De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

In the context of this article by the excellent Phil Lawler, Dr. Peter Kwasniewski offers the following comment: Not long ago, I was involved in a fairly intense discussion of whether Pope Francis is an evil man. One side said "yes, absolutely, you can see that from his years-long patterns of equivocation, ambiguity, and deception, his personnel selections and promotions, his attitude of contempt for tradition, his arrogance, insults, etc." The other side said "no, we don't know enough about his internal state, his knowledge, his capacities, to be able to make such a claim. All we can say is that he's confused, mistaken, and misled." I tried for a while to hold the second position, but then I gave up, as it's so counterfactual. Just read this piece (if you dare) by Phil Lawler about the pope's recent Roman Rota speech, and see what conclusions you draw about the kind of pope who could say such things. As another friend said to me: "I truly beli...

Jason and Crystalina Evert, picture: Facebook Ireland, my ancestral homeland, has turned away from the light over the last decade or so and there's virtually no one to stand against the flow of darkness. As I have opined over a number of years now , the faith of the once proud land of saints and scholars, the tiny island that evangelised half the world, has been eroded until it is little more than superstition. This epidemic of agnosticism and apathy has been brought about by a lack of teaching, episcopal hypocrisy and an appalling record of abuse. The bishops in Ireland continue to be utterly useless, lording it up in massive domiciles surrounded by luxury and privilege while doing absolutely nothing to combat the tide of secularism drowning the country. For example the bishop who argued that St John Henry Newman wouldn't have converted if he lived today , or the bishop who's Facebook page trots out karmic Disney memes in place of anything even vaguely Cathol...

After the Pope admonishes Italian footballers (soccer players for my American readers) for making the sign of the cross before matches, I had to - yet again - cock an eyebrow and say "what the...?" Italy’s soccer manager Roberto Mancini says he made a Sign of the Cross during games but “then we went to the Pope” who said, “‘Why are you making the Sign of the Cross, don't you have other thoughts at that time?' So since then I don't do it. I don't want to make the Pope angry” https://t.co/SLH2NrdDXT — Edward Pentin (@EdwardPentin) December 23, 2019 The Pope has previously caused a great deal of consternation by not making the sign of the cross, on numerous occasions he has refused to give his apostolic blessing at an audience: This morning Pope Francis met with the Italian Red Cross. The Pope refused to give his Apostolic Blessing, probably as not to offend the handful of non-Catholics. Instead saying "I ask the blessing of God - God the Father ...

Last week, Pope Francis made this much reported  remark : “Do I love God or dogmatic formulations?” We might be tempted to think that the false opposition and sentimentality implicit in the question is characteristic of modern Jesuits. And no doubt it is, of some of them. However, as the Catholic Scholar ‎Peter Kwasniewski‎ shows in his  latest article at LifeSite , Francis's statement sharply contrasts with the views of five major modern Jesuit theologians: Fr. Pierre Rousselot, S.J. (1878–1915); Fr. Emile Mersch, S.J. (1890–1940); Fr. Henri de Lubac, S.J. (1896–1991); Fr. Piet Fransen, S.J. (1913–1983); Fr. Avery Dulles, S.J. (1918–2008). So does this mean that Francis is an outlier even among his own order? This article contains quotations from all five in which they show why (in the words of one):  "Take away dogma and you take God away; to touch dogma is to touch God. To sin against dogma is to sin against God." Pope Francis continues to ...

Fr Dwight Longnecker is an excellent priest and commentator and one with whom I tend to agree, but I was really quite surprised at his latest blog post about EMHC (Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion). The piece basically says that EMHC were "a measure introduced as numbers at mass in large churches" (they're in every church, irrespective of numbers, in fact in I've been to Masses where the priest has sat down and left the EMHC to distribute communion) "and the reception of the precious blood became more commonplace." Of course, once the reception of the precious blood was introduced, EMHC became practically essential in most parishes, unless you had four priests! Fr Dwight states that along with the altar servers, EMHC help to establish an atmosphere of reverence at Mass[!!!!!] He argues that their body language, prayerful attitude and reverent treatment of the sacred vessels, the host and the precious blood helps to support the overall sense o...