De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

In an extraordinary article posted today on the Archbishop Cranmer blog , perhaps the widest read and most respected Anglican blog on the internet, His Grace suggests that Pope Francis "is destroying the nature of the Church". He has been prompted to this statement by the decision yesterday of faithful Catholic Deacon Nick Donnelly, to change his handle from "Protect the Pope" to "Protect the Faith". Nick has been "Protect the Pope" since 2010, but following hammer blows to the Church under Pope Francis, and finally his appointing pro-abortion/euthanasia advocates to the Pontifical Academy for Life was the last straw for Nick. “ I set up Protect the Pope to defend Benedict XVI during his state visit to the UK ,” Nick tweeted earlier this week . “ Vicious attacks in the media. Now the media love Francis. ” His Grace comments: This destruction [of the Church by the Pope], Deacon Nick avers, is evidenced in the appointment of the pro-c...

Deacon Nick Donnelly of Protect the Pope offers some advice on who Catholics can vote for in the upcoming general election in a recent article which has been banned by a local paper because of its "political content". Deacon Nick explains: The editor of the Barrow Evening Mail has banned my article on the General Election from their weekly Christian Comment section. He gave the following reason: 'It is highly politicised and as we are now in purdah (the period running up to an election during which newspapers must be extremely careful of what political content they publish), it is not appropriate for publication I'm afraid.' Here's my banned article: Every General Election I am faced with a dilemma as a Christian – which candidate and political party can I vote for in good conscience? As a Christian I no longer trust the Labour party because of their actions against the Church when last in government. It was Tony Blair who destroyed the network...

I am pleased that Bishop Campbell has broken his silence regarding the Protect the Pope blog. The situation as is has been rife with speculation and widely reported throughout the blogasphere, but also in the Catholic press. In a press release from the diocese today, Bishop Campbell states: PRESS RELEASE FROM THE BISHOP OF LANCASTER   Bishop Campbell did not close down Protect the Pope  BEGINS: ‘Back in 2010 Deacon Nick Donnelly set up the Protect the Pope website/blog, as a direct response to the campaign of hostility and ridicule from sections of the media and lobby groups against Pope (Emeritus) Benedict XVI’s historic visit to the UK in September of that year. Protect the Pope was particularly successful at this time in articulating a strong defence of the Petrine Office, the Catholic Church, and its teachings against certain secularist and anti-Catholic activists. In the last couple of years, however, Protect the Pope appears to have shifted its objec...

I have questioned myself about the wisdom of posting this. I find myself in a bit of a quandry over this piece of news: I don't think public speculation is going to help anyone, I want to support my friend Nick, but I don't think that should involve criticism of his bishop either. I hope this post walks the narrow line I have set out for myself whilst raising what I consider to be valid concerns about the incident. A couple of days ago,  a post on Protect the Pope announced that the blog was to close following ongoing discussions with the the Bishop of Lancaster, the Rt. Rvd. Michael Campbell, and the blog's principle author, the Deacon Nick Donnelly. The post cites Bishop Campbell's refusal to grant Nick’s request to resume news posting on Protect the Pope as effectively closing the site. It also says that Bishop Campbell has stated that he does not want anyone posting on Protect the Pope on Nick’s behalf. Nick's wife Martina had been posting on the webs...

This morning, Deacon Nick Donnelly announced on his blog the exciting news that a new Centre of Formation for the New Evangelisation has been established by some of the staff who recently resigned their positions at Maryvale in Birmingham.  Dr Petroc Willey, Dr Andrew Beards, and Dr Caroline Farey have embarked on a new adventure, calling their centre the School of the Annunciation . It is based in the grounds of Buckfast Abbey in Devon, thanks to the generosity and collaboration of the Abbot of Buckfast, the Rt. Rev. David Charlesworth and the monastic community. The School of the Annunciation will begin by offering a Diploma in the New Evangelisation as well as short Summer Schools which it is hoped will provide a unique opportunity to study the Catholic Faith in the beautiful setting of Buckfast Abbey, sharing the monastic community’s life and prayer over long summer weekends in August. I have to say it sounds idyllic! Deacon Nick himself is the Director of For...

On Saturday, my attention was brought to an article in the Herald Scotland which suggests that the Vatican "...has called a halt to the appointment of any more Scottish bishops until a full investigation into the Cardinal Keith O'Brien scandal is completed by Rome." Of course this move by Cardinal Marc Ouellet, the current prefect of the Congregation for the Bishops, which oversees the selection of new bishops, means three dioceses – Paisley, Dunkeld and Edinburgh – will not have their vacancies for a bishop filled for some time. Apparently, the Congregation for the Bishops has instructed Archbishop Mennini, the Pope's ambassador in the UK, to keep the book open on Cardinal O'Brien and continue to gather evidence. Surely this can only be another indication Pope Francis is turning his attention to the crisis engulfing the Catholic Church in UK? It certainly seems to me to signify a key change in the way these things are dealt with. Rather than brushing t...

It seems everyone is blogging about Tina Beattie. There's some great stuff out there, and, to be honest, I'm not sure I have much to add. It does seem ironic that this happened at the same time that I had written about Fr. Kevin Hegarty's article in the Mayo News . It seems to me that many of the issues are the same: a person in a privileged position in terms of audience, speaking about something in a misleading way. I am very interested in what's going on though, so I thought I would provide you, dear reader, with my own synopsis of the best bits of the story so far. Basically, Tina had planned lectures at the University of San Diego, but they have been cancelled by Dr Mary Lyon, President of the University, because of her ‘dissent publicly’ from the Church’s moral teaching. (yeah!). The full story is on Deacon Nick Donnelly's excellent blog . Now Tina isn't happy about this, and has written a response : ‘I do not know the exact reasons for t...