It's Sunday

The Church of England is finally publicly acknowledging the divine feminine energy coming in that they've been suppressing for centuries.  I don't know that they actually realize that's what they're doing.

Setting aside the fact that I can't imagine why any woman would want to be a participant in a repressive church (unless it's to bust it wide open), while this move is not enough, it's a start. How long before the Catholic church comes on board?

Dame Sarah Mullally has been enthroned as the first female Archbishop of Canterbury.

In her sermon, she acknowledges failures on safeguarding in the Church of England, saying "we hold victims and survivors in our hearts and in our prayers."

She faces several challenges.

  BBC

You don't say.

In England, an arrangement was made so parishes that do not accept female bishops can request a man oversee them.

Of course. Let's not rush into anything.

Don't know why, but King Charles, Supreme Governor of the Church of England, didn't attend the ceremony ordaining her. William went in his stead.

Pope LEO's detractors are not done

Laura Loomer will be all over this:

Leo XIV arrives to the papacy with controversy in tow. In recent months, and more explicitly in the hours leading up to the conclave, Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost has been the subject of a campaign orchestrated by ultraconservative sectors of the Church.

The accusation centers around his alleged cover-up of several sexual abuse cases committed by a Peruvian priest in 2004. According to this version, Prevost was aware of the cases and failed to investigate them in 2022, when he was serving as the bishop of Sufar and apostolic administrator of Chiclayo, located on the northern coast of Peru. The Vatican has firmly denied these accusations.

[...]

The dossier against Prevost — released by some unreliable digital outlets — claims that in April 2022, three sisters met with the bishop to report that two priests from his diocese had abused them in 2004 when they were between the ages of nine and 14. According to the accusers, Prevost told them that the Church had no means to investigate the matter, although he encouraged them to report it to civil authorities, assuring them that an investigation would be initiated within the Church once the case was reported.

The sisters claimed that Prevost referred them to the Listening Center, an institution created by the bishop just weeks earlier to help abuse victims. According to the dossier, the sisters then approached the police to file a report but were told that the case had already expired due to the statute of limitations.

The 18-page report also accuses Prevost of covering up another sexual abuse case involving a priest in Chicago, when the now Pontiff was the provincial superior of the Augustinians. The Vatican states that it has investigated these allegations as well and found no evidence to support them. The same sources suggest it is suspicious that this attack on Prevost came just before the conclave, when his name was already being considered as a potential papal candidate.

[...]

On Thursday afternoon, one hour after Prevost appeared on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica already vested as Leo XIV, Peruvian journalist Pedro Salinas, who has extensively investigated the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae movement — an organization recently dissolved by Pope Francis due to sexual abuse accusations and cult-like traits — stated that the allegations against Prevost were absolutely false: “There is no documentary evidence or solid testimonies pointing to Prevost.”

In Peru, Prevost clearly sided with the victims in the Sodalitium scandal. [...] [T]hey claim that they found a strong ally in Prevost, who played a decisive role in facilitating their direct access to Pope Francis at the Vatican. Jorge Mario Bergoglio, after receiving firsthand information from the journalists, decided to open a major investigation that concluded in January 2025 with the dissolution of Sodalicio.

  El Pais

From another source...

While Prevost reportedly has high-profile advocates among the cardinals, the prospect of a Prevost papacy is also prompting pushback.

And as cardinals tell The Pillar they’re aiming for a pontiff unsullied by the prospect of scandal, it is not clear whether the allegations and reports about Prevost’s leadership will prove a deterrent to the prospect of his election, or whether cardinals will consider them a kind of weaponized smear campaign against a candidate in the mold of Pope Francis.

  The Pillar (Catholic media) May 5 (pre conclave)

Apparently, it was the latter.

Moreover, as an American who spent the whole of his episcopal ministry in South America, sources have told The Pillar that Prevost is regarded by some electors as having a now-desired Western approach to management and governance, without the perceived limited ecclesial vision often attributed to American bishops.

[...]

[A]buse advocates are raising concerns about the cardinal’s candidacy, suggesting that Prevost’s handling of abuse cases should disqualify him from office.

Among the cases flagged by advocates are charges that Prevost’s former Diocese of Chiclayo has been accused of mishandling clerical allegations made by three sisters, who say that in 2022, when they reported abuse in the diocese, Prevost failed to open an investigation into the claims.

[...]

[I]n a statement published last September, the three alleged victims claim that there had been no investigation, or at least nothing substantial or serious. If anything was sent to Rome, they allege, it was tailored to be considered insufficient and not merit the opening of a full penal canonical investigation.

