His Bible of religious naturalism, slammed with wit and abandon by a critic with nothing to lose by his criticism in that he begins with disbelieving in Francis as pope in the first place.

The Vatican’s endless word factory has just released another monster of a document: Jorge Bergoglio (a.k.a. “Pope Francis”) has released his third-so called Apostolic Exhortation, and just like the other two, it has a cognate of “joy” in its title: Gaudete and Exsultate (“Rejoice and Be Glad”), taken from the words of Christ in the Beatitudes (Mt 5:12) follows Amoris Laetitia (“The Joy of Love”) and Evangelii Gaudium (“The Joy of the Gospel”).

We can assume that no document on the threat of damnation for unrepentant sinners, perhaps entitled Discedite a Me Maledicti (“Depart from me, you cursed”; Mt 25:41), will be forthcoming any time soon, at least not before the U.S. government pays off the national debt.

via Gaudete et Exsultate – Francis’ New “Apostolic” Exhortation – Novus Ordo Watch

To fellow CNN employee defending Trump: Nevermore on my show!

Judith Miller rejoices in Libby’s pardon by Trump, even though her testimony led to his conviction. She explains.

So why would I be pleased with Libby’s pardon? Because after leaving jail [for protecting sources] and investigating the case, I unearthed information that convinced me not only that my testimony was in error, but that Libby was the victim of an overzealous prosecutor whose investigation should have ended before it began. I described my findings in a 2015 memoir about high-stakes journalism, The Story, A Reporter’s Journey.

The first thing I learned was that John Rizzo, the CIA’s former general counsel and an agency lawyer for over 30 years, disputed prosecutor [Patrick] Fitzgerald’s assertion that Valerie Plame had been a super-secret covert agent, not well known outside of the intelligence community, and that the leak of her name had caused grave, if unspecified, harm to America’s national security.

Rizzo told me in an interview and subsequently wrote in his own book that “dozens, if not hundreds of people in Washington” knew that Plame worked for the CIA. Even more significantly, he said, a CIA damage assessment of the leak had produced “no evidence” that her outing had harmed any CIA operation, any agent in the field, or “anyone else, including Plame herself.”

I also learned that the CIA assessment had been finished in late 2003 or early 2004, long before Libby was indicted or I went to jail. Though Fitzgerald knew this, Rizzo’s crucial CIA finding became public only after his book was published. But if the leak had caused no national security harm, why had Fitzgerald continued the inquiry? [Italics mine]

Why indeed?

Read the rest here Belated Justice for Scooter Libby | City Journal

Isn’t this the first such peremptory punishment for a priest suspected of consenting-adult homosexual acting-out? To expel him forthwith from his job as pastor?

Related question: Is Fr. P. the first such celibacy-violator to be discovered in the archdiocese?

There are no others whom this or any previous cardinal archbishop has missed in their ongoing pursuit for the welfare of parishioners?

How did the cardinal learn of the Fr. Phillips case? Not a question of accuser — no criminal prosecution is mentioned. So we ask not about the accuser but about the informer. Who is Cardinal Cupich’s informer? Will he come forth to testify?

Should gay Chicago priests be worried about some sort of crackdown? One would not think so, the cardinal being so completely on the side of gay tolerance. Ridiculous to think that of him who has hosted the nation’s prime gay advocate Fr. James Martin SJ to the cathedral.

It’s also ridiculous that he would target the most successful and best known Latin Mass advocate in the archdiocese for special condemnation. This is such a mess, when you get down to it.

Finally, Fr. P. has a lawyer. His congregation, the Resurrectionists, is examining his case. Years ago, sitting in a meeting of Weber High alumni and several Resurrectionists including the provincial, I heard the latter list almost comically among his problems one of his priests who was founding a new religious order, obviously Fr. P.

He was musing in relaxed fashion, and there was no animosity in what he said, just a simple declaration to show how many problems he had in addition to Weber, then in trouble and soon to be closed.

Can we imagine Fr. P’s fellow Resurrectionist Fathers concluding that there’s nothing in the announcement and (presumed irrevocable) ousting of a pastor, contradicting the cardinal?

How messy can this get? Messier yet, it seems.

Libs do not have a handle on this problem of theirs:

Clinical psychologist Jordan B. Peterson says the time has come for liberals and “left-leaning” individuals to “identity the markers of pathological extremism.”

The author of the best-selling book “12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos” told the popular YouTube channel “Big Think” this week that liberal activists and academics have not found a way to “box in” radicals as their counterparts on the right have done. He told its 2.2 million subscribers that right-wing groups embracing doctrines of racial superiority are easily spotted and ostracized while left-wing radicals benefit from a dearth of widely accepted identifiers.

