Conciliarism's Global Clown Show

In the midst of all that is happening in the world in this time of Our Lady’s Expectation (today, Thursday, December 18, 2025, is the Feast of the Expectation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which is not on the General Roman Calendar but may be commemorated on this Advent ferial day), let’s see how the conciliar world is “spinnnnnnning tonight” (apologies to the late liberal former Missouri congressman and Mutal Radio commentator George Hamilton Combs, see Remembering the Spinning World of Mr. Combs).

First, much is being made about the fact that a pro-life Nativity scene has been erected in the otherwise hideous Paul VI Audience Hall  near  Saint Peter’s Square (Piazza di San Pietro) and that Robert Francis Prevost/Leo XIV has praised its explicitly pro-life message:

Pope Leo XIV on Monday thanked Costa Rican artist Paula Sáenz Soto for donating a pro-life Nativity scene to the Vatican, named “Gaudium” (“Joy”), which features a pregnant Virgin Mary.

“I thank the Costa Rican artist who, along with the message of peace of Christmas, also wanted to make an appeal for protecting life from conception,” the pope said during the audience he granted Dec. 15 to the delegations that prepared this year’s Christmas tree and Nativity scenes that will adorn the Vatican during the Christmas season.

The artwork from the Central American country has been on display since Dec. 15 in the Pope Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican, the large hall where the pope is now holding his Wednesday general audiences so pilgrims don’t have to endure the cold temperatures of the Roman winter in St. Peter’s Square.

In his address, the Holy Father alluded to its composition, mentioning the 28,000 colorful ribbons that symbolize lives saved thanks to the support provided by Catholic organizations to pregnant women in vulnerable situations.

“The scene depicts a life saved from abortion thanks to prayer and the support provided by Catholic organizations to many mothers in difficult circumstances,” Pope Leo XIV noted.

The decorations in St. Peter’s Square — which were unveiled Monday afternoon — have an Italian touch. The chosen tree comes from Val d’Ultimo, one of the most picturesque and lesser-known valleys of South Tyrol in Italy. 

Meanwhile, the Nativity scene in St. Peter’s Square comes from the Diocese of Nocera Inferiore-Sarno, one of the oldest in Italy: Its origins date back to the third century, when Nuceria Alfaterna — the ancient Roman city in the Sarno Valley — already had an organized Christian community.

“I thank you for this artistic work that incorporates characteristic elements of your territory,” the pope said, noting that this traditional Nativity scene includes a reproduction of the sixth-century baptistery of St. Mary Major Basilica, one of the best-preserved in the country.

The pope emphasized that this work will be a reminder for pilgrims from all over the world that “God draws near to humanity, entering into our history in the vulnerability of a child.”

“In the poverty of the cave in Bethlehem, we contemplate a mystery of humility and love,” the pope reflected. He also highlighted the figure of the Virgin Mary “as a model of adoring silence,” who treasures in her heart all that she has experienced, while the shepherds glorify God and share what they have seen and heard. In this regard, he emphasized the “need to seek moments of silence and prayer in our lives.”

Regarding the Christmas tree, the pontiff said the large fir tree “is a sign of life and a reminder of the hope that does not fade even in the cold of winter.”

The lights that adorn it, he added, symbolize “Christ, the light of the world,” who comes to “dispel the darkness and guide our path.” In addition to the large fir tree, the forests of South Tyrol have also donated other smaller trees to the Vatican, intended for offices, public spaces, and various areas of Vatican City. (Leo XIV thankful for pro-life Nativity scene that ‘represents a life preserved from abortion’.)

This is all very lovely.

However, Robert Francis Prevost/Leo XIV has appointed “Bishop” Ronald Hicks of Joliet, Illinois, which has long been a nest of lavender clergy, especially the late Daniel Leo Ryan (see Roman Catholic Faithful Accuses Bishop Ryan of Harassment, Witnesses Emerge in Bishop Ryan Case, and  Seven Years Later, which was one of the first articles published after this site went "live" on February 20, 2004), to succeed the “happy ‘bishop’”, Timothy Michael Dolan as the conciliar “archbishop of New York.

Although “Bishop” Hicks is said to be very “friendly” to the modernized version of the Immemorial Mass of Tradition, he is nevertheless a protégé of both the late Joseph “Cardinal” Bernardin and the very much alive support of illegal immigration and of sodomites named Blase “Cardinal” Cupich, who, if you will recall, announced he was going to bestow an honor upon the pro-abortion, pro-sodomite Minority Leader of the United States Senate, Richard Durbin (D-Illinois), because of his support for the “rights” of illegal immigrants (see This Did Not Just Happen, part one, This Did Not Just Happen, part two, and A Beaut of An Antipope). “Pope” Leo himself, who is close to Cupich, said that one must look at the “totality” of a politician’s career and that the defense of “migrants” is as important as opposition to abortion and that it is not to be “pro-life” to support the death penalty, did not criticize Cupich’s decision to honor Durbin, who ultimately chose not to accept the award because of the controversy that had arisen.

“Bishop” Ronald Hicks was abjectly silent during the Durbin controversy even though “Bishop” Thomas Paprocki of Durbin’s home diocese, Springfield, Illinois, was severely critical of Cupich’s decision as he, Paprocki, had banned Durbin from receiving what purports to be Holy Communion in his diocese. As it turns out, however, Ronald Hicks agreed with Cupich in 2021 that pro-abortion politicians should not be denied what purports to be Holy Communion in the Protestant and Judeo-Masonic Novus Ordo liturgical abomination as reported four and one-half years ago:

WASHINGTON, June 8, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — Cardinals Blase Cupich, Wilton Gregory, Sean O’Malley and Joseph Tobin are among the 68 bishops who don’t want the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to discuss prohibiting pro-abortion self-identified Catholics in public life from receiving Holy Communion.

