#1, the Dubia group (questioners of Pope Francis’ Amoris letter permitting communion for divorced and remarried):

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania, April 4, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Cardinal Raymond Burke will speak about the nature of marriage at a conference in Philadelphia on April 21.

The dubia cardinal will be joined by Father Gerald Murray of The World Over fame and Father Dennis Gill, rector of the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul. The conference will take place in that cathedral and will include a Marian procession and crowning, Eucharistic Adoration, and a recitation of the rosary.

Called Matrimony: Rediscovering Its Truth, the conference is being organized by The St. John Neumann Chapter and Catholics United for the Faith.

via Cardinal Burke to speak on marriage, offer Mass at Philadelphia cathedral on April 21 | News | LifeSite

And #2, the (majority) pro-Amoris bishops, convened by Cardinal Cupich of Chicago:

Boston College, the University of Notre Dame and Santa Clara University hosted day-long seminars last week on the theme of “A New Momentum for Moral Formation and Pastoral Practice” in light of Amoris Laetitia.  The conferences, that followed a two-day conference on the same theme last October at Boston College, were conducted in concert with the Dicastery on Family, Life and the Laity.  Boston College professor Fr James Keenan SJ  and Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago were the principal organisers.

Each session featured theologians and bishops presenting on different topics related to Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation on the family, with a team of theologians presenting at all three venues, although each session had different bishops among the presenters. Bishops Robert McElroy and Steven Biegler gave talks at Santa Clara, Cardinals Cupich and Joseph Tobin delivered presentations at Notre Dame; Archbishop Wilton Gregory spoke at the Boston College event, and Archbishop Bernard Hebda read a paper prepared by Cardinal Donald Wuerl, who cancelled his appearance at the last minute due to the flu.

Heavy hitters, to be sure. #1 is outnumbered. “We few, we happy few,” they tell themselves?

Via Cardinal organises US campus dialogues on Amoris Laetitia

No contest, numerically speaking. Otherwise? One thinks not.

via Thoughts! Pen! Words!

Do not go there unless you are prepared to spend a lot of time, or if you are a strong-willed person who can pull himself away.

Offering mass “for Divine intervention regarding the Crisis in the Church which has been brought to a head by Pope Francis,” this priest had a very weird experience, he tells One Peter Five.

As in this account, one of many, of a car hijacking two hours ago.

Talk about laboring the obvious!

via Hostage-taking in French supermarket: French Bishops, “unacceptable and inadmissible” | AgenSIR

Here’s the old debbil himself:

We have the “Divisive Bolton” part thanks to today’s hard-copy head for this story, page 27, Section 1. Digital editors thought differently, though their mean old headshot does something like it.

The writers pretty much let their hair down on this one, unloading all things negative and scary about a Trump appointment who shivers their timbers and gives an opening to their deepest fears and worries.

Nothing good to say about this fellow, just what feeds the the similarly deepest fears and worries of the echo chamber. Fair and balanced, eh?

via John Bolton’s take-no-prisoners style may prove problematic in the White House – Chicago Tribune

Heck, we knew all about it, what with the publicity it’s getting from the mainstream media. They are all over the story, yawn.

(Hey, it took him a whole year, didn’t it? Yawn.)

Big deal.

Via Trump Boom Continues as Personal Earnings Up in Most States

It’s become hackneyed by now, but sometimes the trite is applicable.

You can’t make this stuff up!

. . . to make his boss the incumbent look good.

Did he unwisely capture and internalize the curial climate which puts a so high a value on making the incumbent look good?

He’s bounced for now from this job, but such loyalty will not go unrewarded.

Pope Francis asked Msgr. Vigano, 55, to remain at the secretariat as “assessor” to “make your human and professional contribution” in assisting whoever is named the new prefect as the Vatican continues its long and complicated work of unifying its communications efforts and various media outlets.

So. He’s still around. Beautiful.

Notice. No castigation of his dishonesty in service of the pontiff.

Later: Au contraire, he clearly thinks the world of the man:

The Pope applauded the “great engagement” and the “style of available confrontation and docility” of Monsignor Vigano with the collaborators of the Curia and he stresses that “the reform of the Church is not first of all a problem of organization charts but, rather, the adoption of a spirit of service.” He thanks the outgoing Prefect for his “humility” and his “profound sensus ecclesiae.”

That last is “sense of the church,” or feeling for what’s best for it. Well.

How good can you get in defining the Trump presidency?

. . . any report card on the Trump Presidency must begin by recognizing the great progress he has made in undermining the power and legitimacy of our progressive elites.

Whether on Twitter or through more traditional media, Mr. Trump has used politically incorrect language and proclaimed overtly traditional values of faith and patriotism.

His language has at times been vulgar in more ways than one. But his intent has been clear: to affirm traditional norms in a manner designed to make elites lose their self-control and drop the mask that long covered their hatred for traditional American society and the people who love it. [Italics added]

My thoughts entirely. The lifting up of skirts over Trump and how he talks has put opinion-makers in a faintly ridiculous position. I take their indignation as confirmation of my support — and that of many others, I believe.

via The University Bookman: Trump so Far