Papal Power and Spiritual Fatherhood – “What we need now is for the papacy to return to its primary task of strengthening and uniting the faithful. This requires stability, clarity, and the embrace of spiritual fatherhood.” Papal Power and the Obedience of the Faithful (What We Need Now)
Doctrine and Contradiction – “I propose that any pontifical teaching or teaching from bishops that overtly and deliberately contradicts the perennial teaching of previous councils and pontiffs is not magisterial teaching, precisely because it does not accord with past magisterial doctrinal teaching.” God’s Blessings and Magisterial Teaching (The Catholic Thing)
Genuine Liberalism – “If religious believers want to protect politics from atheistic materialism, their political theory should presume at least that God made human nature good and free, and that evil comes rather from our misuse of nature.” Liberalism and the Politics of Theism (Public Discourse)
This Dying Body – “If for each one of us salvation is nearer than we think . . . what might we say if, for example, we found ourselves tonight standing face to face before God?” Salvation Is Nearer Than You Think (Marcus Grodi)
A Jewish Child – “This Advent, following the October 7th massacre of Israelis, calls us to remember that the Child we wait for is a Jewish child. He was born of a Jewish mother, flower of the seed of Abraham.” What Child Is This? (Maureen Mullarkey: Studio Matters)
Journey to None – “Whereas other religions focus largely on precepts, Christianity is about an encounter with God made man: Jesus Christ.” Audrey Assad, deconstruction and ‘good’ doubt (Our Sunday Visitor)
“Against the Church” – “The primary function of the Sacred College is to advise the Bishop of Rome. Accordingly, a cardinal residing in Rome is supplied with an apartment to allow him to be attendant upon the pope and to give him counsel when desired or needed.” Mercy strikes again: the unjust treatment of Cardinal Burke (Catholic Herald)
Transgender Archdeacon – “The Rev Brett Murphy faces official rebuke over ‘intentionally derogatory and disrespectful’ remarks”. Church of England investigates vicar after he calls trans archdeacon a ‘bloke’ (The Telegraph)
Dismantling of the Liturgy – “It was precisely my generation that had our Catholic patrimony ripped from us, and, yes, precisely by the pre-Vatican generation (so extolled by so many young ‘conservatives’). ‘Forty Years I Endured That Generation (The Catholic Thing)
Flawed, Stacked, and Waiting – “From the beginning, critics have asserted that the trial was fatally flawed … and Pope Francis repeatedly used his authority in ways that critics say stacked the deck in favor of the prosecution.” Is the Vatican trial finally over? In a phrase, ‘Not so fast’ (Crux)
Men of Goodwill – “A most relevant definition of goodwill for a Christian is one I ran across in a life-changing book that was gifted to me earlier this year. In his short treatise, Searching for and Maintaining Peace, Fr. Jacques Philippe explains goodwill as a person’s devotion to the will of God.” The Only Thing Necessary for Peace and Goodwill (Catholic Stand)
Starry Skies – “Ethics examines the moral law and astronomy studies the skies. Yet the knowledge gained by these two pursuits leaves much to be understood. They begin solidly planted in reason, but soon enter the domain of mystery.” The Star of Bethlehem: History or Mystery? (Catholic Exchange)
Roots of Xmas – “Xmas, doesn’t take ‘Christ’ out of Christmas — the ‘X’ is actually the first letter of the Greek word for Christ (chi).” “It’s more important than ever for Christians to make their voices heard in the public square…” Be bold: Share your faith at holiday gatherings with these Christmas facts (Denver Catholic)
(*The posting of any particular news item or essay is not an endorsement of the content and perspective of said news item or essay.)
If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!
Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.
Maureen Mullarkey is an accomplished essayist. She is not only a profound thinker but her expression is artistically beautiful.
There are times that I do not quite comprehend her but when I do she is most gratifying to read.
Her early, prescient and incisive debunking of Bergy got her disgracefully dismissed, with public humiliation, from First Things,
Thanks for posting a link to her essay; hopefully more people will sign up to get her emailed essays.
Regarding “Doctrine and Contradiction,” the essay by Fr. Weinandy from TCT (The Catholic Thing), I certainly agree that if a sitting Pontiff (and his rotating “doctrinal” pitching staff) contradicts a prior teaching of the Church, for example the Pontiff Francis and his “Pontiff-Francis-ideologue” Cardinal Fernandez, then the teaching of “the Pontifical duo” contradicting prior Church teaching is invalid, and fit yo be ignored while they hold office, and erased when they leave their office.
As Fr. Gerald Murray put it in the TCT podcast with Robert Royale on Monday, “developments” are trustworthy, but “innovations” are false and untrustworthy. Fr. Murray put it perfectly when he stated that a development is recognizable, per John Henry Newman, when a teaching grows into something more fully itself, such as the acorn growing into the oak tree. An innovation is subversive and deceitful, as exemplified by the “declaration” about priestly “blessing for irregular and same sex couples,” confected by the Pontiff Francis and his “doctrinal relief pitcher” Cardinal Fernandez.
Such “teaching” is their own “false gospel,” and is to be condemned and rejected now, and throughout their time of office holding, and erased, as soon as they vacate the offices they temporarily occupy.
@ Doctrine and Contradiction
Fr. Weinandry refers to the criteria supplied by Cardinal Newman in “The Development of Christian Doctrine” (which are summarized below).
The deception imposed by Cardinal Fernandez is a step away from theology–as a denial of philosophy. Weinandry uses the word “contradiction.” Yes, a contradiction, but the new dispensation is that there are no contradictions, only contradistinctions and the harmonization of opposites and polarizations. Witness the roundness of the synodal roundtables. Contradictions, what contradictions?
Newman (building on the 5th-century Vincent of Lerins):”I venture to set down seven notes of varying cogency, independence, and applicability to discriminate healthy developments of an idea from its state of corruption and decay, as follows: There is no corruption if it retains: (1) one and the same TYPE, (2) the same PRINCIPLES, (3) the same ORGANIZATION, (4) if its beginnings ANTICIPATE its subsequent phases, (5) its later phenomena PROTECT and subserve its earlier, (6) if it has a power of assimilation and REVIVAL, and (7) a vigorous ACTION from first to last…”.
In short, organic growth rather than discontinuity, novelty, mutation, and double-speak. Said the backwardist: the glass is half empty; said the forwardist: the glass is half full; said Fernandez: what glass?