February 2020

• Archbishop Viganò Defends Cardinal Zen, Strongly Criticizes Vatican for ‘Wicked’ Agreement
Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò has written an impassioned letter to Cardinal Joseph Zen, strongly criticizing the Vatican for its approach to China and saying it had “done everything and more to deliver the Chinese Martyr Church into the hands of the Enemy.” - February 29, 2020

• South Dakota Dioceses Focus on Healing, After Statute of Limitations Bill Fails
In the past year, following a new wave of Church sex abuse scandals in the United States and throughout the world, multiple states and countries have repealed or extended their statutes of limitations in order to allow more time for victims of childhood abuse to come forward. - February 26, 2020

• Detroit Catholics Say Archdiocese Fabricated Rape Charge Against Pastor
In July 2019, Fr. Eduard Perrone was temporarily removed from ministry as pastor of Assumption Grotto Parish in Detroit, amid an allegation that he had groped a former altar boy. - February 26, 2020

• Indian bishop charged with rape faces allegation from second nun
It has emerged that a second nun of the Missionaries of Jesus has accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jullundur of sexual harassment. The bishop has been charged with raping a nun repeatedly over the course of two years, allegations he denies. - February 25, 2020

• A report finds L’Arche founder sexually abused 6 women
An internal report reveals that L’Arche founder Jean Vanier, a respected Canadian religious figure whose charity work helped improve conditions for the developmentally disabled in multiple countries over half a century, sexually abused at least six women. - February 22, 2020

• This week: the confessional seal; the Pope and progressives; and more
A week after its release, Querida Amazonia—or, to be more accurate, the reaction to the papal document—remains the top news story of this week. But it shouldn’t be. - February 21, 2020

• Santa Fe archbishop weighs in on papal discussion of Fr. James Martin
Archbishop John Wester of Santa Fe has offered his recollections of a meeting between Pope Francis and the American Southwest, especially as regards a discussion during the meeting of Fr. James Martin, SJ. - February 21, 2020

• US bishops: Pope Francis talks Fr. James Martin, euthanasia, at private meeting
During a private meeting with bishops from the southwestern United States, Pope Francis talked about his 2019 meeting with Fr. James Martin, SJ, and about pastoral care and assisted suicide. - February 20, 2020

• Survivor advocacy group accuses pope of cherry-picking abuse reforms
As the one-year mark of Pope Francis’s landmark summit on child protection approaches, survivors of clerical abuse are arguing that the pope, while taking positive steps, is inconsistent in his response to the problem. - February 18, 2020

• Disgraced religious order tried to get abuse victim to lie
The cardinal’s response was not what Yolanda Martinez expected - or could abide. - February 17, 2020

• McCarrick gave $1 million to scandal-hit religious order
 Former cardinal Theodore McCarrick was a major donor to a religious community whose founder was found guilty of sexual misconduct.​​​​​​​ - February 17, 2020

• At a Catholic seminary, hope for church beyond scandals
 The seminarians walk along a hallway lined with photos of classes of priests who came before them. Some are pious alumni who have become their teachers and mentors; others climbed the Catholic hierarchy to be revered as bishops and cardinals.​​​​​​​ - February 17, 2020

• Cardinal Marx will not seek re-election as head of German bishops' conference
Cardinal Reinhard Marx has notified German bishops that he will not stand to be elected to a second term as head of the German bishops’ conference. - February 11, 2020

• Bishop Paprocki Provides Pastoral Guide on Gender Identity
According to diocesan policy, students and adult employees or volunteers in all diocesan agencies and activities will be referred to by pronouns that correspond with their biological sex. - February 11, 2020

• U.S. bishops ask pope about Amazon synod, discuss range of issues
Talking about debates, differences and discernment, Pope Francis told a group of U.S. bishops that people focused on the possibility of ordaining some married men and women deacons for service in the Amazon will be disappointed in his apostolic exhortation. - February 10, 2020

• Chicago archdiocese announces nearly two dozen parish mergers, closings
The Archdiocese of Chicago announced Thursday the latest round of parish mergers and closures as part of Cardinal Blase Cupich’s “Renew my Church” initiative. - February 10, 2020

