De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

Pope Francis is just back from a most extraordinary visit to Mongolia a country with just 1,450 Catholics and where the Catholic Church has only had a sanctioned presence since 1992, after Mongolia shrugged off its Soviet-allied communist government and enshrined religious freedom in its constitution. I scratched my head. Was this some extravagant embodiment of Bergoglio's "going out to the peripheries" rhetoric or some geopolitical wrangling, given the proximity of both China and Russia to Mongolia? But things were about to get crazier - much, much crazier, as Robert Royal summed up in his recent article in The Catholic Thing : "In the past week or so, the pope has: praised “that great imperial Russia” for its noble culture and humanity (a remark later admitted to be “badly phrased”); lauded Genghis Khan’s blood-soaked empire for its religious tolerance and “ pax mongolica ” (40 million killed, give or take); encouraged Chinese Christians to be good citizens of a na...

Pope Francis accepts an issue of 'La Civilta Cattolica' from Father Antonio Spadaro, editor of the Jesuit-run magazine, during a Feb. 9 meeting with editors and staff. (Credit: CNS photo/L'Osservatore Romano, handout.) Part of the problem with the Franciscan papacy are the clowns he seems to rely on. They are petty, ignorant and, far from the much lauded models of dialogue & accompaniment, seem intent on simply bullying anyone they disagree with. Who can forget this ridiculous episode?  Or this fiasco ? The latest cringe-making event has been co-authored by Francis' confidants, Antonio Spadaro and Marcelo Figueroa, the editor-in-chief of the Argentinean edition of the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano . It is this extraordinary essay on US religious politics published in the Jesuit magazine La Civiltà Cattolica . Writing for Crux , Fr Raymond de Souza states: If Jesuit Father Antonio Spadaro was not the editor of La Civiltà Cattolica , his recen...

Damian Thompson thinks it is. He makes an interesting point regarding Mitt Romney's beliefs: "Two points worth noting about this election. First, the Religious Right – and how dated that phrase already sounds – united around a candidate who, by most standards, is not even a Christian. The lack of an anti-Mormon backlash among orthodox Catholics and Protestants who were brought up to regard Latter-day Saints as sinister cultists tells its own story." I can't disagree. I witnessed a great deal of dismay at Romney's candidature from my American friends. I can't help but wonder if this means that a good number of Republicans did not vote for him? Certainly there is a broad swath of Christian American who would not have supported Romney, and probably, not Santorum either for his Catholic credentials. Everything I have read about Romney suggests his personal morality is of a very high standard, married to the same woman since he was seventeen, gave tons to ch...