“Eucharistic coherence,” as the bishops call it, is theological shorthand for what is lost when famous people who identify as Catholics but persist in open scandal, for example, by promoting abortion, receive Holy Communion. This unhappy feature of American Catholic life became even more troubling when Joe Biden became President and immediately began working to facilitate abortion and to promote transgenderism

Today, Catholic news website The Pillar published the list of the bishops who signed a May 13 letter asking USCCB president Archbishop Jose Gomez to drop the issue from the annual meeting, which will be taking place online this June (FULL LIST BELOW). The Pillar obtained a copy of the letter.

The letter reveals that these 68 American cardinals and bishops want to delay any discussion of “Eucharistic worthiness.”

“(W)e respectfully urge that all Conference wide discussion and committee work on the topic of Eucharistic worthiness and other issues raised by the Holy See be postponed until the full body of bishops is able to meet in person,” they wrote. “The serious nature of these issues — especially the imperative to forge substantial unity — makes it impossible to address them productively in the fractured and isolated setting of a distance meeting.”

Shockingly, the letter suggests that both a “high standard of consensus” among the American bishops and of “maintaining unity with the Holy See and the Universal Church” is “far from being achieved at this present moment.”

The Pillar stated that Cardinals Wilton Gregory of Washington, D.C., and Blase Cupich of Chicago are “reportedly among the letter’s principal authors.” All their auxiliary bishops — seven for Chicago and two in Washington, D.C. — have also signed the letter. A representative sample of ordinaries who signed include Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski of St. Louis, Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego, and Bishop John Stowe of Lexington, Kentucky.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York was originally a signatory of the letter, but a spokesman for the Archdiocese told The Pillar that the cardinal had eventually asked that his signature be withdrawn.

Cardinal Cupich’s opposition to denying Holy Communion to pro-abortion politicians is well-known. He recently sent a letter to Archbishop Samuel Aquila of Denver critiquing an article the latter wrote about Eucharistic coherence. Cupich also criticized the USCCB president’s statement, issued immediately after Biden was inaugurated as the President of the United States. That statement pointed out that Biden “has pledged to pursue certain policies that would advance moral evils and threaten human life and dignity, most seriously in the areas of abortion, contraception, marriage, and gender.”

According to The Pillar, the letter pertains to a vote that the members of the USCCB are expected to take during their June meeting about drafting an official document about “Eucharistic coherence.” It is not related to approving a document already written, or drafting one during the meeting.

The online magazine, led by former Catholic News Agency veterans Ed Condon and J.D. Flynn, noted that some are saying that this is an attempt by the signatories to ensure a “full and open” discussion, whereas others think these bishops are stalling for time.

“If the bishops do not vote this month that a document should be drafted, any eventual document is unlikely to be released before late 2022 or early 2023, and only then if a motion to draft a text comes up at a future meeting — most likely in November — for a vote,” The Pillar reported.

Meanwhile, subsequent correspondence from Archbishop Gomez suggests that he has not dropped preparations for a vote on a document about “Eucharistic coherence.” He reported that a doctrine committee had met to develop “a brief outline” to propose to the USCCB members in June. The USCCB president emphasized that they would not be voting on the document but on whether or not drafting of such a document could begin.

“If approved, the Doctrine Committee will develop a text,” Gomez wrote in his May 22 letter to all the bishops. “From there, the Conference’s usual process of consultation, modification, and amendment will take place as the document is presented for consideration at a future Plenary Assembly.”

The archbishop included in his letter the “action item” to be voted on by the members of the USCCB at their meeting: “Does the body of bishops approve the request of the Committee on Doctrine to proceed with the drafting of a formal statement on the meaning of the Eucharist in the life of the Church?”

The full list of signatories is as follows:

Cardinals

Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York (reported withdrawn)

Cardinal Wilton Gregory of Washington

Cardinal Sean O’Malley, OFM Cap., of Boston

Cardinal Joseph Tobin, CSsR, of Newark

Ordinaries

Archbishop Andrew Bellisario, CM, of Anchorage-Juneau

Archbishop Paul Etienne of Seattle

Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller, M.Sp.S. of San Antonio

Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski of St. Louis

Archbishop Dennis Schnurr of Cincinnati (retracted)

