Vatican's alleged "money laundering" has a simple and innnocent explanation

Catholic Culture has a good summary here.

“I felt as if I had been given my country back”

... after it has been taken and abused by these  two thugs. An accidental but apt juxtaposition in Joanna Bogle's account of the Pope's visit to Britian. Read her article here at Mercatornet

Priest rebuked by his bishop for lacking "compassion"

This happened over the pond, but it could just as easily have happened in the epicentre, for it's the same culture rearing its ugly head. In fact it did happen, to Edmund Adamus, whose courageous description of our culture for what it is earned him the disapproval of his bishop, the Archbishop of Westminster, and inspired the name of this blog.

Bishop Armando Ochoa of El Paso has rebuked a diocesan priest who wrote that “every single Catholic, out of fidelity to charity and truth, has the absolute duty to oppose (1) the murder of unborn babies, and (2) any and all government attempts to legalize homosexual unions.”

“I urge all of the Catholic faithful to treat homosexuals with love, understanding, and respect,” Father Michael Rodriguez had added in his August 2 El Paso Times column. “At the same time, never forget that genuine love demands that we seek, above all, the salvation of souls. Homosexual acts lead to the damnation of souls.”

Read the whole article here at Catholic Culture

Tatchell's credibility as a critic undermined by self-contradictions, Says Catholic Bishop of Paisley

Bishop Philip Tartaglia said Tatchell’s past assertion that “not all sex involving children is unwanted, abusive or harmful” cast “huge doubt on his claim to be an expert on human sexuality or a credible critic of the Pope or of the Catholic Church”.

He also points out the puzzling factual errors, misrepresentations, and apparent lack of adequate research in preparing the Channel 4 program.

Read the whole article here

Why the Pope is like Winnie the Pooh

Michael Cook, from Australia and editor of Mercatornet, writes:

In this job you tend to read a lot of furious argument about events of colossal importance which are forgotten in two weeks' time. This week it is the Pope's visit to England and Scotland. For once I am grateful that I seldom read the British papers, which have been full of articles fulminating against Benedict XVI, the Catholic Church and religion in general.

The media there seems to be in the grip of an intellectual St Vitus Dance in which dozens of sober, intelligent, Oxbridge types thrash about uncontrollably, hissing through their carious fangs at the Pope's presence on British soil. The popular Channel 4 in the UK even commissioned a vigorous campaigner for lowering the age of consent to 14 to do a documentary yesterday about the Pope and the sex abuse scandal. Go figure.

It's so perplexing that I turned to one of my favourite books, Winnie-the-Pooh, for enlightenment. Flicking through it, I came across a passage which explained it all. Pooh ("I am a Bear of Very Little Brain, and long words bother me") is a wise companion:

"Rabbit's clever," said Pooh thoughtfully.
"Yes," said Piglet, "Rabbit's clever."
"And he has Brain."
"Yes," said Piglet, "Rabbit has Brain."
There was a long silence.
"I suppose," said Pooh, "that that's why he never understands anything."

Too much cleverness can be a crippling burden sometimes. That is, to my mind, one of Joseph Ratzinger's outstanding traits: cleverness AND understanding. Perhaps he is humble, like Pooh.

Hypocrisy of Tatchell becomes evident as he hastily tries to deny that he advocates paedophilia

Just a day after his hatchet job on the Pope, accusing him of covering up crimes of paedophilia, bloggers are gathering the documentary proof that Peter Tatchell advocates paedophilia. See Mulier Fortis

Dispatches from the epicentre

To launch this blog, what bettter than a link to Fr Tim Finigan's commentary on Edmund Adamus's interview:

From the Hermeneutic of Continuity blog