Scott Smith

I fear Synodality is being hampered by a vague hope, that if we just dialogue the right way, the Holy Spirit will grant us an almost supernatural gift of harmony & consensus which reconciles tensions.

But history is very clear the Holy Spirit doesn't work like that.

I Begin with a Little Girl’s Hair With the red hair of one she-urchin in the gutter I will set fire to all modern civilization.

I'm not a Chesterton guy these days, since racism, but its useful to remember conservative Catholics have historically been far, far more economically radical than anything from recent Popes.

None of this is doctrinally problematic.

www.plough.com/en/topics/ju...

The political outrage machine, is really running on fumes under Leo, to be angry about this lol.

Oh noes, a Catholic priest blessed some water, totally not a thing every one of them does weekly.

The political outrage machine, is really running on fumes under Leo, to be angry about this lol.

Oh noes, a Catholic priest blessed some water, totally not a thing every one of them does weekly.

While wishing Trump a very "shut the fuck up", since his pandering while doing gross evil isn't worth the paper it is written on, probably Revelation 12:7–10.

Which just goes to show nobody, no matter their politics, should be happy with Cupich here.

His desire to stay chummy with powerful people is just a terrible idea.

After being hung out to dry by Pope Leo in respect of his inconsistency, Cupich has beat an embarrassing retreat, but its worth noting his whining here would suggest Bishop Barron could justly give JD Vance an award for fighting against gender ideology.

www.archchicago.org/en/statement...

Also, this argument was full of shit before Dobbs, since as Pope Leo recently reminded an unjust law is no law at all.

And its even dumber now the Supreme Court has held the US Constitution never did that.

No person of any intellectual integrity, who cares even in the slightest for making a coherent argument, could put these two sentences together in the same article.

But here they are together.

We can't limit politicians' worth — or the consistent life ethic — to abortion alone The bishops attacking Cardinal Blase Cupich for honoring Durbin need to be as consistently Catholic as the politicians they criticize.

Just a reminder, that in the spirit of spirit of Voltaire, it must be said Steven P. Millies' @stevenpmillies.com version of the "consistent ethic of life" is in no way consistent, nor an ethic, nor of life.

www.ncronline.org/opinion/we-c...

As did Orwell in Animal Farm - His stand in for Stalin, Nepoloean, shows courage at the last since that was a virtue Orwell recognised in an otherwise hated figure.

I mean, we do say that, it was almost conventional to say in relation to e.g. Japanese kamikaze pilots.

CS Lewis also made this point in the Screwtape Letters.

I'm not a schmuck, so we are going to have the highest inflation.

I mean, look, I'm for it - the best inflation. By the way, let's get those numbers up, make inflation great again.🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

Martyrs of Minneapolis, who won the Crown while worshipping our Lord Jesus Christ, pray for us.

For their audience, I just don't think it is misleading, it clearly communicates state control of the economy (derogatory) using a term which means that for the people they are writing for.

For better or worse, English terms are defined by its usage, not their etymology.

Because State Capitalism as a concept works not just for Trump, or corporatist fascism, but arguably also for e.g. Singapore, China or even the Soviet Union.

So its all a bit more ambiguous than 8th Grade Civics might suggest.

English terminology isn't the sole possession of Marxists I'm afraid, & the hard distinction they have between State Capitalism & Socialism, can often be self-serving as well.

The right concept here is probably "state capitalism", but that is hardly incompatible with socialism as popularly understood, so its perfectly fine for a journalist to explain it that way.

Their audience aren't exclusively Marxist theorists.

I'm aware.

It doesn't stop your argument being a giant non-sequitur however. Over that length of time, ambition doesn't cause people to abolish a career path, it ... makes them follow it.

This continues to make zero sense Phyllis - Its a giant non-sequitur.

If the Diaconate was viewed as an easier path to being a Bishop ... ambitious people would have just chosen being a Deacon as the better career path.

I've long known Teilhard de Chardin was a disgusting racist, but learning he thought this about my wife and daughters (proud Indigenous Australian women all), robs me of any remaining patience for his supporters today.

Which is the other half of the dare here.

The Allied answered the horrific question with a Yes, but the Axis had asking that question as an inherent part of their grand strategy.

Yeah, half the problem was for example Hitler didn't think Germany deserved to survive if it couldn't succeed, so he and his fanatics insisted on fighting on long after defeat was obvious.

And kinda similar with the Japanese in terms of the occupation of the home islands.

And this has been the horror of total war from the first.

Like Achilles & Lycaon in Homer's Iliad, where the escalation of the Trojan War slowly ate away at the participants' mercy, in the end it leaves only the lex talionis and death.

The most horrific thing about the nuclear bombs we dropped on Japan, isn't even the things themselves, its the resolve they represented.

If Japan really was willing to fight to the last man, if genocide was required to win, ... we'd oblige them.

The bodybuilder Ronnie Coleman had a quote which I think applies to almost every wannbe Church reformer - “Everybody wants to be a bodybuilder, but nobody wants to lift no heavy-ass weights.”

Go do the hard theological work to create something plausible, then we will talk.

It might be a hot take, but for all the effort spent on homilies, I’m pretty close to convinced just substituting them all for the relevant Second Reading from Matins would on average be more beneficial for congregations.

Suggestions from Father Alejandro Moral Antón, O.S.A., Prior General of the Augustinians, that Pope Leo might be replacing many / most of his Curia Prefects after the Summer break.

www.ilmessaggero.it/en/a_glimpse...

If you can afford to, please consider giving more to your Parish.

I almost guarantee they are financially struggling to provide even the most basic things you expect from them.

I'm loving just how much everything Pope Leo does radiates how deeply he believes.

It presents a holiness I find very appealing.