Catholic Church

By William Kilpatrick, Crisis Magazine - Thanks to Pope Francis, the Vatican now joins the growing list of the world’s sanctuary cities. If you’re a clergyman wanted by civil authorities or Church authorities in your native land, the Vatican will offer you a safe haven and, quite possibly, a cushy job… When Msgr. Battista Ricca got in trouble over a string of sex scandals, he was rewarded with a prominent position in the Vatican Bank. And when Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta of Oran, Argentina, was credibly accused of abusing seminarians, he was whisked off to Rome and ensconced in a position specially created for him….

By Diane Montagna, LifeSiteNews - A Benedictine theologian has joined the chorus of voices criticizing the working document of the upcoming Synod of Bishops on the Amazon, calling it “biodegradable Christianity.”… In an analysis published by Italian journalist Aldo Maria Valli on July 2, Dom Giulio Meiattini, a monk of the abbey of Madonna della Scala in the southern Italian province of Bari, said the Instrumentum laboris proposes and contains nothing less than a “reversal” of the “very idea of Church and Christian faith.”

By Joseph Pronechen, National Catholic Register - An 8-year-old in central Illinois has an indelible connection to soon-to-be Blessed Fulton Sheen… Archbishop Sheen is set to beatified, after Pope Francis’ formal July 6 approval of a miracle brought the cause of Archbishop Sheen’s canonization one step further… James Fulton Engstrom, who lives near Peoria, was the recipient of the miracle leading to the forthcoming beatification of Peoria-area native Sheen. His parents, Travis and Bonnie Engstrom, prayed for Archbishop Sheen’s intercession in 2010.

By Gene Thomas Gomulka, Church Militant - The even greater "elephant in the room" that neither the media nor the U.S. bishops — including Bp. Barron — want to expose is the amount of abuse that Pope Francis himself covered up in Buenos Aires prior to his papal election. How can the Pope discipline bishops for covering up or under-reporting sex abuse when most bishops know he himself covered-up innumerable abuse cases in his archdiocese with a population of 2.5 million Catholics?