De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

It was really counter-intuitive to hear on BBC Radio 4 this morning that, following an internal review, the BBC are set to increase their coverage of religions. Unsurprisingly, the year-long review found that people of all faiths were “often absent, poorly presented or satirised”. The corporation’s religion and ethics review, which is out today, proposes a variety of improvements such as including religious themes in the broadcaster’s popular dramas and soaps on both TV and radio, more documentaries covering religious and ethical issues being commissioned and for popular programmes such as The One Show to celebrate Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Jewish holy days. The BBC newsroom’s global religious affairs team will be expanded and the Thought for the Day slot on Radio 4 will be more closely linked to news items with women and young people. Figures from a wider range of religions will be invited to contribute. The proposals echo a new set of rules from Ofcom, which in October ordere...

This is an article featured on Catholic Voices today that refers to an item on BBC News last night which needs to be read and shared widely. I really found this upsetting because it is insidious and plays to the secular narrative whether any concern for truth or integrity. It really is poor journalism and the Beeb needs to be called on it and really should apologise! The CV article is as follows: Last night, a report on BBC News on Pope Francis’s  visit to Auschwitz  claimed that it was a visit motivated by reparation for the Church’s silence during the Holocaust. (The full clip is not available on the BBC website). In fact, the visit was part of the Church’s corporate commitment to remembering the Holocaust so that it may never be repeated — a commitment made by previous popes (see John Allen at  Crux ).  The idea that the Church was ‘silent’ during the Holocaust is an old canard that has been comprehensively rebutted by historians (...

Further to BBC Radio 4 Today Programme's item on the G8 Cardinals this morning, here's a video from Rome Reports with Pope Francis welcoming the ‘group of eight’ cardinals to Rome for three-day summit: Pope Francis institutionalised the group of the eight Cardinals he appointed to help him reform the governance of the Church. The group, informally known as the G8, will officially be called the 'Council of Cardinals.' It's also the first step in the reform of the Roman Curia. Just hours before the ten members officially start meeting, the Vatican released more information about the structure and how it'll work. The Council of Cardinals will be a permanent group, but the Pope can modify who's in it. Fr. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican Spokesperson said: “The advisory meetings with the Council of Cardinals can be done as a group or individually. So it's not necessary to always meet together as a group. The structure is also open regarding the topics br...

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...