De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

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Still need to catch up with the Catholic Unscripted posts! In this packed episode we discuss some of the dramatic news around the Church over the last week. The controversial Vatican deal with the Chinese Communist Party seems to be under pressure as the Vatican released a bulletino at the weekend condemning China for breaching the terms of the deal. More at the Catholic Herald here .   While Gavin analysed the German Synodal Path: https://catholicherald.co.uk/the-synod-can-never-achieve-its-aim-of-being-catholic-in-a-different-way/   the Vatican held a meeting which delivered a firm smack down to the wayward German bishops, delivered by two leading Vatican officials https://catholicherald.co.uk/cardinals-ladaria-and-ouellet-condemn-german-synodal-path-in-vatican-report/   we discuss how this is very encouraging news for faithful Catholics! Gavin & I talk about the difference between the spooky spirit of Vatican II and the real teachings of the Council on t...

On Thursday the Vatican published reports prepared by Cardinal Luis Ladaria Ferrer , prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and Cardinal Marc Ouellet , prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops. The cardinals’ reports were first presented to Germany’s bishops on the final day of their ad limina visit to Rome on 18th November. Originally written in Italian, the texts were also published in German by Vatican News . You can read my report which has been published in The Catholic Herald here . Both reports were released by the Vatican in Italian and German, which added to the complexity of figuring out what was going on somewhat! I downloaded the German and translated it for both reports and - I have to say - I was really impressed! The reports were markedly different, each cardinal clearly addressing the German issue from the perspective of their own relevant dicastery. Ouellet from the collegial perspective of the episcopacy, Ladaria from a perspective of doctrinal clarity. C...

In an interview on EWTN, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone explains why he signed the letter to the German Church . His contacts in Germany tell him the faithful in Germany are pleading for help as too many German bishops' reject scripture and tradition on gender and sexual morality. This is another sad example of how impotent Pope Francis is in his role as the point of unity for the Church.

Almost a week ago I posted on the present situation in Germany where, following a correction from the CDF on the validity of blessing same sex relationships, there was a huge backlash with many bishops and priests openly flouting Church teaching and flying the "gay pride" flag. This is simply a symptom of the situation discussed in my post yesterday : as every parent knows well, if you don't teach and explain why something is wrong to your children, you can't be surprised when they go off in the wrong direction. Moreover, the Pope has been sending out strong pro-gay signals since he took office and has done nothing up to now to address the increasingly blatant flouting of this teaching throughout the Church (our own Cardinal has been at it for decades ). Pope Francis himself blessed a gay couple in July 2015 to later have Ciro Benedettini, the Vatican Spokesperson, asserting that in no way is the letter “meant to endorse behaviours and teachings unfit to the Gospel”....

Fr Mark Goring speaks to Alexander Tschugguel ( who pitched Pachamamma into the Tiber ) about what's going on in Germany & Austria right now. Alexander provides some valuable insight into the comments of Cardinal Schönborn, which have encouraged those seeking to resist the teaching of the Church - quite extraordinary when you think about it! It does demonstrate how we've got to this place. These subversive strains of the Church have been facilitated and allowed to proliferate by men like Schönborn who clearly compromised in this area, despite being credited with the authorship of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Indeed, his involvement with that volume shows how well these men hide in high office and are quite prepared to say things completely at odds with the agenda they seek to promote, depending on who is in charge. The very same game has long been played by our own Cardinal, Vincent Nichols .

How do you know that the Pope's spin doctors are mendacious and self-interested? Well, a really good clue is if something really big is going on which contradicts their consistent narrative and they completely ignore it. The German bishops are doing this right now, ignoring the pope, ignoring the Vatican, ignoring the curia and setting up their own "binding synodal process" which will lock in fundamental changes Catholic teaching, including: A reduction of clerical power Changes  regarding clerical celibacy Church teaching on sexual morality Issues they are justifying by linking them to the sex abuse crisis. The Vatican has written to the Germans stating that this new synodal assembly is not ecclesiologically valid. However German bishops appear determined to push through a new morality, despite it constituting a de facto break with Catholic authority and doctrine. We can see how this has progressed: the intercommunion debate forwarded by ze Germanz was...

