August 2019

• Facebook Posts Contradict Seattle Archdiocese Claims on Parishioner’s Planned Suicide
Father Dupont was the celebrant at the Mass on May 5, at which the priest, along with first communicants and other parishioners, extended their hands in blessing over Fuller. - August 28, 2019

• Seattle Bishops to ‘Review’ Blessing of Assisted Suicide Advocate
While the archdiocesan statement said that parish leaders were unaware of Robert Fuller’s intention to end his own life, the Associated Press reported that Fuller’s plans were “widely known and accepted” among the parishioners at St. Therese, which he began attending regularly towards the end of his life. - August 28, 2019

• Franciscan Province Paid Poor Abuse Victims $15,000 in Nondisclosure Agreement
Speaking to the AP, Father Gannon said he believes that the three men were abused and said that their race— all three are black— and the fact that all three are poor did not factor into the size of the settlement. - August 28, 2019

• After the Abuse: A Bishop's Ministry of Healing and Trust
Gina Barthel says that she’s found healing - and found Christ - through the Church, and with the help of Bishop Cozzens. - August 28, 2019

• Pope encourages interreligious dialogue initiative
At a time when conflict and division dominate the world’s headlines, people need to know there are a growing number of important initiatives to promote interreligious dialogue and understanding, Pope Francis said. - August 27, 2019

• Pope Benedict XVI Responds to Criticism of His Essay on the Church and the Sexual Abuse Crisis
Released in April, Pope Benedict’s essay described the impact of the sexual revolution as well as – independent from it – a collapse of moral theology in the 1960’s, before suggesting how the Church should respond by recognizing that “only obedience and love for our Lord Jesus Christ can point the way.”​​​​​​​ - August 27, 2019

• First Chinese Bishop Consecrated After Vatican-China Deal
Without a bishop since 2017, Bishop Antonio Yao Shun, 54, will head the Diocese of Jining in Ulanqab, Inner Mongolia.​​​​​​​ - August 27, 2019

• Accused Bishop is Vice President of Catholic-Funded Communist Front-Group
The former bishop of the Diocese of Albany, Bp. Howard Hubbard, was recently accused of sexually abusing a 16-year-old in the 1990s.  According to the lawsuit, between 1994 and 1998, “Father Bondi and Bishop Hubbard were employed by the Diocese, they used their positions as priests to groom and to sexually abuse plaintiff.” - August 22, 2019

• Hypocrisy of ‘spiritual tourism’ destroys the church, pope says
Christians who focus more on being superficially close to the church rather than care for their fellow brothers and sisters are like tourists who wander around aimlessly, Pope Francis said. - August 22, 2019

• Real reform in the Church requires a faithful laity, priest says 
For the Catholic Church to be renewed, the entire body of Christ - especially the laity - must strive to live the faith devoutly. - August 22, 2019

• Amazon Missionary Bishop: Synod Plans Miss the Real Problems
Bishop José Luis Azcona is a missionary bishop emeritus of Marajó, a diocese that includes dozens of islands in the Amazon River Delta. - August 22, 2019

• Jesuit Superior General: Satan is a ‘Symbolic Reality’
Father Sosa’s remarks came after he participated in a panel discussion at a Catholic gathering in Rimini, Italy, organized by the Communion and Liberation ecclesial movement. - August 21, 2019

• ‘Ring of Truth’ Enough to Keep Cardinal Pell in Prison
COMMENTARY: The Aug. 21 ruling against Cardinal George Pell is catastrophic on multiple levels.​​​​​​​ - August 21, 2019

• Despite Losing His Appeal, Cardinal Pell ‘Maintains His Innocence’
Australian court’s Aug. 21 decision shocks his many supporters.​​​​​​​ - August 21, 2019

• Charleston bishop stepping back to fight accusation
The bishop of Charleston, South Carolina announced he will reduce his public appearances after being named in a lawsuit filed in New York. Bishop Robert Guglielmone announced that he is stepping back from visible leadership of the diocese as he defends himself against an accusation of sexual abuse.​​​​​​​ - August 20, 2019

