‘They’ and ‘Them’ – “I was scrolling though Instagram recently when I came across a post from a Christian woman with 165,000 followers explaining how excited she and her husband were to have a ‘transgender’ child.” Sola Scriptura, Boys and Girls (Catholic.com)
Revoice – In the days after the Nashville Statement was launched in 2017, several friends contacted me to ask why I had not signed it. I had a number of reasons for not doing so. Into the anthropological chaos (World)
Threat to Democracy – “Media assume the last few vestiges of the American constitutional republic are the top dangers to our freedom. But the American people know differently. Why It’s Good (And Right) Americans Think The Media Are The Biggest Threat To Democracy (The Federalist)
Aimed at Children – “Drag Queen Story Hour—in which performers in drag read books to kids in libraries, schools, and bookstores—has become a cultural flashpoint.” The Real Story Behind Drag Queen Story Hour (City Journal)
Heretical Synodal Sentiments – “The Working Document (WD) for the Continental Stage of the Synod for a Synodal Church … unapologetically calls into question various Catholic doctrines under the guise of listening to the Holy Spirit…” A Self-Destructive Synod (The Catholic Thing)
The COVID Effect – “America’s pandemic learning losses are real. We need to see that reality clearly to do better next time.” School Closures Were a Failed Policy (The Atlantic)
Elon’s Twitter – “Elon Musk has dissolved Twitter’s board of directors and appointed himself the company’s “sole director,” according to a Monday securities filing.” Musk Disbands Twitter Board, Appoints Himself ‘Sole Director’ (National Review)
Off the Record – “Today I am offering a “guest post” by the late Father Paul Mankowski, SJ, taken from the new collection of his pseudonymous works, Diogenes Unveiled, now available from Ignatius Press.” The Void in Church leadership: Is damnation possible? (Catholic Culture)
The Pope’s Journey – “Borghesi paints a complex portrait of the pope’s mind, tracing intellectual influences going back some 60 years.” The Catholic Opposition to Pope Francis: On Massimo Borghesi’s “Catholic Discordance” (Los Angeles Review of Books)
Pulpit Politics – “For nearly 70 years, federal law has barred churches from directly involving themselves in political campaigns, but the IRS has largely abdicated its enforcement responsibilities as churches have become more brazen about publicly backing candidates.” Churches are breaking the law and endorsing in elections, experts say. The IRS looks the other way (Texas Tribune)
Sweeping Government Oversight – The church reached a settlement with the New York attorney general after a lawsuit accusing officials of a yearslong cover-up of sexual abuse. Catholic Diocese of Buffalo Will Submit to Government Oversight (New York Times)
DeSantis at Ave Maria – Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-FL, joined CatholicVote President Brian Burch and Ave Maria University President Mark Middendorf to rally for “faith, family, and freedom” on the Catholic school’s campus Sunday. DeSantis Joins CatholicVote in Rally for Faith, Family, and Freedom (CatholicVote)
Catholic communications – “Meet the tech entrepreneur John Corcoran, appointed by Pope Francis as a consultant for the Dicastery for Communication.” A new chapter in evangelization: Are we ready? (Aleteia)
Transgenderism and Marijuana – the push to legalize marijuana and the push to normalize transgenderism are the two biggest current threats to the health and well-being of young men and women in America. Preying on Youth Is Big Business (Catholic League)
Oil Painting Irony – On Thursday, October 27, Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with the Pearl Earring was vandalized by activists who wore shirts that read ‘Just Stop Oil’ as one of them glued their head to the oil painting, while the other glued his hand next to the frame. Activists, Drop the Tomato Sauce and Step Away From the Timeless Art (W Magazine)
(*The posting of any particular news item or essay is not an endorsement of the content and perspective of said news item or essay.)
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@The Pope’s Journey. “Borghesi tackles the puzzling truth that the pope’s most persistently aggressive challengers are fellow believers. The Catholic Church was weaponized to serve as a bulwark of American hegemony. Of the three architects of this ideology — men who attempted to ‘hijack’ the ideas of Francis’s predecessors — are now dead: Michael Novak and Fr Richard John Neuhaus. The third, George Weigel, is still active. Borghesi sees the neocon opposition to Pope Francis as rooted in American economic nationalism. And, unfortunately, the US economy is tragically tied to war, a reality the pope sees, with much pain, and criticizes — indirectly, but often” (Victor Gaetan in LARB on Massimo Borghesi’s Catholic Discordance).
An introductory synopsis of Gaetan’s essay on moral philosopher Borghesi’s complex analysis of Francis, perceived by Borghesi as a highly intellectual, nuanced reformer who for decades formed an ideology for the Church to reach the peripheries, and present a more Catholic social doctrine.
Actually Gaetan is correct insofar as the pontiff, and a neocon American ideology that has influenced foreign policy and ‘hijacked’, by Catholic neocons mentioned, the social doctrines of Francis’ predecessors particularly John Paul II. Our USCCB from this writer’s perspective is influenced by both neocon Americanism supporting Ukraine versus Russia, its ‘patriotic’ support of previous US military interventions, and the counter policy of Francis who opposes US military policy, and perceived correctly by him as aligned with Ike’s ‘military industrial complex’, American exceptionalism, and putatively a cause for Vatican dislike. A rationale for a rendered ambivalence and the often perceived insouciance of American bishops.
An enigma is the Vatican Francis dislike and the USCCB efforts to comply with Francis’ social justice vision that not only addresses economics, but the religious dimension as well. The latter is what’s apparently missing in the [Gaetan] Borghesi perception of Pope Francis – not the reaching out to the peripheries, rather the open ended, doctrinal accommodation of the marginalized and the resistance by the majority of American bishops.
If, then, the American Church is problematic for Francis’ agenda, its saving quality is the very resistance to a socialist economic, egalitarian agenda that pronouncedly neglects [one may further say subverts as seen in the Synod on Synodality] the eternal character of Christ’s revelation.
“I was scrolling though Instagram recently when I came across a post from a Christian woman with 165,000 followers explaining how excited she and her husband were to have a “transgender” child. She detailed why they had changed their daughter’s name to Max and now referred the girl using the pronouns “they” and “them.” She also expressed joy that the child was able to live out her “God-given” identity and gave an extensive justification for her decision based on supposed “transgender” animals found in nature.”
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The Human Rights Campaign has a section on their website attempting to show how transgenderism & homosexuality are biblical. Seriously.
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If you work for a large corporation, take a moment & see how they score on the HRC’s corporate ranking list. These special interest lobbying groups are raking in huge amounts of money to promote the worst kind of child abuse.
Mrs. Cracker above – Amen. Many are misled by the name, Human Rights Campaign. Who can be opposed to human rights?