• Vatican Official Claims Canon Law Required Giving Communion to Argentine President
Argentine newspaper La Nación posted a video of the Mass, in which Argentina's President Alberto Fernández and Fabiola Yáñez, the president's domestic partner, can be seen approaching the bishop to receive the Eucharist. - February 10, 2020

• Bishop McElroy: Abortion and climate change both crucial, voters must be prudent
Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego made a speech Thursday that attempted to explain his criticism of the elevation of abortion over other political issues. - February 7, 2020

• Pope's exhortation on Amazon synod to come out next week
Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation on the Amazon region will be published Feb. 12, the Vatican announced Friday. - February 7, 2020

• Pope Francis’ exhortation on the Amazon Synod to be released Feb. 12
The Vatican will present Pope Francis’ much-anticipated post-synodal apostolic exhortation on the Amazon Synod during a press conference on Feb. 12, the Holy See announced Friday. - February 7, 2020

• New Legionaries of Christ superior accused of mishandling priest allegations
Women who made allegations against a priest in the Legionaries of Christ say the religious order’s newly elected superior general mishandled the situation, allowing the priest opportunities to cross boundaries with women even after complaints against him had been made. - February 7, 2020

• Population Control Advocate Jeffrey Sachs Attacks Trump Administration at Vatican Gathering
Speaking at a Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences event, Sachs claimed the U.S. is operating with ‘thuggery’ and ‘complete lawlessness,’ and warned President Trump’s re-election would be ‘absolutely dangerous.’ - February 5, 2020

• Archbishop Gänswein’s duties reduced after controversy over book
Archbishop Georg Gänswein has apparently been relieved of his duties as prefect of the pontifical household. - February 5, 2020

• James Martin S.J. Strikes Again
Fr. James Martin, S.J. has been in the news again this past week, after several bishops from the American Southwest reported that, during their ad limina visit, Pope Francis expressed displeasure about how his meeting last year with the controversial Jesuit had been politicized by the press. - February 29, 2020

• Archbishop Viganò Defends Cardinal Zen, Strongly Criticizes Vatican for ‘Wicked’ Agreement
Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò has written an impassioned letter to Cardinal Joseph Zen, strongly criticizing the Vatican for its approach to China and saying it had “done everything and more to deliver the Chinese Martyr Church into the hands of the Enemy.” - February 29, 2020

• Bishop Schneider on Papal Heresy, Automatic Deposition, & the Controversy over Who is the True Pope
Editor’s Note: The following text, text issued today by Bishop Athanasius Schneider and first published at LifeSiteNews, addresses some key questions and controversies that have surrounded the papacy and have caused division among faithful Catholics in the midst of the current pontificate and the ongoing crisis in the Church. - February 28, 2020

• Bp Athanasius Schneider & Dr Taylor Marshall discuss Theology and Liturgy
Dr. Taylor Marshall interviews His Excellency Bishop Athanasius Schneider and discuss Catholic theology and liturgy. - February 28, 2020

• Hussein’s Journey: A Response to Father James Martin
COMMENTARY: A Catholic campus should offer truth scientifically, psychologically, sociologically and theologically. - February 28, 2020

• Don’t Sanitize McCarrick’s Legacy
There is a custom, still observed in some places, in which a cardinal’s ceremonial hat – the red galero – is hung from the rafters of his cathedral upon his death. There it dangles, on its ecclesiastical gibbet, until it finally succumbs to the corruption of time and falls. The ultimate disintegration of the galero is taken as a sign – in a pious bit of Catholic humor – that the old man’s soul has finally made its way out of purgatory. - February 27, 2020

• For Catholics Weathering Crisis, Lessons from an Arch-Heretic
Some years back, my mother gave me an unusual Christmas present: a book entitled The Greek Fathers: Their Lives and Writings by the late Fr. Adrian Fortescue. - February 27, 2020

• Editorial: What can the Church learn from the scandal of Jean Vanier?
And so it’s happened again. It turns out that another great and respected Catholic hero was not what he seemed. - February 25, 2020

