December 2019

• Archbishop Vigano Condemns Vienna Cathedral Pro-LGBT Concert as ‘Blasphemous’
In response to a pro-LGBT concert last night in St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, Archbishop Carlo Vigano has said the event was a sacrilege and a consequence of idolatry that “darkens the mind and perverts judgement.” - December 1, 2019

• Report says McCarrick fund gave more than $600,000 to clerics, two popes
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Two popes and multiple priests, cardinals and archbishops received part of $600,000 in financial gifts from former Washington Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, who controlled a discretionary fund, according to a report published Dec. 27 by The Washington Post. - December 28, 2019

• McCarrick’s gifts: $600,000 to high-ranking prelates
The disgraced former cardinal Theodore McCarrick sent more than $600,000 in cash gifts to Vatican officials and other influential prelates during his term as Archbishop of Washington, the Washington Post has revealed. - December 27, 2019

• Survey: Americans dissatisfied with bishops’ response to sex abuse crisis
Americans largely disapprove of the way the U.S. bishops have handled the sex abuse scandal in the U.S. Catholic Church, a new survey has found. A majority said their trust in the leadership of the Church has been damaged by the abuse crisis. - December 9, 2019

• Vatican Investments Linked to Global Money Laundering Investigations
Italian newspaper Corriere della Serra reported that the Centurion Global Fund has raised around 70 million euro in cash, and that the Holy See’s Secretariat of State is the source of at least two-thirds of the fund’s assets. - December 9, 2019

• Catholic priest with local ties investigated for misconduct with women
A Catholic priest with local ties is currently under investigation following reports of misconduct in which he is accused of breaching both physical and emotional boundaries with several adult women and at least one female youth. - December 8, 2019

• Sheen beatification delay an act of 'sabotage,' Peoria official writes
After the Diocese of Rochester last week confirmed it had requested that the beatification of Venerable Fulton Sheen be delayed, a longtime Peoria diocese official is accusing the Rochester diocese of repeatedly “sabotaging” Sheen’s sainthood cause. - December 7, 2019

• Buffalo’s Caretaker Bishop: Let Healing Grace Fall Like Snow
A Register interview with Bishop Edward Scharfenberger of Albany, New York, who on Wednesday was appointed as apostolic administrator of the troubled Diocese of Buffalo following the resignation of Bishop Richard Malone. - December 6, 2019

• ‘Sacrificial giving’ the key to restoring trust in Buffalo, says Bishop Scharfenberger
Bishop Edward Scharfenberger of Albany, New York, jokingly told Our Sunday Visitor that his family “just got a little bigger.” - December 6, 2019

• New McCarrick lawsuits brought as New Jersey litigation window opens
Two new lawsuits were filed against Theodore McCarrick and New Jersey dioceses this week, after the state temporarily lifted its statute of limitations on sexual abuse allegations. - December 6, 2019

• Chinese bishop says Catholics must put 'love for homeland' first
A Chinese bishop has said that Catholics in the country must put their loyalty to the state before the faith. Bishop John Fang Xingyao made the statement during a Communist Party sponsored meeting in Beijing last week held to discuss concerning religion in China. - Decemer 3, 2019

West Virginia bishop: Bransfield’s punishment ‘couldn’t be a mere slap on the hand’
A plan of amends that requires former Bishop Michael Bransfield to pay nearly $800,000 in restitution had to be “substantial,” said his successor, Bishop Mark Brennan of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston in West Virginia. - December 3, 2019

• 2020 Resolution for Church Leaders: Don’t Creep Out Normal People
A mechanically inclined friend of mine once commented that a church in his city looks like an enormous Harley Davidson that was disassembled and dropped in a heap of parts. I’ve seen the place from the outside, and my friend’s description is apt. It’s struck me that too much of the Catholic Church in recent memory has become like this parish — something normal men think is just plain weird. - December 31, 2019

• No, Cardinal Marx, the Church Cannot Bless Same-Sex Couples
Once again, the German archbishop, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, responded positively to the question, “What do you do when a homosexual couple asks you for an episcopal blessing.” - December 30, 2019

• A Trojan Horse in the Pontifical Biblical Commission
n his 1967 classic defense of the Catholic Faith against modern errors, Trojan Horse in the City of God, Dietrich von Hildebrand wrote: “With a religion the only question that can matter is whether or not it is true. The question of whether or not it fits into the mentality of an epoch cannot play any role in the acceptance or the rejection of a religion without betraying the very essence of religion.” - December 26, 2019

