De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

What on earth is the Pope doing? The Pope who has no time to see the Emeritus bishop of Hong Kong ,  the Pope who refused to meet with the senior cardinals who presented him with several dubia over his teaching , has lots of time to  write a personal letter in support of Fr James Martin SJ’s ministry to LGBTQ+ Catholics, thanking the prominent and frequently controversial Jesuit for his work and encouraging him to continue his efforts. The very BEST one could say is that Fr. Martin is clearly deeply divisive and controversial. I have posted about him numerous times, the last time just a few days ago . “I want to thank you for your pastoral zeal and your ability to be close to people,” Pope France wrote in the letter, “with the closeness that Jesus had, and which reflects the closeness of God.” Hand-written in Spanish, the letter was a reply to one the pope had received from a young relative of Fr Martin ahead of the correspondent’s Confirmation and reminding him of an LGBTQ outreach

It is hard to understand why there is such confusion about this consistent teaching of the Church, but there is, and, for those of us who have studied the faith, it is a huge cause of pain to go to Mass on Sunday knowing that the queue for Holy Communion will far, far outnumber that for the Sacrament of Confession, and that all those who are receiving the blessed Sacrament unworthily will not benefit from the grace conferred by the Sacrament: it is not enough to perform an action, especially if there is no change of heart behind that action. What God wants is for us to change our hearts, our very way of being. And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment of men learned by rote; Isaiah 29:13   The blessed Sacrament may well be food for sinners, but dead people cannot eat. This is the whole sacramental theology of the Eucharist throughout Church history. Today it

  Well, the bishops you might say. God help us I say! Today is the feast of John the Baptist, why then are the Catholic Bishops of England & Wales pushing out a photo of a window which depicts the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ? They rightly attribute the photo to Dominican priest Father Lawrence Lew, who has had to correct the error on the Facebook version ( still up at the time of writing !): This speaks to the utter lack of Catholicity at the Bishop's Conference and their preference for employing "cultural Catholics".  "Anyone who actually believes the faith would spot all the errors" A priest once quipped to me.  It's easier to have people working for them who don't know or care much about the Catholic faith. Time and time again we hear about the bullying, sidelining and expulsion of faithful Catholics from so-called Catholic organisations including schools where the practice of promoting pseudo-Catholics to high ranking positions has reached

Well that was quick! Following my last blog post reporting on the shocking appointment of a priest with pro-abortion views to Allen Hall Seminary as Pastoral Director, the move has been canned. This is how the diocese announced it: PASTORAL DIRECTOR, ALLEN HALL SEMINARY Fr Philip Dyer-Perry has given further thought to his appointment as Pastoral Director at Allen Hall Seminary and his prayerful discernment has led him to ask the Cardinal for permission to withdraw. This request has been granted. The Cardinal thanks Fr Philip for this searching discernment and for his continuing reflection. Fr Philip will continue his ministry as Parish Priest at Staines-upon-Thames. The appointment of the Pastoral Director is pending. Fr. Philip will continue his current ministry as parish priest of Our Lady of the Rosary Church in Staines. All I can say is God help Staines! No doubt this is due to the publicity — Church Militant have followed the story and featured it prominently in their evening

What is required for the proper formation of priests in the Archdiocese of Westminster? When writing the job description for the new Pastoral Director at Allen Hall Seminary in Chelsea, what was on the checklist for the Cardinal? Well, looking at the appointee, Fr Philip Dyer-Perry it appears the check list included: Support for legal abortion, condemnation of pro-life clergy Support for LGBT issues Support for BLM Liturgy abuse on a scale not seen since 1970 I have heard from a number of Westminster clergy over the last couple of weeks concerned about the appointment which one priest described to me as “wrong in every way”. This really is a head scratcher, what is Cardinal Nichols thinking? Some clergy have speculated that this appointment is about moving a problematic priest away from the people. This is the kind of strategy which got the Cardinal in trouble with the IICSA . One priest said that he was being put there for his benefit more than for the students but seminary does not e

Trent Horn is an adjunct professor of apologetics at Holy Apostles College and staff apologist at Catholic Answers. He has an academic, thorough style which avoids scoring easy points or driving traffic by focusing on scandal. This can make some of his YouTube videos quite difficult to watch unless you relish facts and dislike salacious or hyperbolic reporting. This is part of the reason I was surprised to see Trent doing a full video on Father James Martin . You know Father James, he's this guy: This is important. Father James Martin's reach and popularity is enormous. He has 300,000 Twitter followers, far more than any other American bishop or priest or lay Catholic commentator, and he Tweets a lot. Why does he have so many followers? Well because he has exposure born of the fact that he is a priest who speaks against the Church and Church teaching. He doesn't do this explicitly or angrily. He does it subtly and gently and in the name of love. But he IS doing it and he i

On Saturday I took part in the March4Life Lifestream event travelling to Birmingham to appear in a round table discussion on raising pro-life kids. There is a great deal of really valuable material and discussion from the weekend and I want to share as much of it as possible with you here. I think this is an incredible and powerful testimony. Fr Philomeno James is one of the Gosport Friars, he is a pro-life advocate who is responsible for many 40 Days for Life campaigns. This is a must watch, particularly for men who have been affected by abortion. If you have been hurt by abortion you can find healing at Rachel's Vineyard www.rachelsvineyard.org.uk Fr Philomeno James Personal Testimony: LifeStream21 from March for Life UK on Vimeo .

Or perhaps I should entitle this blog "Eucharistic Incoherence"? If you haven't heard, there is an almighty row going on in the Church right now surrounding Eucharistic coherence. In this blog post I ask why are Catholic Bishops trying to suppress discussion & promote eucharistic incoherence in the USA? The row has been triggered by the US President, Joe Biden, who has expanded funding for abortion from the very moment he took office . He has done this while literally waving his Rosary at voters . Biden also has a picture of a meeting with Pope Francis behind his desk in the oval office : The point here is that he is very public about his Catholic credentials. And yet he is very publicly acting in direct opposition to very clear fundamental tenets of Catholic teaching. The Catholic Church has long taught that “Those. . .obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to holy communion.” (Can. 915). Abortion, the killing of innocent unborn children

This is wonderfully profound reflection on human suffering well worth sharing. When I lost my beloved daughter , it felt like I was literally hanging on the Cross. I knew then what it meant to radically enter into Christ's Passion with Him. It was like the only person who could truly empathise with what I was going through was Jesus. It's not an experience I would wish on anyone else, but, if you’re in a hospital, unable to receive Him, remember that especially now, mystically, are ARE Him.