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Articles
The Vatican confirmed that sex-ed guidelines in a German archdiocese are at odds with Church teaching. But the guidelines remain in place. The cardinal-archbishop of Cologne is counting on the Vatican to block the radical changes that many of his colleagues promote. So it continues: the centrifugal force of the German bishops’ conference.
The US federal debt has cross the $40 trillion mark, and the ocean of red ink keeps rising. Naturally the costs of interests on that debt are rising too. Eventually, one way or another, we’ll have to pay those debts, along with our own household debts.
A revealing op-ed in the New York Times marked the unofficial opening of a campaign for universal coverage for IVF treatment, with an argument that everyone— married or not, male or female, old or young— should have the “right” to conceive. Read carefully, it also hinted at the next possible leftist goal: licensing childbirth.
Faithful Catholics are often frustrated by their bishops’ unwillingness to proclaim and to enforce Church teachings. Having felt that frustration for decades now, I offer some thoughts on how lay Catholics can spur their bishops into action.
This week on the Home Front: The sad case of Jason Arday shows how the DEI crusade has poisoned academic discourse, and the recriminations after his death show how the media deflect attention from the real problem. Also: that continuing struggle of faithful lay Catholics to prod their bishops into effective action.
Finally, today I realized why your neighbors weren’t horrified, as you were, by those viral images of women celebrating the new Massachusetts abortion law. Because your neighbors didn’t see them!
Notes
Pro-life Catholics in Massachusetts (and quite a few outside the state) are calling for the excommunication of Governor Healey. Based on long experience of such controversies, I predict that, unfortunately, it’s not going to happen.
In Florida, the Catholic bishops charge the attorney general with infringing on religious freedom. He replies that the bishops are violating the religious freedom of families. He’s right.
Bishop Schneider makes the provocative suggestion that if the Vatican would just engage seriously with the complaints raised by the SSPX, that conversation “would mark the beginning of the end for the modernist project…”
Pope Leo has made a subtle but potentially important change in the law governing the Vatican City-state— a change that could make a critical difference in ecumenical dialogue with the Orthodox.
A reading at daily Mass stirred my thoughts (which I fleshed out later) about how lay Catholics should demand more of their bishops.
Too many good young Catholics are being influenced by indiscreet discussions of what is proper in marital relations, Leila argues. These issues are best handled delicately, in private, rather than in public presentations or online debates.
There’s been a rash of early resignations among Catholic bishops in Germany, The Pillar notes. The strain is showing in a country where activists are calling for radical change while Church attendance continues to plummet.
An influential liturgist announces: “That the liturgical reform following the Second Vatican Council exceeded the mandate of the Council itself may now be said to be an established fact.” The Council warned that “active participation” would require formation first; that formation never took place.
