Category: The Vatican Thing

No Bark, No Bite

by bcadmin | Aug 31, 2022 | Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, Catholic Church, Catholicism, News, Pope Francis, relator general 2001 synod, Robert Royal, Robert Royal's "No Bark - No Bite", The Catholic Thing, The Vatican Thing, The Vatican Thing by Robert Royal | 0 |

Sherlock Holmes’ “dog that did not bark” is something of overused cliché in public matters. But there are times when the absence of something that ought to be there – and loud – is the strongest evidence of what has really been going on. Witness the extraordinary consistory, which ended yesterday evening with a Mass celebrated by the pope in St. Peter’s for the Cardinals, who spent the past two days in private discussing the present and future of the Church.

It usually takes some indirect sources to sort out Vatican events like this, and people who follow them know how to put together the basic picture from various bits and pieces. This time, however, the fragments are few and add up to very little. It would be distressing to think that is the only result of what the Cardinals and the Holy Father just spent their time doing.

Still, that may very well be the case.

The official spokesmen haven’t spoken much. What we’ve mostly been told are the usual PR cliches: that the pope invited the participants to speak out frankly. But when you even have to say that, who ever really does it? Read more.

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The Uses of Presumption?

by bcadmin | Aug 30, 2022 | advice for cardinals' consistory, C.S. Lewis's Screwtape Letters, Catholic Church, Catholicism, News, Pope Francis, Robert Royal, Robert Royal's "The Uses of Presumption?", The Catholic Thing, The Vatican Thing, The Vatican Thing by Robert Royal | 0 |

It would be presumptuous, of course, of anyone to offer advice to the College of Cardinals gathered for private discussions with Pope Francis during the two days of the “extraordinary consistory” currently underway. Doubly presumptuous, because who would listen – or read – some random, unofficial figure anyway?

So far, details from the first day of the consistory have been quite sparse and general. Which is surprising given the challenges that the Church faces both internally and from an increasingly hostile world.

And doubly surprising, too, because a fair number of the Cardinals are serious and accomplished men who have thought – and thought deeply – about the current situation of the Church. Some are even more than ready to act, boldly.

Still, if someone presumptuous, against all proper respect and good judgment, wanted to offer the College as a group some humble words of advice, the first move might be to counsel them to take and read C. S. Lewis’s great little book The Screwtape Letters. Read more.

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Some Reflections on the New Red Hats

by bcadmin | Aug 28, 2022 | Cardinal Robert McElroy, McElroy of San Diego, News, Pope Francis, Robert Royal, Robert Royal "Some Reflections on the New Red Hats", The Catholic Thing, The Vatican Thing | 0 |

It doesn’t take a deep historical sense – or an overly romantic imagination – to be moved by the great formal events that the Vatican conducts several times a year. They take you to some other place and time. There’s nothing quite like them in the modern world – (though the British monarchy under the great Elizabeth II, occasionally strikes similar, if lesser notes.) My preference is for the large events held outdoors in St. Peter’s Square under the milky blue Roman skies, which make you think of great public liturgies in ancient Jerusalem and Rome.

Yesterday’s ordinary consistories, which confirmed twenty new cardinals and canonized two new saints, took place inside St. Peter’s, perhaps because of the August heat. But it was a glorious affair all the same: The rhythms of Latin, the universal language of the global Church, were lovely. (Ironically, now-Cardinal Arthur Roche, prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and merciless TLM hatchet-man, gave a rather substantial opening discourse in his English-inflected Latin.) The music and colorful vestments and rich décor made it clear that God was being honored with all the beauty and skill of which our poor fallen species is capable. Read more.

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Late August Stirrings in Rome

by bcadmin | Aug 27, 2022 | 2022, Amoris Laetitia, Cardinal Jean-Claude Höllerich, Cardinal Kevin Farrell, Cardinal Wilton Gregory + BLASE CUPICH = Theodore McCarrick, Catholic Church, Catholicism, Columns, Consistory, document reforming the Roman Curia Praedicate Evangelium, elevation to cardinalate, Ferragosto in Italy, Fr. Gerald E. Murray, L’Aquila Celestine V BENEDICT XVI, News, next conclave, Pope Francis, Red hat, Robert Royal, Robert Royal in Rome, Roman Catholic cardinals, Stephen P. White, The Catholic Thing, The Vatican Thing | 0 |

This morning, Deo volente and despite United Airlines, your correspondent is more or less standing, jetlagged but alert, in Rome. It’s an odd time to be here. Ferragosto (named after the August Feast of the Assumption) is Italian vacation time. Virtually everyone is away and many shops, pharmacies, and even restaurants are closed or on reduced schedules. But this year, Pope Francis – who doesn’t take vacations – has decided that over the next five days he will hold an “ordinary consistory” to make 20 new Cardinals, visit L’Aquila (the burial place of Celestine V, the last pope prior to Benedict XVI to abdicate), and preside over a couple of days of discussions by the world’s Cardinals – an “extraordinary consistory” – about the future of the Church and the world. Read more.