• Four More Abuse Allegations Against Former Cheyenne Bishop
More than a dozen total accusations of sexual abuse have been raised against the former bishop.​​​​​​​ - August 20, 2019

• BREAKING: Cardinal Pell’s Sexual-Abuse Conviction Upheld
Australian court rules against cardinal’s appeal, orders him to serve remainder of his six-year sentence. - August 20, 2019

• Dominican Nuns in Tuscany vs. the Vatican, with Help from the Locals
Late in June, we received a warning from a village on the edge of Tuscany that yet another religious house with the wrong sort of mindset was facing the now dreaded prospect of a Vatican “visitator.” The contemplative Dominican monastery of Marradi, the spiritual heart of the little mountain town for over four centuries, is threatened with forced closure by the Vatican, ostensibly because their numbers recently dropped below the Vatican’s prescribed minimum for “alive and vital autonomy.”​​​​​​​ - August 20, 2019

• After protest, Buffalo diocese denies allegations of former seminarian
Amid a media firestorm and a small protest Sunday, the Diocese of Buffalo disputed allegations made in a letter published by a recently resigned seminarian. - August 19, 2019

• Cincinnati Priest Arrested and Indicted for Sexually Abusing Minor
Father Geoff Drew was removed from ministry last month, after allegations surfaced that he had sent a series of inappropriate text messages to a 17-year-old boy. - August 19, 2019

• After investigation, Memphis bishop defends priest accused of racism
The Diocese of Memphis is supporting a pastor whose staff denied a job to a black housekeeper on the grounds that his dog was racist. The diocese says the dog had a history of aggression and tended to become agitated around strangers with dark skin. - August 19, 2019

• RICO suit against Buffalo diocese alleges conspiracy in sexual abuse cases 
Twenty-two plaintiffs filed a lawsuit Aug. 14 against the Diocese of Buffalo, a province of the Society of Jesus, multiple priests, eight parishes, three high schools, a seminary, among others, alleging “a pattern of racketeering activity” that enabled and covered up clerical sexual abuse. - August 15, 2019

• South Carolina bishop named in New York abuse lawsuit
Bishop Robert Guglielmone of Charleston, SC, has been named in a sexual abuse lawsuit filed in New York. The accusations contained in the suit concern the bishop’s time as a pastor in the Diocese of Rockville Centre forty years ago. - August 15, 2019

• San Diego bishop announces compensation fund, changes to social media policy
Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego announced Aug. 13 an Independent Compensation Program for victims of sexual abuse, set to begin in September. - August 14, 2019
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• Indianapolis Jesuit High School Makes Vatican Appeal of Disciplinary Measures
The president of Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School in Indianapolis, Jesuit Father William Verbryke, announced the Jesuits have begun the process of appealing a June decree from Archbishop Thompson, which said that the Archdiocese of Indianapolis will no longer recognize the school as Catholic. - August 6, 2019

• McCarrick's Grooming Tactics Shown in Letters to Seminarians and Abuse Victims
Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said May 29 that the Vatican was still investigating the documentation concerning McCarrick and will issue a declaration upon the investigation’s completion. - August 6, 2019

• Auxiliary bishop did not disclose Cincinnati priest accusations
An auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, and member of the USCCB committee on child protection, is facing accusations that he failed to report to Cincinnati’s archbishop a series of allegations that a priest had engaged in inappropriate behavior with teenage boys. - August 5, 2019

• Pope Francis Urges Priests to be Faithful in Time of ‘Ecclesial Purification’
Pope Francis published the letter on the 160th anniversary of the death of the Cure of Ars St. John Vianney, who is the patron saint of parish priests. - August 5, 2019

• Amid JPII Institute Controversy, Pope Benedict XVI Meets with Dismissed Professor
Monsignor Melina, who was president of the John Paul II Institute from 2006 until 2016, was dismissed from the institute after the recent promulgation of new statutes, or rules of order, for the graduate school, and a decision to eliminate the chair of moral theology. - August 5, 2019

