De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

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...

My copy of Lost Shepherd , complete with tea mug rings! Phil Lawler, who's excellent book Lost Shepherd is a must read (it provides an essential catalogue of the growing list of disgraceful decisions and events in this papacy) has written an excellent article referencing the current talk of schism  here . I’ve started blocking people who use the word “schism” incorrectly. My blood pressure is high enough without all y’all’s nonsense. — Ed. Condon (@canonlawyered) September 17, 2019 Of course, the talk was started by Pope Francis himself who, on his last flight , said he did not fear schism. In response, Lawler wrought this , stating that: Well, I am. And I’m afraid of any Roman Pontiff who isn’t afraid of splitting the universal Church. Which means that, yes, I’m afraid of Pope Francis. In this new article, Lawler offers this interesting analysis of the threat of schisms: "'The most 'progressive' Catholics recognize they cannot engineer the radi...

Ed Condon is a Catholic who's learned opinion I really value and often quote him on my blog. On September 14th he tweeted this: If someone tells you the only way to be authenticity Catholic is to break with the pope and the bishops, they are - at best - a Protestant. — Ed. Condon (@canonlawyered) September 14, 2019 I didn't get it. He does sometimes write subliminal Tweets, like this one: I love priests. I try to love all priests for the sacrifice they make for the faithful. But I’m really uncomfortable with the kind of priest who seems to spend most of his time online talking about sex and sexuality. It’s not healthy. — Ed. Condon (@canonlawyered) September 15, 2019 Which was clearly a response to Twitter going mad about Fr James Martin's latest trollage: Many #LGBT Catholics still feel unwelcome in their own church. But good news: More parishes are now trying to make LGBT Catholics feel at home. Here, one parishioner talks about the welcome that he, h...

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...

Pope Francis + Plane = Pain. This public comment from Msgr Pope, a much read and well loved priest of the Arch Diocese of Washington, was prompted by the Pope's latest plane comments on his journey home from Africa. As a son abandoned by a father who chose immorality over paternal duties, I recognise the tone of these comments - they are as a wounded child to his father, trying to understand the abandonment. I sense this is a feeling millions of Catholics are feeling as this papacy rages on, seemingly completely unstoppable. Pope Francis' rampage appears all powerful, with no one even interested in commenting. This always strikes me as a stark contrast with Pope Benedict XVI, who, it is told once exclaimed to Bishop Fellay who seized the opportunity to remind the Pope that he is the Vicar of Christ, possessed of the authority to take immediate measures to end the crisis in the Church on all fronts. The Pope replied thus: “My authority ends at that door.” (Castel G...

In the latest Holy Smoke Podcast, canon lawyer Dr Ed Condon suggests that Pope Francis style of governance is more akin to that of a Latin American dictator than the Supreme Bridge Builder (Pontifex Maximus). However, despite the scandals rolling out of the Vatican on an almost unprecedented basis, he reflects on the fact that the liberal media aren’t paying any attention. As Damian Thompson points out : Coverage in secular newspapers is patchy, biased and unreliable – The Times is perhaps the worst offender – while certain Catholic journalists who write about the Vatican appear to be taking dictation from a liberal faction in the Church that is trying to hijack this pontificate.   I say ‘hijack’, because the progressive churchmen who present themselves as Francis’s allies are pretending to be better connected than they are. The Pope frequently wrong-foots them by saying the opposite of what they expect. [case in point here is the terrible Charlie Gard affair] Dr Condo...

Painting of Jan Hus in Council of Constance by  Václav Brožík - ΑΩ institut , Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5671078 I read this yesterday  http://twoheartspress.com/prepare-for-the-fallout-the-great-schism/  and I found it very unsettling. Now we all know the internet is full of misinformation ( I even mention the proliferation of misinformation on my blog profile ) but for some reason, some of the content of this blog resonated with me as truth, even though much of it is dodgy. Particularly (for example): The Church is being plunged into darkness. Its leadership is applauding the god of social justice and human rights at the expense of conversion and salvation. As I mentioned here , the Congregations for Divine Worship and Clergy have seen significant changes under Pope Francis. A dozen officials have been replaced in the former and 10 in the latter. It’s not unusual for popes to put their favored officials in Curial pos...

What a week it has been, as my wife said; "you can sure tell it's Lent!", always a time when Catholics are attacked  and this year is no exception with numerous stories in the media, but also, direct attacks my family & I have recognised. A sure sign you are getting on the devil's nerves I would say. One of the most interesting developments this week was faithful priests breaking ranks (to a minor extent) with silent bishops and standing up for Church teaching. Subsequently, the Cardinal attacked these priests in a most hypocritical way, revealing that a). Claims pressure was put on loyal clergy were accurate, and b). Cardinal Nichol's retains the same agenda he always has; an agenda which seems to endorse a fairly generous interpretation of the Magisterium! Of course, he is not alone. We find ourselves in the unfathomable position where Cardinals of the Catholic Church openly espouse heterodox positions and are (thankfully) openly opposed by Cardinals...

After the heterodox dissent group ' A Call to Action ' organised a series of poorly attended meetings across the country, I posted a blog  exposing the misdirection and ignorance on their website. I have been looking at the forum there (which is poorly designed and doesn't get much interest) and feeling increasingly frustrated that this group claim to be about dialogue and being an "effective sign of the Kingdom of God" whilst their website and dialogue seems to be about nurturing and promoting ideas and theories which clearly contradict Church teaching, and doing so within a closed circle of self-affirmation. It almost seems that any idea can gain a platform there, as long as it contradicts the Magisterium, from ordination of women to criticising the new translation of the Missal, from supporting dissident priests, to promoting ideas about human sexuality which contradict the teaching of the Church. I found this post by the leader of this group in my own dioc...