Catholic Church Archives

Catholic Civil Rights Group Condemns State Legislation to Force Priests to Break Seal of Confession

March 13, 2023 Susan Berry, PhD

Bills in the states of Vermont, Delaware, and Washington would include in mandatory reporting laws information about child sexual abuse a priest learns during the Sacrament of Reconciliation, a move the Catholic League states lacks sound reasoning.

Last week Catholic League President Bill Donohue warned the “seal of confession” is “under fire” in Vermont, noting the Catholic civil rights organization is once again “doing battle with lawmakers who want to violate” the priest-penitent privilege, mostly in legislation concerning the sexual abuse of minors.

AG Merrick Garland Faces Republicans on Senate Judiciary Committee Over Weaponization of DOJ Against Parents, Catholics, and Pro-Life Activists

March 1, 2023 Susan Berry, PhD

Biden Attorney General Merrick Garland is expected to face tough questions from Republican senators Wednesday regarding what many in the nation say has been the purposeful weaponization of the Department of Justice against parents of schoolchildren, Catholics who live their faith in the public square, and activists who fight for the vulnerable unborn.

‘I Don’t Believe in Popes’: Nicaraguan President Reportedly Bans Easter Public Processions

March 1, 2023 Ohio Star Staff

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega reportedly banned public church processions for Easter after comparing the Catholic church to the “mafia,” according to the Catholic News Agency (CNA).

Tensions between the government and the church have been rising due to Ortega orchestrating multiple investigations into church leaders and exiling others, according to CNA. Ortega has reportedly placed a ban on public religious demonstrations during Lent, Good Friday and Easter after he attacked the church during a speech memorializing the 89th anniversary of Nicaraguan national hero Augusto Sandino’s death, calling the Catholic church a “mafia organization” committing “grave crimes and horrors.”

Pope Francis Criticizes ‘Conservative’ and ‘Progressive’ Wings for Politicizing Church

February 26, 2023 Ohio Star Staff

Pope Francis criticized attempts on both the left and the right to politicize the church in his weekly address at the Vatican Wednesday, according to remarks released by the Vatican.

Francis has been known for taking a more liberal approach to the papacy on issues of same-sex marriage, divorce and capitalism compared to his predecessor Benedict. The Pope said during his General Audience on Ash Wednesday that the church should not be run by any ideology and instead should focus on the Holy Spirit’s guidance, according to the Vatican.

FBI Keeps Getting Burned by Reliance on Liberal Sources

February 13, 2023February 13, 2023 Just the News

A dossier alleging Russian collusion funded by a Democrat presidential candidate. A suggestion that school parents were domestic terrorists from a left-leaning school board group. A list suggesting old-fashioned Catholics were extremists from a liberal watchdog on hate speech.

Three triggers for investigation. Three blunders that left America’s premier law enforcement agency reeling with a black eye.

Cardinal Says Pope Francis Has No ‘Contact with the Holy Spirit’ in New Book

January 27, 2023 Admin

Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the former prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, is releasing a book that accuses Pope Francis of giving “privileged status” to his friends that are accused of sexual abuse in the church, according to Catholic news website LaCroix International. The Roman Catholic Church has suffered multiple sexual abuse scandals over the years after several reports from the Vatican found that the clergy, particularly in France, had abused thousands of victims. While Müller says that France’s Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church (CIASE) 2021 report was “inflated and exaggerated,” the cardinal claims in his new book, “In Good Faith: Religion in the 21st Century,” that Francis has helped protect those close to him by granting them a special “status,” citing the case of Argentine Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta, who was convicted in March 2022 of sexual abuse of two victims during seminary, as an example, according to LaCroix International.

Pope Francis Says Homosexuality Is ‘A Sin’ but Should Not Be Criminalized

January 26, 2023January 25, 2023 Admin

Pope Francis I said in an interview with the Associated Press that “homosexuality is not a crime” and encouraged bishops to stop practicing forms of conversion therapy. Francis has come under scrutiny in the past for his statements regarding the LGBTQ community, including his perceived endorsement of same-sex civil unions in 2020. The pope stated during the interview that while homosexuality is considered a sin, it should not be a “crime.”

