by John L. Allen Jr.
ROME — Just when you think you have Pope Francis figured out, he surprises you. In that spirit, Monday’s appointment of Cardinal Robert Sarah of Guinea as the new head of the Vatican’s department for liturgical policy will certainly surprise some.
Sarah becomes the second African to have the Vatican’s top liturgical post, after Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze from 2002 to 2008.
When he recently removed US Cardinal Raymond Burke from a senior Vatican job, many observers concluded that Francis simply didn’t want such a strong conservative on his team. Yet he’s now handed over the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments to an equally strong conservative in the 69-year-old Sarah, who since 2010 has led a Vatican office called Cor Unum that oversees Catholic charities.
Sarah was part of the conservative opposition at the recent Synod of Bishops on the family to an interim report that contained daringly positive language on same-sex unions …More

The Groundhog Day star said that Catholics 'lost something' when the new Mass was introduced.
Bill Murray, has said that he misses the Latin Mass.
Murray, the son of Irish Catholics, said in an interview with The Guardian: “I tend to disagree with what they call the new Mass. I think we lost something by losing the Latin. Now if you go to a Catholic Mass even just in Harlem it can be in Spanish, it can be in Ethiopian, it can be in any number of languages. The shape of it, the pictures, are the same but the words aren’t the same.”
Asked if the New Mass we preferable because it was better to understand, he said: “I guess. But there’s a vibration to those words. If you’ve been in the business long enough you know what they mean anyway. And I really miss the music – the power of it, y’know? Yikes! Sacred music has an affect on your brain.”
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VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis has appointed the organizers for a second big Catholic Church meeting on family issues, keeping in positions of power the same clerics who drafted a revolutionary welcome to gays and divorced Catholics that was ultimately shot down by other bishops.
Significantly, Francis kept on as special secretary of the synod of bishops, Archbishop Bruno Forte, an Italian theologian who drafted the section on gays in the synod’s interim document. It was ultimately scrapped by other bishops.
Francis made one change Friday to the leadership of the synod, which will meet in October 2015 to close out the year-long family study. Francis added South African Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier, who was one of the most vocal in opposing Forte’s welcoming tone in the first round last month.
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Madrid) The Fall General Assembly of the Spanish Bishops' Conference elected three synododalists for the Synod of Bishops on the Family in 2015 with a not insignificant surprise.
The Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, who was dismissed by Pope Francis and sent back as Archbishop of Valencia, Cardinal Antonio Cañizares to Spain, has been, it seems, chosen with great support to the Chairmanship of the Conference of Bishops. He replaces the retired Archbishop of Madrid Rouco Varela.
Archbishop Blázquez and Bishop Iceta in 2015 as Synodalists in Rome
The second vote is likely some food for thought. The Spanish Episcopal Conference was represented in the first part of the Synod of Bishops, which took place as extraordinary Synod last October, automatically and exclusively by its President, while three representatives will participate in the second part, the Annual Synod, who were elected by the bishops from their own ranks. First place will go to the Vice President of …More

by Sandro Magister
In Latin America, they're pulling millions of faithful away from the Catholic Church. But the pope has only words of friendship for them. This is his way of doing ecumenism, unveiled here in two of his video messages.
ROME, November 19, 2014 - With the mastery for which it is known all over the world, the Washington-based Pew Research Center has conducted a survey on a massive scale that gives substance to a fact that was already known in general terms, the startling decline of Catholic membership in the Latin American subcontinent:
> Religion in Latin America. Widespread Change in a Historically Catholic Region
In the geographical area that is used today to indicate the new center of mass of the worldwide Catholic Church, midway through the last century almost the entirety of the population, 94 percent, was made up of Catholics. And still in 1970 Catholics were in the overwhelming majority, at 92 percent.
But then came the collapse. Today the proportion of Catholics …More

By John L. Allen Jr.
Cardinal Francis George of Chicago will turn over the reins to his successor, Archbishop Blase Cupich, on Tuesday. George has long been seen as a leading intellectual light among America’s Catholic bishops, and even now, as he fights for his life, his mind remains remarkably nimble.
As it turns out, one thing occupying his mind these days is Pope Francis.
Now 77, George is currently undergoing experimental treatment intended to stimulate his immune system to fight off the cancer spreading from his bladder, liver, and kidneys through the rest of his body. If it fails, he’ll likely be looking at palliative care ahead of the inevitable.
I’ve described George before as the “American Ratzinger” for his blend of intellectual chops and tenacious commitment to Catholic tradition, in the spirit of the former Joseph Ratzinger, the man who became Pope Benedict XVI. (For the record, George shuns the label, insisting he’s not of Benedict’s intellectual caliber. He is, in any …More

