Washington D.C., Apr 29, 2017 / 05:27 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Catholic leaders have found cause for both praise and concern after the first 100 days of Donald Trump’s presidency.
“Catholics have reason for optimism. But like the first 100 days, the road ahead remains difficult,” Brian Burch, president of CatholicVote.org, said on the organization’s scorecard for the first 100 days of the Trump presidency.
Abortion
Pro-life leaders have found a lot to like from the Trump administration so far.
“President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence have been game changers for the pro-life movement,” Susan B. Anthony List president Marjorie Dannenfelser stated. “Not only have there been several pro-life victories within the first 100 days of their administration, we are confident that pro-life progress will continue. This is a new era.”
A week after Trump was inaugurated, Vice President Mike Pence addressed the 44th annual March for Life on the National Mall, the first time a sitting vice president has done so. Senior advisor Kellyanne Conway also addressed the pro-life rally.
“Life is winning in America,” Pence insisted to cheering attendees, as he exhorted them to “let this movement be known for love, not anger” and “let it be known for compassion, not confrontation.”
On Jan. 23, Trump reinstated the Mexico City Policy which bans U.S. funding of international non-government organizations that promote or perform abortions.
This is traditionally one of the first policy decisions a new president makes and serves as a signal of the administration’s policy on abortion. President Reagan first introduced the policy in 1984. It was repealed by President Clinton when he took office, reinstated by President Bush in 2001, and repealed again by President Obama in 2009.
In April, the Trump administration pulled its funding of the UNFPA over its involvement in China’s infamous two-child policy, formerly a one-child policy, which has resulted in mass forced sterilizations and abortions. Funding was redirected to USAID for family planning purposes.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan, chair of the U.S. bishops’ pro-life committee, called the funding withdrawal a “victory for women and children across the globe.”
Shortly afterward, the administration signed a joint resolution passed by Congress that nullified an Obama administration rule that pro-life leaders had called a “parting gift to Planned Parenthood.”
That rule forbade states from withholding federal Title X funds to health providers simply because they performed abortions. Now with the rule nullified, states can once again block Planned Parenthood and other abortion groups from Title X funding. Cardinal Dolan also approved of that rule change, calling it a reversal of “very bad public policy.”
In addition to signing bills into law, “personnel is policy,” Jeanne Mancini, president of the March for Life, insisted to reporters on a Thursday conference call on Trump’s first 100 days.
She pointed to the picks of Vice President Mike Pence and senior advisor Kellyanne Conway as two examples of President Trump surrounding himself with persons with strong pro-life records.
Burch agreed that “President Trump has assembled a great Cabinet.”
He pointed to the pro-life appointments at the Department of Health and Human Services as examples of this. Former pro-life congressman Dr. Tom Price was tapped to be Secretary of Health and Human Services; Dr. Charmaine Yoest, former CEO of the pro-life group Americans United for Life, has been named to be assistant secretary of public affairs at HHS; and lawyer Matt Bowman, formerly of Alliance Defending Freedom, was also picked to join HHS.
“The Trump administration is staffed with thousands of high-caliber individuals like this,” Burch said.
Mancini also pointed to Trump’s nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to replace the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia as another positive sign for the pro-life movement.
“Justice Gorsuch is a constitutionalist, committed to respecting the text and intent of lawmakers rather than legislating from the bench,” Burch stated, giving Trump an “A+” grade for the Supreme Court nomination.
CatholicVote provided a report card for Trump’s first 100 days. They gave Trump an “A” grade on the “sanctity of life” issues, noting that other achievements like the defunding of Planned Parenthood are still expected.
Although Gorsuch had not ruled specifically on an abortion case as judge, pro-life leaders have noted his dissent in a Tenth Circuit decision that overturned Utah’s defunding of Planned Parenthood.
Additionally, in his confirmation hearings, when asked by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) if a “super-precedent” existed for the Court’s Roe decision that legalized abortion, Gorsuch would not say that one existed, only saying that the Roe decision had “precedent,” according to EWTN’s Dr. Matthew Bunson.
Gorsuch was confirmed by the Senate on April 7 after Democrats threatened a filibuster. Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) invoked the “nuclear option” to end the filibuster threat, whereby Gorsuch could then be confirmed with a simple majority vote. He was confirmed by the Senate 54-45.