Catholic Universities Continue to Endorse Pro-Abortion Agenda

January 21, 2023 Admin

Wednesday marked the start of this year’s National March for Life, the first since the right to an abortion was federally overruled in June of last year in the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. In light of the impending Dobbs decision, Alcindor stated in May of last year that she was worried about “women who are poor, women of color [being] forced to have pregnancies that they cannot afford to terminate, and pregnancies that will then turn into children” if states ban abortion.

American Catholic Leaders Celebrate Life of Pope Benedict, ‘Defender of Truth’ Who Taught Above All Else ‘God Is Love’

January 3, 2023January 2, 2023 Susan Berry, PhD

American Catholic leaders are acclaiming the life and work of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, whose scholarly writings emphasized the unity of faith and reason and, most fundamentally, the primary truth of the Catholic faith, which teaches God is Love.

Benedict, who was born Joseph Ratzinger, died Saturday at the age of 95. He became pope in April 2005, following the death of Pope John Paul II, and served until his resignation in February 2013.

Commentary: Remembering Pope Benedict XVI

January 1, 2023January 1, 2023 Ohio Star Staff

A couple of months ago I was in a fascinating conversation with a Catholic colleague regarding the papacies of Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis, here in the ninth year of this curious era, 2013-22, when the world was living with, in effect, two popes of sorts, a reigning pope named Francis and a resigned pope — a “Pope Emeritus” — named Benedict XVI. We were wondering if the latter would, ironically, ultimately outlive the former, who few expected to have a papacy this long. When Francis’ papacy started in 2013, he was already known for poor health, which has progressively gotten worse.

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI Dead at 95

December 31, 2022 Just the News

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who shaped Catholic doctrine for decades before surprising the church by resigning as pontiff, died Saturday at age 95, the Vatican announced.

“With sorrow I inform you that the Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI, passed away today at 9:34 in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican,” Vatican press secretary Matteo Bruni told media.

Archbishop Viganò: Holy See Delivered ‘Unjust and Illegitimate Punishment’ to Pro-Life Priest Father Frank Pavone

December 24, 2022December 23, 2022 Susan Berry, PhD

Outspoken former papal ambassador to the United States Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò condemned the Holy See’s decision to laicize pro-life priest Father Frank Pavone, calling the action “unjust and illegitimate punishment,” and observed hypocrisy in the move while “the Roman Curia is infested with unpresentable characters who are notoriously corrupt and heretical sodomites and fornicators.”

“[A] person’s actions are consistent with who that person is, ”Viganò wrote at LifeSiteNews Thursday, and asserted that principle has been confirmed “in the canonical sanctions recently imposed by the Holy See on Father Frank A. Pavone, a well-known and appreciated pro-life priest, who for decades has been committed to the battle against the horrible crime of abortion.”

‘Laicized’ Pro-Life Priest Father Frank Pavone: Pope Francis ‘Definitely Signed Off on This’

December 19, 2022December 19, 2022 Susan Berry, PhD

Prominent international pro-life leader Father Frank Pavone said Monday Pope Francis “definitely signed off” on a letter that reportedly states the Vatican has laicized Pavone, for “blasphemous communications on social media” and “persistent disobedience of the lawful instructions of his diocesan bishop.”

“I have received nothing,” Pavone, the national director of Priests for Life, told The Star News Network during a telephone interview Monday. “And what’s worse, that has been the pattern for the last 20 years of abuse by church authorities.”

German Cardinal Gerhard Müller: ‘LGBT Ideology’ Attempting ‘Hostile Takeover’ of Catholic Church

October 19, 2022October 18, 2022 Susan Berry, PhD

Catholics must “stay firm in the truth” as those who have embraced an LGBTQ agenda are in the midst of a “hostile takeover” of the Catholic Church, warned German Cardinal Gerhard Müller in interviews over the past week with both EWTN’s The World Over and LifeSiteNews.

Müller, the former head of the Vatican’s highest doctrinal office, is voicing his significant concerns about the dangers to the Church brought on during Pope Francis’ Synod on Synodality, a process that involves collecting the views of lay Catholics in every diocese around the world prior to the Synod of Bishops in Rome in October 2023.