• Abuse finding didn’t end ex-deacon’s work with children
A former Catholic deacon barred from the ministry in New Orleans because of sexual abuse allegations maintained access to schoolchildren and held leadership roles as recently as last year in the Knights of Columbus, despite promising three decades ago to avoid young boys “for the good of the Church,” according to records obtained by The Associated Press. - August 1, 2019

• KEEP IT REAL
Jon Kirwan presents the Nouvelle Théologie as a movement with three successive generations of leaders: those directly involved in the Dreyfus Affair and the Modernist Crisis (Maurice Blondel, Auguste Valensin, Joseph Huby); their apprentices and students, who fought in and were haunted by the Great War (Henri de Lubac and Gaston Fessard); and their younger confrères, who emerged in the shadow of the War (Jean Daniélou). In this story, the Nouvelle Théologie was fated to wrestle with and ultimately subjugate a very different movement, which Kirwan calls Neo-Scholasticism. - August 2019

• AUSCP and its Episcopal Guardians

• Fr. Z's Blog: “Dario Viganò is getting bigger now. No, not that Viganò who is in hiding now!”
As a quondam but not-too-dedicated vaticanista, I watch now the goings on “oltratevere” (see… I can still bring the yiddish when I want to) in a combination of morbid fascination, as with glancing at road kill, and amusement, as with opera buffa. - August 31, 2019

• Viganò Appointment Once Again Proves That for Francis’s Vatican, Personnel is Policy
Msgr. Dario Viganò, the disgraced Vatican apparatchik behind the 2018 Pope Benedict “Lettergate” scandal, has been given a new plum position today as vice chancellor of the Pontifical Academies for Sciences and Social Sciences. - August 31, 2019

• Catholic Journalist: Buffalo Sex-Abuse Scandal Is ‘Perfect Storm of Horrible Things’
Charlie Specht, a Catholic award-winning journalist, discusses with the Register the findings of his reporting about the wave of scandalous allegations now enveloping the Diocese of Buffalo. - August 29, 2019

• The Seattle suicide: not ‘confusion’ but grave scandal
After the publication of an an AP story about a man who received a blessing in a Catholic church just a few days before committing suicide, the Seattle archdiocese released a statement that read in part:

The Associated Press story about Mr. Fuller is of great concern to the Archbishops because it may cause confusion among Catholics and others who share our reverence for human life.

 - August 29, 2019

• The Pope Who Taught Us How to Repair the World
It was the dawn of the 20^th century. The hedonism of the Belle Époque whirled through Europe’s capitals; like Poe’s raven, the precursors of civilizational decay tapped at the windows of the West. The ideologies originating in the Age of the Enlightenment were nearing full fruition in what American historian Lawrence Sondhaus would term the “global revolution”: the Great War, only a few years off. - August 29, 2019

• Bp. Schneider: Pope’s Revised ‘Diversity of Religions’ Take ‘Remains Insufficient’
At the Wednesday general audience on April 3, 2019, Pope Francis spoke these words: “Why does God allow many religions? God wanted to allow this: Scholastic theologians used to refer to God’s voluntas permissiva [permissive will]. He wanted to allow this reality: there are many religions.” - August 29, 2019

• VIDEO: Dr. Taylor Marshall - Bp Athanasius Schneider on Pope Francis and God Willing Other Religions
#TnT discuss the recent interview with Bp Athanasius Schneider on Pope Francis and God Willing Other Religions in an Aug 26 interview with Diane Montagna of Life Site News. Full interview of Bp Schneider by Diane Montagna on LifeSite: - August 29, 2019

• The Pell Case: Australia’s Dreyfus Affair?
The conviction of Cardinal George Pell on sex-abuse charges, despite the complete absence of evidence against him, was a shock and a black mark against the Australian justice system. The decision by an appeals court to uphold that verdict compounds the problem and the disgrace. The cardinal will appeal to Australia’s highest court. And in that appeal, Australian society will be on trial. - August 28, 2019

• VIDEO: Dr. Taylor Marshall - Vigano: 1 YEAR Later - Viganò is for Victory!