Archbishop John Wester of Santa Fe

Bishop Joseph Bambera of Scranton

Bishop Mark Bartchak of Altoona-Johnstown

Bishop Steven Biegler of Cheyenne

Bishop John Michael Botean of St. George in Canton for the Romanians

Bishop Frank Caggiano of Bridgeport

Bishop Randolph Calvo of Reno

Bishop Brendan Cahill of Victoria

Bishop Robert Coerver of Lubbock

Bishop Christopher Coyne of Burlington

Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn

Bishop Timothy Doherty of Lafayette, IN

Bishop Ronald Hicks of Joliet

Bishop William Joensen of Des Moines

Bishop Donald Kettler of St. Cloud

Bishop Joseph Kopacz of Jackson

Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego

Bishop Michael McGovern of Belleville

Bishop Shawn McKnight of Jefferson City

Bishop William Medley of Ownesboro

Bishop Michael Mulvey of Corpus Christi

Bishop David O’Connell, CM of Trenton

Bishop Richard Pates, Apostolic Administrator of Crookston

Bishop Lawrence Persico of Erie

Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso

Bishop Michael Sis of San Angelo

Bishop John Stowe, OFM Conv., of Lexington

Bishop Anthony Taylor of Little Rock

Bishop David Toups of Beaumont

Bishop Geroge Thomas of Las Vegas

Bishop Louis Tylka, Coadjutor Bishop of Peoria

Bishop Joseph Tyson of Yakima

Bishop Joe Vasquez of Austin

Bishop Michael Warfel of Great Falls-Billings

Bishop Edward Weisenburger of Tucson

Bishop Thomas Zinkula of Davenport

Bishop Patrick Zurek of Amarillo

Auxiliary bishops

Bishop Mark Bartosic, Auxiliary of Chicago

Bishop Ramon Bejarano, Auxiliary of San Diego

Bishop Kevin Birmingham, Auxiliary of Chicago

Bishop Michael Boulette, Auxiliary of San Antonio

Bishop Roy Campbell Jr., Auxiliary of Washington

Bishop Robert Casey, Auxiliary of Chicago

Bishop Manuel Cruz, Auxiliary of Newark

Bishop John Dolan, Auxiliary of San Diego

Bishop Mario Dorsonville-Rodriguez, Auxiliary of Washington

Bishop Eusebio Elizondo, MSpS, Auxiliary of Seattle

Bishop Jeffrey Grob, Auxiliary of Chicago

Bishop Gary Janak, Auxiliary of San Antonio

Bishop J. Gregory Kelly, Auxiliary of Dallas

Bishop Elias Lorenzo, OSB, Auxiliary of Newark

Bishop Robert Lombardo, CFR, Auxiliary of Chicago

Bishop John Manz, Auxiliary of Chicago

Bishop Joseph Perry, Auxiliary of Chicago

Bishop Mark Rivituso, Auxiliary of St. Louis

Bishop Michael Saportio, Auxiliary of Newark

Bishop Gregory Studerus, Auxiliary of Newark (These bishops stand in the way of prohibiting Communion for Biden, pro-abortion politicians.)

The “bishops” highlighted in bold are proteges of Blase Cupich who have each been appointed as the conciliar “ordinaries” of major metropolitan sees (Robert Casey, Cincinnati, Ronald Hicks, New York, and Jeffrey Grob, Milwaukee). Quite a kingmaker, Cupich he.

Those who know “Bishop” Hicks report that he is concerned about “liturgical reverence” and is personally “pro-life” (see Leo Picks Fellow Chicagoan with ‘Missionary Spirit’ as New York’s Next Archbishop), but what does that mean when one is going to continue the laissez-faire conciliar policy of refusing to punish pro-abortion, pro-sodomite Catholics in public life?

Then again, for all his pro-life bluster over the past sixteen years as the conciliar “archbishop” of New York, Timothy Michael “Dancing with the Rockettes” Dolan (see Timothy Michael Dolan: Still Trying to Make Everyone Happy Except God) has done nothing to sanction pro-abortion, pro-sodomite Catholic governors of the State New York Basil Paterson, Andrew Mark Cuomo, and Kathleen Hochul, and he has said not a critical word about United States Senator Kirsten Gillebrand, to say nothing of the late United States Representative Charles Rangel, who was a Freemason, or other Catholics in city, state, and federal offices within the boundaries of the Archdiocese of New York. Ronald Hicks will fit right in therefore, especially since Dolan himself made his peace in 2015 with sodomite Catholics identifying as Catholics while marching under their parish banners in the annual Saint Patrick’s Day Parade.

“Bishop” Hicks faces an immediate challenge caused by Governor Kathleen Hochul’s decision to sign a bill legalized “assisted suicide” in the State of New York:

Gov. Kathy Hochul has yet again done the wrong thing with just a bit of butt-covering, this time in embracing doctor-administered euthanasia in the Empire State with a few bogus added “safeguards.”

The gov declared Wednesday that she’ll sign into law the “Medical Aid in Dying” bill that gives state sanction to doctors providing killing “medicine” to terminally ill patients — her only conditions being to require the recipient to submit written and recorded oral requests, plus a five-day waiting period and signoffs from a physician that he or she has at most six months to live and a psychiatric professional on the would-be suicide’s mental fitness.

It’s a Kat classic: Splitting the difference to make sure nobody gets mad at her, rather than take a principled stand against a horrible idea that, yes, sounds reasonable to most people who don’t look closely into it.

Sorry: Any law that endorses death-by-doctor is despicable and dangerous.

MAID fans argue that allowing “a dignified exit” for someone close to death anyway and suffering acutely is compassionate: You get to choose the place, time and circumstances of your ending; who could ask for anything more?

Sounds so warm and fuzzy — but it is beyond ghoulish in practice.

Open the door to assisted suicide, and limits on who’s eligible immediately start to evaporate.

Canada passed its first assisted suicide law in 2016; by 2021, it had dropped the rule limiting it to those facing a “reasonably foreseeable natural death,” allowing those with chronic illnesses and severe disabilities could also “choose” death-by-doctor.

We say “choose” because that too gets slippery fast: Multiple chilling accounts suggest Canadian doctors are nudging patients, especially the poor or disabled, into the final countdown.

In a nation with socialized medicine, it saves the government so much money . . .

