PELL : the Scapegoating and Witch-Hunt of a Hero of the Faith
By Serre Verweij
for Rorate Caeli
Part III of III
When Pope Francis was elected in 2013, Pell initially seemed to rise to new heights in the Vatican, serving as the clear conservative of Pope Francis’ Cardinal advisors and as the prefect for the new Secretariat for the Economy.
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| The pope with some of the sisters on January 4th |
One would think that a Catholic would never again need to hear or think about former president Joe Biden after the end of his term this past Monday.
Alas, one would be wrong. The first news we have from self-described “devout” Catholic Biden in his post-presidency is his newfound membership of the Freemasonry.
In recent days the Church in Austria has bade farewell to two of its bishops. On January 13th, the Very Reverend Bishop Andreas Laun, O.S.F.S., formerly auxiliary bishop of Salzburg, was laid to rest in that city. On January 18th a Mass was celebrated in Vienna to bid farewell to His Eminence Christoph Cardinal Schönborn. Cardinal Schönborn is still among the living, and celebrated his farewell Mass himself. His resignation had not yet been accepted on January 18th, but it was expected that his resignation would be accepted today, January 22nd, his 80th birthday (as has now indeed come to pass). The two farewells contrasted in a number of ways.
PELL : the Scapegoating and Witch-Hunt of a Hero of the Faith
Part II of III
for Rorate Caeli
After Pell was cleared of the nonsensical charges against him in 2002, he was made a cardinal and his star seemed to be shining. He would end up partaking in two conclaves. A decade later he was even appointed to Pope Francis’ council of cardinal advisers and put in charge of economic reforms. Yet, around the same time that Pope Benedict resigned and Pope Francis’ pontificate started to cause major controversy, new attacks would start on Pell that formed part of a broader anti-Catholic hysteria that would dominate Australian headlines for several years.
*The Wedding Feast at Cana
Paolo Veronese (1563)
Musée du Louvre
Sermon by Fr. Richard G. Cipolla
“Jesus performed this first of his signs at Cana in Galilee. Thus did he reveal his glory, and his disciples believed in him.” (John 2:11)
So given the gospel today, the question is this: have you ever been to an Italian-American wedding? Not an Italian wedding—something different yet similar but different—but an Italian-American wedding. Now I do not mean one of those toned-down, Americanized, rather staid affairs with pasta stations (imagine such a thing as a pasta station!), not these planned out affairs where the mother of the bride is out of place in her pastel lacey dress. The scene of today’s gospel is a Jewish wedding, and if the truth be known, and it is known, there are striking similarities between the ethnicity of Italians and Jews. Mothers and chicken soup. Matzoh balls and little meatballs. Need I say more.
Giuseppe
Garibaldi
Unknown aspects of the life of a hero of two worlds:
He loved animals, transported slaves and hated priests:
he would have happily sentenced them to hard labour.
Professor Angela Pellicciari
Il
Timone - n. 15
September/October 2001
A tender heart. Well yes; Giuseppe Garibaldi was tender-hearted. In the way that those who are unscrupulous with men often are (Adolf Hitler comes to mind!). The heart of the General beat with paternal tenderness - for animals. And to think that today hardly anyone remembers this.
When the word “hermit” or “anchorite” is heard, many think of a strange person, a kind of extinct spiritual being in the history of the Church. Actually, at the beginning of the fourth century, the eremitical life was one of the standard ways, especially in the East. [1]
Today it is less common to come across a hermit let alone hear about someone pursuing an anchoritic vocation. Why would someone even consider this ancient and mystical vocation known for living in the desert and eating bugs? The answer is simple: God calls and the soul answers.
Many people are too busy to be able to listen to God and to physically and spiritually hear his voice. It is important to slow down, seek solitude, and pray to hear His call. We must first hear His call to heed His call. If a person doesn’t actively listen and seek God’s will they will not hear his voice. And thus, is the calling of a hermit.
It is always hilarious to read another tirade of Francis against the Traditional Latin Mass, traditionalists in general, and especially young people who love Tradition -- because, as usual, it is HE who sounds old and out of tune.
Like those pre-demential elderly who keep saying the same things ("In my days, things were better," or, "you people are just lazy," or, "nobody understood what the priest said"), his arguments are the same, and he repeats them in his new autobiography "Hope", released today by Random House:
PRUDENCE
The news made the rounds everywhere last week: the Italian Bishops Conference (CEI, for its name in Italian) expanded the possibility of the attendance of its seminaries by homosexuals. Basically, if they aren't practicing homosexuals, they could be admitted.
This was stirred by the Italian mainstream media -- for instance, by news agency ANSA (here). It was inevitably picked up by all kinds of media in English, and seemed to contradict the original sense of the 2005 instrution by the Congregation for Catholic Education, approved by Benedict XVI, that had a more restrictive position:
The FIUV took up the publication of this Ordo when the PCED, which used to do it, ceased to exist. It is modelled on the old PCED Ordos.