[...]

“As proof of our statements, we point to the non-existence of any decree ordering the opening of an investigation, or of any decree issuing precautionary measures.”

“During this period, we were never called by any investigator to make any deposition.”

[...]

As the dispute unfolded, the victims claimed that an accused priest admitted guilt to Prevost directly, compounding the charges that Prevost had mishandled the case.

[...]

[I]n September 2000, Fr. James Ray was permitted to live at St. John Stone Friary, a house of the Chicago province of the Augustinian religious order. The friary is half a block from a parish elementary school.

According to diocesan records, the move required approval by Prevost, who was then an Augustinian provincial superior.

According to diocesan records reviewed by The Pillar, Ray had been restricted in ministry for nine years by 2000, and had been accused multiple times of sexually abusing boys, at least one of them for years. He had admitted to bringing at least one boy to sleep in his rectory bed, but said of one allegation that he “did not recall” having sexually assaulted a child with whom he admitted to having “cuddled.” Ray did admit to diocesan officials that in 1993 he engaged in sexual activity with a man while on a pilgrimage to Medjugorje, a supposed Marian apparition site in Croatia.

[...]

When the Augustinians permitted Ray to live at the friary, records indicate they understood at least summarily what accusations the priest faced. Augustinian leaders met with diocesan officials to discuss Ray’s background, and an Augustinian in residence at the house agreed to monitor the priest’s compliance with the restrictions of his ministry set by the archdiocese, including that he not be alone with children.

But administrators at St. Thomas the Apostle School were not notified that a priest accused of serial sexually abusing children was living in proximity to the parish elementary school.

[...]

To date, Prevost has declined comment on the Chicago situation, giving no indication of regret for the decision, or indicating how he might have handled it differently. On the Peruvian charges, the cardinal has pointed to a defense made by the diocese, suggesting that Prevost took the necessary canonical steps to address the allegations raised against him.

[...]

Some cardinals have also expressed their view that in 2025, no prelate who has been a diocesan bishop is exempt from criticism over his handling of abuse cases, and some have raised concern about the prospect that information about Prevost is being weaponized by his perceived ideological enemies.

[...]

Advocates especially note that after Francis gained a reputation for protecting friends and allies from abuse charges, the perception of integrity should be a critical factor in assessing the next pontiff.

Since that came out before Prevost was elected Pope, I'm surprised Loomer and the other MAGA detractors haven't already been on it.

I expected to see an African pope in my lifetime. I never expected to see an American pope.

Why?

Because the Vatican is dominated by Europeans and they are deeply suspicious of America and American Catholics. To them, we are toddlers with shotguns.

  JV Last @ The Bulwark

Seems right.

Maybe they looked at America and realized that it was no longer a colossus bestriding the globe. No longer exceptional. Not just in decline, but deluded about its reality.

Maybe Robert Prevost was elected pope because the Church realized they no longer needed to be concerned about America power.

And, maybe they thought an American had the best chance of influencing Americans, both to regain churchgoers and have some influence on regime politics.  And, maybe the Pope's nationality just doesn't matter any more and wasn't in consideration.

PS: Prevost voted in Republican primaries in 2012, 14, and 16.

UPDATE 10:57 am:

That was quick

 

Pope Leo XIV - Robert Prevost, an American.  I hope that works out.  

He spent his childhood and adolescence with his family and studied first at the Minor Seminary of the Augustinian Fathers and then at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, where in 1977 he earned a Degree in Mathematics and also studied Philosophy.

On September 1 of the same year, he entered the novitiate of the Order of Saint Augustine (O.S.A.) in Saint Louis, in the Province of Our Lady of Good Counsel of Chicago, and made his first profession on September 2, 1978. On August 29, 1981, he made his solemn vows.

He received his theological education at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. At the age of 27, he was sent by his superiors to Rome to study Canon Law at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum).

[...]

On September 26, 2015, he was appointed Bishop of Chiclayo [Peru] by Pope Francis.

  Vatican News

Prevost spent eleven years on mission in Peru before returning to Chicago.

Significantly, he presided over one of the most revolutionary reforms Francis made, when he added three women to the voting bloc that decides which bishop nominations to forward to the pope.

  AP News

That's cool.  But I'm definitely not crazy about this from Wikipedia:

Gender

Then Cardinal Prevost opposed the inclusion of curriculum regarding "teachings on gender in schools" in Peru, stating that that the "promotion of gender ideology is confusing, because it seeks to create genders that don’t exist".^[32]

Homosexuality

In 2010, then Cardinal Prevost lamented that popular culture fostered “sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the Gospel", citing the “homosexual lifestyle” and “alternative families comprised of same-sex partners and their adopted children.”^[

That will not help us.  Hopefully, he has evolved since then, and after spending time with Pope Francis.  In fact, ...

