Politics

By Rev. Dr. Andrew Bennett, The Catholic Thing - In 1981, while ushering in Canada’s new Charter of Rights and Freedoms, then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau remarked that “The Golden Thread of Faith is woven throughout the history of Canada from its earliest beginnings up to the present time.” Now, in Trudeau’s home province of Quebec, we are witnessing the unraveling of that thread and the prospect of its complete sundering.

By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture - The purge at the John Paul II Institute has eliminated the faculty members most closely associated with the thought of the Pope— and canonized saint— after whom the Institute is named. But if Msgr. Melina’s charge is accurate, something even more shocking is taking place. If it is “intolerable” to say that Pope Francis is teaching in continuity with prior Church teachings, then it seems quite clear that the John Paul II Institute is now dedicated to the proposition that previous Church teachings should be discarded.

By Nicole Winfield, AP - At first glance, the handwritten postcards and letters look innocuous, even warm, sometimes signed off by “Uncle T.” or “Your uncle, Father Ted.”… But taken in context, the correspondence penned by disgraced ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick to the young men he is accused of sexually abusing or harassing is a window into the way a predator grooms his prey, according to two abuse prevention experts who reviewed it for The AP… Full of flattery, familiarity and boasts about his own power, the letters provide visceral evidence of how a globe-trotting bishop made young, vulnerable men feel special — and then allegedly took advantage of them.