Extra, extra! news and views for Wednesday, October 16, 2024

The Subversive Nature of Contemporary Synods – “The contemporary form of synods … includes members of the laity who are hostile to magisterial teachings. For some, simply being on the Church’s payroll is a sufficient criterion for inclusion in the meetings. This is unprecedented …” Ecclesiology Today (What We Need Now – Substack)

Ordaining Women – “Tuesday’s ‘women’s ordination’ event, which synod delegates were invited to via mass email, is a good illustration of how side events attempt to influence the process.” How ‘Special Interest Advocacy’ Works at the Synod on Synodality (National Catholic Register)

Rise in Populism – “Both those who oppose populism and those who look at it with favor seem to broadly agree that populism is engendered by rapid and deep changes in a society.” God Bless the Misfits (Law & Liberty) 

The Dirty Dozen Hospitals – “The transgender industry has exploded from a trickle of young males seeking transition procedures to thousands upon thousands of minors who have filled the industry’s bank account with more than $100 million … ” ‘Nuclear Bomb’ Study Shows 14,000 Children Have Undergone Trans Procedures (Washington Stand)

The ‘Enlightened and Powerful’ – “Although Whittaker Chambers died in 1961, the way the ensuing decade would rip the country apart would not have surprised the Cold War hero.” The Roots of the Sixties Revolution (Modern Age)

Jerusalem, Athens, and Rome – “While the deepest roots of any culture are religious – and we have seen all around us in recent decades what happens when we human beings are uprooted from our rich Christian cultural soil – there are other elements essential to nourishing a full human life.” The Trinity the Synod Needs (The Catholic Thing)

Poetry in the Midwest – “I’m a native Michigander and Hillsdale represents the best aspects of the Midwestern liberal arts college.” Q&A with James Matthew Wilson (The Collegian)

Hegel’s Raging Torrent – “If John Henry Newman, now canonized, was the hidden father of the Second Vatican Council, then Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, who is not going to be canonized, may well be the hidden father of recent synodal history.” Letters from the Synod – 2024: #7 (First Things)

Age-Old Sins – “On the occasion of the last phase of the Synod on Synodality, the Vatican has just published a new list of sins to add to the long cohort of human failures in doing God’s will.” A Catalogue of New Sins: A Catholic Self-Criticism Session? (The European Conservative)

Silent and Smiling – “So once again New Ways Ministry has scored a major public-relations victory, with Pope Francis sitting by, smiling quietly.” Silent and smiling, Pope offers an opening to ‘transgender’ advocates (Catholic Culture)

The Portal Masters – “Patients use Internet medical portals to make appointments, ask questions of medical personnel, and check laboratory results. But do the medical portal masters follow the science?” Jesus Does Not Follow the Science (Catholic Culture)

The Agnostic-Existentialist Question – “Thomas Joseph White: Karl Rahner (1904–1984) was undoubtedly one of the most influential Catholic theologians of the twentieth century and worked alongside figures such as Joseph Ratzinger, Hans Urs von Balthasar, and Henri de Lubac.” Catholic Theology after Rahner (First Things)

(*The posting of any particular news item or essay is not an endorsement of the content and perspective of said news item or essay.)