• Fr. Z's Blog: Creepy, unsettling evil. Yes, a Jesuit was involved.
A friend sent this with the single word: "Vile." The story from Associated Press is: The day he picked to die, he had the party of a lifetime. The story is about a 75 year old man, homosexual, Catholic, with a background of suicidal tendencies, terminally ill with cancer, who made use of the Washington state “Death with Dignity Act” to kill himself, surrounded by helpers, etc. “Aid in dying” is allowed. They had a party, he announced his intention, and injected himself. - August 27, 2019

• Neumayr in Buenos Aires Uncovers Shame, Resentment of the Argentinian Pope
“We are ashamed of him,” a former prosecutor says of Jorge Bergoglio during George Neumayr’s visit to the pope’s home country. The admission follows an epithet I’d prefer not to print. “He represents our worst qualities,” the man concludes. - August 26, 2019

• Shredding the working text for the Pan-Amazon synod
The annual Synod of Bishops will meet from October 6 to October 27 this year to examine the problems of the Pan-Amazon region in South America. From the first, the Instrumentum Laboris (working document) for the Synod has been criticized as a destructive exercise in the religious and cultural relativism characteristic of the secular West. Initially a former Prefect for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Gerhard Müller, criticized the text in a two-part analysis: - August 23, 2019

• Viganò’s “Testimony,” One Year Later
The first anniversary of the Testimony of Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò is upon us today. That document, and the events that followed this bombshell, say a great deal about the crisis now facing the Church. - August 22, 2019

• What Keeps Some Catholics from Facing the Modern Church’s Ugliness?
“The mind will protect itself from having to face something intolerable.” As I read a recent article by Rod Dreher, this line in it resonated with me. Perhaps it accessed that part of the attic where my brain stores my psychology studies. The paragraph containing that line begins with a reference to “cognitive dissonance,” a part of psychology that deals with how the brain copes with conflicts in an individual’s strongly held beliefs.​​​​​​​ - August 21, 2019

• CARDINAL PELL, SCAPEGOAT
Earlier today in Australia, a three-judge panel refused to overturn Cardinal George Pell’s conviction on five counts of child sexual abuse. The vote was two to one. Pell was convicted last December, after an earlier mistrial in which ten of the twelve jurors voted to acquit. - August 21, 2019

• THE AUSTRALIAN DISGRACE
There will be much more to be said in the weeks and months ahead about the rejection of Cardinal George Pell’s appeal of his conviction for “historic sexual abuse,” by the 2-1 vote of a three-judge panel of the Supreme Court of Victoria. For the moment, this astonishing, indeed incomprehensible, decision calls into the gravest doubt the quality of justice in Australia—and the possibility of any Catholic cleric charged with sexual abuse to receive a fair trial or a fair consideration of the probity of his trial.​​​​​​​ - August 21, 2019

• What Keeps Some Catholics from Facing the Modern Church’s Ugliness?
“The mind will protect itself from having to face something intolerable.” As I read a recent article by Rod Dreher, this line in it resonated with me. Perhaps it accessed that part of the attic where my brain stores my psychology studies. The paragraph containing that line begins with a reference to “cognitive dissonance,” a part of psychology that deals with how the brain copes with conflicts in an individual’s strongly held beliefs.​​​​​​​ - August 21, 2019

• Is it time for regional synod for U.S. church to address abuse crisis?
Reacting to the scandal of clergy sex abuse and cover-up 17 years ago, eight bishops offered a bold proposal.
The conference of bishops, meeting in Dallas, had lately adopted a charter and norms for the protection of children. Now the eight called for something more. - August 20, 2019

• Cardinal Pell’s Groundbreaking Record on Dealing With Clergy Sexual Abuse
COMMENTARY: Whatever the outcome of his appeal against his own conviction, historically he pioneered many reforms now in effect in how bishops address this issue.​​​​​​​ - August 20, 2019

