De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

This really is a must watch presentation. The premier English-language Vatican journalist, Edward Pentin of the National Catholic Register , offers a journalist’s objective evaluation of a climate of fear in Rome, the Synod on the Family, Amoris Laetitia , and the crisis in the Church during the reign of Pope Francis. Pope Francis has "a disregard for absolutes and traditional teaching" says the respected journalist. The Pope is fermenting schism, preaching politics, and concerned most with power, although he genuinely believes he is doing the best for the Church. Pentin here gives a factual catalogue of spurious interventions, manipulations, monitorings which continue to lead to a breakdown of trust in the Vatican where the behaviour is being reduced to that of a boarding school, to quote Cardinal Müller. Vatican officials have left or will soon leave as a result of the conditions, he has an account of one official who feels the Pope and the Bishops are "trying...

Am I being unreasonable? On BBC Radio 4's today programme this morning at 08:46 John Humphrys led an item discussing Pope Francis convention of his "shadow cabinet" this week. Apparently, the council "Mavericks to a man..." quoth Humphrys, have been brought together "for a first round of talks on reforming the Catholic Church." WHAT? Where on earth did that come from? This is a Church whose soul purpose is to hold the Apostolic teaching given to us in perpetuity-unchanged-until the parousia, the second coming of Christ. What's to change? Sure, administration, bureaucracy mal-administration...In other words, management. But the stuff itself, the whole point is that objective truth does not change. That's the whole history of the Church. Humprhys, in typically balanced, journalistic, form, sums up the Church by explaining that it's teaching is so hopelessly out of date that everyone in the whole world things it is completely d...

Habemus Papam! I've spent an rather exciting evening in front of the t.v. watching, first the white smoke issue from the chimney and then waiting to see who had been elected. I was completely shocked, I hadn't even considered that it might be Jorge Bergoglio, the self-effacing Jesuit from Argentina. Now I feel somewhat underwhelmed, having spent the last few weeks praying for Scola as my adopted Cardinal, and reading about Ouellet, Tagle, O'Malley. Then someone I haven't even heard of is elected: who is this man? When he came out onto the balcony I was a bit perplexed that he was not wearing the papal mozzetta and that he took off the papal stole immediately after giving the blessing. I was worried because it felt like an immediate repudiation of the liturgical return to signs and symbols which had been one of the hallmarks of Pope Benedict XVI's reign. I felt a bit panicked. However, after a couple of days of reading everything I can about Pope Francis, ...