• EWTN News/RealClear Opinion Research Poll No. 2: Finding the Catholic Vote
NEWS ANALYSIS: As the Democrats plunge into the primary season, new EWTN News/RealClear Opinion Research poll finds President Trump in a slightly stronger position among Catholics — but they are divided sharply according to their embrace of Church teachings. - February 24, 2020

• If Benedict Is Still Pope, the Papacy Dies with Him
For better or worse, there are palpable effects to any grave life decision. Ideas, words, omissions, and actions can have fateful consequences. Such a grave decision is being made by many in the Catholic Church. The choice is to believe that Benedict, a man who undeniably still lives in the Vatican, clad in ominous white, remains as Pope Benedict XVI. - February 24, 2020

• Fr. Z's Blog: Is Francis perhaps backing away a little from the progressivist, lib, German-driven agenda?
I wonder if Sandro Magistro is right? He doesn’t often put his foot wrong. - February 23, 2020

• Fr. Z's Blog: It seems Francis isn’t a big fan of homosexualist Jesuit James Martin
I think that Jesuit homosexualist activist James Martin is probably pretty bright.  He has found a niche wherein he excels.  He has carefully cultivated an image. - February 21, 2020

• Will Pope Francis Create Amazon Rite Novus Ordo? PLUS FreemaCEs in Vatican
Will Pope Francis Create Amazon Rite Novus Ordo? Matt Gaspers of CFN and Dr. Taylor Marshall discuss Bishop Athanasius Schneiders comments after the Amazonian Document concerning the theological "naturalilsm" found there. They also discuss the language of a new "Amazonian Rite" and the recent news of Free-So-and-Sos in the Vatican. - February 21, 2020

• Querida Amazonia Explained: Amoris Laetitia Redux
National Review recently ran an absurd article entitled “Querida Amazonia Reveals Francis’s Conservatism,” an unlikely piece of hagiography that will prove in time to be as risibly misguided as another National Review article, one authored by George Weigel on the day of Amoris Laetitia’s release in 2016: “Pope Francis on Love, Marriage, and the Family.” - February 21, 2020

• In ‘Querida Amazonia,’ Does ‘Mission’ of Aparecida Live Again?
COMMENTARY: Despite Pope Francis’ revival of the great vision the Latin American bishops set forth in 2007, there is little evidence that it will be truly be put into practice. - February 20, 2020

• Rethinking Pope Francis even as Pope Francis rethinks?
Catholics are a people of hope. One of the things we all hope for is Catholic leaders we can trust and even admire for the strength of their faith. For example, a priest who supports our work at CatholicCulture.org sent me a highly relevant email a few days ago on this very point. - February 19, 2020

• Want a liturgical revival? Start with repentance.
With Ash Wednesday just one short week away, I have been thinking about the need for repentance: not just my own need (which is great), but the need of the whole universal Church. For all of us, acutely conscious of the scandals within the Church, Lent is a good time to recall the words of St. Peter to religious leaders who had betrayed the Messiah: “Repent, therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.” [Acts 3:19] - February 19, 2020

• My Reaction to Querida Amazonia
I am convinced that just as we were spared from serious error in Humanae Vitae, so the Holy Spirit spared the Church in Querida Amazonia. - February 16, 2020

• Pope Francis's New Amazonian Doc: Good Bad and Ugly
Dr. Taylor Marshall and Timothy Flanders talk about the new Amazonian document issued by Pope Francis in the aftermath of the 2019 Amazonian Synod. True, there are not explicit calls for women deaconettes, or married priests or Pachas on every altar, but did we dodge a bullet?....not exactly. - February 13, 2020

• Amazonia Dreaming
Querida Amazonia, Pope Francis’ Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation (released yesterday) is, at a first reading, a mostly pleasant surprise. It shows little of the freewheeling radicalism that bulked large – in the synod hall and Vatican gardens, and even on the streets, during the Synod last October. - February 13, 2020

