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Conversion of the Heart.
2009-11-03 04:35:00
“I feel so pure in heart (since leaving). I don’t have this guilt, I don’t have this burden on me anymore that’s how I know this conversion was a spiritual conversion.”-- Abby Johnson, executive director of a Planned Parenthood facility in Bryan, Texas, having resigned her post after seeing the ultrasound of an abortion procedure.
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The Secret of Trappist Ale
2009-11-02 07:35:00
Philip Blenkinsop (Reuters' FaithWorld) discovers a startling surprise about Trappist ale:It came as a surprise to discover that monks were no longer involved in the beer-making at Trappist brewer Westmalle during a visit to research for a feature of Trappist beers. With the exception of small-scale Westvleteren that is pretty much the case at all seven Trappist breweries in Belgium and the Netherlands. It is largely the result of demographics – the average age of monks at many monasteries in western Europe is up in the 50s, 60s or 70s, hardly an age to be pushing around barrels. [More]Nonetheless, to merit the name, the profits from the sale of Trappist beer are used for the upkeep of the monastery, it's community and charitable causes. So you can still feel doubly good about yourself next time you imbibe a bottle of Chimay -- confident in the knowledge you're not only blessing your tastebuds but supporting the Lord's work as well. =) (See also: "Ale and hearty: Aging Trappis...
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"The Line Through the Heart" - J. Budziszewski
2009-10-31 07:23:00
The Line Through the Heart : Natural Law as Fact, Theory, and Sign of Contradiction Intercollegiate Studies Institute; 1 edition (May 15, 2009) I received this in the mail over the summer from ISI Press. I am making my through it, howbeit slowly -- the bulk of my evening time these days spent with a rambunctious two-year-old who (rightly) demands his father's attention. Still, with my gratitude to ISI for their granting me a preview, the least I could do is give it a mention:Natural law is a fact about human beings, and a theory that humbles itself before this fact. Yet it is something else as well—a sign of contradiction, something that exasperates, offends, and enrages. The transient cause of such rage is the suicidal proclivity of our time to deny the obvious, but a more enduring cause is the Fall of Man. Our hearts are riddled with desires that oppose their deepest longings, and we demand to have happiness on terms that make happiness impossible. In The Line Through the Heart,...

Food for Thought: Thomas Merton
2009-10-28 15:43:00
"The notion of dogma terrifies men who do not understand the Church. They cannot conceive that a religious doctrine may be clothed in a clear, definite and authoritative statement without at once becoming static, rigid and inert and losing all its vitality. In their frantic anxiety to escape from any such conception they take refuge in a system of beliefs that is vague and fluid, a system in which truths pass like mists and waver and vary like shadows. They make their own personal selection of ghosts, in this pale, indefinite twilight of the mind. They take good care never to bring these abstractions out into the full brightness of the sun for fear of a full view of their insubstantiality. They favor the Catholic mystics with a sort of sympathetic regard, for they believe that these rare men somehow reached the summit of contemplation in defiance of Catholic dogma. Their deep union with God is supposed to have been an escape from the teaching authority of the Church, and an implici...
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Rome’s talks with the Lefebvrists begin.
2009-10-27 07:40:00
Vatican Information Service on the Meeting between "Ecclesia Dei" and the Society of Saint Pius X:"On Monday 26 October in the Palazzo del Sant'Uffizio, headquarters of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and of the Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei", the study commission made up of experts from "Ecclesia Dei" and from the Society of St. Pius X held its first meeting, with the aim of examining the doctrinal differences still outstanding between the Society and the Apostolic See. "In a cordial, respectful and constructive climate, the main doctrinal questions were identified. These will be studied in the course of discussions to be held over coming months, probably twice a month. In particular, the questions due to be examined concern the concept of Tradition, the Missal of Paul VI, the interpretation of Vatican Council II in continuity with Catholic doctrinal Tradition, the themes of the unity of the Church and the Catholic principles of ecumenism, the relationship bet...

"The Challenge of Fatherhood", by Massimo Camisasca
2009-10-25 07:38:00
The Fraternity of St. Charles Borromeo is a society of missionary priests working around the world. We live community life together and work in parishes, schools, universities, and hospitals. Mons. Massimo Camisasca, founder and general superior of the Fraternity of St. Charles, has educated priests and seminarians for twenty-five years. A new translation of one of Fr. Camisasca’s fundamental works has just been published by Human Adventure Books: The Challenge of Fatherhood : Thoughts on the Priesthood (September 2009)The first part of this book contains several lessons given to his seminarians during their formation. The second part is articulated around five words: the three “classic” terms (poverty, virginity, and obedience) are completed with reflections on fatherhood and fruitfulness.An excerpt from the book:“When God conceives of our face, he conceives of it in its complete form, even though each of us has to achieve it in time as a progressive discovery. And each one ...