Vatican tells German Bishops they've exceeded their authority. Completely unsurprisingly, news broke this morning that the German Church appears to have broken with Rome: "German bishops revolt against Rome" — The diocese of Regensburg published on Saturday an alternative draft statute to the synodal way, one that reportedly corresponded to the #Pope 's wishes, but it was rejected by the German bishops' conference permanent council by 21 to 3 votes https://t.co/aC0U2hmSbx — Edward Pentin (@EdwardPentin) September 14, 2019 What's happened is this: On Sept. 4, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, wrote to Cardinal Marx as head of the German bishops’ conference, expressing concerns at the German plans to form a Synodal Assembly as part of the “binding process” announced by Marx earlier this year. The letter was accompanied by a four-page legal assessment of the German plans by the Pontifical Commission for Legislative Te...

Daddy Pig                                                                                Cardinal Marx "The most terrifying words in 21st-century Catholicism are “I’m from the German Church and I’m here to enter into a synodal dialogue about new doctrinal insights.”" ~ Dan Hitchens It's true for GK Chesterton as always, when he stated: “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.” What better example could there be than the opulent, bloated German Church? These men have been pushing a particular agenda their whole lives. It consistently leaves people cold, disinterested & apathetic. It has destroyed vocations and wrecked Mass attendance . They so lack insight, intelligence & self-awareness that the only reaso...

The National Catholic Register reports that on Sept 11th, Archbishop Georg Gänswein (Prefect of the Papal Household and personal secretary to Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI), spoke at the presentation in Rome of an Italian translation of the book The Benedict Option, by U.S. journalist Rod Dreher. Archbishop Gänswein said that he regretted how only 9.8 percent of German Catholics go to Mass on Sunday, and stressed how the “so-called ‘Sunday Obligation’” is ancient and actually “the most precious distinguishing sign of Christians.” It struck me that, given the collapse of the Church in Germany, it is rather surprising how influential German prelates are with the present Pontificate. What amazes me is that pretty much everyone recognises that this is about money. In Germany, about 70% of church revenues come from church tax (Kirchensteuer), also called worship or cult tax (Kultussteuer) when referring to non-Christian religious bodies. This is about €9.2 billion (in 2010). The ch...

First he is in, then he is out, then he is in again, now he shakes it all about. Many of us dread the papal plane comments now. Yesterday, June 21st, during an in-flight news conference, the pope was asked about his recent decision requesting the Catholic bishops’ conference of Germany not publish nationwide guidelines for allowing Communion for such couples. Carol Glatz at CNS reports that in response he said the guidelines went beyond what is foreseen by the Code of Canon law “and there is the problem.” The code does not provide for nationwide policies, he said, but “provides for the bishop of the diocese (to make a decision on each case), not the bishops’ conference.” “This was the difficulty of the debate. Not the content,” he said saying it will have to be studied more. He said he believed what could be done is an “illustrative” type of document “so that each diocesan bishop could oversee what the Code of Canon Law permits. There was no stepping on the brakes,” he ...

You may recall this from April 19th, when it emerged that the Vatican had rejected the German Bishops’ Proposal for intercommunion for Protestant spouses. The same day German bishops denied that the Vatican had rejected the German Protestant Communion plan issuing a statement saying the reports are “false”. ++Luis Ladaria Prefect for the CDF Today, Vaticanista Sandro Magister reproduces a letter from Archbishop Luis Ladaria, the prefect of the CDF, to the German bishops written and sent “with the explicit approval of the pope,” blocking the publication of the document of the German bishops that ignited the controversy and reassigns the question to a more mature reflection at the level of the “universal” Church and of ecumenical relations with other Churches, apart from the Protestants, basically, saying that this decision is bigger than one bishop's conference. It is very interesting considering the document (which says how and when to allow communion for P...