By Umberto Bacchi
The Holy See has announced that Patti Smith will be among the artists set to perform live in front of bishops and cardinals at the traditional Vatican Christmas concert in December.
The US singer who once sang: "Jesus died for somebody's sins -- but not mine," was expressly invited by Pope Francis, Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera reported.
The two famously met and shook hands at St Peter's Square on the sidelines of a weekly general audience in April last year.
The concert will be held at Rome's Auditorium Conciliazione, a few metres from the Vatican, on December 13, and is to be broadcast live on television.
The announcement comes as another Catholic association has been trying to prevent the same singer from performing at the iconic Basilica of San Giovanni Maggiore in Naples on December 9.
The Portosalvo committee asked Naples Archbishop Crescenzio Sepe to block what they say is a "blasphemous" event.
Their chances of success, however, have been dramatically …More

by Sandro Magister
None of them was brought in to speak. And yet they are the most engaged in putting the model of Catholic marriage into practice. A confidential document from the leadership of the Way, in commentary on the synod.
ROME, November 13, 2014 – In the interval between the two synods convened by Pope Francis on the issue of the family, everyone has been urged to speak.
This also means those who at the first of the two synods, held last October, were not able to speak in the assembly because they were not invited.
What made the biggest uproar was the forced absence from the synod of the pontifical institute that had the greatest qualifications to be called upon:
> Pontificio Istituto Giovanni Paolo II per Studi su Matrimonio e Famiglia
Less well known, instead, is the failure to invite representatives of Catholic groups among the most vigorously engaged in translating the Christian vision of the family into concrete life.
One of these groups is the Neocatechumenal Way, founded …More

by MARCO TOSATTI
The Italian Episcopal Conference has elected the new Vice President for Central Italy yesterday. 'Monsignor Mario Meini, Bishop of Fiesole, who was preferred by 140 votes against 60 Bruno Forte, Archbishop of Chieti-Vasto and Special Secretary of the Synod on the Family.
The Italian Episcopal Conference has elected the new Vice President for Central Italy. And it was 'Monsignor Mario Meini, Bishop of Fiesole, who was preferred to Bruno Forte, Archbishop of Chieti-Vasto and Special Secretary of the Synod on the Family.
The new Vice President was involved in a "duel" with a prominent name of the Church, the Archbishop Bruno Forte of Chieti-Vasto. Bruno Forte, October 14, 2013 was appointed as Special Secretary of the Third Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops which took place 5 to 19 October 2014. During the Synod events his name rose to prominence as one of the actual authors of the controversial report post disceptationem, which shows an appreciation …More

Judges could routinely be given the power of life or death over patients who are determined to die to end their suffering.
Proposals to use judges as the final arbiters of who can be helped to die go some way to satisfying opponents to Lord Falconer’s Assisted Dying Bill. Lord Pannick QC proposed judicial oversight in amendments to the Bill which went before the House of Lords yesterday. The Lords, in the first Parliamentary vote on the Bill, gave it their approval.
Baroness Butler-Sloss, former head of the High Court Family Division, was among critics of the Bill who said giving judges a crucial role in assisted dying cases could provide the safeguards needed.
She and Lord Carlile QC had previously criticised the Bill as a “blank cheque” for euthanasia. They were concerned that vulnerable people might be pressured into saying they wanted to end their lives.
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By Nick Squires,
Gay civil unions and same-sex marriages are a “Trojan horse” that fundamentally weaken the institution of the family, a senior Catholic cardinal has warned, a month after the issue was raised by Pope Francis at a ground-breaking summit in the Vatican.
Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, the head of the Italian Bishops Conference, said that civil unions between gay men and women only serve to “confuse people” and undermine traditional family life, especially if the couples go on to have children, either through adoption or through donor methods.
“It is irresponsible to weaken the family by creating new forms”, the cardinal told a meeting of Italian bishops in the town of Assisi in Umbria on Monday.
“It only confuses people and has the effect of being a sort of Trojan horse, undermining culturally and socially the core of humanity.”
Children “have a right to a mother and a father”, Cardinal Bagnasco told the bishops.
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(Vatican) Pope Francis continues to purge the liturgical sensibility of his predecessor, Benedict XVI.
On 5 November it was announced in the daily bulletin of the Holy See that Pope Francis had appointed a new Under-Secretary for the Congregation for Divine Worship. What was not there is that the two other undersecretaries were also dismissed. The Congregation has had no Cardinal Prefect since the beginning of October, after Pope Francis sent back the previous head of the dicastery, Cardinal Antonio Cañizares as archbishop of Valencia in Spain. Now the number two of the Congregation has been exchanged and thus within a month, the entire leadership.
Previous Undersecretaries Have Learned of their Ouster from the Bulletin
The previous Undersecretaries, the Marist Father Anthony Ward and Msgr. Juan Miguel Ferrer-Grenesche had learned from the publication of the bulletin that they were not re-elected. The dismissal was not preceded by a conversation with the Pope, nor they were previously …More

