De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

I thought this short film on Catholicism by Soul Pancake was too good not to share. What wonderful advocates for the faith!

Despite the clear statistics in my last post, I was really shocked to read this, frankly rather rude critique of Catholicism in Poland from Catholic Voices founder Austen Ivereigh, who seems to be looking for a plum job in Rome as far as I can make out, because he seems utterly blind to any concerns about the current pontificate despite shock waves rolling across the Catholic world. He even goes as far as to label concerned Catholics "dissenters" in this somewhat incoherent defence of Amoris Laetitia. I think this is a real shame for an organisation which has tried to be the voice of regular Catholics.

So what's this about? As a friend recently commented, Austen went to Poland, was warmly received by his hosts who helped him to plug his book. And then he wrote this piece of rudeness.

Ivereigh arrogantly claims in his article that the Poles consider "everything since (JP II) is evidence of backsliding" conveniently forgetting that the Poles loved John Paul II&#…

Last Tuesday my post drew attention to the fruits issuing forth from Krakow with regard to vocation and certainly due to pastoral direction of the new Archbishop of Krakow, Marek Jedraszewki.
Today I would like to draw your attention to Archbishop Gadecki – the President of the Polish Episcopal Conference - who is good news too.
Both he and Archbishop  Marek Jedraszewki are contemporaries –and (like most Bishops in Poland – but veryfew Bishops in the UK), hold Doctorates.
Encouraging Polish priests to have Doctorates was part of the long term planning by St John Paul II when he was Archbishop of Krakow.
I have heard that Fr. Rene Latourelle sj (one of the best Jesuits teaching at the Greg 40 years ago) said to a friend that Cardinal Woytila always used to visit him in his office at the Greg to chat about how the Krakow priests doing Doctorates at the Greg were getting on.
Further good news is found in Polish ordination statistics. The Germans may have loads of money – but they don’t h…

I think the consensus is that 2016 has been a pretty bad year all round. I certainly have had a shocker personally.

On Friday something else happened which didn't exactly fill me with confidence:

In the very early fourth century, Saint Januarius, bishop of Beneventum in Italy, died a martyr during the bloody persecution of Emperor Diocletian. A relic of his dried blood has been preserved to this day and is kept in the cathedral of the diocese of Napoli (Naples), whose patron saint he is. On three separate occasions each year, the blood liquefies on its own in what appears to be a miracle: on the Saturday before the first Sunday in May; on September 19, which is the feast of St. Januarius; and on December 16. When on rare occasions the blood fails to liquefy, this has historically been the harbinger of impending calamity. This past Friday, on December 16, 2016 — for the first time in over 36 years — the blood did not liquefy.

Church Militant reports:

The people of Naples have witnes…

A theme I constantly refer to is the evidence around us for what works in building the Church and what does not work. I try to always base this on facts and evidence, but the basic conviction that there is a right and a wrong way to do things comes from my own experience growing up Catholic. The lack of instruction I received and the ensuing confusion about what it meant to be Catholic, coupled with a growing sense of meaninglessness based on the platitudes of niceness which constituted most of that experience. Why believe in something that is meaningless? Why argue about ancient truths is they don't matter in application in any case? If they merely constitute a 'nice' way of looking at things? There had to be more to this Christian thing than that! Didn't lots of people die rather than renounce these beliefs once?
Discovering that being Christian was important, that it had a real, powerful effect on the choices you make, was somewhat of a dynamic revelation to me. An…

I draw your attention, dear reader, to the following information gleaned from this blog [my emphasis]:

“….the figures show a decrease in seminarians in those dioceses where the bishop reflected the attitudes of the secular world. A classic example provided is that of the Diocese of Spokane, whose seminary lost a lot of seminarians under Blase Cupich. Pope Francis later appointed Cupich Archbishop of Chicago and created him a Cardinal during the last consistory.

All of these data provide food for thought, and they are crucial when talking about the future Church.

……the Church is looking for the profile of the next Pope with the goal set on increasing vocations to the priesthood, rather than on a change of narrative, as happened last time. This is a decisive change of paradigm. After the pontificate of Benedict XVI, the primary goal was to generate a consensus and even to generate revenues – and this was one of the goals of the economic reform – now there is the need for a Church with eno…

Christmas is almost upon us, and it is notable the way in which the BBC seem to ramp up their campaign of social engineering at this time of year, with a lovely little Christmas advert/ skit with two grown men kissing see here. I can't help but see an attempt to normalise homosexuality in this, another little push at the boundaries. And many people will see nothing wrong in that I am sure. I'm sorry, I do see something (a lot) wrong in it, and I also see it as a part of a constant barrage of attacks on morality which confuses children and promotes promiscuity.

Meanwhile, Caroline Farrow draws attention to the utter insanity which is being promoted as normal these days here. As she states,
"a transgender woman has an entirely different anatomy to the common or garden woman; certain things are missing and others have needed to be rewired." This in the context of a new show on BBC 3, (BBC again you'll notice).

This week on the BBC appears to be contraception week. T…