. . . in its Journal, where news is

Tax Refunds Will Be Paid During Shutdown, White House Says

New policy meant to ‘mitigate the impact’ of shutdown, Vice President Mike Pence says

Mind one:

J  Why do you love Trump more than the American people?

Mind two:

S 

1. Two thoughtful, competent, ethical, moral and constitution directed jurists appointed to the Supreme Court. More to follow.

2. Moral, ethical and grounded jurists appointed to the Federal Judiciary

3.. America’s tax structure made somewhat competitive with its global competitors

4. A tax code even more fair, one that fewer than 50% of Americans actually pay any Federal Income tax despite a government that spends $78,532 per capita.

5. Rebuilding our Defenses is underway.

5. Lowest unemployment for Blacks, Latinos and other minorities that have been paid lip service to for over a century

6. No more apologies by POTUS to other nations.

7. Substantial reductions in the millions of pages of regulations hung on the economy by 8 very very long years of Obama

8. Our daughters not having to fear men masquerading as women in the ladies’ restroom

9. Obamacare in its last days of its always certain death march, the end of its ‘death’ squad panels.

10. etc. etc.

Crash.

Something there is that doesn’t love a two-timer, a worrisome thing that makes you sing the blues . . .

He dings the American bishops for a lack of credibility as his own takes another hit in the wake of a new Vatican scandal.

Pope Francis lectured the American bishops this week on their “crisis of credibility” even as his own reputation took another hit in the wake of revelations about one of his protégés. It turns out that another McCarrick-like predator has been nesting at the Vatican under the patronage of this famously permissive pope. “Pope Francis’ Argentinean Protégé Accused of Sex Abuse,” reported the Daily Beast.

The accused bishop is Gustavo Óscar Zanchetta, a crony of Pope Francis’s from his days as archbishop of Buenos Aires. According to the story, Zanchetta, who has been accused of preying upon priests and seminarians, has long benefited from his friendship with the pope, first in Argentina, where Bergoglio orchestrated his elevation to a top-ranking position within the Argentinean Bishops Conference and then “made his fellow countryman a bishop right after becoming pope in 2013.” Zanchetta didn’t last long in that post, resigning in 2017 under a mysterious cloud of priestly complaints and claims of poor “health.” He scurried out of Argentina without even saying a “farewell mass,” according to the story, only to turn up shortly thereafter on “Pope Francis’ doorstep in Rome,” where Zanchetta was quickly thrown a new papal plum: . . . etc. etc.

This pope, he’s a two-faced thing, seems not to know he can’t fool all of the people all of the time. We of the watching and listening unwashed can only hope he gets it one of these days, I mean, how obvious can you be? Tsk, tsk, tut, tut . . .

More, more, culled at random, embarrassing riches:

The Vatican is once again playing dumb, claiming it knew nothing of the allegations against Zanchetta at the time of his new appointment. But who believes that? This is a pontificate that turned a predator known to Francis, Theodore McCarrick, into a papal envoy and dispatched him to the ends of the earth.

The pope’s plum-throwing to perverts is simply a habit he can’t break, not even at the most intense moment of the abuse scandal. A couple of weeks ago the pope vowed that the Church would “never’ conceal predators again. At that very moment, Zanchetta was working down the hall, overseeing the real estate holdings of the Church, even though one of the reasons for his disappearance from his diocese was that he had misused Church funds in furtherance of his misconduct.

Woe.

Sign of renewed awakedness by Pope and his men:

VATICAN CITY—The Vatican plans to try Archbishop Theodore McCarrick as early as this coming week , in order to make a final decision on his fate before next month’s Vatican summit on sex abuse, according to people familiar with the matter.

Vatican officials understand that Pope Francis wants them to act swiftly in the matter, to keep the U.S. archbishop’s fate from overshadowing the summit, scheduled for Feb. 21-24, these people say.

Clearing the decks. Good.

[McCarrick] has said he has no recollection of the incident from the 1970s and believes he is innocent. A lawyer for the archbishop declined to comment on whether he is contesting the charges.

Special handling:

Ordinarily, clerics accused of sex abuse are initially judged by local church authorities around the world, where the process can take years. Appeals are heard at the Vatican, and ordinarily take a minimum of two months.

Rush job, apparently.

While Vatican officials are firm in their plan for the McCarrick trial to take place this coming week, the pope could still choose to change the timing or decide to judge the case himself, in which case there would be no possibility of appeal. A Vatican spokesman said proceedings in the case are under way, adding: “We are awaiting the results.”

The uncertainty is disconcerting. The charges are even more so:

One charge involves the son of friends whom the future archbishop allegedly abused over a period of years beginning when the victim was 11.

