De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

Catholics who might have been feeling uplifted after the March for Life were handed a real slap in the face when Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the Reproductive Health Act into law last Tuesday. Cardinal Dolan has published an Op Ed in today's New York Post following howls of protest from may Catholics who feel the Cardinal should publicly confirm that Cuomo has excommunicated himself from the Catholic Church by this act. Obviously it is a fact that abortion is a mortal sin, it should also be understood that an abortion brings an automatic excommunication upon those who procure it, perform it, or cooperate in it. The purpose of the excommunication is not to reject anyone, but precisely to HELP people understand how evil abortion is, and help them to turn away from it. We would not respect a doctor who did not tell us the seriousness of our disease; nor should we respect a Church that does not tell us the seriousness of our sin. But again, let us bear in mind that God's ...

I can't really recall ever seeing a "Twitter Storm" as violent or swift as the one I saw form around a group of high school boys from Covington Catholic High School at the end of the March for Life in Washington DC last week. Almost everyone on my social media timeline was posting about it. I think its importance can't be over-estimated and reveals quite a lot about the present situation in the Church. This video tells the story of what happened: Fr James Martin , Fr Edward Beck & Fr Dan Horan were three Catholic priests who rushed in to judge the Covington boys condemning them unequivocally. Fr Horan, who, like Fr Martin is a prominent advocate for homosexuality, even used the incident to attack the March for Life itself, which he described as "repulsive and futile". This link between anti-life and homosexuality is particularly obvious (there's another really good example of that here which shows how self-defeating this position is ...

When you weigh up the debate surrounding former nuncio and abuse whistle-blower Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, you quickly recognise his submissions as deeply Catholic. The retired nuncio has penned an open letter to the disgraced former Archbishop of Washington Theodore McCarrick, suggesting a public act of repentance would bring “healing to a gravely wounded and suffering Church.” Viganò asks McCarrick to publicly repent of his alleged “crimes against minors and abuses against seminarians,” saying “time is running out” and that his “eternal salvation is at stake.” Writing to the former archbishop of Washington D.C. on Jan. 13, the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, Archbishop Viganò said “no matter what decision the supreme authority of the Church takes in your case, what really matters, and what has saddened those who love you and pray for you, is the fact that throughout these months you haven’t given any sign of repentance.” Archbishop Viganò said he was “among those who are p...

The Baptism of Jesus at the Jordan is the anticipation of his baptism of blood on the Cross, and it is the symbol of the entire sacramental activity by which the Redeemer will bring about the salvation of humanity. This is why the Patristic tradition has dedicated great interest to this Feast, which is the most ancient after Easter. "Christ is baptized and the whole world is made holy", sings today's liturgy; "he wipes out the debt of our sins; we will all be purified by water and the Holy Spirit" ( Antiphon to the Benedictus, Office of Lauds ). There is a strict relationship between the Baptism of Christ and our Baptism. At the Jordan the heavens opened (cf. Lk 3: 21) to indicate that the Saviour has opened the way of salvation and we can travel it thanks to our own new birth "of water and Spirit" (Jn3: 5), accomplished in Baptism. In it we are inserted into the Mystical Body of Christ, that is, the Church, we die and rise with him, we are clothe...

Smiling faces? Vatican releases photos of Pope meeting US bishops over abuse crisis Opus Dei announced on Monday that it had paid a settlement following accusations of misconduct against a priest of the society made in 2002. Fr. C. John McCloskey was the subject of a complaint by a married woman to whom he had been giving spiritual counsel. As a result of the complaint, Opus Dei paid a reported settlement of $977,000 to the woman in 2005. Read the full story here . Honestly, I have lost patience. I'm a Catholic because I believe in Jesus Christ and because I believe that His teaching is the way the world should be: focused on the dignity of each and every human individual, attuned to justice and truth, quick to forgive shortcomings and failures, but constantly focused on building a community which adheres to the standards and ideals taught by Jesus Christ. THIS IS NOT IT! If we fail to represent Christ in our societies and our communities an...

The Community of Our Lady of Walsingham, who used to be based at Abbotswick in Brentwood and more recently moved to the Shrine of Our Lady at Walsingham, have announced that they have obtained a new home. The new house will be called the House of the Divine Will and is proposed to provide formation for novices, accompany young people discerning their vocation and support married couples and young families in the vocation they are already living, sharing with them the rich spirituality of Walsingham. The community are still fundraising to pay off a loan from the Carmelites and also to finish renovating the house so that a suitable library and chapel can be built. The community was entrusted with a Carmelite library and this will be available for members of the public to access. They will continue their work in Walsingham running the Dowry House Retreat Centre which opened last year and at the Catholic National Shrine. As one of the new forms of consecration recognised by the churc...

Canon Lawyer Dr. Ed Condon offers some complicated but vital detail regarding the Vatican trial of disgraced Cardinal Theodore McCarrick: While recent media reports suggest that a trial of Archbishop Theodore McCarrick is underway, Vatican sources have told CNA that his case is not being handled by a full judicial process. Sources at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith have confirmed that allegations against McCarrick are being considered through an abbreviated approach called an “administrative penal process.” Ed explains that this is a much-abbreviated mechanism that leaves out many of the procedural stages of a full judicial process or trial, including the back-and-forth argumentation between prosecution and defense. An administrative process is only used when the evidence collected during the preliminary investigation is so clear as to make a full trial unnecessary. The fact that this is the direction being taken in the McCarrick case strongly suggests that the...