Not long after I became Catholic in the early nineties, I traveled to China to learn more about the fate of my fellow believers under communism. They were divided into two opposing camps, or so I believed at the time, with some belonging to the state-controlled church – the so-called Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association –…
By Marco Tosatti (11 February 2018) [Editor’s Note: A bestiary was a medieval compendium of animal stories, which often contained a moral point.] This is a sad clerical bestiary. More sad than anyone can imagine. Let’s give a reason: perhaps the Roman Pontiff is telling lies. And this, permit me to say it, is at…
The recent statements made by Cardinal Reinhard Marx, the president of the German Bishops’ Conference and papal counselor, concerning the possibility, even if only in some parishes, of blessing same-sex couples has caused quite a stir in the Catholic world. Since we ourselves reported on this specific interview, we have been following this discussion closely.…
Image: Gcmarino, Sanchezsorondowikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 By Riccardo Cascioli “At this moment, the Chinese are the ones who are best achieving the social doctrine of the Church.” This quote alone, given at the beginning of an interview on China published by Vatican Insider (Spanish edition), should be enough to provoke the immediate dismissal of Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo,…
By Riccardo Cascioli The scandal of sexual abuse in Chile is now a loose cannon that threatens to explode even in Rome. The facts are now well-known and revolve around the extensive cover-up – in Chile above all, but now also in Rome – of a famous Chilean priest, Fr. Fernando Karadima, leader of a…
A German cardinal is today responding to the recent interview of Cardinal Reinhard Marx in which he opens up to the idea of blessing homosexual couples (and implicitly thus the practice of sodomy). Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes – the former President of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum – has written a commentary on this idea…
At the beginning of 2018, Steve Skojec predicted that this year would mark “the beginning of the end” of Pope Francis’ power. It is now becoming increasingly clear that this pontificate might be facing several distinct points of fracture. Francis’ international standing is being undermined. There are at least five areas where the pope has…
Here is a summary of the major stories we’re keeping an eye on today: The Bishop Barros story continues to progress, as we reported yesterday, with some members of the pope’s own commission on sexual abuse now going public with information that he received a victim letter in 2015, contrary to his claims of no…
Image: Father José Tolentino de Mendonça; Source: Screengrab By Lupo Glori Is Pope Francis opening the doors of the Church to “queer theology”? The question arises spontaneously after learning that the Portuguese priest-poet José Tolentino de Mendonça has been asked to direct the upcoming and now-traditional Lenten retreat which will be given in Ariccia, Italy, to…
I first asked the question, “Where Does Pope Francis Really Stand on Clerical Sex Abuse?” in October of 2015. One of the two cases I cited was that of his episcopal appointment to Osorno, Chile, Bishop Juan Barros. At the time, despite serious evidence that something was very much amiss in the pope’s promised “zero…
PLEASE NOTE: This post has been updated (see below). After further digging, it looks like the language we found was from the 1994 Catechism. We’ve updated our story. But why is a 24-year-old version of the Catechism that needed to be updated for theological clarity still on the Vatican servers and publicly accessible? A version of the…
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