Catholic Church

By Jared Staudt, Those Catholic Men - What are goats like? They are trouble: always breaking out of their pens, eating everything in sight. I remember visiting a monastery, where a goat was hanging out along the road by the main entrance. He had escaped and stood there staring at us, quite pleased with himself. He was happy to have found his freedom, blissfully ignorant of the predators, cars, and other threats that would come with nightfall. The goat can gloat about his freedom, but he won’t last long apart from the protection of the shepherd.

By Msgr. Charles Pope - Two momentous days have passed: On Monday there was the cleansing of the Temple and the laments over Jerusalem’s lack of faith; Tuesday featured exhaustive teachings by Jesus and interrogations by His opponents… Today, Wednesday, it would seem that Jesus stays in Bethany. According to Matthew’s Gospel, the day begins with an ominous warning: When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples, “As you know, the Passover is two days away—and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified”

By Claire Giangravè, The Crux - In a new interview, the former top doctrinal official at the Vatican praised Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s recent statement on the clerical sexual abuse scandals and rebuked criticism that the pope did not write it himself or should not speak his mind… Benedict XVI “has his style, he was helped by a secretary but intellectually he does not need help, because he has great experience and he remembers all those responsible for the fall of moral theology, which is one of the causes behind these abuses,” said German Cardinal Gerhard Ludwing Müller, former Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith…

By Matthew B. O’Brien, First Things - In 2017, Cardinal Donald Wuerl provided false and misleading information to the board of the Papal Foundation to secure a $25 million grant for the Istituto Dermopatico dell’Immacolata (IDI), a scandal-plagued hospital in Rome.Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin requested this grant from the Papal Foundation in June 2017, on behalf of Pope Francis. When the Papal Foundation board met in December 2017 to discuss the grant, Wuerl made two false assertions which were recorded in the meeting minutes.