De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

The Jesuit publication " La Civiltà Cattolica " has published a transcript of the dialogue between Pope Francis and the Jesuits of Portugal during the Pontiff's visit to Lisbon for WYD 2023. These meetings the Pope has with the failing dying and declining Jesuit order are always revealing and Pope Francis often gives us a clearer insight into the workings of his mind. Vatican News reports : "Throughout World Youth Day in Lisbon, the rallying cry for an all-embracing Church resonated powerfully with the words "Todos, todos" (Everyone, everyone), pronounced by Pope Francis as he stressed that the Church "has space for everyone". He emphasized the pivotal importance of creating a space for all individuals, irrespective of their sexual orientation or gender identity, within the Church. This message continued to echo through his exchange with the Jesuits of Portugal." "The Pope reiterated his call to embrace homosexual people within the Churc...

Jesus met with all kinds of sinners. He met with them to call them to repentance.  We know this, it is what the Church exists for. I have discussed here, previously , how I can recognise the way in which the pope, perhaps, considers meeting public sinners an imitation of Christ. He could well consider it the very work of mercy and charity to reach out to the marginalised and despised. The key and obvious difference, it seems to me, is that where Christ offered sinners who knew their sinful position the hope of salvation through repentance, the pope seems to never require any renunciation of the often open and blatant attacks proffered by those he meets. Instead he seems to promote them and their ideas. Quite literally in some cases !  Who could forget the  numerous scandalous reports from Eugene Scalfari , a nonagenarian Atheist Italian reporter? there's his friendship with Emma Bonino , Italian abortionist.More moral relativism from the Argentine Pontiff! On March 21, 20...

I came across this YouTube video from Trent Horn today and listened to the whole thing.  I do think that these sorts of discussions are absolutely essential given the stark contrast of Church teaching with a culture that continually pushes the boundaries of sexual morality. This discussion between Trent Horn and liberal/ progressive pastor, Brandon Robertson, encapsulates and analyses a lot of the ideas we see mainstreamed in society today without any pushback from the Catholic Church which, presently seems to only be interested in acceptance. This is extremely troubling because of what the Church actually teaches: that homosexual acts are sinful. To virtually everyone what the Catholic Church says and what it does are at odds. We can speculate as to why this is. The well known fact that many Catholic clergy are themselves subject to homosexual tendencies must be a factor in the Church’s silence. But given the teaching itself, such silence is fatal and screams of hypocrisy. Not on...

Archbishop Peter Comensoli of Melbourne told The Pillar that the new legislation passed yesterday in the state of Victoria making it a crime to “engage in a practice” directed towards changing or suppressing a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, infringes on religious freedom and sound medical practice. Too little too late Archbishop! At the point where the legislation has been passed, the discussion has been had and the Church has demonstrably failed in making its case. I really do think the Church has made such a mess of this whole issue. It continues to send mixed messages and consistently fails to teach appropriately. If we believe what the Church teaches it is essential that we are consistent and coherent and (someone has to) take that argument into the public sphere.  The archbishop wrote that the law “includes ill-conceived concepts of faith and conversation, vague definitions, and scientifically and medically flawed approaches. It places arbitrary limitations ...

In this post the other day I mentioned Fr James Martin's most recent scandalous Tweet. I had to wonder if this crossed a bit of a line - there was certainly a strong reaction on social media. But Martin has been doing this for a long while, and he doesn't just push it with LGBTQ issues, he challenges lots of Catholic ideas: His problematic ramblings often attract brother priests to remonstrate: Jim doesn't care. They're all just haters. And he has the Vatican backing him ! And anyway, those who argue with him are all gays anyway! . @jamesmartinsj says cardinals & bishops support his LGBT agenda Says critics are "uncomfortable" with their sexuality. TYPICAL GAY TACTIC pic.twitter.com/QqFyZOcpZr — Nick Donnelly (@ProtecttheFaith) August 1, 2017 Anyway I wonder if his "gay "marriage"" Tweet prompted Archbishop Chaput to write this warning to the faithful about Martin's lies? Whether it was or not, i...

Vicky Beeching is someone who I has not escaped my attention in the past, she has been a rather prominent Christian voice on T.V. etc. In 2014 after she had "come out" I commented that she appears to be a person with sincere faith who has achieved a degree of success and in that context has tried to explain away the relationship between a modern secular society which makes sense to her, and Christianity. If anything, her over-apologetic style is what has frustrated me before as lacking in confidence of the Gospel message and, in the context of my re-reading of Humani generis a little while ago ( see here ) which states in no's 10 - 12: it is apparent, however, that some today, as in apostolic times, desirous of novelty, and fearing to be considered ignorant of recent scientific findings, try to withdraw themselves from the sacred Teaching Authority and are accordingly in danger of gradually departing from revealed truth and of drawing others along with them into...

