Weekly Summary 6/27/26
The week in review, from the perspective of a veteran Catholic journalist
Welcome to a large group of new subscribers! Thank you for your support.
As you’ll see, I post a lot of Notes in the course of a week. If you don’t have time to read everything I post, I understand.
If you can wait until the weekend, sign up for this Weekly Summary, take a look at what I’ve written, and settle down with your favorite items.
Also, at least for now, each Saturday afternoon I take down the paywall on Articles that I wrote during the week. So if you can wait— but I hope you can’t— you’ll find everything in this Weekly Summary. That temporary-payroll policy is an experiment; I can’t guarantee that it will last.
This week, for instance:
Articles
A Vatican official plans for ‘very profound’ change
Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, until recently the president of the Pontifical Academy for Life (PAL), has acknowledged that when he was appointed by Pope Francis in 2016, his mission was to change the fundamental purpose of that institution, which was established by Pope John Paul II to promote the Church’s teachings on the dignity of human life.
Two prominent clerics quickly responded to Paglia’s admission. Msgr. Livio Melina, who was ousted in the purge, had warned at the time that it was a “hostile takeover” of the PAL. Now he observes that the takeover was a direct repudiation of the idea that the new teachings of Pope Francis could be reconciled with the teachings of previous Pontiffs.
The other response came from Bishop Robert Barron, who said that Paglia’s recent revelation “confirmed the worst suspicions that many of us had.” But “suspicions” doesn’t really cover the facts; many of us had identified the radical change when it happened. Even now, Bishop Barron steers clear of the most controversial item on Paglia’s agenda: the acceptance of homosexuality.
My weekly podcast with my wife Leila was missing a key ingredient this week. Leila has been busy coping with the happy confusion caused by the arrival of several children and grandchildren, gathering here for a family reunion. So I tackled the podcast alone— and as one loyal listener predicted, it was a lot shorter!
My two topics were related: both touching on questions about immigration. First I spoke about the legal battle between the Trump administration and the Diocese of Las Cruces over the construction of a section of border wall near a pilgrimage site. Then I told a couple of homey stories which, I think, illustrate the fact that our pride in our own communities, our desire to preserve our native cultures, is a natural healthy instinct and even a moral imperative.
Notes
The Vatican has rejected a proposal by the German bishops to allow lay people to deliver homilies. My prediction is that at least some of those German bishops will plow ahead, regardless.
If social-science research has taught us anything at all, it’s this: Children are more successful (healthier, better behaved, better educated, more likely to succeed) if they grow up in households led by their married mother and father. So it’s frightening that the rate of out-of-wedlock birth in the US has now hit 40%.
My parish hosted an organ concert, and Boston hosted the “Tartan Army” of soccer fans from Scotland. The two events stirred up some thoughts about community pride (later explored in the Home Front podcast as well), on Bach, the Tartan Army, and the Ordo Amoris.
An influential German lay leader, who heads a group that claims more-or-less equal status with the country’s bishops, told those bishops that they should ignore the Vatican ban on lay homilists (see above). So which directive do you think the bishops will obey?
A noted traditionalist writer points to two striking paradoxes in the confrontation between the Vatican and the Society of St. Pius X. Roberto de Mattei’s conclusion is that the old Latin maxim applies here: “In dubiis standum est pro statu quo, donec ratio certa contrarium persuadeat.” He translates and explains.