UPDATE 02:55 pm:

Wait till she gets Trump's ear again. 

Don't know what this was about, but in '17, Prevost retweeted Chris Murphy...*

From Chicago Tribune Afternoon Briefing newsletter:

Pope Francis brought Robert Prevost to the Vatican in 2023 as the powerful head of the office that vets bishop nominations, one of the most important jobs in the Catholic Church. Today, he ascended to become Pope Leo XIV — the first American pontiff. Prevost, 69, had to overcome the taboo against a U.S. pope, given the geopolitical power already wielded by the United States in the secular sphere.

Catholics across the region are celebrating the historic announcement that the first American pope in the 2,000-year history of the church was born and raised in the Chicago area. Prevost’s Catholic roots were planted in Chicago’s south suburbs, where he lived in Dolton with his parents and two brothers. He grew up in St. Mary of the Assumption parish on the far South Side, attending school there with his siblings. Prevost is also a Peruvian citizen and lived for years in Peru, first as a missionary and then as an archbishop.

Maybe Robert Francis Prevost could have a talk with Robert Francis Kennedy Jr.

Maybe Pope Leo could retweet that.

And we can also be proud that our junior senator is Tammy Duckworth.

UPDATE 08:47 pm:  Lordy, they'll really be squealing now...

* It was about gun control.

Deacon John Donahue, president at St. Rita, said the name a pope chooses comes with a lot of meaning.

“The last [Pope] Leo was the 13th, and he wrote a very powerful encyclical called Rerum Novarum, which was on behalf of the working people of the world,” Donahue said. “It’s very interesting. We’ll see what that means in the future.”

  Chicago Sun Times

UPDATE 05/09/2025:  MAGA will be all over this, too...

Also, Prevost voted in Republican primaries in 2012, 14, and 16.

Donnie Two Dolls has brain worms

 

"Somebody put it out on the internet."  Looks like his account.

All of a sudden courts say maybe you have to have trials.   They didn't used to, you know.  Courts. Have trials.  

It's Sunday

In 2018, inspired by public accountability efforts in Pennsylvania, New Jersey’s then-attorney general vowed to investigate decades of sexual abuse by Catholic priests across the state. The goal was to convene a grand jury and produce a report detailing allegations of wrongdoing.

More than 500 survivors reached out to share their stories of abuse.

Yet seven years later, no grand jury has been convened, and no report has been produced. Newly unsealed court documents reveal that the church has stymied the state’s efforts by arguing that Jersey law shields it from the type of legal action being sought.

The state’s Supreme Court will hear arguments today from the church and the attorney general’s office on whether prosecutors should be allowed to move forward with their investigation. Meanwhile, the years of inaction have left some survivors feeling pained and asking for transparency.

  Philadelphia Inquirer

Shameful.

I guess I assumed all these cases were dealt with years ago when the Boston Globe's Spotlight investigation came to light.

It's Sunday

 

UPDATE 05/05/2025:

It's Sunday

Yeah, it's also short for Lucifer (meaning: light-bringer).

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

It's Sunday

In an excerpt from his new book OPUS: The Cult of Dark Money, Human Trafficking, and Right-Wing Conspiracy inside the Catholic Church, author Gareth Gore examines the ties binding Supreme Court kingmaker Leonard Leo and Opus Dei, a radical organization on the fringes of the Catholic Church that is accused of serious abuses and dedicated to the complete “re-Christianization” of the world.

[...]

Leo clerked for a judge on the court of appeals and became close with another appellate judge who had recently been appointed to the D.C. circuit — a man from Georgia called Clarence Thomas, who had toyed with becoming a Catholic priest. [...] Leo was asked by the Federalist Society to become its first employee — although he delayed his start date so that he could help his good friend Thomas through his contentious confirmation process for the Supreme Court. Despite accusations of sexual harassment hanging over him, Thomas won Senate confirmation by a slim margin. It would be the first in a series of fights in which Leo would have to put aside the teachings of his Christian faith as he focused on the greater goal of pushing through a conservative revolution of the courts and of society at large.

  Rolling Stone

Putting aside teachings of their faith never seems to be a problem.