Well they wouldn’t. They never were big on principles, standing ever for the next big thing on which to hang a grievance or cause.

In an unusual case of church discipline, at least in Chicago.

CHICAGO, Illinois, March 21, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – A strange situation is unfolding at St. John Cantius, the Chicago parish known for its otherworldly liturgies, yellow-balloon touting youth at the March for Life, and faithful, orthodox priests.

Voted in 2016 the “most beautiful church in America” as part of the annual “Church Madness” competition, St. John Cantius is home to the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius, a religious order that offers Mass in the Extraordinary and Ordinary Forms, focuses on “restoring the sacred,” and aims to “preserve and foster the devotional, musical, catechetical, and artistic traditions of the Catholic Church.”

Sounds unassailable, doesn’t it?

St. John Cantius parishioners were shocked, therefore, when this past weekend, a letter from Chicago’s ultra-liberal Cardinal Blase Cupich was read at Masses informing them Fr. Phillips had been removed as pastor over accusations of “improper conduct” with adult males.

First they knew about it, he’s outa there, period, sent back to his religious superiors at the Congregation of the Resurrection for decision and adjudication.

Even though it is standard procedure in most dioceses for priests accused of sexual impropriety – or even pedophilia and preying on minors, of which Fr. Phillips is not accused – to be placed on administrative leave, Fr. Phillips was immediately removed as pastor of St. John Cantius.

He is now facing a review by the board of the Resurrectionist order, of which he technically is a member even though he founded the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius. Cardinal Cupich has removed Fr. Phillips’ priestly faculties, preventing him from administering the sacraments or performing other priestly duties.

It’s the Chicago way?

“I hope for a swift resolution to this especially because I don’t believe the allegation. I just don’t,” Father John Zuhlsdorf wrote on his popular blog. “Given that Phillips seems not to have broken any civil laws the move against him seems pretty sudden and draconian, but I guess that’s what they do around there.”

Not in Chicago, however. Until now. Should we note something about the grand high executioner in this case?

Cupich’s hostility toward the Traditional Latin Mass has been public for years.

In 2002, when he was the Bishop of Rapid City, South Dakota, Cupich locked the doors of a Catholic parish during the Easter Triduum, one of the holiest points of the Catholic liturgical year, in order to prevent Traditional Latin Masses from taking place. The church was forced to hold its Good Friday liturgies on the sidewalk.

Pretty harsh, that. A retired Texas bishop was “stunned.”

Bishop Rene Henry Gracida, Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Corpus Christi, wrote on his blog.  . . . . What I find so disturbing . . .  is that the public way in which Cardinal Cupich removed Father Phillips was so uncalled for.

Every bishop at one time or another is faced with the sexual misbehavior of a priest with a man or a woman who is not a minor. In the case of minors the Dallas Charter demands rapid and harsh measures by the bishop in handling the case.

In the case of adults, such measures are not only not required but are inadvisable because of the scandal of the weak which results. Instead, the priest is suspended and quietly removed from office and no public announcement by the Ordinary is necessary, a simple discrete letter to the people of the parish is sufficient.

So the Latin Mass part looms larger because of Cupich’s tolerant attitude toward homosexual behavior.

Bishop Gravida:

Cardinal Cupich acquired a reputation in his former office as Bishop of Spokane as being totally opposed to the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass in the Diocese. That fact combined with his welcoming of Father James Martin, S.J. to the Cathedral in Chicago to speak in support of the homosexual lifestyle that he promotes in his book Building Bridges, a lifestyle that sometimes involves the sin of sodomy, causes me to wonder if the removal of Father Phillips is not part of an elaborate plot leading to the suppression of Saint John Cantius Parish as a center for the promotion of the Traditional Latin Mass.

He uses the H-word:

The hypocrisy of removing Father Phillips as Pastor based on a possible false accusation of homosexuality on the eve of Father [Martin’s] talk at the Cathedral promoting ‘respect’ for homosexuals is too much for people of common sense to accept and to wonder about hypocrisy.

Looks that way.

The full letter from Cardinal Cupich can be viewed here.

via Cardinal Cupich removes pastor at famous traditional parish over ‘improper conduct’ allegations | News | Lifesitenews

Justice no longer delayed, GW’s small-mindedness negated, Cheney reaffirmed.

The electorate be damned.

Can you hear the Vatican egging Marquette on?