• Why did Francis punt on married priests in his Amazon document?
Earlier this month, many Americans had the frustrating experience of tuning in to the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses expecting to watch returns come in, only to discover a total informational vacuum. Problems with a new app, coupled with jammed phone lines and a variety of reporting errors, meant that we still don’t really know which Democratic candidate actually won the first skirmish of the 2020 campaign. - February 13, 2020

• ‘Querida Amazonia’ — Francis Approves Leonardo Boff, Throws Fritz Löbinger into the Tiber
The Apostolic Exhortation just published confirms that, in Pope Francis’ pontificate, politics takes priority over religion. - February 12, 2020

• Querida Amazonia: What Does It Say about Priestly Celibacy?
Let’s put the thing everyone wants to know right out in front: no, the post-synodal apostolic exhortation Querida Amazonia does not, within its text, explicitly provide for the ordination of “viri probati”  — married men, likely married permanent deacons — to the priesthood in the Amazon region. - February 12, 2020

• Fr. Z's Blog: Getting things straight about the book by Card. Sarah and Benedict XVI
At Church Militant there is a piece which accuracy sums up the controversy surrounding Card. Sarah’s recently published book, together with Benedict XVI.  The Depths Of Our Hearts. The book is out in French and Italian.  The English, inexplicably, languishes in boxes until March. - February 11, 2020

• The bigger question behind ‘Book-gate’ and priestly celibacy
Has all the dust settled from what many have dubbed “Book-gate” — the Vatican kerfuffle of a few weeks ago surrounding the release of a book on priestly celibacy? The book was written by Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect of the Holy See’s Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments, and included a significant contribution from emeritus Pope Benedict XVI. - February 11, 2020

• Diplomat of the Word, Diplomat to the World: Pope Francis’ Role on the Global Stage
NEWS ANALYSIS: As we enter a new decade, a retrospective on the Holy Father’s impact on the international stage offers an insight into one of the most important aspects of his pontificate. - February 11, 2020

• Fr. Z's Blog: Why does Francis partner with JEFFREY SACHS?
Michael (“#UniteTheClans”) Matt of The Remnant has a video with some really good information, which you should all know about.  All of you.  All of you should know this. - February 10, 2020

• The German Synod (“walking together”): the culmination of German alienation from authentic Church renewal
My old friend Msgr Hans Feichtinger has a piece today at First Things about the clown-car of a synod (“walking together”) going on in that caput malorum omnium, Germany.  He’s German, though not working in Germany (lucky, he) and he knows what he is talking about. - February 10, 2020

• A Watershed This Week?
This week may mark a watershed in modern Catholicism. On Wednesday, the Amazonia Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation will be released (more on that later in the week). Ever since that head-spinning event (Pachamama was only the most conspicuous disorder), we have seemed to be headed to major changes on priestly celibacy, deaconesses, and – in several respects – the very nature of the Church. - February 10, 2020

• AS THE SYNODAL WAY BEGINS
The Catholic Church in Germany has begun its “Synodal Way.” From Jan. 30–Feb. 1, the German bishops held the first synodal assembly in Frankfurt. Over the next two years, they will hold three more plenary assemblies and convene work groups dedicated to the four main topics of the Synodal Way: power and separation of powers in the church, sexuality and partnership, priestly life and celibacy, and women in church ministry and offices. - February 10, 2020

• Fr. Z's Blog: LifeSite posts verbatim interview with Bp. Sorondo of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. It isn’t pretty.
Diane Montagna posted something at LifeSite that serves a good purpose. She sat down with the controversial head of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences (you know, the crowd that has Jeffrey Sachs on speed-dial) who are musing about “transhumanism”, Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo. You’ll remember him as the guy who said that Catholic social teaching is being best implemented in China. - February 8, 2020

• Fr. Z's Blog: Card. Sarah: The priesthood is in mortal danger. Wherein Fr. Z rants to priests.
Ed Pentin, still the best, working English Vaticanista hands down, posted at the NCReg an interview with Robert Card. Sarah.  The Cardinal talks about the book, to be released in English in March. - February 8, 2020