By Serre Verweij
for Rorate Caeli
When Cardinal Pell died in early 2023, he received a Catholic funeral attended by 30 bishops, hundreds of priests, the Australian opposition leader and a former Australian prime minister. But he was denied a state funeral by the Labour authorities, even though that’s the norm for important public figures. Apparently, it would have been too distressing for victims according to the premier of Victoria, Daniel Andrews.
The devastating fires in Los Angeles, the City of Our Lady Queen of Angels of the Portiuncula, have caused untold damage to thousands upon thousands of families. At least one parish, Corpus Christi, in Pacific Palisades, has been destroyed. The parish dedicated to the Latin Mass, St. Vitus, has remained outside of harm's way.
But in one of the other fires, in Altadena, an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe remained intact:
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| (Source: Twitter) |
Thoughts on the service for Jimmy Carter at the National Cathedral
by Fr. Richard G. Cipolla
It might be said that that there is irony in calling the Episcopal cathedral in Washington, D.C, as the National Cathedral. For the Episcopal Church is certainly not a State church, which would counter the very foundation of the United States on the principle of an absolute separation of Church and State. In fact, the Episcopal Church, once known as the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, is a distinctly minority denomination in the Protestant faith world in the United States, but, at least in the relatively recent past, was seen as the church of the rich and powerful and the church of “Good Taste.”
Bishop Dominique Rey, of Fréjus-Toulon, France, one of the best and most solid bishops in the world, and a beacon of liberty for the Traditional Mass, resigned his office today. He is 72.
Francis had first suspended the ordinations in his diocese. Then, he named a coadjutor for him, but encouraged him to stay until his regular retirement, at 75. In his letter of resignation today, Rey says,
“During a private audience on December 23, 2023, the Pope had encouraged me to receive this collaboration [the coadjutor bishop] in a fraternal spirit, and not to resign. At the end of a first year in which the suspension of ordinations was lifted for almost all the candidates, the nuncio informed me that the Holy Father was asking me to leave my position as diocesan bishop of Fréjus-Toulon, without my knowledge of any new elements than those that had motivated the designation of the coadjutor bishop.”
Shameless and disloyal? Yes, but par for the course for Francis.
***
Guillaume de Thieulloy had a great rundown of the whole disgusting story for our friends at French blog Le Salon Beige:
Bp. Rey has just resigned - at the express request of the Apostolic Nuncio. Officially, for two reasons. The first concerns the economic management of the diocese. This was already one of the main reasons put forward for the canonical visitation that led to his being sidelined. However, I would be curious to know how many French dioceses would be spared if Rome took an interest in their economic management. Before Covid, it was said that half of them were bankrupt. Since then, the abuse crisis and the collapse of revenues have taken their toll, and, at the very least, three quarters of France's bishops could suffer the same fate as their confrere from Toulon for reasons of economic management.
The Orthodox Resurgence
A year ago, Victor Manuel Fernandez came out with a press release that was meant to clarify Fiducia Supplicans (or to placate its numerous critics). Fiducia Supplicans had managed to be the most controversial Vatican document since Humanae Vitae, 55 years earlier. In fact, it was more controversial. The alleged clarification ended up ‘de facto’ annulling many key parts of Fiducia Supplicans itself. Now, a year later, the document has become largely a dead letter. What exactly happened?
A clarification, in fact a retraction
The Washington Post had confirmed it last night, and the Vatican Bollettino published it this morning: the bishop of San Diego, McCarrick alum and Cupich-named Cardinal, Robert McElroy will be the new Archbishop of Washington.
It seems quite appropriate that the news comes as the District of Columbia is covered by the largest winter storm in a decade. Snow and ice blow from the west, as chilly winds bring the ultimate McCarrick insider to the capital of the United States.
McElroy is almost 71, and already a Cardinal -- an unusually late appointment considering the canonical and usual retirement age of 75. When he was named Cardinal, in 2022, California Catholics couldn't believe their eyes, considering McElroy's history of obfuscation, or worse, regarding the sordid story of former Cardinal "Uncle Ted" McCarrick, whose great seat of power was... Washington itself:
For the first time ever, a woman has been named Prefect of a Roman Dicastery: Sister Simona Brambilla, of the Missionary Sisters of the Consolata, who had been secretary of the Dicastery for Religious ("Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life") since 2023, has been elevated to the position of Prefect.
As such, she will be the ultimate power, after the pope himself, over hundreds of thousands of religious in the world, including thousands upon thousands of priests (and bishops who are members of religious orders). As for how that goes with the hierarchic constitution of the Church, we will leave it up to the thoughts of our readers.
A blesses Octave Day of Christmas and a happy Year of Our Lord 2025 to you and yours!
Veni Creator Spiritus,
Mentes tuorum visita,
Imple superna gratia,
Quae tu creasti pectora.
