A Millennium Ago – “While the construction of the present abbey church dates back to 1023, a first church dedicated to St. Michael the Archangel is said to have been built as early as 708 on the mount, then known as Mont-Tombe.” Iconic Mont Saint-Michel Abbey Celebrates 1,000 Years (National Catholic Register)
UN-Acceptable – “Now there are signs that the UN is promoting what was unthinkable just a few short years ago ‘consensual’ sex between adults and minors.” UN Moves to Endorse Adult-Child Sex under the Guise of “Human Rights” (Salvo)
Conserving Tradition – “I am accused by Alan Jacobs of ‘absolutizing fright,’ of sounding an ‘undefined alarm and an undefined response to that alarm,’ in my essay ‘Why Conservatism Failed.'”
Male and Female – “It is indisputable that our era is marked by unprecedented confusion concerning the nature of man and woman.” The Genius of Man (What We Need Now)
Personalities – “A report found that 55 percent of TikTok and Snapchat users and 52 percent of Instagram users get their news from “personalities” — compared to 33-42 percent who get it from mainstream media and journalists on those platforms . . . ” Influencers overtaking journalists as news source: report (Yahoo! News)
Wuhan Institute of Virology – “The three scientists were engaged in ‘gain-of-function’ research on SARS-like coronaviruses when they fell ill.” First People Sickened By COVID-19 Were Chinese Scientists At Wuhan Institute Of Virology, Say US Government Sources (Public)
FOCCUS Inventory – “Marriage is much more (and sometimes much less) than two young people might imagine. There’s wisdom in hashing out ahead of time some of the more mundane – but no less important – elements of wedded bliss.” Real and Unreal Love (The Catholic Thing)
Homosexual Support Down – “The number of Americans supporting same-sex relationships has dropped from 71 to 64 percent compared to one year ago, with more people thinking it is not morally acceptable . . . ” Americans Are Becoming Less Accepting of Same-Sex Relationships, Poll Shows (Newsweek)
Rebuild His Church – “Bishop Robert Barron of Word on Fire will deliver the keynote address at the 42nd annual Chesterton Conference . . .” Major Conference Celebrates Connection Between Saint Francis of Assisi and G.K. Chesterton (ChristianNewsWire)
Faith and Freedom – Napa Legal’s new report ranks state laws protecting faith-based organizations’ abilities to operate without being burdened by regulations and restrictions on their religious liberty. Alabama, Texas rank highest in nation for religious, regulatory freedom; Michigan, Nevada among worst: Study (Fox News)
Progressives and Dissidents – “It may be fair to say that progressive and dissident Catholics are feeling a bit giddy right now. They may view the upcoming Synod on Synodality as Vatican II, Part II. I may be wrong about this, but I don’t think I am wrong.” The Synod on Synodality Cat is Out of the Bag (Catholic Stand)
Drive-By Season in Rome – “Mendonça has no choice but to dance alone. He is a cardinal of the Catholic Church – and just possibly the next pope.” The search for the next pope is turning ugly (The Spectator)
(*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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@ Progressives and Dissidents
The writer documents dissent over where Synodality is going, and then also speculates that the Synod will offer changes in doctrine.
The Instrumentum Laboris has now been released. Cardinal Hollerich clarifies that the synod does “not speak about the Church’s teaching — that is not our task and not our mission — we just welcome everybody who wants to walk with us.”
So, then, two questions.
FIRST, will the new mega dicastery on Evangelization pick up the task of synodality as its “mission”? Sidelining what synodality has sidelined? Lots of managerial stuff to be done by someone…
SECOND, synodality attempts the worthy task of engaging the world, but this was also one of the two points of focus for the Second Vatican Council (ressourcement and aggiornamento). Awash in synodality’s action proposals, one now appreciates the clarifications actually included in the four Constitutions of the Church: (a) Scripture AND Tradition (Dei Verbum), (b) “hierarchical communion” RATHER THAN either a boundary-free plebiscite or a straw-man papal monarchy (Lumen Gentium, Ch. 3); (c) vernacular AND Latin (Sacrosanctum Concilium)…And, (4) from the legitimate tensions within Gaudium et Spes (GS)…
First, “The Christian who neglects his temporal duties neglects his duties toward his neighbor and even God, and jeopardizes his eternal salvation” (n. 41), but, “While helping the world and receiving many benefits from it, the Church has a single intention: that God’s kingdom may come, and that the salvation of the whole human race may come to pass” (n. 45); and a very needed reference to “the permanent binding force of universal natural law [!] and its all-embracing principles” (n. 79) as in Veritatis Splendor (1993) less fluidly than in Pope Francis’ “principle” that: “realities are more important than ideas” (Evangelii Gaudium, 2013) (and apparently dismissed with his silence toward the dubia).
Too bad that all that is or could be worthy in the Synod on Synodality seems to have orphaned itself from the Council foundation…
…and that it also seems to muddle the Church’s innards with the “distinctive role of the laity” in the world (GS, n. 43). After six decades, why aren’t we still not properly formed for this nearly impossible task?
“A report found that 55 percent of TikTok and Snapchat users and 52 percent of Instagram users get their news from “personalities” — compared to 33-42 percent who get it from mainstream media and journalists on those platforms . . . ” Influencers overtaking journalists as news source: report (Yahoo! News)
****
How many news presenters though are actually journalists? It’s mostly about show business & selling airtime. And many newspapers are owned by the same conglomerates with the same spin. You really need to look at a number of different sources to get an idea of what’s going on.
Sometimes it seems Francis gets his “knowledge” of the Catholic religion entirely from the bigoted sources of Marxist atheistic reporters.
Re #5 – Personalities
I’m with Mrs. Cracker – How many journalists are really journalists (in any rigorous, objective sense) anyway? Even in the so-called mainstream media? Let alone those who present their material on TikTok or Snapchat? Gimme a break.