De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

  Damian Thompson is in Rome and has secured an interview with Cardinal Pell. It is well worth a listen: As always, the Cardinal does a great job of clearly giving his opinion while being loyal and faithful to the Pope. On the Vatican/ China deal, Pell, the former Vatican Prefect for the Economy, states: 'I know high-up people in the Vatican are very dissatisfied with the way things are going,' The Cardinal uses this example to show how there is a lack of transparency in the Bergoglian Vatican: 'The agreement is there to try to get a bit of space for the Catholics. Obviously that's praiseworthy. [But] I don't think we've gained anything. The persecutions seem to be continuing. In some places they've got worse.' Nobody 'outside a small circle' knows the details of the agreement, 'which seems to me to be quite irregular.' Speaking on the weirdness of the synod, Pell remarks that there is a strange disconnect between Pope Francis' ow...

  Damian Thompson has followed the career of Archbishop Arthur Roche for many years. He is not a fan. Roche had earned a reputation for incompetence when bishop in Leeds. This 2014 article, from The Tablet reports on his legacy of debt. He also controversially closed almost half the parishes in the diocese in a brutal campaign which caused a great deal of hurt and frustration. Following the Responsa ad dubia this week, Damian has released a new podcast which talks about the man and his experience of him as well as what this means in the wider context of the Catholic Church under Pope Francis. Here's a hint: it isn't good! Listen here: 

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 ...