Religious Freedom
Gorsuch’s appointment is expected to impact religious freedom cases for years to come. One of the first major cases he heard from the Supreme Court bench was the religious freedom case of Trinity Lutheran, a preschool in Columbia, Mo. operated by Trinity Lutheran Church. That case is expected to be the premier religious freedom case of the Spring 2017 term.
Gorsuch sat over high-profile HHS mandate cases while he was on the Tenth Circuit, ruling both times with plaintiffs – Hobby Lobby and the Little Sisters of the Poor – in favor of their religious freedom to not comply with the birth control mandate and the supposed “accommodation” offered by the government to objecting non-profits.
Another significant move by Trump administration was to stop fighting in court for the Obama administration’s “transgender mandate.” That policy had directed schools to let students use the bathroom of their current gender identity and not their birth gender.
Leading U.S. bishops had criticized the mandate as infringing on the “privacy concerns” of young students and said it “contradicts a basic understanding of human formation so well expressed by Pope Francis: that ‘the young need to be helped to accept their own body as it was created’.”
After the administration announced it would drop its appeal for the policy in court, the Supreme Court sent a Virginia transgender bathroom case back to the lower courts.
However, the administration’s accomplishments in upholding religious freedom have ultimately been mixed, advocates argue, and one large reason why is that Trump has not issued a broad executive order upholding religious freedom and the rights of conscience as expected.
This is vital, Dr. Jay Richards of the Busch School of Business at The Catholic University of America said, because for any entity contracting with the government – or institutions receiving federal funding like Christian schools that provide federal student loans – they could be subject to actions from the government stemming from Obama-era orders on LGBT status.
Thus, charities or schools that uphold traditional marriage as part of their mission could be subject to actions from the government, unless a new executive order protects them.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops tried to get support for such an executive order, insisting that “any Executive Order should make it clear that religious freedom entails more than the freedom to worship but also includes the ability to act on one’s beliefs. It should also protect individuals and families who run closely-held businesses in accordance with their faith to the greatest extent possible.”
CatholicVote gave Trump a “C-“ grade on religious freedom issues, noting that “a leaked draft of an excellent Executive Order” on religious freedom “was stymied, according to reports, by Jared and Ivanka Trump along with outside left-wing groups.”
“Catholics are patient, but want action on religious liberty. And soon,” Burch said.
Refugees and Immigration
Early in his first 100 days, Trump issued an executive order to temporarily halt refugee admissions into the U.S. for four months and indefinitely suspend the admission of Syrian refugees. The order also halted visa admissions for most persons from seven countries: Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen.
The order was ultimately halted from going into effect by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court. A revised executive order that was released later left out the indefinite ban on Syrian refugees and left Iraq off the list of countries from which most nationals would be barred from entering the U.S. It still halted refugee admissions for four months and capped the overall intake for FY 2017 at 50,000 refugees.
Bishop Joe Vasquez of Austin, Tex., the chair of the U.S. bishops’ migration committee, was “deeply troubled” at the revised order and said that the refugee admissions program was already well-vetted and secure. Catholic Relief Services said that since global forced displacement is at its highest levels ever recorded, the U.S. must not shut off its refugee admissions program.
The order was ultimately halted from going into effect by federal judges in Hawaii and Maryland.
Trump also signed an executive order in January that would bar federal funding of “sanctuary cities,” or cities that publicly did not follow through with federal laws on deportation of undocumented immigrants. The chair of the U.S. bishops’ migration committee, Bishop Joe Vasquez of Austin, Tex., stated that the move “would force all jurisdictions to accept a one-size-fits-all regime that might not be best for their particular jurisdictions.”
In February, the Department of Homeland Security, enforcing the immigration orders, released new rules that did away with protections for unaccompanied children and asylum seekers coming to the border, created new detention centers, sped up the deportation process, and increased the punishments for undocumented parents who have their children smuggled into the U.S.
Bishop Vasquez warned that the new rules “greatly expand the militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border.”
CatholicVote, meanwhile, rated Trump’s immigration policies so far a “B,” saying that “his poorly drafted and delivered order on restricting refugees from dangerous countries was revised and continues to face legal opposition,” but “his stepped-up enforcement has rightly focused on hardened criminals while moderating on those who immigrated illegally as children (Dreamers).”
“Illegal immigration has plummeted, even without a wall,” Burch stated.