(Paris) numbers are neither traditionalist nor modernist, but facts are being noticed. In France, there are only 14,000 diocesan priests. About half of them are older than 75. This means that the situation is dramatic.
To conduct but one parish is already a big job. In France it has become "normal" that a pastor has to take care of a dozen parishes. A regular celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is impossible. In most parishes it is celebrated only occasionally. In the diocese of Langres, each priest must take care for an average of 50 parishes. In short, it is almost resigned to a spiritual catastrophe. The numbers of priestly ordinations is also discouraging. In 2009, only 89 diocesan priests were ordained in France. Far too little to compensate for the decrease due to death. These numbers seem like reports coming from the front with the losses to an army. You could cry.
Fortunately, there is good and encouraging news coming from the seminaries of tradition. The traditional …More

by Sandro Magister
This is the case of Myanmar, where members of other faiths are persecuted in the name of Buddhism. Or of Sri Lanka, which will be a destination of the pope’s next voyage. As documented by the 2014 report of Aid to the Church in Need, on violations of religious freedom.
ROME, October 6, 2014 – Nebuchadnezzar is still among us. And those who do not worship his idol are thrown into the flames, as in chapter three of the prophet Daniel.
On the very same day on which the 2014 report on religious freedom in the world was made public by the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need, in Pakistan a crowd of four hundred enraged Muslims attacked and threw into a burning furnace two young Christian spouses, Shahzad Masih, 28, and his wife Shama, 25, who left four children and were expecting another.
Of the twenty countries classified in the report with the highest level of violations of religious freedom, fourteen are officially Muslim, plus Nigeria which is religiously …More

analysis by Roberto de Mattei
Corrispondenza Romana
November 5, 2014
The historical phase that has opened after the Synod of 2014 demands, on the part of Catholics, not only the willingness to debate and fight, but also an attitude of careful reflection and study on the new problems which are up for discussion. The first of these problems is the relationship of the faithful with a [Church] authority which appears to be failing in its duty. Cardinal Burke in an interview to “Vida Nueva” on the 30th of October stated that: “there is a strong sense that the Church is like a ship without a rudder”. It’s a powerful image but it perfectly corresponds to the general picture.
The path to take in this confusing situation is certainly not that of taking the place of the Pope and bishops in the governing of the Church, whose supreme helmsman in any case is Jesus Christ. Indeed the Church is not a democratic assembly, but a monarchical and hierarchical one, divinely established on the institution …More

Bishops who effectively excommunicate those who attend SSPX Masses may be acting illegally, a leading traditionalist group has said.
The International Una Voce Federation was responding to statements by bishops in Italy and Argentina.
The Federation challenged a decree by the Diocese of Albano, “claiming to excommunicate those who receive the sacraments from, or attend religious services of, the Society of St Pius X”.
The Federation also questioned the legality of a similar statement by Bishop Óscar Sarlinga of Zárate-Campana in Argentina.
“The Federation believes that these ‘notifications’ tend to imply that anyone who has ever attended services of the SSPX is not welcome in parish churches in these dioceses,” a statement said.
“This view is clearly in direct contrast with the emphasis of the Supreme Pontiff, Pope Francis, upon mercy and forgiveness, as well as the ‘openness of heart’ requested by Pope Benedict XVI as a prelude to a healing of divisions ‘in the heart of the Church’.” …More

After the Pope's close friend and secretary of his Papal Council of Nine Cardinals did this days ago, now another Bishop threatens with "excommunication" the faithful who go to masses of the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX).
Where? In Argentina...
In all honesty, Bishop Sarlinga is considered a "conservative"*, closely linked to Opus Dei (though not a member), and for that reason was widely regarded in the Argentinian Church as someone deeply despised by the former Archbishop of Buenos Aires, of whom he was considered an "ideological" adversary.
His letter is much longer, but with the same references to the Letters of Benedict XVI following the removal of excommunications, so we translate below just the relevant conclusion.
Óscar Domingo Sarlinga
by the Grace of God and of the Apostolic See
Bishop of Zárate-Campana
Diocesan Decree 27/14 ... By way of the present letter, I declare: - The priests of the "Society of Saint Pius X" must not celebrate in churches, oratories, and other places …More

By Tad Walsh
SALT LAKE CITY — An LDS Church leader will join Pope Francis and other faith leaders this month at an interreligious Vatican conference that seeks to "support and reinvigorate" marriage between a man and a woman.
President Henry B. Eyring, First Counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, will be one of more than 30 speakers at "The Complementarity of Man and Woman: An International Colloquium."
Pope Francis, who last year said "It is very important to reaffirm the family, which remains the essential cell of society," will give the opening address at the three-day conference Nov. 17-19.
Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists and Hindus are among those representing 14 faith traditions from 23 countries.
The LDS Church also issued a statement about the interfaith conference:
"At this time of rapidly declining moral values and the challenges to traditional family structures and relationships throughout the world, we are pleased to unite with …More

(Madrid) A network of European museums of contemporary art is a misanthropic, blasphemous and anti-clerical exhibition. The exhibition can currently be seen under the name "Un saber real instruments útil" the Queen Sofia Museum in Madrid. The exhibition promotes abortion, insults Christianity and is hostile to the Catholic Church. "It would be reprehensible if a religious denomination would get money from the government to insult feminists", said Infovaticana. Equally reprehensible is the inverse conclusion that feminists get money from the Spanish government and the European Union (EU) to insult the Catholic Church.
The "valuable" pieces, currently shown in the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia include matchboxes illustrated with a call for violence: "The only church that illuminates is burning. Support help! "
The Queen Sofia Museum, named after the former Spanish Queen Sofia, the wife of King Juan Carlos I, who abdicated on June 19th, is holding an exhibition, which is funded …More