• Controversy Arises Over Early Reporting on Vatican Document Examining Homosexuality
Earlier today, I wrote about the move by the German bishops to re-examine Church teaching on human sexuality — particularly pertaining to the questions of homosexual acts and contraception. In that same analysis, I mentioned some early reporting on a 300-page study commissioned by Pope Francis and published by the Pontifical Biblical Commission (PBC) on the question, “What is Man?” - December 19, 2019

• A Full Court Press for HomoChurch?
As I sit down to write this today, I feel my brain grasping to make sense of what I’m seeing. I literally don’t know how to process or adequately explain what appears to be a full court press to push acceptance of homosexuality by the hierarchy of the Catholic Church herself. But I would be remiss in not drawing the reader’s attention to this, so here goes. - December 19, 2019

• The Vatican’s financial bait-and-switch
If you asked loyal Catholics to subsidize a film dramatizing the life of Elton John, you’d get a disappointing return. But ask them to contribute to the needs of the Holy Father, and you’ll see real generosity. - December 18, 2019

• Rocketman and Vatican Financial Scandal
I really like some of Elton John’s music. I remember listening to his album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road when I was about eight years old. I remember being amazed at the fact that it was almost as good as the Beatles albums my older siblings played. Even though I have never been fond of the pop sound he produced in the ’80s and ’90s, there is no question that many of his earlier works will prove timeless. - December 16, 2019

• Don’t just defend the fort. Attack!
“Catholicism, by which I mean real Catholicism, is a fighting faith,” writes David Carlin for The Catholic Thing. To which I would add that Catholicism is, or should be, an offensive rather than a defensive force. As followers of Christ we are not charged with preserving our own position. The Great Commission requires us to move always forward, capturing new ground (or rather more souls).​​​​​​​ - December 13, 2019

• Toward a deeper understanding of Vatican II
The other day I was reflecting that most of the Church’s teachings concern mysteries which we cannot fully understand all at once. This explains why different aspects of each truth can be emphasized at different times throughout history, and also why the Church herself grows in her ability to articulate the truth over time. - December 12, 2019

• Why Pope Francis’ Appointment of Cardinal Tagle Is Significant
Did Pope Francis just name his successor? Much of the commentary about the appointment of Cardinal Luis Tagle, until now archbishop of Manila, to the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples put that question in first or second place. - December 12, 2019

• VIDEO: Does Pope Francis want to stop Conversions to Catholicism? with Eric Sammons
Does Pope Francis want to stop Conversions to Catholicism? Eric Sammons and Dr. Taylor Marshall discuss whether Pope Francis is against people converting to Catholicism?​​​​​​​ - December 12, 2019

• “The Spirit of the Liturgy” at Twenty
Of Joseph Ratzinger’s three great works – The Spirit of the Liturgy, Introduction to Christianity, and Jesus of Nazareth – the first is by far the most influential. Now in its twentieth year, we can take measure of The Spirit of the Liturgy’s impact on the life of the Church. There is much to measure. - December 11, 2019

• Who is most likely to succeed Pope Francis?
The appointment of Cardinal Luis Tagle as prefect of the Congregation for Evangelization has prompted informed Vatican journalists to observe that Pope Francis may be hoping to put the Filipino prelate in place to become his successor.​​​​​​​ - December 11, 2019

• The Second Vatican Council Is Now Far Spent
Fr. Dwight Longenecker is a fine writer. No one expresses a certain point of view better than he does. I’m not sure how to characterize it exactly; it might be described as a via-media-at-all-costs, the straight road that veers not off to left or right. He is determined to place himself between the extremes of the “trendies” and the “traddies” so that, in company with a remnant including at least George Weigel, he will emerge from this crisis not tarred and feathered as a progressive or bedecked with bays and rosemary as a traditionalist, but stolidly, if increasingly lonesomely, centrist. - December 11, 2019

• Tangled Web of Transactions Utilized to Fund Bankrupt Italian Hospital
NEWS ANALYSIS: The Register has reviewed documents that indicate Vatican officials employed covert and deceptive methods to divert 50 million euros needed at a children’s hospital to the troubled institution. - December 10, 2019

• Marco Tosatti: Does Pope Francis Think His Reign Is About to End?
The appointment [on Sunday, December 8] of Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila as Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (Propaganda Fidei) is an important signal for many reasons, but above all because it places us in a context in which we may suspect that Pope Bergoglio is thinking that the end of his pontificate is not far off. ​​​​​​​- December 9, 2019

• VIDEO: Why did Pope Francis Fund Elton John Movie? (Dr. Taylor Marshall)
 - December 9, 2019

• Here’s how to end the CCHD scandals
Two true stories, both dating back to the Sunday before Thanksgiving, when the US bishops took up the annual collection for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD): - December 9, 2019

• Fr. Z's Blog: More homosexualist rubbish from – wait for it! – German bishops!
And more from Germany… it’s always Germany…
The story in German at KathNet. - December 7, 2019

• Fr. Z's Blog: ASK FATHER: Do I sin if I think that Benedict XVI on purpose didn’t resign the papacy?
From a reader…
QUAERITUR:

I have become increasingly convinced by those who say that Pope Benedict XVI purposefully performed an invalid resignation of the papacy.

