Month: March 2018

Trouble right there in Vatican City. . .

Where everything is up to date on the fake news front — how the good or not so good monsignor falsified a letter from the ex-pope so as to make the incumbent look like the ex and he are on the same page.

Summary of same by astute reporter-commentator:

The upshot of . . . is that the Prefect of the Secretariat for Communication of the Holy See, Msgr. Dario Edoardo Viganò, has a communication problem. Specifically, he has a hard time telling the truth. [Oh!]

That is indeed a problem for Pope Francis, who put Msgr. Viganò in the job. More importantly, it is a problem for the universal Church.

Whether the problem admits of a remedy short of Msgr. Viganò’s severance from the department he currently heads is beyond the scope of these considerations, the purpose of which has been merely to say what happened. Res ipsa loquitur.

via The Vatican’s Viganò Problem – Catholic World Report

Vatican bows to pressure, releases retired pope’s letter

Tip of the iceberg in this at times sleazy papacy. Not happy to say it.

The previously hidden part of the letter provides the full explanation why Benedict refused to write a commentary on a new Vatican-published compilation of books about Francis’ theological and philosophical background that was released to mark his fifth anniversary as pope.

In addition to saying he didn’t have time, Benedict noted that one of the authors involved in the project had launched “virulent,” ”anti-papist” attacks against his teaching and that of St. John Paul II. He said he was “surprised” the Vatican had chosen the theologian to be included in the 11-volume “The Theology of Pope Francis.”

“I’m certain you can understand why I’m declining,” Benedict wrote.

I’d say we can. Francis’ administration — I’d use that word, because (a) it’s accurate and (b) it has accurate overtones of high politicization — is misreading what Francis wants or doing things the way he wants it. By now the former is highly unlikely, in view of the tight ship Francis is steering.

via Vatican bows to pressure, releases retired pope’s letter | Chicago Sun-Times

Whoa. National Review endorses Jeannie Ives

The long-time voice of conservatism. (Even if it missed the boat on Trump.)

Voters in Illinois will head to the polls this Tuesday. They should vote for Jeanne Ives in the Republican gubernatorial primary over the thoroughly disappointing incumbent governor Bruce Rauner, who has forfeited any claim on his party’s nod.

via Jeanne Ives – Illinois Governor Endorsement | National Review

Cardinal Cupich scores again with a call for social action, this time for gun legislation

I challenge you. Can you recall any case where this cardinal missed a headline story about left-leaning or -inspired social issues on which he has failed to fasten?

The nation’s young people are “shaming the adult world into action” on gun violence, said Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich, referring to survivors of the recent school shooting in Parkland, Florida, who have become activists on the issue. “Their voices are a wake-up call that should have been heard years ago.”

“The time for words is over, our children our telling us. What is now required is action,” Cupich said Feb. 28, adding that elected officials should “stop saying that they will pray for victims and uphold family values if that is the only response they care to give to these tragedies.”

Or one in which he has failed to give out the current OK words for us all to chomp on?

Does his “time for words is over” mean he’s gonna drop the issue?

via Cardinal Cupich calls for action on gun legislation | National Catholic Reporter

‘Enough Is Enough’: US Students Stage Walkouts Against Guns

Campus hi-jinks.

Declaring enough is enough, tens of thousands of young people from Maine to Alaska walked out of school to demand action on gun violence Wednesday in one of the biggest student protests since the Vietnam era.

Braving snow in New England and threats of school discipline in places like Georgia and Ohio, they carried signs with messages such as “Am I next?,” railed against the National Rifle Association and bowed their heads in memory of the 17 dead in the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

This too shall pass.