Real Ecumenism! - Vatican makes a path for Anglicans returning to Rome!
2009-10-21 05:07:00
"NOTE OF THE CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH ABOUT PERSONAL ORDINARIATES FOR ANGLICANS ENTERING THE CATHOLIC CHURCH" (Vatican Information Service October 20, 2009):With the preparation of an Apostolic Constitution, the Catholic Church is responding to the many requests that have been submitted to the Holy See from groups of Anglican clergy and faithful in different parts of the world who wish to enter into full visible communion.In this Apostolic Constitution the Holy Father has introduced a canonical structure that provides for such corporate reunion by establishing Personal Ordinariates, which will allow former Anglicans to enter full communion with the Catholic Church while preserving elements of the distinctive Anglican spiritual and liturgical patrimony. Under the terms of the Apostolic Constitution, pastoral oversight and guidance will be provided for groups of former Anglicans through a Personal Ordinariate, whose Ordinary will usually be appointed from among form...
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Keep this blog alive! -- Help Christopher get a Computer!
2009-10-15 15:22:00
With regards to internet access my situation remains the same: my beloved laptop of 4+ years has bought the farm; regular blogging prohibited howbeit I have occasional access to another for email. I rarely use this blog as a vehicle for blegging for myself, but circumstances being what they are ... In the event my readers, past or present, have appreciated Against the Grain over the years, or my contributions to The American Catholic, Catholics in the Public Square, or my many other online ventures such as The Pope Benedict XVI Fan Club (providing detailed blogging coverage as the Pope's visit to America or visit to the Holy Land or roundups of coverage and commentary on a new papal encyclical) -- or online archives such as those devoted to Hans Urs von Balthasar, Richard Neuhaus and Avery Cardinal Dulles -- and would like to see these ventures continue -- you can assist in this endeavor by clicking on the banner below. (For the record, I've resurrected an old Mac G3 w/ OS 9. P...
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Obligatory Blogging Vacation (Dead Computer)
2009-09-27 20:12:00
This past weekend my home computer died. Unfortunately, it seems to be beyond resurrection, as in "the cost of repairing it would exceed that of simply buying a new one." Present financial circumstances (and priorities) however, prohibit me from resolving the situation in the near future. Fortunately I have access to email + browsing via IPhone -- but anything requiring extended composition, as in blogging, will be postponed for the time being. Thanks to my readers for their patience. God bless!
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Abraham Foxman vs. the USCCB
2009-09-24 02:31:00
In August 2002 the Consultation of the National Council of Synagogues and the Bishops Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs released a statement, "Reflections on Covenant and Mission", which espoused a two-fold or "dual covenant" path to salvation—the Jews through their adherence to the Mosaic covenant, Christians (and/or) gentiles through Christ. Its assertion that “campaigns that target Jews for conversion to Christianity are no longer theologically acceptable in the Catholic Church” was thus interpreted as a demand that Christians cease any attempt to share their faith with, or pray for, the conversion of the Jewish people. The ensuing criticism, both evangelical and Catholic, obliged the USCCB to distance itself from the document, acknowledging that it was not to be taken as the formal position of the U.S. Bishops' conference but rather "represents the state of thought among the participants of a years-long dialogue between the Church and the Jewish communit...

Irving Kristol, 1920-2009
2009-09-21 09:42:00
And so we lose another giant. A self-identified liberal "mugged by reality", Irving Kristol, commonly heralded as the godfather of 'neo'-conservatism, has died. Hillel Italie gives an account of his life for RealClearPolitics.com:A Trotskyist in the 1930s, Kristol would soon sour on socialism, break from liberalism after the rise of the New Left in the 1960s and in the 1970s commit the unthinkable — support the Republican Party, once as "foreign to me as attending a Catholic Mass." He was a New York intellectual who left home, first politically, then physically, moving to Washington in 1988. ... his turn to the right joined by countless others, including such future GOP Cabinet officials as Jeane Kirkpatrick and William Bennett and another neoconservative founder, Norman Podhoretz. "The influence of Irving Kristol's ideas has been one of the most important factors in reshaping the American climate of opinion over the past 40 years," Podhoretz said. Among the host of publication...