In 2022, the year right after that “reform,” MAID became Canada’s fifth-leading cause of death.

New York’s MAID law, by the way, won’t even mandate solid record-keeping, so voters won’t learn how quickly we catch up with our neighbor to the north.

Then again, Canada’s already racing ahead: In 2027, prescriptions for death will expand again to include mental illnesses, so even perfectly physically healthy young people will get to give up because of conditions like severe depression.

Instead of treating the mental or physical illnesses that make people suicidal, Canada is joining a handful of European countries in suggesting that maybe they’re better off dead.

The Netherlands and Belgium have already made death-by-euthanasia available to terminally ill children.

The MAID slope is extra slippery — and the destination is nightmarish.

Even before the inevitable expansion, the Hochul-approved version holds gaping flaws.

Doctors are often wrong in guessing how long someone has to live and in estimating chances of recovery; people can easily feel pressured into ending their lives early for fear of becoming a financial, emotional or practical burden on their families.

A civilized society tries to prevent suicide, not enable it.

Not out of indifference to suffering, but because life is valuable and worth fighting for.

MAID turns healers into death-dealers and treats ending your own life as “medicine.”

That’s reason enough for the Legislature to torpedo it rather than give Hochul cover for her macabre betrayal of her duty to serve the people of New York. (Hochul's bend on assisted suicide opens a grim door for New York and pro-abortion Andea Peyser’s Legal assisted suicide treats human life as disposable.)

The pro-abortion editorial board of the New York Post and pro-abortion columnist Andrea Peyser do not understand or accept that no “civilized” nation would dispose of innocent preborn children by chemical and surgical means, vivisect human beings for their vital bodily organs under the fiction of “brain death,” starve and dehydrated supposedly “brain damaged” human beings to death, or use “palliative” as a back-door euphemism for what it is: euthanasia. No human life is disposable at any time. For my discussion of Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying laws, please see: To the Precipice and Over the Cliff of Nihilism and Self-Annihilation from four months ago.

Kathleen Hochul is likely to be at Ronald Hick’s installation as the conciliar “archbishop” of New York, and time will tell if his aversion to “confrontation,” which is a psychic disease within much of the conciliar “hierarchy” except when it comes to opposing efforts to deport violent criminal migrants and to support the death penalty, will beckon silence from him about another one of Hochul’s decision in support of sins that cry out to Heaven for vengeance.

As a aside before moving on to a few other matters, it is interesting and very telling that Robert Francis Prevost/Leo XIV has chosen to accept Timothy Michael Dolan’s resignation as it is customary for “cardinals” within the conciliar structures to serve until they are eighty years of age. Prevost/Leo’s acceptance of Dolan’s resignation, which he submitted when he turned seventy-five on February 6, 2025, is a further insult to the “happy bishop” because his fiftieth anniversary of his presbyteral “ordination” on June 19, 2026. To replace him before this “gala” hootenanny is quite a statement from the native of Chicago and Dolton, Illinois, Robert Francis “I own a Nellie Fox bat” Prevost/Leo XIV.

This may have much to with the fact that, despite all his "happy talk" and glad-handling," Timothy Michael Dolan has long been involved in the cover-up of clerical abuse in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and for the past sixteen years, eight months in New York. Dolan's refusal to come clean with the facts (a "tradition" he inherited from Francis Cardinal Spellman, Terence "Cardinal" Cooke, John "Cardinal" O'Connor, and the prissy Edward "Cardinal Egan) has cost the Archdiocese of New York three hundred million dollars in settlement monies to be paid to the victims of such clerical abuse (see Milwaukee documents show church was slow to act on abusive priests and New York archdiocese announces $300 million settlement for victims of clergy abuse). The archdiocese had to sell off its massive headquarters building at 1011 First Avenue, a building I was in and of out quite a lot in the 1980s and 1990s on various matters, for $100 million and to sell the land under the Lotte New York Plaza Hotel for $400 million (see Leo appoints Illinois Bishop Ronald Hicks to replace Cardinal Timothy Dolan at NY Archdiocese). Dolan's being replaced now may have more to do with these financial settlements than anything else. Nevertheless, to replace him before his fiftieth anniversal of presbyteral installation is quite a humiliation for him.

As it this is all not enough, Robert Francis Prevost/Leo XIV has appointed an auxiliary “bishop” of San Diego, California, Ramon Berajano, who invited a “drag queen” to speak at a so-called “LGBT Mass” to be “bishop” of the Diocese of Monterey, California:

Pope Leo XIV has appointed a San Diego auxiliary bishop who celebrated an “All are Welcome” LGBT “Pride” Mass – during which a drag queen activist was permitted to speak – as the new bishop of Monterey, California. 

Bishop Ramón Bejarano was the celebrant of the July 13 Sunday Mass, which was organized by St. John’s “LGBTQ Ministry” and had the full backing of the Diocese of San Diego under Bishop Michael Pham, one of Pope Leo XIV’s first episcopal appointments.

“I apologize for the pain and distress that I and the Church have caused to many of you,” Bishop Bejarano reportedly said in a 2024 “All are Welcome Mass” sermon at the same parish. “I apologize for the stigmatization and trauma we have caused to others because we have told them that they are not valued and that they are not worthy of the love of God. There are many others out there who feel rejected and unvalued.” 

Bejarano was also among the 68 American bishops who in 2021 signed a letter asking the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to end discussions on prohibiting then-President Joe Biden and other pro-abortion Catholic politicians from receiving Holy Communion.

