Pope Francis has once again found him at the center of scandal after two of his most high-ranking appointees have been implicated in misconduct allegations. Monsignor Edgar Peña Parra, who has been tapped to take on the number two role at the Vatican Secretariat of State, has become the subject of a dossier compiled by laity…
Many who have studied the life and pontificate of Pope Paul VI are convinced that he was far from exemplary in his conduct as pastor; that he not only did not possess heroic virtue, but lacked certain key virtues; that his promulgation of a titanic liturgical reform was incompatible with his papal office of handing on that…
News out of Rome this morning indicates that Cardinal Donald Wuerl’s resignation, submitted two years ago as required at the age of 75, has finally been accepted by the pope. Wuerl, the archbishop of the Washington, D.C. archdiocese and direct successor to disgraced former cardinal Theodore McCarrick, has been embroiled in controversy since the allegations…
Cardinal Ouellet is going to need a burn unit. Catholic author and journalist Phil Lawler unleashed an absolutely scorching response to the Canadian cardinal’s indignant demand to know how Archbishop Viganò can “celebrate Mass and mention his [the pope’s] name in the Eucharistic Prayer?” “An excellent question,” writes Lawler. “It forces us to ask whether we…
It’s difficult to know how to begin this letter to you. Perhaps you’re already cringing at my use of “divisive” Catholic qualifiers, lamenting the fact that I can’t just call us both “Catholics” and get on with what I have to say. I hate this categorical language. Yet I feel I have no choice but…
This article is also available as a printer-friendly PDF document. Asking the Question Throughout his five-year reign, Pope Francis has been a controversial figure. He has pushed for novelties and innovations to both the papacy and the Church itself, from superficialities like refusing to live in the papal apartments to more substantial changes like permitting…
Among astute observers of the Vatican scene – okay, forget that; among warm bodies with evidence of consciousness – it has been known for several years now that we cannot expect Pope Francis, who is a major cause of the problems the Church is suffering under, to be a major part of those problems’ solution.…
Earlier today, we published a piece by Italian journalist, Vaticanista, and author Marco Tosatti about the Vatican’s response to Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò. Originally published on October 6 (and translated into English for 1P5), that piece was written too soon to take into account the second phase in the Vatican’s communications assault on Viganò. This…
Yesterday [6 October], the Holy See issued a statement, in Italian and English, probably intended to be a response to the testimony of Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, which was published on the night of 25-26 August. We say “intended to be” because in the text of the statement, there is no reference to the ex-nuncio,…
My family has had its inevitable brushes with the Culture of McCarrick. They emerge unexpectedly in our day-to-day activities and unfold fully on Sundays at church. One began at a country club swimming pool two summers ago. Shortly after our boys, then nine and six, began splashing around, a group of teen girls entered. They…
Whatever qualifies as a “Christian country” these days, Japan would not likely be seen as one in anyone’s mind. Only 1% of the Japanese population, split evenly between Catholics and Protestants along with small pockets of Eastern Orthodoxy, claim to be believers in Christ. Yet the fact that Christ is worshiped here by anyone at…
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