Update to RFC Compilation: 'Ratzinger-Kasper Debate'
2007-05-05 17:23:00
One of the most asked-about sections of the Ratzinger FanClub's archives is our section on the 'Ratzinger Kasper Debate ', which occurred from 1999-2001 and concerns itself with the local or diocesian church or the universal Church, and what takes historical and ontological precedence with implications on the execution of episcopal authority. (For a quick summary of the debate see Authority Reconsidered: Who's in charge here?" by Russell Shaw. Our Sunday Visitor 8/12/01).The debate began in 1999 with the publication of an article by Cardinal Kasper titled "On the Office of Bishop", to which then-Cardinal Ratzinger responded in 2000, The only mention made of this article is in Kasper's On the Church (America Vol. 184 No. 14 April 23, 2001. While most of the substantial texts of this debate are available online and in English, it was a source of consternation that we had not been able to find a proper citation or source for the initial essay by Kasper (disappointing many an enqui...
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Fr Samir Khalil Samir, SJ - Articles & Interviews
2007-04-30 05:52:00
Fr Sami r Khalil Samir, SJ is a professor of Oriental Theology at St Joseph's University in Lebanon. Born in Cairo, Father Samir also teaches at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome, and is a founder and leader of the Centre for Arab-Christian Documentation and Research (CEDRAC). In connection with our previous post I thought it would be beneficial to put together a compilation of his writings for further discussion.Interviews Interview with Edward Pentin [on Pope Benedict and the Islamic reaction to the Regensburg address]. Sept. 25, 2006. Can we bring together Islam and democracy? - Interview with Wlodzimierz Redzioch. Sunday Catholic Weekly [Poland] April 29, 2007. Islamist Fundamentalism: The Primacy of Unreason interview with Monika Sarkis for the Zeitschrift für KulturAustausch. June 15, 2004. 2007 West weak, Muslims mute when it comes to Islamism and terrorism AsiaNews.it. April 19, 2007. Islamic terrorism, a disease within the Muslim world AsiaNews.it. April 17, 2007:Th...
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Pope Benedict, Islam and the Prospect of Reform
2007-04-23 06:50:00
Sandro Magister's column this week -- on "The Real War is Inside Islam " -- touches on some questions that I've been thinking about in recent weeks: What is the nature of our present conflict with Islam? Can it be characterized as a "clash of civilizations"? Is it a war with Islam per se, or only a variant thereof? What is the true nature of Islam?A Perpetual War with Islam? A prevalent view of Islam, and of Christianity and Western (European) civilization's encounter with Islam, is one of perpetual and necessary conflict -- which asserts that the state of affairs as we witness it today is simply the norm so long as there are practicioners of Islam on this earth. The website ProphetofDoom.com, for example, provides a "timeline of Islamic terrorism" that starts in the 1960's, with the assassination of Jordan's prime minister by public bombing ("It remains the primary form of regime change in the Islamic world"). An author by the name of Howard Bloom goes a step further with Isla...
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The Pope in Pavia
2007-04-22 21:00:00
This weekend Pope Benedict madea pastoral visit to Vigevano and Pavia. American Papist has the goods, with photos, excerpts from his speeches/homilies, and a multitude of relevant links. Get it all here.

Virginia Tech
2007-04-17 21:50:00
THE MOST REVEREND FRANCIS X. DILORENZO BISHOP OF RICHMOND (U.S.A) DEEPLY SADDENED BY NEWS OF THE SHOOTING AT VIRGINIA TECH, HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI HAS ASKED ME TO CONVEY THE ASSURANCE OF HIS HEARTFELT PRAYERS FOR THE VICTIMS, THEIR FAMILIES AND FOR THE ENTIRE SCHOOL COMMUNITY. IN THE AFTERMATH OF THIS SENSELESS TRAGEDY HE ASKS GOD OUR FATHER TO CONSOLE ALL THOSE WHO MOURN AND TO GRANT THEM THAT SPIRITUAL STRENGTH WHICH TRIUMPHS OVER VIOLENCE BY THE POWER OF FORGIVENESS, HOPE AND RECONCILING LOVE. CARDINAL TARCISIO BERTONE SECRETARY OF STATE. (Telegram from Cardinal Bertone, for the Pope; more at Open Book).