Massachusetts Bishop Revokes ‘Catholic’ Status of Jesuit School Flying LGBTQ and Black Lives Matter Flags

June 21, 2022June 20, 2022 Susan Berry, PhD

A bishop has revoked the “Catholic” status of a Jesuit middle school in Worcester, Massachusetts, for defying his order to stop flying flags supporting the LGBTQ “pride” and Black Lives Matter (BLM) movements.

“The Nativity School of Worcester is prohibited from this time forward from identifying itself as a ‘Catholic’ school and may no longer use the title ‘Catholic’ to describe itself,” Bishop Robert McManus of Worcester announced in a decree Thursday.

Outspoken Archbishop Viganò Urges Catholics to Beware ‘Corrupters’ Pope Francis Has Elevated to College of Cardinals

June 11, 2022June 10, 2022 Susan Berry, PhD

A former apostolic nuncio, or papal ambassador, to the United States, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò has warned Catholics that several of the bishops Pope Francis has recently elevated to the College of Cardinals support leftwing causes and oppose the Church’s traditional Latin, or Tridentine, Mass.

“Pope Francis has chosen his new cardinals for their ‘corruptibility,’” the outspoken Viganò wrote at LifeSiteNews last week.

‘Brazen Crime of Hate’: Catholic Church’s 19th-Century Tabernacle Stolen, Eucharist Strewn on Altar, Statues Beheaded

June 1, 2022May 31, 2022 Susan Berry, PhD

A Roman Catholic Church in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn, New York, was desecrated over the weekend when its antique tabernacle was cut out of its metal casing, its consecrated hosts scattered indiscriminately about the altar, and the angel statues that flanked it beheaded.

The Diocese of Brooklyn called the desecration of St. Augustine Church “a brazen crime of disrespect and hate.”

Wisconsin Bishops Back San Francisco Archbishop Cordileone’s Ban on Nancy Pelosi Receiving Holy Communion

May 25, 2022May 25, 2022 Susan Berry, PhD

Wisconsin Bishops David Ricken of the diocese of Green Bay and Donald Hying of the diocese of Madison are among a growing number of Catholic bishops who have publicly expressed support for San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone’s declaration that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi not be admitted to Holy Communion due to her continued “aggressive promotion of abortion.”

“I wish to express my strong support for Archbishop Cordileone’s decision stating he has publicly declared that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi not be admitted to Holy Communion,” Ricken posted to Twitter following Cordileone’s notification to Pelosi that she is not to present herself for Holy Communion.

Abortion Activist Rants Outside Catholic Church: ‘I’m Killing the Motherf***ing Babies!’

May 10, 2022May 9, 2022 Susan Berry, PhD

A woman dressed in a white bathing suit, stuffed in the front to make her appear pregnant, and with dolls hanging from it, ranted outside Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City Saturday, shouting, “I’m killiing the motherf***ing babies!” and “God killed his kid, why can’t I kill mine?”

The woman danced around outside the church in the rain, then complained, “My babies are all wet,” Kathryn Jean Lopez wrote at National Review, referring to this scene as “the most disturbing” of the pro-abortion protest that followed a leaked Supreme Court draft opinion on a case that could overturn Roe v. Wade.

Pope Francis Names New Auxiliary Bishop of Cleveland

May 10, 2022May 9, 2022 Peter D'Abrosca

The pope has named a new auxiliary bishop for the Diocese of Cleveland.

“Pope Francis has appointed the Rev. Michael G. Woost as auxiliary bishop of Cleveland,” according to the Diocese. “Bishop-elect Woost is a priest of the Diocese of Cleveland and currently serves as a member of the faculty of Saint Mary Seminary. In addition, he was recently appointed as the interim director of the diocesan Office for Worship. Bishop-elect Woost will be ordained to the episcopate during Mass at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist on Thursday, August 4, 2022.”

