In First Things there is a worthy piece by George Weigel. I don’t agree with him about everything but this is a refreshing take down of Christopher Lamb (once of The Bitter Pill and now of the increasingly irrelevant CNN). HERE
There’s grist for discussion in there.
Coat of Arms by D Burkart
on CHARTRES, FRANCE – PENTECOST PILGRIMAGE – Live and on demand VIDEO: “I wish I were in the kind of physical shape you have to be in to do one of these…”
on Some Vatican news notes: “It occurred to me today that this is a preemptive move. Then when they push for women’s ordination or other…”
on Some not Vatican news notes: “It’s such a beautiful thing, that we witness how God writes straight with crooked lines. Only because of the din…”
on CHARTRES, FRANCE – PENTECOST PILGRIMAGE – Live and on demand VIDEO: “Our two eldest teens marched with me some 15 years ago, and then again, in their turn, their two younger…”
on Some Vatican news notes: “No doubt these latest examples of the Pontiff’s charity will soon be posted to: The Pope Francis Little Bumper Book…”
on Some not Vatican news notes: “There is also a picture of their Prioress presiding on Good Friday in a stole: https://www.mountosb.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/DSC_0523-scaled.jpg Perhaps the good Archbishop…”
on Some not Vatican news notes: “The photo above should read: The Sisters of St Scholastica in the diaspora* *their own monastery”
on Some Vatican news notes: “An interview on “60 Minutes”, what could possibly go wrong?! I am personally disgusted by this and afraid to watch.” on “They must make the noise they can, because if they cease for a moment, we hear the calls of sanity and sweetness again…”.: “I can’t believe the “carousel scene” brought tears to my eyes. It must touch something deep in many of us,…”
on Daily Rome Shot 1023: “The black bishop taking white’s knight would check white’s king, so it’s not mate in two. Looking at this again…”
on Some Vatican news notes: “It seems to me to be one step away from casting doubt on the whole concept of apparitions especially Marian…”
on Some not Vatican news notes: “I think it’s pundit Michael Knowles who often says that the Catholic Church is currently the only institution in the…”
on Census Fidelium…. Sensus Fidelium… A book: ““I know a sector of the Church which is vital, young and committed. Hey! Let’s persecute them!” Given the historical…”
on Some Vatican news notes: “Francis seems to fit his own definition of conservative, as he doesn’t want to see beyond his own opinions.”
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One, U.S. bishops are among the most loyal hierarchies in the world … loyal. Sure. Birds of a feather and all … Two, American Church is the liveliest, most vital local Church in the developed world … to say that we’re decaying at the slowest rate is hardly a complement. Three, Catholic campus ministry in the U.S. is experiencing a golden age … maybe, but is that equating to young people practicing virtue to a greater degree? No, not that I’ve seen. So what have we learned? Don’t waste your time on Lamb … or Weigel. I think I already knew that.
Weigel’s point seems to be that it’s insane for the U.S. church, in an objectively healthier position on multiple metrics compared to its counterparts in Europe and Latin America, to be perceived as the pope’s bête noire. However, behind Weigel’s point is a faulty assumption that Pope Francis values or uses the same metrics as Weigel. America seminaries are fuller and more orthodox than Western Europe’s? U.S. Catholics are running crisis pregnancy centers and are the backbone of the pro-life movement? American parish life and participation is more robust than in much of the world? This stuff may matter to Weigel, but is there any evidence whatsoever that Pope Francis values in the least about any of that? Seminaries? Why, the more heterodox, the better! Crisis pregnancy centers? There’s undoubtedly some abortion-promoting communist lady who’s more deserving of praise than that. More vigorous parish life? Better an empty parish in Buenos Aires than a lively one in Lubbock that, say, is not fully welcoming trans people.