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New Books By and About Pope Benedict XVI
2007-04-17 03:46:00
Jesus of Nazareth, by Pope Bene dict XVI Doubleday (May 15, 2007). 400pp. Jesus of Nazareth by Ratzinger-Benedict XVI, by Franco Pisano. AsiaNews.it. April 13, 2007:“Product of a long inner journey,” the Pope’s book is not a magisterial document. It does however focus on the “historical Jesus” based on the Gospels, one that transcends those readings of the Jesus Story that reduce him to the status of a revolutionary or a mystic. First in a two-volume inquiry, the book looks at the life of Christ on earth and is designed to “favour the development of an intense relationship between the reader and Him.” And He Appeared in Their Midst: “Jesus of Nazareth” at the Books tore - Sandro Magister offers a chapter-by-chapter preview. Zadok the Roman bought a copy of the Italian translation of Gesù di Nazaret and shares his initial observations. Father John Zuhlsdorf was at the presentation of the Pope’s book, Jesus of Nazareth in the Aula del Sinodo on Friday 13 April 20...
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Happy Birthday (and Second Anniversary) to Pope Benedict XVI!
2007-04-15 17:08:00
Joseph Ratzinger was born on April 16, Holy Saturday in Marktl am Inn, and was baptized the same day. Reflecting on this experience in his memoirs, he recalls: To be the first person baptized with the new water was seen as a significant act of Providence. I have always been filled with thanksgiving for having had my life immersed in this way in the Easter Mystery . . . the more I reflect on it, the more this seems fitting for the nature of our human life: we are still waiting for Easter; we are not yet standing in the full light but walking toward it full of trust. [p. 8, Milestones]On Sunday April 16, Joseph Ratzinger will celebrate his 80th birthday. * * * Stamps issued by Germany in honor of Benedict's birthday. Hat tip Amy Welborn. Pope ’s 80th birthday: “A particularly happy day,” says Cardinal Ruini Catholic News Agency April 13, 2007:Vatican City, Apr 13, 2007 / 11:55 am (CNA).- In a letter the faithful of Rome regarding the celebration of the Pope’s 80th birthday an...
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Benedict Roundup (January - Easter 2007)
2007-04-15 09:24:00
As Catholic News Agency tells us, 2007 promises "a world of busyness" for Pope Bene dict, with "ad limina" visits by bishops from four continents, including Italy, Ukraine, Slovakia, Portugal, Serbia, Kenya, Togo, Benin, Gabon, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Japan, Korea and Laos; a May visit to Brazil (his first across an ocean); a June visit to Assisi to the birthplace of St. Francis, and a prospective visit to address the United Nations General Assembly in September. What follows is a (by no means comprehensive) roundup noting some of the significant events in the Holy Father's pontificate from January -2007 to the present. Apologies for not getting around to this sooner (I'd given up blogging for the most part during Lent). In the News Sacramentum Caritatis Interviews (Q&A with the Pontiff) Key Addresses Articles & Commentary on Pope Benedict On a Lighter Note . . . Significant Events January 4, 2007 - Pope: true joy comes from God’s love and is not that extol...
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Pope Benedict XVI - "Nothing Positive Comes from Iraq"?
2007-04-11 07:56:00
Easter is over and I'm back to blogging. It was not my intention to commemorate my return to blogdom by kicking the dead horse of topics past -- the war in Iraq , capital punishment, or political matters in general. But alas, events being what they are . . . Out of Pop e Benedict X VI's 1,444 word Urbi Et Orbi Easter Message for 2007 devoted to an observation of all manner of human suffering throughout the world and the response of the Gospel, much is being made of the following sentence:In the Middle East, besides some signs of hope in the dialogue between Israel and the Palestinian authority, nothing positive comes from Iraq, torn apart by continual slaughter as the civil population flees. Amy Welborn has a roundup of pundit's reactions to the Pope's comment (along with the usual raging debate in the combox), including an editorial in the New York Sun (The Eyes of Hope, April 9, 2007):If the pope wants to help Iraqis and the Americans and others who are risking their lives to hel...
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"Our Journey into the Paschal Mystery"
2007-04-06 05:54:00
The Pope Benedict XVI Fan Club Forum is hosting a special series of reflections by fellow forum member Martin Cooke -- "Our Journey into the Paschal Myst ery in 2007 accompanied with over a Millennium of Sacred Music" -- posted over the course of Holy Week. Lovers of fine music -- particularly members of the Society for a Moratorium on the Music of Marty Haugen and David Haas, will no doubt appreciate the effort. (Blogging on Against The Grain and The Benedict Blog will of course resume after Easter).

