have to change attitudes before we even think about changing what the Church says about any given question. I find it highly unlikely, certainly in the near future, that the church’s doctrine in terms of what the church teaches about sexuality, what the Church teaches about marriage, (will change) …
I think that the Church’s teaching will continue as it is, and that’s what I have to say about that for right now. I think it’s very important.
He also pledged to advance Francis’ emphasis on ecumenism and interfaith relations, and positioned this as “one of the goals of the Church” since “the time of the Second Vatican Council.”
“Pope Francis had already planned on going to Nicaea,” he said, speaking of the 1,700th anniversary celebrations of the Council of Nicaea, adding that it had become an ecumenical event on his own request.
He emphasized Francis’ dialogue with Islam, adding, “I would hope to continue that, and not only with Islam.”
On curial reform, Leo spoke of “continuing to break down or transform the isolated manner in which each dicastery works” – and stated that “we do have to continue the process of reform that Francis began.”
Speaking of China, Leo said, “(I)n the short term, I will continue the policy that the Holy See has followed for some years now (…)”
Addressing liturgical disputes, Leo promised “to continue the process” of the Amazonian rite. While he expressed willingness to talk to those who advocate for the traditional Latin Mass, the Pontiff presented no new direction, describing the Novus Ordo as “the Vatican II Mass” and echoing Francis’ critique of polarization:
Quote:People have used the liturgy as an excuse for advancing other topics. It’s become a political tool, and that’s very unfortunate.
The interview leaves no doubt: Leo intends his reign to be understood as building directly on that of Francis.
From his initial hope for “a synodal Church” to his complete commitment to Vatican II, from women’s roles to homosexuality, from ecumenism to the liturgy, he has cast himself as the successor who will “carry on” what Francis began.
|
|
|
| Kash Patel says FBI officials have been fired for role in targeting Latin Mass Catholics |
|
Posted by: Stone - 09-18-2025, 09:49 AM - Forum: General Commentary
- No Replies
|
|
Kash Patel says FBI officials have been fired for role in targeting Latin Mass Catholics
Kash Patel also told Sen. Josh Hawley on Tuesday that the FBI is investigating 60 reports of anti-Catholic hate crimes.
![[Image: shutterstock_612694196.jpg]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/shutterstock_612694196.jpg)
Dzelat/Shutterstock
Sep 17, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews [slightly adapted, not all hyperlinks from original included below]) — FBI Director Kash Patel told Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) that FBI officials had been fired due to the bureau’s targeting of traditional Catholics, as shown by an infamous leaked 2023 memo.
Hawley questioned Patel about the FBI’s response to the persecution of Christians, especially Catholics, in the U.S. during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday.
Referring to the bombshell memo, created under the leadership of former FBI Director Christopher Wray, Hawley asked Patel how the FBI came to recruit informants in Christian churches.
Patel said the FBI has made “permanent fixes” to ensure that informants are not placed in houses of worship unless needed for an “ongoing criminal or terrorism threat.”
“Has anybody been fired for this?” Hawley asked.
“There have been terminations related to this and resignations,” Patel said. The memo in question called for spying on and infiltrating traditional Roman Catholic groups, in particular, churches served by the traditional Society of St. Pius X (SSPX). The document claimed that so-called “Radical Traditionalist Catholic Ideology” was a magnet for “violent extremists.”
“Good… Because if this is gonna be standard at the FBI, nobody can trust the FBI,” replied Hawley. “You wanna talk about violation of the First Amendment? This has got First Amendment violation written all over it.”
“It is one of the most revolting chapters in the FBI’s history,” he added.
During the hearing, Hawley highlighted the heightened attacks on Christians in recent years, including shootings at Christian elementary schools and acts of vandalism and arson against churches across the country, as well as the assassination of Charlie Kirk, an outspoken Christian.
The senator cited a report that found that there were over 400 instances of hostility against churches in the U.S. in 2024, while another report found that there were over 500 attacks on Catholic parishes alone since May of 2020.
“What is the FBI doing to take on this rising tide of violence that seems to be motivated by anti-religious hatred?” asked Hawley.
Patel said the FBI is investigating 60 reports of anti-Catholic hate crimes, adding that he was able to disclose that the agency is conducting anti-Catholic hate crime investigations in the cities of Kansas City, Louisville, Houston, Nashville, and Richmond specifically.
When questioned about whether the FBI would investigate more deeply into potential “cells” helping to fund and facilitate such anti-Catholic attacks, Patel assured Hawley, “We are not stopping at the perpetrators themselves.”
The FBI director said his agency is “reverse engineering” the chain of events leading to such hate crimes to hold accountable those who fund them.