Drag queen thanks bishop for ‘standing up’ for the ‘LGBTQ community’

Drag queen “Nicole” Murray-Ramirez, a former board member of the powerful LGBTQ+ lobbying behemoth Human Rights Campaign, thanked Bishop Bejarano for his work “standing up” for the “LGBTQ community.”

Murray-Ramirez wrote extensively in a Facebook post about what an honor it was to speak during the Mass and praised Bejarano.

“The Bishop’s sermon was a most powerful one that focused on (the fact) that God loves ALL of us the way we are,” wrote Murray-Ramirez. 

Based on Murray-Ramirez’s account, it appears that Bejarano omitted any mention of the Church’s teaching on same-sex “marriage.”

“I had the Honor to be asked to speak and it was so wonderful to see and hear the well deserved thunderous prolong ovation that Bishop Bajarano received when I sincerely thanked him on behalf of all of us for standing up for not only the LGBTQ COMMUNITY but the undocumented and refugees,” Murray-Ramirez continued.

Photos posted by Murray-Ramirez from the Mass on Facebook show the “drag queen” posing for a photo and being blessed by Bejarano. The pro-LGBT Mass was also attended by San Diego’s openly homosexual, nominally Catholic Mayor Todd Gloria, who also posed for a picture with the bishop.

Catholic church teaching on homosexuality is clear

The Catholic Church teaches that God created humans as “male and female” and gave them to each other in marriage so they could “increase and multiply.” Sexual attraction and sexual acts between a male and female are specifically created by God for the purpose of procreation. The Catholic Church is logical and consistent when she teaches that homosexual acts are “acts of grave depravity” and “intrinsically disordered” since they are “contrary to the natural law” in that they “close the sexual act to the gift of life.” 

“They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved,” states the Catechism of the Catholic Church. 

The Church also teaches that same-sex attraction is “objectively disordered” since God created members of the opposite sex to be attracted to one another for the sake of procreation. (Leo appoints bishop who celebrated 'LGBT Mass' with drag queen speaker.)

What was that, Leo, at the Nativity scene in the Paul VI Audience Hall being “pro-life”?

What good is a “pro-life” display when one appoints a so-called bishop who invited a “drag queen” at a supposed Mass celebrating sins that cry out to Heaven vengeance.

Indeed, given Prevost/Leo’s praise of the Nativity scene in the Paul VI Audience Hall might be taken by the uninformed to mean that he is trustworthy ally of the babies even though he has told us that, as noted earlier, the protection of innocent human life is only of many issues, thus standing in perfect conformity with Joseph Louis Bernardin’s “consistent ethic of life” was designed to provide cover to Catholics to vote for a pro-abortion presidential candidate in opposition to President Ronald Wilson Reagan in 1984. (By the way, Geraldine Anne Ferraro-Zaccaro died in perfect good standing within the conciliar structures fourteen years, eight months ago: To Fall Into The Hands of the Living God.)

Things are so bad within the structures of the counterfeit church of conciliarism within the United States of America that the so-called Catholic Campaign for Human Development is still, after so many exposes and reports, funding agencies that support the chemical and surgical execution of the innocent preborn and sodomy, two of the sins that cry out to Heaven for vengeance:

In 2021, we published a report on several Tennessee organizations receiving funding from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD). The various organizations were involved in some degree in the promotion of abortion and/or LGBT ideologies. MICAH was caught as a member of Power Together Tennessee, which had taken a formal position in full support of abortion, contraception, homosexuality, and transgenderism. That report can be viewed here.

Over the course of the last three years, MICAH has received two grants for a combined total of $100,000; $50,000 in 2022-2023, and $50,000 in 2023-2024.

In this update, we find that the president of the organization is a radical proponent of abortion and LGBT ideologies.

The president of MICAH is Rev. Dr. Rosaylin Nichols.

Rosalyn Nichols is quite vocal in her support for abortion.

On March 1, 2025, Nichols posted a message falsely claiming that if one cannot obtain abortions, one may die.

On June 27, 2022, Nichols called SCOTUS Justice Clarence Thomas’ suggestion that the Supreme Court should overturn previous decisions legalizing homosexual “marriage” and birth control “disgusting.”

That same day, Nichols compared losing access to abortion with losing one’s Miranda Rights.

On May 18, 2022, Nichols decried the criminality of abortion after rape as a part of the “war on women.”

On May 18, 2022, after the SCOTUS decision to overturn Roe v. Wade was leaked, Nichols posted a meme declaring that “men shouldn’t be making laws about women’s bodies.”

On May 15, 2017, Nichols posted a podcast that attempts to make a theological defense of abortion.

But Nichols isn’t just a social media advocate for abortion. In 2014, as the head of “Freedom’s Chapel Christian Church,” she joined Planned Parenthood in publicly opposing a constitutional amendment to the Tennessee state constitution which added the words: “Nothing in this Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion or requires the funding of an abortion.”

In addition to being fully pro-abortion, Nichols is also a big advocate for homosexual “marriage,” and other LGBT related issues.

On November 10, 2025, Nichols celebrated the Supreme Court’s denial of Kim Davis’ challenge to the constitutional protections for “marriage equality.”

On April 5, 2025, Nichols reposted a video shared by the pro-abortion National Organization for Women celebrating a woman “misgendering” a senator to make a point about an “anti-trans” bill.

