De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

I think this interview between Michael Voris & Patrick Coffin is a must watch because it gives a "real" reaction to what is going on in the Church from two people who are "inside" in that they watch and investigate and report on it every day. Some really important insights. I don't think things are this bad here in the UK if I'm honest. I do believe there is a demonic influence in the episcopacy in the US; the degree of abuse, collusion & cover-up that has gone on is more than could be possible under a gang of well-meaning but bungling bishops, there's some darker genius driving it and you can see how it links up. Here I honestly believe it is ineptitude and fear. The bishops are terrified of prosecution by the authorities, they're terrified of the laity and public finding out about the cover-ups that have gone on over the years and they are content to be concerned and preoccupied with their own petty concerns and not to look at the bi...

This blog is subtitled: “It is written,  ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’; but you are making it a den of robbers.” We had a beautiful Corpus Christi procession on Sunday in Leigh-on-Sea, Deo gratias! The Church was fairly full, but really one would hope that the whole Parish family would turn out to this event. Indeed, Father Kevin has expressed his own sadness that this is not the case in his homilies leading up to the feast. As my wife expressed it, a large part of the congregation is made up of the First Holy Communion families as the children take part in the procession, the rest are the stalwart parishioners. So why is this? The institution of Corpus Christi as a feast resulted from approximately forty years of work on the part of Juliana of Liège, a 13th-century Norbertine canoness, also known as Juliana de Cornillon, born in 1191 or 1192 in Liège, Belgium, a city where there were groups of women d...

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse has published it's report into Birmingham Archdiocese. This report is extremely important because it involves Cardinal Nichols. We've published our report on child sexual abuse (CSA) within the Archdiocese of Birmingham. https://t.co/ZKdLPHKyNl Part of the #CatholicInvestigation , it investigates the response of the Archdiocese of Birmingham to CSA by examining 4 case studies. 1/4 #BirminghamReport pic.twitter.com/bz1DyZZygi — InquiryCSA (@InquiryCSA) June 20, 2019 Since the mid 1930s, there have been over 130 allegations of child sexual abuse made against no fewer than 78 individuals associated with the Archdiocese - many of them priests and deacons. 2/4 #BirminghamReport #InquiryCSA pic.twitter.com/9tibOwKIwt — InquiryCSA (@InquiryCSA) June 20, 2019 It finds that the response of the then Archbishop of Birmingham, Vincent Nichols - now a Cardinal, was “misplaced and missed the point”, by choosing to defe...

You may recall the scandal surrounding the strange priest Fr Thomas Rosica from February . Rosica has become notorious for threatening a blogger who dared to question his pro-homosexual agenda. Rosica has been on sabbatical since March for “several months of rest and renewal.” He has now announced he  has resigned as CEO of  Salt & Light  Smoke & Litigation Catholic Media Foundation almost four months after his massive plagiarism became public knowledge. When the scandal first broke, Rosica seemed both to apologise for copying the work of others and to blame interns and others for sending him the quotes without proper attribution. However, as the weeks wore on, it became clear that several of Rosica’s works, including newspaper columns, speeches, and books, were “patch written,” combining passages from several writers, sometimes with words omitted or moved around, which made detection more difficult. Some plagiarism dates back over 30 year...

The Congregation for Catholic Education has issued an appositely timed and much needed teaching  document which outlines the philosophical origins of the gender theory movement, and notes the broad movement to enshrine its distinct anthropology in policy and law. The first thought for many parents in the UK who have been literally sold down the river on this issue by Catholic bishops, is how deeply this undermines the Catholic Education Services ' useless guideline document ? In the new document, the Congregation explains that, beginning in the middle of the twentieth century, a series of studies were published which proposed that external conditioning had the primary determinative influence on personality. When such studies were applied to human sexuality, the document says, they did so with a view to demonstrating that sexuality identity was more a social construct than a given natural or biological fact. “These schools of thought were united in denying the existen...

The Pope has authorised changed to the Italian translation of the Our Father. Instead of saying “lead us not into temptation”, it will say “do not let us fall into temptation”. The new wording was approved by the general assembly of the Episcopal Conference of Italy last month. It will appear in the third edition of the Messale Romano , the liturgical book that contains the guiding texts for Mass. The Pope said in 2017 he believed the wording should be altered and on the face of it, it is not hard to see why; the Pope argues that “It is not a good translation because it speaks of a God who induces temptation. I am the one who falls. It’s not him pushing me into temptation to then see how I have fallen. . .It’s Satan who leads us into temptation, that’s his department” I'm sure we can all see where the Pope is coming from, but quite a lot of Catholics are not happy. Take Fr Tim Finigan for example: My dear lay people, I am sorry to retweet this filth, but I just wan...

At 11am this morning it was announced that John Wilson, up to now Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster, had been appointed Archbishop of Southwark by Pope Francis (his installation is to be on the 25th July at St George's Cathedral). This is an extremely important appointment for England and Wales and has taken quite a few people by surprise it seems. The archdiocese has an area of 3,000 km2 (1,200 sq mi) and covers the London Boroughs south of the Thames, the county of Kent and the Medway Unitary Authority. The Metropolitan See is in Southwark where the archbishop's seat is located at the Metropolitan Cathedral Church of Saint George The see is currently administered by the Most Reverend Peter Smith, LL.B., J.C.D. ++Smith has been largely inactive in Southwark for the last ten years or so, as were his two predecessors (both of whom are still living) which means the archdiocese is desperately in need of some inertia. It is widely rumoured that ++Smith was on a personal count...

Yesterday I read this post from Dan Hitchens, deputy editor of the Catholic Herald , in First Things. It most starkly cites Cardinal Robert Sarah: "The Vatican’s liturgy chief, Cardinal Robert Sarah, recently observed: “Every day I receive calls for help from everywhere from those who no longer know what they are to believe. Every day in Rome, I receive discouraged and suffering priests. The Church is going through the dark night."" Hitchens eloquently articulates the prevailing attitude to the papacy: From Normandy to northern Argentina , the pope’s words are treated as a green light for Communion for the remarried. Eric Sammons, who spent five years as director of evangelization for the Diocese of Venice in Florida, saw widespread confusion on this and other matters. “I saw Catholics engaged in adultery receive Holy Communion... ‘because Pope Francis.’ I saw Catholics assert that it was wrong to evangelize... ‘because Pope Francis.’ I saw Catholics denigra...

Thank God for Bishop Robert Barron. He has said what many of us think in a letter to disaffected, battle-weary Catholics which also resonates as a powerful rebuke to his fellow bishops who fall so far below the bar for behaviour expected in such an exalted office. Barron has attracted criticism from some for fudging important issues like hell and damnation . It is said that he is the kind of bishop who won't upset mainstream secular culture. I have argued with myself about this quite a bit, as you can see from the link above and other posts like this one for example. I see there is a need to be clear about doctrine, I think we need straight talkers in this difficult time, but I also think the way we approach the transmission of the Gospel is of vital importance. As St. Peter teaches in 1 Peter 3:15: Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence. It is vital that we give...