The Dispatch: More from CWR...

Extra, extra! News and views for Wednesday, May 22, 2024

Here are some articles, essays, and editorials that caught our attention this past week or so.*

The cross of the German “Synodal Way.” (Credit: Maximilian von Lachner/Synodaler Weg)

Young German Priests Say “No Way!”– “An in-depth study of Germany’s younger priests has found they have limited interest in the changes to the Catholic Church advocated by the country’s controversial ‘synodal way.'” Study: Young German priests reject synodal way priorities (The Pillar)

Depressing Speeches – “The graduating class of 2024 has been treated to three very different commencement speeches in recent days. Only one was not self-serving, dishonest and destructive. You can guess which one made the left flip out.” Biden, Fauci and Butker each deliver starkly different speeches — and the best message gets vilified (NY Post)

Same-Sex Nuptials – “Depending on your age, same-sex ‘marriage’ may be as quintessentially American as baseball and apple pie at this point. That was what I came away with after reading Molly Ball’s Wall Street Journal report … ” No, it’s still not right: Twenty years later, you still cannot redefine marriage (World)

Understanding Vocation – “A job is a mere means to make money, which one then spends on hobbies or vacations. A career seeks promotion and prestige. A calling, on the other hand, finds work intrinsically fulfilling and serving a greater good.” Overselling Vocation: Pursuing Good Work Over Sanctified Careerism (MockingBird) 

Socialism and Capitalism – “It is sound doctrine, even sound political doctrine, to say that none but the virtuous are good and that none but the good are free.” Who is Well Armed? Against Misplaced Faith (Desiring a Better Country – Substack)

The Synodal Process – “The relator-general of the global synod on synodality, Cardinal Jean Claude Hollerich, backed this week the incremental and ‘tactful’ progress towards the ordination of women to the priesthood.” Cardinal Hollerich and synodal inevitability (The Pillar)

Slumping Downward – “Last month, the Pew Research Center published a brief profile of American Catholics based on their most recent slate of survey data. There was nothing terribly surprising in the report. But neither was there a great deal that was edifying.” Census Fidelium (The Catholic Thing)

Barron’s Public Ministry – “Fox News Digital shadowed Bishop Robert Barron for a day and spoke with him about the death of New Atheism, partisan politics, stand-up comedy, and why he’s not a fan of public excommunications” The most popular Catholic outside the Vatican: Bishop Barron (Fox News)

Soft Power Standoff – “Just as Israel continues to deploy its military ‘hard power’ on the Gaza strip, defying international pressure to back down, so too it shows no signs of halting its ‘soft power’ campaign either.” War of words between Israel and the Vatican over Gaza heats up (Crux)

Poetry and the Bible – “We must contemplate the form of divine revelation and of the Bible just as we contemplate the form of a work of art … ” Scripture as Poetic Sacrament (Public Discourse)

(*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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5 Comments

  1. “Young German Priests Say “No Way!”– “An in-depth study of Germany’s younger priests has found they have limited interest in the changes to the Catholic Church advocated by the country’s controversial ‘synodal way.’” Study: Young German priests reject synodal way priorities (The Pillar)”

    The rot in the Church is from the top down.

  2. @ Poetry and the Bible
    Jerome’s literary influence. This ancient doctor of the Church may be said to be the father of Christian Latin prose, and through it he had a large share in framing the Romance dialects that sprung from it (Rev William P H Kitchin PhD,The Catholic Historical Review Catholic University of America, July 1921).
    Saint Jerome would not have been inspired to translate the original Hebrew, “St Jerome translated the Bible into Latin between A.D. 383 and 404. He originally translated it all from Greek, but as he went on he corrected the Old Testament against the Hebrew original” (Lancaster University). Was he moved by the Spirit or did Hebraic verse contain the parameter of poetry? I would say both as the usual easy answer.
    As such the indications are more in favor of Dana Gioia’s articulation than Hans von Balthasar’s more doctrinal prose. However, poetic verse conveys spiritual content better than prose because its appeal is to our intellectual sentiment. What appears is the love of something, as is the pursuit of any knowledge, a form of love, certainly evident in the Song of Songs. I would add the rationale for its acceptance as a sacred book by Catholicism is the understanding the Holy Spirit infused [poured upon] on the early Church.

  3. @ The Synodal Process

    Of Hollerich’s gradualist novelty-gospel on the inevitability of inordinate female ordinations, we read: “Continued papal inaction over Hollerich’s remarks will now invite the conclusion that Francis simply hasn’t concluded that Hollerich is either ineffective or scandalous.”

    Or, when is a stalking horse a Trojan Horse?

  4. @ The Synodal Process
    “But if Hollerich is allowed to continue uncorrected in his role, many might question the integrity of the entire synodal process — and even the pope’s sincerity about his intentions for it” (Ed Condon). And if we incorporate Condon’s take with Andrew Walker’s in ‘Same-Sex Nuptials’, that “Depending on your age, same-sex ‘marriage’ may be as quintessentially American as baseball and apple pie” we may at least absorb the enormity of the shock deliberating what sort of brake system is required for the careening locomotive.
    Both world and Church are on a most dangerous, off the rails [could this idiom make greater sense?] direction. We question incredulously how this might be except it is occurring. Our Catholic Church, the entirety of the Christian world, are and should be the last bastion that can halt what is putatively Lucifer’s major offensive against Christ. As it stands Leo XIII’s prayer to Saint Michael the archangel deserves our prayers, our contribution to standfast in witnessing to Christ.

  5. #1 – “Young German priests say ‘No Way!'”
    And the leftover hippies predictably and tiresomely dig in their heels.

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