Months after the memo targeting traditional Catholics was released, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) announced that documents that he obtained from the FBI indicated that its field office in Richmond, Virginia, coordinated with two other offices across the country to spy on traditional Catholics.
The finding appeared to contradict Wray’s previous testimony that the FBI memo targeting traditional Catholics was only utilized at the one location in Richmond.
Violence against churches in the U.S. escalated after the leak of the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. That decision, Dobbs v. Jackson, inspired a wave of threats and vandalism against churches and pregnancy centers, which mostly went unpunished, with former Attorney General Merrick Garland citing the supposed difficulty of gathering evidence.
However, hate crimes against Christians had already been growing in the country. A 2023 report from the Family Research Council (FRC) found that anti-Christian attacks on churches steadily increased from 2018 to 2022.
FRC “identified a total of 420 documented acts of hostility that targeted 397 individual churches” in the U.S. during that period.
The recent high-profile assassination of evangelical Christian Charlie Kirk has been described by some commentators, including Tucker Carlson, as motivated by anti-Christian hatred.
|
|
|
|
| The Müller Mirage |
|
Posted by: Stone - 09-18-2025, 09:47 AM - Forum: Vatican II and the Fruits of Modernism
- No Replies
|
|
The Müller Mirage
Why Conservatives Keep Crowning a Theologian Who Undid the Faith
Chris Jackson via Hiraeth in Exile | Sep 17, 2025
Gerhard Ludwig Müller is trending again. Diane Montagna just dropped Part I of a two-part interview (released today, September 17, 2025), and the Catholic commentariat is buzzing ahead of Part II tomorrow. Here at last, they say, is a prelate who calls Charlie Kirk a martyr, who calls the LGBT “Jubilee” a desecration, who names Islam and wokeism as cultural poisons. Traditionalists and conservatives alike are hailing him as a bulldog against Leo XIV’s Vatican.
But if Müller is our savior, then the Church has truly forgotten how to tell the difference between orthodoxy and camouflage. The record of his writings is the man. And that record reveals a disciple of Rahner, Kant, and Gutierrez.
Transubstantiation Replaced
In his theology manuals, Müller insists that “body and blood” do not mean the physical Christ under the accidents of bread and wine. Instead, he offers “transcommunication”: Christ’s presence is mediated symbolically, communicable in perception, a “reality-symbol.” Substance is no longer metaphysical reality but “food” and “human community.” The question of when the conversion happens he dismisses as meaningless.
This is the very dodge Pius XII warned against in Humani Generis: replacing the clear substance–accident language of Trent with elastic phenomenologies that empty the dogma while retaining its vocabulary. The altar is evacuated under the pretense of profundity.
The Virginity of Mary Dismantled
Worse still, Müller’s Katholische Dogmatik reduces the perpetual virginity of the Mother of God to metaphorical “horizons.” He flatly denies that the doctrine entails the bodily integrity of Mary during birth. Gone is the miraculous virginitas in partu defined by Fathers and popes, replaced with talk of “eschatological salvation” and the “personal relationship” of Mary to Jesus.
He approvingly cites Karl Rahner’s notorious minimization of the dogma; so notorious the Holy Office censored Rahner for it in 1962. Yet Müller, hailed as a “guardian of orthodoxy,” recycles the very error the pre-conciliar magisterium condemned.
Contrast this with St. Thomas and St. Augustine, who affirm that Christ was born utero clauso, as light passes through glass. That is the faith of the Church. Müller, by comparison, drowns it in transcendental gobbledygook.
Resurrection Reduced
The Resurrection fares no better. In his 2010 Dogmatik, Müller insists no camera could have recorded it; the event was not historical in the ordinary sense, but a “transcendental consummation.” What is historically verifiable, he says, is not the empty tomb or the risen Christ, but only the disciples’ belief.
This is Modernist reduction. It recasts the Resurrection as subjective faith-experience, precisely the tactic Pius X exposed in Pascendi: the “communication of an original experience.” If you believe because Peter believed, but the historical tomb does not matter, then Christianity is emptied into myth.
Vatican II Absolutized
Müller was no friend to Tradition in practice. As prefect of the CDF he told the SSPX that acceptance of Vatican II is as binding as belief in the Resurrection. He insisted they accept religious liberty and ecumenism as “fundamental human rights.” He demanded recognition of the legitimacy of the Novus Ordo Missae.
Here is the irony: Müller himself compared Vatican II’s pastoral novelties to the dogma of Easter, while in his own writings he stripped Easter of its historical core. This is the theologian conservatives now want to canonize as their lion.