Health Care
Another major priority for Trump’s first 100 days was health care. A replacement for the Affordable Care Act was introduced in March with the goal of passing it on March 23, the seven-year anniversary of the ACA being signed into law.
The proposed American Health Care Act attempted to keep in place some policies of the original health care law like a ban on insurers denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions, and young people being able to stay on their parents’ health plans until the age of 26.
However, it sought to replace other major parts of the law. The individual mandate – enforced by fines for people not having health insurance – would be replaced with a fine of up to 30 percent of one’s new premium for a significant gap in coverage. Federal subsidies would be replaced with tax credits for purchasing insurance.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops had ultimately opposed the Affordable Care Act under Obama because of provisions they said allowed for abortion funding in health plans. They praised the original health care law’s expansion of coverage for low-income and sick groups, although they opposed its lack of coverage for immigrants.
With the new proposal, leading bishops praised its protections against federal funding of elective abortions, but expressed serious concerns with its lack of conscience protections for doctors and other health care providers against government mandates like the transgender mandate.
Additionally, Bishop Frank Dewane of Venice, Fla., chair of the bishops’ domestic justice committee, worried that the new legislation could result in less affordable coverage for groups that need it the most: the elderly, the chronically ill, and the poor. For instance, the tax credits replacing subsidies were not favorably written for the elderly, he said. The 30 percent fine for a gap in coverage could act as a deterrent for someone to purchase health coverage.
Groups like the Catholic health care ministry (CMF) CURO, however, supported passage of the new bill as a step in the direction of more patient-centered health care reform, as well as a law that would help reduce abortion funding in health care.
Ultimately, the American Health Care Act failed to even make it to the House floor for a vote, but has been amended and brought back to consideration in the House. Among the new additions is an amendment that allows states to do away with “essential health benefits” like coverage for maternity care and hospitalizations that were mandated under the Affordable Care Act.
Bishop Dewane issued a strong statement this week criticizing the revised health care bill for similar reasons as he opposed the original AHCA. Members of Congress should not vote for the revised bill, he said on Thursday.
Foreign Policy
On foreign policy, Trump ordered missile strikes earlier this month on a Syrian airbase in response to a chemical weapons attack in Idlib that killed around 100 and hospitalized hundreds. After the Syrian air force had bombed a neighborhood in the Idlib province, hundreds of civilians either died or were hospitalized with symptoms of exposure to sarin, a deadly nerve agent.
The U.S. said that forces of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad were responsible for the attack, and a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean launched Tomahawk cruise missiles against the airbase that was used by Syrian forces for the bombing.
Moral theologian Joseph Capizzi of The Catholic University of America told CNA that the response was “judicious” and was needed to uphold international agreements against the use of chemical weapons. Dr. Tom Farr of Georgetown University said “the strikes were fully justified, both as a means of punishing the evil acts that took place – especially (but not only) the slow torture and execution of babies by means of Sarin gas – and as a means of deterring the regime from further acts of evil like this.”
Meanwhile, Syrian clerics decried the attack, saying that an investigation should have been first conducted to prove who the perpetrators of the chemical attack were. Melkite Archbishop Jean-Clement Jeanbart of Aleppo told CNA he hoped the U.S. “would have done something toward peace and reconciliation and a political solution” in Syria.
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This is a man whose office is to defend and uphold the perennial teachings of the Catholic faith? I am ashamed for my Church.
“I certainly would not write [that] now,”
Well, we’re certainly relieved about that. 🙄
Víctor Manuel Fernández and Jeffrey Epstein walk into a bar … Seriously, there is nothing funny about this story. How can this man remain in such an important role? Perhaps someone can find a compromising photo of him celebrating a Latin Mass.
Maybe Rupnik took his cues from this “literature”?
Possibly. Rupnik and Tucho both embrace a “porno-mysticism” like that of the Dominican brothers Thomas and Marie-Dominique Philippe and their disciples like Jean Vanier. So too McCarrick, Zanchetta, and countless other predators associated with this pontificate.
Amoralist Laetitia is based on this evil philosophy, that sin can sometimes be God’s will, supporting all manner of pastoral heresies – like tolerating concubinage or “blessing” couples in an irregular relationship, etc. The reality of this pontificate is coming into focus.
“Hypocrisy is not protected under the mantle of religion.”