This is really important from Steve Skojec. The 45 year old abuse case against Cardinal McCarrick has brought an important point back to light: the abuse crisis in the Church is largely a homosexual problem, and the gay inmates are running the asylum. There's no way around it, and the more we ignore it, the worse it gets.

On Wednesday Damon Linker in The Week proposed that Pope Francis is "effectively promulgating two truths". He rightly asserts that Pope Francis is implicitly affirming the official doctrine while subtly undermining it with a less stringent pastoral teaching. Instead of seeking to change the underlying rules, which would risk divisiveness and even schism, he shows that it's perfectly alright for a priest or layperson to diverge from or ignore the rule in the name of welcoming as many people as possible to Christ's church. Linker reckons that Pope Francis is playing a very craft long game to change doctrine: But I think the pope's strategy for a longer game displays greater psychological acuity — and Machiavellian cunning. Francis may be betting that once the church stops preaching those doctrines that conflict most severely with modern moral norms, the number of people who uphold and revere them will decline rapidly (within a generation or two). Once that h...

The pro-homosexual organisation Quest was banned from the official Roman Catholic Directory for England and Wales by Cardinal Basil Hume, then-Archbishop of Westminster, because of the organisation's public dissent from Church teaching that called homosexual acts “intrinsically disordered.” The organisation had been listed in the directory as an approved Catholic organisation from 1992. In a letter explaining his decision to remove Quest from the directory, Cardinal Hume wrote at that time that if an organisation is listed, the “assumption must be that it accepts the church’s teaching set out in a manner that is in no way ambiguous.” “It is one thing for the Church officially to recognise a support group for Catholic homosexual men and women, struggling, as we all do, to live up to the demands of our shared Christian vocation,” he said, adding that it was clear that an explicit part of Quest’s agenda was “to encourage and recognise loving same-sex partnerships,” something...

I'm not a huge fan of professional controversialist Milo, I find his confrontational style counter productive, but I know he does shine an interesting light on some issues (if you have no idea who I am talking about, you can glean some background here ). Very interestingly, he has reported (a couple of days ago) that he was sent a series of questions by America Magazine, the controversial Jesuit magazine which has celebrity priest-come-courter of controversy, especially heresy James Martin, as a contributing writer and editor-at-large. I have posted about Father James Martin on numerous occasions, here when he was called out by Archbishop Chaput for failing to speak with authenticity about homosexuality, here when Pope Francis appointed him to the Vatican communications team(!!), here when he called for the "entirety of the Church's sexual ethics to be rewritten", here when he said that Jesus learnt about His mission from various women he met during His pu...

A brilliant and valuable article by Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, Archbishop of Philidelphia which provides authentic direction on homosexuality, something which is much needed at the moment. Archbishop Chaput calls out Fr James Martin SJ for failing to speak with authenticity about this (his favourite issue). Referring to Martin's recent book, Archbishop Chaput explains how the... ...text regrettably lacks is an engagement with the substance of what divides faithful Christians from those who see no sin in active same-sex relationships. The Church is not simply about unity – as valuable as that is – but about unity in God’s love rooted in truth. If the Letter to the Romans is true, then persons in unchaste relationships (whether homosexual or heterosexual) need conversion, not merely affirmation. If the Letter to the Romans is false, then Christian teaching is not only wrong but a wicked lie. Dealing with this frankly is the only way an honest discussion can be had. Archbi...

You tell me, does Fr Lombardi look nervous? Gosh it's nerve-wracking these days when Pope Francis gets on a plane! It feels like everyone is waiting for the latest controversial statement. Today's headlines are "Pope says Church must apologise to gay people for how it's treated them" (I was a bit surprised to find that even The Catholic Herald is playing it that way), but after having a look at his comments, I actually think he's being misrepresented on this one. Catholics and other Christians not only must apologise to the gay community, they must ask forgiveness of God for ways they have discriminated against gay people or fostered hostility toward them, Pope Francis said.   “I think the Church not only must say it is sorry to the gay person it has offended, but also to the poor, to exploited women” and anyone whom the Church did not defend when it could, he told reporters at a press conference on the way back from Armenia yesterday. Pope Francis wa...