Prayers . . .
2007-03-11 22:37:00
Prayers Domenico & Melanie Bettinelli as they are dealing with Melanie's diognosis of cancer. (Update - sign of hope?). Carrie Tomko (Still Running Off at the Keyboard) also has cancer and is in need of your prayers. Briefly, on Lent Catholic News Agency interviews Archbishop Chaput, on Lenten Sacrifice:“Lent is not a time to revile ourselves,” he counseled. “After all, what God loves, we hardly have the right to hate. But the fasting, prayer, and mortifications of the season do have a very important purpose: They help us to clear our soul of debris. They cut away the selfishness that obstructs our view of God and blocks His light from us.” “Lent is an invitation to dethrone the distractions that keep our hearts restless and empty,” he continued. “If we make room for the real King, He’ll do much more than fill the space. He’ll make us what He intended us to be: saints.” “So let’s live this Lent not as a burden,” the archbishop said, “but as an amnest...
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Lent 2007
2007-02-21 06:29:00
That man is perfect in faith who can come to God in the utter dearth of his feelings and desires, without a glow or an aspiration, with the weight of low thoughts, failures, neglects, and wandering forgetfulness, and say to Him, "Thou art my refuge."-- George MacDonald * * *Through the water of Baptism, thanks to the action of the Holy Spirit, we are given access to the intimacy of Trinitarian love. In the Lent en journey, memorial of our Baptism, we are exhorted to come out of ourselves in order to open ourselves, in trustful abandonment, to the merciful embrace of the Father (cf. Saint John Chrysostom, Catecheses, 3,14ff). Blood, symbol of the love of the Good Shepherd, flows into us especially in the Eucharistic mystery: “The Eucharist draws us into Jesus’ act of self-oblation … we enter into the very dynamic of His self-giving” (Encyclical Deus caritas est, 13). Let us live Lent then, as a “Eucharistic” time in which, welcoming the love of Jesus, we learn to spread it...

It is indeed true that a new moralism exists today...
2007-02-18 03:45:00
It is indeed true that a new moralism exists today. Its key words are justice, peace, and the conservation of creation…But this moralism remains vague and almost inevitably remains confined to the sphere of party politics, where it is primarily a claim addressed to others, rather than a personal duty in our own daily life. For what does "justice" mean? Who defines it? What promotes peace? In the last decades, we have seen plenty of evidence on the streets and squares of our cities of how pacifism can be perverted into a destructive anarchism or, indeed, into terrorism. The political moralism of the 1970's, the roots of which are far from dead, was a moralism that succeeded in fascinating even young people who were full of ideals. But it was a moralism that took the wrong direction, since it lacked the serenity born of rationality. In the last analysis, it attached a higher value to the political utopia than to the dignity of the individual, and it showed itself capable of despisi...
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Israel-Vatican Relations & The Fundamental Agreement
2007-02-12 07:24:00
On December 30, 1993, the Fun damental Agreement was signed by Msgr. Claudio Celli, Vatican assistant secretary of state and Israel 's deputy minister of foreign affairs, Yossi Beilin, paving the way to full diplomatic relations between the two parties in 1994:The Fundamental Agreement extends the theological advances of Nostra Aetate into the political realm, creating for the fi rst time formal diplomatic relations between the Holy See and the State of Israel. The Agreement signifi es a historic step in the evolution of the Roman Catholic Church’s attitude toward Judaism and the Jewish People.The Fundamental Agreement addresses three spheres of relations: 1) political relations between Israel and the Holy See; 2) relations between the Jewish People and the Catholic Church; and 3) relations between the State of Israel and the Roman Catholic Church. In 1997 the "Legal Personality" Agreement between the State of Israel and the Holy See was signed:[regularizing] the status and legal p...