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Culture Wars and International Affairs

by bcadmin | Apr 13, 2022 | Kirill, Nato, News, Pope Francis, Putin, Robert Royal, Russia, The Catholic Thing, The Vatican Thing, Ukraine, WEIRD (Western Educated Industrialized Rich Democratic) | 0 |

Russia’s absurd portrayal of itself as some sort of Christian champion in Ukraine – even as it slaughters thousands and destroys whole cities, has gotten me thinking about something I’ve been ambivalent about for many years: the effect of American popular culture on the rest of the world.

I love America. And like all sane people who do, I, therefore, come close to hating much about our current popular culture – starting with the fact that we even have it here at home to export. But there are some crucial distinctions to draw about that now-global U.S. presence. And we should not allow to go unanswered those who want to use the decadent elements of American and Western culture and even Western Christianity – which exist beyond all doubt – as an excuse for nefarious purposes. Read more.

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What Is to be Done?

by bcadmin | Apr 11, 2022 | Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Federico Rampini, geopolitical realities, News, Pontifex Maximus, Pope Francis, Putin and Kirill, Robert Royal, The Catholic Thing, The Vatican Thing, Ukraine, What Is to be Done?, Zelenskyy and Boris Johnson in Ukraine | 0 |

The question above has been proposed at various times in Russian history. Lenin raised it and believed the obvious answer was Marxist revolution; Tolstoy asked it and found in his efforts to help Moscow’s poor that there was no easy answer, perhaps no answer at all. It’s strange to be in and around the Vatican these days – as a major war is raging – something that hasn’t happened in recent decades and, therefore, puts the same question to inexperienced leaders, Catholic and not. Like poor Tolstoy, they don’t have many answers. Read more.

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Religion – and the Pope – Still Matter

by bcadmin | Apr 8, 2022 | Catholic Church, Catholicism, Fratelli Tutti and Mahatma Gandhi, Just war theory, necessary evil, News, Pope Francis, Robert Royal, Russian invasion of Ukraine, The Catholic Thing, The Vatican Thing | 0 |

Visiting with various people in Rome this week, I’ve been struck by the fact that they all understand that religion still matters. Who knew? Almost everyone in the world outside the Western media bubble, of course, which typically regards the religious impulse of the human race as something of a colorful holdover from the past when it crops up, preferably in distant cultures. Closer to home, it’s taken to be a dangerous delusion, the realm of “bitter clingers” and a whole “basket of deplorables,” when traditional Christians and others act as if faith has consequences not only for themselves, but the public realm. Then a major conflict such we are witnessing in Ukraine arises and, at least briefly, it’s clear that, like it or not, the world of faith makes a world of difference. Read more.

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The Sciences and Homophiliac Synodality

by bcadmin | Apr 6, 2022 | Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich of Luxemburg, Cardinal Peter Turkson, homophiliacs in the Vatican, Jeffrey Sachs, Naomi Klein, News, Paul Ehrlich, Pope Francis, Robert Royal, Synod on Synodality, The Catholic Thing, The Sciences and Homophiliac Synodality, The Vatican Thing | 0 |

Cardinal Peter Turkson, a Ghanaian who has long been involved in Vatican international activities, was named this week as Chancellor of both the Pontifical Council of Sciences and the Pontifical Council of Social Sciences. Ordinarily, this kind of musical chairs, involving longtime Vatican officials and offices, is only of interest to people who are either clerical careerists themselves or who believe they see salvation or damnation in what are often just murky personnel maneuvers. In this instance, however, much may indeed be at stake for the Church – and maybe even the world.Read more.

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Of New Things and Old

by bcadmin | Apr 6, 2022 | 2022, Augustine’s City of God, Catholic Church, Catholicism, Columns, Faith & Reason Institute, Fr. Derek Cross, Fr. Gerald E. Murray's Calming the Storm: Navigating the Crises Facing the Catholic Church and Society, Fr. Joseph Koterski, International Catholic University, Jesus Christ, John Paul II, Mary Eberstadt, Michael Novak, new educational initiatives from The Catholic Thing, News, Ralph McInerny, Robert Royal, Robert Royal from Rome, Robert Royal teaches Dante’s Divine Comedy and Augustine’s Confessions, The Catholic Thing, The Vatican Thing, William Fahey, William Saunders | 0 |

Robert Royal introduces educational initiatives we will be launching at ‘The Catholic Thing’ in the coming months. Catholic tradition at its best.

The post Of New Things and Old appeared first on The Catholic Thing.

Category: The Vatican Thing

No Bark, No Bite

The Uses of Presumption?

Some Reflections on the New Red Hats

Late August Stirrings in Rome

Culture Wars and International Affairs

What Is to be Done?

Religion – and the Pope – Still Matter

The Sciences and Homophiliac Synodality

Of New Things and Old

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