Damned Catholics

[Fake Messiah]

Yet another set of medical procedures forbidden in Catholic hospitals.

U.S. bishops officially ban gender-affirming care at Catholic hospitals

U.S. Catholic bishops voted Wednesday to make official a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender patients at Catholic hospitals. The step formalizes a yearslong process for the U.S. church to address transgender health care.

From a Baltimore hotel ballroom, the bishops overwhelmingly approved revisions to their ethical and religious directives that guide the nation's thousands of Catholic health care institutions and providers.

More than one in seven patients in the U.S. are treated each day at Catholic hospitals, according to the Catholic Health Association. Catholic hospitals are the only medical center in some communities.

Major medical groups and health organizations support gender-affirming care for transgender patients.

Most Catholic health care institutions have taken a conservative approach and not offered gender-affirming care, which may involve hormonal, psychological and surgical treatments. The new directives will formalize that mandate. Bishops will have autonomy in making the directives into law for their dioceses.

https://www.npr.org/2025/11/12/g-s1-9765...-hospitals

[Fake Messiah]

Do you think that Catholics will warmly welcome this or will they go berserk and switch to Mel Gibson's Catholicism?

At a private Vatican audience with Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles this past month, Pope Leo XIV made a bit of quiet history.

The two men — Alex Capecelatro, a renowned tech entrepreneur and CEO of Josh.ai, and his husband Brian D. Stevens, a celebrated Catholic philanthropist — were part of Gomez’s delegation.

When Pope Leo learned “we are married,” Alex later said on social media, he received them with unmistakable warmth and kindness, not a hint of hesitation.

For Capecelatro, who wasn’t raised Catholic, the moment was especially heartwarming alongside Brian, a devout Catholic.

Speaking with an English-speaking pope whose message is unity and peace, they felt fully welcome in the Church’s embrace.

https://www.thelettersfromleo.com/p/pope...nt-married

[Fake Messiah]

Nostra Aetate wasn’t a cure for antisemitism, only the start of repentance

Last week, at the conference “Nostra Aetate: In Their Age and In Ours,” we gathered to mark sixty years since the Catholic Church publicly renounced theological antisemitism and began reconsidering its relationship with the Jewish people.

It should have been a moment of commemoration. Instead, as the day unfolded, particularly through historian Sarah Han’s searing lecture, some voices made clear that the Church has never fully accepted the implications of the document it celebrates.

It was the first Catholic document in history to speak directly about Jews. It was inspired in part by French Jewish historian Jules Isaac, who argued that Christian anti Judaism had helped prepare the ground for the Holocaust. Pope John XXIII agreed that the Church had a moral obligation to confront this past.

But the comforting narrative the Church still clings to, that antisemitism at Vatican II was confined to “the margins,” voiced by a few fringe extremists, is simply not true. Han showed, with unsettling clarity, that antisemitism sat at the center of the Council’s debates themselves.

Han reminded us that one of the most vocal and organized factions at the Council, the Coetus Internationalis Patrum, led by Archbishop Lefebvre, Bishop Carli, and Cardinal Ruffini, openly defended anti-Jewish theology as Catholic tradition.

Under the banner of “protecting Catholic identity,” they argued that Christian truth required an anti-Jewish stance. Their opposition was not subtle: they saw any shift toward Judaism as a threat to the Church itself.

Alongside them, what Han called the “apologetic choir” attacked the declaration as a Zionist conspiracy. Some claimed Jews were “arrogant,” “provocative,” even “Eurasian,” the vocabulary of classic antisemitic propaganda.

One cardinal declared that the Church “cannot oppose the entire Arab world just to satisfy its Jews,” as though Jewish theological dignity were a bothersome political request. A prominent theological adviser added: “The Jews are so clever that they have succeeded in dividing Christians.”

To call this “antisemitism at the margins,” Han argued, is to participate in a carefully crafted illusion. It is not an innocent scholarly phrase. It is a strategy, a way of pushing antisemitism out of sight, protecting the Church’s self-image, and insisting that the hatred lived outside Christianity rather than within it.

The Council’s difficulty in articulating any positive theology of Judaism was not a bureaucratic accident. It reflected a deep structural reality: for nearly two thousand years, Christianity had defined itself against Judaism. Whenever the Church feared losing its exclusive claim to be the “sole People of God,” anti-Judaism returned.

That dynamic did not disappear after 1965. It continued, sometimes quietly, sometimes openly, into the decades that followed. It still shapes Catholic thought today.

The phrase “antisemitism at the margins” allows the Church to congratulate itself for Nostra Aetate while ignoring the persistence of anti-Jewish patterns in religious textbooks, catechism classes, preaching, and theologies of “fulfilled” or “spiritualized” Judaism.

The door opened in 1965, but what stands behind it is nothing less than the theological core of Catholic identity. Walking through it means confronting where antisemitism lived, and still lives, at the very heart of Christian thought.