• BETRAYING THE LEGACY OF JOHN PAUL II
The most controversial document of this controversial pontificate, the apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, is again at the center of a heated controversy at the Vatican. The matter at hand—which keeps popping up in different forms—is whether Pope Francis can eradicate the teaching legacy of Pope John Paul II, particularly on questions of human sexuality. - August 19, 2019

• Recovering and Recreating the Institutions We Need
Catholics today are caught between two understandable but equally incomplete approaches to the sex-abuse crisis. On the more “liberal” side, Massimo Faggioli has recently rightly written that in an age of profound corruption in the Church, we must resist the temptation of “institutional iconoclasm,” the mentality that leads some people to say “burn the whole thing down.” No serious Catholic can support that.​​​​​​​ - August 18, 2019

• Fr. Z's Blog: That tragic Portland parish, the mistreatment of the priest. Fr. Z’s solution: “Let’s make a deal!”
I have been wanting to post something about this ever since I heard about it, days ago.  Others have done yeoman’s work to cover it.  For example, LifeSite.​​​​​​​ - August 17, 2019

• Fr. Z's Blog: Is cutting off the money the way to go?
The other day, I posted a question from a reader about a priest who had, for the second year, put out a “gay” flag at the parish for Hubris Week.  HERE
I suggest that, in a situation like this where satisfaction can be gained from neither the priest nor the bishop, your only recourse might to be to cut off all or some of their money. - August 17, 2019

• A Sex-Abuse Story Catholics Need to Hear
COMMENTARY: Healing the crippling wounds abused people suffer. - August 16, 2019

• DC’s Abp. Gregory Talks Sex Abuse, Transgenderism, Trump
Despite Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory’s administrative record on handling sex abuse, the new leader of the Archdiocese of Washington has already stepped from the narrow path of avoiding partisan politics in the nation’s capital. - August 15, 2019

• Fr. Z's Blog: @JamesMartinSJ praises preaching by a religious sister. Let’s consider what he praised!
Once upon a time, when you could recognize religious by the habits they wore, a Jesuit was riding grandly in his carriage when he spotted a Minim, of the the order founded by St Francis of Paola, on foot and begging as the mendicant he was. As he passed the little friar, this grand Jesuit chortled in Latin, “Minime! Minime! Semper minimus eris!” (Hey Minim/Shorty! Hey Minim/Shorty! You’ll always be the least!) To which the Minim duly replied, “Jesuita! Jesuita! Non ibat Jesu ita!” (Hey Jesuit, Jesuit! Jesus didn’t get around that way!). - August 15, 2019

• Masonic Naturalism and the Near Occasion of Sin
The widespread acceptance of the falsehood promoted by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and other influential Freemasons concerning man’s supposed natural goodness has resulted in extreme moral corruption and devastation for souls. - August 12, 2019

• Ahhh, Bishops . . .
Up on the Rock of Cashel in Ireland, there is the ruin of a bishop’s stronghold. Someone once said to me there: “They always take care of themselves.” They were the bishops. At the time of the apostles, bishops were poor and lived risky lives. Yet with the Edict of Milan (313), bishops became state officials as well, controlling lands and towns and provinces. They gained civil dignities and stipends. They were barons and lords. - August 11, 2019

• Understanding an ideological purge at the Vatican
Pay careful attention to the statement by Msgr. Livio Melina regarding the radical change in orientation at the John Paul II Institute, where he, until recently, served as president: If the decisions taken by Archbishop Paglia are not revoked, then what they are saying is: ‘The interpretation of the magisterium of Pope Francis in continuity with the previous Magisterium is intolerable in the Church.’” - August 6, 2019

• Only 26% of US Catholics under 40 Believe in the Real Presence, and That’s No Accident
New research from Pew published this month indicates that only 26% of US Catholics under the age of 40 believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. - August 6, 2019

• Scandal in South Carolina
A priest was recently placed on administrative leave in my own Diocese of Charleston. Fr. Raymond Flores, parochial vicar at St. Mary Help of Christians Catholic Church in Aiken, South Carolina, was discovered to have been exchanging explicit images with a minor on Grindr. Because the minor had listed himself on Grindr as age eighteen, however, Fr. Flores will not be charged. - August 6, 2019