Ecumenism and Liberation Theology
Müller publicly declared Catholics and Protestants already constitute “the one visible Church,” contradicting the dogma of the Mystical Body defined by Pius XII. He praised Gustavo Gutierrez, the Marxist-tinted liberation theologian, as one of the greats, and even coauthored a book with him. This reveals where Müller’s loyalties have long been.
Amoris Laetitia: From Resistance to Retreat
Conservatives often cite his resistance to Amoris Laetitia. But in 2017, after Francis stripped his allies from the CDF, Müller pivoted: Amoris, he said, posed “no danger to the faith.” The text was “very clear.” Clear in what? In ambiguity. Instead of standing up for the sanctity of marriage, Muller maneuvered to preserve status.
Why This Matters Under Leo
Leo XIV’s Vatican is a carnival of desecration. Transvestites in sanctuaries, rainbow-lit jubilees, and bishops outlawing the Latin Mass. The only antidote is dogma taught in eodem sensu, eademque sententia. Yet the man conservatives are celebrating as the antidote has already surrendered that ground. He denies the physical integrity of Mary’s virginity. He redefines transubstantiation into symbol. He relativizes the Resurrection into disciples’ belief. He binds Catholics to Vatican II as if it were revelation itself.
That is not a champion of orthodoxy. It is the revolution in disguise.
Stop Lowering the Bar
Traditional Catholics used to measure fidelity by adherence to defined dogma. Now they measure it by whether a man condemns gender ideology on camera. The Church deserves better. The martyrs did not die for soundbites. They died for the faith defined at Trent, Constantinople, and Lateran.
If Müller wishes to be counted among the defenders of the flock, let him repent of his errors, retract his Rahnerian evasions, and affirm the mysteries in the words the Church herself uses. Until then, conservatives coronating him are not resisting the revolution. They are laundering it.
|
|
|
|
| Holy Mass in New Hampshire - September 21, 2025 |
|
Posted by: Stone - 09-17-2025, 11:34 AM - Forum: September 2025
- No Replies
|
|
Holy Sacrifice of the Mass - Feast of St. Matthew ApEv
w/ Commemoration of the Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
![[Image: ?u=http%3A%2F%2Ftheartistsjob.weebly.com...12a1b10af1]](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Ftheartistsjob.weebly.com%2Fuploads%2F5%2F7%2F6%2F1%2F57611615%2Fpublished%2Fcaravaggio-matthewandtheangel-bymikeyangels.jpg%3F1490150554&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=6c46e7d0946bc6c52b69c4bfd061675d9c92c54325053bf036b3af12a1b10af1)
Date: Sunday, September 21, 2025
Time: Confessions - 10:00 AM
Holy Mass - 10:30 AM
Location: The Oratory of the Sorrowful Heart of Mary
66 Gove's Lane
Wentworth, NH 03282
Contact: 315-391-7575
sorrowfulheartofmaryoratory@gmail.com
|
|
|
|
| Global elites insisting on digital currency to phase out cash |
|
Posted by: Stone - 09-16-2025, 06:14 AM - Forum: Global News
- No Replies
|
|
Global elites insisting on digital currency to phase out cash
The aim is to have the digital euro fully in place by 2030 in order to move Europe fully into the United Nations' post-capitalist system described in Agenda 2030.
![[Image: Alexandros-Michailidis-Shutterstock-810x500.jpg]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Alexandros-Michailidis-Shutterstock-810x500.jpg)
President of European Central Bank (ECB) Christine Lagarde during the Hearing of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs
of the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium on September 26, 2022
Alexandros Michailidis / Shutterstock
Sep 15, 2025
(LifeSiteNews [slightly adapted, not all hyperlinks from original included below]) — It always pays to scrutinize closely the comments of financial elites because they are rarely honest about their intentions. An instance is the comments of Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank (ECB) who said there will be a vote next month in the European Union parliament on the next step toward creating a digital euro, which would be a central bank digital currency (CBDC).
A central bank digital currency is money issued by the central bank in digital form as opposed to digital credit issued by banks, which is the dominant form of money in Western societies. She claims that it will mean more freedom for Europeans and that there is nothing to fear.
Lagarde anticipates launching the digital euro in about 18 months. The aim is to have it fully in place by 2030 in order to move Europe fully into the United Nations’ post-capitalist system that is described in Agenda 2030.
Lagarde’s blandishments about what the digital euro represents do not survive close examination. She acknowledged that the main concern of the population is the privacy implications, claiming the ECB is looking at a technology that will offer protections. The private banks, she said, will apply the “rules of scrutiny” that already have access to the transactions. “We are not interested in the data. The private banks are interested in the data.”