The trial will also consider the charge that Archbishop McCarrick repeatedly abused another boy starting at the age of 13.

His other life also:

In addition, allegations that the archbishop sexually harassed adult seminarians and priests over a period of years will also be considered at his trial, even though the CDF ordinarily tries abuse cases involving minors only. Accusations of a bishop’s misconduct with adults are usually dealt with by the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops.

Gets complicated. CDF is Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, once known popularly as the Holy Office, or (long ago) the Inquisition, as in Poe’s “The Pit and the Pendulum.” Woe.

New people in the press office giving us a look at the kinder, gentler pontiff that has appeared among us.

Who says there aren’t solutions to public relations catastrophes?

Look for more of this sweetest of talk in the weeks to come.

Pay heed, everyone, especially those for whom Trump is a dirty word. Put aside your grievance(s) about him which I won’t even begin to enumerate and give a long, loving look at the economy.

You’re not stupid, not on your good days anyhow, so you can see that good things are continuing to happen.

You are not among the forgotten, probably, but have a heart for them. You owe it. Give a nod to the man who so far has bulldogged us to this point.

Hasn’t been pretty for many of you, probably most. But it’s been and is looking to continue to be a beautiful thing for those who now have work, who otherwise wouldn’t have.

Continuing an important development, which is more than Gallicanism revisited, of course.

Rather, it’s another case of civil authorities picking up the clerical-abuse ball dropped by Catholic bishops and cardinals.

Next week’s proceedings will bring up the Vatican’s role in the case by calling into question communications about the issue in 2015 between Cardinal Barbarin [the accused] and Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer, the cardinal who heads the Vatican office that disciplines clerical sex abusers.

The trial in a criminal court in Lyon, which starts on Monday, comes as the Catholic Church is under fire over its handling of prelates embroiled in abuse scandals. Victims have blasted the church for failing to punish bishops who have covered up for abusive priests.

Dozens of victims?

The French case relates to Rev. Bernard Preynat, whom prosecutors suspect of sexually abusing several dozen children in the 1970s through the early ’90s at church camps around Lyon, years before Cardinal Barbarin became archbishop.

In 1990, the parents of Francois Devaux, a teenager who attended church camp, wrote to Cardinal Albert Decourtray, then archbishop of Lyon, saying Father Preynat had assaulted their son.

The too familiar transfer:

Archbishop Decourtray suspended Father Preynat for several months and then transferred him to a new parish in a small town 40 miles away from the Lyon suburb. In the Lyon suburb, he had served as a priest for years and headed a boy-scout group. Archbishop Decourtray died in 1994. (emphasis added)

Another accusation, to new cardinal. Letter to Rome. Nothing to police.

In 2014, a man came forward to tell Cardinal Barbarin that Father Preynat had sexually abused him. That prompted Cardinal Barbarin to write to the Vatican to report the problem, Mr. Luciani said, and he removed the priest from parish work. The cardinal didn’t report the allegations to police.

Roman cardinal: Avoid scandal.

In 2015, Cardinal Ladaria, who now heads the Vatican office that disciplines clerical sex abusers and was at that time the office’s No. 2 official, instructed Cardinal Barbarin to take “adequate measures” against Father Preynat “while [predictably] avoiding a public scandal,” the cardinals’ lawyers and a plaintiff involved in the case said.

French cardinal investigated, then isn’t, we don’t know why.

Lyon prosecutors also opened a probe targeting Cardinal Barbarin for allegedly covering up abuse, but dismissed the case in August 2016, the judicial official said. Details of the probe, including the reasons for its dismissal, haven’t been made public.

Then he is again.

However, last year, people who accuse Father Preynat of abuse used a special provision under French law to force the cardinal to stand trial.

Pope Francis objects. Predictably.

In an interview with French newspaper La Croix in May 2016, Pope Francis defended Cardinal Barbarin, saying it would be “nonsensical, imprudent” for the cardinal to resign before civil-court proceedings conclude. . . .

A cardinal in the dock:

PARIS—A trial of a French cardinal accused of failing to act on decades-old accusations of child sexual abuse by a local priest will spotlight how senior Catholic officials, including the Vatican’s top watchdog, have handled such cases.

Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, archbishop of Lyon, is charged with failing to report a crime and endangering minors, the first time a cardinal has stood trial for covering up abuse by priests.

The charges carry a potential three-year prison sentence and fines of as much as €45,000 ($51,600). The prelate denies the charges.

And well he might. The French have a way with men owing allegiance to Rome. Even the Catholics have gone their own ways over the centuries, as in Gallicanism (French-ism), whereby they proved rebellious in matters of worship, for instance.

As for the government, well since Richelieu things have never been the same.