That is the work the Church has not yet done.

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-878943

[Fake Messiah]

Central Minnesota Catholic Priest Charged with Criminal Sexual Conduct, Stalking After Alleged Violent Relationship with Woman

A Catholic priest serving five parishes in central Minnesota is being charged in Stearns County District Court after he allegedly had an inappropriate relationship with a woman that turned violent.

The woman told police that Father Joseph Herzing gave her spiritual advice and comfort through confession in 2018 while he was serving as a priest in Little Falls. Between 2018 and 2022, multiple people told church leadership they saw inappropriate intimate conduct between the 61-year-old priest and the woman, including Herzing being at her home late at night and early in the morning. In February 2022, the relationship escalated to violence when he allegedly choked and threatened to kill her. In May 2022, the woman saw a text message that led her to believe Herzing was involved in an intimate relationship with someone else, and she confronted him. Herzing choked her, wrestled her to the ground, pulled her hair and threatened to kill her. In August of 2022, the two got into a physical altercation at an event in Milaca, and on the motorcycle ride home, she says he threatened to ride into a tree and kill them both, and also drove toward an oncoming semi truck before swerving out of its path.

In August of 2024, St. Cloud police began investigating the reported sexual abuse, and the next month, Bishop Neary learned that a report had been made to police regarding the allegations in 2022 and that an investigation was underway. Despite this, the bishop allowed Herzing to continue serving as pastor under severe restrictions and monitoring.

Bishop Neary was notified of charges of third-degree criminal sexual conduct, stalking and three counts of making threats of violence on Wednesday, November 26th, and immediately placed Herzing on administrative leave. He is prohibited from all public ministry pending the outcome of the criminal case. His next court date is December 29th. Retired diocesan priest Father Arlie Sowada has been named parochial administrator of the affected parishes.

https://knsiradio.com/2025/12/01/central...ith-woman/


I guess the point of this story is that the priest was not fired although the Church knew he had a relationship with a woman, but only when it turned out repeatedly that this relationship was violent was he removed. Which means that the Catholic priests are allowed to have affairs with women and even families as long as they don't get in the news for beating the shit out of them.

[Fake Messiah]

Parents Sue Catholic School for Denying Students Food, Bathroom Breaks

Seven parents of 11 children have sued La Purísima Concepción Catholic School in Lompoc for assault and negligence after they say school administrators denied their children access to food, water, and the restroom, leading to urinary tract infections and long-term digestive issues.

The parents, all former members of the La Purísima’s Parent-Teacher Organization (PTO), claim the students were singled out and retaliated against after they butted heads with administrators over campus finances. Amid the turmoil, the small K-8 school has seen a mass exodus of staff and sharp decline in enrollment.

One of the plaintiffs, former PTO president Carolina Araya, explained the problems began when her group resisted tuition increases enacted by Preciado that they felt discriminated against low-income and scholarship students. The PTO also pressed Preciado over campus improvement projects they had raised money toward but were never completed.

Araya began to suspect her 9-year-old son was being punished when he started coming home from school with a full lunch box and even fuller bladder. “They don’t give us time to eat,” he would tell her. “And they don’t let us go to the bathroom.”

There were also reports of bullying by other students, particularly under the watch of Signorelli, a close friend and confidant of Preciado. Another plaintiff claimed her son, who is autistic, was tied up with an electrical cord while in Signorelli’s care. Another said their child was struck with rocks on the playground.

Araya first took her concerns to Rev. Ortiz, who she said waived her off. Araya returned with a petition signed by 40 other parents that described Preciado’s “egregious behavior” and demanded her immediate removal. The petition cited the recent resignation of six La Purísima staff members — including three longtime teachers, which forced the remaining four teachers to each oversee two grade levels — and an enrollment figure that had plummeted from more than 100 students to fewer than 40. Ortiz again dismissed the complaints.

The following Sunday during mass, Rev. Ortiz — who is also a friend and ally of Preciado — chastised the parents who had challenged Preciado’s leadership, calling them a “leprosy” in the La Purísima community that needed to be removed. He singled out Araya, describing her as “evil” and using statements she had made to him during confession to vilify her, she said. “He not only violated my privacy, he violated canon law,” she said.

Ortiz told the congregation that if they didn’t want their confessionals aired during mass, they should “check out his Amazon Wish List … or otherwise enjoy the show.” His statements were corroborated by other parishioners who filed their own complaints with the church.

After that, Araya contacted the bishop, the deacon, and the vicar, as well as directors of the church’s educational department. She was never offered any support or assistance. The lawsuit was the last resort. “We exhausted all avenues,” Araya said. “We felt betrayed.” She has also been in touch with law enforcement and Child Welfare Services.

https://www.independent.com/2025/12/04/p...om-breaks/