Lagarde also said that the “people have dictated” the transition to a digital euro. This looks dubious. Neither the EU Commission nor the ECB is democratically elected. And if the main concern people have with a CBDC is privacy, then why would people prefer it over cash, which is immune to scrutiny? It is not as if a digital euro would satisfy an unmet need. Digital money – credit and online transactions – is already freely available in the banking system.
The ECB is also speaking out of both sides of its mouth, saying on one hand that the digital euro will only complement cash and on the other that cash will be eliminated.
Lagarde made it clear that the aim is to phase out cash completely. Agenda 2030, she claims, “can only be enforced in a cashless economy.” Why? What is it about cash that makes environmental policies impossible to implement? The answer is surely that a digital euro is needed to control people’s behavior, forcing them to comply with environmental rules.
Previous comments by central bankers suggest there is good reason for Europeans to be extremely suspicious. In 2021, the general manager of the Bank for International Settlements, Agustín Carstens, said: “We don’t know who’s using a $100 bill today and we don’t know who’s using a 1,000-peso bill today. The key difference with the CBDC is the central bank will have absolute control on the rules and regulations that will determine the use of that expression of central bank liability, and also we will have the technology to enforce that.”
The pretext for the financial power play is climate change and the push toward net zero. A European CBDC is not, as implied by Lagarde, the creation of a new digital monetary mechanism. As economist Richard Werner points out, that already exists – credit and debit cards, for example. The significance of a digital euro is that it threatens the banking system.
A CBDC, like cash, has no interest rate on it. So why would people continue to use credit produced by private entities such as banks or credit card companies – currently over 95 percent of the money supply – on which they have to pay interest? As the Reserve Bank of New Zealand noted, CBDCs have the potential to destroy private banks.
That problem does not seem to concern the ECB, however. Indeed, fundamentally altering the banking system may be what they are aiming for. Lagarde said “climate compliance” will become a core element of bank supervision, not a separate initiative, “because climate change presents significant, material financial risks to banks and the entire financial system.”
The ECB’s supervision will mandate that banks integrate the management of climate-related and environmental risks into their existing risk management processes, particularly through new prudential transition planning requirements under what is called CRD VI. European banking, it seems, will no longer be defined by profitability and fiscal soundness but also by the politics of climate change.
The slipperiness of the ECB‘s arguments point to a much darker ambition. Werner says when CBDCs are connected to digital IDs “we are talking about the most totalitarian control system in human history … it gives you as a controller complete visibility on what everyone is doing, every transaction.
“The monitoring is only one aspect. These CBDCs are programmable and you can use big data algorithms, which they sell to us as artificial intelligence, in order to have rules about who can buy what and for what purpose, at what time and at what place – and therefore control all your movement. In the history of dictatorships, there never has been such a powerful control tool.”
There is a flaw, though, in the ECB’s push to change Europe’s financial architecture that may prove fatal to its ambitions. The EU and ECB do not have genuine central control. When the euro was established in 1998, the only way Germany was able to join was on the condition there was no consolidation of the government debt. So, although the ECB notionally sets interest rates for the zone, government debt is held at the national level and each country’s interest rate differs.
The ECB is thus a central bank in name only, unlike the U.S. Federal Reserve, or for that matter most country’s central banks, that oversee their national government debt. A European nation can choose to exit the EU, and each has to have its own monetary policy in spite of the ECB setting a uniform rate.
The push to create a digital euro is most likely an attempt to deal with these contradictions, but at best it will be a makeshift solution and it will take very little for it to fall apart. Disintegration of the European Union, and the common currency, is not out of the question.
Meanwhile, the U.S. is going in the opposite direction. In July, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act, which prevents the Federal Reserve from issuing a retail CBDC directly to individuals.
European debt is becoming increasingly parlous, especially in France where there have even been suggestions that there might need to be assistance from the International Monetary Fund. Italy’s debt, which is 138 percent of GDP, is also problematic. Lagarde is hoping for a rollout of the digital euro in 2027 and completion in 2030. But the Euro zone, and the ECB that oversees it, may not last that long.
|
|
|
|
|
![[Image: 2e8f75b4-d43b-d7af-a99a-1ac7d1a8237c.jpg]](https://mcusercontent.com/76ce784d87af5db75a3164d6a/images/2e8f75b4-d43b-d7af-a99a-1ac7d1a8237c.jpg)
![[Image: d4e9639b-8939-46dc-8f34-f07ab0edd878.jpe...0bb&w=1024]](https://berliner-zeitung-msp-prod.imgix.net/2025/09/16/d4e9639b-8939-46dc-8f34-f07ab0edd878.jpeg?auto=format&s=ac93778035005900cc205a0cb2d210bb&w=1024)
