De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

The German writer Martin Mosebach has written a piece on Traditiones custodes in First Things . He recognises that perhaps the most striking think about Traditiones custodes is the extent to which it constitutes a departure from the pope's professed style: with this document the pope... ...has given a command. He does this at a time when papal authority is unraveling as never before. The Church has long since advanced to an ungovernable stage. But the pope battles on. He abandons his dearest principles—“listening,” “tenderness,” “mercy”—that refuse to judge or give orders. Pope Francis is roused by something that troubles him: the tradition of the Church.  This is important because it exposes the modus operandi of those who seek to fundamentally change/ destroy the Church. They always speak of "dialogue" but they only seek dialogue where none should be had; i.e. about settled matters. This kind of talk always makes me nervous because, as Archbishop Chaput once pointed ...

Cardinal Müller recently responded to some questions from Catholic World Report about his recent “ Manifesto of Faith” and reaction to it, as well as leadership in the Church, loss of faith in the Church, clericalism, and the Vatican Summit on sexual abuse. It is well worth a read here . Müller is one of a very few cardinals who has had the courage to stand up for Christ and the Church. I find this deeply heartening - there is hope!! What I find deeply disheartening is those who have uncritically (publicly at least) accepted Pope Francis and promote his direction where they once were happy to promote Pope Benedict XVI's direction. Most obviously, this draws me back to 1 Corinthians 3   where St. Paul speaks of ' men of the flesh' (3:1); immature Christians who possess the Spirit but are enslaved to worldly ways of thinking. The 'jealousy and strife' (3:3) exhibited in Corinth was proof that many of them were spiritual infants. Real Christian maturity pr...

Massimo Faggioli is a Church historian, Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at Villanova University (Philadelphia) and contributing editor to Commonweal magazine. He was on the faculty at the University of St. Thomas (St. Paul, Minnesota) from 2009 to 2016, where he was the founding director of the Institute for Catholicism and Citizenship (2014-2015). Since 2017 he has been an adjunct professor at the Broken Bay Institute - The Australian Institute of Theological Education in Sydney, Australia. Faggioli is big defender of Pope Francis and well known for being quick with the ad homs and sparse on the theology. Last weekend, he publicly stated that the faith of today is different from the faith of the Saints, the faith of our fathers. He stated that what was Catholic once, is not Catholic anymore. Problem is the theological view conveyed by some of most active promoters of the Old Mass – theological views that are not Catholic anymore — Massimo Faggioli (@MassimoF...

Back in June, Fr Martin Boland, the Dean of Brentwood Cathedral, gave a lecture on the modern period as part of a diocesan centenary series. The thesis presented in this talk was The Spirit of the Second Vatican Council has been the guiding force in the life and structures of the Diocese of Brentwood over the past thirty five years . Although I found the content impeccably worded, it provides an excellent example of the "VII as rupture" school of thought. The section on the Liturgy is particularly telling. I recognise as Dean, he could hardly say much else. Yet there is a fundamental dissonance between the picture of the post-conciliar Church he paints and the reality. It left me wondering whether he really thinks like this or if he was told to say it? Fr Martin begins like this: Vatican II eschewed the forms and language of previous councils, and chose to find a more pastoral key to communicate its meaning. I would characterise this as the Second Vatican Council, the ...