In 2005, the Federalist Society began openly advocating for John Roberts — a former member — to be nominated to fill a vacant seat at the Supreme Court, the first time it had campaigned publicly for a particular candidate. A few months later, its sway had grown so much that it torpedoed President George W. Bush’s own preferred candidate for another vacant seat on the Supreme Court — Harriet Miers, a judge and close friend of the president who wasn’t a member of the Federalist Society — and pressured him to nominate Samuel Alito, one of its members, in her place.

[...]

In 2011, Leo teamed up with Clarence Thomas’s wife Ginni to co-found another nonprofit that successfully opposed an Islamic center being built near the site of the 9 ⁄11 attacks in New York, denigrated as the “Ground Zero Mosque.” A year later, he joined the board of the Catholic Association, another non-profit linked to the Corkerys, that funded campaigns to oppose same-sex marriage. For its part, the Catholic Information Center — despite in theory being apolitical — had also joined a suit against the Obama administration, challenging the requirement that employers provide and pay for contraception, sterilization, and abortion-causing drugs as part of employee health insurance plans.

[...]

The makeup of the [Catholic Information Center (CIC)] board was decidedly unpolitical — a mix of academics, lawyers, and volunteers who helped run the bookshop. Pat Cipollone, a lawyer who had been an assistant to Attorney General Bill Barr in the early nineties but who had since returned to the private sector, was the only board member who was remotely connected to the Washington political scene. But in 2014, all that changed. Alongside Leo, Bill Barr, the former attorney general, was also appointed.

Leo and his ilk would soon become a bridge connecting the prelature with important people on Capitol Hill — and the world of dark money populated by secretive billionaires with a deeply conservative agenda. Together, they would form a coalition — unified by their political connections, religious fervor, and money — that would reshape American society and destroy many hard-won civil rights.

[...]

The recruitment of Leonard Leo would cement ties between Opus Dei and the U.S. Supreme Court that had been developing for decades. [...] But with Leo and his network of dark money, Opus Dei’s penetration of Washington’s political and judicial worlds would now reach unprecedented levels.

[...]

As Leo’s access to the world of dark money grew, his Opus Dei friends the Corkerys became critical as a front for the tens of millions of dollars streaming through Leo’s hidden network of nonprofits. Neil and Ann had provided crucial cover for him during the campaign to secure the confirmations of John Roberts and Samuel Alito in 2005, hiding the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent to influence public opinion. As more dark money poured in starting in 2010, they began to do the same again through various nonprofits such as the Wellspring Committee and the Judicial Crisis Network. Their importance only grew following Scalia’s death, as Leo pumped his network for ever larger sums. In the weeks after Scalia’s death, the Corkerys began opening the purse strings in what would eventually become a $17 million campaign to stop Obama from replacing Scalia and instead ensure a reliable conservative filled the vacancy. It was just the start. Over the next five years, Leo and the Corkerys would oversee the transfer of almost $600 million of dark money to right-wing causes. Their hidden ecosystem would eventually enable a conservative takeover of the Supreme Court that would disassemble hard-won civil rights and turn back the clock on issues close to their hearts — on abortion, on affirmative action, and on vast swathes of what they saw as a progressive agenda.

They also used the network to line their own pockets.

Continue reading.

It's Sunday

It's Sunday

Charter schools of any stripe should not be permitted to exist.  They're just another way for public money to be ciphoned into private pockets.  But especially, religious charter schools should not be allowed.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

It's Sunday

It's Sunday

One of my favorite historically Catholic traditions is going into countries with pagan traditions and torturing them into being Catholic. What goes around comes around, perhaps.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Nancy vs the Archbishop

Nancy wins.

It's Sunday

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone said in a letter to Pelosi on Thursday that he had requested to speak to her after she vowed to codify Roe v. Wade, the landmark abortion rights case, in the wake of Texas banning abortions after six weeks last September.

He had warned Pelosi in an April 7 letter, he said, to either repudiate advocacy for abortion rights or to refrain from referring to her Catholic faith in public or else he would have no choice but to bar her from being admitted communion.

“As you have not publically repudiated your position on abortion, and continue to refer to your Catholic faith in justifying your position and to receive Holy Communion, that time has now come,” Cordileone said in the Thursday letter. “Therefore, in light of my responsibility as the Archbishop of San Francisco to be ‘concerned for all the Christian faithful entrusted to [my] care’ (Code of Canon Law, can. 383, §1), by means of this communication I am hereby notifying you that you are not to present yourself for Holy Communion and, should you do so, you are not to be admitted to Holy Communion, until such time as you publically repudiate your advocacy for the legitimacy of abortion and confess and receive absolution of this grave sin in the sacrament of Penance.”

