Newsmax. “The Vatican has defrocked Father Frank Pavone — who has been described as “the most vocal Catholic priest in America for the pro-life movement” — in a move that has shocked Church conservatives.

This past weekend the Catholic News Agency (CNA) revealed the full text of a letter from Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, addressed to U.S. bishops declaring that Pavone, head of Priests for Life, had been officially been laicized.

Laicization strips a priest of his religious title and powers, returning him to the laity with no official status in the Church.

The letter alleges that Pavone was guilty of “persistent disobedience of the lawful instructions of his diocesan bishop” and “blasphemous communications on social media.”

The letter doesn’t spell out what the disobedient acts Pavone had engaged in, or identify the “blasphemous communications,” but supporters of Pavone were quick to come to his defense…

In November 2016, Pavone filmed a video at the Priests for Life headquarters in support of Trump, which included laying the body of an aborted fetus on what appeared to be an altar.

Bishop Patrick Zurek of Amarillo, where Pavone is assigned, said he would investigate the incident, calling it a “desecration of the altar.” … Continue

— National Catholic Register: Canon Lawyer on Father Pavone’s Dismissal from Priesthood: Only the Pope Can Issue a Decision Without Appeal

Contraception Rumors?

Meanwhile, According to Russell Shaw at The Catholic Thing, “Rumors say Pope Francis may soon condone artificial contraception. But the long, official prohibition against satisfies the criteria for an infallible exercise of the Ordinary Magisterium.

“A rumor is making the rounds in Rome that Pope Francis is preparing to issue an encyclical or some other form of teaching document on contraception. At this point it’s only a rumor – it may be true, or it may not. But supposing it’s true, one naturally wonders what such a document from Francis might say.

          Some background is in order. Next July will be the 55^th anniversary of Humanae Vitae, Pope St. Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical reaffirming the Church’s condemnation of artificial birth control. After several years of speculation that he would weaken or abandon the teaching, Pope Paul, having declared abortion and sterilization unacceptable, then said this:

“Similarly excluded is any action that, either before, at the moment of, or after sexual intercourse, is specifically intended to prevent procreation – whether as an end or as a means.”

This condemnation was hardly new…” Continue

Updated