But it’s not just the president of MICAH who is involved in the promotion of issues directly opposed to Church teaching.  The executive director, Ayanna Johnson Watkins participated in a workshop directed toward the defense of abortion as a “right” and openly supports LGBT ideologies, including homosexual “marriage.”

On June 29, 2023, just days after the Dobbs Supreme Court decision overturned Roe v. Wade, Johnson participated in an online conference titled, “Love is an Action Word: Reproductive Justice.” The description of the conference says:

“Joined by Disciples leaders from across the life of the church including Angéle Saunders Johnson, Rick Lowery, Stephanie McLemore, Ayanna Johnson Watkins and Robyn Bles will explore themes related to the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v Wade.”

The video of the portion containing the interview with Watkins can be viewed here.

In the opening segment (0:42 – 1:24), Robyn Bles, the host of the program, summarized the purpose of the discussion by saying:

“As we gather together tonight, we are mindful of the recent one year mark since the Monumental Dobbs versus Jackson Supreme Court decision. the Dobbs decision, as it’s most commonly referred, overturned the Roe versus Wade decision, which protected abortion as a part of a holistic approach to reproductive Health Care. Roe stood as a protective right and a precedent for nearly 50 years, albeit with varying State restrictions and access. Now, one year later, we gather as a church to faithfully look at the implications and the real life repercussions of the Dobbs decision.”

From the 37:25-42:19 marks in the video, Rick Lowrey argues that from a biblical standpoint, human life begins and ends when a person starts breathing, meaning that human life begins at birth, not prior to it.  Following this, he argues that the law established in Exodus pertaining to the penalty associated with a man who accidentally causes a miscarriage in a woman while fighting with another man is a matter of property, not life.

Watkins joined the conversation after Rick Lowery’s segment, and in addressing the theological disagreements regarding abortion, said, “thank you Rick for just laying that out for us and giving us some clear things to really digest.”  A minute later, addressing the Dobbs decision, she called it a “moment where we find ourselves again having lost more rights to our bodies and the right to make decisions about our bodies.”  In discussing the impact on the closure of abortion clinics that provide “other” services being shut down due to the laws restricting abortion, Watkins then turned the conversation to community organizers offering degrees of resistance.  She said:

“but also I see organizing happening. There is a new-ish Tennessee group that is formed now around fertility and reproductive justice that’s operating here. Sister Reach operates here as well and does organizing at the state and federal level. And so this is what always happens, right. I see it as the remnant, whenever. Yeah, evil tries to crush a whole movement, but the remnant will re-emerge and organize.”

It must be noted here that the organization she referenced here, Sister Reach, is an organization fully committed to fighting for abortion as a “right.“

In the end, beginning at the 1:15:00 mark, Watkins summarized her position by expressing it all as a matter of individuals making medical choices for themselves, and that if abortion access is to be limited, then there must be an increase of public resources to subsidize poor families:

“what I can say is, every human being has a right to decide and get the best to get the best medical care they want, they can, for the things that ail them. Right, we can get to that. It can become a health care problem, it can become an economic problem. If we’re going to limit abortion, then where is the expansion on economic support for folks who are financially struggling and trying to raise a family now that they knew they couldn’t afford.”

On June 24, 2018, Watkins expressed her pride in her boss’ participation in a St. Louis Pride Parade.

On March 27, 2013, Watkins expressed her support for homosexual “marriage.”

On June 25, 2012, Watkins posted a picture of a child wearing a sticker that says, “Obama Pride. LGBT for Obama.” In her own comment, she wrote, “Pride Parade 2012!”

Conclusion

Our previous report on MICAH showed that it violated CCHD grant guidelines through its membership in a coalition that advocated abortion and LGBT ideologies. The current evidence shows that the leadership of MICAH is thoroughly committed to abortion and LGBT ideologies. Because of this, there is no way it could possibly be worthy of Catholic funds. (USCCB funding group led by radical pro-abortion, pro-LGBT activists.)

What the author of this report does not want to realize is that most of those in the so-called Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) has no problem with funding organizations such as MICAH, and that goes for many of the American conciliar “bishops” who are cut from same wretched cloth as Blase Cupich. (For a review of some of the CCHD’s past offenses, please see Mrs. Stephanie Block’s Review and Renewal of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development and Why Not Give to the Catholic Campaign for Human Development?)

What is now called the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has a long history of cooperating with and caving to one anti-Catholic bigot in the Federal government of the United States of America after another, starting with the way that James “Cardinal” Gibbons fawned all over President Thomas Woodrow Wilson as the latter involved this country in the immoral and needless conflict taking place on the battlefields of once proudly Catholic  countries in Europe to make the “world safe for democracy” by breaking up the last vestige of the Holy Roman Empire and installing secular, anti-Catholic regimes in Eastern and Central Europe that paved the way, proximately speaking, for the rise of Adolph Hitler and his Third Reich.

