Remnant Articles
Michael Matt in Rome comments on today's Synod on the Family press conference which lets the cat out of the bag. This Synod is Pope Francis's attempt to create a new Church--a new synodal Church that will listen to sinners and marginalize saints. Mater? Si! Magistra? Forget about it! SHOW MORE The Synod of Doom: It's Worse Than We Thought
By: Michael J. Matt | Editor
Michael Matt reports from Rome on the last days of the Synod on the Family. Is the Pope's project all about changing the entire central ruling authority of the Catholic Church, too?Special Synod Report- Is 'Healthy Decentralization' Part of the Plan
By: Michael J. Matt | Editor
“And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had borne the male child. But the woman was given two wings of the great eagle that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, and times and half a time. * * * Then the dragon was angry with the woman, and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and bear testimony to Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea.” - Apocalypse of St. John, Chapter 12, verse 13-17.
Despite the fact that it is already mid-October, Rome is heating up. In the midst of the so-called Synod on the Family, scandal after scandal continue to rend the Rock. And, through the cracks the ugly core of heretical hierarchical real politik becomes ever more apparent to the faithful.
The “Synod on the Family” and the Fate of the Church Featured
By: Michael J. Matt & Thomas More
When you were a kid, and went to the pool, did you play the “how low can you go” game? Using keys or any object that would sink to the bottom, you stood at one end of the pool and threw it as far as you could into the deep end, then swam down after it. The game was really about nerve. Most pools are only about 10 feet at the diving end, and the lifeguard was always watching, so our daredevil diving was harmless.
But I get the impression that no matter how far down any bishop goes in the current synodal version of the game, there’s going to be someone ready to follow him a few feet lower. And the lifeguard on duty doesn’t seem to care one way or another. This rivalry among the Synod’s ultra-progressives (“heretics,” in Catholic) to see how outrageous they can get, right in front of the pope, seems to be bringing us to new depths that perhaps most ordinary Mass-going novusordoist Catholics had previously never guessed existed among the episcopate.
Blasphemy, Heresy, Schism and the “Collapse” of the Church (but, hey, at least the bishops will get to vote) Featured
Written by Hilary White
Chicago’s Windy City Prelate Blase Cupich divines that the conscience is inviolable and reigns supreme in all things theological.
In an interview with the National Catholic Register’s Edward Pentin, Archbishop Cupich, the personal appointment of Pope Francis to the Family Synod said when it comes to giving holy Communion to civilly remarried divorcees, people need to “come to a decision in good conscience” and that the Church’s job is to “help them move forward and to respect that.”
“Help us make people understand that we are not in schism. The Church is ours. It is our castle. It is our home. We will not leave her. We can never leave her.” ...Bishop Bernard Fellay
Menzingen is a place once visited not soon forgotten. Nestled high in the mountain pastures overlooking Zug, Switzerland, an unseen wall seems to have erected itself around this Catholic Brigadoon, shielding it from the soul-crushing “progress” of the modern world. The fact that it was originally built as a hunting lodge only adds to its mystique. One half expects to see a young Emperor Karl of Austria come cantering up into its tiny courtyard at any moment, a brace of hunting dogs at the heel.
Not much to the place, really—a modest chapel, a formidable statue of St. Pius X, a few outbuildings and the main lodge itself, which houses the offices and living quarters of the Superior General and his assistants. Defended by God’s own snow-capped battlements, it’s the perfect setting for the HQ of the single largest fraternity of traditional Catholic priests in the world.
Sunday Sermons from South Saint Paul
Remnant TV's new 'Sunday Sermons from So. St. Paul'. This morning our priest delivers a barnburner of a sermon all about the Synod.
"A line has been drawn--on which side are you?"
The Holy Father has often stressed the message that some in the church need to show more mercy and this message is almost always directed towards faithful Catholics. A recent homily delivered on the second day of the Synod on the Family reiterates this message, saying:
Jesus as well lived this drama with the Doctors of the Law, who did not understand why He did not let them stone the adulterous woman, why He went to dine with publicans and sinners: they did not understand…They did not understand mercy.
The time has been, my senses would have cool'd
To hear a night-shriek; and my fell of hair
Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir
As life were in't: I have supp'd full with horrors…
Macbeth, Act V, Scene V.
Could it possibly be that the Synod on the Family will ultimately be unveiled as a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing? The answer is: yes and no. The reason behind the “Yes” is that the Faithful themselves have not been slow or hushed in expressing their discontent over the last two years, and the bishops may have gotten and heeded the message, for one reason or another.
"The Pope is not an absolute monarch whose thoughts and desires are law." -Benedict XVI
Updated Version: This article was updated today, 10/12/15, in order to reflect additions that were made for the print edition of The Remnant. The two versions are now exactly the same. MJM
Editor’s Note: The following article is quite lengthy. But like Chris Ferrara’s other more lengthy contributions to this journal, it “reads short” while providing a clear and comprehensive overview of a complex situation. Francis’s Blitzkrieg “reform” of the annulment process is a turning point in Church and world history that deserves the thorough treatment it receives here.
Vandals in Rome: Will They Sack Christian Marriage? Featured
By: Christopher A. Ferrara
An Urgent Appeal from Chris Ferrara
Mike Matt did not want me to write this letter. He hates this kind of thing. But I insisted upon it. The people who know and love The Remnant need to come its aid now, because The Remnant is fighting for its life.
I have proudly served as The Remnant’s lead columnist for some thirteen years. It has been an honor and a privilege to contribute to the legacy of a venerable Catholic journal that has been telling its readers the truth about the crisis in the Church from the moment the crisis began almost fifty years ago.