Catholic Church

By Christine Niles, M.St. (Oxon.), J.D., Church Militant - Questions continue to swirl over the Vatican's mishandling and misappropriation of hundreds of millions of euros… Days after newly leaked documents revealed the Vatican's Secretariat of State misused hundreds of millions of euros in charitable donations for speculative business investments in the oil industry and luxury commercial real estate, a curial official has admitted to using American grant money to write off a questionable multi-million-dollar loan to a scandal-ridden Rome hospital.

By C C Pecknold, Catholic Herald - Obergefell not only brought the age of liberal neutrality to an end, but it gave birth to a party which now seeks to punish. As Harvard’s Mark Tushnet put it, “you lost and we won.” There is no point in being nice about it. Dissent will not be permitted. Beto O’Rourke has only been the most outspoken in insisting that those who do not acquiesce will be punished. Now proceduralism will be used not for viewpoint neutrality but to punish the vanquished with the whips of a new kind of religious fervor. Professor George called it a new paganism.

By Edward Pentin, EWTN News - The revision’s purpose was to incorporate more fully the teaching of the Second Vatican Council on the nature of the diaconate which Pope John Paul II had already updated in the Catechism… Benedict’s revision emphasized the distinction between diaconal and priestly ministry, that deacons do not act in the person of Christ through the celebration of Mass. But significantly, he left intact canonical wording which reflects the unity of the sacrament of orders for all three grades of deacon, priest and bishop.

By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture - By the end of the week Vatican officials were stretching for an explanation of the affair. Paolo Ruffini, the prefect of the dicastery for Communications, made the astonishing claim that “there was no ritual, no prostration took place”—despite the clear photographic evidence. Pope Francis simply declared that the statues were displayed “without blasphemous intentions.” Yet in the same statement, the Pontiff clarified that the statutes were representations of the Pachamama—which, again, is a fertility goddess.