De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

Gavin gives a particularly excellent explanation of why the only place to be to be close to Jesus is the Catholic Church in this, our latest Catholic Unscripted video. I really enjoyed Gavin's explanation of why he is a Catholic and his discussion of some of the arguments he has encountered from Anglicans as to why they are not Catholic. He goes on to discuss the abuse crisis and explains why we should not be surprised and why we must stand behind the sanctity of the priesthood.

Peter D. Williams is promoting an open letter to the Bishops of England and Wales from Catholic laity which sets out some very compelling points and a litany of church safeguarding failings. Recently I was removed from a speaking event because the host was "concerned" my presence would upset the bishops in some way. Why the concern? Because I don't keep quiet about abuses of office the bishops are guilty of. Nor will I. It is childish and cowardly to consider that we must curtail honesty for some false show of unity when incredibly serious issues are at stake: this is just one example of the incredibly serious nature of the duty bishops accept. And their failure to properly execute that duty. There is a really worrying tendency among some Catholics, perhaps especially those who seem the bishops as a means to accelerating their own careers, seem perfectly willing to ignore the utter failure of the collective episcopate to perform any of their basic functions with even com...

The Rt. Reverend Jean-Marc Micas, bishop of Lourdes, the town in the French Pyrenees which is the site of the apparitions to Bernadette Soubirous in 1858 and a huge centre of Marian devotion and pilgrimage, has announced he “cannot ignore” the “great distress” that mosaics commissioned from the workshop of disgraced Jesuit rapist and serial abuser Marko Rupnik cause. The mosaics illustrate the luminous mysteries of the Holy Rosary instituted in Rosarium Virginis Mariae , by Pope Saint John Paul II in 2002. The mosaics, located on the façade of the Rosary Basilica have been controversial since they were installed, as is acknowledged by the bishop in his statement, although, he says, on the whole they have been admired. Bishop Micas says he is concerned that the controversy surrounding the artist may cause victims, he considers this "cannot be ignored" and is therefore considering whether they should be taken down. The bishop has already met with the Rector of the Shrine, Fr....

  Today, Birmingham Archdiocese have published an independent review undertaken by Barnardo’s on behalf of the Archdiocese in relation to the management of concerns about Joseph Quigley, a priest in the Archdiocese. As stated in the report, Quigley was convicted at Warwick Crown Court of four counts of engaging in sexual activity with a child, two counts of sexual assault, one count of child cruelty and two counts of false imprisonment. He was sentenced, in January 2021, to 11 years and 6 months for his offences and will be required to sign the sexual offenders register on his release.  This was 12 years after the Archdiocese discovered he was an abuser, and did nothing. What it doesn't say is that Quigley is the author of the Birmingham Archdiocese's first foray into sex education, All That I Am , a programme which was highlighted as deeply worrying by numerous blogs after its release. In the programme, published in 2001, Quigley (diagnosed as "a sexual sadist & voye...

Some 216,000 children have been sexually abused by members of the French Catholic clergy since 1950, an independent inquiry has found . I cannot overstate how much damage this does to the Church. Of course, Catholics tend to immediately engage in damage limitation when confronted with facts like this suggesting that abuse is a part of much of societies institutions historically and that the proportion of priests who abuse is far lower in the Church than it is in wider society.  These things may well be true, but the direct hypocrisy makes the abuse of minors by clergy a perfect tool for the devil to undermine the Church. It is a perversion of the mission and purpose for which the institution exists. It is an opposite image of Christ hiding in the heart of His bride on earth. It is this stark and jarring contrast that makes abuse in the Church uniquely appalling. This kind of abuse necessarily involves a perversion of the priesthood and the trust which is implicit in the role, manip...

ICSA - The Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse have published their investigation report examining the Roman Catholic Church’s response to allegations of child sexual abuse. The report finds that the Church prioritised its own reputation above the welfare of children for decades and concludes that even today present Church leaders protected the Church rather than protecting victims and that Pope Francis' refusal to cooperate with the investigation demonstrates that he is at odds with his own espoused zero tolerance policy towards abuse in the Church. We've released our investigation report examining the Roman Catholic Church’s response to allegations of child sexual abuse. It finds that the Church prioritised its own reputation above the welfare of children for decades. Read it here - https://t.co/QnXGUU8mP6 pic.twitter.com/irjC0gr7Nq — InquiryCSA (@InquiryCSA) November 10, 2020 The full report can be downloaded from the ICSA website here .  The report concludes that a review of...

I was away last week at a gathering of prominent Catholics worried about what is going on in the Church. Part of the discussion was about the commonality of bad practise among bishops. This can be observed across the global Church but the specific discussion revolved around the dynamics in the UK and the USA. Since starting my blog I have noticed 1. They don't want us to know what's going on. 2. They do not feel accountable to us who fund their activities. 3. They absolutely have no regard for the Catholic faith whatsoever. The majority of us simply are unaware of what is going on and how bad it is. Blissfully unaware. Those of us who are publicly critical are sometimes criticised by good lay people and clergy who perhaps find it almost impossible to believe the pope, a bishop, a priest or religious could abuse the trust we put in them and mislead us with regard to the faith -- let alone money or sexual abuse. Either that or they prefer to maintain the status quo. ...