I am glad that Mr Weigel recognizes that the Pope’s actions against the Vetus Ordo and Bishops Burke and Strickland are not merciful. The only article I have posted on my Substack page is a way too brutal parody comparing Abraham’s pleading with God not to destroy the good with the bad and Pope Francis’s sledge hammer like treatment of, well, believers like me. (I prefer the Vetus Ordo and would lose my faith without it, but recently probably assist at more NO masses.)
One only has to look at politicians to see that those who promote unity or mercy and similar ideas usually spend a lot of time bashing people. President Clinton criticized the politics of personal destruction while at the same time implementing it very aggressively.
I do agree that there is a lot of good work on college campuses by lay members of the Catholic Church and the priest at the church that serves my local university is very appreciative of them. Several students from this university (where I used to teach) drive an hour to assist at the local Latin Mass that my wife and I have trouble getting to these days. The lay organizations that are a Catholic version of Crew (formerly Campus Crusade for Christ) appear to be doing very good work. So in this regard I disagree with MB. The young clearly want the Real Thing.
summorumpontificum777 said: “[B]ehind Weigel’s point is a faulty assumption that Pope Francis values or uses the same metrics as Weigel. […] This stuff may matter to Weigel, but is there any evidence whatsoever that Pope Francis values in the least about any of that?”
I agree. That “stuff” mattered greatly to St John Paul II and I would definitely call Mr Weigel his spiritual son. Perhaps Mr Weigel is attempting to be charitable.
Except for matters liturgical, I almost always agree with Mr Weigel.
It is interesting to see that after the USCCB was heavily criticized by orthodox and traditional Catholics for so many years, it is now being vilified by progressive and liberal Catholics. It shows that the reordering of the US episcopate that began in the final years of St John Paul the Great’s pontificate and continued by Benedict XVI has borne some fruit. Sadly, that great work is now being undone, diocese by diocese…
Austen Ivereigh, David Gibson, and Massimo Faggioli: the Bizzaro World’s version of the Papal Posse.
Austen Ivereigh, David Gibson, and Massimo Faggioli: the Bizzaro World’s version of the Papal Posse.
That isn’t an especially deep bench. Other than that nasty twit who runs a doxxing blog — “Peter is here” or some such name — is there anyone else one can add to this list that’s recognizable?
Weigel: Catholic campus ministry in the U.S. is experiencing a golden age, and FOCUS missionaries (a fruit of World Youth Day 1993 in Denver) now bring Christocentric evangelical dynamism to 193 campuses in six countries.
Prof. Cover: I do agree that there is a lot of good work on college campuses by lay members of the Catholic Church
Yes…and no. Yes, when you measure on an absolute scale, there are a lot of people doing a lot of good evengelizing on campuses. On a relative scale, it’s a drop in the ocean. There are over 4000 accredited colleges in the US, and lots more abroad. 193 in that ocean is tiny. Looking at just the US there are over 260 Catholic colleges, but over 230 couldn’t be considered Catholic by any rational standard. If we could just evangelize and RETAKE the Catholic colleges again we would have made a significant difference – but that’s a pie-in-the-sky dream for now. As it is, the secular colleges are undoing the faith of its Catholic students much faster (by an order of magnitude) than all of the CREW and other campus ministries are bringing new people to the faith.
Two, American Church is the liveliest, most vital local Church in the developed world … to say that we’re decaying at the slowest rate is hardly a complement.
That’s what I was going to say. Stole the words right out of my mouth (at least, the sentiment). Our bishops might be the least bad of all the national hierarchies, but neither JPII nor Benedict specifically tried to reform the bishopric (which they should have), and Francis is of course trying to remake it in his image – everywhere, not just in certain places. His elevation of Stupich (Chicago) and McDarth Vader (San Diego) (and Gregory, DC) while leaving Gomez (LA) in the dust is pretty darn clear. Not one of those cardinals warrants being a bishop, much less a cardinal. But those men were already bishops for Francis to elevate , and that’s on JPII and Benedict. (As is making Bergoglio a bishop, I might add.)
Is Weigel suggesting that we should praise the fact that we are in the 3rd rung down in Hades instead of all the way down in the 7th?