Benedict's ascent to heaven leaves the earth more in the dark
Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI, passed away today at 9:34 in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican.
The light of faith, married to reason, shone and shines in Benedict's theological writings, in the clarity of his magisterial interventions. Referring to him made one sure of not being confused, but confirmed in the truths of faith and reason. In his magisterium all truths came together and found their proper place. He challenged the heart of modernity, to which the Church is not called to "adapt". Therefore Benedict does not represent the past but the future.
Christmas, the irrepressible joy of the Church’s liturgy
An excursus of the introits of the Christmas masses, sung in Gregorian chant, enables us to live the same experience of expectation, the vision of the incarnate God and the contemplation of the Theotokos experienced by the shepherds. Gregorian chant, as the Second Vatican Council states, is an irreplaceable nourishment for the faithful.
Rupnik abuse scandal knocks at Santa Marta
The serious sexual abuses committed by Father Rupnik against the nuns who were under his spiritual care, and the serious crime of absolution of the accomplice, which procured his excommunication, are now established facts. But the powerful network of complicity and protection thanks to which he still goes unpunished has now reached even the Holy Father: he alone had the power to remit the excommunication. So what happened? Adequate answers are still awaited from the Vatican.
Scandals and announced resignations secularise the papacy
One of Francis' main aims was and remains the secularisation of the papacy. This is demonstrated by two recent facts: his words about resigning for various reasons, already signed and stored who knows where, a trivialisation that gives the papacy the image of a temporary job. And the handling of the Rupnik scandal, which erases the demand for justice through interventions from above.
"To canonise Camara is to canonise communism”
Dom Helder Camara could soon be declared venerable. Protagonist of liberation theology, sympathetic towards the USSR and China, revolutionary armed struggle was planned in his diocese. A "media and ideological", rather than a religious saint, Julio Loredo, president of the Italian TFP, tells The Compass.
Academy for Life: ethics at odds with Catholic morality
The PAL's Basic Text is incompatible with St John Paul II's 1993 encyclical Veritatis Splendor. The new course of the Pontifical Academy for Life denies the claim that there are actions that can never become good. Infringing these moral absolutes leads to overturning the Church's entire teaching on sin, on merit, on the reality of Hell, on the meaning of Creation and the redemptive Incarnation. And also on martyrdom, the meaning of which disappears. Reflections at the Conclusion of the Conference A Response to the Pontifical Academy for Life.
Encyclical condemning gender is necessary and urgent
Gender theory seriously contradicts the nature of man and has serious implications for the proclamation of the foundations of the Christian faith by undermining the role of the father, the mother, marriage, and the relationship between children and parents. Many believers and bishops feel that a document setting out the Catholic Church's vision is urgently needed.
Accompany without conversion: Belgian bishops' like the Germans
The ad limina visit is now the pretext to endorse the overturning of faith and morals accompanied by (Roman) pats on the back. To clear the way for the blessing of homosexual couples, Cardinal De Kesel relies on the words of Philippe Bordeyne, president of the John Paul II Institute, in the name of an openness to everything – except conversion.
Father Andrasz: another confessor of St Faustina Kowalska destined for sainthood
After Blessed Michał Sopoćko, the process of beatification in Poland has also begun for Father Jozef Andrasz. He was the first spiritual director of the Saint of Mercy and also her last; he was often mentioned by Sister Faustina in her famous Diary. He was an important figure in spreading the cult of the Divine Mercy. Vice-postulator Father Mariusz Balcerak talks about him.
Absolution is not an absolute right
The recent words of Pope Francis in an impromptu speech, in which he calls priests who do not always give absolution "delinquents", deny what the Church has always prescribed: there are cases in which the priest has the duty to deny or defer absolution: it is denied when there is no real repentance, it is deferred when there are well-founded doubts about it.
Contraception: Paglia reopens the front: “Change is possible”
Could the doctrine on contraception be subject to change? For Monsignor Paglia, it needs to be considered,"the day will come when the Pope will do it". The PAV president's disconcerting interview with The Tablet refers to Civiltà Cattolica's hopes for an encyclical that would definitively surpass Humanae Vitae. It’s a concentration of pathetic responses, polls and dissent confusedly piled up and passed off as doctrine. And even the non-ideological pro-life neologism is invented.
“And the Word became ideology”. At the Synod a falsified Church
The Working Document for the Synod on Synodality, presented on October 27, is a reiteration of the typical phrasing of the pseudo-Christian ideology with which the Church hierarchies continually hammer the faithful: inclusiveness, Church without doors, rejection of the division between believers and non-believers.