Catholic Advocacy Group Calls on Biden to Publicly Condemn Pro-Abortion Activists’ Plan to Disrupt Masses and Protest at Homes of Supreme Court Justices

May 6, 2022May 5, 2022 Susan Berry, PhD

CatholicVote issued a statement Thursday that calls upon President Joe Biden and other officials to publicly condemn the pro-abortion group “Ruth Sent Us” for organizing protests that urge people to target Catholic churches and disrupt Mass and outside the homes of the Supreme Court Justices this coming weekend.

“In the wake of the shameless leak of a draft opinion of the Supreme Court, pro-abortion groups are now threatening to disrupt Catholic churches and to protest outside the homes of Supreme Court justices this Sunday,” CatholicVote President Brian Burch said in the statement.

Commentary: In West Virginia, Carpetbagger Alex Mooney Meets His Match

March 1, 2022March 1, 2022 Admin

When we last checked in with U.S. Representative Alex Mooney (R-W.Va.), evidence of his misuse of campaign funds had been referred to the House Ethics Committee by the Office of Congressional Ethics.

As American Greatness has reported, Mooney’s congressional campaign used campaign money to pay for the congressman’s personal expenses, including $3,475 in meals from Chick-fil-A and other fast-food restaurants, two vacation trips to resorts in West Virginia, and $17,250 in gift card purchases from a Catholic Church gift shop. He has repaid more than $12,000 of a disputed $40,115 as a result of the OCE investigation.

Report Finds Members of the French Catholic Church Abused 330,000 Children

October 6, 2021October 5, 2021 Ohio Star Staff

People sitting in church pews at a church

Members of France’s Catholic Church sexually abused 330,000 children over the past 70 years, according to a new report on abuses in the country’s Catholic Church.

The 2,500-page report is France’s first real documentation of the abuse, the Associated Press reported, and is based on research by France’s National Institute of Health and Medical Research.

“The Catholic Church is the place where the prevalence of sexual violence is at its highest, other than in family and friend circles,” the report said, according to CNN.

‘Epitome Of Hypocrisy’: Archbishop Rebukes Pelosi for Calling Herself a ‘Devout Catholic’

July 26, 2021July 25, 2021 Ohio Star Staff

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone rebuked Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi Thursday for calling herself a “devout Catholic” in her defense of taxpayer funded abortion.

“Let me repeat,” the San Francisco archbishop said in a statement. “No one can claim to be a devout Catholic and condone the killing of innocent human life, let alone have the government pay for it. The right to life is a fundamental — the most fundamental — human right, and Catholics do not oppose fundamental human rights.”

Ohio Bishops Welcome Catholics Back to Sunday Mass

June 8, 2021June 8, 2021 Peter D'Abrosca

For the first time since churches were shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic, Catholics in Ohio were welcomed back to Mass on Sunday.

“As we move beyond the worst of the coronavirus pandemic and access to the COVID-19 vaccine has become more widespread, the time has arrived for the good of all the faithful when the general dispensation from the obligation to attend Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation is no longer necessary,” a mid-May statement from the Catholic Conference of Ohio said.

Vatican: Catholic Church Cannot Bless Gay Unions Because God ‘Cannot Bless Sin’

March 17, 2021March 16, 2021 Ohio Star Staff

The Catholic Church cannot bless gay unions since Catholic teaching holds that gay sex is “intrinsically disordered” and marriage is intended for the sake of creating new life, the Vatican re-emphasized Monday.

In a formal response issued Monday, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith responded to a question on whether Catholic clergy can bless gay unions with the answer: “Negative.”

The Vatican’s response noted that God “does not and cannot bless sin.”

Pope Francis Vows to End Sexual Abuse After McCarrick Report

November 12, 2020November 11, 2020 The Associated Press

Pope Francis pledged Wednesday to rid the Catholic Church of sexual abuse and offered prayers to victims of former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, a day after the Vatican released a detailed report into the decadeslong church cover-up of his sexual misconduct.

The Vatican report blamed a host of bishops, cardinals and popes for downplaying and dismissing mountains of evidence of McCarrick’s misconduct starting in the 1990s — but largely spared Francis. Instead, it laid the lion’s share of the blame on St. John Paul II, a former pope, for having appointed McCarrick archbishop of Washington in 2000, and making him a cardinal, despite having commissioned an inquiry that found he had slept with seminarians.