Bernanos, The Impostor 💋
http://www.dailycatholic.org/cumexapo.htm
One is left to wonder how, why, such a ruling from the Holy See is not appealed to in the present situation. Thank you for citing it.
Another appointee of the Pontiff Francis revealed as being psycho-sexually obsessed, joining the line-up of McCarrick, Grassi, Zanchetta, Hollerich, etc, etc, etc.
These are what Jesus called the “false shepherds.” Thieves…stealing from Christ himself.
At this point it has become terribly sad. Of all the theologians in the world, this is the man Francis wanted at his side, authoring his documents. It will be interesting watching how they try to wiggle through this. But it probably necessarily lays bare and ties together some other actions and aspects of the current Church, Rupnik, after all, can be seen as only putting into action some of this, and, of course, sodomy must not be so bad after all in this light, only men seeking ecstasy. That this book comes to light before us now perhaps is an act not just permitted but willed by heaven. It exposes the roots of thought that must have become widespread over the past century, influencing among other things the widespread homosexuality in the clergy, and the minimizing of the importance of sexual sin in general. At root perhaps is confusing the analogy of spiritual ecstasy experienced by Teresa and others with the most fleshly of bodily experience. What is true by analogy is false and misleading by equivalence. One would think such smart people would know that.
They are not smart. They are cunning and clever and arrogant, but not intellectually gifted. They care nothing for the splendor of truth, which seizes and enlightens the intellects of those who recognize it.
We read: “He also defended that book [!], saying at the time that it was ‘a pastor’s catechesis for teens’ and “not a theology book.”
A very curious remark, even clericalist….Meaning, perhaps, that “at the time” he exempted himself from the requirement (protecting the Church) that he secure an imprimatur and imprimi potest? Or, perhaps, that things “pastoral” are beyond good and evil and are exempt from any higher permission? Or, both? No longer a problem since Fernandez, as Prefect of the DDC, now is in a position to unilaterally invent new clericalist categories and issue permission to himself, both!
As in mythical times—“full blown from the head of Zeus! Fiducia Supplicans! The new Christmas Story! No longer for “teens” only (say what?), but now anybody two-by-two as were welcomed in Noah’s Ark! Very biblical!
Confusion and scandal? What confusion and scandal? Not longer Vincent of Lenins and Cardinal John Henry Newman (“The Development of Christian Doctrine”), butt Alfred E. Newman: “What, me worry?”
A pastoral book for teens BUT NOT a theology book! To do something like that is a equal to grooming vulnerable kids and for many that goes with jail time for a long time! So are we looking at uncle ted 2? What next? Heal me with your mouth 3: prison diaries? These last twelve years I’m sick to death of the whole lot of these south American cowboys!!! Come back JPII and Benedict All is forgiven!
Has the debate over whether a council can remove a pope been settled?
What would stop a future pontificate from declaring this one annulled?
To Harry,
A Council is not superior to the papacy and cannot remove a pope. However, if a pope actually preaches heresy, then (we read) he automatically ceases to be pope. https://onepeterfive.com/cardinal-burke-a-pope-who-professes-formal-heresy-would-cease-to-be-pope/
Which explains why moral novelties are only insinuated,implied or enabled, and this by functionaries other than the pope himself. And, floated as pastoral exemptions from the universal moral law, rather than as direct contradictions (thusly, the moral law remains intact on paper and is even reaffirmed, while practice is quarantined to go off on its own).
We end up with parallel universes rather than formal heresy. This is the strategy…the non-penitent makes “decisions” within some allegedly validating context or another (now a finely-drawn “blessing”?), rather than moral “judgments.” And this is why Veritatis Splendor is treated with evasive silence rather than attacked.
St. John Paul II saw all of this coming when he wrote explicitly into the Magisterium, such as this:
“A separation, or even an opposition [!], is thus established in some cases between the teaching of the precept, which is valid and general, and the norm of the individual conscience, which would in fact make the final DECISION [no longer a ‘moral JUDGMENT’!] about what is good and what is evil. On this basis, an attempt is made to legitimize so-called ‘pastoral’ solutions [!] contrary to the teaching of the Magisterium, and to justify a ‘creative’ hermeneutic according to which the moral conscience is in no way obliged, in every case, by a particular negative precept [‘Thou shalt not….’]” (Veritatis Splendor, n. 56, caps added).
