When wrongdoing becomes widespread to the point of seeming endemic – as has the horrid evil of clerical sex abuse – blaming the individual culprits isn’t enough. We also desire to know who allowed the wrongdoing to spread, who failed to stop it, and under what conditions it was allowed to metastasize. That’s understandable and…
At first glance, patriotism might seem like an issue of secondary importance, a mere distraction. Our ultimate loyalty is to the Kingdom of God, after all, and we are already pretty busy. Among restoring a desecrated liturgy, salvaging Catholic education, and coping with the current papacy, the layman who wants to contribute to Catholic culture…
As frustration and anger toward bishops grow, Catholics are asking what they can do to resist the corruption that has infected the episcopate. Ideas include prayer, fasting, writing letters, and protesting at USCCB meetings. All these are valid responses, but some are advocating for something more concrete – specifically, withholding financial support to the men…
The Italian traditionalist blog Messa in Latino (Mass in Latin) has reported that its own “internal sources” at the Vatican have confirmed a report by the Italian daily Il Fatto Quotidiano on September 4, indicating that there is a possibly soon to be revealed dossier on the American cardinal Kevin Farrell. Farrell, picked by Pope Francis as the…
In 1986, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre wrote the following infamous words: For the fact is that a grave problem confronted the conscience and the faith of all Catholics during the pontificate of Paul VI. How could a Pope, true successor of Peter, assured of the assistance of the Holy Ghost, preside over the most vast and…
It’s understandable to want to stick up for those we love, even when we know they’re in the wrong. And because we love the Catholic Church, currently reeling from a new round of sexual abuse reports, we naturally want to – at least we should want to – come to her aid. For many Catholics,…
I offer this article in honor of Pope St. Pius X on his feast day in the calendar of the traditional Roman Rite – that is, September 3. On September 8, 1907, Pope Pius X issued his encyclical letter Pascendi Dominici Gregis, On the Doctrine of the Modernists. The Modernists in question were a group…
By now everybody in the world, or so it seems, knows about the damning accusations made by the former apostolic nuncio to the United States, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò from Italy, implicating a number of bishops and cardinals, even the pope. Viganò, in his 11-page written testimony, calls on Pope Francis to resign: “Pope Francis…
On day two of the Lumen Fidei Conference on the Family in Ireland last week, I was able to sit down with a number of the speakers presenting, for my new show on Buzz Patterson’s “Power & Patriots,” Conversations in Discomfiture. The show itself targets a secular (albeit conservative) audience. The premise? Interviews, roundtables, and investigations…
Editor’s note: Aldo Maria Valli, the author of the following article, is the reporter with whom Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò originally planned the publication of his allegations against Pope Francis and several high-ranking Vatican cardinals. For the adventure of how Archbishop Viganò’s report came to be, click here. For Viganò’s response to the initial wave of…
A week before my high school graduation in 2002, the horrid priest abuse scandal broke. A few days later, the media swarmed our bishop following our Baccalaureate Mass. Thanks be to God, I had had only positive encounters with bishops and priests up to that point. A few months after the priest abuse scandal made…
