De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

Pope Francis waves as he is welcomed by Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, left, General Secretary of the Synod of Bishops as he arrives at the Synod Hall for a morning session of the Synod of bishops at the Vatican, Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018. The meeting of bishops on young people runs from Oct. 3-28. (Credit: AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino.) Crux has learned that a preliminary version of that final document has been prepared and given to members of a drafting committee selected last week, with five members elected by the synod, two sitting on the body ex ufficio , and three appointed by the pope. Though it’s not clear who wrote the preliminary version, it was presented to the drafting committee by the synod office headed by Italian Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri (aka " the book thief ", you know, the Cardinal who lied about young people wanting LGBT in the instrumentum laboris ). When Crux -- who tend to be largely ambivalent to the shock waves caused by this papacy -- start su...

Further to the dreadful piece self-appointed papal interpreter Austen Ivereigh posted in Crux last week ( see my post here ), the editor, John Allen, has posted a quite extraordinary rebuke of both the content & the premise of the piece. Up to this point, Crux has never had formal editorial policies, because we’re a small enough operation I didn’t think we needed them. As of today, however, I’m implementing Policy #1. For “Star Trek” fans, you might think of this as our new “Prime Directive": Yes to vigorous discussion, no to personal attacks. Allen apologises, and goes so far as to say: I should not have allowed such personal criticism to appear, because ultimately everything that runs on Crux is my responsibility. How humiliating for Austen. I wonder if there was some outside pressure brought to bear that prompted such a comment from Allen? Ivereigh did issue an apology (Eccles posted on it here ) which basically amounted to   "Sorry, folks! I was right of c...