The citation above from N.D. is not to be ignored.
Life choices have consequences. Time for some thoughtless ecclesiastics to adopt the notion of personal responsibility and absent themselves.
Card Fernández’s book includes a lengthy description of [a 16 yearold girl] kissing and caressing his [Christ’s] body from head to toe as the Blessed Mother stands by and approvingly allows the encounter to take place. This is homoeroticism, virtually identical with the nouveau theology of Fr Rupnik, suggesting a similar role of himself, Rupnik, as Christ within a trinity of fornicators himself and two consecrated sisters he seduced.
San Egidio, a spiritual community calling itself the Rainbow Community has had Card Matteo Zuppi, head of the Italian Episcopal Conference, an LGBT advocate as a prominent member. The community draws youth worldwide engaging in charity for the poor nevertheless presenting a homosexual friendly spirituality. Apparently the intention is to intertwine legitimate spiritual effort with homosexuality. A theology that would find Rupnik’s behavior admissible and explain Pope Francis’ primary focus on the poor. Homosexualization of the Church, as the trajectory of appointments and causes seem is in contradistinction to Christ.
Fr. Peter,
You wrote:
“Card Fernández’s book includes a lengthy description of [a 16 yearold girl] kissing and caressing his [Christ’s] body from head to toe as the Blessed Mother stands by and approvingly allows the encounter to take place,”
Of all the qualified prelates on the planet to choose from to head up the CDF (now DDF), how do you suppose Bergoglio ends up picking someone who has published blasphemous pornography?
Just wondering if you had any thoughts on that.
Thanks
Unfortunately Harry because His Holiness is of like mind. Pope Francis possesses suggestive art, one a naked Christ carrying a naked Judas over his shoulder. A homoerotic caricature that reveals his predilections. Apparently a gift from Archbishop Paglia himself known for homoerotic frescoes who Francis appointed as President of the Pontifical Academy for Life and Grand Chancellor of the John Paul II Pontifical Theological Institute for Marriage and Family. Francis is by all indication attempting to homosexualize the Church.
Harry. Francis’ artifact of a naked Christ carrying a naked Judas over his shoulder as indicated is albeit homoerotic, although it suggests further regarding sin. Judas the betrayer is envisioned as forgiven, a lost sheep who was found. Intellectual homosexuality has at its basis a diminution of all sin in response to their own sinful behavior, that Our Lord is inclined to forgive them. Both figures naked to inculcate homosexual forgiveness in Christ’s saving act.
Thank you for your frank reply. I agree.
So how are we to know in 10 years Tucho won’t say of “Fiducia” “I certainly wouldn’t write that now.” There is a saying — litera scripta manet (the written word remains) — which might be appreciated by the current Curia if it were not on a warpath with Latin. And if we are not to judge THIS work by Tucho or THAT work by Tucho, the question becomes: other than sycophancy, what qualifies him to be DDF Prefect?
Yes, John. The way that Tucho and fellow travelers act and promote their modernistic/liberal ideas, I suspect that if he wrote the book today, he wouldn’t change very much, if anything. Instead, he would loudly, proudly, and repeatedly proclaim that what he has written does not mean what it appears to mean to all those who find fault with it, and that the book is in fact a work of profound spirituality. He would also employ a cadre of pretentious lickspittles to defend his work while accusing all critics of bad faith and/or a lack of understanding needed to appreciate the depth of his statements that provide “deeper and wider orthodoxy” than ever before.
Tucho and his apologists don’t just put lipstick on a pig. They add more make-up to it, dress it up with human clothing, and proclaim it to be the next stage in human evolution.
“That’s why I don’t think it’s a good thing to spread it now,” Fernández said. “In fact, I have not authorized it and it is contrary to my will.”
So the issue isn’t that he wrote a raunchy book, it’s that someone found it after he tried to hide it. Got it.
Can anyone imagine any of his predecessors acting this way?
That he would not write it now is because he was found out!!!!!! Priests are lacizied for lesser things, he has to go!!! The lib theological rubbish has shown it’s bad fruit and it’s hateful to the soul!
