De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

There were lots of interesting things said by the Pope in his meeting with Jesuits in Bratislava. I think it is a really important meeting, especially, as I noted here , because he makes it clear he knows it is all going to be made very public by Papal "yes man" Antonio Spadaro. He attacks tradition. He attacks those who question him calling them the devil and accusing them of attacking the Church & the office of Pope He pushes full sacramental integration for divorced & remarried people He endorses so-called gay marriage again He also claims that there are members of the curia who want him dead, and, although this has not been mentioned much at all in the English speaking world, the Italians seem to have really latched on to this particular bit of the Pope's meeting with numerous posts on the internet and stories in newspapers. Antonio Socci has written this piece on it entitled "Why is no one investigating those who want the Pope dead?" Here is my (li...

Pope Francis has decried abortion and euthanasia, saying that today’s “throwaway culture” leads to the killing of children and discarding of the elderly. Which is awesome.  Giving a speech on Monday in which he said that today’s “throwaway culture” leads to the killing of children and discarding of the elderly, the Pope strongly defended Catholic teaching on the fundamental and essential dignity of every human person from conception to natural death: “There is the discarding of children that we do not want to welcome with the law of abortion that sends them to the dispatcher and kills them directly. And today this has become a ‘normal’ method, a practice that is very ugly. It is really murder,” The speech marked the second time this month that Pope Francis has spoken out strongly about abortion. During a press conference on his return flight from Slovakia on Sept. 15, the pope repeatedly said that “abortion is murder” and compared the acceptance of abortion to “accepting daily m...

  If you are anything like me, you may have had some small people ask you at Mass today what Jesus meant when He said "if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off!" (Mk 9:45). There are two clear and interwoven messages from the readings today: do not seek self-aggrandisement in discipleship: do not belittle or limit those who seek & preach Christ, and the deadly nature of sin and the seriousness with which God treats it. In the First Reading (Numbers 11:25-29) Joshua was too much concerned for Moses' honour and pre-eminence which he thought, would be seriously jeopardised  if similar prophetic outbreaks were allowed outside the control of his leader (sound familiar? It does to me!). Moses, however, was far more concerned for the good of the people than for his own honour. The story illustrates the principle that prophetic gift is not restricted to any class and reveals a fine trait of Moses' character foreshadowing Jesus' reply to the sons of Zebedee in Luke 9...

  I could write a post every day at the moment about the confusing and worrying statements and decisions the Pope is making. Pope Francis to Council of Bishops’ Conferences of Europe: “To make the Church beautiful and welcoming we need together to look to the future, not to restore the past, which unfortunately is a fad. Restoring the past will kill us, it will kill everyone” pic.twitter.com/9xenYUo1R1 — Catholic Sat (@CatholicSat) September 23, 2021 According to this the Pope seems to be labouring under the misapprehension that 1974 is the future. These sorts of comments are coming too thick and fast to document presently. Tradiones custodes seems to have provided a kind of watershed moment in this papacy which cemented the curious yet constant attacks on "rigidity" and opened the flood gates allowing the Pope to reveal his real mission: the destruction of doctrinal and liturgical continuity in the Catholic Church. At the beginning of September, in a radio interview with ...

Antonio Spadaro , SJ, editor in Chief of La Civiltà Cattolica a periodical published by the Jesuits in Rome, Italy has posted an article about the Pope's meeting at the Nunciature in Bratislava on Sunday 12th September 2021 with 53 Slovak Jesuits. The article itself contains a number of references to Spadaro in what struck me as quite an unusual (and potentially self-aggrandising way). The inclusion of these comments demonstrates that the Pope is completely aware that his comments will be fully reported. This does not appear to temper what he says in any way however and as usual, the Pope engages in personal criticism and uses the meeting as an opportunity to attack his enemies in quite extraordinary ways. One of those present says: “I am two years younger than you in 1968 I entered the Society of Jesus as a refugee. I was a member of the Swiss Province for 48 years, and have now been here for 5 years. I have lived in very different Churches. Today I see that many people want to ...