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Christianity, Real or Otherwise
2007-02-03 23:13:00
"Some Dissenters Quit the Church But Don't Stop Being Catholic", by Jeff Diamant (Washington Post January 27, 2006)Many Catholics drift away from the church or join other denominations. But Ortelli, 57, wanted to maintain both her Catholic identity and her worldview. And she didn't want to feel one was inconsistent with the other. So 20 years ago, she did what a small number of defiant Catholics are doing. She joined a church with many lifelong Catholics of similar views, a church that borrows heavily from Catholic rituals even though it's not part of a Catholic diocese. . . .A profile of breakaway "Catholic" sects like Rochester NY's "Corpus Chris t i", replete with mind-boggling quotes ("I don't think I should have to give up my Catholicism. That's part of who I am" -- yes, but to sever communion with Rome?) and a curious perception of Christian ity :The Inclusive Community's chapel is set up to be, well, inclusive. Two crosses are on the Communion table -- one with the body of...
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Necessary Distinctions - Prudential Judgement & Catholic Social Doctrin
2007-01-31 05:26:00
Evangelical Cat holicism offers some thoughts today on " Three main weaknesses of today's Catholics", in which Katerina disputes First Things' Robert Miller). In the comments, Michael Joseph takes a jab at the "neoconservative Catholics":What's interesting about Miller's article is the utter indefensibility of his claims that bishops do, in fact, have a ceratin "arena" in which their authority properly operates. The separation he artificial creates between the area of "faith and morals" and "political judgments" is not only historically implausible, it is a non-ecclesial importation which creates an a priori framework with which Miller evaluates and gauges episcopal statemets. His separation is a growing trend among some self-styled "neo-conservative" Catholics who, most times unwittingly, filter ecclesial statements into contrived categories such as "absolutes", "doctrinal inference" and "prudential judgment". And yet, where in the history of our Church does such a filter deriv...
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Feast Day of St. Thomas Aquinas
2007-01-29 04:45:00
Pope reemphasizes relationship between faith and reason, cites example of St. Thom as Aquinas (Catholic News Agency):Pope Benedict XVI used this week's Angelus to return to one of his favorite topics: the relation of Faith and Reason. Citing the example of St. Thomas Aquinas, whose feast day was Sunday, Benedict urged the faithful to remember that faith and reason are not exclusionary principles. . . . St. Thomas Aquinas, Priest, Doctor of the Church - introduction by Tom Kreitzberg. Reading Thomas Aquinas - Recommended Aids & Introductions Against The Grain January 13, 2006. Joseph M. Magee's Thomistic Philosophy (AquinasOnline.com) Aquinas in Context by Robert P. Imbelli (Commonweal January 28, 2007):Too often, even among those tutored in theology, knowledge of the great doctor of the church, is limited to his masterful Summa Theologiae. And, even here, it is the first two parts that receive most attention. What can thereby escape notice is how radically Christocentric Thomas'...
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Response to Bob Sungenis (Part II)
2007-01-24 19:15:02
Bob Sungenis has replied to my response (Carl Schmitt, Israel Shamir and Robert Sungenis Against The Grain January 19, 2007). While I'd prefer not to turn Against the Grain into a perpetual discussion of Catholic extremism, I'll address a few of his points further. Read More . . . R. Sungenis:"Responding in writing to a particular article" is not debating. It is merely Mr. Blosser's opportunity to do more of the same that he already does on his blog -- make unsubstantiated accusations based on his own personal fears and biases without being challenged immediately and promptly in a public debate. I understand debate to be an exchange of views and a challenging of positions. In his prior response Sungenis defended his use of Carl Schmitt, asserting that "Schmitt was not actually IN the Nazi party, much less had an "active role" in the party." -- I challenged it. Sungenis asserted that, based on his reading of the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act of 2004, "it looks like every good ...
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Archbishop Donald Wuerl - Aiding & Abetting Nancy Pelosi?
2007-01-23 19:15:01
LifeSiteNews' carries a disappointing story on the new Archbishop of Washington Donald Wuerl, who has decided to pursue a path of steadfast faithfulness to . . . . imitating the scandalous complacency of his predecessor Cardinal McCarrick towards "pro-choice Catholic" legislators. LifeSiteNews reports:Perhaps it was a bad omen when at the installation Mass for the new Archbishop of Washington Donald Wuerl last June, pro-abortion Democratic Senator John Kerry was given Holy Communion and caught on camera in the act. During the entrance procession, Archbishop Wuerl shook hands with Kerry and Senator Ted Kennedy. (see coverage)Now, Archbishop Wuerl, who replaced Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, has said publicly that he would not discipline or direct priests to deny communion to pro-abortion Catholic politician Nancy Pelosi who was just made speaker of the House of Representatives. When California Catholic Daily reporter Allyson Smith inquired during an interview as to whether Wuerl plan...
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