The American bishops even formed the National Catholic War Council (NCWC) in 1917 to support the war effort and to convince the suspicious anti-Catholic Wilson that American Catholics could be trusted to support the war despite its being waged against some of the lands from which they and/or their ancestors had emigrated. The ad hoc NCWC was renamed the National Catholic Welfare Council in 1919, a name it retained until 1966 when Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini/Paul VI began to implement the “Second” Vatican Council’s call for permanently established national bishops’ conferences along the pioneering model of the NCWC, which became known until 2001 as the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) and the conference’s public policy arm, the United States Catholic Conference (USCC), which was an instrument of leftism, perversity, “social and economic justice, “pacifism,” feminism, environmentalism and pantheism from which emanated all manner of measures designed to “lead” Catholics into what has become Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s brave new world of sin and apostasy in the Twenty-first Century and that served as ready avenue of support for pro-abort Catholics in public life after the Supreme Court of the United States of America had decriminalized the surgical execution of children from the moment of conception up to and including the day of birth in the cases of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, January 22, 1973. The NCCB and USSC became the United States Conference of Catholic “Bishops” in 2001.  From its very outset, therefore, what is now the USCCB supported the policies of a rabidly anti-Catholic president who, though not a Freemason himself, was completely imbued with the ethos of Masonry and was indifferent to the slaughter of Catholics in Mexico while pursuing a war against all traces of the Holy Faith in Europe.

Finally, one would think that the election of a fully pro-life Catholic, Jose Antonio Kast, as President of Chile, which had elected a Marxist, Salvatore Allende (a dead ringer for the satirist Henry Morgan of I’ve Got a Secret fame who once stumped the panel on To Tell the Truth in February 18, 1963: Henry Morgan fools the panel of "To Tell the Truth"), to that office in 1970, with fifty-eight percent of the vote over another Communist, Jeannette Jara, would be a cause for celebration among the Chilean “bishops.”

Not so, however, not so, as Chilean “bishops,” like other conciliar “bishops” worldwide, including Robert Francis Prevost/Leo XIV, are emphasizing migration without even mentioning the cause of innocent preborn life:

The Permanent Committee of the Episcopal Conference of Chile, in a letter to Catholic President-elect José Antonio Kast on Sunday, congratulated him on his decisive election victory but made no mention of his strong pro-life and pro-family stance, instead emphasizing immigration.

In the December 14 letter, the bishops noted Kast’s landslide victory and encouraged him to use his office to promote the “common good,” while highlighting their concerns about purported denigration of migrants and others. Kast, a devout Catholic father of nine, who has been the most well-known political opponent to the legalization of abortion and the redefinition of marriage in Chile, centered his presidential campaign on curbing illegal immigration and securing the country’s borders.

Kast defeated his communist opponent, Jeannette Jara, by a margin of 58 percent to 42 percent of the vote in the December 14 election.

“Please accept our warmest congratulations on your electoral victory on December 14, which will lead you to assume the Presidency of the Republic next March,” the bishops wrote in the letter. “By entrusting you with this high responsibility, the country is entrusting you with the task of leading the nation in times that demand clarity, generosity, and a deep commitment to the common good.”

The bishops then urged President-elect Kast to promote an environment of “dialogue, encounter, and respect,” and, citing Pope Leo XIV’s apostolic exhortation Dilexi Te, called on him to protect the country’s migrant population.

“As pastors of the Catholic Church on pilgrimage in Chile, we reaffirm our vocation to contribute to the common good through the mission entrusted to us by the Gospel. We want to continue to be witnesses of hope, especially close to those who live in poverty, exclusion, or suffering,” the bishops wrote.

“We are concerned about the growing denigration of migrants and vulnerable people, and we reiterate our commitment to life, human dignity, and the protection of the weakest, recalling the words of Pope Leo XIV in his apostolic exhortation Dilexi Te: ‘In the wounded face of the poor we find imprinted the suffering of the innocent,'” they added.

The bishop’s brief statement about migrants, which makes no distinction between those who entered the country legally or illegally, is noteworthy since Kast focused his campaign on securing Chile’s borders and promising mass deportations of illegal immigrants. During the campaign, Kast promised to build secure border walls, deport all illegal aliens, and even deploy the military to high-crime areas.

Indeed, the issues of security and migration were likely the main drivers of the country’s massive shift towards Kast’s conservative Republican Party in this week’s election.

“Chile needs order – order in the streets, in the state, in the priorities that have been lost,” Kast said during his victory speech.

While expressing their concerns with Kast about the supposed ill-treatment of migrants, the bishops made no explicit mention of his Catholic faith, his staunch support for the unborn without exception, or his stalwart defense of traditional marriage.

Kast has suffered physical abuse in the past from leftists for his stance on these key issues. In 2018, while serving as a congressman, he was assaulted by a violent mob as he was attempting to enter an auditorium as a guest speaker at the University Arturo Prat in the Chilean city of Iquique

Sunday’s election marked Kast’s third run at the presidency and his second runoff. In 2021, he lost to the socialist and current president, Gabriel Boric.

Following his victory, many of his supporters flooded the streets, waving Chilean flags and some wearing hats reading “Make Chile Great Again.”

The election of Kast also marks the latest victory for the right in Latin America. Argentinian President Javier Milei posted a map on X that shows several countries now having conservative heads of state, including his own country, as well as Chile, Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, and Paraguay. El Salvador also has a very successful right-wing president in Nayib Bukele. (Chile’s bishops emphasize immigration over life, marriage in letter to Catholic president-elect.)

Jose Antonio Kast, who has said, “I am a Catholic first, then I am a politician,” has all the makings of a modern-day Gabriel Garcia-Moreno, who was the President of Ecuador from August 10, 1869, to the day of his assassination by Freemasons on August 6, 1875, and sought to rule according to Catholic principles in order to advance man’s temporal good in their countries in light of his Last End, the possession of the glory of the Beatific Vision of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost for all eternity (see A Reminder: Catholics Must Rise Above the World's Agitation. We must pray for his safety and for his success as he will be opposed not only by the Communists he defeated but by his own country’s own supposed Catholic “bishops.”