Jeff Mirus, Catholic Culture, Jan. 9
‘ I certianly would not write that now ‘ – thus, bringing joy to heaven of a repentant heart, helping others too to recognize the rightful boundaries between carnality and spiritual realms, esp. if there has been some confusion in same, in efforts to be over enthuastic, even about some of TOB teachings to an extent…
The Cardnl too might have fallen into similar error at the time, thus in compassion wanted to bring ‘ comfort’ to those he might have thought were feeling deprived and now recognising his error to also have come up with better choices ; not familiar with his writings , thus unsure as to what same might be , yet hope that it would be in line with The Passion meditations,such as of offering up of the Holy Face merits on behalf of all, including generations , to help free persons from carnal spirits , to be led to the joy of the holy marriage and the Immaculate conception of parents of bl.Mother …
Those who brought attention to the book now, even if had intended something similar to the act of Canan ? stealing the mystical animal skin garment , mocking the nakedness of Noah … may same bring attention to some similar areas even in The Church as a whole – such as the scene of creation of Adam at the Vatican ; hope those words – ‘ I would not have done that now ‘, be applicable to same too , since Adam was clothed in Light , was not ‘naked ‘ or any images of such nakedness of The Lord anywhere, including in Nativity scene – as though His parents were uncaring enough to leave Him without even a blanket ; good light technology could help in such situations ..
The Holy Face merits to be offered up for many many ..
May this be an occasion for same including for those persons who need same, to live in holy relationships !
Does anyone still doubt we have a very serious homosexual problem among highly ranked people of Francis’s pontificate?
Time to have this man’s head examined
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” (John 10:10)
Fernandez and Bergoglio are working for the thief.
By Canon Law, if The Ministerial Office Of The Papacy is vacant, you must Call a Council to elect a Pope.
A Cardinal who professes formal heresy ceases to be a Cardinal, having ipso facto separated himself from The One Body Of Christ.
http://www.dailycatholic.org/cumexapo.htm
“Canon 188 §4 states that among the actions which automatically (ipso facto) cause any cleric to lose his office, even without any declaration on the part of a superior, is that of “defect[ing] publicly from the Catholic faith”.
McCarrick, Rupnik, Zanchetta, Fernandez – Why do characters like this keep cropping up at the Vatican, and protected by the Pope? What is going on in the Vatican? Have we no bishops or cardinals who will ask this question?
Cardinal Sarah Finally Speaks Out – Mark Lambert, Catholic Herald, Jan. 9.
I read someone say that Fernandez “shares a certain opennes to different ways of seeing things” and that is a total and most direct recipe for a bigger disaster in the Church than we already have. We don’t see in “new ways”, we seek to see through Jesus-God’s eyes of Truth ONLY, which is what True Saints did for 2,000 years and do now. The True Catholicism of the True Jesus is never sentimental or emotional as that kills true love and opens wide doors to “mystical” evil. It is precisely that “certain openness to seeing things in different ways” that the German Bishops have and are pushing ever harder for and that is brazenly and totally Anti-Catholic.
Francis will continue his “openness” to below-the-belt-sins approach. You only use over-delicate, over-mothering approaches of “openness” in order to “correct” only when you want that something you “correct” to grow and totally take over. I believe that Francis and Fernandez orchestrated the finding and release of this latest horrible book for its shock-and-discouragement-just-surrender-to-it value. We must be “closed” inside Jesus Sacred Heart of Truth and never “open” to evil. Always remember, Heaven does have walls, it is not “open” (Apocalypse/Revelation 21:12).
Alfred Hitchcock’s 1953 film “I, Confess” was banned in Ireland – but not the United States – because it had a priest who presumably had committed mortal sins against the Sixth Commandment with a woman BEFORE becoming a priest.
Judging by at least one of his very famous films, to my knowledge Alfred Hitchcock was not a good person.
I haven’t been impressed with the rigor of the rating by the Legion of Decency. It – treacherously? – appears to have let through stealth immorality. Any film which accepted divorce should have gotten a C and not a B. For that matter, the dress allowed was immodest.
It’s been many years since I watched “I, Confess,” but I’m fairly certain that Logan never had any relations with Ruth. For what it’s worth.
I don’t remember that being a part of the plot either.
What a great film that was. It’s my very favorite Hitchcock movie.
Did not Judas betray Jesus…with a kiss…
one duly but sorrowfully noted by Jesus Christ.
I can barely read headlines about these scandalous writings, let alone their context, regardless of their aging.
Hopefully, everyone can now refocus to St. Pope John Paul II’s wonderful writings on the theology of the body.