• Cardinal Sarah: The Priesthood Today ‘Is in Mortal Danger’
In an exclusive English-language interview, the African cardinal discusses his new book, the status of the Catholic priesthood, and addresses those who say he opposes Pope Francis. - February 8, 2020

• Our bishops cannot be trusted with a ‘yellow-check’ system
Bishop Robert Barron kicked off a heated online debate last month with his proposal “to introduce something like a mandatum for those who claim to teach the Catholic faith online, whereby a bishop affirms that the person is teaching within the full communion of the Church.” - February 7, 2020

• Mickens on Gänswein and the End of the “Shadow Pontificate”
Robert Mickens — a man notorious for his dislike of Pope Benedict XVI, so keep that in mind going in — has a fascinating piece (paywall) at La Croix about the Gänswein sidelining. - February 7, 2020

• LGBTQ-ism
don’t know how many of my friends or acquaintances have ever committed adultery. I’ve never asked them.  But I imagine a fair number. After all, we live in a sexually permissive age, and I don’t know of any reason why my friends and acquaintances, who are for the most part normal Americans, should be especially exempt from the sins of the age. - February 7, 2020

• Archbishop Gänswein, ‘redistributed’ out of the picture
The Prefect of the Pontifical Household is no longer functioning as the Prefect of the Pontifical Household. But that doesn’t mean that Archbishop Gänswein has been removed from his post, the Vatican press office assures us; it’s just “an ordinary redistribution of the various commitments and duties of the prefect of the papal household.” - February 6, 2020

• 1P5 Minute #21 – Amidst More Vatican Scandals, Bishops Want to Control Catholic Media?
On this episode of the 1P5 Minute, we look at the absolute disconnect between a Vatican that can’t stop pumping out scandal and the eagerness of some bishops (and the Orwellian Hobbits that support them) to try to control the very Catholic media that wants to keep the episcopacy accountable. - February 6, 2020

• Bishops Policing Catholic Media: Bad Idea, Won’t Work
On January 24, the National Catholic Register published an article titled “Catholics Reflect on 10 Years of the Good, Bad, and Ugly of Social Media.” - February 6, 2020

• Fr. Z's Blog: Germans go to the zoo. Synod (“walking together”) and heresy. Wherein Fr. Z rants.
Weird German bishop (tautology?) of Osnabrück, Franz-Josef Bode, is for pretty everything that would tear the Church apart and remake her in the secularist image so hotly desired by the Left. - February 6, 2020

• Fr. Z's Blog: READ: NRO piece by Daniel J. Mahoney, “Pope Francis, Wayward Shepherd”
In the wake of posting about Robert Royal’s roundup of books on Francis, I read today at NRO a piece by Daniel J. Mahoney, “Pope Francis, Wayward Shepherd”. - February 6, 2020

• Pope Francis, Wayward Shepherd
In the first year or two of Pope Francis’s pontificate, conservative-minded Catholics made heroic efforts to place the perplexing ways of the new pope in continuity with the thought and deeds of his immediate predecessors. - February 6, 2020

• Sedevacantism? Can Popes Become Heretics? St Robert Bellarmine on 5 Opinions (VIDEO RELOAD)
Can Popes Become Heretics? St Robert Bellarmine writes extensively on this question, especially in his De Controversiis Fidei Christianae from 1588. Ryan Grant, the Bellarmine expert and translator, joins Dr. Taylor Marshall to discuss Papal Error, Vatican I, and the Five Opinions listed by Bellarmine regarding Papal error and falling from the Papal office. - February 4, 2020

• The Decline and Fall of Catholic Moral Theology
The Catholic Church has a moral teaching. Everybody knows this, and it is on account of her moral teaching that people who do not wish to believe that the Catholic Church is the true religion, and who do not wish to believe that they have a duty to belong to her, are driven to invent the most extraordinary arguments in the moral order so they can writhe out of their obligations.  - February 3, 2020

• Are the Holy See and the United Nations Too Close for Comfort?
NEWS ANALYSIS: The relationship has come under closer scrutiny of late. - February 3, 2020