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Showing posts from September, 2018

On German Influence...

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The National Catholic Register reports that on Sept 11th, Archbishop Georg Gänswein (Prefect of the Papal Household and personal secretary to Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI), spoke at the presentation in Rome of an Italian translation of the book The Benedict Option, by U.S. journalist Rod Dreher. Archbishop Gänswein said that he regretted how only 9.8 percent of German Catholics go to Mass on Sunday, and stressed how the “so-called ‘Sunday Obligation’” is ancient and actually “the most precious distinguishing sign of Christians.” It struck me that, given the collapse of the Church in Germany, it is rather surprising how influential German prelates are with the present Pontificate. What amazes me is that pretty much everyone recognises that this is about money. In Germany, about 70% of church revenues come from church tax (Kirchensteuer), also called worship or cult tax (Kultussteuer) when referring to non-Christian religious bodies. This is about €9.2 billion (in 2010). The ch...

Humanae Vitae 50 years on: A Jubilee Perspective

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The Guild of Our Lady & St Joseph warmly invites you to an important lecture commemorating the 50th anniversary of the publication of Pope Paul VI's prophetic Encyclical  Humanae Vitae . We are delighted that Edmund Adamus will give this address entitled: Humanae Vitae 50 years on: A Jubilee Perspective Edmund Adamus is an internationally known speaker on marriage and family. He promotes authentic human sexuality in light of the catechesis of St. John Paul II on the Theology of the Body. ( https://edmundadamus.wordpress.com ) Date: 1 October, 2018 Location: St Patrick's Church, Soho Square, London W1D 4NR Time: Doors will open at 6:45 pm and the lecture will begin at 7:00 pm. Refreshments and Q&A will follow. Admission: £5 at the door Registration: guildofourladyandstjoseph@gmail.com Please do help us to promote what I am sure will be a most interesting presentation by inviting anyone you think may be interested. The more people who join us the stronger our netwo...

Bishop Egan on Abuse Crisis

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Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth has been interviewed in the National Catholic Register (read the full interview here ). The 8th Bishop of Portsmouth is a virtually lone voice amongst the English episcopate addressing this issue which is of primary importance and concern for the laity, who entrust their families to clergy & the structures of the Church. Bishop Egan's words are extremely welcome to concerned Catholics and he clearly understands what is going on, comparing the state of the Church in the early 21st century to that of the late 15th century. Bishop Egan reminds us in his interview of the words of the philosopher Bernard Lonergan, who once spoke of the “shabby shell of Catholicism.” He puts his finger right on the heart of the problem here: The structures of the Church are there, but have some of the home fires gone out? Many Catholics, including members of the clergy, no longer believe the Church’s teaching, especially on matters of personal morality. There...

What Has Pope Francis Covered Up?

In a new Spectator podcast, and following on from a scathing written assessment from Damian Thompson in which he states: the duplicitous pontiff depicted by Viganò is instantly recognisable as the cynical, backstabbing Bergoglio in Henry Sire’s book The Dictator Pope, which is based on first-hand testimony from Argentina and Rome. Every Catholic should read it. Thompson interviews the author of The Dictator Pope . Key insights in this interview include revelations about Pope Francis from his home in Argentina. Many have wondered why he has not returned home and speculated that it might be that the world would see he gets a less than cordial welcome. Henry Sire reveals that in Buenos Aires, Bergoglio consistently associated with clergy accused of sexual and financial wrong doing. Henry Sire suggests this allows Bergoglio to gain power over such individuals. Of course we see this evident in the men he has surrounded himself with at the Vatican. Sire also reveals that the fir...

Getting to the Heart of the Matter in Malta

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I've been in Malta all last week looking into the allegations I reported on here . I visited the Episcopal See: But I didn't manage to bump into the bishop sadly! I did think this article The Heart of the Matter by Fr. David Muscat was excellent. With intellect and courage, Fr David speaks directly to the cause of the issue at hand: Liberal priests love to portray the early Christians as innocent hugging brothers and sisters singing in Koine Greek a pre-reincarnated version of The Beatles’ All You Need Is Love and Scott McKenzie’s “put some flowers in your hair’’, this time if you are going to Corinth. In reality, the martyred early Church leaders like Peter, Linus, Cletus, Clement, Sixtus and Cornelius, mentioned in the Roman Canon, were no better in discipline than Archbishops Michael Gonzi, Joseph Mercieca and Paul Cremona. The latter were martyred in a subtler way. Fr. David speaks from his own experience, experience which I completely identify with, of a C...

The Strange Case of Austen Ivereigh

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Ivereigh speaking at an interview for an Argentinian newspaper. Source: Wikipedia Since the conclave in 2013, Austen Ivereigh has been at the forefront of public comment regarding Pope Francis. He is currently busy doing his absolute best to discredit Archbishop Viganò while completely ignoring the reality of abuse in the institutional Church, it really is quite shocking to behold. In fact Ivereigh referred to McCarrick sexually abusing seminarians as him "having sex with adults" and expressed no outrage whatever, it's like he is completely blind to reality where there is anything that smacks of a problem for Pope Francis. It also doesn't take much of a watcher to spot that Ivereigh comes to the exact same conclusions as co-conspirators like Anthony Spadaro, James Martin and Dawn Eden, and they all go public at about the same time with the same strategy , I mean theory. Has anybody heard from papal biographer Austen Ivereigh, Fr Spadaro or Greg Burke...