Where Does Joe Biden Actually Stand with the Catholic Church?

August 9, 2020August 8, 2020 Ohio Star Staff

CNN and reporters called 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden a “devout Catholic” Thursday after President Donald Trump said the former vice president would “hurt the Bible, hurt God.”

Biden has frequently referenced his Catholic faith throughout his political career, describing his faith as “the bedrock foundation” of his life. The former vice president also supports policies that are explicitly opposed to Catholic teaching, such as abortion and same-sex marriage.

Commentary: The Church Collaborates in Its Own Destruction

June 22, 2020June 21, 2020 Ohio Star Staff

One might think the Catholic Church would stand against the orgy of iconoclasm that we are witnessing across the country — toppled statues, defaced churches, and the like. But, no, the feeble voices of priests and bishops join the creepy chorus of the mob. In California, the mob has targeted statues of Junipero Serra, the saintly Franciscan who spread the faith through a system of missions. Where is the Church to protect the statues? Nowhere. In Ventura, where the mob demands the removal of a Serra statue in front of its city hall, the Church has gone along with it.

Largest Catholic Church in North America Suspends All Masses Until ‘Further Notice’

March 16, 2020March 15, 2020 Ohio Star Staff

The largest Catholic church in North America suspended all masses and confessions until “further notice” Friday.

Commentary: The Catholic Church and Illegal Immigration

January 31, 2020January 30, 2020 Ohio Star Staff

At the age of 40, I converted to Catholicism. A friend of mine at the time, also Catholic, told me her rule when entering the confessional booth: “Be brief, be blunt, and be gone.”

The Roman Republic of 1849: Lessons from a Five-Month Country

July 7, 2019July 7, 2019 Ohio Star Staff

by Lawrence W. Reed The ancient Roman Republic endured for half a millennium before it collapsed into the imperial autocracy we know as the Roman Empire. But did you know there was another Roman Republic only 170 years ago? That second one was much smaller—the city of Rome itself…

Diocese of Cleveland Adds 22 New Names to List of Accused Priests

June 23, 2019June 23, 2019 Anthony Gockowski

The Catholic Diocese of Cleveland announced Friday that is has added 22 new names to a list of priests who have been credibly accused of sexually abusing a child. “The new names of diocesan clerics were added after the diocese concluded, based on the evidence available to it, that…

Cardinal Barbarin Offers Resignation to Pope After Francis Convicts Him of Abuse Cover-Up

March 8, 2019March 8, 2019 Ohio Star Staff

by Joshua Gill Cardinal Philippe Barbarin offered his resignation Thursday to Pope Francis after a French court convicted him of failing to report a pedophile priest. Barbarin is the first cardinal to face trial on charges of covering up child sexual abuse. The Lyon court convicted him of covering…

Diocese of Columbus Releases Long Awaited List of Accused Clergy

March 2, 2019March 1, 2019 Anthony Gockowski

The Diocese of Columbus released its long-awaited list of clergy credibly accused of abusing a minor Friday. In a letter issued by Bishop Frederick F. Campbell, the diocese exposed the names of 35 clergy members with ordinations to the priesthood or diaconate dating as far back as the 1930s. Several…

Ohio Diocese To Publicly Name Up To 20 Reported Predatory Priests

September 27, 2018September 27, 2018 Admin

by Joshua Gill The bishop of the Steubenville diocese declared that his diocese will release a list of predatory priests, becoming the second Ohio diocese to do so. Dino Orsatti, spokesman for the diocese, made the announcement Tuesday that Bishop Jeffrey Monforton called for the list of alleged sexually predatory…

Pope Francis: Resign, and Let Pope Benedict Return from Retirement

August 31, 2018August 31, 2018 Admin

by Richard A. Viguerie and Mark Fitzgibbons The sex abuse scandal and its cover-up within the Catholic Church require solutions that the institutional Church will be incapable of achieving on its own. But the more serious problem is that since Vatican II the Church has been AWOL on Biblically based…