De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

Tis the season of bishop's pastoral letters! Our Bishop here in Brentwood Diocese Alan Williams sm, appears to really be working hard on the themes he considers Pope Francis to be prioritising, e.g.: It can sometimes seem impossible to glimpse the things of heaven in today’s world. We are confronted with the needs of refugees, the appalling struggles faced by victims of trafficking, the enduring realities of war and injustice. Sometimes there has been an absence of compassion and kindness even within the community of the Church which have caused great scandal regardless of faith. Young people notice and name most acutely this mismatch between aspiration and reality. It is often our young who have been prophetic in talking about climate change and its potentially terrible consequences. It's like he has squeezed all the Pope's "new religion" into one paragraph; climate change, immigration, our desperately uncatechised young people as prophetic leaders of th...

After the Pope admonishes Italian footballers (soccer players for my American readers) for making the sign of the cross before matches, I had to - yet again - cock an eyebrow and say "what the...?" Italy’s soccer manager Roberto Mancini says he made a Sign of the Cross during games but “then we went to the Pope” who said, “‘Why are you making the Sign of the Cross, don't you have other thoughts at that time?' So since then I don't do it. I don't want to make the Pope angry” https://t.co/SLH2NrdDXT — Edward Pentin (@EdwardPentin) December 23, 2019 The Pope has previously caused a great deal of consternation by not making the sign of the cross, on numerous occasions he has refused to give his apostolic blessing at an audience: This morning Pope Francis met with the Italian Red Cross. The Pope refused to give his Apostolic Blessing, probably as not to offend the handful of non-Catholics. Instead saying "I ask the blessing of God - God the Father ...

Some really good news from yesterday, Dr Gavin Ashenden was received into full communion with the Catholic Church by Bishop Mark Davies of Shrewsbury Diocese. Gavin is someone I have posted about quite a few times in the past ( just do a search ). The way the world works now I have been able to be a friend on Social Media of his and to follow his efforts to speak out about the immense value of Christianity in building culture. He is a brave & convinced disciple of Jesus Christ and it is very exciting to me to see him come into full communion with the Catholic Church. I have said to Gavin myself that we need him. We need his calm, reasoned approach and his courage to stand up for what the Church teaches. I am sure that, were the Church more confident in what it stands for and teaches, it would be ever more attractive to committed disciples like Gavin. I know a good number of faithful Christians who are dissuaded from converting simply because the Catholic Chur...

Sandro Magister has some very interesting news from Rome . On the morning of Friday December 13, the fiftieth anniversary of the first Mass of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the Pope said Mass in the Vatican chapel of Santa Marta with all the cardinals currently residing in Rome. Magister explains that this was the idea of Cardinal Angelo Sodano, in his capacity as dean of the college of cardinals. Apparently Francis had initially rejected the idea but Sodano had not given up, and thanks to a second effort by college sub-dean Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, he was finally able to convince the Pope to hold the Mass. Apparently Sodano mentioned the Pope's resistance in his letter of invitation to the cardinals. Sodano was widely considered to be one of the most corrupt elements in the Roman curia. He was THE McCarrick enabler hidden in plain sight. Apart from enabling McCarrick Sodano enabled and promoted every low life from Marcinkus and Maciel to the present crop of filth. Magist...

In what may be the most important act of his Pontificate, Pope Francis has abolished the Pontifical secret in cases of alleged sexual violence and child abuse . He has also decided to change the norm regarding the crime of child pornography by making the possession and dissemination of pornographic images of children under the age of 18 which fall under the category of delicta graviora – the most grave delicts. The new instruction specifies that such information be “treated in such a way as to ensure its security, integrity and confidentiality” established by the Code of Canon Law to protect the “good name, image and privacy ” of those involved. But this “confidentiality”, the instruction also states, does “not prevent the fulfilment of the obligations laid down in all places by civil laws” including the possible obligation to report, and “the execution of enforceable requests of civil judicial authorities”. In addition, those reporting the crime, the victims and witnesses “shal...

As the dominant star of US prime-time cable news commentators Sean Hannity, announces he is "leaving" the Catholic Church, Church Militant  proposes that this makes the crisis in the Church "official", that, with Hannity's public apostasy, the crisis has gone "mainstream". Certainly this high profile defection will bring the crisis in the Church into focus for many people who were otherwise unaware, but is that necessarily a bad thing? I think this is an important expose of the real issues at play in the Church, not just in the USA, but globally. Most of all, my attention is focused on the prevalent attitude among clergy that unity is more important than truth. This seems to be the overarching approach of the majority of bishops, even when the pope is attacking & contradicting settled Church teaching. What is particularly interesting is this unity only seems to travel one way. Orthodox clergy have to be silent and progressives can say whateve...

Some incredible things going on this week - Steve summarises it better than I can in this short video, especially the ridiculous new proposal from the useless Catholic Bishops of England & Wales! Tagle is interesting. He is largely reported as being a problematic liberal but I think it is important that we avoid guilt by association. Cardinal Tagle is a seriously respected theologian (unlike Pope Francis's chosen personal theological adviser and scribe  Archbishop Víctor Manuel “Tucho” Fernández ). Tagle was appointed to the International Theological Commission under Cardinal Ratzinger's Presidency, consecrated bishop by Pope St John Paul II, archbishop by Pope Benedict XVI who then created him Cardinal. He did not not abuse their trust in him. Some commentators are suggesting he has been an advocate for and on behalf of the position that divorced and civilly remarried Catholics should be admitted to Holy Communion. The fact is that he offered a cautious opinion ...

This is my friend Keith. Keith has been a "Twitter friend" for years now. He's far from radical or inciteful, I've always thought of him as a nice, regular Christian guy. He upholds Christian principles like the right to life and we often exchange tweets about pro-life issues. He's on-side, one of the good guys - thoroughly uncontroversial it has always seemed to me. Back in June he tweeted the above, like many of us, concerned about the mainstreaming of morally problematic activity and the indoctrination of children by this sexual agenda. Keith had copied a tweet from Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence, Rhode Island, (not "nighty-nighty baby" , the other one ) reminding Christians not to "support or attend LGBTQ 'Pride Month' events held in June." He may even have picked up my own re-tweet and copied it (as an Evangelical Christian, probably best not to re-tweet Catholic hierarchy I suppose was his thinking). Anyway, as C...

On November 29th London suffered another terror attack at the hands of an Islamic Jihadi - a fact which seems carefully omitted from every report on the incident. Usman Khan attack began at 13:58 GMT inside Fishmongers' Hall. Fishmonger Company chief executive Toby Williamson had this to say about the incident: We now know that Khan was arrested on terrorism charges in 2010. After serving eight years in prison, he was released on parole. On November 29, the convicted terrorist went on a stabbing spree. The London Bridge terror attack ended with Khan and two others dead. The resultant outcry in the context of a General Election campaign in the UK has led to the expected calls for locking up terrorists and throwing away they key, the death penalty. "What the few who seek to spread fear do not realise is that it only makes the rest of us more steadfast." Commissioner Cressida Dick has written for the @EveningStandard following the #LondonBridge attack last we...