  The Hill

So does this not put pressure on Joe Biden's archbishop?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 5/22 7:00pm

Looks like maybe the archbishop just made a fool of himself.

It's Sunday

A Catholic priest in Arizona has resigned after he was found to have performed baptisms incorrectly throughout his career, rendering the rite invalid for thousands of people.

The Catholic Diocese of Phoenix announced on its website that it determined after careful study that the Rev. Andres Arango had used the wrong wording in baptisms performed up until June 17, 2021. He had been off by a single word.

During baptisms in both English and Spanish, Arango used the phrase "we baptize you in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." He should have said "I baptize," the diocese explained.

  NPR

This must be what is meant by the letter of the law.

"It is not the community that baptizes a person and incorporates them into the Church of Christ; rather, it is Christ, and Christ alone, who presides at all sacraments; therefore, it is Christ who baptizes," it said. "If you were baptized using the wrong words, that means your baptism is invalid, and you are not baptized."

So...is the priest Christ?  Jesus Fucking Christ.

As far as the diocese is aware, all of the other sacraments that Arango conferred are valid. But because baptism is the "sacrament that grants access to all the others," a botched baptism could invalidate any subsequent sacraments, including confirmation, marriage and holy orders.

"What this means for you is, if your baptism was invalid and you’ve received other sacraments, you may need to repeat some or all of those sacraments after you are validly baptized as well," the diocese said.

The Catholic Church better lose some parishoners over this bullshit.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

It's Sunday

A Vatican judge has ordered 10 people, including an Italian cardinal, to stand trial for alleged financial crimes including embezzlement, money laundering, fraud, extortion and abuse of office.

Those indicted include Cardinal Angelo Becciu, who was fired by the pope last year, the former heads of the Vatican’s financial intelligence unit, and two Italian brokers involved in the Vatican’s purchase of a building in a luxury area of London.

  The Guardian

The surprise is that they were charged and ordered to stand trial instead of being quietly "reassigned" like pedophile priests. Then again, the penalties for messing with somebody's money have always been harsher than the penalties for messing with somebody's kids.

It's Sunday

The Committee on Doctrine for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is working on a document that would say politicians who are pro-abortion rights or publicly advocate for abortion rights should not take communion, The Associated Press reported.

The national meeting will be held in June and will be the first meeting since Biden, the second Catholic president in history, has been inaugurated.

The meeting would need a two-thirds majority vote for the document to be approved.

  The Hill

That's not gonna happen. The Catholic church is hurting for members in this country. The publicity they get for having the president in their numbers is great, and probably gets them more members than they would otherwise have. It was ill-advised to even bring it up. Now they're damned if they do and damned if they don't.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

It's Sunday

U.S. Jesuits are planning to raise $100 million for descendants of those who the Jesuits enslaved and sold.

The Jesuits announced the Descendants Truth & Reconciliation Foundation on Monday, which it said was a “first-of-its-kind” partnership between descendants of slaves and descendants of slave owners.

The New York Times, which first reported the effort, noted that the religious order vowed to raise $100 million and to promote racial reconciliation nationwide. The newspaper reported that genealogists have identified about 5,000 living descendants of those enslaved by the Jesuits, citing the nonprofit Georgetown Memory Project.

The Jesuits said in a statement that the foundation was rooted in the events of 1838, when the Jesuit owners of Georgetown University sold 272 slaves to owners in southern Louisiana to keep the university from financial ruin.

The slaves were sold to Citizens Bank of New Orleans, which used the slaves as human collateral.

[...]

“Our shameful history of Jesuit slaveholding in the United States has been taken off the dusty shelf, and it can never be put back,” Father Tim Kesicki, president of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States, said in a statement. “Without this joining of hearts and hands in true unity, the cycle of hatred and inequality in America will never end.”

[...]

Georgetown [University] set up a fund of $400,000 a year in 2019 to address the needs of those descendants.

  The Hill

It's Sunday

I find myself being impressed by Pope Francis on a regular basis.  Once in a while I read something I find objectionable, but mainly, I just think he's pretty awesome for a religious leader.  (After Benedict and the pedo scandals, I guess the Catholic Church saw the writing on the wall.)

It's Sunday

Oh my.  The times they are a-changin'.

Breaking with tradition, Pope Francis has appointed Frenchwoman Nathalie Becquart as an undersecretary of the synod of bishops, the first woman to hold the post and have voting rights.

[...]

Saturday’s appointment signals the pontiff’s desire “for a greater participation of women in the process of discernment and decision-making in the church”, said Cardinal Mario Grech, the secretary general of the synod.

  Guardian

Kudos to Frank.