Remember your leaders, those who spoke the word of God to you; consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings; for it is well for the heart to be strengthened by grace - Hebrews 13:7-9 Archbishop of Cashel and Emly Bishop Kieran O’Reilly has launched a new pastoral plan for his Archdiocese called "Seeds of Hope". O'Reilly stated that the Church must “step out of the past, embrace the present and move to the future”. OK I think we could all agree we need to do something. The Church has completely ceased to have a role in society and in Ireland it seems to have all but lost any moral authority it may have once had. A 2012 survey of Irish Catholics undertaken by the Association of Catholic Priests found the weekly mass attendance rate to be 35% on an all-island basis, while daily mass attendance was reported at 3%. I doubt things have imp...

Further to my recent blog about Malcolm McMahon OP, the Archbishop of dying Liverpool Archdiocese who wrote a letter mis-defining Tradition as something handed down from the Pope, a reader directed me to a letter McMahon wrote to priests which was printed in the Metropolitan Cathedral Newsletter . I have reproduced the pertinent section for readers here: The overt support for homosexual lifestyles here is quite frightening when one considers both the Cathedral Dean and the Archbishop are important members of the Catholic Church which has consistently asserted that sexual intercourse may only take place within marriage. If that is not true, or, if the unitive and procreative dimensions of intercourse are separated, the Church will have a great deal to answer for especially in terms of consistency and coherence. We will no longer be able to support Marriage, the family, or condemn fornication — as Our Lord clearly does in Sacred Scripture — or even masturbation. Perhaps these two priest...

In the Archdiocese of Liverpool, only 10% of baptised Catholics, or just 55,000, now attend weekly Sunday Mass & they are mostly over 55 years of age.The problems of vocations to the priesthood & religious are a reflection of what's happening with the laity. If you want to know why things are so bad, you could look back to the genesis of the decline which began with Archbishop Worlock's episcopate . From 1976-96 the rate of practise fell from 45% to 19% such an epic slump that it even made the BBC news. With his successor, Kelly, it fell further from 19% to 9.5%. Archbishop McMahon appears to completely signed up to the agenda which has wrought so much damage in his Archdiocese promoting a wacky synod which discussed topics like the ordination of women as I reported here . It makes no sense whatsoever to me to facilitate a discussion which seeks to further the cause of an issue which has no future. The time would be much better spent teaching why the Church will not ...

Miracles are at the heart of the Christian faith. Miracles are also often at the heart of disputes between science and religion. Are Miracles Possible According to Science? (Aquinas 101) - Prof. Karin Öberg 

What is wrong with the Catholic Church? After eight years of Pope Francis, a more appropriate question might be what is left? The "Synod on Synodality" seems the perfect expression of this papacy. A confusing, nonsensical navel gazing exercise with cartoonish logo and undecipherable documentation.  The Vatican has now LITERALLY taken to producing documents in crayon! God help us! pic.twitter.com/0qzaT1SsCv — Lepanto Institute (@LepantoInst) September 9, 2021 All the spurious wording about the Holy Spirit being present and leading us into "surprises" are all old and too familiar euphemisms for the changes which boil down to a whitewashing of Catholic teaching which have wrought so much damage on the Church in the name of " The Spirit of Vatican II ". All these changes have been tried and tested in other Christian denominations and the devastating results are well documented. So why are the Pope and his co-conspirators pushing ahead down this road to destr...

The Archbishop of Liverpool, Malcolm McMahon (aged 72) has long been touted in some circles as a Traditionalist. This may be because he invited the FSSP ( Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter see here ) to Warrington and had carried out ordinations in the Traditional Rite. It may be because he likes dressing up in the clobber: Whatever the reason, I have been very suspicious. He has always struck me as wonky. He has made some very peculiar comments about education , stating that he wants "age-appropriate sex education in all our schools" & said pregnant, unmarried teachers would be "exciting for the children". This is in direct contradiction to Vatican guidelines The Truth & Meaning of Human Sexuality which plainly teaches that it is wrong to intrude on children's natural innocence, and that sex education should not be introduced at primary school level. McMahon was the instigator, gate keeper and later the defender of LGBT infiltration of the Catholic Educ...