A New York Times/CBS News poll released yesterday on Catholic opinions about the Vatican, the pope, and the abuse scandal is a mixed bag of results, as you might have expected. Laurie Goodstein summarizes some of the findings: A majority of Roman Catholics in the United States are critical of the way Pope Benedict XVI … Read more
It’s taken eight long years, but according to Catholic News Agency (CNA), the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments has approved a new translation of the Roman Missal, including next text for the English Mass. It will be incorporated into parishes across the country gradually and at the discretion of local … Read more
Rome will be taking control of the Legionaries of Christ, at least for the time being: In a statement on Saturday, the Vatican said that Benedict would appoint a special delegate to govern the Legionaries, an influential worldwide order that has been an important source of new priests in a church that has struggled with … Read more
Yesterday concluded a three-day media communications conference at Santa Croce in Rome. Wall Street Journal reporter Stacey Meichtry has a mostly fair assessment of the challenge the Church faces in responding to the crisis. Meichtry makes some important points — namely, that the church’s response to the crisis is bound to be decentralized. Bishops cannot … Read more
A New York Times story today sheds more positive light on Benedict’s track record against abuse than we’ve seen in that paper of late. The article describes how then-Cardinal Ratzinger attempts to investigate abuse allegations made against an Austrian cardinal were often stymied by political factors inside the Vatican: In 1995, a victim came forward, … Read more
Press for the pope’s September visit to England gets worse all the time. First, it was Richard Dawkins et al. calling for Benedict’s arrest upon his arrival in the country; now, an embarrassing Foreign Office memo has come to light that sarcastically suggests the pope “be asked to open an abortion clinic, bless a gay … Read more
Somehow I missed Peggy Noonan’s article from April 17 in The Wall Street Journal called “How to Save the Catholic Church.” I’m surprised it hasn’t generated more controversy (maybe it has, and I missed that, too). Noonan believes the old ways of secrecy, silence, loyalty at all costs, and the “old-boys club” mentality can no … Read more
The reports from Pope Benedict’s meeting with sex-abuse victims in Malta yesterday are quite moving: [One victim] said he had asked the Pope why the priest had abused him. “I could see the pain in his eyes. He said he did not know. He said the priest had betrayed his vows before God. We still … Read more
As the Mysterious Get Benedict Society campaign to destroy Pope Benedict XVI continues shooting itself in the foot with various false starts, half-baked stories, and tales told by mainstream media idiots, the thing that continues to impress me is the sheer self-contradictory irony of the thing. It’s really quite crushing. We are instructed … Read more
Ross Douthat’s column in this Sunday’s New York Times is definitely a thought-provoking one. He notes that, whereas Pope Benedict is repeatedly pummeled by the press, John Paul II was generally well-liked, or at least respected — but that doesn’t mean that he was necessarily the better pope: The last pope was a great man, … Read more
The 1998 Malachi Martin novel, Windswept House, opens with a Satanic ritual performed at St. Paul’s chapel inside Vatican City by members at every level of the Catholic clergy. The purpose? To open the door of the Church to the Devil’s influence, and lead to the destruction of Catholicism from within. The premise of the … Read more
A fresh embarrassment in Rome: The Vatican was today rocked by a sex scandal reaching into Pope Benedict’s household after a chorister was sacked for allegedly procuring male prostitutes for a papal gentleman-in-waiting. Angelo Balducci, a Gentleman of His Holiness, was caught by police on a wiretap allegedly negotiating with Thomas Chinedu Ehiem, a 29-year-old … Read more
The bishops of Ireland wrapped up their meeting with Pope Benedict today regarding the sex-abuse scandal in that country. The Holy See has released an official statement about the closed-door meeting: For his part, the Holy Father observed that the sexual abuse of children and young people is not only a heinous crime, but also a grave sin … Read more
Our favorite Vatican newspaper is at it again with another odd article. On Sunday, L’Osservatore Romano published a “semiserious guide” to the ten best rock albums of all time. “Some songs seem to have been written yesterday…. while others still send shivers down the spine for their illuminating simplicity and musical thrust” the writers of … Read more
According to a Catholic News Service (CNS) report , a new “insider’s” look at Pope John Paul II is getting snubbed by the Vatican. The book, Why He’s a Saint: The Real John Paul II According to the Postulator of His Beautification Cause, was written by Msgr. Slawomir Oder, with the help of an Italian journalist. … Read more
In his “World Day of Communications” address released over the weekend, Pope Benedict encouraged priests to take advantage of the new media on behalf of the new evangelization: The pope, whose own presence on the Web has heavily grown in recent years, urged priests on Saturday to use all multimedia tools at their disposal to … Read more
For years, I have been fascinated by the endless parade of officials that move through the Vatican offices and councils. There’s something comforting about it; I feel as though I can almost see the Church’s “always changing, yet ever the same” nature on display. And so, National Catholic Reporter writer John Allen’s blog post on the Pope’s recent appointment of Dr. Flaminia Giovanelli to serve … Read more
In the second week of October 1942, Stalingrad was still standing, if cruelly battered after 80 days of siege and starvation. Ottawa announced that U-boats had torpedoed eleven vessels in the St. Lawrence Seaway. The Polish newspaper Nowy Swiat noted that the Germans had forbidden priests to wear crucifixes, since such was “not in harmony … Read more
When I think of the Vatican Secret Archives, I pretty much have in mind the warehouse from Raiders of the Lost Ark. (If anyone has the Ark of the Covenant hidden away in a box in the basement, it’s going to be them.) So when news came that the Archives has recently published a book … Read more
A September article in De Misthoorn, a Dutch Nazi Journal, scorned plutocracy as an enemy of National Socialism. The Nazi Party, representing the socialism of the masses, declared itself more hostile to capitalism than to Marxism, because the latter was based on “sounder principles.” Nonetheless, Bolshevism in the Soviet Union was collapsing under the hammer … Read more