In a recent post on Lifesite , Dr Joseph Shaw shares some incredibly important insights into the abuse crisis which has engulfed the Church and which continues to damage it. Catholic clerical sex abuse of minors has become a mainstream tenet of our society. A favourite "joke" for comedians like Ricky Gervais and Jimmy Carr, who seek to denigrate the faith. The perception for many outside the Church is that Catholicism is synonymous with abuse. How incredibly sad and damaging is that? I don't blame them, I blame the perpetrators and the men who allowed it to happen and still allow it to happen. In my personal experience, this is because, at best, they fear for what will happen to them if they tell the truth. They prefer not to cause a fuss and hope that it will all die down in time. In some instances they fear a witch hunt. At worst, they are complicit. In his blog , Dr Shaw distinguishes three layers to the problem: the cover-up; the refusal to face the sociological re...

In what may be the most important act of his Pontificate, Pope Francis has abolished the Pontifical secret in cases of alleged sexual violence and child abuse . He has also decided to change the norm regarding the crime of child pornography by making the possession and dissemination of pornographic images of children under the age of 18 which fall under the category of delicta graviora – the most grave delicts. The new instruction specifies that such information be “treated in such a way as to ensure its security, integrity and confidentiality” established by the Code of Canon Law to protect the “good name, image and privacy ” of those involved. But this “confidentiality”, the instruction also states, does “not prevent the fulfilment of the obligations laid down in all places by civil laws” including the possible obligation to report, and “the execution of enforceable requests of civil judicial authorities”. In addition, those reporting the crime, the victims and witnesses “shal...

Do you recall Zanchetta  The Pope's best buddy from Argentina who he made a bishop bypassing all canonical procedure in 2013? Well he now has an international arrest warrant on his head for multiple  sexual assaults  on young men. The Vatican claims they were only made aware of these assaults a few months ago, but Associated Press heard back in January from Zanchetta's former Vicar General that the Vatican actually received information in 2015 and 2017 that an Argentine bishop close to Pope Francis had taken naked selfies, exhibited “obscene” behaviour and had been accused of misconduct with seminarians. Our Pope does love a pervert, doesn't he? There's a huge list of perverts he has promoted, just think about Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia  painting his own bare bum in his church mural , or Francesco Coccopalmerio's  cocaine fuelled gay orgies at the Vatican ,  James Martin, Thomas Rosica , Cardinal "nighty-night baby" Tobin , McCarrick , Ricca ...

At the weekend, the Catholic Herald reported that 'LGBT Masses' Return to Britain. The story reports that Masses for the LGBT community have returned to Britain, almost seven years after Archbishop Vincent Nichols ended them in Westminster The article goes on: there has clearly been a shift since 2012, when Archbishop Nichols (who has since been made a cardinal) said that, while it was important to give pastoral care to “people with same-sex attraction”, the Mass was a “universal” event and so it should not be restricted to a particular group. He also implied that Catholic sexual teaching was at odds with the beliefs of some LGBT activists. This is not accurate however, as Cardinal Nichols had no intention of stopping the Masses, he simply moved the venue . You can read my full report on the consistent furthering of the LGBT agenda by the Cardinal from 2015  here . The Herald picked up this story from Lifesite 's report which I commented on and linked to here ....

The news is breaking this morning that Cardinal Pell's appeal against conviction for historical child abuse has been dismissed on a 2-1 majority. He is to remain in prison and will not be eligible for parole for over 3 years. This is the judgement in full: Basically it boils down to this: The appeal judges summed up what their verdict pivoted on: the complainant seemed genuine, and the defence's evidence that the charges were implausible was dismissed on the grounds it "may mislead or confuse the jury"... — Stat Crux (@Stat_Crux_) August 21, 2019 So the evidence was in danger of leading the jury to dismiss the case against Pell, and this was bad because...All I can think is because they want Pell convicted. Can you think of an alternative scenario? one person's word against twenty-seven - that one person's testimony a replica of a US case reported in Rolling Stone? When deceased 2nd victim said it never happened? Mob-hate can...

Given the current anti-religious climate, it is well worth investing a few minutes listening to this Holy Smoke Podcast which looks at the disturbing  conviction here in Britain of Carl Beech , for inventing a non-existent Westminster sex ring in which VIPs supposedly raped and murdered children. He found a disgracefully gullible audience in the Metropolitan Police. Beech’s serial lies were designed to destroy the lives or posthumous reputations of Lord Bramall, former head of the British Army, Sir Edward Heath, former PM, Lord Brittan, former home secretary, ex-Tory MP Harvey Proctor and Lord Janner, the late Labour politician. Beech has been jailed for 18 years. Journalist Catherine Lafferty, who was in court for his trial, talks to Thompson about the troubling parallels with the conviction of Cardinal Pell , former head of the Vatican finances, for child rape. This is legally sensitive territory – Pell is appealing against his the unanimous verdict of a Melbourne jury ...

I think this interview between Michael Voris & Patrick Coffin is a must watch because it gives a "real" reaction to what is going on in the Church from two people who are "inside" in that they watch and investigate and report on it every day. Some really important insights. I don't think things are this bad here in the UK if I'm honest. I do believe there is a demonic influence in the episcopacy in the US; the degree of abuse, collusion & cover-up that has gone on is more than could be possible under a gang of well-meaning but bungling bishops, there's some darker genius driving it and you can see how it links up. Here I honestly believe it is ineptitude and fear. The bishops are terrified of prosecution by the authorities, they're terrified of the laity and public finding out about the cover-ups that have gone on over the years and they are content to be concerned and preoccupied with their own petty concerns and not to look at the bi...