- December 6, 2019

• VIDEO: 4 Exorcists Call for Fasting PLUS St Nicholas vs Heresy (Dr Taylor Marshall #343)
Taylor Marshall's Historical Novel "Sword and Serpent" about St George, St Nicholas, and the young Constantine: https://amzn.to/2rUF19v Dr Taylor Marshall extends the call of 4 American Exorcists who have called for a day of fasting and penance on December 6 2019 in reparation of the Pacha Idols in Rome. - December 5, 2019

• U.S. Bishops Must Clear Up This Communion Confusion
If one in a state of mortal sin — no matter what the sin — has not sacramentally confessed and been absolved, he must not receive Holy Communion. There are no exceptions. - December 5, 2019

• Cardinal Zen: Vatican’s China policy is ‘terrible, terrible, terrible’
Cardinal Joseph Zen has described Vatican policy toward China as “terrible, terrible, terrible” in a new interview.
Cardinal Zen said that he strongly suspects that a diplomatic agreement between the Holy See and the Chinese government, which has never been made public, is substantially the same as a previous draft accord with Pope Benedict XVI refused to sign. - December 4, 2019

• 1P5 Minute #15 – Zanchetta, LGBT Event at Vienna Cathedral, & Bishop Sheen
In this episode, we have an update on the case of Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta, the Argentinian prelate and friend of Pope Francis who is facing criminal charges for sexual abuse of seminarians in his home country. - December 4, 2019

• A Theological Review of the Amazon Synod [UPDATED]
Catholics the world over have been disturbed, demoralized, scandalized, and galvanized by the recently completed Amazon Synod. As Br. André-Marie observed: - December 4, 2019

• How Blurring Distinctions Wrecks the Church and Society
Author and talk show host Dennis Prager accurately observes that there is no greater concept in the first five books of the Bible than that of “distinction.” More specifically, it is the clear separation God makes between certain things: God and man, animal and human, life and death, sacred and profane, good and evil, male and female. - December 3, 2019

• VIDEO: Dr. Taylor Marshall: Vigano vs. Cardinal Schönborn with Alexander Tschugguel 
Dr. Taylor Marshall interviews Alexander (the Pacha Dunker) Tschugguel about how the Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schönborn yet again allows a pro-"LMNOP" benefit concert to take place in Vienna’s St. Stephen’s Catholic Cathedral. Archbishop Vigano wrote a letter of encouragement to Alexander Tschugguel and those praying the Rosary outside the "event." - December 2, 2019

• The Vatican’s China Syndrome
How long can the Vatican remain silent about the Chinese repression in Hong Kong and about reports of persecution and re-education camps for religious believers in the rest of China? Clearly, the figures in the Roman Curia (primarily Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin) who crafted the still unpublished accord with the Communist government have put themselves in a moral bind. - December 2, 2019

• Fr. Z's Blog: Two good commentaries today on the works of @JamesMartinSJ
There are two good recent commentaries available about the dark works of the relentless Jesuit homosexualist activist James Martin. - December 2, 2019

• Feser: Against “Candy-Ass” Christianity
Edward Feser is one of the relatively unsung heroes of modern Catholic thought. He’s been absolutely unflinching in his defense of the moral liceity of the death penalty in Catholic teaching, and has even co-authored a book on the topic. I’ve seen him write very compelling essays on other issues as well. He has a tough, no-nonsense style that I think men in particular tend to appreciate.​​​​​​​ - December 2, 2019

• Now Watch Him Work
As George Bailey pleads for the Lord’s help, on a snow-covered bridge in Bedford Falls, he little suspects what is actually going on behind the scenes.  The machinations of Henry F. Potter, which have brought George to his knees, in fact, have been the very means the Lord has chosen to show him that he really has a precious, needed, and irreplaceable life. - December 7, 2019

• Pruning Hope
Today we begin the liturgical season defined by hope. The preface for Mass says that we dare to hope. Indeed, hope seems a more daring venture than ever. And yet for precisely that reason, it holds more importance than ever. In keeping with Chesterton’s famous aphorism — Hope means hoping when things are hopeless – hope’s importance increases in proportion to its absurdity. - December 1, 2019