De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

  Speculation is growing that diminutive Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna is soon to be appointed prelate for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith , the oldest among the nine congregations of the Roman Curia. Edward Pentin has provided an exhaustive analysis of this which you can read here . In it, Pentin details the positive things about Scicluna, but also how he seems to have changed dramatically under this papacy and has said and done some deeply problematic things. Scicluna held positions in the Roman Curia from 1995 to 2012, when he was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Malta. Both as a curial official and since becoming a bishop he has conducted investigations into sexual abuse by clergy on behalf of the Holy See and led a board that reviews such cases. He has been called "the Vatican's most respected sex crimes expert" by the Washington Post . Scicluna obtained a doctorate in canon law at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rom...

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...

Recently I saw this story doing the rounds where Pope Francis caused a man who identified as homosexual to cry when he told him that a person has “dignity” no matter if the person has homosexual tendencies “like this or has an attitude like this.” The man later told reporters that he understood the Pope’s words as an affirmation of his homosexuality and a message against those “who hold extreme religious views of anti-homosexuality.” Actually what Pope Francis said is hard to criticise, we should always approach the subject (in my opinion) from the fundamental teaching that all human beings are created in the image and likeness of God and therefore have equal dignity. But is this what the Pope is really about? In the same week, we have seen Cardinal " nighty-night baby " Tobin state that Church teaching on homosexuality is "unfortunate"!! It is beyond me frankly to understand how one can be a Cardinal in the Catholic Church and consider its' main t...

Priests who promote homosexuality in direct contradiction to Church teaching justify their new approach by saying that they are "accompanying" same-sex attracted people to faith. In fact, if one delves even a little below the superficiality of this duplicitous pretence one can see how this nonsense can never work and the reality is that are in fact achieving the opposite. History demonstrates that SSA people will either work to change Church teaching, as the Westminster LGBT+ group who recently spent time with Pope Francis do , or, if they are honest, they will recognise they only really have two options: conform their lives to Christ or leave. For a parent, priests who do this are their worst nightmare, particularly in a secular culture that constantly positively promotes such lifestyles. Faced with this parental challenge, where does one go to for help? If you are a Catholic, you go to the Church and her tradition to find a way to guide your child through this chall...

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are confusing you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let that one be accursed! As we have said before, so now I repeat, if anyone proclaims to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let that one be accursed! ~ Galatians 1:6 f At the outset of this Papacy many Catholics, including myself, held the Archbishop of Malta, Charles Scicluna in great esteem. When he was appointed I wrote this glowing appraisal , and again a few days later when Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith of the Catholic Herald said that Malta now has a world class bishop to lead it . And so it seemed. Scicluna had the pedigree too. In 1991 he obtained a doctorate in canon law at the Pontifical Gregorian Unive...

Finally the torturous sex abuse summit in Rome has drawn to a close. Torturous because it has been so incredibly cringe-worthy to see the Cardinals and Bishops Pope Francis has chosen to lead this summit trot out errors, buzzwords and meaningless platitudes on a world stage. And no one is buying what they are selling. Key moments of cringe for me were Archbishop Scicluna, who has already shown himself to be the Pope's useful idiot , stating the direct opposite to the Catechism of the Catholic Church: At Presser for Vatican Sexual Abuse Summit #PBC2019 , Sandro Magister asks why "homosexuality" was missing from discourses this morning, @BishopScicluna says homosexuality, like heterosexuality, is a human condition "that does not predispose one to sin" pic.twitter.com/lmTGe5orr2 — Catholic Sat (@CatholicSat) February 21, 2019 Cardinal Marx telling everyone how the Church had destroyed documents to protect abusers: At Presser for Vatican Sexual Abuse S...

There is so much to read and so much information to take in about the devastating Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report into abuse in the Catholic Church. The harrowing 1,356-page document is the result of the office of the attorney general’s investigation into allegations of sexual abuse by priests in the dioceses of Pittsburgh, Allentown, Erie, Greensburg, Harrisburg and Scranton. Two other Pennsylvanian dioceses — Philadelphia and Altoona-Johnstown — were spared only because they had been previously investigated. The numbers speak for themselves: More than 300 priests in the six dioceses sexually abused a large number of minors over the span of seven decades. The number of victims is estimated at 1,000 at least, but it may actually be significantly higher. The report claims that the priest abusers were routinely shielded or moved by bishops and Church officials. “All of [the victims] were brushed aside, in every part of the state, by Church leaders who preferred to protect the abu...

Cheers Charlie boy, the red hat is in the post! It's been a busy old week for Archbishop Charles Scicluna in Malta. Well there's lots to do when you are tasked with the dismantling of the Catholic Faith you know! This week the pint-sized prelate has: Capitulated on contraception   Welcomed Islam to Malta  in a manner which has even stunned the Muslims!  And was thanked by Pope Francis for his wonderful guidelines on Chapter 8 of Amorous lacivious  Footnote: Minions are small, yellow creatures who have existed since the beginning of time, evolving from single-celled organisms into beings who exist only to serve history's most despicable masters.

Given Bishop Philip Egan's tweet this morning, there can be no doubt that interpretations of Amoris Laetitia are making it really difficult for relations between bishops & priests. People are genuinely confused and that confusion is only being exacerbated by bishops giving differing interpretations, with Bishop Egan, for example, interpreting Amoris Laetitia in the context of Church teaching, s ee here , but Archbishop Scicluna stating publicly that "Whoever wishes to discover what Jesus wants from him, he must ask the Pope, this Pope, not the one who came before him, or the one who came before that. This present Pope." Which is not what the Church has ever taught! Now we are left wondering, does Cardinal Müller speak with an authoritative voice?  Some claim that his interview  presents an authoritative perspective on Amoris Laetitia , but if that is in fact the case, why a newspaper interview and not a CDF notification? Of course, the latter is t...

As a dear priest said to me very recently, it's always the way in the Church- or so it seems- that it is those who espouse a liberal attitude who are the most virulent and need their Storm Troopers to enforce their will on the faithful, while so called "Trads" like Benedict XVI just quietly get on with the work of deepening & explaining the faith by example. I often think how hurtful it must have been to have Bugnini's dreadful modernisms foisted on the post concilliar Church - the stories I have heard are just dreadful. But while those who have never been particularly concerned with following the teachings of Christ praise Pope Francis for his daring attempt to engage with the world, the true casualty of this dreadful papacy will be the credibility of Catholic teaching. For what authority has any organisation which teaches hard truths about human realities like marriage, for a thousand years or so, if it can then dispose of them in a single, verbose and del...