• Orthodoxy and the Latin Mass 
The Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) seems to be gaining popularity. From academia to the commentariat, both the Catholic press and the secular media have noticed that younger Catholics around the world are turning to tradition, and they, not people with living memories before 1970, dominate the pews. Some hope and others despair at this trend, and the debates over liturgy reveal deep cleavages in the Catholic Church. - August 6, 2019

• Social "Science" at the JPII Institute
The Catholic world was surprised – though not entirely so – last week when the previously announced “refounding” of the John Paul II Institute on Marriage and the Family resulted in the firing of two prominent longtime professors and the “suspension” – for the time being, we may hope – of all faculty. - August 6, 2019

• Remembering the day when the ‘politics of personal destruction’ began
“The growing plague of offense and disrespect in speech and actions must end,” says Archbishop Wilton Gregory in his highly publicized response to President Trump’s remarksabout squalor in Baltimore. “I fear that recent public comments by our President and others and the responses they have generated, have deepened division and diminished our national life.” - August 5, 2019

• St. Jean Vianney versus the Counterfeit Priests
PREFACE: I shall not endeavor to explain how these two letters fell into my hands. I shall only note how curious their contents are in light of the debates surrounding the upcoming Amazon Synod. - August 5, 2019

• Fr. Z's Blog: What does @JamesMartinSJ say about the “gay” desecration of the Montréal church? – UPDATED 
Still nothing from James Martin on this.  We know he has seen it by now. Is this important?Someone sent me a link to an article at the detestable New Ways Ministry about the event. The creators of the event described what they were up t.  You need a strong stomach. - August 3, 2019

• Is the American Church a Prison for the Mind?
The American Catholic is comfortable. This is a person who has remained in the Church despite all of the reasons others have found for leaving; a person who feels good inside after Mass; a person who is glad that the Church has caught up with the times. - August 1, 2019

• Is the American Church a Prison for the Mind?
The American Catholic is comfortable. This is a person who has remained in the Church despite all of the reasons others have found for leaving; a person who feels good inside after Mass; a person who is glad that the Church has caught up with the times. Staying enrolled in the parish, raising your hands to heaven to acknowledge the “kingdom and the power and the glory” of God, and living in an inclusive, judgment-free world — isn’t this the very model of a faithful American Catholic? - August 1, 2019

• VIDEO: Letter to a Suffering Church Chapter Five: The Way Forward

• Mother Knows Best: An Exhortation to Pray the Rosary
In 1917, the Blessed Virgin visited three shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal. Just a year earlier, the children were primed for this event by an angel of the Lord on three separate occasions. - August 28, 2019

• O Separated Christians, Return Quickly to Your Mother!
In October of 1917, to the general amazement of Marxists and secularists, on a foretold date, 70,000 eyewitnesses saw the supernatural Miracle of the Sun. The Immaculate Virgin foretold the rise and fall of the diabolical sect of atheistic Communism, and the terrible persecutions it would raise up against Christendom and the Church — prophecies that still stun secular historians by their accuracy.  - August 22, 2019

• VIDEO: Dr. Taylor Marshall - Novena for our Nation with Fr Richard Heilman - August 13, 2019

• WILL THE POPE AND BISHOPS SAVE US FROM A COMING CHASTISEMENT? 
Prologue : Fifty years ago, if you told Catholics that “cardinals would oppose cardinals and bishops would oppose bishops” in the Catholic Church, few would believe it. Now is has come  true.  Bishops and cardinals questioning teachings held since the beginning of the Church. - August 12, 2019

• Why Heretics Hate Mary and We Should Love Her More
Marian devotion is the cure for heresy and the healing of all heretics. We must turn to her for refuge from the heretical depravity now consuming the Church. Marian devotion is the destruction of error, the fount of humility, and a potent safeguard for orthodox faith. - August 5, 2019