Well, this is how the conciliarism clown show is spinning as we ask Our Lady to help us remember that absolutely not one little bit of this has anything to do with the Catholic Church, admitting that the scandalous abandonment of Catholic Faith, Worship, and Morals by the conciliar revolutionaries is a source of great confusion and consternation to Catholics of good will within the conciliar structures.

Our Lady will come to the rescue, but we need to be faithful to her Fatima Message and to pray her Most Holy Rosary with meditative fervor and to shield ourselves from the forces of Antichrist in the world and in the counterfeit church of conciliarism with her Brown Scapular of Mount Carmel.

On the Feast of the Expectation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Although not on the General Roman Calendar, today, Thursday, December 18, 2025, an Advent ferial day, the Feast of the Expectation of the Blessed Virgin Mary may be celebrated, a feast that the Spanish have traditionally celebrated with great joy in anticipation of Christmas Day one week from this very day.

Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B., provided us with a reflection for this great feast:

This feast, which is now kept not only throughout the whole of Spain but in many other parts of the Catholic world, owes its origin to the bishops of the tenth Council of Toledo, in 656. These prelates thought that there was an incongruity in the ancient practice of celebrating the feast of the Annunciation on the twenty-fifth of March, inasmuch as this joyful solemnity frequently occurs at the time when the Church is intent upon the Passion of our Lord, so that it is sometimes obliged to be transferred into Easter time, with which it is out of harmony for another reason; they therefore decreed that, henceforth, in the Church of Spain there should be kept, eight days before Christmas, a solemn feast with an octave, in honour of the Annunciation, and as a preparation for the great solemnity of our Lord’s Nativity. In course of time, however, the Church of Spain saw the necessity of returning to the practice of the Church of Rome, and of those of the whole world, which solemnize the twenty-fifth of March as the day of our Lady’s Annunciation and the Incarnation of the Son of God. But such had been, for ages, the devotion of the people for the feast of the eighteenth of December, that it was considered requisite to maintain some vestige of it. They discontinued, therefore, to celebrate the Annunciation on this day; but the faithful were requested to consider, with devotion, what must have been the sentiments of the holy Mother of God during the days immediately preceding her giving Him birth. A new feast was instituted, under the name of “the Expectation of the blessed Virgin’s delivery.”

This feast, which sometimes goes under the name of Our Lady of O, or the feast of O, on account of the great antiphons which are sung during these days, and, in a special manner, of that which begins O Virgo virginum (which is still used in the Vespers of the Expectation, together with the O Adonai, the antiphon of the Advent Office), is kept with great devotion in Spain. A High Mass is sung at a very early hour each morning during the octave, at which all who are with child, whether rich or poor, consider it a duty to assist, that they may thus honour our Lady’s Maternity, and beg her blessing upon themselves. It is not to be wondered at that the holy See has approved of this pious practice being introduced into almost every other country. We find that the Church of Milan, long before Rome conceded this feast to the various dioceses of Christendom, celebrated the Office of our Lady’s Annunciation on the sixth and last Sunday of Advent, and called the whole week following the Hebdomada de Exceptato (for thus the popular expression had corrupted the word Expectato). But these details belong strictly to the archaeology of liturgy, and enter not into the plan of our present work; let us, then, return to the feast of our Lady’s Expectation, which the Church has established and sanctioned as a new means of exciting the attention of the faithful during these last days of Advent.

The Great Antiphon to Our Lady

O Virgo virginum, quomodo fiet istud? quia nec· primam similem visa es, nec habera sequentem. Filiae Jerusalem, quid me admiramini? Divinum est mysterium hoc quod cernitis.

Most just indeed it is, O Holy Mother of God, that we should unite in that ardent desire thou hadst to see Him, who had been concealed for nine months in thy chaste womb; to know the features of this Son of the heavenly Father, who is also thine; to come to that blissful hour of his Birth, which will give Glory to God in the highest, and, on earth, Peace to men of good will. Yes, dear Mother, the time is fast approaching, though not fast enough to satisfy thy desires and ours. Make us redouble our attention to the great mystery; complete our preparation by thy powerful prayers for us, that when the solemn hour is come, our Jesus may find no obstacle to his entering into our hearts.

THE GREAT ANTIPHON TO OUR LADY

O Virgin of virgins! how shall this be? for never was there one like thee, nor will there ever be. Ye daughters of Jerusalem, why look ye wondering at me? What ye behold, is a divine mystery. will give glory to God in the highest, and, on earth, peace to men of good-will. Yes, dear Mother, the time is fast approaching, though not fast enough to satisfy thy desires and ours. Make us redouble our attention to the great mystery; complete our preparation by thy powerful prayers for us, that when the solemn hour has come, our Jesus may find no obstacle to His entrance into our hearts. (Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B., The Liturgical Year, Feast of the Expectation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, December 18.)

Yes, we must make every effort in the next seven days, especially on Ember Friday in Advent tomorrow, December 19, 2025, and Ember Saturday in Advent on Saturday, December 20, 2025 (on which the Vigil of Saint Thomas the Apostle is commemorated), to remove all obstacles to the worthy reception of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour in Holy Communion by first making, if at all possible, a good Confession of our sins to a true priest so that, renewed by these days of penance, we may focus on the fact that the World became Flesh at the Incarnation, and then dwelt amongst us on Christmas Day!

A blessed Feast of the Expectation of the Blessed Virgin Mary to you all.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us!

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.

Saints Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, pray for us.