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Maureen Mullarkey: Studio Matters

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Francis & His “New Europeans”

Coverage of Pope Francis by the mainstream Catholic press is barely worth reading. It confuses the papacy—most especially, this particular pontificate—with the Church itself. Scrap the dominant Catholic punditry. Ignore anodyne broadcasts from the Vatican Press Office. Get your goods from somewhere off the ghetto newsstand. Go some place where insight into the character of this pontificate is not befogged by misplaced deference or courtier’s ambition. One place to go is Daniel Williams’ blog Next War Notes. Williams is the author of the recently published Forsaken: The Persecution of Christians in Today’s Middle East (2016). Continue Reading

The Holy Spirit is Not a Fixer

Every so often someone writes to tender an oblique suggestion that I am not a true Catholic. A lapsed one maybe, a Jack Catholic, but hardly a staunch card-carrier like themselves. How else could I not bang saucepans for this pontificate? How else harbor unsmiling thoughts about Papa Francis? The correspondence goes something like this: • Are you Catholic? [Yes.] • Are you a practicing Catholic? [Yes.] • Do you believe the Holy Ghost guides the Church? [Yes.] • Well then, don’t you believe the Holy Ghost chose Francis? Continue Reading

Influence Peddling at the Chair of Peter

You do not have to read between the lines of this morning’s broadcast from Chiesa to see an analogy emerge between Pope Francis and Hillary Clinton, an enthusiastic trafficker in influence. Chiesa‘s headline runs: “Welcome Wealthy. Francis Receives Them With Open Arms.” These are not ordinary people of means. They are political players buying leverage and prestige from a pope who sees himself a player among principalities and powers. Hillary was her husband’s bagman back in Arkansas and has been selling access ever since. Continue Reading

Fr. Rutler & Paris

For those of you who do not subscribe to Fr. George Rutler’s Sunday homilies, today’s reflection is excerpted below. But first let me follow the example of Pope Francis and scold a bit: You really should subscribe. They are free. You have no excuse. [I shake my finger here.] Fr. Rutler brings wit, erudition, and deep faith to the pulpit—the very place that blessed medley of qualities is most needed but too often absent. These postings began when Father was pastor of Our Saviour. Continue Reading

Notes On A Road Show

The road show is over. The spectacle flamed up and subsided, a Roman candle of demonic sanctimony. Think of it as pre-game warm-up for the main event: the global climate summit in Paris, November 30 to December 11. The Vatican is partnering with the Obama administration, at the U.N. and later in Paris, in magnifying state control over a free society and tightening the screws on the developed world. This, in the name of saving the planet from the production and growth of those very means by which the poor can raise themselves out of poverty. Continue Reading
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