De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

At 11am this morning it was announced that John Wilson, up to now Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster, had been appointed Archbishop of Southwark by Pope Francis (his installation is to be on the 25th July at St George's Cathedral). This is an extremely important appointment for England and Wales and has taken quite a few people by surprise it seems. The archdiocese has an area of 3,000 km2 (1,200 sq mi) and covers the London Boroughs south of the Thames, the county of Kent and the Medway Unitary Authority. The Metropolitan See is in Southwark where the archbishop's seat is located at the Metropolitan Cathedral Church of Saint George The see is currently administered by the Most Reverend Peter Smith, LL.B., J.C.D. ++Smith has been largely inactive in Southwark for the last ten years or so, as were his two predecessors (both of whom are still living) which means the archdiocese is desperately in need of some inertia. It is widely rumoured that ++Smith was on a personal count...

In case you haven't heard yet Alabama has become the latest US state to move to restrict abortions by passing a bill to outlaw the procedure in almost all cases. The law includes a ban on abortion in cases of rape or incest. The mainstream media are reporting this in anything but an objective way and I for one never cease to be amazed at the way that questioning abortion's morality seems to be verboten in modern society. I have felt growingly uneasy that there's been no comment from the Church on this either. Have you heard one US cardinal or bishop come out in support of Alabama protecting babies from abortion murder? In Tennessee, Catholic bishops opposed a “heartbeat bill” Have you heard Francis offer words of support and encouragement? — Nick Donnelly (@ProtecttheFaith) May 16, 2019 This despite the reality that this is a shibboleth issue for our culture and times. The centrality of this argument was made clear recently by Bishop Robert Barron in this...